Esau saw him, saw how his eyes were red from weeping. “Poor Jacob,” he said. “Don’t grieve, little brother. At least you have that paper I signed.” Esau grinned.

Rebekah felt only a slight stirring of anger at his taunting of Jacob. It was immediately swallowed up in her grief for what she knew Esau was about to go through.

Esau passed through the door of his father’s tent. Rebekah was not standing close enough to hear what was said this time, but she could have been on the far side of the orchard and she would have heard Esau’s wail of anguish.

After that, their voices were loud enough for Rebekah to hear them even by Jacob’s tent.

“It was a lie! How can the blessing count for him when you thought you were giving it to me? It’s mine, Father!”

“The blessing will stand. It belongs to Jacob now.”

“That supplanter! That sneak!”

“He has been blessed.” The tone of Isaac’s voice made it clear—the decision was final.

“Bless me, Father! Bless me too! Isn’t there something left for me?”

“I’ve made him your lord,” said Isaac. “I’ve made all men his servants. The keys to the priesthood of God are his. What is there besides that?”

“Is there only one blessing in the world?” cried Esau. “You have another, Father. Bless me also.”

And he wept.

Outside the tent, so did Jacob, sinking to the ground and weeping for his brother. Or perhaps, at least partly, weeping because when his father could have renounced the blessing he had given Jacob, he chose not to. He let it stand.

“Yes, Esau, I can bless you with the fatness of the earth, and I do. I bless you with the dew from heaven. By the sword you will live, and though you serve your brother, in the day when you become a true servant of God, you will come into your dominion. You’ll break the yoke of subservience and be a free man, because only the servants of God are truly free.”

Rebekah wondered if Esau would understand what Isaac had blessed him with. If he would only obey the Lord, then he would have his own place in the kingdom of God. He might never have the authority that Isaac had confirmed upon Jacob, but he would have a place in God’s favor, if he changed his life and earned it. Please, Esau, hear what your father said, and live by it. Please, God, help my son Esau to fulfill his father’s blessing.

When Esau emerged from the tent, he saw Jacob curled up on the ground, weeping. He said nothing, but he stood there gazing at Jacob for a long moment. And as he did, Rebekah heard his voice, the words of his heart, not from his lips, but inside her mind. “Father will die soon,” he was saying, “and when he does, you’ll also die, and I’ll have everything you stole from me.” Then he burst into bitter tears himself, and fled, not to the tent he slept in when he visited Beersheba, but down the hill to the corral, where he prepared his camel for the journey back to his wives.