Genesis 25:19-36:43

New Catholic Bible

Jacob, the Sinner Who Redeems Himself^[a]

Isaac’s Two Sons.^[b] These are the descendants of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac. ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, since she was barren. The Lord heard him, and thus his wife became pregnant. ²² The sons fought with each other in the womb, and she exclaimed, “If this is so, why go on living?” She went to consult the Lord. ²³ The Lord answered her,

²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ The firstborn was red and totally covered with hair. So he was named Esau. ²⁶ Immediately afterward, his brother was born, holding on to the heel of Esau. So he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷ The children grew up, and Esau became an expert hunter, a man who lived in the open country. Jacob, on the other hand, was a quiet man, who stayed among the tents. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau, for he enjoyed the taste of wild game, while Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹ One day Jacob cooked a lentil stew. Esau came in from the countryside and he was exhausted. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Let me eat a little of that red soup, for I am famished.” (This is why he was also called Edom.^[c])

³¹ Jacob said, “First sell me your rights as firstborn.”

³² Esau answered, “I am about to die; what good will my rights as firstborn be?” ³³ Jacob told him, “Swear it right now.” He swore an oath and sold his rights as firstborn to Jacob.

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil soup. He ate and drank. Then he got up and left. This is how Esau despised his birthright.

Chapter 26

Isaac Inherits the Blessing.^{[d] 1} A second famine came upon the land (after the first famine in the days of Abraham). Isaac traveled to Gerar to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. ² The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down into Egypt; live in the land to which I will direct you. ³ Remain in that land for a while and I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these lands to you and your descendants and fulfill the promise I made to Abraham your father. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens and I will give them all these lands. All the nations on the earth will be blessed through your descendants, ⁵ for Abraham listened to my voice and observed that which I ordered: my commandments, my ordinances and my laws.” ⁶ Isaac thus dwelt in Gerar.

⁷ The men of that place asked him about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” thinking that the men of that place would kill him because Rebekah was very beautiful.

⁸ He had been there for quite some time when Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, came to the window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ Abimelech called to Isaac and said, “Surely, she is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might be killed on her account!”

¹⁰ Abimelech continued, “What have you done to us? It would have been easy for one of the people to lie with your wife and that would have brought sin upon us.”

¹¹ Hence, Abimelech gave this order to all the people, “Whoever touches this man or his wife will be put to death!”

¹² Isaac planted a crop in a land and that year he reaped a hundredfold. The Lord had thus blessed him. ¹³ He became important and continued to prosper until he was very rich. ¹⁴ He possessed great flocks and herds and slaves, and the Philistines began to become jealous of him.

¹⁵ The Dispute over Wells. The Philistines stopped up and filled in with dirt all the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

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

¹⁷ Isaac went away from there, and camped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there. ¹⁸ Isaac returned to dig wells that the servants of his father Abraham had dug and that the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names as his father had given them.

¹⁹ The servants of Isaac dug in the valley and found a well of living waters. ²⁰ But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Isaac saying, “The water is ours!” He therefore called the well Esek^[e] because they had quarreled with him. ²¹ They dug another well, but they quarreled over this one as well, and he called it Sitnah.^{[f] 22} He thus moved away from there and dug another well over which they did not quarrel. He called it Rehoboth^[g] and said, “Now the Lord has given us room so that we might prosper in the land.”

²³ From there he went to Beer-sheba. ²⁴ That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of Abraham, your father. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants on account of Abraham, my servant.”

²⁵ He built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.

²⁶ The Covenant with Abimelech. Abimelech traveled from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the commander of his army, to see Isaac. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, for you hate me and have sent me away from your midst?”

²⁸ They answered him, “We have seen that the Lord is with you and we have said, ‘Let there be an oath between us, between you and us. Let us make a covenant with you ²⁹ that you will not do anything against us, as we have not molested you but were always good to you and let you go away in peace.’ You are now a man blessed by the Lord.”

³⁰ He prepared a meal for them and they ate and drank. ³¹ Rising early in the morning, they swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac bade them farewell, and they went away in peace.

³² That very day the servants of Isaac arrived and informed him about the well that they had dug saying, “We have found water.” ³³ He called the well Shibah.^[h] This is the city called Beer-sheba today.

³⁴ Esau’s Hittite Wives.^[i] When Esau was forty years old he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ They were a source of bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.

Chapter 27

Jacob Supplants His Brother.^{[j] 1} Isaac had grown old, and his eyes had failed so much that he could no longer see. He called his older son, Esau, and said to him, “My son.”

