¹ And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar to God, who appeared to thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

² Then Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

³ And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and 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.

⁴ And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and the ear-rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

⁵ And they journeyed: and the terror of God was on the cities that were round them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

⁶ So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (that is Beth-el) he and all the people that were with him.

⁷ And he erected there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God appeared to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸ But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el, under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

⁹ And God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Padan-aram; and blessed him.

¹⁰ And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; and he called his name Israel.

¹¹ And God said to him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a multitude of nations shall spring from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.

¹² And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

¹³ And God went up from him, in the place where he talked with him.

¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

¹⁵ And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Beth-el.

¹⁶ And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.

¹⁷ And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

¹⁸ And it came to pass as her soul was in departing (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹ And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.

²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar on her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹ And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

²² And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

²³ The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's first-born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

²⁴ The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

²⁵ And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

²⁶ And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Padan-aram.

²⁷ And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre, to the city of Arbah (which is Hebron) where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸ And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

²⁹ And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

¹ There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

² Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.

³ Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴ I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

⁶ Isaac lived in Gerar.

⁷ The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, "the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."

⁸ It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.

⁹ Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

¹⁰ Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

¹¹ Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

¹² Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

¹³ The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

¹⁷ Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

¹⁸ Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹ Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

²⁰ The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹ They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.

²² He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

²³ He went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴ Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

²⁵ He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

²⁷ Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"

²⁸ They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹ that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."

³⁰ He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹ They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."

³³ He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵ They grieved Isaac's and Rebekah's spirits.