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Genesis Health Ventures, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

148 West State Street
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania 19438
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

Genesis Health Ventures was founded in 1985 on the visionary principal that health care for the elderly was too focused on long-term custodial care. Instead, founder, chairman and chief executive officer Michael R. Walker sought to build a company that worked with each customer to promote independence and the achievement of a full life. To meet that goal, Genesis Health Ventures created a comprehensive network of people, places and programs united by a common philosophy and mission: To listen to what customers want to achieve, to advise them on what's possible, and to work to overcome barriers to living a full life.

History of Genesis Health Ventures, Inc.

Genesis Health Ventures, Inc. provides integrated health care services for the nation's growing elderly population under the brand name Genesis ElderCare. Genesis has taken an innovative approach to health care delivery, building a comprehensive network of managed care facilities and services designed to help senior citizens maintain their independence and mobility. The Genesis network services offerings include community support programs, physician services, home care support, short-term rehabilitation, out-patient rehabilitation, assisted living communities, retirement communities, pharmacy services and medical equipment, and long-term care. Serving more than 70,000 clients, Genesis has focused its operations on building dominant market share in five regional markets: the Northeast, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Vermont; the Delaware Valley, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and northern Delaware; Baltimore/Washington, D.C., including Maryland and northern Virginia; Southern Delaware and Eastern Maryland; and Central Florida.

The Genesis network includes more than 150 owned or leased facilities, including approximately 120 nursing homes and geriatric care facilities, ten primary-care physician clinics, six rehabilitation centers, nine institutional pharmacies, five home health care agencies, and 16 managed retirement communities, as well as contracts with more than 500 third-party providers. The company's ASCO Healthcare subsidiary provides pharmacy and surgical and medical equipment services for the ElderCare network and other nursing homes throughout the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic region. Genesis's revenues for the year ended September 30, 1996, topped $671 million, with net income of more than $37 million. In 1995 basic health care services accounted for 57 percent of the company's revenues, while specialty medical services generated 37 percent and management services six percent. Genesis is led by chairman and co-CEO Michael R. Walker and president and co-CEO Richard R. Howard, cofounders of the company.

Innovations in Senior Care in the 1980s

Walker and Howard were already veterans of the nursing home industry when they founded Genesis in 1985. They had worked together since the 1970s, building up two $100 million nursing home chains, as well as their own reputations in the industry. When these chains were bought up by industry heavyweights Beverly Enterprises and HCR, Inc., Walker and Howard decided to go into business for themselves. Setting up operations in an old furniture and dry goods store in the small town of Kennett Square outside Philadelphia, their reputations served them well: on the first day of operation, the company was able to arrange some $32 million in loans.

Setting out to build a nursing home chain with a difference, Walker and Howard used these loans to purchase nursing home facilities in Connecticut and southwestern Massachusetts. At the time, the prevailing culture among nursing homes was to provide long-term custodial care, typically on a fee-for-service basis. Walker and Howard, however, looked toward building a health services network, focused on providing geriatric care, that would emphasize rehabilitative services. "No one wants to end up in a nursing home," Walker told Institutional Investor, and that belief provided the cornerstone for the company's growth. Through rehabilitative therapy and services, patients were encouraged to return home--or to less care-intensive facilities--and to independent lives. Genesis offered a program of clinical intervention and managed care that emphasized the restoration of functional ability. This, the company reasoned, would be good for its patients, and for its bottom line. The typical nursing home was expensive to operate, and long-term care provided only low profit margins.

Managed care was still relatively unknown in the health care industry, and nearly unheard of in the geriatric market. However, the projected growth of the elderly population, with forecasts of 35 million by the end of the century and nearly 60 million by the year 2025, signalled the need to control costs among the very population most in need of medical services. From the start, Genesis set out to control its own costs. Rather than contracting out for its network support services, such as pharmacy services, home medical equipment, and rehabilitation therapy, the company instead focused on acquiring these services and their higher profit margins. As clients were discharged from the company's nursing homes, they could be retained within the company's network of other services. In 1986 Genesis made the first of many acquisitions, acquiring the Speech & Hearing Network, which was renamed Team Rehabilitation.

By 1990 the company had more than 30 facilities in its network, with 4,500 long-term beds, generating revenues of nearly $145 million. Genesis continued to expand its services network through carefully planned acquisitions. One important consideration was a proposed acquisition's proximity to other facilities in the company's managed care network. "If you own a pharmacy in Pennsylvania and a nursing home in North Carolina, you can't share information," Walker told the Baltimore Sun, "But if I have a pharmacy, a physical therapist, a physician in the same place, guess what? They can all get together once a week to discuss the patient's health and get that person out of long-term care."

Genesis next moved to expand into pharmacy and medical supply services--where profit margins ranged from 10 to 15 percent as opposed to the 3 to 5 percent available on nursing homes&mdashquiring Accredited Surgical Companies, Inc., and Drug Lane Pharmacies, Inc., both of which repackaged and sold drugs. The two companies were combined to form the ASCO Healthcare, Inc., subsidiary, which was expanded into a full-service medical supply company that supplied not only the Genesis network, but outside nursing homes as well. Genesis also expanded its business by entering a management agreement for providing life-care services at continuous-care retirement centers, and by opening a physician-staffed outpatient clinic.

Growth in the 1990s

Genesis went public in 1991, selling 1.8 million shares and raising $13.5 million, which the company used to pay down some $12.6 million in debt. By then, Genesis operated 42 geriatric-care facilities, managed 13 life-care communities, and held service contracts with more than 140 independent health care providers. The company continued to pursue acquisitions, purchasing Concord Healthcare Corp. and Total Care Systems, which helped boost the company's revenues to $171.5 million for its 1991 fiscal year. Genesis, which had been profitable since its formation, posted a net income of nearly $3.3 million for the year. Genesis also took another step toward completing its network by developing a subsidiary called Physician Services. This addition allowed Genesis to become the first and only company in its industry to employ its own primary care physicians for its customers.

The following year, the ASCO subsidiary expanded, acquiring Suburban Medical Services for $9 million. The company opened a second rehabilitative outpatient clinic in order to serve customers discharged from its nursing homes; at the same time, the company moved to extend its services with the construction of an assisted-living facility located next to its geriatric facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. At the end of 1992, Genesis posted a second public offering, of 2.5 million shares at $13 per share, setting the stage for the next phase in the company's growth. By then, the company's revenues neared $200 million, while net profits climbed to $7.4 million.

The next year, 1993, proved to be pivotal in the company's development. Genesis expanded its ASCO subsidiary with the purchase of a home health care company and the acquisition of Health Concepts and Services, Inc., a provider of nursing home staff training and services based in Baltimore. By then, ASCO's revenues had climbed to $80 million, with 80 percent of those sales coming from outside the Genesis network. Within Genesis, the company established its Functional Evaluation & Treatment Unit, later known as the Full Potential process. This unit provided a geriatric assessment program for evaluating and placing patients. Based on physician-directed teams including registered nurses; nurse practitioners; physical, occupational, recreational, and speech therapists; social workers; and dietitians, the unit worked with patients and their families, as well as community and network resources, to develop realistic rehabilitation goals and care plans designed to achieve those goals.

Until 1993, Genesis's emphasis had been on expanding the scope of its network services; however, calls for health care reform from the newly inaugurated Clinton administration led Genesis to shift its focus. One expected consequence of health care reforms in general--and the inevitable reforms to the Medicare/Medicaid system for the company's core geriatric clients--would be abolition of the old fee-for-service health care plans in favor of prepaid, bulk rate plans. With competition for prepayments expected to be intense, Genesis moved to create a critical mass of nursing homes and geriatric facilities that would enable it to compete more strongly for contracts, especially government contracts. In October 1993, the company announced the largest acquisition in its history, with the $205 million purchase of Meridian Healthcare, the largest nursing home operator in Maryland. Genesis added Meridian's 36 geriatric-care facilities to the 58 already in the company's network, nearly doubling its revenues, from $220 million in 1993 to nearly $400 million in 1994. Maryland then became the company's largest market, surpassing Massachusetts. The Meridian acquisition also meant that Genesis would be able to expand its range of services into Maryland, where Genesis was by then the state's largest senior care provider, controlling costs by achieving economies of scale.

The Meridian acquisition was the first in a flurry of new acquisitions. In a move to expand into the burgeoning home health care market, Genesis purchased a 14 percent share in a partnership corporation acquiring Baltimore's Visiting Nurse Association. The company also entered a strategic alliance with Horizon Healthcare to provide pharmacy services in the New England region. By 1995, the company had successfully absorbed Meridian's operations under the Genesis banner, gaining recognition as well for its policy of maintaining both existing management and staff, ensuring continuity of client care. This policy served the company well as it sought further acquisitions.

After acquiring Pennsylvania-based TherapyCare Systems LP for $7 million in April 1995, Genesis, through ASCO, bolstered its home health care business in June of that year with the $2 million acquisition of Baltimore-based Eastern Medical Supplies, Inc., and that company's Eastern Rehab Services, Inc., affiliate. The new acquisitions, which generated about $3.5 million in annual revenues through the sale and rental of home medical equipment and respiratory rehabilitation equipment, provided Genesis with increased access to the home health market through hospital affiliations, hospice contracts, and two retail stores. Helping to fuel the company's expansion was a new public offering that raised nearly $52 million, enabling Genesis to pay down debt associated with the Meridian acquisition.

By August 1995, Genesis announced its next large acquisition, agreeing to pay $82.5 million for McKerley Health Care Centers, the largest nursing home chain in New Hampshire. A principal factor in the family-owned chain's decision to sell to Genesis was the company's treatment of its Meridian employees: all of that company's managers, executives, and staff had kept their jobs, while new jobs had been created, and two of Meridian's executives had been promoted to key executive positions within Genesis itself. The acquisition of McKerley added 15 owned or leased geriatric care facilities, with 1,500 beds and some 1,500 employees.

At the beginning of 1996, with 1995 revenues of $487 million and net income of nearly $24 million, Genesis made plans to build a new, $16 million, 100,000-square-foot headquarters in Kennett Square. At the same time, the company consolidated its operations, bringing its core businesses under the trademarked brand name Genesis ElderCare. Genesis Health Ventures, Inc., was kept on as the company's legal name, and the name under which it traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Genesis's acquisition drive continued through 1996. In April, the company reached agreement to purchase NeighborCare Pharmacies for $57.25 million. NeighborCare, which supplied drugs to nursing homes, operated pharmacies in physician offices, and provided infusion therapy treatments in homes and nursing homes, was merged into the ASCO subsidiary. The following month, Genesis agreed to pay New York-based National Health Care Affiliates, Inc., $133.6 million to acquire 17 elderly care facilities in Florida, Virginia, and Connecticut, adding more than 2,500 beds, as well as a rehabilitation therapy business and a nutritional therapy business. In keeping with its focus on its core markets, Genesis also agreed to sell several Indiana nursing homes acquired through its Meridian purchase.

Before closing out its 1996 fiscal year, Genesis made its largest acquisition to date, agreeing to pay $223 million to acquire Geriatric & Medical Company, which, with 27 nursing homes, added another 3,500 beds to Genesis's New Jersey and Pennsylvania networks. By the end of its 1996 fiscal year, Genesis had boosted its revenues to $671.5 million and posted net income of more than $37 million. The addition of Geriatric & Medical's revenues to Genesis's 1997 sales was expected to help the company near its goal of $1 billion in revenues, while the Genesis history of carefully managed growth pointed to a continued future along the acquisition trail.

Principal Operating Units: Genesis ElderCare Network Services; Genesis ElderCare Physician Services; Genesis ElderCare Rehabilitation Services; Genesis ElderCare Home Care Services; Genesis ElderCare Centers; ASCO Healthcare-Genesis ElderCare Network; The Tidewater Healthcare Shared Services Group.

Related information about Genesis

otheruses

Genesis (, Greek: ???????, having the meanings of "birth", "creation", "cause", "beginning", "source" and "origin") is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. As Jewish tradition considers it to have been written by Moses, it is sometimes also called The First Book of Moses. Fairly common among Abrahamic followers is the belief that the book was Divinely Inspired (written by God through a human), and is therefore Infallible.

In Hebrew, it is called ?????? This is in line with the pattern of naming the other four books of the Pentateuch.

Introduction

Genesis begins by describing God's creation of the world, Adam and Eve and their banishment from the Garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Abel, and the story of Noah and the great flood.

Chapter twelve begins with the call of Abram (later Abraham) and his then barren wife Sarai (later Sarah) from Ur (probably in Babylonia) to Canaan (Palestine). It contains the record of Abraham's acceptance by God, and of God's promise to him that through his seed all people on earth would be blessed (22:3). The book records the doings of his son Isaac, and grandsons, Esau and Jacob (known as Israel), as well as their families. It is the composition of a writer (or set of writers, see documentary hypothesis), who has recounted the traditions of the Israelites, combining them into a uniform work, while preserving the textual and formal peculiarities incident to their difference in origin and mode of transmission. it is an article of Orthodox Jewish faith that the book was dictated, in its entirety, by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. For a number of reasons, this view is no longer accepted by many biblical scholars and liberal Protestants. Instead, they accept a theory whose roots are based on cultural evolution and philosophical naturalism which teaches that the text of Genesis as we see it today was redacted together around 440 BC from earlier sources, namely the Sumerians.

Use of the literal reading to date creation

Based on the genealogies in Genesis and later parts of the Bible, both religious Jews and Christians have independently worked backwards to estimate the time of the Creation of the world. This approach suggests Creation was around the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. This dating is based on an entirely literal reading of the creation account: that the six days in which God created the heavens and the earth were 24-hour days, that Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden existed, and that a complete trace of events from Creation to a historically verifiable date is listed in the Biblical account.

Many scholars have questioned the accuracy of the historical account, and the use of such a retracing of the events presented in Genesis to date human history on earth has been rejected by the great majority of historians and archaeologists. Furthermore, independent scientific evidence from fields as diverse as cosmology, geology and biology is entirely incompatible with the timeline described in Genesis (e.g. the age of the Earth is estimated as more than 4 billion years). This subject is further discussed in The Bible and history and Young Earth creationism. Because a literal reading of Genesis can be seen to conflict with widely accepted scientific theories such as the Big Bang and common descent, many believers view the creation narratives presented in Genesis as an allegory; however the non-literal view of creation did not begin with Charles Darwin, but rather predated him by hundreds of years.

Those who believe that the first eleven chapters are literal argue that the style of writing shares a literary style with other biblical writing often considered to be historical in nature and the text nowhere indicates that it is meant as anything other than a literal account . Such analyses, along with a strong tradition of Biblical inerrancy, has led a significant number of religious and scientific individuals and organisations to reject man's theoretical accounts of the origin of life and the universe in favour of Young-Earth creationism or YEC. Those holding to the view of YEC, use the Genesis account of creation to provide alternative explanations to those of modern science on subjects including the origin of the universe, life and humankind.

There are also growing number of Christians and Jews who argue that the beginning ?of ?Genesis is not an account of the physical creation of the world; Saint Augustine took this view in The Literal Meaning of Genesis, but strongly rejected the suggestion that it represented an allegory;

Christian views

There are numerous references to Genesis in the New Testament. While none of these references explicitly state an author for Genesis there are several places which attribute the books of the law (Torah) to Moses (Mark 12:19, 26; Luke 24:27).

The author of the gospel of John uses language similar to that in Genesis 1 when personifying the speech of God as the eternal Logos (Greek: ????? "reason", "word", "speech"), that is the origin of all things "with God", and "was God", and "became flesh and tabernacled among us". Many Christians interpret this as an example of apostolic teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ; it is primarily on the strength of John's testimony that Christians ascribe personality to the creative speech of God, and identify that personality with Jesus (Hebrews 1:2,3, Colossians 1:16,17 are among other Biblical sources for the belief).

In addition to references to Genesis in the New Testament, Christian theologians (from the earliest Patristics to modern-day writers) have endlessly interpreted and debated the stories and images in Genesis, using a myriad of methods and theological perspectives.

Islamic views

The Islamic view rejectswww.quranicstudies.com/article22.html the Biblical account of Lot offering his daughters to be gang-raped (Genesis 19:8)www.answering-christianity.com/bassam_zawadi/prophet_lots_offering.htm and later impregnating both of them due to excessive alcohol consumption (Genesis 19:30-36). God has called all objects and living beings into existence by his word.

The universe when created was, in the judgment of God, good. Genesis expresses an optimistic satisfaction and pleasure in the world.
God as a personal being, referred to in anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terms. God may appear and speak to mankind.
Genesis gives no philosophically rigorous definition of God; God is treated exclusively with reference to his dealings with the world and with man.
Humankind is the crown of Creation, and has been made in God's image.
All people are descended from Adam and Eve; man must include God's creatures in the respect that it demands in general, by not exploiting them for his own selfish uses.
God is presented as being the sole creator of nature, and as existing outside of it and beyond it.
Some historians believe Genesis to be a more recent example of monotheistic belief than Zoroastrianism, interpreting the commandment "have no other gods before me" as an artifact of early henotheism among the Jews -- i.e., as evidence that the Hebrews were not to worship the gods of other peoples, but only their own tribal god. On the other hand, Genesis, in its present form, purports to give a record of beliefs prior to any surviving religious texts, describing the worship of other gods and local deities as a gradual development among the nations, who departed from original monotheism.
God created an eternal, unbreakable covenant with all mankind at the time of Noah; this is known as the Noachide covenant. This universal concern with all mankind is paralleled by a second covenant made to the descendants of Abraham in particular, through his son Isaac, in which their descendants will be chosen to have a special destiny.
The Jewish people are chosen to be in a special covenant with God;

The article on Biblical cosmology discusses the Bible's view of the cosmos, much of which derives from descriptions in Genesis.

Summary

Creation

The creation narrative in Genesis can be split into two sections - the first section starts with an account of the Creation of the universe by God, which occurs in six days, the second section is more human-oriented, and less concerned with explaining how the Earth, its creatures and its features came to exist as they are today.

Within the first chapter, in an order as written in the Bible: On the first day, God created heaven and Earth. On the second day, God created the firmament of heaven. On the sixth day, God created land animals before creating man.

Chapter two mentions the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath, where God rested and sanctified the day. The seventh day is generally not regarded as a day inside the context of biblical creationism.

Some may wonder whether it was this chapter of the Hebrew Bible that gives us our seven-day week, and may further speculate about the importance of the number seven. However, research into the origin of the week tells us that it was widely spread throughout the ancient world, so widely that apart from claims such as Genesis, its origins cannot be determined with certainty.

The second section of the creation narrative explains that the earth was lifeless, how God brought moisture to the soil and how man was formed from the dust (Adam translates from Hebrew to mean 'Red Earth').

Adam and Eve

God formed Adam out of earth ("adamah"), and set him in the Garden of Eden, to watch over it. Adam is allowed to eat of all the fruit within it, except that of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". Of this tree, God tells them "thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

God then brings all the animals to Adam (2:19). When Adam realizes this, God then puts him into a deep sleep, takes a rib from his side, and from it forms a woman (called later "Eve"), to be his companion (his helpmate).

Later, starting in verse 3:1, Eve was convinced by a talking serpent to eat of the forbidden fruit. The serpent convinces her by saying "Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." In 3:3, she adds to what God said: "neither shall ye touch it", which God never told Adam. This turning from God is also considered the original sin in traditional Christian interpretation. As punishment, the ground is cursed, Adam and Eve become mortal (because they no longer have access to the Tree of Life), and they are driven out of the garden. The entrance to the garden is then guarded by cherubim with a flaming sword.

Adam and Eve initially have two sons named, Cain and Abel. There is a Chiastic structure in the first few verses relating Cain to Abel. He finally settles in the land of Nod.

Note: the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel also appear in the Qur'an (see Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an).

From Adam to Noah

Cain, the son of Adam, builds the first known city in the Bible and calls it after the name of his son, Enoch (Genesis 4:17). Lamech's sons are the first dwellers in tents and owners of herds (Genesis 4:20, Jabal is called the "father of such as dwell in tents"), and they are the earliest inventors of musical instruments (Genesis 4:21) and workers in brass and iron (Genesis 4:22). These descendants of Cain know nothing about God (Genesis 4:16).

Another son of Adam, Seth, has in the meantime been born to Adam and Eve in place of the slain Abel (Genesis 4:25). The tenth in regular descent is Noah (Genesis 5:1-29). In line with most of the other biblical characters born before the flood whose ages are provided, Adam lived until the age of 930 (Genesis 5:5).

