[Illustration: Abraham, the Founder of a Nation.]

Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons whose names were Esau and Jacob, and
perhaps no brothers were ever more unlike in their dispositions. Esau
grew up to be a hunter. Nothing pleased him so much as to take his bow
and arrows and spend days away from home in the pursuit of deer, from
whose flesh he made food which his father liked.

Among other customs of that time which seem strange to us now was that
of rich men and their wives and their sons as well preparing food with
their own hands, although it is done in the East to some extent in
these days.

Abraham was certainly a rich man with a host of servants at command,
yet the Bible tells us that Sarah, his wife, prepared with her own
hands the food for the strangers who visited the patriarch as he sat in
the door of his tent by the Oaks of Mamre. We can understand then that
the sons of Isaac, who were even richer than his father, prepared food
themselves.

Esau was looked upon as the older son and treated accordingly. There
were certain privileges which by custom were given to oldest sons at
their fathers' deaths, and these things constituted what was called a
birthright. In addition to being treated as the older son Esau was
also the favorite son of his father.

But Rebekah loved Jacob more than she did Esau. Jacob was of a much
quieter disposition than his brother, living near his mother and
probably spending much of his time with her. We may think of him as a
man who liked to live in comfort and peace, hospitable to strangers, as