Now therefore, my son,—Jacob at this time was not a lad, but a grown man of mature years, which shows that in the following transaction he was rather an accomplice than a tool—obey my voice according to that which I command thee. We can scarcely here think of a mother laying her imperative instructions on a docile and unquestioning child; but of a wily woman detailing her well-concocted scheme to a son whom she discerns to be possessed of a like crafty disposition with herself, and whom she seeks to gain over to her stratagem by reminding him of the close and endearing relationship in which they stand to one another.
Go now to the flock, and fetch me—literally, take for me, i.e. for my purposes (cf. Genesis 15:9)—from thence two good kids of the goats. According to Jarchi kids were selected as being the nearest approach to the flesh of wild animals. Two were specified, it has been thought, either to extract from both the choicest morsels (Menochius), or to have the appearance of animals taken in hunting (Rosenmüller), or to make an ample provision as of venison (Lunge), or to make a second experiment, if the first failed (Willet). And I will make them—probably concealing any difference in taste by means of condiments, though Isaac's palate would not be sensitive in consequence of age and debility—savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth (vide Genesis 27:4): and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat (literally, and he shall eat), and that he may bless thee— בַּעֲבֻר אֲשֶר, in order that, from the idea of passing over to that which one desires to attain; less fully in Genesis 27:4—before his death. Clearly Rebekah was anticipating Isaac's early dissolution, else why this indecent haste to forestall Esau? There is no reason to surmise that she believed any connection to subsist between the eating and the benediction, though she probably imagined that the supposed prompt obedience of Isaac's son would stimulate his feeble heart to speak (Rosenmüller).