Hebrews 11:20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau.
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Genesis 27:27-40
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
27 So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,
“Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.(A)
28 May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.(B)
29 Let peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”(C)
Esau’s Lost Blessing
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. 31 He also prepared savory food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”(D) 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”(E) 33 Then Isaac trembled 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 blessed he shall be!”(F) 34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!”(G) 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?[a] For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”(H) 37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”(I) 38 Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.(J)
39 Then his father Isaac answered him:
“See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be
and away from the dew of heaven on high.(K)
40 By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother,
but when you break loose,[b]
you shall break his yoke from your neck.”(L)
Genesis 28:2-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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.(A) 3 May God Almighty[a] bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples.(B)
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- 28.3 Traditional rendering of Heb El Shaddai
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.