Other Descendants of Abraham

¹Abraham married another woman, whose name was Keturah.

²She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.

⁴The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were Keturah's descendants.

⁵Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac;

⁶but while he was still alive, he gave presents to the sons his other wives had borne him. Then he sent these sons to the land of the East, away from his son Isaac.

The Death and Burial of Abraham

^7-8Abraham died at the ripe old age of 175.

⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in Machpelah Cave, in the field east of Mamre that had belonged to Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

¹⁰It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; both Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there.

¹¹After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”

The Descendants of Ishmael

¹²Ishmael, whom Hagar, the Egyptian slave of Sarah, bore to Abraham,

¹³had the following sons, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

¹⁶They were the ancestors of twelve tribes, and their names were given to their villages and camping places.

¹⁷Ishmael was 137 years old when he died.

¹⁸The descendants of Ishmael lived in the territory between Havilah and Shur, to the east of Egypt on the way to Assyria. They lived apart from the other descendants of Abraham.

The Birth of Esau and Jacob

¹⁹This is the story of Abraham's son Isaac.

²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel (an Aramean from Mesopotamia) and sister of Laban.

²¹Because Rebecca had no children, Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord answered his prayer, and Rebecca became pregnant.

²²She was going to have twins, and before they were born, they struggled against each other in her womb. She said, “Why should something like this happen to me?” So she went to ask the Lord for an answer.

²³The Lord said to her, “Two nations are within you; You will give birth to two rival peoples. One will be stronger than the other; The older will serve the younger.”

²⁴The time came for her to give birth, and she had twin sons.

²⁵The first one was reddish, and his skin was like a hairy robe, so he was named Esau.

²⁶The second one was born holding on tightly to the heel of Esau, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

Esau Sells His Rights as the First-Born Son

²⁷The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilled hunter, a man who loved the outdoors, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

²⁸Isaac preferred Esau, because he enjoyed eating the animals Esau killed, but Rebecca preferred Jacob.

²⁹One day while Jacob was cooking some bean soup, Esau came in from hunting. He was hungry

³⁰and said to Jacob, “I'm starving; give me some of that red stuff.” (That is why he was named Edom.)

³¹Jacob answered, “I will give it to you if you give me your rights as the first-born son.”

³²Esau said, “All right! I am about to die; what good will my rights do me?”

³³Jacob answered, “First make a vow that you will give me your rights.” Esau made the vow and gave his rights to Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. That was all Esau cared about his rights as the first-born son.

Isaac Lives at Gerar

¹There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

²The Lord had appeared to Isaac and had said, “Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay.

³Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.

⁴I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants.

⁵I will bless you, because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws and commands.”

⁶So Isaac lived at Gerar.

⁷When the men there asked about his wife, he said that she was his sister. He would not admit that she was his wife, because he was afraid that the men there would kill him to get Rebecca, who was very beautiful.

⁸When Isaac had been there for some time, King Abimelech looked down from his window and saw Isaac and Rebecca making love.

⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is your wife! Why did you say she was your sister?” He answered, “I thought I would be killed if I said she was my wife.”

¹⁰“What have you done to us?” Abimelech said. “One of my men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have been responsible for our guilt.”

¹¹Abimelech warned all the people: “Anyone who mistreats this man or his wife will be put to death.”

¹²Isaac sowed crops in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the Lord blessed him.

¹³He continued to prosper and became a very rich man.

¹⁴Because he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many servants, the Philistines were jealous of him.

¹⁵So they filled in all the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug while Abraham was alive.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave our country. You have become more powerful than we are.”

¹⁷So Isaac left and set up his camp in Gerar Valley, where he stayed for some time.

¹⁸He dug once again the wells which had been dug during the time of Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death. Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father had given them.

¹⁹Isaac's servants dug a well in the valley and found water.

²⁰The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds and said, “This water belongs to us.” So Isaac named the well “Quarrel.”

²¹Isaac's servants dug another well, and there was a quarrel about that one also, so he named it “Enmity.”

²²He moved away from there and dug another well. There was no dispute about this one, so he named it “Freedom.” He said, “Now the Lord has given us freedom to live in the land, and we will be prosperous here.”

