28 August, 2016

Genesis 27:39—“Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above”



And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above (Genesis 27:39 KJV).




(I)

Rev. Robert C. Harbach

[Source: Studies in the Book of Genesis, pp. 552-553]

[In] the Hebrew of verse 39 . . . [there] we read, not, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above,” but rather, “thy dwelling shall be from the fatness of the earth, and from the dew of heaven.”3 Here the Hebrew preposition min (from) appears without a preceding verb, implying distance from any place or thing, that is, far from, away from the place or thing. So that rather than a blessing being pronounced on Esau, there is instead a prophecy uttered concerning him and his generations. Thus his dwelling was to be far from the fatnesses (but not the fastnesses) of the earth, that is, far from the fertile and prosperous places of the earth. He would be removed away from the dew of heaven, which was a sign of God’s displeasure (II Sam. 1:21; I Kings 17:1; Hagg. 1:10f.). What it amounted to, then, was not a blessing, but a cursing. This explains the omission of the words pronounced in Jacob’s blessing, “plenty of corn and wine,” and also the omission of the name Elohim at the opening of the pronouncement made to Jacob, “God give thee of the dew!” Esau’s dwelling, therefore, was not in the land of milk and honey, but in the sterile desert area of Mount Seir, where the descendents of Esau became located. “I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness” (Mal. 1:3). The corn, wine, and fatness of the earth which Esau so much coveted were lost to him.

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Footnote:

3. Verse 39, Heb., “and answered Isaac, his father, and said unto him, ‘Behold, from (min) the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling, and from (min) the dew of heaven from above.’ ”


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(II)

More to come! (DV)



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