Genesis 27–28

Jacob Tricks Isaac

27When Isaac was old, his eyesight was poor, so he could not see clearly. One day he called his older son Esau to him and said, “Son.”

Esau answered, “Here I am.”

²Isaac said, “I am old and don’t know when I might die. ³So take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the field for an animal for me to eat. ⁴When you prepare the tasty food that I love, bring it to me, and I will eat. Then I will bless you before I die.” ⁵So Esau went out in the field to hunt.

Rebekah was listening as Isaac said this to his son Esau. ⁶She said to her son Jacob, “Listen, I heard your father saying to your brother Esau, ⁷‘Kill an animal and prepare some tasty food for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸So obey me, my son, and do what I tell you. ⁹Go out to our goats and bring me two of the best young ones. I will prepare them just the way your father likes them. ¹⁰Then you will take the food to your father, and he will bless you before he dies.”

¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth! ¹²If my father touches me, he will know I am not Esau. Then he will not bless me but will place a curse on me because I tried to trick him.”

¹³So Rebekah said to him, “If your father puts a curse on you, I will accept the blame. Just do what I said. Go get the goats for me.”

¹⁴So Jacob went out and got two goats and brought them to his mother, and she cooked them in the special way Isaac enjoyed. ¹⁵She took the best clothes of her older son Esau that were in the house and put them on the younger son Jacob. ¹⁶She also took the skins of the goats and put them on Jacob’s hands and neck. ¹⁷Then she gave Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

¹⁸Jacob went in to his father and said, “Father.”

And his father said, “Yes, my son. Who are you?”

¹⁹Jacob said to him, “I am Esau, your first son. I have done what you told me. Now sit up and eat some meat of the animal I hunted for you. Then bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac asked his son, “How did you find and kill the animal so quickly?”

Jacob answered, “Because the Lord your God helped me to find it.”

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son. Then I will know if you are really my son Esau.”

²²So Jacob came near to Isaac his father. Isaac touched him and said, “Your voice sounds like Jacob’s voice, but your hands are hairy like the hands of Esau.” ²³Isaac did not know it was Jacob, because his hands were hairy like Esau’s hands, so Isaac blessed him. ²⁴Isaac asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

Jacob answered, “Yes, I am.”

²⁵Then Isaac said, “Bring me the food, and I will eat it and bless you.” So Jacob gave him the food, and he ate. Jacob gave him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then Isaac said to him, “My son, come near and kiss me.” ²⁷So Jacob went to his father and kissed him. When Isaac smelled Esau’s clothes, he blessed him and said,

“The smell of my son

is like the smell of the field

that the Lord has blessed.

²⁸May God give you plenty of rain

and good soil

so that you will have plenty of grain and new wine.

²⁹May nations serve you

and peoples bow down to you.

May you be master over your brothers,

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.

May everyone who curses you be cursed,

and may everyone who blesses you be blessed.”

³⁰Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Then, just as Jacob left his father Isaac, Esau came in from hunting. ³¹He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. He said, “Father, rise and eat the food that your son killed for you and then bless me.”

³²Isaac asked, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am your son—your firstborn son—Esau.”

³³Then Isaac trembled greatly and said, “Then who was it that hunted the animals and brought me food before you came? I ate it, and I blessed him, and it is too late now to take back my blessing.”

³⁴When Esau heard the words of his father, he let out a loud and bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me—me, too, my father!”

³⁵But Isaac said, “Your brother came and tricked me. He has taken your blessing.”

³⁶Esau said, “Jacob ⁿ is the right name for him. He has tricked me these two times. He took away my share of everything you own, and now he has taken away my blessing.” Then Esau asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷Isaac answered, “I gave Jacob the power to be master over you, and all his brothers will be his servants. And I kept him strong with grain and new wine. There is nothing left to give you, my son.”

³⁸But Esau continued, “Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me, too, Father!” Then Esau began to cry out loud.

³⁹Isaac said to him,

“You will live far away from the best land,

far from the rain.

⁴⁰You will live by using your sword,

and you will be a slave to your brother.

But when you struggle,

you will break free from him.”

⁴¹After that Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing from Isaac. He thought to himself, “My father will soon die, and I will be sad for him. Then I will kill Jacob.”

⁴²Rebekah heard about Esau’s plan to kill Jacob. So she sent for Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³So, my son, do what I say. My brother Laban is living in Haran. Go to him at once! ⁴⁴Stay with him for a while, until your brother is not so angry. ⁴⁵In time, your brother will not be angry, and he will forget what you did to him. Then I will send a servant to bring you back. I don’t want to lose both of my sons on the same day.”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of these Hittite women here in this land, I want to die.”

Jacob Searches for a Wife

28Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman. ²Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, in Northwest Mesopotamia. Laban, your mother’s brother, lives there. Marry one of his daughters. ³May God Almighty bless you and give you many children, and may you become a group of many peoples. ⁴May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham so that you may own the land where you are now living as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵So Isaac sent Jacob to Northwest Mesopotamia, to Laban the brother of Rebekah. Bethuel the Aramean was the father of Laban and Rebekah, and Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Northwest Mesopotamia to find a wife there. He also learned that Isaac had commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Northwest Mesopotamia. ⁸So Esau saw that his father Isaac did not want his sons to marry Canaanite women. ⁹Now Esau already had wives, but he went to Ishmael son of Abraham, and he married Mahalath, Ishmael’s daughter. Mahalath was the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep. ¹²Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. ¹³Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. ¹⁴Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it.” ¹⁷He was afraid and said, “This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it. ¹⁹At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel. ⁿ

²⁰Then Jacob made a promise. He said, “I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹so I will be able to return in peace to my father’s house. If the Lord does these things, he will be my God. ²²This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me.”