Chapter 27

Chapter 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 him, “Here I am.”

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

3 So now, please take your gear—your quiver and your bow—and go out to the open field to hunt wild game for me.

4 Prepare a savory meal for me, the kind that I love, and bring it directly to me so that I may eat, and so that my soul may bestow the power of life upon you before I die.”

5 Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau departed for the open field to hunt wild game to bring back,

6 Rebekah spoke directly to her son Jacob, saying, “Look, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying,

7 ‘Bring me wild game and prepare a savory meal for me so that I may eat, and so that I may bestow the power of life upon you in the presence of The Self-Existent before my death.’

8 So now, my son, listen closely to my voice regarding what I am commanding you.

9 Go out immediately to the flock and fetch me two choice young goats from there, so that I may fashion them into a savory meal for your father, exactly the kind he loves.

10 Then you shall bring it directly to your father so that he may eat, and so that he may bestow the power of life upon you before his death.”

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

12 What if my father feels me? I will appear to be mocking him, and I will bring a curse upon myself instead of a bestowal of the power of life.”

13 But his mother said to him, “Let your curse fall on me, my son. Only listen closely to my voice, and go fetch them for me.”

14 So he went, fetched them, and brought them directly to his mother; and his mother prepared a savory meal, exactly the kind his father loved.

15 Then Rebekah took the finest garments of her older son Esau, which she had with her in the tent, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

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

17 Then she placed the savory meal and the bread she had crafted directly into the hand of her son Jacob.

18 He went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have carried out exactly what you told me. Please sit up and eat from my wild game, so that your soul may bestow the power of life upon me.”

20 But Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because The Self-Existent, your All-Powerful One, brought it right to me.”

21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so that I may feel you, my son, to know for certain whether you are actually my son Esau or not.”

22 So Jacob went close to his father Isaac, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he bestowed the power of life upon him.

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

25 Isaac said, “Bring it close to me, and I will eat from my son’s wild game, so that my soul may bestow the power of life upon you.” Jacob brought it close to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine, and he drank.

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

27 He went close and kissed him; and Isaac smelled the aroma of his garments, and he bestowed the power of life upon him, saying,
“Look, the aroma of my son
is like the aroma of a bountiful field
that The Self-Existent has endowed with life.
28 May The All-Powerful One grant you
the dew of the sky and the fatness of the land,
and an abundance 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.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and endowed with the power of life be everyone who bestows the power of life upon you!”

30 As soon as Isaac had finished bestowing the power of life upon Jacob, and Jacob had barely left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting.

31 He too prepared a savory meal and brought it directly to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat from his son’s wild game, so that your soul may bestow the power of life upon me.”

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

33 Isaac trembled with an exceedingly violent shaking and demanded, “Who was it then who hunted wild game and brought it directly to me? I ate it all before you arrived, and I bestowed the power of life upon him—and indeed, he shall remain endowed with the power of life!”

34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly loud and bitter cry, pleading with his father, “Bestow the power of life upon me too, my father!”

35 But Isaac said, “Your brother came deceptively and has seized your bestowal of the power of life.”

36 Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob (Heel-Grasper)? For he has supplanted me these two times: he seized my birthright, and Look, now he has seized my bestowal of the power of life!” Then he asked, “Have you not reserved a bestowal of the power of life for me?”

37 Isaac answered and spoke directly to Esau, “Look, I have appointed him to be master over you, and I have given all his brothers to him as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”

38 Esau pleaded with his father, “Do you have only one bestowal of the power of life, my father? Bestow the power of life upon me too, my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept aloud.

39 Then his father Isaac answered and spoke directly to him:
“Look, away from the fatness of the land shall your dwelling be,
and away from the dew of the sky from above.
40 By your sword you shall live,
and your brother you shall serve;
but it shall come to pass when you grow restless,
that you will tear his yoke from off your neck.”

41 So Esau harbored a deep hostility against Jacob because of the bestowal of the power of life that his father had bestowed upon him; and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will slaughter my brother Jacob.”

42 When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and spoke directly to him, “Look, your brother Esau is comforting himself with the thought of slaughtering you.

43 So now, my son, listen closely to my voice: arise, flee immediately to my brother Laban in Haran.

44 Reside with him for a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away—

45 until your brother’s anger subsides from against you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send word and fetch you from there. Why should I be deprived of both of you in a single day?”

46 Then Rebekah spoke directly to Isaac, “I am completely weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a woman from the daughters of Heth, like these daughters of the land, what good is life to me?”