Bless me, even me also, my father
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.” 32 Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.” 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.” 35 He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.” 36 He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?” 37 Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39 Isaac his father answered him, “Behold, your dwelling will be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of the sky from above. 40 You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.” 41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. 44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away— 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?” 46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”
The discovery scene is the saddest in Genesis, and the man who despised his birthright weeps for what he sold.
The timing is a hair's breadth: As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Esau's opening is cheerful and unbearable to read, because he does not know: Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me. Then the question that ends everything: Who are you?
Isaac trembled violently. The phrase is as strong as Hebrew has, and what he says through it is the theological center of the chapter. He recounts what happened — someone came, he ate, he blessed him — and then, with no pause and no attempt to undo it: Yes, he will be blessed.
That is not resignation. A blessing in this world was a performative act, not a wish, and once spoken it stood. But something more than custom is at work, because Isaac had been proceeding against a word God gave before the boys were born, and the moment he discovers what has happened he stops resisting it. The trembling is a man realizing he has been overruled.
Esau's response is the most affecting sound in Genesis: he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and asked, twice, Bless me, even me also, my father. He weeps. Whatever he had thought about the birthright over a bowl of stew, he understands now what has gone.
His question about the name is bitter and accurate: Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing. The accounting is not quite fair — he sold the first — but he is right about the second, and right about the name.
And Isaac has nothing to give him. What then will I do for you, my son? The blessing has been spent; there is no second one. What Esau receives is a word about the fatness of the earth and the dew, a life by the sword, service to his brother, and eventually a breaking loose. It is a real future and it is not the covenant, and the New Testament reads this moment as the one that could not be reversed — he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears Hebrews 12:17.
The consequences arrive at once. Esau resolves to kill Jacob after their father's mourning, and Rebekah hears of it, as she hears of everything. Her instruction to Jacob is the same phrase she used to arrange the fraud — obey my voice — and this time it sends him away.
She says a few days. It was twenty years, and she never saw him again; her death is not even recorded. She had said let your curse be on me, and this is what it cost her.
And she manages Isaac in the last verse by a half-truth about Esau's wives — which is true, and is not the reason. The family's habit holds to the end of the chapter.
settled What this mark means