Kejadian 25:34

25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. ¹  So Esau despised his birthright. ² 

Kejadian 27:30-36

27:30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left ³  his father’s ⁴  presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ⁵  27:31 He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau ⁶  said to him, “My father, get up ⁷  and eat some of your son’s wild game. Then you can bless me.” ⁸  27:32 His father Isaac asked, ⁹  “Who are you?” “I am your firstborn son,” ¹⁰  he replied, “Esau!” 27:33 Isaac began to shake violently ¹¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ¹²  He will indeed be blessed!”

27:34 When Esau heard ¹³  his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. ¹⁴  He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” 27:35 But Isaac ¹⁵  replied, “Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away ¹⁶  your blessing.” 27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ¹⁷  He has tripped me up ¹⁸  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

[25:34]  ¹ sn The style here is typical of Hebrew narrative; after the tension is resolved with the dialogue, the working out of it is recorded in a rapid sequence of verbs (“gave”; “ate”; “drank”; “got up”; “went out”). See also Gen 3:1-7 for another example.

[25:34]  ² sn So Esau despised his birthright. This clause, which concludes the episode, is a summary statement which reveals the underlying significance of Esau’s actions. “To despise” means to treat something as worthless or with contempt. Esau’s willingness to sell his birthright was evidence that he considered it to be unimportant.

[27:30]  ³ tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the finite form of the verb makes the construction emphatic.

[27:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “the presence of Isaac his father.” The repetition of the proper name (“Isaac”) was

[27:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Esau his brother came from his hunt.”

[27:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he said to his father”; the referent of “he” (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity, while the words “his father” have been replaced by the pronoun “him” for stylistic reasons.

[27:31]  ⁷ tn Or “arise” (i.e., sit up).

[27:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.”

[27:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “said.”

[27:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I [am] your son, your firstborn.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged for stylistic reasons.

[27:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.

[27:33]  ¹² tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”

[27:34]  ¹³ tn The temporal clause is introduced with the temporal indicator and has the infinitive as its verb.

[27:34]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he yelled [with] a great and bitter yell to excess.”

[27:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:35]  ¹⁶ tn Or “took”; “received.”

[27:36]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.

[27:36]  ¹⁸ sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”