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.” Genesis 27:40 Targum (Jonathan)

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 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 27

¹ And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, “My son.” And he said unto him, “Behold, here am I.” — Isaac was old; Isaac was now 137 years of age, but he lived to be 180 (Genesis 35:28);

² And he said, “Behold now, I am old; I know not the day of my death. — I know not the day of my death; how soon I may die; a declaration which every man may make, and which every man ought well to consider, and lay to heart.

³ Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison. — thy quiver and thy bow; the former is the vessel or instrument, in which arrows were put and carried, from its being hung at the girdle;

⁴ And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.” — that my soul may bless thee; we gather from the solemn blessing given to his sons by Jacob (Genesis 49) that this was a prophetic act, by which Isaac, under the influence of the Spirit, and in expectation of death, decided to which son should belong the birthright;

⁵ And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. — Rebekah heard; she was present when Isaac gave the order, and she wished to know his determination to give the blessing to his favourite son;

⁶ And Rebekah spoke unto Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, — Rebekah spake unto Jacob; she is here contriving to procure the blessing for Jacob, which was designed for Esau.

⁷ ‘Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death.’ — before the Lord; solemnly, as in God’s presence, in his name, and by his authority which I shall heartily pray for thee. So he signifies that this was more than an ordinary blessing which he now intended to give him.

⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. — obey my voice; Jacob is Rebekah’s favourite; she was prepared to deceive Isaac, in order that Jacob may obtain the coveted blessing.

⁹ Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth; — such as he loveth; such two good kids of the goats would pass with him for venison:

— by seasoning, the natural taste might be altered so as not to be distinguished, as we find it was; and such as have the best skill in venison may be imposed upon and deceived by more ways than one, as well as Isaac was;

¹⁰ and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat and that he may bless thee before his death.” — and thou shall bring it to thy father; for venison; and as if he was Esau that brought it: that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death;

¹¹ And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. — and I am a smooth man: without hair, excepting in those parts where it is common for all men to have it.

¹² My father perhaps will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” — and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing; and he might justly fear fooling a blind; that should he be found out, so provoke his father, that instead of blessing, he would curse him, Deuteronomy 27:18

¹³ And his mother said unto him, “Upon me be thy curse, my son; only obey my voice, and go, fetch me them.” — upon me be thy curse, my son; that is, if thy father should curse thee, which I am well assured he will not, let the curse, be what it will, fall upon me;

¹⁴ And he went, and fetched and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. — and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved; by picking out proper pieces, and seasoning them well, it was as grateful to him as if it had really been venison, such as he loved;

¹⁵ And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son; — goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau; evidently the clothing would be something special, sacerdotal garments or such as was peculiar to Esau: which were with her in the house; 

— for ordinary raiment, however handsome, would not have been kept in the mother’s tent, but in that of Esau or of one of his wives;

— and put them upon Jacob her younger son; that be might be took for Esau, should Isaac examine him and feel his garments, or smell them;

¹⁶ and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck. — and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands; upon both his hands, and the whole of them that was bare, that he might appear to be like Esau;

¹⁷ And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. — and she gave the savoury meat; seasoned and dressed as might be taken for venison: and the bread which she had prepared: into the hand of her son Jacob;

¹⁸ And he came unto his father, and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here am I. Who art thou, my son?” — arise, sit and eat; it is a mistake to suppose that Isaac was a bedridden old man, for Jacob bids him arise and seat himself;

¹⁹ And Jacob said unto his father, “I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.”

— and Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; had he only said that he was his firstborn, he might have been excused from lying, because he had bought the birthright of Esau;

— how could he say, I have done as thou badest me, when he had received no command from his father: this was Jacob’s second lie; and, arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison: a third lie, when he knew it came not from the field, but from the fold;

— that thy soul may bless me; as this was the thing in view, and it was the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant he craved. The disguise, which may have upset the whole plot, succeeded in misleading Isaac; and while giving his paternal blessing, the old man was roused into a state of high satisfaction and delight.