²³Isaac left and went to Beersheba.

²⁴That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid; I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my promise to my servant Abraham.”

²⁵Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. Then he set up his camp there, and his servants dug another well.

The Agreement between Isaac and Abimelech

²⁶Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army to see Isaac.

²⁷So Isaac asked, “Why have you now come to see me, when you were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country?”

²⁸They answered, “Now we know that the Lord is with you, and we think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise

²⁹that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that the Lord has blessed you.”

³⁰Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹Early next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them, and they parted as friends.

³²On that day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug. They said, “We have found water.”

³³He named the well “Vow.” That is how the city of Beersheba got its name.

Esau's Foreign Wives

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittites, Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath the daughter of Elon.

³⁵They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca.

The Second Dialogue

^1-2Empty words, Job! Empty words!

³No one who is wise would talk the way you do or defend himself with such meaningless words.

⁴If you had your way, no one would fear God; no one would pray to him.

⁵Your wickedness is evident by what you say; you are trying to hide behind clever words.

⁶There is no need for me to condemn you; you are condemned by every word you speak.

⁷Do you think you were the first person born? Were you there when God made the mountains?

⁸Did you overhear the plans God made? Does human wisdom belong to you alone?

⁹There is nothing you know that we don't know.

¹⁰We learned our wisdom from gray-haired people— those born before your father.

¹¹God offers you comfort; why still reject it? We have spoken for him with calm, even words.

¹²But you are excited and glare at us in anger.

¹³You are angry with God and denounce him.

¹⁴Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

¹⁵Why, God does not trust even his angels; even they are not pure in his sight.

¹⁶And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

¹⁷Now listen, Job, to what I know.

¹⁸Those who are wise have taught me truths which they learned from their ancestors, and they kept no secrets hidden.

¹⁹Their land was free from foreigners; there was no one to lead them away from God.

²⁰The wicked who oppress others will be in torment as long as they live.

²¹Voices of terror will scream in their ears, and robbers attack when they think they are safe.

²²They have no hope of escaping from darkness, for somewhere a sword is waiting to kill them,

²³and vultures are waiting to eat their corpses. They know their future is dark;

²⁴disaster, like a powerful king, is waiting to attack them.

²⁵That is the fate of those who shake their fists at God and defy the Almighty.

^26-27They are proud and rebellious; they stubbornly hold up their shields and rush to fight against God.

²⁸They are the ones who captured cities and seized houses whose owners had fled, but war will destroy those cities and houses.

²⁹They will not remain rich for long; nothing they own will last. Even their shadows will vanish,

³⁰and they will not escape from darkness. They will be like trees whose branches are burned by fire, whose blossoms are blown away by the wind.

³¹If they are foolish enough to trust in evil, then evil will be their reward.

³²Before their time is up they will wither, wither like a branch and never be green again.

³³They will be like vines that lose their unripe grapes; like olive trees that drop their blossoms.

³⁴There will be no descendants for godless people, and fire will destroy the homes built by bribery.

³⁵These are the ones who plan trouble and do evil; their hearts are always full of deceit.

^1-2I have heard words like that before; the comfort you give is only torment.

³Are you going to keep on talking forever? Do you always have to have the last word?

⁴If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words.

⁵I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you.

⁶But nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain.

⁷You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.

⁸You have seized me; you are my enemy. I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt.

⁹In anger God tears me limb from limb; he glares at me with hate.

¹⁰People sneer at me; they crowd around me and slap my face.

¹¹God has handed me over to evil people.

¹²I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice

¹³and shoots arrows at me from every side— arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity.

¹⁴He wounds me again and again; he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.

¹⁵I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth, and I sit here in the dust defeated.

¹⁶I have cried until my face is red, and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,

¹⁷but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere.

¹⁸O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me! Don't let my call for justice be silenced!

¹⁹There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side.

²⁰My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God.

²¹I want someone to plead with God for me, as one pleads for a friend.

²²My years are passing now, and I walk the road of no return.

²⁰So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life.

²¹Righteous people—people of integrity—will live in this land of ours.

²²But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.