Esau (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. (ly'y), elder of Isaac's t^vin sons. The name (' hairy ') is said to have been suggested by his appearance at birth (Gn 2')-", .1). The surname Edom ('red'), applied chielly to his posterity, commemorated, according to Gn 25 (J), the in- cident there related, but referred also, possibly, to his red hair. Sa3'ce [see Edom, p. 644''] derives the name from the red colour of the .sandstone dill's of Idumoea. The struggle between E. and Jacob, prior to birth,t foreshadowed subsequent relations between the brothers as well as their descendants (see Edom), and was oracularly declared to signify that 'the elder shall serve the younger.' The premature tokens of manly strength were f)remonilory of E.'s future. When he grew up, le preferred the wilder life of the chase to the quieter routine of sheep-farming at Beersheba. He became a 'man of the field,' an expert hunter, and eventually chief of a tribe occupying the hilly land of Seir, who.so Horite inhabitants were dis- placed or subdued by E., his followers, and their I)osterity (Gn 25=' 32»-« 36, Dt 2'-). The lu.iin incidents of E.'s life are (1) Sale of birthrUjht. — Hungry, faint, .and feeling as if about to die, he arrives one day, J after a (presumably) unsuccessful hunt, at the patriarchal camp, finds his brother cooking lentils, and cries, ' Let me devour some of that same red food.'§ Jacob, taking mean advantage of E.'s condition, and aware probably of the oracle in his own favour, demands, as price of the pott.'ige, || a renunciation of the birtliriglit. The latter included precedence, and authority after his father's death (Gn27'-") ; per- haps, also, as in later times, a double portion of the patrimony (Dt 21"), and the domestic priest- hood (Nu 3''-'). Along therewith wouhl naturally, in the case of the chosen family, be transmitted the covenant blessing, which secured for its pos- sessor the divine special favour, with ])romise of Canaan for his posterity, and the honour of convey- ing a blessing, through future .seed, to ' all the families of the earth' (Gn 1'2^ 22"'-). In E.'s eyes the temporal advantages of the birthright were distant and sh.adowy ; to spiritiuil jirivilcge he was api)arently insensible. ' What profit shall the birthright do to me?' he cries, and barters it away •Oe«., Kftlisch, etc. Ace. to Paeudo-Jon.'s Targ. ' refuly made,' from n^'y to make, or make ready, beaiuuu E. ' was born with hair of bead, beard, and t«eth.' t Cf. the Hlxjry of the twins Acrisius and Proetus, related by Apollodorus, lie Deor, Ori'i, ii. 2. 1. I I's.-Jnn.'s Tar)(. recorus a tradition that it wu the day of Abraham's dealti. ; So Gc«. (EV'?). I.ll. ' that red, red thing,' as if he could not wait lo recall the proper word. II Farinaceous fooil may have been a tempting luxury owing to famine in the land ' (On '2U1, aasitfued lo Oie same J docu- ment OS •a'""). 734 ESAU ESCHATOLOGY with a levity which even the oath exacted by Jacob fails to turn into gravity. (2) E.'s marnnge^. — One who 'despisea his birthright,' as heir of Abraham, was not likely to value highly con- nexion vdth Abraham's kindred. He associated freely with Canaanites, who were ' strangers from the covenants of promise,' and, at the age of 40, married two Hittite wives, Judith and Basemath, to the grief of his parents, who could not forget Abraham's anxiety to avoid such alliances. After- wards, when Jacob had been directed by Isaac to seek a wife among their kinsfolk in Paddan, E., in hope of propitiating his parents, married, in the lifetime of liis first two wives, his cousin Malialath, daughter of Ishmael. Of these wives five sons were boru (Gn Sd*-)- (3) Loss of patriarchal blessing. — When Isaac's death apparently approached, E. seems to have realized tlie temporal profit of the benediction. Not for<;ettuig (Gn 27'), but ignor- ing his bargain with Jacob, be enters readUy into Isaac's plan for the bestowal of the blessing on his favourite first-born. When the blessing is lost through Jacob's repulsive artifice, and E. receives a lower benediction,t indicating that he would live by the spoils of war and chase (27"), he resolves to sJay his brother after Isaac's death, and thus regain all he has lost. (4) Reconciliation with Jacob and Jinal departure from Canaan. — During Jacob's sojourn in Paddan, E., while retaining connexion with Canaan (Gn 36°), seems to have become a ' duke ' in Seir (Gn 32'). J When Jacob is on his way back to the S. of Pal., E. meets him with 400 men. It is not clear that his purpose was hostile, as Jacob supposed : the men may have been mustered for war against Horites. Twenty years had intervened since J.'s departure ; time is a great healer ; and E.'s wrath may have been mollified by success. Any remaining ani- mosity was appeased by Jacob's abundant gifts (which had the aspect of tribute), and vanished at the sight of the prostrate brother. ' E. ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him ' (Gn 33). They met once more, in peace, at Isaac's funeral, after which E., partly ' because their substance was too great for them to dwell together,' severed his connexion with Canaan, and made Seir his permanent abode (36). The epithet p4^v^os 'profane' (He 12"), § i.e. unconsecrated, secular (Lv 10'", 1 S 21'', Soph. CEd. Col. 10), rather than blasphemous, supplies a key to E.'s character and history. Frank and manly, affectionate and impulsively generous, irascible but not implacable, E. is naturally lovable, and exhibits materials out of whicli a fine character might have been developed. But he discloses no spiritual aspiration or God-ward bent ; no sense of unworthiness or devout surrender to divine ^idance, such as Jacob, amid grave faults, exemplifies. This lack of consecration leaves E. subject to animal appetite ; leads him into secularizing, if not demoralizing, alliance with Canaanites ; renders him careless of spiritual blessing and insensible to high ideals ; causes his conduct to be dominated by impulse, not regulated by principle ; and prevents that moral • The difTerencea in the n.%me8 and parentage of E.'8 wives, as given In Gn 2ti» 28^ and 3ti2 are due, perhaps, not to divergent traditions (for these passages are all assi^^ed to the same source,' P), but (1) to aouble names, (2) to errors in transcrip- tion by the editor of the documents. t The worda in Gn 2'^ may mean either (partitively) that E.'s dwelling would be ' of the fatness or (privatively) ' away from the fatness.' Tlie latter suits better the character of Seir. : Gn '30 (P) suggest, when taken by itself, that E.'s departure to Seir took place only after Jacob's return to Canaan, not before it, as 323 (J) intimates ; but if we suppose that, so long as Isaac lived, E., while dwelling much in Seir, retained an abode in Can., the discrepancy disappears. i If wofiit; 'fornicator' m this verse refer to E. (which is doubtful), the ref. is either to his marriages with idolatresses, or to Heb. traditions e his gross immorality. growth through which Jacob, originally far lest amiable, is transformed from a tricky ' supplanter into Israel, a prince of God. Even E.'s natural frankness and generosity fail him, when he tries, witliout Jacob's knowledge, to obtain the blessing virtually forfeited, and resolves to slay his brotlier, not in tlie first heat of resentment, but prudently, in cool blood, after Isaac's death has removed the peril of paternal curse. His later pacification — the out- come, directly, of atJ'ectionate impulse — was prob- ably due also to the conWction that the head of a host of 400 had, after all, lost nothing through being supplanted by one whom the coveted blessing, after twenty years, had made only a successful cattle-breeder. Some modern critics * regard the history of E. and Jacob as more or less mythical. Ewald supposes the details about E. were suggested by the rough nature of IduniEea (Tyer Seir = rough), and by the later relations of Edom and Israel. Kuenen lays stress on the representation of E. and Jacob (with other personages in Gn) as ' pro- genitors of tribes ' — a ' theory of the origin of nations ' which ' the historical sense of the present day rejects.' Families, he declares, become nations, not so much by multiplying as by conquest of and combination with other populations. For discussion of the general question, see Tkibe. As regards Esau in particular, (1) the roughness of Edomite territory may be reasonably traced to the disposition of a progenitor whose rougli strength prompted him to choose an abode suited to his habits. (2) Nothing in Gn precludes tlie supposition that the Edomites (as well as the Israelites) included within their communities the descendants of retainers and immigrants. (3) It is difiicult to believe that legends containing so much that is derogatory to the venerated Jacob, and favourable (comparatively) to the ancestor of unfriendly Edomites, should grow up among the Jews. Of the stories and features of character which would naturally cluster round E.'s name in Heb. circles, we have specimens in Rabbinical writings which represent E. as thief, fornicator, blasphemer, etc., as committing five heinous sins in one day, as giving his father dog's flesh for venison, and biting Jacob after the latter's return. t The impartiality of Gn in revealing much that is attractive about E. and repulsive (even to an Eastern mind) about Jacob, suggests a substanti- ally historical record which could liold its ground in spite of its (to the Jews) unpalatable character. LiTERATUHB (in addition to works quoted above). — Kalisch, Dilhnann, and Delitzsch on Gerwsig ; Yonge in Exponitor for 1884 ; Farrar in Fall of Man ; Doda, Igaac^ Jacob, and ./osrph ; Cox, Hebrew TroiTis ; Lightfoot, Carniyridge .^ennowi. 3 ; Moinet, Gre<tt Alternative, 119; Welldon, Fire upon Aitar, 79, 92; Jacobs, Studies in Bibl. Archaeology, 4S-63. 2. CHffoi;), 1 Es 5»=ZlHA, Ezr 2", Neh V". H. Cowan.