Genesis 25:21-34

Living Bible

²¹Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage^[a] she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant. ²²And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her!

“I can’t endure this,” she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.

²³And he told her, “The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!”

²⁴And sure enough, she had twins. ²⁵The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him “Esau.”^[b] ²⁶Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau’s heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning “Grabber”). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

²⁷As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home. ²⁸Isaac’s favorite was Esau, because of the venison he brought home, and Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob.

²⁹One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt.

³⁰Esau: “Boy, am I starved! Give me a bite of that red stuff there!” (From this came his nickname “Edom,” which means “Red Stuff.”)

³¹Jacob: “All right, trade me your birthright for it!”

³²Esau: “When a man is dying of starvation, what good is his birthright?”

³³Jacob: “Well then, vow to God that it is mine!”

And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.^[c]

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Footnotes

Genesis 25:21 even after many years of marriage, implied in vv. 20 and 26.
Genesis 25:25 Esau sounds a little like the Hebrew word for “hair.”
Genesis 25:34 indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away, literally, “thus did Esau consider his birthright to be of no value.”