After that, his brother came out with his hand clutching Esau's heel, so they named him Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.

As the boys were growing up, Esau became skilled at hunting and was a man of the outdoors, but Jacob was the quiet type who tended to stay indoors.

Isaac loved Esau, because he loved to hunt, while Rebekah loved Jacob.

One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau happened to come in from being outdoors, and he was feeling famished.

Esau told Jacob, "Let me gobble down some of this red stuff, since I'm starving." (That's how Esau got his nickname "Edom".)

But Jacob responded, "Sell me your birthright. Do it now."

But Jacob insisted, "Swear it by an oath right now." So he swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some of his food, along with some boiled stew. So Esau ate, drank, got up, and left, after having belittled his own birthright.

Rebekah gave these instructions to her son Jacob: "Quick! Pay attention!" she said. "I heard your father talking to your brother Esau. He told him,

"But look!" Jacob pointed out to his mother Rebekah, "My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I'm smooth skinned.

Then Rebekah took some garments that belonged to her elder son Esau the best ones available and put them on her younger son Jacob.

Then she handed the delicious food and bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob,

"I'm Esau, your firstborn!" Jacob told his father. "I've done what you asked, so please sit up and eat what I caught, so you can bless me."

"How did you get it so quickly, my son?" Isaac asked. Jacob responded, ""because the LORD your God made me successful."

So Isaac told Jacob, "Come here, my son, so I can feel you and know for sure whether or not you're my son Esau."

So Jacob approached his father, who felt him and said, "It's Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands."

He didn't recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau, so Isaac blessed him.

He asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" "I am," Jacob replied.

"Come closer to me," Isaac replied, "so I can eat some of the game, my son, and then bless you." So Jacob came closer, and Isaac ate. Jacob also brought wine so his father could drink.

After this, Jacob's father Isaac told him, "Come closer and kiss me, my son."

So Jacob drew closer to kiss him. When Isaac smelled the scent of his son's clothes, he blessed him and said, "How my son's scent is the fragrance of the field that the LORD has blessed.

Just after Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left his father Isaac, Jacob's brother Esau returned from hunting,

Then he said, "Isn't his name rightly called Jacob?" Esau asked. "He has circumvented me this second time. First, he took away my birthright, and now, look how he also stole my blessing." Then he added, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

So Esau harbored animosity toward Jacob because of the way his father had blessed him. Esau kept saying to himself, "The time to mourn for my father is very near. That's when I'm going to kill my brother Jacob."

Eventually, what Rebekah's older son Esau had been saying was reported to her, so she sent for her younger son Jacob and warned him, "Look! Your brother is planning to get even by killing you.

Rebekah also told herself, "Heth's daughters are making me tired of living. If Jacob marries one of Heth's daughters, and she turns out to be just like these other local women, what kind of life would there be left for me?"

Later, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, instructing him, "Don't marry a wife from the local Canaanite women.

So Isaac sent Jacob off toward Paddan-aram to visit Bethuel's son Laban, the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau noticed that after Isaac had blessed Jacob as he was sending him off to Paddan-aram to marry a wife from there, he had instructed Jacob, "Don't marry a Canaanite woman."

After Jacob had obeyed his father and mother's instructions to set out for Paddan-aram,

Meanwhile, Jacob had left Beer-sheba and was on his way to Haran.

And there was the LORD, standing above it and telling Jacob, "I am the LORD God of your grandfather Abraham. I'm Isaac's God, too. I'm giving you and your descendants the ground on which you're sleeping.

Then Jacob woke up during the night and told himself, "Surely, the LORD is in this place and I never knew it!"

When Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the stone that he had used for his pillow, set it up as a pillar, drenched it with oil,

Jacob journeyed on and reached the territory that belonged to the people who lived in the east.

Jacob asked them, "My brothers, where are you from?" "We're from Haran," they answered.

"Look!" Jacob replied. "The sun is still high. It's not yet time for the flocks to be gathered. Let's water the sheep, then let them graze."

When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, accompanied by Laban's sheep, Jacob approached the well, rolled the stone from the opening of the well, and then watered his mother's brother Laban's flock.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to cry out loud.

Jacob told Rachel that he was related to her father, since he was Rebekah's son, so she ran and told her father.

When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him, kissed him, and brought him back to his house. Then Jacob told Laban about everything that had happened.

Laban responded, "You certainly are my flesh and blood!" So Jacob stayed with him for about a month.

Later, Laban asked Jacob, "Should you serve me for free, just because you're my nephew? Let's talk about what your wages should be."

Jacob loved Rachel, so he made this offer to Laban: "I'll serve you for seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter."

Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but it seemed like only a few days because of his love for her.

Eventually, Jacob told Laban, "Bring me my wife, now that my time of service has been completed, so I can go be with her."

That night Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob. He had marital relations with her.

The next morning, Jacob realized that it was Leah! "What have you done to me?" he demanded of Laban. "Didn't I serve you for seven years in order to marry Rachel? Why did you deceive me?"