Chapter 5 provides a genealogy of descendants of Adam till Noah:

Noah and the great flood

In Genesis chapter 6, verse 2, the "sons of God" took "daughters of men" to be their wives. Giants - the Nephilim and Gibborim - live on Earth among men. He selects one man, Noah, to survive, as Noah is a righteous man. God commands Noah to build an Ark, and to take on it his family and representatives of the animals. The world is then destroyed by a cataclysmic Flood, after which God enters into a covenant with Noah and his descendants, the entire human race, promising never again to destroy mankind in this way. His son Ham sees Noah's nakedness, who tells his brothers Shem and Japheth; When Noah awakes he places a curse on Ham's son Canaan, saying that he and all his descendents shall henceforce be slaves to his sons Shem and Japheth. The dispersion of humanity into separate races and nations is described in the story of the Tower of Babel. A genealogy is given of Shem's descendants.

Note: the story of Noah also appears in the Qur'an (see Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an).

Abram and Sarai

Terah, who lives at Ur of the Chaldees, has three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran's son is Lot. Nahor is married to Milcah, and Abram to Sarai, who has no children. Here God appears to him and promises that the land shall become the property of his descendants.

Abram is forced by a famine to leave the country and go to Egypt. God smites the King with a disease, which the King recognizes as a sign from God; Returning with his warband after rescuing Lot and his clan, Abram is met by Melchizedek, the king and high priest of Salem (Jerusalem), who blesses him, and in return Abram gives him a tithe of his booty, refusing his share of the same.

Hagar and Ishmael

Sarai is childless, so Sarai and Abram decide that they will produce an heir for Abram through his Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Abram takes her as a concubine and has a child with her, Ishmael. God again appears to Abram, and enters into a personal covenant with him securing Abram's future: God promises him a numerous progeny, changes his name to "Abraham" and that of Sarai to "Sarah," and institutes the circumcision of all males as an eternal sign of the covenant.

Sodom and Gomorrah

God sends Abraham three angels, whom Abraham receives hospitably. Abraham also hears that God's messengers intend to execute judgment upon the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, whereupon he intercedes for the sinners, and endeavors to have their fate set aside. Having thus shown that they have deserved their fate, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire-and-brimstone. Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters, which resulted in the births of Ammon and Moab, is also described. He desists on being warned by God.

Note: the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah also appears in the Qur'an (see Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an).

The birth of Isaac

At last the long-expected son is born, and receives the name of "Isaac" (Itzhak: "will laugh" in Hebrew). At Sarah's insistence Ishmael together with his mother Hagar is driven out of the house. Abraham, during the banquet that he gives in honor of Isaac's birth, enters into a covenant with Abimelech, who confirms his right to the well Beer-sheba.

The story of Isaac also appears in the Qur'an (see Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an).

The near sacrifice of Isaac

Now that Abraham seems to have all his desires fulfilled, having even provided for the future of his son, God subjects him to the greatest trial of his faith by demanding Isaac as a sacrifice. On the death of Sarah, Abraham acquires Machpelah for a family tomb. and he dies in a prosperous old age.

Note: the story of the sacrifice also appears in the Qur'an (see Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an).

Esau and Jacob

After being married for twenty years Rebekah has twins by Isaac: Esau, who becomes a hunter, and Jacob (Ya'akov: "will follow"), who becomes a herdsman. While sleeping, a being (variously regarded as God, an angel, or a man), appears to Jacob and wrestles with him. The mysterious one pleads to be released before daybreak, but Jacob refuses to release the being until he agrees and announces to Jacob that he shall bear the name "Israel," which means "one who wrestled with God" and is freed.

The meeting with Esau proves a friendly one, and the brothers separate reconciled. Jacob settles at Shechem. His sons Simeon and Levi take vengeance on the city of Shechem, whose prince has raped their sister Dinah. On the road from Bethel, Rachel gives birth to a son, Benjamin, and dies.

Joseph the dreamer

Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, is hated by his brothers on account of his dreams prognosticating his future dominion, and on the advice of Judah is secretly sold to a caravan of Ishmaelitic merchants going to Egypt. Pharaoh receives them amicably and assigns to them the land of Goshen (xlvi.-xlvii.).

References

also:

Dr. Cassuto, "Genesis Commentary" (A Jewish commentary.)
Henry M. (A scholarly Jewish commentary employing traditional sources.)
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), In the Beginning.

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