Genesis 27:3

Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Thy quiver.—This word does not occur elsewhere, and is rendered in the Targum and Syriac a sword. As it is derived from a root signifying to hang, it probably means, like our word hanger, a sort of knife; but all that we can say for certain is that it was some sort of hunting implement.

Take me some venison.—The Heb. is hunt me a hunting. “Venison,” the Latin venatio, means anything taken by hunting.

Benson Commentary

Genesis 27:3. Take me some venison — In this Isaac designed, not so much the refreshment of his own spirits, as the receiving a fresh instance of his son’s filial duty and affection to him, before he bestowed the designed favour upon him. That my soul may bless thee before I die — May confer my solemn, extraordinary, and prophetic blessing, and thereby may declare and constitute thee the heir of all the blessings bestowed by God upon me and my fathers. For it was no common blessing that Isaac meant for Esau, but that important patriarchal benediction which chiefly related to the peculiar and extraordinary covenant which God entered into with Abraham, to be a God to him and his seed, and to give them the land of Canaan, and in particular to that fundamental part of it, that the Messiah should be of his seed, and bless all the families of the earth. Isaac, out of a fond affection for Esau, endeavoured to entail this blessing on him, unmindful of the oracle that the elder should serve the younger.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

27:1-5 The promises of the Messiah, and of the land of Canaan, had come down to Isaac. Isaac being now about 135 years of age, and his sons about 75, and not duly considering the Divine word concerning his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger, resolved to put all the honour and power that were in the promise, upon Esau his eldest son. We are very apt to take measures rather from our own reason than from Divine revelation, and thereby often miss our way.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Isaac was old. - Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty. When Joseph was born, therefore, Jacob was ninety-one, and he had sojourned fourteen years in Padan-aram. Hence, Jacob's flight to Laban took place when he was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth year of Isaac. "His eyes were dim." Weakness and even loss of sight is more frequent in Palestine than with us. "His older son." Isaac had not yet come to the conclusion that Jacob was heir of the promise. The communication from the Lord to Rebekah concerning her yet unborn sons in the form in which it is handed down to us merely determines that the older shall serve the younger. This fact Isaac seems to have thought might not imply the transferrence of the birthright; and if he was aware of the transaction between Esau and Jacob, he may not have regarded it as valid. Hence, he makes arrangements for bestowing the paternal benediction on Esau, his older son, whom he also loves. "I am old." At the age of one hundred and thirty-six, and with failing sight, he felt that life was uncertain. In the calmness of determination he directs Esau to prepare savory meat, such as he loved, that he may have his vigor renewed and his spirits revived for the solemn business of bestowing that blessing, which he held to be fraught with more than ordinary benefits.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 27

Ge 27:1-27. Infirmity of Isaac.

1. when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim—He was in his hundred thirty-seventh year; and apprehending death to be near, Isaac prepared to make his last will—an act of the gravest importance, especially as it included the conveyance through a prophetic spirit of the patriarchal blessing.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thy quiver, or, as the Chaldee and Hebrew doctors render it, thy sword; a weapon no less necessary for a hunter of beasts than a bow.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons,.... Or "thy vessels", or "instruments" (n), his instruments of hunting: as

thy quiver and thy bow; the former is the vessel or instrument, in which arrows were put and carried, and has its name in the Hebrew language from its being hung at the girdle, though another word is more commonly used for a quiver; and Onkelos and Jarchi interpret this of a sword; and which is not disapproved of by Aben Ezra and Ben Melech, who explain it either a quiver or a sword; and the latter was as necessary for hunting as the former, see Genesis 27:40; and such a sword may be meant, as Mr. Fuller observes (o), which we call a "hanger" (i.e. a small sword often worn by seamen); and of the bow being an instrument of hunting, not anything need be said:

and go out to the field, and take me some venison; this does not necessarily intend what we commonly call so, but anything hunted in the field, as hares, wild goats, &c. and indeed the latter seems to be what Isaac loved, by the preparation Rebekah afterwards made.

(n) "instrumenta tua", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "vasa tua", Vatablus. (o) Miscell. Sacr. l. 1. c. 17.

Geneva Study Bible

Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. thy weapons] The quiver and bow are the huntsman’s weapons. Esau as “a man of the field” (Genesis 25:27) is to go out “to the field,” i.e. the open country. Targum of Onkelos, “thy sword and thy bow”; cf. Genesis 48:22.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, - the word "weapon" signifying a utensil, vessel, or finished instrument of any sort (cf. Genesis 14:23; Genesis 31:37; Genesis 45:20). Here it manifestly denotes weapons employed in hunting, and in particular those next specified - thy quiver - the ἅπαξ λέγομενον, תְּלִי: from תָּלָה to hang, properly is "that which is suspended;" hence a quiver, φαρέτραν (LXX.), pharetram (Vulgate), which commonly depends from the shoulders or girdle (Aben Ezra, Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch, et alii), though by some it is rendered "sword" (Onkelos; Syriac) - and thy bow (vide Genesis 21:16), and go oat to the field, - i.e. the open country inhabited by wild beasts, as opposed to cities, villages, or camps (cf. Genesis 25:27) - and take me some venison - literally, hunt for me hunting, i.e. the produce of hunting, as in Genesis 25:28. Genesis 27:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could no longer see (מראת from seeing, with the neg. מן as in Genesis 16:2, etc.), he wished, in the consciousness of approaching death, to give his blessing to his elder son. Isaac was then in his 137th year, at which age his half-brother Ishmael had died fourteen years before;

(Note: Cf. Lightfoot, opp. 1, p. 19. This correct estimate of Luther's is based upon the following calculation: - When Joseph was introduced to Pharaoh he was thirty years old (Genesis 41:46), and when Jacob went into Egypt, thirty-nine, as the seven years of abundance and two of famine had then passed by (Genesis 45:6). But Jacob was at that time 130 years old (Genesis 47:9). Consequently Joseph was born before Jacob was ninety-one; and as his birth took place in the fourteenth year of Jacob's sojourn in Mesopotamia (cf. Genesis 30:25, and Genesis 29:18, Genesis 29:21, and Genesis 29:27), Jacob's flight to Laban occurred in the seventy-seventh year of his own life, and the 137th of Isaac's.)

and this, with the increasing infirmities of age, may have suggested the thought of death, though he did not die till forty-three years afterwards (Genesis 35:28). Without regard to the words which were spoken by God with reference to the children before their birth, and without taking any notice of Esau's frivolous barter of his birthright and his ungodly connection with Canaanites, Isaac maintained his preference for Esau, and directed him therefore to take his things (כּלים, hunting gear), his quiver and bow, to hunt game and prepare a savoury dish, that he might eat, and his soul might bless him. As his preference for Esau was fostered and strengthened by, if it did not spring from, his liking for game (Genesis 25:28), so now he wished to raise his spirits for imparting the blessing by a dish of venison prepared to his taste. In this the infirmity of his flesh is evident. At the same time, it was not merely because of his partiality for Esau, but unquestionably on account of the natural rights of the first-born, that he wished to impart the blessing to him, just as the desire to do this before his death arose from the consciousness of his patriarchal call.