Genesis 25–27

1Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah.

2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

3Jokshan became the father of Sheba, and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.

4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.

5Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac,

6but Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Abraham’s concubines. While he still lived, he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, to the east country.

7These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years.

8Abraham gave up his spirit, and died at a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people.

9Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is near Mamre,

10the field which Abraham purchased from the children of Heth. Abraham was buried there with Sarah, his wife.

11After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son. Isaac lived by Beer Lahai Roi.

12Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.

13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

14Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

16These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations.

17These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his spirit and died, and was gathered to his people.

18They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.

19This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac.

20Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

21Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

22The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is like this, why do I live?” She went to inquire of Yahweh.

23Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.”

24When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau.

26After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

28Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.

29Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.

30Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with some of that red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

31Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”

32Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

33Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob.

34Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

1There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

2Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.

3Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

4I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,

5because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

6Isaac lived in Gerar.

7The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”

8When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.

9Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

10Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

11Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”

12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

13The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

14He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

16Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

17Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

18Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

19Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of flowing water.

20The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

21They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. So he called its name Sitnah.

22He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. So he called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

23He went up from there to Beersheba.

24Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”

25He built an altar there, and called on Yahweh’s name, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac’s servants dug a well.

26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?”

28They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s make a covenant with you,

29that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.”

30He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

31They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32The same day, Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

33He called it “Shibah”. Therefore the name of the city is “Beersheba” to this day.

34When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits.

1When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.”

2He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.

3Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me venison.

4Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”

5Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

6Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,

7‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’

8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.

9Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.

10You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

12What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”

13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”

14He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved.

15Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.

17She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

18He came to his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”

20Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because Yahweh your God gave me success.”

21Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

22Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

23He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.

24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”

25He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.” He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.

26His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.”

27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.

28God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

29Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”

30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

31He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.”

32Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

33Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.”

34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”

35He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”

36He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”

37Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?”

38Esau said to his father, “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

39Isaac his father answered him, “Behold, your dwelling will be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of the sky from above.

40You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.”

41Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

42The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.

43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.

44Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away—

45until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

46Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”