Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/463

 different documents. Though this conception of Esau's occupation is not consistently maintained (see 33$9$), it has doubtless some ethnographic significance; and game is said to be plentiful in the Edomite country (Buhl, Edomiter, 43).—Jacob, on the other hand, chooses the half-nomadic pastoral life which was the patriarchal ideal. , elsewhere 'an ethically blameless man' (Jb. 1$8$ etc.), here describes the orderly, well-disposed man (Scoticè, 'douce'), as contrasted with the undisciplined and irregular huntsman.—28. A preparation for ch. 27, which perhaps followed immediately on these two verses. V.$27$, however, is also presupposed by?]

29-34. Esau parts with the birthright.—The superiority of Israel to Edom is popularly explained by a typical incident, familiar to the pastoral tribes bordering on the desert, where the wild huntsman would come famishing to the shepherd's tent to beg for a morsel of food. At such times the 'man of the field' is at the mercy of the tent-dweller; and the ordinary Israelite would see nothing immoral in a transaction like this, where the advantage is pressed to the uttermost.—The legend takes no account of the fact that Edom, as a settled state older than Israel, must have been something more than a mere nation of hunters. The contrasted types of civilisation—Jacob the shepherd and Esau the hunter—were firmly fixed in the popular mind; and the supremacy of the former was an obvious corollary.—29. Jacob stewed something: an intentionally indefinite description, the nature of the dish being reserved as a surprise for v.$3$4.—30. Let me gulp some of the red—that red there!] With a slight vocalic change (v.i.), we

28. ] A curious phrase, meaning 'venison was to his taste.' It would be easier to read (with Ba. al.) ; or an adj. (?) may have fallen out. GS appear to have read.

29. —] only here in the lit. sense; elsewhere = 'act presumptuously.' The derivative (2 Ki. 4$38$, Hag. 2$12$) with rare prefix na (common in Ass.).—30. ] a coarse expression suggesting bestial voracity; used in NH of the feeding of cattle.—] The repetition of the same word is awkward, even in an expression of impatient greed. The emendation referred to above consists in reading