Genesis 27:8-11

27:8 Now then, my son, do ¹  exactly what I tell you! ²  27:9 Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I’ll prepare ³  them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them. 27:10 Then you will take ⁴  it to your father. Thus he will eat it ⁵  and ⁶  bless you before he dies.”

27:11 “But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! ⁷ 

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¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The Hebrew idiom means “to comply; to obey.”

² tn Heb “to that which I am commanding you.”

³ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.

⁴ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive. It carries forward the tone of instruction initiated by the command to “go…and get” in the preceding verse.

⁵ tn The form is the perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it carries the future nuance of the preceding verbs of instruction, but by switching the subject to Jacob, indicates the expected result of the subterfuge.

⁶ tn Heb “so that.” The conjunction indicates purpose or result.

⁷ tn Heb “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth [skinned] man.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.