Esau and Jacob

After Abraham’s death, Isaac’s wife became pregnant. When her womb was heavily burdened, Isaac grew very anxious and inquired of God. God answered that Rebekah would bear twins, that two nations would take their names from those sons, and that the one who seemed the lesser would prevail over the greater. And so, a short time later, just as God had foretold, she bore twins. The elder was very rough and hairy from head to foot; the younger took hold of his heel as they were being born. The father loved the elder, who was called Esau, a name suited to his roughness, for the Hebrews call hairiness esauron. But Jacob, the younger, was his mother’s favorite. [a]

When there was a famine in the land, Isaac decided to go into Egypt, since the land there was good; but he went to Gerar instead, as God commanded him. Abimelech the king received him there, because Abraham had once lived with him and had been his friend. But though at first he treated him with great kindness, envy kept him from remaining in that frame of mind to the end; for when he saw that God was with Isaac and took such great care of him, he drove him away. When Isaac saw how envy had changed Abimelech’s temper, he withdrew to a place called the Valley, not far from Gerar. As he was digging a well there, the shepherds fell on him and started a fight to stop the work. Because he did not want a quarrel, the shepherds seemed to get the better of him, so he withdrew again and dug another. When some other shepherds of Abimelech began to use violence against him, he left that one too and withdrew once more, buying his own safety by sensible and prudent conduct. At last, as things fell out of themselves, he was able to dig a well undisturbed. He named this well Rehoboth, which means a wide space. Of the earlier wells, one was called Esek, which means strife, and the other Sitnah, a name that means enmity. [d]

Isaac’s power was now at its height because of the greatness of his wealth. But Abimelech thought Isaac was prospering in rivalry with him. Living near each other made them suspicious of one another, and Isaac’s withdrawal showed a hidden hostility as well. So Abimelech was afraid that his former friendship with Isaac would not protect him if Isaac should try to avenge the wrongs he had earlier done him. He therefore renewed his friendship with him, bringing with him Phicol, one of his generals. And when he had obtained everything he wanted, thanks to Isaac’s good nature (for Isaac valued the earlier friendship Abimelech had shown to him and his father more than his later anger against him), he went back home. [f]

When Esau, the son his father loved most, reached the age of forty, he married Adah, the daughter of Elon, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Zibeon; this Elon and Zibeon were great lords among the Canaanites. In doing so he took the authority on himself and claimed control over his own marriages, without so much as asking his father’s advice. Had Isaac been the judge, he would not have let him marry this way, for he was not pleased to form any marriage alliance with the people of that country. But not wanting to distress his son by ordering him to send these wives away, he decided to keep silent. [g]

When Isaac was old and could not see at all, he called Esau to him. He told him that, besides his blindness and the disorder of his eyes, his great age kept him from his worship of God. So he told him to go out hunting, and when he had caught as much game as he could, to prepare him a supper, so that afterward he might pray to God to be his son’s supporter and helper for the whole of his life. For, he said, it was uncertain when he would die, and he wanted, by his prayers for him, to win God’s mercy for him beforehand. [h]

So Esau went out hunting. But Rebekah thought it right to have this prayer made to gain God’s favor for Jacob, and that without Isaac’s consent. She told Jacob to kill some young goats and prepare a supper, and Jacob obeyed his mother, following all her instructions. When the supper was ready, he took a goatskin and wrapped it around his arm, so that by its hairy roughness his father might believe him to be Esau; for since they were twins and alike in everything else, they differed only in this. He did this out of fear that he would be caught in his wrongdoing before his father had made his prayers, and would provoke his father to curse him instead. So he brought the supper in to his father. Isaac, noticing something peculiar in his voice, called his son to him, and Jacob held out the arm he had wrapped in the goatskin. Feeling it, Isaac said, “Your voice is like Jacob’s, yet from the thickness of your hair you seem to me to be Esau.” So, suspecting no deceit, he ate the supper and turned to his prayers and intercessions with God. He said, “Master of all the ages, and Creator of all that exists! It was you who held out to my father a great abundance of good things; you have been pleased to give me what I have; and you have promised to be the kind supporter of my descendants and to give them still greater blessings. So confirm these promises of yours, and do not pass me by because of my present weakness, which makes me pray to you all the more earnestly. Be gracious to this son of mine. Preserve him and keep him from everything evil. Give him a happy life and as many good things as your power is able to give. Make him terrible to his enemies, and honored and loved among his friends.” [i]

So Isaac prayed to God, thinking his prayers had been made for Esau. He had barely finished them when Esau came in from hunting. When Isaac saw his mistake, he said nothing. But Esau asked to be given the same blessing from his father that his brother had received. His father refused, because all his prayers had been spent on Jacob, and Esau lamented the mistake. Still, his father was grieved at his weeping, and told him that he would excel in hunting and strength of body, in arms and all work of that kind, and would win lasting glory for these things, he and his descendants after him, but that he would still serve his brother.

Jacob was afraid of his brother, who wanted to punish him for the mistake over Isaac’s prayers, and his mother got him safely away. She persuaded her husband to take a wife for Jacob from Mesopotamia, from her own family. Esau had by now married Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael. For Isaac and his household did not like the Canaanites, and since they disapproved of his earlier marriages, Esau took Basemath as his wife to please them; and indeed he loved her very much. [j]