Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
19. And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau “In his speech of Jacob’s there are three direct falsehoods. 1st, ‘I am Esau;’ 2d, ‘I have done according as thou badest me;’ 3d, ‘Eat of my venison.’ We ought not to be extremely solicitous to find excuses for all the actions for holy men.” — Cornelius a Lapide in Poli Syn.
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.
Commenting on Genesis 27:18-29
And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn,.... Had he only said that he was his firstborn, he might have been excused from lying, because he had bought the birthright of Esau; but when he says, I am Esau, he can by no means be excused; for to say he impersonated Esau will not do; besides, he afterwards says he was his...