Who was Esau in the Bible?

A twin son with Jacob of Isaac and Rebekah, though Esau was actually the first-born. He is described as "red, all over like a hairy garment;" with this his name corresponds, which signifies 'hairy.' Gen. 25:25. The first thing we read of him is the selling of his birthright to his over-reaching brother Jacob, for a mess of pottage. Concerning this he is called in the N.T. a profane person, because he valued not that which was the gift of God. He afterwards sought the blessing carefully with tears, but found no place of repentance. Gen. 25:29-34; Heb. 12:16-17.

Jacob, through want of faith in God, surreptitiously obtained the blessing of his father (who, contrary to God's election, intended it for Esau), in which Isaac said that he had made Jacob Esau's lord, and given all his brethren to be his servants. The blessing of Esau was "Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck." Gen. 27:37-40. Esau hated his brother, and intended, when the days of mourning for his father were ended, to kill him. The words of Isaac were fulfilled. David put garrisons throughout all Edom (where the descendants of Esau dwelt, Gen. 36:8) and all they of Edom became his servants, 2 Sam. 8:14; but later on in the days of Joram, Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah; and though Joram was able to punish them, yet Judah was growing weaker, and 'Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, unto this day.' 2 Kings 8:20-22. Obadiah announces Edom's final judgement: no remnant is restored. See EDOM.

One of the saddest and most solemn stories in all the Bible is that of Esau. He was the son of Isaac, one of the most honoured of the patriarchs. He was about fifteen when his grandfather, Abraham died, and as a boy should have been greatly influenced by him who is 'Father of the Faithful.' He was the older twin of Jacob, to whom God showed such unspeakable grace, and to Esau belonged the birthright and the blessing. He saw, and knew, the value which his grandfather, father, and brother placed on the promises of God: but to him they appear to have meant nothing at all: and he "for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." (Heb. 12:16). He seems to have been a man entirely devoid of faith. What he could not see, had no value in his eyes. The Scriptures call him a "profane person", and of him it is said: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." I know that he illustrates "the purpose of God according to election", (Rom. 9:11), yet I doubt not we may trace the reason for this in Esau's own conduct. He despised the promises of God, and "afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." (Heb. 12:17).

You remember Esau planned to murder his brother, and what seems to have been most grievous in the sight of God was the implacable hatred that the seed of Esau bore towards the seed of Jacob, who were the people of God. Yet we may see the yearning of God's heart over these descendants of Esau, for in Deut. 23:7, He says: "Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother." In spite of all the waywardness and sin of Esau and his seed, yet the Lord would still have Israel remember the brotherly claim that Edom had upon them. But even this grace was despised and rejected, and the Lord must say to Edom: "For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever." (Obadiah 10).

The only subject of this short prophetical book is the nation of Edom whose hatred for Israel will eventually lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau’s descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir south of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba (Gen. 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Already before their actual birth God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau’s hatred against Jacob (Gen. 27).

Name given to Esau because he craved the red pottage of Jacob, Edom signifying red, Gen. 25:30; Gen. 36:1, 8, 19; but the name is more usually given to his tribe and the territory they possessed. This extended from the land of Moab, southward to the Gulf of Akaba, in length about 100 miles, from about 29 30' to 31 N, and about 35 30' E. It is a remarkably mountainous district with lofty peaks and deep glens, but also with very productive plains. It had been called mount Seir. Gen. 36:8. Some of the rocks were so precipitous that Amaziah killed 10,000 of the children of Seir (Edomites) by casting them down from the rocks, whereby they were dashed to pieces. 2 Chr. 25:11. Bozrah and Sela, or Selah, were its chief cities.

Esau had three wives (see BASHEMATH) and a numerous posterity, which increased to a powerful tribe. When he went to meet Jacob he was accompanied by four hundred men. It may be God had warned Esau, as He did Laban, not to hurt Jacob; or possibly his anger may have abated: for when they approached, "Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept." They were thus happily reconciled, and at the death of Isaac his two sons buried him. Gen. 33:4; Gen. 35:29.

In Mal. 1:2-3 Esau is referred to as having been hated by Jehovah, whereas Jacob had been loved. This is quoted by Paul in Rom. 9:13, where God's sovereignty is being enforced. It was foretold that the elder should serve the younger before they were born, and before they could have done either good or bad: this was God's sovereignty. But it was not foretold that God would hate Esau; it is not mentioned till the close of the Old Testament, after Esau in his descendants had displayed his unrelenting enmity to Israel, and Esau personally had long before that despised the gift of God in his birthright. The passage in Malachi is thought by some to refer to the nations which descended from the two brothers.

Without dwelling long, we may notice the youth of Isaac's sons, already traced in the sketch given of their father. Esau did not become a sojourner in the land of promise; but, being at home there and without a heavenly hope, he made the early career of Nimrod his own, if he never thought of him. From the outset he was as unlike Abraham as one of the family line could be. His love of excitement and of reckless adventure made him despise the parental circle, and the monotonous duty of caring for the herds and the flocks. Others might look for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God; but it had not the least place in Esau's heart. For him the present life was all, and the chase in particular as giving scope to courage and address in overcoming difficulties and gaining personal distinction. Therefore was he a cunning hunter, a man of the field; whereas Jacob was a homely or quiet man, dwelling in tents, with warm domestic affections; and he valued too the link with God, though with a heart as yet little if at all cleansed by faith. So the history appears to intimate for many a day.

