Genesis 27:21

21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please, come near and let me feel you, my son. {Are you really} my son Esau or not?"

Genesis 27:21 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 27:21

And Isaac said unto Jacob, come near, I pray thee, that I may
feel thee, my son
Still suspecting some fraud in the case; and whereas he knew that Esau was a hairy man, and Jacob smooth, he thought by feeling he could discover the imposture, if there was any: whether thou [be] my very son Esau, or not;
which he still pretty much questioned.

Genesis 27:21 In-Context

19 And Jacob said to his father, "I [am] Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please get up, sit up and eat from my wild game so that you may bless me."

20 Then Isaac said to his son, "{How} did you find [it] so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because Yahweh your God {caused me to find it}."

21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please, come near and let me feel you, my son. {Are you really} my son Esau or not?"

22 And Jacob drew near to Isaac his father. And he felt him and said, "The voice [is] the voice of Jacob, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau."

23 And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like the hands of Esau his brother. And he blessed him.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "are you this one?"