GenesisChapter 27

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¹Isaac grew old, and his eyes became so weak that he could not see. He called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," Esau answered. ²Isaac said, "Look, I am old now. I don't know when I will die. ³So take your weapons, your arrows and your bow. Go out into the field and hunt some wild game for me. ⁴Then make me the tasty food I love. Bring it to me to eat. Then I will bless you before I die." ⁵Rebekah was listening while Isaac talked to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the field to hunt game and bring it back, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Listen. I heard your father talking to your brother Esau. He said, ⁷'Bring me some wild game. Make me some tasty food to eat. Then I will bless you in front of the LORD before I die.' ⁸Now, my son, listen to me. Do just what I tell you. ⁹Go out to the flock. Bring me two of the best young goats. I'll make them into tasty food for your father, the kind he loves. ¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat. Then he will bless you before he dies." ¹¹Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man. My skin is smooth. ¹²What if my father touches me? Then he will see that I am tricking him. I would bring a curse on myself, not a blessing." ¹³His mother answered, "Let the curse fall on me, my son. Just do what I say. Go and get the goats for me." ¹⁴So Jacob went and got the goats. He brought them to his mother. She made the tasty food his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which she had in the house. She put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She also 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. ¹⁸Jacob went to his father and said, "My father." "Here I am!" Isaac answered. "Which son are you?" ¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done what you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game. Then you can bless me." ²⁰But Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so fast, my son?" "The LORD your God brought it to me," Jacob answered. ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come close so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?" ²²So Jacob came close to his father Isaac. Isaac touched him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice. But the hands are Esau's hands." ²³Isaac didn't know it was Jacob, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So Isaac blessed him. ²⁴Again Isaac asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" Jacob answered, "I am." ²⁵Isaac said, "Bring me some of my son's game to eat. Then I will bless you." Jacob brought it to him, and he ate. Then Jacob brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come here and kiss me, my son." ²⁷So Jacob came close and kissed him. Isaac smelled his clothes. Then he blessed him and said,
"Ah, my son smells like a field
that the LORD has blessed. ²⁸May God give you dew from the sky
and rich soil on the earth.
May he give you plenty of grain and new wine. ²⁹May peoples serve you.
May nations bow down to you.
May you be the master over your brothers.
May your mother's sons bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed.
May those who bless you be blessed." ³⁰Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had just left his father. Right then his brother Esau came back from hunting. ³¹Esau also made some tasty food. He brought it to his father and said, "My father, sit up and eat some of your son's game. Then you can bless me." ³²His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am Esau, your firstborn son," he answered. ³³Isaac began to shake very hard. He said, "Then who hunted the game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in. I blessed him. And he will be blessed, for sure!" ³⁴When Esau heard what his father said, he let out a loud and bitter cry. He said to his father, "Bless me too, my father!" ³⁵But Isaac said, "Your brother came and tricked me. He took your blessing." ³⁶Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has cheated me two times! He took my rights as the firstborn. And now he has taken my blessing." Then he asked, "Didn't you save a blessing for me?" ³⁷Isaac answered Esau, "Look, I have made him your master. I have made all his relatives his servants. I have given him grain and new wine to live on. So what is left that I can do for you, my son?" ³⁸Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau cried out loud. ³⁹His father Isaac answered him,
"Look, you will live far from the rich soil of the land.
You will live far from the dew of the sky above. ⁴⁰You will live by the sword.
And you will serve your brother.
But when you fight to be free,
you will break his yoke off your neck." ⁴¹Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given Jacob. Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are coming soon. Then I will kill my brother Jacob." ⁴²Someone told Rebekah what her older son Esau had said. So she sent for her younger son Jacob. She told him, "Listen, your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³So now, my son, do what I say. Run away right now to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay with him for a while, until your brother's anger cools down. ⁴⁵Stay until your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him. Then I'll 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'm sick of living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of these Hittite women, my life won't be worth living!"