Israel

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.

Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.

Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”

Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob.

Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

As soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”

Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”

Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah’s brother, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,”

and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram.

Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.