Passage: Genesis 25, 26 (RSV)


Genesis 25


1Abraham took another wife, whose name was Ketu'rah.
2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid'ian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
3Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshu'rim, Letu'shim, and Le-um'mim.
4The sons of Mid'ian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abi'da, and Elda'ah. All these were the children of Ketu'rah.
5Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.
6But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
7These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, a hundred and seventy-five years.
8Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
9Isaac and Ish'mael his sons buried him in the cave of Mach-pe'lah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre,
10the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
11After the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac dwelt at Beer-la'hai-roi.
12These are the descendants of Ish'mael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham.
13These are the names of the sons of Ish'mael, named in the order of their birth: Neba'ioth, the first-born of Ish'mael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
14Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Ked'emah.
16These are the sons of Ish'mael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.
17(These are the years of the life of Ish'mael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.)
18They dwelt from Hav'ilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people.
19These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac,
20and Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethu'el the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.
21And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22The children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is thus, why do I live?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."
24When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau.
26Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
28Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.
30And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!" (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
31Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright."
32Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?"
33Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
34Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 26


1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abim'elech king of the Philistines.
2And the LORD appeared to him, and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.
3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves:
5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
6So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister"; for he feared to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place should kill me for the sake of Rebekah"; because she was fair to look upon.
8When he had been there a long time, Abim'elech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah his wife.
9So Abim'elech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, she is your wife; how then could you say, `She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought, `Lest I die because of her.'"
10Abim'elech 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 Abim'elech warned all the people, saying, "Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death."
12And Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,
13and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.
14He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.
15(Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.)
16And Abim'elech said to Isaac, "Go away from us; for you are much mightier than we."
17So Isaac departed from there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
18And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names which his father had given them.
19But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water,
20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also; so he called its name Sitnah.
22And he moved from there and dug another well, and over that they did not quarrel; so he called its name Reho'both, saying, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."
23From there he went up to Beer-sheba.
24And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake."
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.
26Then Abim'elech went to him from Gerar with Ahuz'zath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.
27Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?"
28They said, "We see plainly that the LORD is with you; so we say, let there be an oath 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."
30So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31In the morning they rose early and took oath with one another; and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.
32That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."
33He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Be-e'ri the Hittite, and Bas'emath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;
35and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.



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