Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the
goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
Rebekah is here contriving to procure for Jacob the blessing which was designed for Esau; and here,
I The end was good, for she was directed in this intention by the oracle of God, by which she had been governed in dispensing her affections. God had said it should be so, that the elder should serve the younger; and therefore Rebekah resolves it shall be so, and cannot bear to see her husband designing to thwart the oracle of God. But,
II This trickery is worthy of blame because she should have waited for God to perform his promise. The means were bad, and no way justifiable. If it was not a wrong to Esau to deprive him of the blessing (he himself having forfeited it by selling the birthright), yet it was a wrong to Isaac, taking advantage of his infirmity, to impose upon him; it was a wrong to Jacob too, whom she taught to deceive, by putting a lie into his mouth, or at least by putting one into his right hand. It would likewise expose him to endless scruples about the blessing, if he should obtain it thus fraudulently, whether it would stand him or his in any stead, especially if his father should revoke it, upon the discovery of the cheat, and plead, as he might, that it was nulled by an error personæ--a mistake of the person. He himself also was aware of the danger, lest (Ge 27:12), if he should miss of the blessing, as he might probably have done, he should bring upon himself his father's curse, which he dreaded above anything; besides, he laid himself open to that divine curse which is pronounced upon him that causeth the blind to wander out of the way, De 27:18. If Rebekah, when she heard Isaac promise the blessing to Esau, had gone, at his return from hunting, to Isaac, and, with humility and seriousness, put him in remembrance of that which God had said concerning their sons,--if she further had shown him how Esau had forfeited the blessing both by selling his birthright