The whole thing started with a bowl of soup. Esau came home from hunting one day—starving, exhausted, still a young man—and found his brother Jacob cooking lentil stew. It was bright red. Esau wanted it desperately. Jacob saw his chance and demanded the birthright in exchange. Esau, pinched with hunger, swore an oath and gave it up. That red stew gave Esau his nickname: Adom, meaning "red" in Hebrew. The name stuck. His territory became known as Edom, and the Greeks softened it into Idumea.
After Isaac's death, the twin brothers divided everything. Esau left Hebron entirely, ceding it to Jacob, and moved to the rugged hill country of Seir. There he built a nation. According to Josephus, Esau fathered five sons by three wives—Aliphaz by Ada, Raguel by Basemath, and Jaus, Jalomus, and Coreus by Alibama. Aliphaz produced five legitimate sons of his own, plus Amalek through a concubine named Thamna. The Amalekites—Israel's future archenemies—traced their origin to this one illegitimate line. Idumea was vast enough that each clan claimed its own district while the whole country kept Esau's name.
Meanwhile, Jacob prospered in Canaan beyond anyone's expectations. His wealth multiplied. His sons were admired for their strength, endurance, and intelligence. And God exercised a particular providence over this family—one that would eventually lead them into Egypt and back out again. The instrument of that providence was Jacob's youngest son by Rachel: a boy named Joseph, beautiful, brilliant, and loved by his father above all the others.
That favoritism ignited hatred among the brothers. Then Joseph made it worse with dreams. In the first, his wheat sheaf stood upright while his brothers' sheaves bowed down to it. They understood exactly what it meant and said nothing—except to pray it would never come true. The second dream was even bolder: the sun, moon, and stars descended from heaven and bowed before him. Jacob interpreted it shrewdly—the sun and moon were the parents, the eleven stars the brothers—and he rejoiced, sensing God's hand. But the brothers' envy curdled into conspiracy. They resolved to kill him.