The Living Bible (13 page)

Genesis
33

Then, far in the distance, Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men.
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 Jacob now arranged his family into a column, with his two concubines and their children at the head, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
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 Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother he bowed low seven times before him.
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 And then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him; and both of them were in tears!

    
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 Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, “Who are these people with you?”

    
“My children,” Jacob replied.
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 Then the concubines came forward with their children, and bowed low before him.
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 Next came Leah with her children, and bowed, and finally Rachel and Joseph came and made their bows.

    
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 “And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?” Esau asked.

    
And Jacob replied, “They are my gifts, to curry your favor!”

    
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 “Brother, I have plenty,” Esau laughed. “Keep what you have.”

    
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 “No, but please accept them,” Jacob said, “for what a relief it is to see your friendly smile! I was as frightened of you as though approaching God!
*
¹¹
 Please take my gifts. For God has been very generous to me and I have enough.” So Jacob insisted, and finally Esau accepted them.

    
¹²
 “Well, let’s be going,” Esau said. “My men and I will stay with you and lead the way.”

    
¹³
 But Jacob replied, “As you can see,
*
some of the children are small, and the flocks and herds have their young, and if they are driven too hard, they will die.
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 So you go on ahead of us and we’ll follow at our own pace and meet you at Seir.”

    
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 “Well,” Esau said, “at least let me leave you some of my men to assist you and be your guides.”

    
“No,” Jacob insisted, “we’ll get along just fine. Please do as I suggest.”

    
¹⁶
 So Esau started back to Seir that same day.
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 Meanwhile Jacob and his household went as far as Succoth. There he built himself a camp, with pens for his flocks and herds. (That is why the place is called Succoth, meaning “huts.”)
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 Then they arrived safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and camped outside the city.
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 (He bought the land he camped on from the family of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of silver.
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 And there he erected an altar and called it “El-Elohe-Israel,” “The Altar to the God of Israel.”)

Genesis
34

One day Dinah, Leah’s daughter, went out to visit some of the neighborhood girls,
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 but when Shechem, son of King Hamor the Hivite, saw her, he took her and raped her.
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 He fell deeply in love with her, and tried to win her affection.

    
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 Then he spoke to his father about it. “Get this girl for me,” he demanded. “I want to marry her.”

    
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 Word soon reached Jacob of what had happened, but his sons were out in the fields herding cattle, so he did nothing until their return.
^6-7
 Meanwhile King Hamor, Shechem’s father, went to talk with Jacob, arriving just as Jacob’s sons came in from the fields, too shocked and angry to overlook the insult, for it was an outrage against all of them.

    
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 Hamor told Jacob, “My son Shechem is truly in love with your daughter, and longs for her to be his wife. Please let him marry her.
^9-10
 Moreover, we invite you folks to live here among us and to let your daughters marry our sons, and we will give our daughters as wives for your young men. And you shall live among us wherever you wish and carry on your business among us and become rich!”

    
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 Then Shechem addressed Dinah’s father and brothers. “Please be kind to me and let me have her as my wife,” he begged. “I will give whatever you require.
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 No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will pay it—only give me the girl as my wife.”

    
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 Her brothers then lied to Shechem and Hamor, acting dishonorably because of what Shechem had done to their sister.
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 They said, “We couldn’t possibly. For you are not circumcised. It would be a disgrace for her to marry such a man.
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 I’ll tell you what we’ll do—if every man of you will be circumcised,
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 then we will intermarry with you and live here and unite with you to become one people.
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 Otherwise we will take her and be on our way.”

    
^18-19
 Hamor and Shechem gladly agreed, and lost no time in acting upon this request, for Shechem was very much in love with Dinah, and could, he felt sure, sell the idea to the other men of the city—for he was highly respected and very popular.
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 So Hamor and Shechem appeared before the city council
*
and presented their request.

    
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 “Those men are our friends,” they said. “Let’s invite them to live here among us and ply their trade. For the land is large enough to hold them, and we can intermarry with them.
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 But they will only consider staying here on one condition—that every one of us men be circumcised, the same as they are.
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 But if we do this, then all they have will become ours and the land will be enriched. Come on, let’s agree to this so that they will settle here among us.”

    
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 So all the men agreed, and all were circumcised.
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 But three days later, when their wounds were sore and sensitive to every move they made, two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, entered the city without opposition, and slaughtered every man there,
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 including Hamor and Shechem. They rescued Dinah from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp again.
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 Then all of Jacob’s sons went over and plundered the city because their sister had been dishonored there.
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 They confiscated all the flocks and herds and donkeys—everything they could lay their hands on, both inside the city and outside in the fields,
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 and took all the women and children, and wealth of every kind.

    
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 Then Jacob said to Levi and Simeon, “You have made me stink among all the people of this land—all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will come and crush us, and we will all be killed.”

    
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 “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?” they retorted.

Genesis
35

“Move on to Bethel now, and settle there,” God said to Jacob, “and build an altar to worship me—the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

    
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 So Jacob instructed all those in his household to destroy the idols they had brought with them, and to wash themselves and to put on fresh clothing.
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 “For we are going to Bethel,” he told them, “and I will build an altar there to the God who answered my prayers in the day of my distress, and was with me on my journey.”

    
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 So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.
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 Then they started on again. And the terror of God was upon all the cities they journeyed through, so that they were not attacked.
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 Finally they arrived at Luz (also called Bethel), in Canaan.
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 And Jacob erected an altar there and named it “the altar to the God who met me here at Bethel”
*
because it was there at Bethel that God appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau.

    
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 Soon after this
*
Rebekah’s old nurse, Deborah, died and was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. And ever after it was called “The Oak of Weeping.”

    
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 Upon Jacob’s arrival at Bethel, en route from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him once again and blessed him.
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 And God said to him, “You shall no longer be called Jacob (‘Grabber’), but Israel (‘One who prevails with God’).
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 I am God Almighty,” the Lord said to him, “and I will cause you to be fertile and to multiply and to become a great nation, yes, many nations; many kings shall be among your descendants.
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 And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and to your descendants.”

    
^13-14
 Afterwards Jacob built a stone pillar at the place where God had appeared to him; and he poured wine over it as an offering to God and then anointed the pillar with olive oil.
¹⁵
 Jacob named the spot Bethel (“House of God”), because God had spoken to him there.

    
¹⁶
 Leaving Bethel, he and his household traveled on toward Ephrath (Bethlehem). But Rachel’s pains of childbirth began while they were still a long way away.
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 After a very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, “Wonderful—another boy!”
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 And with Rachel’s last breath (for she died) she named him “Ben-oni” (“Son of my sorrow”); but his father called him “Benjamin” (“Son of my right hand”).

    
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 So Rachel died, and was buried near the road to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
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 And Jacob set up a monument of stones upon her grave, and it is there to this day.

    
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 Then Israel journeyed on and camped beyond the Tower of Eder.
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 It was while he was there that Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and someone told Israel about it.

    
Here are the names of the twelve sons of Jacob:

    
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 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s oldest child, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun.

    
²⁴
 The sons of Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin.

    
²⁵
 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant girl: Dan, Naphtali.

    
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 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant girl: Gad, Asher.

    
All these were born to him at Paddan-aram.

    
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 So Jacob came at last to Isaac his father at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron), where Abraham too had lived.
^28-29
 Isaac died soon afterwards, at the ripe old age of 180. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.