Then he and the men with him ate and drank and spent the night.

When they got up in the morning, he said, “Send me to my master.”

But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl stay with us for about 10 days. Then she can go.”

And he said to them, Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way: send me away, and I will go to my master.

So they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her opinion.”

They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”

She replied, “I will go.”

And they blessed Rebecca, and said to her, Thou art our sister; mayest thou become thousands of tens of thousands; and may thy seed possess the gate of their enemies!

And she had said to the servant, Who is the man that is walking in the fields to meet us? And the servant said, That is my master! Then she took the veil, and covered herself.

But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said to her:

Two nations are in your womb;
two people will come from you and be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.

He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.

And Jacob said, Sell me now thy birthright.

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to him.

The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”

Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Quarrel because they quarreled with him.

He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces and said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of My servant Abraham.”

Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

And they said, We saw certainly that Jehovah is with thee; and we said, Let there be then an oath between us between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee,

And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death.

Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in,

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said,

And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.”

When he came to his father, he said, “My father.”

And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou didst say to me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, in order that thy soul may bless me.

But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”

He replied, “Because the Lord your God worked it out for me.”

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”

So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

And he said, Art thou really my son Esau? And he said, It is I.

Then he said, “Serve me, and let me eat some of my son’s game so that I can bless you.” Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me, my son.”

So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said:

Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that the Lord has blessed.

He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.”

Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. “Who was it then,” he said, “who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed!”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and has taken away thy blessing.

So he said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over thee, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and new wine have I supplied him and what can I do now for thee, my son?

Esau said to his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above;

And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, and I will slay my brother Jacob.

When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?”

And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said and had gone to Paddan-aram;

And behold, Jehovah stood above it. And he said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.

And behold, I am with thee, and I preserved thee in all which thou shalt go, and I turned thee back to this land; for I will not forsake thee, till that I have done what I said to thee.

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”

Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

And Jacob said to them, My brethren, whence are ye? And they said, Of Haran are we.

And he said to them, Do ye know Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We do know him.

“Is he well?” Jacob asked.

“Yes,” they said, “and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with his sheep.”

Then Jacob said, “Look, it is still broad daylight. It’s not time for the animals to be gathered. Water the flock, then go out and let them graze.”

And they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and we water the sheep.

Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.”

After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

Laban said to him, “Just because you’re my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.

And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed. I want to sleep with her.”

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

And Laban said, It is not so done in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.

Jacob did as Laban said. When Jacob completed Leah's bridal week, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

Leah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my affliction; surely my husband will love me now.”

She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “The Lord heard that I am unloved and has given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon.

She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “At last, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne three sons for him.” Therefore he was named Levi.

And she conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld children from you?”

Then she said, “Here is my slave Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she’ll bear children for me so that through her I too can build a family.”

Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, He has heard me and given me a son,” and she named him Dan.

Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali.

Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” and she named him Gad.

Leah said, “I am happy that the women call me happy,” so she named him Asher.

And Reuben went out in the days of wheat-harvest, and found mandrakes in the fields; and he brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

But Leah replied to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?”

“Well,” Rachel said, “you can sleep with him tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with her that night.

God heard what Leah had said, so she conceived and bore a fifth son for Jacob.

Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband,” and she named him Issachar.

“God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun.

She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my shame.”

And she called his name Joseph; and said, Jehovah will add to me another son.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”

Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

So Jacob said to him, “You know what I have done for you and your herds.

Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock.

“Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

And Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons, how they said, "Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's, and of our father's goods, hath he gotten all this honour."

Then the Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”

He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same, but the God of my father has been with me.

If he said, ‘The spotted sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born spotted. If he said, ‘The streaked sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born streaked.