The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. ¹⁸ Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names his father had called them.

¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of running water there, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar contended with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. ²¹ They dug another well and quarreled over that also. So he called the name of it Sitnah. ²² Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called the name of it Rehoboth, for he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³ He went up from there to Beersheba. ²⁴ The Lord appeared to him that same night 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 for the sake of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵ He built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelek went to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

²⁸ And they said, “We saw plainly that the Lord was with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹ so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you, and have done you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”

³⁰ Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ They rose up early in the morning and swore an oath with one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ And he called it Shibah. Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ Esau was forty years old when he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, ³⁵ and they brought grief to Isaac and to Rebekah.

Isaac Blesses Jacob

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called Esau his oldest son and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered him, “Here I am.”

² He said, “I am old. I do not know the day of my death. ³ Therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. ⁴ And prepare for me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for wild game and bring it back, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, ⁷ ‘Bring me wild game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you. ⁹ Go now to the flock, and get me two choice young goats, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ Then you will take it to your father, so that he may eat and so that he may bless you before his death.”

¹¹ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”

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

¹⁴ He went and got them and brought them to his mother. Then his mother prepared savory food such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best clothes belonging to her older son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ Then she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ She put the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hands of her son Jacob.

¹⁸ He came to his father and said, “My father.”

And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹ And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done just as you asked me. Please arise, sit and eat of my wild game, so that your soul may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”

And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”

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

²² Jacob went near to his father Isaac, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, just like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴ He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

And he said, “I am.”

²⁵ He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s wild game, so that my soul may bless you.”

And he brought it near to him, and he ate. He also brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶ His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷ He came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said,

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also had prepared savory food and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s wild game, so that your soul may bless me.”

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

And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

³³ Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who? Where then is he who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed.”

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

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

³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

³⁷ Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “I have made him your lord, and I have given to him all his brothers as servants; and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What can I now do for you, my son?”

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

³⁹ Isaac his father answered and said to him,

Jacob Escapes From Esau

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

⁴² These words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Your brother Esau consoles himself regarding you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, listen to me and get up and flee to Laban, my brother in Harran. ⁴⁴ Stay with him a few days until your brother’s fury subsides, ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

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

The Healing of a Paralytic^(A)

9 He entered a boat, crossed over, and came into His own city. ² They brought to Him a man sick with paralysis, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.”

³ Then certain scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes.”

⁴ Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, pick up your bed, and go into your house.” ⁷ And he rose and departed to his house. ⁸ But when the crowds saw it, they were amazed and glorified God who had given such authority to men.

The Calling of Matthew^(B)

⁹ As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s station. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed Him.

¹⁰ While Jesus sat at supper in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² But when Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

The Question About Fasting^(C)

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “Can the guests of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶ “No one sews a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is sewn in to fill it up pulls on the garment, and the tear is made worse. ¹⁷ Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins. Or else the wineskins burst, the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”