Old/New Testament

Jacob Meets Esau and Settles at Shechem

33 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, Esau was coming and four hundred men were with him. And he^[a] divided the children among Leah and among Rachel, and among the two of his female servants. ² And he put the female slaves and their children first, then Leah and her children next, then Rachel with Joseph last. ³ And he himself passed on before them and bowed down to the ground seven times until he came to his brother. ⁴ But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept. ⁵ Then Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, “Who are these with you?” And he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” ⁶ Then the female servants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed down. ⁷ Then Leah and her children drew near and bowed down, and afterward Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down. ⁸ And he^[b] said, “What do you mean by^[c] all this company that I have met?” Then he said, “To find favor in the eyes of my lord.” ⁹ Then Esau said, “I have enough^[d] my brother; keep what you have.”^{[e] 10} And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, you must take my gift from my hand, for then I have seen your face which is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me. ¹¹ Please take my gift which has been brought to you, for God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.”^[f] And he urged him, so he took it. ¹² Then he^[g] said, “Let us journey and go on, and I will go ahead of you.” ¹³ But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and the flocks and the cattle which are nursing are a concern to me. Now if they drove them hard for a day all the flocks would die. ¹⁴ Let my lord pass on before his servant and I will move along slowly at the pace^[h] of the livestock that are ahead of me, and at the pace^[i] of the children until I come to my lord in Seir.” ¹⁵ And Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.” But he said, “What need is there?^[j] Let me find favor in the eyes of my lord.” ¹⁶ So Esau turned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷ But Jacob traveled on to Succoth, and he built for himself a house, and he made shelters for his livestock. Therefore he called the name of the place Succoth. ¹⁸ And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan, on his way^[k] from Paddan-Aram. And he camped before the city. ¹⁹ And he bought a piece of land where he pitched his tent for one hundred pieces of money^[l] from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem. ²⁰ And there he erected an altar and called it “El Elohe Israel.”^[m]

The Rape of Dinah and the Massacre at Shechem

34 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ² And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. And he took her and lay with her and raped her. ³ And his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly^[n] to the girl. ⁴ So Shechem said to Hamor his father, saying, “Get this girl for me as a wife.”

⁵ And Jacob heard that Dinah his daughter had been defiled, but his sons were with his flocks in the field. And Jacob kept silent until they came. ⁶ And Hamor, father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. ⁷ And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. And the men were distressed and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations with the daughter of Jacob—something that^[o] should not be done. ⁸ And Hamor spoke with them saying, “Shechem my son is in love with^[p] your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife. ⁹ Make marriages with us. Give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ You shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you; settle and trade in it, and acquire property in it.” ¹¹ Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will do. ¹² Make the bride price and gift as high as you like;^[q] I will give what you say to me. But give me the girl as a wife.” ¹³ Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor speaking deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. ¹⁴ And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for that is a disgrace for us. ¹⁵ Only on this condition will we give consent to you; if you will become like us—every male among you to be circumcised. ¹⁶ Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take for ourselves your daughters, and we will live with you and become one family. ¹⁷ But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our daughters and we will go.” ¹⁸ And their words were good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem, the son of Hamor. ¹⁹ And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he wanted the daughter of Jacob. Now he was the most honored of his father’s house. ²⁰ Then Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city, and they spoke to the men of their city, saying, ²¹ “These men are at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and let them trade in it. Now, behold, the land is broad enough for them.^[r] Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give our daughters to them. ²² Only on this condition will they give consent to us, to live with us and to become one family—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³ Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us give consent to them so they will live among us.” ²⁴ And all those who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and Shechem. Every male was circumcised, all those who went out of the gate of his city. ²⁵ And it happened that on the third day, while they were in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, each took his sword and came against the unsuspecting city and killed all the males. ²⁶ They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah from the house of Shechem and went out. ²⁷ The other sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸ They took their flocks and their cattle and their donkeys, and whatever was in the field. ²⁹ They captured and plundered all that was in the houses—all their wealth, their little ones, and their women. ³⁰ Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites! I am few in number! If they gather against me and attack me, I will be destroyed—I and my household!” ³¹ But they said, “Shall he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

Jacob Goes Back to Bethel

35 And God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from before Esau your brother.” ² Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are in your midst and purify yourselves and change your garments. ³ Then let us make ready and let us go up to Bethel, so that I can make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my trouble, and who has been with me on the way that I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the ornamental rings that were in their ears. And Jacob buried them under the oak which was near Shechem. ⁵ Then they set out on their journey, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, so that they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. ⁶ And Jacob came to Luz which was in the land of Canaan (that is Bethel), he and all the people that were with him. ⁷ And he built an altar there and called the place El-Bethel, for there God had appeared to him when he fled before his brother. ⁸ And Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, died. And she was buried below Bethel, under the oak. And its name was called Allon-Bacuth.^{[s] 9} And God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-Aram, and he blessed him. ¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” Then his name was called Israel. ¹¹ And God said to him, “I am El-Shaddai.^[t] Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and an assemblage of nations shall be from you, and kings shall go out from your loins. ¹² And as for the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I will give it to you. And to your descendants after you I will give the land. ¹³ And God went up from him at the place where he spoke with him. ¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar at the place where God had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. And he poured out a drink offering upon it, and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

The Death of Rachel

¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when they were still some distance^[u] from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. And she had hard labor. ¹⁷ And when her labor was the most difficult^[v] the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid for you have another son.”^{[w] 18} And it happened that when her life was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-Oni.^[x] But his father called him Benjamin.^{[y] 19} And Rachel died and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ And Jacob erected a pillar at her burial site. That is the pillar of the burial site of Rachel unto this day. ²¹ And Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.^{[z] 22} And while Israel was living in that land Reuben went and had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. And Israel heard about it.

The Twelve Sons of Jacob

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. ²³ The sons of Leah: The firstborn of Jacob was Reuben. Then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, the female servant of Rachel: Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, the female servant of Leah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-Aram.

The Death of Isaac

²⁷ And Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre, or Kiriath-Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac dwelled as aliens. ²⁸ Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ And Isaac passed away and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The Twelve Commissioned and Sent Out

10 And summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could expel them^[a] and could heal every^[b] disease and every^[c] sickness. ² Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James^[d] the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, ³ Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, ⁴ Simon the Zealot,^[e] and Judas Iscariot—the one who also betrayed him.

⁵ Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them saying, “Do not go on the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans, ⁶ but go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ And as you^[f] are going, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ ⁸ Heal those who are sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, expel demons. Freely you have received; freely give. ⁹ Do not procure gold or silver or copper for your belts. ¹⁰ Do not take a traveler’s bag for the road, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for the worker is deserving of his provisions. ¹¹ And into whatever town or village you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there until you depart. ¹² And when you^[g] enter into the house, greet it. ¹³ And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ And whoever does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you^[h] are going out of that house or that^[i] town. ¹⁵ Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town!

Persecution of Disciples Predicted

¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ But beware of people, because they will hand you over to councils, and they will flog you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ And you will be brought before both governors and kings because of me, for a witness to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But whenever they hand you over, do not be anxious how to speak^[j] or what you should say, for what you should say will be given to you at that hour. ²⁰ For you are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who is speaking through you.