Kejadian 35:29

35:29 Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. ¹  He died an old man who had lived a full life. ²  His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Kejadian 25:30

25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed ³  me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called ⁴  Edom.) ⁵ 

Kejadian 35:14

35:14 So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. ⁶  He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it. ⁷ 

[35:29]  ¹ tn Heb “and Isaac expired and died and he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.

[35:29]  ² tn Heb “old and full of years.”

[25:30]  ³ tn The rare term לָעַט (la’at), translated “feed,” is used in later Hebrew for feeding animals (see Jastrow, 714). If this nuance was attached to the word in the biblical period, then it may depict Esau in a negative light, comparing him to a hungry animal. Famished Esau comes in from the hunt, only to enter the trap. He can only point at the red stew and ask Jacob to feed him.

[25:30]  ⁴ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so is given a passive translation.

[25:30]  ⁵ sn Esau’s descendants would eventually be called Edom. Edom was the place where they lived, so-named probably because of the reddish nature of the hills. The writer can use the word “red” to describe the stew that Esau gasped for to convey the nature of Esau and his descendants. They were a lusty, passionate, and profane people who lived for the moment. Again, the wordplay is meant to capture the “omen in the nomen.”

[35:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Jacob set up a sacred pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a sacred pillar of stone” (see the notes on the term “sacred stone” in Gen 28:18). This passage stands parallel to Gen 28:18-19, where Jacob set up a sacred stone, poured oil on it, and called the place Bethel. Some commentators see these as two traditions referring to the same event, but it is more likely that Jacob reconsecrated the place in fulfillment of the vow he had made here earlier. In support of this is the fact that the present narrative alludes to and is built on the previous one.

[35:14]  ⁷ tn The verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “to pour out, to make libations,” and the noun נֶסֶךְ (nesekh) is a “drink-offering,” usually of wine or of blood. The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out,” often of anointing oil, but of other elements as well.