Sibling rivalry: Esau vs Jacob

Chapter 25. In which Abraham remarries and dies, and his and Ishmael’s descendants are listed. The births of Esau and Jacob are recounted.

Abraham marries a woman called Keturah (”incense”), and has six sons with her. According to the Notes the sons’ names are those of Arabian places and tribes. One of the sons, Jokshan, will become the father of Sheba, the queen later visited by Solomon. Abraham gives all that he has to Isaac, but he bestows gifts on the sons of all his concubines. These sons do get sent away from Isaac however, to the east. Isaac is to continue the patriarchal line, and Abraham clearly wants to avoid any territorial disputes.

At the age of 175 Abraham dies and is buried in the family tomb already containing the remains of Sarah.

The chapter also outlines the descendants of the other line of Abraham’s family, that fathered by Ishmael. Ishmael, who dies at 137, has 12 sons, all princes. His descendants fulfil the promise God made to his mother in Genesis 16. According to the Notes

the genealogical split between the children of Hagar and the children of Keturah distinguishes the Arabs of the Syrian and Sinai deserts (the Ishmaelites), who were primarily pastoralists, from the peoples of the Arabian peninsula, in whose southern regions were settled nations wealthy from trade in incense, spices and gold.

Isaac married the Aramean Rebekah when he was 40, but his children are only born when he is 60. Like Sarah, she turns out to be barren, but Isaac prays to God and she conceives. Ominously, “the children struggled together within her”. In answer to her questions God says to her:

Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.

The boys are born with the second child holding on to heel of his brother. Esau, the first-born, was red, and “all his body like a hairy mantle”. His name refers to “red” in Hebrew. The younger brother, Jacob, gets his name from the word “heel” in Hebrew. Jacob’s birth already points to his eventual usurpation of the rights and privileges of his brother.

Esau is his father’s son. A man of the field, a skillful hunter, he is the favourite of Isaac who loves eating game. Jacob is his mother’s favourite, a quiet man who “lives in tents”. The Notes point out that they personify predatory wildness and culture respectively. In their relations with each other Jacob is clearly the intellectual superior of his instinct-led brother.

After coming home from a failed hunt Esau comes upon Jacob cooking stew. His hunger for “some of that red stuff” (emphasising his inarticulateness) drives him to agree to sell his birthright for a portion of it. Jacob gets him to swear to his selling the birthright, which makes the transaction legally binding. The wild man Esau is intent only on having his immediate need sated – he says that he is “about to die” of hunger – and pays no attention to the future, to the consequences of his actions.

Notes

• Sheba was a “wealthy southern Arabian kingdom”. (Notes)
• The theme of the ascent of the younger son (Isaac, Jacob) is a repeated one in Genesis. (Notes)
• In chapter 10 “Joktan” is listed as son of Eber (descendant of Shem) and father of Sheba (among others).

Esau Sells his Birthright to Jacob, by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 – 1669)

~ by tamfuwing on June 30, 2008.