birthright,
did not continue to wail through his life. He was a warmhearted, loving,
and generous man, though of fiery passion. The loss of the good old
Isaac's benediction struck him to the heart; but we are wrong in
supposing that it remained a burden on his life. Nothing of the kind; it
had been better for him if it had been so. But the fury seems soon to
have passed away, probably too his regrets. He became a chieftain of
wealth and renown, rich, strong, illustrious. We meet with him again,
and there is no trace of a shadow over his life. "_And Jacob lifted up
his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred
men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto
the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost,
and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And
he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times,
until he came near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and
embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. And
he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who
are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath
graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near, they and
their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her
children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and
Rachel, and they bowed themselves. And he said, What meanest thou by all
this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the
sight of my lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that
thou hast unto thyself._" (Gen. xxxiii. 1-9.) "_And Esau took his wives,
and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and
his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got
in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his
brother Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might dwell
together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them,
because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir. Esau is Edom._"
(Gen. xxxvi. 6-8.) Read the catalogue of his princely descendants, and
remember that Edom played a splendid part in the political, and
especially the commercial, history of the oriental world. Esau lost
that, and that alone, which his soul had no love for, and no power to
use to honour. But he won that in which his soul delighted; he passed a