†. Gen 27:14-15 . . He got them and brought them to his mother, and
his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. Rebecca then
took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the
house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on;
The word for "house" is from bayith (bah'-yith) which means: a dwelling (in
the greatest variation of applications), including family.
Does that mean Rebecca lived in a permanent structure? I don't think so.
Bayith doesn't always mean what we think. In Gen 6:14 it implied the
interior of the ark. At Gen 7:1 it implied Noah's family, and quite possibly
even all their belongings-- a regular Noah's Family Robinson. At Gen 15:2,
bayith implicated Abraham's entire estate: his tents, his livestock, and his
servants.
Some have proposed that Esau's best clothes were special-- for religious
observances --like the garments that priests might wear. But that certainly
doesn't fit Esau's character. I think it was just a nice outfit of some sort,
maybe even the one he got married in. But anyway, they sure didn't get
washed often because his clothes usually smelled like the outdoors-- and
that could mean anything from plain old dirt to wild flowers and meadow
grass.
But why were those clothes (viz: his cleanest dirty shirts) in Rebecca's
home? I believe it was because Rebecca anticipated this very day and kept
them right there handy so she could put them on Jacob when the time
came. And that is why she never washed the smell out of them. Jacob of
course was very likely a tidy sort of guy and kept his clothes clean. But Esau
was a rugged outdoor type who's clothes you would expect to have an odor.
†. Gen 27:16 . . and she covered his hands and the hairless part of
his neck with the skins of the kids.
Those hides would still be raw and untreated. So Rebecca had to scrub and
scrape to get all the fat and blood off so they wouldn't have a visceral smell
to them. Yuck! That's reminiscent of scenes from Silence Of The Lambs.
†. Gen 27:17 . .Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish
and the bread that she had prepared.
Yummy. From the kitchen of Becky Crocker; with biscuits and gravy too.
Well, this is as far as Rebecca can go. Now it's all up to Mr. Jacob to pull this
off. Good luck dude. Don't chicken out now. HWUAH! (Navy SEAL cheer)
†. Gen 27:18-19a . . He went to his father and said: Father. And he
said: Yes, which of my sons are you? Jacob said to his father: I am
Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me.
That boy makes me proud. No mumbling, no stuttering, no hesitation-- right
to it. Yes; he is a big fat liar. But I love it. You watch. Any day now he'll get
a letter in the mail from CIA recruiters praising his moral flexibility.
Note: when Jacob called out to his dad; he used what is known as a
"vocative" which Webster's defines as: of, relating to, or being a
grammatical case marking out the one addressed. In other words: a
vocative is intended to get the attention of a specific person in a room rather
than everybody in the room. This may seem superfluous, and I guess it isn't
germane to the study of Genesis; but the principle has an important
application in Christianity. Compare Rom 8:15 and Gal 4:6 where the
Aramaic vocative Abba indicates that the Father's children don't call out to
Him as merely a clan's paterfamilias, but rather, like Jacob did with Isaac: as
one's very own papa.
†. Gen 27:19b-20 . . Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may
give me your innermost blessing. Isaac said to his son: How did you
succeed so quickly, my son? And he said: Because the Lord your God
granted me good fortune.
What did he say!? My golly that man had chutzpah! He actually dragged the
name of God into the lie. Now Jacob will be condemned to the lower regions
for sure; or will he?
†. Mtt 8:11 . . I say unto you: that many shall come from the east and west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven.
†. Gen 27:21-23 . . Isaac said to Jacob: Come closer that I may feel
you, my son-- whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob
drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered: The voice
is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau. He did not
recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his
brother Esau; and so he blessed him.
So then, in spite of their twin-ness, there was enough of a difference in the
brothers' voices to be discernable. However, Rebecca somehow attached
size-cut pieces of young goat skin on the backs of Jacob's hands and fingers
with some sort of toupee adhesive so it would feel to Isaac as if it were a
man's natural hairs. That was a pretty good trick; and would probably land
her a job as a Hollywood make-up artist.
