Daily Bread

³⁰ After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. ³¹ He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”^(A)

³² His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”^(B)

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.^(C)”

³³ Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me?^(D) I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!^(E)”

³⁴ When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry^(F) and said to his father, “Bless^(G) me—me too, my father!”

³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully^(H) and took your blessing.”^(I)

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob^[a]?^(J) This is the second time he has taken advantage of^(K) me: He took my birthright,^(L) and now he’s taken my blessing!”^(M) Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine.^(N) So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.^(O)

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him,^(P)

⁴¹ Esau held a grudge^(V) against Jacob^(W) because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning^(X) for my father are near; then I will kill^(Y) my brother Jacob.”^(Z)

⁴² When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau^(AA) had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.^{(AB) 43} Now then, my son, do what I say:^(AC) Flee at once to my brother Laban^(AD) in Harran.^{(AE) 44} Stay with him for a while^(AF) until your brother’s fury subsides. ⁴⁵ When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him,^(AG) I’ll send word for you to come back from there.^(AH) Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite^(AI) women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land,^(AJ) from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”^(AK)