I am weary, &c.— See notes on ch. Genesis 26:34, &c. The writers of the Universal History remark, that whosoever narrowly observes Jacob's life, after he had obtained his father's blessing, will own, that it consisted in nothing less than in worldly felicity, of which he enjoyed as little perhaps as any man whatever. Forced from his home into a far country, for fear of his brother; deceived and oppressed by his own uncle, and forced to fly from him after a servitude of twenty-one years; in imminent danger either of being pursued and brought back by Laban, or murdered by an enraged brother: these fears are no sooner over, but the baseness of his eldest son in defiling his couch; the treachery and cruelty of the two next to the Shechemites; and, lastly, the loss of his beloved wife, and supposed untimely end of his son Joseph: all these overwhelmed him with fresh successions of grief; and, to complete all, his being forced by famine to descend into AEgypt, and to die in a strange land; these, and many more, are sufficient proofs that his father's blessing was of a quite different nature, and consisted chiefly in these two particulars; viz. the possession of the land of Canaan, in right of primogeniture, which his brother had sold him, and which rather belonged to his posterity than to himself; the other and more glorious one was, that of the Messiah's being born of his race, and not of that of Esau.
REFLECTIONS.—Observe, 1. The natural effects of disappointed pride appear in Esau's hatred and revenge. Though loth to grieve his aged father, and draw down his curse, he however thinks he has not long to wait, and then Jacob shall pay dearly for his cunning. Note; (1.) He is not the last wicked son, who is pleased with the hopes of his father's death. (2.) Marvel not, if brother rise against brother, when religion is concerned: it was so from the beginning.
2. Rebekah resolves to disappoint his purposes. She admonishes Jacob of his danger, and advises him to give way by yielding and absence. Note; Distance of time and place wears off, or weakens the impressions of resentment. She justly fears lest she should be deprived of both sons at once, by the murder of one and the execution of the other. The thought of a son a murderer must needs be shocking to every parent.
3. She conceals from Isaac Esau's purpose, but finds a very urgent reason for his consent to her design, by pleading the danger of Jacob's marrying a Canaanite, and that such a step would make her life miserable. Note; (1.) Parents are greatly interested in the settlement of their children. (2.) Where one child hath settled wrong, they should be doubly careful of those who remain.