As the boys grew, Jacob appeared to partake of the gentle, quiet, and retiring character of his father, and was accordingly led to prefer the tranquil safety and pleasing occupations of a shepherd's life to the bold and daring enterprises of the hunter, for which Esau had an irrcsistilile predilection. The latter was his father's fa- vorite, however, while Kcbekah evinced a partiality for Jacob (Gen. xxv, 27, 28).
That selfishness, and a prudence which approached to cunning, had a seat in the heart of the youth Jacob, appears but too plainly in his dealing with l<;sau, when he exacted from a famishing brother so large a jirice I'or a mess of pottage as the surrender of his birthright (Gen. xxv, 29-34). B.C. cir. 1985. (See Kitto, Daily Bible JlbiM. ad loc.)
The leaning which his mother had in favor of Jacob
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woiUd naturally bo augmented by the conduct of Esau in marrying, doubtless contrary to his parents' wishes, two Hittite women, who are recorded as having been a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. xxvi, C4, 35). B.C. 1964.
Circumstances thus prepared the way for procuring the transfer of the birthright, when Isaac, being now old, proceeded to take steps to pronounce the irrevocable blessing, which acted with all the force of a modern tes- tamentarj' bequest. This blessing, then, it was essen- tial that Jacob should receive in preference to Esau. Here Rebekah appears as the chief agent; Jacob is a mere instrument in her hands. Isaac directs Esau to procure him some venison. This Rebekah hears, and urges her reluctant favorite to personate his elder brother. Jacob suggests difficulties; they are met by Rebekah, who is ready to incur any personal danger so that her object be gained (see Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 355). Her voice is obeyed, the food is brought, Jacob is equipped for the deceit; he helps out his fraud by direct false- hood, and the old man, whose senses are now failing, is at last with diificidty deceived (Gen. xxvii). B.C. 1927. It cannot be denied that this is a most reprehensible transaction, and presents a truly painfid picture, in which a mother conspires with one sou in order to cheat her aged husband, with a view to deprive another son of his rightful inheritance. Justification is here impossible ; but it shoidd not be forgotten, in the estimate Ave form, that there was a promise in favor of Jacob, that Jacob's qualities had endeared him to his mother, and that the prospect to her was dark and threatening which arose when she saw the negligent Esau at the head of the house, and his hateful wives assuming command over herself.
For the sale of his birthright to Jacob, Esau is brand- ed in the N. Test, as a "profane person" (Heb. xii, 16). The following sacred and important privileges have been mentioned as connected with primogeniture in pa- triarchal times, and as constituting the object of Jacob's desire : (o) Superior rank in the family (see Gen. xlix, 3, 4). (6) A double portion of the father's property (so Aben-Ezra) (see Deut. xxi, 17, and Gen. xlvii, 22). (c) The priestly office in the patriarchal church (see Numb, viii, 17-19). In favor of this, see Jerome, ad Evang. Ep. Ixxxiii, § 6 ; Jarchi, in Gen. xxv ; Estius, in Ilehr. xii ; Shuckford, Connexion, bk. vii ; Blunt, Undes. Coinc. i, 1 , § 2, 3 ; and against it, Yitringa, Observ. Sac, and J. D. INIichaelis, Mosaisch. Recht, ii, § 64, cited by Rosen- mUller in Gen. xxv. (rf) A conditional promise or ad- umbration of the heavenly inheritance (see Cartwright in the Crit. Sua: on Gen. xxv). (e) The promise of the Seed in which all nations should be blessed, though not included in the birthright, may have been so regard- ed by the patriarchs, as it was by their descendants (Rom. ix, 8, and Shuckford, viii). The whole subject has been treated in separate essaj'S by "Vitringa in his Observat. Sacr. i, 11, § 2; also by J. H. Hottinger, and by J. J. Schroder. See Eycke, De rendiiione primogeni- turcB Esavi (Wittemb. 1729) ; Gmelin, Be benedict, pa- terna Esavo a Jacobo prcerepta (Tub. 1706); Hej-deg- ger. Hist. Patriaixh. ii, 14. See Birthright.
With regard to Jacob's acquisition of his father's blessing (ch. xxvii), few persons will accept the excuse offered by St. Augustine (Serm. iv, § 22, 23) for the de- ceit which he practised : that it was merely a figurative action, and that his personation of Esau was justified by his previous purchase of Esau's birthright. It is not, however, necessary, with the view of cherishing a Chris- tian hatred of sin, to heap opprobrious epithets upon a fallible man whom the choice of God has rendered ven- erable in the eyes of believers. Waterland (iv, 208) speaks of the conduct of Jacob in language which is neither wanting in reverence nor likely to encourage the extenuation of guilt : " I do not know whether it be justifiable in every particular; I suspect that it is not. There were several v-ery good and laudable circumstan- ces in what Jacob and Rebekah did, but I do not take
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upon me to acquit them of all blame. Blunt ( Uiuki!. Coiiic.) observes that none " of the patriarchs can be set up as a model of Christian morals. They lived under a code of laws that were not absolutely good, perhaps not so good as the Levitical ; for, as this was but a prepara- tion for the more perfect law of Christ, so possibly was the patriarchal but a preparation for the Law of jNIoses." The circumstances which led to this unhappy transac- tion, and the retribution which fell upon all parties con- cerned in it, have been carefully discussed by Benson {Hulsean Lectures [1822] on Scripture Difficulties, ^\\, xvii). See also Woodgate {Historical Sermom, ix) and INIaurice (Patriarchs aud Latvgivers, v). On the ful- filment of the prophecies concerning Esau and Jacob, and on Jacob's dying blessing, see bishop Newton, Dis- sertations on the Prophecies, § 3, 4.