Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

27 In the course of time, after Yitz’chak had grown old and his eyes dim, so that he couldn’t see, he called ‘Esav his older son and said to him, “My son?” and he answered, “Here I am.” ² “Look, I’m old now, I don’t know when I will die. ³ Therefore, please take your hunting gear — your quiver of arrows and your bow; go out in the country, and get me some game. ⁴ Make it tasty, the way I like it; and bring it to me to eat. Then I will bless you [as firstborn], before I die.”

⁵ Rivkah was listening when Yitz’chak spoke to his son ‘Esav. So when ‘Esav went out to the country to hunt for game and bring it back, ⁶ she said to her son Ya‘akov, “Listen! I heard your father telling ‘Esav your brother, ⁷ ‘Bring me game, and make it tasty, so I can eat it. Then I will give you my blessing in the presence of Adonai, before my death.’ ⁸ Now pay attention to me, my son; and do what I tell you. ⁹ Go to the flock, and bring me back two choice kids. I will make it tasty for your father, the way he likes it; ¹⁰ and you will bring it to your father to eat; so that he will give his blessing to you before his death.” ¹¹ Ya‘akov answered Rivkah his mother, “Look, ‘Esav is hairy, but I have smooth skin. ¹² Suppose my father touches me — he’ll know I’m trying to trick him, and I’ll bring a curse on myself, not a blessing!” ¹³ But his mother said, “Let your curse be on me. Just listen to me, and go get me the kids!” ¹⁴ So he went, got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared them in the tasty way his father loved. ¹⁵ Next, Rivkah took ‘Esav her older son’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on Ya‘akov her younger son; ¹⁶ and she put the skins of the goats on his hands and on the smooth parts of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she gave the tasty food and the bread she had prepared to her son Ya‘akov.

⁷ Therefore, what are we to say? That the Torah is sinful? Heaven forbid! Rather, the function of the Torah was that without it, I would not have known what sin is. For example, I would not have become conscious of what greed is if the Torah had not said, “Thou shalt not covet.”^{[a] 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of evil desires — for apart from Torah, sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive outside the framework of Torah. But when the commandment really encountered me, sin sprang to life, ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was intended to bring me life was found to be bringing me death! ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me; and through the commandment, sin killed me. ¹² So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.

¹³ Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! Rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave. ¹⁵ I don’t understand my own behavior — I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate! ¹⁶ Now if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the Torah is good. ¹⁷ But now it is no longer “the real me” doing it, but the sin housed inside me. ¹⁸ For I know that there is nothing good housed inside me — that is, inside my old nature. I can want what is good, but I can’t do it! ¹⁹ For I don’t do the good I want; instead, the evil that I don’t want is what I do! ²⁰ But if I am doing what “the real me” doesn’t want, it is no longer “the real me” doing it but the sin housed inside me.