Deuteronomy 2:2-8
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 Finally the Lord said to me, 3 You have wandered round these highlands long enough; turn and go north. 4 Command the people: You are now about to pass through the territory of your relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they are afraid of you, be very careful 5 not to come in conflict with them, for I will not give you so much as a foot of their land, since I have already given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir.(A) 6 You shall purchase from them with money the food you eat; even the water you drink you shall buy from them with money. 7 Surely, the Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings; he has been concerned[a] about your journey through this vast wilderness. It is now forty years that the Lord, your God, has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.(B) 8 So we passed by our relatives, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, leaving behind us the Arabah route, Elath, and Ezion-geber.
Along Moab. Then we turned and passed on toward the wilderness of Moab.
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Deuteronomy 26:5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
5 Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord, your God, “My father was a refugee Aramean[a] who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as a resident alien.(A) But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous.
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Genesis 12:10-20
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
10 There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe.(A) 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife’; then they will kill me, but let you live. 13 Please say, therefore, that you are my sister,[a] so that I may fare well on your account and my life may be spared for your sake.”(B) 14 When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 Abram fared well on her account, and he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female servants, male and female donkeys, and camels.[b]
17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.(C) 18 Then Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him: “How could you do this to me! Why did you not tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”
20 Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
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- 12:13 You are my sister: the text does not try to excuse Abraham’s deception, though in 20:12 a similar deception is somewhat excused.
- 12:16 Camels: domesticated camels did not come into common use in the ancient Near East until the end of the second millennium B.C. Thus the mention of camels here (24:11–64; 30:43; 31:17, 34; 32:8, 16; 37:25) is seemingly an anachronism.
Genesis 25:19-26
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Birth of Esau and Jacob. 19 [a]These are the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac. 20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram[b] and the sister of Laban the Aramean.(A) 21 Isaac entreated the Lord on behalf of his wife, since she was sterile. The Lord heard his entreaty, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 But the children jostled each other in the womb so much that she exclaimed, “If it is like this,[c] why go on living!” She went to consult the Lord, 23 and the Lord answered her:
Two nations are in your womb,
two peoples are separating while still within you;
But one will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.[d](B)
24 When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.(C) 25 The first to emerge was reddish,[e] and his whole body was like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Next his brother came out, gripping Esau’s heel;[f] so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.(D)
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- 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).
- 25:20 Paddan-aram: the name used by the Priestly tradition for the northwest region of Mesopotamia, between the Habur and the Euphrates rivers. In Assyrian, padana is a road or a garden, and Aram refers to the people or the land of the Arameans. The equivalent geographical term in the Yahwist source is Aram Naharaim, “Aram between two rivers.”
- 25:22 If it is like this: in Hebrew, the phrase lamah zeh is capable of several meanings; it occurs again in v. 32 (“What good…?”), 32:30 (“Why do you want…?”), and 33:15 (“For what reason?”). It is one of several words and motifs that run through the story, suggesting that a divine pattern (unknown to the actors) is at work.
- 25:23 The older will serve the younger: Rebekah now knows something that no one else knows, that God favors Jacob over Esau. The text does not say if she shared this knowledge with anyone or kept it to herself, but, from their actions, it seems unlikely that either Isaac or Esau knew. That fact must be borne in mind in assessing Rebekah’s role in chap. 27, the theft of Esau’s blessing.
- 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).
- 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.
Genesis 36:6-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock, all his cattle, and all the property he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob.(A) 7 Their possessions had become too great for them to dwell together, and the land in which they were residing could not support them because of their livestock. 8 So Esau settled in the highlands of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)(B) 9 These are the descendants of Esau,[a] ancestor of the Edomites, in the highlands of Seir.
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Genesis 46:5-7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
5 So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. So Jacob and all his descendants came to Egypt.(A) 7 His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters—all his descendants—he took with him to Egypt.
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Genesis 47:27
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Israel Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh. 27 Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. There they acquired holdings, were fertile, and multiplied greatly.(A)
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