the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Genesis 27:1
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When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am."
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son. And he said to him, Here I am.
When Isaac was old, his eyesight was poor, so he could not see clearly. One day he called his older son Esau to him and said, "Son." Esau answered, "Here I am."
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son!" "Here I am!" Esau replied.
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said to him, My son: and he said to him, Behold, [here am] I.
It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, "My son?" He said to him, "Here I am."
Now when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his elder [and favorite] son Esau and said to him, "My son." And Esau answered him, "Here I am."
Forsothe Isaac wexe eld, and hise iyen dasewiden, and he miyte not se. And he clepide Esau, his more sone, and seide to hym, My sone! Which answerde, Y am present.
And it cometh to pass that Isaac [is] aged, and his eyes are too dim for seeing, and he calleth Esau his elder son, and saith unto him, `My son;' and he saith unto him, `Here [am] I.'
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," Esau replied.
After Isaac had become old and almost blind, he called in his first-born son Esau, who asked him, "Father, what can I do for you?"
In the course of time, after Yitz'chak had grown old and his eyes dim, so that he couldn't see, he called ‘Esav his older son and said to him, "My son?" and he answered, "Here I am."
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Here am I.
Now when Isaac was old and his eyes had become clouded so that he was not able to see, he sent for Esau, his first son, and said to him, My son: and he said, Here am I.
And it came to passe, that whe Isahac waxed olde, & his eyes were dimme, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest sonne, & saide vnto hym, my sonne? And he sayde vnto hym: here am I.
And it came to pass when Isaac had become old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, that he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son! And he said to him, Here am I.
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said unto him: 'My son'; and he said unto him: 'Here am I.'
And it came to passe that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dimme, so that he could not see, hee called Esau his eldest son, and said vnto him, My sonne. And hee said vnto him, Behold, here am I.
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
Isaac was now old, and had become blind. He called to his older son Esau, saying, "My son." And Esau answered, "Here I am."
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am."
And it came to pass that Isaac, was old, and his eyes became too dim to see, so he called Esau his elder son and said unto him My son! And he said unto him, Behold me!
And when Izhak was olde, and his eyes were dimme (so that he coulde not see) he called Esau his eldest sonne, and sayde vnto him, My sonne. And he answered him, I am here.
AND it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said to him, My son; and he said to him, Behold, here I am.
Isaac was now old and had become blind. He sent for his older son Esau and said to him, "Son!" "Yes," he answered.
Now Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see: and he called Esau, his elder son, and said to him: My son? And he answered: Here I am.
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son, and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am."
And it came to pass after Isaac was old, that his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see; and he called Esau, his elder son, and said to him, My son; and he said, Behold, I am here.
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Here am I.
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”
It happened, that when Yitzchak was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esav his elder son, and said to him, "My son?" He said to him, "Here I am."
And it happened that when Isaac was old and his eyesight was weak, he called Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."
And it happened when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim for seeing, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, My son! And he said to him, Behold me.
And it came to passe when Isaac was olde, his eyes waxed dymme of sight, and he called Esau his greater sonne, and sayde vnto him: My sonne. He answered him: Here am I.
When Isaac had become an old man and was nearly blind, he called his eldest son, Esau, and said, "My son." "Yes, Father?"
Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."
Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." And he answered him, "Here I am."
One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, "My son." "Yes, Father?" Esau replied.
Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."
Now it happened that when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
am 2244, bc 1760
dim: Genesis 48:10, 1 Samuel 3:2, Ecclesiastes 12:3, John 9:3
eldest son: Genesis 25:23-25
Reciprocal: Genesis 31:18 - for to go Genesis 35:29 - Isaac Genesis 37:13 - Here am I Deuteronomy 34:7 - his eye 1 Samuel 4:15 - and his eyes 1 Kings 14:4 - for his eyes Psalms 71:18 - Now Ecclesiastes 12:2 - the sun Romans 9:16 - General
Cross-References
Isaac did not know it was Jacob, because his arms were hairy like Esau's. So Isaac blessed Jacob.
