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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Genesis 27:40

by thy sword The soil will not furnish means of subsistence. The life of marauders dwelling in mountain fastnesses is here depicted. They will raid their brother's borders. They will cut off the merchants travelling with caravans and camels between the Red Sea and Syria.

thou shalt serve thy brother Cf. Genesis 25:23. The people of Edom were first subjugated by Israel in the reign of David. Cf. 2 Samuel 8:14.

break loose Better, as Driver, "become restless." The word in the original is obscure, being found elsewhere only in Psalms 55:2, "restless"; Jeremiah 2:31, "broken loose"; Hosea 11:12 (R.V. marg. is yet unstedfast with). Probably the metaphor is that of an animal shaking itself free from restraint. The A.V. "shalt have dominion" is quite impossible. Dillmann, "when thou shalt make efforts, or strive," as the Arabian and Ethiopian versions.

Lat. tempusque veniet, cum excutias et solvas jugum ejus.

shake … neck The metaphor is that of the bull refusing the yoke. Edom successfully threw off the yoke of the kingdom of Judah in the reigns of Jehoram, 2 Kings 8:20-22, and Ahaz, 2 Kings 16:6. But freedom from the dominion of Israel was followed by submission to Assyria. Edom appears among those who paid tribute to the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (731 b.c.), the Pul of 2 Kings 15:19-20.

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See also Genesis 27:40 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Genesis 27:40. _BY THY SWORD SHALT THOU LIVE_] This does not absolutely mean that the Edomites should have constant wars; but that they should be of a fierce and warlike disposition, gaining th...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    - Isaac Blessing His Sons The life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy-five years he is contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years more his son Jacob remains under the...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 27 THE STORY OF JACOB AND THE DECEPTION OF REBEKAH AND JACOB _ 1. Esau sent (Genesis 27:1)_ 2. Rebekah's deception (Genesis 27:5) 3. Jacob's deception (Genesis 27:18) 4. Jacob blessed ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    AT HIS MOTHER'S INSTIGATION, JACOB CHEATS Esau OF HIS FATHER'S BLESSING. Probably compiled from J and E. Since both presuppose it later, both must have told the story. There are doublets which point t...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    SERVE. See 1 Samuel 14:47. 2Sa 8:14. 2 Kings 8:20, and compare 1 Kings 22:47. THOU SHALT BREAK. Fulfilled in 2 Kings 8:20;...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    BY THY SWORD SHALT THOU LIVE, &C.— The elder branch, it is here foretold, should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger; _and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shal...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PART THIRTY-NINE THE STORY OF ISAAC: THE TWINS AND THE BLESSING (Genesis 27:1-45) _The Biblical Account 1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not se...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND HE SAID, IS NOT HE RIGHTLY NAMED JACOB? FOR HE HATH SUPPLANTED ME THESE TWO TIMES: HE TOOK AWAY MY BIRTHRIGHT; AND, BEHOLD, NOW HE HATH TAKEN AWAY MY BLESSING. AND HE SAID, HAST THOU NOT RESERVED...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    27:40 rovest (c-22) Or 'hast acquired rule.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JACOB BY SUBTILTY OBTAINS THE BLESSING Urged on by his mother, Jacob attempts by unworthy means to secure the blessing of the firstborn with all the privileges it involved. But the wrongdoing of the a...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    SHALT SERVE THY BROTHER] Throughout OT. history we read of the subjugation of the Edomites to Israel, varied by their throwing off the yoke in troublous times: see 2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Kings 11; 1 Kings 1...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    When Jacob came to Isaac, Isaac thought that he was Esau. (See verse 27.) He did not know which of his sons he was blessing. But he did know things that happened very many years later. He knew because...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE GENESIS _ALUN OWEN_ CHAPTER 27 JACOB CHEATS HIS FATHER V1 Isaac was very old. His eyes had become so weak that he could not see. Then he called Esau, who was his older son....

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    EXCURSUS G: UPON THE CHRONOLOGY OF JACOB’S LIFE (Genesis 27) The elaborate calculations of Lightfoot, and most Jewish and Christian commentators, intended to show that when Jacob set out upon his jour...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    WHEN THOU SHALT HAVE THE DOMINION. — This rendering of a rare and difficult Hebrew word is scarcely more than a guess made by two or three ancient Jewish commentators. Its real meaning here, and in Je...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ עַל ־חַרְבְּךָ֣ תִֽחְיֶ֔ה וְ אֶת ־אָחִ֖יךָ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    JACOB'S FRAUD Genesis 27:1 "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever."- Psalms 33:11 THERE are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely made up of malicious plottings and counter-...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    ESAU'S GRIEF AND ANGER Genesis 27:30 Esau apparently had awakened to realize the value of the blessing of the birthright which he had treated so lightly. His exceeding great and bitter cry expressed...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    From this point the history passes to center largely around Jacob. At the beginning, four persons stand out: Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob, and not one of them is admirable. Isaac is even more degen...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    ESAU'S DESPAIR Almost as soon as Jacob had left, Esau returned with the meat he had killed and prepared. Isaac asked who he was. As soon as Esau identified himself, Isaac realized the deception which...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    And (i) by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt (k) serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. (i) Because your...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Thy brother, in the reign of David, 2 Kings viii. 14, and of the Machabees. (Josephus, Antiquities xiii. 17.) --- Yoke. When the house of Juda shall rebel against the Lord, in the days of Joram, then...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    There is nothing here which distinguisheth Jesus. Lord! give me him for my portion, and in him I have all. Hosea 2:18; Ephesians 1:3....

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    Having already shown the position of Isaac, I resume briefly with the remark that he stands before us clearly as the representative of the Son, and this too as dead, risen, and in heaven. All will und...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    40._By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother_. It is to be observed that events are here predicted which were never fulfilled in the person of Esau; and therefore, that the prophecy i...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Jacob's history now begins [1]. Heir of the promises, and valuing them, he uses means to have them, evil and low in character. God answers his faith, and chastens his evil and unbelief. God could have...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND BY THY SWORD SHALT THOU LIVE,.... By what he could get by it; his land being so poor that he could not live upon it, but must be obliged to such methods for a livelihood; or his country being surr...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. Ver. 40. _When thou shalt...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 Isaac sendeth Esau for venison. 5 Rebekah instructeth Iacob to obtaine the blessing. 15 Iacob vnder the person of Esau obteineth it. 30 Esau bringeth venison. 33 Isaac trembleth. 34 Esau compla...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And by thy sword shalt thou live, war, pillage, and robbery being almost necessary in the barren land which would be his habitation, AND SHALT SERVE THY BROTHER; AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS WHEN THOU SH...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    ESAU RETURNS AND RECEIVES THE YOUNGER SON'S BLESSING...

  • Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

    SIXTH SECTION _Isaac’s preference for the natural first-born, and Esau. Rebekah and Jacob steal from him the theocratic blessing. Esau’s blessing. Esau’s hostility to Jacob. Rebekah’s preparation for...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    JACOB DECEIVES HIS FATHER In spite of Esau's wrong marriages, and in spite of God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (ch.25:23). Isaac was ready to confer his chief blessing on Esa...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    30-40 When Esau understood that Jacob had got the blessing, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. The day is coming, when those that now make light of the blessings of the covenant, and sel...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    BY THY SWORD SHALT THOU LIVE; by violence and rapine, in an unquiet and military posture, troubling others, and forced to defend thyself. But this, as also the following clause, though spoken to Esau,...

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    These Chapter s present to us the history of Jacob at least, the principal scenes in that history. The Spirit of God here sets before us the deepest instruction, first, as to God's purpose of infinite...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Genesis 27:40 sword H2719 live H2421 (H8799) serve H5647 (H8799) brother H251 restless H7300 (H8686) break...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ‘And Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, from the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven from above. And by your sword you will live, and you will serve...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Fraudulent methods of Jacob in getting Isaac's blessing. Remorse of Esau. CHARACTERS: Isaac, Esau, Jacob, Rebekah. CONCLUSION: Human nature in prone to scheme to bring about what God would...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Genesis 27:1. _Isaac was old;_ in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of his age, the very year in which his brother Ishmael died. Jacob and Esau were also in their seventy-seventh year; but Isaac liv...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father_ ESAU’S CRY No one can read this chapter w...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    GENESIS—NOTE ON GENESIS 27:40 YOU SHALL BREAK HIS YOKE FROM YOUR NECK. Although Jacob has been given authority over his older twin brother, Esau will eventually free himself from his brother’s control...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Genesis 27:39. Thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.] The preposition is here used in a _privative_ sense, _apart from the fatness of...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION GENESIS 27:30 AND IT CAME TO PASS (literally, _and it _was), AS SOON AS ISAAC HAD MADE AN END OF BLESSING JACOB, AND JACOB WAS YET SCARCE GONE OUT—literally, _and it was _(_sc_._ _as soon...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Genesis chapter twenty-seven? Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    thy sword. Genesis 32:6 Matthew 10:34 serve. Genesis 25:23 2 Samuel 8:14...

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