Genesis 25
Open in the reader1Now Father-of-a-Multitude had taken another wife, named Incense,
2and she bore him Musical, Fowler, Strife, Strife, He-Will-Leave, and Pit.
3Fowler was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, the Letushites, and the Leummites.
4The sons of Strife were Darkness, Fawn, Dedicated, My-Father-Knows, and God-Has-Known. All these were descendants of Incense.
5Father-of-a-Multitude left everything he owned to He-Laughs.
6But while he was still alive, Father-of-a-Multitude gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son He-Laughs to the land of the east.
7Father-of-a-Multitude lived a total of 175 years.
8And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.
9His sons He-Laughs and God-Hears buried him in the cave of Double-Cave near Strength, in the field of Fawn-like son of Tawny the Son-of-Terror.
10This was the field that Father-of-a-Multitude had bought from the Hittites. Father-of-a-Multitude was buried there with his wife Princess.
11After Father-of-a-Multitude’s death, God blessed his son He-Laughs, who lived near Well-of-the-Living-One-Who-Sees-Me.
12This is the account of Father-of-a-Multitude’s son God-Hears, whom Hagar the Two-Straits-One, Princess’s maidservant, bore to Father-of-a-Multitude.
13These are the names of the sons of God-Hears in the order of their birth: Fruitfulnesses the firstborn of God-Hears, then Dark, Disciplined-of-God, Sweet-Spice,
14Hearing, Silence, Burden,
15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Refreshment, and Eastward.
16These were the sons of God-Hears, and these were their names by their villages and encampments—twelve princes of their tribes.
17God-Hears lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
18God-Hears’s descendants settled from Circular to Wall, which is near the border of Two-Straits as you go toward Successful. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.
19This is the account of Father-of-a-Multitude’s son He-Laughs. Father-of-a-Multitude became the father of He-Laughs,
20and He-Laughs was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Man-of-God the Aramean from Highland-One and the sister of White the Aramean.
21Later, He-Laughs prayed to He-Who-Is on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And He-Who-Is heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
22But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So Rebekah went to inquire of He-Who-Is,
23and He declared to her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
24When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.
25The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Hairy.
26After this, his brother came out grasping Hairy’s heel; so he was named Heel-Grabber. And He-Laughs was sixty years old when the twins were born.
27When the boys grew up, Hairy became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Heel-Grabber was a quiet man who stayed at home.
28Because He-Laughs had a taste for wild game, he loved Hairy; but Rebekah loved Heel-Grabber.
29One day, while Heel-Grabber was cooking some stew, Hairy came in from the field and was famished.
30He said to Heel-Grabber, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Red.)
31“First sell me your birthright,” Heel-Grabber replied.
32“Look,” said Hairy, “I am about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”
33“Swear to me first,” Heel-Grabber said. So Hairy swore to Heel-Grabber and sold him the birthright.
34Then Heel-Grabber gave some bread and lentil stew to Hairy, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Hairy despised his birthright.