Genesis 25:26 - Exposition

And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel. The inf. constr, standing for the finite verb. Not simply followed close upon the heels of Esau (Kalisch), but seized Esau's heel, as if he would trip him up (Keil, Murphy). It has been contended (De Wette, Schumann, Knobel) that such an act was impossible, a work on obstetrics by Busch maintaining that an hour commonly intervenes between the birth of twins; but practitioners of eminence who have been consulted declare the act to be distinctly possible, and indeed it is well known that "a multitude of surprising phenomena are connected with births" (Havernick), some of which are not greatly dissimilar to that which is here recorded. Delitzsch interprets the language as meaning only that the hand of Jacob reached out in the direction of his brother's heel, as if to grasp it; but Hosea 12:3 explicitly asserts that he had his brother's heel by the hand while yet in his mother's womb. And his name was called —literally, and he ( i . e . one) called his name; καὶ ἐκάλεσε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ( LXX .); id circo appellavit eum (Vulgate; cf. Genesis 16:14 ; Genesis 27:36 )— Jacob . Not "Successor," like the Latin secundus, from sequor (Knobel, Kalisch); but "Heel-catcher" (Rosenmüller, Gesenius, Keil, Lange, Murphy), hence Supplanter (cf. Genesis 37:36 ). And Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them . Literally, in the bearing of them , the inf. constr, taking the case of its verb—when she (the mother) bare them; ὄτε ἔτεκεν αὐτοὺς Ῥεβέκκα ( LXX .); quum nati sunt parvuli (Vulgate); though, as Rebekah's name does not occur in the immediate context, and ילד is applied to the father ( Genesis 4:18 ; Genesis 10:8 , Genesis 10:13 ) as well as to the mother, the clause may be rendered when he (Isaac) begat them (Kalisch, Afford).