Genesis 27:21 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

NIV: Then Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.'

NASB: Then Isaac said to Jacob, 'Please come close, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.'

CSB: Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not? "

NLT: Then Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.'

KJV: And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

NKJV: Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

When Rebekah first proposed her plan for Jacob to steal Esau's blessing (Genesis 27:6–10), Jacob was mostly worried about being caught and cursed (Genesis 27:12). In the previous verses, Jacob has lied outright to Isaac, insisting that he is, in fact, Esau, come to receive the blessing (Genesis 27:18–19). Isaac, though blind (Genesis 27:1), is asking reasonable questions. He wonders how Esau could have returned so quickly with food, and for "Esau," really a disguised Jacob, to come closer. One can only imagine Jacob's heart beating hard as he tried, at the urging of his mother, to deceive his elderly father into giving him the family blessing.

Perhaps unconvinced by Jacob's claim that God gave him record-breaking success, Isaac now asks to feel Jacob so that he can know for sure this is Esau. After all, Esau was famous for his hairiness (Genesis 25:25). Jacob was smooth. One touch would reveal all. Fortunately for Jacob, Rebekah had anticipated this moment. She put the skin of the goats she had used to prepare the meal on Jacob's arms and neck (Genesis 27:16). Would the goat hair now be convincing enough to fool Isaac into thinking he was touching Esau?

Genesis 27:1–29 describes how the Abrahamic family blessing came to second-born Jacob, instead of his firstborn brother, Esau. Isaac intends to give the blessing to his favored son, Esau. Rebekah commands Jacob to impersonate Esau, instead, in order to get the blessing for himself. Isaac almost catches on but is convinced by the smell of Esau on Jacob's borrowed clothes, and the hairy, Esau-like goat's skin on Jacob's hands. Isaac gives to Jacob the future-defining blessing of God.

Isaac's plan to pass the family blessing on to his favorite son, Esau, is thwarted by the deception of Isaac's wife Rebekah, and his other son Jacob. Old and blind, Isaac fails to recognize that the man claiming to be Esau is actually Jacob in a clever disguise. His prayer of blessing for wealth and rule over his brothers will remain valid though it is given under false pretense. Esau will be left with a blessing that sounds like a curse and a plan to murder his brother. Jacob will be forced to run for his life.

Prior chapters described the prosperity of Isaac, living in the Valley of Gerar. Genesis 27 leaps forward to near the end of Isaac's life. The time has come to pass on the family blessing. Isaac's intention to give that blessing to firstborn, Esau, is thwarted by the deception of Isaac's wife Rebekah and his other son Jacob. Isaac overcomes his suspicions that the man before him is not Esau and delivers the very blessing of God on Jacob. Esau is left with a near-curse and a murderous rage. Rebekah urges Jacob to go to her brother's household, a plan Isaac will endorse in the following chapter. There, he will ironically experience the sting of deception in his own life.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.