‘And he went and fetched what was required and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savoury meat such as his father loved. And Rebekah took the fine clothes of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth of his neck, and she gave the savoury meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hands of her son Jacob.'

Rebekah had it all thought out. The hairy skin, the distinctive smell of the hunter, the tasty food and the certainty that blind Isaac's condition was such that he would not be too discerning. She carries the deception through to the end with the singlemindedness of a mother devoted to her favourite son, aware that legally her position is correct.

Note the mention of ‘her elder son'. Previously Jacob has been described as ‘her son'. There is disapproval in the writer's tone. Esau was her son as well, and the elder one at that.

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