Genesis 27–28

Isaac Blesses Jacob

27Now it came to pass, when Isaac was ^aold and ^bhis eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered him, “Here I am.”

²Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I ^cdo not know the day of my death. ^3dNow therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. ⁴And make me ¹savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul ^emay bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. ⁶So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ⁷‘Bring me game and make ²savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ ⁸Now therefore, my son, ^fobey my voice according to what I command you. ⁹Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make ^gsavory food from them for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he ^hmay bless you before his death.”

¹¹And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, ⁱEsau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. ¹²Perhaps my father will ^jfeel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring ^ka curse on myself and not a blessing.”

¹³But his mother said to him, ^l“Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” ¹⁴And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother ^mmade ³savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took ⁿthe choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸So he went to his father and said, “My father.”

And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, ^othat your soul may bless me.”

²⁰But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”

And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”

²¹Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I ^pmay feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²²So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³And he did not recognize him, because ^qhis hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”

He said, “I am.”

²⁵He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so ^rthat my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷And he came near and ^skissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:

“Surely, ^tthe smell of my son

Is like the smell of a field

Which the Lord has blessed.

²⁸Therefore may ^uGod give you

Of ^vthe dew of heaven,

Of ^wthe fatness of the earth,

And ^xplenty of grain and wine.

^29yLet peoples serve you,

And nations bow down to you.

Be master over your brethren,

And ^zlet your mother’s sons bow down to you.

^aCursed be everyone who curses you,

And blessed be those who bless you!”

Esau’s Lost Hope

³⁰Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹He also had made ⁴savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and ^beat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”

³²And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

³³Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—^cand indeed he shall be blessed.”

³⁴When Esau heard the words of his father, ^dhe cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!”

³⁵But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶And Esau said, ^e“Is he not rightly named ⁵Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

³⁷Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, ^f“Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with ^ggrain and wine I have ⁶sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”

³⁸And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice ^hand wept.

³⁹Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

“Behold, ⁱyour dwelling shall be of the ⁷fatness of the earth,

And of the dew of heaven from above.

⁴⁰By your sword you shall live,

And ^jyou shall serve your brother;

And ^kit shall come to pass, when you become restless,

That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

Jacob Escapes from Esau

⁴¹So Esau ^lhated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, ^m“The days of mourning for my father ⁸are at hand; ⁿthen I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴²And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau ^ocomforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. ⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban ^pin Haran. ⁴⁴And stay with him a ^qfew days, until your brother’s fury turns away, ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, ^r“I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; ^sif Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

28Then Isaac called Jacob and ^ablessed him, and ¹charged him, and said to him: ^b“You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ^2cArise, go to ^dPadan Aram, to the house of ^eBethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of ^fLaban your mother’s brother.

³“May ^gGod Almighty bless you,

And make you ^hfruitful and multiply you,

That you may be an assembly of peoples;

⁴And give you ⁱthe blessing of Abraham,

To you and your descendants with you,

That you may inherit the land

^jIn ²which you are a stranger,

Which God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Mahalath

⁶Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. ⁸Also Esau saw ^kthat the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. ⁹So Esau went to Ishmael and ^ltook ^mMahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, ⁿthe sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

Jacob’s Vow at Bethel

¹⁰Now Jacob ^owent out from Beersheba and went toward ^pHaran. ¹¹So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. ¹²Then he ^qdreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there ^rthe angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

^13sAnd behold, the Lord stood above it and said: ^t“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; ^uthe land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴Also your ^vdescendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad ^wto the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and ^xin your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵Behold, ^yI am with you and will ^zkeep ³you wherever you go, and will ^abring you back to this land; for ^bI will not leave you ^cuntil I have done what I have spoken to you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in ^dthis place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

¹⁸Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, ^eset it up as a pillar, ^fand poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹And he called the name of ^gthat place ⁴Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. ^20hThen Jacob made a vow, saying, “If ⁱGod will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me ^jbread to eat and clothing to put on, ²¹so that ^kI come back to my father’s house in peace, ^lthen the Lord shall be my God. ²²And this stone which I have set as a pillar ^mshall be God’s house, ⁿand of all that You give me I will surely give a ⁵tenth to You.”