Genesis 25:23

And the Lord said unto her,.... Either by one or other of the above persons she acquainted with this affair, and entreated to seek the Lord for her; or by an impulse upon her own mind: two nations

And the LORD said unto her, 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 Lord spoke, either by inward inspiration, in a dream or vision; or by the ministry of an angel or prophet. Two nations, i.e. the roots, heads, or parents of two distinct nations, one opposite to the other; the one blessed, the other cursed, namely, the Israelites and Edomites. Shall be separated; not only separated from thee, but one separated or greatly differing from the other in their frame of body, temper of mind, course of life, profession and practice of religion. The elder, or, the greater, namely Esau, who was, as older, so of a stronger constitution of body, and of greater power and dignity in the world than Jacob; and Esau’ s posterity were great princes for a long time, when Jacob’ s seed were strangers in Canaan, slaves in Egypt, and poor afflicted wanderers in the wilderness. But, saith he, Esau and his shall not always be stronger and mightier than Jacob and his posterity, the tables shall be turned, and the children of Israel shall be uppermost and subdue the Edomites, which was literally accomplished in David’ s time, ; and afterwards, ,12; and after that by the Maccabees; but much more eminently in a spiritual sense under the gospel, when one of Jacob’ s children, even Jesus Christ, shall obtain the dominion, and shall rule the Edomites no less than other heathen nations with his iron rod, and make them serviceable one way or other to his glory, and to the felicity of his true Israel.

Genesis 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, 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.Ver. 23. And the Lord said unto her.] Either by an angel, or a prophet, or some divine answer in her own heart. Two nations are in thy womb.] So, what can a man "see in the Shulamite," in every sanctified soul, but "as it were the company of two armies"? Every good man is a divided man; every new man, two men.

(23) And the Lord said unto her.—Not by the mouth of Abraham, nor in a dream, but directly, as He spake of old to Adam and Eve. We read of no appearance, as in Genesis 17:1, nor must we invent one. The manner in which Jehovah thus spake has not been revealed, and it is enough for us to know that Jehovah did speak of old to men. The answer is in the form of poverty:— “Two nations are in thy womb; And two peoples from thy bowels shall be separated; And people shall be mightier than people; And the great shall serve the small.” The second line shows that even in their earliest childhood her sons would be unlike in character and unfriendly in disposition; upon this follows their development into hostile nations, and the prediction that the son who started with the advantages of the birthright, the stronger physical nature, and superior strength in men and arms (Genesis 32:6), would, nevertheless, finally hold the inferior position. There can be no doubt that the secondary cause of the vaster development of Jacob was his being placed by Joseph in the fruitful Delta, where the Israelites were constantly joined by a stream of Semitic immigrants, whose movement towards Egypt is a perfectly authenticated fact of the history of those times. (See Genesis 12:15.)

Verse 23. Two nations are in thy womb] "We have," says Bishop Newton, "in the prophecies delivered respecting the sons of Isaac, ample proof that these prophecies were not meant so much of single persons as of whole nations descended from them; for what was predicted concerning Esau and Jacob was not verified in themselves, but in their posterity. The Edomites were the offspring of Esau, the Israelites were of Jacob; and who but the Author and Giver of life could foresee that two children in the womb would multiply into two nations? Jacob had twelve sons, and their descendants were all united and incorporated into one nation; and what an overruling providence was it that two nations should arise from the two sons only of Isaac! and that they should be two such different nations! The Edomites and Israelites have been from the beginning two such different people in their manners, customs, and religion, as to be at perpetual variance among themselves. The children struggled together in the womb, which was an omen of their future disagreement; and when they grew up to manhood, they manifested very different inclinations. Esau was a cunning hunter, and delighted in the sports of the field; Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents - minding his sheep and his cattle. The religion of the Jews is well known; but whatever the Edomites were at first, in process of time they became idolaters. When Amaziah king of Judah overthrew them, he brought their gods, and set them up to be his gods. The king of Edom having refused a passage to the Israelites through his territories on their return from Egypt, the history of the Edomites afterwards is little more than the history of their wars with the Jews." The one people shall be stronger than the other people] The same author continues to observe, that "for some time the family of Esau was the more powerful of the two, there having been dukes and kings in Edom before there was any king in Israel; but David and his captains made an entire conquest of the Edomites, slew several thousands of them, and compelled the rest to become tributaries, and planted garrisons among them to secure their obedience. In this state of servitude they continued about one hundred and fifty years, without a king of their own, being governed by deputies or viceroys appointed by the kings of Judah; but in the days of Jehoram they revolted, recovered their liberties, and set up a king of their own. Afterwards Amaziah, king of Judah, gave them a total overthrow in the valley of Salt; and Azariah took Elath, a commodious harbour on the Red Sea, from them. Judas Maccabeus also attacked and defeated them with a loss of more than twenty thousand at two different times, and took their chief city Hebron.

23. And the Lord said] How the Divine answer was granted, whether by priest or soothsayer, by dream or by vision, we are not told. It is in the form of a rhythmic oracle, in four stichoi, or lines. The oracle proclaims, that (1) there are two children who shall be two nations; (2) from the first there shall be separation and discord between the two; (3) one shall overmaster the other; (4) the younger shall be the lord of the elder. The historic rivalry between Israel and Edom is thus prefigured. separated … bowels] The English is ambiguous, as in Galatians 1:15, “the good pleasure of God who separated me even from my mother’s womb.” The meaning is, “even from birth” the destinies of the two men and of their descendants will be divergent: cf. Genesis 13:11, “and they separated themselves the one from the other.” the elder shall serve the younger] The subjugation of the Edomites by the Israelites took place in the days of David, 2 Samuel 8:14. The same event is predicted by Jacob in Genesis 27:40, where the additional prediction is made, that the subjugation will be only temporary. Israel, whose settlement in Palestine was later than that of the Edomites in the country of Seir, was regarded as the younger of the brother peoples. Edom was already a monarchy before Israel had settled down. But, occupying a richer country, Israel attained a higher civilization, and became a more powerful nation. For the hostility of Israel and Edom, see the prophet Obadiah. For St Paul’s use of the present passage, see Romans 9:10-12.

23. The Lord said — Here, too, we have a poetic strain:Then said Jehovah to her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two peoples from thy bowels shall be separated.And people than people shall be