Genesis 27 - 28 — Legacy Standard Bible

Isaac Calls to Bless Esau

27Now it happened that when Isaac was old and ^ahis eyes were too dim to see, that he called his ^bolder son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” ²¹^,^aAnd Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death. ³“So now, please take up your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and ^ahunt game for me; ⁴and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that ^amy soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. Then Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring to Isaac. ⁶^aBut Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, ⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat and bless you in the presence of Yahweh before my death.’ ⁸“So now, my son, ^alisten to my voice ¹as I command you. ⁹“Go now to the flock and ¹get for me two choice ²young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰“Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” ¹¹Then Jacob ¹answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a ^ahairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹²“^aPerhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a mocker in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.” ¹³But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only ^alisten to my voice, and go, get them for me.” ¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother made a savory dish such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the ¹best ^agarments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and she put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶And she put the skins of the ¹young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷She also gave the savory dish and the bread, which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.

Isaac Blesses Jacob and Esau

¹⁸Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. ^aRise up, please, sit and eat of my game, that ^byour soul may bless me.” ²⁰Then Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “^aBecause Yahweh your God caused it to happen to me.” ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that ^aI may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²²So Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³And he did not recognize him because his hands were ^ahairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” ²⁵So he said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that ^amy soul may bless you.” And he brought it near to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and then he ^ablessed him and said, “See, ^bthe smell of my sonIs like the smell of a field ^cwhich Yahweh has blessed;

²⁸Now may ^aGod give you of the dew of heaven,And of the ^bfatness of the earth,And an abundance of grain and new wine;²⁹^aMay peoples serve you,And nations bow down to you;^bBe master of your brothers,^cAnd may your mother’s sons bow down to you.^dCursed be those who curse you,And blessed be those who bless you.”

³⁰Now it happened that as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹Then he also made a savory dish and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “^aLet my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that ^byour soul may bless me.” ³²And Isaac his father said to him, “^aWho are you?” And he said, “I am your son, ^byour firstborn, Esau.” ³³Then Isaac ¹trembled exceedingly violently and said, “^aWho was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came and blessed him? ^bIndeed, he shall be blessed.” ³⁴As Esau heard the words of his father, ^ahe cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, O my father!” ³⁵And he said, “^aYour brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶Then he said, “¹Is he not rightly named ^aJacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷But Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him ^ayour master, and all his fellow brothers I have given to him ¹as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?” ³⁸And Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” So Esau lifted his voice and ^awept.

³⁹Then ^aIsaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, ¹^,^baway from the fatness of the earth shall be your habitation,And ²away from the dew of heaven from above.

⁴⁰“By your sword you shall live,And your brother ^ayou shall serve;But it shall be ^bwhen you become restless,That you will ¹break his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹So Esau ^abore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, “^bThe days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴²Then the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. ⁴³“So now, my son, ^alisten to my voice, and arise, ¹flee to ^bHaran, to my brother ^cLaban! ⁴⁴“Stay with him ^aa few days, until your brother’s wrath ¹subsides, ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger ¹against you subsides and he forgets ^awhat you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of ¹living because of ^athe daughters of Heth; ^bif Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Jacob Is Sent to Laban

28So Isaac called Jacob and ^ablessed him and commanded him and said to him, “^bYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. ²“Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of ^aBethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. ³“May ¹^,^aGod Almighty ^bbless you and ^cmake you fruitful and ^dmultiply you, that you may become an ^eassembly of peoples. ⁴“May He also give you the ^ablessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may ^bpossess the land of your ^csojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” ⁵Then ^aIsaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “^aYou shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” ⁷and that Jacob had listened to his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸So Esau saw that ^athe daughters of Canaan were displeasing ¹in the sight of his father Isaac; ⁹and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, ^abesides the wives that he had.

Jacob’s Dream

¹⁰Then Jacob departed from ^aBeersheba and went toward ^bHaran. ¹¹And he reached ¹a ^acertain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it ²under his head and lay down in that place. ¹²^aThen he had a dream, and behold, a ¹ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, ^bthe angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³And behold, ^aYahweh stood ¹above it and said, “I am Yahweh, ^bthe God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it ^cto you and to ^dyour seed. ¹⁴“And your seed will also be like ^athe dust of the earth, and you will ¹spread out ^bto the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and ^cin you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵“Behold, ^aI am with you and ^bwill keep you wherever you go. And ^cI will bring you back to this land; for ^dI will not forsake you until I have done what I have ¹promised you.” ¹⁶Then Jacob ^aawoke from his sleep and said, “^bSurely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “^aHow fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸So Jacob rose early in the morning and took ^athe stone that he had put ¹under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. ¹⁹And he called the name of that place ¹^,^aBethel; however, ²previously the name of the city had been ^bLuz. ²⁰Then Jacob ^amade a vow, saying, “^bIf God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me ¹^,^cfood to eat and garments to wear, ²¹and ^aI return to my father’s house in peace, ^bthen Yahweh will be my God. ²²“Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, ^awill be God’s house, and ^bof all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”