Jacob answered, “It’s I—Esau—your firstborn. I have done as you asked. Please, sit up. Eat some of this delicious game you love so that you may give me your innermost blessing.”
Isaac asked his son, “How in the world did you find game so quickly, my son?”
“YAHWEH, your God, caused it to come right to me,” he replied.
Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please, please, come closer that I may touch you, my son. I need to really know for certain that you are Esau.” So Jacob inched closer to his father Isaac, who felt his skin and said, “You sound like Jacob, but your hands are Esau’s.” Because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s, Isaac was tricked and did not recognize that it was really Jacob. As he was about to give him his blessing, Isaac asked him again, “Are you really my son Esau?”
Jacob answered, “I am.”
“Then bring the food to me,” Isaac said, “and let me eat my son’s game. Then I will give you my blessing.” So, Jacob gave his father the food and he ate it. He brought him wine and he drank it. Then Isaac said to him, “My son, come near and kiss me.” So he came near and kissed him. Isaac recognized the smell of his son’s clothes and blessed him, saying,
“Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a lush field that YAHWEH has blessed!
May God give you heaven’s dew,
the fatness of earth,
and an abundance of grain and new wine!
Let peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you!
May you be master over your brothers
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you!
Those who curse you will be cursed
and those who bless you will be blessed!”
No sooner had Jacob left from receiving the blessing of his father Isaac, than his brother Esau arrived home from hunting. He too prepared a savory meal for his father and took it to him. He said to Isaac, “Sit up my father; eat some of your son’s wild game so that you can give me your innermost blessing.”
His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”
“I’m Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.
When Isaac realized what had happened, he began to tremble and shake violently. He asked, “Who was it then that hunted wild game and brought it to me? I’ve already eaten it all before you came, and I gave him the blessing—yes, and he will be blessed indeed!”
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