Isaac Blesses Jacob

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son,” and he answered, “Here I am.” ² He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.^{(A) 3} Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me.^{(B) 4} Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”^(C)

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game for his father,^{[a] 6} Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you.^{(D) 9} Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes, ¹⁰ and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin.^{(E) 12} Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”^{(F) 13} His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.”^{(G) 14} So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob,^{(H) 16} and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she handed the savory food and the bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob.

¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father,” and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”^{(I) 20} But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”^{(J) 22} So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands, so he blessed him.^{(K) 24} He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank.^{(L) 26} Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

28 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, “You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women.^{(A) 2} Go at once to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.^{(B) 3} May God Almighty^[a] bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples.^{(C) 4} May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, land that God gave to Abraham.”^{(D) 5} Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

Esau Marries Ishmael’s Daughter

⁶ Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there and that as he blessed him he charged him, “You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women,”^{(E) 7} and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac,^{(F) 9} Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.^(G)

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran.