Study Desk

and that God will bless you and your children the same way he blessed Abraham. And I pray that you will own the land where you live. This is the land God gave to Abraham."

And then Jacob saw the Lord standing by the ladder. He said, "I am the Lord , the God of your grandfather Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I will give you the land that you are lying on now. I will give this land to you and to your children.

The Lord saw that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, so he made it possible for Leah to have children. But Rachel did not have any children.

Then Leah gave birth to another son. She named this son Judah. Leah named him this because she said, "Now I will praise the Lord ." Then Leah stopped having children.

Rachel saw that she was not giving Jacob any children. She became jealous of her sister Leah. So Rachel said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die!"

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I am not God. He is the one who has caused you to not have children."

Leah saw that she could have no more children. So she gave her slave girl Zilpah to Jacob.

Then God heard Rachel's prayer and made it possible for Rachel to have children.

Give me my wives and my children. I have earned them by working for you. You know that I served you well."

God took all this wealth from our father, and now it belongs to us and our children. So you should do whatever God told you to do."

So Jacob prepared for the trip. He put his children and his wives on camels.

Laban said to Jacob, "These women are my daughters. These children belong to me, and these animals are mine. Everything you see here belongs to me, but I can do nothing to keep my daughters and their children.

I ask you to please save me from my brother Esau. I am afraid that he will come and kill us all, even the mothers with the children.

Lord, you said to me, ‘I will be good to you. I will increase your family and make your children as many as the sands of the sea. There will be too many to count.'"

Jacob looked and saw Esau coming with 400 men. Jacob divided his family into four groups. Leah and her children were in one group, Rachel and Joseph were in one group, and the two maids and their children were in two groups.

Jacob put the maids with their children first. Then he put Leah and her children behind them, and he put Rachel and Joseph in the last place.

Esau looked up and saw the women and children. He said, "Who are all these people with you?" Jacob answered, "These are the children that God gave me. God has been good to me."

Then the two maids and the children with them went to Esau. They bowed down before him.

Then Leah and the children with her went to Esau and bowed down. And then Rachel and Joseph went to him and bowed down.

But Jacob said to him, "You know that my children are weak. And I must be careful with my flocks and their young animals. If I force them to walk too far in one day, all the animals will die.