Глава 27

Isaac's intention and command The story of Jacob's blessing besides Esau provides one of the striking examples of the clash between natural human desires and the determinations of the divine will, the futility of the former and the immutability of the latter (Mal. 1:2; Rom. 9:10–13). To the question: “Why didn’t God reveal His will to Isaac?” - Blessed Theodoret answers: “so that God’s care for Jacob becomes clear, and this is revealed in the fact that Isaac tried to bless Esau, but God’s grace, against the will of Isaac, attracted the blessing to Jacob. Isaac himself understood this. For, having used all means... horrified by what had happened, he was not upset, like one deceived by his son, but recognized God’s intention and confirmed the blessing given to him” (answer to question 81; cf. John Chrysostom, Demon on Genesis 53, p. 566). Gen.27:1–2. When Isaac grew old and the vision of his eyes became dull, he called his eldest son Esau and said to him: my son! He said to him: here I am. [Isaac] said: Behold, I am old; I don’t know the day of my death; Isaac's loss of sight is spoken of because it is Isaac's blindness that explains the possibility of his being deceived by Rebekah and Jacob, with his blessing. According to the rabbis (M. Bereschit-rabba, p. 311), Isaac lost his sight when his father sacrificed him: he then fixed his pleading gaze too intently on the sky. In fact, blindness was a consequence of Isaac's old age - 137 years of age, at which age his brother Ishmael died 14 years before (Gen. 25:17): this disposed Isaac to prepare for death (which Esau also expected, Gen. 27:41). The indicated age of Isaac, as well as the general chronology of the lives of Isaac and Jacob, is established as follows. When Jacob and his family moved to Egypt, he was 130 years old (Gen. 47:9), Joseph at the same time was 39 years old (he was 30 years old at the time of his rise to Pharaoh + 7 years of fertility + 2 years of famine, Gen. 41:46–47, 45:6), therefore, Joseph was born to Jacob in the 91st year of his life and, according to Gen. 30:25 (fn. Gen. 31:41), 14 years after Jacob's arrival in Mesopotamia. Thus, Jacob’s flight occurred in the 77th year of his life - in the 137th year of Isaac (according to Gen. 25:26, at the birth of Esau and Jacob, Isaac was 60 years old), who after that lived for another 43 years (d. 180 years old, Gen. 35:28–29). Gen.27:3. now take your tools, your quiver and your bow, go into the field and catch me some game, "Tul" or "quiver", in LXX: φαρέτρα, Vulg:. pharetra; but in the Targum of Onkelos - saif, sword. Heb.: teli, from talah, “to hang”, applies to both (something hung). Gen.27:4. and prepare for me the food that I love, and bring me something to eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die. Meaning to bless Esau as the firstborn (v. 1) and, moreover, beloved for his helpfulness (Gen. 25:28), Isaac expresses a natural desire to taste the dish prepared by the hand of his favorite on the significant day for the latter; It cannot be said, with some interpreters, that Isaac makes the very blessing dependent on the satisfaction of his whim. The Contrasting Activities of Rebekah and Jacob Gen.27:5. Rebekah heard Isaac speaking to his son Esau. And Esau went into the field to get and bring game; Just as the intention of Isaac expressed the excessive manifestation of his human will, so this is even more evident in the actions of Rebekah. The fact that Rebekah knew and remembered God’s revelation that of her two sons “the elder will serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23), of course, makes clear her confidence in the favorable outcome of her undertaking - even to the point of being ready to be cursed (v. 13), but does not give legitimacy to the actions of her character, just as the fact that Esau sold him the primacy does not justify the deception of Jacob. Both Rebekah and Jacob found here a lack of strong faith and perfect morality. The question that naturally arises about the relationship of God's Providence to human will and unrighteousness is resolved by the general consideration that there was no perfect righteousness even among the elect of the Old Testament, and that moral concepts in their consciousness were just as gradually perfected as were religious beliefs. Rus. “bring” – Heb. le-habi; but glory. "to his father" transl. Greek τῶ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ: LXX vm.: le-habi read – le-abiv, “to his father.” Gen. 27:7–10. bring me game and prepare food for me; I will sing and bless you before the face of the Lord, before my death. Now, my son, obey my words in what I command you: go to the herd and take me two good kids from there, and I will prepare from them your father’s food, which he likes, And you will bring it to your father, and he will eat, to bless you before his death. Just as the intention of Isaac expressed the excessive manifestation of his human will, so this is even more evident in the actions of Rebekah. The fact that Rebekah knew and remembered God’s revelation that the elder of her two sons would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), of course, makes clear her confidence in the favorable outcome of her undertaking - even to the point of being ready to be cursed (verse 13), but does not give her actions the character of legitimacy, just as the fact that Esau sold him the primacy does not justify Jacob’s deception. Both Rebekah and Jacob found here a lack of strong faith and perfect morality. The question that naturally arises about the relationship of God's Providence to human will and unrighteousness is resolved by the general consideration that there was no perfect righteousness even among the elect of the Old Testament, and that moral concepts in their consciousness were only gradually perfected, just like religious beliefs. Before the Lord... These words are not given in Isaac’s speech, but are quite appropriately inserted in Rebecca’s repetition of his speech: Isaac wanted to bless Esau in the name of Jehovah (and blessed Jacob) and convey the spiritual heritage of Abraham before the face of God. Gen. 27:11–12. Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: My brother Esau is a shaggy man, but I am a smooth man; It may happen that my father will feel me, and I will be a deceiver in his eyes and will bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing. In a conversation with his mother, Jacob does not hide his understanding of what sin is going to do, only, in accordance with the level of his moral development, he considers deception not by its moral value, but by its external unfavorable consequences for himself. Gen.27:13. His mother said to him: Let your curse be on me, my son, just listen to my words and go and bring it to me. In Rebekah's readiness to accept the curse upon herself, one can hear her ardent, tender and selfless love for her youngest son; Perhaps, however, she also hoped for the meekness of Isaac, known to her. Gen.27:15. And Rebekah took the rich robe of her eldest son Esau, which was in her house, and clothed [it] on her youngest son Jacob; Esau's especially rich clothing could have been a distinctive sign of his birthright (in such clothing, the firstborn could perform home worship, sacrifices, etc.). Gen.27:16. and she covered his hands and his smooth neck with the skin of kids; The wool of goats in the East is particularly soft; Jacob's deception could have succeeded all the more easily. Jacob's coming to his father and his blessing by the latter Gen.27:18. He went in to his father and said: My father! He said: here I am; who are you, my son? Rus. "entered", Heb. jabo; glory “introduced” – in Greek. ἐισήνεγκεν. Isaac framed the upcoming blessing as a secret, and meets Jacob with great distrust: he asks about his name (v. 18), the reason for his imminent return (v. 20), offers to kiss himself, probably with the goal of touching Jacob (v. 26). Gen. 27:19–24, 27. Jacob said to his father: I am Esau, your firstborn; I did as you told me; get up, sit down and eat my game, so that your soul may bless me. And Isaac said to his son: What have you found so quickly, my son? He said: Because the Lord your God has sent to meet me. And Isaac said to Jacob: Come [to me], I will feel you, my son, are you my son Esau or not? Jacob came to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice of Jacob; and the hands, the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were like the hands of his brother Esau, shaggy; and blessed him and said, Art thou my son Esau? He answered: I. He came up and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a [full] field that the Lord has blessed; By posing as Esau, Jacob commits deception, the sinfulness of which is aggravated by his subsequent invocation of the name of God (v. 20). The inevitable consequence of Jacob's deception, according to the righteous judgment of God, was the difficult trials of Jacob's subsequent life. After several expressions of doubt and attempts to be confident in the face of the newcomer (Gen. 27:21, 22, 24), Isaac proceeds (v. 27) to the blessing of his son, which (in contrast to the blessing, v. 23, a simple greeting) is a prophecy determining the fate of Jacob and his descendants (cf. Gen. 9:25). The poetic form, imagery, and immediacy of the blessing is evident from the fact that it begins with the expression of the pleasant sensation of the fragrance