If we can understand Genesis 25: 27, we can understand the bulk of the
Patriarchal narratives.
As to the key word TM at Genesis 25: 27, we need to start by looking at the
words %DH and )HLYM in this sentence. CYD is “hunting”, and YD( is “know”
. Esau is said to “know hunting”, that is “know [all about] hunting”.
%DH can mean “place where wild animals roam”, rather than referring to a
tilled field or the countryside in general. So in this particular context,
this verse is telling us that Esau is a man of the “places where wild animals
roam”, who “knows hunting”. Note that Esau does not hunt with the
community, using nets and snares, and does not bring back food for the
community.
Rather, Esau hunts mainly for sport, using a bow [Q$T, at Genesis 27: 3], and
brings back wild game only for his immediate family. Here, before Esau has
married local Hurrian women, Esau brings back wild game for his doting
father Isaac to eat, and thereby curries favor with his powerful father, who
unduly favors Esau over younger twin son Jacob.
By contrast, Jacob is a man of the “community”. Although )HLYM literally
means “tents”, in context here it means “community”. Jacob is aware of
the needs of the “community” of people who live in “tents”, of whom his
father Isaac is the leader. Jacob also pays close attention to the huge flock
of sheep and goats, which is the livelihood of the community. Jacob is well
on his way to becoming the greatest shepherd in the Hebrew Bible. If Laxi-
in Beer Laxi-Rai refers to the Lachi- in Lachi-$a, then we know from Late
Bronze Age burials that meat from domesticated animals was an important part
of the diet of the people there, whereas wild game was not.
So by contrast to Esau, who is selfishly hunting wild game with a bow for
sport, Jacob is busy attending to matters of the community, including the
all-important flock of sheep and goats. That is why Jacob is said to be TM,
meaning an “upright”/TM man, a man who is concerned about the “whole”/TM
community.
Firstborn sons who hunt with bows (Ishmael and Esau) get the shaft, and
rightly so, in the Patriarchal narratives. The rightful leader of the next
generation of early monotheists (Isaac and Jacob, for example) is in each case
a younger son who never goes hunting. If we can understand Genesis 25: 27,
we can understand the bulk of the Patriarchal narratives.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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