(2) Lest any root of bitterness spring up.

(3) Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau.

What is this root of bitterness? The apostle is quoting from Deuteronomy 29 and a reference to that passage will

show his meaning clearly. Moses is addressing the people of Israel before his death, at the close of forty years'

wandering in the wilderness, and in verse 18 says:

`Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD

our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and

wormwood' (Deut. 29:18).

Here is the `root of bitterness', a heart that turns away from God, or, in the language of Hebrews 3:12:

`Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God'.

The words of Amos 6:12 seem to have some reflection upon the `peaceable fruit of righteousness' and the `root

of bitterness': `Ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock'. The effect of this

root of bitterness is trouble and defilement. A reference to John 18:28 will show the nature of the defilement -

something that was profane, something from which a Jew would shrink.

We have next to learn in what sense Esau was a fornicator, and what bearing it has upon the teaching of this

passage. There are two outstanding events in Esau's history that are recorded against him. One is the selling of his

birthright for a mess of pottage; the other his marriage with women outside the covenant:

`And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the

daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?' (Gen.

The word `fornicator' is not to be taken literally, but is rather explained by the apostle to refer to `a profane

person'. Now this word profane (bebelos) is made up of the particle be, denoting privation, and belos, a threshold of

a temple;: hence one who was debarred from entry into a holy place. In the same way the Latin word profanus

means one who stands pro fano - at a distance from a temple; hence too, our English word `fane', a church. Esau

had no appreciation of either his birthright or the holy nature of the Covenant of God. He becomes a warning to the

Hebrews who were being tempted to cast away the precious and enduring substance of their heavenly birthright for

the mess of pottage of present earthly ease.

Verse 17 is a complete explanation of the difficult passage in Hebrews 6. There the exhortation is to go on unto

perfection. `But', says the writer, `It is impossible for those who were once enlightened ... if they shall fall away, to

renew them again unto repentance'. So, of Esau it is written: `For ye know how that afterward, when he would have

inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears'.

Esau and his example stand out in the closing portion of Hebrews, as the children of Israel in the wilderness stand

out in the opening section (chapters 3 and 4). The warning is for the Hebrews who, like their fathers and like Esau,

were in danger of drawing back, turning aside, losing the heavenly for the sake of the earthly. Hebrews 8:7

continues `Then should no place have been sought for the second', showing that the two Covenants are here in view.

The apostle now brings before the mind the two mountains, Sinai and Sion, which are explained in Galatians 4 as

representing the two Covenants, Sinai standing for `Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children',

and Sion for `Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother' (R.V.) (Gal. 4:24-26).

We have in Hebrews 12:18-21 Moses, the mediator of the old Covenant, and in Hebrews 12:22-24 Jesus, the

Mediator of the New Covenant, and it is under the New Covenant and not under the old, that the birthright can be

The figure called Polysyndeton (or `many ands') is employed in the description of both covenants. Let us notice

`For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, AND that burned with fire, AND (nor? JP) unto

blackness, AND darkness, AND tempest, AND the sound of a trumpet, AND the voice of words ...'.