of Esau's clothing. LXX: ἀγροῦ πλήρους, Vulg:. agri pleni, slav:. “the fields are full”; rus:. "fields", in Hebrew: sadeh. Field - Canaan. Gen. 27:28–29. May God give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth, and plenty of bread and wine; Let the nations serve you, and let the nations worship you; be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons worship you; those who curse you are cursed; those who bless you are blessed! Dew is the first condition of fertility in the hot and almost rainless East in the summer months (Gen. 49:25; Hos. 14:6). The fulfillment of the initial part of the blessing is the fertility of Palestine, known from the Bible (Ex. 3:8, 33, etc.). The apparent dissimilarity of this part of the blessing with the promises to Abraham is explained by the fact that Isaac (like Jacob later) was already engaged in agriculture (Gen. 26:12), which is why the speech begins with the benefits of agriculture. The subordination of Esau to Jacob was realized in the person of their descendants, under David (2 Sam. 8:14; Ps. 59:2); By the brothers of Jacob's mother we mean all the descendants of Abraham, not only through Sarah, but also through Hagar and Keturah. Isaac's words about the blessing of those who bless Jacob and the curse of those who curse him are closely reminiscent of the promises to Abraham, but, unlike the latter, they do not contain a promise of blessing in the seed of Jacob of all nations, as if in retribution for the unseemly way of receiving a blessing; Only later, when Jacob began to atone for his sin by fleeing from his father’s house, was the mentioned high blessing given to him (Gen. 28:14). About the meaning of Isaac’s blessing, Blessed Theodoret says: “From Jacob came in the flesh the Lord Christ, the hope of the tongues, the Savior and Ruler of the whole universe... Isaac promises him the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and this represents grace from above and the abundance of earthly blessings, and then to understand in the Lord Christ under the dew the deity, and under the fatness of the earth the humanity received from us.” (answer to question 83). Esau's sorrow and blessing Gen. 27:30–32. As soon as Isaac performed the blessing on Jacob [his son], and as soon as Jacob went out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came from his hunt. He also prepared food and brought it to his father, and said to his father: Arise, my father, and eat your son’s game, so that your soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said to him: Who are you? He said: I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. The story of Esau's blessing is told no less vividly; at the same time, the advantage of Jacob’s blessing over Esau’s blessing rises even more: all the details of the story serve such an impression. So, according to St. John Chrysostom, “who will not be amazed at God’s providence in the fact that Esau did not come back from fishing until the goal of this plan had already been achieved, and Jacob, having received a blessing from his father, left him?” (Demon on Genesis 53, p. 569). According to the rabbis, Esau came immediately after Jacob left. The setting of Esau’s conversation with his father is reminiscent of Jacob’s conversation, only, as Rashi notes, Esau’s invitation to his father to the table sounds (v. 31) ruder than a similar invitation (v. 19) of Jacob (in Hebrew, LXX and in Glav. the verb: stand here - in the 3rd line, and in v. 19 - in the 2nd). Gen.27:33. And Isaac trembled with very great trembling, and said: Who is this that fetched [me] the game and brought it to me, and I ate of it all, before you came, and I blessed him? he will be blessed. Instead of the expected indignation at the deceiver, Isaac trembles due to the clear feeling that what happened happened by the permission of the power of God. This consciousness, in connection with the belief in the immutability of the father’s blessing inherent in patriarchal times, prompts Isaac to abandon all indecision and firmly declare about Jacob: “I have blessed him, and he will be blessed,” thereby leading Esau into an excited state of burning sorrow and intense prayer. Gen.27:34. Esau, having heard the words of his father [Isaac], raised a loud and very bitter cry and said to his father: My father! bless me too. He does not demand that the blessing given to Jacob be transferred to him, but only asks for some, even smaller, blessing, while he does not penetrate into the mysterious meaning of Jacob’s blessing and is even inclined to deliver the blessing depending on the whim of his father (although, like Isaac, he considers the fatherly blessing, once given, unchangeable). Gen.27:37. Isaac