“Today when I came to the spring, I prayed: Lord, God of my master Abraham, if only You will make my journey successful!

I am standing here at a spring. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, and I say to her: Please let me drink a little water from your jug,

and who responds to me, ‘Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels also’—let her be the woman the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.

“Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her: Please let me have a drink.

She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.

Then I asked her: Whose daughter are you? She responded, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

Then I bowed down, worshiped the Lord, and praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who guided me on the right way to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.

Now, if you are going to show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; if not, tell me, and I will go elsewhere.”

Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we have no choice in the matter.

Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the Lord has spoken.”

But he responded to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey a success. Send me away so that I may go to my master.”

They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”

She replied, “I will go.”

So they sent away their sister Rebekah with the one who had nursed and raised her, and Abraham’s servant and his men.

They blessed Rebekah, saying to her:

Our sister, may you become
thousands upon ten thousands.
May your offspring possess
the gates of their enemies.

and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.

And Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines, but while he was still alive he sent them eastward, away from his son Isaac, to the land of the East.

He took his last breath and died at a ripe old age, old and contented, and he was gathered to his people.

After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

And they settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt as you go toward Asshur. He lived in opposition to all his brothers.

And the Lord said to her:

Two nations are in your womb;
two people will come from you and be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.

The first one came out red-looking, covered with hair like a fur coat, and they named him Esau.

When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted.

He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright.

The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,

When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”

Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him,

And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

Then Isaac’s slaves dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there.

He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces and said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of My servant Abraham.”

So he built an altar there, called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s slaves also dug a well there.

Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

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:

You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have only done what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the Lord.”

So he prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank.

They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

On that same day Isaac’s slaves came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death.

Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said,

‘Bring me the game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’

Now obey every order I give you, my son.

Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father—the kind he loves.

Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”

Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin.

Suppose my father touches me. Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.”

When he came to his father, he said, “My father.”

And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

Jacob replied to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may bless me.”

But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”

He replied, “Because the Lord your God worked it out for me.”

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”

Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

And he replied, “I am.”

Then he said, “Serve me, and let me eat some of my son’s game so that I can bless you.” Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.

So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said:

Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that the Lord has blessed.

May God give to you—
from the dew of the sky
and from the richness of the land—
an abundance of grain and new wine.

May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brothers;
may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed.

He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.”

Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. “Who was it then,” he said, “who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed!”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

So he said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him a master over you, have given him all of his relatives as his servants, and have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

Then his father Isaac answered him:

Look, your dwelling place will be
away from the richness of the land,
away from the dew of the sky above.

You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you rebel,
you will break his yoke from your neck.

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau determined in his heart: “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

and stay with him for a few days until your brother’s anger subsides—

until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?”

Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him: “Don’t take a wife from the Canaanite women.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples.

May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.”

He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place.

And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.

Yahweh was standing there beside him, saying, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land that you are now sleeping on.

Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it

Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, if He provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear,

and if I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God.

This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to You a tenth of all that You give me.”

He looked and saw a well in a field. Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it because the sheep were watered from this well. A large stone covered the opening of the well.

Jacob asked the men at the well, “My brothers! Where are you from?”

“We’re from Haran,” they answered.

“Do you know Laban grandson of Nahor?” Jacob asked them.

They answered, “We know him.”

But they replied, “We can’t until all the flocks have been gathered and the stone is rolled from the well’s opening. Then we will water the sheep.”

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.”

After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

Laban said to him, “Just because you’re my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

Jacob loved Rachel, so he answered Laban, “I’ll work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”