Jacob and Esau Battle

Chapter 37

¹On the day that Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, died, Esau’s sons heard that Isaac had given the birthright to his younger son Jacob. They became very angry. ²They quarreled with their father: “Why is it that when you are the older and Jacob the younger, your father gave Jacob the birthright and deposed you?” ³He said to them, “Because I gave the right of the firstborn to Jacob in exchange for a little lentil broth. The day my father sent me to hunt game so that he could eat [it] and bless me, he came in a crafty way and brought in food and drink to my father. My father blessed him and put me under his control. ⁴Now our father has made us—me and him—swear that we will not seek harm, the one against his brother, and that we will continue in [a state of] mutual love and peace, each with his brother, so that we should not corrupt our behavior.” ⁵They said to him, “We will not listen to you by making peace with him because our strength is greater than his strength, and we are stronger than he is. We will go against him, kill him, and destroy his sons. If you do not go with us, we will harm you, too. ⁶Now listen to us: let us send to Aram, Philistia, Moab, and Ammon; and let us choose for ourselves select men who are brave in battle. Then let us go against him, make war with him, and uproot him from the earth before he gains strength.” ⁷Their father said to them, “Do not go and do not make war with him so that you may not fall before him.” ⁸They said to him, “Is this not the very way you have acted from your youth until today? You are putting your neck beneath his yoke. We will not listen to what you are saying.”

⁹So they sent to Aram and to their father’s friend Aduram. Together with them they hired for themselves 1,000 fighting men, select warriors. ¹⁰There came to them from Moab and from the Ammonites 1,000 select men who were hired; from the Philistines 1,000 select warriors; from Edom and the Horites 1,000 select fighters, and from the Kittim strong warriors. ¹¹They said to their father, “Go out; lead them. Otherwise we will kill you.” ¹²He was filled with anger and wrath when he saw that his sons were forcing him to go in front in order to lead them to his brother Jacob. ¹³But he remembered all the bad things that were hidden in his mind against his brother Jacob, and he did not remember the oath that he had sworn to his father and mother not to seek harm against Jacob throughout his entire lifetime.

¹⁴During all this time, Jacob was unaware that they were coming to him for battle. He, for his part, was mourning for his wife until they approached him near the tower with 4,000 warriors. ¹⁵The people of Hebron sent word to him: “Your brother has just now come against you to fight you with 4,000 men who have swords buckled on and are carrying shields and weapons.” They told him because they loved Jacob more than Esau, since Jacob was a more generous and kind man than Esau. ¹⁶But Jacob did not believe [it] until they came near the tower. ¹⁷Then he closed the gates of the tower, stood on the top, and spoke with his brother Esau. He said, “It is a fine consolation that you have come to give me for my wife who has died. Is this the oath that you swore to your father and your mother twice before he died? You have violated the oath and were condemned in the hour when you swore [it] to your father.” ¹⁸Then Esau said in reply to him, “Neither humankind nor serpents have a true oath that they, once they have sworn, have sworn [it as valid] forever. Every day they desire harm for one another, how to kill his enemy and opponent. ¹⁹You hate me and my sons forever. There is no observing of brotherly ties with you. ²⁰Listen to what I have to say to you. If a pig changes its hide and makes its hair limp like wool; and horns like the horns of a ram and sheep go out on its head, then I will observe brotherly ties with you. The breasts have been separated from their mother, for you have not been a brother to me. ²¹If wolves make peace with lambs so that they do not eat them or injure them; and if they have resolved to treat them well, then there will be peace in my mind for you. ²²If a lion becomes the friend of a bull and a confidant, and if it is harnessed together with it in a yoke and plows [as] one yoke, then I will make peace with you. ²³If the ravens turn white like a pelican, then know that I love you and will make peace with you. [As for] you—be uprooted and your children are being uprooted. There is to be no peace for you.” ²⁴When Jacob saw that he was adversely inclined toward him from his mind and his entire self so that he could kill him and [that] he was coming and bounding along like a boar that comes upon the spear that pierces it and kills it but does not pull back from it, ²⁵then he told his sons and his servants to attack him and all his companions.

Chapter 38

¹After this Judah spoke to his father Jacob and said to him, “Draw your bow, father; shoot your arrow; strike the enemy; and kill the foe. May you have the strength because we will not kill your brother, since he is your brother and he is similar to you, and, in our estimation, he is like you in honor.” ²Jacob then stretched his bow, shot an arrow, struck his brother Esau on his right breast, and killed him. ³He shot a second arrow and hit Aduran the Aramean on his left breast; he drove him back and killed him. ⁴After this Jacob’s sons—they and their servants—went out, dividing themselves to the four sides of the tower. ⁵Judah went out first. Naphtali and Gad were with him, and 50 servants were with them on the south side of the tower. They killed everyone whom they found in front of them. No one at all escaped from them. ⁶Levi, Dan, and Asher went out on the east side of the tower, and 50 were with them. They killed the Moabite and Ammonite bands. ⁷Reuben, Issachar, and Zebulun went out on the north side of the tower, and their 50 with them. They too killed the Philistine fighting men. ⁸Simeon, Benjamin, and Enoch—Reuben’s son—went out on the west side of the tower, and their 50 with them. Of [the people of] Edom and the Horites they killed 400 strong warriors, and 600 ran away. Esau’s four sons ran away with them. They left their slain father thrown on the hill that is in Adoraim. ⁹Jacob’s sons pursued them as far as Mount Seir, while Jacob buried his brother on the hill that is in Adoraim and then returned to the tower. ¹⁰Jacob’s sons besieged Esau’s sons in Mount Seir. They bowed their neck to become servants for Jacob’s sons. ¹¹They sent to their father [to ask] whether they should make peace with them or kill them. ¹²Jacob sent word to his sons to make peace. So they made peace with them and placed the yoke of servitude on them so that they should pay tribute to Jacob and his sons for all time. ¹³They continued paying tribute to Jacob until the day that he went down to Egypt. ¹⁴The Edomites have not extricated themselves from the yoke of servitude that Jacob’s sons imposed on them until today.