²⁴When the time came, Rebekah gave birth to twins. ²⁵The first baby was born red. Since his skin was like a hairy robe, he was named Esau.ⁿ ²⁶When the second baby was born, he was holding on to Esau’s heel, so that baby was named Jacob. ⁿ Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter. He loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man and stayed among the tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because he hunted the wild animals that Isaac enjoyed eating. But Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹One day Jacob was boiling a pot of vegetable soup. Esau came in from hunting in the fields, weak from hunger. ³⁰So Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red soup, because I am weak with hunger.” (That is why people call him Edom. ⁿ)

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Footnotes

nEsau This name may mean “hairy.”
nJacob This name sounds like the Hebrew word for “heel.” “Grabbing someone’s heel” is a Hebrew saying for tricking someone.
nEdom This name sounds like the Hebrew word for “red.”