Daily Bible Reading, Day 8 (Genesis 27-29)

Isaac Plans to Bless Esau

Now it happened that 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. And Isaac said, Behold now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.

So now, please take up your gear, and your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and 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.

Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. Then Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring to Isaac. But Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob, saying, Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat and bless you in the presence of Yahweh before my death.

So now, my son, listen to my voice as I command you. Go now to the flock, and get for me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.

Then Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a mocker in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse, and not a blessing.

But his mother said to him, Your curse be on me, my son. Only listen to my voice, and go get them for me. So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother, and his mother made a savory dish such as his father loved.

Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and she put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck.

She also gave the savory dish and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. Then he came to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am, who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn.

I have done as you told me. Rise up, please, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. Then Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Yahweh your God caused it to happen to me.

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

And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's.

Hands.

So he blessed him. And he said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. So he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, that my soul may bless.

You.

And he brought it near to him, and he ate. He also brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Please come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments.

And then he blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed. Now may God give you the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine.

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. Now it happened that 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.

Then he also made a savory dish and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you?

And he said, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled exceedingly 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?

Indeed, he shall be blessed. As Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, me also, O my father. And he said, Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.

Then 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?

But Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him your master, and all his fellow brothers I have given to him as servants, and with grain and new wine I have sustained.

Him.

Now as for you, what can I do, my son? And Esau 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. Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be your habitation, and away from the dew of heaven from above.

By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve, but it shall be when you become restless that you will break his yoke from your neck. So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother Jacob.

Then the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah, so 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.

So now, my son, listen to my voice and arise, flee to Haran to my brother Laban. Stay with him a few days until your brother's wrath subsides, until 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? Then Rebekah 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?

Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing and Esau’s Grudge

Genesis chapter 28. So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become an assembly of peoples. May he also give you the blessing of Abraham to you and to your seed with you that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.

Then Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take for himself a wife from there.

And that when he blessed him, he commanded him saying, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. And that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the sight of his father, Isaac.

And Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaoth, to be his wife besides the wives that he had. Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. Then he had a dream and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven.

And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, I am Yahweh, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie.

I will give it to you and to your seed. And your seed will also be like the dust of the earth. And you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely Yahweh is in this place and I did not know it.

And he was afraid and said, how fearsome is this place? This is none other than the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. So Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.

And he called the name of that place Bethel. However, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going and will give me food to eat and garments to wear.

And I returned to my father's house in peace. Then Yahweh will be my God. Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar will be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you.

Jacob Meets Rachel at the Well

Genesis chapter 29. Then Jacob took up his journey and came to the land of the sons of the east. And he looked and behold, a well in the field and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it.

For from that well, they gave water to the flocks to drink. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large and all the flocks would be gathered there and they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and give water to the sheep to drink and return the stone back to its place on the mouth of the well.

And Jacob said to them, my brothers, where are you from? And they said, we are from Haran. Then he said to them, do you know Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, we know him. And he said to them, is it well with him?

And they said, it is well. And here is Rachel, his daughter coming with the sheep. And he said, behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Give water to the sheep to drink and go pasture them.

But they said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well. Then we give water to the sheep to drink. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep for she was a shepherdess.

Now it happened when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and gave water to the flock of Laban, his mother's brother to drink.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her father. So it happened that when Laban heard the report of Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him and he embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.

Then he recounted to Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, surely you are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him one month. Then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing?

Tell me, what shall your wages be? Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance.

Now Jacob loved Rachel. So he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they were in his sight, but a few days because of his love for her.

Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife for my days are fulfilled that I may go into.

Her.

And Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast. Now it happened in the evening that he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him. And Jacob went into her. Laban also gave his servant woman Zilpah to his daughter, Leah, as a servant woman.

Now it happened in the morning that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, what is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me? But Laban said, it is not the practice in our place to give the younger before the firstborn.

Fulfill the week of this one and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years. And Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. And he gave him his daughter, Rachel, as his wife.

Laban also gave his servant woman Bilhah to his daughter, Rachel, as her servant woman. So Jacob went into Rachel also. And indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban for another seven years.

And Yahweh saw that Leah was unloved. And he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben. For she said, because Yahweh has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me.

Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, because Yahweh has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also. So she named him Simeon. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, now this time my husband will be joined to me because I have borne him three sons.

Therefore he was named Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, this time I will praise Yahweh. Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.