Genesis 27
Big idea: Everybody in this chapter is wrong, and everybody gets what they were told would happen. Isaac, old and blind, sets out to bless Esau in secret, against an oracle he knows. Rebekah, who heard that oracle, engineers a fraud rather than trusting it. Jacob lies to his father's face — I am Esau your firstborn — and even brings God into it. Esau, who sold the birthright for soup, weeps for the blessing he never valued. And when the deceit is exposed, Isaac trembles violently and then confirms the blessing anyway: yes, and he will be blessed. The word, once spoken, cannot be recalled. The immediate result is a murderous grudge and a mother sending her favourite son away for what she thinks will be a few days. She never sees him again.
Chapter 27 ends with Rebekah arranging Jacob's escape under the cover of finding him a wife. Chapter 28 sends him off with Isaac's blessing — and gives him, alone on the road with a stone for a pillow, a promise of his own.
27:1–17 — The plot at the tent door
Isaac, blind and expecting to die, sends Esau to hunt game and prepare his favourite meal so he can bless him. Rebekah overhears, and moves immediately: she tells Jacob to fetch two young goats, which she will cook to taste like venison. Jacob's only objection is practical — Esau is hairy and I am smooth; if he touches me I'll be found out and cursed. Rebekah takes the curse on herself, dresses him in Esau's clothes, and puts goatskins on his hands and neck.
1 When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. 3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me venison. 4 Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.” 5 Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6 Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 7 ‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you. 9 Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves. 10 You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” 11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.” 14 He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved. 15 Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. 17 She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
27:18–29 — The voice is Jacob's, the hands are Esau's
Jacob goes in and lies outright: I am Esau your firstborn. Asked how he found game so quickly, he says Yahweh your God gave me success. Isaac, suspicious, asks him to come near — the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are Esau's hands — and asks again, are you really my son Esau? Jacob says, I am. Isaac eats, drinks, smells his clothes, and blesses him: the dew of the sky, the fatness of the earth, nations bowing down, lord over your brothers, cursed be everyone who curses you.
18 He came to his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.” 20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because Yahweh your God gave me success.” 21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.” 25 He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.” He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank. 26 His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” 27 He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed. 28 God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
27:30–40 — Have you only one blessing?
Jacob has barely left when Esau comes in with his own dish. Isaac trembles violently — who then was it? — and then says the sentence that fixes everything: yes, and he will be blessed. Esau cries out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, begging for a blessing too, and names the pattern: isn't he rightly named Jacob? He took my birthright, and now my blessing. Isaac has nothing left to give but an oracle of a harder life: away from the fatness of the earth, living by the sword, serving your brother — until you break his yoke from your neck.
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.” 32 Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.” 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.” 35 He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.” 36 He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?” 37 Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39 Isaac his father answered him, “Behold, your dwelling will be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of the sky from above. 40 You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.”
27:41–46 — Flee to Laban
Esau hates Jacob and says in his heart that when the mourning for his father is over, he will kill him. Rebekah hears, and sends Jacob to her brother Laban in Haran — stay a few days until your brother's fury turns away; why should I lose both of you in one day? Then she gives Isaac a different reason entirely: she is weary of life because of the Hittite women, and cannot bear Jacob marrying one.
41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. 44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away— 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?” 46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).