Genesis 25:25-26

THE NAMES OF THE TWINS

"And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold of Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was three score years old when she bare them."

"Esau ... Jacob ..." For many centuries, all of the dictionaries gave the meanings of these two names as "hairy" and "supplanter" (or heel-catcher)[17] respectively; but recently, critical denials based upon all kinds of arcane and unprovable grammatical and linguistic considerations have been lodged against these traditional definitions; but to no avail. The sacred text itself clearly relates the names to the hairy covering of Esau and the hand on the heel of his brother by Jacob. There can be no intelligent way to cloud the meaning of these names. As Leupold said, "Esau means hairy."[18]

Furthermore, the very names were prophetic. One may see the animal appetites of the glutton and the fornicator in the hairy skin (like an animal) of Esau, and the deceit, trickery, fraud, and cunning in the heel-catcher.