Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.”

Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
And of the fatness of the earth,
And an abundance of grain and new wine;

May peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you;
Be master of your brothers,
And may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
And blessed be those who bless you.”

Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.”

Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

Then he said, “Is he not rightly named 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?”

But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” So Esau lifted his voice and wept.

Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,
“Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,
And away from the dew of heaven from above.

So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!

until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.

He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.

Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

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

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,

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

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

Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the east.

Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.”

He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.”

And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.”

He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.”

So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he related to Laban all these things.

Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.

Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.”

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.”

Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her.

Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.

So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?”

But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.

Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.

So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi.

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”

She said, “Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children.”

So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

But she said to her, “Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night.

God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Then Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb.

Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

But Laban said to him, “If now it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined that the Lord has blessed me on your account.”

But he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have fared with me.

For you had little before I came and it has increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?”

So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:

Laban said, “Good, let it be according to your word.”

So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.

He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink.

Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.”

Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

and said to them, “I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.

Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to hurt me.

Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?

Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”

and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.

When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father’s.

When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,

God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?

and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly.

It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’

Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols.

Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.

That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

Thus I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times.

Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?

Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.