Commentary - Genesis 26:34-35

Bird's-eye view

These two short verses at the end of Genesis 26 are not a throwaway detail. They are a potent and ominous foreshadowing of the great conflict to come between the two seeds, the line of the woman and the line of the serpent. Esau, the profane man who despised his birthright, here demonstrates his spiritual carelessness in the most foundational of all institutions: marriage. By taking wives from among the Hittites, the Canaanites, he is not simply making a personal choice. He is polluting the holy line. He is yoking himself, and by extension his household, to the declared enemies of God. This act is a profound spiritual betrayal, and it rightly brings a deep and abiding grief to his parents, who understood the covenantal stakes. This is not about racial purity; it is about religious and covenantal fidelity. The bitterness Isaac and Rebekah feel is not mere parental disapproval; it is the sorrow of seeing the covenant promise disregarded and the holy seed mixed with the profane.

This passage sets the stage for the subsequent drama of Jacob and Esau. Esau's cavalier attitude toward marriage is of a piece with his attitude toward his birthright. He lives for the moment, for the flesh, and has no regard for the long-term promises of God. His choice of wives is a clear indicator of where his heart is. It is in the world, not in the covenant. This act of rebellion makes Rebekah's subsequent maneuvering to secure the blessing for Jacob, while not without its own sinful elements, far more understandable. She sees the spiritual apostasy of her firstborn and acts, however imperfectly, to preserve the covenant line through the son who, for all his flaws, valued the things of God.

Outline

Context In Genesis

This brief account of Esau's marriages serves as a crucial hinge point in the narrative. It follows a chapter where God has explicitly renewed His covenant promises to Isaac, the very promises Esau is now disregarding (Gen 26:3-5). It also immediately precedes the famous story of Jacob stealing the blessing in chapter 27. These verses provide the necessary backdrop for that conflict. They demonstrate that Esau had already disqualified himself from the blessing, not just by selling his birthright for a bowl of soup, but by his fundamental rejection of the covenant's requirements for holiness and separation. His choice of wives is the outward manifestation of an inward profanity. It shows the reader that the conflict between the brothers is not merely a family squabble but a continuation of the cosmic battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, a theme established back in Genesis 3:15.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 34 And Esau was forty years old, and he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;

The text is precise. Esau is forty years old. This is not the rash act of a youth. This is the considered decision of a mature man, the same age his father Isaac was when he married Rebekah. But what a contrast! Isaac's marriage was carefully arranged by his father Abraham to ensure a wife from within the covenant family (Genesis 24). Esau, on the other hand, acts on his own impulse. He is a man of the field, a man of appetite, and he takes what he wants.

And what does he want? He takes not one, but two wives, and both are Hittites. Hittites are Canaanites, a people under God's curse and designated for eventual dispossession from the land (Gen 15:18-21). This is a direct violation of the principle of covenantal separation that Abraham had so carefully established. To marry a Hittite was to form an alliance with the enemies of God. It was to become "one flesh" with idolatry and paganism. This is the original "unequally yoked." Esau is not just marrying women; he is marrying into a worldview, a religion, and a curse. His choice reveals a heart that does not tremble at the word of God and has no regard for the holiness of the covenant line through which the Messiah would come.

v. 35 and they brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.

The Hebrew here says they were a "bitterness of spirit." This is not simple disappointment. This is a deep, soul-level grief. Isaac and Rebekah, for all their later conflict and favoritism, are united in this sorrow. Why? Because they understood what was at stake. This was not a matter of their son marrying outside his social class or culture. This was a spiritual catastrophe. Their son, the firstborn, the heir of the promise, had polluted the stream of the covenant.

This bitterness was the natural fruit of Esau's sin. When we bring unholy alliances into the family of God, it always produces grief. These Hittite women would have brought their gods, their customs, and their worldview into the heart of the covenant household. The peace and purity of the home were shattered. This is a perpetual lesson for the people of God. We are not to be yoked with unbelievers, whether in marriage, business, or any other binding covenant. To do so is to invite bitterness of spirit into our lives and the lives of those around us. Isaac and Rebekah tasted the bitter fruit of their son's rebellion, a grief that would set the stage for the painful decisions that followed.

Key Issues

The Unequal Yoke

The principle of the unequal yoke, famously articulated by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14, has its roots right here in the patriarchal narratives. "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" Esau's marriage to Hittite women is a textbook example of this forbidden partnership. It is an attempt to join the holy with the profane, the covenant line with the cursed line.

This is not a matter of ethnicity or race, but of fealty and worship. The Hittites were idolaters, part of the Canaanite culture that God had devoted to destruction because of its profound wickedness. To marry them was to join oneself to that rebellion. Marriage is a one-flesh union, the most intimate covenant two humans can make. To enter such a covenant with an unbeliever is to attempt to serve two masters, to have one foot in the kingdom of God and one in the kingdom of darkness. The result, as it was for Isaac and Rebekah, is always bitterness, conflict, and spiritual compromise. The command to marry "only in the Lord" (1 Cor. 7:39) is not an arbitrary rule; it is a guardrail for the preservation of faith, family, and the covenant community.

Application

The story of Esau's wives is a stark and timeless warning for the church. The pressure to compromise on the matter of marriage is immense in our day. The world tells us that love is all that matters, and that to insist on marrying a fellow believer is narrow-minded and bigoted. But Scripture tells a different story. Who we marry is a profound statement about what we worship and whose kingdom we serve.

For young people, the lesson is clear: Do not give your heart to one who has not first given their heart to Christ. To do so is to follow in the footsteps of profane Esau and to invite a lifetime of spiritual strife and bitterness into your home. Your choice of a spouse is one of the most significant decisions you will ever make, and it has massive implications for your faithfulness to God and the spiritual health of the next generation. Do not despise your birthright as a child of the King by yoking yourself to a child of disobedience.

For parents, the grief of Isaac and Rebekah is a sober reminder of our duty. We must teach our children the importance of covenant marriage. We must model it for them. We must pray for them to find godly spouses. And when they, like Esau, make choices that dishonor God and threaten the covenant line, we must grieve. But our grief should not lead to despair. It should drive us to our knees, to plead with the sovereign God who, despite the faithless choices of men like Esau, is always faithful to His covenant promises and is able to bring a holy line even out of a crooked mess.