אָב

So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt.

He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?” “I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.

When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

…and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.

…so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.

Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”

Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

…and he told them, “I can see from your father’s countenance that his attitude toward me has changed; but the God of my father has been with me.

You know that I have served your father with all my strength.

And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.

Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?

Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”

…and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.

Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”

Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched but could not find the household idols.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’

And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.

So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”

Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.

But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.

The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.