Genesis 27:31

Summary

This verse narrates that Esau also prepared savory food and brought it to his father, then spoke to him, asking him to arise and eat from his game so that his father's inner being might bless him. The verse mirrors, almost word for word, the actions Jacob had already performed earlier in the chapter, now carried out by Esau — but too late.

Key words

• gam ("also", H1571) — the adverb marks Esau's action as a repetition or parallel of a prior action (Jacob's deception), signaling narrative irony since the text has already recorded a nearly identical sequence.
• yaqum ("let him arise", H6965B) — qal imperfect used with jussive/volitive force, expressing Esau's wish/request rather than a simple future statement.
• yo'khal ("let him eat", H0398) — imperfect with vav, syntactically continuing the volitive sense of yaqum, forming a purpose chain: "let him arise and [then] let him eat."
• tevarakhanni ("she may bless me", H1288) — piel jussive, third person feminine, intensive stem; the verb's subject is not "father" grammatically but nafshekha ("your self/soul", H5315I), a feminine noun — so literally "your nefesh may bless me."
• ba'avur ("in order that", H5668) — a compound preposition + noun construction introducing purpose, tying the eating of the game directly to the desired blessing.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places the grammatical subject of the blessing not on "father" ('avi, H0001G) directly, but on nafshekha, "your nefesh" (H5315I), a feminine singular noun taking the feminine verb tevarakhanni. This is the same construction used earlier by Jacob (with Rebekah's coaching) in the chapter, and its repetition here — introduced by gam ("also", H1571) — creates a structural echo: Esau performs the identical sequence of actions (preparing food, bringing it, urging his father to rise, eat, and bless) that Jacob had just completed. The imperfect verb chain yaqum...ve-yo'khal (H6965B, H0398) conveys a string of requested actions in sequence — first rising, then eating — leading grammatically toward the final purpose clause marked by ba'avur (H5668), "in order that."

The construct chain tzeid beno ("game of his son", H6718A + H1121A) identifies the food as coming specifically from "his son," a third-person self-reference Esau uses about himself, consistent with the formal, deferential speech pattern used earlier by Jacob impersonating Esau.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose clause with a future indicative, εὐλογήσει ("will bless"), where the Hebrew tevarakhanni (H1288) is a jussive form ("may bless" / "let ... bless"); this shifts the nuance from a requested outcome to a stated future result. The Vulgate's benedicat preserves the subjunctive/volitive sense closer to the Hebrew jussive. All versions agree on the basic sequence of actions (preparing, bringing, speaking, rising, eating, blessing).