Genesis 27:31

Easy-to-Read Version

Esau prepared the food in the special way his father loved. He brought it to his father and said, "Father, I am your son. Get up and eat the meat from the animals that I killed for you. Then you can bless me."

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me."

Update Bible Version
And he also made savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me.

New Century Version
He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. He said, "Father, rise and eat the food that your son killed for you and then bless me."

New English Translation
He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau said to him, "My father, get up and eat some of your son's wild game. Then you can bless me."

Webster's Bible Translation
And he also had made savory meat, and brought it to his father; and said to his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

World English Bible
He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me."

Amplified Bible
Esau also made a delicious dish [of meat] and brought it to his father and said to him, "Let my father get up and eat some of his son's game, so that you may bless me."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Esau cam, and brouyte in metis sodun of the huntyng to the fadir, and seide, My fadir, rise thou, and ete of the huntyng of thi sone, that thi soule blesse me.

Young's Literal Translation
and he also maketh tasteful things, and bringeth to his father, and saith to his father, `Let my father arise, and eat of his son's provision, so that thy soul doth bless me.'

Berean Standard Bible
He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, "My father, sit up and eat of your son's game, so that you may bless me."

Contemporary English Version
He cooked the tasty food, brought it to his father, and said, "Father, please sit up and eat the meat I have brought you, so you can give me your blessing."

Complete Jewish Bible
He too had prepared a tasty meal and brought it to his father, and now he said to his father, "Let my father get up and eat from his son's game, so that you may give me your blessing."

American Standard Version
And he also made savory food, and brought it unto his father; and he said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

Bible in Basic English
And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he also had made a pleasaunt meate, and brought it vnto his father, and saide vnto his father: let my father aryse, and eate of his sonnes venison, that thy soule may blesse me.

Darby Translation
And he also had prepared savoury dishes, and he brought [them] in to his father, and said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's venison, in order that thy soul may bless me.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he also made savoury food, and brought it unto his father; and he said unto his father: 'Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.'

King James Version (1611)
And hee also had made sauoury meate, and brought it vnto his father, and said vnto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his sonnes venison, that thy soule may blesse me.

King James Version
And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

New Life Bible
Then Esau made good-tasting food and brought it to his father, and said, "Sit up, my father, and eat the meat your son has made ready, so you will pray that good will come to me."

New Revised Standard
He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father sit up and eat of his son's game, so that you may bless me."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then, he too, made dainty meats, and brought in to his father, - and said to his father, Let my father rise that he may eat of the game of his son, To the end thy soul may bless me!

Geneva Bible (1587)
And hee also prepared sauourie meate and brought it to his father, and sayd vnto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his sonnes venison, that thy soule may blesse me.

George Lamsa Translation
And he also made stew, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his sons game, that your soul may bless me.

Good News Translation
He also cooked some tasty food and took it to his father. He said, "Please, father, sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing."

Douay-Rheims Bible
And brought in to his father meats, made of what he had taken in hunting, saying: Arise, my father, and eat of thy son’s venison; that thy soul may bless me.

Revised Standard Version
He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me."

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he also had made meats and brought them to his father; and he said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.

English Revised Version
And he also made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father; and he said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.

Christian Standard Bible®
He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

Hebrew Names Version
He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me."

Lexham English Bible
He too prepared tasty food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat from the wild game of his son, that you may bless me."

Literal Translation
And he also made delicious things and came to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father rise and eat from the game of his son, so that your soul may bless me.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and made meate also, and brought it vnto his father, and sayde vnto him: Aryse my father, and eate of yi sonnes venyson, that thy soule maye blesse me.

New American Standard Bible
Then he also made a delicious meal, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me."

New King James Version
He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me."

New Living Translation
Esau prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father. Then he said, "Sit up, my father, and eat my wild game so you can give me your blessing."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me."

Legacy Standard Bible
Then he also made a savory dish and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me."

