clearly see. And on a time he called Esau his oldest son and said to
him: Son mine, which answered: Father, I am here ready, to whom the
father said: Behold that I wax old and know not the day that I shall die
and depart out of this world, wherefore take thine harness, thy bow and
quiver with tackles, and go forth an hunting, and when thou hast taken
any venison, make to me thereof such manner meat as thou knowest that I
am wont to eat, and bring it to me that I may eat it, and that my soul
may bless thee ere I die. Which all these words Rebekah heard. And Esau
went forth for to accomplish the commandment of his father, and she said
then to Jacob: I have heard thy father say to Esau, thy brother: Bring
to me of thy venison, and make thereof meat that I may eat, and that I
may bless thee tofore our Lord ere I die. Now my son, take heed to my
counsel, and go forth to the flock, and bring to me two the best kids
that thou canst find, and I shall make of them meat such as thy father
shall gladly eat, which when thou hast brought to him and hast eaten he
may bless thee ere he die: To whom Jacob answered: Knowest thou not that
my brother is rough and hairy and I am smooth? If my father take me to
him and taste me and feel, I dread me that he shall think that I mock
him, and shall give me his curse for the blessing. The mother then said
to him: In me, said she, be this curse, my son, nevertheless hear me; go
to the flock and do that I have said to thee. He went and fetched the
kids and delivered them to his mother, and she went and ordained them
into such meat as she knew well that his father loved, and took the best
clothes that Esau had, and did them on Jacob. And the skins of the kid
she did about his neck and hands there as he was bare, and delivered to
him bread and the pulment that she had boiled. And he went to his father
and said: Father mine, and he answered: I am here; who art thou, my son?
Jacob said: I am Esau, thy first begotten son, I have done as thou
commandedst me, arise, sit and eat of the venison of my hunting that thy
soul may bless me. Then said Isaac again to his son: How mightest thou,
said he, so soon find and take it, my son? To whom he answered: It was
the will of God that such thing as I desired came soon to my hand. Isaac
said to him: Come hither to me, my son, that I may touch and handle
thee, that I may prove whether thou be my son Esau or not. He came to
his father, and when he had felt him, Isaac said: The voice truly is the
voice of Jacob, but the hands be the hands of Esau. And he knew him not,
for his hands expressed the likeness and similitude of the more
brother. Therefore blessing him, he said to him: Thou art then my son
Esau? He answered and said: I am he. Then said Isaac: Bring to the meat
of thine hunting, my son, that my soul may bless thee; which he offered
and gave to his father, and also wine. And when he had eaten and drunken
a good draught of the wine, he said to Jacob: Come hither to me, my son,
and kiss me; and he went to him and kissed him. Anon as he felt the
sweet savour and smell of his clothes, blessing him he said: Lo! the
sweet odour of my son is as the odour of a field full of flowers, whom
our Lord bless. God give to thee of the dew of heaven, and of the
fatness of the earth, abundance of wheat, wine, and oil, and the people
serve thee, and the tribes worship thee. Be thou lord of thy brethren,
and the sons of thy mother shall bow down and kneel to thee. Whosomever
curseth thee, be he accursed, and who that blesseth thee, with blessings
be he fulfilled.
Unnethe [hardly] had Isaac fulfilled these words and Jacob gone out,
when that Esau came with his meat that he had gotten with hunting,
entered in, and offered to his father saying: Arise, father mine, and
eat of the venison that thy son hath ordained for thee, that thy soul
may bless me. Isaac said to him: Who art thou? To whom he answered, I am
thy first begotten son Esau. Isaac then was greatly abashed and
astonied, and marvelled more than can be thought credible. And then he
was in a trance, as the master of histories saith, in which he had
knowledge that God would that Jacob should have the blessing. And said
to Esau: Who then was he that right now a little tofore thy coming
brought to me venison? And I have eaten of all that he brought to me ere
thou camest. I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed. When Esau
heard these words of his father, he cried with a great cry, and was sore
astonied and said: Father, I pray thee bless me also. To whom he said:
Thy brother germain is come fraudulently, and hath received thy
blessing. Then said Esau: Certainly and justly may his name be called
well Jacob, for on another time tofore this he supplanted me of my
patrimony, and now secondly he hath undernome from me my blessing. And
yet then he said to his father: Hast thou not reserved to me one
blessing? Isaac answered: I have ordained him to be thy lord, I have
subdued all his brethren to his servitude. I have stablished him in
wheat, wine and oil. And after this what shall I do to thee, my son? To
whom Esau said: Hast thou not, father, yet one blessing? I beseech thee
to bless me. Then with a great sighing and weeping Isaac moved said to
him: In the fatness of the earth and in the dew of heaven shall be thy
blessing, thou shalt live in thy sword, and shalt serve thy brother.
Then was Esau woebegone, and hated Jacob for supplanting him of his
blessing that his father had blessed him with, and said in his heart:
The days of sorrow shall come to my father, for I shall slay my brother
Jacob. This was told to Rebekah, which anon sent for Jacob her son, and
said to him: Lo! Esau thy brother threateneth to slay thee, therefore
now my son hear my voice and do as I shall counsel. Make thee ready and
go to my brother in Aran, and dwell there with him unto the time that
his anger and fury be overpast, and his indignation ceased, and that he
forget such things that thou hast done to him, and then after that I
shall send for thee, and bring thee hither again. And Rebekah went to
Isaac her husband and said: I am weary of my life because of the
daughters of Heth, if Jacob take to him a wife of that kindred, I will
no longer live. Isaac then called Jacob and blessed him and commanded to
him saying: I charge thee in no wise to take a wife of the kindred of
Canaan, but go and walk into Mesopotamia of Syria, unto the house of
Bethuel, father of thy mother, and take to thee there a wife of the
daughters of Laban thine uncle. God Almighty bless thee, and make thee
grow and multiply, that thou mayst be increased into tourbes of people,
and give to thee the blessings of Abraham, and to thy seed after thee,
that thou mayst possess and own the land of thy pilgrimage which he
granted to thy grandsire. When Isaac had thus said, and given him leave
to go, he departed anon, and went into Mesopotamia of Syria to Laban,
son of Bethuel, brother of Rebekah his mother. Esau seeing that his
father had blessed Jacob and sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria to wed a
wife there, and that after his blessing commanded to him saying: Take
thou no wife of the daughters of Canaan; and he obeying his father went
into Syria, proving thereby that his father saw not gladly the daughters
of Canaan, he went to Ishmael, and took him a wife beside them that he
had taken tofore, that was Melech, daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham.
Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went forth on his journey toward
Aran. When he came to a certain place after going down of the sun and
would rest there all night, he took of the stones that were there and
laid under his head and slept in the same place. And there he saw in his
sleep a ladder standing on the earth, and the upper end thereof touched
heaven, and angels of God ascending and descending upon it, and our Lord
in the midst of the ladder saying to him: I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and of Isaac; the land on which thou sleepest I shall give
to thee and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as dust of the earth;
thou shalt spread abroad unto the east and unto the west, and north and
south, and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in
thy seed. And I shall be thy keeper wheresoever thou shalt go, and shall
bring thee again into this land, and I shall not leave till I have
accomplished all that I have said. When Jacob was awaked from his sleep
and dreaming, he said: Verily God is in this place, and I wist not of
it. And he said dreadingly: How terrible is this place, none other thing
is here but the house of God and the gate of heaven. Then Jacob arose
early and took the stone that lay under his head, and raised it for
witness, pouring oil thereon, and called the name of the place Bethel
which tofore was called Luza. And there he made a vow to our Lord,
saying: If God be with me and keep me in the way that I walk, and give
me bread to eat, and clothes to cover me, and I may return prosperously
into the house of my father, the Lord shall be my God, and this stone
that I have raised in witness, this shall be called the house of God.
And the good of all things that thou givest to me, I shall offer to thee
the tithes and tenth part. Then Jacob went forth into the east, and saw
a pit in a field and three flocks of sheep lying by it, for of that pit
were the beasts watered. And the mouth thereof was shut and closed with
a great stone, for the custom was when all the sheep were gathered, they
rolled away the stone, and when they had drunken they laid the stone
again at the pit mouth. And then he said to the shepherds: Brethren,
whence are ye? Which answered: Of Aran. Then he asking them said: Know
ye not Laban, son of Nahor? They said: We know him well. How fareth he,
said he, is he all whole? He fareth well, said they; and lo! Rachel his
daughter cometh there with her flock. Then said Jacob: It is yet far to
even, it is yet time that the flocks be led to drink, and after be
driven to pasture, which answered: We may not so do till all the beasts
be gathered, and then we remove the stone from the mouth of the pit and
water our beasts. And as they talked, Rachel came with the flock of her
father, for she kept that time the beasts. And when Jacob saw her and
knew that she was his erne's [uncle's] daughter, and that they were his
erne's sheep, he removed the stone from the pit's mouth, and when her
sheep had drunken, he kissed her, and weeping he told her that he was
brother to her father and son of Rebekah. Then she hied her and told it
to her father, which when he understood that Jacob, his sister's son,
was come, he ran against him and, embracing, kissed him, and led him
into his house. And when he had heard the cause of his journey he said:
Thou art my mouth and my flesh.
And when he had been there the space of a month, he demanded Jacob if he
would gladly serve him because he was his cousin, and what hire and
reward he would have. He had two daughters, the more was named Leah, and
the less was called Rachel, but Leah was blear-eyed, and Rachel was fair
of visage and well-favored, whom Jacob loved, and said: I shall serve
thee for Rachel thy younger daughter seven years. Laban answered: It is
better that I give her to thee than to a strange man; dwell and abide
with me, and thou shalt have her. And so Jacob served him for Rachel
seven years, and him thought it but a little while, because of the great
love that he had to her. And at the end of seven years, Jacob said to
Laban: Give to me my wife, for the time is come that I should have her.
Then Laban called all his friends and made a feast for the wedding, and
at night he brought in Leah, the more daughter, and delivered to her an
handmaid named Zilpah. Then Jacob, when the morning came, saw that it
was Leah. He said to Laban her father: What hast thou done? Have I not
served thee for Rachel, why hast thou brought Leah to me? Laban
answered: It is not the usage ne custom of our country to give the
younger first to be wedded, but fulfil and make an end of this marriage
this week, and then shall I give to thee Rachel my daughter for other
seven years that thou shalt serve to me. Jacob agreed gladly, and when
that week was passed, he wedded Rachel to his wife. To whom Laban her
father gave an handmaid named Bilhah. Nevertheless when the wedding of
the younger was finished, because of the great love that he had to her,
him thought that the other seven years were but short.
[And Jacob while he served Laban had these sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi,
Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph.] When
Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban his wives' father: Give me leave to
depart that I may go in to my country and my land; give to me my wives
and children for whom I have served thee that I may go hence. Thou
knowest what service I have served thee. Laban said to him: I have
founden grace in thy sight; I know it by experience that God hath
blessed me for thee; I have ordained the reward that I shall give to
thee. Then Jacob answered: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how
much thy possession was in my hands. Thou hadst but little when I came
to thee, and now thou art rich, God hath blessed thee at mine entry; it
is now right that I provide somewhat toward mine house. Laban said: What
shall I give to thee? Jacob answered: I will nothing but that thou do
that I demand. I shall yet feed and keep thy beasts, and depart asunder
all the sheep of divers colors. And all that ever shall be of divers
colors and spotty, as well in sheep as in goats, let me have them for my
reward and meed, and Laban granted thereto. Then at time of departing,
Laban took them of two colors, and Jacob them that were of one color.
Thus was Jacob made much rich out of measure, and had many flocks, and
servants both men and women, camels and asses.
