Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

by Robert Graves

  5. John Hyrcanus’s conversion of Edom was Sadducaic: that is to say, it did not include a belief in the resurrection of the dead. Thus Esau’s grasping at this world, rather than the world beyond, distinguishes him from Jacob the Pharisee.

  6. The Biblical explanation of the name Jacob as ‘one who takes by the heel’ or ‘supplants’ (Genesis XXV. 26; XXVII. 36) is popular etymology, or perhaps a pun on the name, as are Jeremiah’s words (IX. 3): ‘Every brother deceives (Ya‘qobh)’. Its original meaning was theophoric, and the full form, Ya‘qob-el, meant ‘God protects’. Numerous variants of this name are known both from Jewish sources (Ya‘qobha, ‘Aqabhya, ‘Aqibha or Akiba, etc.), and from neighbouring countries (Ya‘qob-har, ‘Aqab-elaha, etc.).

  39

  ABRAHAM’S DEATH

  (a) Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years. His sons Isaac and Ishmael laid him to rest beside his wife Sarah, in the Cave of Machpelah.307

  (b) He had chosen this place of burial because, when the three angels visited him at Mamre, and he ran to slaughter a calf, it fled into the cave’s dark recesses. Following close behind, Abraham came upon Adam and Eve lying side by side, as though asleep; candles burned above them, and a sweet fragrance filled the air.308

  (c) Not long before Abraham’s death, Isaac and Ishmael celebrated the Feast of First Fruits with him at Hebron, offering sacrifices on the altar he had built there. Rebekah baked cakes from newly harvested corn, and Jacob took them to Abraham who, as he ate, gave God thanks for his happy lot. He also blessed Jacob, with a warning never to marry a Canaanite woman and, at the same time, bequeathed him the house near Damascus still known as ‘Abraham’s Home’. Afterwards he lay down, clasping Jacob close and printing seven kisses on his brow; then used two of Jacob’s fingers to close his own eyes, drew a coverlet over them, stretched out straight, and died peacefully. Jacob slept in Abraham’s bosom until, waking some hours later, he found it cold as ice. He reported the death to Isaac, Rebekah and Ishmael, who all wept aloud and presently buried Abraham in the cave, mourning him forty days. God had shortened Abraham’s span by five years, so that he might die unaware of Esau’s evil deeds.309

  (d) Some, however, say that Abraham fought death no less vigorously than did Moses afterwards; for when Michael came to fetch his soul, he boldly insisted upon first seeing the whole world. God therefore commanded Michael to let Abraham ride across the heavens in a chariot drawn by cherubim, and thus fulfil his wish; yet Abraham was still reluctant to die.

  Then God summoned the Angel of Death, saying: ‘Come, Death, you cruel one, hide your fierceness, veil your foulness and, disguised in youth and glory, go down and fetch My friend Abraham to Me!’

  Abraham received Death hospitably but, doubting that this handsome youth could be Death, asked him to reveal his true aspect. This Death did. Abraham fainted in horror, and whispered, when he came to his senses: ‘I charge you in God’s name to renew your disguise!’ Death obeyed, saying deceitfully: ‘Come, friend, clasp my hand and let lusty life and strength flow back to you!’ He took Abraham’s proffered fingers and through them drew out his soul; which Michael wrapped in a divinely woven kerchief and conveyed to Heaven.310

  ***

  1. The myth of Abraham’s fight against Death is also told about Moses and, in a different form, about Sisyphus King of Corinth. Sisyphus twice cheats Death, whom Zeus has sent in anger to take his soul. First he asks to be shown how the infernal handcuffs work, and then quickly locks them on Death’s wrists. Next he orders his wife not to bury him and, when ferried across the Styx, persuades Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, that his presence there is irregular and that he must return for three days to arrange a decent funeral—after which he absents himself until Hermes (Michael’s counterpart) drags him back by force. Sisyphus was a representative of the Hittite Storm-god Teshub, and the myth may be Hittite too, though altered to suit the ethics of Genesis—where God is not angry with Abraham; Abraham opposes, but does not deceive, Death; and his soul is taken to Paradise, not to the punishment grounds of Tartarus.

  2. The sharing of Abraham’s death-bed emphasizes Jacob’s fundamental piety—which his deeds often belie—and explains the Aramaic phrase ‘to rest in Abraham’s bosom’ used, among others, by Jesus in the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke XVI. 22).

  3. ‘Abraham’s Home’ is mentioned by Josephus as still shown near Damascus.

