Genesis 27

1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.”

2Isaac 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 into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.

4Then prepare me the kind of tasty food I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

5Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the open country to hunt for game and bring it back,

6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I just heard your father say to your brother Esau,

7‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may bless you before Yahweh before I die.’

8Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you.

9Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I can prepare them as tasty food for your father, the way he loves it.

10Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

11Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I have smooth skin.

12What if my father touches me? Then he will see me as someone who is mocking him, and I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

13His mother said to him, “Let your curse fall on me, my son. Just listen to me. Go and get them for me.”

14So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared tasty food, the way his father loved it.

15Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

17Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

18He went in to his father and said, “My father.” He answered, “Here I am. 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?” He answered, “Because Yahweh your God brought it to me.”

21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come close so that I can touch you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

22So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

23He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.

24He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”

25Then he said, “Bring it to me so that I may eat some of my son’s game and 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 here and kiss me, my son.”

27So he came and kissed him. When Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.

28May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the richness of the earth, and plenty of 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 everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you.”

30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just left his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting.

31He too prepared tasty 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?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

33Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Then who was it that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him—and he will indeed be blessed.”

34When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and very bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—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 twice now: he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing!” Then he said, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

37Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you, and I have given him all his relatives as servants, and I have supplied 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—me too, my father!” And Esau wept aloud.

39Then his father Isaac answered him, “Your home will be away from the richness of the earth, away from the dew of heaven above.

40You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will break his yoke from your neck.”

41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

42When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.

43So now, my son, listen to me. Get up and flee to my brother Laban in Haran.

44Stay with him for 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 one day?”

46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am disgusted with my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these, one of the women of this land, what good will my life be to me?”