Genesis 27:10-40

New Catholic Bible

¹⁰ Then you can carry it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “You know that my brother Esau is hairy, while my skin is smooth. ¹² My father might touch me and realize that I am playing a trick on him and place a curse on me instead of a blessing.”

¹³ But his mother said, “Let that curse fall on me, my son! Only obey me and go and bring the kid goats.”

¹⁴ He went to get them and brought them back to his mother, and his mother prepared them to make a meal the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son, Esau, which were in the house with her. She put them on her younger son, Jacob. ¹⁶ She put the skins of the kid goats on the smooth parts of his arms and neck. ¹⁷ Then she gave the meal that she had prepared to her son Jacob.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said, “My father.” He answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done everything you ordered. Please get up, sit down, and eat the game so that you may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How did you prepare it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The Lord placed the game right in front of me.”

²¹ Then Isaac said, “Draw near and let me touch you, my son, so that I may know if you are really my son Esau or not.”

²² Jacob drew near, and Isaac, his father, touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the arms are the arms of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him, because his arms were hairy like the arms of his brother Esau, and he blessed him. ²⁴ Then he said to him one more time, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”

²⁵ He said, “Bring me the game to eat, my son, so that I can bless you.”

Jacob served him the meal and Isaac ate; and he brought him wine and he drank. ²⁶ Then his father Isaac told him, “Draw near and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷ He drew near and kissed him. Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes and he blessed him, saying,

³⁰ Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just left his father, when Esau, his brother, arrived from the hunt. ³¹ He also prepared a meal and brought it to his father and said to him, “Rise, my father, and eat the wild game of your son, so that you may bless me.”

³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”

³³ Isaac was seized by a violent trembling and said, “Then who was it who prepared the wild game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you arrived, and I blessed him; and the blessing will remain with him.”

³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he shrieked and let out a bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father.” ³⁵ He answered, “Your brother came here with trickery and received your blessing.”

³⁶ He then said, “He has been well named Jacob,^[a] for he has supplanted me twice. He already took away my birthright and now he has taken my blessing.” He added, “Do you not have a blessing left for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau and said, “Behold, I have made him your lord and I have given him his brothers as his servants. He is to be maintained with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”

³⁸ Esau told his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” But Isaac was silent, and Esau cried out aloud.

³⁹ Finally Isaac spoke and said,