and they started on their journey. ¹  The surrounding cities were afraid of God, ²  and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

When his brother came out with ¹  his hand clutching Esau’s heel, they named him Jacob. ²  Isaac was sixty years old ³  when they were born.

So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed ¹  me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called ²  Edom.) ³ 

Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up ¹  and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” ² 

When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, ¹  she quickly summoned ²  her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you. ³ 

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed ¹  because of these daughters of Heth. ²  If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!” ³ 

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food ¹  to eat and clothing to wear,

So Laban asked, ¹  “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” ²  Jacob replied, ³  “but if you agree to this one condition, ⁴  I will continue to care for ⁵  your flocks and protect them:

But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face ¹  the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.

When the stronger females were in heat, ¹  Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ¹  “Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ³ 

I have ¹  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ³ 

So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. ¹  Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. ² 

May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, ¹  the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared. ² 

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

Then Jacob prayed, ¹  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ²  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ³ 

“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹  “but Israel, ²  because you have fought ³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Jacob looked up ¹  and saw that Esau was coming ²  along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.