Chapter 27
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” He said, “Here I am.”
2He said, “Look, I have grown old. I do not know the day of my death.
3Now then, take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Text
The written form is tsaydah, with a final he. The reading tradition says tsayid, the ordinary word for game used later in this chapter. Both mean game. The written spelling is what the English follows.
4Make me the tasty food I love and bring it to me, and I will eat, so that I myself may bless you before I die.”
5Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt game and bring it in.
6Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to Esau your brother. He said,
7‘Bring me game and make me tasty food, and I will eat and bless you before Yahweh before I die.’
8Now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I command you.
9Go to the flock and take me from there two good young goats, and I will make them into tasty food for your father, the way he loves it.
10You will bring it to your father and he will eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.
12Suppose my father feels me. I will look to him like someone mocking him, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only listen to my voice, and go and get them for me.”
14He went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made tasty food, the way his father loved it.
15Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
16The skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17She put the tasty food and the bread she had made into the hand of Jacob her son.
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 as you told me. Sit up, please, and eat of my game, so that you yourself may bless me.”
20Isaac said to his son, “How is it you found it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because Yahweh your God made it happen for me.”
21Isaac said to Jacob, “Come close, please, so I can feel you, my son. Are you really my son Esau, or not?”
22Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he 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 the hands of his brother Esau, and he blessed him.
24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”
25He said, “Serve it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that I myself may bless you.” He served him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.
26Isaac his father said to him, “Come close, please, and kiss me, my son.”
27He came close and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothes and blessed him. He said, “See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.
28May God give you of the dew of the sky and of the richness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
29Let peoples serve you, and nations bow to you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow to you. Cursed are those who curse you, and blessed are those who bless you.”
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Text
The written verb for “bow” is short. The reading tradition adds the plural ending. The subject, nations, is plural, and the plural is printed. The same short written form returns at 43:28.
30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31He too made tasty food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you yourself may bless me.”
32Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33Isaac trembled with a very great trembling and said, “Who then was it who hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate all of it before you came, and I blessed him? Yes, blessed he will remain.”
34When Esau heard his father’s words he cried out with a very great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father.”
35He said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken your blessing.”
36He said, “Is his name not rightly called Jacob? He has taken me by the heel these two times. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not kept a blessing for me?”
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
“Taken me by the heel” is the verb behind the name Jacob. See 25:26. Esau is using the name as an accusation.
37Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Look, I have set him as lord over you, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father.” And Esau lifted his voice and wept.
39Isaac his father answered and said to him, “See, away from the richness of the earth your home will be, and away from the dew of the sky above.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
The Hebrew “from” is the same preposition as in the blessing of verse 28, where it means a share of the richness and the dew. Here it can be read the same way, as a share, or as separation, away from that richness and dew. The rest of the saying is about living by the sword and serving his brother, so the separating sense is printed, and the share-of sense remains possible.
40By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. But when you break loose, you will tear his yoke off your neck.”
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
The verb translated “break loose” is rare. Restlessness or throwing off a yoke is the range. The precise picture is uncertain.
41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill Jacob my brother.”
42Rebekah was told the words of Esau her older son. She sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, Esau your brother is comforting himself with the thought of killing you.
43Now, my son, listen to my voice. Get up and flee to Laban my brother in Haran.
44Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away,
45until your brother’s anger turns from you and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these women of the land, what is my life to me?”