Genesis 27
27
1Isaac was old and going blind. He called for Esau, his oldest son, and said, “My son.”
“I'm here,” Esau replied.
2“I'm old now,” said Isaac, “I may die soon, who knows? 3So please take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the countryside for some meat for me. 4Make me that tasty food that I love and bring it to me to eat, so I can bless you before I die.”
5Rebekah heard what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau left to go hunting in the countryside for wild game, 6Rebekah told her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother, 7‘Get me some wild game and make me some tasty food so I can eat it and then bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ 8Now then, my son, listen to me and do exactly what I tell you. 9Go to the flock and bring me two nice young goats. I'll cook them and make the tasty food your father loves. 10Then you take it to your father to eat, so he can bless you in the presence of the Lord before he dies.”
11“But listen,” Jacob replied to his mother Rebekah, “my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a smooth man. 12Maybe my father will notice when he touches me. Then it will look like I'm deceiving him and I'll bring a curse down on myself instead of a blessing.”
13“Let the curse fall on me, my son,” his mother replied. “Just do what I tell you. Go and get the young goats for me.”
14So Jacob went and got them and took them to his mother, and she made some tasty food, the way his father loved. 15Then Rebekah went and got her older son Esau's best clothes that she had at home and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16She put the goatskins on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she'd made.
18He went in to see his father, and called out, “My father, I'm here.”
“Which son are you?” Isaac asked.
19“It's me Esau, your firstborn son,” Jacob told his father. “I did what you told me. So please sit up and eat some of my wild game meat so you can bless me.”
20“How did you find an animal so fast, my son?” Isaac asked.
“Because the Lord your God sent it my way,” Jacob replied.
21“Come over here so I can touch you, my son,” Isaac told Jacob, “so I can tell if you're really my son Esau or not.”
22Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “It's Jacob's voice but Esau's hands.” 23Isaac didn't realize it was really Jacob because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's, so Isaac got ready to bless him.
24“It's really you, my son Esau?” he asked again. “Yes, it's me,” Jacob replied.
25Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your wild game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought some for him to eat, as well as some wine for him to drink.
26Afterwards he said to Isaac, “Come here and kiss me, my son.” 27So Jacob went over and kissed him, and Isaac could smell the clothes Jacob was wearing. So he went ahead with the blessing, saying to himself, “See—the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.”
28“May God use the dew of heaven and fertile land to give you rich harvests of grain and new wine! 29May the people of different nations serve you and bow down to you. May you rule over your relatives, and may they bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and may everyone who blesses you be blessed.”
30After Isaac finished blessing Jacob—in fact Jacob had just left his father—Esau returned from his hunting trip. 31He had also made some tasty food, and took it to his father. Esau said to Isaac, “Sit up, my father, and eat some of my wild game so you can bless me.”
32“Who are you?” Isaac asked him.
“I'm your son, your firstborn son, Esau,” he replied.
33Isaac started to shake all over and asked, “So who was it who went hunting game and then brought it to me? I ate it all before you came back and I blessed him. His blessing will remain.”
34When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out in great anger and bitterness, and pleaded with his father, “Please bless me too, my father!”
35But Isaac replied, “Your brother came and deceived me—he stole your blessing!”
36“Isn't he well named—Jacob the deceiver!”#27:36. “Deceiver.” See 25:26. said Esau. “He's deceived me twice. First he took my birthright, and now he's stolen my blessing! Haven't you kept a blessing for me?”
37Isaac replied to Esau. “I have made him ruler over you, and have said that all his relatives will be his servants. I have declared that he will be well supplied with grain and new wine. So what is left that I can do for you, my son?”
38“Do you only have one blessing, my father?” Esau asked. “Please bless me too!” Then Esau began to cry very loudly.
39Then his father Isaac declared, “Listen! You will live far away from fertile land, far from the dew of heaven that falls from above. 40You will make a living by using your sword, and you will be your brother's servant. But when you rebel, you will throw off his yoke from your neck.”
41From then on Esau hated Jacob because of his father's blessing. Esau said to himself, “Soon the time will come when I'll mourn my father's death. Then I'll kill my brother Jacob!”
42However, Rebekah found out what Esau was saying, so she sent for Jacob. “Look,” she told him, “your brother Esau is making himself feel better by making plans to kill you. 43So, my son, listen carefully to what I tell you. Leave immediately and go to my brother Laban in Haran. 44Stay with him for a while until your brother's anger cools down. 45Once he's cooled down and forgets what you did to him, I'll send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?”
46Then Rebekah went and told Isaac, “I'm so sick of these Hittite women—they're ruining my life! If Jacob also marries a Hittite woman like them, one of the local people, I'd rather die!”
Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Genesis 27
27
Isaac Blesses Jacob
1#Ge 48:10; 1Sa 3:2When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called Esau his oldest son and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered him, “Here I am.”
2He said, “I am old. I do not know the day of my death. 3#Ge 25:27–28Therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4#Ge 27:25; 48:9And 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.”
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.’ 8#Ge 27:13Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you. 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.”
11#Ge 25:25But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. 12#Dt 27:18Perhaps 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.”
13#Mt 27:25; 1Sa 25:24His mother said to him, “Let your curse be upon me, 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. 15#Ge 27:27Then 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. 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.”
21#Ge 27:12Isaac 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.” 23#Ge 27:16; Heb 11:20He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, just like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. 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.”
27#Heb 11:20He 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.
28#Dt 33:28; 33:13; Ge 27:39 Therefore, may God give you of the dew of heaven
and the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
29#Ge 12:3; Nu 24:9 Let 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!”
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.”
33#Ge 28:3–4; Ro 11:29Then 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.”
34#Heb 12:17When 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!”
35He said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.”
36#Ge 25:26Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37#Ge 27:28–29; 2Sa 8:14Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “I have made him your lord, and I have given to him all his brothers as servants; and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What can I now do for you, my son?”
38#Heb 12:17; Ge 27:34And 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.
39#Ge 27:28; Heb 11:20Isaac his father answered and said to him,
“Your dwelling shall be
away from the fatness of the earth
and away from the dew of heaven from above.
40#Ge 25:23; 2Ki 8:20–22 You will live by your sword
and will serve your brother.
When you become restless,
you will break his yoke
from your neck.”
Jacob Escapes From Esau
41#Ge 37:4; 50:3–4So 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.”
42These words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Your brother Esau consoles himself regarding you by planning to kill you. 43#Ge 11:31; 27:8Now therefore, my son, listen to me and get up and flee to Laban, my brother in Harran. 44#Ge 31:38Stay 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?”
46#Ge 24:3; 26:34–35Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
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