He answered, “Here I am.”

² He continued, “See, I am old and do not know when I will die. ³ Take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the countryside and hunt for some wild game for me. ⁴ Then prepare me a plate of delicious meat and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah overheard Isaac speaking to his son Esau. When Esau went out into the countryside to hunt game and to bring it home, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I have heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. ⁷ He said, ‘Bring me some game and prepare me a plate to eat it so that I may give you the Lord’s blessing before I die.’ ⁸ Now, my son, obey my instructions: ⁹ Go immediately to the flock and take two choice kids. I will prepare them to make a plate for your father just the way he likes it. ¹⁰ Then you can carry it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “You know that my brother Esau is hairy, while my skin is smooth. ¹² My father might touch me and realize that I am playing a trick on him and place a curse on me instead of a blessing.”

¹³ But his mother said, “Let that curse fall on me, my son! Only obey me and go and bring the kid goats.”

¹⁴ He went to get them and brought them back to his mother, and his mother prepared them to make a meal the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son, Esau, which were in the house with her. She put them on her younger son, Jacob. ¹⁶ She put the skins of the kid goats on the smooth parts of his arms and neck. ¹⁷ Then she gave the meal that she had prepared to her son Jacob.

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

¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done everything you ordered. Please get up, sit down, and eat the game so that you may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How did you prepare it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The Lord placed the game right in front of me.”

²¹ Then Isaac said, “Draw near and let me touch you, my son, so that I may know if you are really my son Esau or not.”

²² Jacob drew near, and Isaac, his father, touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the arms are the arms of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him, because his arms were hairy like the arms of his brother Esau, and he blessed him. ²⁴ Then he said to him one more time, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”

²⁵ He said, “Bring me the game to eat, my son, so that I can bless you.”

Jacob served him the meal and Isaac ate; and he brought him wine and he drank. ²⁶ Then his father Isaac told him, “Draw near and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷ He drew near and kissed him. Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes and he blessed him, saying,

³⁰ Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just left his father, when Esau, his brother, arrived from the hunt. ³¹ He also prepared a meal and brought it to his father and said to him, “Rise, my father, and eat the wild game of your son, so that you may bless me.”

³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”

³³ Isaac was seized by a violent trembling and said, “Then who was it who prepared the wild game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you arrived, and I blessed him; and the blessing will remain with him.”

³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he shrieked and let out a bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father.” ³⁵ He answered, “Your brother came here with trickery and received your blessing.”

³⁶ He then said, “He has been well named Jacob,^[k] for he has supplanted me twice. He already took away my birthright and now he has taken my blessing.” He added, “Do you not have a blessing left for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau and said, “Behold, I have made him your lord and I have given him his brothers as his servants. He is to be maintained with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”

³⁸ Esau told his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” But Isaac was silent, and Esau cried out aloud.

³⁹ Finally Isaac spoke and said,

⁴¹ Jacob Flees to Mesopotamia.^[l] Esau hated Jacob on account of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau thought, “The time to mourn my father is drawing near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴² When Rebekah was told what Esau, her older son, had said, she called Jacob, her younger son, and said, “Esau your brother wants to get even with you by killing you. ⁴³ So obey me, my son. Rise, and flee to Haran, to my brother Laban. ⁴⁴ Remain with him for some time, till your brother’s anger has calmed. ⁴⁵ When the fury of your brother is soothed and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will send for you to bring you back from there. Why should I be deprived of the two of you in a single day?”

⁴⁶ Rebekah said to Isaac, “I despise my life because of those Hittite women. If Jacob were to take a wife from among the Hittites, from among the daughters of the land, what good would life be to me?”

Chapter 28

¹ Isaac called to Jacob and blessed him and gave him this command: “You must not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan. ² Up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, the father of your mother, and take a wife from there, from among the daughters of Laban, the brother of your mother. ³ May God Almighty bless you; may he make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you become a multitude of people. ⁴ May he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land in which you have dwelt as an alien, the land that God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Thus, Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, and the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that when he had blessed him, he had commanded him, “You must not take a wife from among the Canaanites.” ⁷ Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan-aram. ⁸ Esau then understood that Isaac disapproved of the daughters of Canaan. ⁹ He therefore went to Ishmael and, besides the wives he already had, he took as wife Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.

¹⁰ Jacob’s Dream at Bethel.^[m] Jacob left from Beer-sheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹ He came upon a certain place and spent the night there for the sun was setting. He took a stone and used it as a pillow and slept in that place. ¹² He had a dream. There was a ladder resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.

¹³ And the Lord stood before him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying shall be given to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth and shall extend to the west and the east, the north and the south. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you and through your descendants. ¹⁵ I am with you and I will protect you wherever you go. I will make you return to this country, for I will not abandon you without having done all that I have promised you.”

¹⁶ Jacob woke from sleep and said, “Truly, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ He was filled with fear and said, “How terrible this place is! This is truly the house of God, this is the gate to heaven.”

¹⁸ In the morning Jacob arose early, took the rock that he had used as a pillow, and erected it as a pillar pouring oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He named the place Bethel,^[n] although the city had previously been called Luz.

²⁰ Jacob made a vow, “If God remains with me and protects me in this journey that I am making and gives me bread to eat and clothes to cover me, ²¹ and if I return in peace to my father’s house, the Lord will be my God. ²² This stone that I am erecting as a pillar shall be a shrine to God. I will offer you one-tenth of everything that you give me.”

Chapter 29

The Wedding for Which Jacob Slaved.^{[o] 1} Jacob set out on his journey and traveled to the lands of the east. ² He saw a well in the countryside and three flocks of sheep lying beside it. The flocks would drink at this well, but the stone over the mouth of the well was very large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and the sheep would drink there. They would then replace the stone over the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They said, “We are from Haran.”

⁵ He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?”

They said, “We know him.”

⁶ He said to them, “Is he well?”

They answered, “Yes, and here comes his daughter Rachel with his flock.”

⁷ He continued, “It is still early; it is not yet the time to gather the sheep together. Give the sheep something to drink and then go and pasture them.”

⁸ They said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together. Then we will roll the stone away from the mouth of the well and have the flocks drink.”

⁹ He was still speaking with them when Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, together with the sheep of his uncle Laban, he got up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and gave water to the sheep of his uncle Laban. ¹¹ Jacob then kissed Rachel and wept aloud. ¹² He revealed to Rachel that he was a relative of her father, for he was the son of Rebekah. So she ran to tell her father.

¹³ When Laban heard about Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him. He embraced him, kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all about what had happened to him. ¹⁴ Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Jacob lived with him for a month. ¹⁵ Then Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you be working for me without a salary? Tell me what you want as your salary.”

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters. The older was named Leah and the younger was named Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had sad^[p] eyes, while Rachel was very beautiful and lovely. ¹⁸ Because of this, Jacob loved Rachel. He therefore said, “I will serve you for seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”

¹⁹ Laban answered, “I prefer to give her to you rather than to a stranger. Stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served him for seven years for Rachel. He was so in love with her that it seemed only a few days.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is completed and I wish to marry her.”

²² Laban gathered all the men of that place and threw a banquet. ²³ When it was the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him and he married her. ²⁴ Laban gave his own slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a slave.

²⁵ When morning came, behold, it was Leah! Jacob said to Laban, “What have you done! Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?”

²⁶ Laban answered, “It is not the custom in our land to give the younger one before the older one. ²⁷ Finish the bridal week with this one; then I will give you the other as well if you will serve me for another seven years.”

²⁸ Jacob did this. He finished the bridal week with Leah, and then Laban gave him Rachel as his wife. ²⁹ Laban gave his own slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a slave. ³⁰ Jacob slept with Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he served his uncle for another seven years.

³¹ The Children of Jacob.^[q] Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was being overlooked, opened her womb while Rachel remained barren. ³² Leah conceived and bore a son whom she named Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my humiliation; surely my husband will love me now.”

³³ Then she conceived another son and said, “The Lord has heard that I was ignored and he has given me this one as well.” She named him Simeon.

³⁴ She conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time my husband will show me affection, for I have borne three sons for him.” Because of this she named him Levi.

³⁵ She conceived once again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” For this she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

Chapter 30

¹ Rachel, seeing that it had not been granted to her to bear sons to Jacob, became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me sons, or I shall die!”

² Jacob was irritated with Rachel and said, “Am I God? He is the one who did not grant you the fruit of the womb.”

³ She answered, “Here is my servant Bilhah; sleep with her so that she may give birth upon my knees^[r] and I also may have offspring through her.”

⁴ She gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. ⁵ Bilhah conceived and bore a son to Jacob. ⁶ Rachel said, “God has been just to me and has also listened to my voice, giving me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.

⁷ Bilhah, the slave of Rachel, conceived a second time and bore another son to Jacob. ⁸ Rachel said, “I have undergone a great struggle with my sister and I have won.” Because of this she named him Naphtali.

⁹ Leah, seeing that she had ceased bearing children, took her slave Zilpah and gave her as a wife to Jacob. ¹⁰ Zilpah, the slave of Leah, bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Leah said, “What good luck!” And she named him Gad.

¹² Zilpah, the slave of Leah, bore a second son to Jacob. ¹³ Leah said, “What joy! The women shall call me truly happy.” Therefore, she named him Asher.

¹⁴ Around the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes,^[s] and he brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me a little of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ But Leah answered, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Why do you want to take away my son’s mandrakes as well?” Rachel answered, “Then he can lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ That night, when Jacob arrived from the fields, Leah went out to him and said to him, “You must sleep with me because I paid for the right to have you with my son’s mandrakes.” Thus, he slept with her that night. ¹⁷ God heard Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God has rewarded me for having given my slave to my husband.” This is why she named him Issachar.

¹⁹ Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰ Leah said, “God gave me a beautiful gift. This time my husband will prefer me because I have borne him six sons.” She therefore named him Zebulun.

²¹ She then bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² God also remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb. ²³ She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has removed my dishonor.” ²⁴ She named him Joseph saying, “May the Lord grant me another son.”

²⁵ Jacob’s Means of Becoming Prosperous.^[t] After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Let me go and return to my homeland. ²⁶ Give me my wives, for whom I have served you, and my children, so that I can leave. You know how I served you.”

²⁷ Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, please stay, for through divination I have come to know that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸ He added, “Establish your salary and I will give it to you.”

²⁹ He answered, “You know how I served you and how your possessions have multiplied through my work. ³⁰ What little you had before I arrived has grown beyond measure, and the Lord has blessed you since my arrival. But now, when will I be able to work for myself as well?”

³¹ Laban then said, “What must I do for you?” Jacob answered, “You do not have to do anything if you will do the following for me. I will return to pasture your flock and watch over it. ³² Today I will pass through all the animals. I will separate every dark animal from among the sheep and every goat that is spotted or speckled. This will be my salary. ³³ In the future, let my honesty answer for me. When you come to verify my salary, every animal that is not speckled or spotted from among the goats and those that are not dark from among the sheep, if you find them with me, will be considered to have been robbed.”

³⁴ Laban said, “Good, let it be as you have said.” ³⁵ That day he removed the speckled and spotted he-goats and the speckled and spotted she-goats, all of those that had some white on them, and every sheep that was a dark color. He placed the flock in the care of his sons, ³⁶ and he determined that there should be a distance of a three days’ journey by camel from Jacob’s flock. Jacob cared for the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷ But Jacob took fresh shoots of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and he made white^[u] stripes in them by peeling the bark back down to the white core of the shoots. ³⁸ He then took the shoots from which he had peeled the bark and he placed them in the channels, that is, in the watering troughs where the animals came to drink. They were placed where the animals could see them, and the animals mated when they came to drink. ³⁹ Thus, the animals mated in the sight of the shoots, and the goats had kids that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.^[v]

⁴⁰ As for the sheep, Jacob separated them and had them face the animals that were streaked or fully dark of the flock of Laban. He put his own flock in a separate place; he did not put them together with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹ Every once in a while, the healthier animals mated, and Jacob would put the shoots in the trough where the animals could see them, so that they would mate in the sight of the shoots. ⁴² When the animals were weak, he did not put them there. Thus, the weak animals belonged to Laban, and those that were healthy belonged to Jacob. ⁴³ He grew rich beyond measure and possessed great numbers of flocks, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Chapter 31

Jacob Flees from Laban.^{[w] 1} Jacob came to know what the sons of Laban were saying: “Jacob is taking what belonged to our father, and he has gotten all his wealth from what belonged to our father.” ² And Jacob saw that Laban’s attitude toward him had changed.

³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, to your homeland, and I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah who were in the fields with the flocks ⁵ and he told them, “I see that your father’s attitude to me is not like it was before. Still, the God of my father is with me. ⁶ You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength, ⁷ while your father has cheated and changed my salary ten times. But God did not let him harm me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your salary,’ then all the animals born were speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your salary,’ then all the animals born were streaked. ⁹ Thus, God took back your father’s animals and gave them to me.