Then Isaac said, "Bring me the food. I will eat it and bless you." So Jacob gave him the food, and he ate it. Then Jacob gave him some wine, and he drank it.
Israel was old and his eyes were not good. So Joseph brought the boys close to his father. Israel kissed and hugged the boys.
Eli's eyes were getting so weak that he was almost blind. One night he went to his room to go to bed.
At that time your arms will lose their strength. Your legs will become weak and bent. Your teeth will fall out, and you will not be able to chew your food. Your eyes will not see clearly.
Jesus answered, "It was not any sin of this man or his parents that caused him to be blind. He was born blind so that he could be used to show what great things God can do.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old,.... He is generally thought to be about one hundred and thirty seven years of age at this time, which was just the age of his brother Ishmael when he died, Genesis 25:16; and might put him in mind of his own death as near at hand; though if he was no older, he lived after this forty three years, for he lived to be one hundred and eighty years old, Genesis 35:28:
and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see; which circumstance is mentioned, not only as a sign of old age, and as common to it, but for the sake of the following history, and as accounting for it, that he should not know Jacob when he blessed him; and this was so ordered in Providence, that by means of it the blessing might be transferred to him, which otherwise in all probability would not have been done, if Isaac had had his sight:
he called Esau his eldest son; who though he was married, and had been married thirty seven years at this time, yet still lived in his father's house, or near him; for as he was born when his father was sixty years of age, and he married when he himself was forty, and his father must be an hundred, so if Isaac was now one hundred and thirty seven, Esau must have been married thirty seven years; and though he had disobliged his father by his marriage, yet he retained a natural affliction for him; nor had he turned him out of doors, nor had he any thoughts of disinheriting him; but on the contrary intended to bestow the blessing on him as the firstborn, for which reason he is here called "his eldest son":
and said unto him, my son; owning the relation, expressing a tender affection for him, and signifying he had something further to say unto him:
and he said unto him, behold, [here am] I; by which Esau intimated he was ready to hear what his father had to say to him, and was willing to obey him. The Targum of Jonathan says, this was the fourteenth of Nisan, when Isaac called Esau to him.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Isaac Blessing His Sons
The life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy-five years he is contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years more his son Jacob remains under the paternal roof. The remaining forty-four years are passed in the retirement of old age. The chapter before us narrates the last solemn acts of the middle period of his life.
Genesis 27:1-4
Isaac was old. - Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty. When Joseph was born, therefore, Jacob was ninety-one, and he had sojourned fourteen years in Padan-aram. Hence, Jacobâs flight to Laban took place when he was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth year of Isaac. âHis eyes were dim.â Weakness and even loss of sight is more frequent in Palestine than with us. âHis older son.â Isaac had not yet come to the conclusion that Jacob was heir of the promise. The communication from the Lord to Rebekah concerning her yet unborn sons in the form in which it is handed down to us merely determines that the older shall serve the younger. This fact Isaac seems to have thought might not imply the transferrence of the birthright; and if he was aware of the transaction between Esau and Jacob, he may not have regarded it as valid. Hence, he makes arrangements for bestowing the paternal benediction on Esau, his older son, whom he also loves. âI am old.â At the age of one hundred and thirty-six, and with failing sight, he felt that life was uncertain. In the calmness of determination he directs Esau to prepare savory meat, such as he loved, that he may have his vigor renewed and his spirits revived for the solemn business of bestowing that blessing, which he held to be fraught with more than ordinary benefits.
Genesis 27:5-13
Rebekah forms a plan for diverting the blessing from Esau to Jacob. She was within hearing when the infirm Isaac gave his orders, and communicates the news to Jacob. Rebekah has no scruples about primogeniture. Her feelings prompt her to take measures, without waiting to consider whether they are justifiable or not, for securing to Jacob that blessing which she has settled in her own mind to be destined for him. She thinks it necessary to interfere that this end may not fail of being accomplished. Jacob views the matter more coolly, and starts a difficulty. He may be found out to be a deceiver, and bring his fatherâs curse upon him. Rebekah, anticipating no such issue; undertakes to bear the curse that she conceived would never come. Only let him obey.
Verse 14-29
The plan is successful. Jacob now, without further objection, obeys his mother. She clothes him in Esauâs raiment, and puts the skins of the kids on his hands and his neck. The camel-goat affords a hair which bears a great resemblance to that of natural growth, and is used as a substitute for it. Now begins the strange interview between the father and the son. âWho art thou, my son?â The voice of Jacob was somewhat constrained. He goes, however, deliberately through the process of deceiving his father. âArise, now, sit and eat.â Isaac was reclining on his couch, in the feebleness of advancing years. Sitting was the posture convenient for eating. âThe Lord thy God prospered me.â This is the bold reply to Isaacâs expression of surprise at the haste with which the dainty fare had been prepared. The bewildered father now puts Jacob to a severer test. He feels him, but discerns him not. The ear notes a difference, but the hand feels the hairy skin resembling Esauâs; the eyes give no testimony. After this the result is summarily stated in a single sentence, though the particulars are yet to be given. âArt thou my very son Esau?â A lurking doubt puts the definite question, and receives a decisive answer. Isaac then calls for the repast and partakes.
Genesis 27:26-29
He gives the kiss of paternal affection, and pronounces the benediction. It contains, first, a fertile soil. âOf the dew of heaven.â An abundant measure of this was especially precious in a country where the rain is confined to two seasons of the year. âOf the fatness of the earth;â a proportion of this to match and render available the dew of heaven. âCorn and wine,â the substantial products, implying all the rest. Second, a numerous and powerful offspring. âLet peoples serve theeâ - pre-eminence among the nations. âBe lord of thy brethrenâ - pre-eminence among his kindred. Isaac does not seem to have grasped the full meaning of the prediction, âThe older shall serve the younger.â Third, Prosperity, temporal and spiritual. He that curseth thee be cursed, and he that blesseth thee be blessed. This is the only part of the blessing that directly comprises spiritual things; and even this of a special form. It is to be recollected that it was Isaacâs intention to bless Esau, and he may have felt that Esau, after all, was not to be the progenitor of the holy seed. Hence, the form of expression is vague enough to apply to temporal things, and yet sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the infliction of the ban of sin, and the diffusion of the blessing of salvation by means of the holy seed.
Genesis 27:30-41
Esauâs blessing. Esau comes in, but it is too late. âWho then?â The whole illusion is dispelled from the mind of Isaac. âYea, blessed he shall be.â Jacob had no doubt perpetrated a fraud, at the instigation of his mother; and if Esau had been worthy in other respects, and above all if the blessing had been designed for him, its bestowment on another would have been either prevented or regarded as null and void. But Isaac now felt that, whatever was the misconduct of Jacob in interfering, and especially in employing unworthy means to accomplish his end, he himself was culpable in allowing carnal considerations to draw his preference to Esau, who was otherwise unworthy. He knew too that the paternal benediction flowed not from the bias of the parent, but from the Spirit of God guiding his will, and therefore when so pronounced could not be revoked. Hence, he was now convinced that it was the design of Providence that the spiritual blessing should fall on the line of Jacob. The grief of Esau is distressing to witness, especially as he had been comparatively blameless in this particular instance. But still it is to be remembered that his heart had not been open to the paramount importance of spiritual things. Isaac now perceives that Jacob has gained the blessing by deceit. Esau marks the propriety of his name, the wrestler who trips up the heel, and pleads pathetically for at least some blessing. His father enumerates what he has done for Jacob, and asks what more he can do for Esau; who then exclaims, âHast thou but one blessing?â
Genesis 27:39-41
At length, in reply to the weeping suppliant, he bestows upon him a characteristic blessing. âAway from the fatness.â The preposition (×× mıÌy) is the same as in the blessing of Jacob. But there, after a verb of giving, it had a partitive sense; here, after a noun of place, it denotes distance or separation; for example, Proverbs 20:3 The pastoral life has been distasteful to Esau, and so it shall be with his race. The land of Edom was accordingly a comparative wilderness (Malachi 1:3). âOn thy sword.â By preying upon others. âAnd thy brother shalt thou serve.â Edom was long independent; but at length Saul was victorious over them 1 Samuel 14:47, and David conquered them 2 Samuel 8:14. Then followed a long struggle, until John Hyrcanus, 129 b.c., compelled them to be circumcised and incorporated into Judaism. âBreak his yoke.â The history of Edom was a perpetual struggle against the supremacy of Israel. Conquered by Saul, subdued by David, repressed by Solomon, restrained after a revolt by Amaziah, they recovered their independence in the time of Ahab. They were incorporated into the Jewish state, and furnished it with the dynasty of princes beginning with Antipater. Esau was now exasperated against his brother, and could only compose his mind by resolving to slay him during the days of mourning after his fatherâs death.
Genesis 27:42-46
Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her brother, and await the abatement of his brotherâs anger. âThat which thou hast done to him.â Rebekah seems not to have been aware that she herself was the cause of much of the evil and of the misery that flowed from it. All the parties to this transaction are pursued by a retributive chastisement. Rebekah, especially, parts with her favorite son to meet him only after an absence of twenty years, if ever in this life. She is moreover grievously vexed with the connection which Esau formed with the daughters of Heth. She dreads a similar matrimonial alliance on the part of Jacob.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXVII
Isaac, grown old and feeble, and apprehending the approach of
death, desires his son Esau to provide some savoury meat for
him, that having eaten of it he might convey to him the
blessing connected with the right of primogeniture, 1-4.
Rebekah hearing of it, relates the matter to Jacob, and
directs him how to personate his brother, and by deceiving
his father, obtain the blessing, 5-10.
Jacob hesitates, 11, 12;
but being counselled and encouraged by his mother, he at last
consents to use the means she prescribes, 13, 14.
Rebekah disguises Jacob, and sends him to personate his
brother, 15-17.
Jacob comes to his father, and professes himself to be Esau,
18. 19.
Isaac doubts, questions, and examines him closely, but does
not discover the deception, 20-24.
He eats of the savoury meat, and confers the blessing upon
Jacob, 25-27.
In what the blessing consisted, 28, 29.
Esau arrives from the field with the meat he had gone to
provide, and presents himself before his father, 30, 31.
Isaac discovers the fraud of Jacob, and is much affected,
32, 33.
Esau is greatly distressed on hearing that the blessing had
been received by another, 34.
Isaac accuses Jacob of deceit, 35.
Esau expostulates, and prays for a blessing, 36.
Isaac describes the blessing which he has already conveyed, 37.
Esau weeps, and earnestly implores a blessing, 38.
Isaac pronounces a blessing on Esau, and prophecies that his
posterity should, in process of time, cease to be tributary
to the posterity of Jacob, 39, 40.
Esau purposes to kill his brother, 41.
Rebekah hears of it, and counsels Jacob to take refuge with her
brother Laban in Padanaram, 42-45.
She professes to be greatly alarmed, lest Jacob should take any
of the Canaanites to wife, 41.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII
Verse Genesis 27:1. Isaac was old — It is conjectured, on good grounds, that Isaac was now about one hundred and seventeen years of age, and Jacob about fifty-seven; though the commonly received opinion makes Isaac one hundred and thirty-seven, and Jacob seventy-seven; but Genesis 31:55, c.
And his eyes were dim — This was probably the effect of that affliction, of what kind we know not, under which Isaac now laboured and from which, as well as from the affliction, he probably recovered, as it is certain he lived forty if not forty-three years after this time, for he lived till the return of Jacob from Padan-aram; Genesis 35:27-29.