answered Esau: Behold, I have made him lord over you, and have given all his brothers to him as slaves; gave him bread and wine; what will I do for you, my son? “Isaac considers the blessing given to Jacob to be an obstacle to the blessing of Esau: a) by the very content of the first blessing, which already included the humiliation of Esau; b) because in Jacob’s unexpected blessing he sees the hand of God punishing Esau; c) is it also because the power of blessing that resided in the patriarch and through spiritual communication passed from ancestors to descendants - that this power, having once been aroused by faith and poured out in all its fullness, was usually no longer aroused in the one who taught it in the same form and degree” (M. Philaret, Zap. on the book of Genesis 2.35). To explain Isaac’s refusal, the rabbis put forward a principle that is current among them: “a slave and everything that belongs to him belongs to his master; therefore, any blessing that Isaac gave to Esau would belong to Jacob, by virtue of the subordination of Esau given to him” (Beresch. rabb., s. 323). Gen. 27:38–39. But Esau said to his father: Do you really have one blessing, my father? bless me too, my father! And [as Isaac remained silent] Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, from the fatness of the earth shall thy dwelling be, and from the dew of heaven from above; Esau's sincere grief is worthy of compassion (although it does not relieve him of responsibility for the double neglect of his birthright - when selling it and when marrying), and Isaac (v. 39), touched (LXX: κατανυχθέντος), although after some reflection, blesses him - in expressions initially identical with blessings to Jacob. Fertility of the soil and an abundance of dew are promised to Esau in the same way as to Jacob (contrary to some interpreters, for example, Knobel, Keil, that Esau is foreshadowed by the deprivation of these benefits), and the difference is only in the degree of political independence and prosperity (cf., however, Mal. 1: 3). Gen.27:40. and you will live by your sword and serve your brother; The time will come when you will resist and cast off his yoke from your neck. “Living by the sword” - a life of robber attacks on caravans and travelers - such, indeed, was the life of the Edomites. Isaac's prophecy about them comes true with accuracy. First, Esau's descendants grow, become rich, and have kings before Israel (Gen. 36:31). But already the 1st king of Israel, Saul, had success against Edom (1 Kings 14:47), and under David all the Edomites became slaves (2 Kings 8:14), and then, excluding individual uprisings under Solomon (1 Kings 11:14), Ahaz (2 Kings 14:7) and others, after the destruction of the remnants of Edom (Amos 9:11–12 ; Jer. 49:17), finally, under I. Hyrcanus, through circumcision, they finally became part of the Jewish state. But “the time has come” - according to the Targum: “when Israel rejected the yoke of the law, then Edom threw off its yoke” - and in the person of Herod Vel. and in his house Judah even received kings from the Edomites. Motives for Jacob's Flight Gen.27:41. And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are approaching, and I will kill Jacob my brother. Esau hated Jacob with a secret, insidious hatred (over time, however, he forgot the offense inflicted on him by Jacob, Gen. 32:4, 9, 12), but out of respect for his father, he decides to postpone vengeance until his expected death. Gen. 27:42–46. And the words of Esau her eldest son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called her youngest son Jacob, and said to him: Behold, Esau your brother threatens to kill you; and now, my son, listen to my words, get up, run [to Mesopotamia] to Laban my brother, to Harran, and stay with him for a while until your brother’s wrath is quenched, until your brother's anger against you is satisfied, and he forgets what you did to him: then I will send and fetch you from there; Why should I lose both of you in one day?: And Rebekah said to Isaac: I am not happy with life from the daughters of the Hittites; If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of the Hittites, such as these are, from the daughters of this land, then what need is my life? He expressed this intention openly, which Rebekah learned about and prudently sends Jacob to Haran to Laban (for “certain days,” that is, a few), revealing only to Jacob himself the meaning of this journey (vv. 42–45), and to Isaac indicating another reason - to find a bride from a related family (v. 46). So “God put into her mind everything that could contribute to the future economy and salvation of her son” (St. John Chrysostom, p. 579). You might be interested in: