The Midrash preserves a legend that the Tanakh only whispers at.
When Isaac died, his two sons came to bury him. "His sons Esau and Jacob buried him" (Genesis 35:29), the written Torah records. But the tradition — the Midrash on Genesis — reverses the order, reading the line as "Esau and Jacob and his sons buried him." The small rearrangement opens onto a larger story.
The whole family went to the Cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah already lay. Jacob entered with the chiefs of the twelve clans of his sons. Esau entered too. They stood together and wept for their father.
Out of respect for Jacob's grief, the heads of the tribes stepped outside so that he could mourn without an audience. They did not want him shamed by showing too much feeling in their presence.
But Judah — the son who had once pledged his own life for Benjamin, the son whose descendants would carry the kingship — turned back and re-entered the cave. What he found there, the legend records, was Esau refusing to let Jacob be buried near Isaac, claiming the final remaining grave for himself.
Judah, the man of the lion's tribe, took the matter into his own hands. He struck Esau down at the mouth of the cave where their grandfather lay. Jacob received his burial place beside his father. Esau received his own consequences.
The tradition says Judah killed Esau inside Machpelah. The written Torah skips it. The Midrash fills the silence.