(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?” Esau said to his father, “Do you have just one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.”
(Genesis 27:36-38)
Esau’s idea of what has happened in his live doesn’t align with the facts. He is bitter against Jacob. He claims Jacob stole the birthright that Esau sold without a care – and without a need. But now, Esau lays everything at Jacob’s door, taking this wrong and using it as an excuse to bundle everything else as a wrong along with it.
Isaac delineates the blessing he gave Jacob: servants to care for him, food and drink while he lives, and no one domineering over him. This is not the blessing of the Lord. This is temporary while-you-live blessing. It’s a good one, but it is very based in the flesh. It was a perfect blessing for a man like Esau. But once it was bestowed, he couldn’t take it back. Done was done.
Esau whines. Again. He cries. He puts on a great show of sorrow and remorse. He begs. He raises his voice and weeps. He’s like a child throwing a tantrum for all to hear.
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘“Jacob…cheated.” Heb. yaakov…vayakveini, an obvious play on Jacob’s name (Yaakov). In using this specific word, Esau, too, places the blame squarely on Jacob’s shoulders. According to Esau, his sibling has not merely tricked him; Jacob is—as his name implies—a cheater by nature.’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 37 That which Isaac only dared to express as a demand when he thought is was Esau that he had before him, viz. הוה גביר לאחיך he now says with certainty of Jacob. That he, Jacob, would have the spiritual leadership is self-understood, and — after the scales had fallen from his eyes — he had adjudged the material foundation to him, with full consciousness, by the גם ברוך היה. For now it had become clear to him, how in the Abrahamitic nation, everything and everybody, soldiers, merchants etc. too, have to be filled with the Abrahamitic spirit. So that he no longer saw any position in the House of Abraham for Esau. V. 38 Is there then no blessing at all outside the House of Abraham?’
The sage Rashbam writes: ‘?הכי קרא שמו יעקב, the line is a rhetorical question. Esau says: “although Yaakov had been named thus because at birth he had held on to my heel so that I became the firstborn and entitled to a double inheritance and he was without such distinction, is he now going to turn the tables on me and get the share of the firstborn, i.e. both blessings?” The word הכי as a question also occurs in connection with Lavan and Yaakov when the latter works for his uncle. When the question of wages came up, Lavan exclaimed הכי אחי אתה ועבדתני חינם, “would there be any justice in your working for me without wages merely because you are my brother (and one does not have to pay one’s family)?” (29,15) Lavan implied: “on the contrary, you should be paid more generously because you are my family.” We have learned in Baba Batra 139 that when someone dies leaving behind many children (sons) and the estate is substantial, the sons share the inheritance whereas the daughters receive a stipend from the estate pending their getting married. When the estate the father left behind is meager, the daughters get the stipend whereas the sons will have to fend for themselves even if it involves begging. Admon says וכי בשביל שאני זכר ויפה כח בנכסים מרובים הורע כוחי בנכסים מועטין? “Am I supposed to suffer because I am male, able-bodied and my parents were wealthy?”’
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