Genesis 25:30

And Esau said to Jakob, Let me now taste that red pottage, for I am faint, -- therefore he called his name Edom.

OF THIS RED, RED POTTAGE. The dish was either reddened by the lentils which were red, or it had been compounded with some red substance, and Esau, not knowing what it was, called it edom (red). Therefore was his name called Edom since they mocked at him for having sold an honorable birthright for a small dish. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty.

מן האדום האדום הזה, it is common for a person who is in a hurry and who demands something from his fellow to repeat his request. In this instance, seeing that Esau was both tired and hungry, his choice of words is equivalent to asking to get something to eat in a hurry.

על כן קרא שמו אדום, a reference to his reddish appearance at birth, described in verse 25. It foreshadowed that he had a craving for red-looking food. He sold his birthright in order to gratify his carving for something red to eat. The nickname אדום is an insulting, derogatory term.

על כן קרא שמו אדום. When he saw that Esau was so totally absorbed in his futile occupation, an occupation which does not represent the task of man on earth, that he could not even identify the lentils by their name but referred to them only by their colour, he called him by that name himself, i.e. אדום, in the imperative, meaning “paint yourself red by swallowing the red dish!”

ויאמר...הלעיטני נא, the word הלעיטני is equivalent to האכילני, “feed me!” Our sages in Shabbat 155 in dealing with methods permissible to feed one’s livestock on the Sabbath, say אין ממארים את העגלים אבל מלעיטים אותן, “whereas it is forbidden to use mechanical devices to feed one’s animals one may do so by hand.” In other words, הלעטה describes the crudest form of introducing food into one’s mouth.

מן האדם האדם הזה, a reference to the lentils, which when peeled, look reddish. The reason why he repeated the word האדם unnecessarily was that it reflects his intense desire for them. This is why he called his name Edom, to reflect the fact that he was always attracted, nay, fascinated by anything red.

הלעיטני נא....על כן קרא שמו אדום, “please let me swallow some of this red stuff.... this is why henceforth he is called Edom.” According to the plain meaning of the verse,-i.e. when read superficially,- his name now became associated with his having referred to the stew Yaakov was cooking as “red stuff.” He was referring to a few lentils. We are told this, as from now on Esau called himself “the red one,” whereas at birth only other people called him thus on account of the colour of his skin.

כי עיף אנכי, “for I am tired, worn out;” according to tradition, on that day Esau had killed Nimrod the foremost hunter in the world up to that time, and its ruler. Nimrod had challenged him to a duel as he had not asked him for permission to use his hunting grounds. He had consulted with his brother what to do about this. Yaakov had told him that as long as Nimrod was wearing the garments which had once belonged to Adam he was invincible. As soon as he would take off those garments he could easily be overcome. Esau engineered to find him without those garments and killed him. On that day he was exhausted from that effort. Our author quotes Jeremiah 4,31: כי עיפה נפשי, “for my soul is worn out,” as an allusion to that incident.