E'sau's lack of respect for the Covenant which God had made with A'bra-ham, and for his parents' wishes was shown in his marriage. During his hunting trips he had become well acquainted with the Hit'tites, a heathen people of Canaan who were under the curse of God for worshipping idols. When he was forty years old he took two wives in this heathen land. Such a deed brought great sorrow to his father and mother, for it was a disgrace to the family name. From these unholy marriages there sprang a people known in later history as the E'dom-ites, who were always enemies of God's Chosen people.
In spite of his disobedience and scorn for True Religion, E'sau remained the favorite son of the patient, long-suffering I'saac. As the strength of I'saac began to fade and his eyesight grew dim, he felt that he should prepare for his death which might come at any moment. He was now one hundred and thirty-seven years old, his half-brother Ish'ma-el had been dead for fourteen years, and he was now so feeble that even his family thought death was near. Although he did not die until forty-three years later, he thought it wise to arrange for the division of his property. In those days it was custom for a father to make what is now called a will by giving his blessing to the sons who were to inherit his belongings. In these blessings the father would tell what each son was to inherit, and once a blessing had been given it could not be changed.
E'sau's unholy marriages to the two Hit'tite women had taken place thirty-seven years before, but he had remained in the household of I'saac during all these years, and his father had gradually forgiven his disobedience. And so I'saac planned to bestow upon E'sau, his elder son and favorite, the blessing which belonged to the first-born son, in spite of the fact that E'sau had sold his birthright to Ja'cob many years before, and had proven himself unworthy of the heritage.
One day as I'saac sat in the house, no doubt tired and worried by his feeble state of health, and believing that he might soon be called from this world, he said to E'sau "I am failing in strength, and my eyes are dim; I do not know how soon I may die. Before I die let me bestow upon you, my elder son, the blessings of the first-born. I wish you to inherit this land, and to become the head of the nation through which all the families of the earth are to be blessed. Before I give this blessing, however, take thy bow and quiver and go out into the fields. Kill a deer, and bring me the venison which I love so well.
It was the duty of E'sau to remind his father that the rights of the first-born had been sold long ago to Ja'cob, and he should have admitted his unworthiness to carry on the family from which the Mes-si'ah was to come. Instead of acting honestly in this matter, E'sau was moved by the spirit of irreverence and boldness which had marked his entire life. That is why he obeyed his father's request, not so much in the spirit of a dutiful son as in the hope of gaining the blessing which he had sold to Ja'cob for a mess of pottage.
