Genesis

He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”


Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” He blessed him there.


Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”


The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.


Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.


Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids.


He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.


He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.


Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.


He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?” He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”


Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.


Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.


Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”


Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.”


Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.


Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.


Esau said, “Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you.”


Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.


Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”


Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me.” He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”


So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.


Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.


Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.


He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.


He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.


Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.


Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.


His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.


Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.”


Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.


Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.


The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; a which thing ought not to be done.


Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.


Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.


You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”


Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.


Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”


The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,


and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.


Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;


then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.


But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.”


Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.


The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.


Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying,


“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.


Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised.


Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”


All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.


It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.


They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.


Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.


They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field,


and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.


Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”


They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”


God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”


Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.


Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.”


They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.


They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob.


So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.


He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.


Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.


God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.


God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel.” He named him Israel.


God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.


The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land.”


God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.


Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.


Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel.”


They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.


When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”


It happened, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.


Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).


Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.


Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.


It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.


The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.


The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.


The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid): Dan and Naphtali.


The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.


Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.


The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.


Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.


Now this is the history of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).


Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon, the Hittite; and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, the Hivite;


and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.


Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz. Basemath bore Reuel.


Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.


Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, with his livestock, all his animals, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan, and went into a land away from his brother Jacob.


For their substance was too great for them to dwell together, and the land of their travels couldn’t bear them because of their livestock.


Esau lived in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom.


This is the history of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir:


these are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Adah, the wife of Esau; and Reuel, the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau.


The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.


Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek. These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.


These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.


These were the sons of Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.


These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,