Genesis 28:9

Gen 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

Ver. 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael.] Stulta haec fuit κακοζηλια, et hypocrisis , saith Pareus rightly. Apes will be imitating men: spiders have their webs, and wasps their honeycombs. Hypocrites will needs do something, that they may seem to be somebody: but, for want of an inward principle, they do nothing well: they amend one error with another, as Esau here; and as Herod prevents perjury by murder. Thus, while they shun the sands, they rush upon the rocks, and while they keep off the shallows, they fall into the whirlpool. {a} Sed nemo ira perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia, quin exitus pateat absque tertio , saith an ancient.

{a} Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim .

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 28:9. Esau went unto Ishmael — That is, the family of Ishmael, for Ishmael himself, no doubt, was dead before this time, (see Gen 25:17,) and took Mahalath to be his wife. It is probable that he thought by this means to ingratiate himself with his father, and so to get another and a better blessing. But, alas! he mends one fault by committing another, and taking a third wife, when he had one too many before.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, beside his wives.

Thinking hereby to have reconciled himself to his father, but all in vain: for he taketh not away the cause of the evil.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael] Those who are apt to take every thing by the wrong handle, and who think it was utterly impossible for Esau to do any right action, have classed his taking a daughter of Ishmael among his crimes; whereas there is nothing more plain than that he did this with a sincere desire to obey and please his parents. Having heard the pious advice which Isaac gave to Jacob, he therefore went and took a wife from the family of his grandfather Abraham, as Jacob was desired to do out of the family of his maternal uncle Laban. Mahalath, whom he took to wife, stood in the same degree of relationship to Isaac his father as Rachel did to his mother Rebekah. Esau married his father's niece; Jacob married his mother's niece. It was therefore most obviously to please his parents that Esau took this additional wife. It is supposed that Ishmael must have been dead thirteen or fourteen years before this time, and that going to Ishmael signifies only going to the family of Ishmael. If we follow the common computation, and allow that Isaac was now about one hundred and thirty-six or one hundred and thirty-seven years of age, and Jacob seventy-seven, and as Ishmael died in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of his age, which according to the common computation was the one hundred and twenty-third of Isaac, then Ishmael must have been dead about fourteen years. But if we allow the ingenious reasoning of Mr. Skinner and Dr. Kennicott, that Jacob was at this time only fifty-seven years of age, and Isaac consequently only one hundred and seventeen, it will appear that Ishmael did not die till six years after this period; and hence with propriety it might be said, Esau went unto Ishmael, and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael to be his wife. See Clarke on Ge 26:34, &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. unto the wives] i.e. in addition to Judith and Basemath (Gen_26:34).

Mahalath … the sister of Nebaioth] Nebaioth was the firstborn son of Ishmael (Gen_25:13). In Gen_36:3, the name of Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth, appears as Basemath. Here she is called Mahalath; while Basemath, in Gen_26:34, is the name of one of Esau’s Hittite wives.

Ishmael is mentioned in this verse as the uncle of Esau. The reference is personal, though it may also denote tribal kinship. According to P’s chronology, it would appear that Ishmael was at this time 114 years old, and lived for 23 years more. Cf. Gen_17:24-25, Gen_25:17; Gen_25:26, Gen_26:34.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then went Esau unto Ishmael,.... Not to Ishmael in person, for he was now dead, Gen 25:17, and had been dead as is reckoned about fourteen years before this, but to the house of Ishmael:

and took unto the wives which he had; the daughters of Heth, and who seem by this to be both alive at this time:

Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son; the same with Bashemath, Gen 36:3; as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, this person having two names, and is further described:

the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife; who was the eldest son of Ishmael, and, his father being dead, was the principal in the family; and this woman Esau took to wife was his sister by his mother's side, as the above Targum expresses, as well as by his father's; whereas he might have other sisters only by his father's side, he having had more wives than one. This Esau seems to have done in order to curry favour with his father, who was displeased with his other wives, and therefore takes one of his father's brother's daughters; but in this he acted an unwise part, on more accounts than one; partly as it was taking to wife the daughter of one that was cast out of his grandfather's house, and had been a persecutor of his father, and therefore not likely to be agreeable to him; and partly as being a daughter of the bondmaid's son: children born of her could not inherit the land promised to Abraham and Isaac.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To Ismael’s family; for he had been dead fourteen years. Esau asks no advice. It is doubtful whether he meant to appease or irritate his parents, (Menochius) by this marriage with the daughter of Ismael. She lived with her brother, the head of the Nabutheans, and is called Basemath, chap. xxxvi. 3. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

1760

Esau went unto Ishmael; either to his person, or rather to his family, called Ishmael by their father’s name, as David is sometimes put for David’s posterity; for Ishmael seems to have been dead before this, from Gen 25:17, though that may possibly be a prolepsis, and then this may be Ishmael himself.

Mahalath, called also Bashemath, Gen 36:3. He thought by this means to ingratiate himself with his father, and so to get another and a better blessing; but he takes no care to reconcile himself to God, nor observes his hand in the business. Besides, he mends one fault by committing another, and taking a third wife when he had one too many before, and her too he unwisely fetcheth out of that stock which was begotten to bondage, and was utterly uncapable of the inheritance.

Nebajoth was Ishmael’s eldest son, Gen 25:13, who alone is here mentioned, either in the name of all the rest, whose sister she is by consequence supposed to be; or because peradventure she and Nebajoth were Ishmael’s children by the same mother, and the rest by another.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael — That is, unto the family of Ishmael, who, himself, had been dead many years. Gen_25:17. Nebajoth was Ishmael’s firstborn. Gen_25:13. Here we discern, again, in Esau’s action, the wild, impetuous child of nature. He already has two wives and they have borne him children; but noticing how Jacob is blessed, and commanded not to take a Canaanitish wife, he speeds away to marry Ishmael’s daughter.

“Esau is the representative of natural kindliness and honesty, but these qualities are joined to rudeness, and to a want of susceptibility for what is higher. He is void of all anticipation and longing. He is satisfied with what is visible; in short, he is a profane person. Heb_12:16. Such persons, even if grace reaches their hearts, which was not the case with Esau, are not adapted for heading a religious development.” — Hengstenberg.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mahalath

Gen 36:3 is called Bashemath:

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

אחות נביות THE SISTER OF NEBAIOTH — By a logical inference from what is stated that she was “the daughter of Ishmael” would I not know that she was the sister of Nebaioth? But the words are added to tell us that Ishmael died after he had betrothed her to Esau and before her marriage, and that her brother Nebaioth gave her away in marriage And we may learn, also, that Jacob was at that period sixty-three years old For Ishmael was seventy-four years old when Jacob was born — since Ishmael was fourteen years older than Isaac, and Isaac was sixty when they (Jacob and Esau) were born, making seventy-four and his (Ishmael’s) years were one hundred and thirty seven — as it is said (25:17) “And these are the years of Ishmael etc.” — consequently when Ishmael died Jacob was sixty-three years old. We learn from this that he (Jacob) concealed himself in Eber’s School for fourteen years and only after that did he proceed to Haran. For before Joseph’s birth he had stayed in Laban’s house only fourteen years, as it is said (31:41) “I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six years for thy flock”, and he received the sheep as wages only after Joseph was born, for it is said (30:25) “And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph etc. [that Jacob wished to leave Laban and he agreed to remain with him on condition of receiving certain sheep as wages]. Now Joseph was thirty years old when he became ruler in Egypt, and from then until the time that Jacob came down to Egypt was nine years — seven of plenty and two of famine — and Jacob then said to Pharaoh (47:9), “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years”. Go and calculate: the fourteen years he passed with Laban before Joseph’s birth, and the thirty years of Joseph’s life before he became ruler and the nine years from when he became ruler until the time that Jacob came to Egypt make fifty three years from the time he joined Laban until the time he came to Egypt But when he parted from his father he was sixty-three years old, as shown above, so that you have 116 years as his age when he came to Egypt, on the assumption that the fifty-three years he spent with Laban etc. began immediately after he had left his father. But he (Jacob) himself said to Pharaoh, “[I am] one hundred and thirty years”. So you see that fourteen years are missing on this assumption. Thus you learn that after he had received the blessings he concealed himself in Eber’ School for fourteen years (Megillah 17a). But he received no punishment for them (these fourteen years) on account of the merit of having studied the Torah in Eber’s School during that period For Joseph was separated from his father only twenty-two years — that is, from the age of seventeen to that of thirty-nine - corresponding to the twenty-two years during which Jacob was separated from his father and could not perform the duty of honouring him (by actively attending to his needs), viz, the twenty years he spent in Laban's house and the two years he passed in travelling home - for it is written (33:17) with regard to his journey homewards, "And Jacob built him a house and made booths for his cattle", and our Rabbis, of blessed memory, inferred (Megillah 17a) from this verse that during his travels he passed eighteen months at Succoth, since a house means a dwelling for the rainy season, and "booths" means for the summer time. And this statement that the study of the Torah protects one from punishment fits in with the calculation which we made above, based upon the Sacred Text, regarding the period from when he left his father until the time when he went down to Egypt at the age of 130 years, where we found a surplus of 14 years, so that he must have been absent from his father for 36 years. But we may regard it as certain that when on his journey to Laban he concealed himself in Eber's house it was for the purpose of studying the Torah with him and that because of the merit of studying the Torah he received no punishment for them (those fourteen years) so that Joseph was separated from him only twenty-two years "measure for measure"(Megillah 17a). Thus far (beginning at "But he received no punishment") is found in an old Rashi text.

על נשיו BESIDES HIS FORMER WIVES — He added wickedness to wickedness for he did not divorce his first wives (Genesis Rabbah 67:13).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

וילך...אחות נביות. This Nevayot was an extremely well known personality, and so was his sister. (25,20) Compare also the formulation in Genesis 10,21 which shows that Yaphet was a well known personality.

על נשיו, he married Machalat in addition not instead of his other wives. She was to represent a higher level of spirituality in Esau’s household. His other wives now occupied a socially inferior status.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.