When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the open fields, but Jacob was an even-tempered man, living in tents.

So Esau said to Jacob, "Feed me some of the red stuff -- yes, this red stuff -- because I'm starving!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)

There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife," for he thought to himself, "The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah because she is very beautiful."

After Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac replied, "Because I thought someone might kill me to get her."

Then Abimelech exclaimed, "What in the world have you done to us? One of the men might easily have had sexual relations with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

So Abimelech commanded all the people, "Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

He had so many sheep and cattle and such a great household of servants that the Philistines became jealous of him.

So the Philistines took dirt and filled up all the wells that his father's servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham.

Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died. Isaac gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water belongs to us!" So Isaac named the well Esek because they argued with him about it.

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 descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."

Now Abimelech had come to him from Gerar along with Ahuzzah his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.

Early in the morning the men made a treaty with each other. Isaac sent them off; they separated on good terms.

So he named it Shibah; that is why the name of the city has been Beer Sheba to this day.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.'

Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I'll prepare them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them.

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."

She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck.

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Now sit up and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me."

Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come closer so I can touch you, my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau."

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.

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.

May God give you the dew of the sky and the richness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. You will be lord over your brothers, and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be 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!"

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.

You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck."

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. Esau said privately, "The time of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill my brother Jacob!"

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?"

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am deeply depressed because of these daughters of Heth. If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!"

Leave immediately for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

May the sovereign God bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! Then you will become a large nation.

So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

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 Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.

He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place

and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it

and the Lord stood at its top. He said, "I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on.

Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants.

He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!"

Early in the morning Jacob took the stone he had placed near his head and set it up as a sacred stone. Then he poured oil on top of it.

He called that place Bethel, although the former name of the town was Luz.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear,

Then this stone that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely give you back a tenth of everything you give me."

So Jacob moved on and came to the land of the eastern people.

He saw in the field a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well's mouth.

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

Then Jacob said, "Since it is still the middle of the day, it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more."

"We can't," they said, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep."

When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he went over and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban.

When Jacob explained to Rachel that he was a relative of her father and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

Finally Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my time of service is up. I want to have marital relations with her."

So Laban invited all the people of that place and prepared a feast.

Complete my older daughter's bridal week. Then we will give you the younger one too, in exchange for seven more years of work."

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

When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children or I'll die!"

Jacob became furious with Rachel and exclaimed, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

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

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

At the time of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Give me some of your son's mandrakes."

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 God took note of Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant.

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."

So Laban asked, "What should I give you?" "You don't need to give me a thing," Jacob replied, "but if you agree to this one condition, I will continue to care for your flocks and protect them:

My integrity will testify for me later on. When you come to verify that I've taken only the wages we agreed on, if I have in my possession any goat that is not speckled or spotted or any sheep that is not dark-colored, it will be considered stolen."

So that day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care of his sons.

Then he separated them from Jacob by a three-day journey, while Jacob was taking care of the rest of Laban's flocks.

Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink.

When the sheep mated in front of the branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban's flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban's flocks.

When the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

But if the animals were weaker, he did not set the branches there. So the weaker animals ended up belonging to Laban and the stronger animals to Jacob.

The Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you."

There he said to them, "I can tell that your father's attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me.

If he said, 'The speckled animals will be your wage,' then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, 'The streaked animals will be your wage,' then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

In the dream the angel of God said to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here I am!' I replied.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the sacred stone and made a vow to me. Now leave this land immediately and return to your native land.'"

He took away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac.

He left with all he owned. He quickly crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the hill country of Gilead.

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

Laban overtook Jacob, and when Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead, Laban and his relatives set up camp there too.

"What have you done?" Laban demanded of Jacob. "You've deceived me and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of war!

Why did you run away secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me so I could send you off with a celebration complete with singing, tambourines, and harps?

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.'

Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! In the presence of our relatives identify whatever is yours and take it." (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)

So Laban entered Jacob's tent, and Leah's tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. Then he left Leah's tent and entered Rachel's.

Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. "What did I do wrong?" he demanded of Laban. "What sin of mine prompted you to chase after me in hot pursuit?

When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? Set it here before my relatives and yours, and let them settle the dispute between the two of us!

If the God of my father -- the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears -- had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night."

Laban replied to Jacob, "These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today or the children to whom they have given birth?

Then he said to his relatives, "Gather stones." So they brought stones and put them in a pile. They ate there by the pile of stones.

Laban said, "This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement today." That is why it was called Galeed.

It was also called Mizpah because he said, "May the Lord watch between us when we are out of sight of one another.

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one else is with us, realize that God is witness to your actions."