Chapter 24
Isaac is now a
young man. Abraham tells his servant to find a wife for Isaac, a non-Canaanite
woman. The servant takes ten camels, and goes to the city of Nahor in the land
of Mesopotamia. (Mesopotamia is the
name of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. By today's map, the
area of Mesopotamia would be in southern Turkey, northeastern Syria, and central
Iraq. Babylon was a kingdom in the southern part of
Mesopotamia, located just north of the Persian Gulf.)
The servant stops at a well outside the city. This is the time of day when the
women of the city come out to draw water. He waits for a woman to come out. A
woman does come out, Rebekah. She is the daughter of Bethuel (which made her the
daughter of Isaac's first cousin), and she lives with her brother, Laban. She
gives the servant and his camels water to drink. Then she lets him stay at
Laban's house. The servant goes to Laban, and tells him the purpose of his
visit. Laban agrees to let the servant take Rebekah to be Isaac's wife. Rebekah
agrees to go.
Isaac is now living at the well of Beer-lahai-roi. The
servant goes to him there, and brings Rebekah to him. Rebekah becomes Isaac's wife.
Chapter 25
Abraham marries
again, to a woman named Keturah. She bears him more children. Later, Abraham dies.
Ishmael and Isaac bury him
in the cave of Machpelah.
Then we are told the
descendants of Ishmael.
Rebekah gives birth to twin
sons: Esau and Jacob. Esau is born first, and is therefore legally the
"oldest". He has the legal birthright (the right of the
first-born).
The boys grow up. Esau becomes a
hunter, while Jacob stays at home. Isaac prefers Esau because he gives Isaac
venison. Rebekah prefers Jacob.
As adults, Esau sells
his birthright to Jacob for bread and a pot of lentil beans. This shows how little
Esau values his birthright.
Chapter 26
There is another
famine in Canaan. Isaac and Rebekah decide to settle for a time elsewhere. God
tells Isaac "Don't go south into Egypt. Stay in Canaan, and I will be with
you, for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands."
So Isaac and Rebekah go to the city of Gerar, located near the southern border of
Canaan. Gerar is still ruled by the Philistines, and Abimelech is still their
king. Like Abraham before him, Isaac passes off Rebekah as his sister in order
to stay alive. Abimelech suspects that Rebekah is really Isaac's wife. He confronts
Isaac. Isaac confesses the truth. Abimelech warns the people of Gerar that whomever
touches Isaac or Rebekah shall be put to death.
Isaac plants crops, and reaps a lot of food. He also gets more herds, flocks,
and slaves. He becomes a very powerful man in the city. The Philistines are jealous of him.
They fill in all the wells that Abraham's servants had dug when Abraham lived in
Gerar. Abimelech warns Isaac to leave.
Isaac and his family go to the
valley of Gerar, nearby. While there, they dig three wells, named Esek, Sitnah,
and Rehoboth. Then they move to the city of Beersheba, where Abraham and Abimelech
had made their covenant. There, Isaac and
Abimelech make a peace treaty of their own. Isaac's slaves dig a well, and it is
called Shebah (also called Shibah).
Meanwhile, Isaac's oldest son Esau
marries two women, Judith and Basemath. Both women are Hittites. Hittites are a
type of Canaanite, so Esau has married two Canaanite women. Isaac and
Rebekah don't like this.
Chapter 27
Isaac and his
family still live in Canaan. Isaac is now an
old man, and is nearly blind. He is dying. He asks to see his oldest son, Esau,
and give him the blessing of the firstborn. First, Isaac sends Esau to catch
some game over which to give him the blessing. Esau leaves.
Rebekah prefers Jacob over Esau. While Esau is gone,
Rebekah tells Jacob "Go to our flocks and pick out some game. I will make
him a dish that he likes. He is blind. Tell him that you are Esau, and he will
give you the blessing." Esau's hand is hairy, and Jacob's hand is smooth.
So Rebekah covers Jacob's hand with goatskin to fool Isaac. The ruse works.
Isaac gives Jacob the blessing intended for Esau.
When Esau returns with the venison, he has to be content with a lesser blessing.
Esau is mad that Jacob has tricked him out of the blessing of the firstborn. He
wants to kill Jacob. Rebekah tells Jacob "Get away from here. Go to my
brother Laban. He lives in the city of Haran, in the area of Paddan-aram,
in Mesopotamia. Stay with him until Esau's anger
cools. When it does, I will send for you."
Chapter 28
Isaac and Rebekah
don't want Jacob to marry a Canaanite woman, like Esau did. Isaac tells Jacob
"Don't marry a Canaanite woman. Go to Laban, Rebekah's brother, and take
one of his daughters for a wife." Jacob agrees.
Esau hears that Isaac doesn't like Canaanite women. To rebel, he marries a third
wife. He deliberately marries another Canaanite woman. She is Mahalath, the daughter
of Ishmael.
Jacob leaves Canaan, and
heads for Mesopotamia. On the way, he stops near the city of Bethel. (The city
was called "Luz" at the time.) That night, he has a dream. In his dream, he
sees a ladder reaching up to heaven, and angels are going up and down it. God
tells him "This land I will give to you and your descendants. They will be
countless. I will be with you." When Jacob awakens, he renames the city
"Bethel".
Chapter 29
Jacob reaches
Haran. (Haran
was located in what would today be southeastern Turkey. Archeologists have
actually found its ruins. The ruins of Haran are still there, but today the site is called Sultan
Tepe.) He meets a group of shepherds, and asks if they know Laban. The shepherds
say that they do know Laban, but they can't take Jacob to him yet because it's
not time to gather up the sheep yet. So Jacob waits. While waiting, Jacob sees one of the
shepherd women. She is Rachel, Laban's daughter. He is attracted to her.
Finally, Jacob meets Laban. Laban has two daughters. The older is Leah, and the
younger is Rachel. Jacob asks Laban if he can marry Rachel. "I will work
for you for seven years if you will let me marry her." Laban agrees.
Jacob works for Laban for seven years. At the end of the seven years, he tells
Laban "I have earned Rachel. Give her to me, so that we may sleep
together." But secretly, Laban gets his older daughter Leah, and Jacob
sleeps with her instead. When morning comes, Jacob discovers that Laban has
tricked him. Laban has substituted his older daughter Leah for Rachel! Jacob has
married Leah instead of Rachel!
Jacob confronts
Laban. Laban says "In our country, it is not right to marry off the younger
sister before the older one. You can still have Rachel if you work for me for
another seven years." Jacob agrees, and works for Laban for another seven
years."
At the end of the seven years, he finally
marries Rachel. He is still also married to Leah, but he doesn't love her. He
prefers Rachel. When God sees that Leah is unloved, he grants Leah children.
Leah bears Jacob four sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Meanwhile, Rachel
can't have children.
Chapter 30
Rachel is hurt
that she can't have children. According to custom, if a wife can't have
children, she can allow her husband to have children by her slave girl. So
Rachel tells Jacob "Here is my slave, Bilhah. Lie with her, so that through
her, I can build up a family." Bilhah bears Jacob two sons: Dan and
Naphtali.
Leah discovers that she isn't bearing any
more children. So she gives her own slave, Zilpah, to Jacob to bear children.
Zilpah bears Jacob two sons: Gad and Asher. Then Leah manages to be able to
produce more children. She bears Jacob three more children: two sons (Issachar
and Zebulun) and a daughter (Dinah).
Finally,
Rachel manages to bear Jacob a son of her own. She names him Joseph.
Jacob tells Laban "I'm going to take my family and go home to Canaan."
Laban doesn't want to lose his daughters, but he reluctantly agrees. Laban allows
Jacob to take all the speckled animals from his flock. He tries to cheat
Jacob by hiding them. But Jacob gets the pure-colored animals to breed, causing
more spotted animals. He is rich.
Chapter 31
God tells Jacob
"Return to Canaan." Jacob takes his wives, children, flocks, etc., and
leaves. As they leave, Rachel steals Laban's household idols of his gods.
Laban learns that Jacob has left. He takes his men and chases Jacob. He wants to
say good-bye to his family, and also to get his idols back.
He overtakes Jacob in the mountainous area of Gilead. Jacob doesn't know that Rachel took the idols,
and he allows Laban to search his people for them. Laban searches for the idols, but he can't
find them. (Rachel is sitting on them.)
Jacob and
Laban make a pact not to hurt each other again. They set up a heap of stones as
a testimony to their peace treaty, and as a boundary between their two
countries. The place where the stones are set up is called Mizpah. The heap
itself is called Galeed by Jacob, and Jegar-Sahadutha by Laban. Laban says good-bye to his
daughters, and goes home.
Chapter 32
Jacob continues on
his way home. He is afraid the Esau will kill him for revenge. So he sends ahead
some of his flock to be given to Esau as a present. The rest of the family goes
ahead, leaving Jacob alone.
That night, an angel
comes to Jacob. Jacob wrestles with him (right). The angel says "Your name will
now be Israel." (Throughout this summary, he will
still be called "Jacob".) The
angel leaves. Jacob calls the place Peniel (also called Penuel).
Chapter 33
Esau and Jacob are
reunited. Esau forgives Jacob. They return to Canaan.
Chapter 34
Jacob's only
daughter, Dinah (the youngest child of Jacob and Leah) visits the women of
Canaan. While there, she visits a city that is ruled by a people called the
Hivites (a subdivision of the Canaanites). The prince of the city is named
Shechem. He is the son of Hamor, the king of the city. Shechem takes an interest
in Dinah. He takes Dinah, and rapes her.
Jacob's
sons (Dinah's brothers) are mad at Shechem. Shechem's father Hamor (the king of
the city) tells them "Shechem loves this girl. Let's ally ourselves in
marriage. You shall give us your daughters, and you can take ours."
Jacob's sons answer "We can't give our sister to a man who isn't circumcised. It
would be a disgrace. But if every one of your males is circumcised, we will
agree to your deal." Hamor agrees.
Hamor
explains the deal to all the males in the city. The men agree. They are
circumcised.
Two days later, when are the men are
still sore from their circumcisions, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi (both
of whom are Dinah's full brothers), attack the city. They kill every male and
take Dinah. Then they plunder the city, and take all their flocks, cattle,
possessions, women, and children, to avenge Dinah's dishonor.
Jacob tells his sons "You shouldn't have done that. Now the Canaanites will
hate us. They could attack us, and our numbers are few." His sons answer
"Is our sister to be treated like a whore?"
Chapter 35
God tells Jacob
"Go to the city of Bethel." Jacob takes his family, and goes there. At Bethel, God
tells Jacob "You shall no longer be called Jacob. You shall now be called Israel.
This land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and your descendants."
(Throughout this summary, Jacob will
still be called "Jacob", rather than "Israel".)
The family leaves Bethel, and goes to the city of Ephrath.
(Ephrath was a city in the land of
Canaan. It was also called "Bethlehem".) During their journey, Jacob's wife
Rachel gives birth to another son. She dies in childbirth. Jacob names the son Benjamin.
Rachel is buried on the way to Ephrath.
The family continues journeying, and goes past the tower of Edar (also called
Eder). Around this time,
Jacob's oldest son Reuben has sex with Jacob's concubine, Bilhah. Jacob hears
of it.
Jacob has twelve sons. By his first wife,
Leah, he has Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun (plus a daughter,
Dinah). By Leah's salve girl, Zilpah, he has Gad and Asher. By his
second wife, Rachel, he has Joseph and Benjamin. By Rachel's slave girl, Bilhah,
he has Dan and Naphtali.
The family continues
journeying. They go to Mamre, and finally reach Arbah (another name for Hebron,
a city in the land of Canaan.) There, Isaac dies. Esau and Jacob bury him.
Chapter 36
Esau is also
called Edom. He has started his own country called Edom. It is located
in the land of Seir.
Esau has three wives, all Canaanite. His
wives are Adah (a Hittite), Aholibamah, and Basemath (Ishmael's daughter). We
are told Esau' descendants. Many become chiefs in Edom.
Continued in Part 5...
Overall Summary Part1: Adam and Eve Part 2: Noah Part 3: Abraham Part 4: Jacob Part 5: Joseph