Jacob Cheats Esau out of the Blessing

1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” Esau replied. 2Isaac said, “Since I am so old, I could die at any time. 3Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game for me. 4Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then I will eat it so that I may bless you before I die.”

5Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau, 7‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ 8Now then, my son, do exactly what I tell you! 9Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I’ll prepare them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them. 10Then you will take it to your father. Thus he will eat it and bless you before he dies.”

11“But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! 12My father may touch me! Then he’ll think I’m mocking him and I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” 13So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, my son! Just obey me! Go and get them for me!”

14So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother. She prepared some tasty food, just the way his father loved it. 15Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck. 17Then she handed the tasty food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

18He went to his father and said, “My father!” Isaac replied, “Here I am. Which are you, my son?” 19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” 20But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world did you find it so quickly, my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” he replied. 21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you, my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau.” 22So Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s.” 23He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob. 24Then he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” “I am,” Jacob replied. 25Isaac said, “Bring some of the wild game for me to eat, my son. Then I will bless you.” So Jacob brought it to him, and he ate it. He also brought him wine, and Isaac drank. 26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and kiss me, my son.” 27So Jacob went over and kissed him. When Isaac caught the scent of his clothing, he blessed him, saying,

“Yes, my son smells

like the scent of an open field

which the Lord has blessed.

28May God give you

the dew of the sky

and the richness of the earth,

and plenty of grain and new wine.

29May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

You will be lord over your brothers,

and the sons of your mother will bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

30Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. 31He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau said to him, “My father, get up and eat some of your son’s wild game. Then you can bless me.” 32His father Isaac asked, “Who are you?” “I am your firstborn son,” he replied, “Esau!” 33Isaac began to shake violently and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. He will indeed be blessed!”

34When Esau heard his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” 35But Isaac replied, “Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away your blessing.” 36Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! He has tripped me up two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

37Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?” 38Esau said to his father, “Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!” Then Esau wept loudly.

39So his father Isaac said to him,

“Indeed, your home will be

away from the richness of the earth,

and away from the dew of the sky above.

40You will live by your sword

but you will serve your brother.

When you grow restless,

you will tear off his yoke

from your neck.”

41So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. Esau said privately, “The time of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill my brother Jacob!”

42When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, she quickly summoned her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you. 43Now then, my son, do what I say. Run away immediately to my brother Laban in Haran. 44Live with him for a little while until your brother’s rage subsides. 45Stay there until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed because of these daughters of Heth. If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!”