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Birth of Esau and Jacob. These are the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac.
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Next his brother came out, gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
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When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country; whereas Jacob was a simple man, who stayed among the tents.
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Isaac preferred Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah preferred Jacob.
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Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.
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He said to Jacob, “Let me gulp down some of that red stuff; I am famished.” That is why he was called Edom.
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But Jacob replied, “First sell me your right as firstborn.”
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But Jacob said, “Swear to me first!” So he sold Jacob his right as firstborn under oath.
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Jacob then gave him some bread and the lentil stew; and Esau ate, drank, got up, and went his way. So Esau treated his right as firstborn with disdain.
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Chapter 27
Jacob’s Deception. When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” he replied.
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Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother Esau,
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But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned!
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So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared a dish in the way his father liked.
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Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;
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Then she gave her son Jacob the dish and the bread she had prepared.
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Going to his father, Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?”
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Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your firstborn. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”
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Isaac then said to Jacob, “Come closer, my son, that I may feel you, to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
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So Jacob moved up closer to his father. When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.”
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Again Isaac said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacob said, “I am.”
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Then Isaac said, “Serve me, my son, and let me eat of the game so that I may bless you.” Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.
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As Jacob went up to kiss him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes. With that, he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field that the Lord has blessed!
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Jacob had scarcely left his father after Isaac had finished blessing him, when his brother Esau came back from his hunt.
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Esau exclaimed, “He is well named Jacob, is he not! He has supplanted me twice! First he took away my right as firstborn, and now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not saved a blessing for me?”
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Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “Let the time of mourning for my father come, so that I may kill my brother Jacob.”