was the custom of the country, yet all the time wishing, as he looked
out over the flocks and herds, that his was to be an older brother's
portion when they were divided.

The word Jacob means "supplanter," or one who takes the place of
another, and Jacob acted up to the meaning of his name at the first
opportunity. It came about in this way.

Jacob was cooking some food one day which smelt and looked very
tempting to Esau when he came in hungry and tired to the point of
exhaustion from one of his hunting trips. He asked his brother to give
him some of this food, and Jacob, seeing a chance to acquire what he
coveted, told him he would do so if he would give him his birthright in
exchange for it. Probably Esau's hunger was more to him at the moment
than any privileges he might have later in life, so he consented and
the bargain was made.

[Illustration: Jacob was cooking some food one day.]

After this there was a famine in the land where Isaac and his family
lived, but Isaac did not go to Egypt to escape it as his father had
done on a similar occasion. Instead, he took his family into the land
of the Philistines and lived for a time at a place called Gerar.

Isaac grew so prosperous in Gerar that the Philistines envied him.
They had filled up the wells which his father had dug years before, so
Isaac, besides reopening them, dug others, about which there were many
disputes. Then after a while Isaac took his family to Beersheba, and
there God renewed to him the promises of future greatness which He had
made to Abraham.