“And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:”
My Notes
What Does Genesis 26:34 Mean?
Esau marries two Hittite women at age forty—a detail recorded not for romantic interest but for theological weight. The Hittites were Canaanites, and intermarriage with Canaanites was considered a fundamental betrayal of covenant identity. The next verse (26:35) records that these marriages "were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah." Esau's marriages caused his parents anguish.
The age—forty—is the same age Isaac was when he married Rebekah (25:20). But where Isaac's marriage was carefully arranged to avoid Canaanite entanglement (chapter 24), Esau marries locally without regard for the covenant implications. The parallel in age highlights the contrast in judgment: same milestone, opposite choices. Isaac's parents sent across the country for a suitable wife. Esau married the neighbors.
The two wives—Judith and Bashemath—are named with their Hittite fathers, anchoring them firmly in Canaanite identity. Esau didn't just marry one Hittite woman (which might be explained as love). He married two—suggesting a deliberate, repeated pattern of disregard for covenant boundaries. The choice wasn't accidental or impulsive. It was Esau's consistent preference for the immediate and available over the covenantally appropriate.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Does who you choose to be close to reflect your covenant values—or your appetite for what's immediately available?
- 2.Esau's pattern was consistent: trading the permanent for the immediate. Where do you see that pattern in yourself?
- 3.His parents were grieved. Have your choices caused grief to the people who understand the bigger picture of your calling?
- 4.Isaac's marriage was carefully chosen. Esau's were convenient. What standard governs your most important relational decisions?
Devotional
Esau married two Hittite women. Not one—two. The man who sold his birthright for soup now marries into the very people the covenant warned against. The pattern is consistent: Esau trades the permanent for the immediate. The birthright for a meal. The covenant for a bride. Every choice prioritizes what's available now over what matters forever.
His parents were grieved. Not mildly disappointed—the text says the marriages were "a grief of mind." The anguish wasn't about social status or ethnic snobbery. It was about covenant identity. The family that God had called out of the nations to be set apart was being merged back into the nations by Esau's choices. Every Hittite marriage was a step away from the calling.
The parallel with Isaac's marriage at the same age makes the contrast sharper: at forty, Isaac married the woman his father sent across the country to find—carefully chosen, covenantally appropriate, worth the journey. At forty, Esau married the women next door—no thought of covenant, no concern for lineage, no regard for what his choices communicated about his values.
Esau's marriages reveal character through choice: who you marry tells everyone what you value. The person who chooses without regard for covenant, without concern for family alignment, without thought for long-term consequences is making a statement about their priorities. Esau's statement was clear: the immediate matters more than the eternal. The available matters more than the appropriate. And his parents wept.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
- The Events of Isaac’s Life 5. משׁמרת mı̂shmeret, “charge, ordinance.” מציה mı̂tsvâh, “command,” special order. חק…
He took to wife - the daughter, etc. - It is very likely that the wives taken by Esau were daughters of chiefs among the…
Here is, 1. Esau's foolish marriage - foolish, some think, in marrying two wives together, for which perhaps he is…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture