{
 "id": "john-newton/esau",
 "title": "Esau",
 "ordinal": "8",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 8,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1779,
  "venue": "Olney Hymns (1779)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_olney-hymns-in-three-bo_newton-john_1779",
   "https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/bulletin/computerised-index-to-the-olney-hymns/",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns",
  "file": "book-1.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns_%281840%29",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-15"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor Esau repented too late",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That once he his birthright despised,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sold, for a morsel of meat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What could not too highly be prized:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How great was his anguish when told,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blessing he sought to obtain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was gone with the birthright he sold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And none could recall it again!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He stands as a warning to all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever the gospel shall come;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O hasten and yield to the call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While yet for repentance there’s room!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your season will quickly be past;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then hear and obey it to-day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest, when you seek mercy at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Saviour should frown you away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What is it the world can propose?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A morsel of meat at the best!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For this are you willing to lose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A share in the joys of the bless’d?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its pleasures will speedily end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its favour and praise are but breath;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what can its profits befriend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your soul in the moments of death?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If Jesus for these you despise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sin to the Saviour prefer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain your entreaties and cries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When summon’d to stand at his bar:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How will you his presence abide?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What anguish will torture your heart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The saints all enthroned by his side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you be compell’d to depart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Too often, dear Saviour, have I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Preferr’d some poor trifle to thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How is it thou dost not deny",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blessing and birthright to me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No better than Esau I am,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though pardon and heaven be mine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me belongs nothing but shame⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The praise and the glory be thine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}