Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Genesis 27
Isaac’s Request
Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were too dim to see. He called his older son Esau. “My son!” he said. “Here I am,” Esau answered.
Isaac said, “I am old now, and I do not know when I will die. Take your hunting gear—your quiver and bow—and go out into the country. Hunt some game for me. Make me a meal I enjoy and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my heartfelt blessing before I die.”
Rebekah’s Instructions
Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out into the country to hunt game and bring it back, she said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father tell your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game and make me a meal I enjoy. I will eat it and bless you in the LORD’s presence before I die.’
Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two good young goats. I will make them into a meal your father enjoys. Take it to your father to eat, so that he will bless you before he dies.”
Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is hairy, and my skin is smooth. What if my father feels me? He will think I am making a fool of him. I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
His mother answered, “Let the curse fall on me, my son. Just listen to me. Go and get them.”
Jacob went and got the goats and brought them to his mother. She made a meal his father enjoyed.
Rebekah took the fine clothes of her older son Esau, which she kept in the house, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them. She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the young goats’ skins. Then she handed her son Jacob the meal and the bread she had made.
Jacob before His Father
Jacob went to his father and said, “My father!” “Here I am,” Isaac answered. “Who are you, my son?”
“I am Esau, your firstborn,” Jacob told his father. “I have done what you asked. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your heartfelt blessing.”
Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” Jacob answered, “The LORD your God brought it into my path.”
Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, and let me feel you. Are you really my son Esau or not?”
Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are Esau’s hands.” He did not recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s. So Isaac blessed him.
“Are you really my son Esau?” Isaac asked. “I am,” Jacob answered.
Isaac said, “Bring it here so I can eat my son’s game and give you my heartfelt blessing.” Jacob brought it, and Isaac ate. Then Jacob brought him wine, and he drank.
Then his father Isaac said, “Come closer and kiss me, my son.”
Jacob came close and kissed him. Isaac smelled his clothes and blessed him:
“Ah, my son’s scent
is like the scent of a field
the LORD has blessed.
May God give you dew from the heavens,
the richness of the earth,
and abundant grain and new wine.
May peoples serve you
and nations bow before you.
Be lord over your brothers;
may your mother’s sons bow before you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you.”
Esau Returns
Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had barely left his father Isaac when his brother Esau came back from hunting.
Esau too made a meal his father enjoyed and brought it to him. “Please sit up, my father, and eat some of your son’s game,” he said, “so that you may give me your heartfelt blessing.”
His father Isaac asked, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
Isaac began trembling violently. “Who was it, then, who hunted game and brought it to me?” he asked. “I ate some of everything before you arrived, and I blessed him. And blessed he will remain!”
When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud, bitter cry. “Bless me too, my father!” he pleaded.
Isaac said, “Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing.”
Esau said, “Wasn’t he rightly named Jacob? Twice now he has pushed me aside. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you kept a blessing for me?”
Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and given him all his brothers as servants. I have provided him with grain and new wine. What can I do for you now, my son?”
“Do you have only one blessing, my father?” Esau asked. “Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept aloud.
His father Isaac answered:
“Your home will be away from the richness of the earth,
away from the dew of the heavens above.
You will live by your sword
and serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
A Threat and a Departure
Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said. She sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Your brother Esau is comforting himself with the thought of killing you.
Now, my son, listen to me. Leave at once and flee to my brother Laban in Haran. Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury dies down, until his anger toward you subsides and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these women of the land, what would I have to live for?”