וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י גיים [גוֹיִם֙] בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר׃
At sinabi sa kanya ng Walang-Hanggan: “Dalawang bansa ang nasa iyong sinapupunan, at dalawang kaharian ang maghihiwalay mula sa iyong tiyan; at ang isang kaharian ay magiging mas malakas kaysa sa isa pang kaharian, at ang nakatatanda ay maglilingkod sa nakababata.”
On Mating with the Preliminary Studies
[129] The souls then whose pregnancy is accompanied with wisdom, though they labour, do bring their children to the birth, for they distinguish and separate what is in confusion within them, just as Rebecca, receiving in her womb the knowledge of the two nations of the mind, virtue and vice, distinguished the nature of the two and found therein a happy delivery (Gen. 25:23). But where its pregnancy is without wisdom, the soul either miscarries or the offspring is the quarrelsome sophist who shoots with the bow (Gen. 21:20), or is the target of the bowman.
Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis
[88] Once again, of Jacob and Esau, when still in the womb, God declares that the one is a ruler and leader and master, but that Esau is a subject and a slave. For God the Maker of living beings knoweth well the different pieces of his own handiwork, even before He has thoroughly chiselled and consummated them, and the faculties which they are to display at a later time, in a word their deeds and experiences. And so when Rebecca, the soul that waits on God, goes to inquire of God, He tells her in reply, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy belly, and one people shall be above the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23).