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¹Now there was a famine in the land [of Canaan], besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

²The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I will tell you.

³Live temporarily [as a resident] in this land and I will be with you and will bless and favor you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will establish and carry out the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,

⁵because Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and [consistently] kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."

⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "my wife"—thinking, "the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is very beautiful."

⁸It happened when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife.

⁹Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, "See here, Rebekah is in fact your wife! How did you [dare to] say to me, 'She is my sister'?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I might be killed because of her [desirability]."

¹⁰Abimelech said, "What is this that you have done to us? One of the men [among our people] might easily have been intimate with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us [before God]."

¹¹Then Abimelech commanded all his people, "Whoever touches this man [Isaac] or his wife [Rebekah] shall without exception be put to death."

¹²Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the LORD blessed and favored him.

¹³And the man [Isaac] became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and extremely distinguished;

¹⁴he owned flocks and herds and a great household [with a number of servants], and the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with dirt.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from here, because you are far too powerful for us."

¹⁷So Isaac left that region and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.

¹⁸Now Isaac again dug [and reopened] the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, because the Philistines had filled them up [with dirt] after the death of Abraham; and he gave the wells the same names that his father had given them.

¹⁹But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing [spring] water,

²⁰the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours!" So Isaac named the well Esek (quarreling), because they quarreled with him.

²¹Then his servants dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so Isaac named it Sitnah (enmity).

²²He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over that one; so he named it Rehoboth (broad places), saying, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be prosperous in the land."

²³Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father; Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless and favor you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham."

²⁵So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD [in prayer]. He pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his [close friend and confidential] adviser, and Phicol, the commander of his army.

²⁷Isaac said to them, "Why have you [people] come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?"

²⁸They said, "We see clearly that the LORD has been with you; so we said, 'There should now be an oath between us [with a curse for the one who breaks it], that is, between you and us, and let us make a covenant (binding agreement, solemn promise) with you,

²⁹that you will not harm us, just as we have not touched you and have done nothing but good to you and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed and favored of the LORD!'"

³⁰Then Isaac held a [formal] banquet (covenant feast) for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹They got up early in the morning and swore oaths [pledging to do nothing but good to each other]; and Isaac sent them on their way and they left him in peace.

³²Now on the same day, Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying, "We have found water."

³³So he named the well Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite as his wives;

³⁵and they were a source of grief to [Esau's parents] Isaac and Rebekah.

¹Now when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his elder [and favorite] son Esau and said to him, "My son." And Esau answered him, "Here I am."

²Isaac said, "See here, I am old; I do not know when I may die.

³So now, please take your [hunting] gear, your quiver [of arrows] and your bow, and go out into the open country and hunt game for me;

⁴and make me a savory and delicious dish [of meat], the kind I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that my soul may bless you [as my firstborn son] before I die."

⁵But Rebekah overheard what Isaac said to Esau his son; and when Esau had gone to the open country to hunt for game that he might bring back,

⁶Rebekah said to Jacob her [younger and favorite] son, "Listen carefully: I heard your father saying to Esau your brother,

⁷'Bring me some game and make me a savory and delicious dish [of meat], so that I may eat it, and declare my blessing on you in the presence of the LORD before my death.'

⁸So now, my son, listen [carefully] to me [and do exactly] as I command you.

⁹Go now to the flock and bring me two good and suitable young goats, and I will make them into a savory dish [of meat] for your father, the kind he loves [to eat].

¹⁰Then you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before his death."

¹¹Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Listen, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth [skinned] man.

¹²Suppose my father touches me and feels my skin; then I will be seen by him as a cheat (imposter), and I will bring his curse on me and not a blessing."

¹³But his mother said to him, "May your curse be on me, my son; only listen and obey me, and go, bring the young goats to me."

¹⁴So Jacob went and got the two young goats, and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared a delicious dish of food [with a delightful aroma], the kind his father loved [to eat].

¹⁵Then Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes, which were with her in her house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.

¹⁶And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

¹⁷Then she gave her son Jacob the delicious meat and the bread which she had prepared.

¹⁸So he went to his father and said, "My father." And Isaac said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Now please, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me."

²⁰Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found the game so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because the LORD your God caused it to come to me."

²¹But Isaac [wondered and] said to Jacob, "Please come close [to me] so that I may touch you, my son, and determine if you are really my son Esau or not."

²²So Jacob approached Isaac, and his father touched him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

²³He could not recognize him [as Jacob], because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴But he said, "Are you really my son Esau?" Jacob answered, "I am."

²⁵Then Isaac said, "Bring the food to me, and I will eat some of my son's game, so that I may bless you." He brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come, my son, and kiss me."

²⁷So he came and kissed him; and Isaac smelled his clothing and blessed him and said, "The scent of my son [Esau] Is like the aroma of a field which the LORD has blessed;

²⁸Now may God give you of the dew of heaven [to water your land], And of the fatness (fertility) of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine;

²⁹May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be lord and master over your brothers, And may your mother's sons bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, And may those who bless you be blessed."

³⁰Now as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹Esau also made a delicious dish [of meat] and brought it to his father and said to him, "Let my father get up and eat some of his son's game, so that you may bless me."

³²Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he replied, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and he said, "Then who was the one [who was just here] who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I blessed him. Yes, and he [in fact] shall be (shall remain) blessed."

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

³⁵Isaac said, "Your brother came deceitfully and has [fraudulently] taken away your blessing [for himself]."

³⁶Esau replied, "Is he not rightly named Jacob (the supplanter)? For he has supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing. Have you not reserved a blessing for me?"

³⁷But Isaac replied to Esau, "Listen carefully: I have made Jacob your lord and master; I have given him all his brothers and relatives as servants; and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then, can I do for you, my son?"

³⁸Esau said to his father, "Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." Then Esau [no longer able to restrain himself] raised his voice and wept [loudly].

³⁹Then Isaac his father answered and [prophesied and] said to him, "Your dwelling shall be away from the fertility of the earth And away from the dew of heaven above;

⁴⁰But you shall live by your sword, And serve your brother; However it shall come to pass when you break loose [from your anger and hatred], That you will tear his yoke off your neck [and you will be free of him]."

⁴¹So 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 very near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

⁴²When these words of her elder son Esau were repeated to Rebekah, she sent for Jacob her younger son, and said to him, "Listen carefully, your brother Esau is comforting himself concerning you by planning to kill you.

⁴³So now, my son, listen and do what I say; go, escape to my brother Laban in Haran!

⁴⁴Stay with him for a while, until your brother's anger subsides.

⁴⁵When your brother's anger toward you subsides and he forgets what you did to him, then I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I be deprived of you both in a single day?"

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth [these insolent wives of Esau]. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?"

¹So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "You shall not marry one of the women of Canaan.

²Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take from there as a wife for yourself one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a [great] company of peoples.

⁴May He also give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the [promised] land of your sojournings, which He gave to Abraham."

⁵Then 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.

⁶Now Esau noticed that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife for himself from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a prohibition, saying, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,"

⁷and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸So Esau realized that [his two wives] the daughters of Canaan displeased Isaac his father;

⁹and [to appease his parents] Esau went to [the family of] Ishmael and took as his wife, in addition to the wives he [already] had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth [Ishmael's firstborn son].

¹⁰Now Jacob left Beersheba [never to see his mother again] and traveled toward Haran.

¹¹And he came to a certain place and stayed overnight there because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down there [to sleep].

¹²He dreamed that there was a ladder (stairway) placed on the earth, and the top of it reached [out of sight] toward heaven; and [he saw] the angels of God ascending and descending on it [going to and from heaven].

¹³And behold, the LORD stood above and around him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your [father's] father and the God of Isaac; I will give to you and to your descendants the land [of promise] on which you are lying.

¹⁴Your descendants shall be as [countless as] the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and the east and the north and the south; and all the families (nations) of the earth shall be blessed through you and your descendants.

¹⁵Behold, I am with you and will keep [careful watch over you and guard] you wherever you may go, and I will bring you back to this [promised] land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, "Without any doubt the LORD is in this place, and I did not realize it."

¹⁷So he was afraid and said, "How fearful and awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gateway to heaven."

¹⁸So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone he had put under his head and he set it up as a pillar [that is, a monument to the vision in his dream], and he poured [olive] oil on the top of it [to consecrate it].

¹⁹He named that place Bethel (the house of God); the previous name of that city was Luz (Almond Tree).

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow (promise), saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and clothing to wear,

²¹and if [He grants that] I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.

²²This stone which I have set up as a pillar (monument, memorial) will be God's house [a sacred place to me], and of everything that You give me I will give the tenth to You [as an offering to signify my gratitude and dependence on You]."