Genesis 27:39 - Exposition

And Isaac his father (moved by the tearful earnestness of Esau) answered and said unto him ,—still speaking under inspiration, though it is doubtful whether what he spoke was a real, or only an apparent, blessing—( vide infra ) — Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above . Literally, from ( מִן ) the fatnesses (or fat places) of the earth , and from the dew of area; a substantial repetition of the temporal blessing bestowed on Jacob ( Genesis 27:28 ), with certain important variations, such as the omission of plenty of corn and wine at the close, and of the name of Elohim at the commencement, of the benediction (Vulgate, Luther, Calvin, Ainsworth, Rosenmüller, 'Speaker's Commentary'); though, by assigning to the preposition a privative rather than a partitive sense, it is readily transformed into "a modified curse"—behold, away from the fatnesses o/the earth , &c; shall thy dwelling be , meaning that, in contrast to the land of Canaan, the descendants of Esau should be located in a sterile region (Tuch, Knobel, Kurtz, Delitzseh, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy). In support of this latter rendering it is urged