Genesis 27
27
Chapter 27
Isaac blesses Jacob
1Isaac became old. He could not see anything because his eyes were weak. He called for his older son, Esau. Isaac said, ‘My son.’ Esau replied, ‘Yes, I am here.’ 2Isaac said, ‘I am an old man. I may die very soon. 3Get your bow and your arrows. #27:3 People use bows to shoot arrows. An arrow is like a stick with a sharp point at the end. Go out into the country and kill some wild animals for me. 4Then prepare the food that I like to eat. Bring it to me so that I can eat it. Then I will give you my blessing before I die.’ #27:4 At that time a father gave his blessing to the oldest son. This son had the birthright. Isaac did not know that Esau had sold his birthright. See Genesis 25:31-34.
5Rebekah listened to what Isaac said to Esau. She waited until Esau went out to the country to kill an animal and bring back the meat. 6Then she said to Jacob, ‘I heard your father say this to Esau: 7“Bring me some meat and prepare the food that I like to eat. When I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing. I will bless you in front of the Lord before I die.” 8Now my son, listen carefully and do as I tell you. 9Go out to the animals and bring two goats to me. They must be very good young goats. Then I will prepare some food that your father likes to eat. I will cook the meat in the way that he likes. 10Then take the food to your father. When he has eaten it, he will give you his blessing before he dies.’
11Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘That will be difficult. Hair covers my brother's skin. But my skin does not have any hair. 12My father may touch me. Then he will know that I am deceiving him. He will not bless me. He will curse me instead.’ 13Jacob's mother said, ‘My son, the curse will happen to me, not you. Do what I say. Go and get the things that I told you.’
14Jacob went and he got the goats. He brought them to his mother. She prepared some food in the way that Isaac liked to eat. 15Then Rebekah took some of Esau's best clothes that were in her house. She put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16She covered Jacob's hands with the skin from the goats. She also covered the part of his neck that had no hair. 17Then she gave to Jacob the food that Isaac liked to eat. And she gave him some bread that she had made.
18Jacob went to his father. He said, ‘My father.’ Isaac replied ‘Yes, my son. Who are you, Esau or Jacob?’ 19Jacob said, ‘I am Esau. I am your firstborn son. I have done as you told me. Please sit up. Eat some of the meat from the wild animal that I killed. Then you can bless me.’ 20Isaac asked his son, ‘My son, how did you find it so quickly?’ Jacob replied, ‘The Lord your God helped me find it.’ #27:20 Jacob said ‘the Lord your God’. Jacob did not call God his own God.
21Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near to me so that I can touch you, my son. Then I will know if you really are my son Esau.’
22Jacob went near to his father. Isaac touched him and he said, ‘The voice is Jacob's voice. But the hands are Esau's hands.’ 23Isaac did not know that it was Jacob because he could feel the hair on Jacob's hands. They felt like Esau's hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob.
24Isaac asked again, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ Jacob replied, ‘I am.’ 25Isaac said, ‘My son, bring me some of your meat. I will eat it. Then I will bless you.’ So Jacob brought the food to him and Isaac ate it. Jacob also brought some wine and Isaac drank it.
26Then Isaac said, ‘Come here my son and kiss me.’ 27So Jacob went to Isaac and kissed him. Isaac smelled the clothes that Jacob wore. Then Isaac blessed him. He said,
‘The smell of my son is like the smell of a field.
It is like a field that the Lord has blessed.
28May God give you rain for your crops,
so that they grow well in the good ground. #27:28 Crops are plants. They can be any plants that people or animals eat.
Then you will have plenty of grain for food.
And you will have grapes to make wine.
29May the people of many nations serve you.
May they respect you as their master.
You will rule over your brothers.
Yes, your mother's sons will bend down to respect you.
May God curse anyone who curses you.
And may he bless anyone who blesses you.’ #27:29 This is what God told Rebekah. See Genesis 25:23.
30When Isaac had blessed Jacob, Jacob left him. Just then, Esau came back from the country where he had killed an animal. 31He prepared nice food that Isaac liked to eat. Then he took the food to his father, Isaac. Esau said, ‘My father, please sit up. Eat some of the meat from the wild animal that I have killed. Then you can bless me.’
32His father Isaac asked, ‘Who are you?’ Esau replied, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ 33Isaac's body shook very much. He asked, ‘Who was it who killed an animal and brought the meat to me? Just before you came, I ate all of it. And then I blessed him. And God will certainly bless him!’ #27:33 Isaac's body shook. He now realizes what Jacob has done. He knows that he cannot remove his blessing from Jacob. The son that he loves cannot receive the blessing. Isaac knows that God will bless Jacob and not Esau.
34Esau heard what his father had said and he cried aloud. He was very upset. He said, ‘My father, please bless me too!’ 35But Isaac said, ‘Your brother came to me. He deceived me and he took your blessing away from you.’ 36Esau said, ‘Yes, “Jacob” is the right name for him. He has cheated me twice. First he took my birthright. Now he has taken my blessing as well!’ Then Esau asked his father, ‘You must still have some blessing left for me, don't you?’ #27:36 Jacob means ‘He deceives’. This is what ‘deceives’ means. Jacob says things that are not true. And he does things that are not right.
37Isaac replied, ‘I have made Jacob master over you. All his relatives will become his servants. I have given him crops and wine. So what can I still do to bless you, my son?’ #27:37 Isaac was saying that there is now no blessing for Esau.
38Esau said, ‘My father, you surely have one blessing left for me. Please bless me too!’ Then Esau wept loudly.
39Isaac replied,
‘You will not live in a place where the ground gives good food.
You will not have rain to make your crops grow.
40You will have to fight to get the things that you need.
You will serve your brother as your master.
But when you choose to turn against him,
you will become free from his power over you.’ #27:40 This was the only blessing that Isaac could give Esau. He could not take back the blessing that he gave to Jacob.
41Because Isaac had blessed Jacob, Esau hated his younger brother Jacob. Esau said quietly, ‘My father will die soon. When we have buried his body, I will kill my brother.’ 42Someone told Rebekah what her older son, Esau, had said. So she told her younger son, Jacob, to come to her. She said to him, ‘Your brother Esau wants to kill you, because of what you did to him. 43Now my son, do what I tell you. Quickly go away from here. Go to my brother Laban who lives in Haran. 44Live with him for a time. Stay there until your brother is not angry with you any longer. 45He may forget what you did to him. Then I will send a message to you, so that you can come back from Haran. I do not want to lose both of my sons in one day.’ #27:45 Rebekah thought that Esau and Jacob would kill each other. Or she thought that, if Esau killed Jacob, other people would have to kill Esau.
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I do not like living in the same place as Esau's wives. It makes me very upset, because they are Hittites. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women who live in this land, I will be very sad. I would rather die!’ #27:46 Rebekah wanted Isaac to send Jacob away to find a wife. He would send Jacob to go to his relatives. Rebekah wanted that to happen so that Esau would not be able to kill Jacob. Jacob stayed in Haran for 20 years. Rebekah did not see Jacob again.
MissionAssist 2018
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