ESAU AND JACOB 15

But very soon he found out he had been taken in. For he had only just finished his
blessing and Jacob had scarcely gone out of the tent, when in came Esau bringing with him
the venison he had killed for his father. How grieved the old man was when he knew he
had been deceived. How bitter Esau’s cry of disappointment was, when he learned that
Jacob had taken away his blessing. In his anger he vowed vengeance on his brother and
he said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay
my brother Jacob.” How terrible the punishment their sin brought upon Rebekah and her
favourite son. She was so afraid that Esau would kill Jacob that she persuaded Isaac to send

 

him away from home, and mother and child never met again. Jacob did not return home
for many years, and Rebekah died while he was away. And before the day arrived when he
came back to the old home, how much trouble Jacob had to go through, which he had
brought on himself by his sin. He had to live among strangers in a strange land.
He had to work for many years without any wages. He was cheated by others, just
as he had cheated his father and brother. Several of his sons turned out very badly
and made his home unhappy. And long after, when he had been sent for by Joseph and
stood an old man before Pharaoh in Egypt, he tells him about his past life in these