1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son, and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am."
2 He said, "Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.
3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me,
4 and prepare for me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat; that I may bless you before I die."
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "I heard your father speak to your brother Esau,
7 'Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it, and bless you before YHVH before I die.'
8 Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you.
9 Go to the flock, and fetch me two good kids, that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves;
10 and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies."
11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing."
The difference between Esau and Jacob is given to us in Jacob's own words: "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man." The Semitic word for "hairy," translators tell us, has a connotation of intemperance or licentiousness. In the Epistle to the Hebrews Paul calls Esau a "fornicator, or profane person." This may be taken in a literal sense or in the sense of one who commits spiritual adultery; that is, who is unfaithful to God, divine love. The name Esau also signifies "one swept away" or "one who rushes forward wildly and impulsively." He is the very opposite of Jacob, "the smooth," clean, reliable man.
13 His mother said to him, "Upon me be your curse, my son; only obey my word, and go, fetch them to me."
14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved.
15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son;
16 and the skins of the kids she put upon his hands and upon the smooth part of his neck;
17 and she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
Jacob was very dear to the heart of his mother. Rebekah symbolizes the beautiful and esthetic side of man's nature, the divine-natural. In keeping with the mother principle, in which these twin states of mind gestated and grew, she desires that the mental take precedence over the animal. The seeming trickery on the part of Rebekah and Jacob is an illustration of how we are moved by emotional states of consciousness and how, in our half-blind understanding, we accept their suggestions. The fact is that the soul (woman, Rebekah) is constantly making suggestions to us in dreams, visions, and intuitive flashes. These suggestions may sometimes be for our highest good and sometimes hey may not be. Spiritual understanding must determine this point and decide whether we should follow them or not. Rebekah represents the love of the ideal, and it is only through Jacob, the mental, that the ideal can be realized.
The mind feels that its claim to the control of life should come before the claims of physical sense. By its superior quickness, aided by the soul's (Rebekah's) love of mental acumen, the mental tricks the physical and secures the blessing of substance and the acknowledged authority in the organism. Then the head rules the heart in us until the touch of Spirit (Jacob's wrestling with the angel) arouses the soul to action and there is another supplanting, this time of the intellect's sterile claims, which are taken over by the soul. In reality the physical body has an equal right with the intellect to the uplifting and refining influence of Spirit. Being twins, they should be treated as equals, the law of the first-born should not be allowed to operate, but should be blessed and established in the substance of all good things.
18 So he went in to his father, and said, "My father"; and he said, "Here I am; who are you, my son?"
19 Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your first-born. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that you may bless me."
20 But Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" He answered, "Because YHVH, your God, granted me success."
21 Then, Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not."
22 So, Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."
23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.
24 He said, "Are you really my son Esau?" He answered, "I am."
25 Then he said, "Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you." So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then, his father Isaac said to him, "Come near and kiss me, my son."
27 So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, "See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which YHVH has blessed!
28 May the Gods give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.
29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be every one who curses you, and blessed be every one who blesses you!"
Isaac placed his blessing on Jacob. The real point is that the blessing imparts an inward impetus or an inspiration to the real, Spiritual Man. It stimulates the intellect (Jacob) first, which then supplants or takes precedence over the physical. This is the reason why intellectual people apparently get ahead; but "the last shall be first, and the first shall be last."