Genesis 27

27 ¹When Isaac grew old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called Esau his older son and said, "My son." "Here I am," he answered.

²Isaac said, "Look—I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³Now take your gear—quiver and bow—go out to the field and hunt game for me. ⁴Then make me the tasty food I love, bring it to eat, so my soul may bless you before I die."

⁵Rebekah listened as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. Esau went out to the field to hunt game and bring it back. ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "I heard your father tell your brother Esau, ⁷'Bring me game, make me a tasty meal to eat, so I may bless you before our Father before I die.' ⁸Now then, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly what I tell you. ⁹Go to the flock and get me two good young goats from there, so I can make your father tasty food, just as he loves. ¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies."

¹¹Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I'm smooth. ¹²What if my father feels me? I'll seem a deceiver to him, and bring on myself a curse, not a blessing."

¹³His mother said, "My son, let your curse fall on me—just listen to my voice: go, bring them to me."

¹⁴So Jacob went, took the goats, and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took Esau her older son's best clothes, kept with her in the house, and dressed Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶She covered his hands and smooth neck with the goat skins. ¹⁷Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty meal and the bread she had made.

¹⁸Jacob came to his father and said, "My father." He said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Please sit up and eat my game, so your soul may bless me."

²⁰Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so fast, my son?" He said, "Because your Father granted me success."

²¹Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come closer, my son, so I can feel you, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."

²²Jacob went to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are Esau's hands." ²³Isaac didn't recognize him, since Jacob's hands were as hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so Isaac blessed him. ²⁴He asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" And he said, "I am."

²⁵Isaac said, "Serve me my son's game, so my soul may bless you." Jacob served him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come closer, my son, and kiss me." ²⁷So Jacob came closer and kissed him. Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes, blessed him, and said, "See—the scent of my son is like the scent of a field that our Father has blessed. ²⁸May our Father give you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine. ²⁹Let peoples serve you and nations bow to you. Rule your brothers, and let your mother's sons bow to you. Cursed be all who curse you, and blessed all who bless you."

³⁰Just as Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely left his father Isaac's presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ³¹He also made a tasty dish, brought it to his father, and said to his father, "Let my father get up and eat some of his son's game, so your soul may bless me."

³²His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

³³Isaac shook violently and said, "Who, then, hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came and blessed him—yes, blessed he will be!"

³⁴When Esau heard his father's words, he let out a very loud, bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me too, my father!"

³⁵Isaac said, "Your brother came dishonestly and took your blessing."

³⁶Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He's cheated me twice: he took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing." Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

³⁷Isaac answered Esau, "Look, I have made him lord over you, given him all his brothers as servants, and 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!" Esau wept aloud.

³⁹Then his father Isaac replied to him, "Look—your dwelling will be away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of heaven above. ⁴⁰By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will break his yoke from your neck."

⁴¹Esau bore a grudge against Jacob for the blessing his father gave him, and said to himself, "My father's mourning days are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

⁴²Told what her older son Esau had said, Rebekah sent for her younger son Jacob and said, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself over you—he intends to kill you. ⁴³Now, my son, listen to my voice: get up, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay with him a while—until your brother's fury subsides, ⁴⁵until your brother's anger turns from you and he forgets what you did to him. Then I'll send and bring you back from there. Why lose both of you in one day?"

⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, from this land, why should I live?"