Genesis 27–30

27TH CHAPTER

Jacob Gets Isaac’s Blessing

¹When Isaac was old and going blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!” 

Esau answered, “Here I am.” 

²Isaac said, “I’m old. I don’t know when I’m going to die. ³Now take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me. ⁴Prepare a good-tasting meal for me, just the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I will bless you before I die.” 

⁵Rebekah was listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. When Esau went into the open country to hunt for some wild game to bring back, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I’ve just heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. ⁷He said, ‘Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat so that I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you. ⁹Go to the flock, and get me two good young goats. I’ll prepare them as a good-tasting meal for your father, just the way he likes it. ¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat so that he will bless you before he dies.” 

¹¹Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth.^a12My father will feel ⸤my skin⸥ and think I’m mocking him. Then I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” 

¹³His mother responded, “Let any curse on you fall on me, Son. Just obey me and go! Get me ⸤the young goats⸥.” 

¹⁴He went and got them and brought them to his mother. She prepared a good-tasting meal, just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s good clothes, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She put the skins from the young goats on his hands and on the back of his neck. ¹⁷Then she gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared. 

¹⁸He went to his father and said, “Father?” 

“Yes?” he answered. “Who are you, Son?” 

¹⁹Jacob answered his father, “I’m Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done what you told me. Sit up and eat this meat I’ve hunted for you so that you may bless me.” 

²⁰Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, Son?” 

“The Lord your God brought it to me,” he answered. 

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come over here so that I can feel your skin, Son, ⸤to find out⸥ whether or not you really are my son Esau.” ²²So Jacob went over to his father. Isaac felt ⸤his skin⸥. “The voice is Jacob’s,” he said, “but the hands are Esau’s.” ²³He didn’t recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴“Are you really my son Esau?” he asked him. 

“I am,” Jacob answered. 

²⁵Isaac said, “Bring me some of the game, and I will eat it, Son, so that I will bless you.” Jacob brought it to Isaac, and he ate it. Jacob also brought him wine, and he drank it. 

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and give me a kiss, Son.” ²⁷He went over and gave him a kiss. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said, 

“The smell of my son 

is like the smell of open country 

that the Lord has blessed. 

²⁸May God give you dew from the sky, 

fertile fields on the earth, 

and plenty of fresh grain and new wine. 

²⁹May nations serve you. 

May people bow down to you. 

Be the master of your brothers, 

and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. 

May those who curse you be cursed. 

May those who bless you be blessed.” 

³⁰Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had barely left when his brother Esau came in from hunting. ³¹He, too, prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Please, Father, eat some of the meat I’ve hunted for you so that you will bless me.” 

³²“Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him. 

“I’m your firstborn son Esau,” he answered. 

³³Trembling violently all over, Isaac asked, “Who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it before you came in. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed.” 

³⁴When Esau heard these words from his father, he shouted out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!” 

³⁵Isaac said, “Your brother came and deceived me and has taken away your blessing.” 

³⁶Esau said, “Isn’t that why he’s named Jacob? He’s cheated me twice already: He took my rights as firstborn, and now he’s taken my blessing.” So he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?” 

³⁷Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him your master, and I have made all his brothers serve him. I’ve provided fresh grain and new wine for him. What is left for me to do for you, Son?” 

³⁸Esau asked, “Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau sobbed loudly. 

³⁹His father Isaac answered him, 

“The place where you live will lack the fertile fields of the earth 

and the dew from the sky above. 

⁴⁰You will use your sword to live, 

and you will serve your brother. 

But eventually you will gain your freedom 

and break his yoke^coff your neck.” 

⁴¹So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “The time to mourn for my father is near. Then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.” 

⁴²When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Watch out! Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.⁴³So now, Son, obey me. Quick! Run away to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴Stay with him awhile, until your brother’s anger cools down. ⁴⁵When your brother’s anger is gone and he has forgotten what you did to him, I’ll send for you and get you back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” 

⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac, “I can’t stand Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of those from around here, I might as well die.” 

28TH CHAPTER

Isaac Sends Jacob Away

¹Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You are not to marry any of the Canaanite women. ²Quick! Go to Paddan Aram. Go to the home of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and get yourself a wife from there from the daughters of your uncle Laban. ³May God Almighty bless you, make you fertile, and increase the number of your descendants so that you will become a community of people. ⁴May he give to you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you are now living, the land that God gave to Abraham.” 

⁵Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan Aram. Jacob went to live with Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah. She was the mother of Jacob and Esau. 

⁶Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan Aram to get a wife from there. He learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had commanded him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. ⁷He also learned that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had left for Paddan Aram. ⁸Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of Canaanite women. ⁹So he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth, in addition to the wives he had. 

Jacob’s First Encounter with God

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹When he came to a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down there. ¹²He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it. ¹³The Lord was standing above it, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants. ¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. Through you and through your descendant every family on earth will be blessed. ¹⁵Remember, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will also bring you back to this land because I will not leave you until I do what I’ve promised you.” 

¹⁶Then Jacob woke up from his sleep and exclaimed, “Certainly, the Lord is in this place, and I didn’t know it!” ¹⁷Filled with awe, he said, “How awe-inspiring this place is! Certainly, this is the house of God and the gateway to heaven!” 

¹⁸Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had put under his head. He set it up as a marker and poured olive oil on top of it. ¹⁹He named that place Bethel ^[House of God^[. Previously, the name of the city was Luz. 

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and will watch over me on my trip and give me food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will be my God. ²²This stone that I have set up as a marker will be the house of God, and I will surely give you a tenth of everything you give me.” 

29TH CHAPTER

Jacob’s Arrival in Haran

¹Jacob continued on his trip and came to the land in the east. ²He looked around, and out in a field he saw a well with a large stone over the opening. Three flocks of sheep were lying down near it, because the flocks were watered from that well. ³When all the flocks were gathered there, the stone would be rolled off the opening of the well so that the sheep could be watered. Then the stone would be put back in place over the opening of the well. 

⁴Jacob asked some people, “My friends, where are you from?” 

“We’re from Haran,” they replied. 

⁵He asked them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” 

They answered, “We do.” 

⁶“How is he doing?” Jacob asked them. 

“He’s fine,” they answered. “Here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 

⁷“It’s still the middle of the day,” he said. “It isn’t time yet to gather the livestock. Water the sheep. Then let them graze.” 

⁸They replied, “We can’t until all the flocks are gathered. When the stone is rolled off the opening of the well, we can water the sheep.” 

⁹While he was still talking to them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, because she was a shepherd. ¹⁰Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle…