Top of Page
Page Style
Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”
“Here I am,” he answered.
2 Isaac said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, please, get your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country and hunt some wild game for me. 4 Prepare me the kind of tasty food I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So while Esau went out to the open country to hunt for some game to bring back, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare some tasty food for me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die’. 8 Now, my son, listen carefully to me and do everything I tell you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will prepare some tasty food for your father, such as he loves. 10 Then take it to your father to eat, so he will give you his blessing before he dies.”
11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin. 12 What if my father touches me? Then I will be caught trying to deceive him, and then I will bring a curse down on myself rather than a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “Let the curse be on me, my son. Just do as I say, and go and get them for me.”
14 So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food the way his father loved. 15 Then 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. 16 She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the young goats. 17 Then she handed the tasty food and the bread she had prepared to her son Jacob.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father.”
“Here I am,” he answered. “Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob 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 you may give me your blessing.”
20 But Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
22 So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him. 24 Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”
“I am,” he answered.
25 Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I that I may give you my blessing.”
Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine to him, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come closer and kiss me, my son.”
27 So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,
“Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that the Lord has blessed.
28 May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the richness of the earth—
an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May nations serve you,
and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed,
and those who bless you be blessed.”
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31 He had also prepared some tasty food, and he brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
32 But his father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”
“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac began to tremble violently, and he said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in and I blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”
34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”
35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob ? For he has cheated me these two times now. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
37 But Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you, and I have given him all his relatives as servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What can I do for you now then, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept loudly.
39 His father Isaac answered him,
“Look, your dwelling will be
away from the richness of the earth,
and away from the dew of heaven above.
40 You will live by the sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will throw his yoke
from off your neck.”
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. So he said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When the words of her older son Esau were told to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen! Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43 So now, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44 and stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides. 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you, and he has forgotten what you have done to him, I will send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the Hittite women like these, the women of this land, my life will not be worth living!”