fic: Asking Price
It's a joke, at first. Esau comes in splattered with blood and sweat and dirt and throws down the usual load of animal carcasses, for Jacob to skin and prepare as a meal. Jacob, despite his own sweat, feels it like a unspoken judgment, because it always is in their father's eyes, and for once he doesn't simply acquiesce when Esau demands food ahead of the communal meal.
"Give me your birthright and I'll think about it," he says, and it's a joke, it is, but it carries an edge honed by a lifetime of watching his brother spurn the management and care of their father's household--and being favored by their father because of it.
"I'm going to starve to death anyhow," Esau scoffs, and that's what turns it into something other than a joke. The slightest glimmer of dismay or amusement, and Jacob would've laughed it off and handed over a bowl of the stew he's tending. But when Esau simply accepts the bargain, Jacob can't help pressing the matter. Esau gets his stew, and his brother is left speechless in the cooking tent, suddenly and secretly rich beyond what he could've imagined an hour before.
He isn't sure whether to laugh or weep.
"Give me your birthright and I'll think about it," he says, and it's a joke, it is, but it carries an edge honed by a lifetime of watching his brother spurn the management and care of their father's household--and being favored by their father because of it.
"I'm going to starve to death anyhow," Esau scoffs, and that's what turns it into something other than a joke. The slightest glimmer of dismay or amusement, and Jacob would've laughed it off and handed over a bowl of the stew he's tending. But when Esau simply accepts the bargain, Jacob can't help pressing the matter. Esau gets his stew, and his brother is left speechless in the cooking tent, suddenly and secretly rich beyond what he could've imagined an hour before.
He isn't sure whether to laugh or weep.