Esau traded his birthright for lentil stew, and gave English an idiom
A hungry hunter comes in from the fields and swaps his rights as firstborn for a bowl of red lentils. The Genesis story of Esau and his twin Jacob gave us the phrase about selling a birthright for a mess of pottage, and it doubled as ancient Israel's explanation for its rivalry with Edom.
Esau and Jacob were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca and grandsons of Abraham. Rebecca had struggled for years to conceive, and the twins fought even in the womb. Esau emerged first, red and covered in hair, with Jacob clutching his heel; Isaac was sixty. The name's meaning is uncertain, though some link it to an Arabic word for hairy, and his other name, Edom, means red. Esau grew into a rugged huntsman, while Jacob is described with a Hebrew word that can mean plain, simple or almost perfect.
Twice the younger brother gets ahead. First, a famished Esau trades his birthright, the firstborn's authority over the family, for Jacob's red stew. Later, prompted by their mother, Jacob dresses in hairy goatskins to fool their blind father and receives the blessing meant for Esau. Isaac says he cannot take it back and promises Esau a life serving his brother. Enraged, Esau vows to kill Jacob, who flees to their uncle Laban in Paddan-aram.
Years later the story softens. As Jacob returns, he sends wave after wave of gifts ahead, fearing for his life. Esau, now rich, says he has no need of them, yet forgives his brother, and the two go separate ways. Genesis also records Esau's marriages, first to two Hittite women who grieved his parents, then to a daughter of Ishmael.
Scholars read the tale as a mirror of politics: it explains why Israel, the younger nation, came to dominate Edom, the kingdom south of it that traced itself to Esau. Relations stayed bitter. The prophet Obadiah accuses the Edomites of joining in the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 BCE, and Psalm 137 recalls Edom urging the Babylonians to raze Jerusalem. Esau also appears in the New Testament letters to the Romans and Hebrews, and Islamic tradition casts him as his father's favourite.
Source: Esau
