Genesis 27:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

He didn't recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau's hands. So he blessed him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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הִכִּיר֔וֹ

nâkar

H5234

“to know · him”

Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 50× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1368

to recognise, acknowledge, know, respect, discern, regard - (Niphal) to be recognised - (Piel) to regard - (Hiphil) - to regard, observe, pay attention to, pay regard to, notice - to recognise (as formerly known), perceive - to be willing to recognise or acknowledge, acknowledge with honour - to be acquainted with - to distinguish, understand - (Hithpael) to make oneself known - to act or treat as foreign or strange, disguise, misconstrue - (Niphal) to disguise oneself - (Piel) - to treat as foreign (profane) - to misconstrue - (Hithpael) - to act as alien - to disguise oneself

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

הִכִּיר֔וֹ to know H5234

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הִכִּיר֔וֹ to know H5234 occurs in 47 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 adjective
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

הִכִּיר֔וֹ Hiphil · Perfect
הָי֣וּ Qal · Perfect
וַֽיְבָרְכֵֽהוּ Piel · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

יָדָ֗יו hand H3027 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 27:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 27:16 She put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.
Hebrews 11:20 By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come.
Romans 9:11–12 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 27:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְלֹ֣א הִכִּיר֔וֹ כִּֽי הָי֣וּ יָדָ֗יו כִּידֵ֛י עֵשָׂ֥ו אָחִ֖יו שְׂעִרֹ֑ת וַֽיְבָרְכֵֽהוּ

He didn't recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau's hands. So he blessed him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 27:23 Septuagint · lemma form

καί οὐ ἐπιγιγνώσκω αὐτός εἰμί γάρ ὁ χείρ αὐτός ὡς ὁ χείρ ησαυ ὁ ἀδελφός αὐτός δασύς καί εὐλογέω αὐτός

And he knew him not, for his hands were as the hands of his brother Esau, hairy; and he blessed him,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְלָא אִשְׁתְּמוֹדְעֵהּ אֲרֵי הֲוָאָה יְדוֹהִי כִּידֵי עֵשָׂו אֲחוּהִי שְׂעִירָן (נ''י שַׂעֲרַנְיָן) וּבָרְכֵהּ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְלָא אִשְׁתְּמוֹדְעֵיהּ אֲרוּם הֲוָה יְדוֹ כִּידֵי עֵשָו אָחוּי שְעַרִנְיַין וּבָרְכֵיהּ

But he recognised him not, because his hands were hairy as the hands of Esau his brother, and he blessed him.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 27:23 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.

Ver. 23. So he blessed him.] {See Trapp on "Gen 27:25"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 23. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy] From this circumstance we may learn that Isaac's sense of feeling was much impaired by his present malady. When he could not discern the skin of a kid from the flesh of his son, we see that he was, through his infirmity, in a fit state to be imposed on by the deceit of his wife, and the cunning of his younger son.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

23. blessed] Anticipating Gen_27:26-29.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And he discerned him not,.... As he could not see, he could make no judgment by that sense; and, though he had his hearing, and thought the voice was like Jacob's, he might imagine there might be an alteration in Esau's voice, coming in haste and weary from the fields; yet, as there could not be any deception in his feeling, he thought it safest to trust to that, as it follows:

because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands; which could not in a short time become so naturally; it was more reasonable to think that Esau's voice should be altered and become like Jacob's, than that Jacob's hands should become like Esau's:

so he blessed him; or intended and determined within himself to bless him, for the blessing was not given till afterwards; unless this is to be understood of a common blessing, congratulating him on the quick dispatch he made, and the great success he met with; and after this gave him the patriarchal blessing, which as yet he had not, being not thoroughly satisfied of him, as appears by what follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

He discerned him not, because all his senses were not only dulled with age and infirmity, but also held by Divine Providence, as theirs, Luk 24:16, for the bringing about his own purpose; so that it is no wonder he was so grossly deceived in the whole business.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Sforno

Rabbi Ovadia Sforno

They were hairy and he blessed him. Until he felt him he suspected he was an imposter and intended to curse him and as the Sages have taught — one who wrongly suspects his colleague is required to bless him.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nâkar (“to know”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to know” (nâkar) shape what this verse is saying?
The word “to know” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Genesis 31:32 shares the word «to know» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“hand” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «הִכִּיר֔וֹ» is Hiphil Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“hand” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.