Genesis 25–36

Chapter 25

Abraham’s Death

¹Now Abraham took another wife, ¹whose name was Keturah.

^2aShe bore to him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.

³Jokshan ¹became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim.

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

^5aNow Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac;

⁶but to the sons of ¹his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and ^asent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.

⁷These are ¹all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, ^aone hundred and seventy-five years.

⁸Abraham breathed his last and died ^ain a ¹ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was ^bgathered to his people.

⁹Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in ^athe cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre,

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

¹¹It came about after the death of Abraham, that ^aGod blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac ¹lived by ^bBeer-lahai-roi.

Descendants of Ishmael

¹²Now these are the records of the generations of ^aIshmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham;

¹³and these are the names of ^athe sons of Ishmael, by their names, ¹in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam

¹⁴and Mishma and Dumah and Massa,

¹⁵Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.

¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; ^atwelve princes according to their ¹tribes.

¹⁷These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^aone hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was ^bgathered to his people.

¹⁸They ¹settled from ^aHavilah to ^bShur which is ²east of Egypt ³as one goes toward Assyria; ^che ⁴settled in defiance of all his ⁵relatives.

Isaac’s Sons

¹⁹Now these are the records of ^athe generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham ¹became the father of Isaac;

²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he took ^aRebekah, the ^bdaughter of Bethuel the ¹Aramean of Paddan-aram, the ^csister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and ^athe Lord ¹answered him and Rebekah his wife ^bconceived.

²²But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to ^ainquire of the Lord.

²³The Lord said to her,

“^aTwo nations are in your womb;

^bAnd two peoples will be separated from your body;

And one people shall be stronger than the other;

And ^cthe older shall serve the younger.”

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

²⁵Now the first came forth red, ^aall over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau.

²⁶Afterward his brother came forth with ^ahis hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so ^bhis name was called ¹Jacob; and Isaac was ^csixty years old when she gave birth to them.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a ¹peaceful man, ^2aliving in tents.

²⁸Now Isaac loved Esau, because ¹he had ^aa taste for game, ^bbut Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹When Jacob had cooked ^astew, Esau came in from the field and he was ¹famished;

³⁰and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of ¹that red stuff there, for I am ²famished.” Therefore his name was called ³Edom.

³¹But Jacob said, “¹First sell me your ^abirthright.”

³²Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?”

³³And Jacob said, “¹First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and ^asold his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Chapter 26

Isaac Settles in Gerar

¹Now there was ^aa famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^bAbimelech king of the Philistines.

²The Lord ^aappeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^1bstay in the land of which I shall tell you.

³“Sojourn in this land and ^aI will be with you and ^bbless you, for ^cto you and to your ¹descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^dthe oath which I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴“^aI will multiply your ¹descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and ^bby your descendants all the nations of the earth ²shall be blessed;

⁵because Abraham ^1aobeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

⁶So Isaac ¹lived in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “^aShe is my sister,” for he was ^bafraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “¹the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is ^cbeautiful.”

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

⁹Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’ ”

^10aAbimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who ^atouches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²Now Isaac sowed in that land and ¹reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And ^athe Lord blessed him,

¹³and the man ^abecame rich, and continued to grow ¹richer until he became very wealthy;

¹⁴for ^ahe had possessions of flocks ¹and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵Now ^aall the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up ¹by filling them with earth.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ^1atoo powerful for us.”

¹⁷And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and ¹settled there.

Quarrel over the Wells

¹⁸Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ¹had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ²gave them the same names which his father had ³given them.

¹⁹But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ¹flowing water,

²⁰the herdsmen of Gerar ^aquarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well ¹Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it ¹Sitnah.

²²He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it ¹Rehoboth, for he said, “^2aAt last the Lord has made ³room for us, and we will be ^bfruitful in the land.”

²³Then he went up from there to ^aBeersheba.

²⁴The Lord ^aappeared to him the same night and said,

“^bI am the God of your father Abraham;

^cDo not fear, for I am with you.

I ^dwill bless you, and multiply your ¹descendants,

For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵So he built an ^aaltar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶Then ^aAbimelech came to him from Gerar ¹with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army.

²⁷Isaac said to them, “^aWhy have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

²⁸They said, “We see plainly ^athat the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between ¹you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ¹and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^ablessed of the Lord.’ ”

³⁰Then ^ahe made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹In the morning they arose early and ^1aexchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace.

³²Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

³³So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is ^aBeersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old ^ahe ¹married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;

³⁵and ^athey ¹brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Chapter 27

Jacob’s Deception

¹Now it came about, when Isaac was old and ^ahis eyes were too dim to see, that he called his ^bolder son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”

^21aIsaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death.

³“Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and ^ahunt game for me;

⁴and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that ^amy soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home,

^6aRebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying,

⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’

⁸“Now therefore, my son, ^alisten to ¹me ²as I command you.

⁹“Go now to the flock and ¹bring me two choice ²young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves.

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

¹¹Jacob ¹answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a ^ahairy man and I am a smooth man.

¹²“^aPerhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a ¹deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”

¹³But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my…