Genesis 27

¹ When Isaac grew old, his eyes grew dim, and he could no longer see. He called Esau, his older son, and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.”

² Isaac said, “Look, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.

³ Now take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, go out to the field, and hunt something for me.

⁴ Prepare for me a tasty dish, the kind I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I myself may bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke with Esau, his son. Esau went to the field to hunt something to bring to his father.

⁶ Then Rebekah said to Jacob, her son, “I heard your father speak to Esau, your brother, like this:

⁷ ‘Bring me some game and prepare a tasty dish for me to eat, so that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.’

⁸ Now, my son, obey my voice and do what I tell you.

⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats from there, and I will make a tasty dish for your father, the kind he likes.

¹⁰ You will take it to your father, so that he may eat and bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth-skinned.

¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will seem to him like a deceiver. Then I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”

¹³ His mother said to him, “Let the curse fall on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

¹⁴ He went and got the young goats and brought them to his mother, and she prepared a tasty dish, the kind his father liked.

¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had at home, and dressed Jacob, her younger son, in them.

¹⁶ She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the young goats.

¹⁷ She put the tasty dish and the bread she had made into the hands of Jacob, her son.

¹⁸ He went 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 as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you yourself may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me.”

²¹ Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer, my son, so I can feel you and know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

²² Jacob came 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, and he blessed him.

²⁴ Isaac asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”

²⁵ Isaac said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat some of my son’s game, so that I myself may bless you.” Jacob brought it to him, and he ate. Jacob brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶ Then Isaac, his father, said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷ He came close and kissed him. Isaac smelled his clothes and blessed him: “Look, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸ May God give you dew from heaven and rich soil, and plenty of grain and new wine.

²⁹ May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

³⁰ Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely left his father Isaac’s presence when his brother Esau came back from hunting.

³¹ He too prepared a tasty dish, brought it to his father, and said, “Sit up, my father, and eat some of your son’s game, so that you yourself may bless me.”

³² His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

³³ Isaac trembled with a very great shudder and said, “Then who was it who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate everything before you came, and I blessed him; and blessed he will be.”

³⁴ When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

³⁵ Isaac said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t that why he is named Jacob? He has cheated me twice: he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you kept a blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “Look, I have made him lord over you and given him all his brothers as servants. I have provided him with grain and new wine. 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!” Esau raised his voice and wept.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him, “Look, your home will be far from the richness of the land and from the dew that comes down from heaven.

⁴⁰ You will live by your sword and serve your brother. But when you break free, you will throw his yoke off your neck.”

⁴¹ Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and he said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴² Rebekah was told what Esau, her older son, had said. She sent for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

⁴³ Now, my son, obey my voice: get up and flee to Haran, to the home of my brother Laban.

⁴⁴ Stay with him for a few days, until your brother’s fury has passed.

⁴⁵ When your brother’s anger against you has gone away and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will send for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of this land, what good will my life be to me?”

Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app