Isaac Blesses Jacob

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

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, ^(D)obey my voice as I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ And you shall bring it to your father to eat, ^(E)so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, ^(F)my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father ^(G)will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring ^(H)a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” ¹³ His mother said to him, ^(I)“Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”

¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the ^(J)best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of 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, that your soul may bless me.” 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, “Please come near, that I ^(K)may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ And he did not recognize him, because ^(L)his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. ^(M)So he blessed him. ²⁴ He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, ^(N)that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments ^(O)and blessed him and said,

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, ^(V)he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, ^(W)“Is he not rightly named Jacob?^[a] For he has cheated me these two times. ^(X)He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, ^(Y)I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and ^(Z)with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And ^(AA)Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

⁴¹ Now Esau ^(AE)hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ^(AF)“The days of mourning for my father are approaching; ^(AG)then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran ⁴⁴ and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away— ⁴⁵ until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ^(AH)“I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.^{[d] (AI)}If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Jacob Sent to Laban

28 Then Isaac called Jacob ^(AJ)and blessed him and directed him, ^(AK)“You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. ^2 (AL)Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of ^(AM)Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. ^3 (AN)God Almighty^[e] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴ May he give ^(AO)the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of ^(AP)the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” ⁵ Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

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 directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So when Esau saw ^(AQ)that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, ⁹ Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, ^(AR)Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of ^(AS)Nebaioth.

Jacob's Dream

¹⁰ Jacob left ^(AT)Beersheba and went toward ^(AU)Haran. ¹¹ And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² And he ^(AV)dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder^[f] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, ^(AW)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! ¹³ And behold, ^(AX)the Lord stood above it^[g] and said, ^(AY)“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. ^(AZ)The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴ Your offspring shall be like ^(BA)the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and ^(BB)your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, ^(BC)I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and ^(BD)will bring you back to this land. For I will ^(BE)not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is ^(BF)in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up ^(BG)for a pillar ^(BH)and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He called the name of that place ^(BI)Bethel,^[h] but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰ Then Jacob ^(BJ)made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ^21 (BK)so that I come again to my father's house in peace, ^(BL)then the Lord shall be my God, ²² and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, ^(BM)shall be God's house. And ^(BN)of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

¹⁶ So then it depends not on human will or exertion,^[a] but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ^(A)“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For ^(B)who can resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, O man, ^(C)to answer back to God? ^(D)Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ^21 (E)Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump ^(F)one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ²² What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience ^(G)vessels of wrath ^(H)prepared for destruction, ²³ in order to make known ^(I)the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he ^(J)has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ even us whom he ^(K)has called, ^(L)not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As indeed he says in Hosea,

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ^(P)“Though the number of the sons of Israel^[b] be as the sand of the sea, ^(Q)only a remnant of them will be saved, ²⁸ for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” ²⁹ And as Isaiah predicted,

Israel's Unbelief

³⁰ What shall we say, then? ^(U)That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, ^(V)a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but that Israel ^(W)who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness^{[c] (X)}did not succeed in reaching that law. ³² Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the ^(Y)stumbling stone, ³³ as it is written,