After that Jacob had heard Laban's sons say: Jacob hath taken all that
was our father's from him, and of his faculty is made rich, he was
abashed and understood well by Laban's looking that he was not so
friendly to himward as he had been tofore. And also our Lord said to him
that he should return into the land of his fathers and to his
generation, and that he would be with him. He then called Rachel and
Leah into the field whereas he fed his flocks, and said to them: I see
well by your father's visage that he is not toward me as he was
yesterday or that other day; forsooth the God of my father was with me,
and ye know well how I have served your father with all my might and
strength, but he hath deceived me, and hath changed mine hire and meed
ten times, and yet our Lord hath not suffered him to grieve me. When he
said the beasts of party color should be mine, then all the ewes brought
forth lambs of variable colors. And when he said the contrary they
brought forth all white. God hath taken the substance of your father and
hath given it to me. And now God hath commanded me to depart, wherefore
make you ready and let us depart hence. Then answered Rachel and Leah:
Shall we have nothing else of our father's faculty and of the heritage
of his house? Shall he repute us as strangers, and he hath eaten and
sold our goods? Sith God hath taken the goods of our father and hath
given it to us and to our children, wherefore all that God commanded to
thee, do it.
Jacob arose and set his children and his wives upon his camels, and went
his way and took all his substance, and flocks, and all that he had
gotten in Mesopotamia and went toward his father Isaac into the land of
Canaan. That time was Laban gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole
away the idols of her father. Jacob would not let Laban know of his
departing, and when he was departed with all that longed to him of
right, he came to the mount of Gilead. It was told to Laban, the third
day after, that Jacob was fled and gone, who anon took his brethren and
pursued him by the space of seven days and overtook him in the mount of
Gilead. He saw our Lord in his sleep saying to him: Beware that thou
speak not angrily ne hard words to Jacob. That time Jacob had set his
tabernacle in the hill, and when he came thither with his brethren, he
said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus to me to take away my daughters
as prisoners taken by sword? Why fleddest thou from me and wouldst not
let me have knowledge thereof? Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons
and daughters, thou hast done follily. Now may I do thee harm and evil,
but the God of thy father said to me yesterday: Beware that thou speak
no hard words against Jacob. Thou desirest to go to the house of thy
father, why hast thou stolen my gods? Jacob answered: That I departed
thee not knowing, I dreaded that violently thou wouldst have taken from
me thy daughters. And where thou reprovest me of theft, whosoever have
stolen thy gods let him be slain tofore our brethren. Seek and what thou
findest that is thine, take with thee.
He, saying this, knew not that Rachel had stolen her father's gods. Then
Laban entered the tabernacle of Jacob and Leah, and sought and found
nothing. And when he came into the tabernacle of Rachel, she hied her
and hid the idols under the litter of her camel and sat upon it. And he
sought and found nought. Then said Rachel: Let not my lord be wroth for
I may not arise to thee, for sickness is fallen to me, and so she
deceived her father. Then Jacob, being angry and grudging, said to
Laban: What is my trespass and what have I sinned to thee that thou hast
pursued me, and hast searched everything? What hast thou now founden of
all the substance of thy house? Lay it forth tofore my brethren and thy
brethren, that they judge between me and thee. I have served thee twenty
years and have been with thee, thy sheep and thy goats were never
barren. I have eaten no wethers of thy flock, nor beast hath destroyed
none. I shall make all good what was stolen. I prayed therefore day and
night, I labored both in heat and in cold, sleep fled from mine eyes.
Thus I served thee in thy house twenty years, fourteen for thy daughters
and six for thy flocks. Thou hast changed mine hire and reward ten
times. But if the God of my father Abraham and the dread of Isaac had
been with me, haply thou wouldst now have left me naked. Our Lord God
hath beholden mine affliction and the labor of mine hands and reproved
thee yesterday. Laban answered to him: My daughters and sons, and thy
flocks, and all that thou beholdest are thine, what may I do to my sons
and nephews? Let us now be friends, and make we a fast league and
confederacy together. Then Jacob raised a stone, and raised it in token
of friendship and peace, and so they ate together in friendship, and
sware each to other to abide in love ever after. And after this Laban
arose in the night, and kissed his daughters and sons, and blessed them,
and returned into his country.