²⁰ And Isaac said unto his son, “How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.” — because the Lord thy God brought it to me; Jacob does not keep up his acting well here, for Isaac could not see anything providential in his success in hunting; hence may have helped to arouse Isaac’s suspicions, who immediately proceeds to examine him;

²¹ And Isaac said unto Jacob, “Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.” — Come near that I may feel thee; besides the answer, in a style very different from Esau’s way of thinking, Isaac was surprised at the short delay in bringing the savoury meat;

²² 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.” — but the hands are the hands of Esau; are like them, being hairy as they; or, as the Targum of Jonathan says, “the feeling of the hands is as the feeling of the hands of Esau;” they feel like them;

²³ And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. — and he discerned him not; as he could not see, and, though he had his hearing, and thought the voice was like Jacob’s, he might imagine there might be an alteration in Esau’s voice, coming in haste and weary from the fields; hence he thought it safe to trust to that;

²⁴ And he said, “Art thou my very son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” — and he said, I am; in order to excuse Jacob from lying, that he does not say, “I am Esau” since it is an answer to Isaac’s question, with a design to deceive him; and he intended that he should understand him as he did, that he was really Esau;

²⁵ And he said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee.” And he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. — and he brought him wine, and he drank; and so was comfortably refreshed, and in a good temper and disposition of mind to confer the blessing;

— the Targum of Jonathan indicates all these are ordained from the foundation of the world: and now Isaac does not seem to have grasped the full meaning of the prophecy, “The older shall serve the younger:”

And he said, Draw near, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he approached him, and he ate; and he had no wine; but an angel prepared it for him, from the wine which had been kept in its grapes from the days of the beginning of the world; and he gave it into Jakob’s hand, and Jakob brought it to his father, and he drank.

— or for a more modern version:

“And he said, ‘Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and there was no wine with him. And an angel was sent to him, and brought wine that had been stored in its grapes since the days of the creation of the world, and he placed it in Jacob’s hand. Jacob brought it to his father, and he drank.”

²⁶ And his father Isaac said unto him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” — Come near now, and kiss me, my son: this was the solemn preparation for the giving of the blessing. Isaac’s suspicions had now quite passed away; he had eaten and drunk, and the time had now come for the decision his son was to inherit the promise.

²⁷ And he came near, and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. — now Isaac had eaten the venison, and drank of the wine; and the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed; and gave him the spiritual power to impart the “blessing of Abraham” to the son;

²⁸ Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. — God give thee of the dew of heaven; or he was blessed of God, and the blessed seed should spring from him, as well as his posterity should inherit the land of mild and honey;

— and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; the word and ordinances, which God has given to his Jacob and Israel in all ages, as he has not given to other people;

²⁹ Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee!” — let people serve thee; let peoples (‘am·mîm) serve thee;

— up to this point the blessing had been general, but now Isaac bestows the birthright, carrying with it widespread dominion, precedence over all other members of the family, and special blessedness;

— let thy mother’s son bow down to thee; one case of how and when this was fulfilled, on Genesis 25:23 refering to Esau, Jacob’s brother, serving the younger; and his mother’s sons; Jonathan says “all the sons of Esau, and kingdoms bend before thee, all the sons of Keturah;” and Jerusalem “all the sons of Ishmael:”

— the Targum of Jerusalem interprets “thy mother’s sons” inclusive of the sons of Laban, his mother’s brother, the Arabians and Syrians; which will be more fully accomplished when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord; when the Messiah, the King of the whole earth, arrives;

³⁰ And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. — and it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob; that Esau came in from his hunting;

³¹ And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father and said unto his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.” — he also made, Esau returned just as Jacob was leaving Isaac’s presence; there would still be some considerable delay before the captured game was made into savoury meat;

³² And Isaac his father said unto him, “Who art thou?” And he said, “I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau.” — who art thou? hearing another voice more like Esau’s than what he had heard before surprised him, and therefore in haste puts this question;

— and he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau; all which was true in a sense; he was his son, and he was Esau, and he was his firstborn by nature, but not by right, for he had sold his birthright.

