Study Desk

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

and Esau said to Jacob, "Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished." Therefore his name was called Edom.

And Jacob said, "First swear to me"; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "my wife," thinking, "the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful."

It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.

So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."

Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth.

Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.

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

Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army.

Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."

Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home,

"Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death."

Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.

"Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing."

But his mother said to him, "Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me."

So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved.

And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.