Isaac’s Blessing
Isaac’s Blessing
Image by John Paul Stanley/YoPlace.com from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Esau’s Canaanite Wives
When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. They brought Isaac and Rebekah grief.
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
Like his father, Esau married when he was forty years old. But that’s where the similarities between their marriages end. Isaac remained faithful to one wife, Rebekah, even through twenty years of barrenness.1 Esau, on the contrary, thought nothing of marrying multiple women. Worse, his first two wives were Hittites, one of the peoples of Canaan Abraham had forbidden Isaac from marrying.2 Their behavior caused tension in the family.
This short passage initially appears unrelated to the stories around it. But it pairs with the record of Esau’s third marriage in 28:6–9 to bracket the story of Isaac blessing Jacob.3 In fact, Esau’s marriages are vital to understanding the entire passage. Esau didn’t lose his birthright and blessing because Jacob stole them from him. He lost them because he had proven himself unworthy of being Abraham’s heir.
Deathbed Blessing
When Isaac had grown old and lost his sight, he called for Esau, his firstborn son. “My son!” Isaac said.
“Yes? I’m here.”
“Listen. I have grown old, and I don’t know how much time I have left. So please take your hunting gear—your quiver and bow—and go hunt some wild game for me. Then prepare my favorite meal and bring it to me so I can bless you before I die.”
Three factors disqualified Esau from being Abraham’s heir: his inappropriate marriages, his vow to sell Jacob his birthright, and most importantly, Yahweh’s oracle that the older son would serve the younger.4 But in his old age, Isaac was blind both literally and figuratively. Ruled by his love for wild game, he determined to bless his favorite son regardless.5
A father’s deathbed blessing was a solemn occasion when a man would call his children together to establish the inheritance rights of each and formally pass off leadership of the family.6 His words were considered binding in the same way a will is today. For Isaac to call in only Esau was highly unusual.7 In his extreme favoritism, he intended to leave Jacob with nothing!
Esau was also in the wrong. Although the father would normally bless all his children, the firstborn son received a special blessing. But that blessing no longer belonged to Esau. He had sworn on oath to give the rights of the firstborn to Jacob.8 By trying to accept the blessing, Esau broke his oath, bringing a just curse on himself. While this story is often mischaracterized as Jacob stealing Esau’s blessing, it was actually Esau who tried to steal back what he had willingly traded away.
Rebekah’s Plan
Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to Esau. When Esau left to hunt and bring back wild game, she told her son Jacob, “Listen! I overheard your father speaking to your brother, Esau. ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare a delicious meal so I can eat and bless you in Yahweh’s presence before I die.’
“So listen, my son, and do as I say. Please go to the flock and bring two of the best young goats so I can prepare your father’s favorite meal. Then you must take it for your father to eat so he’ll bless you before he dies.”
Jacob replied to his mother, “But my brother is a hairy man! My skin is smooth! If my father touches me, he’ll think I’m trying to ridicule him, and I’ll receive a curse, not a blessing.”
“May your curse fall on me, my son,” his mother said. “Just obey me. Go and get the goats for me.”
So Jacob went to get them, and his mother prepared his father’s favorite meal.
Image by zweifelsfreimitb from Pixabay
While Isaac and Esau were speaking, Rebekah was listening. When she was pregnant, God had prophesied that Jacob would become the dominant brother.9 Now Isaac was planning to bless the wrong son, so she quickly devised a plan to ensure her favorite, Jacob, would receive the blessing. While Esau was out hunting, Rebekah sent Jacob to retrieve two young goats from the flock. She then made Isaac’s favorite meal using the goats instead of wild game.
Jacob objected to the plan, but not because he knew deceiving his father was wrong. He feared being caught if Isaac touched Jacob’s smooth skin. Ridiculing a parent was a serious offense. When Noah’s son Ham ridiculed his father, he brought a curse on his descendants.10 Jacob wanted Isaac’s blessing but rightly feared receiving a curse instead. But Rebekah was so certain they would succeed that she invited any curse on Jacob to transfer to herself!
Rebekah’s plan reveals that she dangerously mixed her faith in God’s prophecy with self-sufficiency. These incompatible attitudes have misled many. Rebekah believed God’s promise, but when she overheard Isaac planning to bless Esau, she decided God needed her help. So instead of asking Yahweh to fix the situation, she made it worse by pressuring her son to deceive his father by imitating his brother. Like Isaac, she was willing to deprive one son of a blessing so her favored son would receive everything.
Playing Esau
Rebekah had some of the nicest clothes belonging to Esau, her oldest son, with her in the house. She took them and had Jacob, her youngest son, put them on. Then she covered his arms and the back of his neck with the goat skins and gave him the delicious meal and some bread she had made.
Jacob went to his father. “Father?”
“I’m here. Who are you, my son?”
“I’m Esau, your firstborn,” replied Jacob. “I’ve done what you asked me to. Come eat my wild game so you can bless me.”
Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“Yahweh, your God, accomplished this for me.”
Then Isaac told Jacob, “Please come closer so I can feel you, my son. Then I’ll know whether or not you are my son Esau.”
So Jacob drew closer to his father. Isaac felt him and wondered how his voice could sound like Jacob’s but his hands feel like Esau’s. Because Jacob’s hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s, Isaac did not recognize him. So Isaac decided to bless him.
Image by John Paul Stanley/YoPlace.com from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
While the meal was cooking, Rebekah had Jacob put on some of Esau’s clothes and then tied the goat skins to his arms and neck. That way if Isaac touched him, he would feel the goat hair instead of Jacob’s smooth arms. Then she gave Jacob the food and sent him to Isaac.
Despite his blindness, Isaac was not easily deceived. Jacob’s disguise could not change his voice to sound like Esau’s. That the meal was ready so quickly added to Isaac’s suspicion. Esau would not likely have returned from hunting yet, much less had time to cook. But Jacob insisted that he was Esau, even implicating Yahweh in the ruse! He falsely credited his father’s God with miraculously providing the meat. But while God intended for Jacob to receive the blessing, he played no role in the plan to deceive Isaac.
Unable to trust his eyes or ears, Isaac turned to his sense of touch. He called his son close to determine whether he was hairy or smooth. But the goat skins did their job, making Jacob’s hands feel like Esau’s. Convinced, Isaac prepared to bless his son.
Jacob Blessed
“Are you really my son Esau?” [Isaac] asked.
“I am.”
So he said, “Bring me the food. I will eat some of your wild game, my son, so I can bless you.” Jacob took it to him, and he ate. Jacob also brought wine, and Isaac drank it.
Then Isaac, his father, said, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.”
When Jacob drew close and kissed him, Isaac smelled the scent on his clothes and blessed him, “My son smells like a field blessed by Yahweh.
“May God provide you with
dew from the sky,
bounty from the earth,
and an abundance of grain and sweet wine!
Nations will serve you,
and peoples bow down to you
so you’ll be the master of your brothers.
May the children of your mother bow down to you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed!”
Image by Megan Watson from Creation Swap
As Isaac began the formal blessing ceremony, he once again asked his son to identify himself. This may have been part of the ceremony or an attempt to alleviate his lingering doubt that he was talking to Esau. Isaac’s senses of hearing and touch had given him contradictory information.11 He now used his senses of taste and smell, both of which deceived him. Rebekah had succeeded in making the goat meat taste like wild game, and Jacob smelled like Esau because he was wearing his brother’s clothes.
Isaac’s first blessing granted Jacob plentiful harvests. During the dry summer months, they relied on a thick layer of morning dew formed by moisture from the Mediterranean Sea. This dew was vital to the survival of their crops.12 Grain and sweet wine, along with olive oil, symbolize prosperity.13 At the end, Isaac pronounced a curse on Jacob’s enemies and a blessing on his allies, reflecting the blessing of Abraham that Jacob inherited.14 These were standard elements of a blessing.
The middle of Isaac’s blessing, however, comes as a shock. It was normal to pass leadership of the family to the firstborn, but Isaac went far beyond that. By trying to make Esau Jacob’s master, Isaac was wishing servitude on Jacob—his own son!15 Jacob and Esau were twins and should have been allies, not master and servant. Jacob had feared receiving a curse for deceiving his father.16 As it turned out, his father intended to curse him anyway.
