Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Rebekah led Jacob equipped and arrayed in this way to the door of
Isaac's chamber. There she parted from him with the words,
"Henceforward may thy Creator assist thee."[90] Jacob entered,
addressing Isaac with "Father," and receiving the response, "Here am I!
Who art thou, my son?" he replied equivocally, "It is I, thy first-born
son is Esau." He sought to avoid a falsehood, and yet not betray that
he was Jacob.[91] Isaac then said: "Thou art greatly in haste to secure
thy blessing. Thy father Abraham was seventy-five years old when he was
blessed, and thou art but sixty-three." Jacob replied awkwardly,
"Because the Lord thy God sent me good speed." Isaac concluded at once
that this was not Esau, for he would not have mentioned the name of
God, and he made up his mind to feel the son before him and make sure
who he was. Terror seized upon Jacob at the words of Isaac, "Come near,
I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son." A cold sweat covered his
body, and his heart melted like wax. Then God caused the archangels
Michael and Gabriel to descend. The one seized his right hand, the
other his left hand, while the Lord God Himself supported him, that his
courage might not fail him. Isaac felt him, and, finding his hands
hairy, he said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the
hands of Esau," words in which he conveyed the prophecy that so long as
the voice of Jacob is heard in the houses of prayer and of learning,
the hands of Esau will not be able to prevail against him. "Yes," he
continued, "it is the voice of Jacob, the voice that imposes silence
upon those on earth and in heaven," for even the angels may not raise
their voices in praise of God until Israel has finished his prayers.
Isaac's scruples about blessing the son before him were not yet
removed, for with his prophetical eye he foresaw that this one would
have descendants who would vex the Lord. At the same time, it was
revealed to him that even the sinners in Israel would turn penitents,
and then he was ready to bless Jacob. He bade him come near and kiss
him, to indicate that it would be Jacob who would imprint the last kiss
upon Isaac before he was consigned to the grave—he and none other. When
Jacob stood close to him, he discerned the fragrance of Paradise
clinging to him, and he exclaimed, "See, the smell of my son is as the
smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed."[92]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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