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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
25:22 struggled together within her. Babies have real feelings, thoughts and personalities even before birth. This is clear Biblically (Psalm 139:14-16; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Luke 1:44; etc.), and is being increasingly confirmed by modern scientific monitoring of embryonic children growing in the womb.
25:23 serve the younger. This pre-natal revelation to Rebekah clearly instructed her that, contrary to custom, the youngest of her twin sons was to be spiritual leader of the family. His task was to transmit the divine promises to future generations. This information surely was shared with Isaac and, later, with Esau and Jacob. Yet both Isaac and Esau seem to have rejected this revelation and determined to convey these privileges to Esau.
25:25 Esau. The newborn infants were given names corresponding to their remarkable appearance at birth, Esau meaning “hairy” and Jacob “heel-catcher” (perhaps, by extension–“supplanter”).
25:26 Esau’s heel. The prophet Hosea interprets Jacob’s odd name as an evidence of his strength and power with God (Hosea 12:3), overtaking his older and more outwardly impressive brother because of his strength before God.