Genesis 25–36

Abraham’s Family

25Abraham married again, and his new wife was Keturah. ²She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s descendants were the people of Assyria, Letush, and Leum. ⁴The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. ⁵Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. ⁶But before Abraham died, he did give gifts to the sons of his other wives, then sent them to the East to be away from Isaac.

⁷Abraham lived to be one hundred seventy-five years old. ⁸He breathed his last breath and died at an old age, after a long and satisfying life. ⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron east of Mamre. (Ephron was the son of Zohar the Hittite.) ¹⁰So Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah in the same field that he had bought from the Hittites. ¹¹After Abraham died, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac was now living at Beer Lahai Roi.

¹²This is the family history of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. (Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian servant, was Ishmael’s mother.) ¹³These are the names of Ishmael’s sons in the order they were born: Nebaioth, the first son, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These were Ishmael’s sons, and these are the names of the tribal leaders listed according to their settlements and camps. ¹⁷Ishmael lived one hundred thirty-seven years and then breathed his last breath and died. ¹⁸His descendants lived from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt stretching toward Assyria. They often attacked the descendants of his brothers.

Isaac’s Family

¹⁹This is the family history of Isaac. Abraham had a son named Isaac. ²⁰When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, who came from Northwest Mesopotamia. She was Bethuel’s daughter and the sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹Isaac’s wife could not have children, so Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord heard Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant.

²²While she was pregnant, the babies struggled inside her. She asked, “Why is this happening to me?” Then she went to get an answer from the Lord.

²³The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your body,

and two groups of people will be taken from you.

One group will be stronger than the other,

and the older will serve the younger.”

²⁴When the time came, Rebekah gave birth to twins. ²⁵The first baby was born red. Since his skin was like a hairy robe, he was named Esau.^{n 26}When the second baby was born, he was holding on to Esau’s heel, so that baby was named Jacob. ⁿ Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter. He loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man and stayed among the tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because he hunted the wild animals that Isaac enjoyed eating. But Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹One day Jacob was boiling a pot of vegetable soup. Esau came in from hunting in the fields, weak from hunger. ³⁰So Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red soup, because I am weak with hunger.” (That is why people call him Edom. ⁿ)

³¹But Jacob said, “You must sell me your rights as the firstborn son.” ⁿ

³²Esau said, “I am almost dead from hunger. If I die, all of my father’s wealth will not help me.”

³³But Jacob said, “First, promise me that you will give it to me.” So Esau made a promise to Jacob and sold his part of their father’s wealth to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and vegetable soup, and he ate and drank, and then left. So Esau showed how little he cared about his rights as the firstborn son.

Isaac Lies to Abimelech

26Now there was a time of hunger in the land, besides the time of hunger that happened during Abraham’s life. So Isaac went to the town of Gerar to see Abimelech king of the Philistines. ²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt, but live in the land where I tell you to live. ³Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give you and your descendants all these lands, and I will keep the oath I made to Abraham your father. ⁴I will give you many descendants, as hard to count as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed. ⁵I will do this because your father Abraham obeyed me. He did what I said and obeyed my commands, my teachings, and my rules.”

⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar. ⁷His wife Rebekah was very beautiful, and the men of that place asked Isaac about her. Isaac said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to tell them she was his wife. He thought they might kill him so they could have her.

⁸Isaac lived there a long time. One day as Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out his window, he saw Isaac holding his wife Rebekah tenderly. ⁹Abimelech called for Isaac and said, “This woman is your wife. Why did you say she was your sister?”

Isaac said to him, “I was afraid you would kill me so you could have her.”

¹⁰Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? One of our men might have had sexual relations with your wife. Then we would have been guilty of a great sin.”

¹¹So Abimelech warned everyone, “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death.”

Isaac Becomes Rich

¹²Isaac planted seed in that land, and that year he gathered a great harvest. The Lord blessed him very much, ¹³and he became rich. He gathered more wealth until he became a very rich man. ¹⁴He had so many slaves and flocks and herds that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵So they stopped up all the wells the servants of Isaac’s father Abraham had dug. (They had dug them when Abraham was alive.) The Philistines filled those wells with dirt. ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave our country because you have become much more powerful than we are.”

¹⁷So Isaac left that place and camped in the Valley of Gerar and lived there. ¹⁸Long before this time Abraham had dug many wells, but after he died, the Philistines filled them with dirt. So Isaac dug those wells again and gave them the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹Isaac’s servants dug a well in the valley, from which a spring of water flowed. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar argued with them and said, “This water is ours.” So Isaac named that well Argue because they argued with him. ²¹Then his servants dug another well. When the people also argued about it, Isaac named that well Fight. ²²He moved from there and dug another well. No one argued about this one, so he named it Room Enough. Isaac said, “Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be successful in this land.”

²³From there Isaac went to Beersheba. ²⁴The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Don’t be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my servant Abraham.” ²⁵So Isaac built an altar and worshiped the Lord there. He also made a camp there, and his servants dug a well.

²⁶Abimelech came from Gerar to see Isaac. He brought with him Ahuzzath, who advised him, and Phicol, the commander of his army. ²⁷Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to see me? You were my enemy and forced me to leave your country.”

²⁸They answered, “Now we know that the Lord is with you. Let us swear an oath to each other. Let us make an agreement with you ²⁹that since we did not hurt you, you will not hurt us. We were good to you and sent you away in peace. Now the Lord has blessed you.”

³⁰So Isaac prepared food for them, and they all ate and drank. ³¹Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them away, and they left in peace.

³²That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying, “We found water in that well.” ³³So Isaac named it Shibah ⁿ and that city is called Beersheba even now.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittite women—Judith daughter of Beeri and Basemath daughter of Elon. ³⁵These women brought much sorrow to Isaac and Rebekah.

Jacob Tricks Isaac

27When Isaac was old, his eyesight was poor, so he could not see clearly. One day he called his older son Esau to him and said, “Son.”

Esau answered, “Here I am.”

²Isaac said, “I am old and don’t know when I might die. ³So take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the field for an animal for me to eat. ⁴When you prepare the tasty food that I love, bring it to me, and I will eat. Then I will bless you before I die.” ⁵So Esau went out in the field to hunt.

Rebekah was listening as Isaac said this to his son Esau. ⁶She said to her son Jacob, “Listen, I heard your father saying to your brother Esau, ⁷‘Kill an animal and prepare some tasty food for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸So obey me, my son, and do what I tell you. ⁹Go out to our goats and bring me two of the best young ones. I will prepare them just the way your father likes them. ¹⁰Then you will take the food to your father, and he will bless you before he dies.”

¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth! ¹²If my father touches me, he will know I am not Esau. Then he will not bless me but will place a curse on me because I tried to trick him.”

¹³So Rebekah said to him, “If your father puts a curse on you, I will accept the blame. Just do what I said. Go get the goats for me.”

¹⁴So Jacob went out and got two goats and brought them to his mother, and she cooked them in the special way Isaac enjoyed. ¹⁵She took the best clothes of her older son Esau that were in the house and put them on the younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She also took the skins of the goats and put them on Jacob’s hands and neck. ¹⁷Then she gave Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

¹⁸Jacob went in to his father and said, “Father.”

And his father said, “Yes, my son. Who are you?”

¹⁹Jacob said to him, “I am Esau, your first son. I have done what you told me. Now sit up and…