Study Desk

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see,^(a) 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.

Take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me.^(b)

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."^(c)

Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in,

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.^(d)

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."

His mother said to him, "Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me."

So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food his father loved.

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.

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

Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

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?"

So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

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.

Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come closer and kiss me, my son."

So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled^[a] 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^(e) and from the richness of the land^(f)— an abundance of grain and new wine.^(g)

May peoples serve you^(h) 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.⁽ⁱ⁾

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from the hunt.

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!"^(j)

But he replied, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."

So he said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob?^[b](k) 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.^[c]

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,^[d] 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.

So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,

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.^(l) If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them,^[e] what good is my life?"^(m)

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

Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you^(a) so that you become an assembly of peoples.^(b)

May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham^(c) so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham."^(d)

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

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."

And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram.

Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,^(e)

so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.

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:^(f) A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it.^(g)

Yahweh was standing there beside him,^[a] saying, "I am Yahweh,^(h) 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,⁽ⁱ⁾ 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.^(j)

Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land,^(k) 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."^(l)

He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven."

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

and named the place Bethel,^[b] though previously the city was named Luz.^(m)

Then Jacob made a vow:⁽ⁿ⁾ "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,^(o) then the Lord will be my God.^(p)

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."^(q)

Jacob resumed his journey^[a] and went to the eastern country.^[b](a)

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.

When all the flocks^[c] were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the opening of the well and water the sheep. The stone was then placed back on the well's opening.

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."

"Is he well?" Jacob asked. "Yes," they said, "and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with his sheep."

Then Jacob said, "Look, it is still broad daylight. It's not time for the animals to be gathered. Water the flock, then go out and let them graze."

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.

As soon as Jacob saw his uncle Laban's daughter Rachel with his sheep,^[d] he went up and rolled the stone from the opening and watered his uncle Laban's sheep.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept loudly.^[e]

He told Rachel that he was her father's relative, Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.

When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then he took him to his house, and Jacob told him all that had happened.

Laban said to him, "Yes, you are my own flesh and blood."^[f](b) 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."

Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Leah had ordinary^[g] eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

Jacob loved Rachel, so he answered Laban, "I'll work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."^(c)

Laban replied, "Better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay with me."

So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my time is completed. I want to sleep with^[h] her."

So Laban invited all the men of the place to a feast.

That evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Wasn't it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?"

Laban answered, "It is not the custom in this place to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn.

Complete this week of wedding celebration, and we will also give you this younger one in return for working yet another seven years for me."

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week of celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

And Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.

Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.^(d)

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved,^(e) He opened her womb;^(f) but Rachel was unable to conceive.^(g)

Leah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben,^[i] for she said, "The Lord has seen my affliction;^(h) surely my husband will love me now."

She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, "The Lord heard that I am unloved and has given me this son also." So she named him Simeon.^[j]

She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, "At last, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne three sons for him." Therefore he was named Levi.^[k]

And she conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, "This time I will praise the Lord ." Therefore she named him Judah.^[l](i) Then Leah stopped having children.