So Jacob completed another seven years' work, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

Jacob also married Rachel, since he loved her. He served Laban another full seven years' work for Rachel.

Rachel noticed that she was not bearing children for Jacob, so because she envied her sister Leah, she told Jacob, "If you don't give me sons, I'm going to die!"

That made Jacob angry with Rachel, so he asked her, "Can I take God's place, who has not allowed you to conceive?"

So Rachel gave Jacob her woman servant Bilhah to be his wife, and Jacob had sex with her.

Bilhah conceived and bore a son for Jacob.

Rachel's servant conceived again and bore a second son for Jacob,

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

Leah's servant Zilpah bore a son to Jacob,

Later, Leah's servant Zilpah bore a second son for Jacob.

In response, Leah asked her, "Wasn't it enough that you've taken away my husband? Now you also want to take my son's mandrakes!" But Rachel replied, "Okay, let's let Jacob sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."

When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went to meet him and told him, "You're having sex with me tonight. I traded my son's mandrakes for you!" So he slept with her that night.

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

Later, Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son for Jacob.

After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob told Laban, "Send me off so that I can go back to my place and country.

But Jacob replied to Laban, "You know how I've served you and how your cattle thrived under my care.

Jacob responded, "You don't have to give me anything. Just do this for me: Let me tend your flock again and watch over it. Let me walk among your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, along with every black lamb, and let me do the same with the speckled and spotted goats. These will be my wages.

He sent them as far away from Jacob as a three days' journey could take them.

Meanwhile, Jacob kept tending the rest of Laban's flock. Jacob took branches from white poplar trees, freshly cut almond trees, and some other trees, stripped off their bark to make white streaks, and uncovered the white part inside the branches.

Jacob kept the lambs separate, facing the striped and entirely black ones that belonged to Laban's flock. He set his own herd by itself and would not let them be with Laban's flock.

Whenever the more vigorous of the flock came into heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the flock to make them mate by the branches.

But he didn't put the branches in front of any of the feeble members of the flock. As a result, the feeble ones belonged to Laban, but the stronger ones belonged to Jacob.

Therefore the man Jacob prospered so much that he had large flocks, female and male servants, as well as camels and donkeys.

Now Jacob used to listen while Laban's sons kept on complaining, "Jacob has taken over everything our father owns! He made himself wealthy from what belongs to our father!"

Jacob also noticed that the way Laban had been looking at him wasn't as nice as it had been just two days earlier.

Then the LORD ordered Jacob, "Go back to your father's territory and to your relatives. I'll be with you."

Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field where his flock was

"Later, the angel of God spoke to me in a dream, "Jacob.' ""Here I am,' I replied

So Jacob got up, seated his children and wives on camels,

Moreover, Jacob had deceived Laban the Aramean, because he had never told him that he was intending to leave.

Jacob fled, taking everything that he owned. He got up, crossed the river, and headed to the hill country of Gilead.

Three days later, somebody reported to Laban that Jacob had left,

so he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob. Laban was on the road for seven days when he finally caught up with Jacob in the hill country of Gilead.

That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Be careful what you say to Jacob, whether it's one word good or bad."

Meanwhile, Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, where Laban had caught up with him. Laban and his relatives encamped on that same mountain in the hill country of Gilead, too.

Then Laban asked Jacob, "What did you do? You deceived me, carried off my daughters like you would war captives,

It's actually in my power to do some serious evil to you, but last night the God of your father told me, "Be careful what you say to Jacob whether good or evil.'

"I was afraid," Jacob replied. "I thought you might take your daughters from me.

Now as to your gods, if you find someone has them in their possession, he's a dead man. Take our relatives as witnesses, search through our belongings, and take whatever belongs to you that's in my possession." But Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

So Laban entered Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maid servants, but he didn't find them. Then he left Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.

Then Jacob got angry and started an argument with Laban. "What have I done?" he demanded. "What's my crime that would cause you to come pursue me so violently?

But Laban answered Jacob, "These women are my daughters. These children are my children. The flocks are mine. In fact, everything that you see belongs to me. But what would I do today to my daughters and the children they have borne?

So Jacob took a stone and raised it as a pillar.

Then Jacob told his relatives, "Go gather some stones." So they picked up stones and stacked them one on top of the other. Then they had a meal together there by the stack of stones.

Laban named the place Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

So Jacob made an oath by his father's Fear, offered sacrifices there on the mountain, and called on his relatives to eat some food. So they ate the food and spent the night on the mountain.

As Jacob went on his way, angels from God met him.

As he was watching them, Jacob said, "This must be God's camp," so he named that place Mahanaim.

Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of him into the land of Seir (that is, into the territory of Edom) to meet his brother Esau.

He instructed them, "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: "Your servant Jacob told me to tell you, "I've journeyed to stay with Laban and I've remained there until now.

Later, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, "We went to your brother Esau. He's now coming to meet you and he has 400 men with him!"

Feeling mounting terror and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, doing the same with the flocks, the cattle, and the camels.