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[269]
Accordingly, Esau went out a hunting. But Rebeka 1
thinking it proper to have the supplication made for obtaining the favor
of God to Jacob, and that without the consent of Isaac, bid him kill kids
of the goats, and prepare a supper. So Jacob obeyed his mother, according
to all her instructions. Now when the supper was got ready, he took a goat's
skin, and put it about his arm, that by reason of its hairy roughness,
he might by his father be believed to be Esau; for they being twins, and
in all things else alike, differed only in this thing. This was done out
of his fear, that before his father had made his supplications, he should
be caught in his evil practice, and lest he should, on the contrary, provoke
his father to curse him. So he brought in the supper to his father. Isaac
perceivest to be Esau." So suspecting no deceit, he ate the supper,
and betook himself to his prayers and intercessions with God; and said,
"O Lord of all ages, and Creator of all substance; for it was thou
that didst propose to my father great plenty of good things, and hast vouchsafed
to bestow on me what I have; and hast promised to my posterity to be their
kind supporter, and to bestow on them still greater blessings; do thou
therefore confirm these thy promises, and do not overlook me, because of
my present weak condition, on account of which I most earnestly pray to
thee. Be gracious to this my son; and preserve him and keep him from every
thing that is evil. Give him a happy life, and the possession of as many
good things as thy power is able to bestow. Make him terrible to his enemies,
and honorable and beloved among his friends."
1 Whether Jacob or his mother Rebeka were most blameable in this imposition upon Isaac in his old age, I cannot determine. However the blessing being delivered as a prediction of future events, by a Divine impulse, and foretelling things to befall to the posterity of Jacob and Esau in future ages, was for certain providential; and according to what Rebeka knew to be the purpose of God, when he answered her inquiry, "before the children were born," Genesis 25:23, "that one people should be stronger than the other people; and the elder, Esau, should serve the younger, Jacob." Whether Isaac knew or remembered this old oracle, delivered in our copies only to Rebeka; or whether, if he knew and remembered it, he did not endeavor to alter the Divine determination, out of his fondness for his elder and worser son Esau, to the damage of his younger and better son Jacob, as Josephus elsewhere supposes, Antiq. B. II. ch. 7. sect. 3; I cannot certainly say. if so, this might tempt Rebeka to contrive, and Jacob to put this imposition upon him. However, Josephus says here, that it was Isaac, and not Rebeka, who inquired of God at first, and received the forementioned oracle, sect. 1; which, if it be the true reading, renders Isaac's procedure more inexcusable. Nor was it probably any thing else that so much encouraged Esau formerly to marry two Canaanitish wives, without his parents' consent, as Isaac's unhappy fondness for him.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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