For Teaching

Genesis 27: What the Passage Says

141 claims across 46 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Genesis 27 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Isaac is old and blind, and he tells Esau to hunt game and make him the food he loves so that he may bless him before he dies. Rebekah hears this and has Jacob bring two young goats, dresses him in Esau's clothes and goatskins, and sends him in; Jacob says he is Esau and receives the blessing. Esau arrives with his own food, Isaac trembles and says the one he blessed will be blessed, and then speaks a separate word to Esau. Esau plans to kill Jacob after the days of mourning for their father, and Rebekah sends Jacob to her brother Laban in Haran and tells Isaac she is weary of her life because of the daughters of Heth.

Claim by Claim

27:1
- Isaac became old.
- Isaac's eyes became dim so that he could not see.
- Isaac called Esau his elder son.
- Isaac said to Esau, 'My son.'
- Esau answered, 'Here I am.'
27:2
- Isaac said he was now old.
- Isaac said he did not know the day of his death.
27:3
- Isaac told Esau to take his weapons, his quiver and his bow.
- Isaac told Esau to go out to the field.
- Isaac told Esau to hunt game for him.
27:4
- Isaac told Esau to make him savoury food such as he loved.
- Isaac told Esau to bring the food to him so he could eat it.
- Isaac said the purpose was that he might bless Esau before he died.
27:5
- Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau.
- Esau went to the field to hunt game and bring it back.
27:6
- Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob.
- Rebekah said she had heard Jacob's father speaking to Esau, Jacob's brother.
27:7
- Rebekah reported that Isaac told Esau to bring him game.
- Rebekah reported that Isaac told Esau to make him savoury food to eat.
- Rebekah reported that Isaac said he would bless Esau before the LORD before his death.
27:8
- Rebekah told Jacob to obey her voice.
- Rebekah told Jacob to do what she commanded him.
27:9
- Rebekah told Jacob to go to the flock.
- Rebekah told Jacob to fetch her two good young goats from there.
- Rebekah said she would make them into savoury food for Jacob's father, such as he loved.
27:10
- Rebekah told Jacob to bring the food to his father to eat.
- Rebekah said the purpose was that his father might bless Jacob before his death.
27:11
- Jacob spoke to Rebekah his mother.
- Jacob said Esau his brother was a hairy man.
- Jacob said he himself was a smooth man.
27:12
- Jacob said his father might feel him.
- Jacob said he would then seem to his father as a deceiver.
- Jacob said he would bring a curse upon himself and not a blessing.
27:13
- Rebekah said to Jacob that his curse be upon her.
- Rebekah told Jacob only to obey her voice.
- Rebekah told Jacob to go and fetch the goats for her.
27:14
- Jacob went and fetched the goats.
- Jacob brought them to his mother.
- His mother made savoury food such as his father loved.
27:15
- Rebekah took the choice garments of Esau her elder son.
- The garments were with her in the house.
- Rebekah put the garments on Jacob her younger son.
27:16
- Rebekah put the skins of the young goats on Jacob's hands.
- Rebekah put the skins on the smooth part of Jacob's neck.
27:17
- Rebekah gave the savoury food and the bread she had made into the hand of her son Jacob.
27:18
- Jacob came to his father.
- Jacob said, 'My father.'
- Isaac said, 'Here I am.'
- Isaac asked, 'Who are you, my son?'
27:19
- Jacob said to his father that he was Esau, Isaac's firstborn.
- Jacob said he had done as Isaac told him.
- Jacob told Isaac to rise and sit and eat of his game.
- Jacob said the purpose was that Isaac might bless him.
27:20
- Isaac asked his son how he had found it so quickly.
- Jacob answered that the LORD Isaac's God caused it to come before him.
27:21
- Isaac told Jacob to come near so he could feel him.
- Isaac asked whether he was really his son Esau or not.
27:22
- Jacob went near to Isaac his father.
- Isaac felt him.
- Isaac said the voice was Jacob's voice.
- Isaac said the hands were the hands of Esau.
27:23
- Isaac did not recognize him.
- The reason was that his hands were hairy like the hands of his brother Esau.
- Isaac blessed him.
27:24
- Isaac asked whether he was really his son Esau.
- Jacob answered, 'I am.'
27:25
- Isaac told him to bring the food near.
- Isaac said he would eat of his son's game so that he might bless him.
- Jacob brought it near to him.
- Isaac ate.
- Jacob brought him wine.
- Isaac drank.
27:26
- Isaac his father told him to come near and kiss him.
27:27
- Jacob came near and kissed him.
- Isaac smelled the smell of his garments.
- Isaac blessed him.
- Isaac said the smell of his son was like the smell of a field that the LORD had blessed.
27:28
- Isaac asked that God give him of the dew of heaven.
- Isaac asked that God give him of the fatness of the earth.
- Isaac asked that God give him plenty of grain and new wine.
27:29
- Isaac said, let peoples serve you.
- Isaac said, let nations bow down to you.
- Isaac said, be master over your brothers.
- Isaac said, let your mother's sons bow down to you.
- Isaac said, cursed be everyone who curses you.
- Isaac said, blessed be everyone who blesses you.
27:30
- Isaac finished blessing Jacob.
- Jacob had only just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father.
- Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
27:31
- Esau also made savoury food.
- Esau brought it to his father.
- Esau told his father to arise and eat of his son's game.
- Esau said the purpose was that his father might bless him.
27:32
- Isaac his father asked him who he was.
- Esau answered that he was Isaac's son, his firstborn, Esau.
27:33
- Isaac trembled with a very great trembling.
- Isaac asked who then it was that had hunted game and brought it to him.
- Isaac said he had eaten of it all before Esau came.
- Isaac said he had blessed him.
- Isaac said that the one he blessed would indeed be blessed.
27:34
- Esau heard the words of his father.
- Esau cried out with a great and exceedingly bitter cry.
- Esau asked his father to bless him also.
27:35
- Isaac said Esau's brother came with deceit.
- Isaac said his brother had taken away Esau's blessing.
27:36
- Esau asked whether Jacob was not rightly named.
- Esau said Jacob had supplanted him these two times.
- Esau said Jacob took his birthright.
- Esau said Jacob had now taken his blessing.
- Esau asked whether Isaac had not reserved a blessing for him.
27:37
- Isaac answered Esau.
- Isaac said he had made Jacob Esau's master.
- Isaac said he had given all Jacob's brothers to him as servants.
- Isaac said he had sustained Jacob with grain and new wine.
- Isaac asked what he could now do for Esau.
27:38
- Esau asked his father whether he had only one blessing.
- Esau asked his father to bless him also.
- Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
27:39
- Isaac his father answered him.
- Isaac said Esau's dwelling would be of the fatness of the earth, though the wording can equally mean away from the fatness of the earth.
- Isaac said his dwelling would be of the dew of heaven from above, though the wording can equally mean away from the dew of heaven.
27:40
- Isaac said Esau would live by his sword.
- Isaac said Esau would serve his brother.
- Isaac said that when Esau grew restless he would break his brother's yoke from off his neck.
27:41
- Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
- Esau said in his heart that the days of mourning for his father were near.
- Esau said in his heart that he would then kill his brother Jacob.
27:42
- The words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah.
- Rebekah sent and called Jacob her younger son.
- Rebekah told Jacob that his brother Esau was consoling himself concerning him by intending to kill him.
27:43
- Rebekah told Jacob to obey her voice.
- Rebekah told Jacob to arise and flee to Laban her brother in Haran.
27:44
- Rebekah told Jacob to stay with Laban a few days.
- Rebekah said to stay until his brother's fury turned away.
27:45
- Rebekah said to stay until his brother's anger turned away from him.
- Rebekah said to stay until Esau forgot what Jacob had done to him.
- Rebekah said she would then send and fetch Jacob from there.
- Rebekah asked why she should be bereaved of both of them in one day.
27:46
- Rebekah spoke to Isaac.
- Rebekah said she was weary of her life because of the daughters of Heth.
- Rebekah said that if Jacob took a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these of the daughters of the land, her life would be worth nothing to her.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1: Esau and Jacob were twins (Genesis 25:24-26); Esau counted as the elder because he was born first, moments before Jacob.
27:3: "Venison" in 1611 English meant the meat of any hunted animal, not deer specifically. The Hebrew word simply means game taken in hunting.
27:4: A father's deathbed blessing was a formal act, not a fond wish. Spoken words of blessing or cursing were treated as effective and binding once uttered (which is why the blessing can be stolen, and why in verse 33 Isaac cannot take it back. "That my soul may bless thee": the Hebrew word rendered "soul" means the self, the whole person, sometimes with the sense of appetite or desire) here roughly "that I myself may bless you."
27:7: "Before the LORD" means with God as witness, which gave the blessing the weight of a sworn oath.
27:9: "Kids of the goats" simply means young goats. Goat was ordinary meat in this world, and Rebekah is counting on strong seasoning to pass it off as the game Isaac asked for.
27:11: Esau's hairiness has already been part of his description since birth (Genesis 25:25), and it is the one feature a blind man could check by touch.
27:12: The fear is not of being scolded but of triggering a curse: a curse, like a blessing, was thought to take effect once spoken, whether or not the speaker later regretted it. This is why Rebekah in the next verse offers to take the curse onto herself.
27:13: Rebekah is offering to take the consequences onto herself, in the same way someone might say today that the blame is theirs alone.
27:15: Esau was married and living nearby (Genesis 26:34), but his best clothes were kept in his mother's part of the household. These would be his good outer garments, worn for special occasions rather than for hunting.
27:16: The goats of the region had long, coarse, dark hair that could plausibly pass for the hair of an unusually hairy man.
27:19: The firstborn son held a special legal standing in the household, see the note on the birthright at verse 36.
27:25: Sharing a meal and wine before giving the blessing was part of the ceremony, not just refreshment. Eating together sealed the agreement between the two people involved.
27:26: A kiss on the cheek was a normal greeting between family members, including grown men. It was not unusual.
27:27: The smell is of a man who works outdoors, mixed with the herbs and grass of open country, which is exactly what Isaac expects from a hunter.
27:28: "Corn" in the King James Version means grain of any kind (wheat, barley), not maize, which was unknown in Europe or the Near East at the time. "Dew of heaven" and "fatness of the earth" are the two things farming in that dry country depended on: moisture and fertile soil. The wine is new wine, the fresh juice of the grape harvest.
27:29: The closing lines repeat almost word for word the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3.
27:33: "Yea, and he shall be blessed" is Isaac recognizing that the blessing cannot be recalled. Once pronounced, it stood, even though it had been obtained by fraud.
27:35: "Subtilty" in 1611 English meant craftiness or deceit. The modern word "subtlety" has softened to mean fineness or delicacy, which is not the sense here.
27:36: A play on words that the English hides. The name Jacob (Hebrew *Ya'aqob*) sounds like the word for "heel" (*'aqeb*) (he was born gripping Esau's heel) and like the verb *'aqab*, meaning to grab by the heel, trip up, or cheat. Esau is saying the name fit all along. The "birthright" was the firstborn's legal position: a double share of the inheritance and the headship of the family after the father's death. Esau had sold it to Jacob for a bowl of stew in Genesis 25:29-34.
27:38: "Lifted up his voice and wept" is an old way of saying he cried out loud, without hiding it.
27:39: This line is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew. The small word translated "of" can mean either "consisting of" or "away from," so the sentence can be read as a promise of fertile land and dew (as here) or as its opposite, a home away from the rich soil and the dew, that is, dry country. Both readings are defensible; translations split between them.
27:40: A yoke is the wooden bar fastened across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow; "breaking the yoke" was the standard image for throwing off the rule of a stronger power. The clause rendered "when you grow restless" is also uncertain, the Hebrew verb has been read as "when you become restless," "when you break loose," and "when you gain dominion."
27:41: Esau is not planning an immediate attack. He intends to wait until his father dies and the formal period of mourning arrives, then kill Jacob.
27:42: "Doth comfort himself" is odd in English but literal: Esau is consoling himself over the lost blessing by dwelling on the thought of killing Jacob.
27:43: Haran was a city far to the north, in what is now southern Turkey, several hundred miles away, the region Rebekah's family came from. Laban was her brother.
27:44: "A few days" is a loose expression meaning a short while rather than a literal count. In the event, Jacob stays with Laban for twenty years.
27:45: Rebekah expects to lose both sons at once: one murdered, and the other either killed by the dead man's avenging relatives or forced into permanent exile. In this society a killing within the family obliged the kin to take the killer's life in return.
27:46: The "daughters of Heth" are Hittite women, one of the local peoples of Canaan. Esau had already married two of them (Genesis 26:34-35), which the text says was a grief to both his parents. The concern is marriage outside the family's own kin group.

Read Genesis 27