Skip to content

Bible Verses About Birthright

13 verses · 6 aspects

Key Bible Verses

  1. One day when Ya'akov had cooked some stew, 'Esav came in from the open country, exhausted,

  2. and said to Ya'akov, "Please! Let me gulp down some of that red stuff - that red stuff! I'm exhausted!" (This is why he was called Edom [red].)

  3. Ya'akov answered, "First sell me your rights as the firstborn."

  4. "Look, I'm about to die!" said 'Esav. "What use to me are my rights as the firstborn?"

  5. Ya'akov said, "First, swear to me!" So he swore to him, thus selling his birthright to Ya'akov.

  6. Then Ya'akov gave him bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, got up and went on his way. Thus 'Esav showed how little he valued his birthright.

  7. "If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and unloved wives have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife;

  8. then, when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons, he may not give the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved one, who is in fact the firstborn.

  9. No, he must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns, for he is the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his.

  10. The sons of Re'uven the firstborn of Isra'el - he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Yosef the son of Isra'el, though not in such a way as for him to be regarded in the genealogy as the firstborn.

  11. For Y'hudah became greater than his brothers, inasmuch as the ruler came from him; nevertheless, the birthright went to Yosef.

  12. it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”

  13. This accords with where it is written, “Ya‘akov I loved, but Esav I hated.”