John Calvin Commentary Genesis 27:38

"And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept." — Genesis 27:38 (ASV)

Hast thou but one blessing? Esau seems to take courage, but he neglects the care of his soul and turns, like a swine, to the pampering of his flesh. He had heard that his father had nothing left to grant because, truly, the full and entire grace of God so rested upon Jacob that outside of his family, there was no happiness.

Therefore, if Esau sought his own welfare, he should have drawn from that fountain, and rather subjected himself to his brother than cut himself off from a happy connection with him. He chose, however, to be deprived of spiritual grace, provided he might possess something of his own, and apart from his brother, rather than be his inferior at home.

He could not be ignorant that there was one sole benediction by which his brother Jacob had been constituted the heir of the divine covenant, for Isaac would daily speak with them concerning the singular privilege which God had granted to Abraham and his seed. Esau would not previously have complained so bitterly unless he had felt that he had been deprived of an incomparable benefit.

Therefore, by departing from this one source of blessing, he indirectly renounces God and cuts himself off from the body of the Church, caring for nothing but this transitory life. But it would have been better for him to perish miserably from the lack of all things in this world, and with difficulty to draw his languishing breath, than to slumber amidst temporal delights.

What followed afterwards—namely, that he wept with loud lamentations—is a sign of fierce and proud indignation rather than of penitence, for he lessened none of his ferocity but raged like a cruel beast of prey.

So the wicked, when punishment overtakes them, bewail the salvation they have lost; but, meanwhile, they do not cease to delight themselves in their vices. Instead of heartily seeking the righteousness of God, they rather desire that His deity should be extinct. Of a similar character is the gnashing of teeth and weeping in hell, which, instead of stimulating the reprobate to seek God, only consumes them with unknown torments.