Esau’s Plea
Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had barely left his father’s presence when Esau returned from hunting. Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. “Come, Father, and eat my wild game so you can bless me.”
But Isaac, his father, asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m your firstborn son, Esau.”
Isaac began to shake uncontrollably. “Then who brought me the wild game I finished eating just before you came? I blessed him—and he will be blessed!”
As soon as Esau heard what his father said, he screamed loudly and bitterly, “Bless me! Bless me too, Father!”
But Isaac said, “Your brother came and took your blessing deceitfully.”
“Is his name not Jacob? Twice now he has supassed me. First he took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing! Don’t you have any blessing left for me?”
“I have made him master over you and given him all his brothers as servants,” answered Isaac. “I have also sustained him with grain and sweet wine. So what could I do for you, my son?
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Rebekah’s plan to have Isaac bless Jacob worked—but just barely. Esau returned only minutes too late to stop it. He prepared the meal and took it to Isaac, expecting to be blessed as promised. But his arrival shook Isaac to his core. Earlier, the sound of Jacob’s voice had confused Isaac. Now, the sound of Esau’s voice gave him perfect clarity. He had been tricked.
Isaac’s sudden awareness of what he had done made him shake with fear. He had made Jacob the sole heir of Abraham’s blessing, and there was nothing he could do about it. Esau responded by screaming, pleading for his father to give him a blessing of his own. Since Jacob had received his blessing, Esau could reasonably expect to receive the blessing his father had intended for Jacob. But Isaac hadn’t intended to bless Jacob at all. By trying to give Esau everything, he ended up giving him nothing.
Esau blamed Jacob for overcoming him by cheating him of both his birthright and his blessing. Jacob’s name means “he surpasses.”17 Yet Esau had willingly sold his rights as the firstborn.18 Hebrews 12:16–17 refers to this event, placing the blame squarely on Esau’s ungodly attitude. With tears, he begged for the blessing he had himself given away. But like his father, Esau could not undo what he had done.
Esau Blessed
“Can you give only one blessing?” Esau asked his father. “Bless me! Bless me too, Father!”
So his father answered him:
“You’ll dwell apart from the bounty from the earth
and the dew from the sky above.
You’ll live by your sword
and serve your brother.
But when you grow sick of it,
you’ll tear his yoke off your neck.”
Because of his father’s blessing, Esau resented Jacob and thought to himself, “Soon we’ll mourn my father’s death, and then I’ll kill my brother, Jacob.”
Image by Marian Trinidad from Creation Swap
Learning that Isaac had made Jacob his master, Esau became desperate. He continued to beg his father for a blessing of his own. So Isaac finally obliged. Though the prophecy Esau received probably didn’t feel like a blessing, it does contain a glimmer of hope for the future of Esau and his descendants.
Unlike Jacob, Esau would live apart from the “dew from the sky” and the “bounty from the earth,” forcing him to use violence to survive. He later moved his family southeast of Canaan to Seir, an arid, mountainous region near the Arabian Desert.19 His descendants, the Edomites, were bitter enemies of Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites. King David subjugated the Edomites, fulfilling the prophesy that Esau would serve Jacob.20 But Isaac promised Esau that one day his descendants would free themselves. This was fulfilled when they revolted against David’s descendant, King Joram (Jehoram).21
Esau was not comforted by his father’s “blessing.” His resentment grew, and he began to plot his revenge. He was so angry he wanted to kill his brother. But he would wait until after Isaac died, which he thought would be soon. Jacob had no children, so killing him would ensure that Isaac’s prophecy could never come to pass.
Flee
Rebekah found out what Esau, her oldest son, was planning. So she called for Jacob, her youngest son. “Listen! Your brother, Esau, is consoling himself with the thought of killing you. Now obey me, my son. Flee to my brother Laban in Harran, and stay with him a few days until your brother calms down. When his anger subsides and he forgets what you did to him, I’ll send someone to bring you back. Otherwise I’ll lose both of you at the same time!”
Then Rebekah told Isaac, “These Hittite women have made my life miserable! If Jacob marries a woman like these, a Hittite from this land, my life will no longer be worth living.”
