Genesis 27
27
Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing
1One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, “My son.”
“Yes, Father?” Esau replied.
2“I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and I don’t know when I may die. 3Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows, and go out into the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 4Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.”
5But Rebekah overheard what Isaac had said to his son Esau. So when Esau left to hunt for the wild game, 6she said to her son Jacob, “Listen. I overheard your father say to Esau, 7‘Bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal. Then I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ 8Now, my son, listen to me. Do exactly as I tell you. 9Go out to the flocks, and bring me two fine young goats. I’ll use them to prepare your father’s favorite dish. 10Then take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.”
11“But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. 12What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.”
13But his mother replied, “Then let the curse fall on me, my son! Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats for me!”
14So Jacob went out and got the young goats for his mother. Rebekah took them and prepared a delicious meal, just the way Isaac liked it. 15Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes, which were there in the house, and gave them to her younger son, Jacob. 16She covered his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skin of the young goats. 17Then she gave Jacob the delicious meal, including freshly baked bread.
18So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said.
“Yes, my son,” Isaac answered. “Who are you—Esau or Jacob?”
19Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.”
20Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God put it in my path!” Jacob replied.
21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” 22So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said. 23But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob. 24“But are you really my son Esau?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.
25Then Isaac said, “Now, my son, bring me the wild game. Let me eat it, and then I will give you my blessing.” So Jacob took the food to his father, and Isaac ate it. He also drank the wine that Jacob served him. 26Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.”
27So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. He said, “Ah! The smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which the Lord has blessed!
28“From the dew of heaven
and the richness of the earth,
may God always give you abundant harvests of grain
and bountiful new wine.
29May many nations become your servants,
and may they bow down to you.
May you be the master over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
All who curse you will be cursed,
and all who bless you will be blessed.”
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Esau returned from his hunt. 31Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. Then he said, “Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing.”
32But Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”
Esau replied, “It’s your son, your firstborn son, Esau.”
33Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, “Then who just served me wild game? I have already eaten it, and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!”
34When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. “Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!” he begged.
35But Isaac said, “Your brother was here, and he tricked me. He has taken away your blessing.”
36Esau exclaimed, “No wonder his name is Jacob, for now he has cheated me twice.#27:36 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.” First he took my rights as the firstborn, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?”
37Isaac said to Esau, “I have made Jacob your master and have declared that all his brothers will be his servants. I have guaranteed him an abundance of grain and wine—what is left for me to give you, my son?”
38Esau pleaded, “But do you have only one blessing? Oh my father, bless me, too!” Then Esau broke down and wept.
39Finally, his father, Isaac, said to him,
“You will live away from the richness of the earth,
and away from the dew of the heaven above.
40You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you decide to break free,
you will shake his yoke from your neck.”
Jacob Flees to Paddan-Aram
41From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme: “I will soon be mourning my father’s death. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.”
42But Rebekah heard about Esau’s plans. So she sent for Jacob and told him, “Listen, Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. 43So listen carefully, my son. Get ready and flee to my brother, Laban, in Haran. 44Stay there with him until your brother cools off. 45When he calms down and forgets what you have done to him, I will send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”
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Genesis 27: NLT
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Genesis 27
27
Isaac Blesses Jacob
1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, # Ge 48:10; 1Sa 3:2 he called Esau his oldest son and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered him, “Here I am.”
2He said, “Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. 3Therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. # Ge 25:27–28 4And prepare for me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.” # Ge 27:25; 48:9
5Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for wild game and bring it back, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, 7‘Bring me wild game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ 8Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you. # Ge 27:13 9Go now to the flock, and get me two choice young goats, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves. 10Then you will take it to your father, so that he may eat and so that he may bless you before his death.”
11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, # Ge 25:25 and I am a man of smooth skin. 12Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.” # Dt 27:18
13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be upon me, # 1Sa 25:24; Mt 27:25 my son. Only listen to me and go get them for me.”
14He went and got them and brought them to his mother. Then his mother prepared savory food such as his father loved. 15Then Rebekah took the best clothes belonging to her older son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. # Ge 27:27 16Then she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17She put the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hands of her son Jacob.
18He came to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done just as you asked me. Please arise, sit and eat of my wild game, so that your soul may bless me.”
20Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”
21Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22Jacob went near to his father Isaac, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, just like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. # Heb 11:20 24He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”
And he said, “I am.”
25He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s wild game, so that my soul may bless you.”
And he brought it near to him, and he ate. He also brought him wine, and he drank. 26His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”
27He came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said,
“See, the smell of my son
is like the smell of the field
which the Lord has blessed.
28Therefore, may God give you of the dew of heaven
and the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine. # Ge 27:39; Dt 33:13, 28
29Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brothers,
and let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be those who bless you!” # Ge 12:3; Nu 24:9
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31He also had prepared savory food and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s wild game, so that your soul may bless me.”
32Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?”
And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who? Where then is he who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed.” # Ge 28:3–4; Ro 11:29
34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceedingly bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” # Heb 12:17
35He said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.”
36Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? # Ge 25:26 For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37Then Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and I have given to him all his brothers as servants; # 2Sa 8:14 and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. # Ge 27:28–29 What can I now do for you, my son?”
38And Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father!” Then Esau lifted up his voice and wept. # Heb 12:17
39Then Isaac his father answered him:
“Behold, your dwelling shall be
away from the fatness of the earth
and away from the dew of heaven from above. # Ge 27:28
40You will live by your sword
and will serve your brother. # Ge 25:23
When you become restless,
you will break his yoke
from your neck.” # 2Ki 8:20–22
Jacob Escapes from Esau
41So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” # Ge 37:4
42These words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau consoles himself regarding you by planning to kill you. 43Now therefore, my son, listen to me and get up and flee to Laban, my brother in Harran. # Ge 11:31 44Stay with him a few days until your brother’s fury subsides, 45until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of my life because of the daughters of Heth. # Ge 26:34–35 If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, # Ge 24:3 what good will my life be to me?”
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