Genesis 18-31

New American Standard Bible

Birth of Isaac Promised

18 Now ^(A)the Lord appeared to ^[a]Abraham by the ^[b](B)oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. ² When he raised his eyes and looked, behold, three ^(C)men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down to the ground, ³ and said, “^[c]My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not ^[d]pass Your servant by. ⁴ Please let a little water be brought and ^(D)wash ^[e]your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree; ⁵ and I will ^[f](E)bring a piece of bread, so that you may ^[g]refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have ^[h]visited your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.” ⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “^[i]Quickly, prepare three ^[j]measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.” ⁷ Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and ^[k]choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. ⁸ He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree ^[l]as they ate.

⁹ Then they said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ He said, “^(F)I will certainly return to you ^[m]at this time next year; and behold, your wife Sarah will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. ¹¹ Now ^(G)Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was ^(H)past ^[n]childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed ^[o]to herself, saying, “^(I)After I have become old, am I to have pleasure, my ^(J)lord being old also?” ¹³ But the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I actually give birth to a child, when I am so old?’ ^14 (K)Is anything too ^[p]difficult for the Lord? At the ^(L)appointed time I will return to you, ^[q]at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁵ Sarah denied it, however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

¹⁶ Then ^(M)the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. ^17 (N)The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham ^(O)what I am about to do, ¹⁸ since Abraham will certainly become a great and ^[r]mighty nation, and in him ^(P)all the nations of the earth will be blessed? ¹⁹ For I have ^[s](Q)chosen him, so that he may ^(R)command his children and his household after him to ^(S)keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham ^(T)what He has spoken about him.” ²⁰ And the Lord said, “^(U)The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. ²¹ I will ^(V)go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”

Abraham Appeals for Sodom

²² Then ^(W)the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before ^(X)the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “^(Y)Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not ^[t]spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do ^[u]such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not ^(Z)the Judge of all the earth ^[v]deal justly?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “^(AA)If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will ^[w]spare the entire place on their account.” ²⁷ And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ^[x]ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only ^(AB)dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the entire city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ And he said, “Now behold, I have ^[y]ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.” ³² Then he said, “^(AC)Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once: suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” ³³ As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham ^(AD)the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 Now the ^(AE)two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When ^(AF)Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and ^[z]bowed down with his face to the ground. ² And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we shall spend the night in the public square.” ³ Yet he strongly urged them, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; ^(AG)and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ Before they lay down, ^(AH)the men of the city—the men of Sodom—surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people ^[aa]from every quarter; ⁵ and they called to Lot and said to him, “^(AI)Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may ^[ab]have relations with them.” ⁶ But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, ⁷ and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. ⁸ Now look, ^(AJ)I have two daughters who have not ^[ac]had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them ^[ad]whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the ^[ae]shelter of my roof.” ⁹ But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in ^[af]as a foreigner, and already ^(AK)he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against ^[ag]Lot and moved forward to break the door. ¹⁰ But ^(AL)the men reached out their ^[ah]hands and brought Lot into the house ^[ai]with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ Then ^(AM)they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the small to the great, so that they became weary of trying to find the doorway.

¹² Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place, because ^(AN)their outcry has become so great before the Lord that ^(AO)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who ^[aj]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, ^(AP)get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” ^(AQ)But he appeared to his sons-in-law ^[ak]to be joking.

¹⁵ When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the ^[al]punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men ^(AR)grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the ^[am]hands of his two daughters, because ^(AS)the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, ^[an]one said, “^(AT)Escape for your life! ^(AU)Do not look behind you, and do not stay ^[ao]anywhere in the ^(AV)surrounding area; escape to ^(AW)the ^[ap]mountains, or you will be swept away.” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! ¹⁹ Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the ^[aq]mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; ²⁰ now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) ^[ar]so that my life may be saved.” ²¹ And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ^[as]request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named ^[at](AX)Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord ^(AY)rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, ²⁵ and ^(AZ)He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But ^[au]Lot’s wife, from behind him, ^(BA)looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to ^(BB)the place where he had stood before the Lord; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and ^[av]behold, he saw ^(BC)the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ^[aw]furnace.

²⁹ So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that ^(BD)God remembered Abraham, and ^(BE)sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰ Now Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and ^(BF)stayed in the ^[ax]mountains, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. ³¹ Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man ^[ay]on earth to ^[az](BG)have relations with us according to the custom of all the earth. ³² Come, ^(BH)let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s sleep with him so that we may keep ^[ba]our family alive through our father.” ³³ So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or got up. ³⁴ On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept last night with my father; let’s make him drink wine tonight too, then you go in and sleep with him, so that we may keep ^[bb]our family alive through our father.” ³⁵ So they had their father drink wine that night too, and the younger got up and slept with him; and he did not know when she lay down or got up. ³⁶ And so both of the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. ³⁷ The firstborn gave birth to a son, and named him ^(BI)Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸ As for the younger, she also gave birth to a son, and named him Ben-ammi; he is the father of ^[bc]the sons of ^(BJ)Ammon to this day.

