Genesis 25
DOYLYGenesis 25:25
- — Esau.] That is, made or perfected, as if born more like a man than a babe. Bp. Kidder.
Genesis 25:26
- — Jacob.] That is, a supplanter; or one that taketh hold of, and trippeth up his brother’s heels. Stackhouse.
Genesis 25:27
- — Jacob was a plain man.] But he appears rather from his whole conduct and behaviour, to have been an artful man. The word in the original signifies perfect, which is a general term: but being put in opposition to the rough and rustic manners of Esau, it particularly imports, that Jacob was more humane and gentle. Bp. Newton.
Genesis 25:28
28 — sod] Boiled; the preterite of seethe. Johnson’s Dictionary.
Genesis 25:30
- — Edom.] Which signifies red. Whence the city, which he built, and the country, which his posterity inhabited, were called by the same name; and by the Greeks Ichoses: bordering towards the south on Judea, Arabs, and Egypt. Bp. Patrick.
Genesis 25:31
- — Sell me this day thy birthright.] The birthright, or right of primogeniture, had many privileges annexed to it. The firstborn was consecrated to the Lord, Exod. xxii. 29; had a double portion of the estate allotted him, Deut. xxi. 17; had a dignity and authority over his brethren, Gen. xlix. 3; succeeded in the government of the family or kingdom, 2 Chron. xxi. 3; and, as some with good reason imagine, succeeded to the priesthood, or chief government in matters ecclesiastical. He had a right to challenge the particular blessing of his dying parent; he had the covenant, which God made with Abraham, that from his loins Christ should come, consigned to him: and, what is more, these prerogatives were not confined to his person only, but descended to his latest posterity, in case they comported themselves so as to deserve them. Stackhouse.
Genesis 25:33
- — Swear to me this day:] Moses, who records this conduct of Jacob, does not commend him for it.
Genesis 25:34
- — pottage of lentiles:] Lentiles were a kind of pulse, somewhat like our vetches, or coarser sort of peace. Stackhouse.
The inhabitants of Barbary still make use of lentiles, boiled and stewed with oil and garlick, and forming a pottage of a chocolate colour: this was “the red pottage,” ver. 30, for which Esau, thence called Edom, sold his birthright. Dr. Show.
In the account of the Life of Hilarion, a celebrated hermit, that austere recluse is said for three years to have eaten nothing, but half a sextary (about a pint) of lentiles, moistened with cold water: and for other three years only dry bread with salt, and some water.
Isaac sendeth Esau for venison. Jacob deceiveth his father,
called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.