Genesis 27:40 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 27:40
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.
drought · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
live
תִֽחְיֶ֔הtich.Yeh
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
serve
תַּעֲבֹ֑דta.'a.Vod
H5647
to work (in any sense) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
brother
אָחִ֖יךָ'a.Chi.kha
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
dominion
תָּרִ֔ידta.Rid
H7300
to tramp about · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
break
וּפָרַקְתָּ֥u.fa.rak.Ta
H6561
to break off or crunch · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
yoke
עֻלּ֖וֹu.Lo
H5923
a yoke (as imposed on the neck) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
neck
צַוָּארֶֽךָtza.va.Re.kha
H6677
the back of the neck (as that on which burdens are boun… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people sha…
2 Kings 8:20-22 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.
2 Samuel 8:14 And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved Dav…
2 Chronicles 21:8 In his days the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king.
2 Chronicles 21:10 So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he ha…
2 Chronicles 25:11-12 And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand.
2 Chronicles 28:17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
Psalms 60:8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 27:30-40
Here is, I. The covenant-blessing denied to Esau. He that made so light of the birthright would now have inherited the blessing, but he was rejected, and found no place of repentance in his father, though he sought it carefully with tears, Heb 12:17. Observe, 1. How carefully he sought it. He prepared the savoury meat, as his father had directed him, and then begged the blessing which his father had encouraged him to expect, Gen 27:31. When he understood that Jacob had obtained it surreptitiously, he cried with a great and exceedingly bitter cry, Gen 27:34. No man could have laid the disappointment more to heart than he did; he made his father's tent to ring with his grief, and again (Gen 27…
Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth--The first part is a promise of temporal prosperity, made in the same terms as Jacob's [Gen 27:28] --the second part refers to the roving life of hunting freebooters, which he and his descendants should lead. Though Esau was not personally subject to his brother, his posterity were tributary to the Israelites, till the reign of Joram when they revolted and established a kingdom of their own (Kg2 8:20; Ch2 21:8-10).
Adam Clarke on 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 their sustenance by hunting, and by predatory excursions upon the possessions of others. Bishop Newton speaks on this subject with his usual good sense and judgment: "The elder branch, it is here foretold, should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger. By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. Esau might be said to live much by the sword; for he was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. He and his children got possession of Mount Seir by force and violence, expelling…
(Verse 40.) And you shall serve your brother, and it shall come to pass when you shall have removed it, and shall have taken away his yoke from your neck. This signifies that the Edomites will serve the Jews, and that a time will come when they shall throw off the yoke of servitude from their neck and resist their dominion. However, according to the Seventy Interpreters, who said: 'But it shall come to pass when you shall have removed it, and shall have taken away his yoke from your neck,' it seems that the decision is uncertain and not yet complete.
This then is what the patriarch Isaac says, "You shall serve your brother. But the time will be, when you shall shake off and loose his yoke from your neck." He means that there will be two peoples, one the son of the slave girl, the other of the free woman—for the letter is a slave, whereas grace is free16—and that the people that attends to the letter is going to be a slave as long as it needs to follow the expounder of learning in the spirit. Then that will also come to pass which the apostle says, "that the remnant may be saved by reason of the election made by grace." "You shall serve your brother," but then you will perceive your advancement in servitude only when you begin to obey your brother voluntarily and not under compulsion.
And the words: "You shall live by your sword" mean that the people never stop being in defensive or aggressive war with the nations living around them, as Scripture itself shows. And the sentence "You shall be the servant of your brother" indicates the age that still continues, the age in which the Savior was present and came to visit his own brothers according to the flesh, and the Savior the prophet here suggests to serve after humanity has become obedient. That is why he said: "There will come a time when you shall shake and break the yoke from your neck." Which yoke, but the yoke that lies in the law? Provided that they do not live any more as slaves under the yoke of the law but believe in the gospel as free men, they can still be saved.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Father — A name applied (1) to any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; 1 Kings 15:11; Matt. 3:9; 23:30, etc.); and (2) as a title of respect to a chief, ruler, or elder, etc. (Judg. 17:10; 18:19; 1 Sam. 10:12; 2 Kings…
Jacob — One who follows on another’s heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26; 27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father was…
Benedictions · Upon Esau — Upon Esau
Edomites, The · Predictions respecting: Revolt from Israel — Predictions respecting: Revolt from Israel
Isaac · .His old age, last blessing upon his — .His old age, last blessing upon his
Israel · .Prophecies concerning — .Prophecies concerning
Parents · . — .
Sword · .Of war — .Of war
Sword, The · Illustrative: (Living by,) of rapine — Illustrative: (Living by,) of rapine
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Genesis 27:40
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 surrounded with enemies, his posterity would be obliged to defend themselves by the sword, and other weapons of war:
and shalt serve thy brother; which is the sense and language of the oracle, Genesis 25:23; and which Isaac perhaps now remembered, and had a clear understanding of it, and delivers out his prophetic blessing agreeably to it:
and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion; not over the Israelites, the posterity of Jacob, which the Edomites, Esau's posterity, never had;…
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 is concerning things at that time far distant. For Jacob was so far from having obtained dominion over his brother, that on his return from Padan-aram, he suppliantly tendered him his obedience; and the breaking off of the yoke which Isaac here mentions, is referred to a very remote period. He is therefore relating the future condition of Esau's posterity. And he says first, that they shall live by their sword: which words admit a twofold sense, either that, being surrounded by enemies, they shall pas…
Jacob had hardly left his father, after receiving the blessing (יצא אך, was only gone out), when Esau returned and came to Isaac, with the game prepared, to receive the blessing. The shock was inconceivable which Isaac received, when he found that he had blessed another, and not Esau-that, in fact, he had blessed Jacob. At the same time he neither could nor would, either curse him on account of the deception which he had practised, or withdraw the blessing imparted. For he could not help confessing to himself that he had sinned and brought the deception upon himself by his carnal preference for Esau. Moreover, the blessing was not a matter of subjective human affection, but a right entrusted…
All that remained for Esau was a promise of hardship and struggle (cp. 3:17-19; 16:11-12).
Rashi on Genesis 27:40
ועל חרבך—The phrase is equivalent to בחרבך BY THY SWORD. The word על is sometimes used instead of the prefix ב, as (Ezekiel 33:26) “Ye stand by your sword (על חרבכם)”, which is the same as בחרבכם; (Exodus 6:26) “by their hosts (על צבאותם), which is the same as בצבאותם.
AND והיה כאשר תריד AND IT SHALL CAME TO PASS THAT WHEN THOU ROVEST ABOUT — The word תריד signifies grief, pain, as (Psalms 55:3) “I am distraught (אריד) in my complaint”. It means: when Israel will transgress the Torah and you will have reason to feel aggrieved with regard to the Blessings, ופרקת עלו וגו THEN THOU SHALT PULL HIS YOKE FROM OFF THY NECK (Genesis Rabbah 67:7).
