Reading the Bible: Genesis, Chapter 6

Jacob blessed by Isaac

this episode starts a little unclear with explaining us that avraham made izhak. like we didn't remember…

Esau (Esav) and Jacob (Yaakov)

Izhak meets Rivka when he is 40 years old. it then reveals to us that she was, as was Sarah, unable to give birth. P.s. they both came from the same family, remember? so perhaps they had similar DNA…

anyway, God does his thing, after both Rivka and Izhak pray to him, and Rivka gives birth to two children (twins). nice interesting part explains the relationship and personalities of these children. both isaac and Jacob received a blessing from god that their brothers didn't. i found it interesting from the family point of view. and this story of jacob and esav tells exactly that.

the name yaakov comes from the fact that he held in the heel of his brother esav, who came out first. heel in Hebrew is Akev, and the name Yaakov means “he followed”.

Hunter and Vegan

It seems like Isaac’s family was the first biblical family to conduct the discussion on vegeterinarity. yaakov, being a homey gentle person, stayed more with his mother compared to the manly Esav, who was loved by his father. izhak preferred Esav, by no doubt (Genesis, 25:28).

i imagine the family sits to eat, and both men wants meat, while yaakov, the vegan asks them to try the new recipe he made with lentiles…

being the eldest

i guess the fact that they were twins is here in order to explain why there was a rivalry between them around the inheritance. since forever the first born was the one more special. issac was the first born since he was the first of Sarah.

yaakov buys the title of being the “eldest” from esav, by giving him a meal he makes (Genesis, 25:33).

The second famine in israel

after the first time it happen in the days of avraham, happens again. only a few decades past. god tells izhak not to go to egypt (Genesis, 26:2) and I wonder why, but it doesn't say.

anyway, izhak arrives to Gaza, the Plishtim, the people of Goliath (in the future). from some reason, god has to be clearer with izhak and he explains him again to follow the commands and listen to his words.

as in the days of avraham, each time he arrived in a new place, he said his wife was his sister. and the same happens here. and the same response arrives here as well. people think she is a sister and plan to take her away…

by chance the king saw izhak and rivka in their tent sleeping together and laughing together and realized they are not bother and sister. at first he was angry with him for this, but later on told his people to protect the couple.

Izhak becomes rich. digging wells as marks of control

then it is told that izhak started growing vegetables in the land, and even though there was a time of drought, he was very successful. this allowed him to grow his cattle which made him very powerful, since probably he started selling to others, etc…

the Plishtim started envy his wealth. they destroyed the wells that avraham already dug in this land. the king asked Izhak to leave the country since he saw the wealth as well. izhak accepted and went to locate in another place. he had to dig new wells, and they did. and they were successful as well. from this we understand that finding water source was the difficult task of the time, and building wells was the way to do so.

each new well izhak built, the Plishtim come and claim the well. izhak gives the wells without a fight, and in the third one, the plishtim don't come anymore. perhaps he went far enough or perhaps he went out of their land. its not clear.

making peace with the plishtim

izhak eventually arrives to beer sheva (where avraham did the covenant with god). and god appears also to izhak, promising the future for him as well.

avimelekh, the king of the plishtim, arrives to visit izhak there. and they ask to create a peace treaty with him, after seeing the fact that he managed to survive all these travels. they realize that he has god at his side, since probably these travels were difficult for a standard tribe…

remember that this king, is the same one that avraham also knew, so they also his father. and so they did.

esav, the ego maniac

when esav became 40 years old, he decided to marry. probably since when his father was 40 when he married rivka. so he took 2 wives, that were not so fond on his parents. this is the first time that it is said that izhak doesn't like something esav did. perhaps the women also worked other gods.

stealing the blessing from izhak

when izhak becomes old and blind, he asks esav to bring some meat to him as last dinner and then he can give his blessing to him. esav goes to hunt. rivka wishing that this blessing would go to yaakov, conjures a plan and convinces yaakov to follow it through. so basically the stealing was rivka’s idea. but yaakov is not clean from this. his part arrives.

so rivka dresses yaakov in the cloths of his brother, to get the smell and feel of his arms. she makes the food izhak loves, and yaakov goes to serve his father. yaakov says “Father, here I am” (Genesis 27:18). and when his father asks him “who are you” (as if he cant tell…), yaakov answers “i am esav. did as you asked, brought your favorite food, so you could bless me”… this is quite direct I would say. a father should be able to identify the sound of voice of his two boys.

izhak says maybe it was so quick since god helped the boy, and asks to feel him. yaakov goes near, and izhak says: “the sound is of yaakov, but the hands are of esav” (Genesis, 27:22). izhak doesn't believe and asks another time: “are you esav?”. yaakov answer “yes” again (second lie of yaakov). izhak asks to eat and drink from his hands, and then he smells his cloths as well. he is now finally convinced that this is esav.

izhak’s blessings

then comes the blessing.

izhak says that yaakov will receive water, food and wine. people will follow him. those who shall curse you will be cursed themselves, and those who bless you, will be blessed.

right when izhak finishes speaking, yaakov leaves his bed, and enters esav. it probably took him a few more hours to prepare the food, and he comes to izhak for the blessing. and now we can see the difference between the two brothers. izhak asks who is it. esav answers “it is me, your eldest, esav” (Genesis, 27:32). izhak gets huge anxiety and is surprised to ask who was it here before you to behave this way and steal my blessing (as if he doesn't guess). now it becomes a huge deal, and esav started crying, and eventually demanded another blessing.

izhak says that he cant, because he already gave the blessing to his brother. esav tries again, and tells his father that not fair etc (like a little baby, actually. its really a big drama at this point). izhak says he doesn't know what can he wish more now that he gave everything possible blessing to yaakov… esav asked 3 times to be blessed with something and really cries a lot.

evetually izhak says: you will get food and water, although you will have to work for your brother (due to the blessing), you will live by your sword. esav now begins to hate his brother and conspire to kill him after his father dies.

naive and conspirer

i think esav was the naive child, a father’s boy, following his father’s act. he was truly hurt from the act of yaakov. while yaakov was the gentle one who could also lie and cheat. so while he was the vegan one, and gentle one, he was definitely not the most clean one.

it is said about esav many things, but those are not being told here.

sending yaakov away

rivka understands the plan of esav to kill yaakov, and commands him to go hide at her family’s house, until esav will forget his plans for you.

but rivka could not send yaakov by herself. she had to make izhak do that… here we learn about the power of the man in the house.

so rivka goes to izhak saying that she really don't like the girls from Knaan (referring to the wives of esav). so izhak calls yaakov and tells him to go marry a girl from the family of your mother, from daughters of lavan (rivka’s brother). and then he also passes to yaakov the blessing of avraham for the land. by that move, izhak closes the heritance and complete the transferance.

esav, hearing that his father doesn't support women from knaan, and having 2 wives from these people, understands he failed his father. he goes to marry one of ishmael’s daughters. and this move probably closes further his distance from the Hebrew main blood line of avraham izhak yaakov. since ishmael was not the “right” son of avraham and sarah.

it is also said that esav did wrong by keeping his other wives rather than sending them away. which means that a one-sided “divorce” was acceptable in those times.

read the entire episode in hebrew.