Esau the Pig Who Stretches Out Its Cloven Hooves to Look Pure

(Genesis 26:34) "And Esau was forty years old." It is written (Psalms 80:14) "The boar from the forest gnaws at it." Of all the prophets, only Asaph and Moses publicized her [Rome, by likening her to a pig]. Asaph said "The boar from the forest gnaws at it," and Moses said (Leviticus 11:7) "And the swine, because it parts the hoof." Why does he compare her to a pig? Just as this pig, when it lies down, stretches out its hooves, as if to say, "See, I am pure" [since it has split hooves, though it does not chew the cud and is in fact unclean], so too Esau: for all forty years he hunted the wives of men and tortured them, and when he reached forty he imitated his father. He said: "Just as my father took a wife at forty, I too will take a wife at forty." "And he took to wife Judith." Rabbi Yudan son of Rabbi Simon opened: (Psalms 68:7) "God settles the solitary in a home." Even a single illegitimate man at one end of the world and a single illegitimate woman at the other end, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings them and pairs them with one another. Since it is written (Deuteronomy 20:17) "For you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite," and so on, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: "Let this one who is destined to be blotted out [the Hittite woman] come," as it is written (Obadiah 1:18) "And there shall be no survivor to the house of Esau," "and let him join himself to this one [Esau's line] that is destined to be blotted out."