Abraham’s Treachery

20 Now Abraham journeyed from ^(BK)there toward the land of ^(BL)the ^[bd]Negev, and ^[be]settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived for a time in ^(BM)Gerar. ² And Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “^(BN)She is my sister.” So ^(BO)Abimelech king of Gerar sent men and took Sarah. ^3 (BP)But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, ^(BQ)you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is ^[bf]married.” ⁴ Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, ^(BR)will You kill a nation, even though ^[bg]blameless? ⁵ Did he himself not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she ^(BS)herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In ^(BT)the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my ^[bh]hands I have done this.” ⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also ^[bi](BU)kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷ Now then, return the man’s wife, for ^(BV)he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸ So Abimelech got up early in the morning and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ^[bj]presence; and the people were greatly frightened. ^9 (BW)Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And ^[bk]how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom ^(BX)a great sin? You have done to me ^[bl]things that ought not to be done.” ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you ^[bm]encountered, that you have done this thing?” ¹¹ Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no ^(BY)fear of God in this place, and ^(BZ)they will kill me because of my wife. ¹² Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife; ¹³ and it came about, when ^(CA)God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is ^[bn]the kindness which you will show to me: ^[bo]everywhere we go, ^(CB)say of me, “He is my brother.”’” ^14 (CC)Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵ Abimelech said, “^(CD)Behold, my land is before you; ^[bp]settle wherever ^[bq]you please.” ¹⁶ To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given your ^(CE)brother a thousand pieces of silver. ^[br]It is ^[bs]your vindication before all who are with you, and before everyone you are cleared.” ¹⁷ Then ^(CF)Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves, so that they gave birth to children. ^18 (CG)For the Lord had completely closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Isaac Is Born

21 ^(CH)Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had ^[bt]promised. ^2 (CI)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^(CJ)the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. ³ Abraham named his son who was born to him, the son whom Sarah bore to him, ^(CK)Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^(CL)eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was ^(CM)a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made ^(CN)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[bu]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “^(CO)Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age.”

⁸ And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Sarah Turns against Hagar

⁹ Now Sarah saw ^(CP)the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^(CQ)mocking Isaac. ¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, “^(CR)Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son ^[bv]Isaac!” ^11 (CS)The matter ^[bw]distressed Abraham greatly because of his son Ishmael. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “^[bx]Do not be distressed because of the boy and your slave woman; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for ^(CT)through Isaac ^[by]your descendants shall be named. ¹³ And of ^(CU)the son of the slave woman I will make a nation also, because he is your ^[bz]descendant.” ¹⁴ So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a ^[ca]skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was used up, she ^[cb]left the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “May I not ^[cc]see the boy die!” And she sat opposite him, and ^(CV)raised her voice and wept. ¹⁷ God ^(CW)heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “^[cd]What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^(CX)Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by ^[ce]the hand, ^(CY)for I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹ Then God ^(CZ)opened her eyes, and she saw ^(DA)a well of water; and she went and filled the ^[cf]skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ And ^(DB)God was with the boy, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness and became an archer. ^21 (DC)He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Covenant with Abimelech

²² Now it came about at that time that ^(DD)Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^(DE)God is with you in all that you do; ²³ so now, ^(DF)swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my descendants, but according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall show to me and to the land in which you have resided.” ²⁴ Abraham said, “I swear it.” ²⁵ But Abraham ^[cg]complained to Abimelech because of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech ^(DG)had seized. ²⁶ And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it ^[ch]until today.”

²⁷ So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and ^(DH)the two of them made a covenant. ²⁸ But Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. ²⁹ Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?” ³⁰ He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a ^(DI)witness for me, that I dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he called that place ^[ci](DJ)Beersheba, because there the two of them took an oath. ³² So they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, got up and returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there ^(DK)he called on the name of the Lord, the ^(DL)Everlasting God. ³⁴ And Abraham resided ^(DM)in the land of the Philistines for many days.

The Offering of Isaac

22 Now it came about after these things, that ^(DN)God tested Abraham, and said to him, “^(DO)Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² Then He said, “Take now ^(DP)your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of ^(DQ)Moriah, and offer him there as a ^(DR)burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” ³ So Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” ⁶ And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and ^(DS)laid it on his son Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷ Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the ^(DT)lamb for the burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will ^[cj]provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

⁹ Then they came to ^(DU)the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built ^(DV)the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and ^(DW)laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham reached out with his hand and took the knife to ^[ck]slaughter his son. ¹¹ But ^(DX)the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now ^(DY)I know that you ^[cl]fear God, since you have not withheld ^(DZ)your son, your only son, from Me.” ¹³ Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham named that place ^[cm]The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord ^(EA)it will ^[cn]be provided.”

¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶ and said, “^(EB)By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly ^(EC)multiply your ^[co]seed as the stars of the heavens and as ^(ED)the sand, which is on the seashore; and ^(EE)your ^[cp]seed shall possess the gate of ^[cq]their enemies. ¹⁸ And ^(EF)in your ^[cr]seed all the nations of the earth shall ^[cs]be blessed, because you have ^(EG)obeyed My voice.” ^19 (EH)So Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.

²⁰ Now it came about after these things, that Abraham was told, saying, “Behold, ^(EI)Milcah ^[ct]also has borne children to your brother Nahor: ²¹ Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), ²² Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel”— ²³ and it was Bethuel who fathered ^(EJ)Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴ His concubine, whose name was Reumah, ^[cu]also gave birth to Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Death and Burial of Sarah

23 Now ^[cv]Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. ² Sarah died in ^(EK)Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham ^[cw]came in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³ Then Abraham arose from mourning before his dead, and spoke to the ^(EL)sons of Heth, saying, ⁴ “I am ^(EM)a stranger and a foreign resident among you; ^(EN)give me ^[cx]a ^(EO)burial site among you so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” ⁵ The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, ⁶ “Hear us, my lord: you are a ^[cy](EP)mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.” ⁷ So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. ⁸ And he spoke with them, saying, “If ^[cz]you are willing to let me bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me, and plead with ^(EQ)Ephron the son of Zohar for me, ⁹ that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in ^[da]your presence for ^[db]a burial site.” ¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham ^[dc]so that the sons of Heth heard, ^(ER)that is, all who entered the gate of his city, saying, ¹¹ “No, my lord, listen to me; ^(ES)I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.” ¹² And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. ¹³ But he spoke to Ephron ^[dd]so that the people of the land heard, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me so that I may bury my dead there.” ¹⁴ Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, ¹⁵ “My lord, listen to me: a plot of land worth ^[de]four hundred ^(ET)shekels of silver—what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” ¹⁶ Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham ^(EU)weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the ^[df]presence of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency acceptable to a merchant.

¹⁷ So ^(EV)Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were ^[dg]within all the confines of its border, ^[dh]were deeded over ¹⁸ to Abraham as a possession ^(EW)in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who entered the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave that was in it ^[di]were ^(EX)deeded over to Abraham for ^[dj]a burial site by the sons of Heth.

A Bride for Isaac

24 Now ^(EY)Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had ^(EZ)blessed Abraham in every way. ² Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household who was in ^(FA)charge of all that he owned, “^(FB)Please place your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will make you swear by the Lord, ^(FC)the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you ^(FD)shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of ^(FE)the Canaanites, among whom I live; ⁴ but you will go to ^(FF)my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” ⁵ The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” ⁶ Then Abraham said to him, “^(FG)Beware that you do not take my son back there! ^7 (FH)The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘^(FI)To your ^[dk]descendants I will give this land’—He will send ^(FJ)His angel ahead of you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. ⁸ But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will ^(FK)be free of this oath of mine; ^(FL)only do not take my son back there.” ⁹ So the servant ^(FM)placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham, and swore to him concerning this matter.

¹⁰ Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and went out with a variety of ^(FN)good things of his master’s in his hand; so he set out and went to ^[dl]Mesopotamia, to ^(FO)the city of Nahor. ¹¹ He made the camels kneel down outside the city by ^(FP)the well of water ^[dm]when it was evening, ^(FQ)the time when women go out to draw water. ¹² And he said, “^(FR)Lord, God of my master Abraham, please ^[dn](FS)grant me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ Behold, ^(FT)I am standing by the ^[do]spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; ¹⁴ now may it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and ^[dp]who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

Rebekah Is Chosen

¹⁵ And it came about, ^(FU)before he had finished speaking, that behold, ^(FV)Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of ^(FW)Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. ¹⁶ The young woman was ^(FX)very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ^[dq]had relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. ¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “^(FY)Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” ¹⁸ And ^(FZ)she said, “Drink, my lord”; then she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ Now when she had finished giving him a drink, ^(GA)she said, “I will also draw water for your camels until they have finished drinking.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. ^21 (GB)Meanwhile, the man was taking a close look at her ^[dr]in silence, to find out whether the Lord had made his journey successful or not.

