Study Desk

Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.

Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

After this, his brother came out grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate and drank, and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister." For he was afraid to say, "She is my wife," since he thought to himself, "The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful."

When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, "Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. Isaac's servants also dug a well there.

Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," Esau replied.

Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau went into the field to hunt game and bring it back,

Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned.

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

So Jacob went and got two goats and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved.

She also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

So Jacob went to his father and said, "My father." "Here I am!" he answered. "Which one are you, my son?"

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me."