Genesis 27:1

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN ISAAC WAS OLD, AND HIS EYES WERE DIM, SO THAT HE COULD NOT SEE, HE CALLED ESAU HIS ELDEST SON, AND SAID UNTO HIM, MY SON: AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, HERE AM I._ When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim. He was in his 137th year; and apprehending death to be near, he prepared to make his last will-an act of the gravest importance, especially as it included the conveyance, through a prophetic spirit, of the patriarchal blessing. It may be thought that a lamb or a kid from his own flocks could have served that purpose as well, besides being sooner obtained. But Eastern nomads are proverbially abstemious in the use of flesh, subsisting chiefly on bread, milk, butter, and dates; and they seldom or never provide any animal food for their own or their family consumpt. But they are particularly fond of dishes made from the flesh of animals taken in hunting. A...

1._And it came to pass that when Isaac was old_. In this chapter Moses prosecutes, in many words, a history which does not appear to be of great utility. It amounts to this; Esau having gone out, at his father’s command, to hunt; Jacob, in his brother’s clothing, was, by the artifice of his mother, induced to obtain by stealth the blessing due by the right of nature to the firstborn. It seems even like child’s play to present to his father a kid instead of venison, to feign himself to be hairy by putting on skins, and, under the name of his brother, to get the blessing by a lie. But in order to learn that Moses does not in vain pause over this narrative as a most serious matter, we must first observe, that when Jacob received the blessing from his father, this token confirmed to him the oracle by which the Lord had preferred him to his brother. For the benediction here spoken of was not...

1-5 The promises of the Messiah, and of the land of Canaan, had come down to Isaac. Isaac being now about 135 years of age, and his sons about 75, and not duly considering the Divine word concerning his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger, resolved to put all the honour and power that were in the promise, upon Esau his eldest son. We are very apt to take measures rather from our own reason than from Divine revelation, and thereby often miss our way....

CHAPTER XXVII _Isaac, grown old and feeble, and apprehending the approach of_ _death, desires his son Esau to provide some savoury meat for_ _him, that having eaten of it he might convey to him the_ _blessing connected with the right of primogeniture_, 1-4. _Rebekah hearing of it, relates the matter to Jacob, and_ _directs him how to personate his brother, and by deceiving_ _his father, obtain the blessing_, 5-10. _Jacob hesitates_, 11, 12; _but being counselled and encouraged by his mother, he at last_ consents to use the mea

- Isaac Blessing His Sons The life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy-five years he is contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years more his son Jacob remains under the paternal roof. The remaining forty-four years are passed in the retirement of old age. The chapter before us narrates the last solemn acts of the middle period of his life. Genesis 27:1 ISAAC WAS OLD. - Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty. When Joseph was born, therefore, Jacob was ninety-one, and he had sojourned fourteen years in Padan-aram. Hence, Jacob’s flight to Laban took place when he was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth year of Isaac. “His eyes were dim.” Weakness and even loss of sight is more frequent in Palestine

EXPOSITION GENESIS 27:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN ISAAC WAS OLD,—according to the generally accepted calculation, in his one hundred and thirty-seventh year. Joseph, having been introduced to Pharaoh in his thirtieth year (Genesis 41:46), and having been thirty-nine years of age (Genesis 45:6) when his father, aged one hundred and thirty (Genesis 47:9), came down to Egypt, must have been born before Jacob was ninety-one; consequently, as his birth occurred in the fourteenth year of Jacob's sojourn in Mesopotamia (cf....

AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN ISAAC WAS OLD,.... He is generally thought to be about one hundred and thirty seven years of age at this time, which was just the age of his brother Ishmael when he died, Genesis 25:16; and might put him in mind of his own death as near at hand; though if he was no older, he lived after this forty three years, for he lived to be one hundred and eighty years old, Genesis 35:28: AND HIS EYES WERE DIM, SO THAT HE COULD NOT SEE; which circumstance is mentioned, not only as a sign of old age, and as common to it, but for the sake of the following history, and as accounting for it, that he should not know Jacob when he blessed him; and this was so ordered in Providence, that by means of it the blessing might be transferred to him, which otherwise in all probabi

Genesis 27:1. _And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau 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 death: Now therefore take, I pray 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 my soul may bless thee before I die._ A sad misfortune to lose the sight of the eyes! How greatly, how much more than we do, ought we to thank God for the prolongation of our sight, and it has been well remarked by one of our greatest men of science «that we seldom hear Christian men thank God as they should for the use of spectacles in these modern times.» A philosopher has written a long paper concerning the

CHAPTER 27 THE STORY OF JACOB AND THE DECEPTION OF REBEKAH AND JACOB _ 1. Esau sent (Genesis 27:1)_ 2. Rebekah's deception (Genesis 27:5) 3. Jacob's deception (Genesis 27:18) 4. Jacob blessed (Genesis 27:26) 5. The discovery (Genesis 27:30) 6. Esau hates Jacob (Genesis 27:41) 7. Rebekah advises Jacob to flee (Genesis 27

AT HIS MOTHER'S INSTIGATION, JACOB CHEATS Esau OF HIS FATHER'S BLESSING. Probably compiled from J and E. Since both presuppose it later, both must have told the story. There are doublets which point to the use of two sources. We naturally expect the blessing to follow at the end of Genesis 27:23, but it comes only in Genesis 27:27_ b_. Twice Jacob is questioned as to his identity, and Isaac is in one place deceived by touch (Genesis 27:21) in the other by smell (Genesis 27:27). The analysis is, however, very uncertain, and may be neglected as the chapter reads fairly connectedly. The main thread of the story seems to co