¹⁰ “Once, when the animals were in heat, I had a dream. I looked out and saw that the he-goats that were streaked, speckled, and mottled were ready to breed. ¹¹ The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² He continued, ‘Look up and see: all the goats that are ready to breed are streaked, speckled, and mottled because I saw what Laban has done to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made an oath to me. Now, rise, leave this country, and return to your homeland.’ ”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah answered, “Do we still have property or an inheritance in the house of our father? ¹⁵ Are we not considered to be outsiders by him? He sold us and then used up our money. ¹⁶ All those things that God has taken from our father belong to us and to our children. Do what God has told you to do.”

¹⁷ Jacob got up, placed his children and his wives on camels, ¹⁸ and led all the animals away. He took all his possessions with him, including the animals that he acquired in Paddan-aram, in order to return to Isaac, his father, in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear the sheep, Rachel stole the household idols^[x] that belonged to her father. ²⁰ Jacob sneaked away from Laban the Aramean, not letting him know that he was about to flee. ²¹ This way he was able to go with all his possessions. He rose, crossed the river,^[y] and traveled toward the mountains of Gilead.

²² Laban Pursues Jacob.^[z] On the third day, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ He took his kinsmen with him and followed him for seven days. He caught up to him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴ Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to do anything to Jacob, not a thing!”

²⁵ Laban therefore went and caught up to Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tents in the mountains, and Laban and his kinsmen were also camped in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You sneaked away and carried off my daughters as if they were prisoners of war! ²⁷ Why did you secretly flee away and cheat me? Why did you not let me know? I would have given you a celebration with songs and the music of the tambourines and the harp. ²⁸ You did not let me kiss my grandsons and my daughters. This was surely a foolish thing that you have done. ²⁹ Realize that I could harm you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night. He forbade me to do anything to Jacob, not a thing. ³⁰ I realize that you left because you were homesick for the house of your father, but why have you robbed my household idols?”

³¹ Jacob answered Laban and said, “I was afraid, and I thought that you would take your daughters back with force. ³² But as for whoever you find has taken your household idols, he will be put to death. With our relatives looking on, see if you can find anything belonging to you and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had robbed them.

³³ Laban entered Jacob’s tent and then the tent of Leah and the tent of the two slaves, but he did not find anything. Then he went out from Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the idols and had placed them under a camel’s saddle and had then sat upon it. Laban searched throughout the whole tent and did not find them.

³⁵ She said to her father, “Please do not be offended, my lord, if I cannot rise in your presence, but I am having my monthly time.”^[aa] Laban therefore searched in the entire tent and did not find the idols.

³⁶ Jacob was angry now and scolded Laban saying, “What crime have I committed, what sin did I do that you followed me? ³⁷ Now that you have searched all my possessions, what have you found that belongs to you? Place it before me and your relatives and let it serve as evidence for or against me.

³⁸ “I spent twenty years with you. None of your sheep or goats ever miscarried. I never ate any of the rams of your flock. ³⁹ I never brought you an animal that had been injured by a wild beast. I made good for the loss myself. You held me responsible for whatever was robbed during the day and for whatever was robbed during the night. ⁴⁰ By day I was burnt by the sun and by night I suffered from the cold, and I spent many sleepless nights. ⁴¹ Twenty years I was with you. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my salary ten times. ⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Terror of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away with nothing. But God saw my affliction and the work of my hands, and last night he was my judge.”

⁴³ Laban then answered Jacob and said, “These daughters are my daughters and these grandsons are my grandsons. These cattle are my cattle, and all you see is mine. What could I do to you today and to these daughters and to the children whom they have brought into the world? ⁴⁴ Come, let us make a covenant between me and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”

⁴⁵ Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar. ⁴⁶ Then he said to his relatives, “Collect some stones,” and they took stones and made a mound out of them. They then ate sitting upon the mound. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, while Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸ Laban said, “Let this mound be today a witness between me and you.” Because of this he called it Galeed ⁴⁹ and also Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between me and you when we will no longer see each other.^{[ab] 50} If you mistreat my daughters and take other wives besides my daughters, be warned that God will be a judge between you and me.”

⁵¹ Laban continued and said to Jacob, “Behold this mound and this pillar that I have erected between me and you. ⁵² Let this mound be a witness, and this pillar be a witness, that I will not cross over past this mound to do you harm and that you will not cross over past this mound and this pillar to do me harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor be a judge between us.”

Jacob swore an oath by the name of the Terror of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Then he offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat with him. They ate and spent the night on the mountain.

