different documents. Though this conception of Esau's
occupation is not consistently maintained (see 339), it has
doubtless some ethnographic significance; and game is
said to be plentiful in the Edomite country (Buhl, Edomiter,
43).—Jacob, on the other hand, chooses the half-nomadic
pastoral life which was the patriarchal ideal. (
Hebrew characters), elsewhere
'an ethically blameless man' (Jb. 18 etc.), here
describes the orderly, well-disposed man (Scoticè, 'douce'),
as contrasted with the undisciplined and irregular huntsman.—28.
A preparation for ch. 27, which perhaps followed immediately
on these two verses. V.27, however, is also presupposed
by?]
29-34. Esau parts with the birthright.—The superiority of Israel to Edom is popularly explained by a typical incident, familiar to the pastoral tribes bordering on the desert, where the wild huntsman would come famishing to the shepherd's tent to beg for a morsel of food. At such times the 'man of the field' is at the mercy of the tent-dweller; and the ordinary Israelite would see nothing immoral in a transaction like this, where the advantage is pressed to the uttermost.—The legend takes no account of the fact that Edom, as a settled state older than Israel, must have been something more than a mere nation of hunters. The contrasted types of civilisation—Jacob the shepherd and Esau the hunter—were firmly fixed in the popular mind; and the supremacy of the former was an obvious corollary.—29. Jacob stewed something: an intentionally indefinite description, the nature of the dish being reserved as a surprise for v.34.—30. Let me gulp some of the red—that red there!] With a slight vocalic change (v.i.), we
28. (Hebrew characters)] A curious phrase, meaning 'venison was to his taste.'
It would be easier to read (with Ba. al.) (Hebrew characters); or an adj. ((Hebrew characters)?) may have
fallen out. GS appear to have read (Hebrew characters).
29. (Hebrew characters)—(Hebrew characters)] (Hebrew characters) only here in the lit. sense; elsewhere = 'act presumptuously.'
The derivative (Hebrew characters) (2 Ki. 438, Hag. 212) with rare prefix
na (common in Ass.).—30. (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters))] a coarse expression suggesting
bestial voracity; used in NH of the feeding of cattle.—(Hebrew characters)]
The repetition of the same word is awkward, even in an expression of
impatient greed. The emendation referred to above consists in reading
