“Yes, 12 my son smells
like the scent of an open field
which the Lord has blessed.
27:28 May God give you
the dew of the sky 13
and the richness 14 of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
27:29 May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
You will be 15 lord 16 over your brothers,
and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. 17
May those who curse you be cursed,
and those who bless you be blessed.”
27:30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left 18 his father’s 19 presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. 20 27:31 He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau 21 said to him, “My father, get up 22 and eat some of your son’s wild game. Then you can bless me.” 23 27:32 His father Isaac asked, 24 “Who are you?” “I am your firstborn son,” 25 he replied, “Esau!” 27:33 Isaac began to shake violently 26 and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. 27 He will indeed be blessed!”
48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked –
the God who has been my shepherd 28
all my life long to this day,
49:28 These 29 are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing. 30
33:1 This is the blessing Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death.
1 tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.
2 tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.
3 tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”
4 tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”
5 tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.
6 tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.
8 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.
9 tn Heb “so that my soul may bless you.” The use of נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”) as the subject emphasizes that the blessing will be made with all Isaac’s desire and vitality. The conjunction “so that” closely relates the meal to the blessing, suggesting that this will be a ritual meal in conjunction with the giving of a formal blessing.
10 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “and he smelled the smell”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “see.”
13 tn Heb “and from the dew of the sky.”
14 tn Heb “and from the fatness.”
15 tn Heb “and be.” The verb is an imperative, which is used rhetorically in this oracle of blessing. It is an invitation to exercise authority his brothers and indicates that he is granted such authority by the patriarch of the family. Furthermore, the blessing enables the recipient to accomplish this.
16 tn The Hebrew word is גְבִיר (gevir, “lord, mighty one”). The one being blessed will be stronger and therefore more powerful than his brother. See Gen 25:23. The feminine form of this rare noun means “mistress” or “queen-mother.”
17 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (which is either an imperfect or a jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
18 tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the finite form of the verb makes the construction emphatic.
19 tn Heb “the presence of Isaac his father.” The repetition of the proper name (“Isaac”) was
20 tn Heb “and Esau his brother came from his hunt.”
21 tn Heb “and he said to his father”; the referent of “he” (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity, while the words “his father” have been replaced by the pronoun “him” for stylistic reasons.
22 tn Or “arise” (i.e., sit up).
23 tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.”
24 tn Heb “said.”
25 tn Heb “and he said, ‘I [am] your son, your firstborn.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged for stylistic reasons.
26 tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.
27 tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”
28 tn Heb “shepherded me.” The verb has been translated as an English noun for stylistic reasons.
29 tn Heb “All these.”
30 tn Heb “and he blessed them, each of whom according to his blessing, he blessed them.”
31 tn Heb “to their tents.”
32 tn Heb “blessed.”