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.
Berĕshith (Genesis) 27
27
1And it came to be, when Yitsḥaq was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called Ěsaw his elder son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.”
2And he said, “See now, I am old, I do not know the day of my death.
3“Now then, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt wild game for me.
4“And make me a tasty dish, such as I love, and bring it to me to eat, in order that my being does bless you before I die.”
5And Riḇqah heard when Yitsḥaq spoke to Ěsaw his son. And Ěsaw went to the field to hunt wild game and to bring it.
6And Riḇqah spoke to Ya‛aqoḇ her son, saying, “See, I heard your father speak to Ěsaw your brother, saying,
7Bring me wild game and make me a tasty dish to eat, and bless you in the presence of יהוה before my death.’
8“And now my son, listen to my voice according to what I command you.
9Please go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I make a tasty dish from them for your father, such as he loves.
10And you shall take it to your father, and he shall eat it, so that he might bless you before his death.
11And Ya‛aqoḇ said to Riḇqah his mother, “See, Ěsaw my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.
12What if my father touches me? Then I shall be like a deceiver in his eyes, and shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.
13But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.”
14And he went and fetched them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made a tasty dish, such as his father loved.
15And Riḇqah took the best garments of her elder son Ěsaw, which were with her in the house, and put them on Ya‛aqoḇ her younger son.
16And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17Then she gave the tasty dish and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Ya‛aqoḇ.
18And he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19And Ya‛aqoḇ said to his father, “I am Ěsaw your first-born, I have done as you said to me. Please rise, sit and eat of my wild game, so that your being might bless me.”
20But Yitsḥaq said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because יהוה your Elohim brought it to me.”
21Then Yitsḥaq said to Ya‛aqoḇ, “Please come near, so that I feel you, my son, whether you truly are my son Ěsaw or not.”
22And Ya‛aqoḇ went near to Yitsḥaq his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Ya‛aqoḇ, but the hands are the hands of Ěsaw.”
23And he did not recognise him, for his hands were hairy like his brother Ěsaw’s hands, and he blessed him.
24And he said, “Are you truly my son Ěsaw?” And he said, “I am.”
25And he said, “Bring it near to me, and let me eat of my son’s wild game, so that my being might bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate. And he brought him wine, and he drank.
26And his father Yitsḥaq said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”
27And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which יהוה has blessed.
28And Elohim give you of the dew of the heavens, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.
29Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those cursing you, and blessed be those blessing you!”
30And it came to be, as soon as Yitsḥaq had finished blessing Ya‛aqoḇ, and Ya‛aqoḇ had hardly left the presence of Yitsḥaq his father, that Ěsaw his brother came in from his hunting.
31And he too had made a tasty dish and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father rise and eat of his son’s wild game, so that your being might bless me.”
32And his father Yitsḥaq said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your first-born, Ěsaw.”
33Then Yitsḥaq trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who was it then who hunted wild game and brought it to me? And I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, he is blessed.”
34When Ěsaw heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me too, O my father!”
35And he said, “Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing.”
36And Ěsaw said, “Was his name, then, called Ya‛aqoḇ? For he has caught me by the heel these two times. He took my birthright, and see, now he has taken my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37Then Yitsḥaq answered and said to Ěsaw, “See, I have made him your master, and all his brothers I have given to him as servants. And I have sustained him with grain and wine. And what, then, shall I do for you, my son?”
38And Ěsaw said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me too, O my father!” And Ěsaw lifted up his voice and wept.
39And Yitsḥaq his father answered and said to him, “See, your dwelling is of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of the heavens from above.
40And by your sword you are to live, and serve your brother. And it shall be, when you grow restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
41And Ěsaw hated Ya‛aqoḇ because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Ěsaw said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father draw near, then I am going to kill my brother Ya‛aqoḇ.”
42And the words of Ěsaw her older son were reported to Riḇqah, and she sent and called Ya‛aqoḇ her younger son, and said to him, “See, your brother Ěsaw comforts himself concerning you, to kill you.
43“And now, my son, listen to my voice, and rise, flee to my brother Laḇan in Ḥaran.
44And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s wrath turns away,”
45until your brother’s displeasure turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. And I shall send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
46And Riḇqah said to Yitsḥaq, “I am disgusted with my life because of the daughters of Ḥĕth. If Ya‛aqoḇ takes a wife from the daughters of Ḥĕth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what is my life to me?”
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