Genesis 27:3-5

27:3 Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game 1  for me. 27:4 Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then 2  I will eat it so that I may bless you 3  before I die.”

27:5 Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. 4  When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, 5 

Genesis 27:40

27:40 You will live by your sword

but you will serve your brother.

When you grow restless,

you will tear off his yoke

from your neck.” 6 

1 tn The Hebrew word is to be spelled either צַיִד (tsayid) following the marginal reading (Qere), or צֵידָה (tsedah) following the consonantal text (Kethib). Either way it is from the same root as the imperative צוּדָה (tsudah, “hunt down”).

2 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.

3 tn Heb “so that my soul may bless you.” The use of נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”) as the subject emphasizes that the blessing will be made with all Isaac’s desire and vitality. The conjunction “so that” closely relates the meal to the blessing, suggesting that this will be a ritual meal in conjunction with the giving of a formal blessing.

4 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by a conjunction with the subject, followed by the predicate) here introduces a new scene in the story.

5 tc The LXX adds here “to his father,” which may have been accidentally omitted in the MT.

6 sn You will tear off his yoke from your neck. It may be that this prophetic blessing found its fulfillment when Jerusalem fell and Edom got its revenge. The oracle makes Edom subservient to Israel and suggests the Edomites would live away from the best land and be forced to sustain themselves by violent measures.