See Genesis 27.30-40, especially verse 38. On receive, see 1.4 and 6.12.
There are two main problems in translating this verse. First, what is the meaning of the word which Revised Standard Version translates “to repent,” and Good News Translation to change what he had done? Second, what did Esau look for … in tears?
The first problem is the more complicated one. The Greek is literally “a place of repentance.” “Place” often has the meaning “opportunity,” for example, in Acts 25.16, and this is likely here. “Repentance” means a change of mind or heart which results in a change of behavior and life (see comments on 6.1, 6). The translator has first to decide whether the change is in Esau himself, as most people think, or in his father, Isaac (Segond text “he found no means of bringing his father to change his mind”; Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale and Jerusalem Bible). It seems unlikely that Isaac would be introduced without this being shown more clearly; in the first part of the sentence, his father’s is not in the Greek but is implied. If the reference is to Esau himself, the translator has next to decide whether the writer is concerned (i) with a change in Esau’s mind, as in Bijbel in Gewone Taal “he got no more chance to show sorrow”; Revised Standard Version and Moffatt “no chance to repent”; Phillips “He never afterward found the way of repentance”; or (ii) with Esau’s desire to change the results of his decision to sell his birthright, as in most common language translations; Translator’s New Testament “undoing what he had done”; Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “change his situation.” Some translations, for example New American Bible, “alter his choice,” leave the matter rather vague; Barclay makes both possibilities explicit with “There was no possibility for him to think again, although he tried with tears to undo what he had done.” There is evidence that the phrase translated way to change what he had done may have the legal sense of “opportunity to change a former decision,” almost “leave to appeal” against a judgment. This fits Genesis 27.30-40 very well and would suggest that Esau was looking for a way of changing his own decision, or more probably Isaac’s decision. But since a word, once given, was thought of as taking on a life of its own (see Isa 55.11), the situation could not be reversed. Meaning (ii) is therefore to be preferred.
The second problem is simpler. (i) Knox, New American Bible, Translator’s New Testament think that what Esau looked for … in tears was his father’s blessing. This interpretation fits in better with Genesis 27. Note that way or “chance” (Revised Standard Version) can not grammatically be what he looked for in Greek. (ii) Good News Translation and other translations think it was “repentance” that he sought, in one or another of the senses discussed earlier. In favor of this interpretation is the fact that the writer is accustomed to drawing from Old Testament stories a moral different from the main message or intention of the original story. Also, in Greek, “repentance” is closer than blessing to the phrase looked for it with tears. Note also that the writer is concerned in other places with the impossibility of repentance after certain particularly serious sins (note 6.4, and “repentance” in 6.6). Finally, if it is the blessing he sought, the clause “he found no chance to repent” would be an awkward parenthetical expression, spoiling the contrast between “found” and “sought.” The weight of evidence seems to support (ii), but (i) may be mentioned in a footnote.
Though in English the separation of Afterward from the rest of the clause by inserting the parenthetical expression you know seems perfectly natural and satisfactory, in many languages this would lead to misunderstanding. Therefore in some languages the order must be changed to “You know that later he wanted.”
He wanted to receive his father’s blessing may be rendered as “he wanted his father to bless him.”
But he was turned back may be rendered as “but he was refused.” An even more general expression may be employed; for example, “but this was impossible.”
The clause which introduces cause, namely, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, may be expressed in some languages as “because he could not find a way to undo what he had done,” or “… to make invalid what he had done,” or “… to reverse what he had done,” or “… to make what he had done seem as though he had never done it.”
Looked for may have its usual meaning of “tried to find,” but in this context it more probably means “tried to obtain.”
In tears: see Genesis 27.34, 38. Even though in tears he looked for it may be expressed as “even though he cried as he was trying to find a way to change what he had done” or “even though in trying to change what he did he cried” or “… wept.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .