Genesis 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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