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VI.
THE TOLEDOTH OF TEEAH, XL 27-XXV. 11—
continued.
PROMISE OF AN HEIR AND THE PROMISE OF THE LAND CONFIRMED BY A COVENANT, CH. XV.
Two solemn revelations open in ch. xv. the second section of the life of Abraham. The narrative falls into two halves. It is impossible to regard all from beginning to end as occurring in vision. For (1) if one revelation takes place at night, or at least with a transposition to night, the other is made in the day, and indeed at eventide, the sun being at ver. 12 about to set, and at ver. 1 7 actually set. And (2) the account of Abraham's believing reception of the promise of a posterity numerous as the stars of heaven ver. 6 separates what pre- ceded from what follows, which though it appears from the V^X ■iDS''1, 7a, to have immediately succeeded, has yet its own special introduction. Dillmann here carries analysis even farther beyond the bounds of the discernible than Wellhausen does. The safest criterion from Gen. i. to Ex. vi., and one which must only be relinquished for cogent reasons, is the Divine names. The use of these is in both halves of cli. xv. the same. In both mn'' is the prevailing one, and with it occurs once in each 7m> ""jn^, to be read according to the punctuation Ci"''?^.^ V^^, a combination of Divine names which, thus written, is unusual. This nin^ ""Jis, here twice used, gives to this historical picture in its two departments, as to the prophetic image, Isa. 1. 4-9, where it is four times used, its own peculiar stamp; and as this ni.T ''jns is only found VOL. n. A
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VI.
THE TOLEDOTH OF TERAH, XL 27-XXV. 11—
continued,
PROMISE OF AN HEIR AND THE PROMISE OF THE LAND CONFIRMED BY A COVENANT, CH. XV.
Two solemn revelations open in ch. xv. the second section of the life of Abraham. The narrative falls into two halves. It is impossible to regard all from beginning to end as occurring in vision. For (1) if one revelation takes place at night, or at least with a transposition to night, the other is made in the day, and indeed at eventide, the sun being at ver. 12 about to set, and at ver. 1 7 actually set. And (2) the account of Abraham's believing reception of the promise of a posterity numerous as the stars of heaven ver. 6 separates what pre- ceded from what follows, which though it appears from the V^x "iJ3S"'i, 7a, to have immediately succeeded, has yet its own special introduction. Dillmann here carries analysis even farther beyond the bounds of the discernible than Wellhausen does. The safest criterion from Gen. i. to Ex. vi., and one which must only be relinquished for cogent reasons, is the Divine names. The use of these is in both halves of ch. xv. the same. In both mn"" is the prevailing one, and with it occurs once in each nin'' ''jns, to be read according to the punctuation Q'^D^.'^ ''p^., a combination of Divine names which,
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where it is four |
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VOL. II. |
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VI.
THE TOLEDOTH OF TERAH, XL 27-XXV. 11—
continued.
PROMISE OF AN HEIR AND THE PROMISE OF THE LAND CONFIRMED BY A COVENANT, CH. XV.
Two solemn revelations open in ch. xv. the second section of the life of Abraham. The narrative falls into two halves. It is impossible to regard all from beginning to end as occurring in vision. For (1) if one revelation takes place at night, or at least with a transposition to night, the other is made in the day, and indeed at eventide, the sun being at ver. 12 about to set, and at ver. 1 7 actually set. And (2) the account of Abraham's believing reception of the promise of a posterity numerous as the stars of heaven ver. 6 separates what pre- ceded from what follows, which though it appears from the V^s ")CS"'l, 7 a, to have immediately succeeded, has yet its own special introduction. Dillmann here carries analysis even farther beyond the bounds of the discernible than Wellhausen does. The safest criterion from Gen. i. to Ex, vi., and one which must only be relinquished for cogent reasons, is the Divine names. The use of these is in both halves of ch. xv. the same. In both mn"' is the prevailing one, and with it occurs once in each nin'' '•ns, to be read according to the punctuation D"'pX^« V^b', a combination of Divine names which, thus written, is unusual. This nin'' ''31K, here twice used, gives to this historical picture in its two departments, as to the prophetic image, Isa. 1. 4-9, where it is four times used,
its own peculiar stamp; and as this mn"" ""ins is only found VOL. n. A
7i(;d
2 GENESIS XV. 1.
elsewhere in the Pentateuch at Deut. iii. 24, ix. 26, it may be conduded that it is Jahvistic. Dillmann has in his 5th edition deliberately omitted his former view, that nin* had been added by B to the original "ijix of B (xx, 4, but there in the address). Equally weak is also Wellhausen's assertion {Composition des Sexateuchs, i 413), that """iS and Ur Kasdim are not Jahvistic." Ur Kasdim is not Jahvistic, if it is here denied to J, which is but an arbitrary assertion and not a proof (see on xi. 31); and ""jx in the formula nin^ ""JK is so stereotyped (see on vi. 1 7) as to be common to every Penta- teuchal source ; it is Deuteronomic, xxix. 5, and also Jahvistic, Gen. xxviii. 13. The reference, too, xxiv. 7, to the covenant promise, xv. 18, and the list of the ten nations, xv. 19 sq., point to J as the narrator. The latter is indeed unique in this completeness, though still most akin to the list of seven, Deut. vii. 1 ; comp. Josh, iii. 10, which also closes with ^dith. Nevertheless, ch. xv. is not throughout by J, ver. 2 being undoubtedly derived from another source, probably from B. Also in consideration of '"'P^]} as a synecdochical designation of the ancient population of Canaan, which is one of the tokens of the older Elohist, it may obviously be assumed that the narrative of the covenant sacrifice with its explanation was originally found in E, and derived in its present form from JB. Dillmann's opinion, that B inserted the glance at the future, vv. 12-16, "from his own resources," must be rejected, if only because the Divine directions stand in symbolic relation to the disclosures which follow them. It cannot be inferred either from t^'=i2n (see the Introd. to ch. xiv.) or from nnitD PiTB'a, which occurs only once more in the Pentateuch, xxv. 8, that Q had any share in fashioning the material of the narrative.
