1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he couldn’t see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son?” Esau replied, “Here I am.”
2Isaac said, “Look, I am old, and I don't know when I will die.
3So now, please take your hunting gear—your quiver and your bow—go out into the field, and hunt some wild game for me.
4Prepare me a delicious meal, the kind I love, and bring it to me so I can eat it. Then I will give you my blessing before I die.”
5Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. Esau then went out to the field to hunt for wild game to bring back.
6Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob, saying, “Listen, I heard your father tell your brother Esau,
7‘Bring me some wild game, and prepare me a delicious meal so I can eat it and bless you before Yahweh before I die.’
8Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you.
9Go to the flock right now and get me two good young goats from there. I will prepare them into a delicious meal for your father, exactly the way he loves it.
10You will bring it to your father so he can eat and then bless you before he dies.”
11Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I have smooth skin.
12What if my father touches me? He will realize I’m trying to fool him, and I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13His mother said to him, "Let the curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me."
14So he went, got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother then made a delicious meal, just the way his father liked it.
15Rebekah took Esau, her older son's, best clothes, which she had in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.
16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17She handed the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, to her son Jacob.
18He came to his father and said, "My father?" The father replied, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"
19Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please get up, sit down, and eat my wild game so that you may bless me."
20Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" He answered, "Because Yahweh your God helped me succeed."
21Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come closer so I can touch you, my son, to see if you are really my son Esau or not."
22Jacob went closer to Isaac his father. When Isaac touched him, he said, "The voice sounds like Jacob's, but the hands feel like Esau's."
23He didn't recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him.
24He asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" He answered, "I am."
25He said, "Bring it closer to me so I can eat my son's wild game and bless you." Jacob brought it to him, and he ate. Jacob also brought him wine, and he drank it.
26His father Isaac said to him, "Come closer now and kiss me, my son."
27He came closer and kissed him. Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes, blessed him, and said, "Look, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.
28May God give you dew from the sky, rich soil from the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
29May people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be a master over your brothers. May your mother's sons bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and everyone who blesses you be blessed."
30As soon as Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just left his father Isaac, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31He also made a delicious meal and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "May my father get up and eat his son's wild game so that you may bless me."
32His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" He replied, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."
33Isaac trembled violently and asked, "Who then hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him. Yes, he will truly be blessed."
34When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me too, my father, bless me!"
35Isaac replied, "Your brother came deceptively and has taken your blessing."
36Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing." He then asked, "Haven't you saved any blessing for me?"
37Isaac answered Esau, "Look, I have made him your master, and I have given all his relatives to him as servants. I have provided for him with grain and new wine. So what can I do for you now, my son?"
38Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father, bless me!" Esau began to cry out loud.
39His father Isaac answered him, "Your home will be in fertile lands, blessed with dew from the sky above.
40You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you become restless, you will break his yoke from your neck."
41Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau thought to himself, "The time of mourning for my father is coming soon. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."
42Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said. So she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, "Listen, your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.
43So now, my son, listen to me. Get up and flee to my brother Laban in Haran.
44Stay with him for a few days until your brother's anger cools down,
45until your brother's rage against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"
46Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among these local Hittite women, what good will my life be?"