Genesis · chapter 25 of 50
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Genesis 25 tells of Abraham's death at 175 years old, buried by Isaac and Ishmael at Machpelah, and lists the descendants of Keturah and of Ishmael. Then Rebekah, barren, conceives twins after Isaac's prayer: Esau and Jacob, who already struggle in the womb. Years later Esau, famished, sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.
Genesis 25 closes the story of Abraham and opens that of his grandsons. God's promise passes from Abraham to Isaac, but it also shows that God kept what he promised to Ishmael. From here the central figure will be Jacob, though he is born second, and the chapter anticipates themes such as God's election and the consequences of despising what is sacred.
Abraham takes another wife, Keturah, and she bears him six sons, among them Midian. He gives all he has to Isaac and gives gifts to the sons of his concubines, whom he sends eastward while he is still alive. Abraham dies in a good old age, at 175 years old, and is gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah, beside Sarah. After his death, God blesses Isaac, who lives by Beer-lahai-roi.
The text lists the descendants of Ishmael, twelve princes according to their tribes, among them Nebaioth and Kedar. Ishmael dies at 137 and settles from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt, opposite his kin.
Isaac, at forty, marries Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram and sister of Laban. Rebekah is barren, and Isaac prays for her to the Lord, and Rebekah conceives. The children struggle within her, and she inquires of the Lord, who tells her that two nations are in her womb and that the older shall serve the younger. Twins are born: the first comes out red and hairy, and is named Esau; the second comes out with his hand holding Esau's heel, and is named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old.
The boys grow up: Esau is a skillful hunter and a man of the field, and Jacob a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loves Esau because he eats of his game, and Rebekah loves Jacob. One day Jacob is cooking stew and Esau comes in from the field exhausted. He asks for some of that red stew, which is why he is called Edom. Jacob asks him in exchange for his birthright, and Esau, saying he is about to die of hunger, sells it to him under oath. Jacob gives him bread and lentil stew, and Esau eats and drinks and goes his way, and the text concludes that he despised his birthright.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Abraham dies in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and is gathered to his people. The text describes a peaceful death, the end of a long life of faith and pilgrimage in which God fulfilled much of what he had promised.
Isaac prays to the Lord for his wife, who is barren, and the Lord grants his prayer and Rebekah conceives. The story repeats itself: God's promise does not advance by human strength but by prayer and grace, as had happened with Sarah.
The Lord tells Rebekah that two nations are in her womb and that the older shall serve the younger. God announces his choice before the children are born, a theme Paul takes up in Romans 9:10-13 to speak of the freedom of God's grace.
Esau eats and drinks and goes his way, and the text says he despised his birthright. The problem is not the stew but the contempt for what God considered valuable, and Hebrews 12:16 recalls it as a warning against trading the eternal for the immediate.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: One hundred seventy-five years. — Genesis 25:7
Answer: His sons Isaac and Ishmael, in the cave of Machpelah, beside Sarah. — Genesis 25:9-10
Answer: Twelve princes, according to their tribes. — Genesis 25:16
Answer: That two nations were in her womb and the older would serve the younger. — Genesis 25:23
Answer: Esau came first, red and hairy; Jacob came out holding Esau's heel. — Genesis 25:25-26
Answer: He sold his birthright to Jacob. — Genesis 25:33
Genesis 25 shows two attitudes toward what God has given: Jacob values the birthright, though his way of getting it is questionable; Esau despises it for an immediate need. In a group you can ask what we value enough to wait for and what we trade for a quick satisfaction.
It also speaks of Isaac's prayer for his barren wife. He interceded and waited, and God answered. Ask for whom you can pray with persistence and patience, and remember that God carries out his plan even through imperfect families, with rivalries and favoritism that will later bring them pain.
Genesis 25 ends with a birthright sold for a bowl of stew and with a family divided between two sons. In the following chapters the story of Isaac and his sons develops until it reaches Jacob, whom God will call Israel.
It was the right of the firstborn son to receive a double portion of the inheritance and to take the place of leader of the family. In Isaac's case it also included God's promise to Abraham. That is why Esau, by selling it, despised something far greater than money.
The text neither approves nor condemns it here, and presents the fact soberly. Jacob takes advantage of his brother's hunger, which is morally doubtful, but the main reproach falls on Esau, who despised his birthright. God had declared earlier that the older would serve the younger.
Edom means red. The name comes from the red stew Esau asked Jacob for, and also from his reddish skin at birth. Later Edom will be the name of the people descended from Esau.