Genesis 27
27
Jacob’s Deception.#The chapter, a literary masterpiece, is the third and climactic wresting away of the blessing of Esau. Rebekah manages the entire affair, using perhaps her privileged information about Jacob’s status (25:23); Jacob’s only qualm is that if his father discovers the ruse, he will receive a curse instead of a blessing (vv. 11–12). Isaac is passive as he was in chaps. 22 and 24. The deception is effected through clothing (Jacob wears Esau’s clothing), which points ahead to a similar deception of a patriarch by means of clothing in the Joseph story (37:21–33). Such recurrent acts and scenes let the reader know a divine purpose is moving the story forward even though the human characters are unaware of it. 1When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” he replied. 2Isaac then said, “Now I have grown old. I do not know when I might die. 3So now take your hunting gear—your quiver and bow—and go out into the open country to hunt some game for me. 4Then prepare for me a dish in the way I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you#I may bless you: Isaac’s blessing confers fertility (vv. 27–28) and dominion (v. 29). The “dew of heaven” is rain that produces grain and wine, two of the principal foodstuffs of the ancient Near East. The “fertility of the earth” may allude to oil, the third basic foodstuff. The full agricultural year may be implied here: the fall rains are followed by the grain harvests of the spring and the grape harvest of late summer, and then the olive harvest of the fall (cf. Dt 11:14; Ps 104:13–15). before I die.”
5Rebekah had been listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the open country to hunt some game for his father,#Gn 25:28. 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother Esau, 7‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you with the Lord’s approval before I die.’ 8Now, my son, obey me in what I am about to order you. 9Go to the flock and get me two choice young goats so that with these I might prepare a dish for your father in the way he likes. 10Then bring it to your father to eat, that he may bless you before he dies.” 11But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned!#Gn 25:25. 12Suppose my father feels me? He will think I am making fun of him, and I will bring on myself a curse instead of a blessing.” 13His mother, however, replied: “Let any curse against you, my son, fall on me! Just obey me. Go and get me the young goats.”
14So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared a dish in the way his father liked. 15Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear; 16and with the goatskins she covered up his hands and the hairless part of his neck. 17Then she gave her son Jacob the dish and the bread she had prepared.
18Going to his father, Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?” 19Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your firstborn. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.” 20But Isaac said to his son, “How did you get it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The Lord, your God, directed me.” 21Isaac then said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, that I may feel you, to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not.” 22So Jacob moved up closer to his father. When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.” 23(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.) 24Again Isaac said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob said, “I am.” 25Then Isaac said, “Serve me, my son, and let me eat of the game so that I may bless you.” Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank. 26Finally his father Isaac said to him, “Come closer, my son, and kiss me.” 27As Jacob went up to kiss him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes. With that, he blessed him, saying,
“Ah, the fragrance of my son
is like the fragrance of a field
that the Lord has blessed!#Gn 22:17–18; Heb 11:20.
28May God give to you
of the dew of the heavens
And of the fertility of the earth
abundance of grain and wine.
29#Gn 25:23; 49:8; Nm 24:9. May peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you;
Be master of your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you.”
30Jacob had scarcely left his father after Isaac had finished blessing him, when his brother Esau came back from his hunt. 31Then he too prepared a dish, and bringing it to his father, he said, “Let my father sit up and eat some of his son’s game, that you may then give me your blessing.” 32His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn son, Esau.” 33Isaac trembled greatly. “Who was it, then,” he asked, “that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all just before you came, and I blessed him. Now he is blessed!” 34As he heard his father’s words, Esau burst into loud, bitter sobbing and said, “Father, bless me too!” 35When Isaac said, “Your brother came here by a ruse and carried off your blessing,” 36Esau exclaimed, “He is well named Jacob, is he not! He has supplanted me#He has supplanted me: in Hebrew, wayyaqebeni, a wordplay on the name Jacob, ya‘aqob; see Jer 9:3 and Gn 25:26. There is also a play between the Hebrew words bekorah (“right of the firstborn”) and berakah (“blessing”). twice! First he took away my right as firstborn, and now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not saved a blessing for me?”#Gn 25:26, 29–34; Hos 12:4. 37Isaac replied to Esau: “I have already appointed him your master, and I have assigned to him all his kindred as his servants; besides, I have sustained him with grain and wine. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38But Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me too, father!” and Esau wept aloud.#Heb 12:17. 39His father Isaac said in response:
“See, far from the fertile earth
will be your dwelling;
far from the dew of the heavens above!#Heb 11:20.
40By your sword you will live,
and your brother you will serve;
But when you become restless,
you will throw off his yoke from your neck.”#2 Kgs 8:20, 22; 2 Chr 21:8.
41Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “Let the time of mourning for my father come, so that I may kill my brother Jacob.”#Wis 10:10; Ob 10. 42When Rebekah got news of what her older son Esau had in mind, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him: “Listen! Your brother Esau intends to get his revenge by killing you. 43So now, my son, obey me: flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44and stay with him a while until your brother’s fury subsides— 45until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?”
Jacob Sent to Laban. 46Rebekah said to Isaac: “I am disgusted with life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob also should marry a Hittite woman, a native of the land, like these women, why should I live?”#Gn 26:34–35.
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Genesis 27: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Genesis 27
27
1And it cometh to pass that Isaac [is] aged, and his eyes are too dim for seeing, and he calleth Esau his elder son, and saith unto him, ‘My son;’ and he saith unto him, ‘Here [am] I.’
2And he saith, ‘Lo, I pray thee, I have become aged, I have not known the day of my death;
3and now, take up, I pray thee, thy instruments, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and hunt for me provision,
4and make for me tasteful things, [such] as I have loved, and bring in to me, and I do eat, so that my soul doth bless thee before I die.’
5And Rebekah is hearkening while Isaac is speaking unto Esau his son; and Esau goeth to the field to hunt provision — to bring in;
6and Rebekah hath spoken unto Jacob her son, saying, ‘Lo, I have heard thy father speaking unto Esau thy brother, saying,
7Bring for me provision, and make for me tasteful things, and I do eat, and bless thee before Jehovah before my death.
8‘And now, my son, hearken to my voice, to that which I am commanding thee:
9Go, I pray thee, unto the flock, and take for me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I make them tasteful things for thy father, [such] as he hath loved;
10and thou hast taken in to thy father, and he hath eaten, so that his soul doth bless thee before his death.
11And Jacob saith unto Rebekah his mother, ‘Lo, Esau my brother [is] a hairy man, and I a smooth man,
12it may be my father doth feel me, and I have been in his eyes as a deceiver, and have brought upon me disesteem, and not a blessing;’
13and his mother saith to him, ‘On me thy disesteem, my son; only hearken to my voice, and go, take for me.’
14And he goeth, and taketh, and bringeth to his mother, and his mother maketh tasteful things, [such] as his father hath loved;
15and Rebekah taketh the desirable garments of Esau her elder son, which [are] with her in the house, and doth put on Jacob her younger son;
16and the skins of the kids of the goats she hath put on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck,
17and she giveth the tasteful things, and the bread which she hath made, into the hand of Jacob her son.
18And he cometh in unto his father, and saith, ‘My father;’ and he saith, ‘Here [am] I; who [art] thou, my son?’
19And Jacob saith unto his father, ‘I [am] Esau thy first-born; I have done as thou hast spoken unto me; rise, I pray thee, sit, and eat of my provision, so that thy soul doth bless me.’
20And Isaac saith unto his son, ‘What [is] this thou hast hasted to find, my son?’ and he saith, ‘That which Jehovah thy God hath caused to come before me.’
21And Isaac saith unto Jacob, ‘Come nigh, I pray thee, and I feel thee, my son, whether thou [art] he, my son Esau, or not.’
22And Jacob cometh nigh unto Isaac his father, and he feeleth him, and saith, ‘The voice [is] the voice of Jacob, and the hands hands of Esau.’
23And he hath not discerned him, for his hands have been hairy, as the hands of Esau his brother, and he blesseth him,
24and saith, ‘Thou art he — my son Esau?’ and he saith, ‘I [am].’
25And he saith, ‘Bring nigh to me, and I do eat of my son's provision, so that my soul doth bless thee;’ and he bringeth nigh to him, and he eateth; and he bringeth to him wine, and he drinketh.
26And Isaac his father saith to him, ‘Come nigh, I pray thee, and kiss me, my son;’
27and he cometh nigh, and kisseth him, and he smelleth the fragrance of his garments, and blesseth him, and saith, ‘See, the fragrance of my son [is] as the fragrance of a field which Jehovah hath blessed;
28and God doth give to thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance of corn and wine;
29peoples serve thee, and nations bow themselves to thee, be thou mighty over thy brethren, and the sons of thy mother bow themselves to thee; those who curse thee [are] cursed, and those who bless thee [are] blessed.’
30And it cometh to pass, as Isaac hath finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob is only just going out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother hath come in from his hunting;
31and he also maketh tasteful things, and bringeth to his father, and saith to his father, ‘Let my father arise, and eat of his son's provision, so that thy soul doth bless me.’
32And Isaac his father saith to him, ‘Who [art] thou?’ and he saith, ‘I [am] thy son, thy first-born, Esau;’
33and Isaac trembleth a very great trembling, and saith, ‘Who, now, [is] he who hath provided provision, and bringeth in to me, and I eat of all before thou comest in, and I bless him? — yea, blessed is he.’
34When Esau heareth the words of his father, then he crieth a very great and bitter cry, and saith to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, O my father;’
35and he saith, ‘Thy brother hath come with subtilty, and taketh thy blessing.’
36And he saith, ‘Is it because [one] called his name Jacob that he doth take me by the heel these two times? my birthright he hath taken; and lo, now, he hath taken my blessing;’ he saith also, ‘Hast thou not kept back a blessing for me?’
37And Isaac answereth and saith to Esau, ‘Lo, a mighty one have I set him over thee, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and [with] corn and wine have I sustained him; and for thee now, what shall I do, my son?’
38And Esau saith unto his father, ‘One blessing hast thou my father? bless me, me also, O my father;’ and Esau lifteth up his voice, and weepeth.
39And Isaac his father answereth and saith unto him, ‘Lo, of the fatness of the earth is thy dwelling, and of the dew of the heavens from above;
40and by thy sword dost thou live, and thy brother dost thou serve; and it hath come to pass when thou rulest, that thou hast broken his yoke from off thy neck.’
41And Esau hateth Jacob, because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau saith in his heart, ‘The days of mourning [for] my father draw near, and I slay Jacob my brother.’
42And the words of Esau her elder son are declared to Rebekah, and she sendeth and calleth for Jacob her younger son, and saith unto him, ‘Lo, Esau thy brother is comforting himself in regard to thee — to slay thee;
43and now, my son, hearken to my voice, and rise, flee for thyself unto Laban my brother, to Haran,
44and thou hast dwelt with him some days, till thy brother's fury turn back,
45till thy brother's anger turn back from thee, and he hath forgotten that which thou hast done to him, and I have sent and taken thee from thence; why am I bereaved even of you both the same day?’
46And Rebekah saith unto Isaac, ‘I have been disgusted with my life because of the presence of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these — from the daughters of the land — why do I live?’
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