Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: Now therefore represents a transition and a consequence of Esau’s plan to kill Jacob. Obey my voice is literally “hear my voice.” See Gen 27.8. Note Good News Translation “do what I say.”

Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran: arise does not suggest that Jacob is sitting or lying when he is addressed by his mother. Arise here means “get ready,” “hurry,” “go at once.” Flee means to “go quickly,” “escape.”

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 .

In verse 28 Isaac asks that God give Jacob moisture for the land (crops), fertile lands, and the blessing of grain and wine.

May God give you the dew of heaven: May God give is a petition addressed to God and must often be restructured in translation to say, for example, “I pray that God will give you,” “I ask God to grant you.” Dew as coming from God, from above, or from heaven is mentioned in the Hebrew text of Deut 33.28; Hos 14.5; Zech 8.12, as a condition of fertility. The reference is to the night dew that forms on the ground during the cooling period on hot summer nights. The dew supplies moisture for the plants.

In translation we should attempt to represent the narrator’s view that the dew is from heaven or sent by God: for example, “I ask that God send you dew for your lands” or “May God make the dew come down on your crops.”

And of the fatness of the earth: this is likewise an object of May God give. Fatness refers to fat or rich foods in 49.20. In relation to land the sense is “fertile,” as in Num 13.20 (“rich”); Neh 9.25, 35 (“rich land”). Therefore the prayer is that God give Jacob rich, fertile, productive lands. In some languages this may be translated “I ask God to give you gardens that grow abundant crops” or “… all kinds of good crops.”

And plenty of grain and wine: this line makes concrete what it means in the previous one to have fertile, rich lands. Plenty does not mean just to have sufficient but rather to have a great amount. Grain translates the word for wheat but is also used generally for cereals or grass seeds that are eaten. In Revised English Bible it is translated “corn,” which in British usage refers to different varieties of grain. The word is used along with “wine” to indicate good crops generally.

In areas where neither grains or wine are known, it may be necessary to shift to more general expressions and say “food and drink” or “things to eat and drink.” It may also be possible to substitute local common crops and local drinks.

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 .

In this verse the blessing is to give Jacob dominance over others.

Let peoples serve you: again Isaac asks God to cause peoples to serve Jacob. This is a “let” command in English and expresses a wish or desire stated in terms of the following verb, that is, “I desire that people serve you,” or “People should serve you.” Peoples translates a word that may refer to nations, ethnic groups, or tribes, and has almost the same meaning as the word rendered nations in the next line. The reference may be to the Canaanites and other tribes that lived around Israel in later times. You has here a double sense, in that it applies to the one receiving the blessing, but at the same time it refers to the time when Israel is itself a nation. It may be necessary to make this twofold meaning clear by saying, for example, “I ask God to make other nations [tribes, peoples] be servants to you and your descendants.”

And nations bow down to you: nations (see the above paragraph) may be translated by a different term for peoples, tribes, ethnic groups, if one is available. Bow down translates the same verb used of Abraham bowing before the Hittites in chapter 23. The word is also used, for example, in Exo 11.8 and 20.5. The sense as it is used here is to bow down before someone in submission, to give of yourself to obey and serve. The two lines of verse 29 are closely parallel in meaning, and the second line makes more vivid what it means in the first line to serve.

In the second pair of parallel lines in verse 29, the thought moves from the large, general group called nations and peoples to the more personal brothers.

Be lord over your brothers: lord translates the Hebrew gebir used here for the first time in Genesis. The word is closely related to gibbor, the word for “strong,” “mighty,” “valiant,” “one who does acts of bravery.” Good News Translation shifts to the verb “rule.” We may also say, for example, “May you be the chief over…,” “… master over…,” “… the leader of….” Brothers is used here more generally in the sense of “relatives” (Good News Translation).

Because the blessing refers not only to the present but to a future time when Jacob and Esau have descendants, it may be clearer to translate, for example, “May you and your descendants be rulers over your brothers and their descendants.”

May your mother’s sons bow down to you: mother’s sons should probably be understood in the wider sense as descendants, as this expression means the same as your brothers. Bow down is the same as in the first part of this verse. The poetic effect of the close repetition is to emphasize the power and dominion given to the person who receives the blessing. Translators should determine what the effect of the repetition is, and use the poetic devices in their own languages that create emphasis.

The blessing comes to a close with a warning that anyone who curses Jacob (and his descendants) will receive a curse, and anyone who blesses him (them) will be blessed in turn. This recalls the blessing on Abraham in 12.3.

