They replied, “We have clearly seen how the Lord has been with you. We think there should be an oath between two parties—between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you:

that thou wilt do us no wrong, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done to thee nothing but good, and have let thee go in peace; thou art now blessed of Jehovah.

And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.

And he saith, 'Lo, I pray thee, I have become aged, I have not known the day of my death;

and make for me tasteful things, such as I have loved, and bring in to me, and I do eat, so that my soul doth bless thee before I die.'

and Rebekah hath spoken unto Jacob her son, saying, 'Lo, I have heard thy father speaking unto Esau thy brother, saying,

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

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

"But Esau my brother is a hairy man," Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, "and I have smooth skin!

it may be my father doth feel me, and I have been in his eyes as a deceiver, and have brought upon me disesteem, and not a blessing;'

And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou didst say to me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, in order that thy soul may bless me.

And Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Jehovah your God brought it to me.

And he hath not discerned him, for his hands have been hairy, as the hands of Esau his brother, and he blesseth him,

Then Isaac trembled with exceeding great trembling, and said, Who was he, then, that hunted venison and brought it to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him; also blessed he shall be.

And he said, It is because his name is called Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?

And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over thee, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and new wine have I supplied him and what can I do now for thee, my son?

And Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, me also, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

Then Isaac his father answered and said unto him, "Behold, thy dwelling place shall have of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.

And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I also be bereaved of both of you in one day?

And Rebekah saith unto Isaac, 'I have been disgusted with my life because of the presence of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these -- from the daughters of the land -- why do I live?'

May he give you and your descendants the blessings that he gave Abraham. May you possess the land where you have lived that God gave to Abraham."

and thy seed hath been as the dust of the land, and thou hast broken forth westward, and eastward, and northward, and southward, and all families of the ground have been blessed in thee and in thy seed.

And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places to which thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of.

when I have turned back in peace unto the house of my father, and Jehovah hath become my God,

And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that thou wilt give me I will without fail give the tenth to thee.

(When thither have all the droves been gathered, and they have rolled the stone from off the mouth of the well, and have watered the flock, then they have turned back the stone on the mouth of the well to its place.)

And he saith to them, 'Have ye known Laban, son of Nahor?' and they say, 'We have known.'

And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks have been gathered together. And they roll the stone from the well's mouth, then we water the sheep.

Now Laban happened to have two daughters. The older one was named Leah and the younger was named Rachel.

And Laban said, It is better for you to have her than another man: go on living here with me.

And Jacob saith unto Laban, 'Give up my wife, for my days have been fulfilled, and I go in unto her;'

And it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done to me? Have I not served thee for Rachel? Why then hast thou deceived me?

And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me.

And she again conceived, and bore a son, and said, Now this time will my husband be united to me, for I have borne him three sons; therefore was his name called Levi.

And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.

And Rachel said, Wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.

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.

Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad (good fortune).

and Leah said, For my happiness, surely happy have daughters pronounced me. So she called his name, Asher.

Now at the time of the grain-cutting, Reuben saw some love-fruits in the field, and took them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to her, Let me have some of your son's love-fruits.

And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? And would you also take my son's love-apples? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with you tonight for your son's love-apples.

And when Jacob came from the fields in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in to me, for indeed I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maidservant to my husband; and she called his name Issachar.

and Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; this time will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. And she called his name Zebulun.

Then God remembered [the prayers of] Rachel, and God thought of her and opened her womb [so that she would conceive].

Give me my wives for whom I have served thee, and my children; that I may go away, for thou knowest my service which I have served thee.

And Laban said to him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes I have discovered that Jehovah has blessed me for thy sake.

And he said to him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and what thy cattle has become with me.

For before I came you had little, and it has been greatly increased; and the Lord has given you a blessing in everything I have done; but when am I to do something for my family?

"What do I have to give you?" Laban asked.

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.

In the future, you'll be able to verify my honesty because, when you come to check what I've earned, if you find a goat that's not speckled or spotted or a sheep that's not black, then it will have been stolen by me."

“Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

and when the flock is feeble, he doth not set them; and the feeble ones have been Laban's, and the strong ones Jacob's.

Thus did the man break forth, exceedingly, - thus came he to have flocks in abundance, and maid-servants, and men-servants and camels and asses.

And you know that with all my power I have served your father.

If he said, All those in the flock which have marks are to be yours, then all the flock gave birth to marked young; and if he said, All the banded ones are to be yours, then all the flock had banded young.

And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see: all the rams that leap upon the flock are ringstraked, speckled, and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban does to thee.

Then responded Rachel and Leah, and said to him, - Have we any longer a portion or an inheritance in the house of our father?

have we not been reckoned strangers to him? for he hath sold us, and he also utterly consumeth our money;

And Laban overtaketh Jacob; and Jacob hath fixed his tent in the mount; and Laban with his brethren have fixed theirs in the mount of Gilead.

And Laban said to Jacob, What have you done, that you have deceived my heart and carried away my daughters as captives taken with the sword?

Why didst thou flee away covertly, and steal away from me, and didst not tell me, that I might have conducted thee with mirth and with songs, with tambour and with harp;

And why have you not allowed me to kiss my sons and my daughters? You have done foolishly in so doing.

I have the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, 'Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.'

And now you have gone because you longed after your father's house. Why have you stolen my gods?

Jacob answered, and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid, and thought that thou wouldest have taken away thy daughters from me.

And Jacob was angry, and rebuked Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued after me?

For you have searched all my stuff; what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my brothers and your brothers, that they may judge between us both.

These twenty years have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten.

What was torn I have not brought to thee; I had to bear the loss of it: of my hand hast thou required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

Thus have I been - By day, drought hath consumed me, And, frost, by, night, - So that my sleep fled away from mine eyes.

I have been these twenty years in thy house: I have served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock; and thou hast changed my wages ten times.

Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, been with me, it is certain thou wouldest have sent me away now empty. God has looked upon my affliction and the labour of my hands, and has judged last night.

And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock, and all that thou seest is mine; but as for my daughters, what can I do this day to them, or to their sons whom they have brought forth?

So now, come, let's make a formal agreement, you and I, and it will be proof that we have made peace."

And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set up between me and thee:

And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my lord, to Esau: Thy servant Jacob speaks thus With Laban have I sojourned and tarried until now;

and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, and bondmen, and bondwomen; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in thine eyes.

When the servants came back they said, We have seen your brother Esau and he is coming out to you, and four hundred men with him.

and saith, 'If Esau come in unto the one camp, and have smitten it -- then the camp which is left hath been for an escape.'

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have done to Your servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two bands.

Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I am fearing him, less he come and have smitten me -- mother beside sons;

You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

then you must say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.'"

and ye have said also, Lo, thy servant Jacob is behind us;' for he said, 'I pacify his face with the present which is going before me, and afterwards I see his face; it may be he lifteth up my face;'

Then said he - Let me go, for uprisen hath the dawn. And he said: I will not let thee go, except thou have blessed me

And He said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for like a prince you have power with God and with men, and have prevailed.

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.

Then said he, What to thee is all this camp, which I have fallen in with? And he said, - To find favour in the eyes of my lord.

And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what thou hast be thine.

And Jacob said, No, I pray thee; if now I have found favour in thine eyes, then receive my gift from my hand; for therefore have I seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou hast received me with pleasure.

Take, I pray thee, my blessing which has been brought to thee; because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything. And he urged him, and he took it.

Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.

But Shechem’s father Hamor went to Jacob to talk with him.

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.

and with us ye dwell, and the land is before you; dwell ye and trade in it, and have possessions in it.'

However great you make the bride-price and payment, I will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife.

'Only for this we consent to you; if ye be as we, to have every male of you circumcised,