And there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine which was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

And I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these lands. And all nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring,

When the men of the place asked concerning 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 was beautiful}."

And it happened [that], {when he had been there a long time}, Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked through the window, and saw--behold--Isaac [was] fondling Rebekah his wife.

And Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Surely she [is] your wife. Now why did you say 'She [is] my sister'?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I would die on account of her."

And Abimelech said, "What [is] this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife! Then you would have brought guilt upon us!"

Then Abimelech instructed all the people, saying, "The [one who] touches this man or his wife shall certainly die."

And the Philistines stopped up all the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with earth.

So Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.

And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham. And he gave to them {the same names} which his father had given them.

And when the servants of Isaac dug in the valley, they found a well of fresh water there.

Then the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, "The water is ours." And he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

And Yahweh appeared to him that night and said, "I [am] the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I [am] with you, and I will bless you and make your descendants numerous for the sake of my servant Abraham."

And he built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh. And he pitched his tent there, and the servants of Isaac dug a well there.

And it happened [that] on that same day the servants of Isaac came and told him about the well that they had dug. And they said, "We have found water!"

And he called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city [is] Beersheba unto this day.

And [when] Esau was forty years old he took as wife Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite.

And he said, "Look, I [am] old; I do not know the day of my death.

Then Rebekah took [some of] her older son Esau's best garments that [were] with her in the house, and she put [them] on Jacob her younger son.

And she put the skins of the young goats over his hands and over the smooth [part of] his neck.

And she put the tasty food and the bread that she had made into the hand of Jacob, her son.

And Jacob drew near to Isaac his father. And he felt him and said, "The voice [is] the voice of Jacob, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau."

And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother. And he blessed him.

Then he said, "Bring [it] near to me that I may eat from the game of my son, so that I may bless you." And he brought [it] to him, and he ate. And he brought wine to him, and he drank.

And he drew near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his garments, and he blessed him and said, "Look, the smell of my son [is] like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed!

May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance of grain and new wine.

Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; Be lord of your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. Cursed be those cursing you, and blessed be those blessing you."

And as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, {immediately after} Jacob had gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came [back] from his hunting.

He too prepared tasty food and brought [it] to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat from the wild game of his son, that you may bless me."

When Esau heard the words of his father he cried out [with] a great and exceedingly bitter cry of distress. And he said to his father, "Bless me as well, my father!"

Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, "Your home shall be from the fatness of the land, and from the dew of heaven above.

But by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. But it shall be [that] when free yourself you shall tear off his yoke from your neck.

Then Esau held a grudge against Jacob on account of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are coming, then I will kill Jacob my brother."

But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. And she sent and called for her younger son Jacob. And she said to him, "Look, Esau your brother [is] consoling himself concerning you, [intending] to kill you.

Stay with him a few days until the wrath of your brother has turned--

until the anger of your brother turns from you and he has forgotten what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I lose the two of you in one day?"

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from Hittite women like these, from the {native women}, {what am I living for}?"

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. And he instructed him and said to him, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

Arise, go to Paddan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take for yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

Now, may El-Shaddai bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, so that you become an assembly of peoples.

And may he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham."

Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-Aram, to take for himself a wife from there, and he blessed him and instructed him, saying, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,"

Then Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan [were] evil in the eyes of Isaac his father,

then Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth, as a wife, in addition to the wives he had.

And he arrived at a [certain] place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. And he took [one] of the stones of the place and put [it] under his head and slept at that place.

And he dreamed, and behold, a stairway was set on the earth, and its top touched the heavens. And behold, angels of God [were] going up and going down on it.

And behold, Yahweh [was] standing beside him, and he said, "I [am] Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The ground on which you [were] sleeping I will give to you and to your descendants.

Your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, and to the east, and to the north and to the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants.

Then he was afraid and said, "How awesome [is] this place! {This is nothing else than the house of God}, and this is the gate of heaven!"

And Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up [as] a stone pillar, and poured oil on top of it.

