Genesis 27: The stolen blessing

Isaac Blesses Jacob

¹When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” Esau replied.

²“Look,” said Isaac, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death. ³Take your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out into the field to hunt some game for me. ⁴Then prepare a tasty dish that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau went into the field to hunt game and bring it back, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare me a tasty dish to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’

⁸Now, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly as I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father—the kind he loves. ¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

¹¹Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned. ¹²What if my father touches me? Then I would be revealed to him as a deceiver, and I would bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”

¹³His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

¹⁴So Jacob went and got two goats and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved. ¹⁵And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Esau, and she put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and bread she had made.

¹⁸So Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Here I am!” he answered. “Which one are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac asked his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”

“Because the LORD your God brought it to me,” he replied.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau, or not?”

²²So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³Isaac did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

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

And he replied, “I am.”

²⁵“Serve me,” said Isaac, “and let me eat some of my son’s game, so that I may bless you.”

Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; then he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said:

“Ah, the smell of my son

is like the smell of a field

that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸May God give to you the dew of heaven

and the richness of the earth—

an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

May you be the master of your brothers,

and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Esau’s Lost Hope

³⁰As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ³¹He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

³²But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?”

“I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.

³³Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”

³⁵But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”

³⁸Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹His father Isaac answered him:

“Behold, your dwelling place shall be

away from the richness of the land,

away from the dew of heaven above.

⁴⁰You shall live by the sword

and serve your brother.

But when you rebel,

you will tear his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴²When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you. ⁴³So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—⁴⁵until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”