A mess of pottage - Чечевичная похлебка
In the Bible, Esau and Jacob, the sons of a Hebrew
patriarch, were twins, and, as the elder of the two,
Esau was entitled to inherit all his father’s property.
But Jacob managed to deprive his brother of paternal
inheritance. He took advantage of E sau ’s hunger to buy
from him his birthright for a mess of pottage. Afterwards, having dressed himself in his brother’s clothes
he approached the death-bed of his blind old father and
received from him the blessing which was meant for
his twin brother.
The expression to sell one’s birthright for a mess of
pottage means to exchange something of permanent
value for materia
Выражение чечевичная похлебка употребляется в значении: что-нибудь ничтожное, за что отдано что-то ценное. Выражение основано на библейском рассказе о сыновьях патриарха И саака — Исаве и Иакове.