20. and he was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel. She was also the sister of Laban, the Aramean from northern Syria.Almost twenty years later,
21. Rebekah still had no children. So Isaac asked the Lord to let her have a child, and the Lord answered his prayer.
22. Before Rebekah gave birth, she knew she was going to have twins, because she could feel them inside her, fighting each other. She thought, “Why is this happening to me?” Finally, she asked the Lord why her twins were fighting,
23. and he told her:“Your two sons will becometwo separate nations.The younger of the twowill be stronger,and the elder sonwill be his servant.”
24. When Rebekah gave birth,
25. the first baby was covered with red hair, so he was named Esau.
26. The second baby grabbed his brother's heel, so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
27. As Jacob and Esau grew older, Esau liked the outdoors and became a good hunter, while Jacob settled down and became a shepherd.
28. Esau would take the meat of wild animals to his father Isaac, and so Isaac loved him more, but Jacob was his mother's favourite son.
29. One day, Jacob was cooking some stew, when Esau came home hungry
30. and said, “I'm starving to death! Give me some of that red stew at once!” That's how Esau got the name “Edom”.
31. Jacob replied, “Sell me your rights as the firstborn son.”
32. “I'm about to die,” Esau answered. “What good will those rights do me?”