“Come hither that I may feel thee[1], my son, and may prove whether thou be my son Esau or no.’' Jacob then drew near to his father, and Isaac touching him said: “The voice, indeed, is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”[2] And he gave him his blessing.
Scarcely had Jacob gone out when Esau came with the game he had taken and cooked for his father. “Arise, my father, and eat,” said he. Isaac, in surprise, asked him: “Who art thou?” and he answered: “I am thy first-born son Esau.” And Isaac saw that Jacob had deceived him. Then Esau roared out with a great cry, saying: “He hath already taken from me[3] my birthright, and now he hath robbed me of my father’s blessing.”[4] Then he said to his father: “Hast thou kept no blessing for me?” And as he continued to cry out and lament, Isaac, moved with compassion, said to him: “In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above, shall thy blessing be. Thou shalt live by the sword, and shalt serve thy brother[5]; but the time shall come when thou shalt shake off and loose his yoke from thy neck.” From this time Esau hated his brother.
COMMENTARY.
Jacob's selfishness. Jacob did not behave either nicely or rightly when he turned his brother’s desire for the pottage to his own advantage, and asked such a high price for it. He behaved very selfishly, and not at all like his unselfish grandfather, Abraham.
Lies and dissimulation. Jacob sinfully deceived his father in a twofold way. To begin with, he told a direct lie; but he also lied to his father in another way, by dissimulating, putting on Esau’s clothes which smelt of the field, and covering his hands with the hairy skins. It is quite possible to lie without speaking a word. When you dissimulate,
- ↑ Feel thee. That I may know by the touch.
- ↑ Hands of Esau. They are as hairy as the hands of Esau.
- ↑ Taken from me. Was that true ? No, for he himself had sold it to Jacob. Now, in his anger, he laid all the blame on his brother.
- ↑ My father's blessing, i. e. the blessing to which I, as the eldest son, have the right. But he no longer had a right to it, having sold his birthright, and sworn with an oath that he gave up all claim to it. He ought to have told his father this, when Isaac announced his intention of giving him his blessing.
- ↑ Serve thy brother. Isaac fully understood and realised that it was by God’s special providence that Jacob received the blessing of the first-born, and that this could not be altered.
