The blessing way

Genesis 27. In which Jacob steals Esau’s blessing by Isaac.

The aging Isaac instructs Esau to hunt game and prepare him savoury food of it so that he can bestow the blessing due the first-born son (berakah) on him. Rebekah overhears, and immediately takes steps to ensure that her beloved Jacob receives the blessing instead. She has him fetch two kids, and prepares food of them. Then she dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothes, and covers his arms and neck with the skin of the kids – since Esau’s skin is hairy and Jacob’s smooth.

Isaac seems to be suspicious. He wonders how Esau managed to hunt and cook the animal so quickly, and Jacob answers “because the Lord your God granted me success”. This is heavily ironic, since what is happening is that what God told Rebekah while her children were still in her womb is now coming true. Jacob’s name means “he supplants” or “he takes by the heel” – a reference to his being born grasping the heel of his older brother. The elder now has been supplanted and will be ruled by his brother. Since his sense of smell and touch seem to confirm the identity of his first-born Isaac blesses him:

May God give of the dew of heaven,
and the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
Let the peoples server you,
and the nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.

When Esau returns from the hunt what has transpired becomes clear to him and Isaac. Apparently the blessing can’t be revoked once given, and therefore all Isaac can do in response to Esau’s pleading for a blessing is tell him the following:

See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high.
By your sword shall you live,
and you shall server your brother;
but when you break loose,
you shall break his yoke from your neck.

This blessing is awfully like a curse, and calls to mind God’s description of the unborn Ishmael to Hagar in Genesis 16. Both are to have violent lives. Isaac’s words are all the more harsh since previously Esau had a good relationship with the earth, albeit as hunter rather than farmer. Esau’s breaking of the yoke is said to probably refer to “Edom’s successful revolt against Judah in the mid-ninth century BCE after a period of Judean hegemony (2 K. 8. 20-22)” (Notes).

Understandably the furious Esau wants to kill Jacob, but the latter is sent away by his mother to her brother Laban in Haran. “Why should I lose both of you in one day?” she asks Jacob – since if Esau killed his brother his death would not be far behind.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Esau (and Isaac), duped by Rebekah and Jacob, whereas the story of Esau’s loss of his birthright painted him as a non-too bright oaf. Esau does have has a hand in bringing his misfortune about – also by marrying outside the approved group. And apparently Jacob at least gets some of his just deserts as his story unfolds.

The chapter ends with one of those abrupt transitions from one story to something unrelated, apparently often signalling the move from one source to the next; in this case it’s from tje J to the P text. Rebekah tells Isaac that she is weary of life because of Esau’s Hittite women. She fears that Jacob may marry one too.

Point to ponder

The patriarchs are hardly blameless – Abraham is said to have walked with God, yet he lied about Sarah being his wife. Isaac lies about Rebekah being his wife (in a near identical story). And now Jacob starts his life as a patriarch in his own right by stealing his brother’s birthright and the blessing due the first-born son. That’s quite a substantial transgression. Rebekah, the matriarch, is instigator of this particular transgression – yet she was specifically chosen for Isaac by God.

Image: Isaac Blesses Jacob, by Govert Flinck (1615 – 1660)

~ by tamfuwing on July 1, 2008.