Genesis 27

Old, blind Isaac plans to give his firstborn Esau the family blessing. Rebekah and Jacob trick him and win it for Jacob. The chapter shows how deceit wounds a whole family, and also how God’s purpose, spoken before the twins were born, moves ahead through flawed people. Esau’s grief and murderous anger drive Jacob into exile.

Genesis 27:1

Isaac is old and nearly blind, so he calls Esau, his firstborn. The scene begins with a father’s failing sight and a family already divided. Isaac means to pass on the blessing in the usual way, through the elder son.

BSA: weak (“dim, no longer able to see clearly”): Isaac’s fading eyesight sets up the whole story, since he must now rely on touch, taste and smell.

Genesis 27:2-4

Isaac believes his death may be near. He asks Esau to hunt game and cook the food he loves, and then he will bless him. A formal blessing was a solemn, spoken gift that carried a family’s future. Isaac’s love of that meal is plain, and so is his preference for Esau.

BSA: bless (“praise, honor”): A blessing was a weighty spoken gift of favor and honor, not just kind words.

Hebrew: מַטְעַמִּים (maṭʻammîm, H4303) — “tasty dishes, savory food.” The word comes from ’taste.’ It is the same word used throughout the chapter, and it shows how much taste and appetite shape Isaac’s choices.

See also: Genesis 25:28.

Genesis 27:5-7

Rebekah overhears and tells Jacob what she heard. She adds the words ‘in the presence of the LORD’, which makes the blessing sound even weightier. She means to act before Esau returns. Her quick scheming begins in a home where each parent has a favorite son.

BSA: overheard (“heard secretly, without being noticed”): Rebekah acts on knowledge Isaac never meant to share with her.

See also: Genesis 25:23.

Genesis 27:8-10

Rebekah gives Jacob exact orders. He is to fetch two young goats, she will cook them as Isaac likes, and he will carry the dish in. She may be trying to secure what God had promised about the twins, but she tries to do it by trickery rather than trust.

BSA: listen (“obey, hear and heed”): She asks for plain obedience, and Jacob is pulled into a plan he did not start.

Genesis 27:11-12

Jacob does not object that the plan is wrong. He fears it will be found out. Esau is hairy and he is smooth, and a touch would expose him. He worries about earning a curse, not about telling a lie.

BSA: deceiver (“mocker”): Jacob fears Isaac will think he is making a joke of a sacred moment. curse (“disesteem”): A curse would leave him dishonored rather than honored.

Hebrew: מְתַעְתֵּעַ (meta’te’a, H8591) — “one who mocks or tricks.” It describes someone who treats a serious matter lightly, as if it were a game. Jacob knows he would look like a mocker in the middle of a sacred act.

Genesis 27:13-14

Rebekah says the curse can fall on her. That is a bold claim, since no one can simply take on another’s guilt. Jacob obeys, fetches the goats and brings them to her. He goes along with the plan even though he feared it.

BSA: curse (“a wish for harm, divine disfavor”): Rebekah offers to bear God’s disfavor herself, which is more than she can truly carry.

Genesis 27:15-17

Rebekah dresses Jacob in Esau’s best clothes and covers his hands and neck with goat skins. Then she hands him the food and bread. The disguise is built to fool the senses of a blind man: touch, smell and taste.

BSA: clothes (“goodly raiment, desirable garments”): These were Esau’s fine garments, and their smell would help carry the trick. hands (“an open hand; strength, a side or share”): The hand stands for a person’s strength and his share, and it is the very thing Jacob counterfeits.

Genesis 27:18-20

Isaac asks, ‘Which one are you?’ Jacob answers with a flat lie: ‘I am Esau, your firstborn.’ When Isaac wonders at the speed of the hunt, Jacob adds God’s name to the lie. The lie deepens by using the LORD’s name, which is a serious wrong.

BSA: firstborn (“the first to be born, with special rights”): Jacob claims the very position that carried the right to the blessing. quickly (“hasten, with speed”): Isaac senses something is off, and Jacob answers with more falsehood.

