ESAU, identified in Hebrew tradition with Edom, the epony mous ancestor of the Edomites, is the son of Isaac and Rebekah and elder twin brother of Jacob (Gen. xxv. 24-26). This narrative probably represents an earlier superiority of Edom over Israel, further attested by the view that Edom was a settled state before the Hebrew conquest of Canaan (Gen. xxxvi. 31 [P], Num. xx. 14 [E] etc.). The change in comparative status is reflected in two narratives of Genesis; in the one Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a mess of red pottage (Gen. xxv. 21-34), whence the name Edom (—Red). According to the other, Jacob, in alliance with Rebekah, succeeded in cheating Esau out of the paternal blessing (Gen. xxvii.) .
That Israel regarded Edom as living on a lower social order appears from Gen. xxv. 27, where Esau is a representative of the primitive "food-collector" or wandering hunter, Jacob a type of the "civilized" pastoral nomad. The greater fertility of Israelite territory is illustrated by the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 26-29) and the corresponding curse of Esau (Gen. xxvii.