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esau

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esau

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  Esau 
  n  :  (Old  Testament)  the  eldest  son  of  Isaac  who  would  have 
  inherited  the  Covenant  that  God  made  with  Abraham  and 
  that  Abraham  passed  on  to  Isaac;  he  traded  his  birthright 
  to  his  brother  Jacob  for  a  mess  of  pottage  [syn:  {Esau}] 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Esau 
  hairy,  Rebekah's  first-born  twin  son  (Gen.  25:25).  The  name  of 
  Edom,  "red",  was  also  given  to  him  from  his  conduct  in 
  connection  with  the  red  lentil  pottage"  for  which  he  sold  his 
  birthright  (30,  31).  The  circumstances  connected  with  his  birth 
  foreshadowed  the  enmity  which  afterwards  subsisted  between  the 
  twin  brothers  and  the  nations  they  founded  (25:22,  23,  26).  In 
  process  of  time  Jacob,  following  his  natural  bent,  became  a 
  shepherd;  while  Esau,  a  "son  of  the  desert,"  devoted  himself  to 
  the  perilous  and  toilsome  life  of  a  huntsman.  On  a  certain 
  occasion,  on  returning  from  the  chase,  urged  by  the  cravings  of 
  hunger,  Esau  sold  his  birthright  to  his  brother,  Jacob,  who 
  thereby  obtained  the  covenant  blessing  (Gen.  27:28,  29,  36;  Heb. 
  12:16,  17).  He  afterwards  tried  to  regain  what  he  had  so 
  recklessly  parted  with  but  was  defeated  in  his  attempts  through 
  the  stealth  of  his  brother  (Gen.  27:4,  34,  38). 
 
  At  the  age  of  forty  years,  to  the  great  grief  of  his  parents, 
  he  married  (Gen.  26:34,  35)  two  Canaanitish  maidens,  Judith,  the 
  daughter  of  Beeri,  and  Bashemath,  the  daughter  of  Elon.  When 
  Jacob  was  sent  away  to  Padan-aram,  Esau  tried  to  conciliate  his 
  parents  (Gen.  28:8,  9)  by  marrying  his  cousin  Mahalath,  the 
  daughter  of  Ishmael.  This  led  him  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
  Ishmaelite  tribes;  and  driving  the  Horites  out  of  Mount  Seir,  he 
  settled  in  that  region.  After  some  thirty  years'  sojourn  in 
  Padan-aram  Jacob  returned  to  Canaan,  and  was  reconciled  to  Esau, 
  who  went  forth  to  meet  him  (33:4).  Twenty  years  after  this 
  Isaac  their  father  died,  when  the  two  brothers  met,  probably  for 
  the  last  time,  beside  his  grave  (35:29).  Esau  now  permanently 
  left  Canaan,  and  established  himself  as  a  powerful  and  wealthy 
  chief  in  the  land  of  Edom  (q.v.). 
 
  Long  after  this  when  the  descendants  of  Jacob  came  out  of 
  Egypt,  the  Edomites  remembered  the  old  quarrel  between  the 
  brothers,  and  with  fierce  hatred  they  warred  against  Israel. 
 
 
  From  Hitchcock's  Bible  Names  Dictionary  (late  1800's)  [hitchcock]: 
 
  Esau,  he  that  acts  or  finishes




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