King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 25
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Then again took a wife, and her name was . And she him Zimran, and , and , and , and , and . And begat , and . And the sons of were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of ; , and , and , and , and . All these were the children of . And gave all that he had unto . But unto the sons of the , which had, gave gifts, and sent them away from his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. And these are the days of the years of ’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then gave up the ghost, and in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. And his sons and in the cave of , in the field of the son of the , which is before ; The field which purchased of the sons of : there was buried, and his wife. And it came to pass after the of , that his son ; and dwelt by the well Lahai–roi. Now these are the generations of , ’s son, whom the , ’s handmaid, unto : And these are the names of the sons of , by their names, according to their generations: of , Nebajoth; and , and , and , And , and , and , , and , , , and : These are the sons of , and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. And these are the years of the life of , an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and ; and was gathered unto his people. And they dwelt from unto , that is before , as thou goest toward : and he in the of all his brethren. And these are the generations of , ’s son: begat : And was forty years old when he took to wife, the daughter of the of Padan–aram, the sister to the . And intreated for his wife, because she was : and was intreated of him, and his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of . And said unto her, Two nations are in thy , and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall the younger. 24And when her days to be were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her . And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name . And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on ’s heel; and his name was called : and was threescore years old when she them. And the boys grew: and was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And loved , because he did eat of his venison: but loved . And sod pottage: and came from the field, and he was faint: And said to , Feed me, I thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called . 31And said, Sell me this day thy . And said, Behold, I am at the point to : and what profit shall this do to me? And said, to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his unto . Then gave bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus despised his .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis