Genesis 25:33

And Jacob said, swear unto me this day,.... For the more sure and certain confirmation of the bargain; and by this oath oblige himself to let him peaceably enjoy the birthright, nor seek to revoke

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Jacob said, Swear to me this day.

Jacob acted subtlely in this affair; he knew that delays were dangerous; and Esau’ s consideration, or second thoughts, might have spoiled his bargain, and therefore he requires haste, as in the sale, so in his oath; wherein he addeth another sin, in hurrying his brother into an oath by precipitation, which neither his brother should have taken, nor Jacob should have advised him to take, without mature advice.

Genesis 25:33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.Ver. 33. Swear to me.] With fickle men, make all firm and fast. “ Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?” - Horat. And he sold his birthright to Jacob.] And, with it, heaven also, as the Jerusalem Paraphrast addeth, whereof the birthright was a type and pledge. So his sin was in unthankfulness for such a dignity; in limiting it to this life; in selling it so very cheap; but especially, in his profane parting with a spiritual blessing for a temporal. Such a foolish bargain makes every impenitent person in the sale of his soul for a thing of nought; which Christ, who only went to the price of a soul, saith is more worth than a world. "Let there be no fornicator," as every worldling is, "or profane person among us, as Esau". And that there may not, let not men take pleasure in pleasure, spend too much time in it, shoot their affections too far into it. It is no wisdom, to go as far as we may. It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting: but yet the more he used it the more profane he grew by it, and came at length to condemn his birthright. Adrian the emperor was a great hunter; broke his leg in hunting; called a city that he built in Mysia, by the name of Adrian’ s huntings: but how little care he took for his poor soul, that Animula vagula blandula of his, abundantly testifieth. The maddest hunter that ever I read of was Mithridates; who was so set upon it, that he came not into any house, either of city or country for seven years together. To lawful delights and recreations, God allows men to stoop, for their bodies’ sake; as the eagle to the prey, or as Gideon’ s soldiers, to soop their handful, not to gorge their bellyful. An honest man’ s heart is where his calling is: such a one, when he is elsewhere, is like a fish in the air, whereunto if it leap for recreation or necessity, yet it soon returns to its own element. Dio in Vita. Adeo venandi rubie percitus ut septem continuis annis, nec urbis, nec ruris tecto sit usua.

THE TΤLDΤTH ISAAC (Genesis 25:19 to Genesis 35:29). THE BIRTH OF ISAAC’S SONS. Abraham begat Isaac—The Tτldτth in its original form gave probably a complete genealogy of Isaac, tracing up his descent to Shem, and showing thereby that the right of primogeniture belonged to him; but the inspired historian uses only so much of this as is necessary for tracing the development of the Divine plan of human redemption. The Syrian.—Really, the Aramean, or descendant of Aram. (See Genesis 10:22-23.) The name of the district also correctly is “Paddan-Ararn,” and so far from being identical with Aram-Naharaim, in Genesis 24:10, it is strictly the designation of the region immediately in the neighbourhood of Charran. The assertion of Gesenius that it meant “Mesopotamia, with the desert to the west of the Euphrates, in opposition to the mountainous district towards the Mediterranean,” is devoid of proof. (See Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 1, p. 304.) In Syriac, the language of Charran, padana means a plough (1 Samuel 13:20), or a yoke of oxen ( 1 Samuel 11:7); and this also suggests that it was the cultivated district close to the town. In Hosea 12:12 it is said that “Jacob fled to the field of Aram;” but this is a very general description of the country in which he found refuge, and affords no basis for the assertion that Padan-aram was the level region. Finally, the assertion that it is an ancient name used by the Jehovist is an assertion only. It is the name of a special district, and the knowledge of it was the result of Jacob’s long-continued stay there. Chwolsohn says that traces of the name still remain in Faddβn and Tel Faddβn, two places close to Charran, mentioned by Yacut, the Arabian geographer, who flourished in the thirteenth century. Isaac intreated the Lord.—This barrenness lasted twenty years (Genesis 25:26), and must have greatly troubled Isaac; but it would also compel him to dwell much in thought upon the purpose for which he had been given to Abraham, and afterwards rescued from death upon the mount Jehovah-Jireh. And when offspring came, in answer to his earnest pleading of the promise, the delay would serve to impress upon both parents the religious significance of their existence as a separate race and family, and the necessity of training their children worthily. The derivation of the verb to intreat, from a noun signifying incense, is uncertain, but rendered probable by the natural connection of the idea of the ascending fragrance, and that of the prayer mounting heavenward (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:4). The children struggled together.—Two dissimilar nations sprang from Abraham, but from mothers totally unlike; so, too, from the peaceful Isaac two distinct races of men were to take their origin, but from the same mother, and the contest began while they were yet unborn. And Rebekah, apparently unaware that she was pregnant with twins, but harassed with the pain of strange jostlings and thrusts, grew despondent, and exclaimed— If it be so, why am I thus?—Literally, If so, why am I this?

33. Swear to me] Jacob is acute enough to secure the solemn ratification of his brother’s act, done in the thoughtless moment of exhaustion. When Esau recovers his self-control, he will not be able to repudiate his action. this day] R.V. marg. rightly, first of all. Cf. Genesis 25:31.