²² When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a ^(GC)gold ring weighing a ^[ds]half-shekel, and two bracelets for her ^[dt]wrists weighing ten shekels in gold, ²³ and he said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to stay overnight at your father’s house?” ²⁴ She said to him, “^(GD)I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” ²⁵ Again she said to him, “We have plenty of both straw and feed, and room to stay overnight.” ²⁶ Then the man ^(GE)bowed low and worshiped the Lord. ²⁷ And he said, “^(GF)Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned ^(GG)His kindness and His trustworthiness toward my master; as for me, ^(GH)the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

²⁸ Then ^(GI)the young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things. ²⁹ Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was ^(GJ)Laban; and Laban ran outside to the man at the spring. ³⁰ When he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s ^[du]wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, saying, “^[dv]This is what the man said to me,” he went to the man; and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. ³¹ And he said, “^(GK)Come in, ^(GL)blessed of the Lord! Why do you stand outside, since ^(GM)I have prepared the house, and a place for the camels?” ³² So the man entered the house. Then ^[dw](GN)Laban unloaded the camels, and he gave straw and feed to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. ³³ But when food was set before him to eat, he said, “I will not eat until I have stated my business.” And he said, “Speak on.” ³⁴ So he said, “I am ^(GO)Abraham’s servant. ³⁵ The Lord has greatly ^(GP)blessed my master, so that he has become ^[dx]rich; and He has given him ^(GQ)flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and servants and slave women, and camels and donkeys. ³⁶ Now ^(GR)my master’s wife Sarah bore a son to my master ^[dy]in her old age, and ^(GS)he has given him all that he has. ^37 (GT)My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; ³⁸ but you shall go to my father’s house and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son.’ ³⁹ Then ^(GU)I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman does not follow me.’ ⁴⁰ And he said to me, ‘^(GV)The Lord, before whom I have ^(GW)walked, will send ^(GX)His angel with you to make your journey successful, and you will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father’s house; ^41 (GY)then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my relatives; and if they do not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’

⁴² “So ^(GZ)I came today to the spring, and said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if now You will make my journey on which I have been going ^(HA)successful; ⁴³ behold, ^(HB)I am standing by the ^[dz]spring, and may it be that the ^[ea]young unmarried woman who comes out to draw water, and to whom I say, “^(HC)Please let me drink a little water from your jar”; ⁴⁴ and she says to me, “You drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵ “Before I had finished ^(HD)speaking in my heart, behold, ^(HE)Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and went down to the spring and drew water, and ^(HF)I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ ⁴⁶ She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘^(HG)Drink, and I will water your camels also’; so I drank, and she watered the camels also. ^47 (HH)Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him’; and I put the ^(HI)ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her ^[eb]wrists. ⁴⁸ And I ^(HJ)bowed low and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, ^(HK)who had guided me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. ⁴⁹ So now if you are going to ^[ec](HL)deal kindly and truthfully with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me now, so that I may turn to the right or the left.”

⁵⁰ Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “^(HM)The matter has come from the Lord; ^(HN)so we cannot speak to you bad or good. ⁵¹ Here is Rebekah before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.”

⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he ^(HO)bowed himself to the ground ^[ed]before the Lord. ⁵³ And the servant brought out ^(HP)articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. ⁵⁴ Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said, “^(HQ)Send me away to my master.” ⁵⁵ But her brother and her mother said, “^(HR)Let the young woman stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.” ⁵⁶ However, he said to them, “Do not delay me, since ^(HS)the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away so that I may go to my master.” ⁵⁷ And they said, “We will call the young woman and ^[ee]ask her.” ⁵⁸ Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” ⁵⁹ So they sent away their sister Rebekah and ^(HT)her nurse with Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰ And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

⁶¹ Then Rebekah got up with her female attendants, and they mounted the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.

Isaac Marries Rebekah

⁶² Now Isaac had come back from ^[eg]a journey to ^(HW)Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in ^(HX)the ^[eh]Negev. ⁶³ Isaac went out ^(HY)to ^[ei]meditate in the field toward evening; and ^(HZ)he raised his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. ⁶⁴ Rebekah raised her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. ⁶⁵ She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” Then she took her ^[ej]veil and covered herself. ⁶⁶ The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. ⁶⁷ Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and ^(IA)he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and ^(IB)he loved her; so Isaac was comforted after ^(IC)his mother’s death.

Abraham’s Death

25 Now Abraham took another wife, ^[ek]whose name was Keturah. ^2 (ID)She bore to him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³ Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴ The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All of these were the sons of Keturah. ^5 (IE)Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; ⁶ but to the sons of ^[el]his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and ^(IF)sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.

