Esau
This article uses secondary sources that critically analyze them.(January 2024) ) |
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Esau
According to the Hebrew Bible, Esau is the progenitor of the
Esau, a "man of the field", became a
According to the Muslim tradition, the
In Genesis
Birth
Birthright
In Genesis, Esau returned to his twin brother Jacob, famished from the fields. He begs Jacob to give him some "red pottage" (a play on his nickname, Edom.) This refers to his red hair.[9] Jacob offers Esau a bowl of lentil stew (Hebrew: נְזִיד עֲדָשִׁ֔ים, romanized: nəziḏ ʿəḏāšim) in exchange for Esau's birthright (Hebrew: בְּכֹרָה, romanized: bəḵorā), the right to be recognized as firstborn son with authority over the family), and Esau agrees. Thus Jacob acquires Esau's birthright. This is the origin of the English phrase "to sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage".
In Genesis 27:1–40, Jacob uses deception, motivated by his mother
In Genesis 27:5–7, Rebekah is listening while Isaac speaks to his son Esau. When Esau goes to the field to hunt for venison to bring home, Rebekah says to her son Jacob, "Behold, I heard thy father speak to thy brother Esau, saying: 'Bring me venison and prepare a savory food, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death.'" Rebekah then instructs Jacob in an elaborate deception through which Jacob pretends to be Esau, in order to steal from Esau his blessing from Isaac and his inheritance—which in theory Esau had already agreed to give to Jacob. Jacob follows through with the plan to steal his brother's birthright by bringing the meal his father Isaac requested and pretending to be Esau. Jacob pulled off his disguise by covering himself in hairy kid goat skin so that when his blind father went to touch him, his smooth skin did not give him away as an imposter of his hairy brother. Jacob successfully received his father Isaac's blessing. As a result, Jacob became the spiritual leader of the family after Isaac's death and the heir of the promises of Abraham (Genesis 27:37).
When Esau learns of his brother's thievery, he is livid and begs his father to undo the blessing. Isaac responds to his eldest son's plea by saying that he only had one blessing to give and that he could not reverse the sacred blessing. Esau is furious and vows to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41). Once again Rebekah intervenes to save her younger son from being murdered by his elder twin brother, Esau.
Therefore, at Rebekah's urging, Jacob flees to a distant land, Paddan-aram (towards Harran) to work for his uncle Laban (Genesis 28:5). Jacob does not immediately receive his father's inheritance after the impersonation aimed at taking it from Esau. Having fled for his life, Jacob has left the wealth of Isaac's flocks, land and tents in Esau's hands. Jacob is forced to sleep out on the open ground and then work for wages as a servant in Laban's household. Jacob, who had deceived and cheated his brother, is in turn deceived and cheated by his uncle. Jacob asks to marry Laban's daughter Rachel, whom he has met at the well, and Laban agrees, if Jacob will give him seven years of service. Jacob does so, but after the wedding finds that beneath the veil is not Rachel but Leah, Laban's elder daughter. He agrees to work another seven years and Jacob and Rachel are finally wed. However, despite Laban, Jacob eventually becomes so rich as to incite the envy of Laban and Laban's sons.
Genesis 32–33 tells of Jacob's and Esau's eventual reconciliation. Jacob sends multiple waves of gifts to Esau as they approach each other, hoping that Esau will spare his life. Esau refuses the gifts, as he is now very wealthy and does not need them. Jacob bows down before Esau and insists on his receiving the gifts. Esau shows forgiveness in spite of this bitter conflict. He then asks Jacob to follow him to the South but Jacob decides later to move to the North.
Jacob's deception
Genesis Chapter 27 verse 16 of the King James Version Bible: "And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck:" Verse 19: "And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me." Verse 22–23: "And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him."
Family
Genesis 26:34–35 describes Esau's marriage at the age of forty to two
Esau had five sons:[20]
Family tree
Family of Esau | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other references
Minor prophet references
Esau was also known as Edom, the progenitor of the Edomites who were established to the south of the Israelites. They were an ancient enemy nation of Israel.[22] The minor prophets, such as Obadiah, claim that the Edomites participated in the destruction of Solomon's Temple in the Siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Exactly how the Edomites participated is not clear. Psalm 137 ("By the waters of Babylon") suggests merely that Edom had encouraged the Babylonians: The Lord is asked to "remember against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said 'raze it, raze it to its foundations'" in Psalm 137:7 However, the prophecy of Obadiah insists on the literal "violence done" by Esau "unto your brother Jacob" when the Edomites "entered the gate of my people..., looted his goods..., stood at the parting of the ways to cut off the fugitive,... delivered up his survivors on his day of distress".[23]
By the intertestamental period, Edom had replaced Babylon as the nation that burned the Temple ("Thou hast also vowed to build thy temple, which the Edomites burned when Judah was laid waste by the Chaldees"[24]).
Jubilees
In the
New Testament references
Hebrews 12:15–16 depicts Esau as unspiritual for thoughtlessly throwing away his birthright. Romans 9:13 states "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated," based upon Malachi 1:2–3.
