Commentaria in Genesim
Tropologically, on the odour of virtues see Rupert here, and St. Augustine, book XVI De Civitate, xxxvii, and St. Gregory, homily 6 on Ezechiel, who says: “For otherwise smells the flower of the vine; because great is the virtue and repute of preachers, who inebriate the minds of hearers. Otherwise the flower of the olive; because sweet is the work of mercy; because after the manner of oil it comforts and gives light. Otherwise the flower of the rose; because the white life of the flesh comes from the incorruption of virginity. Otherwise the flower of the violet; because great is the virtue of the humble, who, holding by desire the last places, do not raise themselves by humility from the earth on high, and keep in mind the purple of the heavenly kingdom. Otherwise the ear of grain gives forth its scent, when it is brought to maturity; because the perfection of good works is prepared for the satisfaction of those who hunger after justice.”
WHICH THE LORD HATH BLESSED.—This blessing of the field by God consisted in three things, as Isaac here explains: first, in a sweet and fragrant odour, of which he here says: “Like the smell of a plentiful field;” second, “in the dew of heaven.” He says rather in dew than in rain, because in Palestine it rains only twice in the year, namely in October when they sow, that the seed may germinate, which rain is therefore called in Scripture the early rain; and again in April, that the fruits may ripen, which is called the latter rain. Hence in the intervening time the fields continually need dew, that the sown crops and harvests may not dry up, but be quickened, nourished and grow. Third, in “the fatness of the earth;” that is, that the earth be not sandy, not watery, not growing old, but fat, moderately dry, and as it were renewing its youth, that it may bring forth abundant produce and fruits.
Allegorically, these blessings were fulfilled in Christ, as St. Augustine teaches, book XVI De Civitate xxxvii. Tropologically, in the soul of every just man, as St. Gregory teaches, homily 6 on Ezechiel. Anagogically, in the Blessed, as St. Irenaeus teaches, book V, chap. xxxiii.
29. LET PEOPLES SERVE THEE—as if to say: To thy posterity, to David, Solomon and the Machabees, the Idumeans, Philistines, Arabs, Ammonites and other peoples shall be subjected.
Note the four parts of this blessing. The first, “of the dew of heaven,” etc.; the second pertains to dominion, when he says: “Let peoples serve thee;” the third, to preeminence among brethren, when he says: “Be lord of thy brethren;” by which words Jacob received right and dominion over Esau; but the execution of this right and dominion he received not in himself, but in his posterity, when the posterity of Esau, namely the Idumeans, served them under David; the fourth, when he says: “Cursed be he that curseth thee; and let him that blesseth thee be filled with blessings.” This pertains to God’s favour, as if to say: God will take up thy part and that of thine and thy cause; whoever are thy friends or enemies, He will count as His own: cursing the latter, that is, doing them ill, blessing the former, that is, doing them good.
Note: These blessings are partly blessings, partly prophecies. For Isaac in a prophetic spirit by these words invokes, and at the same time foretells, what was to befall Jacob and Esau from God and God’s favour.
33. ISAAC WAS STRUCK WITH A GREAT ASTONISHMENT.—Septuagint: Isaac was seized with a great ecstasy exceedingly. In this fear and wonder therefore Isaac, caught up into ecstasy, says St. Augustine, Question LXXX, saw and said what follows, so that he changed his mind, and was not angry with Jacob, who had by fraud stolen the blessing from his brother, but confirmed it: for in this rapture God showed Isaac that this deed of Jacob, as to the substance of the deed, namely as to the snatching, the forestalling and the substitution of himself in the birthright (though not as to the manner, namely the lie), had been done by His own will and impulse: that Jacob had been designated by Him as firstborn and heir of His promises made to Abraham and Isaac, not Esau; that He willed therefore that Isaac should hold these same things as ratified; whence Isaac, at once obeying God, and changing his mind from Esau to Jacob, says: “And he shall be blessed.” So St. Jerome, Alcuin and St. Augustine, book XVI De Civitate, chap. xxxvi.
EVEN NOW.—This word is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee, nor in the Greek. “Even now” is therefore the same as “before;” for so we commonly say of a vigilant, diligent and keen man: He has long since got ahead of you, as Jacob here had got ahead of Esau; for Jacob had scarcely gone out from his father when Esau came in; as is clear from verse 30. Where St. Chrysostom, homily 53, marvels at God’s providence toward His own and those obedient to Him: for He brought it about that Esau did not return until after Jacob, having received the blessing, had gone out. “Hence let us learn, he says, that when anyone wishes to dispose his affairs according to the will of the Lord, he is helped with so great heavenly aid that he plainly experiences it in fact.”
It could be referred, secondly, “even now” not to Jacob’s going out, but to the venison taken and the foods brought by him to his father: for the father spent rather more time with Jacob in eating and conversing.
AND HE SHALL BE BLESSED.—You will say: Error of person invalidates human contracts, most of all marriage; therefore also this blessing of Isaac: for in blessing Jacob, he thought and intended to be blessing not him but Esau. Again, Jacob crept in and stole by guile; but guile ought to protect no one, as the rule of Law has it.
Pererius answers, denying the consequence; because Isaac was not in error as to person in his primary intention, which was to bless him who was the firstborn, or whom God willed to be the firstborn: but this was Jacob, not Esau; he erred, however, in his secondary intention, by which he intended to bless Esau, thinking him to be the firstborn; whence, recognising this error by God’s impulse, and correcting his intention, he says: “And he shall be blessed,” namely Jacob, whom I have blessed before. But the guile of Jacob was not evil, but good: for by it he vindicated his own right and property, namely the birthright, which otherwise he could not have obtained from the unjust and violent possessor Esau. Add that this is not so much a blessing as a prophecy, and that Isaac’s tongue was moved not so much by Isaac as by God to bless Jacob.
34. HE ROARED OUT—like a lion, showing not only his sadness, but ferocity and fury, by a mighty cry like a roar.
Philo and Eusebius hold that Esau roared thus not so much from grief at the lost blessing (though this too pricked him), as from envy of his brother’s increase, especially because his father had preferred him to himself, and had subjected him to him.
BLESS ME ALSO.—The Hebrew has greater pathos: Bless me also; I, my father, understand, am thy son, and truly the firstborn, and hitherto dearer to thee, and to whom a little before thou didst promise this blessing, who now have been forestalled by my brother’s guile, and have suffered this loss because I obeyed thy command, going away to hunt, to prepare what thou desiredst; it is right therefore that thou bless me too.
You will ask, why did Esau so eagerly and urgently seek his father’s blessing? I answer first, because by long experience men in that time had learned that the father’s blessing or curse availed very greatly, and is often efficacious in children, as still happens not rarely. “A father’s blessing, saith the Wise Man, Ecclus. iii, 11, establisheth the houses of children, but the mother’s curse rooteth up the foundations.”
So Sem and Japhet, blessed by Noe: “Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, be Chanaan servant to him, may God enlarge Japhet,” etc. Gen. ix, 26, obtained the same from God. So the blessing of Jacob given to Ephraim and Manasses, Gen. xlviii, 20, and the other given to the twelve sons, Gen. xlix; likewise that of Moses given to the 12 tribes, Deut. xxxiii, was efficacious, and really fulfilled. So the blessing of Tobias given to his son, chap. v, 21: “May you walk well, and may God be in your journey, and may His angel accompany you;” likewise the blessing of Raguel, father-in-law, given to Tobias and his wife Sara, chap. x, verse 4, was efficacious. Hence St. Ambrose, book I De Benedictionibus Patriarcharum, chap. i: “How great reverence also, he says, we owe to parents, when we read (Gen. xxvii) that he who was blessed by his father was blessed; therefore God gives this grace to parents, that the piety of children may be stirred up: the prerogative of parents therefore is the discipline of children.” So by the blessing of the father Mathathias the Machabees came forth strong and invincible in wars, I Machab. chap. ii, 69 and following.