found and prepared so quickly, and Jacob replied, "Because the Lord thy
God brought it to me."

Still Isaac was not satisfied and had him come nearer that he might
feel of him, but the disguise was good and Isaac said, "The voice is
Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." But before he ate
he made one more appeal. "Art thou," he asked, "my very son Esau?" and
Jacob, forced by the first lie to tell another and then another,
replied, "I am."

Isaac ate the food and then blessed Jacob, whom he supposed to be Esau.
He promised a great and prosperous future for him. People and nations
should serve him, and his brothers should bow down to him. Scarcely
had Jacob left his father, when Esau came back with the food his father
had asked him to bring and claimed the blessing.

When Isaac realized that he had been deceived he told Esau that he
could not recall the promises he had made to the one who had brought
him the food, and then Esau, who had sold his birthright, and now had
been tricked out of the blessing that was rightfully his, cried out
bitterly, "Bless me, even me also, O my father."

Then Isaac told him that it was his brother Jacob who had robbed him,
and Esau replied, "Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath
supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold,
now he hath taken away my blessing. Hast thou not reserved a blessing
for me?" And then in the bitterness of his heart he wept.

Moved by Esau's distress, Isaac did bless him, but the promises he made
were different from those he had given Jacob. He told Esau that he