Genesis 25:28

Genesis 25:28, in plain English

Isaac loves Esau because he enjoys eating the wild game Esau brings home, but Rebekah loves Jacob.

Why it's here

Here's the family dynamics laid bare. Isaac's love for Esau is tied to what Esau provides—good food, the pleasures of the hunt. Rebekah's love for Jacob appears to be just love, without that condition attached. You can feel the tension building. These parental preferences are going to matter hugely.

Who's speaking

The narrator

Where it sits in the story

Favoritism in families creates pain and resentment, and you're watching it happen here. Rebekah knows what God told her—that the younger will rule the older—but Isaac doesn't. She loves Jacob partly because she knows his destiny, even if she doesn't quite understand how it will unfold.

The scholarly reading

Isaac favors Esau because of his hunting skills and the wild game he provides, while Rebekah loves Jacob—a divided parental affection that foreshadows family conflict.

Language and setting

The phrase וַיֶּאֱהַב יִצְחָק אֶת־עֵשָׂו, vayye'ehav Yitzhak et-Esau, indicates Isaac's love is predicated upon sensory and gustatory gratification: כִּי־צַיִד בְּפִיו, ki-tzayid b'pihu, literally 'because game was in his mouth'—a phrasing that emphasizes the carnal, appetite-driven nature of Isaac's attachment. Rebekah's love for Jacob (וַרְבֵקָה אֹהֶבֶת אֶת־יַעֲקֹב, v'Rivkah ohevet et-Ya'akov) stands in stark contrast and appears unmotivated by external accomplishment, suggesting a deeper, more spiritually intuitive affection aligned with the divine oracle she received. This parental division—what exegetes call 'the divided household'—becomes the familial engine driving the coming narrative of deception and displacement.

Voice

The narrative voice

Significance

This verse establishes the psychological and relational backdrop for Jacob's manipulation of Esau. More profoundly, it demonstrates how human preference and divine election can diverge: Isaac loves according to earthly criteria, but God's purposes, as revealed to Rebekah, follow a different calculus entirely. This tension between human preference and divine will becomes central to Paul's use of this narrative in Romans 9.

26After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

27When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

28Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

30He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

Read all of Genesis 25 — Abraham dies. Isaac and Rebekah have twins who struggle before they're even born. The younger will carry the promise — and buy it for a bowl of stew.