A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Looking at the Scriptures with a puff of fresh air!

Then Isaac his father answered and prophesied, saying, “Thy dwelling shall be away from the fatness of the earth; and away from the dew of heaven above; Genesis 27:39

“And by your sword shall you live, you will go to every place, and wander, and you will be subject to your brother. But when his descendants abandon the commandments of the Torah, then you will break his yoke from your neck.”

“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth. Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.'” Genesis 27:41-42 Targum (Jonathan)

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and until He has performed the intent of His thought; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly.” Jeremiah 23:20

Genesis 25

¹ Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. — and her name was Keturah; who she was, or of what family, is not said. Abraham was 137 years of age at Sarah’s death, and lived to be 175;

— it is quite possible that, left solitary by Isaac’s marriage, he took Keturah to wife, and had by her six sons; yet Keturah is called Abraham’s concubine, or secondary wife (1Ch 1:32)

² And she bore him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan, and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. — Midian is the one son of Keturah who had a great future before him, for his race became famous traders (Genesis 37:28); Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, belonged to them (Exodus 2:15-16)

³ And Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. — Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim; these are certainly not the names of men, but of the three tribes;

⁴ And the sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher, and Hanoch and Abidah and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. — they to be sons of Abraham by Keturah, when they were his actually grandchildren;

⁵ And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. — And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; as he was bound to do, not only in justice to Sarah his first wife, but also to Rebekah, who married Isaac upon this assurance;

⁶ But unto the sons of the concubines whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts; and while he yet lived he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward unto the east country. — but unto the sons of the concubines; that is, of Hagar and Keturah; migrated to “the east country,” that is, Arabia and Southern Mesopotamia;

⁷ And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, a hundred threescore and fifteen years. — Abraham’s years were a hundred and seventy-five; he survived Sarah thirty-eight years, and Isaac’s marriage thirty-five, and Jacob and Esau must how be fifteen years of age at this time.

⁸ Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. —‘full of years’ in the original it is only, “and full” and does not seem to be a mere synonym for longevity; but appreciating all the good and unpleasantness of life, much like Job and David also had;

⁹ And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, — none of the six sons of Keturah were present; and had no particular blessing bestored upon them; perhaps they were apparently already sent far away into the far end of Arabia, while Ishmael was nearer at Paran;

¹⁰ the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. There was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. — there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife; Sarah had been buried there thirty eight years before, which was the reason why his sons buried, him there;

¹¹ And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi. — God blessed Isaac; for the blessing of Abraham did not die with him, but was perpetuated to his posterity, and especially to the children of the promise;

— the Targum of Jonatham adds some complexities, says:

And because Abraham had not designed to bless Ishmael, therefore he blessed not Izhak; for had he blessed Izhak and not Ishmael, it would have kept them in enmity.

But, after the death of Abraham, the Lord blessed Izhak; and Izhak dwelt near the well at which was revealed the glory of the Living and Eternal One, who seeth and is not seen.

¹² Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bore unto Abraham. — Ishmael had twelve sons, whose families became distinct tribes; they populated a very large country that lay between Egypt and Assyria, called Arabia.

¹³ And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam, — the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth: mentioned in Isaiah 60:7; and from whence a people of the Arabs are called Nabathaeans, and their country Nabathaea; they inhabit the town and capital at Petra;

¹⁴ and Mishma and Dumah and Massa,

¹⁵ Hadar and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

¹⁶ These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns and by their castles, twelve princes according to their nations. — twelve princes according to their nations; these were princes, or heads of tribes, and there were twelve of them;

¹⁷ And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty and seven years; and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people. — then he also was gathered to his people at the age of a hundred and thirty-seven; he died in the presence of all his brethren;

¹⁸ And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt as thou goest toward Assyria; and he died in the presence of all his brethren. — and he died in the presence of all his brethren; they being present when he died, or in peace with them, in all prosperity along with them;

¹⁹ And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac.

²⁰ And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah for a wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. — the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian, they were originally Chaldees, being descended from Nahor the brother of Abraham, who both were of Ur of the Chaldees; so Jacob is called a Syrian.

²¹ And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. — and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife; though God had promised to multiply his family, he prayed for it;

— the Targum of Jonathan says, that, after twenty years, Isaac took her and went with her to Mount Moriah, to the place where he was bound, and prayed that she might conceive; putting the Lord in mind of the promise he there made of the multiplication of Abraham’s seed; and Rebekah conceived; two sons at once;

²² And the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” And she went to inquire of the Lord. — say the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; and she went to inquire of the Lord; to the school of Shem the great;

²³ And the Lord said unto her, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy body; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.”

— the Targums of Jonathan says

“And the children struggled within her, and it was like men fighting. And she said, ‘If this is the pain of pregnancy, why do I desire children?’ So she went to the study hall of Shem the Great to seek mercy from before the Lord.”

“And the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two kingdoms will separate from your belly. One kingdom will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger if the descendants of the younger keep the commandments of the Torah.'” Genesis 25:22-23 Jonathan

²⁴ And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. — and when her days to be delivered were fulfilled; the nine months were up from the time of her conception; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, when the two hundred and seventy days she went with child were completed;

²⁵ And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. — red, like a hairy garment; with red hair all over his body, as if he had been already a grown man, whence he had his name, Esau, made, reared already;

— the Targum of Jonathan says,

and the first came forth wholly red, as a garment of hair: and they called his name Esau, because he was born altogether complete, with the hair of the head, and the beard, and teeth, and grinders;

²⁶ And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when she bore them. — and his name was called Jacob; by his parents; because he took his brother by the heel, which his name has the signification of, and Esau has respect to in Genesis 27:36,

²⁷ And the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. — Esau a cunning hunter and equally had a tent for his abode, but Jacob stayed at home, and busied about the flocks and cattle; hence he was the mother’s darling, while Isaac preferred his more enterprising son.

²⁸ And Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob. — because he did eat of his venison, literally, because the venison—that is, the produce of Esau’s hunting—was in his mouth; in our phrase, was to his taste—was what he liked;

— but Rebekah loved Jacob upon better grounds, both because of his more pious and meek temper, and because of the oracle and promise of God.

²⁹ And Jacob boiled pottage; and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. — and Esau came from the field, and be was faint: for want of food, and weary with hunting, and perhaps more so, having toiled and got nothing;

³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint”; therefore was his name called Edom. — therefore was his name called Edom; besides from his red hair, but more from this red pottage; for Edom signifies red;

³¹ And Jacob said, “Sell me this day thy birthright.” — and Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright; which had many privileges annexed to it; a double portion of inheritance; some say the exercise of priesthood, but that is questioned; the parental blessing;

³² And Esau said, “Behold, I am at the point of dying. And what profit shall this birthright be to me?” — Esau said, I am at the point to die; that is, I am running daily risk of my life; and of what use will the birthright be to me;

³³ And Jacob said, “Swear to me this day.” And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. — and he sware unto him; that he would abide by the bargain, and never give him any trouble on that account; God himself being appealed to as a witness of it;

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he ate and drank, and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. — thus Esau despised his birthright; he used no means to get the bargain revoked, made no appeal to his father about it.

Genesis 26

¹ And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. — it is probable that Abraham was now dead; in that case, Esau and Jacob would be at least fifteen years of age when the following event occurred;

² And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. — and the Lord appeared unto Isaac, Go not down into Egypt; it being a very fruitful place, washed by the Nile; and Jonathan says it was in the heart of Isaac to go down into Egypt;

³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee and will bless thee. For unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father.

— and I will be with thee, and I will bless thee; with his presence; with protection from all enemies; with a supply of all the necessaries of life; and with all spiritual blessings, and with eternal life and happiness: for unto thee, and to thy seed, will I give these countries; inhabited at that time by the Philistines, Canaanites, and the several tribes of them;

⁴ And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, — I will make thy seed to multiply; here we find a renewal to Isaac of all God’s promises made to Abraham; in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

— perhaps Abraham might suppose God spoke of his immediate seed, namely, of Isaac; but when he came upon the stage of life, he brought no such blessing with him; and when the promise was renewed to him in the very same words, it became evident that the seed which was to be this universal blessing was still to come;

⁵ because Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” — my voice, my charge, my commandments: this variety of expression seems to be designed to show the universality and exactness of Abraham’s obedience, that he readily complied with every intimation of the divine will;

⁶ And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. — Gerar was probably a trading town between Syria and Egypt, and therefore Isaac’s needs during the famine are here supplied;

⁷ And the men of the place asked him concerning his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he feared to say, “She is my wife,” lest, said he, “the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.” — we now find Isaac imitating his father’s example with even less reason for his unjustifiable conduct;

⁸ And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was frolicking with Rebekah his wife. — Abimelek observes Isaac sporting with Rebekah as only husband and wife should;

— constrains him to confess that she is his wife, charges him with the impropriety of his conduct, and commands his people to refrain from harming either of them on pain of death;

⁹ And Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said unto him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die for her.’” — lest I die for her; for her sake, that another might have and enjoy her; it was fear of losing his life that led him to take such a step, and give out that she was his sister, like his father, Abraham.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said, “What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly have lain with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.”

¹¹ And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” — whoever shall go near to injure this man or his wife, shall verily be put to death.

¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. — an hundredfold, that is, a hundred times as much as he sowed; the same degree of increase is repeated in Matthew 13:8;

¹³ And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great. — Isaac became increasingly great and strong, until he was very powerful and his wealth very great;

¹⁴ For he had possession of flocks and possession of herds, and great store of servants; and the Philistines envied him. — so that the Philistines envied Isaac, which makes men grieve at the good of others;

¹⁵ For all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth. — and the Philistines endeavoured to do him injury by stopping up and filling with rubbish all the wells that had been dug in his father’s time;

¹⁶ And Abimelech said unto Isaac, “Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.” — and even Abimelech requested Isaac to depart, because he was afraid of his power; his family being greatly increased, his servants numerous;

¹⁷ And Isaac departed from thence, and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there. — Isaac’s retreats from Gerar and its suburbs, and takes up his abode in the valley, or wady of Gerar.

¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

— and Isaac digged those rather than new ones, partly to keep up his father’s memory, and partly because he had most right to them, and others less cause of quarrel with him about them.

¹⁹ And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. — and found there a well of springing water; or “living water” which flows continually;

²⁰ And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Esek [that is, Contention], because they strove with him. — and Isaac called the name of the well Esek: which signifies “contention” because they strove with him;

²¹ And they dug another well, and strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sitnah [that is, Hatred]. — signifies “hatred” it being out of hatred and malice to him that they gave him so much trouble;

²² And he removed from thence, and dug another well, and for that they strove not; and he called the name of it Rehoboth [that is, Room]. And he said, “For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

— and we shall be fruitful in the land; his flocks and his herds increase, having good pasturage and watering for them, and so he and his family be in prosperous circumstances.

²³ And he went up from thence to Beersheba. — and Isaac went south from thence to Beer-sheba;

— this was a very serious act on Isaac’s part as he leaves the solitudes where he had found a refuge from the enmity of the Philistines, and returns to a place scarcely five leagues distant from their city;

²⁴ And the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.” — Isaac is again and again reminded of the relation in which his father stood to God;

— fear not; any future famine, nor want of any good things, nor any enemies, the Philistines his neighbours, who had driven him from their country, and had harassed him from place to place;

— and multiply thy seed, for my servant Abraham’s sake; who was a faithful, diligent, servant of his; whose service was, not forgotten by him;

²⁵ And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well. — and he builded an altar there; at Beersheba, where his father Abraham had planted a grove before, and very probably had built an altar also, though it might not be now standing, Genesis 21:33,

— and there Isaac’s servants digged a well; in order to find water for the family, and for the flocks and herds; and called upon the name of the Lord; and gave him thanks for all his mercies to him; for the care he had taken of him, and provision he had made for him especially during the time of famine; 

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath one of his friends and Phichol the chief captain of his army. — then Abimelech went to Isaac; as there was a lapse of ninety years between the visit of Abraham and of Isaac, the Abimelech and Phichol spoken of must have been different persons’ official titles;

— then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, after Isaac was settled at Beersheba, and was still increasing in his family and substance;

²⁷ And Isaac said unto them, “Why come ye to me, seeing ye hate me and have sent me away from you?” — wherefore come ye to me? Isaac’s return had brought matters to a crisis, and the king must now decide whether there was to be peace or war;

²⁸ And they said, “We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee; and we said, ‘Let there be now an oath between us, even between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, — Let there be now an oath; the word literally signifies a curse; each side uttered an imprecation, with the prayer that it might fall upon himself if he broke the terms of the covenant;

²⁹ that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.’” — as we have not touched thee; not done the least injury to him, to his person, family, and substance, but suffered him to go away with nothing but good; by royal authority;

³⁰ And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. — and they did eat and drink; freely and in a friendly manner; for both having spoken their minds, they agreed to bury all former things oblivion, and live in peace and friendship;

³¹ And they rose up early in the morning and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. — and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace; he took his leave of them in a friendly manner to mutual satisfaction;

³² And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said unto him, “We have found water.” — not only had dug a well, but they had found plenty of water, and that which was good; or otherwise it would not have been worth while to have troubled Isaac;

³³ And he called it Shebah [that is, An oath]; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba [that is, The well of the oath] unto this day. — the well of the oath: it had been so called by Abraham an hundred years ago or more; but now upon this occasion it was renewed and confirmed;

³⁴ And Esau was forty years old when he took for a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, — Esau, by thus inter marrying with idolaters he violated the great principle laid down by Abraham (Genesis 24:3), forfeited thereby his birthright, and, as such marriages were beyond righteousness;

³⁵ who were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. — which were a grief of mind unto Isaac, and to Rebekah; although Esau partially repented, and took as a third wife a daughter of Ishmael (Genesis 28:9).

~ by Joel on August 7, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses