That our author reports this, as if Isaac had given Jacob this blessing, immediately upon his purchasing the birthright; for he says, “when Jacob bought, Isaac blessed him”; which is plainly otherwise in the scripture: for it appears, there was a distance of time between, and if we will take the story in the order it lies, it must be no small distance: all Isaac’s sojourning in Gerar, and transactions with Abimelech, Gen. 26 coming between; Rebecca being then beautiful, and consequently young: but Isaac, when he blessed Jacob, was old and decrepit: and Esau also complains of Jacob, Gen. 27:36. that two times he had supplanted him; “he took away my birthright,” says he, “and behold now he hath taken away my blessing”; words that I think signify distance of time and difference of action.