Genesis 27-29

GOD’S WORD Translation

Jacob Gets Isaac’s Blessing

27 When Isaac was old and going blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!”

Esau answered, “Here I am.”

² Isaac said, “I’m old. I don’t know when I’m going to die. ³ Now take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me. ⁴ Prepare a good-tasting meal for me, just the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I will bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. When Esau went into the open country to hunt for some wild game to bring back, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I’ve just heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. ⁷ He said, ‘Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat so that I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you. ⁹ Go to the flock, and get me two good young goats. I’ll prepare them as a good-tasting meal for your father, just the way he likes it. ¹⁰ Then take it to your father to eat so that he will bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth.^{[a] 12} My father will feel ⌞my skin⌟ and think I’m mocking him. Then I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

¹³ His mother responded, “Let any curse on you fall on me, Son. Just obey me and go! Get me ⌞the young goats⌟.”

¹⁴ He went and got them and brought them to his mother. She prepared a good-tasting meal, just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s good clothes, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ She put the skins from the young goats on his hands and on the back of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said, “Father?”

“Yes?” he answered. “Who are you, Son?”

¹⁹ Jacob answered his father, “I’m Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done what you told me. Sit up and eat this meat I’ve hunted for you so that you may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, Son?”

“The Lord your God brought it to me,” he answered.

²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come over here so that I can feel your skin, Son, ⌞to find out⌟ whether or not you really are my son Esau.” ²² So Jacob went over to his father. Isaac felt ⌞his skin⌟. “The voice is Jacob’s,” he said, “but the hands are Esau’s.” ²³ He didn’t recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴ “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked him.

“I am,” Jacob answered.

²⁵ Isaac said, “Bring me some of the game, and I will eat it, Son, so that I will bless you.” Jacob brought it to Isaac, and he ate it. Jacob also brought him wine, and he drank it.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and give me a kiss, Son.” ²⁷ He went over and gave him a kiss. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said,

³⁰ Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had barely left when his brother Esau came in from hunting. ³¹ He, too, prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Please, Father, eat some of the meat I’ve hunted for you so that you will bless me.”

³² “Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him.

“I’m your firstborn son Esau,” he answered.

³³ Trembling violently all over, Isaac asked, “Who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it before you came in. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed.”

³⁴ When Esau heard these words from his father, he shouted out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!”

³⁵ Isaac said, “Your brother came and deceived me and has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t that why he’s named Jacob? He’s cheated me twice already: He took my rights as firstborn, and now he’s taken my blessing.” So he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him your master, and I have made all his brothers serve him. I’ve provided fresh grain and new wine for him. What is left for me to do for you, Son?”

³⁸ Esau asked, “Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau sobbed loudly.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him,

⁴¹ So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “The time to mourn for my father is near. Then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴² When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Watch out! Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³ So now, Son, obey me. Quick! Run away to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴ Stay with him awhile, until your brother’s anger cools down. ⁴⁵ When your brother’s anger is gone and he has forgotten what you did to him, I’ll send for you and get you back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Rebekah said to Isaac, “I can’t stand Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of those from around here, I might as well die.”

Isaac Sends Jacob Away

28 Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You are not to marry any of the Canaanite women. ² Quick! Go to Paddan Aram. Go to the home of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and get yourself a wife from there from the daughters of your uncle Laban. ³ May God Almighty bless you, make you fertile, and increase the number of your descendants so that you will become a community of people. ⁴ May he give to you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you are now living, the land that God gave to Abraham.”

⁵ Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan Aram. Jacob went to live with Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah. She was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶ Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan Aram to get a wife from there. He learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had commanded him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. ⁷ He also learned that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had left for Paddan Aram. ⁸ Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of Canaanite women. ⁹ So he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth, in addition to the wives he had.

Jacob’s First Encounter with God

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹ When he came to a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down there. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it. ¹³ The Lord was standing above it, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. Through you and through your descendant every family on earth will be blessed. ¹⁵ Remember, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will also bring you back to this land because I will not leave you until I do what I’ve promised you.”

¹⁶ Then Jacob woke up from his sleep and exclaimed, “Certainly, the Lord is in this place, and I didn’t know it!” ¹⁷ Filled with awe, he said, “How awe-inspiring this place is! Certainly, this is the house of God and the gateway to heaven!”

¹⁸ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had put under his head. He set it up as a marker and poured olive oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He named that place Bethel [House of God]. Previously, the name of the city was Luz.

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and will watch over me on my trip and give me food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹ and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will be my God. ²² This stone that I have set up as a marker will be the house of God, and I will surely give you a tenth of everything you give me.”

Jacob’s Arrival in Haran

29 Jacob continued on his trip and came to the land in the east. ² He looked around, and out in a field he saw a well with a large stone over the opening. Three flocks of sheep were lying down near it, because the flocks were watered from that well. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the stone would be rolled off the opening of the well so that the sheep could be watered. Then the stone would be put back in place over the opening of the well.

⁴ Jacob asked some people, “My friends, where are you from?”

“We’re from Haran,” they replied.

⁵ He asked them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”

They answered, “We do.”

⁶ “How is he doing?” Jacob asked them.

“He’s fine,” they answered. “Here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷ “It’s still the middle of the day,” he said. “It isn’t time yet to gather the livestock. Water the sheep. Then let them graze.”

⁸ They replied, “We can’t until all the flocks are gathered. When the stone is rolled off the opening of the well, we can water the sheep.”

⁹ While he was still talking to them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, because she was a shepherd. ¹⁰ Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Laban, with his uncle Laban’s sheep. He came forward and rolled the stone off the opening of the well and watered his uncle Laban’s sheep. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and sobbed loudly. ¹² When Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s nephew and that he was Rebekah’s son, she ran and told her father.

¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him. He hugged and kissed him and brought him into his home. Then Jacob told Laban all that had happened. ¹⁴ Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”

Jacob Obtains Wives

Jacob stayed with him for a whole month. ¹⁵ Then Laban said to him, “Just because you’re my relative doesn’t mean that you should work for nothing. Tell me what your wages should be.”

¹⁶ Laban had two daughters. The name of the older one was Leah, and the name of the younger one was Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had attractive eyes,^[c] but Rachel had a beautiful figure and beautiful features. ¹⁸ Jacob loved Rachel. So he offered, “I’ll work seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

¹⁹ Laban responded, “It’s better that I give her to you than to any other man. Stay with me.” ²⁰ Jacob worked seven years in return for Rachel, but the years seemed like only a few days to him because he loved her.

²¹ ⌞At the end of the seven years⌟ Jacob said to Laban, “The time is up; give me my wife! I want to sleep with her.” ²² So Laban invited all the people of that place and gave a wedding feast. ²³ In the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob. Jacob slept with her. When morning came, he realized it was Leah.^{[d] 24} (Laban had given his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.)

²⁵ “What have you done to me?” Jacob asked Laban. “Didn’t I work for you in return for Rachel? Why did you cheat me?”

²⁶ Laban answered, “It’s not our custom to give the younger daughter ⌞in marriage⌟ before the older one. ²⁷ Finish the week of wedding festivities with this daughter. Then we will give you the other one too. But you’ll have to work for me another seven years.”

²⁸ That’s what Jacob did. He finished the week with Leah. Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to him as his wife. ²⁹ (Laban had given his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.) ³⁰ Jacob slept with Rachel too. He loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

Leah and Rachel Compete for Jacob’s Love

³¹ When the Lord saw Leah was unloved, he made it possible for her to have children, but Rachel had none. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben [Here’s My Son], because she said, “Certainly, the Lord has seen my misery; now my husband will love me!” ³³ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “Certainly, the Lord has heard that I’m unloved, and he also has given me this son.” So she named him Simeon [Hearing]. ³⁴ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I’ve given him three sons.” So she named him Levi [Attached]. ³⁵ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah [Praise]. Then she stopped having children.