Author: Wesley White

27 ⁴¹ Esau seethed with resentment against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “May the days of mourning for my father be few and then I will kill Jacob, my brother.
     ⁴² Rebekah was told the words of Esau, her older son. So she sent and called for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Esau, your brother, is planning revenge. He plans to kill you. ⁴³ So now, my son, listen to my voice and arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. ⁴⁴ Live with him some days until your brother’s wrath subsides, ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and take you from there. Why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?”
     ⁴⁶ Rebekah then said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from the Hittite women, from the women of this land, what good is life to me?”

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There is no exaggerating Esau’s anger at formally losing his birthright blessing. He can treat it cavalierly, but he was still expecting his father would set right the earlier dismissal of his right and privilege. For whatever reason, Esau doesn’t follow Cain’s impetuous fratricide even though he fantasizes it.

Esau is a hunter and knows how to lie in wait for his prey. Thus he sets the time of Isaac’s death to be the time to kill his brother Jacob. In this way, all that was rightfully his will actually be his. His enmity runs deep.

Rebekah, again, has a finger in every aspect of family life. As a result, Esau’s plan is easy to find out.

There is no reason to think that Esau is any less Isaac’s favorite. Rebekah’s options regarding her favorite, Jacob, need to include space between brothers lest they kill one another and her travail have been in vain.

Practicality may have been Rebekah’s middle name. Her solution is two-fold: to protect Jacob and to ensure the seed of Abraham and Isaac (and hers) will continue unto a multitude and a nation.

Jacob is to go to her brother, Laban. At first, this is simply for space, but also to take a wife who will bear his seed.

With Jacob apprised of the plan, Rebekah turns to Isaac to get his buy-in.

Using the same language as when Esau and Jacob wrestled inside her womb, Rebekah feels—“Life is not worth the living.” Beginning with the local Hittite women, of which Esau has married two (26:34–35), Rebekah is upset enough for both herself and Isaac. These wives are not acceptable. With a not-subtle reminder of the value Rebekah has been to Isaac, an appeal is made for Jacob to return to her household for a “good” wife. This plan protects Jacob and casts a shadow on Esau for his choice in wives (he is assimilating, not establishing a new nation).

And so we go around again.

27 ³⁰ It happened when Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and just as Jacob left his father Isaac, Esau, his brother, came back from his hunt. ³¹ He, too, made a delicious dish, brought it to his father, and said, “Rise father, sit up and eat from the game of his son, and give your blessing.”
     ³² Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?”
     And he said, “I am your son, Esau, your firstborn son.”
     ³³ Isaac trembled, trembled violently. He said, “Who hunted the game they brought? I ate all of it before you came, and I gave him my blessing. The blessing remains with him.”
     ³⁴ When Esau heard what his father said, he trembled violently and cried a bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me, also, Father!”
     ³⁵ Isaac said, “Your brother has come in deceit and taken your blessing.”
     ³⁶ Esau said, “Is this why he was called Jacob/Heel Thief? He has tricked me^[a] twice now: My birthright he took and now he has taken my blessing.” He continued, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
     ³⁷ Isaac responded to Esau, “I have already made him master for you and all his brothers as slaves. I sustained him with the strength of grain and wine. What is left for me to do for you, my son?”
     ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you only a single blessing, father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau raised his voice in weeping.
     ³⁹ Isaac, his father, responded and said to him,
     “Now, from the fat of the earth, make your dwelling,
           and from the dew of the heavens above.
     ⁴⁰ You will live by your sword;
           you will serve your brother.
     But when you use it,
          you will break his yoke from off your neck.”

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Jacob has prevailed. What about Esau?

As Jacob sneaks away under the edge of the tent with his booty of a purloined blessing, Esau enters through the tent’s door bringing a bowl of fresh game.

Repeating the introduction of Jacob, Esau bids his father rise, eat, and bless him. The repeated question put to Jacob, “Who are you?” is now addressed the Esau, who, rightly, says he is Esau.

Finally, fully awake to the situation and not caught in his obsession about death, Isaac fears the G*D he has never been close to. Not really knowing his sons, the question is who beat Esau to the blessing that cannot be taken back or repeated. Once a blessing is applied, it is gone.

Esau cries out for a blessing even though he had previously given away access to it for a bowl of lentil stew. After shouting for his right, Esau begs, “Bless me, too, Father.” This appeal in vs. 34 will be made twice more, in vss. 36 and 38.

