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In a country competently fruitful and refreshed with convenient dews and showers.
Object. Thus Esau seems to have the same blessing which was before given to Jacob.
Answ. 1. Though it may seem to be the same as to the fertility of the soil, in which divers other parts of the world did and do equal the land of Canaan; yet there is an observable difference in the manner of Isaac’s expression. When he speaks of Esau, he only saith:
Thy dwelling shall be the fatness, & c. But when he speaks to Jacob, he saith: God give thee, or shall give thee of the fatness, &c.; which words being, as it may seem, purposely omitted concerning Esau, and so emphatically expressed concerning Jacob, seem to intimate, especially if compared with many other scriptures where that phrase is applied to good men, that Esau’s fat soil was rather taken by himself than given by God; or if given by God to him, it was only by his general providence, by which he giveth food to all creatures; whereas Jacob’s fat and fruitful soil was derived to him and his by God’s special gift, as a token of his singular kindness, and pledge of greater blessings:
2. This is but one branch of the blessing; the other part, which concerns dignity and superiority, is expressly given to Jacob, Gen_27:29, and denied to Esau, Gen_27:40.