Genesis

Chapter 12

Abram’s Call and Migration. ¹The Lord said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.

⁴Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.

⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said: To your descendants I will give this land. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name. ⁹Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt. ¹⁰There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe. ¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know that you are a beautiful woman. ¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife’; then they will kill me, but let you live. ¹³Please say, therefore, that you are my sister, so that I may fare well on your account and my life may be spared for your sake.” ¹⁴When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵When Pharaoh’s officials saw her they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶Abram fared well on her account, and he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female servants, male and female donkeys, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸Then Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him: “How could you do this to me! Why did you not tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”

²⁰Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Chapter 22

The Testing of Abraham. ¹Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test and said to him: Abraham! “Here I am!” he replied. ²Then God said: Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you. ³Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac, and after cutting the wood for the burnt offering, set out for the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place from a distance. ⁵Abraham said to his servants: “Stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over there. We will worship and then come back to you.” ⁶So Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two walked on together, ⁷Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. “Father!” he said. “Here I am,” he replied. Isaac continued, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” ⁸“My son,” Abraham answered, “God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering.” Then the two walked on together.

⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he bound his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. ¹²“Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the angel. “Do not do the least thing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you did not withhold from me your son, your only one.” ¹³Abraham looked up and saw a single ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴Abraham named that place Yahweh-yireh; hence people today say, “On the mountain the Lord will provide.”

¹⁵A second time the angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven ¹⁶and said: “I swear by my very self—oracle of the Lord—that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your son, your only one, ¹⁷I will bless you and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies, ¹⁸and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you obeyed my command.”

¹⁹Abraham then returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham lived.

Nahor’s Descendants. ²⁰Some time afterward, the news came to Abraham: “Milcah too has borne sons to your brother Nahor: ²¹Uz, his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” ²³Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Chapter 26

Birth of Esau and Jacob. ¹⁹These are the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac. ²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹Isaac entreated the Lord on behalf of his wife, since she was sterile. The Lord heard his entreaty, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ²²But the children jostled each other in the womb so much that she exclaimed, “If it is like this, why go on living!” She went to consult the Lord, ²³and the Lord answered her:

²⁴When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵The first to emerge was reddish, and his whole body was like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. ²⁶Next his brother came out, gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country; whereas Jacob was a simple man, who stayed among the tents. ²⁸Isaac preferred Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah preferred Jacob. ²⁹Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰He said to Jacob, “Let me gulp down some of that red stuff; I am famished.” That is why he was called Edom. ³¹But Jacob replied, “First sell me your right as firstborn.” ³²“Look,” said Esau, “I am on the point of dying. What good is the right as firstborn to me?” ³³But Jacob said, “Swear to me first!” So he sold Jacob his right as firstborn under oath. ³⁴Jacob then gave him some bread and the lentil stew; and Esau ate, drank, got up, and went his way. So Esau treated his right as firstborn with disdain.

Chapter 27

Jacob’s Deception. ¹When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” he replied. ²Isaac then said, “Now I have grown old. I do not know when I might die. ³So now take your hunting gear—your quiver and bow—and go out into the open country to hunt some game for me. ⁴Then prepare for me a dish in the way I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

⁵Rebekah had been listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the open country to hunt some game for his father, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you with the Lord’s approval before I die.’ ⁸Now, my son, obey me in what I am about to order you. ⁹Go to the flock and get me two choice young goats so that with these I might prepare a dish for your father in the way he likes. ¹⁰Then bring it to your father to eat, that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned! ¹²Suppose my father feels me? He will think I am making fun of him, and I will bring on myself a curse instead of a blessing.” ¹³His mother, however, replied: “Let any curse against you, my son, fall on me! Just obey me. Go and get me the young goats.”

¹⁴So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared a dish in the way his father liked. ¹⁵Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear; ¹⁶and with the goatskins she covered up his hands and the hairless part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she gave her son Jacob the dish and the bread she had prepared.

¹⁸Going to his father, Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?” ¹⁹Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your firstborn. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.” ²⁰But Isaac said to his son, “How did you get it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The Lord, your God, directed me.” ²¹Isaac then said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, that I may feel you, to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not.” ²²So Jacob moved up closer to his father. When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.” ²³(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.) ²⁴Again Isaac said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob said, “I am.” ²⁵Then Isaac said, “Serve me, my son, and let me eat of the game so that I may bless you.” Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Finally his father Isaac said to him, “Come closer, my son, and kiss me.” ²⁷As Jacob went up to kiss him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes. With that, he blessed him, saying,

³⁰Jacob had scarcely left his father after Isaac had finished blessing him, when his brother Esau came back from his hunt. ³¹Then he too prepared a dish, and bringing it to his father, he said, “Let my father sit up and eat some of his son’s game, that you may then give me your blessing.” ³²His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn son, Esau.” ³³Isaac trembled greatly. “Who was it, then,” he asked, “that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all just before you came, and I blessed him. Now he is blessed!” ³⁴As he heard his father’s words, Esau burst into loud, bitter sobbing and said, “Father, bless me too!” ³⁵When Isaac said, “Your brother came here by a ruse and carried off your blessing,” ³⁶Esau exclaimed, “He is well named Jacob, is he not! He has supplanted me twice! First he took away my right as firstborn, and now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not saved a blessing for me?” ³⁷Isaac replied to Esau: “I have already appointed him your master, and I have assigned to him all his kindred as his servants; besides, I have sustained him with grain and wine. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸But Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me too, father!” and Esau wept aloud. ³⁹His father Isaac said in response:

⁴¹Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “Let the time of mourning for my father come, so that I may kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴²When Rebekah got news of what her older son Esau had in mind, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him: “Listen! Your brother Esau intends to get his revenge by killing you. ⁴³So now, my son, obey me: flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, ⁴⁴and stay with him a while until your brother’s fury subsides— ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?”

Jacob Sent to Laban. ⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac: “I am disgusted with life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob also should marry a Hittite woman, a native of the land, like these women, why should I live?”

For footnotes and cross references see BibleGateway.com or United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)