Chronological Plan

¹Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.

²She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.

⁴The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.

⁵Now Abraham gave everything that he had to Isaac;

⁶but to the sons of his concubines [Hagar and Keturah], Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and he sent them to the east country, away from Isaac his son [of promise].

⁷The days of Abraham's life were a hundred and seventy-five years.

⁸Then Abraham breathed his last and he died at a good old age, an old man who was satisfied [with life]; and he was gathered to his people [who had preceded him in death].

⁹So his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is east of Mamre,

¹⁰the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife.

¹¹Now after the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac lived at Beer-lahai-roi.

¹²Now these are the records of the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham;

¹³and these are the names of the [twelve] sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their births: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their settlements, and by their encampments (sheepfolds); twelve princes (sheiks) according to their tribes.

¹⁷Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years; then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people [who had preceded him in death].

¹⁸Ishmael's sons (descendants) settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria; he settled opposite (east) of all his relatives.

¹⁹Now these are the records of the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac.

²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean (Syrian) of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was unable to conceive children; and the LORD granted his prayer and Rebekah his wife conceived [twins].

²²But the children struggled together within her [kicking and shoving one another]; and she said, "If it is so [that the LORD has heard our prayer], why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD [praying for an answer].

²³The LORD said to her, "[The founders of] two nations are in your womb; And the separation of two nations has begun in your body; The one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

²⁴When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

²⁵The first came out reddish all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau (hairy).

²⁶Afterward his brother came out, and his hand grasped Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob ( one who grabs by the heel, supplanter). Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau was an able and skilled hunter, a man of the outdoors, but Jacob was a quiet and peaceful man, living in tents.

²⁸Now Isaac loved [and favored] Esau, because he enjoyed eating his game, but Rebekah loved [and favored] Jacob.

²⁹Jacob had cooked [reddish-brown lentil] stew [one day], when Esau came from the field and was famished;

³⁰and Esau said to Jacob, "Please, let me have a quick swallow of that red stuff there, because I am exhausted and famished." For that reason Esau was [also] called Edom (Red).

³¹Jacob answered, "First sell me your birthright (the rights of a firstborn)."

³²Esau said, "Look, I am about to die [if I do not eat soon]; so of what use is this birthright to me?"

³³Jacob said, "Swear [an oath] to me today [that you are selling it to me for this food]"; so he swore [an oath] to him, and sold him his birthright.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and got up and went on his way. In this way Esau scorned his birthright.

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.