אמר ליה: אתינא לעלמא דאתי?

אמר ליה: אין.

אמר ליה: והכתיב: לא יהיה שריד לבית עשו!

בעושה מעשה עשו.

The struggle between Greco-Roman secularism and Judaism alternated, according to history, between cooperation and outright hate and warfare. The argument is proposed that Esau was born with red coloring in his hair and body, and the ancient rabbis have connected this with the red banner and standard favored by Rome's legions.

Another explanation is that Esau is described by the Bible as ancestor of the [[Edomites]], the Hebrews' neighbors (and on many occasions, enemies) to the south. King Herod, whom many Jews considered as a usurper and destroyed of the legitimate Hasmonean dynasty, was an [[Edomite]] (though nominally converted to Judaism). And since Herod was a collaborator with the Roman rule, the ancestor of the Roman's collaborator became identified with the Romans themselves.

Jews living in a Christian environment tended to attribute to Esau the cultural characteristic of their neighbors. For example, in Yiddish folksongs Esau is often depicted as an immoderate consumer of alcoholic drinks, which has no Biblical basis but is could have been drawn from a widespread practice in Slavic societies (which most Jews in the same countries conspicuously did not participate, at least until well into the Twentieth Century).

==Amalekites==

H*man was an Amalekite.

[[Category:Seventy nations]]

[[Category:Edom]]