Matthew Henry on Genesis 27:6-17
Rebekah is here contriving to procure for Jacob the blessing which was designed for Esau; and here,
I. The end was good, for she was directed in this intention by the oracle of God, by which she had been governed in dispensing her affections. God had said it should be so, that the elder should serve the younger; and therefore Rebekah resolves it shall be so, and cannot bear to see her husband designing to thwart the oracle of God. But,
II. The means were bad, and no way justifiable. If it was not a wrong to Esau to deprive him of the blessing (he himself having forfeited it by selling the birthright), yet it was a wrong to Isaac, taking advantage of his infirmity, to impose upon him; it was…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 27:6
Rebekah spake unto Jacob--She prized the blessing as invaluable; she knew that God intended it for the younger son [Gen 25:23]; and in her anxiety to secure its being conferred on the right object--on one who cared for religion--she acted in the sincerity of faith; but in crooked policy--with unenlightened zeal; on the false principle that the end would sanctify the means.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 27:5
And Rebekah heard - And was determined, if possible, to frustrate the design of Isaac, and procure the blessing for her favorite son. Some pretend that she received a Divine inspiration to the purpose; but if she had she needed not to have recourse to deceit, to help forward the accomplishment. Isaac, on being informed, would have had too much piety not to prefer the will of his Maker to his own partiality for his eldest son; but Rebekah had nothing of the kind to plead, and therefore had recourse to the most exceptionable means to accomplish her ends.
John Gill on Genesis 27:10
And thou shall bring it to thy father,.... For venison; and as if he was Esau that brought it:
that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death; to whom she knew by the divine oracle the blessing belonged, Genesis 25:23, as well as by virtue of the sale of the birthright to him by his brother, Genesis 25:33, and through Esau's forfeiting of it by marrying with the Canaanites, Genesis 26:34; in these her sentiments she was right, but wrong in the ways and means she took to get it for him.
