My father may touch me! Then he'll think I'm mocking him and I'll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing."

So his mother told him, "Any curse against you will fall on me, my son! Just obey me! Go and get them for me!"

So Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's."

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau's hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob.

Isaac said, "Bring some of the wild game for me to eat, my son. Then I will bless you." So Jacob brought it to him, and he ate it. He also brought him wine, and Isaac drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here and kiss me, my son."

So Jacob went over and kissed him. When Isaac caught the scent of his clothing, he blessed him, saying, "Yes, my son smells like the scent of an open field which the Lord has blessed.

He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau said to him, "My father, get up and eat some of your son's wild game. Then you can bless me."

Isaac began to shake violently and asked, "Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. He will indeed be blessed!"

Esau exclaimed, "'Jacob' is the right name for him! He has tripped me up two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!" Then he asked, "Have you not kept back a blessing for me?"

Isaac replied to Esau, "Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?"

So his father Isaac said to him, "Indeed, your home will be away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of the sky above.

When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, she quickly summoned her younger son Jacob and told him, "Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you.

Live with him for a little while until your brother's rage subsides.

Stay there until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I'll send someone to bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, "You must not marry a Canaanite woman!

Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. As he blessed him, Isaac commanded him, "You must not marry a Canaanite woman."

So he said to them, "Do you know Laban, the grandson of Nahor?" "We know him," they said.

When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister's son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban how he was related to him.

Then Laban said to him, "You are indeed my own flesh and blood." So Jacob stayed with him for a month.

So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because his love for her was so great.

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

So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. Surely my husband will love me now."

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon.

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "Now this time my husband will show me affection, because I have given birth to three sons for him." That is why he was named Levi.

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "This time I will praise the Lord." That is why she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

So Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had marital relations with her.

Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer and given me a son." That is why she named him Dan.

Then Rachel said, "I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won." So she named him Naphtali.

Leah said, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad.

Leah said, "How happy I am, for women will call me happy!" So she named him Asher.

When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must sleep with me because I have paid for your services with my son's mandrakes." So he had marital relations with her that night.

Then Leah said, "God has granted me a reward because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife." So she named him Issachar.

Then Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I have given him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

She named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord give me yet another son."

But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, for I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me on account of you."

When Jacob saw the look on Laban's face, he could tell his attitude toward him had changed.

but your father has humiliated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm.

Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, "Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house?

Jacob also deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving.

So he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days. He caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, "Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob."

So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.

The messengers returned to Jacob and said, "We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him."

Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.

He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, "You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.

You must also say, 'In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.'" Jacob thought, "I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me."

So the gifts were sent on ahead of him while he spent that night in the camp.

So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob's hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

The man asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "Jacob."

"No longer will your name be Jacob," the man told him, "but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed."

The sun rose over him as he crossed over Penuel, but he was limping because of his hip.

But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept.

Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need." When Jacob urged him, he took it.

But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

But Hamor made this appeal to them: "My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name." So God named him Israel.

Then God said to him, "I am the sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation -- even a company of nations -- will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants!

Then God went up from the place where he spoke with him.

So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it.

Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel.

With her dying breath, she named him Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead.

The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. He died an old man who had lived a full life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.

Then his brothers asked him, "Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?" They hated him even more because of his dream and because of what he said.

When he told his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him, saying, "What is this dream that you had? Will I, your mother, and your brothers really come and bow down to you?"

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what Joseph said.

So Jacob said to him, "Go now and check on the welfare of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word." So Jacob sent him from the valley of Hebron.

When Joseph reached Shechem, a man found him wandering in the field, so the man asked him, "What are you looking for?"

Now Joseph's brothers saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Come now, let's kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild animal ate him. Then we'll see how his dreams turn out!"

Reuben continued, "Don't shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him." (Reuben said this so he could rescue Joseph from them and take him back to his father.)

When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore.

Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.)

Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not lay a hand on him, for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants passed by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites then took Joseph to Egypt.

He recognized it and exclaimed, "It is my son's tunic! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!"

All his sons and daughters stood by him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. "No," he said, "I will go to the grave mourning my son." So Joseph's father wept for him.

She became pregnant and had a son. Judah named him Er.

Then she had yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib.

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord killed him.

What he did was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord killed him too.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up." For he thought, "I don't want him to die like his brothers." So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

He said, "What pledge should I give you?" She replied, "Your seal, your cord, and the staff that's in your hand." So he gave them to her and had sex with her. She became pregnant by him.

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. She said, "How you have broken out of the womb!" So he was named Perez.

Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful.

So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned.

From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's household for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.

She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, "Have sex with me!" But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran outside.

This is what she said to him: "That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me,