Isaac Blesses Jacob
1. Isaac, however, loved Esau because he ate his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
2. Once when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”
3. “Here I am,” Esau replied.
4. Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and do not know the day of my death.
5. So now, take your quiver and your bow and go out to the field to hunt some game for me.
6. Then prepare a tasty dish, just the way I like it, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”
7. Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau.
8 .When Esau went out to the field to hunt game to bring back,
9. Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father speaking with your brother Esau.
10. He said, ‘Bring me some game and prepare a tasty dish to eat, that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’
11. Now therefore, my son, listen to me and do exactly as I tell you.
12. Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I may make them into a tasty dish for your father, just the way he likes it.
13. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
14. Jacob replied to Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned.
15. What if my father touches me? Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”
16. His mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, shall be upon me. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”
17. So Jacob went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and she prepared a tasty dish, just the way his father liked it.
18. Then Rebekah took the best garments of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.
19. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
20. Then she handed the tasty dish and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
21. As he brought them to his father, he said, “My father.”
22. And Isaac replied, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
23. Jacob answered 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.”
24. But Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
25. Jacob replied, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.”
26. Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can feel you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”
27. So Jacob drew near to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
28. He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.
29. Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”
Esau’s Lost Hope
30. And Jacob replied, “I am.”
31. “Serve me,” said Isaac, “and let me eat some of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” So Jacob served him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.
32. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.”
33. So Jacob drew near and kissed him. When Isaac caught the scent of his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the scent of my son is like the scent of a field that the LORD has blessed.
34. May God give you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, an abundance of grain and new wine.
35. May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.”
36. Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved any blessing for me?”
37. But Isaac answered Esau, “Look, I have made him your lord and master, and I have given him all his brothers as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38. Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept aloud.
39. Then his father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of heaven above.
40. You shall live by your sword, and serve your brother; yet it shall come to pass when you break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from your neck.”
41. So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42. But Rebekah was told what Esau had said. So she summoned her son Jacob and said to him, “Listen carefully as your brother Esau comforts himself by planning to kill you.
43. Now then, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.
44. Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides—
45. until your brother’s anger against you dissipates and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46. Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”