chapter 27, is foreign to the spirit of the ancient legends,

which owe their origin to ætiological reflexion on the historic relations of Israel and Edom. The passage furnishes no support to the ingenious theory of Jacob’s (_Biblical Archaeology_ 46 ff.), that an older custom of “junior right” is presupposed by the patriarchal tradition.

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‎ =29.= ויזד――נזיד‎] זוּד‎ only here in the literal sense; elsewhere = ‘act presumptuously.’ The derivative נזיד‎ (2 Kings 4³⁸, Haggai 2¹²) with rare prefix _na_ (common in Assyrian).――=30.= הַלְעִיטֵנִי‎ (ἅπαξ λεγόμενον)] a coarse expression suggesting bestial voracity; used in New Hebrew of the feeding of cattle.――האדם האדם‎] The repetition of the same word is awkward, even in an expression of impatient greed. The emendation referred to above consists in reading the first הָֽאֱדֹם‎ after Arabic _’idām_ = ‘seasoning or condiment for bread’ (compare verse ³⁴): so Boysen (cited in Schleusner², i. 969), T. D. Anderson (_ap._ Dillmann). This is better than (Driver al.) to make the change in both places, LXX (τοῦ ἑψέματος τοῦ πυρροῦ τούτου) and Vulgate (_de coctione hac rufa_) seem to differentiate the words.――=31.= כַּיּוֹם‎] = ‘first of all,’ as ³³, 1 Samuel 2¹⁶, 1 Kings 1⁵¹ 22⁵ (Brown-Driver-Briggs, 400 b).

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=32.= Esau’s answer reveals the sensual nature of the man: the remoter good is sacrificed to the passing necessity of the moment, which his ravenous appetite leads him to exaggerate.――הֹלֵךְ לָמוּת‎ does not mean ‘exposed to death sooner or later’ (Abraham Ibn Ezra, Dillmann, al.), but ‘_at the point of death_ now.’――=34.= The climax of the story is Esau’s unconcern even when he discovers that he has bartered the birthright for such a trifle as a dish of lentil soup.――עֲדָשִׁים‎ (2 Samuel 17²⁸, 23¹¹, Ezekiel 4⁹), still a common article of diet in Egypt and Syria, under the name _‛adas_: the colour is said to be ‘a darkish brown’ (_A Dictionary of the Bible_, iii. 95a).――The last clause implies a certain moral justification of the transaction: if Esau was defrauded, he was defrauded of that which he was incapable of appreciating.