ONTOGENY RECAPITULATES
PHYLOGENY
CONTEXT: The
naming of Esav and Ya’aqov is a learned play on words. Esav came to be
associated with Edom and S’ir, areas south of the Dead Sea and the first of the
twins turns out to be both ruddy and hairy: “Edom” suggests adom, “red” and S’ir suggests se’ar, “hair,” The second has his hand
clamped on his brothers heel, eqev, and
gets called “Ya’aqov.” The image is of tripping another, suggesting one who
lives by slyness. These are examples of folk etymology, which is really folksy
etiology, explaining how things got to be the way they are. A second folk
etymologist, probably a glossator, explains the name “Edom” as based on Esav’s
taste for red stew. As for Ya’akov, eqev
עקב, as a verb means “follow,”
“reward.” A more likely meaning for the name–in a different context–would be
that God will follow and protect him, and. Oddly, the name “Esav” has neither
folk nor scholarly etymology.
Note
that the title of the second section, ch. 27, is verse 23. Where it is found in
the text the line is a banal gloss, inept and clumsy. Some well meaning copyist
summed up the story in a sentence that, however, makes a fine introductory
title. A second gloss, this one more apt, at 27:40 seems to refer to the
successful revolt of Edom (Esav)from Y’hudah in the reign of Yoram, ca. 840 BCE
(2Kings 8:22).
The
chapter opens with two P (Priestly writer) verses of vital statistic. The first
words serve as title for what follows, the J (Jawhist) patriarchal narrative. P
inserts the note about Esav taking local women. (Ch 26:34-5. Marrying out
became an issue of foreign religious influence in Deuteronomy and was a major
concern in the post exilic period, the time of days of Ezra and P.) This story
skips most of ch. 26, which includes the third iteration of the “Wife? Sister!”
narrative, a theophany/blessing scene, and an encounter over water sources with
Avimelech, a Philistine king.
25:19THIS
IS A STORY OF YITSCHAQ BEN AVRAHAM.
Avraham
begot Yitschaq. 20Yitschaq was forty years old when he took as
woman, Rivkah bat B’tuel the Arami, from Padan Aram, sister of Lavan the Arami.
21Because
she was barren, Yitschaq, stood in front of his woman and entreated Yahh. Yahh
being entreated for him, his woman Rivkah conceived.
22The
children were crushing one another within her and she said: “If this is what
it’s like, what am I about?” She went to seek out Yahh and 23Yahh
told her:
Two
nations are in your belly.
Two
peoples from your womb will split.
One
people stronger than the other people,
The
older serve the younger.
24When
her days were full to give birth, indeed there were twins in her belly. 25The
first came out totally ruddy, like a hairy cloak, and they called him Esav. 26Next
came his brother, his hand clasping Esav’s heel. They called him Ya’aqov/Heel
Grabber. Yitschaq was sixty when they were born.
27The
lads grew. Esav became a man knowledgeable at hunting, a man of the field. Ya’aqov
was a simple man, a tent dweller. 28Yitschaq loved Esav, because he
had a0 taste for game. Rivkah was loving Ya’aqov.
29Ya’aqov
was stirring stew when Esav returned from the field, faint with hunger and
exhaustion. 30Esav said: “Give me a gulp of the red, this red. I’m
tired and hungry.” (That’s why they called him “Edom/Red.”)
31“Sell
me, right now, your birthright,” Ya’aqov said.
32Esav:
“Well, I’m about to die. What do I
need a birthright for?”
33Ya’aqov:
“Swear to me, right now.”
So
he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Ya’aqov. 34Then Ya’aqov
gave Esav bread and lentil stew. He ate. He drank. He got up. And he left. Esav
despised the birthright.
2634It happened when Esav was forty, that he took a women: Y’hudit batB’eri the Chiti and Bosmat batElon the Chiti. 35They were a source of bitterness for Yitschaq and Rivkah.
(2723HE DIDN’T RECOGNIZE HIM BECAUSE HIS
HANDS WERE HAIRY LIKE HIS BOTHER ESAV’S, SO HE BLESSED HIM)
1It
happened, when Yitschaq grew old his eyes weakened to see. He called Esav, his elder son. “My son?”
“Right
here.”
2“Be
aware, please, I’ve grown old. I don’t know when I shall die. 3So now,
take up your gear, your bow and quiver and go out to the field. Hunt me some
game. 4Make me tasty foods the way I like and bring it to me and
I’ll eat. That’s so that my soul will bless you before I die.”
5Rivkah
was listening as Yitschaq was talking to his son Esav. When Esav went out to
the field to hunt game to bring back, 6she said to her son Ya’aqov,
“I just heard your father speaking to your brother Esav. He said, 7‘Bring me game and
make me tasty foods. I’ll eat and bless you before Yahh before I die.’ 8Now,
my son, listen to my voice, to what I’m ordering you. 9Go, please,
to the flock and get two kid goats, good ones. I’ll make of them tasty foods
for your father, as he likes. 10You will bring it to your father and
he’ll eat so as to bless you before his death.”
11Ya’aqov
said to his mother, Rivkah, “But my brother Esav is a hairy man and I’m a smooth
man. 12Father may feel me and I’ll be a mocker in his eyes. I’ll
bring on myself a curse, not a blessing.”
