Genesis 27

¹Isaac had grown old, and his sight had faded until he could no longer see. He sent for Esau, the older of his two sons, and said, “My son!” “Yes, I am here,” Esau answered. ²“I am an old man now,” Isaac said, “and any day could be my last. ³So take your hunting things, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the open country and bring down some wild game for me. ⁴and cook it into the savory dish I am fond of. Bring it to me to eat, so that I can give you my blessing myself before I die.” ⁵Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac talked to their son Esau. So when Esau went off to the open country to hunt game and bring it back, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen. I overheard your father telling your brother Esau, ⁷‘Bring me some game and make me a tasty meal. After I have eaten I will bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’ ⁸Now, my son, do exactly as I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flock and pick out two fine young goats for me. I will make them into the kind of savory dish your father likes. ¹⁰Then you take it in to your father to eat, so that it is you he blesses before he dies.” ¹¹But Jacob objected to his mother Rebekah. “Esau my brother is covered with hair,” he said, “and my skin is smooth. ¹²Suppose my father touches me. He will see that I am making a fool of him, and I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” ¹³“Then let the curse be mine, my son,” his mother replied. “Just do as I say. Go and get the goats for me.” ¹⁴So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she cooked a savory dish the way his father liked it. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s finest clothes, which she kept in the house, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them. ¹⁶She also covered his hands and the smooth skin of his neck with the goatskins. ¹⁷Then she handed her son Jacob the savory dish and the bread she had made. ¹⁸He went in to his father and said, “Father!” “Yes,” said Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?” ¹⁹“It is Esau, your firstborn,” Jacob told his father. “I have done what you asked. Please sit up and eat some of the game I caught, and then give me your blessing.” ²⁰“How did you find it so fast, my son?” Isaac asked. “The LORD your God put it in my path,” he answered. ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, and let me touch you, to know whether you really are my son Esau.” ²²Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “It sounds like Jacob, but these hands are Esau’s.” ²³He did not see through it, because Jacob’s hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s, and so he blessed him. ²⁴“Are you truly my son Esau?” he asked again. “I am,” said Jacob. ²⁵“Then serve it to me,” Isaac said, “so that I may eat my son’s game and give you my blessing.” Jacob set the food before him, and he ate. He also brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.” ²⁷So he came close and kissed him, and when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him: “Ah, my son smells like open country that the LORD has blessed! ²⁸May God grant you the dew that falls from the sky and the riches of fertile soil, with grain and new wine in abundance. ²⁹Let peoples be your servants and nations bow low before you. Rule over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow before you. Whoever curses you, let him be cursed; whoever blesses you, let him be blessed.” ³⁰Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, when his brother Esau came back from the hunt. ³¹He too made a savory dish and brought it to his father. “Sit up, Father,” he said, “and eat some of your son’s game, so that you can bless me.” ³²“Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him. “Your son,” he said, “your firstborn, Esau.” ³³Isaac began to shake all over. “Then who was it,” he said, “that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I gave him my blessing, and blessed he will remain!” ³⁴When Esau heard what his father said, he let out a loud and anguished cry. “Father, bless me as well!” he begged. ³⁵But Isaac said, “Your brother came here with a trick and carried off your blessing.” ³⁶“No wonder he is called Jacob!” Esau said. “Twice now he has gone behind my back and cheated me. First he took my birthright, and now look, he has taken my blessing too.” Then he asked, “Is there no blessing left that you saved for me?” ³⁷Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your master. I have given him all his relatives to serve him, and grain and new wine to keep him. So what is there left for me to do for you, my son?” ³⁸“Is that the only blessing you have, Father?” Esau said. “Bless me as well, my father!” And Esau sobbed out loud. ³⁹His father Isaac answered him: “Far from the rich soil of the earth you will make your home, and far from the dew of the sky above.^{a 40}Your sword will win you your living, and you will be your brother’s servant. Yet a day will come when you break loose and throw off the yoke he has laid on your neck.”^{b 41}Esau nursed a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He told himself, “My father will soon be dead and mourned. When that time is over, I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴²When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau was saying, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Your brother Esau is finding comfort in the thought of killing you. ⁴³Now, my son, do as I say. Leave now and escape to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Live with him for a short time, until your brother’s rage has cooled, ⁴⁵until his anger toward you has gone and he has forgotten what you did to him. Then I will send word and bring you back. Must I be robbed of you both in a single day?” ⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “These Hittite women make my life a misery. If Jacob also marries one of these local Hittite women, I might as well be dead.”