ISAAC GOES TO GERAR AND AFTERWARD TO BEER-SHEBA. HE SENDS ESAU FOR VENISON THAT HE MAY BLESS HIM BEFORE HE DIES. JACOB TAKES AWAY ESAU'S BLESSING. HE FLEES FROM ESAU; HIS DREAM. HE COMES TO LABAN'S HOUSE AND MARRIES LEAH AND RACHEL. AFTER TWENTY YEARS HE STARTS ON HIS JOURNEY BACK TO CANAAN.
THERE was a famine in the land of Canaan, and Isaac moved away to Gerar. It was the same place his father Abraham had moved to, many years before, after Sodom was destroyed. When Isaac had come there, the Lord spoke to him and told him to sojourn, or stay for a while, in that part of the land, and the Lord said he would bless him. And Isaac sowed seed out in the field, and when the grain grew up, he reaped a hundred times as much as he had sowed, because the Lord made it grow well and bear a great deal for him.
And the Lord made him very rich and great, and gave him flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and a great many servants. But the Philistines, who lived in Gerar, were not pleased to see him so much richer than themselves; they envied him, and wished they had his flocks and herds for their own. And the king of the country came to him and told him to go away from them.
So Isaac went away from that place and came to a valley and set up his tent there. And he found the wells that his father Abraham had digged, but the Philistines had filled them with earth, so that he could get no water from them. Then Isaac took the earth out of them; and his servants dug another well, but the herdsmen of that country came to Isaac's servants and said it belonged to them, and they quarrelled for it, and took it for their own. And Isaac went to a different place and his servants dug a well there; the herdsmen did not take this one from him. Afterward Isaac moved to Beer-sheba, which was the place where his father Abraham had once lived, and where he had digged a well, and planted a grove of trees. And in the night the Lord spoke to Isaac and told him not to fear, for he would be with him to take care of him and bless him. And Isaac built an altar and worshipped the Lord, and set up his tent there.
And the king of the Philistines came from Gerar, with two of his friends, to visit Isaac. Isaac asked them why they came to him, when they hated him and had sent him away from their country. They answered, that they wanted him to promise he would do them no harm; for they saw, by all the good things the Lord did for him, that the Lord was his friend. And Isaac was kind to them. He made a feast for the king and the men who were with him, and they did eat and drink, and stayed all night. And Isaac promised he would do them no harm, and they promised to do him none. So Isaac and the king made a covenant together; then the king and his friends went away to their own homes.
And Isaac's servants digged a well at Beer-sheba, and they came to him and said, We have found water. They were glad, for sometimes the water was very deep in the ground, and they had to dig a long time before they found it.
And Esau, Jacob's brother, when he was forty years old, took two of the women of Canaan for his wives. But his father and mother were much grieved because he did this; for, as we have been told, the women of Canaan worshipped idols.
Now Isaac was old and could not see, and he called Esau and told him to take his bow, and go out into the field, and hunt a deer; and to cook the meat in the way that Isaac loved, and bring it to him, that he might eat of it. Then, Isaac said, he would bless Esau before he died; that is, he would ask God to be kind to him, and would tell Esau of the things he should have after his father was dead. For Isaac meant to bless Esau before he blessed Jacob, and to give him the best things, because Esau was his oldest son and had the birthright. And Esau went out in the field to hunt the deer for his father.
But Rebekah heard what Isaac said and she was not pleased, for she did not wish Esau to be blessed first, although he was the oldest son; she wished Jacob to be blessed first, because she loved him the best. So, after Esau had gone for the venison, she told Jacob to go to the flock and bring her two little kids: and when he brought them, she cooked them, making nice food of them that tasted like the venison which his father loved. Then she put on Jacob some of Esau's clothes that were in the house, and told him to take the food to his father, and to say it was Esau who brought it. So Jacob came to his father with the food which his mother had cooked. And his father asked who it was. Jacob said it was Esau, and that he had brought the venison which his father told him to bring. And Isaac could not see; he put his hands on him and felt the clothes and believed it was Esau, so he ate of the meat and blessed Jacob.
It was wicked in Jacob to do this, and in his mother to help him; for although Esau had sold him his birthright, Jacob should not have deceived his father.
As soon as Isaac had done blessing Jacob, Esau came in from his hunting, with the venison he had killed. And Isaac said, Who art thou? Esau answered, I am Esau, thy oldest son. And Isaac was surprised, and he trembled a great deal, and asked who it was that had been there before, and brought venison and taken Esau's blessing. Then Isaac knew it must have been Jacob, and he told Esau that his brother had been there before him and taken away his blessing.
And Esau was in great trouble. He cried with a loud voice and begged his father to bless him also. And Isaac did bless him, but he had promised the best things to Jacob, and now he could not take them from him. And Esau hated Jacob for what he had done, and said to himself, My father will soon die and then I will kill Jacob. For Esau was not a good man, he did not love God.
When a good man has been tempted, and done some wicked thing, after he has done it he repents of it, and asks God to forgive him, and tries to do so no more. But when a bad man has done wickedly, he does not repent and ask to be forgiven; he goes on and does as wickedly again. Though Jacob did evil at this time, he was afterward a good man; he loved and served God as long as he lived, and God forgave him his sin. But Esau was not willing to forgive Jacob; he said he would kill him after their father should die. When Rebekah heard this, she sent for Jacob, and told him to leave his home and go to that country where she used to live, to the house of her brother Laban, so that Esau might not find him.
And Rebekah said that the women of Canaan gave her much trouble, for Esau had taken two of them as his wives; and she asked what good her life would be to her, if Jacob, also, should take a wife from among them.
Then Isaac called Jacob to him and blessed him again, and told him that he should not take for his wife a woman of Canaan, but he should take one of Laban's daughters to be his wife. And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went out from his father to go to that country where Laban lived.
As he journeyed he came to a place where he stopped to rest for the night, because the sun was set. And he took some of the stones that were on the ground for his pillow, and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed, and thought he saw a ladder set up on the earth; the top of it reached to. heaven, and angels were going up and down on it. And the Lord stood above it, and spoke to Jacob, and told him, that he would give the land of Canaan to him and to his descendants, and that his descendants should be a great multitude of people. And the Lord said he would be with Jacob to take care of him wherever he should go, and would bring him back to Canaan again.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and was afraid, because the Lord had been there and spoken to him in his dream: and he rose up early in the morning and worshipped the Lord. He called the name of the place Bethel, which means, The house of God. And Jacob promised that if the Lord would take care of him, and give him bread to eat, and clothes to wear, and keep him from harm, so that he should come back safely to his father's house again, then he would obey the Lord; and of all the silver and gold, the flocks and the herds, which God should give him, he would give a tenth part to the Lord. Jacob could not give these things into the Lord's hand, but he could help the poor and the sick with them, and build altars and offer burnt offerings with them, and that would be the same as giving them into the Lord's hand.
And Jacob went on his journey until he came near to Haran, where Laban lived. And he saw there a well in a field, with three flocks of sheep lying down by it, and the shepherds were with their flocks. A great stone was rolled over the mouth of the well, to cover it; but when all the flocks had come in from feeding, the shepherds used to roll the stone away and draw up water for the sheep. After they were done drinking, the stone was rolled back again over the mouth of the well.
And Jacob asked the shepherds where their home was. They said at Haran. Then he said, Do you know Laban? They answered, We know him. And Jacob asked if he was well. They said, He is well; and look, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep. While they were speaking, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she took care of them. And Jacob went near and rolled away the stone and watered the flock for her; and he kissed Rachel, and told her he was her relation and Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father.
When Laban heard that his sister Rebekah's son was come, he made haste and ran out to meet him, and put his arms around him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And Laban spoke kindly to Jacob, and Jacob stayed at his house for a month. Then Laban asked Jacob how much he should pay him to stay and live there, and take care of his flock. And Laban had another daughter beside Rachel, whose name was Leah; but Rachel was. more beautiful than Leah. Now Jacob loved Rachel, and he told Laban he would stay and serve him for seven years if, after they were ended, Rachel might be his wife. And Laban said she might be; therefore Jacob served Laban seven years for her, and they seemed like only a few days to him, because of the love he felt for her. But when they were ended Laban would not give him Rachel, because she was the youngest. He gave him Leah, and said that Jacob must serve seven years more for Rachel; For the youngest, he said, must not be married before the oldest. So Jacob stayed and served Laban seven years longer, and he had both Leah and Rachel for his wives. And God gave sons to him.