³³ And Isaac trembled exceedingly and said, “Who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? Yea, and he shall be blessed.” — Isaac trembled very exceedingly; or “trembled with a great trembling exceedingly” he was amazed, shocked and astonished;

— being shell-shocked, perplexed and astonished to consider herein God’s overruling providences, and how strangely his purpose of giving the blessing to Esau had been disappointed;

— I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; he might have recalled it; but now, at last, he is sensible he was in an error when he designed it for his firstborn, Esau;

³⁴ And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

— he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, not for repentance of his former sin, in despising his birthright, but for grief at his great loss therein, because God would not suffer him to be perjured in keeping that birthright blessing which he had sold and sworn away;

— Bless me, even me also, O my father, that is, thou art my father no less than his, and therefore, as a child, I claim a share in thy blessing; one at least equal to what thou hast given Jacob, if not a greater, as being the firstborn; but one which, when compared with the blessing of Jacob, was to be regarded rather as “a modified curse,” and which is not even described as a blessing;

— but Esau despised his birthright, as if quenching the spirit, and consciously selling his birthright off for a bowl of soup. For a close parallel, see Offending the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin; once it is sold, it couldn’t be redeemed;

³⁵ And he said, “Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing.” — thy brother came with subtilty, as if it was wisely and prudently managed; but the word signifies fraud and deceit;

³⁶ And he said, “Is not he rightly named Jacob [that is, A supplanter]? For he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?” — and Esau said: for he hath supplanted me these two times; to supplant another is to put his foot under the heel of another;

— he took away my birthright; which is not true, for Jacob did not take it away from him either by force or fraud, for Esau had despised and made light of his birthright, and even sold it for a bowl of pottage; for by now he should convinced that it was the design of Providence that the spiritual blessing should fall on the line of Jacob;

³⁷ And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, “Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son?” — behold, I have made him thy lord; the lord of his posterity, who would be subdued and become tributary to his seed;

— and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; the Edomites, who sprung from his brother Esau, who, according to this prophetic blessing, became servants to David, who was a son of Jacob’s; but that is only a microcosm of a latter-day Monroe Doctrine; for more see, “Who are the children of Esau?”

— and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? what are the leftovers for you, my sons? what can be bestowed upon thee? there is nothing left; dominion over others, even over all nations, yea, over thyself and thy posterity, and plenty of all good things, are given already to Jacob; what is there to be done for thee, or thou canst expect?

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. — hast thou but one blessing? only one son could inherit the spiritual prerogatives of the birthright, and the temporal lordship which accompanied it?

— bless me, even me also, O my father: with another blessing, with one equal to what has been given my brother: and even lower earthly blessings would avail little if Esau’s descendants were to be subject to the dominion of the other brother’s race. With some mitigation, then, of his lot Esau must now be contented with;

— and Esau lift up his voice, and wept; in order to move the affections of his father, and to prevail upon him to reverse the blessing he had bestowed on Jacob, and give it to him; but he could not bring his father to repentance, to change his mind, and revoke the blessing, and give it him, despite all his crying and tears. For a close parallel, see Offending the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin; once it is lost, nothing could be redeemed;

³⁹ And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be from the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. — for the blessing was a prophecy, and that not merely in the case of the posterity of Esau, but in that of Jacob also;

— since Isaac said (Genesis 27:37) he had given the posterity of Jacob the blessing of the super-abundance of corn and wine, he could not possibly promise Esau also fat fields and the dew of heaven; thus his “blessing” is actually away from it;

⁴⁰ And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” — by thy sword shalt thou live; by violence and rapine, in an unquiet and military posture, troubling others, and forced to defend thyself;

— and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion; not over the Israelites, the posterity of Jacob, which the Edomites, Esau’s posterity, never had; but when they should get a greater degree of strength, power, authority, and dominion in the world; “that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck;”

⁴¹ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.”

— the days of mourning for my father are at hand; Esau evidently expected that his father’s death was near, and such also was Isaac’s own expectation (Genesis 27:2); but he recovered, and lived forty-four years after this;

— perhaps on this account another translation has been suggested, namely, “Days of mourning for my father are at hand: then I will slay Jacob” in fact, there ais a bidding for time; in fact millennia, when ther posterity of Jacob had gone astray with the laws of God;;

— as the Targum Jonathan says of Esau’s delayed intent of killing his brother Jacob; in fact it is a latter-day prophecy for the house for Esau against the house of Jacob:

“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother [Jacob]; but it will be that when his sons [the modern children of Israel] become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck….and then will I kill Jakob my brother, and will be found the killer and the heir”  Genesis 27:40-41 Jonathan (abridged)

— or for a more modern translation:

“And by your sword shall you live, you will go to every place, and wander, and you will be subject to your brother. But if 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.'”

— a bit more on what this phase means “and will be found the killer and the heir” by delaying and waiting for Jacob’s killing, Esau hopes he would be both be the killer and the only heir. Hence Esau harboured thoughts he would not do that. Instead, he would delay the killing of Jacob until the death of Isaac, so that when Jacob is killed, Esau will become the sole heir.

⁴² And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, “Behold, thy brother Esau doth comfort himself concerning thee, purposing to kill thee. — Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her brother, and await the abatement of his brother’s anger;

— said unto him, behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee; he has determined on it, and has laid a scheme for it, and comforts himself with the thought of it, that he shall be able to accomplish it, and so be the heir of the promise, and get the blessing; 

⁴³ Now therefore my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother in Haran, — obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother, to Haran; where Laban her brother, dwelt;

⁴⁴ and tarry with him a few days until thy brother’s fury turn away — tarry with him one or two years; but instead of so short a time Jacob stayed there twenty years, and perhaps Rebekah never saw him anymore, being dead before he returned; after this account, no more mention is made of her;

⁴⁵ until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?”

— and he forget that which thou hast done to him; in getting the blessing from him; being convinced that Jacob had done him no injury, and that he had no just cause of being angry with him, it being the will of God that he should have the blessing;

⁴⁶ And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?” — if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth; as Esau has done; this was not the thing she was afraid of; but if we use guile once, we shall be very ready to use it again.

Genesis 28

¹ And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him and said unto him, “Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. — Isaac blessed him; that is, purposely and designedly and in faith now confirmed that blessing to him, which before he had given him unknowingly;

² Arise, go to Padanaram to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. — to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; who though now dead in all probability, yet the house and family went by his name;

— and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother: who had daughters unmarried, of which no doubt Isaac and Rebekah had knowledge, a correspondence being kept up between the two families, though at a great distance.

³ And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; — Isaac called Jacob and blessed him; he entered fully into Rebekah’s feelings, and the burden of his parting counsel to his son was to avoid a marriage alliance with any but the Mesopotamian branch of the family;

— a multitude of people; Heb., a congregation of peoples; which may all unite in one body and make one nation, as the twelve tribes descending from Jacob did; or even into numerous nations, as evidenced by today’s hardcore “liberal democracies” that championed LGBTqia’s rights and wokeism;

⁴ and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.” — and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; which was promised to Abraham, and was entailed upon Isaac and his seed, and now upon Jacob and his seed;

— that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave to Abraham; the land between the two great rivers; which was given to Abraham by promise, but not in possession;

⁵ And Isaac sent away Jacob; and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother. — and Isaac sent away Jacob; Rebekah only counseled, Isaac commanded: and Jacob went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethel the Syrian;

⁶ When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,”

⁷ and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padanaram,

⁸ and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father — and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; who he perceived was displeased with the daughters of Canaan, or that they were “evil in his eyes”

⁹ then went Esau unto Ishmael, and added unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife. — and though Esau did not marry a “wife of the daughters of Canaan,” he married into a family which God had rejected; and took as a third wife Mahalath, a daughter of Ishmael;

¹⁰ And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. — Jacob’s dream and vow; setting out on the way to Haran, he was overtaken by night, and slept in the field.

¹¹ And he alighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. — he lighted upon the place; Jacob’s Dream at Bethel as it lay twelve miles north of Jerusalem, in the mountains of Ephraim, Jacob had already been at least four days on the route;

¹² And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. — behold a ladder set up on the earth; this might represent the providence of God, by which there is a constant correspondence kept up between heaven and earth;

— the counsels of heaven are executed on earth, and the affairs of this earth are all known in heaven; angels are employed as ministering spirits to serve all the designs of Providence, and the wisdom of God is at the upper end of the ladder, directing all the motions of second causes to his glory;

— the Targum of Jonathan has futher insight as this:

“And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set upon the earth, and its top reached to the heavens.

And behold, the two angels who went to Sodom were driven from their places because they had revealed the secrets of the Lord of the world, and they were wandering until the time when Jacob left his father’s house. They accompanied him in kindness until Bethel.

And on that day, they ascended to the heavens and said, ‘Come and see Jacob, the righteous, whose image is engraved upon the throne of glory, which you have longed to see.’ Thus, the other holy angels of the Lord descended to look upon him.”

— Rashi explains: ascending and descending: Ascending first and afterwards descending. The angels who escorted him in the [Holy] Land do not go outside the Land, and they ascended to heaven, and the angels of outside the Holy Land descended to escort him.[From Gen. Rabbah 68:12]

¹³ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac: The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. — and behold, the Lord stood above it; ordering, directing, and overruling all things in Providence, for the glory of his name and the good of his people;

— the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; meaning not that small pittance of land only on which his body then lay, and which it covered, but all the land of which it was a part, not just the land of Canaan; but even the whole land between the two great rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates;

¹⁴ And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. — and thou shalt spread abroad to the west; or “the sea” beyond the Mediterranean sea, which was west of the land of Canaan:

— and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; that is, scattered across the whole world; the meaning is, that his posterity should be numerous, and break out and spread themselves like a flood of water, and reach to the utmost bounds of the land in all directions;

¹⁵ And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” — and will bring thee again into this land; with details in Ezekiel 37 – Return of the Whole House of Israel;

¹⁶ And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.” — surely the Lord is in this place; I knew it not; he did not think or expect to meet with God in such a place, and Jacob called the place Bethel;

¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” — and he was afraid; not with a servile but filial fear; not with a fear of the wrath and displeasure of God, but with a fear of his grace and goodness;

¹⁸ And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. — and poured it upon the top of the stone, as a token of his consecration thereof to this use to be a memorial of God’s favour to him. Oil was used in sacrifices, and in the consecration of persons and places;

¹⁹ And he called the name of that place Bethel [that is, The house of God]; but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. — and he called the name of that place Bethel; the house of God, which he took this place; it was later selected by Jeroboam as one of the high places at which he set up the golden calves;

²⁰ And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, — Jacob made a solemn vow on this occasion; it involves in its obligation, however, only one party, and is the spontaneous act of that party;

²¹ so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. — so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; in safety from Esau, and all other enemies, as God promised him he should: then the Lord shall be my God; 

²² And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give a tenth unto Thee.” — and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house; building an altar of it with some others, and sacrificing to God on it; and wherever God is worshipped, that place is his house, be it what or where it will; and Jacob did as he promised to do;

— and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee; for the support of his worship; for the maintenance of such that were employed in it; for the provision of sacrifice, and for the relief of the poor, or for any use or service in which God might be glorified.

~ by Joel on August 10, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses, Esau