Genesis/Bereshith 25b – " Two nations are in your body"

[Unbracketted commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz which is a collection of rabbinic and non-Jewish scholarly interpretation of the Torah books. When commentators go beyond the plain meaning of the text, you wonder what is the agenda for doing so; usually it’s the religious perspective that gets in the way of objectivity.  This is not difficult to spot in the commentary.   Reading different perspectives of the foundational books in the TORAH is informative and educational; you either agree or disagree, chew and digest or spit out.  

For our own commentary, please read these two earlier posts on this set of ‘biblical’ twins:

• Ya’aqob/Jacob the “heel” – 1
• Esau/Edom – A Second Look

The translation used here is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses with commentary indicated y “EF”; additional commentary by “RA” for Robert Alter who also wrote a translation with the same title as Fox..—Admin1.]

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Genesis/Bereshith 25: 19-34

THE BIRTHRIGHT

With this verse, a new section of the Book of Genesis commences, which extends to the end of Chapter XXXVI.  Therefore, we are given a brief summary of what has gone before, to prepare us for the new events to be described.

19 Now these are the begettings of Yitzhak, son of Avraham.

Avraham begot Yitzhak.

Abraham’s son. i.e. his son and heir, to distinguish him from the children of Hagar and Keturah.

Abraham begot Isaac. It was not until the Patriarch’s name was altered from Abram to Abraham, ‘father of a multitude of nations’ (XVII,5), that Isaac was born.

20  Yitzhak was forty years old when he took Rivka daughter of Betuel the Aramean, from the country of Aram, sister of Lavan the Aramean, for himself as a wife.

Paddan-aram. Identical with Aram-Naharaim, or Mesopotamia: XXIV,10.

21  Yitzhak entreated YHWH for his wife, for she was barren,

and YHWH granted-his-entreaty:

Rivka his wife became pregnant.

she was barren.  Like Sarah before her (XVI,1) and Rachel after her (XXIX,31).  This sterility may have been intended to emphasize that the children who were eventually born were a gift of grace from God for the fulfillment of His purpose.

22 But the children almost crushed one another inside her,

so she said:

If this be so,

why do I exist?

And she went to inquire of YHVH.

struggled together. A premonition of the rivalry which was to exist between the brothers and their descendants.

if it be so, wherefore do I live?  Life was unbearable for her, and she wished to die (Nachmanides).

to inquire of the LORD.  A technical term for seeking an answer from a Divine source.  According to the Midrash, she went to the School of Shem, where the knowledge of God was taught.  It is very probable that she went to ‘inquire of the Lord’ through Abraham, who was still alive at this time (see on v. 7).

23 YHVH said to her:

Two nations are in your body,

two tribes from your belly shall be divided; 

tribe shall be mightier than tribe,

elder shall be servant to younger!

two nations.  i.e. the founders of two nations.  The oracular answer is in four poetic lines.

shall be separated.  Shall be mutually antagonistic from birth.

the elder shall serve the younger. This prophecy was fulfilled when David defeated Edom. See II Sam. VIII,14.

24  When her days were fulfilled for bearing, here: twins were in her body.

25 The first one came out ruddy, like a hairy mantle all over,

so they called his name: Esav/Rough-one.

ruddy. Heb. admoni.  The Midrash explains the ruddiness as a premonition of his love for hunting and shedding of blood.

Esau.  Some authorities derive it from a Semitic root meaning ‘thick-haired’.

26 After that his brother came out, his hand grasping Esav’s heel,

so they called his name: Yaakov/Heel-holder.

Yitzhak was sixty years old when she bore them.

his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. As it were to pull him back and prevent him from being the firstborn: Hosea XII,4.

27 The lads grew up:

Esav became a man who knew the hunt,

a man of the field, but Yaakov
was a plain man, staying among the tents.

a cunning hunter.  lit. ‘knowing hunting’. The word ‘cunning’ is used in its old meaning, ‘skillful.’

quiet.  lit. ‘perfect’; i.e. harmless.

dwelling in tents. i.e. a shepherd. The Midrash explains ‘tents’ to mean ‘schools of religious study’; on v. 22.

28 Yitzhak grew to love Esav, for (he brought) hunted-game for his mouth,

but Rivka loved Yaakov

now Isaac loved Esau. Although in Rabbinic literature Esau the roving huntsman is, like Nimrod, depicted as a bad character because of the bloodshed and cruelty to animals that the hunter’s life entails, yet he is praised for his devotion to Isaac.  To have merited his father’s love is regarded as the consequence of Esau’s filial piety.

and Rebekah loved Jacob. Each parent had a favourite child, which was to lead to the break-up of the household.  ‘Love thy children with an impartial love,’ is the wise admonition of a medieval Jewish leader.

29  Once Yaakov was boiling boiled stew,

when Esau came from the field, and he was weary.

30 Esav said to Yaakov:

Pray give me a gulp of the red-stuff, that red-stuff,

for I am so weary! 

Therefore they called his name: Edom/Red-one

swallow. The Heb. word, which does not occur elsewhere in the Bible, implies animal-like voracity.

Edom. ‘The Hebrews saw in the name of the rival nation a standing reminder of the impulsive shortsightedness of its ancestor’ (Driver).  The term ‘mess of pottage’, used proverbially of this transaction, does not occur in the Authorised Version of the Bible.

31 Yaakov said:

Sell me your firstborn-right here-and-now.

sell me first thy birthright. At first sight, Jacob’s conduct appears indeed reprehensible.  On closer examination, however, we learn that the privileges of the birthright so coveted by Jacob were purely spiritual.  In primitive time, the head of the clan or the firstborn acted as the priest.  Esau’s general behaviour hardly accorded with what was due from one who was to serve the Supreme God; and Jacob suspected that his brother did not value the dignity and privilege of being the firstborn as they should be valued.  When, therefore, an opportunity suggested itself, Jacob determined to put his brother to the test.  He knew full well that the withholding of the pottage would not have fatal consequences.  He would, however, find out what Esau really thought of his birthright.  ‘As to power and command, Jacob never exercised any over Esau; but on the contrary, humbly and submissively addresses him as “my Lord”‘ (Abarbanel).

32 Esav said:

Here, I am on my way to dying, so what good to me is a firstborn-right?

I am at the point to die.  The exaggeration of a hungry man of uncontrolled appetite.

33 Yaakov said:

Swear to me here-and-now.

He swore to him and sold his firstborn-right to Yaakov.

34 Yaakov gave Esav bread and boiled lentils;

he ate and drank and arose and went off.

Thus did Esav despise the firstborn-right.

So Esau despised his birthright. Which he would not have done had it carried with it material advantages.  The spiritual inheritance of Abraham, which would normally have passed into the hands of Esau, was not worth to him as much as a dish of pottage.  Like the true sensualist, this fickle and impulsive hunter readily sacrifices to the gratification of the moment that which to a man of nobler build would be of transcendent worth.