Esau

The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau.

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.

Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.

Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.”

Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.

He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”

As soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”

Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”