Genesis 27:38
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
Genesis 27:38 belongs to the account of Isaac's blessing of Esau and Jacob, in which Jacob obtained by deception and fraud the blessing and birthright intended for Esau. It is Esau's bitter, greatly distressed plea as one disappointed and wronged, asking his father for a blessing and lifting up his voice and weeping aloud after learning Jacob had received it. The blessing would have belonged to Esau had he not rashly sold his birthright, but Jacob's deception took his rights.
His weeping was repentance for his rash act when it was too late to undo, remedy, or regain it. He had treated the birthright as something he could trade away and later buy back, but it was gone and could not be regained. He found no place for repentance although he sought it carefully and with tears.
The blessing he sought would not by itself have guaranteed prosperity, since true prosperity comes from God and depends on conduct. If he loved and revered God as Abel did, God would accept and bless him, and if he rejected God and followed his own corrupt course like Cain, God would reject him, while God could bless Jacob for righteous conduct even without the privileges usually given to the firstborn. Jacob's wrongdoing in obtaining the blessing led him to flee for his life when Esau threatened him, but Jacob repented of that sin and God heard his prayer and preserved his life.
Despising God and heaven for self-gratification, selfish pleasures, the clamors of appetite, and hurtful lusts brings irreversible loss. Esau's sorrow pictures sinners in the day of God who have bartered away their hope and heirship of heaven for such gratifications and then seek repentance too late, even with tears. Deceptive reasoning used to grasp all that can be gotten, irrespective of agreements, turns a person from his rights and leaves the cheated one grieving. Such Jacob-like deception practiced with partiality, hypocrisy, selfishness, and covetousness God will in no case justify or excuse, but He holds the deceivers accountable for the disappointment and wrong they cause.