And Esau, &c.— There are numberless places in which it is easy to point out the impropriety of the divisions in our Chapter s, &c. It is palpable that this chapter should end at Genesis 26:33. In the rendering of particles, much of the perspicuity of a translation, and more of its elegance, consist: perhaps the present would be better rendered, Now Esau was forty years old, and he took, &c. So it is in the French. Esau's intermarriage with the devoted Canaanites gave great pain and affliction to his parents; not only because of the knowledge they had of the curse hanging over those people, but probably because they saw the women given to levity and folly, and unfit for a connection with a holy and religious family. This seems to be the meaning of Rebekah's words in Genesis 27:46 of the next chapter, such as those which are of the daughters of the land. In espousing two women to satisfy his passions, in contempt of what he owed to his religion, Esau shewed himself wholly impure and profane.
REFLECTIONS.—Esau's profaneness appeared before, but it is aggravated here. He takes two wives at once, both bad ones, and of a different religion from himself; not only without the consent, but to the great grief of his parents. Note; In choosing a wife, it is a principal concern, 1. That we agree in religious opinions. 2. That it be done with consent of parents.