Bar’chu
et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed! Baruch ata YHVH. Eloheinu
melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch
atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the
blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us
your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)
Gen 27:30 And it came to be, as soon as Yitsḥaq had finished
blessing Yaʽaqoḇ, and Yaʽaqoḇ had hardly left the
presence of Yitsḥaq his father, that
Ěsaw his brother came in from his hunting. Gen 27:31 And he too had made a tasty dish and brought
it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father rise and eat of his
son’s wild game, so that your being might bless me.” Gen 27:32 And his father Yitsḥaq said to him, “Who
are you?” And he said,
“I am your son, your first-born, Ěsaw.” Gen
27:33 Then Yitsḥaq trembled
exceedingly, and said, “Who was it then who hunted wild game and brought it to
me? And I ate all of it before you came, and
I have blessed him. Yea, he is blessed.” Gen 27:34 When Ěsaw heard the words of his father, he
cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless
me, me too, O my father!” Gen 27:35 And
he said, “Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing.” Gen 27:36 And Ěsaw said, “Was his name, then, called Yaʽaqoḇ? For he has caught me
by the heel these two times. He took my birthright, and see, now he has taken
my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” (Yakov or
‘’overreacher’’- Yakov the shepherd was not the natural choice for the
birthright in the eyes of his father and brother. So was it too said of David)
Gen 27:37
Then Yitsḥaq answered and said
to Ěsaw, “See, I have made him your master, and all his brothers I have given to him as servants. And I have
sustained him with grain and wine. And what, then, shall I do for you, my son?”
Gen 27:38 And Ěsaw said to his father,
“Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me too, O my father!” And
Ěsaw lifted up his voice and wept. Gen 27:39
And Yitsḥaq his father answered
and said to him, “See, your dwelling is of the fatness of the earth, and of the
dew of the heavens from above. Gen 27:40
And by your sword you are to live, and serve your brother. And it shall
be, when you grow restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.” Gen
27:41 And Ěsaw hated Yaʽaqoḇ because of the
blessing with which his father blessed him, and Ěsaw said in his heart, “The
days of mourning for my father draw near, then I am going to kill my brother Yaʽaqoḇ.” Gen 27:42 And the words of Ěsaw her older son were
reported to Riḇqah, and she sent and
called Yaʽaqoḇ her younger son, and
said to him, “See, your brother Ěsaw comforts himself concerning you, to kill
you. Gen 27:43 “And now, my son, listen
to my voice, and rise, flee to my brother Laḇan in Ḥaran. Gen 27:44 “And stay with him a few days, until your
brother’s wrath turns away, Gen 27:45
until your brother’s displeasure turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him.
And I shall send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both
in one day?” Gen 27:46 And Riḇqah said to Yitsḥaq, “I am disgusted
with my life because of the daughters of Ḥĕth.
If Yaʽaqoḇ takes a wife from the
daughters of Ḥĕth, like these who
are the daughters of the land, what is my life to me?” Gen
28:1 And Yitsḥaq called Yaʽaqoḇ and blessed him, and
commanded him, and said to him, “Do not take a wife from the daughters of Kenaʽan. Gen 28:2 “Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of
Bethu’ĕl your mother’s father. And take a wife for yourself from there, from
the daughters of Laḇan your mother’s
brother. Gen 28:3 “And Ěl Shaddai bless
you, and make you bear fruit and increase you, and you shall become an assembly
of peoples, Gen 28:4 and give you the
blessing of Aḇraham, to you and your
seed with you, so that you inherit the land of your sojournings, which Elohim
gave to Aḇraham.” Gen 28:5 So Yitsḥaq
sent Yaʽaqoḇ away, and he went to
Paddan Aram, to Laḇan son of Bethu’ĕl the
Aramean, the brother of Riḇqah, the mother of Yaʽaqoḇ and Ěsaw. (Deut 26:5)Gen
28:6 And Ěsaw saw that Yitsḥaq had blessed Yaʽaqoḇ and sent him away to
Paddan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he
gave him a command, saying, “Do not take a wife from the daughters of Kenaʽan,” Gen 28:7 and that Yaʽaqoḇ had obeyed his father
and his mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. Gen 28:8 So Ěsaw saw that the daughters of Kenaʽan did not please his
father Yitsḥaq, Gen 28:9 and Ěsaw went to Yishmaʽĕl and took Maḥalath the daughter of
Yishmaʽĕl, Aḇraham’s son, the
sister of Neḇayoth, to be his wife,
besides the wives he had.
Midrash: Esav’s
blessing is ‘’modified’’ curse.
Note the difference in the Hebrew of the two
blessings. Vs 28 – Part of Yakov’s blessing:
כח וְיִתֶּן-לְךָ, הָאֱלֹהִים, מִטַּל הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּמִשְׁמַנֵּי הָאָרֶץ--וְרֹב דָּגָן, וְתִירֹשׁ.
“And give you Elohim the night mist of the heavens – and the oil
of the earth and much grain and grape juice.”
Vs 39 Part
of Esav blessing:
לט וַיַּעַן יִצְחָק אָבִיו, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו: הִנֵּה מִשְׁמַנֵּי הָאָרֶץ, יִהְיֶה מוֹשָׁבֶךָ,
וּמִטַּל הַשָּׁמַיִם, מֵעָל.
…..behold (away – ‘’min’’) from the oil of the earth is
coming to be your dwelling, and from the night mist of the heavens above.
New International Version
His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the
earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above.
New American Standard 1977
Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,
“Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above.
Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,
“Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above.
Concordant Literal
Version:
39 And answering is Isaac, his father, and saying to him, "Behold! Away from
the oil of the earth is coming to be your dwelling, and from the night mist of
the heavens above.
Almost all English
Translations except King James Version and the Scriptures translate vs 39 as
seen above.
Commentary Keil and Deliztch: Moreover, the
privative sense of מִן is thoroughly poetical (cf. 2Sa_1:22;
Job_11:15, etc.). The idea expressed in the words, therefore, was that
the dwelling-place of Esau would be the very opposite of the land of Canaan,
viz., an unfruitful land. This is generally the condition of the mountainous
country of Edom, which, although not without its fertile slopes and valleys,
especially in the eastern portion (cf. Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 552), is
thoroughly waste and barren in the western; so that Seetzen says it
consists of “the most desolate and barren mountains probably in the world.”
The tragic history of Esav bears fact that they are a
people who have brought much violence and mixture into the earth: