Genesis 27
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®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 27
27
Jacob Tricks Isaac
1Now it was when Isaac grew old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he said to him.
2“Look, I’m old,” he said. “I don’t know the day of my death.
3So now, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt me some game.
4Then prepare me a delicious meal that I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac was speaking to Esau his son. So while Esau went to the field to hunt game to bring in,
6Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau saying,
7‘Bring me some game and prepare me a delicious meal that I may eat and bless you in Adonai’s presence before my death.’
8So now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I am commanding you.
9Go now to the flock and bring me two good young goats from there, so that I may prepare them as a delicious meal for your father—that he’ll love.
10Then you’ll bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”
11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I’m a smooth man.
12Perhaps my father will touch me, and he’ll take me for a mocker, and I’ll bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”
13Then his mother said to him, “Let your curse fall on me, my son. Just listen to me, and go, get them for me.”
14So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a delicious meal that his father would love.
15Rebekah also took her elder son Esau’s favorite clothes that were with her in the house, and she put them on her younger son Jacob,
16along with the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the hairless part of his neck.
17She put the delicious meal and the bread that she had prepared in the hand of Jacob her son.
18Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “I’m here. Who are you, my son?”
19Then Jacob said to his father, “I’m your firstborn, Esau. I’ve done just what you said to me. Sit up, please, and eat some of my wild game so that your soul may bless me.”
20Then Isaac said to his son, “How in the world were you able to find it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because Adonai your God made it happen for me.”
21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can feel you my son—whether or not you really are my son Esau.”
22So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac, and he felt him. Then he said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are Esau’s hands.”
23He did not recognize him because his hands were like the hairy hands of his brother Esau. So he blessed him.
24But he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” So he said, “I am.”
25Then he said, “Bring it to me and I’ll eat some of my son’s wild game, so that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it to him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.
26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me my son.”
27So he came closer and kissed him. When he smelled the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Adonai has blessed.
28May God give you— from the dew of the sky and from the fatness of the land— an abundance of grain and new wine.
29May peoples serve you and may nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers. May your mother’s sons bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and may those who bless you be blessed.”
30No sooner had Isaac finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had just gone out from his father Isaac’s presence, than Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31Then he also prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father, and he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s wild game that your soul may bless me.”
32His father Isaac said, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your first-born, Esau.”
33Then Isaac trembled with intense trembling and said, “Who was it then that hunted wild game and brought it to me? I ate it all just before you came and I blessed him—and yes, he will be blessed.”
34When Esau heard his father’s words, he shouted with an intensely bitter groan. Then he said to his father, “Bless me, me too, my father!”
35Then he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36He said, “Is this why he was named Jacob—since he’s tricked me twice already? My birthright he’s taken. Look! Now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he said, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I’ve made him master over you, and all your brothers I’ve given to him as servants. I’ve provided him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38Esau said to his father, “Do you just have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39Then Isaac his father said to him, “Behold, away from the land’s fatness shall your dwelling be, away from the dew of the sky above.
40By your sword shall you live, and your brother shall you serve. But when you tear yourself loose, you will tear his yoke off your neck.”
41So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “Let the time for mourning my father draw near, so that I can kill my brother Jacob!”
42Now to Rebekah was reported the words of Esau her elder son. So she sent and called for Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself about you with the thought of killing you.
43So now my son, listen to my voice. Get up—flee to Laban my brother in Haran!
44Then stay with him a few days, until your brother’s rage subsides,
45until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you’ve done to him. Then I’ll send for you and get you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these women, from the daughters of the land what is life to me?”
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