Genesis 25:29

And Jacob sod pottage,.... Or boiled broth; this he did at a certain time, for this was not his usual employment; the Targum of Jonathan says, it was on the day in which Abraham died; and whereas

And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: Jacob sod pottage - a soup made of a decoction of lentiles or small beans, called 'Adas (cf.

Genesis 25:29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he [was] faint:Ver. 29. And Jacob sod pottage.] Pottage of lentiles, which was a kind of pulse much like to vetches or small peas: so frugal and sparing was the diet of those precious patriarchs, to the shame of our luxury. Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus. We devour the wealth of earth, air, and sea. Esau came from the feld, and he was faint.] Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas. Of carnal pleasures, a man may break his neck sooner than his fast. Nor is it want of variety in them, but inward weakness, or the curse of unsatisfyingness, that lies upon them. The creature is now as the husk without the grain, the shell without the kernel, full of nothing but emptiness; and so may faint us, but not fill us. Seneca. Kακιστονθνριονηγαστηρ.

THE TΤLDΤTH ISAAC (Genesis 25:19 to Genesis 35:29). THE BIRTH OF ISAAC’S SONS. Abraham begat Isaac—The Tτldτth in its original form gave probably a complete genealogy of Isaac, tracing up his descent to Shem, and showing thereby that the right of primogeniture belonged to him; but the inspired historian uses only so much of this as is necessary for tracing the development of the Divine plan of human redemption. The Syrian.—Really, the Aramean, or descendant of Aram. (See Genesis 10:22-23.) The name of the district also correctly is “Paddan-Ararn,” and so far from being identical with Aram-Naharaim, in Genesis 24:10, it is strictly the designation of the region immediately in the neighbourhood of Charran. The assertion of Gesenius that it meant “Mesopotamia, with the desert to the west of the Euphrates, in opposition to the mountainous district towards the Mediterranean,” is devoid of proof. (See Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 1, p. 304.) In Syriac, the language of Charran, padana means a plough (1 Samuel 13:20), or a yoke of oxen ( 1 Samuel 11:7); and this also suggests that it was the cultivated district close to the town. In Hosea 12:12 it is said that “Jacob fled to the field of Aram;” but this is a very general description of the country in which he found refuge, and affords no basis for the assertion that Padan-aram was the level region. Finally, the assertion that it is an ancient name used by the Jehovist is an assertion only. It is the name of a special district, and the knowledge of it was the result of Jacob’s long-continued stay there. Chwolsohn says that traces of the name still remain in Faddβn and Tel Faddβn, two places close to Charran, mentioned by Yacut, the Arabian geographer, who flourished in the thirteenth century. Isaac intreated the Lord.—This barrenness lasted twenty years (Genesis 25:26), and must have greatly troubled Isaac; but it would also compel him to dwell much in thought upon the purpose for which he had been given to Abraham, and afterwards rescued from death upon the mount Jehovah-Jireh. And when offspring came, in answer to his earnest pleading of the promise, the delay would serve to impress upon both parents the religious significance of their existence as a separate race and family, and the necessity of training their children worthily. The derivation of the verb to intreat, from a noun signifying incense, is uncertain, but rendered probable by the natural connection of the idea of the ascending fragrance, and that of the prayer mounting heavenward (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:4). The children struggled together.—Two dissimilar nations sprang from Abraham, but from mothers totally unlike; so, too, from the peaceful Isaac two distinct races of men were to take their origin, but from the same mother, and the contest began while they were yet unborn. And Rebekah, apparently unaware that she was pregnant with twins, but harassed with the pain of strange jostlings and thrusts, grew despondent, and exclaimed— If it be so, why am I thus?—Literally, If so, why am I this?

Verse 29. Sod pottage] יזד נזיד yazed nazid, he boiled a boiling; and this we are informed, Genesis 25:34, was of עדשים adashim, what the Septuagint render φακον, and we, following them and the Vulgate lens, translate lentiles, a sort of pulse. Dr. Shaw casts some light on this passage, speaking of the inhabitants of Barbary. "Beans, lentiles, kidney beans, and garvancos," says he, "are the chiefest of their pulse kind; beans, when boiled and stewed with oil and garlic, are the principal food of persons of all distinctions; lentiles are dressed in the same manner with beans, dissolving easily into a mass, and making a pottage of a chocolate colour. This we find was the red pottage which Esau, from thence called Edom, exchanged for his birthright." Shaw's Travels, p. 140, 4to. edit.

29. Sod pottage — Jacob boiled a dish of lentiles, (Genesis 25:34,) a podded vegetable like the pea or bean, which is cooked by parching over the fire or boiling into a soup, making a favourite and