Genesis 27:32-38

27:32 His father Isaac asked, ¹  “Who are you?” “I am your firstborn son,” ²  he replied, “Esau!” 27:33 Isaac began to shake violently ³  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. ⁴  He will indeed be blessed!”

27:34 When Esau heard ⁵  his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. ⁶  He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” 27:35 But Isaac ⁷  replied, “Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away ⁸  your blessing.” 27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ⁹  He has tripped me up ¹⁰  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?” 27:38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!” ¹¹  Then Esau wept loudly. ¹² 

[27:32]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[27:32]  ² 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.

[27:33]  ³ 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.

[27:33]  ⁴ 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?”

[27:34]  ⁵ tn The temporal clause is introduced with the temporal indicator and has the infinitive as its verb.

[27:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he yelled [with] a great and bitter yell to excess.”

[27:35]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:35]  ⁸ tn Or “took”; “received.”

[27:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.

[27:36]  ¹⁰ sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”

[27:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Bless me, me also, my father.” The words “my father” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:38]  ¹² tn Heb “and Esau lifted his voice and wept.”