But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac.

And Abraham said, Take care that you do not let my son go back to that land.

The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

Now, may the girl to whom I say, Let down your vessel and give me a drink, and who says in answer, Here is a drink for you and let me give water to your camels: may she be the one marked out by you for your servant Isaac: so may I be certain that you have been good to my master Abraham.

And said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has given a sign that he is good and true to my master, by guiding me straight to the house of my master's family.

Let it come about that, while I am waiting here by the water-spring, if a girl comes to get water and I say to her, Give me a little water from your vessel, and she says,

And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do.

Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master.

And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then she took her veil, covering her face with it.

And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom.

Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her.

And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.

Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him.

For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.

Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.

That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.

And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you?

And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you;

That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.

And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water.

And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.

Now when Isaac was old and his eyes had become clouded so that he was not able to see, he sent for Esau, his first son, and said to him, My son: and he said, Here am I.

And make me food, good to the taste, such as is pleasing to me, and put it before me, so that I may have a meal and give you my blessing before death comes to me.

Go and get some roe's meat and make me a good meal, so that I may be full, and give you my blessing before the Lord before my death.

And you will take it to him, so that he may have a good meal and give you his blessing before his death.

If by chance my father puts his hand on me, it will seem to him that I am tricking him, and he will put a curse on me in place of a blessing.

And Jacob said, I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done as you said: come now, be seated and take of my meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

And Isaac said, How is it that you have got it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God made it come my way.

And Isaac said, Come near so that I may put my hand on you, my son, and see if you are truly my son Esau or not.

And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink.

And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

And he said, Is it because he is named Jacob that he has twice taken my place? for he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not kept a blessing for me?

And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping.

Then Rebekah, hearing what Esau had said, sent for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, It seems that your brother Esau is purposing to put you to death.

And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples.

And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

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

It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the women of Canaan,

And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his head he went to sleep in that place.

And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz.

So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God,

And Rachel, hearing from Jacob that he was her father's relation and that he was the son of Rebekah, went running to give her father news of it.

Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife so that I may have her, for the days are ended.

And in the morning Jacob saw that it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What have you done to me? was I not working for you so that I might have Rachel? why have you been false to me?

Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was not loved, gave her a child; while Rachel had no children.

Then she became with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Because it has come to the Lord's ears that I am not loved, he has given me this son in addition: and she gave him the name Simeon.

Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go in to her, so that she may have a child on my knees, and I may have a family by her.

When it was clear to Leah that she would have no more children for a time, she gave Zilpah, her servant, to Jacob as a wife.

But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband from me? and now would you take my son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits.

In the evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah went out to him and said, Tonight you are to come to me, for I have given my son's love-fruits as a price for you. And he went in to her that night.

After that she had a daughter, to whom she gave the name Dinah.

And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been good to me because of you.

So that day he took all the he-goats which were banded or coloured, and all the she-goats which were marked or coloured or had white marks, and all the black sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons;

Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the skin so that the white wood was seen in bands.

And whenever the stronger ones of the flock became with young, Jacob put the sticks in front of them in the drinking-places, so that they might become with young when they saw the sticks.

But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put the sticks before them; so that the feebler flocks were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's.

Now it came to the ears of Jacob that Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taken away all our father's property, and in this way he has got all this wealth.

And Jacob saw that Laban's feeling for him was no longer what it had been before.

And he said to them, It is clear to me that your father's feeling is no longer what it was to me; but the God of my father has been with me

And at the time when the flock were with young, I saw in a dream that all the he-goats which were joined with the she-goats were banded and marked and coloured.

Then God came to Laban in a dream by night, and said to him, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.

Why did you make a secret of your flight, not giving me word of it, so that I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with melody and music?

It is in my power to do you damage: but the God of your father came to me this night, saying, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.

And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that you might take your daughters from me by force.

As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be put to death: make search before us all for what is yours, and take it. For Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken them.

Then Jacob was angry with Laban, and said, What crime or sin have I done that you have come after me with such passion?

Now that you have made search through all my goods, what have you seen which is yours? Make it clear now before my people and your people, so that they may be judges between us.

They will be witness that I will not go over these stones to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to me, for any evil purpose.

And Jacob made an offering on the mountain, and gave orders to his people to take food: so they had a meal and took their rest that night on the mountain.

And when he saw them he said, This is the army of God: so he gave that place the name of Mahanaim.

And I have oxen and asses and flocks and men-servants and women-servants: and I have sent to give my lord news of these things so that I may have grace in his eyes.

Be my saviour from the hand of Esau, my brother: for my fear is that he will make an attack on me, putting to death mother and child.

And you are to say further, Jacob, your servant, is coming after us. For he said to himself, I will take away his wrath by the offering which I have sent on, and then I will come before him: it may be that I will have grace in his eyes.

So the servants with the offerings went on in front, and he himself took his rest that night in the tents with his people.

But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so that his leg was damaged.

And Jacob gave that place the name of Peniel, saying, I have seen God face to face, and still I am living.

For this reason the children of Israel, even today, never take that muscle in the hollow of the leg as food, because the hollow of Jacob's leg was touched.

And he said, What were all those herds which I saw on the way? And Jacob said, They were an offering so that I might have grace in my lord's eyes.

But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds: one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock.

And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you. And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased with me?

So Esau, turning back that day, went on his way to Seir.

Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had by Jacob, went out to see the women of that country.

And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her.

And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us:

But these men will make an agreement with us to go on living with us and to become one people, only on the condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision as they have done.

Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us.

So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the sons of Jacob.

Now while they were living in that country, Reuben had connection with Bilhah, his father's servant-woman: and Israel had news of it.

And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had been living.

Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say, Edom.

For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.

These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.

These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon.

And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him.

And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end.

Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah.

Now Er, Judah's first son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death.