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.
He came to his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
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.”
His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.”
Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”
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?”
Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?”
By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck.”
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.
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.
Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away;
until your brother’s anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
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.
Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
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.
Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn’t please Isaac, his father.
Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east.
He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large.
Jacob said to them, “My relatives, where are you from?” They said, “We are from Haran.”
He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.”
He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.”
He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”
They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.”
While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them.
When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.
Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.
When Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things.
Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” He stayed with him for a month.
Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?”
Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive.
Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”
Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”
Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”
Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
In the evening, he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her.
Laban gave Zilpah his servant to his daughter Leah for a servant.
In the morning, behold, it was Leah! He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
Laban said, “It is not done so 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 will serve with me yet seven other years.”
Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife.
Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his servant, to be her servant.
He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
She conceived again, and bore a son. Said, “Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”
Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
She said, “Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.”
She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.
Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.
Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son.
Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son.
Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
She said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes, also?” Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” He lay with her that night.
Leah said, “God has given me my hire, because I gave my servant to my husband.” She named him Issachar.
Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons.” She named him Zebulun.
When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.
Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.”
Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.”
He said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.
He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.
Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.
Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;
but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
He heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. He has obtained all this wealth from that which was our father’s.”
Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.
Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,
and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.
You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.
Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.
Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
Aren’t we considered as foreigners by him? For he has sold us, and has also used up our money.
Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,
Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.
So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.
He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.
Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.
Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?
Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;
and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.
It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’












