40 Fun Facts About Jacob and Esau

Which dish did Jacob hand over to a famished Esau as payment for the birthright?

Lentil stew, served with bread, was the whole price. Esau ate, drank and walked off, and Genesis says he despised his birthright.

Which part of Esau's body was the newborn Jacob holding when the twins were delivered?

Heel in hand, Jacob arrived second. Years later Esau said his twin was rightly named, having supplanted him twice.

What did Jacob wear on his hands and neck to fool his father's touch and pass as Esau?

Goatskins came from the two kids his mother had just cooked, so the same animals supplied both the meal and the disguise.

Which skill made Esau, a man of the open country, the favorite son of his father?

Hunting kept his father supplied with the game he loved, while Jacob, the quieter twin, was his mother's favorite.

Which frailty of old age let Jacob pose as Esau before his father and take the blessing?

Blindness forced the old man to rely on touch and smell, and he stayed uneasy because the speaker did not sound like Esau.

What did God tell the mother of Jacob and Esau she was carrying before the twins were born?

Two nations, God said, adding that one would be stronger than the other and that the elder would serve the younger.

What did Esau do on first reaching Jacob, the twin who had cheated him twenty years before?

Embraced him, and warmly: Esau ran to meet Jacob and fell on his neck, though Jacob had spent the night bracing for an attack.

What new name did Jacob receive after wrestling all night, just before he faced Esau again?

Israel was the name his opponent gave him, explained in Genesis as fitting a man who had struggled with God and with men and prevailed.

What color does Genesis say the newborn Esau was all over when he arrived ahead of Jacob?

Red at birth, Esau later begged his brother for a dish of the same color, a pun Genesis uses to explain his nickname.

What did a furious Esau resolve to do to Jacob once the mourning for their father began?

Kill him was the plan, but word reached the twins' mother, who sent Jacob away until his brother's anger cooled.

Which patriarch was sixty years old when his wife gave birth to the twins Jacob and Esau?

Isaac had waited twenty years for children, having married at forty. He went on to favor Esau, the elder of the two boys.

Which woman, the mother of Jacob and Esau, planned the trick that won her favorite the blessing?

Rebekah overheard her husband promise the blessing to Esau, cooked the meal herself and told Jacob that any curse would fall on her.

To which uncle, his mother's brother, did Jacob flee to escape the anger of Esau?

Laban lived far away in Haran, and the stay that was meant to last a few days stretched to twenty years.

Which name, later that of his descendants' kingdom, did Esau earn by craving Jacob's cooking?

Edom echoes the color of the dish he begged for, and Genesis later lists the kings who ruled the land of that name.

While fleeing from Esau, what did Jacob see in a dream with angels going up and down it?

A ladder, or a stairway in newer translations, stretched from earth to heaven, and God stood above it promising Jacob the land he slept on.

How did Esau react when his father had no blessing left to match the one given to Jacob?

Wept aloud, after begging twice to be blessed too. The lesser blessing he then received said he would serve his brother but one day break free.

Which part of Jacob's body was injured as he wrestled, leaving him limping to his meeting with Esau?

Thigh, at the hollow where the leg joins the body: Genesis says Jacob's descendants do not eat that sinew in memory of the injury.

What did Jacob make the famished Esau do to seal the birthright bargain before he served the food?

Swear an oath came first: Jacob refused to serve anything until his brother had sworn, and only then does Genesis say the sale was made.

Which name did Jacob give the place where he slept with a stone for a pillow while fleeing Esau?

Bethel had been called Luz until then. The next morning Jacob stood his stone pillow upright as a pillar and poured oil over it.

Where does Genesis say the quiet Jacob lived while Esau roamed the open country?

Among the tents, close to home, Jacob had a pot simmering on the day his brother came in hungry and bargained away his birthright.

What did Jacob send ahead in separate waves as a present to win over Esau before they met?

Livestock made up the whole gift, from sheep and cattle to camels and donkeys, with each drove spaced apart so Esau met present after present.

Which reason did Esau give Jacob for letting his birthright go so cheaply?

He was about to die, or so he claimed on coming in hungry from the field, asking what good a birthright would be to him then.

What did the father ask of the disguised Jacob just before blessing him in place of Esau?

A kiss brought Jacob close enough for the old man to catch the outdoor scent of garments borrowed from Esau, and that settled it.

How did the father of Jacob and Esau react when the real Esau arrived with a meal of his own?

Trembled violently, Genesis says, as he asked who had served him the earlier meal. Even then he spoke no curse over Jacob.

By which weapon did the father of Jacob and Esau foretell that Esau would have to live?

Sword in hand was to be Esau's way of life, and the same words promised that he would one day shake his brother's yoke from his neck.

What did Jacob do seven times as he walked toward Esau and the four hundred men with him?

Bowed to the ground again and again, Jacob went ahead of his whole family, a reversal of the blessing that had made him the one to be bowed to.

Which wife did Jacob place at the very back with her son Joseph as Esau and his men approached?

Rachel and her boy were kept furthest from danger, behind Leah and the servants, though Jacob himself walked out in front of them all.

How did Jacob arrange his camp on hearing that Esau was coming with four hundred men?

Split it in two, he reasoned, and if Esau attacked one half the other could still escape; then he prayed to be delivered from his brother.

From which people did Esau take his first two wives, a choice that grieved both of his parents?

Hittites lived locally in Canaan, and the twins' mother later used her dread of another such match as the reason for sending Jacob away.

Whose daughter Mahalath did Esau marry, hoping to please parents who disliked his local wives?

Ishmael was Esau's own uncle, so the bride was a cousin from inside the family, the kind of match Jacob had just been sent away to find.

In which hill country, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, did Esau settle apart from Jacob?

Seir became Esau's home because, Genesis says, the brothers' combined herds had grown too large for one land to support.

At which river ford did Jacob wrestle a stranger until daybreak on the night before he met Esau?

Jabbok was the stream Jacob sent his family across first; he stayed behind alone, and that is when the stranger appeared.

Which grandson of Esau gave his name to a people who attacked the followers of Moses?

Amalek was born to Esau's son Eliphaz and a concubine named Timna, and his descendants fought Moses's people at Rephidim soon after the Exodus.

Which one-chapter prophetic book condemns the descendants of Esau for violence against Jacob?

Obadiah runs to only 21 verses, the shortest book in the Old Testament, and it faults Esau's line for standing by while foreigners plundered Jerusalem.

Which prophetic book opens with God saying he loved Jacob but hated Esau?

Malachi uses the twins to answer people who doubted God's love for them, and the apostle Paul later quoted the line in a famous argument.

Which New Testament letter cites the unborn Jacob and Esau to argue that God chooses freely?

Romans makes the point that the twins had done nothing good or bad when their mother was told the elder would serve the younger.

Which New Testament letter warns readers not to be like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal?

Hebrews calls Esau profane for the trade, setting him beside its warning not to let a root of bitterness spring up and spoil a community.

For which family duty did Jacob and Esau come together again, some time after their tense reunion?

Burying their father at Hebron brought the twins side by side once more; he had lived to 180, far outlasting the day he gave the blessing thinking his end was near.

How did Esau first respond to the lavish present Jacob pressed on him at their reunion?

Tried to refuse it, saying he already had enough of his own; Jacob had to urge him before he would accept.

What did Esau offer as the twins parted after their reunion, an offer Jacob politely turned down?

Some of his men, as an escort, was the offer. Jacob had just declined to travel together, pleading his children's slow pace, and he then headed for Succoth instead.