1 When Isaac had grown old and his eyes had become so dim that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, "My son!" He answered, "Here I am."
2 Isaac said, "Look, I am old now, and I do not know the day I will die.
3 So take your gear, your quiver and your bow, go out into the open country, and hunt some game for me.
4 Then prepare me a tasty dish of the kind I love and bring it to me to eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die."
5 Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the country to hunt game and bring it back,
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Listen, I heard your father tell your brother Esau,
7 'Bring me some game and prepare me a tasty dish to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.'
8 Now, my son, do what I say; follow my instructions.
9 Go to the flock and bring me two fine young goats from there, so that I can prepare them as a tasty dish for your father, the kind he loves.
10 You will take it in to your father to eat, so that he will bless you before he dies."
11 Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth.
12 What if my father touches me? I will look like a deceiver to him, and I will bring on myself a curse instead of a blessing."
13 His mother answered him, "Let any curse on you fall on me, my son. Just do what I say: go and get them for me."
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a tasty dish of the kind his father loved.
15 Rebekah then took the finest clothes of her elder son Esau, which she had with her in the house, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them.
16 She covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the young goats,
17 and she handed her son Jacob the tasty dish and the bread she had prepared.
18 He went in to his father and said, "My father!" Isaac answered, "Here I am. Which of my sons are you?"
19 Jacob told his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done what you asked of me. Now sit up and eat some of my game, so that your soul may bless me."
20 Isaac said to his son, "How did you find it so fast, my son?" He answered, "The LORD your God sent it my way."
21 Isaac said to Jacob, "Come close, my son, so that I can touch you and know whether you are truly my son Esau or not."
22 Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, yet the hands are Esau's hands."
23 He did not recognize him, since his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands, and so he blessed him.
24 He asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" He replied, "I am."
25 Then he said, "Serve it to me, and let me eat some of my son's game, so that my soul may bless you." Jacob served it to him and he ate; he brought him wine as well, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here, my son, and kiss me."
27 He came close and kissed him, and when Isaac caught the scent of his clothes he blessed him, saying, "Ah, the scent of my son is like the scent of a field the LORD has blessed!
28 May God give you of the dew of the heavens and of the richness of the earth, and grain and new wine in abundance.
29 May peoples serve you and nations bow down before you. Be master over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down before you. Cursed be all who curse you, and blessed be all who bless you!"
30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely left his father Isaac's presence, when his brother Esau came back from hunting.
31 He too prepared a tasty dish and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father sit up and eat some of his son's game, so that your soul may bless me."
32 His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."
33 Isaac was seized with a violent trembling and said, "Then who was it that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him; and blessed he will be!"
34 On hearing his father's words, Esau let out a loud and very bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me too, my father, me as well!"
35 But Isaac said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."
36 Esau said, "Is that not why he was named Jacob? He has cheated me twice now: he took my birthright, and now look, he has taken my blessing." And he asked, "Have you not kept back a blessing for me?"
37 Isaac answered Esau, "I have already made him master over you; I have given him all his brothers as servants, and I have supplied him with grain and new wine. So what is left that I can do for you, my son?"
38 Esau said to his father, "Is that the only blessing you have, my father? Bless me too, my father, me as well!" And Esau wept aloud.
39 His father Isaac answered him, "Away from the fatness of the earth your dwelling will be, and away from the dew of the heavens above.
40 You will live by your sword and serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will break his yoke off your neck."
41 Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; after that I will kill my brother Jacob."
42 When Rebekah was told what her elder son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is comforting himself with the thought of killing you.
43 So now, my son, do what I say: get up and flee to my brother Laban in Haran.
44 Stay with him for a while, until your brother's rage subsides,
45 until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in a single day?"
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am sick of my life on account of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, women like these, from the daughters of the land, what is my life worth to me?"