How does Jacob receive Isaac’s blessing, and why does Rebecca then tell him to flee?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Rebecca prepares Jacob to appear as Esau, and Isaac blesses him without recognising him. When Esau learns what happened, he plans to kill Jacob, so Rebecca tells Jacob to go to her brother Laban until the anger passes.

Chapter breakdown

Isaac is old and cannot see because his eyes have grown dim. He calls his elder son Esau, who answers that he is there. Isaac says he is old and does not know the day of his death. He asks Esau to take his weapons, quiver and bow, hunt, and prepare the tasty food Isaac likes. He wants to eat it and bless Esau before dying. Rebecca hears the conversation, and Esau goes into the field to obey.

Rebecca tells Jacob what she heard Isaac say to Esau. In her report she describes the blessing as being in the sight of the Lord. She tells Jacob to follow her advice and bring two of the best young goats from the flock. She will prepare the food his father likes, and Jacob will carry it in so Isaac can eat and bless him before dying. Jacob objects that Esau is hairy while he is smooth. If Isaac feels him, he fears being taken for someone mocking his father and receiving a curse instead of a blessing. Rebecca says the curse should be upon her; he should listen and fetch what she requested.

Jacob brings the young goats to Rebecca, who prepares the food Isaac likes. She dresses Jacob in Esau’s very good garments, which she has at home. She puts the young goats’ skins around his hands and covers the bare part of his neck. She gives him the prepared meat and the bread she has baked.

Jacob carries the food in and calls to his father. Isaac answers and asks who he is. Jacob says he is Esau, Isaac’s firstborn, and has done what Isaac commanded. He asks Isaac to rise, sit and eat his venison so that Isaac may bless him. Challoner’s note discusses Augustine’s defence of Jacob in Contra mendacium, chapter 10. It explains that Augustine treats the passage as a mystery concerning the later preference of Gentiles over the Jews described in the note as carnal. It says Jacob might have understood this through prophetic light, rather than stating that he certainly did. The note regards the first birthright as Jacob’s through divine election and Esau’s free surrender of it. It adds that, if there was a lie, it could be at most officious and venial: a lie intended to help, and a less serious sin. This is the edition’s commentary, distinct from the words Jacob speaks in the narrative.

Isaac asks how Jacob found the food so quickly. Jacob says it was God’s will that what he sought came quickly into his path. Isaac asks him to come close so he can feel him and find out whether he is really Esau. After touching him, Isaac says the voice is Jacob’s but the hands are Esau’s. He does not recognise Jacob because the hairy hands resemble the elder son’s. As he blesses him, Isaac again asks whether he is Esau, and Jacob says he is. Isaac asks for the hunted meat so he may bless him. He eats, and Jacob also offers him wine, which he drinks.

Isaac asks for a kiss. Jacob approaches and kisses him, and Isaac smells the fragrance of his garments. Blessing him, Isaac compares his smell to a plentiful field blessed by the Lord. He asks God to give him heaven’s dew, the richness of the earth, and abundant corn and wine. He asks that peoples serve him and tribes bow before him, that he be lord over his brothers and that his mother’s children bow down to him. Anyone who curses him is to be cursed, and anyone who blesses him is to be filled with blessings.

Isaac has scarcely finished when Jacob leaves and Esau arrives. Esau brings food made from his hunt and asks his father to rise and eat his son’s venison so that he may bless him. Isaac asks who he is, and Esau identifies himself as his firstborn. Isaac is struck with fear and great astonishment. He asks who had just brought him hunted meat, which he ate before Esau arrived. He says he has blessed that person, and that person will be blessed.

Esau cries out loudly in distress and asks his father to bless him too. Isaac says his brother came deceitfully and took his blessing. Esau says Jacob is rightly named because this is the second time he has taken Esau’s place: first the birthright, and now the blessing. Challoner’s note explains Jacob as a supplanter, someone who takes another’s place. Esau asks whether Isaac has kept a blessing for him. Isaac replies that he has made Jacob his lord, made all his brothers his servants and provided him with corn and wine; he asks what more he can do for Esau. Esau asks whether his father has only one blessing, pleads for one himself, and weeps loudly.

Isaac is moved and tells Esau that his blessing will be in the richness of the earth and the dew of heaven above. He will live by the sword and serve his brother. A time will come when he will shake off and loosen his brother’s yoke from his neck, ending that burden of service.

Esau hates Jacob because of the blessing and says in his heart that, when the days of mourning for his father come, he will kill Jacob. Rebecca is told and calls Jacob, warning that his brother threatens to kill him. She tells him to flee to her brother Laban in Haran and stay a few days until Esau’s anger fades and he forgets what Jacob has done to him. She will then send for Jacob and bring him back. She asks why she should lose both her sons in one day. Rebecca also tells Isaac she is weary of her life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob marries a woman from the people of this land, she chooses not to live.

The story inside

The plan depends on Isaac not recognising the son before him. Rebecca supplies Esau’s clothes, goatskins, food and bread. Jacob states that he is Esau and repeats the claim when Isaac questions him. Isaac hears Jacob’s voice but is persuaded by the hairy hands; the smell of the clothes accompanies the blessing. Esau’s return exposes the substitution. Isaac says the person already blessed will remain blessed, while Esau pleads for a blessing and receives words about the earth, service, the sword and eventual release. The threat of murder then gives Rebecca a stated reason to send Jacob to Laban. The edition’s note offers an interpretation of Jacob’s claim, with a might-understand qualification and a conditional judgement about a lie. It should not be turned into certainty about Jacob’s knowledge, Rebecca’s motives or Isaac’s inner recognition.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The account explains how Isaac is deceived despite questioning Jacob. The voice suggests Jacob, but the covered hands resemble Esau’s, and Jacob twice claims Esau’s identity. Preserving these exchanges shows the mechanism of the substitution rather than replacing it with a general statement about destiny.
2
The two blessings contain different promises. Jacob receives dew, earthly richness, corn and wine, service from peoples and brothers, and words about curses and blessings. Esau receives earthly richness and dew too, but also life by the sword and service to his brother with eventual release. Isaac’s statement that Jacob will be blessed remains part of the discovery scene.
3
The danger after the blessing is explicit. Esau plans to kill Jacob after mourning Isaac, and Rebecca tells Jacob to flee until the anger passes. Her plan is for a few days followed by a summons home; this chapter does not report the journey being completed or how long it actually lasts.

Test your recall

How do Rebecca’s preparations allow Jacob to receive the blessing, and what turns that outcome into a need to flee?

Show answer

She gives him Esau’s clothes and covers his hands and neck with goatskins. Isaac hears Jacob’s voice but does not recognise him because of the hairy hands, and blesses him. After Esau learns this, he plans to kill Jacob, prompting Rebecca to send Jacob to Laban until the anger passes.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 2928–2947
Genesis Chapter 27 Jacob, by him mother’s counsel, obtaineth his father’s blessing instead of Esau. And by her is advised to fly to his uncle Laban. 27:1. Now Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see: and he called Esau, his elder son, and said to him: My son? And he answered: Here I am. 27:2. And his father said to him, Thou seest that I am old, and know not the day of my death. 27:3. Take thy arms, thy quiver, and bow, and go abroad; and when thou hast taken something by hunting, 27:4. Make me a savoury meat thereof, as thou knowest I like, and bring it that I may eat: and my soul may bless thee, before I die. 27:5. And when Rebecca had heard this, and he was gone into the field to fulfil his father’s commandment,
Lines 2948–2971
27:6. She said to her son Jacob: I heard thy father talking with Esau, thy brother, and saying to him: 27:7. Bring me of thy hunting, and make me meats that I may eat, and bless thee in the sight of the Lord, before I die. 27:8. Now therefore, my son, follow my counsel: 27:9. And go thy way to the flock, bring me two kids of the best, that I may make of them meat for thy father, such as he gladly eateth. 27:10. Which when thou hast brought in, and he hath eaten, he may bless thee before he die. 27:11. And he answered her: Thou knowest that Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am smooth: 27:12. If my father should feel me, and perceive it, I fear lest he will think I would have mocked him, and I shall bring upon me a curse instead of a blessing. 27:13. And his mother said to him: Upon me be this curse, my son: only hear thou my voice, and go, fetch me the things which I have said.
Lines 2972–2983
27:14. He went, and brought, and gave them to his mother. She dressed meats, such as she knew his father liked. 27:15. And she put on him very good garments of Esau, which she had at home with her: 27:16. And the little skins of the kids she put about his hands, and covered the bare of his neck. 27:17. And she gave him the savoury meat, and delivered him bread that she had baked.
Lines 2984–2999
27:18. Which when he had carried in, he said: My father? But he answered: I hear. Who art thou, my son? 27:19. And Jacob said: I am Esau, thy firstborn: I have done as thou didst command me: arise, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. I am Esau thy firstborn.... St. Augustine (L. Contra mendacium, c. 10), treating at large upon this place, excuseth Jacob from a lie, because this whole passage was mysterious, as relating to the preference which was afterwards to be given to the Gentiles before the carnal Jews, which Jacob by prophetic light might understand. So far is certain, that the first birthright, both by divine election and by Esau’s free cession belonged to Jacob: so that if there were any lie in the case, it could be no more than an officious and venial one.
Lines 3000–3019
27:20. And Isaac said to his son: How couldst thou find it so quickly, my son? He answered: It was the will of God, that what I sought came quickly in my way: 27:21. And Isaac said: Come hither, that I may feel thee, my son, and may prove whether thou be my son Esau, or no. 27:22. He came near to his father, and when he had felt him, Isaac said: The voice indeed is the voice of Jacob; but the hands, are the hands of Esau. 27:23. And he knew him not, because his hairy hands made him like to the elder. Then blessing him, 27:24. He said: Art thou my son Esau? He answered: I am. 27:25. Then he said: Bring me the meats of thy hunting, my son, that my soul may bless thee. And when they were brought, and he had eaten, he offered him wine also, which after he had drunk,
Lines 3020–3034
27:26. He said to him: Come near me, and give me a kiss, my son. 27:27. He came near, and kissed him. And immediately as he smelled the fragrant smell of his garments, blessing him, he said: Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field, which the Lord hath blessed. 27:28. God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine. 27:29. And let peoples serve thee, and tribes worship thee: be thou lord of thy brethren, and let thy mother’s children bow down before thee. Cursed be he that curseth thee: and let him that blesseth thee be filled with blessings.
Lines 3035–3049
27:30. Isaac had scarce ended his words, when, Jacob being now gone out abroad, Esau came, 27:31. And brought in to his father meats, made of what he had taken in hunting, saying: Arise, my father, and eat of thy son’s venison; that thy soul may bless me. 27:32. And Isaac said to him: Why! who art thou? He answered: I am thy firstborn son, Esau. 27:33. Isaac was struck with fear, and astonished exceedingly; and wondering beyond what can be believed, said: Who is he then that even now brought me venison that he had taken, and I ate of all before thou camest? and I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed.
Lines 3050–3068
27:34. Esau having heard his father’s words, roared out with a great cry; and, being in a consternation, said: Bless me also, my father. 27:35. And he said: Thy brother came deceitfully and got thy blessing. 27:36. But he said again: Rightly is his name called Jacob; for he hath supplanted me lo this second time: My birthright he took away before, and now this second time he hath stolen away my blessing. And again he said to his father: Hast thou not reserved me also a blessing? Jacob.... That is, a supplanter. 27:37. Isaac answered: I have appointed him thy lord, and have made all his brethren his servants: I have established him with corn and wine, and after this, what shall I do more for thee, my son? 27:38. And Esau said to him: Hast thou only one blessing, father? I beseech thee bless me also. And when he wept with a loud cry,
Lines 3069–3075
27:39. Isaac being moved, said to him: In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above, 27:40. Shall thy blessing be. Thou shalt live by the sword, and shalt serve thy brother: and the time shall come, when thou shalt shake off and loose his yoke from thy neck.
Lines 3076–3099
27:41. Esau therefore always hated Jacob, for the blessing wherewith his father had blessed him; and he said in his heart: The days will come of the mourning for my father, and I will kill my brother Jacob. 27:42. These things were told to Rebecca: and she sent and called Jacob, her son, and said to him: Behold Esau, thy brother, threateneth to kill thee. 27:43. Now therefore, my son, hear my voice, arise and flee to Laban, my brother, to Haran: 27:44. And thou shalt dwell with him a few days, till the wrath of thy brother be assuaged, 27:45. And his indignation cease, and he forget the things thou hast done to him: afterwards I will send, and bring thee from thence hither. Why shall I be deprived of both my sons in one day? 27:46. And Rebecca said to Isaac: I am weary of my life, because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the stock of this land, I choose not to live.