Genesis 27
Open in the reader1When He-Laughs was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Hairy and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Hairy replied.
2“Look,” said He-Laughs, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death.
3Take your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out into the field to hunt some game for me.
4Then prepare a tasty dish that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”
5Now Rebekah was listening to what He-Laughs told his son Hairy. So when Hairy went into the field to hunt game and bring it back,
6Rebekah said to her son Heel-Grabber, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Hairy,
7‘Bring me some game and prepare me a tasty dish to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of He-Who-Is before I die.’
8Now, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly as I tell you.
9Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father—the kind he loves.
10Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11Heel-Grabber answered his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Hairy is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned.
12What if my father touches me? Then I would be revealed to him as a deceiver, and I would bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”
13His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”
14So Heel-Grabber went and got two goats and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved.
15And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Hairy, and she put them on her younger son Heel-Grabber.
16She also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17Then she handed her son Heel-Grabber the tasty food and bread she had made.
18So Heel-Grabber went to his father and said, “My father.” “Here I am!” he answered. “Which one are you, my son?”
19Heel-Grabber said to his father, “I am Hairy, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”
20But He-Laughs asked his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?” “Because He-Who-Is your God brought it to me,” he replied.
21Then He-Laughs said to Heel-Grabber, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Hairy, or not?”
22So Heel-Grabber came close to his father He-Laughs, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Heel-Grabber, but the hands are the hands of Hairy.”
23He-Laughs did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Hairy; so he blessed him.
24Again he asked, “Are you really my son Hairy?” And he replied, “I am.”
25“Serve me,” said He-Laughs, “and let me eat some of my son’s game, so that I may bless you.” Heel-Grabber brought it to him, and he ate; then he brought him wine, and he drank.
26Then his father He-Laughs said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”
27So he came near and kissed him. When He-Laughs smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that He-Who-Is has blessed.
28May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth— an abundance of grain and new wine.
29May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be the master of your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.”
30As soon as He-Laughs had finished blessing him and Heel-Grabber had left his father’s presence, his brother Hairy returned from the hunt.
31He 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.”
32But his father He-Laughs replied, “Who are you?” “I am Hairy, your firstborn son,” he answered.
33He-Laughs began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”
34When Hairy heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”
35But He-Laughs replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36So Hairy declared, “Is he not rightly named Heel-Grabber? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37But He-Laughs answered Hairy: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
38Hairy said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Hairy wept aloud.
39His father He-Laughs answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.
40You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
41Hairy held a grudge against Heel-Grabber because of the blessing his father had given him. And Hairy said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Heel-Grabber.”
42When the words of her older son Hairy were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Heel-Grabber and told him, “Look, your brother Hairy is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.
43So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother White in Parched.
44Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—
45until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46Then Rebekah said to He-Laughs, “I am weary of my life because of these Terror women. If Heel-Grabber takes a Terror wife from among them, what good is my life?”