In Islamic tradition
According to Islamic scholars, the prophet Ayyub was the great grandson of Esau's son Reuel.[26]
Rabbinic Jewish sources
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan connects the name Esau to the Hebrew asah, stating, "because he was born fully completed, with hair of the head, beard, teeth, and molars."[27] Other traditional sources connect the word with Hebrew: שָׁוְא, romanized: šāwʾ, lit. 'worthless'.[28]
Jewish commentaries have a negative view of Esau because of his rivalry with Jacob and likewise viewed the apparent reconciliation between the brothers described in Genesis 32–33 as insincere on Esau's part. The midrash says that during Rebecca's pregnancy, whenever she would pass a house of Torah study, Jacob would struggle to come out; whenever she would pass a house of idolatry, Esau would agitate to come out.[29]
He is considered to be a rebellious son who kept a double life until he was fifteen when he sold his birthright to Jacob. According to the Talmud, the sale of the birthright took place immediately after Abraham died.[30] The Talmudic dating would give both Esau and Jacob an age of fifteen at the time. The lentils Jacob was cooking were meant for his father Isaac because lentils are the traditional mourner's meal for Jews. On that day before returning, in a rage over the death of Abraham, Esau committed five sins; he raped a betrothed young woman, he committed murder (Nimrod), he denied God, he denied the resurrection of the dead, and he spurned his birthright.[31]
Haman's lineage is given in the Targum Sheni as follows: "Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, son of Srach, son of Buza, son of Iphlotas, son of Dyosef, son of Dyosim, son of Prome, son of Ma'dei, son of Bla'akan, son of Intimros, son of Haridom, son of Sh'gar, son of Nigar, son of Farmashta, son of Vayezatha, (son of Agag, son of Sumkei,) son of Amalek, son of the concubine of Eliphaz, firstborn son of Esau".
According to Rashi, Isaac, when blessing Jacob in Esau's place, smelled the heavenly scent of Gan Eden (Paradise) when Jacob entered his room and, in contrast, perceived Gehenna opening beneath Esau when the latter entered the room, showing him that he had been deceived all along by Esau's show of piety.[32]
In Jewish folklore, the Roman emperor Titus was a descendant of Esau.[33]
Death
According to the
Jewish sources state that Esau sold his right to be buried in the cave. According to
Reputed grave on the West Bank
South of the Palestinian town of Sa'ir on the West Bank there is a tomb reputed to be that of Esau – El 'Ais in his Arab name.
The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) wrote:
The tomb is in a chamber 37 feet east and west by 20 feet north and south, with a Mihrab on the south wall. The tomb is 12 feet long, 3 1/2 feet broad, 5 feet high, covered with a dark green cloth and a canopy above. An ostrich egg is hung near. North of the chamber is a vaulted room of equal size, and to the east is an open court with a fig-tree, and a second cenotaph rudely plastered, said to be that of Esau's slave. Rock-cut tombs exist south-west of this place.[37]
The SWP stated this identification was false and that Esau's tomb was in the Biblical Mount Seir.[38][39][40]
Gallery
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Esau Going for Venison (illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible)
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Isaac upon Esau's Return (fresco circa 1292–1294 byGiotto di Bondone)
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Birth of Esau and Jacob (illumination circa 1475–1480 by François Maitre fromMuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum)
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The Birth of Esau and Jacob (illumination by Master of Jean de Mandeville, Paris, from a Bible Historiale c. 1360–1370)
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The reconciliation of Jacob and Esau (1640 painting by Jan van den Hoecke)
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Esau Sells His Birthright (from the 1728 Figures de la Bible)
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59605-947-4, 2006, p. 236
- ^ ISBN 978-0-88270-372-5), 2007, p. 175
- ^ Genesis 25
- ^ Obadiah 1:8–21
- ^ Malachi 1:2,3
- ^ Romans 9:13
- ^ Hebrews 11:20,12:16
- ^ a b Metzger & Coogan (1993). Oxford Companion to the Bible, pp. 191–92.
- ^ a b c Genesis 25:25
- ^ ISBN 978-0-06-078684-7), 2006, p. 40
- ^ "Esau". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
- S2CID 170383632.
- ^ Genesis 25:30
- ^ Genesis 26:34–35
- ^ Mandel. Ultimate Who's Who, p. 176
- ^ Phillips. Exploring Genesis, p. 284
- Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
- ^ "Caleb". Retrieved 8 October 2014.
- ^ "Amalekites". Retrieved 8 October 2014.
- ^ Genesis 36:4–5
- ^ Genesis 22:21–22: Uz, Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, and Jidlaph
- ^ Peter Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration: A Study in Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century B.C., 1968, p. 224.
- ^ Obadiah 10:13–14
- ^ 1 Esdras 4:45
- ^ "Verses Two & Nine." Cepher, 3rd ed., Cepher Publishing Group, LLC, 2017, pp. 255–256.
- Stories of the Prophets: "Ibn Ishaaq stated that he was a man of Rum. His name was Job, son of Amwas/Amose, son of Zarih (Zerah), son of Razih/Rum (Reuel), son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham."
- ISBN 9780567368256.
- ISBN 9780567368256.
- Bereshit Rabbah63:6.
- ^ Bava Batra 16b.
- ^ Bava Batra 16b:13.
- ^ Pirkei d'Rav Kahana, quoted in Scherman, p. 139.
- ^ Titus death Chabad.org
- ^ Sotah 13a
- Shemot Rabbah31:17
- ^ Sefer Hayashar Chapter 27 p. 77b
- ^ "The survey of western Palestine : memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology". archive.org.
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 309 Archived October 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Conder, 1881, p. 215 Archived April 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine–6 in PEFQS
- ^ Conder, 1889, p. 123 Archived April 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine–4 in PEFQS
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-19-504645-8.
External links
- Esau at the Jewish Encyclopedia
- Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. .