  40

  THE BARTERED BIRTHRIGHT

  (a) One day, while Jacob was stewing red lentils outside his hut, Esau returned from a desert hunt, worn to skin and bone.

  ‘Give me some of that red food, Brother,’ he pleaded. ‘I am starving!’

  Jacob answered: ‘Eat, Red One; but on condition that you sell me your birthright.’

  ‘Not to sell would likewise lose me my birthright,’ groaned Esau, ‘because I should soon die of hunger.’

  Before restoring Esau’s strength with bread and lentil stew, Jacob made him confirm the sale by an oath; and when he had gone off again, laughed, saying: ‘My brother despises his birthright!’311

  (b) Some excuse Jacob’s apparent lack not only of brotherly love but even of common humanity. He knew, they say, that Esau had just ambushed King Nimrod—who was still alive at the age of two hundred and fifteen years—and murdered him; each having been jealous of the other’s fame as a hunter. It was a long pursuit of Esau by Nimrod’s vengeful companions that reduced him to such straits. Jacob, indeed, bought Esau’s birthright with God’s approval, because until the Tent of Assembly had been raised in the Wilderness centuries later, only the first-born of each family might offer sacrifices, and Jacob now cried: ‘Shall this evil-doer, standing before God’s altar, be blessed by Him?’ Moreover, Esau readily agreed to sell the birth right, lest he should be struck dead at the altar for having derided the Resurrection of the Dead.

  Others say that Esau also exacted a large sum in gold from Jacob, because his birthright gave him a double share in the inheritance of Canaan; and that he would have afterwards repudiated the sale had Jacob not made him swear by the fear of his father Isaac, whom he loved dearly; and had not Michael and Gabriel witnessed his signature to the contract.312

  (c) Esau showed Isaac exemplary love: bringing venison every day, and never entering the tent except in festal dress. He was therefore rewarded when Joshua entered Canaan and God forbade the Children of Israel to attack their Edomite cousins, saying: ‘I must acknowledge the honour that he paid his father!’ Esau, indeed, enjoyed great prosperity so long as he lived.313

  ***

  1. Esau’s desire for red lentils emphasizes the redness of his hair (see 38. 2). That he was Edom, ‘the Red One’, or at least Edom’s father, is repeatedly stated in Genesis. He was also Seir, ‘the Shaggy One’ (see 38. 2) and, in later books (Numbers XXIV. 18; 2 Chronicles XXV. 11 read in conjunction with 2 Kings XIV. 7) ‘Seir’ and ‘Edom’ were interchangeable terms (see 38. 2). Yet the Sons of Seir are elsewhere identified with the Horites: ‘These are the Sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land…’ (Genesis XXXVI. 20) and: ‘These are the Horite chieftains in the land of Seir…’ (Genesis V. 30). The chronicler of Deuteronomy II. 12 therefore explains that the Horites once lived in Seir, but that the Children of Esau drove them out and occupied their land.

  2. The Horites, or Hurrians, whose language was neither Sumerian, nor Semitic, nor Indo-European, appeared on the northern frontier of Akkad towards the end of the third millennium B.C. Their settlements were in Northern Syria and Eastern Anatolia; and though no archaeological evidence of their establishment in Idumaea has yet come to light, the testimony of Genesis need not be doubted—unless ‘Horites’ means ‘Hori’, or Troglodites (compare Job XXX. 6), who ranked as the sons of Keturah (see 35. b). The Seirites, non-Semitic Bronze Age agriculturists, inhabited these parts from about 2000 B.C., and their name occurs on an obelisk raised seven hundred years later by Rameses II of Egypt. However, Semitic-speaking tribes already held the area, and �
�Edom’ is mentioned for the first time on a papyrus list made for Seti II about 1215 B.C. These Edomites, who partly assimilated both the Seirites and the Horites, prospered until their conquest by King David about 994 B.C.

  3. Esau’s bartered birthright mythically justifies the Edomites’ subsequent conquest by their junior kinsmen, the Israelites (Numbers XX. 14) who spoke the same language but had not previously dared to attack them. David took the precaution of garrisoning Edom (2 Samuel VIII. 14; 1 Kings XI. 15–16), which acknowledged Israelite overlordship until the reign of the Judaean King Jehoram (about 850 B.C). The Edomites then made a successful revolt (2 Kings VIII. 20 ff and 2 Chronicles XXI. 8 ff) and, apart from a brief reconquest by Amaziah (2 Kings XIV. 7) two centuries later, kept their independence for the next seven hundred years.

  4. When eventually Herod the Edomite, by his murder of Aristobulus the Hasmonean heir, and a marriage forced on the Hasmonean Princess Mariamne, had become King of the Jews, and Augustus had confirmed his title, the myth of Esau’s birthright called for expansion with charges of murder and rape. Esau’s demand for gold in addition to lentils may have been appended as a reminder of the crushing taxes which Herod demanded from his subjects. Esau’s one virtue, that of filial piety, was held to have been rewarded by prosperity in this world, though all Edomites would inevitably suffer torments in the world beyond (see 11. g). When forcibly converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans, the Edomites were given the Mosaic Law—but not the Prophets; hence Esau scoffs at the resurrection of the dead (see 38. 5). Yet even under Esau’s new tyranny, Israel at least retained the first-born’s priestly right of ordering Temple worship at Jerusalem and interpreting Law in the Pharisaic Supreme Court.

  5. The midrashic identification of Rome with Edom must not be read as myth—not, in fact, as a claim that Aeneas or Romulus was descended from Edom—but merely as a security measure for disguising political complaint. Pharisaic quietists regarded Herodian tyranny under Roman patronage as detestable, yet predetermined by a historic event which, if Israel wished to assure God’s providence, she must accept as His will. The later Herodians, continuing as Roman puppets until the rebellion of 68 A.D., were courted by the Sadducee priesthood, and flattered by such renegade Pharisees as Paul of Tarsus (Acts XXV. 13–XXVI. 32), and Josephus—who proudly reports his long intimate correspondence with Agrippa II, and his friendship with the Emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

  6. Nevertheless, a main implication of the Genesis account is that momentary greed overcame Esau: he would not really have died if the lentils had been denied him. Jacob therefore decided that a nomad hunter who lived from hand to mouth was unworthy to inherit the Promised Land. It is true that peoples who lead a settled agricultural life, not exhausting themselves by wild forays into the desert, have more time for meditation and religious duties. But the midrashic commentators miss this point: perhaps because, in the earlier quarrel between two brothers similarly placed, Abel, a nomad, is the hero, and Cain, a settled farmer, the villain (see 16. 1); and because Edom practised agriculture while Israel was still wandering in the Wilderness.

  41

  THE STOLEN BLESSING

  (a) Isaac grew old and blind. Having reached his one hundred and twenty-third year, he felt that death was close and called Esau into the tent. ‘My son,’ he said, ‘take your bow and fetch venison from the wilderness. Prepare it in the manner that best pleases me; afterwards I will give you my blessing and die.’

  Rebekah, who overheard Isaac’s words, summoned Jacob as soon as Esau was out of sight. ‘Your father means to bestow a blessing on Esau. This must not be, since you are now his first-born! Go to the flock, bring me two likely kids for a savoury stew of the sort your father loves; he will mistake it for venison.’ Jacob objected: ‘But Esau’s skin is hairy, and mine smooth! What if our father Isaac should touch it and discover the deceit? Would he not then curse rather than bless me?’ Rebekah reassured him: ‘The curse be on my head! Away now, fetch the kids!’

  Jacob obeyed. Rebekah prepared a stew, and dressed Jacob in Esau’s garments, afterwards fastening the newly-flayed kids’ skins on his hands and neck. He entered Isaac’s tent with the platter of venison; and these words passed between them:

  ‘Father, here I am.’

  ‘Who are you, my son?’

  ‘Do you not recognize your first-born? Pray taste my venison, Father, and bless me!’

  ‘How did you find it so quickly, my son?’

  ‘Because God favoured me.’

  ‘Come closer! I wish to assure myself that you are Esau.’

  Isaac ran his fingers over him, saying: ‘There is no mistaking Esau’s hands, but your voice sounds like Jacob’s. Are you truly my son Esau?’

  ‘I am he.’

  ‘Then hand me the platter, so that I may eat and bless you from a full heart.’

  Jacob gave him the platter, and with it a cup of wine. When Isaac had well eaten and drunken, he said: ‘Come here, my son, and kiss me!’ As Jacob bent down, Isaac caught the fragrance of his garments, and prophesied:

  ‘The garments of my son

  Smell like a field

  Which is blessed by God.

  May God reward you

  With heavenly dew,

  With the fat of the land,

  With corn and with wine!

  Let peoples serve you

  Let nations do you homage,

  Lord of your mother’s sons!

  Let your brothers bow to you,

  Let your curser be cursed,

  Let your blesser be blessed!’

  No sooner had Isaac concluded his prophecy, than Esau returned from a successful chase. He made a savoury stew, brought it to his father and said: ‘Pray, Father, taste my venison and bless me!’ Isaac asked: ‘Who may you be?’ Esau answered: ‘Do you not know your first-born son Esau?’ Isaac, trembling for dismay, said: ‘Someone has already brought me a great platter of venison which I ate, and in joy of which I blessed him—and, indeed, he shall be blessed! It must have been your brother Jacob, who deceived me and stole your blessing!’

  Esau cried bitterly: ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? He has twice supplanted me—stealing first my birthright, and now my blessing! Have you kept none for your son Esau?’

  Isaac answered: ‘Alas, I appointed Jacob lord over all his brothers, and promised him boundless corn and wine! What blessing is left to bestow on you, my son?’

  Esau insisted, weeping: ‘Bless me too, Father, in whatever manner may be fitting!’

  So Isaac prophesied again:

  ‘Far from the fat of the land

  Must your dwelling be,

  Far from the field

  Where falls a heavenly dew!

  By your sword shall you live,

  Your brother shall you serve

  Till it be time to shake

  His yoke from your shoulders!’

  Yet Esau hated Jacob for his double-dealing, and swore to himself: ‘As soon as my father dies and the mourning has ended, I will kill him!’314

  (b) Some say that God sent an angel to detain Esau in the wilderness, while Rebekah prepared the stew and Isaac ate his fill. Whenever, therefore, Esau shot a deer, left its carcase lying, and went in chase of another, the angel both revived and released it. Whenever Esau shot a bird, cut its wings and continued his hunt, the angel made it fly away; thus, in the end, he brought Isaac no better than dog’s meat.315

  (c) Others say that, though Jacob obeyed his mother because of the Fifth Commandment, he hated the enforced deception: tears streamed from his eyes, inwardly he prayed God to remove this shame, and two angels supported him. But Rebekah, being a prophetess, knew that Jacob must face the ordeal, and said: ‘Courage, my son! When Adam sinned, was not Earth, his mother, cursed? If needs be, I shall tell your father that I have acted in my knowledge of Esau’s evil ways.’ Yet Jacob did not lie to Isaac, saying only: ‘I am your first-born son,’ which was the truth—since he had bought Esau’s birthright.

  Other
s again say that Esau’s garments in which Rebekah clothed him, namely those made by God for Adam and Eve, had now rightfully become Jacob’s, and Isaac recognized their Paradisal fragrance. However, discovering the trick played on him, Isaac grew angry and would have cursed Jacob, but that God warned him: ‘Did you not say “Let your curser be cursed! Let your blesser be blessed!”?’ Then Isaac told Esau: ‘While Jacob is worthy to be served, serve him you must! But when he ceases to obey God’s Law, rebel, and make him your servant!’316

  ***

  1. The rival twins, their mother, and their moribund father shared a firm belief in the efficacy of his last blessing, which would establish, rather than merely predict, the future of Israel; nor could the words, once pronounced, be unsaid even by himself. If Esau had brought the venison stew in good time, his posterity would have enjoyed Isaac’s blessing and inherited Canaan. The significance of this blessing was that of a property charter. Having once awarded the fat of the land to Jacob—namely, fertile Western Palestine, watered by dew from Heaven—Isaac could bequeath Esau no more of Abraham’s kingdom than Idumaea, the meagre produce of whose soil his semi-nomadic sons would have to supplement with the sword: by raiding, and by extorting protection money from caravans and the frontier villages of neighbouring peoples (see 35. 2). ‘Your brother shall you serve!’ looks forward to the period of Edomite vassalage between the reigns of King David and King Jehoram (2 Kings VIII. 20–22). The second half of Esau’s blessing, which differs in style and rhythm from the first, has been added to justify Edom’s subsequent rebellion.

  2. Though midrashic commentators admitted the efficacy of Isaac’s blessing, they also knew that the prophet Hosea (XII. 3–13) had threatened ‘Jacob’ with punishment for his evil deeds, recalling how he took Esau by the heel at birth, and by his strength made himself a prince, thereafter using deceitful balances, and fleeing to Syria from Esau’s vengeance. A sentence condemning Jacob’s theft of the blessing has evidently been excised by some early editor, and the gap filled (verses 4 and 5) with praise of his wrestling feat at Bethel. The Second Isaiah (Isaiah XLIII. 27–28) later declares that Jacob’s sin is at last punished by the Babylonian Exile: ‘Thy first father sinned… therefore… have I given Jacob to condemnation.’