Genesis 27:40

40 By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck."

Genesis 27:40 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 27:40

And by thy sword shalt thou live
By what he could get by it; his land being so poor that he could not live upon it, but must be obliged to such methods for a livelihood; or his country being surrounded with enemies, his posterity would be obliged to defend themselves by the sword, and other weapons of war: and shalt serve thy brother;
which is the sense and language of the oracle, ( Genesis 25:23 ) ; and which Isaac perhaps now remembered, and had a clear understanding of it, and delivers out his prophetic blessing agreeably to it: and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion;
not over the Israelites, the posterity of Jacob, which the Edomites, Esau's posterity, never had; but when they should get a greater degree of strength, power, authority, and dominion in the world: that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck;
the Edomites should revolt from the posterity of Jacob, and shake off the yoke of bondage and subjection they had been long under; as they did in the times of Joram, king of Judah, and set up a king of their own, and continued in such a state of freedom a long time, see ( 2 Kings 8:20-22 ) .

Genesis 27:40 In-Context

38 Esau said to his father, "Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!" And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

39 Then his father Isaac answered him: "See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.

40 By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck."

41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

42 But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

Footnotes

• [a]. Meaning of Heb uncertain