The first appearance of the twins upon earth was portentous; the promise that the elder should serve the younger must have excited wonder even before the former was laid hold of by the heel. Had Jacob waited patiently, the promise would not have been encumbered by conditions. (Chap. 27:40.)

Esau is the natural man of the earth, full of the scent of the field, a rough hunter — and profane.

The enmity between the sons of Abraham began when Ishmael, a lad of fourteen years of age, mocked the weaned Isaac. But the struggle between the sons of Isaac was in the womb. Two nations were there, as the Lord had told Rebecca, "Two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels." And so it came to pass. The man of God was found in Jacob, the man of the world in Esau; the principle of faith was in the one, the principle of nature in the other. Two manner of people were indeed separated from her bowels, and had struggled in her womb. "The friendship of the world is enmity against God." And this was Esau. Accordingly, Esau made the earth the scene of his energies, of his enjoyments, and of his expectations. He was "a man of the field," and "a cunning hunter." He prospered in his generation. He loved the field, and he knew how to use the field. He set his heart on the present life, and knew how to turn its capabilities to the account of his enjoyments. His sons quickly became dukes, nay kings, and had their cities; as Ishmael's children had become princes, and had their castles. Their dignity and their greatness proceeded from themselves; and the world witnessed them in their magnificence.

Verses 16, 17. They were to beware of such. For sanctification, body, soul, and spirit, was the will of God concerning them. They should know the natural man, in spite of his disguise, and shun with care all recognition of profaneness in the temple of the living God. The standing type of "a profane person"* is Esau, the despiser of his birthright. In his sale of the birthright, we have an example of nature's estimate of heavenly things. His heart was never really on the birthright, because he had no true appreciation of the inheritance. As the apparent heir of the promises of God, he stood in an entirely false light. For he was without the faith which alone makes promise precious. When a crisis comes, and the birthright, as an insubstantial thing, is compared with the smallest measure or the lowest quality of temporal advantage, there is a deliberate preference of the creature to the Creator. God, never having been enjoyed while Esau held a title whose sole value was its expectance of His favour, was no strength to Esau in his day of trial. Meat was more to him than God. For his soul's desires were on this side death. When faint, and at the point to die, the birthright lost all value in his eyes. His heart was on it only while it ministered to the flesh. He valued his title as the chief of Isaac's house, but he never thought of it as something better than his life (Gen. 25:32-34).

In despising his birthright, Esau gave up God. But he by no means surrendered his expectations as the eldest-born of Isaac. He knew his father's natural partiality, and relied upon it for the ultimate attainment of the blessing which he desired to inherit. He went his way, and lived long years as he had lived before, a cunning hunter, ranging at his will the fields which pleased him best, without a feeling of regret, still less of repentant desire, in relation to his vacated birthright. Such is the impression conveyed to our minds by the scanty narrative which Scripture affords respecting Esau, previously to the decisive repudiation of his claim. His alliance by marriage with the Canaanite is the solitary but highly characteristic incident related of him until the hour of his bitter undeceiving. With an exceeding great and bitter cry he received from Isaac the unlooked-for extinction of his hope. His former confidence is now the cause of his despair. He had trusted in his natural parent for things which only God could give. Of Isaac he is now rejected. With a reiterated blessing he bestowed on Jacob the inheritance (Gen. 26:33). The tears of Esau could not move a revocation of the blessing once pronounced. It followed the birthright which Esau had so long ago despised. He sought it carefully, but could not obtain it. There was no repentance either in God's calling of the younger born to the inheritance, or in the heart of Esau towards the God whom he had formerly renounced.*

It was 25 years after Abraham entered Canaan before Isaac was born. It was 20 years after Isaac's marriage before the birth of Esau and Jacob. The barren condition of Rebekah led Isaac to exercise faith and to cast himself upon the Lord for help. And He answered him. God delights to take up what is weak and barren and manifest His power in answer to prayer. Before the children were born the Lord had declared, "The elder shall serve the younger." The struggle in Rebekah's womb reminds us of the struggle between the two seeds (Ishmael and Isaac) in Abraham's household. God's sovereignty is here solemnly made known. He knew them before they were born and He made His choice according to His own sovereign will and purpose. "And not only this; but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac (for the children being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that calleth), it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:11-13). That this does not refer to any unconditional and eternal condemnation is clear. It must be noticed that the statement "Esau have I hated" does not appear in Genesis, but in the last book of the Old Testament. Then the character and defiance of Edom had become fully established. In Genesis the Lord speaks only of having chosen Jacob and what creature of the dust can challenge His right to do so.

Then Esau sold his birthright. It fully brought out the defiance of his wicked heart (Hebrews 12:16-17). The blessings of the birthright he sold consisted in three things: 1. The father's blessing and the place of head of the family; 2. The honour of being in the direct line of the promised One--Shem-Abraham-Isaac; 3. The exercise of the domestic priesthood. All this Esau despised for a carnal gratification. How numerous are his followers in our days who might have greater blessings, but they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.