Cursed be everyone who curses you: for a discussion of curse see 3.14. Here again Isaac is calling upon God to punish by means of a curse, and we may translate “I ask God to curse everyone who curses you.” In some cases it may be more suitable to say “I ask God to punish [with a curse] everyone who puts a curse on you.” If a special term for curse is not available, we may also translate, for example, “I pray God to cause evil to happen to everyone who wishes you to have evil.”

In the final line, blessing is to be repaid by blessing, the opposite of the curse: and blessed be everyone who blesses you. To mark the contrast between blessing and curse, it may be best to begin with a contrastive connector such as “but” or “on the other hand.” In languages in which the passive cannot be used, it may be necessary to say “I ask God to bless everyone who blesses you,” “I pray God to do good to everybody who does good to you,” or “I ask God to prosper all who speak kind words of you.”

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 .

This verse represents a transition from the successful deception of Isaac to the return of the cheated Esau. Good News Translation inserts a heading before verse 30, and translators may wish to do the same. The Good News Translation heading may need to be modified to say, for example, “Esau begs Isaac to bless him.”

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob: Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew structure, which must often be rearranged to give a smooth reading of this verse. For example, in English it is more natural to say “Isaac finished giving his blessing, and as soon as Jacob left…” (as in Good News Translation), “When Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau came in from the hunt,” or “No sooner had Jacob received the blessing and had left his father than his brother Esau returned from hunting.” Since the blessing is a spoken ritual, it may be more natural to say, for example, “… had said the last words of the blessing” or “… had finished speaking the blessing.”

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 .

He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father: He is Esau. For savory food see Gen 27.4.

Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me: for translation of this line see verse 19. However, in many languages the use of the third person terms my father and his son will be difficult or impossible, and especially in the same utterance as that you may bless me. Where this is the case, translators may have to say something like “Please get up, father, and eat the meat I have prepared….” See also comments on verse 25.

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 .

The skins of the kids she put upon his hands: skins is the same word as used in 3.21, where animal skins are used to make clothing. For kids see Gen 27.9. Put translates the causative form of the verb to dress, the same as in verse 15. It is not said how Rebekah put these skins on Jacob’s hands. The word rendered hands refers to both the arms and hands. In translation it may be necessary to be more concrete and say something like “she tied the skins to his hands” or “she covered his arms with these skins.” The narrator gives the impression that the kid skins had just been taken from the animals and so were soft, and still wet on the under side.

Smooth part of his neck: smooth is the same word as used in verse 11. This may require adjusting in translation to something like Biblia Dios Habla Hoy: “on the part of his neck that had no hair.”

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 .

She gave the savory food and the bread: for savory food see Gen 27.4. Nothing was said in verse 4 about bread. However, we may assume that any dish Isaac and his people would eat would be accompanied by bread, as the broken pieces of bread were used to dip up the food and were thus served in place of eating utensils such as spoon and fork. Note also that “wine” is not mentioned here but occurs in verse 25 as part of the meal.

Most references in Genesis to bread have carried the sense of food generally. Here, as in 25.34, bread refers to the baked product of an oven. In areas where bread is not eaten but is known, a borrowed word is often available. If this is not the case, it may be possible to substitute a local item of food that serves the same purpose. If there is none, we may simply say “she handed him the special food she had cooked.”

Which she had prepared: this clause may refer to the savory food and the bread. However, Good News Translation and some others restrict it to the bread, “along with the bread she had baked.” Either way is possible.

Into the hand of her son Jacob: that is, “she gave to Jacob,” “put into his hands,” “handed to him.”

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 .

So he went in to his father: since this is an action that follows the event in verse 17, something equivalent to “Then” or “After that” may be more suitable. In some languages the transition to the place where Isaac is may need to be expressed more fully; for example, “Carrying the food in his hands, Jacob went to the room where his father was.”

My father: the form of address should be appropriate for this situation in the language and culture of the readers. It should be recalled that Jacob does not want to reveal who he really is.

And he said: he is Isaac, and this may need to be stated as “Isaac said.”

Here I am: Isaac’s reply is nearly the same as Abraham gave to God in 22.1. Isaac is not telling his son where to look for him in the room but is responding to Jacob’s words. In translation Isaac’s response should match the situation. In some cases this may be “I hear you,” “You’ve come,” “You say so.” Note Good News Translation “Yes.”

Isaac must be certain that he is dealing with his older son and so inquires who are you, my son? Isaac’s question does not mean that the voice he has heard is from a total stranger. He wishes only to distinguish between Esau and Jacob; that is, “Which of my sons are you?” See Good News Translation.

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 .