Genesis 27.1-28.22

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing / Esau’s Blessing / Marry, Marry, Quite Contrary / Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing: Genesis 27.1-29

When last we left our hero (Jacob), he had traded some lentil stew with his brother for his birthright. The trickery continues here. By this point the Lord has spoken with Jacob, so he knows that the Lord’s blessing of progeny and land applies to him, and not his older brother Esau. From a divine perspective he is heir. However, he now needs his father’s blessing to legitimize his position socially.

Isaac is old and blind. He calls to Esau and tells him to go hunt some game and prepare it for his father to eat, “so that I may bless you before I die” (Gen. 27.4). Rebekah listens to the conversation, and decides that her favorite son deserves the blessing instead (perhaps because of the divine oracle in Genesis 25.23: “the elder shall serve the stronger”). Isaac said nothing about God in his talk with Esau, but when Rebekah relays the story to Jacob, she is sure to say that the blessing will be before the Lord. She then gives Jacob a command of her own: “Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes; and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies” (Gen. 27.9-10). Very crafty, Mrs. Matriarch. Very crafty indeed. You and your son love these tricks.

Just one problem: Isaac is blind but not stupid. What if he realizes the trick and curses Jacob instead? “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me” (Gen. 27.13). These curses and blessings, apparently, are transferable – a precious commodity in these times.

Jacob goes out, gets the kids, gives them to his mother to prepare. Rebekah then dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothing, and puts the skins of the slaughtered kids on his neck and the back of his hands. 

Jacob greets his father and immediately there is a sense that something is up. Whereas Isaac recognizes Esau’s voice in the beginning of the chapter, he now has to ask what son it is that has spoken to him. It is Esau his first born, of course. How did he get the game so quickly? “Because the Lord your God granted me success” (Gen. 27.20). Claiming to be his brother was an outright lie, but this one is actually sort of true. God has granted Jacob success. Isaac still suspects something, and asks to feel his son so he may know whether this man is actually his son. His voice is Jacob’s, but his hands are hairy like Esau’s. Isaac asks for confirmation a second time, and receives it.

Jacob brings his father the food and wine. His father eats and drinks. So far Isaac’s son’s identify is still ambiguous: his voice works against him but his “hairiness” work for him. The taste of the meat does not give him points either way, but it ensures that all four working senses have been tried in order to take advantage of Isaac’s blindness. The final test will be smell. Isaac smells the garments Jacob wears as his son bends over to kiss him. It is the smell of Esau’s garments, of course. This seals it. Jacob receives a poetic blessing:

Ah, the smell of my son 

is like the smell of a field 

that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven, 

and of the fatness of the earth, 

and plenty of grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you, 

and nations bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers, 

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. 

Cursed be everyone who curses you, 

and blessed be everyone who blesses you!

(Gen. 27.27-29)

The part about “brothers” and “mother’s sons” simply serve as a poetic device, and not to be taken literally. The poetry deserves better analysis than I can give, but here are some brief notes. The smell of his son is of Esau’s domain, and it has been blessed by the Lord. It is Jacob who the land is blessed for however, and Jacob who is blessed himself. There are two promises: one of the bounty of the land and one of service from others. The part about his brother serving him especially rings true in the patriarchal narrative, legitimizing Israel’s dominance of other nations in the future. There is also a blessing and a curse. In fact, it is the blessing and curse of God, given to Abraham in Genesis 12.3: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Esau’s Blessing: Genesis 27.30-45

Drama in play form.

[Exit Jacob, enter Esau.]

Esau: Dinner’s ready!

Isaac: Who are you?

Esau: Your firstborn son, Esau.

Isaac: [trembling] Then who was just here that I have blessed? Blessed he shall be!

Esau: [emits a great and bitter cry]: Bless me too!

Isaac: Your brother has taken your blessing from you.

Esau: Oh, well now his name Jacob (he supplants) makes perfect sense. I should have known when he took my birthright.

Isaac: I made him your lord, gave him all his brothers as servants, promised him that the land will sustain him. What do I have left to give?

Esau: There must be one thing left! How about the vacation place in Miami Beach? Can I have that, please?

Isaac: Over my dead body!

Esau: [groans loudly and begins to weep]

Isaac: Here goes. You will live away from good and blessed land. You will live by the sword and serve your brother. But you will not serve him forever.

[Lights down. Lights up on Esau, alone.]

Esau: As soon as my father dies, I’m going to kill my brother for stealing my blessing.

[Servant overhears, runs to Rebekah. Lights down. Lights up on Rebekah and Isaac]

Rebekah: He’s planning to kill you. You must flee to my brother Laban in Haran and lay low until your brother’s fury cools a bit. I will send for you when it does.

[Lights down.]

All of chapter 27 has a wonderfully dramatic feel to it. It is like a well-written pre-recorded history soap opera. There is something I can do with my degrees in English and Journalism: Israel, the Soap Opera. It would be like DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, with more sex and humor. Or maybe it could even be updated for modern times. Favorite sons, trickery, jealousy, incest. That is quality entertainment.

Marry, Marry, Quite Contrary: Genesis 27.46-28.9

[This P section continues the Esau’s exotic fixation first referenced in Genesis 26.34-35. It also gives Jacob all the more reason to travel to Laban, an idea introduced in the J-source narrative above.

Silence. Blackness. Rebekah’s trembling words come to Isaac from the space between the pillows they once shared before the mattress became a deathbed.

“I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Gen. 27.46).

The next day Jacob blesses Isaac and tells him not to marry a Canaanite woman. Instead he is to go to Paddan-aran to marry one of the daughters of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. That’s a cousin for all those keeping track. But intermarriage was not looked down upon in this type of society. In fact, it could be very beneficial from a familial, patriarchal standpoint. 

Isaac continues to bestow the blessing of Abraham – descendants and the land Isaac now resides in as an alien.

Esau sees that Jacob has been blessed and warned against marrying a Canaanite woman. If Canaanite women are not pleasing to my father, he thinks, I will marry women from another foreign people. He goes to Ishmael and marries Mahalath. This is actually fitting within the narrative; both Esau and Ishmael are firstborns, and both do not carry on the chosen bloodline, even though both have the blood of patriarchs. Note also that in the P narrative, Jacob is not a trickster, receiving a blessing by honest means. There is no monkey business here. Only serious business. Human business, if you will.

Jacob’s Ladder: Genesis 28.10-22

Jacob leaves Beer-sheba for Haran. Stopping for the night, he uses a stone as a pillow and falls asleep.

Jacob dreams of a ladder/staircase/ramp that reaches from earth to heaven. Angels of God are ascending and descending it. The Lord stands beside him/above the ladder and says:

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

(Gen. 28.13-15)

That is a pretty awesome blessing: offspring like the dust of the earth, spanning in all directions, and constant protection, and 24/7 roadside assistance courtesy of OnStar until the deal is fulfilled.

Jacob wakes and marvels at the place that surely contains the Lord. Surely this place is the house of God, the gate of heaven! (Gen. 28.17). In the morning Jacob sets up the stone as a pillar and pours oil on top of it. He calls the place Bethel (house of God), though the name of the city was first Luz. Jacob makes a vow that if God will stay with him, giving him food and clothing so that he returns to his father’s house in peace, the Lord will be his God, and the pillar will be God’s house. In addition, one-tenth of what he receives will be given to the Lord. 

What Jacob seems to be doing here is putting God to the test. God has already promised to act, but Jacob’s reverence is dependant on God acting. Perhaps this skepticism is warranted. After all, land and progeny have been promised since the days of Jacob’s grandfather.

But in order to have progeny, Jacob must first be married…