Perhaps my father will feel me: Perhaps translates an adverb that most often expresses a hope (Gen 16.2 “it may be”; 1 Sam 6.5), but in our context it expresses a fear or doubt. See also Job 1.5. Revised English Bible have “Suppose my father feels me.” This clause may also be translated as an “if” clause, which may express the doubt element more adequately in some languages. For example, Bible en français courant says “If my father touches me….” Feel refers here to examining by feeling with the hands. Jacob is afraid that his father will feel his hairless skin and discover that he is not hairy like his brother. In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “I am afraid my father will feel me with his hands” or “… that my father will feel my skin.”

I shall seem to be mocking him is literally “I shall be in his eyes like a mocker.” Mocking is the meaning of the same rare Hebrew word in 2 Chr 36.16; if the meaning is the same here, the sense expressed is that, if discovered, Jacob will appear to be ridiculing or making fun of his father, a serious misconduct having the consequence of being cursed. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “If my father touches me and recognizes me, he will think that I am ridiculing him.” However, in the context of this story, the sense of “deceiving” or “tricking” is much more appropriate; and so many of the versions take the word in this sense. King James Version has “a deceiver,” Good News Translation “deceiving him,” New Jerusalem Bible “cheating him,” New International Version and New English Bible “tricking him,” Revised English Bible “playing a trick.” Note the idiomatic force of the literal Hebrew “in his eyes” used in reference to the blind Isaac and translated I shall seem. The meaning of the expression has nothing to do with the physical eyes but rather with his understanding, thought, perception.

And bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing: the conclusion of Jacob’s worry is that he will cause himself to be cursed instead of blessed. Curse translates the same word here as used in 8.21 and 12.3. However, for a discussion of the meaning and function of curse, see 3.14. In translation it may be more natural to shift to a passive construction and say “I will cause myself to be cursed and not blessed.” As an active construction we may also say, for example, “instead of giving me his blessing he will curse me” or “he will not bless me but will curse me.” Two recent examples of how this has been translated are “he [my father] will ask God to injure me, and I won’t get the blessing” and “he won’t give me that last word, and I will make trouble for myself.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .