‘And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau consoles himself about you with the thought of killing you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise. Flee to my brother Laban, to Haran. And wait with him a few days until your brother's hot fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
When Rebekah realises what Esau intends to do she decides to send Jacob to a place of safety. With her son she is honest. He must flee to her brother in Haran until Esau's anger has abated. ‘A few days' is wishful thinking. Even in the best of circumstances it would take quite some time. Haran is not just round the corner. But she is trying to make it sound temporary. Neither she nor Jacob realise that they will never meet again.
The repetition of the phrase, with slight differences, about Esau's hot fury stresses how great a threat it is. But she is confident that the hot fury that has gripped him will subside, and that eventually even his anger against Jacob will die down and what has happened will be unimportant. She knows her son and knows that both will happen. She knows his heart is on other things. (Repetitions such as we find here, almost word for word, are a constant feature of ancient literature).
“Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?” If Esau murders Jacob then he too will become liable to death for fratricide, especially as Jacob is now the heir apparent. She still has love in her heart for Esau.
However Isaac must be told a different story. No one wants him upset by what is happening and he must not learn of his elder son's evil intent. It is clear that he is in his dotage and not up with things. He does not realise the storm that is growing around him. So Rebekah takes a different tack with him. She wants the initiative for Jacob's departure to seem to come from him.
And here we really come to the end of the Isaac stories. All that remains is his sending Jacob to Haran (Genesis 28:1), twenty years of silence, and his welcoming back of Jacob at Mamre (Genesis 35:27), followed immediately by his death (Genesis 35:29).
Thus if we ignore the stories describing his childhood, the seeking of Rebekah and the birth and blessing of his sons, the only account of any length about Isaac is his activity at Gerar and Beersheba. And this out of one hundred and eighty years of life. And why is this? Because there were no covenant records.
Isaac passed a peaceable life, first at Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 25:11), then at Gerar and Beersheba (Genesis 26), and finally at Mamre (Genesis 35:27). He experienced few theophanies and made few covenants worth recording. Thus the silence about his life.
This demonstrates that the idea that Genesis contains camp fire stories passed down, with anecdotes about the lives of the patriarchs, just is not true.