Sublime

27So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed. 28 May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be

For the descendants of Abraham, kids are the sign of God’s blessing,

They’re on their way to Canaan, the promised land.

Others say the switching back and forth is a subtle way of indicating the direction in which Jacob-Israel’s heart is focused at the time: Jacob is the old man, who looks to himself, but Israel is the new man, who looks to God.

Esau marries a Canaanite woman and is therefore excluded from the official lineage, whereas Jacob agrees to choose a wife within his father’s family (Genesis 28:1-5). So Jacob preserves the genetic purity of the family: he takes the name of Israel, and from then on, all his descendants are called “children of Israel.”

20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, 22and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely