How did Isaac and Rebekah react to Esau's Canaanite marriages?
Esau had already married two Canaanite women, and Scripture says this was a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. Because the Canaanites were pagan, idolatrous, and immoral, they did not want Jacob to marry from them either. Their reaction was sorrow and opposition to such unions.
Les explains that Esau had already married two Canaanite women, and it was a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. The Canaanites were pagan, idolatrous, and immoral, yet Esau was comfortable with them. Later, when Isaac calls Jacob, he blesses him and charges him, saying, “Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.” Instead, Jacob is sent to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel his mother’s father, and to take a wife from the daughters of Laban his mother’s brother. Les notes that they married rather close-knit, and the race was still relatively pure, with a gene pool that could take these things without repercussions.