They blessed Rebekah with these words: “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands! May your descendants possess the strongholds of their enemies.”

Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? One of the men might easily have had sexual relations with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.

But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world did you find it so quickly, my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” he replied.

When Esau heard his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you work for me for nothing because you are my relative? Tell me what your wages should be.”

So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because his love for her was so great.

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?”

Complete my older daughter’s bridal week. Then we will give you the younger one too, in exchange for seven more years of work.”

Jacob had marital relations with Rachel as well. He loved Rachel more than Leah, so he worked for Laban for seven more years.

Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. Then I’ll depart, because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.”

“You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, “and how well your livestock have fared under my care.

Indeed, you had little before I arrived, but now your possessions have increased many times over. The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?”

You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could,

This was my lot for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave for you – fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!

If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night.”

I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

So Jacob said to him, “Go now and check on the welfare of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word.” So Jacob sent him from the valley of Hebron.

When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore.