Study Desk

Then Abimelech warned his people that anyone who even touched Isaac or Rebekah would be put to death.

and they stopped up the wells that Abraham's servants had dug before his death.

While his servants were digging in the valley, they found a spring-fed well.

Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord . Then he set up camp, and his servants started digging a well.

Meanwhile, Abimelech had left Gerar and was taking his advisor Ahuzzath and his army commander Phicol to see Isaac.

But these two women brought a lot of grief to his parents Isaac and Rebekah.

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?"

to kill a wild animal and cook some tasty food for your father before he dies. Your father said this because he wants to bless your brother with the Lord as his witness.

Then you can take it to him, so he can eat it and give you his blessing before he dies."

Rebekah insisted, "Let his curse fall on me! Just do what I say and bring me the meat."

So Jacob brought the meat to his mother, and she cooked the tasty food that his father liked.

She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins

Jacob went to his father and said, "Father, here I am." "Which one of my sons are you?" his father asked.

Jacob went closer. His father touched him and said, "You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's."

While Jacob was kissing him, Isaac caught the smell of his clothes and said: "The smell of my son is like a field the Lord has blessed.

Right after Isaac had given Jacob his blessing and Jacob had gone, Esau came back from hunting.

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."

Esau replied, "My brother deserves the name Jacob, because he has already cheated me twice. The first time he cheated me out of my rights as the first-born son, and now he has cheated me out of my blessing." Then Esau asked his father, "Don't you still have any blessing left for me?"

"My son," Isaac answered, "I have made Jacob the ruler over you and your brothers, and all of you will be his servants. I have also promised him all the grain and grapes that he needs. There's nothing left that I can do for you."

So his father said: "Your home will be far from that fertile land, where dew comes down from the heavens.