†. Gen 27:24 . . He asked: Are you truly my son Esau? And when he
said: I am,
Some people are of the opinion that Jacob was a mama's boy. Well, maybe
he was. But one thing he had that most mama's boys don't; and it's a level
head under stress. Jacob was as calm and calculating as a test pilot all
during this incident.
I tell you, that man amazes me. I bet Rebecca was just outside the door
sweating bullets while all this was going on; hoping and praying that Jacob
not lose his cool and bolt out of the room in a panic. This is just the kind of
cool under fire that the Secret Service looks for; but then, you need a pretty
high IQ to work with those guys.
†. Gen 27:25 . . he said: Serve me and let me eat of my son's game
that I may give you my innermost blessing. So he served him and he
ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.
The wine was probably out in the kitchen. When Jacob went back to get it,
don't you think Rebecca hugged him and gave him a great big thumbs up? I
do. Those two were a team! The original Mission Impossible task force.
While Isaac was eating, he and Jacob probably chatted. About what; I don't
have a clue. But Jacob managed to pull it off like a pro. Isaac really thought
he was talking with Esau.
†. Gen 27:26-27 . .Then his father Isaac said to him: Come close and
kiss me, my son. And he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his
clothes and he blessed him, saying, Ah, the smell of my son is like
the smell of the fields that the Lord has blessed.
Esau probably always smelled like that and Rebecca took full advantage of it.
He should have washed his clothes once in a while. Good grief the man had
two wives. What the heck did they do all day? Neglect their chores to watch
Oprah, Dr. Phil, Judge Judy, and the Soaps? I bet if you visited Esau's home
the kids were running around in dirty underwear and snotty noses all the
time. You probably had to kick a path to walk and wouldn't dare sit down
because something might stick. Poor Rebecca. What a pair of daughters-in
law. I bet when they all got together on holidays, Judith and Basemath sat
around on their tushes and gossiped while Rebecca and Jacob did all the
dishes.
Cont.
/
his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. Rebecca then
took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the
house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on;
The word for "house" is from bayith (bah'-yith) which means: a dwelling (in
the greatest variation of applications), including family.
Does that mean Rebecca lived in a permanent structure? I don't think so.
Bayith doesn't always mean what we think. In Gen 6:14 it implied the
interior of the ark. At Gen 7:1 it implied Noah's family, and quite possibly
even all their belongings-- a regular Noah's Family Robinson. At Gen 15:2,
bayith implicated Abraham's entire estate: his tents, his livestock, and his
servants.
Some have proposed that Esau's best clothes were special-- for religious
observances --like the garments that priests might wear. But that certainly
doesn't fit Esau's character. I think it was just a nice outfit of some sort,
maybe even the one he got married in. But anyway, they sure didn't get
washed often because his clothes usually smelled like the outdoors-- and
that could mean anything from plain old dirt to wild flowers and meadow
grass.
But why were those clothes (viz: his cleanest dirty shirts) in Rebecca's
home? I believe it was because Rebecca anticipated this very day and kept
them right there handy so she could put them on Jacob when the time
came. And that is why she never washed the smell out of them. Jacob of
course was very likely a tidy sort of guy and kept his clothes clean. But Esau
was a rugged outdoor type who's clothes you would expect to have an odor.
†. Gen 27:16 . . and she covered his hands and the hairless part of
his neck with the skins of the kids.
Those hides would still be raw and untreated. So Rebecca had to scrub and
scrape to get all the fat and blood off so they wouldn't have a visceral smell
to them. Yuck! That's reminiscent of scenes from Silence Of The Lambs.
†. Gen 27:17 . .Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish
and the bread that she had prepared.
Yummy. From the kitchen of Becky Crocker; with biscuits and gravy too.
Well, this is as far as Rebecca can go. Now it's all up to Mr. Jacob to pull this
off. Good luck dude. Don't chicken out now. HWUAH! (Navy SEAL cheer)
†. Gen 27:18-19a . . He went to his father and said: Father. And he
said: Yes, which of my sons are you? Jacob said to his father: I am
Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me.
That boy makes me proud. No mumbling, no stuttering, no hesitation-- right
to it. Yes; he is a big fat liar. But I love it. You watch. Any day now he'll get
a letter in the mail from CIA recruiters praising his moral flexibility.
Note: when Jacob called out to his dad; he used what is known as a
"vocative" which Webster's defines as: of, relating to, or being a
grammatical case marking out the one addressed. In other words: a
vocative is intended to get the attention of a specific person in a room rather
than everybody in the room. This may seem superfluous, and I guess it isn't
germane to the study of Genesis; but the principle has an important
application in Christianity. Compare Rom 8:15 and Gal 4:6 where the
Aramaic vocative Abba indicates that the Father's children don't call out to
Him as merely a clan's paterfamilias, but rather, like Jacob did with Isaac: as
one's very own papa.
†. Gen 27:19b-20 . . Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may
give me your innermost blessing. Isaac said to his son: How did you
succeed so quickly, my son? And he said: Because the Lord your God
granted me good fortune.
What did he say!? My golly that man had chutzpah! He actually dragged the
name of God into the lie. Now Jacob will be condemned to the lower regions
for sure; or will he?
†. Mtt 8:11 . . I say unto you: that many shall come from the east and west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven.
†. Gen 27:21-23 . . Isaac said to Jacob: Come closer that I may feel
you, my son-- whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob
drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered: The voice
is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau. He did not
recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his
brother Esau; and so he blessed him.
So then, in spite of their twin-ness, there was enough of a difference in the
brothers' voices to be discernable. However, Rebecca somehow attached
size-cut pieces of young goat skin on the backs of Jacob's hands and fingers
with some sort of toupee adhesive so it would feel to Isaac as if it were a
man's natural hairs. That was a pretty good trick; and would probably land
her a job as a Hollywood make-up artist.
†. Gen 27:24 . . He asked: Are you truly my son Esau? And when he
said: I am,
Some people are of the opinion that Jacob was a mama's boy. Well, maybe
he was. But one thing he had that most mama's boys don't; and it's a level
head under stress. Jacob was as calm and calculating as a test pilot all
during this incident.
I tell you, that man amazes me. I bet Rebecca was just outside the door
sweating bullets while all this was going on; hoping and praying that Jacob
not lose his cool and bolt out of the room in a panic. This is just the kind of
cool under fire that the Secret Service looks for; but then, you need a pretty
high IQ to work with those guys.
†. Gen 27:25 . . he said: Serve me and let me eat of my son's game
that I may give you my innermost blessing. So he served him and he
ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.
The wine was probably out in the kitchen. When Jacob went back to get it,
don't you think Rebecca hugged him and gave him a great big thumbs up? I
do. Those two were a team! The original Mission Impossible task force.
While Isaac was eating, he and Jacob probably chatted. About what; I don't
have a clue. But Jacob managed to pull it off like a pro. Isaac really thought
he was talking with Esau.
†. Gen 27:26-27 . .Then his father Isaac said to him: Come close and
kiss me, my son. And he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his
clothes and he blessed him, saying, Ah, the smell of my son is like
the smell of the fields that the Lord has blessed.
Esau probably always smelled like that and Rebecca took full advantage of it.
He should have washed his clothes once in a while. Good grief the man had
two wives. What the heck did they do all day? Neglect their chores to watch
Oprah, Dr. Phil, Judge Judy, and the Soaps? I bet if you visited Esau's home
the kids were running around in dirty underwear and snotty noses all the
time. You probably had to kick a path to walk and wouldn't dare sit down
because something might stick. Poor Rebecca. What a pair of daughters-in
law. I bet when they all got together on holidays, Judith and Basemath sat
around on their tushes and gossiped while Rebecca and Jacob did all the
dishes.
Cont.
/
