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Genesis 27 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Some translations set poetry farther to the right than the rest of the text to show that it is poetry. The ULB does this with the poetry in 27:27-29 and in 27:39-40.
Special concepts in this chapter
Blessing
In the ancient Near East, a father's blessing was very important. This spoken blessing was legally binding. Jacob previously received the birthright from Esau and was guaranteed the double portion of land money that was supposed to be inherited by the older son, Esau. In this chapter, Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him Esau's blessing. This means that he is to inherit the promises of the covenant Yahweh made with Abraham. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/bless, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/birthright, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/inherit and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/promise and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/covenant)