Genesis 27

Isaac Blesses Jacob

1Isaac was old and almost blind, when he called in his first-born son Esau, who asked him, “Father, what can I do for you?”

2Isaac replied, “I am old and might die at any time. 3So go hunting with your bow and arrows and kill a wild animal. 4Cook some of that tasty food that I love so much and bring it to me. I want to eat it once more and give you my blessing before I die.”

5Rebekah had been listening, and as soon as Esau left to go hunting, 6she said to Jacob, “I heard your father tell Esau 7to kill a wild animal and cook some tasty food for him before he dies. Your father said this because he wants to bless your brother with the Lord as his witness. 8Now, my son, listen carefully to what I want you to do. 9Go and kill two of your best young goats and bring them to me. I'll cook the tasty food that your father loves so much. 10Then you can take it to him, so he can eat it and give you his blessing before he dies.”

11“My brother Esau is a hairy man,” Jacob reminded her. “And I am not. 12If my father touches me and realizes I am trying to trick him, he will put a curse on me instead of giving me a blessing.”

13Rebekah insisted, “Let his curse fall on me! Just do what I say and bring me the meat.” 14So Jacob brought the meat to his mother, and she cooked the tasty food that his father liked. 15Then she took Esau's best clothes and put them on Jacob. 16She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins 17and gave him some bread and the tasty food she had cooked.

18Jacob went to his father and said, “Father, here I am.”

“Which one of my sons are you?” his father asked.

19Jacob replied, “I am Esau, your first-born, and I have done what you told me. Please sit up and eat the meat I have brought. Then you can give me your blessing.”

20Isaac asked, “My son, how did you find an animal so quickly?”

“The Lord your God was kind to me,” Jacob answered.

21“My son,” Isaac said, “come closer, where I can touch you and find out if you really are Esau.” 22Jacob went closer. His father touched him and said, “You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's.” 23And so Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau.

24Isaac asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

“Yes, I am,” Jacob answered.

25So Isaac told him, “Serve me the wild meat, and I can give you my blessing.”

Jacob gave him some meat, and he ate it. He also gave him some wine, and he drank it. 26Then Isaac said, “Son, come over here and kiss me.” 27#He 11.20. While Jacob was kissing him, Isaac caught the smell of his clothes and said:

“The smell of my son

is like a field

the Lord has blessed.

28God will bless you, my son,

with dew from heaven

and with fertile fields,

rich with grain and grapes.

29 # Gn 12.3. Nations will be your servants

and bow down to you.

You will rule over your brothers,

and they will kneel

at your feet.

Anyone who curses you

will be cursed;

anyone who blesses you

will be blessed.”

30Right after Isaac had given Jacob his blessing and Jacob had gone, Esau came back from hunting. 31He cooked the tasty food, brought it to his father, and said, “Father, please sit up and eat the meat I have brought you, so you can give me your blessing.”

32“Who are you?” Isaac asked.

“I am Esau, your first-born son.”

33Isaac started trembling and said, “Then who brought me some wild meat right before you came in? I ate it and gave him a blessing that cannot be taken back.”

34Esau cried out in great distress, “Father, give me a blessing too!”

35Isaac answered, “Your brother tricked me and stole your blessing.”

36 # Gn 25.29-34. Esau replied, “My brother deserves the name Jacob,#27.36 Jacob: In Hebrew “Jacob” sounds like “cheat.” because he has already cheated me twice. The first time he cheated me out of my rights as the first-born son, and now he has cheated me out of my blessing.” Then Esau asked his father, “Don't you have any blessing left for me?”

37“My son,” Isaac answered, “I have made Jacob the ruler over you and your brothers, and all of you will be his servants. I have also promised him all the grain and grapes that he needs. There's nothing left that I can do for you.”

38 # He 12.17. “Father,” Esau asked, “don't you have more than one blessing? You can surely give me a blessing too!” Then Esau started crying again.

39 # He 11.20. So his father said:

“Your home will be far

from that fertile land,

where dew comes down

from the heavens.

40 # Gn 36.8; 2 K 8.20. You will live by the power

of your sword

and be your brother's slave.

But when you decide to be free,

you will break loose.”

41Esau hated his brother Jacob because he had stolen the blessing that was supposed to be his. So he said to himself, “Just as soon as my father dies, I'll kill Jacob.”

42 # Ws 10.10. When Rebekah found out what Esau planned to do, she sent for Jacob and told him, “Son, your brother Esau is just waiting for a chance to kill you. 43Now listen carefully and do what I say. Go to the home of my brother Laban in Haran 44and stay with him for a while. When Esau stops being angry 45and forgets what you have done to him, I'll send for you to come home. Why should I lose both of my sons on the same day?”#27.45 lose … day: Esau would be hunted down as a murderer if he killed Jacob, and so Rebekah would lose both of her sons.

46Rebekah later told Isaac, “Those Hittite wives of Esau are making my life miserable! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman, I'd be better off dead.”

Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)

Learn More About Contemporary English Version

Genesis 27

CHAPTER 27

1Forsooth Isaac waxed eld [or old], and his eyes dimmed, and he might not see. And he called Esau, his more or older son, and said to him, My son! Which answered, I am present.

2To whom the father said, Thou seest that I have waxed eld, and I know not the day of my death#27:2 Isaac would still be alive more than 20 years after this event(!)..

3Take thine arms, an arrow case, and a bow, and go out; and when thou hast taken anything by hunting,

4make me a stew thereof, as thou knowest that I will or desire, and bring it to me that I eat, that my soul bless thee before that I die.

5And when Rebecca had heard this thing, and he had gone forth into the field that he fulfill the behest of his father,

6she said to her son Jacob, I heard thy father speaking with Esau, thy brother, and saying to him,

7Bring thou to me of thine hunting, and make thou meats, that I eat, and that I bless thee before the Lord before that I die.

8Now therefore, my son, assent to my counsels,

9and go to the flock, and bring to me twain [or two] of the best kids, that I make meats of those to thy father, which he shall eat gladly;

10and that when thou hast brought in those meats, and he hath eaten, he bless thee before that he die.

11To whom Jacob answered, Thou knowest that Esau my brother is an hairy man, and I am smooth;

12if my father shall touch or draw me to him, and feel me, I dread lest he guess that I would scorn him, and he bring in cursing on me for blessing.

13To whom his mother said, My son, this cursing be in me; only hear thou my voice, and go, and bring that that I said.

14He went, and brought it, and gave it to his mother. She made ready meats, as she knew that his father would have,

15and she clothed Jacob in [the] full good clothes of Esau, which she had at home with herself.

16And she wrapped his hands about with little skins of goat kids, and covered the nakedness of his neck;

17and she gave to him the stew, and betook him [the] loaves, which she had baked.

18And when these were brought in, he said, My father! And he answered, I am here; who art thou, my son?

19And Jacob said, I am Esau, thy first begotten son. I have done to thee as thou commandedest to me; rise thou up, and sit, and eat of my venison, that thy soul bless me.

20Again Isaac said to his son, My son, how mightest thou find this venison so soon? Which answered, It was God’s will, that this thing that I would, should come soon to me.

21And Isaac said, My son, come thou hither, that I touch thee, and that I prove whether thou be my son Esau, or nay.

22Jacob nighed to his father; and when Isaac had feeled him, he said, Soothly the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands be the hands of Esau.

23And Isaac knew not Jacob, for the hairy hands showed the likeness of the elder son. Therefore Isaac blessed Jacob,

24and said again, Art thou my son Esau? Jacob answered, I am.

25And Isaac said, My son, bring thou to me meats of thine hunting, that my soul bless thee. And when Isaac had eaten these meats brought, Jacob brought also wine to Isaac, and when this was drunken,

26Isaac said to him, My son, come thou hither, and give to me a kiss.

27Jacob nighed, and kissed him; and anon as Isaac feeled the odour of his clothes, he blessed him, and said, Lo! the odour of my son as the odour of a plenteous field which the Lord hath blessed.

28God give to thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of [the] earth, abundance [or plenty] of wheat, and of wine, and of oil;

29and peoples serve thee, and lineages worship thee; be thou lord of thy brethren, and the sons of thy mother be bowed before thee; be he cursed that curseth thee, and he that blesseth thee, be he [full-]filled with blessings.

30Scarcely Isaac had filled the word, and when Jacob was gone out, Esau came,

31and brought in meats sodden of the hunting to the father, and said, My father, rise thou, and eat of the hunting of thy son, that thy soul bless me.

32And Isaac said, Who art thou? Which answered, I am Esau, thy first begotten son.

33Isaac dreaded with a great aston-ishing; and he wondered more than it may be believed, and said, Who therefore is he which a while ago brought to me venison taken, and I ate of all things before that thou camest; and I blessed him? and he shall be blessed.

34When the words of the father were heard, Esau roared with a great cry, and was astonied, and said, My father, bless thou also me.

35Which said, Thy brother came prudently [or beguilingly], and took thy blessing.

36And Esau added, Justly his name is called Jacob, for lo! he [hath] supplanted me another time; before he took away my first begotten things, and now the second time, he [hath] ravished privily my blessing. And again he said to the father, Whether thou hast not reserved a blessing also to me?

37Isaac answered, I have made him thy lord, and I have made subject all his brethren to his servage; I have stablished him in wheat, and wine, and oil; and so, my son, what shall I do to thee after these things?

38To whom Esau said, Father, whether thou hast only one blessing? I beseech thee, that also thou bless me. And when Esau wept with great yelling,

39Isaac was stirred, and said to him, Thy blessing shall not be in the fatness of [the] earth, and in the dew of heaven from above;

40thou shalt live by sword, and thou shalt serve thy brother, and time shall come when thou shalt shake away, and unbind his yoke from [off] thy nolls.

41Therefore Esau hated evermore Jacob for the blessing by which the father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning of my father shall come, and I shall slay Jacob, my brother.

42These things were told to Rebecca, and she sent, and called her son Jacob, and said to him, Lo! Esau, thy brother, menaceth [or threateneth] to slay thee;

43now therefore, my son, hear thou my voice, and rise thou up, and flee to Laban, my brother, into Haran;

44and thou shalt dwell with him a few days, till the strong vengeance of thy brother rest, and his indignation cease,

45and till he forget those things which thou hast done against him. Afterward I shall send, and I shall bring thee from thence hither. Why shall I be made sonless of ever either son in one day?

46And Rebecca said to Isaac, It annoyeth or vexeth me of my life for the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the kindred of this land, I will not live.

Learn More About Wycliffe's Bible with Modern Spelling