The BLESSING — from barak, 'to bless' (and 'to kneel'), the thing the whole chapter is fought over. In Genesis a father's deathbed blessing is not a fond wish but a PERFORMATIVE, near-irrevocable word: once spoken it takes effect and cannot be recalled — 'I have blessed him; yes, and he will be blessed' (27:33). It carries the covenant itself (dew and fatness, dominion, and Abraham's own 'cursed be those who curse you,' 12:3). Jacob steals Esau's berakhah as he had bought his bekhorah (birthright); Esau's cry 'have you but one blessing?' (27:38) is the anguish of a word that cannot be unsaid. Hebrews 12:17 makes him the man who 'found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.' Twenty years later Jacob tries to give one back: pressing his gift on Esau at their reunion, he calls it not a 'present' but 'my berakhah, my BLESSING, that is brought to you' (33:11) — a deliberate, quiet restitution of the very thing he stole. → first discussed at Gen 27:4