Genesis says Jacob bought Esau's birthright for a bowl of stew and took his blind father's blessing in disguise

Genesis says Isaac had twin sons. Esau, the elder, was a hunter. One day Esau came in from the field famished while Jacob was cooking red lentil stew. Jacob said, "Sell me first thy birthright." Esau said he was about to die and asked what profit a birthright would be. He swore an oath and sold it for bread and stew. Years later Isaac was old and almost blind. He told Esau to hunt game and cook it so he could bless him before he died. Rebekah overheard. She cooked two young goats, dressed Jacob in Esau's clothes and covered his hands and neck with goatskins. Isaac felt him and said the voice was Jacob's but the hands were Esau's. He blessed him: nations would serve him and his brothers would bow to him. Esau came back with the meal. He cried "an exceeding great and bitter cry" and asked whether his father had only one blessing. Isaac said the blessing stood. Esau vowed to kill Jacob once Isaac was dead, and Rebekah sent Jacob to her brother Laban in Haran. The Encyclopaedia Judaica notes the sale conflicts with the later law protecting the firstborn and says Nuzi tablets explain its legal background. Marvin Sweeney reads Jacob as Israel and Esau as Edom, which Israel ruled in the 10th and 9th centuries BC and lost in the late 8th. Genesis 49 places Isaac and Rebekah in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron (story 3).