30 S Genesis 27:37
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all
his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine.
So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless
me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.
39 His father Isaac answered him,
“Your dwelling will be
away from the earth’s richness,
away from the dew of heaven above.
40 You will live by the sword
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will throw his yoke
from off your neck.”
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had
given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near;
then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her
younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to a
venge
himself by killing you. 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my
brother Laban in Harran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury
subsides. 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what
you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I
lose both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to I saac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these
Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from
Hittite women like t hese, my life will not be worth living.”
So Isaac called for Jacob and b
lessed him. Then he commanded him:
“Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, a to the
house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from
among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty b
bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become
a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing
given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now
reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob
on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Arame
an, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Now Esau l earned that I saac had b
lessed Jacob and had sent him to Pad
dan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he com
manded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed
his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how
displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ish
mael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael
son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.
28
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he r eached a certain
lace, he stopped for the n
p
ight because the sun had set. Taking one of the
stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream
in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heav
en, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above
it c stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abra
ham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on
which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and
you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the s outh.
All peoples on e
arth will be b
lessed t hrough you and your offspring. d 15 I am
a 2
That is, Northwest Mesopotamia; also in verses 5, 6 and 7 b 3 Hebrew El-Shaddai
There beside him d 14 Or will use your name and the name of your offspring in
blessings (see 48:20)
c 13 Or