One Year Bible.

Isaac Blesses Jacob

¹When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” Esau replied.

²“Look,” said Isaac, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death. ³Take your weapons — your quiver and bow — and go out into the field to hunt some game for me. ⁴Then prepare a tasty dish that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau went into the field to hunt game and bring it back, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare me a tasty dish to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’

⁸Now, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly as I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father— the kind he loves. ¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

¹¹Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned. ¹²What if my father touches me? Then I would be revealed to him as a deceiver, and I would bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”

¹³His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

¹⁴So Jacob went and got two goats and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved. ¹⁵And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Esau, and she put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and bread she had made.

¹⁸So Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Here I am!” he answered. “Which one are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac asked his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”

“Because the LORD your God brought it to me,” he replied.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau, or not?”

²²So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³Isaac did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

²⁴Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

And he replied, “I am.”

²⁵“Serve me,” said Isaac, “and let me eat some of my son’s game, so that I may bless you.”

Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; then he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said:

“Ah, the smell of my son

is like the smell of a field

that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸May God give to you the dew of heaven

and the richness of the earth —

an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

May you be the master of your brothers,

and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Esau’s Lost Hope

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ³¹He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

³²But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?”

“I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.

³³Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him — and indeed, he will be blessed!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”

³⁵But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”

³⁸Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹His father Isaac answered him:

“Behold, your dwelling place shall be

away from the richness of the land,

away from the dew of heaven above.

⁴⁰You shall live by the sword

and serve your brother.

But when you rebel,

you will tear his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴²When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. ⁴³So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides— ⁴⁵until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

Jacob’s Departure

¹So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded. ²“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, ⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Ladder

¹⁰Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

¹²And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. ¹³And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”

The Stone of Bethel

¹⁸Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it, ¹⁹and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God. ²²And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”

Babylon Is Fallen

¹This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev,

an invader comes from the desert,

from a land of terror.

²A dire vision is declared to me:

“The traitor still betrays,

and the destroyer still destroys.

Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media!

I will put an end to all her groaning.”

³Therefore my body is filled with anguish.

Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor.

I am bewildered to hear,

I am dismayed to see.

⁴My heart falters;

fear makes me tremble.

The twilight I desired

has turned to horror.

⁵They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet,

they eat, they drink!

Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout

and have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen,

riders on donkeys, riders on camels,

he must be alert, fully alert.”

⁸Then the lookout shouted:

“Day after day, my lord,

I stand on the watchtower;

night after night

I stay at my post.

⁹Look, here come the riders,

horsemen in pairs.”

And one answered, saying:

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon!

All the images of her gods

lie shattered on the ground!”

¹⁰O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,

I tell you what I have heard

from the LORD of Hosts,

the God of Israel.

The Burden against Edom

¹¹This is the burden against Dumah:

One calls to me from Seir,

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹²The watchman replies,

“Morning has come, but also the night.

If you would inquire, then inquire.

Come back yet again.”

The Burden against Arabia

¹³This is the burden against Arabia:

In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge,

O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty,

O dwellers of Tema;

meet the refugees with food.

¹⁵For they flee from the sword—

the sword that is drawn—

from the bow that is bent,

and from the stress of battle.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone. ¹⁷The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.”

For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

Faith and Assurance

¹Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. ²This is why the ancients were commended.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The Faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah

⁴By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

The Faith of Abraham and Sarah

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised. ¹²And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

¹⁴Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son, ¹⁸even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.

The Faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph

²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future.

²¹By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²²By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his bones.

The Faith of Moses

²³By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were unafraid of the king’s edict.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin. ²⁶He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward.

²⁷By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch Israel’s own firstborn.

²⁹By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.

The Faith of Many

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

³¹By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.

³²And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, ³³who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched the raging fire, and escaped the edge of the sword; who gained strength from weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

³⁵Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

³⁷They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated. ³⁸The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹These were all commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. ⁴⁰God had planned something better for us, so that together with us they would be made perfect.