After affirming that the blessing has gone, Isaac accedes to the plea of Esau, his favorite, and offers a blessing close to the one Rebekah and Jacob tricked from him.

According to the blessings, both are to live within the abundance of a good creation. Hierarchy cannot remove the right of either for access to earth’s abundance. After this basic holder for both brothers, there is space for both—so fratricide is avoided. Jacob will have the power of people, and Esau will have the power of his own hand. The power of the hand counteracts Jacob’s rule over his brother as Esau and his Edomite descendants will be separated, not ruled over by Jacob’s seed, and engaged as a separate people.

The import of their birth is now confirmed and begun to be lived out. Readers might also reflect on the line of the younger Nahor (Rebekah) tricking the line of the elder Abram (Isaac). Who has the last laugh?

27 ¹⁸Jacob came to his father and said, “Father!”
     And he said, “Here I am. Which one are you, my son?”
     ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you asked me. Rise, sit, and eat of my game so you may give me your blessing.”
     ²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How did you find it so soon, my son?”
     He said, “Because YHWH, your God, made it happen.”^{[a]
     21} Isaac said to Jacob, “Here, come close, so I may feel you, my son, whether you are Esau my son or not?” ²² So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ Isaac did not recognize him because his hands were like the hands of Esau, hairy, and he blessed him.
     ²⁴ Isaac said, “Are you my son Esau?”
     And he said, “I am.”
     ²⁵ Isaac said, “Bring the dish here that I may eat some of the game of my son in order that I may give you my own blessing.” Jacob served him, and he ate and brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶ And Isaac his father said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came close and kissed him, and he smelled his garments, and he blessed him, and he said, “See, the scent of my son is like the scent of the field that YHWH has blessed.
          ²⁸ May God grant you
                  from the dew of the heavens and the fat of the earth,
                  with abundant grain and new wine.
          ²⁹ May peoples serve you;
                  may tribes bow down to you.
          Be the master of your brothers;
                  may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
          Those who curse you, cursed,
                  those who bless you, blessed.”

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The plot is laid. Action is begun. With the first word, danger increases. Jacob’s tent-voice is likely different than Esau’s voice-of-the-wild. Voice changing technologies are still a myriad of generations away. Blind Isaac is particularly attuned to sound.

The only way through is boldness. Jacob claims to be Esau. For whatever reason, Isaac appears to accept this. However, a niggling question remains. If the voice is different, but the hands convince differently, how did Esau return so quickly? Sight and its absence does affect the sense of passing time. Jacob quickly substitutes the luck of Isaac’s G*D for the practical planning of Rebekah.

A third, fifth, and sixth test rise with the senses of touch and smell. Between them, another test of truth—“Are you truly Esau?” Along with a kid’s skin, the taste of the stew, and Esau’s odor deep within his clothes (Febreze is also a long way off)—the lie holds.

Finally, Isaac offers his blessing. The one blessed, Jacob, is formally invested with power over his brother. The heel-grabber has stomped on the one who had opened his way.

The text does not explain who might be Isaac’s other sons as it only records his relationship with Rebekah and Esau.

G*D blessed Abraham to be a blessing, and G*D would curse those who troubled Abraham (12:1-3). The G*D of Abraham blessed Isaac for Abraham’s sake (26:24). Now Isaac passes on more than he had received and Jacob receives the gift of having those who bless him be blessed and those who curse him be cursed. This is a precursor to his encounter with a ladder and a wrestling opponent and the blessings attendant in the dark of night.

Mission Accomplished! Attentive Readers remain suspicious of “Happily Ever After!”

27 ¹ When Isaac was old and his eyes grew too dim to see, he called in Esau, his elder son, and said to him, “My son!”
     And Esau said, “Here I am.”
     ² Isaac said, “Look, I have grown old and do not know the day of my death. ³ So now, take up your weapons, your quiver and bow, go out to the field, and hunt me down some game.⁴ Make me a dish that I love. Bring it to me, and I will eat so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
     ⁵ Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to Esau, his son. When Esau went out to the field to hunt game to bring back, ⁶ Rebekah said to Jacob, her son, “I was listening as Isaac spoke to Esau your brother, ⁷ ‘Bring me some game and make me a delicacy so that I can eat and bless you before YHWH before I die.’ ⁸ Now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and take me two choice goat kids so I can prepare them as the delicious dish your father loves. ¹⁰ You shall bring it to your father, and he will eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”
     ¹¹ Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “In truth, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am smooth-skinned. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be like a trickster in his eyes. Will I not bring a curse on me instead of a blessing?”
     ¹³ His mother said to him, “Let your curse be upon me, my son. Just listen to my voice; go and bring them for me.” ¹⁴ And he went and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious dish such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Rebekah took the garments of Esau, her elder son, that were in her house, and she put them on Jacob, her younger son. ¹⁶ She put the skins of the kids on his hands and the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she placed the dish and the bread she had made in the hand of Jacob, her son.

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After an interlude of an earlier time in Isaac’s life, we return to the heart of the story and an elderly, blind Isaac aware of an impending death that turns out to be some way off.

With Isaac needing care, Rebekah is nearby as Isaac calls for Esau. When Esau comes, Isaac asks for one thing in anticipation of passing his patriarchal blessing on to Esau. What is asked is a tasty stew of fresh game. Isaac’s sense of taste is the stronger for his lack of sight. Esau will provide Isaac strength to bless.

Readers have been primed for this moment by the revelation at his birth that Jacob would eventually take precedence and by Esau’s prior rejection of his birthright blessing. To base a blessing on what the blesser will first receive adds a lack of integrity to the scene.

Having developed a different sense of how the family can best be sustained, Rebekah begins a parallel line of action while Esau is on his hunt.

Explaining the situation to Jacob, Rebekah offers a command contrary to Isaac’s. [Note: no “biblically submissive” wife here.] Jacob is to bring two goat kids. Rebekah seasons a stew as she may have ordinarily done with the animals Esau brings back from the hunt. How Isaac does not hear the slaughter of goats or the smell of a fresh stew being brewed is not revealed.

Esau’s unwashed clothes are put on Jacob and cover his scent. Skins from the kids are put upon Jacob’s exposed skin.

Claiming she will bear any curse that might come should this plan go astray, Rebekah commands Jacob to take the new stew off to Isaac and pretend to be Esau. Having received Esau’s birthright from him, the goal is to get the second part—Isaac’s direct blessing.

This Mission Impossible is set in motion. Readers can but wait to see if Jacob can pull off Rebekah’s plan.

26 ³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ They were a bitter provocation to Isaac and Rebekah.

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Isaac was also forty when he took Rebekah as wife. Esau the Hunter took an initiative that Isaac did not or could not. He did not wait for his father to arrange matters for him.

Chapter 26 has been a flashback to an earlier time in the life of Isaac and Rebekah. In its last two verses, we are returned to the story of Esau and Jacob, with a reminder of where the story was left hanging—Esau spurning his birthright. At the same time, these verses anticipate a later rift between Esau and his parents.

As with where the narrative left off, Esau’s marriages with the indigenous Hittites is evidence of his nonchalance regarding his Abrahamic heritage. Esau now has a leg up on a division between nations told at the birth of the twins.

Isaac and Abimelech have their continued differences in the context of a pact of no harm to the other. We will find their provocations and resolution paralleled with Esau and Jacob.

As an aside, we are always in medias res, in the middle of a story. What currently holds as irreconcilable differences may yet find a time of reconciliation or accommodation. Likewise, what currently appears to be resolved can be undone in a next moment or later change in context.

Readers are not being asked to judge which character is right or wrong. The task at hand is to periodically return from suspended disbelief and take another look at the Reader’s currently perceived reality and better engage it.

Without Esau, there is no story of Jacob. Without the unknowns of motionless, timeless dark, there is no creation story beginning with a breach of Light.

26 ²³Then Isaac went up from Gerar to Beer-sheba. ²⁴ And YHWH was seen by him on that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not. I am with you and will bless you, and I will multiply your seed, for the sake of Abraham, my servant.” ²⁵ And Isaac built an altar there and called out the name of YHWH. Isaac pitched his tent there, and Isaac’s servants began digging a well.
     ²⁶ And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his aide and Phicol the commander of his troops. ²⁷ Isaac said to him, “Why have you come to me when you hate me and sent me away from you.”
     ²⁸ They said, “We have repeatedly seen that YHWH is with you and thought, ‘Let there be an oath between us and you.’ We want to cut a covenant with you, that you will do no harm to us, just as we have not harmed you. We have not touched you; we have only dealt well with you and sent you away in peace. You are blessed by YHWH.” ³⁰ Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹ They rose early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Isaac sent them off, and they went from him in peace.
     ³² On that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had been digging and said to him, “We found water.” ³³ He called it Shibah; therefore, the name of the city has been Beer-Sheba to this day.

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The well at Rehoboth is a sign of open space between Isaac and Abimelech—both allies and adversaries. This tension is soon to become evident between the twins, Esau and Jacob. A question for Readers  is whether Esau and Jacob will find space for each other.

Isaac was associated with Beer-Lahai-Roi after his biding. A famine brought them to Gerar. He left there and traveled to Beer-Sheba, where Abraham had gone after binding Isaac. This physical connection is confirmed with a night-vision of the G*D of Abraham, his father.

After receiving a specific blessing for himself, Isaac builds yet another altar at Beer-Sheba and begins to dig yet another well, or re-dig the well of Hagar and Ishmael.

While digging a well, Abimelech and his counselors, and, presumably, troops to protect them, come calling. A question arises about their intent. The last encounter between Isaac and Gerar resulted in being sent away and his wells destroyed.

YHWH’s blessing to protect Isaac’s seed begins by turning an antagonistic relationship to an oath-taking pact between the people of king Abimelech and the people of Isaac. There will be space enough for both.

A formal alliance followed a great feast. The peoples parted in peace.

With the completion of a political and military pact, the well is completed and water secured. We revisit a first naming of Beer-Sheba in Chapter 21 that left some confusion about emphasizing the number seven or the oath that was honored by the sacrifice of seven ewes. In this instance, there is a feast, not a sacrifice, and the name is connected only with oath-taking. To double down on space for the protection of Isaac’s seed, we can also return to the blessing Ishmael received in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba—to have his seed develop into a great nation.

Whew. All seems to be going well for Isaac after some tense times.

26 ¹ Now a famine was in the land, aside from the former famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar. ² YHWH appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Continue to settle in the land that I will tell you. ³ Sojourn in this land that I may be with you and bless you — to you and your seed I will give all of these lands. I will fulfill the oath I swore to Abraham, your father. ⁴ I will make your seed as many as the stars in the sky, and I will give your seed all these lands. All of the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed ⁵ because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my instructions.”
     ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar. ⁷ When the men who lived there asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”— thinking, The men who live there will kill me over Rebekah, for she is beautiful to look upon. ⁸ It was after Isaac had lived there for a long time that Abimelech, king of the  Philistines, looked out a window and saw Isaac laughing-and-loving with Rebekah, his wife.
     ⁹ So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “Look, she is your wife, so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
     Isaac responded, “Because I thought I might be killed over her.”
     ¹⁰ Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us!” ¹¹ Abimelech commanded all of the people, “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death. To death!”
     ¹² Isaac sowed in that land and reaped that year a hundredfold, and YHWH blessed him. ¹³ The man grew ever greater and richer until he was exceedingly great. ¹⁴ He possessed flocks and herds and many slaves. The Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ All the wells his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, the Philistines closed up and filled with dirt. ¹⁶ Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become too numerous among us.”
     ¹⁷ So Isaac went from there, camped in the Wadi of Gerar, and settled there. ¹⁸ Isaac again dug the wells that were dug during the lifetime of Abraham, his father, which the Philistines had closed up after Abraham’s death. He called them the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the wadi, and they found there fresh water. ²⁰ The shepherds of Garar argued with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water is ours.” So Isaac named the well Esek/Bickering because they argued with him. ²¹ They dug another well and argued about it, too, and he called it Sitnah/Animosity. ²² He moved on and dug another well; they did not argue over it. He named it Rehoboth/Space and said, “Look, the Lord has made space for us that we may bear fruit in the land.”

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In the midst of the story of Esau and Jacob, we have a flashback to a previous time in Isaac’s life when he was an actor, not someone standing in the wings. Even so, he so closely follows Abraham that he remains a repeat figure caught between Abraham the Covenanter and Jacob the Wrestler. Isaac was passive at Moriah. We have only heard of his initiative with a plea, which is questionably his, to YHWH for a child for Rebekah. Now in a repeat famine, he moves toward Egypt but cannot escape the covenant made with Abraham about this land. Isaac carries the shell of Abraham’s seed along until it can spring forth from Jacob, as Israel.

As a result of being a pale image of Abraham, Isaac repeats some of Abraham’s life. Another famine arrives and Isaac revisits Abimelech. YHWH warns Isaac not to go to Egypt where Abram passed Sarai off as a sister. YHWH does not warn Isaac for his own sake but because of a promise made to Abraham. Isaac seems not to be taken into YHWH’s confidence and is a partial reason for the lack of Isaac’s references to YHWH as his “Lord.”

