Bible character overview - Isaac

Isaac's father, Abraham, was promised by God that he would have many descendants. Abraham had no children at this stage but was visited by the Lord and told that Sarah, his wife, would have a child. Eventually, Isaac was born and the promise was fulfilled. However, we see in Genesis 22 that God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. In obedience, Abraham takes Isaac to a mountain, binds him up, and, just before killing him, is stopped by God and commended for his obedience, and a ram is given as a replacement for the sacrifice.

Rebekah gave birth to twins, Jacob and Esau, and these brothers fought each other even from within the womb. There came a great famine in the land, but God told Isaac to stay, as it was the land promised to him and his father's descendants. So Isaac stayed and planted crops, and when he came to harvest them the next year, he reaped a hundredfold. Isaac also had a lot of livestock and became a wealthy and powerful man. Isaac had grown to such a status that the king of Gerar, Abimelech, said to him, "Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us."

As Isaac grew older, his eyes grew dim, and he knew his time was almost done. So Isaac called his eldest son Esau to go and hunt for some game and prepare a dish so that he could receive Isaac's blessing. Rebekah favored her son Jacob and had overheard Isaac and Esau talking. She devised a plan for Jacob to take the blessing instead of his brother Esau by cooking Isaac's favorite dish, putting Jacob in Esau's clothes, and placing goat skin on his smooth hands and neck because Esau was very hairy. Isaac was therefore deceived and gave the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. He later gave Esau a blessing too. Isaac lived to 180 years old, then died.