Genesis 27:28 - Printer Friendly

ESV: May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.

NIV: May God give you heaven's dew and earth's richness-- an abundance of grain and new wine.

NASB: Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine;

CSB: May God give to you -- from the dew of the sky and from the richness of the land -- an abundance of grain and new wine.

NLT: 'From the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, may God always give you abundant harvests of grain and bountiful new wine.

KJV: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:

NKJV: Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine.

Isaac is conferring his official blessing, the family blessing, to Jacob (Genesis 27:1–5). He had intended to give this blessing to Esau, of course (Genesis 25:28), but Rebekah and Jacob have successfully deceived Isaac into thinking he is doing just that (Genesis 27:6–10).

This raises a question. Is a blessing like this something that can be mistakenly passed on from a father to the wrong son? Are the words of the blessing magic that can be pronounced only once and then are spent? Can the God who will fulfill this blessing be so easily manipulated?

The answer, of course, is no. As has already been demonstrated, the gist of this on Jacob is what God had planned all along. The oracle God gave to Rebekah prior to the birth of her sons stated clearly that the older, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob (Genesis 25:23). Rebekah had held on to that revelation all along. Isaac, apparently, had not agreed to it. Thus, Rebekah has deceived him into doing what God had said would happen in the first place. This is not a good choice on her part, however—the fallout from this act of fraud will mean never seeing Jacob again (Genesis 27:43–44).

Here Isaac, as the patriarch of the family who holds the covenant with God, prays for Jacob to be blessed with wealth in the form of the dew of heaven, meaning moisture for crops, the fat of the land, and plentiful grain and wine.

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.