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Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had stated.(A) Abraham gave the name Isaac to this son of his whom Sarah bore him.(B)

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Birth of Esau and Jacob. 19 [a]These are the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac.

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Footnotes

  1. 25:19–36:43 The Jacob cycle is introduced as the family history of Isaac (Jacob’s father), just as the Abraham stories were introduced as the record of the descendants of Terah (Abraham’s father, 11:27). The cycle, made up of varied stories, is given unity by several recurring themes: birth, blessing and inheritance, which are developed through the basic contrasts of barrenness/fertility, non-blessing/blessing, and inheritance/exile/homeland. The large story has an envelope structure in which Jacob’s youth is spent in Canaan striving with his older brother Esau (25:19–28:22), his early adulthood in Paddan-aram building a family and striving with his brother-in-law Laban (chaps. 29–31), and his later years back in Canaan (chaps. 32–36).

25 The first to emerge was reddish,[a] and his whole body was like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Next his brother came out, gripping Esau’s heel;[b] so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 25:25 Reddish: in Hebrew, ’admoni, a reference to Edom, another name for Esau (v. 30; 36:1). Edom was also the name of the country south of Moab (southeast of the Dead Sea) where the descendants of Esau lived. It was called the “red” country because of its reddish sandstone. Moreover, “red” points ahead to the red stew in the next scene. Hairy: in Hebrew, se‘ar, a reference to Seir, another name for Edom (36:8).
  2. 25:26 Heel: in Hebrew ‘aqeb, a wordplay on the name Jacob; cf. 27:36. The first of three scenes of striving with Esau. The second is vv. 27–34, and the third, chap. 27. In all the scenes, Jacob values the blessing more than his ardent but unreflective brother Esau does.

28 “What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”(A) 29 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,[a] because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.”

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Footnotes

  1. 32:29 Israel: the first part of the Hebrew name Yisrael is given a popular explanation in the word saritha, “you contended”; the second part is the first syllable of ’elohim, “divine beings.” The present incident, with a similar allusion to the name Israel, is referred to in Hos 12:5, where the mysterious wrestler is explicitly called an angel.

(A)Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.(B)

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34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,(A) the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

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