Genesis 27:34 - Printer Friendly

ESV: As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

NIV: When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, 'Bless me--me too, my father!'

NASB: When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, 'Bless me, me as well, my father!'

CSB: When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me too, my father! "

NLT: When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. 'Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!' he begged.

KJV: And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

NKJV: When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!”

Esau has just learned that someone else has been given the family blessing Isaac had intended to give to him (Genesis 27:32–33). Old and blind (Genesis 27:1), Isaac has been fooled by an elaborate disguise cooked up by his wife, Rebekah, and their second-born twin son, Jacob (Genesis 27:6–10). When Esau returned with the food his father had requested, mere moments after Jacob had left, the deception was revealed. Isaac reacted with trembling, his whole body shaking from the emotion of realizing he had been deceived.

Esau's response is a yell, a scream, a loud bitter cry. It's the sound of a man who realizes in a moment that he may have lost the most valuable thing in his life. This is a drastic difference from his earlier attitude towards his firstborn birthright—at one point, he had recklessly sworn to sell it to Jacob (Genesis 25:29–34).

Now that there are real consequences at hand, Esau quickly offers a desperate solution: Bless me too! Isaac will explain in the following verses that it doesn't work that way.

Genesis 27:30–46 describes the aftermath of Jacob's deception of Isaac in order to receive the family blessing. Once Esau arrives and Isaac realizes he has given the blessing to the wrong son, his body begins to tremble in panic. Esau, deeply distraught, cries out in loud and bitter agony. Isaac gives to Esau a leftover blessing that reads like a curse. Esau pledges to kill Jacob once their father has died. Learning of this, Rebekah urges Jacob to run away to live with her brother in Mesopotamia.

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.

Accessed 5/7/2024 2:34:52 AM