And by your sword shall you live, and shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass when you shall have the dominion, that you shall break his yoke from off your neck.
All Commentaries on Genesis 27:40 Go To Genesis 27
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Everyone who does not possess the authority conferred by a clear conscience is a slave; whoever is crushed by fear or ensnared by pleasure or seduced by desires or provoked by wrath or felled by grief is a slave. In fact, every passion is servile, because “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin,” and, what is worse, he is the slave of many sins. The person who is subject to vices has sold himself to many masters, so that he is scarcely permitted to go out of servitude. But take the one who is the master over his own will, judge over his counsels, agent of his judgment, the man who restrains the longing of his bodily passions and does well what he does. (Note that by acting well he acts rightly, and one who acts rightly acts without blame or reproach because he has power over his actions.) Such a person is assuredly free. For the one who does all things wisely and in complete accord with his will is the only free man. It is not accidental status that makes the slave but shameful and foolish conduct. Indeed, the wise servant rules the foolish master, and “their own servants will lend to the masters.” What will they lend? Not money, surely, but wisdom, just as the law also says, “You will lend to many nations and will not borrow.” For the Jew lent to the proselyte the prophecies of God’s law. .
