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 

Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left ¹  his father’s ²  presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ³ 

So Esau hated ¹  Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. ²  Esau said privately, ³  “The time ⁴  of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill ⁵  my brother Jacob!”

He took ¹  away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac. 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:

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)

Then Reuben said to his father, “You may ¹  put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care ²  and I will bring him back to you.”

Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. ¹  Then we will live ²  and not die – we and you and our little ones.

Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, ¹  ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me.

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude ¹  of nations.”