What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
Parallel Translations
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What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
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My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
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My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a mocker; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.'
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Genesis 27:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 27:18 ‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Genesis 25:27 The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
- Genesis 27:36 He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
- Job 12:16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
- Malachi 1:14 “But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true;
- 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.
- Genesis 9:25 He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
- Genesis 27:21-22 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
- Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed is he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, before his eyes.
Hebrew, before his eyes.
Or, as though I would deceive him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and…
Gen 27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
Ver. 12. My father peradventure will feel me.] Our heavenly Father will certainly feel us, and better feel us; and we shall feel him too, in his fatherly corrections, before he bless us. Suffer we must, or ere we reign: no coming to the crown, but by the cross. Christ himself was "perfected by sufferings"; {Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9} and we must be "conformed to his image". {Rom 8:29} When Ignatius came to the wild beasts, Now, saith he, I begin to be a Christian. Qui non eat Crucianus, non est Christianus, saith Luther, on the 29th of Genesis: and in another place, I have no stronger argument, saith he, against the Pope’s kingdom, than this, that he reigneth without the cross.
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And I shall seem to him as a deceiver.] So shall all complimenting hypocrites to God, that pretend his service to their wicked or worldly ends and aims. They think, belike, to deceive him; {a} but therein they are fairly deceived, for he searcheth the hearts; and bring a curse, instead of a blessing, upon themselves and their posterity. "The hypocrite in heart heaps up wrath". {Job 36:13} Nemo enim magis; ram meretur, saith a father, {b} quam amicum simulans inimicus . Where shall we read of a hypocrite received to mercy?
{a} Sapiens nummularius Deus est: nummum fictum non recipiet. - Bern,
{b} Bern.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I shall appear to him to be indeed a…
I shall appear to him to be indeed a deceiver, one that abuseth his age and blindness. The particle as sometimes signifies not the likeness, but the truth of the thing, Joh 1:14; 2Co 3:18.
I shall bring a curse upon me, which is due to every one that deceiveth the blind, Deu 27:18, especially his father, and especially in a religious concern, Jer 48:10; Mal 1:14, such as this was.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain My father peradventure will feel me,.... For, though he…
My father peradventure will feel me,.... For, though he could not see him, and so discern whether he had any hair or no on him, yet, suspecting him by his voice, he might call him to him to feel him, as he did; for Jacob understood his mother right, that he was to represent his brother Esau in the transaction of this affair:
and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; one that imposes upon another and causes him to err, leads him to say or do wrong things: and not only appear as one, but be really one, and even a very great one, as the doubling of the radical letters in the word shows; yea, the worst of deceivers, a deceiver of a parent, of one that was both aged and blind:
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and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing; and he might justly fear, that should he be found out, it would so provoke his father, that instead of blessing him, he would curse him, see Deu 27:18.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. I shall bring a curse upon me]…
Verse 12. I shall bring a curse upon me] For even in those early times the spirit of that law was understood, De 27:18: Cursed is he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way; and Jacob seems to have possessed at this time a more tender conscience than his mother.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Mocked him, taking advantage of his blindness and old…
Mocked him, taking advantage of his blindness and old age. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. I shall seem to him as a deceiver…
12. I shall seem to him as a deceiver — Jacob is cautious and far-sighted; but his words show that he shrinks not from the proposed deception from a feeling that it would be wrong, but only from a fear of detection and a curse. Rebekah has no fear in this regard. Even if detected, she is willing to risk any curse likely to come from one who deliberately attempts to subvert prophecy. She looks at the end to be attained, and scruples not at the means to attain it.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. will feel me] Isaac’s sight was no longer…
12. will feel me] Isaac’s sight was no longer good enough to distinguish between his sons; but the sense of touch would remove all doubt.
a deceiver] Better, as R.V. marg., a mocker. LXX ὡς καταφρονῶν, “a profane trifler,” one who treats in a contemptuous way the solemn religious blessing of his father. A rare Heb. word, rendered “scoff,” 2Ch_36:16.
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a curse] Jacob apprehends that his profanity will be visited by a solemn religious denunciation. If so, he will be a loser, not a gainer, by the trick. The thought of risk, not the deception, troubles him.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall…
My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; literally, shall be in his eyes as a scorer (Keil, Lange), with the idea of mocking at his aged sire"s infirmities wJv katafronwn (LXX); or as a deceiver, an imposter, one who causes to go astray (Vulgate, Rosenm Ainsworth, Murphy); though perhaps both senses should he-included, the verb T; to scoff, meaning primarily to stammer, and hence to mislead by imperfect speech, and thus to cause to wander or lead astray, hT (vide Gesenius, p, 870, and Kalisch, p. 506) and I shall bring a curse hllq (from llq to be light, hence to be despised) signifies first an expression of contempt, and then a more solemn imprecationupon me, and not a blessing.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.