Study Desk

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths; and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.

That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water!"

and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

He said to them, "Is it well with him?" "Yes," they replied, "and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep."

But they said, "We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep."

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

Although you have felt about through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsfolk and your kinsfolk, so that they may decide between us two.

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about their children whom they have borne?

And Jacob said to his kinsfolk, "Gather stones," and they took stones, and made a heap; and they ate there by the heap.

and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the height and called his kinsfolk to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night in the hill country.

then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.'"

But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down;

Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.

But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die.

just as the sons of Jacob came in from the field. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live among us."

On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males.