1Isaac was old and going blind. He called for Esau, his oldest son, and said, “My son.” “I'm here,” Esau replied.

2“I'm old now,” said Isaac, “I may die soon, who knows?

3So please take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the countryside for some meat for me.

4Make me that tasty food that I love and bring it to me to eat, so I can bless you before I die.”

5Rebekah heard what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau left to go hunting in the countryside for wild game,

6Rebekah told her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother,

7‘Get me some wild game and make me some tasty food so I can eat it and then bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’

8Now then, my son, listen to me and do exactly what I tell you.

9Go to the flock and bring me two nice young goats. I'll cook them and make the tasty food your father loves.

10Then you take it to your father to eat, so he can bless you in the presence of the Lord before he dies.”

11“But listen,” Jacob replied to his mother Rebekah, “my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a smooth man.

12Maybe my father will notice when he touches me. Then it will look like I'm deceiving him and I'll bring a curse down on myself instead of a blessing.”

13“Let the curse fall on me, my son,” his mother replied. “Just do what I tell you. Go and get the young goats for me.”

14So Jacob went and got them and took them to his mother, and she made some tasty food, the way his father loved.

15Then Rebekah went and got her older son Esau's best clothes that she had at home and put them on Jacob her younger son.

16She put the goatskins on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

17Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she'd made.

18He went in to see his father, and called out, “My father, I'm here.” “Which son are you?” Isaac asked.

19“It's me Esau, your firstborn son,” Jacob told his father. “I did what you told me. So please sit up and eat some of my wild game meat so you can bless me.”

20“How did you find an animal so fast, my son?” Isaac asked. “Because the Lord your God sent it my way,” Jacob replied.

21“Come over here so I can touch you, my son,” Isaac told Jacob, “so I can tell if you're really my son Esau or not.”

22Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “It's Jacob's voice but Esau's hands.”

23Isaac didn't realize it was really Jacob because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's, so Isaac got ready to bless him.

24“It's really you, my son Esau?” he asked again. “Yes, it's me,” Jacob replied.

25Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your wild game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought some for him to eat, as well as some wine for him to drink.

26Afterwards he said to Isaac, “Come here and kiss me, my son.”

27So Jacob went over and kissed him, and Isaac could smell the clothes Jacob was wearing. So he went ahead with the blessing, saying to himself, “See—the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.”

28“May God use the dew of heaven and fertile land to give you rich harvests of grain and new wine!

29May the people of different nations serve you and bow down to you. May you rule over your relatives, and may they bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and may everyone who blesses you be blessed.”

30After Isaac finished blessing Jacob—in fact Jacob had just left his father—Esau returned from his hunting trip.

31He had also made some tasty food, and took it to his father. Esau said to Isaac, “Sit up, my father, and eat some of my wild game so you can bless me.”

32“Who are you?” Isaac asked him. “I'm your son, your firstborn son, Esau,” he replied.

33Isaac started to shake all over and asked, “So who was it who went hunting game and then brought it to me? I ate it all before you came back and I blessed him. His blessing will remain.”

34When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out in great anger and bitterness, and pleaded with his father, “Please bless me too, my father!”

35But Isaac replied, “Your brother came and deceived me—he stole your blessing!”

36“Isn't he well named—Jacob the deceiver!” ¹⁰¹said Esau. “He's deceived me twice. First he took my birthright, and now he's stolen my blessing! Haven't you kept a blessing for me?”

37Isaac replied to Esau. “I have made him ruler over you, and have said that all his relatives will be his servants. I have declared that he will be well supplied with grain and new wine. So what is left that I can do for you, my son?”

38“Do you only have one blessing, my father?” Esau asked. “Please bless me too!” Then Esau began to cry very loudly.

39Then his father Isaac declared, “Listen! You will live far away from fertile land, far from the dew of heaven that falls from above.

40You will make a living by using your sword, and you will be your brother's servant. But when you rebel, you will throw off his yoke from your neck.”

41From then on Esau hated Jacob because of his father's blessing. Esau said to himself, “Soon the time will come when I'll mourn my father's death. Then I'll kill my brother Jacob!”

42However, Rebekah found out what Esau was saying, so she sent for Jacob. “Look,” she told him, “your brother Esau is making himself feel better by making plans to kill you.

43So, my son, listen carefully to what I tell you. Leave immediately and go to my brother Laban in Haran.

44Stay with him for a while until your brother's anger cools down.

45Once he's cooled down and forgets what you did to him, I'll send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?”

46Then Rebekah went and told Isaac, “I'm so sick of these Hittite women—they're ruining my life! If Jacob also marries a Hittite woman like them, one of the local people, I'd rather die!”