King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 27
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And it came to pass, that when was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my : Now therefore take, I thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that may thee before I . 5And heard when spake to his son. And went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And spake unto her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy speak unto thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and thee before before my . Now therefore, my son, according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy , such as he loveth: 10And thou shalt bring it to thy , that he may eat, and that he may thee before his . And said to his mother, Behold, my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring upon me, and not a . And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy , my son: only , and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his loved. And took goodly raiment of her eldest son , which were with her in the house, and put them upon her younger son: 16And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son . 18And he came unto his , and said, : and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And said unto his , I am thy ; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy may me. And said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because thy brought it to me. And said unto , Come near, I thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son or not. 22And went near unto his ; and he felt him, and said, The voice is ’s voice, but the hands are the hands of . And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother ’s hands: so he him. And he said, Art thou my very son ? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that may thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him , and he drank. 26And his said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which hath : Therefore give thee of the of , and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and : Let people thee, and nations to thee: be over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons to thee: be every one that curseth thee, and be he that blesseth thee. 30And it came to pass, as soon as had made an end of , and was yet scarce gone out from the of his , that his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his , and said unto his , Let arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy may me. And his said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy . And trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have him? yea, and he shall be . And when heard the words of his , he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his , me, even me also, O . And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy . And he said, Is not he rightly named ? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my ; and, behold, now he hath taken away my . And he said, Hast thou not reserved a for me? And answered and said unto , Behold, I have made him thy , and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And said unto his , Hast thou but one , ? me, even me also, O . And lifted up his voice, and wept. And his answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the of from above; And by thy shalt thou live, and shalt thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the , that thou shalt break his from off thy neck. And hated because of the wherewith his him: and said in , The days of for are at hand; then will I my brother . And these words of her elder son were told to : and she sent and called her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother , as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, ; and arise, flee thou to my brother to ; And tarry with him days, until thy brother’s fury turn away; Until thy brother’s turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And said to , I am weary of my life because of the daughters of : if take a wife of the daughters of , such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis