5-6 Before he died, Abraham was very kind to the sons he had with Hagar and Keturah and gave them a lot of presents. But he sent them away to live in country to the East. He did not want them to live close to Isaac. And so, when Abraham died, Isaac got everything that belonged to his father.
11 Isaac lived near Beer La-hai Roy after Abraham died and it was there that God was good to Isaac.
17 Ishmael died when he was 137 years old.
18 The tribes that came from Ishmael lived in a big area that went from Havilah to Shur. Shur is near the Egyptian border, on the west side of Assyria. And what the angel said to Hagar years before at the waterhole, came true. Ishmael's mob did fight with each other all the time.
20 Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. She came from Abraham's country and was the daughter of Bethuel who lived in Harran. Her brother's name was Laban and he was called The Aramean.
21 Isaac and Rebekah were married for 20 years and they still did not have any children and so Isaac prayed for her. God heard his prayer and later on Rebekah knew she was going to have a baby. 22 But she was going to have twins and they started to fight each other even before they were born. Rebekah was upset and said to herself, “Why is this happening to me?” Then she prayed to the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,
24-25 On the day the twins were born, the first one was all red and had hair all over his body like a coat, and so they named him Esau. 26 When the second baby was born, he was holding his brother's foot so they named him Jacob. Jacob means Tricky One in their language. Isaac was 60 years old when his sons were born.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a very good hunter. He loved being out in the bush, but Jacob was a quiet man who like to stay around his parent's camp. 28 Isaac loved to eat the bush food that Esau took home and so Esau was Isaac's favourite son, but Rebekah loved Jacob the best.
31 Jacob answered, “I will give you the stew, if you give me your place in the family. That means that I will be like the oldest son and will get more than you, when our father dies.”
32 Esau said, “I am so hungry that I feel like I am going to die. I am not worried about getting my father's things after he dies.”
33 But Jacob said, “First, you have to make a strong promise to me.” And so Esau promised that Jacob would be the leader of the family after Isaac died. It was like Esau sold his place in the family for a bowl of stew. 34 Jacob gave Esau some bread and stew with vegetables in it. Esau ate and drank and then he went away. In this way, Esau showed that he did not care about being the next leader of the family after Isaac died. [d]
<- Genesis 24Genesis 26 ->-
Genesis 23:3-20; 49:29-30
- b Genesis 16:1-4; Genesis 30:4-5,9
- c Romans 9:10-12
- d Hebrews 12:16