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Genesis 27:1
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Isaac Blesses Jacob

1 Now it came to pass, when Isaac was aold and bhis eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.”  
2 Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I ado not know the day of my death.  
3 aNow therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.  
4 And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul amay bless you before I die.”  
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.
6 So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,
7 ‘Bring me game and make1 savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’  
8 Now therefore, my son, aobey my voice according to what I command you.  
9 Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make asavory food from them for your father, such as he loves.  
10 Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he amay bless you before his death.”  
11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, aEsau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.  
12 Perhaps my father will afeel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring ba curse on myself and not a blessing.”  
13 But his mother said to him, a“Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.”  
14 And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother amade savory food, such as his father loved.  
15 Then Rebekah took the achoice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.  
16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17 Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18 So he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, athat your soul may bless me.”  
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”
21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I amay feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”  
22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23 And he did not recognize him, because ahis hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.  
24 Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”
25 He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so athat my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.  
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”
27 And he came near and akissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:
“Surely, bthe smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the Lord has blessed. 
28 Therefore may aGod give you
Of bthe dew of heaven,
Of cthe fatness of the earth,
And dplenty of grain and wine. 
29 aLet peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And blet your mother’s sons bow down to you.
cCursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!”  

Esau’s Lost Hope

30 Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31 He also had made1 savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and aeat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”  
Book Notes:
Barnes' Book Notes



Introduction to Genesis

The Book of Genesis can be separated into eleven documents or pieces of composition most of which contain additional subordinate divisions. The first of these has no introductory phrase; the third begins with ּ tôledâh zeh sēpher , "this is the book of the generations" ; and the others with tôledâh ̀ēleh , "these are the generations."

However, the subordinate pieces of which these primary documents consist are as distinct from each other as they are complete in themselves. And, each portion of the composer is as separate as the wholes which they go to constitute. The history of the fall Gen. 3, the family of Adam Gen. 4, the description of the vices of the antediluvians Genesis 6:1-8, and the confusion of tongues Genesis 11:1-9 are as distinct efforts of composition and as perfect in themselves as any of the primary divisions. The same holds true throughout the entire Book of Genesis. Even these subordinate pieces contain still smaller passages, having an exact and self-contained finish which enables the critic to lift them out and examine them and makes him wonder if they have not been inserted in the document as in a mold which was previously fitted for their reception. The memoranda of each day' s creative work, of the locality of Paradise, of each link in the genealogy of Noah, and the genealogy of Abraham are striking examples of this. They sit, each in the narrative, like a gem in its setting.

Whether these primary documents were originally composed by Moses, or whether they came into his hands from earlier sacred writers and were revised by him and combined into his great work, we are not informed. By revising a sacred writing, we mean replacing obsolete or otherwise unknown words or modes of expressing as were in common use at the time of the reviser, and then putting in an explanatory clause or passage when necessary for people of a later day. The latter of the above suppositions is not inconsistent with Moses being reckoned as the responsible "author" of the whole collection. We think that such a position is more natural, satisfactory, and consistent with the phenomena of all Scripture. It is satisfactory to have the recorder (if not an eye-witness) to be as near as possible to the events recorded. And it seems to have been a part of the method of the Divine Author of the Scripture to have a constant collector, conservator, authenticator, reviser, and continuator of that book which He designed for the spiritual instruction of successive ages. We may disapprove of one writer tampering with the work of another, but we must allow the Divine Author to adapt His own work from time to time to the necessities of coming generations. However, this implies writing was in use from the origin of man.

We are not able to say when writing of any kind was invented or when syllabic or alphabetic writing came into use. But we meet with the word sêpher , "a writing," from which we have our English "cipher," as early as Gen. 5. And many things encourage us to presume a very early invention of writing. It is, after all, only another form of speech, another effort of the signing faculty in man. Why may not the hand gesticulate to the eye, as well as the tongue articulate to the ear? We believe that the former was concurrent with the latter in early speech as it is in the speech of all nations to the present day. Only one more step is needed for the writing mode. Let the gestures of the hand take a permanent form by being carved in lines on a smooth surface and we have a written character.

This leads us to the previous question of human speech. Was it a gradual acquisition after a period of brute silence? Apart from history, we argue that it was not! We conceive that speech leaped at once from the brain of man as a perfect thing - as perfect as the newborn infant - yet capable of growth and development. This has been the case with all inventions and discoveries. The pressing necessity has come upon the fitting man, and he has given forth a complete idea which can only develop after ages. The Bible record confirms this theory. Adam comes to be, and then by the force of his native genius speaks. And in primitive times we have no doubt that the hand moved as well as the tongue. Hence, we hear so soon of "the book."

On the supposition that writing was known to Adam Gen. 1-4, containing the first two of these documents, it formed the "Bible" of Adam' s descendants (the antediluvians). Gen. 1:1-11:9, being the sum of these two documents and the following three documents, constitutes the "Bible" of the descendants of Noah. The whole of Genesis may be called the "Bible" of the posterity of Jacob; and, we may add, that the five books of the Law, of which the last four books (at least) are immediately due to Moses. The Pentateuch was the first "Bible" of Israel as a nation.

Genesis is purely a historical work. It serves as the narrative preamble to the legislation of Moses. It possesses, however, a much higher and broader interest than this. It is the first volume of the history of man in relation with God. It consists of a main line of narrative, and one or more collateral lines. The main line is continuous and relates to the portion of the human race that remains in communication with God. Side by side with this is a broken line, rather, several successive lines, which are linked not to one another but to the main line. Of these, two lines come out in the primary documents of Genesis; namely, Genesis 25:12-18 and Gen. 36, containing the respective records of Ishmael and Esau. When these are placed side by side with those of Isaac and Jacob, the stages in the main line of narrative are found to be nine, that is, two less than the primitive documents.

These great lines of narrative, in like manner, include minor lines, whenever the history falls into several threads which must all be taken up one after another in order to carry on the whole concatenation of events. These come out in paragraphs and even shorter passages which necessarily overlap one another in point of time. The striking uniqueness of Hebrew composition is aptly illustrated by the successive links in the genealogy of Gen. 5, where the life of one patriarch is brought to a close before that of the next is taken up, though they actually run parallel for the greater part of the predecessor' s life. It furnishes a key to much that is difficult in the narrative.

This book is naturally divided into two great parts - the first which narrates the creation; the second which narrates the development of the things created from the beginning to the deaths of Jacob and Joseph.

The first part is equal in value to the whole record of what may take place to the end of time, and therefore to the whole of the Bible, not only in its historical part, but in its prophetic aspect. A created system of things contains in its bosom the whole of what may be unfolded from it.

The second great part of Genesis consists of two main divisions - the one detailing the course of events before the deluge, the other recounting the history after the flood. These divisions may be distributed into sections in the following way: The stages of the narrative marked off in the primary documents are nine in number. However, in consequence of the transcendent importance of the primeval events, we have broken up the second document into three sections, and the fourth document into two sections and have thus divided the contents of the book into twelve great sections. All these matters of arrangement are shown in the following chart:

Table of Contents

I. CREATION:

A. Creation Gen. 1:1-2:3

II. DEVELOPMENT:

A. Before the Deluge

II. The Man Gen. 2:4-25

III. The Fall Gen. 3:1-24

IV. The Race Gen. 4:1-26

V. Line to Noah Gen. 5:1-6:8

B. Deluge

VI. The Deluge Gen. 6:9-8:22

C. After the Deluge

VII. The Covenant Gen. 9:1-29

VII. The Nations Gen. 10:1-11:9

IX. Line to Abram Gen. 11:10-26

X. Abraham Gen. 11:27-25:11

XI. Isaac Gen. 25:19-36:34

XII. Jacob Gen. 37:10-50:26

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