Jacob went forth in his journey that he had taken. Angels of God met
him, which when he saw, he said: These be the castles of God, and called
that place Mahanaim. He sent messengers tofore him to Esau his brother
in the land of Seir, in the land of Edom, and bade them say thus to
Esau: This saith thy brother Jacob: I have dwelled with Laban unto this
day, I have oxen and asses, servants both men and women. I send now a
legation unto my lord that I may find grace in his sight. These
messengers returned to Jacob and said: We came to Esau thy brother, and
lo! he cometh for to meet thee with four hundred men. Jacob was sore
afraid then, and divided his company into twain turmes [two troops],
saying: If Esau come to that one and destroy that, that other shall yet
be saved. Then said Jacob: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, O Lord that saidst to me, return into thy land and place
of thy nativity, and saidst I shall do well to thee, I am the least in
all thy mercies, and in thy truth that thou hast granted to thy servant,
with my staff I have gone this river of Jordan, and now I return with
two turmes. I beseech the Lord keep me from the hands of my brother
Esau, for I fear him greatly lest he come and smite down the mother with
the sons. Thou hast said that thou shouldest do well to me and shouldest
spread my seed like unto the gravel of the sea, and that it may not be
numbered for multitude. Then when he had slept that night, he ordained
gifts for to send to his brother, goats two hundred, kids twenty, sheep
two hundred, and rams twenty; forty kine and twenty bulls, twenty asses
and ten foals of them. And he sent by his servants all these beasts; and
bade them say that Jacob his servant sent to him this present and that
he followeth after. And Jacob thought to please him with gifts.
The night following, him thought a man wrestled with him all that night
till the morning, and when he saw he might not overcome him, he hurted
the sinew of his thigh that he halted thereof, and said to him: Let me
go and leave me, for it is in the morning. Then Jacob answered: I shall
not leave thee but if thou bless me. He said to him: What is thy name?
he answered: Jacob. Then he said: Nay, said he, thy name shall no more
be called Jacob, but Israel, for if thou hast been strong against God,
how much more shalt thou prevail against men? Then Jacob said to him:
What is thy name? tell me. He answered, Why demandest thou my name,
which is marvellous? And he blessed him in the same place. Jacob called
the name of that same place Penuel, saying: I have seen our Lord face to
face, and my soul is made safe. And anon as he was past Penuel the sun
arose. He halted on his foot, and therefore the children of Israel eat
no sinews because it dried in the thigh of Jacob. Then Jacob lifting up
his eyes saw Esau coming and four hundred men with him, and divided the
sons of Leah and of Rachel, and of both their handmaidens, and set each
handmaid and their children tofore in the first place, Leah and her sons
in the second, and Rachel and Joseph all behind. And he going tofore
kneeled down to ground and, worshipping his brother, approached him.
Esau ran for to meet with his brother, and embraced him, straining his
neck, and weeping kissed him, and he looked forth and saw the women and
their children, and said: What been these and to whom longen they? Jacob
answered: They be children which God hath given to me thy servant and
his handmaidens, and their children approached and kneeled down, and
Leah with her children also worshipped him, and last of all Joseph and
Rachel worshipped him. Then said Esau: Whose been these turmes [troops]
which I have met? Jacob answered: I have sent them to thee, my lord,
unto the end that I may stand in thy grace. Esau said: I have many
myself, keep these and let them be thine. Nay, said Jacob, I pray thee
to take this gift which God hath sent me that I may find grace in thy
sight, for meseemeth I see thy visage like the visage of God; and
therefore be thou to me merciful, and take this blessing of me. Unnethe
[hardly] by compelling he taking it, said: Let us go together, I shall
accompany thee and be fellow of thy journey. Then said Jacob: Thou
knowest well, my lord, that I have young children and tender, and sheep
and oxen, which, if I over-labored, should die all in a day, wherefore
please it you, my lord, to go tofore, and I shall follow as I may with
my children and beasts. Esau answered: I pray thee then let my fellows
abide and accompany thee, whatsoever need thou have. Jacob said: It is
no need, I need no more but one, that I may stand in thy favor, my lord.
And Esau returned then the same way and journey that he came into Seir.
And Jacob came to Succoth and builded there an house, and from thence he
went in to Shalem, the town of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan,
and bought there a part of a field, in which he fixed his tabernacles,
of the sons of Hamor father of Shechem for an hundred lambs. And there
he raised an altar, and worshipped upon it the strongest God of Israel.