Now Jacob, we see, was of course a more thoughtful man than Esau.
He kept more quiet, and so had more time to think: and he had
plainly thought a great deal over God's promise to his grandfather
Abraham. He believed that God had promised Abraham that he would
make his seed as the sand of the sea for multitude, and give them
that fair land of Canaan, and that in his seed all the families of
the earth should be blessed; and that seemed to him, and rightly, a
very grand and noble thing. And he set his heart on getting that
blessing for himself, and supplanting his elder brother Esau, and
being the heir of the promises in his stead. Well--that was mean
and base and selfish perhaps: but there is somewhat of an excuse
for Jacob's conduct, in the fact that he and Esau were twins; that
in one sense neither of them was older than the other. And you must
recollect, that it was not at all a regular custom in the East for
the eldest son to be his father's heir, as it is in England. You
find that few or none of the great kings of the Jews were eldest
sons. The custom was not kept up as it is here. So Jacob may have
said to himself, and not have been very wrong in saying it:
'I have as good a right to the birthright as Esau.
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