Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.
The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.
Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”
Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’
Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.
You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”
He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:
thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.
He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’
He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok.
He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants.
He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.
He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?” He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”
Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.
Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.
Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”
Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.
Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”
So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.
He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.
He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.
Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.
Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.”
Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.
Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.
The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; a thing ought not to be done.
Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.
Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”
Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.
Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”
The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,
and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.
Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;
then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.”
Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.
The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.
Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying,
“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.
Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised.
On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.
They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.
Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”
They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.
So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.
God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.
The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you will I give the land.”
They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.
As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali.
The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.
The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.
Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.
Now this is the history of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).
Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon, the Hittite; and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, the Hivite;
and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.
Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz. Basemath bore Reuel.
Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, with his livestock, all his animals, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan, and went into a land away from his brother Jacob.
For their substance was too great for them to dwell together, and the land of their travels couldn’t bear them because of their livestock.
Esau lived in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom.
This is the history of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir:
these are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Adah, the wife of Esau; and Reuel, the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau.
The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.
Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek. These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.
These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.
These were the sons of Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,
chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek: these are the chiefs who came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah.
These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah: these are the chiefs who came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.
These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah: these are the chiefs who came of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife.
These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their chiefs.
These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs who came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.












