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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Genesis 27


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1When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he summoned hiselder son Esau. 'Son!' he said, and Esau replied, 'Here I am.'2He then said, 'Look, I am old and do not know when I may die.3Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go out into the country and hunt me some game.4Make me the kind of appetising dish I like and bring it to me to eat and I shal give you my specialblessing before I die.'5Rebekah was listening while Isaac was talking to his son Esau. So when Esau went into the country tohunt game for his father,6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, 'I have just heard your father saying to your brother Esau,7"Bring me some game and make an appetising dish for me to eat and then I shal bless you inYahweh's presence before I die."8Now, son, listen to me and do as I tel you.9Go to the flock and bring me back two good kids, so that I can make the kind of special dish yourfather likes.10Then take it to your father for him to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.'11Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, 'Look, my brother Esau is hairy, while I am smooth-skinned.12If my father happens to touch me, he wil see I am cheating him, and I shall bring a curse down onmyself instead of a blessing.'13But his mother replied, 'On me be the curse, my son! Just listen to me; go and fetch me the kids.'14So he went to fetch them and brought them to his mother, and she made the kind of special dish hisfather liked.15Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes, which she had at home, and dressed her youngerson Jacob in them,16covering his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the kids.17She then handed the special dish and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.18He went to his father and said, 'Father!' 'Yes?' he replied. 'Which of my sons are you?'19Jacob said to his father, 'I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eatsome of the game I have brought and then give me your soul's blessing.'20Isaac said to his son, 'Son, how did you succeed so quickly?' He replied, 'Because Yahweh your Godmade things go well for me.'21Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come closer, son, so that I can feel you and be sure whether you real y are myson Esau or not.'22Jacob went closer to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, 'The voice is Jacob's voice but the armsare the arms of Esau!'23He did not recognise him since his arms were hairy like his brother Esau's, and so he blessed him.24He said, 'Are you real y my son Esau?' And he replied, 'I am.'25Isaac said, 'Serve it to me, so that I can eat my son's game and give you my special blessing.' Heserved it to him and he ate; he offered him wine, and he drank.26His father Isaac said to him, 'Come closer, and kiss me, son.'27He went closer and kissed his father, who sniffed the smel of his clothes. Then he blessed him,saying: Ah, the smel of my son is like the smel of a fertile field which Yahweh has blessed.28May God give you dew from heaven, and the richness of the earth, abundance of grain and wine!29Let peoples serve you and nations bow low before you! Be master of your brothers; let your mother'sother sons bow low before you! Accursed be whoever curses you and blessed be whoever blesses you!30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and just as Jacob was leaving his father Isaac, hisbrother Esau returned from hunting.31He too made an appetising dish and brought it to his father, 'Father, please eat some of your son'sgame and then give me your special blessing.'32His father Isaac asked, 'Who are you?' 'I am your first-born son, Esau,' he replied.33At this Isaac was seized with a violent trembling and said, 'Who was it, then, that went hunting andbrought me the game? I finished eating it just before you came; I blessed him, and now blessed he wil remain!'34On hearing his father's words, Esau cried out loudly and bitterly and said to his father, 'Father, blessme too!'35But he replied, 'Your brother came by fraud and took your blessing.'36Esau said, 'His name should be Jacob right enough, for he has now supplanted me twice. First hetook my birthright, and look, now he has gone and taken my blessing! But', he added, 'have you not kept ablessing for me?'37Isaac replied to Esau, 'I have already made him your master; I have given him al his brothers asservants, I have given him grain and wine to sustain him. So what can I do for you, son?'38Esau said to his father, 'Can you bless only once, father? Father, bless me too.' Isaac remainedsilent, and Esau began to weep aloud.39Then his father Isaac spoke again and said: 'Far from the richness of the earth and the dew ofheaven above, your home will be.40By your sword you wil live, and your brother wil you serve. But when you win your freedom, you wilshake his yoke off your neck.'41Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, 'Thetime to mourn for my father wil soon be here. Then I shal kil my brother Jacob.'42When the words of Esau, her elder son, were repeated to Rebekah, she sent for her younger sonJacob and said to him, 'Look, your brother Esau means to take revenge and kil you.43Now, son, listen to me; go at once and take refuge with my brother Laban in Haran.44Stay with him a while, until your brother's fury cools,45until your brother's anger is diverted from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then Ishall send someone to bring you back. I do not want to lose you both on one day!'46Rebekah said to Isaac, 'The Hittite women sicken me to death. If Jacob were to marry a Hittitewoman like these, one of the local women, what would there be left in life for me?'