Genesis 25:30

And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage ,.... Or, "with that same red F12 מנ־האדם האדם הזה "de rufo, rufo isto", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; so Piscator, Schmidt. , red"; not knowing what it was, or what it was made of, and therefore only calls it by its colour; and the word being doubled, may denote that it was very red; or he, being in haste and greedy of it through hunger, repeats it in a quick and short way: this pottage was made of lentiles, as we learn from Genesis 25:34 ; which sort of food was much in use with the Egyptians, Egypt abounding with lentiles; and particularly Alexandria was famous for them, from whence they were carried into other countries, as Austin F13 Comment. in Psal. xlvi. tom. 8. p. 174. relates. The lentiles of Pelusium, a city in Egypt, are made mention of by Virgil F14 Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. ver. 228. and Martial F15 Martial. l. 13. epigr. 9. , for which that place was famous; where, as Servius says F16 In Virgil. ut supra. (Georgic. l. 1. ver. 228) , lentiles were first found, or where they grew the best; and, in the Misnah F17 Misn. Celim. c. 17. sect. 8. , an Egyptian lentil is spoken of, as neither large nor small, but middling. Pliny F18 Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 12. speaks of two sorts of it in Egypt, and says he found it in some authors, that eating of these makes men even tempered, good humoured, and patient; and observes F19 lbid. c. 17. , that they delight in red earth, or where there is much ruddle, or red ochre, from whence they may receive a red tincture; and the pottage made of them is of such a colour. And Dr. Shaw F20 Travels, p. 140. Ed. 2. says, that lentiles dissolve easily into a mass, and make a pottage or soup of a chocolate colour, much used in the eastern countries: and, as Scheuchzer observes F21 Physica Sacra, vol. 1. p. 78. , coffee is of the bean kind, and not unlike a lentil, and makes a red decoction. The colour of it took with Esau, as well as it was sweet and savoury, as Athenaeus F23 Deipno Sophist. l. 4. c. 14, 15. reports; and especially, he being faint and hungry, desires his brother to give him some of it, and even to feed him with it:

for I am faint ; so faint that he could not feed himself, or however wanted immediate sustenance, and could not wait till other food he had used to live upon was dressed:

therefore was his name called Edom ; not from his red hair, but from this red pottage; for Edom signifies "red", and is the same with the names Pyrrhus and Rufus.