Genesis 27

1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." Esau answered, "Here I am." 2 Isaac said, "Look, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death. 3 So now, please take up your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt some game for me. 4 Make me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die." 5 Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and bring it back. 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I heard your father say to your brother Esau, 7 'Bring me some game and make me tasty food, so that I can eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.' 8 Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you.

9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, and I will make them into tasty food for your father, the kind he loves. 10 Then take it to your father to eat, so that he will bless you before he dies." 11 Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me. Then he will think I am mocking him, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing." 13 His mother said to him, "Let your curse fall on me, my son. Just listen to me, and go and get them for me." 14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made tasty food, the kind his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which she had with her in the house, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them. 16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

17 Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made. 18 He went in to his father and said, "My father." Isaac answered, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" 19 Jacob 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, so that you may bless me." 20 Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" He answered, "Because the LORD your God made it happen right in front of me." 21 Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come closer so that I can feel you, my son, and know whether you really are my son Esau or not." 22 So Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are Esau's hands." 23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like the hands of his brother Esau. So he blessed him. 24 Isaac asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" Jacob answered, "I am."

25 Then Isaac said, "Bring it to me, and let me eat some of my son's game, so that I may bless you." Jacob brought it to him, and he ate. Jacob also brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come here and kiss me, my son." 27 He went to him and kissed him. Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes, and he blessed him and said, "See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed. 28 May God give you some of the dew of the sky and some of the richness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine. 29 May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed." 30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely left his father Isaac, when his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31 He too made tasty food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father sit up and eat some of his son's game, so that you may bless me." 32 His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

33 Isaac began to tremble violently. He said, "Then who was it that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate some of everything before you came, and I blessed him. And he will stay blessed." 34 When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with a loud and very bitter cry, and he said to his father, "Bless me too, my father!" 35 But Isaac said, "Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing." 36 Esau said, "Isn't that why he is named Jacob? He has cheated me these two times. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you saved a blessing for me?" 37 Isaac answered Esau, "Look, I have made him master over you. I have given him all his brothers as slaves, and I have supported him with grain and new wine. So what can I do for you, my son?" 38 Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" And Esau wept out loud. 39 His father Isaac answered him, "Look, your home will be from the richness of the earth, and from the dew of the sky above. 40 You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you roam, you will tear his yoke off your neck."

41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are coming soon. Then I will kill my brother Jacob." 42 Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said. So she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Look, your brother Esau is comforting himself with the thought of killing you. 43 So now, my son, listen to me. Get up and run away to my brother Laban in Harran. 44 Stay with him for a few days, until your brother's anger cools, 45 until he is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?" 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these, one of the women of this land, what good is my life to me?"