Chapter 32

¹ Laban rose early in the morning, kissed his grandsons and daughters, and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

Jacob Prepares To Meet Esau.^{[ac] 2} As Jacob continued his journey, angels of God appeared to him. ³ When Jacob saw them he said, “This is the encampment of God,” and he called the place Mahanaim. ⁴ Then Jacob sent some messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁵ He gave them this command, “Say to my lord Esau, ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and I remained there until now. ⁶ I have come to own oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves. I am sending my lord this information to seek his favor.’ ”

⁷ The messengers returned to Jacob saying, “We went to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you and he has four hundred men with him.” ⁸ Jacob was terribly afraid and filled with anxiety. He divided the men of his camp into two groups along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels. ⁹ He thought, “If Esau were to come to one group and destroy it, the other would be safe.”

¹⁰ Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who told me, ‘Return to your land, to your homeland, and I will bless you,’ ¹¹ I am not worthy of the goodness and faithfulness that you have shown your servant. When I passed over the Jordan I had nothing but my staff, and now I have become so rich that I could establish two camps. ¹² Save me from the hands of my brother Esau because I am afraid of him. Let him not come and kill all of us, even the mothers and children. ¹³ Besides, you said, ‘I will make you prosper and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so numerous that you cannot count them.’ ”

¹⁴ Jacob spent the night there. Then he selected the following gifts from among his possessions for his brother Esau: ¹⁵ two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁶ thirty nursing camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁷ He entrusted them to his servants, in separate groups, and told them, “Go ahead of me and leave some space between the groups.”

¹⁸ He gave this order to the first group, “When you meet Esau, my brother, and he asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Who owns all these animals that you are driving?’ ¹⁹ you are to answer, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift for my lord Esau. And Jacob himself is behind us.’ ”

²⁰ He gave the same order to the second group and the third and all the other groups: “These are the words that you shall say to Esau when you meet him. ²¹ Tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” He was thinking, “The gifts that I am sending will calm him down, and then I will come before him. Maybe he will greet me kindly.” ²² Thus, the gifts went ahead of him, while he spent the night in the camp.

²³ A Mysterious Struggle.^[ad] During the night Jacob arose, took his two wives, his two slaves, and his eleven sons and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. ²⁴ He took them, crossed over the brook and carried over all his possessions. ²⁵ So Jacob remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until the dawn. ²⁶ Seeing that he could not beat him, the man struck Jacob at the hip joint. Jacob’s hip joint became dislocated while he continued to fight with him. ²⁷ The man said, “Let me go because it is dawn.”

Jacob answered, “I will not let go of you until you will have blessed me.”

²⁸ The man asked, “What is your name?”

He answered, “Jacob.”

²⁹ The man then said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel^[ae] because you have wrestled with God and with man and have won.”

³⁰ Jacob said to him, “Give me your name.” He answered, “Why are you asking my name?” And then he blessed him. ³¹ Jacob called the place Peniel^[af] because he said, “I have seen God face to face, and I am still alive.”

³² The sun rose and Jacob left Penuel limping. ³³ This is why Israelites to this day do not eat the sinew of the thigh, because the man had struck Jacob’s hip joint and the sinew shrank.

Chapter 33

Reconciliation of the Two Brothers.^{[ag] 1} Jacob looked up and saw Esau arrive, accompanied by four hundred men. He therefore divided up his sons among Leah, Rachel, and the two slaves. ² He had the slaves and their children lead the way, and in back of them Leah and her sons, and then Rachel and Joseph. ³ He walked ahead of them and bowed to the ground seven times as he was approaching his brother.

⁴ But Esau ran up to him, embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him and wept. ⁵ Raising his eyes, he saw the women and the children and said, “To whom do these belong?”

He answered, “They are my sons whom God has graciously given to his servant.”

⁶ The slaves and their children came forward and bowed down. ⁷ Then Leah and her children came forward and bowed down. Finally, Rachel and Joseph came forward and bowed down.

⁸ Esau asked again, “What is all this caravan that I have come across?”

He answered, “So that I might find favor in your sight, my lord.”

⁹ Esau said, “I have enough of my own possessions, brother; let these things be for you.”

¹⁰ But Jacob said, “No, if I have found favor in your sight, accept this gift from my hands. For it is for this that I have come into your presence as one would come into the presence of God, and you have received me favorably. ¹¹ Accept this blessing that I give you, for God has been generous to me and I have enough.” This is the way he insisted, and Esau accepted.

¹² Then Esau said, “Let us break camp and set out; I will travel in front of you.”

¹³ But Jacob answered, “My lord knows that the children are delicate and that my flocks and herds are burdened with young ones. If they were to be pushed even one day, the entire flock would surely die. ¹⁴ Let my lord pass on ahead of your servant, while I stay here going slowly, at the pace of the animals that will go ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I eventually reach my lord in Seir.”