⁷ These are ^[em]all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, ^(IG)175 years. ⁸ Abraham breathed his last and died ^(IH)at a good old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was ^(II)gathered to his people. ⁹ Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in ^(IJ)the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, ^10 (IK)the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. ¹¹ It came about after the death of Abraham, that ^(IL)God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac ^[en]lived by ^(IM)Beer-lahai-roi.

Descendants of Ishmael

¹² Now these are the records of the generations of ^(IN)Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave woman, bore to Abraham; ¹³ and these are the names of ^(IO)the sons of Ishmael, by their names, ^[eo]in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶ These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; ^(IP)twelve princes according to their ^[ep]tribes. ¹⁷ These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^(IQ)137 years; and he breathed his last and died, and was ^(IR)gathered to his people. ¹⁸ They ^[eq]settled from ^(IS)Havilah to ^(IT)Shur which is ^[er]east of Egypt ^[es]going toward Assyria; ^(IU)he ^[et]settled in defiance of all his relatives.

Isaac’s Sons

¹⁹ Now these are the records of ^(IV)the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac; ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took ^(IW)Rebekah, the ^(IX)daughter of Bethuel the ^[eu]Aramean of Paddan-aram, the ^(IY)sister of Laban the ^[ev]Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and ^(IZ)the Lord ^[ew]answered him, and his wife Rebekah ^(JA)conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why am I in this condition?” So she went to ^(JB)inquire of the Lord. ²³ And the Lord said to her,

²⁴ When her days leading to the delivery were at an end, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ Now the first came out red, ^(JF)all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with ^(JG)his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so ^(JH)he was named ^[ex]Jacob; and Isaac was ^(JI)sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a ^[ey]civilized man, ^(JJ)living in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau because ^[ez]he had ^(JK)a taste for game; ^(JL)but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹ When Jacob had cooked a ^(JM)stew one day, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted; ³⁰ and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a mouthful of ^[fa]that red stuff there, for I am exhausted.” Therefore he was called ^[fb]Edom by name. ³¹ But Jacob said, “^[fc]First sell me your ^(JN)birthright.” ³² Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³ And Jacob said, “^[fd]First swear to me”; so he swore an oath to him, and ^(JO)sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and got up and went on his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac Settles in Gerar

26 Now there was ^(JP)a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^(JQ)Abimelech king of the Philistines. ² And the Lord ^(JR)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^(JS)stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Live for a time in this land and ^(JT)I will be with you and ^(JU)bless you, for ^(JV)to you and to your ^[fe]descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(JW)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ^4 (JX)I will multiply your ^[ff]descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^[fg]descendants all these lands; and ^(JY)by your ^[fh]descendants all the nations of the earth ^[fi]shall be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham ^[fj](JZ)obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “^(KA)She is my sister,” for he was ^(KB)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “^[fk]the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is ^(KC)beautiful.” ⁸ Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she certainly is your wife! So how is it that you said, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘otherwise I might be killed on account of her.’” ¹⁰ And ^(KD)Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” ¹¹ So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who ^(KE)touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹² Now Isaac sowed in that land and ^[fl]reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And ^(KF)the Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man ^(KG)became rich, and continued to grow ^[fm]richer until he became very ^[fn]wealthy; ¹⁴ for ^(KH)he had possessions of flocks ^[fo]and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now ^(KI)all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up ^[fp]by filling them with dirt. ¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ^[fq](KJ)too powerful for us.” ¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and ^[fr]settled there.

Argument over the Wells

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ^[fs]had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ^[ft]gave them the same names which his father had ^[fu]given them. ¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ^[fv]flowing water, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar ^(KK)quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well ^[fw]Esek, because they argued with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it ^[fx]Sitnah. ²² Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it ^[fy]Rehoboth, for he said, “^[fz](KL)At last the Lord has made ^[ga]room for us, and we will be ^(KM)fruitful in the land.”

²³ And he went up from there to ^(KN)Beersheba. ²⁴ And the Lord ^(KO)appeared to him the same night and said,

²⁵ So he built an ^(KS)altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶ Then ^(KT)Abimelech came to him from Gerar ^[gc]with his adviser Ahuzzath, and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “^(KU)Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” ²⁸ They said, “We have seen plainly ^(KV)that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken ^[gd]by us,’ that is, ^[ge]by you and us. So let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ^[gf]and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^(KW)blessed of the Lord.” ³⁰ Then ^(KX)he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ In the morning they got up early and ^[gg](KY)exchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace. ³² Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ So he called it ^[gh]Shibah; therefore the name of the city is ^(KZ)Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old ^(LA)he ^[gi]married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵ and ^(LB)they ^[gj]brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Jacob’s Deception

27 Now it came about, when Isaac was old and ^(LC)his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his ^(LD)older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” ² Then ^[gk](LE)Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death. ³ Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and ^(LF)hunt game for me; ⁴ and prepare a delicious meal for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that ^(LG)my soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home, ^6 (LH)Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, ⁷ ‘Bring me some game and prepare a delicious meal for me, so that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ ⁸ So now, my son, ^(LI)listen to ^[gl]me ^[gm]as I command you. ⁹ Go now to the flock and ^[gn]bring me two choice ^[go]young goats from there, so that I may prepare them as a delicious meal for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Behold, my brother Esau is a ^(LJ)hairy man and I am a smooth man. ^12 (LK)Perhaps my father will touch me, then I will be like a ^[gp]deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.” ¹³ But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only ^(LL)obey my voice, and go, get the goats for me.” ¹⁴ So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made a delicious meal such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the ^[gq]best ^(LM)garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ And she put the skins of the ^[gr]young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ She also gave the delicious meal and the bread which she had made ^[gs]to her son Jacob.

¹⁸ Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. ^(LN)Come now, sit and eat of my game, so that ^[gt](LO)you may bless me.” ²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “^(LP)Because the Lord your God made it ^[gu]come to me.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, so that ^(LQ)I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, and he touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were ^(LR)hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴ And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” ²⁵ So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that ^[gv](LS)I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank. ²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he ^(LT)blessed him and said,

The Stolen Blessing

³⁰ Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, that his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹ Then he also made a delicious meal, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “^(MC)Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that ^[gw](MD)you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “^(ME)Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, ^(MF)your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac ^[gx]trembled violently, and said, “^(MG)Who then was he who hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate from all of it before you came, and blessed him? ^(MH)Yes, and he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, ^(MI)he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me as well, my father!” ³⁵ And he said, “^(MJ)Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Then Esau said, “^[gy]Is he not rightly named ^(MK)[gz]Jacob, for he has betrayed 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?” ³⁷ But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him ^(ML)your master, and I have given to him all his relatives ^[ha]as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me as well, my father.” So Esau raised his voice and ^(MM)wept.

³⁹ Then ^(MN)his father Isaac answered and said to him,

⁴¹ So Esau ^(MR)held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said ^[hf]to himself, “^(MS)The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent word and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now then, my son, ^(MT)obey my voice, and arise, ^[hg]flee to ^(MU)Haran, to my brother ^(MV)Laban! ⁴⁴ Stay with him ^(MW)a few days, until your brother’s fury ^[hh]subsides, ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger ^[hi]against you subsides and he forgets ^(MX)what you did to him. Then I will send word and get you from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

⁴⁶ And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of ^[hj]living because of ^(MY)the daughters of Heth; ^(MZ)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?”

Jacob Is Sent Away

28 So Isaac called Jacob and ^(NA)blessed him and commanded him, ^[hk]saying to him, “^(NB)You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ² Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^(NC)Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ May ^[hl](ND)God Almighty ^(NE)bless you and ^(NF)make you fruitful and ^(NG)multiply you, so that you may become a ^(NH)multitude of peoples. ⁴ May He also give you the ^(NI)blessing of Abraham, to you and to your ^[hm]descendants with you, so that you may ^(NJ)possess the land where you ^(NK)live as a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Then ^(NL)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.

⁶ 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 commanded him, saying, “^(NM)You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So Esau saw that ^(NN)the daughters of Canaan displeased ^[hn]his father Isaac; ⁹ and Esau went to Ishmael, and ^[ho]married, ^(NO)besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰ Then Jacob departed from ^(NP)Beersheba and went toward ^(NQ)Haran. ¹¹ And he ^[hp]happened upon a ^[hq](NR)particular place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and made it a support for his head, and lay down in that place. ¹² And ^(NS)he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, ^(NT)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ Then behold, ^(NU)the Lord was standing ^[hr]above it and said, “I am the Lord, ^(NV)the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give ^(NW)to you and to ^(NX)your ^[hs]descendants. ¹⁴ Your ^[ht]descendants will also be like ^(NY)the dust of the earth, and you will ^[hu]spread out ^(NZ)to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and ^(OA)in you and in your ^[hv]descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, ^(OB)I am with you and ^(OC)will keep you wherever you go, and ^(OD)will bring you back to this land; for ^(OE)I will not leave you until I have done what I have ^[hw]promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob ^(OF)awoke from his sleep and said, “^(OG)The Lord is certainly in this place, and I did not know it!” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “^(OH)How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

¹⁸ So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took ^(OI)the stone that he had placed as a support for his head, and set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on its top. ¹⁹ Then he named that place ^[hx](OJ)Bethel; but ^[hy]previously the name of the city had been ^(OK)Luz. ²⁰ Jacob also ^(OL)made a vow, saying, “^(OM)If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I ^[hz]take, and give me ^[ia](ON)food to eat and garments to wear, ²¹ and ^(OO)I return to my father’s house in ^[ib]safety, ^(OP)then the Lord will be my God. ²² And this stone, which I have set up as a memorial stone, ^(OQ)will be God’s house, and ^(OR)of everything that You give me I will assuredly give a tenth to You.”

