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 

“I left secretly because I was afraid!” ¹  Jacob replied to Laban. “I thought ²  you might take your daughters away from me by force. ³ 

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.

Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.

“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.”

So Jacob named the place Peniel, ¹  explaining, ²  “Certainly ³  I have seen God face to face ⁴  and have survived.” ⁵ 

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.

But ¹  Jacob traveled to Succoth ²  where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called ³  Succoth. ⁴ 

Then he became very attached ¹  to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her. ² 

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ¹  to Bethel ²  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ³ 

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ¹  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ² 

So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. ¹  He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it. ² 

While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with ¹  Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, ¹  to Kiriath Arba ²  (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ³ 

Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. ¹  He died an old man who had lived a full life. ²  His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, ¹  for he said, ²  “What if some accident ³  happens ⁴  to him?”

Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt. ¹ 

These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.