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ESAU

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 760 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ESAU , the son of See also:

Isaac and Rebecca, in the See also:Bible, and the See also:elder twin See also:brother of See also:Jacob. . He was so called because he was red (admoni) and hairy when he was See also:born, and the name See also:Edom (red) was given to him when he sold his birthright to Jacob for a See also:meal of red See also:lentil pottage (Gen. See also:xxv. 21-34). Another See also:story of the manner in which Jacob obtained the superiority is related in Gen. See also:xxvii. Here the younger brother impersonated the elder, and succeeded in deceiving his See also:blind See also:father by imitating the hairiness of his brother. He thus gained the blessing intended for the first-born, and Esau, on See also:hearing how he had been fore-stalled, vowed to kill him. Jacob accordingly fled to his See also:mother's relatives, and on his return, many years later, See also:peace was restored between them (xxxii. sq.). These See also:primitive stories of the relations between the See also:eponymous heads of the Edomites and Israelites are due to the older (Judaean) See also:sources; the See also:late notices of the Priestly school (see See also:GENESIS) preserve a different See also:account of the parting of the two (Gen. See also:xxxvi. 6-8), and See also:lay See also:great stress upon Esau's marriages with the Canaanites of the See also:land, unions which were viewed (from the writer's standpoint) with great aversion (Gen. See also:xxvi. 34 sq., xxvii. 46). For " Esau " as a designation of the Edomites, cf.

Jer. xlix. 8, Obad. an 6, 8, and on their See also:

history, see EDOM. Esau's characteristic hairiness (Gen. xxv. 25, xxvii. 11) has given rise to the See also:suggestion that his name is properly 'eshav, from a See also:root corresponding to the Arab. 'athiya, to have thick or matted See also:hair. Mt Seir, too, where he resided, etymologically suggests a " shaggy " See also:mountain-land. According to Hommel (Sud-crab. Chrestom. p. 39 sq.) the name Esau has S. Arabian analogies. On the possible identity of the name with Usoos, the Phoenician demi-See also:god (See also:Philo of Byblus, ap.

See also:

Eusebius, Praep. Evang. i. io), see See also:Cheyne, Encyc. Bib. See also:col. 1333; See also:Lagrange, Etudes sur See also:les religions semitiques, p. 416 (See also:Paris, 190; Ed. See also:Meyer, Israeliten, 278 sq. (and, on See also:general questions, ib. 128 sq., 329 sqq.). (S. A.

End of Article: ESAU

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