ESAU UNCHAINED: TWO PROPHECIES
FULFILLED
After a long period of infertility, Isaac and Rebecca were finally blessed with offspring -- fraternal twin sons, which they named Esau and Jacob. While Rebecca was still pregnant with them, God had informed her that there would be strife between their descendants. As the Torah relates:
“And Isaac entreated HaShem on behalf of his wife [i.e., Rebecca], because she was childless. And HaShem allowed Himself to be entreated by him; and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So, she went to inquire of HaShem. HaShem said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; and one people will be stronger than the other people, and the elder will serve the younger.’”
(Genesis 25:21-23)
As Esau was the elder son, and as Jacob was the younger son, this first Prophecy meant that Jacob’s descendants would dominate Esau’s descendants. This was counterintuitive for two reasons.
Firstly, to Esau belonged the two entitlements of the Firstborn, namely,
(1) the Birthright and
(2) the paternal Blessing of the Firstborn,
which meant that, upon the death of Isaac, Esau was slated to become the Patriarch of the family.
Secondly, as the Torah points out: “. . . Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was an introvert, living among the tents.” (Genesis 25:27).
Yet, Jacob convinced Esau to sell his Birthright in exchange for a meal of red lentil stew (see Genesis 25:29-34), as a result of which Esau obtained an additional name: Edom (meaning: Red) (see Genesis 25:30).
Then, at the direction of his mother Rebecca, in order for him to receive, as well, the paternal Blessing meant for Esau, Jacob deceived his blind father into believing that he was Esau (see Genesis 27:1-29). Isaac’s Blessing of the Firstborn was a promise of Wealth, Power, and Divine Protection. As the Torah relates:
“And he [i.e., Jacob] came near, and kissed him [i.e., Isaac]. And he [i.e., Isaac] smelled the fragrance of his clothing, and blessed him [i.e., Jacob], and said, ‘See, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field that HaShem has blessed. And may the [one and only] God give you from the dew of the Heavens and from the fatness of the Earth -- an abundance of grain and wine. And may peoples serve you, and may nations bow down to you. And may you be a master over your kinsmen, and may the descendants of your mother bow down to you. And may he who curses you be cursed, and may he who blesses you be blessed.’”
(Genesis 27:28-29)
When Esau discovered the ruse, he complained to his father Isaac; but the latter responded that the Blessing of the Firstborn now belonged to Jacob, and that its issuance was irrevocable. As the Torah then relates:
“When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a great and
bitter cry, and he said to his father, ‘Bless me -- also me, my father!’ But
he [i.e., Isaac] said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully and took your
blessing. Esau said, ‘Is not he rightly named Jacob? For, he has
supplanted me twice: he took my Birthright; and, behold, now
he has taken my Blessing!’ Then he [i.e., Esau] said, ‘Have you
not reserved a blessing for me?’ And Isaac answered, and
said to Esau, ‘Behold, I have made him a master over you, and I have given
to him, as servants, all of his kinsmen, and I have sustained him with grain
and wine. And, so now, what am I able to do for you, my son?’ And Esau
said to his father, ‘Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my
father!’ Then Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And his father Isaac answered,
and said unto him, ‘Behold, your dwelling shall be from the fatness of the
Earth, and from the dew of the Heavens above. And you shall live by your
sword, and you shall serve your brother. But it shall be that when you
grow restless, you shall cast off his yoke from your neck.’”
(Genesis 27:34-40)
This second Prophecy is both
a confirmation and a continuation of the first Prophecy. Consequently,
the second Prophecy -- like the first Prophecy -- relates not
to the interpersonal relationship between Esau and Jacob,
but rather to the international relationship between the two brothers’
respective descendants, namely, the nations of Edom (see Genesis
36:1-19 & 36:40-43) and Israel (see Genesis 32:25-33 & 35:9-13).
And, indeed, there was warfare
between Edom and Israel, commencing during the reign of David, second king of
united Israel, as a consequence of which Israel subjugated Edom (see II Samuel
8:14), after which Edom repeatedly -- but unsuccessfully -- rebelled
against the successor kingdom of Judah (see II Kings 8:20-22 & 14:7).
Almost two millennia after the
declamation of these two Prophecies, and almost one millennium after Israel
initially subjugated Edom, Israel had become Judea (meaning: Land of the
Jews), while Edom had become Idumea (meaning: Land of the Edomites).
At the conclusion of the Maccabean
revolt (167 BCE - 140 BCE) against the Damascus-based Hellenic Seleucid Empire
-- commemorated as the Jewish holiday of Chanukah (also spelled Hanukkah) --
the Hasmonean Dynasty (founded by Simon Maccabeus, also known as Simon Thassi,
being the last surviving son of Mattathias ben Johanan, the initiator of the
revolt) ruled an independent, albeit endangered, Judea.
Circa 110 BCE, during Judea’s
reconquest of Israel’s ancestral territories, Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus (who
was a son of Simon Maccabeus) conquered Idumea and forced its
inhabitants to convert to Judaism.
In the next generation, an Idumean
named Antipater was appointed Governor of Idumea by Hasmonean king Alexander
Jannaeus (who was a son of John Hyrcanus).
After the death of King Alexander
Jannaeus, his widow Queen Salome Alexandra ruled Judea.
After her death, their elder son
John Hyrcanus II became king before being deposed by his younger brother Judah
Aristobulus II in a first war of succession.
Antipater, having become an
influential advisor to Hyrcanus II, convinced the latter to contest the rule of
his younger brother, thereby sparking a second war of succession.
The Roman Empire ended this civil war
in 63 BCE when Roman General Pompey Magnus conquered Judea, thereby rendering
it a province of the Empire. Hyrcanus II
was thereupon appointed High Priest of Judea, while Aristobulus II was captured
and transferred to Rome.
Hyrcanus II retained Antipater as his
senior advisor and liaison to the Roman Empire; and, due to that role, Antipater
was able to command the military forces of Judea in Hyrcanus II’s name.
Subsequently, in 49 BCE, during the
Roman Empire’s civil war between the military forces of triumvirs Julius Caesar
and Pompey Magnus (after the death of triumvir Marcus Crassus), Antipater
initially sided with Pompey against Caesar. After Caesar defeated Pompey in
Greece in 48 BCE, Pompey fled to Egypt, pursued by Caesar. After the subsequent
assassination of Pompey in Egypt, and after Caesar’s failure to successfully
mediate the termination of the ongoing war between Egypt’s co-rulers, siblings and
spouses Cleopatra VII Philopator and Ptolemy XIII, the latter attacked both
Cleopatra and Caesar.
In 47 BCE, Antipater’s Judean
military forces (together with other allies of Caesar) helped Caesar and
Cleopatra defeat Ptolemy.
Caesar thereupon appointed Hyrcanus
II as Governor of Judea, and elevated Antipater to the influential position of
Roman Procurator, thereby enabling Antipater to appoint his sons Phasael and Herod to important political positions. As a result, Phasael
became ruler of Jerusalem, and Herod became ruler of Galilee.
Upon Antipater’s death in 43 BCE,
Herod succeeded his father as Hyrcanus II’s senior advisor and liaison to the Roman
Empire.
In 40 BCE, with the assistance of
the Parthian Empire, Hyrcanus II’s nephew (and the last surviving son of Aristobulus
II) Antigonus II Mattathias rebelled against the Roman Empire, in the process deposing
his uncle as Governor of the Roman province of Judea and proclaiming himself as
king of independent Judea, as a consequence of which Phasael
committed suicide, and Herod fled to Rome.
In 39 BCE, the Roman Senate
appointed Herod as rival king of Judea; and he thereupon invaded Judea
in order to obtain that prize.
In 37 BCE, with the assistance of
the Roman Empire, Herod (commonly known as Herod the Great) finally conquered
Judea and deposed the final Hasmonean king, Antigonus II Mattathias (who
was subsequently executed at the instruction of Roman triumvir Marcus Antonius,
commonly known as Mark Antony), thereby terminating the Hasmonean Dynasty
(led by ethnic Jews) and replacing it with the Herodian Dynasty
(led by ethnic Idumeans).
The prior conversion of the
Idumeans to Judaism highlights the uniqueness of the Jewish people, as the
latter is a religio-nation. Alternatively stated, the Jewish people
comprise two coexistent and intertwined components, namely, an ethnic
nation and a faith community. Although a Gentile can never become an
ethnic Jew, he or she may nonetheless become part of the Jewish
people -- and, consequently, be deemed a Jew -- by voluntarily
acceptance of the tenets of the latter’s faith community. However, as the mass conversion of the
Idumeans was involuntary, it was consequently inauthentic.
Now, the prophetic irony of
the supplantation of the Hasmonean Dynasty by the Herodian
Dynasty finally becomes clear. For, it must be recalled that Jacob supplanted
Esau as the hereditary ruler of Isaac’s family
by inauthentically becoming Esau. Similarly, the Idumeans
(being the descendants of Esau) supplanted the Jews (being the
descendants of Jacob) as the hereditary rulers of Judea by inauthentically
becoming Jews. This is nothing less than the principle of mida k’neged mida
(measure for measure) at work in the service of Prophecy!
Thus did Esau, after being subjugated
by Jacob, finally free himself from his brother’s yoke.
Thus were two Prophecies fulfilled!
© Mark Rosenblit