Gen 27:1-40 · Read 15 min · think and write 15 min
Esau and Jacob have grown up. When the two boys were young, “Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob” (Gen 25:28).
“When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite” (Gen 26:34). The passage goes on: “They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits” (Gen 26:35).
This lesson reads about something that happened in this family when Isaac was old.
1When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.”
2He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.
3Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me venison.
4Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.
6Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,
7‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before the LORD before my death.’
8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.
9Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.
10You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”
11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
12What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
14He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved.
15Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.
16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.
17She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18He came to his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”
20Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because the LORD your God gave me success.”
21Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.
24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”
25He said, “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 ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.
26His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.”
27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed.
28God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
29Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.”
32Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.”
34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”
35He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”
36He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
37Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?”
38Esau said to his father, “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
39Isaac his father answered him, “Behold, your dwelling will be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of the sky from above.
40You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.”
I am old. “When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see” (v. 1), he called Esau and said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death” (v. 2). He asked Esau to hunt and to “Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die” (v. 4).
Rebekah heard. “Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son” (v. 5). She said to Jacob: “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you” (v. 8). Jacob said: “What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing” (v. 12). Rebekah said: “Let your curse be on me, my son” (v. 13). She put Esau’s good clothes on Jacob, and put the goat skins on his hands and neck (vv. 15–16).
I am Esau your firstborn. Jacob came to his father, and Isaac asked: “Who are you, my son?” (v. 18). Jacob said: “I am Esau your firstborn” (v. 19). Isaac asked how he had found it so quickly, and he said: “Because the LORD your God gave me success” (v. 20). Isaac felt him and said: “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (v. 22). He asked again, “Are you really my son Esau?” and “He said, ‘I am’” (v. 24).
The blessing. Isaac ate and drank, kissed Jacob, smelled his clothing, and blessed him (vv. 25–27): “God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine” (v. 28); “Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you” (v. 29).
Trembled violently. Jacob had just gone out when Esau came in from his hunting (v. 30). Isaac asked who he was, and he said: “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau” (v. 32). “Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed’” (v. 33).
An exceedingly great and bitter cry. “When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, even me also, my father’” (v. 34). Isaac said: “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing” (v. 35). Esau said: “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?” (v. 36). And again: “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father” (v. 38). “Esau lifted up his voice, and wept” (v. 38). The words Isaac gave him were: “You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck” (v. 40).
Hatred. After this, the passage goes on: “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him” (v. 41), and he said in his heart, “Then I will kill my brother Jacob” (v. 41). Rebekah heard of it and told Jacob: “Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran” (v. 43). She said: “Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?” (v. 45).
A second blessing. “Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him” (Gen 28:1). This time Isaac knew it was Jacob standing before him. He said: “May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples” (Gen 28:3), “and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you” (Gen 28:4). “Isaac sent Jacob away” (Gen 28:5). When Esau saw this, he went to Ishmael and took Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath as a wife (Gen 28:6-9).
Full of days. Many years later, “Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners” (Gen 35:27). “The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years” (Gen 35:28). The passage records his end this way: “Isaac gave up the spirit and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him” (Gen 35:29).
When Isaac’s father Abraham died, the passage says: “Abraham gave up his spirit, and died at a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people” (Gen 25:8); “Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah” (Gen 25:9).
When Isaac died: “Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him” (Gen 35:29).
Readers can see this: of this family that came apart in chapter 27, the last thing the passage records is two sons burying their father together.
Perhaps your family, too, has had a day like this: something happened; someone wept, someone left, someone carried hatred in their heart. Perhaps you yourself are the one crying, ‘Bless me, even me also.’
This lesson does not speak for anyone in this family, and it does not say who was right or wrong. What it shows you is this: Isaac trembled violently, Esau lifted up his voice and wept, Jacob left home; later Isaac blessed Jacob a second time; and at the last the two sons buried their father together, and Isaac died “old and full of days” (Gen 35:29). A psalm says: “You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container” (Ps 56:8).
This week: Looking back over these five lessons, write down the verse from Isaac’s life that has stayed with you most. This week, pray once for a relationship near you that has come apart; if it is appropriate, say a word of blessing to one of the people in it.
Scripture: World English Bible.