“Sell me your birthright”
'First sell me your birthright,' Jacob replied… So Esau swore to Jacob and sold him the birthright. Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:31–34 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A hungry man makes a hasty trade he will regret.
The cultural key
The birthright (bekorah) was no small thing: the firstborn received a double portion of the inheritance and became head of the family after the father (Deuteronomy 21:17). To trade it for one meal was to hold the sacred structure of the family in contempt, which is exactly the verdict the narrator delivers: Esau 'despised' (bazah) his birthright. Hebrew ears also catch a setup, since bekorah (birthright) and berakah (blessing) are near-twins in sound, and the blessing is the prize Esau will lose next.
Recovered meaning
Esau's trade is told as a moral collapse, not just bad judgment: he treats the family's God-given order as worth less than a bowl of stew. The near-rhyme of birthright and blessing warns that a man careless with the first will forfeit the second.