“Peoples will serve you, and nations will prostrate themselves to you. Be a lord to your brethren, and your mother’s sons will prostrate themselves to you. Cursed be one who curses you, and blessed be one who blesses you” (Genesis 27:29). “Peoples will serve you” – these are the seventy nations.
“And nations will prostrate themselves to you” – these are the descendants of Ishmael and the sons of Ketura, in whose regard it is written: “Ashurim, Letushim, and Leumim” (Genesis 25:3). “Be a lord to your brethren” – this is Esau and his chieftains. “And your mother’s sons will prostrate themselves to you” – here it says: “And your mother’s sons will prostrate themselves to you,” but elsewhere it says: “And your father’s sons will prostrate themselves to you” (Genesis 49:8).
It is that Jacob, because he took four wives, Leah, Rachel, Zilpa, and Bilha, he says: “Your father’s sons.” Isaac took Rebecca, he said: “Your mother’s sons.” “Cursed be one who curses you…” – and elsewhere it says: “Those who bless you are blessed, and those who curse you are cursed” (Numbers 24:9). It is that Bilam, because he was a hater, began with a blessing and concluded with a curse.
Yitzḥak, who was a lover, opened with a curse and concluded with a blessing. Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Rabbi Ḥiyya said: The wicked, because their beginning is tranquility and their end is suffering, they begin with blessing and end with curse. The righteous, because their beginning is suffering and their end is tranquility, they begin with curse and end with blessing: “Cursed be one who curses you, and blessed be one who blesses you.”