The Two Twins

Isaac and Rebekah had twin boys. The first to be born was red and hairy all over, and they named him Esau. The second came out holding his brother’s heel, and they named him Jacob. When they grew up, Esau became a hunter who loved the open fields, and Jacob was a quiet man who stayed among the tents. One day Jacob was cooking a pot of red lentil stew when Esau came in from the field, worn out and hungry. Esau said, “Give me some of that red stew — I am starving!” Jacob said, “First, sell me your rights as the firstborn.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die of hunger — what good is a birthright to me?” So Esau swore, and sold his firstborn rights to Jacob for bread and a bowl of stew. He ate and drank, got up, and walked away. That is how little Esau cared about his birthright.

When Isaac was old and his eyes had grown too dim to see, he called for Esau and asked him to hunt some game and cook him his favorite meal — and then he would bless him. But Rebekah heard it, and while Esau was out hunting, she cooked the meal herself and dressed Jacob in Esau’s clothes, with goatskins on his hands and neck to feel hairy like his brother. Jacob brought the food to his father and said he was Esau. Isaac felt his hands, and wondered, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are Esau’s hands.” And Isaac ate, and blessed Jacob with the blessing of the firstborn: plenty of grain and new wine, and nations bowing before him. Hardly had Jacob left when Esau came back from hunting with his own meal — and the trick was discovered. Esau cried out with a great and bitter cry, but the blessing had been given. Esau was so angry that he planned to hurt Jacob. So Rebekah told Jacob, “Run, my son — go far away to my brother’s house, and stay there until your brother’s anger cools.”

So Jacob set out alone on the long road. When the sun set, he stopped for the night in a lonely place, took a stone for his pillow, and lay down to sleep under the stars. And Jacob dreamed. He saw a ladder standing on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven — and the messengers of God were going up and coming down on it. And the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. Do not be afraid. The land you are lying on, I will give to you and to your seed. Your family will spread out to the west and the east, the north and the south — and in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Look — I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done everything I have promised you.” Jacob woke up in the dark and whispered, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. This is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” In the morning he set up his stone pillow as a pillar and called the place Bethel, which means “house of God.” And he went on his way, and God was with him.