And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
Make me savoury meat х mat`amiym (H4303), or feminine, mat`amowt (H4303). Proverbs 23:3; Proverbs 23:6, where the word is rendered "dainties"]
That I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die - literally, while I shall not yet die; i:e., before I die. He seems to have apprehended the near approach of dissolution (but he lived forty-three years longer, Genesis 35:28). And believing that the conveyance of the patriarchal benediction was a solemn duty incumbent upon him, he was desirous of stimulating all his energies for that great effort, by partaking, apparently for the last time, of a favourite dish which had often refreshed and invigorated his wasted frame.
It is difficult to imagine him ignorant of the divine purpose (cf. Genesis 25:23). But natural affection, prevailing through age and infirmity, prompted him to entail the honours and powers of the birthright on his oldest son; and perhaps he was not aware of what Esau had done (Genesis 25:34). The deathbed benediction of the patriarchs was not simply the last farewell blessing of a father to his children, though that, pronounced with all the fullness and energy of concentrated feeling, carries in every word an impressive significance which penetrates the inmost parts of the filial heart, and is often felt there long after the tongue that uttered it is silent in the grave. The dying benediction of the patriarchs had a mysterious import: it was a supernatural act, in performing which they were free agents in deed; still mere instruments employed by an overruling power to execute His purposes of grace. It was, in fact, a testamentary conveyance of the promise, bequeathed with great solemnity in a formal address, called a BLESSING (Genesis 27:30; Genesis 27:36; Genesis 22:17-18 [Greek, Eulogeese]; Hebrews 11:20), which, consisting partly of prayers and partly of predictions, was an authoritative appropriation of the covenant promises to the person who inherited the right of primogeniture. Abraham, indeed, had not performed this last ceremony, because it had been virtually done long before his death, on the expulsion of Ishmael (cf. Genesis 21:1-34), and by the bestowment of the patrimonial inheritance on Isaac (Genesis 25:5), as directed by the oracle (cf. Genesis 17:21 with Genesis 21:12, last clause). But Isaac (as also Jacob) had more than one son in his family, and, in the belief of his approaching death, was animated by a sacred impulse to do what was still unperformed, and his heart prompted as right-that of transmitting the honours of primogeniture to his older son.