Chapter Twenty-Seven

Isaac’s Intention and Disposition

The history of Jacob’s blessing apart from Esau presents one of the striking examples of a collision between natural human strivings and the determinations of divine will, the fruitlessness of the former and the immutability of the latter (Mal 1:2; Rom 9:10-13). To the question: “Why did God not reveal His will to Isaac?” – Blessed Theodoret answers: “so that the care of God for Jacob might be made manifest, and this is shown by the fact that Isaac strove to bless Esau, but God’s grace, contrary to Isaac’s will, drew the blessing upon Jacob. And Isaac himself understood this. For, having used all means... stricken with horror by what had happened, he was not grieved as one deceived by his son, but recognized God’s intention and confirmed the blessing he had given” (answer to question 81; cf. John Chrysostom, Homily on Gen 53, p. 566).

Genesis 27:1–2. When Isaac was old and his eyesight had dimmed, he called his elder son Esau and said to him: My son! He said to him: Here I am. He said: Behold, I have grown old; I do not know the day of my death; The loss of eyesight by Isaac is mentioned because it is precisely this blindness that explains the possibility of his being deceived by Rebekah and Jacob at the time of blessing. According to the opinion of the rabbis (M. Bereshit-rabba, p. 311), Isaac lost his eyesight when his father offered him as a sacrifice: he gazed so intently upward to heaven in his prayer then. In reality, the blindness was a consequence of Isaac’s old age – he was 137 years old, and at which age his brother Ishmael had died 14 years before (Gen 25:17): this disposed Isaac to prepare himself for death (which Esau also expected, Gen 27:41). The mentioned age of Isaac, as well as the general chronology of the life of Isaac and Jacob, is established thus: When Jacob went down with his family to Egypt, he was 130 years old (Gen 47:9), Joseph at that same time was 39 years old (he was 30 years old when he was exalted by Pharaoh + 7 years of abundance + 2 years of famine, Gen 41:46-47); consequently, Joseph was born in Jacob when Jacob was 91 years old and, according to Gen 30:25 (cf. Gen 31:41), 14 years after Jacob came to Mesopotamia. Thus, Jacob’s flight occurred in the 77th year of his life – in the 137th year of Isaac (according to Gen 25:26, Isaac was 60 years old when Esau and Jacob were born), who lived another 43 years after that (dying at 180 years, Gen 35:28-29).

Genesis 27:3. Now take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, go into the field, and hunt me some wild game, “Quiver”, in the LXX: φαρέτρα (pharetra), in the Vulgate: pharetra; but in the Targum of Onkelos – saif, sword. Hebrew: teli, from talah, “to hang”, applicable to either (something hung).

Genesis 27:4. and prepare me such food as I love, and bring it to me to eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Intending to bless Esau as the firstborn (v. 1) and as his favorite for his obedience (Gen 25:28), Isaac expresses a natural desire to taste a dish prepared by the hands of his beloved, on a momentous day for him; one cannot say, as some commentators do, that Isaac makes the very blessing dependent on satisfying his whim.

Rebekah’s Opposing Activity and Jacob’s

Genesis 27:5. Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. And Esau went out into the field to hunt and bring back game; Just as Isaac’s intention expressed an excessive manifestation of his human will, this appears even more in the actions of Rebekah. The fact that Rebekah knew and remembered God’s revelation that from her two sons “the greater shall serve the lesser” (Gen 25:23), of course, makes understandable her confidence in a favorable outcome of the deed she undertook – even to willingness to accept a curse upon herself (v. 13), but it does not give her actions the character of lawfulness, nor does it justify Jacob’s deception any more than the fact that Esau sold him the birthright. Both Rebekah and Jacob showed here a lack of firm faith and perfect morality. The naturally arising question about the relation of God’s Providence to the will and wrong-doing of humans is resolved by the general consideration that even the chosen ones of the Old Testament did not possess perfect righteousness, and that moral concepts in their consciousness were perfected only gradually, just as were their religious beliefs. Russian “to bring” – Hebrew le-habi; but the Slavonic “to his father” translates Greek τῶ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ: the LXX instead of le-habi read – le-abiv, “to his father”.

Genesis 27:7–10. Bring me wild game and prepare for me such food as I love; I will eat, and I will bless you before the Lord, before my death. Now, my son, obey my voice in that which I shall command you: Go to the flock and bring me two young kids of good quality, and I will prepare from them such food as your father loves, and you shall bring it to your father, and he shall eat, so that he may bless you before his death. Just as Isaac’s intention expressed an excessive manifestation of his human will, this appears even more in the actions of Rebekah. The fact that Rebekah knew and remembered God’s revelation that from her two sons the greater shall serve the lesser (Gen 25:23), of course, makes understandable her confidence in a favorable outcome of the deed she undertook – even to willingness to accept a curse upon herself (the 13th verse), but it does not give her actions the character of lawfulness, nor does it justify Jacob’s deception any more than the fact that Esau sold him the birthright. Both Rebekah and Jacob showed here a lack of firm faith and perfect morality. The naturally arising question about the relation of God’s Providence to the will and wrong-doing of humans is resolved by the general consideration that even the chosen ones of the Old Testament did not possess perfect righteousness, and that moral concepts in their consciousness were perfected only gradually, just as were their religious beliefs. Before the Lord... These words are not given in Isaac’s speech, but are quite appropriately added in Rebekah’s repetition of his words: Isaac indeed wished by the name of Jehovah to bless Esau (and blessed Jacob) and to pass on to him the spiritual inheritance of Abraham before the face of God.

Genesis 27:11–12. Jacob said to his mother Rebekah: Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a smooth man; perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to him to be a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. In his conversation with his mother, Jacob does not hide his understanding that what is about to be done is precisely a sin; only, according to the level of his moral development, he regards the deception not by its moral value, but from the side of its outward unfavorable consequences for himself.

Genesis 27:13. His mother said to him: Let your curse be upon me, my son; only obey my voice and go, bring them to me. In Rebekah’s readiness to accept a curse upon herself is heard the passionate, tender, and self-sacrificing love for her younger son; perhaps, however, she also hoped for a certain gentleness in Isaac which she knew.

Genesis 27:15. And Rebekah took the best garments of her older son Esau, which she had with her in the house, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them; Esau’s especially fine garment could be a distinctive sign of his birthright (in such garment the firstborns could perform family worship, sacrifices, and the like).

Genesis 27:16. and she covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of young goats; Goat hair in the East is distinguished by its special delicacy; Jacob’s deception could thus succeed more easily.

Jacob’s Coming to His Father and His Father’s Blessing of Him

Genesis 27:18. He came to his father and said: My father! And he said: Here I am; who are you, my son? Russian “came”, Hebrew jabo; Slavonic “brought” – in Greek ἐισήνεγκεν. Isaac conducted the impending blessing with secrecy, and with great suspicion meets Jacob: he asks him about his name (v. 18), about the reason for his swift return (v. 20), proposes to kiss him, probably with the intent to feel Jacob (v. 26).

Genesis 27:19–24. Genesis 27:19–24,27. Jacob said to his father: I am Esau, your firstborn; I have done as you told me; arise, sit up and eat of my game, so that your soul may bless me. And Isaac said to his son: How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He said: Because the Lord your God sent it to me. And Isaac said to Jacob: Come here, I pray you, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not. And Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said: The voice is the voice of Jacob; but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; and he blessed him and said: Are you truly my son Esau? And he said: I am. He came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garment and blessed him and said: See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed; By pretending to be Esau, Jacob commits a deception, the sinfulness of which is aggravated further by his subsequent invocation of God’s name (v. 20). The inevitable consequence, by God’s righteous judgment, of Jacob’s deception was the grievous trials of his subsequent life. After several expressions of doubt and attempts to assure himself of the identity of the one who came (Gen 27:21), Isaac proceeds (v. 27) to bless the son, which (unlike the blessing of v. 23 – a simple greeting) is a prophecy determining the fate of Jacob and his descendants (cf. Gen 9:25). The poetic form, imagery, and immediacy of the blessing are seen from the fact that it begins with the expression of a pleasant sensation of the fragrance of Esau’s garment. LXX: ἀγροῦ πλήρους, Vulgate: agri pleni, Slavonic: “a field full of abundance”; Russian: “of a field”, in Hebrew: sadeh. The field means Canaan.

Genesis 27:28–29. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fat of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine; May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; be master over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you; cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you! Dew is the first condition of fertility in the hot and in the summer months almost rainless East (Gen 49:25; Hos 14:6). The fulfillment of the beginning part of the blessing is seen in the fertility of Palestine known from the Bible (Exod 3:8 and others). The apparent disparity between this part of the blessing and the promises to Abraham is explained by the fact that Isaac (as later Jacob also) already engaged in agriculture (Gen 26:12), and therefore the discourse begins with the benefits of agriculture. The subjection of Esau to Jacob was fulfilled in their descendants, under David (2 Sam 8:14; Ps 59:2); by the brothers of Jacob’s mother are meant all in general the descendants of Abraham not only through Sarah, but also through Hagar and Keturah. Isaac’s words about the blessing of those who bless Jacob and the curse of those who curse him closely resemble the promises to Abraham, but, unlike the latter, do not contain the promise of blessing in Jacob’s seed to all nations, as if in recompense for the dishonorable manner of receiving the blessing; only later, when Jacob began to atone for his sin by fleeing from his father’s house, is this high blessing also given to him (Gen 28:14). On the significance of Isaac’s blessing, Blessed Theodoret says: “From Jacob was to come in the flesh the Master Christ, the hope of the nations, Savior and Lord of all the universe... Isaac promises him the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, which signifies grace from on high and abundance of earthly blessings, and then understand in the Master Christ, under the dew the Godhead, and under the fat of the earth the humanity assumed from us” (answer to question 83).

Esau’s Grief and His Blessing

Genesis 27:30–32. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob his son, and Jacob had scarcely left the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came from his hunting. He also prepared a savory dish and brought it to his father and said to him: Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, so that your soul may bless me. But Isaac his father said to him: Who are you? And he said: I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. The narrative of Esau’s blessing is related with no less vividness; and at the same time the superiority of Jacob’s blessing over Esau’s is made even more striking: all the details of the narrative serve this impression. Thus, according to St. John Chrysostom, “Who would not wonder at God’s providence in that Esau did not come from hunting before the purpose of this plan had been accomplished, and Jacob, having received the blessing from his father, had left him?” (Homily on Gen 53, p. 569). According to the rabbis, Esau came immediately after Jacob left. The setting of Esau’s conversation with his father reminds one of Jacob’s conversation, only, according to the remark of Rashi, Esau’s invitation to his father to the table sounds (v. 31) more coarse than Jacob’s similar invitation (v. 19) (in Hebrew, LXX, and Slavonic, the verb: to arise – is in the 3rd person here, while in v. 19 it is in the 2nd person).

Genesis 27:33. Then Isaac trembled exceedingly with great trembling and said: Who then is he that has hunted game and brought it to me, and I have eaten from it all before you came, and I have blessed him? – He shall indeed be blessed! Instead of the expected indignation at the deceiver, Isaac trembles because of the clear realization that what happened was by the permission of God’s power. This consciousness, connected with the belief inherent in the patriarchal period in the irrevocability of the father’s blessing, compels Isaac to abandon all hesitation and firmly declare concerning Jacob: “I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed”, which he brings Esau into an agitated state of bitter sorrow and agonized entreaty.

Genesis 27:34. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly bitter cry and said to his father: Bless me, even me also, O my father! He does not demand the transfer to himself of the blessing given to Jacob, but merely begs for some blessing, even a lesser one; moreover, he does not penetrate into the mysterious significance of Jacob’s blessing and is even inclined to make the blessing dependent on his father’s whim (though, like Isaac, he considers the father’s blessing, once given, to be unchangeable).

Genesis 27:37. Isaac answered Esau: Behold, I have made him your master, and all his brothers I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him; and what then can I do for you, my son? “The blessing given to Jacob, Isaac regards as an obstacle to the blessing of Esau: a) by the very content of the first blessing, which already included the humiliation of Esau; b) because in the unforeseen blessing of Jacob he sees the hand of God, punishing Esau; c) perhaps also because that power of blessing, which dwelt in the patriarch and through spiritual communion passed from ancestors to descendants – that such power, having been aroused once by faith and poured out in its full measure, was not ordinarily aroused again in the one who bestowed it in the same form and degree” (Metropolitan Philaret, Notes on the Book of Genesis 2,35). The rabbis, in explaining Isaac’s refusal, put forward the familiar principle among them: “a slave and everything belonging to him belong to his master; therefore any blessing that Isaac should give Esau would belong to Jacob, by virtue of the subjection of Esau given to him” (Beresch. rabb., p. 323).

Genesis 27:38–39. But Esau said to his father: Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father! And [as Isaac was silent,] Esau raised his voice and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said to him: Behold, far from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and far from the dew of heaven above; Esau’s sincere sorrow is worthy of compassion (though it does not relieve him of responsibility for his twofold scorn of the birthright – in its sale and in his marriages), and Isaac (v. 39), moved (LXX: κατανυχθέντος), though after some deliberation, blesses him – in expressions at the beginning identical with the blessings of Jacob. Fertility of soil and abundance of dew are promised to Esau as well as to Jacob (contrary to some commentators, e.g., Knobel, Keil, that Esau is foretold only deprivation of these blessings), and the difference is only in the degree of political independence and well-being (cf., however, Mal 1:3).

Genesis 27:40. And by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you become restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. “To live by the sword” – life of robber attacks on caravans and travelers – was indeed the life of the Edomites. Isaac’s prophecy concerning them comes true with precision. First the descendants of Esau grew, became rich, and had kings before Israel (Gen 36:31). But already the 1st king of Israel Saul had success against Edom (1 Sam 14:47), and under David all the Edomites became slaves (2 Sam 8:14), and then, except for separate rebellions under Solomon (1 Sam 11:14), Ahaz (2 Sam 14:7) and others, after the destruction of the remnants of Edom (Amos 9:11-12; Jer 49:17), finally, under John Hyrcanus, through circumcision, they finally entered the state of Judea. But “the time came” – according to the Targum: “when Israel rejected the yoke of the law, then Edom cast off his yoke from him,” – and in the person of Herod the Great and his house, Judea even accepted kings from the Edomites.

The Causes Impelling Jacob’s Flight

Genesis 27:41. And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart: The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob. Esau hated Jacob with a secret, insidious hatred (yet over time he forgot the wrong done to him by Jacob, Gen 32:4), but out of respect for his father decides to postpone his vengeance until his expected death.

Genesis 27:42–46. And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him: Behold, your brother Esau is threatening to kill you; and now, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee [to Mesopotamia] to Laban my brother, to Haran, and stay with him a few days until the anger of your brother passes, until the fury of your brother subsides from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and get you from there; why should I be deprived of you both in one day? And Rebekah said to Isaac: I am weary of my life because of the daughters of the Hittites; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of the Hittites, like these daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me? The intention he expressed and openly, which Rebekah learned of, and so she prudently sends Jacob to Haran to Laban (on “some days”, i.e., few), revealing to Jacob alone the meaning of this journey (v. 42–45), but pointing to Isaac another reason – in seeking a wife from a kinsman’s family (v. 46). Thus “God put into her mind all that could contribute to the future dispensation and salvation of her son” (St. John Chrysostom, p. 579).