And he called the name of that place Bethel; however, the name of the city [was] formerly Luz.

And Jacob made a vow saying, "If God will be with me and protect me on this way that I am going, and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear,

and [if] I return in peace to the house of my father, then Yahweh will become my God.

And this stone that I have set up [as] a pillar shall be the house of God, and [of] all that you give to me I will certainly give a tenth to you."

And Jacob {continued his journey} and went to the land of the Easterners.

And he looked, and behold, [there was] a well in the field, and behold, there [were] three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. And the stone on the mouth of the well [was] large.

And [when] all the flocks were gathered there, they rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well. And they watered the sheep and returned the stone upon the mouth of the well to its place.

And he said to them, "Do you know Laban, son of Nahor?" And they said, "We know [him]."

And they said, "We are not able, until all the flocks are gathered. Then the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well, and we water the sheep."

And it happened [that], when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob drew near and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother.

And Jacob told Rachel that he [was] the relative of her father, and that he [was] the son of Rebekah. And she ran and told her father.

And it happened [that] when Laban heard the message about Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him. And he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.

Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older [was] Leah, and the name of the younger [was] Rachel.

Now the eyes of Leah [were] dull, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

And Jacob said to Laban, "Give [me] my wife, that I may go in to her, for {my time} is completed."

So Laban gathered all the men of the place and prepared a feast.

Complete the week of this one, then I will also give you the other, {on the condition that you will work for me} another seven years."

And Jacob did so. So he completed the week of this [one], then he gave Rachel his daughter to him as a wife.

When Rachel saw that she could not bear children to Jacob, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, "Give me children--if not, I will die!"

And Jacob {became angry} with Rachel. And he said, "[Am] I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

Then she gave him Bilhah, her female servant, as a wife, and Jacob went in to her

When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took Zilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

And Zilpah, the female slave of Leah, bore a son to Jacob.

And in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and he brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

And she said to her, "[Is] your taking my husband [such] a small [thing] that you will also take the mandrakes of my son?" Then Rachel said, "Then he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."

But Laban said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you."

And he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "Do not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flocks and keep [them].

And my righteousness will answer for me {later} when you come concerning my wages before you. Every [one] that [is] not speckled or spotted among the goats, or dark-colored among the sheep shall be stolen [if it is] with me."

But that day he removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, all that [had] white on it, and every dark-colored ram, and {put them in the charge of his sons}.

And he put a journey of three days between him and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the remainder of Laban's flock.

Then Jacob took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled white strips on them, exposing the white which [was] on the branches.

And he set the branches that he had peeled in front of the flocks, in the troughs [and] in the water containers. And they were in heat when they came to drink.

And Jacob separated the lambs and turned the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark-colored in Laban's flocks. And he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with the flocks of Laban.

And whenever any of the stronger of the flocks were in heat, Jacob put the branches {in full view} of the flock in the troughs that they might mate among the branches.

But with the more feeble of the flock he would not put [them there]. So the feebler were Laban's and the stronger [were] Jacob's.

Now he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying, "Jacob has taken all that our father has," and "From that which [was] our father's he has gained all this wealth."

Then Jacob saw the face of Laban and, behold, {it was not like it had been in the past}.

And Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you."

and he said to them, "Look, I see the face of your father, that {it is not like it has been toward me in the past}. But the God of my father is with me.

If thus he said, 'Speckled shall be your wage,' then all the flock bore speckled. And [if] he said, 'Streaked shall be your wage,' then all the flock bore streaked.

Now it happened [that] at the time of the mating of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams mounting the flock [were] streaked, speckled, and dappled.

Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I [am].'

I [am] the God of Bethel where you anointed a stone pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land and return to the land of your birth.'"

Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, "[Is there] yet a portion for us, and an inheritance in the house of our father?

And he drove all his livestock and his possessions that he had acquired, the livestock of his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, in order to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

Then he fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him, a seven-day journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen pitched [their tents] in the hill country of Gilead.

Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done that you {tricked me} and have carried off my daughters like captives of the sword?