And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
All Commentaries on Genesis 27:41 Go To Genesis 27
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
But we shouldn’t leave his parents without excuse for having preferred their younger son to the elder. At the same time we must take care so that no one, in turning to their example, would make an unfair judgment between his sons or suppose that he should love the one and esteem the other less. From this line of conduct fraternal hatreds are aroused and the crime of fratricide is contrived to gain a worthless sum of money. Let children be nurtured with an equal measure of devotion. Granted that one’s love may fasten more upon some trait in a child who is more agreeable or similar to oneself, the exercise of justice ought to be the same in regard to all. The more that is given to the child that is loved and who seeks his brother’s love, the more is taken away from the one who is burdened with jealousy at the unfair preferment. Esau threatened that he would kill his brother. Neither the fact of brotherhood nor respect for their parents kept him from his fratricidal madness, and he grieved that the blessing had been snatched away from him, whereas he should have proved himself worthy of it by forbearance rather than by crime. However, Rebekah did not prefer one son to another son but a just son to an unjust one. And indeed, with that pious mother, God’s mysterious plan was more important than her offspring. She did not so much prefer Jacob to his brother; rather, she offered him to the Lord, for she knew that he could protect the gift that the Lord had bestowed. In the Lord she took counsel also for her other son; she withdrew him from God’s disfavor, lest he incur graver culpability if he lost the grace of the blessing he did receive. .
