Chronological

Chapter 25

Other Children of Abraham.^{[a] 1} Abraham took another wife named Keturah. ² She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³ Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan was the father of the 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 Abraham gave all his possessions to Isaac. ⁶ As for the sons of the concubines whom Abraham had, he gave them gifts and, while he was still alive, sent them far away from his son Isaac eastward, to live in the east country.

Death of Abraham.^{[b] 7} Abraham lived for one hundred and seventy-five years. ⁸ Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age after a full life; and he was reunited with his ancestors. ⁹ His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre. ¹⁰ This was the field that he had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried near his wife Sarah. ¹¹ After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac lived near the Beer-lahai-roi.

¹² Descendants and Death of Ishmael.^[c] These are the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave.

¹³ These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in order of birth. The firstborn of Ishmael was Nebaioth. He then had Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶ These are the Ishmaelites and these are their names by their towns and their camps. They were twelve princes, each a prince of his own tribe. ¹⁷ Ishmael lived for one hundred and seven years. He then died and was reunited with his ancestors. ¹⁸ They lived between Havilah and Shur (which lies on the side of the border of Egypt in the direction of Asshur), and each of them held his own^[d] against all his kin.

Jacob, the Sinner Who Redeems Himself^[e]

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.^[g])

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.^{[h] 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^[i] because they had quarreled with him. ²¹ They dug another well, but they quarreled over this one as well, and he called it Sitnah.^{[j] 22} He thus moved away from there and dug another well over which they did not quarrel. He called it Rehoboth^[k] 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.^[l] This is the city called Beer-sheba today.

³⁴ Esau’s Hittite Wives.^[m] 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.