After this, Jacob asked permission of Laban to take his wives and his children, and go back to the land of Canaan. For he wanted to see his father and mother, if they were still alive; and he thought, perhaps, that after so long a time, Esau would forgive the unkindness he had done him when he took away his blessing.
But Laban was not willing to let Jacob go. He had found, he said, that the Lord blessed him because Jacob was with him, and he asked what wages he should give Jacob to stay longer. Jacob said that if Laban would give him some of the cattle which he took care of, he would stay and feed his flock as he had done before. Therefore Laban gave Jacob some of his cattle, and he stayed and took care of Laban's flock. Then Jacob had sheep and goats of his own. These he kept separate from Laban's, and put them in a different place. It took three days to go from Laban's flock to the place where Jacob kept his flock. And Jacob's flock grew to be a great many, so that after a while he was rich, and had herds of cattle, and his sons took care of them. And Jacob had men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses.
But one day Jacob heard Laban's sons speaking unkindly of him. They said he had taken away their father's cattle, and that was the reason he had grown so rich. And Jacob saw that Laban did not look on him as kindly as he used to do. His face was changed and he looked displeased.
And the Lord spoke to Jacob and commanded him to go back to the land of his fathers; that meant, to the land of Canaan, where Abraham, his grandfather, had lived when he was alive, and where Isaac, his father, was living still. And the Lord said he would be with Jacob, to take care of him and keep him from harm. Then Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to him while he was out in the field with his flock. He wanted to talk with them there, so that Laban could not hear what he said. When they came, he told them that their father did not look kindly on him as he used to look, and that the Lord had commanded him to go back to Canaan. And Rachel and Leah told him to do as the Lord had said.
And Jacob made ready to go. He set his wives and his children upon camels, and took all his cattle and everything that belonged to him, and started on his journey toward the land of Canaan. But Laban was gone away from his home to shear his sheep, and he did not know when Jacob left, because Jacob had kept it a secret from him. But on the third day after he had gone, some one told Laban of it. Then Laban took men with him and followed after Jacob. No doubt he was angry, and wanted to do him some harm; but in the night, in a dream, God spoke to Laban and told him not to harm Jacob, nor speak unkindly to him. And Laban did not overtake Jacob until he had been following him seven days; for Jacob had gone a long way, across a river and through a wide lonely country, to a mountain called Gilead. There Laban came up with him.
Now Jacob had set up his tent at mount Gilead, and when Laban came there he set up his tent also. And he asked Jacob why he had gone away secretly, and carried Rachel and Leah and their children with him, without letting him know; for, Laban said, he had not allowed him to kiss his sons and his daughters before they went.
Jacob answered that he had gone away secretly because he was afraid Laban would take Rachel and Leah from him if he knew of his going. And Jacob was displeased at Laban for coming after him, and asked why he had followed him. Jacob said that he had served Laban for twenty years, taking care of his sheep and his goats. He had been out in the night and in the day, when it was cold and when it was hot, watching over them. And now, he said, if God had not been with him to help him, Laban would have sent him away without giving him anything for all the work he had done.
Then Laban spoke kindly to Jacob, and said, Thy wives and thy children are the same to me as if they were my own, and I would not do them any harm. Let us, therefore, be friends and make a covenant together. And they piled up stones and made a heap of them in that place, and promised they would do each other no harm. That heap was always to stay there to remind them of the covenant they had made. If ever they should be angry and want to harm each other, then, as they were going to do it, when they should come to that heap and see the stones there, they would remember their covenant and turn back, and never harm each other any more.
And Jacob built an altar and offered up a sacrifice on mount Gilead, and he and Laban, and the men who were with him, ate bread together, and they stayed all night in the mount. Early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed Rachel and Leah and their children, and blessed them, and then went back to his own home.