Jacob Meets Rachel

29 Then Jacob ^[ic]set out on his journey, and went to the land of ^(OS)the ^[id]people of the east. ² He looked, and ^[ie]saw ^(OT)a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, because they watered the flocks from that well. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from ^(OU)Haran.” ⁵ So he said to them, “Do you know Laban the ^(OV)son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” ⁶ And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is his daughter ^(OW)Rachel coming with the sheep.” ⁷ Then he said, “Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.” ⁸ But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”

⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. ¹¹ Then Jacob ^(OX)kissed Rachel, and raised his voice and wept. ¹² Jacob told Rachel that he was a ^(OY)relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and ^(OZ)she ran and told her father.

¹³ So when ^(PA)Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and ^(PB)embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. ¹⁴ And Laban said to him, “You certainly are ^(PC)my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.

¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall ^(PD)your wages be?” ¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was ^(PE)beautiful in figure and appearance. ¹⁸ Now Jacob ^(PF)loved Rachel, so he said, “^(PG)I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹ Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days ^(PH)because of his love for her.

Laban’s Treachery

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my ^[if]time is completed, that I may ^(PI)have relations with her.” ²² So Laban gathered all the people of the place and held a feast. ²³ Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob had relations with her. ²⁴ Laban also gave his female slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a slave. ²⁵ So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “^(PJ)What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you ^(PK)deceived me?” ²⁶ But Laban said, “It is not ^[ig]the practice in our place to ^[ih]marry off the younger before the firstborn. ²⁷ Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which ^(PL)you shall serve with me, for another seven years.” ²⁸ Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹ Laban also gave his female slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave. ³⁰ So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed ^(PM)he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with ^[ii]Laban for ^(PN)another seven years.

³¹ Now the Lord saw that Leah was ^[ij]unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children. ³² Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and named him ^[ik]Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has ^[il](PO)seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” ³³ Then she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “^(PP)Because the Lord has ^[im]heard that I am ^[in]unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. ³⁴ And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become ^[io]attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named ^(PQ)Levi. ³⁵ And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will ^[ip]praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him ^[iq](PR)Judah. Then she stopped having children.

The Sons of Jacob

30 Now when Rachel saw that ^(PS)she had not borne Jacob any children, ^[ir]she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “^(PT)Give me children, or else I am going to die.” ² Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has ^(PU)withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” ³ Then she said, “^(PV)Here is my female slave Bilhah: have relations with her that she may ^(PW)give birth ^[is]on my knees, so that ^[it](PX)by her I too may obtain a child.” ⁴ So ^(PY)she gave him her slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had relations with her. ⁵ Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has ^[iu](PZ)vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him ^[iv]Dan. ⁷ And Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ So Rachel said, “With ^[iw]mighty wrestling I have ^[ix]wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, “^[iy]How fortunate!” So she named him ^[iz]Gad. ¹² And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³ Then Leah said, “^[ja]Happy am I! For women ^(QA)will call me happy.” So she named him ^[jb]Asher.

¹⁴ Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found ^(QB)mandrake fruits in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵ 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 sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶ When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must have relations with me, for I have indeed hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. ¹⁷ God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Then Leah said, “God has given me my ^[jc]reward, because I gave my slave to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. ¹⁹ And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰ Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; finally my husband ^[jd]will acknowledge me as his wife, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. ²¹ Afterward she gave birth to a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²² Then ^(QC)God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ^(QD)opened her womb. ²³ So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, “God has ^(QE)taken away my disgrace.” ²⁴ And she named him Joseph, saying, “^(QF)May the Lord ^[je]give me another son.”

Jacob Prospers

²⁵ Now it came about, when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “^(QG)Send me away, so that I may go to my own place and to my own country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children ^(QH)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have ^[jf]rendered you.” ²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If ^[jg]it pleases you at all, stay with me; I have determined by divination ^(QI)that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” ²⁸ He ^[jh]continued, “^(QJ)Name me your wages, and I will give them.” ²⁹ But Jacob said to him, “^(QK)You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have ^[ji]fared with me. ³⁰ For you had little before ^[jj]I came, and it has ^[jk]increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you ^[jl]wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” ³¹ 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: ³² let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every ^(QL)speckled or spotted sheep and every black sheep among the lambs, and the spotted or speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages. ³³ So my ^[jm]honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my ^[jn]wages. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” ³⁴ Laban said, “^[jo]Good, let it be according to your word.” ³⁵ So he removed on that day the striped or spotted male goats, and all the speckled or spotted female goats, every one with white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the ^[jp]care of his sons. ³⁶ And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Then Jacob ^[jq]took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was ^[jr]in the rods. ³⁸ He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs, that is, in the watering channels where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. ³⁹ So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks delivered striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. ⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and ^[js]made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹ Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the drinking troughs, so that they would mate by the rods; ⁴² but when the flock was sickly, he did not put them in; so the sickly were Laban’s, and the stronger were Jacob’s. ⁴³ So ^(QM)the man ^[jt]became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Leaves Secretly for Canaan

31 Now ^[ju]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 ^[jv]wealth.” ² And Jacob saw the ^[jw]attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as it had been before. ³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “^(QN)Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and ^(QO)I will be with you.” ⁴ So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, ⁵ and said to them, “^(QP)I see your father’s ^[jx]attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as it was before, but ^(QQ)the God of my father has been with me. ^6 (QR)You know that I have served your father with all my strength. ⁷ Yet your father has ^(QS)cheated me and ^(QT)changed my wages ten times; however, ^(QU)God did not allow him to do me harm. ⁸ If ^(QV)he said this: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered speckled; and if he said this: ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered striped. ⁹ So God has ^(QW)taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰ And it came about at the time when the flock was breeding that I raised my eyes and saw in a dream—and behold—the male goats that were ^[jy]mating were striped, speckled, or mottled. ¹¹ Then ^(QX)the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob’; and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² He said, ‘Now raise your eyes and see that all the male goats that are ^[jz]mating are striped, speckled, or mottled; for ^(QY)I have seen everything that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³ I am ^(QZ)the God of Bethel, where you ^(RA)anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, ^[ka]leave this land, and ^(RB)return to the land of your birth.’” ¹⁴ Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For ^(RC)he has sold us, and has also ^[kb]entirely consumed our ^[kc]purchase price. ¹⁶ Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has told you.”

¹⁷ Then Jacob stood up and put his children and his wives on camels; ¹⁸ and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock he possessed which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, ^(RD)to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. ¹⁹ Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the ^[kd](RE)household idols that were her father’s. ²⁰ And Jacob ^[ke]deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹ So he fled with all that he had; and he got up and crossed the Euphrates River, and set ^[kf]out for the hill country of ^(RF)Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²² When Laban was informed on the third day that Jacob had fled, ²³ he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ However, ^(RG)God came to Laban the Aramean in a ^(RH)dream of the night and said to him, “^[kg](RI)Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵ And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done ^[kh]by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷ Why did you flee secretly and ^[ki]deceive me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with ^(RJ)tambourine and with ^(RK)lyre; ²⁸ and did not allow me ^(RL)to kiss my ^[kj]grandchildren and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly. ²⁹ It is in ^[kk]my power to do you harm, but ^(RM)the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘^[kl](RN)Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’ ³⁰ Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal ^(RO)my gods?” ³¹ Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ^32 (RP)The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our relatives ^[km]point out what is yours ^[kn]among my belongings and take it for yourself.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two slave women, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the ^[ko]household idols and put them in the camel’s saddlebag, and she sat on them. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. ³⁵ And she said to her father, “May my lord not be angry that I cannot ^(RQ)stand in your presence, because the ^[kp]way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the ^[kq](RR)household idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷ Though you have searched through all my property, what have you found of all your household property? Set it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, so that they may decide between the two of us. ³⁸ For these twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. ³⁹ I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ This is how I was: by day the ^[kr]heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ For these twenty years I have been in your house; ^(RS)I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you ^(RT)changed my wages ten times. ⁴² If ^(RU)the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. ^(RV)God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, so He ^(RW)rendered judgment last night.”

The Covenant of Mizpah

⁴³ Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the ^[ks]children are my ^[kt]grandchildren, ^(RX)the flocks are my flocks, and everything that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine or to their children to whom they have given birth? ⁴⁴ So now come, let’s ^(RY)make a covenant, ^[ku]you and I, and ^(RZ)it shall be a witness between ^[kv]you and me.” ⁴⁵ Then Jacob took ^(SA)a stone and set it up as a memorial stone. ⁴⁶ Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷ Now Laban ^(SB)called it ^[kw]Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it ^[kx]Galeed. ⁴⁸ Laban said, “^(SC)This heap is a witness between ^[ky]you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, ⁴⁹ and ^[kz](SD)Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord keep watch between ^[la]you and me when we are ^[lb]absent one from the other. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, ^(SE)God is witness between ^[lc]you and me.” ⁵¹ Laban also said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the memorial stone which I have set between ^[ld]you and me.