Genesis 25:26

25:26 When his brother came out with ¹  his hand clutching Esau’s heel, they named him Jacob. ²  Isaac was sixty years old ³  when they were born.

Genesis 25:31-34

25:31 But Jacob replied, “First ⁴  sell me your birthright.” 25:32 “Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” ⁵  25:33 But Jacob said, “Swear an oath to me now.” ⁶  So Esau ⁷  swore an oath to him and sold his birthright ⁸  to Jacob.

25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. ⁹  So Esau despised his birthright. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹¹  “but Israel, ¹²  because you have fought ¹³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

John 1:47

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ¹⁴  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ¹⁵ 

[25:26]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause describes an important circumstance accompanying the birth. Whereas Esau was passive at birth, Jacob was active.

[25:26]  ² tn Heb “And he called his name Jacob.” Some ancient witnesses read “they called his name Jacob” (see v. 25). In either case the subject is indefinite.

[25:26]  ³ tn Heb “the son of sixty years.”

[25:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “today.”

[25:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “And what is this to me, a birthright?”

[25:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “Swear to me today.”

[25:33]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:33]  ⁸ sn And sold his birthright. There is evidence from Hurrian culture that rights of inheritance were occasionally sold or transferred. Here Esau is portrayed as a profane person who would at the moment rather have a meal than the right to inherit. He will soon forget this trade and seek his father’s blessing in spite of it.

[25:34]  ⁹ sn The style here is typical of Hebrew narrative; after the tension is resolved with the dialogue, the working out of it is recorded in a rapid sequence of verbs (“gave”; “ate”; “drank”; “got up”; “went out”). See also Gen 3:1-7 for another example.

[25:34]  ¹⁰ sn So Esau despised his birthright. This clause, which concludes the episode, is a summary statement which reveals the underlying significance of Esau’s actions. “To despise” means to treat something as worthless or with contempt. Esau’s willingness to sell his birthright was evidence that he considered it to be unimportant.

[32:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ¹² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ¹³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[1:47]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “said about him.”

[1:47]  ¹⁵ tn Or “treachery.”