On Genesis, Part 38: The Rejection of Esau

On Genesis, Part 38: The Rejection of Esau

Then Isaac had twin sons, Jacob and Esau, but neither would both of these sons share in the inheritance of their father, so the number of heirs was ultimately narrowed to one of them, and out of his eight sons and many more grandsons, only Jacob would inherit the blessings of Abraham. Like Sarah before her, Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau, had also conceived with a promise, where she was told, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 25, that “23 … Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” There it is fully evident that Jacob and Esau would have very different destinies, even though they were both in the loins of their father when he was dedicated on the altar to Yahweh. So they both belonged to God, as Paul wrote of them much later, in Romans chapter 9, and asked “21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” From there, he proceeded to explain that from one lump there had been created vessels of destruction, but from the other there had been created vessels of mercy, and these are Esau and Jacob and their respective descendants.

But the path to dishonor and destruction was made by Esau himself. His father Isaac was unmarried until he was forty years old, and had taken a wife only as soon as he had learned that his own father Abraham had procured a wife for him. Then Isaac had evidently remained content with that one wife for his entire life. His brother Jacob would remain unmarried, as we shall see here in this chapter and subsequent chapters of Genesis, until his father Isaac had sent him to Haran with instructions to take a wife from the house of his mother’s kindred. Many people seem to assume without studying, that Jacob was a young man when this happened, but in truth, he was seventy years old, which we shall discuss later. Then once Jacob arrived in Haran, when Rebekah’s brother Laban had laid upon Jacob a heavy burden in exchange for a wife, Jacob complied, choosing obedience to his parents rather than rebelling and returning to Palestine.

But as for Esau, he had evidently taken wives without any counsel from Isaac his father, by which he became the master of his own destiny. So Paul wrote later, describing Esau and making an example for Christians, in Hebrews chapter 12 where he had admonished his readers to be diligent “15 … lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” There Paul indirectly informs us that the rejection of Esau was not only from Rebekah, but from Yahweh God Himself, and for the explicit reason that he was a fornicator. Yahweh God had foreseen Esau’s sin, and for that reason the Word of God informs us in Malachi chapter 1 that “2 … I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, …” a Scripture which Paul had cited in Romans chapter 9. That is also why Yahweh had informed Rebekah that her twin sons would have diverging destinies.

Where Paul called Esau a fornicator, the only reason could be found in the fact that Esau had taken wives of the Hittites, who had already mingled themselves with the Kenites and Nephilim, whereby he polluted his seed, having race-mixed with the people of whom his grandfather Abraham had warned his household. Where Paul had called Esau a “profane person”, it is because on account of his fornication Esau had defiled that which is holy, as Isaac had been dedicated to Yahweh. Esau defiled himself by taking Hittite wives. Many Judaized Christians would rather believe that Esau was rejected because he married pagans, but that belief is ludicrous because at this time the entire world was pagan. From that perspective, the only non-pagans in the whole world at this time would have been Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob. As we have pointed out several times earlier in this commentary, the young Abraham and all of his own fathers were pagan, having worshipped pagan gods, which is stated explicitly multiple times in Joshua chapter 24. By necessity, even Jacob had taken pagan wives, as Rachel had stolen her father’s household gods, yet he and his children were accepted. Therefore the only reason why Esau could have been rejected must be because of the race of his wives, and not their religion. As Paul had attested, he was a fornicator and a profane man, not an irreverent and impious man.

This is perfectly obvious in the closing verses of Genesis chapter 26:

34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

Here it is further evident, that Esau had taken these wives of his own volition, and without any counsel from Isaac, since his parents were grieved by the action and ostensibly, they were not given any notice or opportunity to further warn him or even admonish him not to take Hittites as wives. It seems from his character that Esau must have been quite strong-willed, and perhaps Isaac may have been meek and overly permissive regarding his elder son, since he evidently admired his prowess in the field. This is evident in the circumstance, since although we do not know many details of how these things transpired or of anything further which was actually said in regard to them, even in spite of his grief Isaac had nevertheless continued to enjoy the meat which Esau had brought to his table. So where we continue with Genesis, the opening verses of Genesis chapter 27 illustrate this circumstance:

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.

Now Isaac and Esau are not necessarily living together, and Esau may even have been far away when Isaac sent for him, but the concise manner in which the Scriptures are written simply does not provide many details. It is also evident, but only upon examining the later life of Jacob, that Esau is no longer a mere forty years old, and that this event must have actually occurred some decades after he had taken his Hittite wives, so Isaac is well beyond a hundred years old. Isaac would live a hundred and eighty years, and since he was sixty when Jacob was born, that would make Jacob and Esau a hundred and twenty when he died. Isaac does not die until well after Jacob returns from Haran, and not until about ten years before Jacob and his family go down to Egypt, according to our chronology which is mostly based on the text of the Greek Septuagint. Here Jacob is not yet sent to Haran, where he would stay twenty years, and he goes to Egypt at about the age of one-hundred and thirty, as we read in Genesis chapter 47 where Jacob had spoken to pharaoh.

But because we are not told the age of Jacob when any of his sons were born, or at what age he was married to his wives, from the stated lifespan of Isaac found in Genesis chapter 35 (35:28) we only know that there are eighty years between the time when Esau took his first two wives, and the time when Isaac had died. Then we can deduce the general sequence of events as follows: During this eighty years, Jacob spent twenty years in Haran (Genesis 31:38), and he returned with eleven of his twelve sons already having been born (Genesis 35:18). Then after he returned, Joseph, who was the very last child born to Jacob in Haran, was seventeen years old when he was sold into slavery (Genesis 37:2), and thirty years old at the beginning of the seven years of plenty in the vision of pharaoh, which is just seven years before the famine began in Egypt (Genesis 41:46). So around the time of the beginning of the seven years of famine, he was evidently about thirty-seven years old. Then we learn from Genesis chapter 45 that upon the word which Joseph had sent, Jacob was encouraged to go down to Egypt when there were yet five years of famine remaining, so at that time Joseph was about thirty-nine years old, which is thirty years plus the seven years of plenty plus the first two years of famine.

Therefore, allowing a year for preparation and travel, if Joseph was about forty years old when Jacob stood before Pharaoh at the age of a hundred and thirty (Genesis 47:9), then at the time of his birth in Haran his father Jacob must have already been about ninety years old. Jacob died at the age of a hundred and forty-seven, after being in Egypt for seventeen years (Genesis 47:28). Since Joseph was only forty when Jacob went to Egypt at age one hundred and thirty, then Jacob must have been no less than ninety when he left Haran, and having spent twenty years there (Genesis 31:38), he must have already been about seventy years old when he first went to Haran to find a wife! So Jacob, having worked for Laban for seven years before he got Leah for a wife, was even older, perhaps as old as seventy-eight years, when his first son Reuben was born, and that is even older than Abraham was when he fathered Ishmael at the age of seventy-five years.

So here, at the beginning of Genesis chapter 27, if Jacob is nearing age seventy, then Esau is also that same age, and he has already had his Hittite wives for thirty years, where Isaac is about a hundred and thirty years old, and it is therefore also understandable that he is growing feeble and dim of sight. The simple way of looking at this is that when Jacob arrives in Egypt, Joseph was nearly forty years old, and Jacob was a hundred and thirty. So if Joseph was born just before his father left Haran, as Genesis chapter 30 indicates (30:24-26), then Jacob was about ninety years old after having spent twenty years in Haran, and about seventy when he had arrived. So now the hundred and thirty year old Isaac speaks to Esau, his seventy year old son in preparation for his death:

2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 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; 4 And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

Isaac, being a hundred and thirty years old, certainly could not have known that he would live another fifty years. But since Jacob is nearing seventy, and he is not yet married, ostensibly it must have been the hand of God which had caused Isaac to feel such alarm at this time. If Jacob was slow to take a wife perhaps he was waiting patiently on his father. But here Isaac indicates that he would give the blessing of the first-born unto Esau, since he was about to die, and perhaps that is also the reason for his seeming lack of concern for Jacob, who was not yet married. It is also evident that in doing so, here Isaac was only thinking of himself, of his belly, as he began to anticipate his own death, in spite of the fact that he would evidently live another fifty years. So the way in which this is written certainly seems to indicate that Isaac had overlooked Esau’s sins primarily because he had loved the meat which his elder son brought to the table. The same dynamic is found in society today, where fathers admire their sons for excelling in sports or in the military in spite of any sins in which they are living.

Here Isaac also happens to be the same age that Jacob was, one hundred and thirty, where he stood before pharaoh and said, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 47, that “9 … The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” But Jacob would live for only a hundred and forty-seven years (Genesis 47:28), and Joseph would live to be only a hundred and ten (Genesis 50:22), so the lifespans of the patriarchs have been reduced quite sharply over a relatively short span of four generations, from Abraham to Joseph, although some men in the subsequent generations would live a little longer. For example both Levi and Amram, the grandson of Levi, would live for a hundred and thirty-seven years (Exodus 6:16, 20), and Amram’s father Kohath for a hundred and thirty-three (Exodus 6:18). But as a digression, Amram had only lived for a hundred and thirty-two years according to the Septuagint.

