Genesis 27
27
1When Isaac had become an old man and was nearly blind, he called his eldest son, Esau, and said, “My son.”
“Yes, Father?”
2-4“I’m an old man,” he said; “I might die any day now. Do me a favor: Get your quiver of arrows and your bow and go out in the country and hunt me some game. Then fix me a hearty meal, the kind that you know I like, and bring it to me to eat so that I can give you my personal blessing before I die.”
5-7Rebekah was eavesdropping as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. As soon as Esau had gone off to the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob. “I just overheard your father talking with your brother, Esau. He said, ‘Bring me some game and fix me a hearty meal so that I can eat and bless you with God’s blessing before I die.’
8-10“Now, my son, listen to me. Do what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two young goats. Pick the best; I’ll prepare them into a hearty meal, the kind that your father loves. Then you’ll take it to your father, he’ll eat and bless you before he dies.”
11-12“But Mother,” Jacob said, “my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin. What happens if my father touches me? He’ll think I’m playing games with him. I’ll bring down a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13“If it comes to that,” said his mother, “I’ll take the curse on myself. Now, just do what I say. Go and get the goats.”
14So he went and got them and brought them to his mother and she cooked a hearty meal, the kind his father loved so much.
15-17Rebekah took the dress-up clothes of her older son Esau and put them on her younger son Jacob. She took the goatskins and covered his hands and the smooth nape of his neck. Then she placed the hearty meal she had fixed and fresh bread she’d baked into the hands of her son Jacob.
18He went to his father and said, “My father!”
“Yes?” he said. “Which son are you?”
19Jacob answered his father, “I’m your firstborn son Esau. I did what you told me. Come now; sit up and eat of my game so you can give me your personal blessing.”
20Isaac said, “So soon? How did you get it so quickly?”
“Because your God cleared the way for me.”
21Isaac said, “Come close, son; let me touch you—are you really my son Esau?”
22-23a So Jacob moved close to his father Isaac. Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He didn’t recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s.
23b-24 But as he was about to bless him he pressed him, “You’re sure? You are my son Esau?”
“Yes. I am.”
25Isaac said, “Bring the food so I can eat of my son’s game and give you my personal blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate. He also brought him wine and he drank.
26Then Isaac said, “Come close, son, and kiss me.”
27-29He came close and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes. Finally, he blessed him,
Ahhh. The smell of my son
is like the smell of the open country
blessed by God.
May God give you
of Heaven’s dew
and Earth’s bounty of grain and wine.
May peoples serve you
and nations honor you.
You will master your brothers,
and your mother’s sons will honor you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
those who bless you will be blessed.
30-31And then right after Isaac had blessed Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau showed up from the hunt. He also had prepared a hearty meal. He came to his father and said, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, that he may give me his personal blessing.”
32His father Isaac said, “And who are you?”
“I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33Isaac started to tremble, shaking violently. He said, “Then who hunted game and brought it to me? I finished the meal just now, before you walked in. And I blessed him—he’s blessed for good!”
34Esau, hearing his father’s words, sobbed violently and most bitterly, and cried to his father, “My father! Can’t you also bless me?”
35“Your brother,” he said, “came here falsely and took your blessing.”
36Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel. Twice now he’s tricked me: first he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing.”
He begged, “Haven’t you kept back any blessing for me?”
37Isaac answered Esau, “I’ve made him your master, and all his brothers his servants, and lavished grain and wine on him. I’ve given it all away. What’s left for you, my son?”
38“But don’t you have just one blessing for me, Father? Oh, bless me my father! Bless me!” Esau sobbed inconsolably.
39-40Isaac said to him,
You’ll live far from Earth’s bounty,
remote from Heaven’s dew.
You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth,
and you’ll serve your brother.
But when you can’t take it any more
you’ll break loose and run free.
41Esau seethed in anger against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him; he brooded, “The time for mourning my father’s death is close. And then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”
42-45When these words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she called her younger son Jacob and said, “Your brother Esau is plotting vengeance against you. He’s going to kill you. Son, listen to me. Get out of here. Run for your life to Haran, to my brother Laban. Live with him for a while until your brother cools down, until his anger subsides and he forgets what you did to him. I’ll then send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you the same day?”
46Rebekah spoke to Isaac, “I’m sick to death of these Hittite women. If Jacob also marries a native Hittite woman, why live?”
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Genesis 27: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 27
27
1And when Izhak was olde, and his eyes were dimme (so that he coulde not see) he called Esau his eldest sonne, and sayde vnto him, My sonne. And he answered him, I am here. 2Then he sayd, Beholde, I am nowe olde, and knowe not the day of my death: 3Wherefore nowe, I pray thee take thine instruments, thy quiuer and thy bowe, and get thee to the fielde, that thou mayest take mee some venison. 4Then make mee sauourie meate, such as I loue, and bring it me that I may eat, and that my soule may blesse thee, before I die. 5(Nowe Rebekah heard, when Izhak spake to Esau his sonne) and Esau went into the fielde to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6Then Rebekah spake vnto Iaakob her sonne, saying, Beholde, I haue heard thy father talking with Esau thy brother, saying, 7Bring mee vension, and make mee sauourie meate, that I may eate and blesse thee before the Lord, afore my death. 8Nowe therefore, my sonne, heare my voyce in that which I command thee. 9Get thee nowe to the flocke, and bring me thence two good kids of the goates, that I may make pleasant meate of them for thy father, such as he loueth. 10Then shalt thou bring it to thy father, and he shall eate, to the intent that he may blesse thee before his death. 11But Iaakob sayde to Rebekah his mother, Beholde, Esau my brother is rough, and I am smoothe. 12My father may possibly feele me, and I shall seem to him to be a mocker: so shall I bring a curse vpon me, and not a blessing. 13But his mother sayd vnto him, vpon me be thy curse, my sonne: onely heare my voyce, and go and bring me them. 14So he went and set them, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made pleasant meat, such as his father loued. 15And Rebekah tooke faire clothes of her elder sonne Esau, which were in her house, and clothed Iaakob her yonger sonne: 16And she couered his hands and the smoothe of his necke with the skinnes of the kiddes of the goates. 17Afterward she put the pleasant meate and bread, which she had prepared, in the hand of her sonne Iaakob. 18And when he came to his father, he sayd, My father. Who answered, I am here: who art thou, my sonne? 19And Iaakob sayde to his father, I am Esau thy first borne, I haue done as thou badest me, arise, I pray thee: sit vp and eate of my venison, that thy soule may blesse me. 20Then Izhak said vnto his sonne, Howe hast thou founde it so quickly my sonne? Who sayde, Because the Lord thy God brought it to mine hande. 21Againe sayde Izhak vnto Iaakob, Come neere nowe, that I may feele thee, my sonne, whether thou be that my sonne Esau or not. 22Then Iaakob came neere to Izhak his father, and he felt him and sayd, The voyce is Iaakobs voyce, but the hands are the hands of Esau. 23(For he knewe him not, because his hands were rough as his brother Esaus hands: wherefore he blessed him) 24Againe he sayd, Art thou that my sonne Esau? Who answered, Yea. 25Then said he, Bring it me hither, and I will eate of my sonnes venison, that my soule may blesse thee. And he brought it to him, and he ate: also he brought him wine, and he dranke. 26Afterward his father Izhak sayd vnto him, Come neere nowe, and kisse me, my sonne. 27And hee came neere and kissed him. Then he smellled the sauour of his garmentes, and blessed him, and sayde, Behold, the smelll of my sonne is as the smelll of a fielde, which the Lord hath blessed. 28God giue thee therefore of the dewe of heauen, and the fatnesse of the earth, and plentie of wheate and wine. 29Let people bee thy seruantes, and nations bowe vnto thee: be Lord ouer thy brethren, and let thy mothers children honour thee. cursed be he that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 30And when Izhak had made an ende of blessing Iaakob, and Iaakob was scarce gone out from the presence of Izhak his father, then came Esau his brother from his hunting, 31And hee also prepared sauourie meate and brought it to his father, and sayd vnto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his sonnes venison, that thy soule may blesse me. 32But his father Izhak sayde vnto him, Who art thou? And he answered, I am thy sonne, euen thy first borne Esau. 33Then Izhak was stricken with a marueilous great feare, and sayde, Who and where is hee that hunted venison, and brought it mee, and I haue eate of all before thou camest? and I haue blessed him, therefore he shalbe blessed. 34When Esau heard the wordes of his father, he cryed out with a great crye and bitter, out of measure, and sayde vnto his father, Blesse me, euen me also, my father. 35Who answered, Thy brother came with subtiltie, and hath taken away thy blessing. 36Then he sayde, Was hee not iustly called Iaakob? for hee hath deceiued mee these two times: he tooke my birthright, and loe, nowe hath he taken my blessing. Also he sayd, Hast thou not reserued a blessing for me? 37Then Izhak answered, and sayd vnto Esau, Beholde, I haue made him thy lorde, and all his brethre haue I made his seruants: also with wheate and wine haue I furnished him, and vnto thee now what shall I doe, my sonne? 38Then Esau sayde vnto his father, Hast thou but one blessing my father? blesse mee, euen me also, my father: and Esau lifted vp his voyce, and wept. 39Then Izhak his father answered, and sayde vnto him, Behold, the fatnesse of the earth shall be thy dwelling place, and thou shalt haue of the dewe of heauen from aboue. 40And by thy sword shalt thou liue, and shalt be thy brothers seruant. But it shall come to passe, when thou shalt get the masterie, that thou shalt breake his yoke from thy necke. 41Therefore Esau hated Iaakob, because of the blessing, wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau thought in his minde, The dayes of mourning for my father will come shortly, then I will slay may brother Iaakob. 42And it was told to Rebekah of the wordes of Esau her elder sonne, and shee sent and called Iaakob her yonger sonne, and sayd vnto him, Beholde, thy brother Esau is comforted against thee, meaning to kill thee: 43Now therefore my sonne, heare my voyce, arise, and flee thou to Haran to my brother Laban, 44And tarie with him a while vntill thy brothers fiercenesse be swaged, 45And till thy brothers wrath turne away from thee, and hee forget the thinges, which thou hast done to him: then will I sende and take thee from thence: why shoulde I bee depriued of you both in one day? 46Also Rebekah said to Izhak, I am weary of my life, for the daughters of Heth. If Iaakob take a wife of the daughters of Heth like these of the daughters of the lande, what auaileth it me to liue?
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