Genesis 27:6-46, Genesis 16, Genesis 21:9-21, Genesis 25:12-18

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Genesis 27:6-46

^6aBut Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, ⁷‘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.’ ⁸“So now, my son, ^alisten to my voice ¹as I command you. ⁹“Go now to the flock and ¹get for me two choice ²young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰“Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” ¹¹Then Jacob ¹answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a ^ahairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹²“^aPerhaps 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.” ¹³But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only ^alisten to my voice, and go, get them for me.” ¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother made a savory dish such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the ¹best ^agarments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and she put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶And she put the skins of the ¹young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷She also gave the savory dish and the bread, which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.

Isaac Blesses Jacob and Esau

¹⁸Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. ^aRise up, please, sit and eat of my game, that ^byour soul may bless me.” ²⁰Then Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “^aBecause Yahweh your God caused it to happen to me.” ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that ^aI may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²²So 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.” ²³And he did not recognize him because his hands were ^ahairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” ²⁵So he said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that ^amy soul may bless you.” And he brought it near to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and then he ^ablessed him and said, “See, ^bthe smell of my sonIs like the smell of a field ^cwhich Yahweh has blessed;

²⁸Now may ^aGod give you of the dew of heaven,And of the ^bfatness of the earth,And an abundance of grain and new wine;^29aMay peoples serve you,And nations bow down to you;^bBe master of your brothers,^cAnd may your mother’s sons bow down to you.^dCursed be those who curse you,And blessed be those who bless you.”

³⁰Now 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. ³¹Then he also made a savory dish and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “^aLet my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that ^byour soul may bless me.” ³²And Isaac his father said to him, “^aWho are you?” And he said, “I am your son, ^byour firstborn, Esau.” ³³Then Isaac ¹trembled exceedingly violently and said, “^aWho 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? ^bIndeed, he shall be blessed.” ³⁴As Esau heard the words of his father, ^ahe cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, O my father!” ³⁵And he said, “^aYour brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶Then he said, “¹Is he not rightly named ^aJacob, 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?” ³⁷But Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him ^ayour master, and all his fellow brothers I have given to him ¹as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?” ³⁸And 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 ^awept.

³⁹Then ^aIsaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, ^1,baway from the fatness of the earth shall be your habitation,And ²away from the dew of heaven from above.

⁴⁰“By your sword you shall live,And your brother ^ayou shall serve;But it shall be ^bwhen you become restless,That you will ¹break his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹So Esau ^abore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, “^bThe days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴²Then 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. ⁴³“So now, my son, ^alisten to my voice, and arise, ¹flee to ^bHaran, to my brother ^cLaban! ⁴⁴“Stay with him ^aa few days, until your brother’s wrath ¹subsides, ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger ¹against you subsides and he forgets ^awhat you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of ¹living because of ^athe daughters of Heth; ^bif 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?”

Genesis 16

Sarai and Hagar

16Now ^aSarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had ^ban Egyptian servant-woman whose name was Hagar. ²So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, Yahweh has shut my womb from bearing children. ^aPlease go in to my servant-woman; perhaps I will ¹obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³And after Abram had ¹lived ^aten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant-woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. ⁴So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. Then she saw that she had conceived, so her mistress became ¹contemptible in her sight. ⁵And Sarai said to Abram, “^aMay the violence done to me be upon you. I gave my servant-woman into your ¹embrace, but she saw that she had conceived, so I became ²contemptible in her ³sight. ^bMay Yahweh judge between ⁴you and me.” ⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant-woman is in your ¹hand; do to her what is good in your ²sight.” So Sarai afflicted her, and ^ashe fled from her presence.

⁷Now ^athe angel of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to ^bShur. ⁸And he said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant-woman, ^awhere have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” ⁹Then the angel of Yahweh said to her, “Return to your mistress and ¹humble yourself under her hands.” ¹⁰Moreover, the ^aangel of Yahweh said to her, “^bI will greatly multiply your seed so that ¹they will be too many to be counted.” ¹¹And the angel of Yahweh said to her further, “Behold, you ¹are with child,And you will bear a son;And you shall call his name ²Ishmael,Because ^aYahweh has heard your affliction.

¹²“And he will be a ^awild donkey of a man,His hand will be against everyone,And everyone’s hand will be against him;And he will dwell ^1,bin the face of all his brothers.”

¹³Then she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “¹You are ²a God who sees”; for she said, “^aHave I even ³remained alive here after seeing Him?” ¹⁴Therefore the well was called ¹Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between ^aKadesh and Bered.

¹⁵So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶Now Abram was ^aeighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to ¹him.

Genesis 21:9-21

⁹And Sarah saw ^athe son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^1,blaughing in jest. ¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, “^aDrive out this maidservant and her son! The son of this maidservant shall not be an heir with my son, with Isaac.” ^11aAnd the matter ¹distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. ¹²So God said to Abraham, “¹Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for ^athrough Isaac your seed shall be named. ¹³“And of ^athe son of the maidservant I will make a nation also, because he is your seed.” ¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a ¹skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was finished, she ¹put the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me ¹see when the child dies.” And she sat opposite him and ^alifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷Then God ^aheard the voice of the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^bDo not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸“Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by ¹the hand, ^afor I will make a great nation of him.” ¹⁹Then God ^aopened her eyes, and she saw ^ba well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

^20aAnd God was with the boy, and he grew; and he ¹lived in the wilderness and was an archer. ^21aAnd he ¹lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Genesis 25:12-18

The Generations of Ishmael

¹²Now these are the generations of ^aIshmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant-woman, bore to Abraham; ¹³and these are the names of ^athe sons of Ishmael, by their names, ¹in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam ¹⁴and Mishma and Dumah and Massa, ¹⁵Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; ^atwelve princes according to their ¹tribes. ¹⁷These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^a137 years; and he breathed his last and died and was ^bgathered to his people. ¹⁸And they dwelt from ^aHavilah to ^bShur which is ¹east of Egypt ²as one goes toward Assyria; ^che ³settled in the face of all his brothers.