46 Jacob cooked some stew. There are some significant words and wordplays in this story that help clarify the points of the story. The verb “cook” is זִיד (zid), which sounds like the word for “hunter” (צַיִד, tsayid). This is deliberate, for the hunter becomes the hunted in this story. The word זִיד means “to cook, to boil,” but by the sound play with צַיִד it comes to mean “set a trap by cooking.” The usage of the word shows that it can also have the connotation of acting presumptuously (as in boiling over). This too may be a comment on the scene. For further discussion of the rhetorical devices in the Jacob narratives, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis ().

In other versions

Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted.

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry.

Once Jacob cooked a thick stew, and Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:

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