Genesis

Isaac Blesses Jacob

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him:“My son.” “Here I am,” he answered.

Isaac continued: “You see, I am old and I don’t know when I shall die;

so take your weapons, your bow and arrow, go out into the country, and hunt some game for me.

Then prepare some of the savory food I like and bring it to me so that I may eat and give you my blessing before I die.”

Now, Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out into the fields to hunt for game and bring it back,

Rebekah said to her son Jacob: “I heard your father saying to your brother Esau:

‘Bring me some game and prepare food for me that I may eat and bless you before the Lord before I die.’

Now, my son, listen and do what I command you.

Go to the flock and bring me two fine kids so that I can prepare the food your father enjoys.

You will bring it to your father, and he will eat it and give you his blessing before he dies.

Jacob said to Rebekah: “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am smooth-skinned.

Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will seem to be tricking him and bringing a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

But his mother said: “Let the curse fall on me, my son! Only do what I tell you; go and get the kids for me.”

So he went and got them, taking them to his mother to prepare food that his father liked.

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her elder son Esau from the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

With the goatskin, she covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck.

Finally, she handed him the bread and food she had prepared.

He went to his father and said: “Father!” He answered: “Yes, my son, who is it?”

and Jacob said to his father: “It is Esau, your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Come, sit up and eat my game so that you may bless me.”

Isaac said: “How quick you have been, my son!” Jacob said: “Lord, your God, guided me.”

Isaac said to Jacob: “Come near and let me feel you, my son, and know whether it is you, Esau my son, or not.”

When Jacob approached Isaac, his father felt him and said: “The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of Esau, his brother, and so he blessed him.

He asked: “Are you really my son Esau?” Jacob answered: “I am.”

Isaac said: “Bring me some of your game, my son, so that I may eat and give you my blessing.” So Jacob presented it to him, and he ate. And he brought him wine, and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said: “Come near and kiss me, my son.”

So Jacob approached and kissed him. Isaac then caught the smell of his clothes and blessed him, saying: “The smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven; and of the richness of the earth; and the abundance of grain and wine.

Let people serve you and nations bow down before you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!

When Isaac had finished blessing him, and Jacob had just left Isaac’s room, Esau came in from hunting.

He also prepared food, brought it to his father, and said: “Father, sit up and eat the game your son has prepared so that you may give me your blessing.”

Isaac said: “Who are you?” “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

Isaac trembled violently and said: “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him, and he will be blessed.”

On hearing his father’s words, Esau let out a loud and bitter cry and said: “Bless me, too, father.”

But Isaac replied: “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

Esau exclaimed: “Is it because he is called Jacob that he has supplanted me twice? First, he took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked: “Haven’t you kept a blessing for me?”

Isaac responded to Esau: “I have made him your lord. I have given him all his brothers as servants; I have provided him with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father: “Have you only one blessing? Father, bless me, too.” Then Esau wept loudly.

Isaac then replied to him: “Your dwelling shall be distant from the earth’s riches, far from the dew of heaven above.

You shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother; but when you win your freedom, you will throw his yoke off your neck.”

Now Esau continued to hate his brother because of the blessing his father had given him, and he thought to himself: “The time of mourning for my father is near; I shall then kill my brother Jacob.”

When Rebekah was informed about what her elder son had said, she sent for her younger son, Jacob, and said to him: “Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.

Now my son, listen to me and flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.

You will stay with him for a time

until your brother’s fury has cooled, and when he has forgotten his anger and what you did to him, I will send someone to bring you back. Why should I lose both of you on the same day?”

Rebekah said to Isaac: “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries a woman from this land, a Hittite like these, what value is there left in life for me?”