Isaac Prepares to Bless Esau
1When Isaac had grown old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered. 2“Look,” he said, “I am old now, and I do not know the day of my death. 3So now, take your gear — your quiver and your bow — and go out to the open country and hunt some game for me. 4Then make me the kind of savory food I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.” 5Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went out to the open country to hunt game and bring it back, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen — I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. He said, 7‘Bring me game and make me savory food to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of Yahweh before I die.’ 8Now then, my son, listen to me and do exactly as I tell you. 9Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into savory food for your father, the kind he loves. 10Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth-skinned. 12What if my father touches me? I will seem to him like a trickster, and I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” 13His mother said to him, “Let the curse fall on me, my son. Just do as I say — go and bring them to me.” 14So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and she made savory food, the kind his father loved. 15Then Rebekah took the finest clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had there in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the young goats, 17and put the savory food and the bread she had made into the hands of her son Jacob.
Jacob Deceives His Father
18He went to his father and said, “My father.” “Here I am,” he said. “Which of my sons are you?” 19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.” 20Isaac said to his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” “Because Yahweh your God brought it to me,” he answered. 21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, so I can touch you and know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22So Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are Esau’s hands.” 23He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24“Are you really my son Esau?” he asked. “I am,” he answered. 25Then he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat my son’s game, so that I may bless you.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. 26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close now, my son, and kiss me.” 27So he came close and kissed him. Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes, and he blessed him, saying, “See — the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed. 28May God give you the dew of the heavens and the richness of the earth, and abundant grain and new wine. 29May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over 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.”
Esau’s Bitter Discovery
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob — Jacob had only just left his father’s presence — Esau his brother came in from his hunt. 31He too prepared savory food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.” 32His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau,” he answered. 33Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him — and blessed he will remain.” 34When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” 35But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” 36Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? He has cheated me now these two times. He took my birthright, and now look — he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Have you not saved a blessing for me?” 37Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept aloud. 39Then his father Isaac answered him, “Look — your dwelling will be far from the richness of the earth, far from the dew of the heavens above. 40You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will break his yoke from off your neck.”
Esau’s Threat and Rebekah’s Counsel
41So Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42When the words of Esau, her older son, were reported to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Look — your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43Now then, my son, listen to me. Get up and flee to my brother Laban in Haran. 44Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury subsides — 45until your brother’s anger turns away from you and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?” 46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the Hittite women, women like these, from among the women of this land, what good will my life be to me?”
