Isaac and Esau

¹ When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau, his eldest son, and said to him:

Isaac

² I am old, I know not the day of my death.

³ Take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me [some] venison.

⁴ Make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring [it] to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless you before I die.

⁵ Rebekah heard this, Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.

⁶ Rebekah told Jacob her son:

Rebekah

I heard your father tell Esau ⁷ to bring him venison and make him a savoury meat so that he can bless him before Anu before his death.

^8-9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from there 2 good kids of the goats. I will make them savoury meat for your father, the kind he loves.

¹⁰ You shall bring it to your father for him to eat and bless you before his death.

Jacob

¹¹ Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² My father will feel me. I shall seem to him as a deceiver and bring a curse on me, not a blessing.

Rebekah

¹³ Your curse will be on me. Obey me, and go fetch me the goats.

¹⁴ He went and brought them to his mother who then made savoury meat that his father loved.

¹⁵ She:

• took goodly clothing of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
• ¹⁶ put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.
• ¹⁷ gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸ He came to his father, and said:

Jacob

My father, here I am.

Isaac

Who are you, my son?

Jacob

¹⁹ I am Esau your firstborn. I have done according as you bid me. Please sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.

Isaac

²⁰ How could you have found it so quickly, my son?

Jacob

Because Anu brought it to me.

Isaac

²¹ Come near so that I may feel you whether you are Esau or not.

²² Jacob went near to Isaac who felt him and said:

Isaac

The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

²³ He discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.

Isaac

²⁴ Are you my son Esau?

Jacob

Yes, I am.

Isaac

²⁵ Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.

He brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank.

Isaac

²⁶ Come near now, and kiss me, my son.

²⁷ He came near, and kissed him. He smelled his clothes and blessed him and said:

Isaac

See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Anu had blessed. ²⁸ Therefore Anu give you:

• the dew of heaven
• the fatness of the earth
• plenty of corn and wine

²⁹ Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you: be lord over your brethren. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you: cursed be every one that curses you. Blessed be he that blesses you.

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, Esau came in from his hunting.

³¹ He also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said to his father:

Esau

Father please arise, and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.

³² Isaac asked him: Who are you?

Esau

I am your son, your firstborn Esau.

³³ Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said:

Isaac

Who? Where [is] he who had taken venison and brought it me? I have eaten of all it before you came, and have blessed him.

³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said to his father:

Esau

Bless me also, O my father.

³⁵ Your brother came with subtilty, and had taken away your blessing.

Esau

³⁶ Was it Jacob? He had supplanted me these 2 times.

1. He took away my birthright
2. Now, he has taken away my blessing.

Have you not reserved a blessing for me?

Isaac

³⁷ I have made him your lord. All his brethren have I given to him for servants. With corn and wine have I sustained him. What shall I do now to you, my son?

Esau

³⁸ Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father.

Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

Isaac replied:

Isaac

³⁹ Your dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.

⁴⁰ By your sword shall you live and serve your brother. It shall come to pass when you shalt have the dominion, that you shalt break his yoke from off your neck.

⁴¹ Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart:

Esau

The days of mourning for my father are near. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.

⁴² Rebekah was told what Esau had said.

Rebekah

[To Jacob] Behold, your brother Esau, wants to kill you. ⁴³ Flee to Haran to my brother Laban. ⁴⁴ Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury goes away.

⁴⁵ Then I will send, and fetch you from there. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?

Rebekah

[To Isaac] ⁴⁶ I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women [daughters of Heth]. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, my life will not be worth living.