for his youngest son, the reason being that the boy was a child of his old age. Gen. 25:28* also tells of the predilection of parents for one of the sons. The narrator accepts this reality without making any judgment. “Predilection” is not to be understood here in a quantative sense; the reason for it is that Joseph “is a child of his old age.” When a man’s life span is drawing to a close and a child is born to him, then this is something different from the situation of a young man at the height