Genesis 26:34-35

"And when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: and they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah."

These verses actually belong to the succeeding chapter, but we shall treat them here where they are found in the sacred text. Abraham had introduced polygamy into the traditions of the Chosen People, and his posterity would not fail to continue it. Esau, a grandson, was the first to follow in Abraham's footsteps; but Jacob also would not fail to do likewise. One contributing factor in this was doubtless the vast wealth inherited by his sons from Isaac. It is remarkable that Isaac refrained from taking other wives. This was due, perhaps, first of all to his great and sincere love for Rebekah, and also possibly, to the fact of his having known firsthand the horrors of a polygamous household. One thing, however, that Isaac failed to see was that parental partiality is also freighted with the most terrible dangers and consequences. He and Rebekah immediately "chose up sides" between their two sons, initiating another train of sorrows.

It is certain that both Rebekah and Isaac hated the prospect of the union of their son with the pagan daughters of the Canaanites, and they could not possibly have approved it. Leupold's comment on the grief of Isaac and Rebekah over Esau's pagan wives is this:

"Grief of mind "bitterness of spirit," resulted from these marriages. The corrupt heathenish ways of those wives would have been the source of this.[16]

However, we feel sure that something far more important than cultural differences entered into the bitterness of Isaac and Rebekah, and that was the pagan gods that thereby found their way back into the affections of the chosen race. This would eventually be the undoing and dismantling of Israel. And it is strange that this prophecy of that eventual development in Israel would have appeared right here in the pagan marriages of Esau. Yes, it is true that Esau was not "of the covenant," but he and Jacob were still brothers, and the same contamination eventually appeared in the family of Jacob also.