Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing

27 And it happened that when Isaac was old and his eyesight was weak,^[a] he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he^[b] said to him, “Here I am.” ² And he said, “Look, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³ So now, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt food for me. ⁴ Then make for me tasty food like I love, and bring it to me. And I will eat it so that I^[c] can bless you before I die.

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to Esau his son, and when Esau went to the field to hunt wild game to bring back, ⁶ Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to Esau your brother saying, ⁷ ‘Bring wild game to me and prepare tasty food so I can eat it and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’ ⁸ So now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and take two good young goats from it for me, and I will prepare them as tasty food for your father, just as he likes. ¹⁰ Then you must take it to your father and he will eat it so that he may bless you before his death.” ¹¹ Then Jacob said to his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me and I will be in his eyes as a mocker, and he will bring upon me a curse and not a blessing.” ¹³ Then his mother said to him, “Your curse be upon me, my son, only listen to my voice—go and get them for me.” ¹⁴ So he went and took them, and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared tasty food as his father liked. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took some of her older son Esau’s best garments that were with her in the house, and she put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And she put the skins of the young goats over his hands and over the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ And she put the tasty food and the bread that she had made into the hand of Jacob, her son.

Knowledge of Sin Comes through the Law

⁷ What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”^{[a] 8} But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ And I was alive once, apart from the law, but when^[b] the commandment came, sin sprang to life ¹⁰ and I died, and this commandment which was to lead to life was found with respect to me to lead to death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Internal Conflict with Sin

¹³ Therefore, did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be recognized as sin, producing death through what is good for me, in order that sin might become sinful to an extraordinary degree through the commandment. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into slavery to sin^[c]. ¹⁵ For what I am doing I do not understand, because what I want to do, this I do not practice, but what I hate, this I do. ¹⁶ But if what I do not want to do, this I do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I do. ²⁰ But if what I do not want to do, this I am doing, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me.