“O sister!
May you grow
Into thousands of myriads;
May your offspring seize
The gates of their foes.”
61Then Rebekah and her maids arose, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
62Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was settled in the region of the Negeb. 63And Isaac went out walkinge in the field toward evening and, looking up, he saw camels approaching. 64Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac. She alighted from the camel 65and said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” And the servant said, “That is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death.
25 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim. 4The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch,a Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. 5Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac; 6but to Abraham’s sons by concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the East.
7This was the total span of Abraham’s life: one hundred and seventy-five years. 8And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. 9His sons Isaac and Ish- mael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, 10the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. 11After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled near Beer-lahai-roi.
12This is the line of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave, bore to Abraham. 13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the first- born of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedmah. 16These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names by their villages and by their encamp- ments: twelve chieftains of as many tribes.—17These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kin.—18They dwelt from Havilah, by Shur, which is close to Egypt, all the way to Asshur; they camped alongside all their kinsmen.
19This is the story of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. 20Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. 21Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD responded to his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?”b She went to inquire of the LORD, 23and the LORD answered her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”
24When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau.c 26Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob.d Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
27When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a mild man who stayed in camp. 28Isaac favored Esau because e-he had a taste for game;-e but Rebekah favored Jacob. 29Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished. 30And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom.f 31Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32And Esau said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?” 33But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright.
26 There was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham—and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. 2The LORD had appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land which I point out to you. 3Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; I will assign all these lands to you and to your heirs, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs—5inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge: My commandments, My laws, and My teachings.”
6So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7When the men of the place asked him 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.” 8When some time had passed, Abimelech king of the Philistines, looking out of the window, saw Isaac fondling his wife Re- bekah. 9Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say: ‘She is my sister?”’ Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.” 10Abimelech said, “What have you done to us! One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11Abimelech then charged all the people, saying, “Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall be put to death.”
12Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. The LORD blessed him, 13and the man grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy: 14he acquired flocks and herds, and a large household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15And the Philistines stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth. 16And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us.”
17So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the wadi of Gerar, where he settled. 18Isaac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them. 19But when Isaac’s servants, digging in the wadi, found there a well of spring water, 20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” He named that well Esek,a because they contended with him. 21And when they dug another well, they dis- puted over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.b 22He moved from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now at last the LORD has granted us ample spacec to increase in the land.”
23From there he went up to Beer-sheba. 24That night the LORD ap- peared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your offspring for the sake of My servant Abraham.” 25So he built an altar there and invoked the LORD by name. Isaac pitched his tent there and his servants started digging a well. 26And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his councilor and Phicol chief of his troops. 27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you have been hostile to me and have driven me away from you?” 28And they said, “We now see plainly that the LORD has been with you, and we thought: Let there be a sworn treaty between our two parties, between you and us. Let us make a pact with you 29that you will not do us harm, just as we
