Genesis to Revelation
Bible Reading Plan
January 9
Genesis 27-29
Chapter 27
Jacob’s Deception
1 Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that
he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he
said to him, “Here I am.”
2 Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my
death.
3 “Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out
to the field and hunt game for me;
4 and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I
may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went
to the field to hunt for game to bring home,
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to
your brother Esau, saying,
7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat,
and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’
8 “Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you.
9 “Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there,
that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves.
10 “Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he
may bless you before his death.”
11 Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy
man and I am a smooth man.
12 “Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in
his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”
13 But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey
my voice, and go, get them for me.”
14 So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made
savory food such as his father loved.
15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were
with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth
part of his neck.
17 She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her
son Jacob.
18 Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here
I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as
you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless
me.”
20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?” And
he said, “Because the Lord your God caused it to happen to me.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, that I may feel you,
my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22 So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The
voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother
Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
24 And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I
am.”
25 So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game,
that I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also
brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my
son.”
27 So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments,
he blessed him and said,
“
See, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed;
28 Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
And of the fatness of the earth,
And an abundance of grain and new wine;
29 May peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you;
Be master of your brothers,
And may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
And blessed be those who bless you.”
The Stolen Blessing
30 Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob
had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother
came in from his hunting.
31 Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to
his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that
you may bless me.”
32 Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I
am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted
game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed
him?Yes, and he shall be blessed.”
34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly
great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also,
O my father!”
35 And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your
blessing.”
36 Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted
me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken
away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing
for me?”
37 But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him your master, and
all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new
wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father?
Bless me, even me also, O my father.” So Esau lifted his voice and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,
“
Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,
And away from the dew of heaven from above.
40 “By your sword you shall live,
And your brother you shall serve;
But it shall come about when you become restless,
That you will break his yoke from your neck.”
41 So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his
father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning
for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent
and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother
Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.
43 “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran,
to my brother Laban!
44 “Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides,
45 until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what
you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved
of you both in one day?”
46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters
of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from
the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Chapter 28
Jacob Is Sent Away
1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to
him, “You
shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
2 “Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s
father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your
mother’s brother.
3 “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply
you, that you may become a company of peoples.
4 “May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants
with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave
to Abraham.”
5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of
Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram
to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged
him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”
7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac;
9 and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had,
Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
Jacob’s Dream
10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
11 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the
sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under
his head,
and lay down in that place.
12 He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top
reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the
God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I
will give it to you and to your descendants.
14 “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you
will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south;
and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.
15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will
bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what
I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in
this place, and I did not know it.”
17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other
than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put
under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.
19 He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name
of the city had been Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will
keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments
to wear,
21 and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will
be my God.
22 “This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s
house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Chapter
29
Jacob Meets Rachel
1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the
east.
2 He looked, and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep
were lying there beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks. Now
the stone on the mouth of the well was large.
3 When all the flocks were gathered there, they would then roll the stone from
the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place
on the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they
said, “We are from Haran.”
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they
said, “We know him.”
6 And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It
is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.”
7 He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock
to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.”
8 But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they
roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s
sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
10 When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and
the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone
from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s
brother.
11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.
12 Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was
Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
13 So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to
meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then
he related to Laban all these things.
14 Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And
he stayed with him a month.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you
therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name
of the younger was Rachel.
17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.
18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years
for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to
another man; stay with me.”
20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few
days because of his love for her.
Laban’s Treachery
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed,
that I may go in to her.”
22 Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a feast.
23 Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and
Jacob went in to her.
24 Laban also gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid.
25 So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to
Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that
I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?”
26 But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off
the younger before the firstborn.
27 “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also
for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.”
28 Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel
as his wife.
29 Laban also gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.
30 So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than
Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.
31 Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel
was barren.
32 Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because
the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.”
33 Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the Lord
has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So
she named him Simeon.
34 She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband
will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore
he was named Levi.
35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise
the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)