It happened, that when Ishaq was old, and his eyesight was failing, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?“
He said to him, “Here I am.“
2He said, “I am an old man now. I don’t know how much longer until the day of my death. 3Now therefore, take your weapons — your quiver and your bow — and go out to the field, and hunt wild game for me. 4Then make me some tasty food out of it, the way I love it, that I may eat it, and that my soul may bless you before I die.“
5Rebekah heard when Ishaq spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it back. 6Rebekah spoke to Yaqub her son, saying, “Listen, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 7‘Bring me wild game, and make me tasty food, that I may eat, and bless you before Allah before I die.’8Now therefore, my son, listen and do what I tell you. 9Go to the flock, and get me from there two good kids of the goats. I will use them to make them tasty food for your father, they way he loves it. 10Then you will take it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.“
11Yaqub said to Rebekah his mother, “But Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am smooth. 12What if my father touches me? I will seem to be tricking him, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.“
13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.“
14He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made tasty food, the way his father loved. 15Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Yaqub, her younger son. 16She put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck. 17She gave the tasty food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Yaqub.
18He came to his father, and said, “My father?“
He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?“
19Yaqub said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please get up, sit and eat some of my game, that your soul may bless me.“
20Ishaq said to his son, “How is it that you found it so quickly, my son?“
He said, “Because Allah your God gave me success.“
21Ishaq said to Yaqub, “Come near, that I may touch you, my son, and see whether you are really my son Esau or not.“
22Yaqub went near to Ishaq his father. Ishaq felt him, and said, “The voice is Yaqub’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.“ 23Ishaq did not recognize Yaqub, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?“
He said, “I am.“
25He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat some of my son’s game, that my soul may bless you.“
Yaqub brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank. 26His father Ishaq said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.“ 27He came near, and kissed him. Ishaq smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said,
“Behold, the smell of my son
Is as the smell of a field which Allah has blessed.
28God give you of the dew of the sky,
of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
29Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
Let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
Blessed be everyone who blesses you.“
30It happened, as soon as Ishaq had finished blessing Yaqub, and Yaqub had just gone out from the presence of Ishaq his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31He also made tasty food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up, and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.“
32Ishaq his father said to him, “Who are you?“
He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.“
33Ishaq trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken wild game, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.“
34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a loud and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me also, my father.“
35He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.“
36He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Yaqub? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.“ He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?“
37Ishaq answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?“
38Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me also, my father.“ Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
39Ishaq his father answered him,
“Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling,
and of the dew of the sky from above.
40By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.
It will happen, when you will break loose,
That you shall shake his yoke from off your neck.“
41Esau hated Yaqub because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Yaqub.“
42The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Yaqub her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Get up and flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. 44Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away; 45until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?“
46Rebekah said to Ishaq, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Yaqub takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?“