Genesis 28 – This chapter is a retelling of what just happened in 27. In this telling of the story there is more of an emphasis on where the “blessed son” should go and whom he should marry. Here Jacob does not flee from his brother’s wrath; he simply follows the instructions of his father to go to his grandfather Bethuel and marry one of his uncle’s daughters. It seems as if Esau thinks he looses the blessing not because of any chicanery of his brother but because he married women…

Genesis 27 - Here is the heart of the Jacob-Esau story. Isaac [Yitzak] “was old and turning blind” (27:1).  He calls for his older son, Esau to make him some of the stew Esau cooks so well; he sends him off, planning to reward him with “the blessing that belongs to his firstborn son” (27:4). The Tanakh calls it his “innermost” blessing. 

But Rebekah overhears her husband’s plan and gets Jacob working on the deception she has planned for a while. …

Genesis 26 – A severe famine strikes the land, so Isaac moves to Gerar, where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lives. “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants, just as I solemnly promised Abraham, your father” (26:2-3). So Isaac stays in Gerar.

But when “the men…