Old/New Testament
27 When Isaac grew old, his eyes were so bad he could see only shadows. He called his eldest son, Esau, to his side.
Isaac: My son.
Esau: I’m here.
Isaac: 2 You see that I am growing old now. I may die any day. 3 Take your hunting weaponry—your quiver and your bow—and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4 Then prepare for me some savory food, just the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I may speak a blessing over you before I die.
5 Rebekah was listening at the doorway as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went into the field to hunt for game to bring to his father, 6 Rebekah called her son Jacob.
Rebekah: I heard your father say to your brother Esau, 7 “Bring me game and prepare for me some savory food to eat, so I can bless you before the Eternal before I die.” 8 My son, listen and do what I tell you: 9 Go to the flock, and bring me two of the best young goats. I can prepare the savory food for your father from them. I know just how he likes it. 10 Then you take it to your father to eat so that he speaks a blessing over you before he dies.
Jacob (to Rebekah, his mother): 11 Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I have smooth skin. 12 If father reaches out and touches me, he’ll figure it out and think I’m mocking him. Then I’ll bring a curse upon myself instead of a blessing!
Rebekah: 13 If that happens, then let the curse be on me and not you. Just listen to me. Go, and get them for me.
14 Jacob went and brought the young goats to his mother, who prepared a mouth-watering meal just as his father liked it. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were with her in the house, and she put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 She affixed the skins of the young goats onto the back of his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 Then she handed him the delicious food and the fresh bread she had prepared. 18 Jacob went in to his father.
Jacob: My father.
Isaac: I’m here. Who are you, my son?
Jacob: 19 I’m Esau, your firstborn son. I have done as you asked. Now sit up and eat the game I have brought for you so that you can speak a blessing over me.
Isaac: 20 How did you manage to hunt the game and cook the food so quickly, my son?
Jacob: The Eternal One, your God, gave me success today.
Isaac: 21 Please come over here so I can feel you, my son, so that I know it is really you, Esau.
22 So Jacob went over to his father, and Isaac reached out and felt his hands. He was a bit confused.
Isaac: Your voice sounds like Jacob’s, but your hands feel like Esau’s.
23 Because of the young goat’s fur on the back of his hands, his father did not recognize him, and so Isaac proceeded to bless Jacob instead of Esau.
Isaac: 24 Are you really my son, Esau?
Jacob: I am.
Isaac: 25 Then bring the food to me, and I’ll eat my son’s game and give you my blessing.
Jacob brought Isaac the food, and Isaac ate it. Then Jacob brought him some wine to drink. 26 When he finished it, his father, Isaac, told him to approach.
Isaac: Please come near and kiss me, my son.
27 Jacob went over and kissed his father, and Isaac breathed in the scent of the outdoors on Esau’s clothes. Then he gave Jacob the blessing, passing on the promise of God’s covenant.
Isaac: Ah, the smell of my son, Esau,
is like the smell of a field the Eternal One has blessed.
28 Therefore, may God grant you gentle showers from heaven
and the fertile soils of the earth,
and rich harvests of grain and wine.
29 May many peoples come and serve you,
and may nations bow down to you.
May you be the master of your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons all bow down before you.
May anyone who curses you be cursed,
and may everyone who blesses you be blessed!
30 Now as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and when Jacob had barely left his father, his brother Esau returned from hunting. 31 He had also prepared a sumptuous meal and brought it to his father.
Esau: Father, sit up now and eat the game I have brought for you, so that you can speak a blessing over me.
Isaac: 32 Who are you?
Esau: I am your son, Esau, your firstborn!
33 It began to dawn on Isaac what had happened. Then Isaac began trembling violently.
Isaac: Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me to eat before you came? I have already given him my blessing! It’s now too late. He has already received the blessing.
34 When Esau realized what happened, he cried out in an angry, loud, and bitter voice.
Esau: Bless me—me also—Father!
Isaac: 35 I cannot my son. Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.
Esau: 36 “Jacob” is certainly the right name for him! He has once again grabbed me by the heels! He has deceived me now two times. He took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing! Have you no blessing reserved for me as well?
Isaac: 37 Understand that I have already made him your master. I have declared all of his brothers are subject to him. I have granted him prosperity, sustained him with grain and wine. What then could I possibly do for you, my son?
Esau: 38 Have you only one blessing, Father? Bless me—me also—Father!
Esau realized the futility of his pleas. He raised his voice, and he cried pitiably. 39 Isaac spoke over him the only blessing he thought he could:
Isaac: You will make your home far from the richness of the earth,
far away from the gentle showers of heaven above.
40 You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless to be free,
you will break his yoke from your neck.
41 Esau hated Jacob with a fury, because his brother now carried the blessing his father meant for him.
Esau (to himself): The days of mourning for my father are approaching. When he has died, I will kill my brother, Jacob.
42 But someone overheard him speaking of this and informed Rebekah. She called for Jacob, her younger son, and told him to flee.
Rebekah (to Jacob): Listen to me. Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43 Do as I say. Get up and go to my brother Laban’s house in Haran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother has calmed down. 45 Wait until his anger against you subsides and he forgets what you’ve done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back. I don’t want to lose both of you—one to death and one to punishing exile—in one day!
Rebekah comes up with a plan to send Jacob away. But it must look like Isaac’s idea.
46 Rebekah then went to Isaac complaining about Esau’s Hittite wives.
Rebekah (to Isaac): These Hittite women Esau is married to are making my life miserable. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of these, a woman from here in this land, what good can come of that? Why should I even go on living?
28 Isaac called Jacob to him, blessed him again, and instructed him.
Isaac: You are not to marry one of the Canaanite women. 2 Get up and pack your things, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel (your mother’s father), and find a wife there among Laban’s daughters. (Laban is your mother’s brother.) 3 May the All-Powerful God[a] bless you, make you fruitful, and multiply your descendants so that you will give rise to nation after nation! 4 May God give to you and to your children in this inheritance all of the blessings of Abraham, so that you might someday possess the land where you now live as a foreigner—a land that was promised by God to Abraham.
When the Lord told Abraham to leave Haran and travel to Canaan, most of his relatives remained in Northern Mesopotamia in towns between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The area southwest of Haran becomes known as Paddan-aram (the plain of Aram). Abraham and some of the other patriarchs continue to see this land and its people as their own. This is why Jacob and his family are known as Arameans (Deuteronomy 26:5).
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah (Jacob and Esau’s mother).
6 Now Esau saw that his father, Isaac, had again blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife there, instructing him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. 7 He learned, too, that Jacob had gone there just as his father and mother both wanted. 8 So, realizing his father did not like his Canaanite wives, 9 Esau went to see Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael (Abraham’s other son) and the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the two others.
10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 As dusk approached one day, he came to a place where he could stay for the night. He saw stones scattered all around and put one of them under his head; then he lay down to sleep. 12 During the night, God gave him a dream. He saw a ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached to the heavens. He saw some messengers of God ascending and descending on it. 13 At the very top stood the Eternal One.
Eternal One: I am the Eternal One, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are now lying is the land I have promised to give to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as many as there are specks of dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. Through your descendants, all the families of the earth will find true blessing. 15 Know I am with you, and I will watch over you no matter where you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all I have promised you.
Dreams are a bit mysterious. There are many theories about what dreams are and why we dream, but no one knows for sure. What is sure is that at times in the Scriptures God uses dreams to reveal Himself to His covenant partners. Certainly not everyone has revelatory dreams, and not all dreams are revelatory. But sometimes, on special occasions, when it suits God’s purposes, dreams can be a vehicle to see, hear, and experience reality as God knows it. It happens here with Jacob, who has not yet fully embraced the Eternal as his God; and it continues to happen in both testaments with Joseph, Daniel, Peter, and others.
16 The dream ended, and Jacob woke up from his sleep.
Jacob (to himself): There is no doubt in my mind that the Eternal One is in this place—and I didn’t even know it!
17 But even as he said this, a bit of fear came over him.
Jacob: This place is absolutely awesome! It can be none other than the house of God and the gateway into heaven!
18 So early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had put under his head, set it up as a pillar, and then poured oil on top of it to commemorate his experience with God. 19 He named that place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Before that the name of the city had been called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow.
Jacob: If God is going to be with me, keeping me safe on this journey and giving me bread to eat and clothing to wear 21 so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then the Eternal will be my God. 22 And this stone I have made into a pillar will be the first stone laid in God’s house. And Lord, of everything You give me, I will give one-tenth always back to You!
18 Jesus saw that a crowd had gathered around Him, and He gave orders to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe came up to Him.
Scribe: Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.
Jesus: 20 Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
Disciple: 21 Jesus, before I do the things You’ve asked me to do, I must first bury my father.
Jesus: 22 Follow Me! And let the dead bury their own dead.
Does Jesus say, “Fair enough, you must of course bury your father. Just catch up with Me when you are done”? No. This is one of the strange and radical things Jesus brings about—our families are no longer our families. Our deepest bonds are not those of blood. Our family now is found in the bonds of fellowship made possible by this Jesus.
23 And then Jesus got into a boat, and His disciples followed Him. 24 Out of nowhere, a vicious storm blew over the sea. Waves were lapping up over the boat, threatening to overtake it! Yet Jesus was asleep. 25 Frightened (not to mention confused—how could anyone sleep through this?), the disciples woke Him up.
Disciples: Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!
Jesus: 26 Please! What are you so afraid of, you of little faith?
Jesus got up, told the wind and the waves to calm down, and they did. The sea became still and calm once again. 27 The disciples were astonished.
Disciples: Who is this? What sort of man is He, that the sea and the winds listen to Him?
28 Eventually Jesus came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gadarenes. There, two men who lived near the tombs and were possessed by demons came out to the seaside and met Jesus. They were flailing about, so violent that they obstructed the path of anyone who came their way.
Demons (screaming at Jesus): 29 Why are You here? Have You come to torture us even before the judgment day, O Son of God?
30 A ways off, though still visible, was a large herd of pigs, eating.
Demons: 31 If You cast us out of the bodies of these two men, do send us into that herd of pigs!
Jesus: 32 Very well then, go!
And the demons flew out of the bodies of the two flailing men, they set upon the pigs, and every last pig rushed over a steep bank into the sea and drowned. 33 The pig herders (totally undone, as you can imagine) took off; they headed straight for town, where they told everyone what they’d just seen—even about the demon-possessed men. 34 And so the whole town came out to see Jesus for themselves. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their area.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.