TO UNDERSTAND THE SCENE

Isaac sitting in Bed blesses Jacob; Rebecca instructs Jacob and bids him to fetch two young Goats; 1332; illuminated miniature; manuscript MMW 10 B 21 15r; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague

Museum Meermanno

The Book of Genesis, chapter 27    

Isaac and his wife Rebecca have had two twin sons: Esau who is the elder, and Jacob, the younger. Their rivalry is constant and, while Isaac prefers Esau, Rebecca prefers Jacob. One day, Esau gives up his birthright against a dish of lentils. But Jacob still does not have his father’s benediction.

Old Isaac has become nearly blind. Before dying, he wants to bless his elder son and he asks him to go and kill some game and to prepare him a dish of meat. But Rebecca decides to substitute Jacob for Esau.

"And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck: And he came to his father, and said: "My father !" And he said : "Here I am; who are you, my son?"  And Jacob said unto his father : "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done according as you told me: arise, I pray you, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me." And Isaac said to Jacob : "Come near, I pray you, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are my very son Esau or not." And Jacob went near Isaac his father and he felt him, and said: "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau !" IAnd he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. (Genesis 27:16-23)

When Esau comes back from the hunt, the trick is discovered but the benedictions are irrevocable.

Comment
 

The couple Jacob-Esau is that of enemy brothers that reappears at every moment in the Jewish history. Jacob, whose name means “whom God protects or supplants”, later called Israel, that is to say “strong against God”, designates the true ancestor of the Jewish people (See Jacob’s battle) whereas Esau, whose name signifies “the hairy one”, represents all human faults.

Jacob is the man of cunning but his cleverness would be of no use if he were not, above all, the one whom God has preferred to Esau, the one to whom God renews the promises made to his grand-father Abraham.

The Father’s benediction with his right hand either put on the head of the one that is to be blessed, or raised above him, has remained a strong sign that is still used at solemn moments.

The patriarch's benediction  for the New year. Québec 

The question of brotherly rivalry, already encountered with Cain and Abel, is reinforced in the case of twins.

Twins are often presented as doubles that can be substituted for each other. This is what makes Alexandre Dumas believe, in the Mask of Iron, that Louis XIV had a twin brother, a sort of double who could substitute himself for the king. Another famous rivalry is that of Romulus and Remus; the former founded Rome and killed his brother.

For Esau and Jacob, physical and moral differences are well-known but this does not prevent their rivalry, and this, as soon as they are in their mother’s womb.

The question of birthright is capital in patriarchal societies. The elder son becomes the patriarch, and the elder girl must be married first… But, in the case of twins who is the elder? In the Bible, he is the first one coming out of the mother’s womb whereas in our civilisation, he is the last one, because he was conceived first.

a cinema poster

Is the preference for a child over another one moral?

In biblical narratives, such preference seems frequent: Rebecca prefers her younger son Jacob, and in his turn, the latter prefers his younger grand-son Ephraim…and, in order to succeed, cunning seems justified. Should one see in it a victory of the younger over the elder, of the weaker one over the stronger one, or a victory of free choice? With Jacob, cunning wins since he “exchanges his birthright against a dish of lentils” offered to Esau. The expression has remained and if it does not justify Jacob’s conduct, it does not, for all that, take Esau’s side

Esau selling his birthright to Jacob;
REMBRANDT; 1645, drawing;
British Museum Londres