But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of יהוה, and יהוה answered her,“Two nations are in your womb,Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;One people shall be mightier than the other,And the older shall serve the younger.” When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau. Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born. When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob became a mild man, raising livestock. Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebekah favored Jacob.

(1) A skillful hunter: hunting game and retrieving (the animal to serve as food.)

A skillful hunter: Generally, one who is a skilled trickster. For the way to trap most game is through one's cunning.

A skillful hunter: [He knew how] to trap and to deceive his father with his mouth and ask him,“Father, how do we tithe salt and straw?” His father thereby thought that he was scrupulous in his observance of the commandments.

who stayed in camp: the tent of Shem and the tent of Eber.

When his father asked him, "What do you do in the field all day?" He would apologize, saying, "It takes me all day to hunt animals and bring meat to my father's mouth." Since his mother rarely saw him, she did not love him, only Jacob, because he spent his time with her, and she poured all her affection upon him.

(1) ויתרצצו AND [THE CHILDREN] STRUGGLED — You must admit that this verse calls for a Midrashic interpretation since it leaves unexplained what this struggling was about and it states that she exclaimed “If it be so, wherefore did I desire this” (i.e. she asked whether this was the normal course of child-bearing, feeling that something extraordinary was happening). Our Rabbis explain that the word ויתרוצצו has the meaning of running, moving quickly: whenever she passed by the doors of the Torah (i. e. the Schools of Shem and Eber) Jacob moved convulsively in his efforts to come to birth, but whenever she passed by the gate of a pagan temple Esau moved convulsively in his efforts to come to birth (Genesis Rabbah 63:6). Another explanation is: they struggled with one another and quarrelled as to how they should divide the two worlds as their inheritance (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 111:2).

(2) ושני לאמים, they will also be politically different from one another, being separate kingdoms.

(3) ממעיך יפרדו, they will go their different ways after being born, neither of them will die at birth as you fear.