13“Your
curse be on me, my son. Just listen to my voice and go get for me.”
14So
he went and got and brought to his mother. She made the tasty foods the way his
father liked. 15Rivkah took her elder son’s clothes, the most
desirable things that were with her at home. She dressed her younger son. 16The
skins of the kid goats she dressed on his hands and on the smoothness of his
neck. 17The tasty foods and the bread she had made she put into the
hand of her son Ya’aqov 18and he went to his father.
“My
father?”
“Right
here. Who are you, my son?”
19Ya’aqov
said to his father, “I am Esav, your first born. I have done as you spoke to me. Sit up, please, and eat of
my game so that your soul may bless me.”
20“What
is this, my son, that you have hastened to find?”
“It’s
because Yahh, your god, made it happen before me.”
21“Approach,
please, my son, so that I can feel you and tell if you are the one, my son Esav
or not?” 22Ya’aqov approached his father. He felt him and said: “The
voice is the voice of Ya’aqov and the hands are the hands of Esav. 24Are
you the one? My son Esav?”
“I
am.”
25“Serve
me and I’ll eat of my son’s game so that my soul will bless you.”
He
served him and he ate. He brought him wine and he drank.
26“Then
Yitschaq his father, said to him, “Appoach and kiss me, my son.” 27He
approached and kissed him and Yitschaq smelled the smell of his clothes, and he
blessed him:
See
my son’s smell!
Like the smell of a field blessed by Yahh.
28The
god grant you
of dew of the sky,
of fat of the land,
abundance
of grain and wine.
29Let
nations serve you, peoples
bow.
Be boss to your brothers,
Your mother’s
sons bow to you.
Cursed
be they who curse you.
Blessed be they who bless.
30It
happened when Yitschaq finished blessing Ya’aqov–it happened just as Ya’kov emerged
from his father’s presence–Esav returned from his hunt. 31He too
made tasty foods. He brought it to his father: “Let my father rise and eat of
his son’s game so that your soul may bless me.”
32“Who
are you?” said his father, Yitschaq.
“I
am your son, your first born, Esav.”
33Yitschaq
trembled a great tremor, tremendous. “Who was it then who hunted game and
brought it to me and I ate of all of it before you came? I blessed him! And blessed
he is.”
34When
Esav heard this father’s words he shouted, a great and tremendously bitter
shout. Then he said, “Bless me! Me too, my father.”
35“Your
brother came in fraud and took your blessing.”
36Esav
said: “Isn’t it because his name is “Ya’aqov”? He has tripped me twice now. He took my birthright and now
he has taken my blessing.” Then he said: “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37“I
have made him your boss. All his brothers I have given him as slaves. By grain
and wine I have supported him. What’s left for you? What can I do, my son?”
38“Have
you but one blessing, my father? Bless me. Me too, my father!” And Esav lifted
his voice and wept.
39Yitschaq
answered him:
Of
the fat of the land be your dwelling
And of the dew
of sky above.
40Live
by your sword though you serve your brother.
(And
it shall be, when you grow restless, you will break off his yoke from your
neck.)
41Esav
begrudged Ya’aqov for the blessing his father had given him. In his heart he
said: “The days of mourning for my father will be here soon. Then I’ll kill my
brother Ya’aqov.”
42The
words of her elder son were passed on to Rivkah. She sent and called Ya’aqov,
her younger son: “Be aware. Your brother Esav is appeasing himself about you
with killing you. 43Now my son, hear my voice. Up! Flee to Lavan, my brother, to Haran.
44Stay with him a few days till your brother’s anger subsides. 45Once
your brother’s fury turns from you and he forgets what you have done to him,
I’ll send and bring you back from there. Why should I be bereft of both of you in
one day?”
EARLY ENDOGAMY
46To
Yitschaq Rivkah said: “I loathe my life on account of these daughters of Chet. If
Ya’aqov takes a woman of the daughters of Chet, like these of the daughters of
the land, what will I have to live for?”
281Yitschaq
summoned Ya’aqov and blessed and commanded him: “You shall not take a woman from
the daughters of K’na’an. 2Up. Go to Padan Aram, to the home of
B’tu’el, your mother’s father.
There take a woman: of the daughters of Lavan, your mother’s
brother.
3El
Shadai bless you, make you fruitful and many.
Become an assembly of peoples.
4May
He grant you the blessing of Avraham,
You along with your seed,
For
your inheriting of the land of your sojourn
That
God gave to Avraham.”
5Yitschaq
sent Ya’aqov off and he went to Padan Aram, to Lavan benB’tu’el the Arami,
brother of Rivkah mother of Ya’aqov and Esav.
6Esav
saw that Yitschaq had blessed Ya’aqov and sent him to PadanAram to get himself
a woman from there. (In blessing him he had commanded: “You shall not take a
woman of the daughters of K’na’an.”)
7Ya’aqov obeyed his father and his mother and went to Padan
Aram.
8Esav saw that the daughters of K’na’an were bad in
his father Yitschaq’s eyes. 9So he went to Yishma’el and took as
woman, Machalat batYishma’el benAvraham, sister of N’vayot, in addition to his
women.
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