At Gerar, it is the men of that place who now ask after Rebekah (not Abimelech who had learned his lesson and paid the price of livestock and property). Isaac, still recognizing the comeliness of Rebekah in his first sight of her, fears the men will desire her and kill him. Like Abraham, Isaac fudges the truth and even goes further, for even though a relative, Rebekah is of a different generation. There is no divine intervention as with plagues for a Pharaoh or a dream for Abimelech. Here, Abimelech merely glances out a window to see Isaac fondling Rebekah. Abimelech figures out what was happening had happened to him once before.

Under Abimelech’s protection, Isaac flourishes to the point of the still anachronistic Philistines to apply economic pressure by stopping-up his wells—as a repeat of Abraham’s experience.

Isaac moves on and digs more wells that were also stopped-up. Finally, a well is left alone and Isaac names that well and place, Rehoboth/Open Space—fruitfulness is now on the horizon.

25 ²⁷When the lads grew up, Esau became skilled in hunting, a man of the field, and Jacob became a simple man who stayed among the tents. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau for he hunted game for his mouth, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 
     ²⁹ Once, when Jacob was boiling boiled stew, Esau came in from the field, famished, ³⁰ and said to Jacob, “Let me gulp down some of the red-stuff, that red-stuff, for I am weary.” Therefore they called his name Edom/Red One.
     ³¹ Jacob said, “Right here-and-now, sell me your birthright.”
     ³² Esau said, “Since I’m at the point of death, what good to me is a first-born right?”
     ³³ Jacob said, “Swear. Here-and-now.” And he swore and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. He ate, drank, rose, and went off. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright.

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The twins grew. Growth and multiplying, on their own, are not signifiers of maturity. Growth alone is not a basis for moral judgment. This is confirmed in a system that desires maximum, short-term capitalistic profit. The description of this grown indicates Esau grew in the skill of hunting. Jacob, whose name carries a Hebrew root meaning “crooked heart” is said to have grown to be a “simple” person. A combination of deviousness and innocence describes tricky leaders down to this day—pragmatically underhanded.

Isaac “loved” Esau for his belly’s sake. There is no reason given for Rebekah’s love of Jacob other than proximity in the tents.

Then, one day, the story begins with Esau returned from a hunt, weary and famished. Esau speaks gutturally, wanting to “gulp” (like an animal in a feedlot) nameless food (red, red stuff). He is a crude appetite impatient for satisfaction.

Jacob goes beyond simply reaching for primogeniture by grasping a heel to taking advantage of Esau’s hunger. Jacob the Slyly Simple could have seen this time coming and even prepared it as a trap. The Hebrew phrase about boiling boiled-stew can indicate something cooked up as in stirring up trouble. It can also go so far as to indicate intentional harm.

Esau, feeling compelled to gulp food—now!—dismissed any thought of inheritance or, anachronistically, retirement. In a moment, the transaction is over. Esau is renamed Edom (Red), the name by which his descendants will be known. As in every family feud, the displaced descendants will become a stumbling block for their usurper.

Esau, who brought meat from the field to satisfy Isaac’s stomach, is taken in by a vegetarian stew from the garden. Jacob, second-born, has the first half of what is needed to become the primary heir—a birthright sold by Esau for a mess of pottage.

Esau does seem to be unfit for tribal leadership. There are questions to be raised about the ethics of Jacob and his current fitness to be a tribal leader. Both lads need additional experience to mature.

25 ¹² These are the begettings of Ishmael, son of Abraham, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slavegirl, bore to Abraham. ¹³ These are the names of Ishmael’s sons, by their names and according to their birth order: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedmah. ¹⁶ These are Ishmael’s sons. These are their names by their villages and their circled encampments, twelve leaders according to their tribes. ¹⁷ These are the years of Ishmael’s life: one hundred years and thirty years and seven years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his ancestors. ¹⁸ They ranged from Havilah to Shur, which faces Egypt, back to the road to Assyria. In defiance of his kin, he fell.
     ¹⁹ These are the begettings of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he took as wife Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean and the sister of Laban the Aramean from Paddan-Aram. ²¹ Isaac pleaded with YHWH for his wife since she was barren. YHWH granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant. ²² The children almost crushed each other inside of her, and she said, “Why me?” and she went to ask YHWH.
     ²³ And the Lord said to her,
          “Two nations are in your womb;
               two peoples will issue from your loins.
          People shall prevail over people,
               the older, the youngest’s slave.”
 
     ²⁴ When her time came to give birth, then, she discovered there were twins in her body.²⁵ The first came out ruddy, like a hairy mantle all over, and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Then his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel, and they named him Jacob/Heel Holder. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

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After Ishmael and Isaac join to bury Abraham, we hear a second genealogy of Ishmael and a birth scene that will lead to a genealogy through Isaac.

With the Burial of Abraham, we are at the final scene with Ishmael present. In the fashion of Genesis, such genealogies mark a time of transition. We hear the details of Ishmael’s twelve tribes. These twelve will have overlapping territory with the sons of Keturah and, eventually, with the twelve tribes of Israel.

Readers have been spared a third telling of Rebekah’s entry into the line of Abraham’s fruitful seed. The condensed report is sufficient to bring it all back to mind.

Previously, Readers knew Rebekah’s presence consoled Isaac and Abraham took a wife or concubine. Though Sarah is no longer present, Keturah will not reach her status as mother of Isaac. As a result, Keturah will forever be caught between being a wife and a concubine.

An indeterminate amount of time has been condensed as we pass by Rebecah’s barrenness and arrive at conception and pregnancy. Without the aid of a sonogram, Rebekah has divined twins. This experience is a bit at odds with such information not being confirmed until the birth.

With a tradition begun with Isaac, a younger son claims the birthright of the eldest. It should be noted that the Hebrew is ambivalent enough that a Reader can’t be sure if the oldest will serve the youngest or, regarding the oldest, the youngest will serve them. The reading can only be determined later. Translators have great power in setting expectations of what seems to be on the horizon. We then see what is expected.

Hairy, ruddy Esau is born first, with Jacob holding on as Esau opens a way for him. Such trickery will continue. For now, though, thanks go to Esau, the Impetuous.

25 ¹ Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. ² She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³ Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴ Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were Keturah’s sons. ⁵ Abraham gave all that was his to Isaac. ⁶ To the sons of Abraham’s concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still alive, and sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the Eastland.
     ⁷ The days and years of Abraham’s life were one hundred and seventy-five years. ⁸ Abraham breathed his last and died at a good ripe-age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his kinspeople. ⁹ Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave in Machpelah, which is in the field of Zohar’s son, Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre. ¹⁰ There were Abraham and Sarah his wife buried. ¹¹ It was after Abraham’s death that God blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac settled at Beer-lahai–roi (by the Well of the Living-One Who-Sees-Me).

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Abraham dies at the age of 175, 38 years after Sarah. This genealogy marks the end of the story of Abraham.

Sarah waited long for a child. After her death, Abraham takes another wife/concubine—Keturah. The tradition sometimes places Keturah as a re-named Hagar. This designation has the benefit of placing all of Abraham’s sons, except Isaac, in a single extended clan of nomads. By receiving gifts from Abraham, Keturah’s sons receive their inheritance and have no further claim on Abraham or his descendants through Isaac—they are not Sarah’s children. They are sent further eastward, which would be at or past Sodom and Gomorrah.

The tradition sometimes sees Keturah as a third wife/concubine. This perspective gives two different sets of clans. One comes through the five sons of Keturah, and the other includes twelve tribes of Ishmael through Hagar. Each of these will have periodically difficult relations with the seed of Isaac.

At Abraham’s death, Ishmael and Isaac, together, bury him with Sarah in the cave purchased at Machpelah. You can read about the joining of estranged brothers as a model of potential peace in God Wrestling by Arthur Waskow.

There are Midrash stories about the physical and emotional distance between Abraham and Isaac. Abraham never does bless Isaac. The Binding never does get resolved between the two of them. It is only after Abraham’s death that we hear of G*D fulfilling Abraham’s duty to bless Isaac. There does come a question about the worth of a blessing from Abraham or Abraham’s god if Abraham’s blessing led to the Binding of Isaac. Is it worth receiving?

Isaac puts his roots down in Beer-Lahoi-Roi, Hagar’s place of being seen, not in Beer-Sheba or Hebron, places associated with Abraham.

Though Abraham’s story ends, the relationship of those associated with him remains fraught—Lot, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, sons of Keturah. Readers are invited to consider the results of their life-to-date and whether its consequences are already fated or can still be changed.