Lost Books of the Bible (67 page)

21 May your name and your offspring endure to all the ages, and may the Most High God be their God, and may the God of righteousness dwell with them, and may His sanctuary be built by you all the ages.

22 Blessed be he that blesses you, and all flesh that curses you falsely, may it be cursed.”

23 And she kissed him, and said to him, “May the Lord of the world love you as the heart of your mother and her affection rejoice in you and bless you.” And she ceased from blessing.

[Chapter 26]

1 In the seventh year of this week Isaac called Esau, his elder son, and said to him, “ I am old, my son, and my sight is dim, and I do not know the day of my death.

2 Now, take your hunting weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt and catch me venison, my son, and make me flavorful meat, like my soul loves, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”

3 But Rebecca heard Isaac speaking to Esau.

4 Esau went out early to the field to hunt and catch and bring home meat to his father.

5 Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and said to him, “Look, I heard Isaac, your father, speak to Esau, your brother, saying, "Hunt for me, and make me flavorful meat, and bring it to me that I may eat and bless you before the Lord before I die."

6 Now, my son, do as you are told and do as I command you. Go to your flock and fetch me two good kids of the goats, and I will make them good tasting meat for your father, like he loves, and you will bring it to your father that he may eat and bless you to the Lord before he dies.”

7 Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, “Mother, I shall not withhold anything which my father would eat and which would please him, but I am afraid that he will recognize my voice and wish to touch me.

8 And you know that I am smooth, and Esau, my brother, is hairy, and I he will see me an evildoer because I am doing something that he has not told me to do and he will be very angry with me, and I shall bring on myself a curse, and not a blessing.”

9 Rebecca, his mother, said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son, just do as you are told.”

10 Jacob obeyed the voice of Rebecca, his mother, and went and brought back two good and fat goat kids, and brought them to his mother, and his mother made them tasty meat like he loved.

11 Rebecca took the good and pleasing clothes of Esau, her elder son, which was with her in the house, and she clothed Jacob, her younger son, with them, and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the exposed parts of his neck.

12 And she gave the meat and the bread, which she had prepared, to her son Jacob.

13 Jacob went in to his father and said, “I am your son. I have done as you asked me. Arise and sit and eat of that which I have caught, father, that your soul may bless me.”

14 Isaac said to his son, “How have you found game so quickly, my son?“

15 Jacob said, “Because the Lord your God caused me to find.”

16 Isaac said to him, “Come closer, that I may feel you, my son, and know if you are my son Esau or not.”

17 Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau,” and he did not recognize him, because it was a decision from heaven to remove his power of perception and Isaac discerned not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau’s, so Isaac blessed him.

18 He said, “Are you my son Esau? “ and Jacob said, “I am your son,” and Isaac said, “Bring it to me that I may eat of that which you have caught, my son, that my soul may bless you.”

19 And Jacob brought it to him, and he ate, and Jacob brought him wine and he drank.

20 Isaac, his father, said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son.”

21 He came close and kissed Isaac. And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and he blessed Jacob and said, “Look, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed.

22 May the Lord give you of the dew of heaven and of the dew of the earth, and plenty of corn and oil. Let nations serve you and peoples bow down to you.

23 Be ruler over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you; and may all the blessings that the Lord has blessed me and blessed Abraham, my father be imparted to you and to your offspring forever. Cursed be he that curses you, and blessed be he that blesses you.”

24 It happened as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing his son Jacob, that Jacob had went away from Isaac his father and hid himself.

25 Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. And he also made flavorful meat, and brought it to his father and Esau said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of my venison that your soul may bless me.”

26 Isaac, his father, said to him, “Who are you?” Esau said to him, “I am your first born, your son Esau. I have done as you have commanded me.”

27 Isaac was very greatly surprised, and said, “Who is he that has hunted and caught and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him, and he shall be blessed, and all his offspring forever.”

28 It happened when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac that he cried with a very loud and bitter cry, and said to his father,  “Bless me also, father!”

29 Isaac said to him, “Your brother came with trickery, and has taken away your blessing.”

30 He said, “Now I know why his name is Jacob. Behold, he has supplanted me these two times, he took away my birth-right, and now he has taken away my blessing.”

