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¹There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

²The LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

³stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,

⁵because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.”

⁶So Isaac settled in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”

⁸When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

¹¹So Abimelech warned all the people, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹²Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred times what was sown. The LORD blessed him,

¹³and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy.

¹⁴He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him.

¹⁵Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt.

¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

¹⁷So Isaac left there, camped in the Gerar Valley, and lived there.

¹⁸Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there.

²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek because they argued with him.

²¹Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah.

²²He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “For now the LORD has made space for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³From there he went up to Beer-sheba,

²⁴and the LORD appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham.”

²⁵So he built an altar there, called on the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s servants also dug a well there.

²⁶Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

²⁷Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

²⁸They replied, “We have clearly seen how the LORD has been with you. We think there should be an oath between two parties — between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you:

²⁹You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the LORD.”

³⁰So he prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

³²On that same day Isaac’s servants came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

³³He called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city is still Beer-sheba today.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hethite.

³⁵They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

¹When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he answered, “Here I am.”

²He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death.

³So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me.

⁴Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in,

⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said,

⁷‘Bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in the LORD’s presence before I die.’

⁸Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you.

⁹Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father — the kind he loves.

¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”

¹¹Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin.

¹²Suppose my father touches me. Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.”

¹³His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.”

¹⁴So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food his father loved.

¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.

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

¹⁷Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

¹⁸When he came to his father, he said, “My father.” And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob replied to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?” He replied, “Because the LORD your God made it happen for me.”

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”

²²So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

²⁴Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he replied, “I am.”

²⁵Then he said, “Bring it closer to me, and let me eat some of my son’s game so that I can bless you.” Jacob brought it closer to him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.

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

²⁷So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said: Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸May God give to you — from the dew of the sky and from the richness of the land  — an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹May peoples serve you and nations bow in worship to you. Be master over your relatives; may your mother’s sons bow in worship to you. Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed.

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from his hunting.

³¹He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

³²But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.”

³³Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. “Who was it then,” he said, “who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

³⁵But he replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶So he said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷But Isaac answered Esau, “Look, I have made him a master over you, have given him all of his relatives as his servants, and have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”

³⁸Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

³⁹His father Isaac answered him, Look, your dwelling place will be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of the sky above.

⁴⁰You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will break his yoke from your neck.

⁴¹Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau determined in his heart: “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴²When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

⁴³So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,

⁴⁴and stay with him for a few days until your brother’s anger subsides —

⁴⁵until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

⁴⁶So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hethite girls. If Jacob marries someone from around here, like these Hethite girls, what good is my life?”

¹So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl.

²Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry 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 become an assembly of peoples.

⁴May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl.”

⁷And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram.

⁸Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

⁹so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.

¹⁰Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.

¹¹He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place.

¹²And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.

¹³The LORD was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying.

¹⁴Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

¹⁵Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”

¹⁷He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it

¹⁹and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear,

²¹and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the LORD will be my God.

²²This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.”