Genesis 25:31
And Jacob said to him: Sell me thy first birthright.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cui dixit Jacob : Vende mihi primogenita tua.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἶπεν δὲ Ἰακὼβ τῷ Ἠσαύ Ἀπόδου μοι σήμερον τὰ πρωτοτοκεῖά σου ἐμοί.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֖אמֶר יַעֲקֹ֑ב מִכְרָ֥ה כַיּ֛וֹם אֶת בְּכֹֽרָתְךָ֖ לִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Sell me. He had been informed by his mother, that God had transferred the birth-right to him; and, therefore, he takes this opportunity to obtain the consent of Esau quietly. The latter, who knew nothing of God's decree, shewed his little regard for that privilege. (Haydock)
He perhaps intended to assert his claim by force, notwithstanding this agreement. (Menochius)
It is not probable that he could plead in earnest, that he was famishing in the midst of his father's house. (Du Hamel)
The birth-right was a temporal honour; though some assert, that the office of priesthood belonged also to it. This, however, does not seem to be certain; for we find Abel, Abraham, and other younger children offering sacrifice. The first-born were entitled to a double portion, (Deuteronomy xxi. 17; 1 Paralipomenon v. 2, 5) and to their father's peculiar blessing, Ecclesiasticus iii. 12.[11.?] To despise such advantages betrayed a bad disposition, for which Esau is condemned, Hebrews xii. 16; Romans ix. (Calmet)
Jacob's conduct was perfectly innocent, whether we consider this transaction as serious or not. Isaac never ratified the bargain; nor do we find that Jacob rested his claim on it. (Haydock)
But it is recorded by Moses, to shew the disposition of these two young men. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Chapter 16
21. Therefore the heretic is not "the first to seize baptism," since he has received it from the Church. Nor, though he seceded, could baptism have been lost by him whom we assert no longer to retain the Church, and yet allow to retain baptism. Nor does any one "yield his birthright, and give it to a heretic," because he says that he took away with him what he could not give lawfully, but what would yet be according to law when given; or that he no longer has lawfully what yet is in accordance with law in his possession. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XLVII
5. “He hath chosen an inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved” ( ver. 4 ). A certain beauty of Jacob He hath chosen for our inheritance. Esau and Jacob were two brothers; in their mother’s womb both struggled, and by this struggle their mother’s bowels were shaken; and while they two were yet therein, the younger was elected and preferred to the elder, and it was said, “Two peoples are in thy womb, and the elder shall serve the younger.” Among all nations is the elder, among all nations the younger; but the younger is in good Christians, elect, godly, faithful; the elder in the proud, unworthy, sinful, stubborn, defending rather than confessing their sins: as was also the very people of the Jews, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness.” But for that it is said, “The elder shall serve the younger;” it is manifest tha …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).