Genesis 27
1 Senuit autem Isaac, et caligaverunt oculi eius, et videre non poterat: vocavitque Esau filium suum maiorem, et dixit ei: Fili mi? Qui respondit: Adsum.
Isaac was old and going blind. He called for Esau, his oldest son, and said, “My son.” “I'm here,” Esau replied.
2 Cui pater: Vides, inquit, quod senuerim, et ignorem diem mortis meæ.
“I'm old now,” said Isaac, “I may die soon, who knows?
3 Sume arma tua, pharetram, et arcum, et egredere foras: cumque venatu aliquid apprehenderis,
So please take your bow and arrows and go hunting in the countryside for some meat for me.
4 fac mihi inde pulmentum sicut velle me nosti, et affer ut comedam: et benedicat tibi anima mea antequam moriar.
Make me that tasty food that I love and bring it to me to eat, so I can bless you before I die.”
5 Quod cum audisset Rebecca, et ille abiisset in agrum ut iussionem patris impleret,
Rebekah heard what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau left to go hunting in the countryside for wild game,
6 dixit filio suo Iacob: Audivi patrem tuum loquentem cum Esau fratre tuo, et dicentem ei:
Rebekah told her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father tell your brother,
7 Affer mihi de venatione tua, et fac cibos ut comedam, et benedicam tibi coram Domino antequam moriar.
‘Get me some wild game and make me some tasty food so I can eat it and then bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’
8 Nunc ergo fili mi, acquiesce consiliis meis:
Now then, my son, listen to me and do exactly what I tell you.
9 et pergens ad gregem, affer mihi duos hœdos optimos, ut faciam ex eis escas patri tuo, quibus libenter vescitur:
Go to the flock and bring me two nice young goats. I'll cook them and make the tasty food your father loves.
10 quas cum intuleris, et comederit, benedicat tibi priusquam moriatur.
Then you take it to your father to eat, so he can bless you in the presence of the Lord before he dies.”
11 Cui ille respondit: Nosti quod Esau frater meus homo pilosus sit, et ego lenis:
“But listen,” Jacob replied to his mother Rebekah, “my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a smooth man.
12 si attrectaverit me pater meus, et senserit, timeo ne putet me sibi voluisse illudere, et inducam super me maledictionem pro benedictione.
Maybe my father will notice when he touches me. Then it will look like I'm deceiving him and I'll bring a curse down on myself instead of a blessing.”
13 Ad quem mater: In me sit, ait, ista maledictio, fili mi: tantum audi vocem meam, et pergens affer quæ dixi.
“Let the curse fall on me, my son,” his mother replied. “Just do what I tell you. Go and get the young goats for me.”
14 Abiit, et attulit, deditque matri. Paravit illa cibos, sicut velle noverat patrem illius.
So Jacob went and got them and took them to his mother, and she made some tasty food, the way his father loved.
15 Et vestibus Esau valde bonis, quas apud se habebat domi, induit eum:
Then Rebekah went and got her older son Esau's best clothes that she had at home and put them on Jacob her younger son.
16 pelliculasque hœdorum circumdedit manibus, et colli nuda protexit.
She put the goatskins on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17 Deditque pulmentum, et panes, quos coxerat, tradidit.
Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she'd made.
18 Quibus illatis, dixit: Pater mi? At ille respondit: Audio. Quis es tu fili mi?
He went in to see his father, and called out, “My father, I'm here.” “Which son are you?” Isaac asked.
19 Dixitque Iacob: Ego sum primogenitus tuus Esau: feci sicut præcepisti mihi: surge, sede, et comede de venatione mea, ut benedicat mihi anima tua.
“It's me Esau, your firstborn son,” Jacob told his father. “I did what you told me. So please sit up and eat some of my wild game meat so you can bless me.”
20 Rursumque Isaac ad filium suum: Quo modo, inquit, tam cito invenire potuisti, fili mi? Qui respondit: Voluntas Dei fuit ut cito occurreret mihi quod volebam:
“How did you find an animal so fast, my son?” Isaac asked. “Because the Lord your God sent it my way,” Jacob replied.
21 Dixitque Isaac: Accede huc, ut tangam te fili mi, et probem utrum tu sis filius meus Esau, an non.
“Come over here so I can touch you, my son,” Isaac told Jacob, “so I can tell if you're really my son Esau or not.”
22 Accessit ille ad patrem, et palpato eo, dixit Isaac: Vox quidem, vox Iacob est: sed manus, manus sunt Esau.
Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “It's Jacob's voice but Esau's hands.”
23 Et non cognovit eum, quia pilosæ manus similitudinem maioris expresserant. Benedicens ergo illi,
Isaac didn't realize it was really Jacob because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's, so Isaac got ready to bless him.
24 ait: Tu es filius meus Esau? Respondit: Ego sum.
“It's really you, my son Esau?” he asked again. “Yes, it's me,” Jacob replied.
25 At ille: Affer mihi, inquit, cibos de venatione tua, fili mi, ut benedicat tibi anima mea. Quos cum oblatos comedisset, obtulit ei etiam vinum. Quo hausto,
Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your wild game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought some for him to eat, as well as some wine for him to drink.
26 dixit ad eum: Accede ad me, et da mihi osculum, fili mi.
Afterwards he said to Isaac, “Come here and kiss me, my son.”
27 Accessit, et osculatus est eum. Statimque ut sensit vestimentorum illius fragrantiam, benedicens illi, ait: Ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agri pleni, cui benedixit Dominus.
So Jacob went over and kissed him, and Isaac could smell the clothes Jacob was wearing. So he went ahead with the blessing, saying to himself, “See—the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.”
28 Det tibi Deus de rore cæli, et de pinguedine terræ abundantiam frumenti et vini.
“May God use the dew of heaven and fertile land to give you rich harvests of grain and new wine!
29 Et serviant tibi populi, et adorent te tribus: esto dominus fratrum tuorum, et incurventur ante te filii matris tuæ. Qui maledixerit tibi, sit ille maledictus: et qui benedixerit tibi, benedictionibus repleatur.
May the people of different nations serve you and bow down to you. May you rule over your relatives, and may they bow down to you. May everyone who curses you be cursed, and may everyone who bless you be blessed.”
30 Vix Isaac sermonem impleverat: et egresso Iacob foras, venit Esau,
After Isaac finished blessing Jacob—in fact Jacob had just left his father—Esau returned from his hunting trip.
31 coctosque de venatione cibos intulit patri, dicens: Surge pater mi, et comede de venatione filii tui: ut benedicat mihi anima tua.
He had also made some tasty food, and took it to his father. Esau said to Isaac, “Sit up, my father, and eat some of my wild game so you can bless me.”
32 Dixitque illi Isaac: Quis enim es tu? Qui respondit: Ego sum filius tuus primogenitus Esau.
“Who are you?” Isaac asked him. “I'm your son, your firstborn son, Esau,” he replied.
33 Expavit Isaac stupore vehementi: et ultra quam credi potest, admirans, ait: Quis igitur ille est qui dudum captam venationem attulit mihi, et comedi ex omnibus priusquam tu venires? benedixique ei, et erit benedictus.
Isaac started to shake all over and asked, “So who was it who went hunting game and then brought it to me? I ate it all before you came back and I blessed him. His blessing will remain.”
34 Auditis Esau sermonibus patris, irrugiit clamore magno: et consternatus, ait: Benedic etiam et mihi, pater mi.
When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out in great anger and bitterness, and pleaded with his father, “Please bless me too, my father!”
35 Qui ait: Venit germanus tuus fraudulenter, et accepit benedictionem tuam.
But Isaac replied, “You brother came and deceived me—he stole your blessing!”
36 At ille subiunxit: Iuste vocatum est nomen eius Iacob: supplantavit enim me en altera vice: primogenita mea ante tulit, et nunc secundo surripuit benedictionem meam. Rursumque ad patrem: Numquid non reservasti, ait, et mihi benedictionem?
“Isn't he well named—Jacob the deceiver!” said Esau. “He's deceived me twice. First he took my birthright, and now he's stolen my blessing! Haven't you kept a blessing for me?”
37 Respondit Isaac: Illum constitui dominum tuum, et omnes fratres eius servituti illius subiugavi: frumento et vino stabilivi eum, et tibi post hæc, fili mi, ultra quid faciam?
Isaac replied to Esau. “I have made him ruler over you, and have said that all his relatives will be his servants. I have declared that he will be well supplied with grain and new wine. So what is left that I can do for you, my son?”
38 Cui Esau: Num unam, inquit, tantum benedictionem habes, pater? mihi quoque obsecro ut benedicas. Cumque eiulatu magno fleret,
“Do you only have one blessing, my father?” Esau asked. “Please bless me too!” Then Esau began to cry very loudly.
39 motus Isaac, dixit ad eum: In pinguedine terræ, et in rore cæli desuper
Then his father Isaac declared, “Listen! You will live far away from fertile land, far from the dew of heaven that falls from above.
40 erit benedictio tua. Vives in gladio, et fratri tuo servies: tempusque veniet, cum excutias, et solvas iugum eius de cervicibus tuis.
You will make a living by using your sword, and you will be your brother's servant. But when you rebel, you will throw off his yoke from your neck.”
41 Oderat ergo semper Esau Iacob pro benedictione qua benedixerat ei pater: dixitque in corde suo: Venient dies luctus patris mei, et occidam Iacob fratrem meum.
From then on Esau hated Jacob because of his father's blessing. Esau said to himself, “Soon the time will come when I'll mourn my father's death. Then I'll kill my brother Jacob!”
42 Nunciata sunt hæc Rebeccæ: quæ mittens et vocans Iacob filium suum, dixit ad eum: Ecce Esau frater tuus minatur ut occidat te.
However, Rebekah found out what Esau was saying, so she sent for Jacob. “Look,” she told him, “your brother Esau is making himself feel better by making plans to kill you.
43 Nunc ergo, fili mi, audi vocem meam, et consurgens fuge ad Laban fratrem meum in Haran:
So, my son, listen carefully to what I tell you. Leave immediately and go to my brother Laban in Haram.
44 habitabisque cum eo dies paucos, donec requiescat furor fratris tui,
Stay with him for a while until your brother's anger cools down.
45 et cesset indignatio eius, obliviscaturque eorum quæ fecisti in eum: postea mittam, et adducam te inde huc. Cur utroque orbabor filio in uno die?
Once he's cooled down and forgets what you did to him, I'll send for you to come back. Why should I lose both of you in a single day?”
46 Dixitque Rebecca ad Isaac: Tædet me vitæ meæ propter filias Heth: si acceperit Iacob uxorem de stirpe huius terræ, nolo vivere.
Then Rebekah went and told Isaac, “I'm so sick of these Hittite women—they're ruining my life! If Jacob also marries a Hittite woman like them, one of the local people, I'd rather die!”
