Dual PanelJacob and Esau
1WHEN Isaac grew old and his eyes had become so dim that he could not see, he called for his elder son Esau. “My son!” he said. Esau answered, “Here I am.”
2Isaac said, “Listen now: I am old and I do not know when I may die.
3Take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the country and get me some game.
4Then make me a savoury dish, the kind I like, and bring it for me to eat so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
5Now Rebecca had been listening as Isaac talked to his son Esau. When Esau went off into the country to hunt game for his father,
6she said to her son Jacob, “I have just overheard your father say to your brother Esau,
7‘Bring me some game and make a savoury dish for me to eat so that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’
8Listen now to me, my son, and do what I tell you.
9Go to the flock and pick me out two fine young kids, and I shall make them into a savoury dish for your father, the kind he likes.
10Then take it in to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11“But my brother Esau is a hairy man,” Jacob said to his mother Rebecca, “and my skin is smooth.
12Suppose my father touches me; he will know that I am playing a trick on him and I shall bring a curse instead of a blessing on myself.”
13His mother answered, “Let any curse for you fall on me, my son. Do as I say; go and fetch me the kids.”
14So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, who made them into a savoury dish such as his father liked.
15Rebecca then took her elder son's clothes, Esau's best clothes which she had by her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
16She put the goatskins on his hands and on the smooth nape of his neck.
17Then she handed to her son Jacob the savoury dish and the bread she had made.
18He went in to his father and said, “Father!” Isaac answered, “Yes, my son; which are you?”
19Jacob answered, “I am Esau, your elder son. I have done as you told me. Come, sit up and eat some of the game I have for you and then give me your blessing.”
20Isaac said, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” Jacob answered, “Because the LORD your God put it in my way.”
21Isaac then said to Jacob, “Come close and let me touch you, my son, to make sure that you are my son Esau.”
22When Jacob came close to his father, Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like Esau's, and so he blessed him.
24He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” and when he answered, “Yes, I am,”
25Isaac said, “Bring me some of the game to eat, my son, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; he brought him wine also, and he drank it.
26Then his father said to him, “Come near, my son, and kiss me.”
27So he went near and kissed him, and when Isaac smelt the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “The smell of my son is like the smell of open country blessed by the LORD.
28“God give you dew from heaven and the richness of the earth, corn and new wine in plenty!
29May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. A curse on those who curse you, but a blessing on those who bless you!”
30Isaac finished blessing Jacob, who had scarcely left his father's presence when his brother Esau came in from hunting.
31He too prepared a savoury dish and brought it to his father. He said, “Come, father, eat some of the game I have for you, and then give me your blessing.”
32“Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him. “I am Esau, your elder son,” he replied.
33Then Isaac, greatly agitated, said, “Then who was it that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came in, and I blessed him, and the blessing will stand.”
34When Esau heard this, he lamented loudly and bitterly. “Father, bless me too,” he begged.
35But Isaac said, “Your brother came full of deceit and took your blessing.”
36“He is not called Jacob for nothing,” said Esau. “This is the second time he has supplanted me. He took away my right as the firstborn, and now he has taken away my blessing. Have you kept back any blessing for me?”
37Isaac answered, “I have made him lord over you and set all his brothers under him. I have bestowed upon him grain and new wine for his sustenance. What is there left that I can do for you, my son?”
38Esau asked, “Had you then only one blessing, father? Bless me, too, my father.” Esau wept bitterly,
39and his father Isaac answered: “Your dwelling will be far from the richness of the earth, far from the dew of heaven above.
40By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. But the time will come when you grow restive and break his yoke from your neck.”
41Esau harboured a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him, and he said to himself, “The time of mourning for my father will soon be here; then I am going to kill my brother Jacob.”
42When Rebecca was told what her elder son Esau was planning, she called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Your brother Esau is threatening to kill you.
43Now, my son, listen to me. Be off at once to my brother Laban in Harran,
44and stay with him for a while until your brother's anger cools.
45When it has died down and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will send and fetch you back. Why should I lose you both in one day?”
46Rebecca said to Isaac, “I am weary to death of Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like those who live here, my life will not be worth living.”