Genesis 27:21-23

Isaac touches Jacob and says, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ His ears and his hands disagree, and he trusts his hands. So he blesses the wrong son. The truth was in front of him, but the disguise won.

BSA: voice (“sound, utterance”): Isaac hears who Jacob really is, but chooses to believe the touch.

See also: Genesis 25:25.

Genesis 27:24-25

Isaac asks one more time and Jacob lies again: ‘I am.’ Then Isaac eats the meal and drinks the wine. Eating together before a blessing was a sign of fellowship, and here it is the setting for a deception.

BSA: wine (“fermented”): It was ordinary fermented wine, brought to complete the meal.

Genesis 27:26-27

Isaac asks for a kiss and smells Esau’s clothing. This last test satisfies him, and he begins to bless. The smell of the open field, which suits Esau the hunter, helps persuade him. Isaac’s words say the field is one the LORD has blessed.

BSA: smelled (“perceived, sensed”): The smell was his last proof, and it was a false one. kissed (“touch, show affection”): The kiss of a father’s love is turned into the means of the lie.

Hebrew: רֵיחַ (rêaḥ, H7306) — “smell, fragrance.” Isaac says the smell is like a field the LORD has blessed. In his own words he is praising a blessing that has already been given to the wrong person.

Genesis 27:28-29

The blessing asks for rain, rich land, grain and wine, then for rule over nations and over family. The last line echoes God’s words to Abraham about those who bless and curse. Jacob receives lordship over his brother and the promise of leadership.

BSA: bow down (“prostrate themselves, show respect”): The word pictures people lowering themselves in honor before the one blessed.

Hebrew: טַל (ṭal, H2919) — “dew.” In a dry land the nightly dew was a daily gift that kept crops alive. It stands here for life that comes down from heaven, not from human effort.

See also: Genesis 12:3; Genesis 25:23.

Genesis 27:30-31

Jacob has barely left when Esau comes in with his own meal. Esau calls Isaac to eat and bless him, unaware that it is already done. The near collision shows how narrow the timing was.

BSA: bless (“give me your approval, pronounce a blessing upon me”): Esau asks for the very word Isaac has just spoken over his brother.

Genesis 27:32-33

Isaac asks, ‘Who are you?’ and learns that he has blessed the wrong son. He trembles with shock. Yet he does not take the blessing back: ‘indeed, he will be blessed!’ It seems he sees God’s hand in it, as God had said that the older would serve the younger.

BSA: tremble (“exceedingly, with great fear”): Isaac is shaken to his depths, as if the ground has moved under him.

Hebrew: חֲרָדָה (ḥărādâ, H2731) — “trembling, terror.” Hebrew piles up words here for ‘great trembling’ to show that Isaac was shaken to the core, as a man who sees his plan overturned by a greater hand.

See also: Genesis 25:23.

Genesis 27:34-35

Esau cries out with a loud and bitter cry and begs for his own blessing. Isaac tells him plainly that his brother came by deceit. Esau’s pain is real. The chapter does not hide how much the deception cost him.

BSA: bitter (“with emotional pain and discontent”): Esau’s cry carries grief and resentment together. came (“came with subtilty, deceitfully”): Isaac names the method: cunning and not honest dealing.

Hebrew: צְעָקָה (tsĕ’āqâ, H6818) — “outcry.” This is the cry of someone wronged and in distress. It is the same kind of word used for cries that rise up to God from the oppressed.

See also: Hebrews 12:16-17.

Genesis 27:36

Esau plays on his brother’s name. Jacob means something like ‘he grabs the heel’ and so ‘he supplants.’ Esau says Jacob took his birthright and now his blessing. Esau forgets that he himself sold the birthright for a meal. Still, the wrong done to him is real.

BSA: cheated (“deceived, supplanted”): The word points to the name Jacob and to the way he has pushed his brother aside. birthright (“rights and privileges of the firstborn”): It was the oldest son’s special place, which Esau had sold earlier.

Hebrew: וַיַּעְקְבֵנִי (wayya’qĕbēnî, H6117) — “he has tripped me up, supplanted me.” The verb is built on ‘heel,’ the same root as Jacob’s name. Esau hears his brother’s name as a verdict on his character.

See also: Genesis 25:29-34; Hosea 12:3.

Genesis 27:37

Isaac explains that he has made Jacob master over Esau and given him grain and wine. The blessing cannot be undone. Isaac has run out of things to give, and Esau stands before him with nothing left that matches what was spoken.

BSA: master (“lord, ruler”): Isaac says he has set Jacob in a place of rule over his brother.

Genesis 27:38

Esau asks whether his father has only one blessing and weeps aloud. It is a moving picture of a man who wants what he once treated lightly. The New Testament uses him as a warning about despising what is holy, and also shows how his tears came too late.

BSA: wept (“shed tears, lamented”): Esau’s grief is open and deep, whatever lay behind it.

See also: Hebrews 12:16-17.

Genesis 27:39-40

Isaac gives Esau a lesser word. His home will be far from the richest land and the dew, he will live by the sword and serve his brother, but one day he will break free. Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, later lived in dry hill country.

BSA: dwelling place (“seat, residence, place of rest”): Esau’s settled home is described as a place away from the best of the land. rebel (“break loose, have dominion”): Isaac leaves Esau a hope of a day when he will throw off the yoke.

Hebrew: תָּרִיד (tārîd, H7300) — “you will break loose, roam restlessly.” The word hints at someone who frets and struggles against a burden until he shakes it off. It paints Esau’s line as restless under a yoke.

See also: 2 Kings 8:20.

Genesis 27:41

Esau hates Jacob and decides, privately, to kill him once their father dies. He waits out of respect for Isaac. Unchecked bitterness grows into plans for murder. It is the first shadow of the Cain and Abel story repeating in this family.

BSA: grudge (“hated, was full of anger”): This is a settled hatred, not a passing flash of temper.

Hebrew: וַיִּשְׂטֹם (wayyiśṭōm, H7852) — “he held a grudge, bore hostility.” The verb describes an enmity carried inside and kept alive. Esau does not forgive, he stores it up.

See also: Genesis 4:8.

Genesis 27:42-43

Someone tells Rebekah what Esau has said. She sends Jacob to her brother Laban in Haran, far away. The plan she began has led to danger for her favorite son. She urges quick action and obedience once more.

BSA: consoling (“comforting, soothing”): Esau soothes his wounded heart with thoughts of revenge. flee (“run away quickly, escape”): Rebekah wants Jacob out of reach without delay.

Hebrew: מִתְנַחֵם (mitnaḥēm, H5162) — “comforting himself.” The word usually means to find comfort. Here the comfort Esau finds is the thought of killing his brother.

Genesis 27:44-45

Rebekah says the stay will be ‘a while,’ until Esau’s anger cools. She promises to send for Jacob. She fears losing both sons in one day: one by murder and the other as a killer. In fact she will never see Jacob again.

BSA: fury (“intense anger, rage, or burning wrath”): She knows Esau’s anger burns hot and will take time to fade. lose (“be bereaved or deprived”): She fears the kind of loss a mother feels when her children are taken.

Genesis 27:46

To get Isaac’s consent, Rebekah turns to a different worry, that Jacob might marry a local Hittite woman as Esau had. Her words are true and they give a reason Isaac will accept. Isaac’s blessing of Jacob in the next chapter follows from this.

BSA: weary (“disgusted, loathing”): She is sick at heart over the marriages Esau made.

Hebrew: קַצְתִּי (qaṣtî, H6973) — “I am sick of, I loathe.” The word expresses a deep revulsion, a weariness that makes life itself feel heavy.

See also: Genesis 26:34-35; Genesis 28:1-2.