suggested; and our only regret is that this glimpse of everyday family piety is so tantalisingly meagre.—22. During pregnancy the children crushed one another] (v.i.) in a struggle for priority of birth.
Comp. the story of Akrisios and Proitus (Apol. Bibl. ii. 2. 1 ff.), sons
of Abas, king of Argos, who (
Greek characters).
The sequel presents a certain parallelism to the history of
Esau and Jacob, which has a bearing on the question whether there is
an element of mythology behind the ethnological interpretation of the
biblical narrative (see pp. 455 f.). Another parallel is the Polynesian
myth of the twins Tangaroa and Rongo (Che. TBI, 356).
Rebekah, regarding this as a portent, expresses her
dismay in words not quite intelligible in the text: If it [is
to] be so, why then am I. . .?] v.i.—to inquire of Yahwe]
to seek an oracle at the sanctuary.—23. The oracle is
communicated through an inspired personality, like the Arab.
kāhin (We. Heid.2, 134 ff.), and is rhythmic in form (ib. 135).—two nations] whose future rivalries are prefigured in the
struggle of the infants.—The point of the prophecy is in the
last line: The elder shall serve the younger (see on 2729. 40).
24-26. Birth and naming of the twins.—24. Cf.
3827-30, the only other description of a twin-birth in OT.—25.
(Hebrew characters)—either tawny or red-haired—is a play on the name
des Opfers, die Begriffe liegen nahe bei einander" (We. 142).—22. (Hebrew characters)]
G (Greek characters) (the same word as Lk. 141. 44), perhaps confusing (Hebrew characters), 'run,'
with (Hebrew characters), 'break.' More correctly, Aq. (Greek characters); Σ. (Greek characters).—(Hebrew characters)]
G (Greek characters) But the
(Hebrew characters) merely emphasises the interr. (G-K. § 136 c), and the latter part of the
sentence seems incomplete: V quid necesse fuit concipere? S (Syriac characters).
Graetz supplies (Hebrew characters); Di. Ba. Kit. (Hebrew characters) (cf. 2746); Frankenberg
(GGA, 1901, 697) changes (Hebrew characters) to (Hebrew characters), while Gu. makes it (Hebrew characters) (Ps. 9110),
with (Hebrew characters) as subj.—23. (Hebrew characters)] a poetic word; in Hex. only 2729 (J).—(Hebrew characters)]
'the small[er],' in the sense of 'younger,' is characteristic of J (1931. 34.
35. 38. 2926 4333, Jos. 626 [1 Ki. 1634]†).
24. (Hebrew characters)] properly (Hebrew characters) [(so [E]), as 3827.—25. (Hebrew characters) used again only
of David, 1 Sa. 1612 1742. It is usually explained of the 'reddish brown'
hue of the skin; but there is much to be said for the view that it means
'red-haired' (G (Greek characters), V rufus: so Ges. Tu. al.). The incongruity
of the word with the name (Hebrew characters) creates a suspicion that it may be either
a gloss or a variant from a parallel source (Di.): for various conjectures
see Bu. Urg. 2172; Che. EB, 1333; Wi. AOF, i. 344 f.—(Hebrew characters) has no Heb.
etymology. The nearest comparison is Ar. 'a'tay (so most) = 'hirsute'