Now Isaac had evidently caused his wife some distress with the things which he had spoken to Esau:

5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

While both Isaac and Rebekah had been grieved when Esau had taken his Hittite wives thirty years earlier, as it is recorded at the end of Genesis chapter 26, here it seems that only Rebekah would continue to hold onto that grief, and that she would act accordingly while Isaac would have given Esau the blessings of the first-born, so that she could prevent that from happening. Therefore as soon as she heard that Isaac would bless Esau, believing that he was about to die, Rebekah undertook an initiative which would result in the preservation of Isaac’s heritage in spite of Isaac himself:

6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 7 Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: 10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.

Critics of the Old Testament often accuse Jacob of having plotted to steal his brother’s birthright. But here it is plainly evident that Jacob did not plot at all, even in spite of the fact that he was entitled to it, since first, he knew that Esau had despised it, and secondly, for that same reason he had prodded Esau into selling it to him for a bowl of lentils, at a time when Esau was in need, and Esau had agreed to the offer with an oath. So Jacob was indeed entitled to Esau’s birthright, which evidently included the blessing of the first-born, yet in his humility he made no attempt to secure it on his own. Perhaps Jacob knew that God would vindicate him, but for now, his mother compelled him to secure it, and that is the reasons for her actions here, so she must have wanted him to have it, even over Jacob’s own protests:

11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.

So Jacob was ashamed to deceive his father, but his mother Rebekah continued by insisting, and she was even willing to suffer any resulting curse if Jacob was caught, so out of obedience to his mother he relented. But all of these things did not transpire in isolation, as completely unrelated events, so Jacob must have known that Rebekah was vexed with Esau’s choice of wives, and that he did not deserve the birthright for reason of his fornication. However in spite of Rebekah’s motivation, the hand of God must also have been orchestrating these events, as the outcomes result in the fulfillment of His earlier words to Rebekah, when she prayed as she felt the struggle in her womb and He answered and said: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” The only manner by which the words of Isaac would be upheld as well as the Word of God, is if Jacob received the blessing of the first born in place of Esau. In my opinion, as we shall see, the blessing and the birthright should be considered together, since the birthright is empty without the blessing of the father, and it is really only his to give, so Esau had no right to sell because it was Isaac’s to give.

14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father 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: 16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17 And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

Here Jacob must have dressed out the kids from the flock, so he knew how to do that, and also how to prepare the goatskins which he had provided her. The word for kids which appears in verse 9, which is very similar in Hebrew and English, is גדי or gedi, and it informs us that these were indeed young goats. So once again, his having been a “plain man”, as the King James Version has it in Genesis chapter 25, does not mean that he was a helpless man, and as we had explained, the true meaning is that he was a complete or even perfect man, where his brother seems to have been lacking. However Isaac had evidently loved Esau more, for his ability in the field and for the meat which he had brought him.

But just because Jacob prepared goatskins, which Rebekah had put on his hands and neck, does not mean that Esau was hairy to the extent of having a thick coat of fur all over his body like some sort of beast. The hair of a kid goat is not as long nor as thick as that of an adult goat, and the hair of a goat’s belly is certainly not as thick, even if the goat is fully grown. Goat hair is not wiry or stiff, but soft and gentle. Goats may also be shorn, and in the summer season goats characteristically shed their winter coats, where the hair may often be thinned considerably. So without precise details, we nevertheless need not imagine that Esau was furry, but only hairy, as there are even hairy men among us today.

Furthermore, Esau may have left at least some of his raiment, or clothing, in the house of Isaac when he went out into the field unexpectedly, to hunt at his father’s request. The word for house here is explicit, being the Hebrew word בית, bayith or beth (# 1004), where it is evident that Isaac must have built a house in Beersheba, rather than having remained in tents. The word for goodly is חמדה or chemedah (# 2532), which Strong’s original Concordance defines as “of delight”, being a feminine form of חמד or chemed (# 2531) or delight. So Esau, having had a delightful garment, must have had a penchant for luxurious or valuable clothing when he was not out in the field.

Now Jacob ventures to approach his father, pretending to be Esau as his mother had insisted that he do:

18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? 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. 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.