¹⁵ Esau said, “I could at least leave a part of my people with you!”

Jacob answered, “But why? Let me only find favor in your sight, my lord!”

¹⁶ Thus, that same day, Esau departed for Seir. ¹⁷ Jacob instead traveled to Succoth where he built a house for himself and made huts for his flock. This is why he called the place Succoth.

¹⁸ When Jacob returned from Paddan-aram, he arrived in peace at the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, and he camped in front of the city. ¹⁹ He bought the portion of land where he was camped for one hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father. ²⁰ There he built an altar and called it, El-Elohe-Israel, which means El, the God of Israel.

Chapter 34

The Incident at Shechem.^{[ah] 1} Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne for Jacob, went out to see the young women of the country. ² When Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and laid with her and defiled her. ³ He was deeply attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke comforting words to her. ⁴ Then he said to Hamor, his father, “Arrange for me to take this woman as a wife.”

⁵ When Jacob learned that Dinah, his daughter, had been defiled, his sons were in the countryside with the animals. So he remained silent until they returned.

⁶ Hamor, the father of Shechem, came to Jacob to speak to him. ⁷ When the sons of Jacob returned from the countryside, they heard what had happened. They were furious and very indignant because he had done this outrage in Israel, sleeping with a daughter of Jacob. One did not do these things!

⁸ Hamor said to them, “Shechem, my son, is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. ⁹ Why not intermarry with us?^[ai] You give us your daughters, and you can take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ You can live with us, and the land will be at your disposal. Reside here, move about freely, and buy property.”

¹¹ Shechem said to Dinah’s father and her brothers, “Tell me what I can give you in order to find favor in your sight. ¹² You can even raise my bridal price greatly and the value of the due gifts. I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

¹³ The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, for they had dishonored their sister Dinah. ¹⁴ They told them, “We cannot do this; we cannot give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. This would dishonor us. ¹⁵ We will only grant your request if you become like us, if all of you circumcise your male members. ¹⁶ Then we will give you our daughters, and you can give us yours. We will live with you, and we can become a single people. ¹⁷ But if you will not listen to our proposal concerning circumcising yourselves, then we will take our daughter and go away.”

¹⁸ Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, the son of Hamor. ¹⁹ The young man did not waste any time in doing this thing, for he loved the daughter of Jacob. He was also the most honored member of the household of his father. ²⁰ Hamor and his son Shechem therefore went to the gate of the city and spoke to the men of the city, saying, ²¹ “These men are peaceful. Let them live with us in the land and move about freely. There is ample space in every direction. We can take their daughters for wives and we can give them ours. ²² But there is one condition before these men will agree to live with us to become a single people: that we circumcise each of our males as they themselves are circumcised. ²³ Would not their herds, their riches, and all their animals then be ours? Let us agree to their proposal, and they will then live with us.”

²⁴ All those who were near the gate of the city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem. All the men, everyone who had access to the gate of the city, had themselves circumcised.

²⁵ On the third day, when they were still sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi,^[aj] the brothers of Dinah, took swords, entered the city boldly, and killed all the men. ²⁶ They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword, took Dinah out of the house of Shechem, and left. ²⁷ The other sons of Jacob came upon the bodies and sacked the city because their sister had been dishonored. ²⁸ They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever they had in the city and in the countryside. ²⁹ They carried off all their possessions as booty, sacking whatever was in their houses.

³⁰ Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have placed me in a very difficult situation, making me hateful to the inhabitants of this land, to the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I only have a few men with me. They will unite against me, and defeat me, and annihilate me and my household.”

³¹ But they answered, “Should our sister be treated as a harlot?”

Chapter 35

Jacob Returns to Bethel.^{[ak] 1} God said to Jacob, “Rise up, go to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from Esau, your brother, in that place.”

² Jacob said to his family and to those who were with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you have with you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³ Let us arise and go to Bethel where I will build an altar to the God who delivered me at the time of my distress and who has been with me along the way that I have traveled.” ⁴ They gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they had in their ears. Jacob left them under the oak near Shechem. ⁵ They then journeyed on, and a great terror came upon the people who lived in that area, so they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

⁶ Jacob and all the people who were with him arrived in Luz, that is, Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan. ⁷ Here he built an altar and called the place El-Bethel, because God had revealed himself there, when he had fled from his brother.

⁸ Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, died there, and she was buried below Bethel, beneath an oak. This is why that place is called the Weeping Oak.

⁹ God appeared another time to Jacob, when he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him,

Thus, he was called Israel.

¹¹ God said to him,

¹³ Then God departed from him, in the place where he had spoken to him.

¹⁴ Jacob erected a pillar where God had spoken to him, a stone pillar upon which he poured a libation of oil. ¹⁵ Jacob called the place where God had spoken to him Bethel.

¹⁶ Jacob Endures Painful Times.^[al] They then departed from Bethel. They were a short distance outside of Ephrath when Rachel went into labor and she suffered great distress. ¹⁷ When her pains were most severe, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for it is another son!” ¹⁸ With her last breath, for she was dying, she called him Ben-oni,^[am] the son of my sorrow, but his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹ Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. ²⁰ Jacob erected a pillar on the tomb. That monument to Rachel can be seen to this day.

²¹ Israel moved on and pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal-eder. ²² While Israel lived in that country, Reuben slept with Bilhah, the concubine of his father, and Israel came to know about it.

The Twelve Sons of Jacob.^[an] Jacob had twelve sons.

²³ The sons of Leah:

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,

Simeon, Levi, Judah,

Issachar and Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, the slave of Rachel:

Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, the slave of Leah:

Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob who were born in Paddan-aram.

²⁷ Death of Isaac.^[ao] Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. ²⁸ Isaac lived for one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ Isaac then breathed his last. He died and was reunited with his people at a ripe old age. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Chapter 36

List of the Clans Established in Edom.^{[ap] 1} These are the descendants of Esau, that is, of Edom.

² Esau married women from the daughters of the Canaanites: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, who was the son of Zibeon the Hivite, ³ and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.

⁴ Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel. ⁵ Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the people who were in his household, his flocks and all his animals and all his possessions that he acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went into the land of Seir, far from his brother Jacob. ⁷ Their possessions, in fact, were too extensive for them to live together, and the land in which they were living could not sustain the grazing of all their animals. ⁸ Esau thus dwelt in the mountains of Seir. Now Esau is Edom.

⁹ These are the descendants of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the mountains of Seir.

¹⁰ These are the names of the sons of Esau:

Eliphaz, the son of Adah who was the wife of Esau, and Reuel, the son of Basemath who was the wife of Esau.

¹¹ The sons of Eliphaz:

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹² Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had a concubine named Timna, who bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Ada, the wife of Esau.

¹³ These are the sons of Reuel:

Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, the wife of Esau.

¹⁴ These are the sons of Oholibamah, the wife of Esau, the daughter of Anah, who was the son of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau:

Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵ These are the leaders of the clans of Esau’s descendants:

The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau:

Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Kenaz, ¹⁶ Korah, Gatam, and Amalek, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; they were the sons of Adah.

¹⁷ These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son:

Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom; they were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

¹⁸ These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife:

Jeush, Jalam, and Korah, all of them leaders of their clans. These were the leaders of the clans borne to Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and Esau’s wife.

¹⁹ Such are the sons of Esau, that is Edom, and such are the leaders of the clans.

²⁰ These are the sons of Seir the Hittite who were living in the land:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ²¹ Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the leaders of the clans of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.

²² The sons of Lotan:

Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister was Timna.

²³ The sons of Shobal:

Alvan, Mahanath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴ The sons of Zibeon:

Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the desert when he was tending the donkeys of his father Zibeon.

²⁵ The children of Anah:

Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

²⁶ The sons of Dishon:

Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

²⁷ The sons of Ezer:

Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸ The sons of Dishan:

Uz and Aran.

²⁹ These are the leaders of the clans of the Horites:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ³⁰ Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were all chiefs of the clans of the Horites, each according to their clans in the land of Seir.

³¹ These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before the kings of Israel ruled over them:

³² Bela, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, and his city was called Dinhabah.

³³ Bela died and his son Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, reigned in his place.

³⁴ Jobab died and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

³⁵ Husham died and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the steppe of Moab, reigned in his place. His city was called Avith.

³⁶ Hadad died and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.

³⁷ Samlah died and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River ruled in his place.

³⁸ Shaul died and Baal-hanan, the son of Achbor, reigned in his place.

³⁹ Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, died and Hadar reigned in his place. His city was called Pau. His wife’s name was Mehetabel. She was the daughter of Matred from Mezahab.

⁴⁰ These are the names of the leaders of Esau according to their clans, their lands, and their names:

Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹ Oholiba-mah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴² Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³ Magdiel and Iram. These were the leaders of Edom according to their dwelling places in the lands that they occupied.

This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.