Genesis 27:5-17

27:5 Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. ¹  When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, ²  27:6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau, 27:7 ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat ³  it and bless you ⁴  in the presence of the Lord ⁵  before I die.’ 27:8 Now then, my son, do ⁶  exactly what I tell you! ⁷  27:9 Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I’ll prepare ⁸  them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them. 27:10 Then you will take ⁹  it to your father. Thus he will eat it ¹⁰  and ¹¹  bless you before he dies.”

27:11 “But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! ¹²  27:12 My father may touch me! Then he’ll think I’m mocking him ¹³  and I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” 27:13 So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, ¹⁴  my son! Just obey me! ¹⁵  Go and get them for me!”

27:14 So he went and got the goats ¹⁶  and brought them to his mother. She ¹⁷  prepared some tasty food, just the way his father loved it. 27:15 Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 27:16 She put the skins of the young goats ¹⁸  on his hands ¹⁹  and the smooth part of his neck. 27:17 Then she handed ²⁰  the tasty food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

[27:5]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by a conjunction with the subject, followed by the predicate) here introduces a new scene in the story.

[27:5]  ² tc The LXX adds here “to his father,” which may have been accidentally omitted in the MT.

[27:7]  ³ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.

[27:7]  ⁴ tn The cohortative, with the prefixed conjunction, also expresses logical sequence. See vv. 4, 19, 27.

[27:7]  ⁵ tn In her report to Jacob, Rebekah plays down Isaac’s strong desire to bless Esau by leaving out נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”), but by adding the phrase “in the presence of the Lord,” she stresses how serious this matter is.

[27:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The Hebrew idiom means “to comply; to obey.”

[27:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “to that which I am commanding you.”

[27:9]  ⁸ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.

[27:10]  ⁹ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive. It carries forward the tone of instruction initiated by the command to “go…and get” in the preceding verse.

[27:10]  ¹⁰ tn The form is the perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it carries the future nuance of the preceding verbs of instruction, but by switching the subject to Jacob, indicates the expected result of the subterfuge.

[27:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that.” The conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[27:11]  ¹² tn Heb “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth [skinned] man.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “Perhaps my father will feel me and I will be in his eyes like a mocker.” The Hebrew expression “I will be in his eyes like” means “I would appear to him as.”

[27:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “upon me your curse.”

[27:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “only listen to my voice.”

[27:14]  ¹⁶ tn The words “the goats” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his mother.” This has been replaced by the pronoun “she” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:16]  ¹⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the object (“the skins of the young goats”) precedes the verb. The disjunctive clause draws attention to this key element in the subterfuge.

[27:16]  ¹⁹ tn The word “hands” probably includes the forearms here. How the skins were attached is not specified in the Hebrew text; cf. NLT “she made him a pair of gloves.”

[27:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “gave…into the hand of.”