31 Esau said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me, father?” and Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Look, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. I have strengthened him with plenty of corn and wine and oil. Now what shall I do for you, my son?”

32 Esau said to Isaac, his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Please. Bless me, also, father. “

33 Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac answered and said to him, “Far from the dew of the earth shall be your dwelling, and far from the dew of heaven from above.

34 By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.

35 It shall happen that when you become great, and do shake his yoke from off your neck, you will sin completely and commit a sin worthy of death, and your offspring shall be rooted out from under heaven.”

36 Esau kept threatening Jacob because of the blessing his father blessed him with, and he said in his heart, “May the days of mourning for my father come now, so that I may kill my brother Jacob.”

[Chapter 27]

1 Rebecca was told Esau’s words in a dream, and Rebecca sent for Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Look Esau, your brother, will take vengeance on you and kill you.

2 Now, therefore, my son, do as you are told, and get up and flee to Laban, my brother, to Haran, and stay with him a few days until your brother’s anger fades away, and he removes his anger from you, and forgets all that you have done. Then I will send for you to come from that place.”

3 Jacob said, “I am not afraid. If he wishes to kill me, I will kill him.”

4 But she said to him, “Let me not be bereft of both my sons on one day.”

5 Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, “Look, you know that my father has become old, and does not see because his eyes are dull. If I leave him he will think it is wrong. If I leave him and go away from you, my father will be angry and will curse me.

6 I will not go. When he sends me, only then will I go.”

7 Rebecca said to Jacob, “I will go in and speak to him, and he will send you away.”

8 Rebecca went in and said to Isaac, “I hate my life because of the two daughters of Heth, whom Esau has taken as wives. If Jacob take a wife from among the daughters of the land such as these, I could not live with it, because the daughters of Canaan are evil.”

9 Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and warned him and said to him, “Do not take you a wife of any of the daughters of Canaan. Arise and go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take a wife from that place of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

10 And God Almighty bless you and increase and multiply you that you may become a company of nations, and give you the blessings of my father, Abraham, to you and to your offspring after you, that you may inherit the land that you travel in and all the land which God gave to Abraham. Go in peace, my son.”

11 Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Mesopotamia, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob’s mother.

12 It happened after Jacob had departed to Mesopotamia that the spirit of Rebecca was grieved for her son, and she wept.

13 Isaac said to Rebecca, “My sister, weep not because of Jacob, my son, for he goes in peace, and in peace will he return.

14 The Most High God will preserve him from all evil and will be with him. He will not forsake him all his days, for I know that his ways will be made to prosper in all things wherever he goes, until he return in peace to us, and we see him in peace. Fear not on his account, my sister, for he is on the upright path and he is a perfect man, and he is faithful and will not perish. Weep not.”

15 Isaac comforted Rebecca because of her son Jacob, and blessed him.

16 Jacob went from the Well of the Oath to go to Haran on the first year of the second week in the forty-fourth jubilee, and he came to Luz on the mountains, that is, Bethel, on the new moon of the first month of this week, and he came to the place at dusk and turned from the way to the west of the road that is close, and that night he slept there, for the sun had set.

17 He took one of the stones of that place (as a pillow) and laid down under the tree, and he was journeying alone, and he slept.

18 Jacob dreamt that night, and saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and he saw the angels of the Lord ascended and descended on it, and behold, the Lord stood on it.

19 And He spoke to Jacob and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land you are sleeping on I will give to you and to your offspring after you.

20 Your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth, and you will increase to the west and to the east, to the north and the south, and in you and in your offspring shall all the families of the nations be blessed.

21 Behold, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you into this land again in peace. I will not leave you until I do everything that I told you.”

22 Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Truly this place is the house of the Lord, and I did not know it.”

23 He was afraid and said, “I am afraid because this place is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven, and I did not know it.”

24 Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar for a sign. And he poured oil on the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the place was previously Luz.

25 And Jacob vowed a vow to the Lord, saying, “If the Lord will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and give me bread to eat and clothes to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar for a sign in this place shall be the Lord’s house, and of all that you gave me, I shall give the tenth to you, my God.”

[Chapter 28]