Genesis 25:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Sell me thy birth-right— To judge rightly of the profaneness of Esau, (Hebrews 12:16.) we must consider what rights were attached to primogeniture. Now these were, 1st, Pre-eminence over the rest of the family; 2nd, A double portion of the paternal inheritance; 3rdly, The priesthood; 4thly, The paternal blessing, the blessing which contained the promise of the seed, in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed; privileges not confined to a person's self, but descending to his posterity. Whatever doubt there may be among the learned concerning the former, the latter incontestibly belonged to the birth-right; and in this view, we want no further proof of Esau's profaneness. "The Apostle to the Hebrews," says Bishop Sherlock, "accounts it profaneness in Esau, that he sold his birth-right; it must be because he sold the blessing of Abraham, and the promises of God: upon any other account there is no room for his charge; for it was never reckoned profaneness to sell mere temporal rights, nor was Esau excluded from the blessings of the temporal promises by that scandalous bargain." See Use and Intent of Prophecy, p. 117.