Genesis 25:29

29 And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food;

Genesis 25:29 Meaning and Commentary

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 this pottage was made of lentiles, as appears from ( Genesis 25:34 ) ; this the Jewish writers ^F9 say was the food of mourners; and so this circumstance furnishes out a reason for Jacob's boiling pottage of lentiles at this time: and hence also they ^F11 gather, that Jacob and Esau were now fifteen years of age; for Abraham was an hundred years old when Isaac was born, and Isaac was sixty at the birth of his sons; and Abraham lived to be one hundred and seventy five, and therefore Esau and Jacob must be fifteen years old when he died: and Esau came from the field, and be [was] faint:
for want of food, and weary with hunting, and perhaps more so, having toiled and got nothing.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 Pirke Eliezer, c. 35.
F11 Seder Olam Rabba, p. 3. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 5. 1.

Genesis 25:29 In-Context

27 And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

28 Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob.

29 And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food;

30 And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom.

31 And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright.