What the Bible Says About the Meaning of James in Xhosa

Scripture

¹⁹ These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac.
²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
²¹ And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
²² The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
²³ And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
²⁴ When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
²⁵ The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.
²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob.
²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.
³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
³¹ Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”
³² Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”
³³ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 25:19-34

Genesis 27:1-45: ²⁷ When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.”
² And he said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.
³ Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,
⁴ and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,
⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying,
⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’
⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.
⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.
¹⁰ Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”
¹³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.
¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved.
¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
¹⁶ And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
¹⁷ Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
²⁰ Then Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”
²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
²³ Then he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.
²⁴ Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
²⁸ May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹ Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!
³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
³¹ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”
³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”
³⁶ Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”
³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.
⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.
⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran,
⁴⁴ Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away,
⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

Genesis 28:10-22: ¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
¹¹ And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
¹² And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!
²⁸ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.
¹⁴ Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
¹⁸ So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
¹⁹ He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,
²¹ so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,
²² And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Genesis 29:1-30: ²⁹ Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.
² He looked, and behold, there was a well in the field, and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large,
³ And when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.”
⁵ He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.”
⁶ He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!”
⁷ He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.”
⁸ But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
¹⁰ Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
¹² And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.
¹⁴ and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.
²⁹ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
¹⁷ Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
¹⁸ Jacob loved Rachel.
¹⁹ Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.”
²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”
²² So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
²³ But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.
²⁴ Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.
²⁵ And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
²⁶ Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
²⁷ Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.”
²⁸ Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
²⁹ Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.
³⁰ So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

Genesis 30:25-43: ²⁵ As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.
²⁶ Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.
²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
²⁸ And he said, “Name your wages, and I will give it.”
²⁹ He said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me.
³⁰ For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”
³¹ He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it.
³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages.
³³ So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”
³⁴ But Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”
³⁵ But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons.
³⁶ Then he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
³⁷ Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks.
³⁸ And he set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,
³⁹ The flocks bred in front of the sticks and thus brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.
⁴⁰ Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
⁴¹ Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks,
⁴² But when the flock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
⁴³ Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 31:1-55: ¹ Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.”
² And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was,
⁵ and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
⁶ And you know that with all my might I have served your father.
⁷ Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me.
⁸ If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.
⁹ It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
¹⁰ In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.
¹¹ Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’
¹² He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.
¹⁴ Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?
¹⁵ Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money.
¹⁶ For all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”
¹⁷ So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels.
¹⁸ He drove away all his livestock and all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.
¹⁹ Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
²⁰ And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.
²¹ So he fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
²² When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,
²³ he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.
²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
²⁵ And Laban overtook Jacob.
²⁶ And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?
²⁷ Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
²⁸ And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly.
²⁹ It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
³⁰ And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
³¹ Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.
³² Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.
³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. Rachel said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
³⁵ And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.
³⁶ Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
³⁷ For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.
³⁸ These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.
³⁹ What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
⁴⁰ There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
⁴¹ These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
⁴³ Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these my daughters or for their children whom they have borne?
⁴⁴ Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.”
⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
⁴⁶ Then Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
⁴⁸ Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed,
⁴⁹ and Mizpah, for he said, “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight.
⁵⁰ If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”
⁵¹ Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me.
⁵² This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
⁵³ The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
⁵⁴ Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.
⁵⁵ And early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.

Genesis 32:1-32: ¹ Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
² And when Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
³ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
⁴ He commanded them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.
⁵ I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”
⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”
⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.
⁸ for he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”
⁹ And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’
¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.
¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
¹² But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’
¹³ So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,
¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, twenty ewes and twenty rams,
¹⁵ thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
¹⁶ He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.”
¹⁷ He commanded the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’
¹⁸ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’”
¹⁹ And you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”
²⁰ and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”
²¹ So the present passed on before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.
²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
²³ The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
²⁵ When he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
²⁷ And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
²⁸ Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.
³⁰ So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
³¹ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
³² Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Genesis 33:1-20: ¹ And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants.
² And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
³ He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
⁴ But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
⁵ And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”
⁶ Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down.
⁷ Then Leah also came forward with her children, and they bowed down.
⁸ Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”
⁹ But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”
¹⁰ But Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.
¹¹ Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it.
¹² Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
¹³ But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die.
¹⁴ Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
¹⁵ So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
¹⁶ So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
¹⁷ But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
¹⁸ And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.
¹⁹ And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
²⁰ There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 35:1-29: ¹ God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
³ Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
⁴ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.
⁵ And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
⁶ And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,
⁷ And he built there an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.
⁸ And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.
⁹ God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram and blessed him.
¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.
¹¹ And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
¹² And the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.
¹³ And God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.
¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
¹⁵ So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor.
¹⁷ And when she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.”
¹⁸ And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
¹⁹ So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem),
²⁰ And Jacob set up a pillar over her grave. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.
²¹ Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
²² While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.
²³ The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
²⁴ the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali.
²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant: Gad and Asher.
²⁷ And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.
²⁸ And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.
²⁹ And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Genesis 37:1-11: ² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.
⁶ He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:
⁷ And behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
⁹ Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”
¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Genesis 42:1-38: ¹ When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
² And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.”
³ So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
⁴ But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.
⁵ Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
⁶ Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. “They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
⁸ And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
⁹ And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food.
¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.”
¹² He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
¹³ They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”
¹⁴ And Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you; you are spies.
¹⁵ And this is how you shall be tested: as Pharaoh lives, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”
¹⁷ And he put them all together in custody for three days.
¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God:
¹⁹ If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households,
²⁰ but bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
²¹ Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”
²² And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”
²³ They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.
²⁴ He turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
²⁵ Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
²⁶ Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed.
²⁷ And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.
²⁸ He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
²⁹ When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying,
³⁰ The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land.
³¹ And we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies.
³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’
³³ The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way.
³⁴ Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
³⁵ As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.
³⁶ Their father Jacob said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.”
³⁷ Then Reuben said to his father, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”
³⁸ But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

Genesis 45:25-28: ²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.
²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them.
²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.
²⁸ And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Genesis 46:1-7: ¹ So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
² And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.”
³ Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.
⁴ I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
⁵ Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
⁶ They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,
⁷ his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him to Egypt.

Genesis 47:7-12: ⁷ Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
⁸ And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
⁹ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”
¹⁰ So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
¹¹ Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
¹² And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

Genesis 48:1-22: ¹ After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
² And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.
³ Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
⁴ and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’
⁵ And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
⁶ And your offspring, whom you father after them, shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
⁸ When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?”
⁹ And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.”
¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
¹¹ And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.”
¹² Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him.
¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn).
¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
¹⁷ When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.
¹⁸ And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.”
¹⁹ But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”
²⁰ So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.
²² Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

Genesis 49:1-33: ² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
³ Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
because you went up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.
⁶ Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.
¹⁴ “Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.
¹⁵ He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.
¹⁶ “Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward.
¹⁸ I wait for your salvation, O Lord.
¹⁹ “Raiders shall raid Gad,
but he shall raid at their heels.
²⁰ “Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
²¹ Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.
²² “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.”
²³ The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,
²⁴ yet his bow remained unmoved;
his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
²⁵ by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening dividing the spoil.”
²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.
²⁹ Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
³⁰ in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—
³² the field that Abraham bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
³³ When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Hebrews 11:20-21: ²⁰ By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.