Esau & Jacob: Twin-life in the womb

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity! —Psalm 133:1 

God loves unity among brothers, but as previously noted, the biblical record is often one of animosity between them. And in the annals of hostility between brothers, the story of Jacob and Esau stands out. Unlike Ishmael and Isaac, they were sons of the same mother—products of the same conception and pregnancy, twins but not at all identical.

Like Ishmael and Isaac, however, it was best for keeping peace that they stayed far apart. After Jacob’s deception of their father, Esau threatened to kill his brother (Genesis 27:41) even though he must have known what had happened to Cain for killing his brother.

One notable aspect of Jacob and Esau’s hostility is that it started in the womb, and that fact has at least five important implications for recognizing the humanity of unborn babies: 

1. God was aware of what was going on in Rebekah’s womb while she was mystified and troubled. The Hebrew verb for the violent movements she felt is ratsats, often translated “to crush” in the Bible. Without the use of ultrasound or any other form of technology, God saw what was going on in the “secret place'' (Psalm 139:15-16) and He graciously explained it to her:

Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger. —Gen. 25:23

2. God differentiated between the twins while they were within the womb and treated them as individual persons. 

3. Jacob was chosen by God from the womb—before they had done anything good or evil—to advance the purposes of God and not because Jacob was a better person than Esau. (Romans 9:10-13 and Malachi 1:2-3). 

4. Their physical characteristics, personalities, attitudes, and preferences could not be more different, and yet both were made in the image of God. 

5. Hosea 12:2-4 shows that Jacob was the same person as an adult as he was in the womb—a struggler, a usurper, always seeking to be first. Like Ishmael, he would strive all his life against his brother. Just as hair color, eye color, gender, and other genetic characteristics are set in the earliest moments of life, so are personality traits.

As we’ll see in subsequent posts, Jacob and his descendants continued to make the mistake of showing favoritism to one child or another. They would violate rules of vengeance (as had Lamech). They would hate one of their brothers and seek to kill him, but that brother would become a remarkable example of brother-keeping and forgiveness (see The best and worst of brother-keeping). Incidents in their homelife, and in the households they would establish, foreshadow principles for brotherhood that appear in the Law that God would give the nation of Israel through Moses. 

Next: God opens and closes

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Image credit: Detail of a miniature of the birth of Esau and Jacob, from f. 24v of La Bible Historiale Complétée (Genesis - Psalms), circa 1295, https://picryl.com/media/birth-of-esau-and-jacob-from-bl-royal-17-e-vii-f-24v-4fe7d3