Genesis 25–36

Abraham and Keturah

25Abraham again took a wife, and her name was ^aKeturah. ²And ^bshe bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴And the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.

⁵And ^cAbraham gave all that he had to Isaac. ⁶But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he ^dsent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to ^ethe country of the east.

Abraham’s Death and Burial

⁷This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years. ⁸Then Abraham breathed his last and ^fdied in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and ^gwas gathered to his people. ⁹And ^hhis sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of ⁱMachpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, ^10jthe field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. ^kThere Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. ¹¹And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt at ^lBeer Lahai Roi.

The Families of Ishmael and Isaac

¹²Now this is the ^mgenealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. ¹³And ⁿthese were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵¹Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and their ²settlements, ^otwelve princes according to their nations. ¹⁷These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; and ^phe breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. ^18q(They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.) He ³died ^rin the presence of all his brethren.

¹⁹This is the ^sgenealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. ^tAbraham begot Isaac. ²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, ^uthe daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, ^vthe sister of Laban the Syrian. ²¹Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; ^wand the Lord granted his plea, ^xand Rebekah his wife conceived. ²²But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” ^ySo she went to inquire of the Lord.

²³And the Lord said to her:

^z“Two nations are in your womb,

Two peoples shall be separated from your body;

One people shall be stronger than ^athe other,

^bAnd the older shall serve the younger.”

²⁴So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. ²⁵And the first came out red. He was ^clike a hairy garment all over; so they called his name ⁴Esau. ²⁶Afterward his brother came out, and ^dhis hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so ^ehis name was called ⁵Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

²⁷So the boys grew. And Esau was ^fa skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was ^ga ⁶mild man, ^hdwelling in tents. ²⁸And Isaac loved Esau because he ⁱate of his game, ^jbut Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁹Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. ³⁰And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called ⁷Edom.

³¹But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”

³²And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so ^kwhat is this birthright to me?”

³³Then Jacob said, ⁸“Swear to me as of this day.”

So he swore to him, and ^lsold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then ^mhe ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau ⁿdespised his birthright.

Isaac and Abimelech

26There was a famine in the land, besides ^athe first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to ^bAbimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

²Then the Lord appeared to him and said: ^c“Do not go down to Egypt; live in ^dthe land of which I shall tell you. ^3eDwell in this land, and ^fI will be with you and ^gbless you; for to you and your descendants ^hI give all these lands, and I will perform ⁱthe oath which I swore to Abraham your father. ⁴And ^jI will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; ^kand in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ^5lbecause Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

⁶So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. ⁷And the men of the place asked about his wife. And ^mhe said, “She is my sister”; for ⁿhe was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is ^obeautiful to behold.” ⁸Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, ¹showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. ⁹Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”

¹⁰And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and ^pyou would have brought guilt on us.” ¹¹So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who ^qtouches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year ^ra hundredfold; and the Lord ^sblessed him. ¹³The man ^tbegan to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; ¹⁴for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines ^uenvied him. ¹⁵Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells ^vwhich his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for ^wyou are much mightier than we.”

¹⁷Then Isaac departed from there and ²pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. ¹⁸And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. ^xHe called them by the names which his father had called them.

¹⁹Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar ^yquarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well ³Esek, because they quarreled with him. ²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name ⁴Sitnah. ²²And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name ⁵Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall ^zbe fruitful in the land.”

²³Then he went up from there to Beersheba. ²⁴And the Lord ^aappeared to him the same night and said, ^b“I am the God of your father Abraham; ^cdo not fear, for ^dI am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” ²⁵So he ^ebuilt an altar there and ^fcalled on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

²⁶Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, ^gand Phichol the commander of his army. ²⁷And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, ^hsince you hate me and have ⁱsent me away from you?”

²⁸But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord ^jis with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a ⁶covenant with you, ²⁹that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. ^kYou are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”

^30lSo he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹Then they arose early in the morning and ^mswore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³²It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³So he called it ⁷Shebah. ⁿTherefore the name of the city is ⁸Beersheba to this day.

^34oWhen Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵And ^pthey were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac Blesses Jacob

27Now it came to pass, when Isaac was ^aold and ^bhis eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered him, “Here I am.”

²Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I ^cdo not know the day of my death. ^3dNow therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. ⁴And make me ¹savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul ^emay bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. ⁶So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ⁷‘Bring me game and make ²savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ ⁸Now therefore, my son, ^fobey my voice according to what I command you. ⁹Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make ^gsavory food from them for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he ^hmay bless you before his death.”

¹¹And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, ⁱEsau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. ¹²Perhaps my father will ^jfeel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring ^ka curse…