Bible Strands
Genesis 27:22
So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaac addresses Jacob after Jacob draws near for tactile verification, following Isaac’s explicit request to confirm his son’s identity.
The words — The text highlights קֹל (kol) as “voice” and מוּשׁ (mus) as “felt,” noting the sensory discrepancy between Jacob’s vocal tone and Esau’s hairy hands.
The thread — This tension between outward physical evidence and true identity recurs in John 20:27 when Jesus invites Thomas to touch his hands, and in 1 Samuel 16:7 when Yahweh contrasts human reliance on visible traits with divine assessment of the heart.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to weigh sensory confirmation against stated reality, exposing how easily physical markers can be manipulated to secure a blessing meant for another.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.