7.1.2 Gen. 27: The Fraud of the Firstborn Blessing

Story of a clever deception with the help of an unsympathetically biased  mother. And Yahweh plays along. But it is important to keep in mind  what has just been discussed: It is not about brotherly justice here (as  later in the story of Joseph), but about God’s plan. The closeness of this  idea of blessing to magical ideas is striking: A blessing once pronounced  cannot be taken back, even if it is based on deception. Later Prov. 26, 2  thinks differently of the direct opposite of blessing: “an undeserved curse  does not come to pass”. So we would think today also of a fraudulent  blessing. But it must all serve the Abrahamic promise. Our individual  ethical concerns simply fall short there. The blessing for Esau is then  rather “only a moderate curse” (Delitzsch). 

After all, the punishment for Jacob’s deception is that he now has to  emigrate head over heels. And he will have to lead a whole 20 years of  his life in a foreign country and virtually write off this lifetime. 

In the following Jacob’s blessing 27, 46ff vRad sees a doublet from the priestly writing of 27, 1ff, which comes from the Yahvist. They harmonize in order not to portray the patriarchs so negatively. It is also conceivable, however, that Delitzsch assumed that Rebekka did not want to let Jacob go without his father’s blessing and therefore spoke to Isaac about the foreign marriages.

This is the beginning of the episode with Laban, which has been discussed in detail.