Genesis 27; Genesis 28; Genesis 29

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Genesis 27

1 When Isaac was old, his eyesight was poor, so he could not see clearly. One day he called his older son Esau to him and said, "Son." Esau answered, "Here I am."

2 Isaac said, "I am old and don't know when I might die.

3 So take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the field for an animal for me to eat.

4 When you prepare the tasty food that I love, bring it to me, and I will eat. Then I will bless you before I die."

5 So Esau went out in the field to hunt. Rebekah was listening as Isaac said this to his son Esau.

6 She said to her son Jacob, "Listen, I heard your father saying to your brother Esau,

7 'Kill an animal and prepare some tasty food for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.'

8 So obey me, my son, and do what I tell you.

9 Go out to our goats and bring me two of the best young ones. I will prepare them just the way your father likes them.

10 Then you will take the food to your father, and he will bless you before he dies."

11 But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "My brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth!

12 If my father touches me, he will know I am not Esau. Then he will not bless me but will place a curse on me because I tried to trick him."

13 So Rebekah said to him, "If your father puts a curse on you, I will accept the blame. Just do what I said and go, get the goats for me."

14 So Jacob went out and got two goats and brought them to his mother, and she cooked them in the special way Isaac enjoyed.

15 She took the best clothes of her older son Esau that were in the house and put them on the younger son Jacob.

16 She also took the skins of the goats and put them on Jacob's hands and neck.

17 Then she gave Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

18 Jacob went in to his father and said, "Father." And his father said, "Yes, my son. Who are you?"

19 Jacob said to him, "I am Esau, your first son. I have done what you told me. Now sit up and eat some meat of the animal I hunted for you. Then bless me."

20 But Isaac asked his son, "How did you find and kill the animal so quickly?" Jacob answered, "Because the Lord your God helped me to find it."

21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son. Then I will know if you are really my son Esau."

22 So Jacob came near to Isaac his father. Isaac touched him and said, "Your voice sounds like Jacob's voice, but your hands are hairy like the hands of Esau."

23 Isaac did not know it was Jacob, because his hands were hairy like Esau's hands, so Isaac blessed him.

24 Isaac asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" Jacob answered, "Yes, I am."

25 Then Isaac said, "Bring me the food, and I will eat it and bless you." So Jacob gave him the food, and he ate. Jacob gave him wine, and he drank.

26 Then Isaac said to him, "My son, come near and kiss me."

27 So Jacob went to his father and kissed him. When Isaac smelled Esau's clothes, he blessed him and said, "The smell of my son is like the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed.

28 May God give you plenty of rain and good soil so that you will have plenty of grain and new wine.

29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. May you be master over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and may everyone who blesses you be blessed."

30 Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Then, just as Jacob left his father Isaac, Esau came in from hunting.

31 He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. He said, "Father, rise and eat the food that your son killed for you and then bless me."

32 Isaac asked, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your son -- your firstborn son -- Esau."

33 Then Isaac trembled greatly and said, "Then who was it that hunted the animals and brought me food before you came? I ate it, and I blessed him, and it is too late now to take back my blessing."

34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he let out a loud and bitter cry. He said to his father, "Bless me -- me, too, my father!"

35 But Isaac said, "Your brother came and tricked me. He has taken your blessing."

36 Esau said, "Jacob is the right name for him. He has tricked me these two times. He took away my share of everything you own, and now he has taken away my blessing." Then Esau asked, "Haven't you saved a blessing for me?"

37 Isaac answered, "I gave Jacob the power to be master over you, and all his brothers will be his servants. And I kept him strong with grain and new wine. There is nothing left to give you, my son."

38 But Esau continued, "Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me, too, Father!" Then Esau began to cry out loud.

39 Isaac said to him, "You will live far away from the best land, far from the rain.

40 You will live by using your sword, and you will be a slave to your brother. But when you struggle, you will break free from him."

41 After that Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing from Isaac. He thought to himself, "My father will soon die, and I will be sad for him. Then I will kill Jacob."

42 Rebekah heard about Esau's plan to kill Jacob. So she sent for Jacob and said to him, "Listen, your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.

43 So, my son, do what I say. My brother Laban is living in Haran. Go to him at once!

44 Stay with him for a while, until your brother is not so angry.

45 In time, your brother will not be angry, and he will forget what you did to him. Then I will send a servant to bring you back. I don't want to lose both of my sons on the same day."

46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of these Hittite women here in this land, I want to die."

Genesis 28

1 Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and com manded him, "You must not marry a Canaan ite woman.

2 Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, in Northwest Mesopotamia. Laban, your mother's brother, lives there. Marry one of his daughters.

3 May God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may you become a group of many peoples.

4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may own the land where you are now living as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham."

5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Northwest Mesopotamia, to Laban the brother of Rebekah. Bethuel the Aramean was the father of Laban and Rebekah, and Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Northwest Mesopotamia to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac had commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Northwest Mesopotamia.

8 So Esau saw that his father Isaac did not want his sons to marry Canaanite women.

9 Now Esau already had wives, but he went to Ishmael son of Abraham, and he married Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter. Mahalath was the sister of Nebaioth.

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

11 When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep.

12 Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder.

13 Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping.

14 Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.

15 I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it."

17 He was afraid and said, "This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven."

18 Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it.

19 At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel.

20 Then Jacob made a promise. He said, "I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear

21 so I will be able to return in peace to my father's house. If the Lord does these things, he will be my God.

22 This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me."

Genesis 29

1 Then Jacob continued his journey and came to the land of the people of the East.

2 He looked and saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying nearby, because they drank water from this well. A large stone covered the mouth of the well.

3 When all the flocks would gather there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place.

4 Jacob said to the shepherds there, "My brothers, where are you from?" They answered, "We are from Haran."

5 Then Jacob asked, "Do you know Laban, grandson of Nahor?" They answered, "We know him."

6 Then Jacob asked, "How is he?" They answered, "He is well. Look, his daughter Rachel is coming now with his sheep."

7 Jacob said, "But look, it is still the middle of the day. It is not time for the sheep to be gathered for the night, so give them water and let them go back into the pasture."

8 But they said, "We cannot do that until all the flocks are gathered. Then we will roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep."

9 While Jacob was talking with the shepherds, Rachel came with her father's sheep, because it was her job to care for the sheep.

10 When Jacob saw Laban's daughter Rachel and Laban's sheep, he went to the well and rolled the stone from its mouth and watered Laban's sheep. Now Laban was the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother.

11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and cried.

12 He told her that he was from her father's family and that he was the son of Rebekah. So Rachel ran home and told her father.

13 When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he ran to meet him. Laban hugged him and kissed him and brought him to his house, where Jacob told Laban everything that had happened.

14 Then Laban said, "You are my own flesh and blood." Jacob stayed there a month.

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, "You are my relative, but it is not right for you to work for me without pay. What would you like me to pay you?"

16 Now Laban had two daughters. The older was Leah, and the younger was Rachel.

17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was very beautiful.

18 Jacob loved Rachel, so he said to Laban, "Let me marry your younger daughter Rachel. If you will, I will work seven years for you."

19 Laban said, "It would be better for her to marry you than someone else, so stay here with me."

20 So Jacob worked for Laban seven years so he could marry Rachel. But they seemed like just a few days to him because he loved Rachel very much.

21 After seven years Jacob said to Laban, "Give me Rachel so that I may marry her. The time I promised to work for you is over."

22 So Laban gave a feast for all the people there.

23 That evening he brought his daughter Leah to Jacob, and they had sexual relations.

24 (Laban gave his slave girl Zilpah to his daughter to be her servant.)

25 In the morning when Jacob saw that he had had sexual relations with Leah, he said to Laban, "What have you done to me? I worked hard for you so that I could marry Rachel! Why did you trick me?"

26 Laban said, "In our country we do not allow the younger daughter to marry before the older daughter.

27 But complete the full week of the marriage ceremony with Leah, and I will give you Rachel to marry also. But you must serve me another seven years."

28 So Jacob did this, and when he had completed the week with Leah, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

29 (Laban gave his slave girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.)

30 So Jacob had sexual relations with Rachel also, and Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Jacob worked for Laban for another seven years.

31 When the Lord saw that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, he made it possible for Leah to have children, but not Rachel.

32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, because she said, "The Lord has seen my troubles. Surely now my husband will love me."

33 Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Simeonn and said, "The Lord has heard that I am not loved, so he has given me this son."

34 Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She named him Levin and said, "Now, surely my husband will be close to me, because I have given him three sons."

35 Then Leah gave birth to another son. She named him Judah, because she said, "Now I will praise the Lord." Then Leah stopped having children.