Genesis 25–36

ABRAHAM’S OTHER WIFE AND SONS

25Abraham had taken^G another wife, whose name was Keturah,^{a 2}and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were the Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴And Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were sons of Keturah. ⁵Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac.^{b 6}But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines, and while he was still alive he sent them eastward, away from his son Isaac, to the land of the East.^c

ABRAHAM’S DEATH

⁷This is the length of Abraham’s life:^H 175 years. ⁸He took his last breath and died at a good old age,^d old and contented,^I and he was gathered to his people.^{e 9}His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah^f near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hethite. ¹⁰This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hethites.^g Abraham was buried there with his wife Sarah. ¹¹After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.^h

ISHMAEL’S FAMILY RECORDS

¹²These are the family recordsⁱ of Abraham’s son Ishmael,^j whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave, bore to Abraham. ¹³These are the names of Ishmael’s sons; their names according to the family records are Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These are Ishmael’s sons, and these are their names by their settlements and encampments: twelve leaders^Ak of their clans.^{B 17}This is the length^C of Ishmael’s life: 137 years. He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people. ¹⁸And they^D settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt as you go toward Asshur.^E He^F stayed near^G all his relatives.^l

THE BIRTH OF JACOB AND ESAU

¹⁹These are the family records of Isaac son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac.^{m 20}Isaac was forty years old when he took as his wife Rebekahⁿ daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram^o and sister of Laban the Aramean.^{p 21}Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless.^q The Lord was receptive to his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.^{r 22}But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?”^H So she went to inquire of the Lord.^{s 23}And the Lord said to her:

Two nations are in your womb;

two peoples will come from you and be separated.

One people will be stronger than the other,^t

and the older will serve the younger.^u

²⁴When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb. ²⁵The first one came out red-looking, covered with hair like a fur coat, and they named him Esau.^{v 26}After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel with his hand.^w So he was named Jacob.^Kx Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

ESAU SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman,^L but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.^{M 28}Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.^y

²⁹Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted. ³⁰He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.^N

³¹Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³²“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

³³Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to him. ³⁴Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright.^z

THE PROMISE REAFFIRMED TO ISAAC

26There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time.^aa And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.^{ab 2}The 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.^a For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring,^b and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.^{c 4}I 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^A by your offspring,^{d 5}because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.”^{e 6}So Isaac settled in Gerar.

ISAAC’S DECEPTION

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,”^f for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking,^g “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”^{h 8}When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see^B 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 have you done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”^{i 11}So Abimelech warned all the people, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

CONFLICTS OVER WELLS

¹²Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped^C a hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him,^{j 13}and 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,^k filling them with dirt. ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”^D

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^E water there. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek^F because they argued with him.^{l 21}Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah.^{A 22}He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth^B and said, “For now the Lord has made space for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

THE LORD APPEARS TO ISAAC

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.^m Do not be afraid, for I am with you.ⁿ I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham.”

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

COVENANT WITH ABIMELECH

²⁶Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.^{q 27}Isaac 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.”^r

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.^Cs 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!”^{t 33}He called it Sheba.^D Therefore the name of the city is still Beer-sheba^Eu, today.

ESAU’S WIVES

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hethite.^{a 35}They made life bitter^F for Isaac and Rebekah.^b

THE STOLEN BLESSING

27When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see,^c 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.^{d 4}Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”^e

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.^{f 12}Suppose 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.”

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