Esau was the older son, and to him belonged the honors of the family. It was his duty, too, to offer sacrifices and serve as the high priest in the home; for such was the custom of the times.
But Esau cared little either for honor or religious services. And so, one day when he came home from the hunt, hungry and thirsty, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of pottage that Jacob sat eating before the door of his home.
Now, Isaac loved this son better than he loved Jacob, and was grieved and disappointed that he should have sold his birthright so foolishly; for now to Jacob rather than to Esau would fall the blessings of God.
But it could not now be helped, and Jacob took up the office of high priest in the house of Isaac.
As Isaac grew old, to him was given the gift of prophecy; and whomsoever he blessed, honor and prosperity was sure to follow. When Rebekah knew this, her heart was filled with but one desire,--that Isaac's blessing should fall upon Jacob rather than upon Esau; for she knew how unworthy Esau was in spirit, and how little he would strive to honor God when the household became his own.
So, one day when Esau was away upon the hunt, she called Jacob to her and bade him go kneel beside his old father and ask his blessing.
But Jacob said, "Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man and I a smooth man. My father, perhaps, will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver."
Rebekah said, "Obey my voice, my son." And Jacob yielded.
Then Rebekah took some clothes belonging to Esau and put them upon Jacob; and she put the skin of the kids that he had brought her upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck.
Then Jacob knelt before his father, whose eyes were dimmed with old age, and said, "Bless me, my father."
And Jacob said, "I am Esau, thy first born."
Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near, that I may feel whether thou be my very son Esau or not."
So Jacob went near to his father, and the father felt of him; and he said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."
Then Isaac, thinking it was Esau who knelt, blessed him as his first-born, and said, "The Lord bless thee, and give thee plenty of corn and wine. Let the people serve thee; and be thou lord over all thy brethren."