the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
plenty
וְרֹ֥בve.Ro
H7230
abundance (in any respect) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
corn
דָּגָ֖ןda.Gan
H1715
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
wine
וְתִירֹֽשׁve.ti.Rosh
H8492
must or fresh grape-juice (as just squeezed out) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 33:28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
Deuteronomy 33:13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth benea…
Psalms 133:3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for eve…
Hosea 14:5-7 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
Deuteronomy 7:13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and…
2 Samuel 1:21 Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the might…
Psalms 65:9-13 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn,…
Zechariah 8:12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their de…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 27:18-29
Observe here, I. The art and assurance with which Jacob managed this intrigue. Who would have thought that this plain man could have played his part so well in a design of this nature? His mother having put him in the way of it, and encouraged him in it, he dexterously applied himself to those methods which he had never accustomed himself to, but had always conceived an abhorrence of. Note, Lying is soon learnt. The psalmist speaks of those who, as soon as they are born, speak lies, Psa 58:3; Jer 9:5. I wonder how honest Jacob could so readily turn his tongue to say (Gen 27:19), I am Esau thy first-born; nor do I see how the endeavour of some to bring him off with that equivocation, I am mad…
THE BLESSING. (Gen. 27:28-46)
God give thee of the dew of heaven--To an Oriental mind, this phraseology implied the highest flow of prosperity. The copious fall of dew is indispensable to the fruitfulness of lands, which would be otherwise arid and sterile through the violent heat; and it abounds most in hilly regions, such as Canaan, hence called the "fat land" (Neh 9:25, Neh 9:35).
plenty of corn and wine--Palestine was famous for vineyards, and it produced varieties of corn, namely, wheat, barley, oats, and rye.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 27:28
God give thee of the dew of heaven - Bp. Newton's view of these predictions is so correct and appropriate, as to leave no wish for any thing farther on the subject.
"It is here foretold, and in Gen 27:39, of these two brethren, that as to situation, and other temporal advantages, they should be much alike. It was said to Jacob: God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; and much the same is said to Esau, Gen 27:39 : Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. The spiritual blessing, or the promise of the blessed seed, could be given only to One; but temporal good things might be imparted to b…
These things therefore fit with Christ and also fit quite reasonably with the new people: "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine." The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, that is, the Word, was given to us by the Father, together with the participation through the Spirit, and therefore we were made participants in the divine nature through him. And we also received plenty of grain and wine, that is, strength and happiness. In fact, it is said truly, "Bread strengthens the heart of man, and wine makes glad his heart." Bread is the symbol of spiritual strength, wine of the physical. They are given to those who are in Christ through him. In which other way were we made stable and firm in piety and immovable and aware to think the right things? Certainly the power "to trample serpents and scorpions underfoot and the whole power of the enemy" was given to us. This, I believe, is the meaning of the abundance of grain. But we have also received wine. "We rejoice in hope," and "we have become glad," according to Scripture. We expect heavenly dwellings, an eternal life in incorruption, and to reign together with Christ. Therefore these things may be said about us.
If one believes that this blessing was accomplished in Jacob, he is mistaken. Nothing of this ever happened to Jacob. First we find him in Mesopotamia at the service of Laban for twenty years; then he prostrates himself before his brother Esau and tries to make himself pleasing to him by offering presents; after this he goes down to Egypt to avoid starvation with his children. In whom then have the words "Ah, the smell of the clothes of my son is like the smell of a fruitful field that the Lord has blessed" been accomplished? In nobody else but Christ, Son of God. In fact, the field is the world, and the smell of his clothes are all those who believe in him, according to what the apostle says: "We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life."The words "May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine" signify clearly the Word, who came down from heaven like dew. The earth is the flesh that he has assumed from the Virgin. Through the words "plenty of grain and wine," the prophet signifies the saints, who are gathered together like the grain in a barn and are justified by the Spirit as by wine.
Dictionary and topics
Corn — The word so rendered (dagan) in Gen. 27:28, 37, Num. 18:27, Deut. 28:51, Lam. 2:12, is a general term representing all the commodities we usually describe by the words corn, grain, seeds, peas,…
Dew — “There is no dew properly so called in Palestine, for there is no moisture in the hot summer air to be chilled into dew-drops by the coldness of the night. From May till October rain is unknown, the…
Esau — Hairy, Rebekah’s first-born twin son (Gen. 25:25). The name of Edom, “red”, was also given to him from his conduct in connection with the red lentil “pottage” for which he sold his birthright (30,…
Father — A name applied (1) to any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; 1 Kings 15:11; Matt. 3:9; 23:30, etc.); and (2) as a title of respect to a chief, ruler, or elder, etc. (Judg. 17:10; 18:19; 1 Sam. 10:12; 2 Kings…
Jacob — One who follows on another’s heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26; 27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father was…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Benedictions · Upon Jacob — Upon Jacob
Craftiness · .Obtaining — .Obtaining
Dishonesty · .Jacob steals his father’s blessing — .Jacob steals his father’s blessing
Gifts From God · .Rain and fruitful sea — .Rain and fruitful sea
Gifts Of God, The · Temporal: Rain and fruitful seasons — Temporal: Rain and fruitful seasons
John Gill on Genesis 27:28
Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven,.... Or "shall" or "will give thee" (x), seeing he was blessed of God, and the blessed seed should spring from him, as well as his posterity should inherit the land of Canaan; for this is said rather by way of prophecy than wish, and so all that follow; and the dew of heaven is the rather mentioned, not only because that makes the earth fruitful on which it plentifully falls, but likewise because the land of Canaan, the portion of Jacob's posterity, much needed it, and had it, for rain fell there but seldom, only twice a year, in spring and autumn; and between these two rains, the one called the former, the other the latter rain, the land was impr…
See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field. The allegory of Ambrose on this passage is not displeasing to me. Jacob, the younger brother, is blessed under the person of the elder; the garments which were borrowed from his brother breathe an odour grateful and pleasant to his father. In the same manner we are blessed, as Ambrose teaches, when, in the name of Christ, we enter the presence of our Heavenly Father: we receive from him the robe of righteousness, which, by its odour, procures his favor; in short, we are thus blessed when we are put in his place. But Isaac seems here to desire and implore nothing for his son but what is earthly; for this is the substance of his words, that…
After his father, in order to get rid of his suspicion about the voice, had asked him once more, "Art thou really my son Esau?" and Jacob had replied, "I am" (אני = yes), he told him to hand him the savoury dish that he might eat. After eating, he kissed his son as a sing of his paternal affection, and in doing so he smelt the odour of his clothes, i.e., the clothes of Esau, which were thoroughly scented with the odour of the fields, and then imparted his blessing (Gen 27:27-29). The blessing itself is thrown, as the sign of an elevated state of mind, into the poetic style of parallel clauses, and contains the peculiar forms of poetry, such as ראה for הנּה, הוה for היה, etc. The smell of the…
Isaac voiced his suspicion three times but was finally deceived by his senses, which were not functioning well (see study note on 27:1-4).
Rashi on Genesis 27:28
ויתן לך THEREFORE GOD GIVE THEE — May he give thee and give thee repeatedly (Genesis Rabbah 66:3). However, according to its real meaning it must be connected with the preceding statement — viz., with the words, “See, the smell of my son, which the Holy One, blessed be He, has given him is like the smell of the field etc.“ And may He also give thee of the dew of heaven
מטל השמים OF THE DEW OF HEAVEN — Take it in the ordinary sense of the words; but there are Midrashic explanations giving many different meanings
האלהים GOD [GIVE THEE]—What denotes the use here of the Divine Name אלהים which signifies God in His attribute of Justice? May He act in justice! If you are worthy of it may He give…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Isaac · .His old age, last blessing upon his — .His old age, last blessing upon his
Israel · .Prophecies concerning — .Prophecies concerning
Jacob · Fradulently obtains his father’s blessing — Fradulently obtains his father’s blessing
Parents · . — .
Patriarchal Government · Exercised in: Blessing and cursing their children — Exercised in: Blessing and cursing their children
Rebekah (Rebecca) · Prompts Jacob to — Prompts Jacob to
Wine · With corn and oil, denoted all temporal blessings — With corn and oil, denoted all temporal blessings
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
