NAS - Genesis Chapter 26 to 27

26 Isaac Settles in Gerar

¹Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. ²The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³"Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴"I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ⁵because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws."

⁶So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "my wife," thinking, "the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful." 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.'" ¹⁰Abimelech 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 touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."

¹²Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, ¹³and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; ¹⁴for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth. ¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us." ¹⁷And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.

Quarrel over the Wells

¹⁸Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them. ¹⁹But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, ²⁰the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. ²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. ²²He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, "At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

²³Then he went up from there to Beersheba. ²⁴The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham." ²⁵So he built an altar 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 Abimelech came to him from Gerar with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?" ²⁸They said, "We see plainly that the LORD has been with you; so we said, `Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.'" ³⁰Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹In the morning they arose early and exchanged 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 Beersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

27 Jacob's Deception

¹Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am." ²Isaac 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 hunt 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 my 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, ⁶Rebekah 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, listen to me as I command you. ⁹"Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young 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 answered his mother Rebekah, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. ¹²"Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver 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 son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me." ¹⁴So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob.

¹⁸Then he came to his father and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" ¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me." ²⁰Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because the LORD your God caused it to happen to me." ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come close, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not." ²²So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." ²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴And he said, "Are you really my son Esau?" And he said, "I am." ²⁵So he said, "Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son's game, that I may bless you." And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come close and kiss me, my son." ²⁷So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, "See, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed; ²⁸ Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine; ²⁹ May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you."

The Stolen Blessing

³⁰Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me." ³²Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." ³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed." ³⁴When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" ³⁵And he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing." ³⁶Then he said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." And he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" ³⁷But Isaac replied to Esau, "Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?" ³⁸Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept.

³⁹Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, "Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above. ⁴⁰ "By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck."

⁴¹So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." ⁴²Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, "Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. ⁴³"Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! ⁴⁴"Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury subsides, ⁴⁵until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"

⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?"