Genesis 27
27
Isaac Blesses Jacob
1Isaac was now old and had become blind. He sent for his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son!”
“Yes,” he answered.
2Isaac said, “You see that I am old and may die soon. 3Take your bow and arrows, go out into the country, and kill an animal for me. 4Cook me some of that tasty food that I like, and bring it to me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my final blessing before I die.”
5While Isaac was talking to Esau, Rebecca was listening. So when Esau went out to hunt, 6she said to Jacob, “I have just heard your father say to Esau, 7‘Bring me an animal and cook it for me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.’ 8Now, my son,” Rebecca continued, “listen to me and do what I say. 9Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats, so that I can cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. 10You can take it to him to eat, and he will give you his blessing before he dies.”
11But Jacob said to his mother, “You know that Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. 12Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him; in this way I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13His mother answered, “Let any curse against you fall on me, my son; just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me.” 14So he went to get them and brought them to her, and she cooked the kind of food that his father liked. 15Then she took Esau's best clothes, which she kept in the house, and put them on Jacob. 16She put the skins of the goats on his arms and on the hairless part of his neck. 17She handed him the tasty food, together with the bread she had baked.
18Then Jacob went to his father and said, “Father!”
“Yes,” he answered. “Which of my sons are you?”
19Jacob answered, “I am your elder son Esau; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.”
20Isaac said, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
Jacob answered, “The LORD your God helped me to find it.”
21Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so that I can touch you. Are you really Esau?” 22Jacob moved closer to his father, who felt him and said, “Your voice sounds like Jacob's voice, but your arms feel like Esau's arms.” 23He did not recognize Jacob, because his arms were hairy like Esau's. He was about to give him his blessing, 24but asked again, “Are you really Esau?”
“I am,” he answered.
25Isaac said, “Bring me some of the meat. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him, and he also brought him some wine to drink. 26Then his father said to him, “Come closer and kiss me, my son.” 27#Heb 11.20As he came up to kiss him, Isaac smelt his clothes — so he gave him his blessing. He said, “The pleasant smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed. 28May God give you dew from heaven and make your fields fertile! May he give you plenty of corn and wine! 29#Gen 12.3May nations be your servants, and may peoples bow down before you. May you rule over all your relatives, and may your mother's descendants bow down before you. May those who curse you be cursed, and may those who bless you be blessed.”
Esau Begs for Isaac's Blessing
30Isaac finished giving his blessing, and as soon as Jacob left, his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31He also cooked some tasty food and took it to his father. He said, “Please, father, sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.”
32“Who are you?” Isaac asked.
“Your elder son Esau,” he answered.
33Isaac began to tremble and shake all over, and he asked, “Who was it, then, who killed an animal and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came. I gave him my final blessing, and so it is his for ever.”
34When Esau heard this, he cried out loudly and bitterly and said, “Give me your blessing also, father!”
35Isaac answered, “Your brother came and deceived me. He has taken away your blessing.”
36 #
Gen 25.29–34
Esau said, “This is the second time that he has cheated me. No wonder his name is Jacob.#27.36 Jacob: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “cheat”. He took my rights as the firstborn son, and now he has taken away my blessing. Haven't you saved a blessing for me?”
37Isaac answered, “I have already made him master over you, and I have made all his relatives his slaves. I have given him corn and wine. Now there is nothing that I can do for you, my son!”
38 #
Heb 12.17
Esau continued to plead with his father: “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me too, father!” He began to cry.
39 #
Heb 11.20
Then Isaac said to him,
“No dew from heaven for you,
No fertile fields for you.
40 #
Gen 36.8; 2 Kgs 8.20 You will live by your sword,
But be your brother's slave.
Yet when you rebel,#27.40 rebel; or grow restless.
You will break away from his control.”
41Esau hated Jacob, because his father had given Jacob the blessing. He thought, “The time to mourn my father's death is near; then I will kill Jacob.”
42But when Rebecca heard about Esau's plan, she sent for Jacob and said, “Listen, your brother Esau is planning to get even with you and kill you. 43Now, my son, do what I say. Go at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44and stay with him for a while, until your brother's anger cools down 45and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send someone to bring you back. Why should I lose both my sons on the same day?”
Isaac Sends Jacob to Laban
46Rebecca said to Isaac, “I am sick and tired of Esau's foreign wives. If Jacob also marries one of these Hittite women, I might as well die.”
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Genesis 27: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Genesis 27
27
Isaac Blesses Jacob
1When Isaac was old and #ch. 48:10; 1 Sam. 3:2his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3#ch. 25:27, 28Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, 4and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul #ch. 10:25; 48:9, 15; 49:28; Deut. 33:1may bless you before I die.”
5Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8Now therefore, my son, #ver. 13obey my voice as I command you. 9Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10And you shall bring it to your father to eat, #ver. 4so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, #ch. 25:25my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12Perhaps my father #ver. 21, 22 will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring #[Deut. 27:18]a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13His mother said to him, #[1 Sam. 25:24; 2 Sam. 14:9; Matt. 27:25]“Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
14So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15Then Rebekah took the #ver. 27best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” 20But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” 21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I #ver. 12may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23And he did not recognize him, because #ver. 16 his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. #Heb. 11:20So he blessed him. 24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” 25Then he said, “Bring it near to me, #ver. 10that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments #[See ver. 23 above] and blessed him and said,
“See, #[Hos. 14:6]the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
28May God give you of #Deut. 33:13; Zech. 8:12; [ch. 49:25; 2 Sam. 1:21] the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and #Deut. 7:13; 33:28; Joel 2:19plenty of grain and wine.
29Let peoples serve you,
and nations #[ch. 49:8] bow down to you.
# [2 Sam. 8:14] Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
# ch. 12:3; Num. 24:9 Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” 32His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” 34As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, #Heb. 12:17he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36Esau said, #ch. 25:26 “Is he not rightly named Jacob?#27:36 Jacob means He takes by the heel, or He cheats For he has cheated me these two times. #ch. 25:33He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, #ver. 29; [2 Sam. 8:14] I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and #ver. 28with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And #[See ver. 34 above]Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
“Behold, #ver. 28; ch. 36:6, 7away from#27:39 Or Behold, of the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
and away from#27:39 Or and of the dew of heaven on high.
40By your sword you shall live,
and you #ch. 25:23; [2 Sam. 8:14]; See Obad. 18-21 shall serve your brother;
but when you grow restless
# [2 Kgs. 8:20-22] you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
41Now Esau #[ch. 37:4] hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, #ch. 50:3, 4, 10 “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; #[Amos 1:11; Obad. 10]then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— 45until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, #ch. 26:34, 35; 28:8 “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.#27:46 Hebrew daughters of Heth #ch. 24:3If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
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