Apparently, Isaac was uncertain from the moment Jacob had approached him, and he will express further uncertainty once again as Jacob continues to speak to him. But his eyesight must have been very weak despite the fact that he has not yet lived nearly as long as his father and grandfather before him. Abraham had lived for a hundred and seventy five, and his father Terah for two hundred and five years.

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. 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. 23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. 24 And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.

In the Genesis account, it is apparent that even when a man is deceived, once he accepts a circumstance and acts in harmony with it, he must also accept the outcome of the circumstances. That is true here, where Isaac believed he was about to bless Esau in spite of his doubts, and it is true later in the life of Jacob, where he slept with Leah thinking that it was Rachel, and although he had been deceived by Laban he nevertheless kept her as a wife in spite of the fact that Leah had cooperated with her father. Just as Jacob had done for his mother here, Laban had compelled Leah and she acted accordingly. So being persuaded that he was speaking to Esau, Isaac continued:

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 did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 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:

Perhaps those last words spoken by Isaac here are also an indication, and a prophecy in themselves, that it would be Jacob who would be blessed rather than Esau. As we learn throughout the books of the prophets as well as in the Gospel accounts of Christ, Yahweh God can shut the eyes of men just as well as He can open them, and here the eyes of Isaac must have been shut for his own good, as he intended to bless the son who did not deserve the birthright, having been a fornicator. So Esau was rejected by his own mother, and his brother Jacob must have understood the circumstances as well as the reasons why, for which reason he wanted the birthright and compelled his brother to sell it to him earlier, near the end of Genesis chapter 25.

In Genesis chapter 21, where Hagar thought that she and the young Ishmael may die of thirst in the desert, we read that “19 … God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water…”, so something can be within view, and not necessarily seen if perhaps God does not want one to see it. Then in Isaiah chapter 6, on account of the sins of the people of Jerusalem, we read “10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Later in Isaiah, in chapter 44, concerning idolaters it is said that “18 They have not known nor understood: for he [God] hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.” Later, in John chapter 9, Mark chapter 9 and Luke chapter 11, there are accounts where Christ had opened the eyes of the blind. Thus it is with Isaac here, but he did not necessarily remain in this condition for the entire last fifty years of his life.

Now Isaac, having been convinced by the smell of the goatskins that this was indeed Esau, proceeds with the blessing of Jacob:

28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: 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.

Where Isaac blessed Jacob and said “let people serve thee”, “be lord over thy brethren”, which would include all of the sons of Abraham as well as those of Nahor, and also “let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee”, which is the second statement here that would include Esau, there is harmony between the blessing of Isaac and the Word of God which had told Rebekah that “the elder shall serve the younger.” That is why it had to be Jacob who had received this blessing, and not Esau, and therefore Rebekah must have been following the will of Yahweh when she compelled Jacob her son. So it was righteous that Isaac was deceived, and had given his blessing to Jacob rather than Esau, because Esau had already been rejected by God Himself.

But once he discovered his loss of his father’s blessing, he became wroth and wanted to kill his brother:

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

We may once again see the concise manner in which Scripture was written, because the blessing of Jacob must have taken much longer than a few minutes, or so it seems, as it is recorded here. It must have lasted through the duration of Isaac’s having eaten his meal, and the time that it took to clear the residue out of the way. So without there having been any indication that his father had already eaten, Esau had come in fulfillment of his father’s original request and we read:

31 And he also had made savoury 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. 32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. 33 And Isaac trembled very 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.

The Hebrew word חרד or charad (# 2729) is defined in Strong’s original Concordance as “to shudder with terror; hence to fear”, and other related words seem to support that definition. But here in the Septuagint, it was translated with the Greek verb ἐξίστημι, and then where the King James Version has trembled, the Septuagint has the related noun ἔκστασις, which can mean to displace and displacement, or to be astonished and astonishment, or to be terrified and terror. So in Brenton’s Septuagint translation we read the first clause of verse 33 to say “And Isaac was amazed with great amazement…” This seems more rational, as there was nothing for Isaac to fear, and he did not express any fear in the subsequent events. It seems more likely that he was merely astonished at what happened, and was considering it in his heart as he spoke to Esau.

Here, as soon as Isaac had realized that he blessed Jacob instead of Esau, he affirmed the blessing even though he must known that he had been deceived, where he said “and he shall be blessed”. This accords with the attitudes of pious men in ancient times, which we had also ascribed to Noah in his curse of Canaan, that when Yahweh upholds a man’s words, it is because the words are just and the man had uttered them righteously. So we read of the young prophet Samuel, in 1 Samuel chapter 3: “19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.” Therefore in the subsequent events in the lives of both Jacob and Esau, Isaac’s having blessed Jacob shall be vindicated by Yahweh, and also by Isaac himself, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 28. So with this, Esau is angry, and demands a blessing of his own:

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. 35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.

This is now the second time that Isaac upholds his having blessed Jacob, in spite of the fact that he had been deceived into doing so. With that, it may be apparent that Isaac knew in his heart that this was from of Yahweh, that because it had happened, that was the way in which it was destined to happen.

Now Esau continues to protest:

36 And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? 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?

The Hebrew word יעקב or yaqob (# 3290) from which we have the name Jacob literally means heel-catcher or heel-holder, and here, Esau himself provides its idiomatic meaning, which is supplanter. The Greek form of the name Jacob is Iakobos, and we do not agree that it should be translated as James, as it was in the New Testament where it was the given name of two of the apostles of Christ.

Here we would also rather believe that the birthright and the blessing must go hand-in-hand. A later example would be in the life of Reuben, who had forfeited his birthright as the eldest son when he violated his father’s bed, for which reason the things which the eldest son may have expected to inherit, the leadership of the family represented by the scepter, the family priesthood, and the double portion of the property, were distributed among his brethren. Then, when Jacob blessed his sons, he blessed Reuben first, but gave him no true blessing, stating only that “3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”

However in his charge that Jacob had taken away his birthright, Esau indirectly admits that he had sold his birthright to his brother, and perhaps Isaac had known that over these several decades, or at least thirty years, since it had happened. Now Isaac answers his objections:

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?

Here is the third time that Isaac upholds his having blessed Jacob, without having expressed any regret, but Esau continues to beg for some blessing from his father:

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.

It is of this very act that Paul of Tarsus had latter written, in chapter 12 of his epistle to the Hebrews after he had described him as a fornicator: “17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” So here it is evident, that although Esau wept, there is not one word of repentance, as Paul had written. There is no evident reflection on the part of Esau as to why Jacob had gotten away with having taken both his birthright and his blessing.

Nevertheless, Isaac is moved to utter a blessing for Esau which once again upholds his blessing for Jacob, but which also forebodes a point of contention:

39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; 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.

So where Isaac blessed Esau and said “thou shalt serve thy brother”, he also forbode trouble between Esau and Jacob where he said “and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” Here we cannot provide all of the history which substantiates the words of Paul of Tarsus in Romans chapter 9, but we have already done that elsewhere in our writings, such as in our explanation of the Creation of the Jewish People. In that chapter of Romans, Paul states that “not all those in Israel are of Israel”, and he proceeds by comparing Jacob and Esau, because in the Intertestamental period the Edomites had moved north to occupy much of the former lands of Judah and Israel, and in the later part of that period, which is the period of the Hasmonaean dynasty of high priests, under John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, the Edomites in what became known as Judaea had all been forcibly converted to the religion of the people of Judah who had returned to Jerusalem, which by that time was appropriately called Judaism by the Greeks and Romans. Then when Rome had come to conquer Judaea around 63 BC, Herod the Edomite turned traitor and sided with the Romans, after which he ultimately was made king of Judaea as a subject state of Rome.

After Herod was made king of Judaea, he killed all the nobles of Jerusalem and the family of the Hasmonaeans, and appointed his own cronies and compatriots into the positions of power and authority throughout Judaea. That situation persisted until Jerusalem was destroyed once again, in 70 AD, and all of the division in Judaea at the time of Christ may be accounted to the leadership of the Edomite Jews. As Christ Himself had told them in John chapter 10 “26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” Many times and in diverse ways He had told them that they were not His people, and it was for that reason that they did not believe Him.

So while that is not when the Edomites had broken the rule of Jacob, since, as Paul also explained several times in that same epistle to the Romans, the Romans themselves were indeed sons of Jacob, it did give the Edomite Judaeans, who are now called Jews, the ability to ultimately break it, since ever since Jerusalem fell to the Romans, the Edomites have been masquerading as the children of Israel.

For much of that time, however, Israel bore another yoke, that was not of Edom, and that is the series of beast empires which ruled over the captive children of Israel through seven times of punishment for their sins, which is prophesied in Leviticus 26:18, in Daniel chapters 2 and 7, and also in Revelation chapter 13. So while we cannot include our entire Revelation commentary here, which itself includes lengthy discussions of the corresponding chapters of Daniel, the end of those beast empires came with the passing of the temporal power of the papacy of Rome, and Israel entered into a perceived Age of Liberty. This is prophesied, in part, in Jeremiah chapter 30, where after discussing the captivity of Israel in Babylon, we read: “6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”

It is at the advent of the Age of Liberty that Esau broke the yoke of Jacob, at the same time that Jacob was released from the bondage of the Babylonian empires and the pope, who was actually only an extension of the power of Rome. So Esau is also representative of the devil who would emerge from the pit of Revelation chapter 20, who was to make war with the remnant of the seed of the woman in Revelation chapter 12, with those who keep the Word and commandments of Christ, an event which is represented by the political emancipation of the Edomite Jews in Europe throughout the first half of the 19th century. Now as a result, the Edomite Jews fill a hugely disproportionate number of positions of wealth, power and government throughout the entire world, and there should be no doubt that Esau has broken the yoke of Jacob and continues the struggle to rule over him today. That is the prophesied “time of Jacob’s trouble”, and we are living in that time now, during which men too often do act like women, and some go so far as to believe that they can give birth to children.

But the Septuagint translation wants the phrase where Isaac tells Esau that “thou shalt have dominion”, the Latin Vulgate also wants that phrase, and the passage is wanting in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so we do not have to accept it as there is no other witness. In the Hebrew, the meaning of the term which led to that translation is questioned, and the New American Standard Bible has the same phrase to read “when you become restless”. However here we see that the liberty of Esau was indeed prophesied by Isaac, if not the dominance. Of course, neither is that going to last, as we read in Revelation chapter 12 that the devil knows that he has a short time, and Yahshua Christ, the Living God and son of Jacob, shall ultimately have the dominion and destroy all of Edom, as it is written in Obadiah that “18 … the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.”

Through all of this, it may be apparent that the wrath of Esau is still against Jacob today, so now Esau responds to this blessing where we read:

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.

Of course, Isaac would live for another fifty years, and Esau himself never slew Jacob. When Esau saw Jacob as he returned from Haran, twenty years after he had spoken these words, his temper seems to have softened and he exhibited no signs of enmity towards his brother, which becomes evident where the two meet once again, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 32. Where Jacob first left Haran, his stated intent was to “go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan”, as it is recorded in Genesis 31:18, since Isaac would still live for another thirty years after Jacob’s return. When Isaac died, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 35, both Jacob and Esau had buried him. Ten years later Jacob would go to Egypt, where he would live another seventeen years, but the death of Esau is not recorded in Scripture.

The words of Esau had nevertheless alarmed his mother:

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, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; 44 And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away; 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?

Rebekah has already written of Esau, and must have considered him dead, so now she does not want to lose Jacob as well. The Scripture does not inform us whether Rebekah had lived until Jacob had returned from Haran twenty years after this time. But Jacob was saved from the wrath of his brother when he left Canaan and went to his own kin in Haran, where he also had found a fitting wife, or wives, so the hand of Yahweh God is also fully evident in that circumstance. But before he departs, he receives additional comfort from his father, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 28.

Now, in the final verses of this chapter, Rebekah speaks, and she must be explaining herself and the reasons for her actions to her husband Isaac:

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 which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?

Here, upon hearing these words of his wife, Isaac must have finally understood the importance of the matter at hand, and why Jacob received his blessing rather than Esau, because Rebekah here takes a stand for the Truth of God, and explains why Esau had to be rejected, as he had taken wives of the Hittites thirty years earlier. So where Isaac responds to this profession, in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 28, he sends Jacob to Haran, instructs him to take wives there of his own kin, and assures him that in doing so, that he would indeed inherit the blessings of Abraham, which would have been expected to go to Esau, at least primarily.

Doing this, Rebekah fulfilled a Godly role which was later exemplified by the apostles, even if she herself is not named. In 1 Peter chapter 3, the apostle described how Christian women should be models for their husbands, where he wrote: “1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.” So a good Christian wife can steer her husband in the right direction by her own conduct when he veers off course, as Rebekah had certainly done for Isaac here.

The apostle Paul wrote similarly in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, of unbelieving husbands: “13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.” Although here the context is somewhat different, the actions of Rebekah here certainly ensured that Isaac would have holy children, something which the children of Esau could never be.

This is the reason for the rejection of Esau: that he was a fornicator, a race-mixer, and as Paul also wrote, even in his tears he could find no room for repentance. This reason is given in words attributed to his own mother, and in his subsequent actions, his father Isaac had wholeheartedly agreed. So his own parents signed their names to the rejection of Esau.