Image by Oleg Gamulinskiy from Pixabay
When Rebekah found out about Esau’s plot to kill Jacob, she knew she would have to send Jacob away to save both her sons. If Esau killed Jacob, he would have to flee for his life or be executed as a murderer. Rebekah would lose them both.
Rebekah wanted to send Jacob to stay with her brother Laban, hoping this would last for only a short time. Once Esau calmed down, Jacob could safely return. But only Isaac had the authority to send him, so Rebekah had to convince him. Because she couldn’t tell Isaac about Esau’s plan, she used Esau’s Hittite wives as an excuse.22 They made life miserable for both Isaac and Rebekah, so it would be better for Jacob to find a wife elsewhere.
With this last ploy, Rebekah disappears from the story of Genesis. She never sent for Jacob to return, and her death is not recorded. This was likely the last time she saw her favorite son. For all her scheming, all she really managed to do was shatter her own family.
To Paddan Aram
So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman! Instead, go to the home of your grandfather Bethuel in Paddan Aram, and marry one of your uncle Laban’s daughters. May God Almighty bless you, make you fruitful, and multiply you into a fellowship of peoples. May he grant you and your offspring Abraham’s blessing to possess the land where you’re a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
Isaac sent Jacob away to Paddan Aram, the home of Laban, the son of Bethuel and brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother.
Image by Sweet Publishing from Free Bible Images, CC BY-SA 3.0
Isaac listened to Rebekah’s complaint about Esau’s Canaanite wives. He forbade Jacob from marrying a Canaanite and commanded him to travel to the city of Harran in Mesopotamia, where Rebekah’s family lived.23 Jacob had to find his uncle Laban, Rebekah’s brother, and marry one of his daughters.
Isaac then blessed Jacob a second time. It seems he had accepted Jacob as his heir. He explicitly passed on Abraham’s blessing and gave Jacob the land of Canaan. Isaac also blessed Jacob with numerous descendants and a large household. But then he sent Jacob off alone.24
Ishmael’s Daughter
Esau discovered that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to find a wife in Paddan Aram. He also found out that Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. Jacob obeyed his parents and left for Paddan Aram. Then Esau realized how much the Canaanite women irritated his father, Isaac. So in addition to the wives he already had, Esau went to the Ishmaelites and married Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
Image by Deena Englard from Unsplash
The story of Isaac blessing Jacob begins with Esau marrying two Canaanite women.25 It ends with him marrying a third wife. The two Canaanites irritated Isaac and Rebekah, but up to this point, Esau had been oblivious. When he found out Isaac had forbidden Jacob from marrying a Canaanite and sent him to find a wife in Paddan Aram, Esau finally realized how much his wives displeased his parents.
Esau decided the best way to regain his father’s approval would be to marry a close relative.26 So he went to the family of Isaac’s half brother Ishmael and married his daughter Mahalath. While marrying an Ishmaelite was certainly better than marrying a Canaanite, taking a third wife didn’t resolve the issue. Esau had a spiritual problem. He sought his father’s approval, but he should have sought Yahweh’s approval.
- See Isaac’s Prayer.
- Genesis 24:3.
- See Inclusio.
- See Genesis 25:22–23, 29–33.
- Genesis 25:28.
- Isaac’s “deathbed” blessing proved to be premature. He was still alive when Jacob returned from Harran twenty years later. Genesis 31:41; 35:27–29.
- Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 205; see Genesis 49.
- See Lentil Soup.
- See Two Nations.
- See The Fall of Ham; Canaan Cursed.
- See Playing Esau.
- Kempf and Kuhn, Notes on Genesis 25:19–50:26, Gen. 27:28a.
- See Deuteronomy 7:13; 33:28; 2 Kings 18:32; Psalm 4:7; Jeremiah 31:12.
- See Genesis 12:3.
- See Genesis 27:37.
- See Rebekah’s Plan.
- See Jacob and Esau.
- See Lentil Soup.
- Genesis 36:6–8; see Constable, Genesis, 352; Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 212.
- 2 Samuel 8:13–14.
- 2 Kings 8:20–22.
- See Esau’s Canaanite Wives.
- Both Aram Naharaim in chapter 24 and Paddan Aram here refer to the land of the Arameans, or part of it.
- Genesis 32:9–10.
- See Esau’s Canaanite Wives.
- See Nahor and Milcah.