Study Desk

Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats, so that I can cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much.

So he went to get them and brought them to her, and she cooked the kind of food that his father liked.

Jacob answered, "I am your older son Esau; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing."

Isaac said, "How did you find it so quickly, son?" Jacob answered, "The Lord your God helped me find it."

Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come closer so that I can touch you. Are you really Esau?"

As he came up to kiss him, Isaac smelled his clothes—so he gave him his blessing. He said, "The pleasant smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.

He also cooked some tasty food and took it to his father. He said, "Please, father, sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing."

Isaac began to tremble and shake all over, and he asked, "Who was it, then, who killed an animal and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came. I gave him my final blessing, and so it is his forever."

May Almighty God bless your marriage and give you many children, so that you will become the father of many nations!

So he went to Ishmael son of Abraham and married his daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said, "I will work seven years for you, if you will let me marry Rachel."

Jacob worked seven years so that he could have Rachel, and the time seemed like only a few days to him, because he loved her.

So Laban gave a wedding feast and invited everyone.

Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, "The Lord has seen my trouble, and now my husband will love me"; so she named him Reuben.

She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, "The Lord has given me this son also, because he heard that I was not loved"; so she named him Simeon.

Once again she became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She said, "Now my husband will be bound more tightly to me, because I have borne him three sons"; so she named him Levi.

Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, "This time I will praise the Lord "; so she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."

She said, "Here is my slave Bilhah; sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. In this way I can become a mother through her."

So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her.