Passage

Genesis 25.25

Book: Genesis · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

23. And Jehovah said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels: And the one people shall be stronger than the other people; And the elder shall serve the younger. 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25. And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.

And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. 27. And the boys grew: and Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. (Genesis 25:23-27, ASV)

WEB

23. Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.” 24. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25. The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau.

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 27. The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. (Genesis 25:23-27, WEB)

KJV

23. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.

And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. 27. And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. (Genesis 25:23-27, KJV)

YLT

23. And Jehovah saith to her, 'Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two peoples from thy bowels are parted; and the [one] people than the [other] people is stronger; and the elder doth serve the younger.' 24. And her days to bear are fulfilled, and lo, twins [are] in her womb;

25. and the first cometh out all red as a hairy robe, and they call his name Esau;

and afterwards hath his brother come out, and his hand is taking hold on Esau's heel, and one calleth his name Jacob; and Isaac [is] a son of sixty years in her bearing them. 27. And the youths grew, and Esau is a man acquainted [with] hunting, a man of the field; and Jacob [is] a plain man, inhabiting tents; (Genesis 25:23-27, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: the narrator of Genesis
Audience: Israel, as the book's first readers
Location: the household of Isaac and Rebekah, in Canaan
Time period: the patriarchal age, commonly placed in the early second millennium BC

Theological reading

The first came out red, all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau.

The verse is dense with wordplay that carries the story. Admoni, red, anticipates the red stew for which Esau sells the birthright and puns on Edom, the nation descended from him. Se'ar, hairy, puns on Seir, Edom's territory. The description of the newborn thus encodes the national future.

The naming is the narrator's way of writing history into biology, which is a characteristic of the patriarchal narratives: Jacob's name, the heel-grabber, is given in the next verse and becomes the verb used of him twice more.

Read with the oracle to Rebekah two verses earlier, that the elder shall serve the younger, the birth account establishes the reversal of primogeniture that Paul takes up at Romans 9:6-13 as an instance of election that does not follow natural precedence.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H8034 - shem, shem, Strong's H8034

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Israelites Were Black Racial Descriptors Objection Defeater

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.