“Oh, it’s better,” said Rebekah. “Better in the sense that a quick death in battle is better than a death by torture.”

“I know the birthright isn’t mine,” said Jacob. “But can’t I do anything to protect the holy writings?”

“Have you told your father?”

“What’s the point? He’ll accuse me of being envious and then call Esau in to confront me, and Esau will deny everything and afterward he’ll threaten to kill me if I ever tell lies about him again.”

“Kill you? He threatens your life?”

“He doesn’t mean it,” said Jacob. “I mean, he means it, but he won’t do it.”

“You mean he hasn’t done it, because you haven’t cost him anything. But if you told and your father believed you and took away the birthright, then we’d see what Esau might do.”

“He’s not a killer, Mother.”

“How many times has he come home with blood on his hands?”

“The blood of the beasts he kills and brings home to Father.”

“Like a cat showing off the mice it kills.”

“Father loves the taste of wild game. I understand—I’m tired of the taste of mutton and lentils myself. But someone has to stay home and manage the flocks and herds. Esau has no more interest in the work of the camp than he has in . . .”

“In the birthright.”

“Oh, he’s interested in the birthright, Mother!”

“He’s interested in having it, not in studying the holy writings and living by them.”

“I know Father’s eyes are weak, Mother, but why can’t he see how Esau mocks everything that matters to our family?”

“Because Esau is smart enough not to show that side of himself in front of his father.”

“But what if I had proof?”

“What could possibly prove it to your father? He won’t believe what he’s told, and he can’t see it for himself.”

“I’m the most helpless person in all this, Mother,” said Jacob. “Because if I do anything to show Father who Esau really is, Father thinks I’m envious and want the birthright. Sometimes I think the only way I can help to save the birthright is to renounce it myself.”

“And then whom would it go to?”

“One of Keturah’s boys, maybe. Midian’s a good man, Mother. He’d make a worthy guardian.”

“And then your father’s line would be cut off from the birthright, if it went to his half-brother.”

“If the birthright goes to Esau, the way he is right now, then it will be lost to the whole world, because he’ll never care for it.”

“All we can do,” said Rebekah, “is pray to the Lord to help your brother grow up and grow out of his rebelliousness and repent of his sins and become . . .”

“A good servant to the Lord.”

“Like you.”