Study Desk

His mother replied, "Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me."

So Esau declared, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing." Then he asked, "Haven't you saved a blessing for me?"

But Isaac answered Esau: "Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?"

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart: "The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, "Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.

Stay with him for a while, until your brother's fury subsides-

until your brother's rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. "Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women," he commanded.

Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

Laban said to him, "Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be."

Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

Finally Jacob said to Laban, "Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her."

When morning came, there was Leah! "What have you done to me?" Jacob said to Laban. "Wasn't it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?"

Finish this week's celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work."

Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, "The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now."

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. "Give me children, or I will die!" she said to Jacob.