Sure enough, when her due date arrived, she delivered twin sons.

The first son came out reddish his entire body was covered with hair so they named him Esau.

Eventually, Isaac grew so old that he could not see. One day, he called his eldest son Esau. "My son," he called out to him.

Now Rebekah overheard Isaac while he was speaking to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out to the field to hunt and bring in some game,

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,

So now, my son, listen to what I have to say and pay attention to what I'm about to tell you.

"My son," she replied, "let any curse against you fall on me. Just listen to me, then go and get them for me."

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,

who went to his father and said, "My father"" "It's me!" he replied. "Which one are you, my son?"

"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."

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.

May people serve and bow before you; may you be master over your brothers; may your mother's sons bow before you; may anyone who curses you be cursed; and may anyone who blesses you be blessed."

prepared some delicious food, brought it to his father, and told him, "Can you get up now, father, so you may eat some of your son's game and then bless me?"

But his father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I'm Esau, your firstborn son," he answered.

In response, Isaac told Esau, "Look! I've predicted that he's going to become your master, and I've assigned all his brothers to be his servants. What then can I do for you, my son?"

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.

Son, you'd better do what I say! Get up, run off to my brother Laban in Haran,

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.

so he went to Abraham's son Ishmael and married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth.

"Do you happen to know Nahor's son Laban?" he inquired. "We do," they replied.

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.

Leah conceived, bore a son, and named him Reuben, because she was saying, "The LORD had looked on my torture, so now my husband will love me."

Later, she conceived again, bore a son, and declared, "Because the LORD heard that I'm neglected, he gave me this one, too." So she named him Simeon.

Later, she conceived again and said, "This time my husband will become attached to me, now that I've borne him three sons." So he named him Levi.

Then she conceived yet again, bore a son, and said, "This time I'll praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing children.

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!"

Bilhah conceived and bore a son for Jacob.

Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me! He has heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore, she named him Dan.

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

Leah's servant Zilpah bore a son to Jacob,

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

Some time later, during the wheat harvest season, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field and brought them back for his mother Leah. Then Rachel told Leah, "Please give me your son's mandrakes."

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.

Then Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. This time my husband will exalt me, because I've borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

so she conceived, bore a son, and remarked, "God has removed my shame."

Because she had been asking, "May God give me another son," she named him Joseph.

That very day, Laban removed the male goats that were striped or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted that is, every one that had white on them and all the black lambs and placed them into the care of his sons.

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!"

When Hamor the Hivite's son Shechem, the regional leader, saw her, he grabbed her and raped her, humiliating her.

Because Jacob learned that Shechem had dishonored his daughter Dinah while his sons were still out with their cattle on the open range, he remained silent until they returned.

Just then Jacob's sons arrived from the field. When they heard what had happened, they were distraught with grief and livid with anger toward Shechem, because he had committed a disgraceful deed in Israel by forcing Jacob's daughter to have sex, an act that never should have happened.

But Hamor said this: "My son is deeply attracted to your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and take our sons for yourselves.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceptively, because Shechem had dishonored their sister Dinah.

What they said pleased Hamor and his son Shechem,

Now Shechem was the most important person in his father's household. So Hamor and his son Shechem entered the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city.

"These men are at peace with us," they announced. "Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. Look! The land is large enough for them. Let's take their daughters as wives for ourselves and let's give our sons to them.

All of the males who heard Hamor and his son Shechem, who had gone out to the city gate, were circumcised.

Three days later, while they were still in pain, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, each grabbed a sword and entered the city unannounced, intending to kill all the males.

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took back Dinah from Shechem's house, and left.

Jacob's other sons came along afterward and plundered the city where their sister had been defiled,

As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in the cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob's sons.

While she was suffering due to her difficult labor, the midwife told her, "Don't fear! You're going to have another son."

Just before she died, Rachel called her son's name Ben-oni, but his father Jacob named him Benjamin.

But while Israel lived in that land, Reuben went inside his father's tent and had sexual relations with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now Jacob had twelve sons.

Leah's sons were Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

Rachel's sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

Rachel's servant Bilhah's sons were Dan and Naphtali.

Leah's servant Zilpah's sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob's sons who were born to him while he lived in Paddan-aram.

when he died and joined his ancestors at a ripe old age. Then his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

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

The names of Esau's sons were Eliphaz (the son of Esau's wife Adah) and Reuel (the son of Esau's wife Basemath).

Eliphaz's sons were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

Timnah was a concubine of Esau's son Eliphaz. She bore Amalek to Eliphaz.

Reuel's sons were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau's wife Basemath.

These were the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, who was the daughter of Zibeon. She bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah for Esau.

Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These were the tribal leaders who descended from Eliphaz in the territory of Edom. These were Adah's sons.

These were the descendants of Esau's son Reuel: tribal leaders Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the tribal leaders who descended from Reuel in the territory of Edom. These were the sons of Esau's wife Basemath.

Beor's son Bela ruled over Edom. His city's name was Dinhabah.

After Bela died, Zerah's son Jobab from Bozrah ruled in his place.

After Husham died, Bedad's son Hadad, who killed Midian in the field of Moab, ruled in his place. His city's name was Avith.

After Shaul died, Achbor's son Baal-hanan ruled in his place.

After Achbor's son Baal-hanan died, Hadar ruled in his place. His city's name was Pau. And his wife's name was Mehetabel, who was the daughter of Matred, and granddaughter of Me-zahab.

Then they stretched out the richly-embroidered tunic to dry, and brought it to their father. "We've found this," they reported. "Look at it and see if this is or isn't your son's tunic."

Examining it, he cried out, "It's my son's tunic! A wild animal has no doubt torn Joseph to pieces."

So Jacob tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and then mourned many days for his son.

All his sons and daughters showed up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He kept saying, "Leave me alone! I'll go down to the next world, still mourning for my son." So Joseph's father wept for him.

and she conceived, bore a son, and named him Er.

Later, she conceived again, bore another son, and named him Onan.

Then she bore yet another son and named him Shelah. Judah was living in Kezib when she bore him.

Judah found a wife for his oldest son Er. Her name was Tamar.

But the LORD considered Er, Judah's oldest son, to be wicked so he put him to death.

After this, Judah told his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Go live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." But he was really thinking, ""otherwise, Shelah might die like his brothers." So Tamar left and lived in her father's house.

When Judah recognized them, he admitted, "She is more upright than I, because I never did give her my son Shelah." And he never had sex with her again.

Before the years of famine arrived, Joseph fathered two sons with Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On.

Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh because, he said, "God has made me forget all of my hard life and my father's house."

He named his second son Ephraim because, he said, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my troubles."

Eventually, Jacob observed that there was grain in Egypt, so he asked his sons, "Why do you keep on staring at one another?

Israel's sons went in a caravan that included others who were going to Egypt to buy grain, because the famine pervaded the land of Canaan, too.

We're all sons of a common father. We're honest men, your majesty. We're not spies!"

"But your majesty," they pleaded, "your servants include twelve brothers, the sons of a common father back in the land of Canaan. Please! Our youngest brother remains with our father, and the other one is no longer alive."