And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man sitting at the tax office, called  ¹Matthew, and He said to him,  ²Follow Me. And he rose and  ³followed Him.

And as He was reclining at table in the  ¹house, behold, many  ²tax collectors and sinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples.

And when the  ¹Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples,  ²Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?

Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a  ¹physician, but those who are  ²ill.

But go and  ¹learn what this means, “I desire  ²mercy and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the  ³righteous, but sinners.

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying,  ¹Why do we and the Pharisees  ²fast  ³much, but Your disciples do  ⁴not fast?

And Jesus said to them, The  ¹sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn as long as the  ²bridegroom is with them, can they? But days will come when the bridegroom will be  ³taken away from them, and then they will fast.

No one puts a patch of  ¹unfulled cloth on an  ²old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.

Neither do they put  ¹new wine into  ²old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into  ³fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

 ¹As He was speaking these things to them, behold, a  ²ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.

And Jesus rose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a  ¹hemorrhage for  ²twelve years  ³approached from behind and touched the  ⁴fringe of His garment,

For she said within herself, If only I touch His garment,  ¹I will be  ²healed.

And Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Take courage, daughter; your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that hour.

And when Jesus came to the ruler's  ¹house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

He said, Depart, for the girl has not died but is sleeping. And they laughed scornfully at Him.

But when the  ¹crowd had been put out, He entered and took hold of her hand, and the girl  ²rose up.

And this report went out into all that land.

And as Jesus passed on from there, two  ¹blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, Have mercy on us,  ²Son of David!

And when He came into the  ¹house, the blind men came to Him; and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.

Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, let it be done to you.

And their  ¹eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them saying, See that no one knows!

But they went out and spread reports about Him in all that land.

And as they were going out, behold, they brought to Him a  ¹dumb man possessed with a demon.

And when the demon was cast out, the dumb man  ¹spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.

But the Pharisees said, By the  ¹ruler of the demons He casts out the demons.

And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac.

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.

And Isaac  ¹entreated Jehovah for his wife because she was barren. And Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

And the children struggled with each other within her. And she said, If it is so, why am I like this? And she went to inquire of Jehovah.

And Jehovah said to her,
 ¹Two nations are in your womb,
And two peoples shall be separated from your bowels.
And the one people shall be stronger than the other people.
And the older shall serve the  ²younger.

And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name  ¹Esau.

And after that his brother came forth, and his hand was  ¹holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called  ²Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

And when the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.

Now Isaac loved Esau because  ¹he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

And Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field, and he was faint.

And Esau said to Jacob, Let me swallow down some of the red stew, that red stew there, for I am faint. Therefore his name was called  ¹Edom.

And Jacob said,  ¹First sell me your birthright.

And Esau said, I am now about to die. Of what use then is this birthright to me?

And Jacob said, First swear to me. And he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose up and went away. Thus Esau  ¹despised his birthright.

And there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech the king of the Philistines at Gerar.

And Jehovah appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I will tell you.

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will  ¹bless you; for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

And I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and will give to your seed all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed,

Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said,  ¹She is my sister, for he was afraid to say, My wife, thinking, The men of this place might slay me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful in appearance.

And when he had been there a long time, Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked out through his window and saw, and there was Isaac playfully caressing Rebekah his wife.

And Abimelech called Isaac and said, So she is indeed your wife. How then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I thought I might die on account of her.

And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.

And Abimelech charged all the people, saying, He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

And Isaac sowed in that land and gained in the same year a hundredfold. And Jehovah blessed him,

And the man became  ¹rich and continued to grow  ¹richer until he became very  ¹rich.

And he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great  ¹household, so that the Philistines envied him.

Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth.

And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.

So Isaac went away from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.

And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father and which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by the same names which his father had given them.

And Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of  ¹springing water.

And the shepherds of Gerar strove with Isaac's shepherds, saying, The water is ours. So he called the name of the well  ¹Esek, because they contended with him.

And they dug another well; and they strove over that also, so he called the name of it  ¹Sitnah.

And he moved away from there and dug another well, but they did not strive over it, so he called the name of it  ¹Rehoboth; and he said, Now Jehovah has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.

And he went up from there to Beer-sheba.

And Jehovah  ¹appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for My servant Abraham's sake.

And he built an altar there and called upon the name of Jehovah and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

And Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his  ¹adviser and Phicol the captain of his army.

And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?

And they said, We see plainly that Jehovah is with you; so we say, Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

That you will not do us any harm, just as we have not touched you, and just as we have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of Jehovah.

And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

And they rose up early in the morning and swore to one another. And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

And the same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, We have found water.

And he called it  ¹Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is  ²Beer-sheba to this day.

Now when Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

And they caused bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.

Now when Isaac was old, and his eyes had become so dim that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, My son. And he said to him, Here I am.

And he said, Behold now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.

Now then, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me,

And prepare for me a tasty meal, such as I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that  ¹I may  ²bless you before I die.

Now Rebekah had been listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring it home,

Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, I just heard your father speaking to Esau your brother, saying,

Bring me game, and prepare for me a tasty meal so that I may eat it and bless you before Jehovah before my death.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.

Go now to the flock, and take two choice kids for me from there, and I will prepare them as a tasty meal for your father, such as he loves.

Then you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before his death.

And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be as a  ¹deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.

And his mother said to him, Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.

And he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared a tasty meal, such as his father loved.

And Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.

And she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

And she put the tasty meal and the bread that she had prepared into the hand of Jacob her son.

And he came to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am. Who are you, my son?

And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Now rise up; sit up and eat some of my game, so that  ¹you may bless me.

And Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Jehovah your God put it in my way.

And Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.

And Jacob came near to Isaac his father. And he felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are Esau's hands.

And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.

And he said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am.

And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, that  ¹I may bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, Please come near and kiss me, my son.