Generations Part 7 (Gen 28:6-9)

 

5 Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Jacob's and Esau's mother—I do not know what the addition of these words is intended to tell us.

Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. GEN 28:2

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,”

Megillah 17a:2

And it was taught in a baraita: Jacob our father was sixty-three years old at the time he was blessed by his father, and at that same time Ishmael died. How is it known that these two events occurred at the same time? As it is written: “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob . . . then Esau went to Ishmael and took for a wife Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth” (Gen 28:6-9). From the fact that it is stated: “the daughter of Ishmael,” do I not know that she was the sister of Nebaioth? For what purpose then does the verse say this explicitly? This teaches that Ishmael betrothed her to Esau and in the meantime he died, and Nebaioth her brother married her off. Therefore, special mention is made of Nebaioth. Consequently, it is understood that Jacob was sixty-three years old when he received his blessing and left his father’s house.

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Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” GEN 27:33

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. GEN 28:1

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

And that Jacob had obeyed—This is to be connected with the proceeding statement (v. 6), thus: When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and that he had sent him off to Paddan-aram, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and gone to Paddan-aram, and that the Canaanite women did not please . . . his father, then he, too, went to Ishmael.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran GEN 27:43

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Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. EXO 20:12

9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Bava Kamma 92b:13

Rabba bar Mari explains each of the sources. It is written in the law, as it is written: “Esau went to Ishmael” (Gen 28:9). It is repeated in the prophets, as it is written: “And worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him” (Jdg 11:3). And it is triplicated in the Writings, as it is written: All fowl will live with its kind, and men with those like him (Book of Ben Sira 13:17). We learned it in a mishna (Kelim 12:2): All that is attached to that which is ritually impure is ritually impure; all that is attached to that which is ritually pure is ritually pure. And we learned it in a baraita: Rabbi Eliezer says: Not for naught did the starling go to the raven but because it is its kind, as it too is a non-kosher bird.

3 and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

13 These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife.

18 These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau's wife: the chiefs Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the chiefs born of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. GEN 36:3, 13, 16