The Living Bible (10 page)

Genesis
25

Now Abraham married again. Keturah was his new wife, and she bore him several children: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah.
³
 Jokshan’s two sons were Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
⁴
 Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.
*

    
⁵
 Abraham deeded everything he owned to Isaac;
⁶
 however, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off into the east, away from Isaac.

    
^7-8
 Then Abraham died, at the ripe old age of 175,
^9-10
 and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mach-pelah near Mamre, in the field Abraham had purchased from Ephron the son of Zohar, the Hethite, where Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was buried.

    
¹¹
 After Abraham’s death, God poured out rich blessings upon Isaac. (Isaac had now moved south to Beer-lahai-roi in the Negeb.)

    
^12-15
 Here is a list, in the order of their births, of the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave girl: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah.
¹⁶
 These twelve sons of his became the founders of twelve tribes that bore their names.
¹⁷
 Ishmael finally died at the age of 137, and joined his ancestors.
*
¹⁸
 These descendants of Ishmael were scattered across the country from Havilah to Shur (which is a little way to the northeast of the Egyptian border in the direction of Assyria). And they were constantly at war with one another.

    
¹⁹
 This is the story of Isaac’s children:
²⁰
 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban.
²¹
 Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage
*
she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant.
²²
 And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her!

    
“I can’t endure this,” she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.

    
²³
 And he told her, “The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!”

    
²⁴
 And sure enough, she had twins.
²⁵
 The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him “Esau.”
*
²⁶
 Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau’s heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning “Grabber”). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

    
²⁷
 As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home.
²⁸
 Isaac’s favorite was Esau, because of the venison he brought home, and Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob.

    
²⁹
 One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt.

³⁰
 
Esau:
“Boy, am I starved! Give me a bite of that red stuff there!” (From this came his nickname “Edom,” which means “Red Stuff.”)

³¹
 
Jacob:
“All right, trade me your birthright for it!”

³²
 
Esau:
“When a man is dying of starvation, what good is his birthright?”

³³
 
Jacob:
“Well then, vow to God that it is mine!”

    
And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother.
³⁴
 Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.
*

Genesis
26

Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham’s time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

    
²
 Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, “Don’t go to Egypt.
³
 Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father.
⁴
 And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
⁵
 I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws.”

    
⁶
 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
⁷
 And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister!” For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive.
⁸
 But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.

    
⁹
 Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”

    
“Because I was afraid I would be murdered,” Isaac replied. “I thought someone would kill me to get her from me.”

    
¹⁰
 “How could you treat us this way?” Abimelech exclaimed. “Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed.”
¹¹
 Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: “Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die.”

    
¹²
 That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous—100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him.
¹³
 He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer.
¹⁴
 He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him.
¹⁵
 So they filled up his wells with earth—all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.

    
¹⁶
 And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too rich and powerful for us.”

    
¹⁷
 So Isaac moved to Gerar Valley and lived there instead.
¹⁸
 And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham, the ones the Philistines had filled after his father’s death, and gave them the same names they had had before, when his father had named them.
¹⁹
 His shepherds also dug a new well in Gerar Valley, and found a gushing underground spring.

    
²⁰
 Then the local shepherds came and claimed it. “This is our land and our well,” they said, and argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So he named the well, “The Well of Argument!”
*
²¹
 Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a fight over it. So he called it, “The Well of Anger.”
*
²²
 Abandoning that one, he dug again, and the local residents finally left him alone. So he called it, “The Well of Room Enough for Us at Last!”
*
“For now at last,” he said, “the Lord has made room for us and we shall thrive.”

    
²³
 When he went to Beer-sheba,
²⁴
 Jehovah appeared to him on the night of his arrival. “I am the God of Abraham your father,” he said. “Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you, and will give you so many descendants that they will become a great nation—because of my promise to Abraham, who obeyed me.”
²⁵
 Then Isaac built an altar and worshiped Jehovah; and he settled there, and his servants dug a well.

    
²⁶
 One day Isaac had visitors from Gerar. King Abimelech arrived with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander.

    
²⁷
 “Why have you come?” Isaac asked them. “This is obviously no friendly visit, since you kicked me out in a most uncivil way.”

    
²⁸
 “Well,” they said, “we can plainly see that Jehovah is blessing you. We’ve decided to ask for a treaty between us.
²⁹
 Promise that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you, and in fact, have done only good to you and have sent you away in peace; we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

    
³⁰
 So Isaac prepared a great feast for them, and they ate and drank in preparation for the treaty ceremonies.
³¹
 In the morning, as soon as they were up, they each took solemn oaths to seal a nonaggression pact. Then Isaac sent them happily home again.

    
³²
 That very same day Isaac’s servants came to tell him, “We have found water”—in the well they had been digging.
³³
 So he named the well, “The Well of the Oath,”
*
and the city that grew up there was named “Oath,”
*
and is called that to this day.

    
³⁴
 Esau, at the age of forty, married a girl named Judith, daughter of Be-eri the Hethite; and he also married Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hethite.
³⁵
 But Isaac and Rebekah were bitter about his marrying them.

Genesis
27

One day, in Isaac’s old age when he was almost blind, he called for Esau his oldest son.

Isaac:
“My son?”

Esau:
“Yes, Father?”

^2-4
 
Isaac:
“I am an old man now, and expect every day to be my last. Take your bow and arrows out into the fields and get me some venison, and prepare it just the way I like it—savory and good—and bring it here for me to eat, and I will give you the blessings that belong to you, my firstborn son,
*
before I die.”

    
⁵
 But Rebekah overheard the conversation. So when Esau left for the field to hunt for the venison,
^6-7
 she called her son Jacob and told him what his father had said to his brother.

^8-10
 
Rebekah:
“Now do exactly as I tell you. Go out to the flocks and bring me two young goats, and I’ll prepare your father’s favorite dish from them. Then take it to your father, and after he has enjoyed it he will bless
you
before his death, instead of Esau!”
*

^11-12
 
Jacob:
“But Mother! He won’t be fooled that easily.
*
Think how hairy Esau is, and how smooth my skin is! What if my father feels me? He’ll think I’m making a fool of him and curse me instead of blessing me!”

¹³
 
Rebekah:
“Let his curses be on me, dear son. Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats.”

    
¹⁴
 So Jacob followed his mother’s instructions, bringing the dressed kids, which she prepared in his father’s favorite way.
¹⁵
 Then she took Esau’s best clothes—they were there in the house—and instructed Jacob to put them on.
¹⁶
 And she made him a pair of gloves from the hairy skin of the young goats, and fastened a strip of the hide around his neck;
¹⁷
 then she gave him the meat, with its rich aroma, and some fresh-baked bread.

    
¹⁸
 Jacob carried the platter of food into the room where his father was lying.

Jacob:
“Father?”

Isaac:
“Yes? Who is it, my son—Esau or Jacob?”

¹⁹
 
Jacob:
“It’s Esau, your oldest son. I’ve done as you told me to. Here is the delicious venison you wanted. Sit up and eat it, so that you will bless me with all your heart!”

²⁰
 
Isaac:
“How were you able to find it so quickly, my son?”

Jacob:
“Because Jehovah your God put it in my path!”

²¹
 
Isaac:
“Come over here. I want to feel you and be sure it really is Esau!”

    
²²
 (Jacob goes over to his father. He feels him!)

Isaac:
(to himself) “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s!”

    
²³
 (The ruse convinces Isaac and he gives Jacob his blessings):

²⁴
 
Isaac:
“Are you really Esau?”

Jacob:
“Yes, of course.”

²⁵
 
Isaac:
“Then bring me the venison, and I will eat it and bless you with all my heart.”

    
(Jacob takes it over to him and Isaac eats; he also drinks the wine Jacob brings him.)

²⁶
 
Isaac:
“Come here and kiss me, my son!”

    
(Jacob goes over and kisses him on the cheek. Isaac sniffs his clothes, and finally seems convinced.)

^27-29
 
Isaac:
“The smell of my son is the good smell of the earth and fields that Jehovah has blessed. May God always give you plenty of rain for your crops, and good harvests and grapes. May many nations be your slaves. Be the master of your brothers. May all your relatives bow low before you. Cursed are all who curse you, and blessed are all who bless you.”

    
³⁰
 (As soon as Isaac has blessed Jacob, and almost before Jacob leaves the room, Esau arrives, coming in from his hunting.
³¹
 He also has prepared his father’s favorite dish and brings it to him.)

Esau:
“Here I am, Father, with the venison. Sit up and eat it so that you can give me your finest blessings!”

³²
 
Isaac:
“Who is it?”

Esau:
“Why, it’s me, of course! Esau, your oldest son!”

    
³³
 (Isaac begins to tremble noticeably.)

Isaac:
“Then who is it who was just here with venison, and I have already eaten it and blessed him with irrevocable blessing?”

    
³⁴
 (Esau begins to sob with deep and bitter sobs.)

Esau:
“O my Father, bless me, bless me too!”

³⁵
 
Isaac:
“Your brother was here and tricked me and has carried away your blessing.”

³⁶
 
Esau:
(bitterly) “No wonder they call him ‘The Cheater.’
*
For he took my birthright, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?”

³⁷
 
Isaac:
“I have made him your master, and have given him yourself and all of his relatives as his servants. I have guaranteed him abundance of grain and wine—what is there left to give?”

³⁸
 
Esau:
“Not one blessing left for me? O my Father, bless me too.”

    
(Isaac says nothing
*
as Esau weeps.)

^39-40
 
Isaac:
“Yours will be no life of ease and luxury, but you shall hew your way with your sword. For a time you will serve your brother, but you will finally shake loose from him and be free.”

    
⁴¹
 So Esau hated Jacob because of what he had done to him. He said to himself, “My father will soon be gone, and then I will kill Jacob.”
⁴²
 But someone got wind of what he was planning and reported it to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob and told him that his life was being threatened by Esau.

    
⁴³
 “This is what to do,” she said. “Flee to your Uncle Laban in Haran.
⁴⁴
 Stay there with him awhile until your brother’s fury is spent,
⁴⁵
 and he forgets what you have done. Then I will send for you. For why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?”

    
⁴⁶
 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local girls. I’d rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”