Contextual Overview

³⁰ Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Then, just as Jacob left his father Isaac, Esau came in from hunting. ³¹ Esau prepared the food in the special way his father loved. He brought it to his father and said, "Father, I am your son. Get up and eat the meat from the animals that I killed for you. Then you can bless me." ³² But Isaac said to him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I am your son—your first son—Esau." ³³ Then Isaac became so upset that he began to shake. He said, "Then who was it that cooked and brought me food before you came? I ate it all, and I blessed him. Now it is too late to take back my blessing." ³⁴ When Esau heard his father's words, he became very angry and bitter. He cried out and said to his father, "Then bless me also, father!" ³⁵ Isaac said, "Your brother tricked me! He came and took your blessing!" ³⁶ Esau said, "His name is Jacob. That is the right name for him. He has tricked me twice. He took away my rights as the firstborn son. And now he has taken away my blessing." Then Esau said, "Have you saved any blessing for me?" ³⁷ Isaac answered, "I have already given Jacob the power to rule over you. And I said all his brothers would be his servants. I have given him the blessing for much grain and wine. There is nothing left to give you, my son." ³⁸ But Esau continued to beg his father. "Do you have only one blessing, father? Bless me also, father!" Esau began to cry. ³⁹ Then Isaac said to him, "You will not live on good land. You will not have much rain.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

eat: Genesis 27:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 25:28 - he did eat of his venison Genesis 27:14 - mother Hebrews 12:17 - when he

Cross-References

Genesis 27:4
Prepare the food that I love. Bring it to me, and I will eat it. Then I will bless you before I die."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he also made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father,.... Which was made of real venison, or of creatures taken in hunting, and not like Jacob's, made of other flesh, in imitation of it; for what the Jewish writers a say is not to be regarded, that he was hindered from getting true venison, by angels loosing the deer he bound; still less what the Targum of Jonathan says, that he killed a dog, made savoury meat of it, and brought it to his father:

and said unto his father, let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me; this address is made by Esau to his father in a very respectful manner, as became a dutiful son to an aged and honoured parent; who in obedience to his command had prepared agreeable food for him, and now brought it to him, in order to receive his blessing, which he had himself proposed to give him upon it.

a Bereshit Rabba, sect. 67. fol. 59. 3.

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, Jacob’s flight to Laban took place when he was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth year of Isaac. “His eyes were dim.” Weakness and even loss of sight is more frequent in Palestine than with us. “His older son.” 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. “I am old.” 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 father’s 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 Esau’s 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. “Who art thou, my son?” The voice of Jacob was somewhat constrained. He goes, however, deliberately through the process of deceiving his father. “Arise, now, sit and eat.” Isaac was reclining on his couch, in the feebleness of advancing years. Sitting was the posture convenient for eating. “The Lord thy God prospered me.” This is the bold reply to Isaac’s 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 Esau’s; the eyes give no testimony. After this the result is summarily stated in a single sentence, though the particulars are yet to be given. “Art thou my very son Esau?” 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. “Of the dew of heaven.” An abundant measure of this was especially precious in a country where the rain is confined to two seasons of the year. “Of the fatness of the earth;” a proportion of this to match and render available the dew of heaven. “Corn and wine,” the substantial products, implying all the rest. Second, a numerous and powerful offspring. “Let peoples serve thee” - pre-eminence among the nations. “Be lord of thy brethren” - pre-eminence among his kindred. Isaac does not seem to have grasped the full meaning of the prediction, “The older shall serve the younger.” 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 Isaac’s 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

Esau’s blessing. Esau comes in, but it is too late. “Who then?” The whole illusion is dispelled from the mind of Isaac. “Yea, blessed he shall be.” 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, “Hast thou but one blessing?”

Genesis 27:39-41

At length, in reply to the weeping suppliant, he bestows upon him a characteristic blessing. “Away from the fatness.” The preposition (מי mı̂y) 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). “On thy sword.” By preying upon others. “And thy brother shalt thou serve.” 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. “Break his yoke.” 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 father’s death.

Genesis 27:42-46

Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her brother, and await the abatement of his brother’s anger. “That which thou hast done to him.” 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.