A Divine revelation is made to Abraham, which is con- nected with the conflict he has just victoriously waged, ver. 1 : After these events the word of Jahveh came to Abram in a vision, thits : Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield, thy reward is
GENESIS XV. 2. 3
very great. The parenthetical formula n?5<n D^'12'nn "inx (here and xxii. 1, 20, xxxix. 7, xl. 1, xlviii. 1) states that what is to be related followed what preceded after the lapse of some undefined time. The revelation njnSii, which is confined to no time of the day, is a step higher than Di?n3. Abram is to have no fear in the midst of his strange and hostile surround- ing, for Jahveh is his shield (the consolatory figure is repeated, Deut. xxxiii. 29). Luther translates farther: and (I am) thy very great reward. But God does not give Himself to him as a reward (comp. Wisd. v. 15, Iv Kvpiw 6 ij,ia9o<i avTojv), but promises him one, and that very great, — only so can Abram's answer be understood, ver. 2 : And Abram said, 0 Jahveh, Lord of all, wJiat wilt Thou give vne, since I depart childless, and the inheritor of my house is Damascus (is) Eliezer. A contrasted adverbial sentence begins, as at xviii. 13, with "•aJNi. "Depart" is certainly meant, as at xxv. 32, 2 Chron. xxi. 20, Ps. xxxix. 14, and frequently, of death. '^T'd?. in itself means "alone," "lonely," here childless, like Lev. xx. 20 sq. "With Abram all the fulness of the Divine blessing falls into the background in presence of his childlessness at that time ; a man who is not his own flesh and blood having every prospect of being his heir. The unusual pf^ is used to symphonize with Pf'^\ The evident intention protects pti'bT (xin) from the suspicion of being a gloss (Hitzig, Tuch, Olshausen). The LXX. has the unmeaning uto? Macre/c; Syr. Targ. Jer. IL prefer leaving out the not understood ptJ'D ; others, apparently deriving it, according to the formation "•'J'^, from ppu', " to run about busily," translate : son of my household business (Onk. Targ. Jer. I. Samar. Theod.) = my steward, for which we should rather have expected pK'b bv^, or: filius procicratoris domus mece (Jer. comp. Luth.), but P^d in this concrete sense is, though possible, improbable. The verb pc'o, ciL^ (related to ^c^•o), which, as stem of p.^'p, is nearest, means, to draw to one- self, to seize, to take possession of, as is evident from P^^p, Zeph. ii. 9 ; and pf^']^ is the correct expression for one who
4 GENESIS XV. 2.
has the reversion or right of taking possession. Thus the inheritor of my house is ""JV • ? PF?"^' Lagarde views p\yi21 as a prefixed apposition in the sense of the Arabic ^ jjJl ^jA^ii (according to Kamus, one is nimble with his hands), but this would yield a eulogy of Eliezer, not an allusion to his position. Dillmann, in accordance with Ew. § 286c, places the two words in genitival relation : the son of possession of my house is Damascus of Eliezer ; but the subject aimed at is surely not the town, but the person whose rightful home it is. If however the narrator intended to say : Eliezer who is of Damascus (Ges. Lehrffeh. p. 648), pti'DT "iTy^^s would be required in the reverse order (like 2 Sam. xxiii. 24 ; comp. on Pro v. XXX. 1). There is thus nothing left but to take iry^i'X as the more closely defining permutative of pz'Dl : the inheritor of my house is Damascus is Eliezer. It is just because the latter is aimed at that it is not said pt^'b"n3, as might have been expected if pb*DT had been the main subject.^ The sense is clear : Damascus will inherit me, i.e. in the person of Eliezer, viz. (comp. 1 Chron. ii. 34 sq.) the Damascene. The Moslem tradition calls Abram's servant exactly ^A^J, JDimask, regards him according to the Arabic view as an Abyssinian, and says that he built Damascus and called it after his own name {DMZ. xvi. 701 sq.). Profane history is acquainted with a sojourn of Abram at Damascus on his journey from Chaldea to Canaan. Justinus the epitomizer of Trogus names Abram as one of the ancient kings of Damascus (xxxvi. 2) ; and Nicolaus Damascenus (in Josephus, Ant. i. 7, comp. Fragin., ed. Orelli, p. 114) says in B. iv. of his Universal History that "Abram, a foreigner who had come thither with an army from the so-called land of Chaldea above Babylon, ruled in Damascus. Not long afterwards he went forth and trans- planted himself hence (Damascus) with his people to the land
1 The view that pC'DT Xin is a marginal gloss to pbO. which has got into the text (see Driver in the Exposilor, vii. 6), makes the words the result of au iucomprehensiblo silliuess.
GENESIS XV. 3-5. 5
now called Judsea, then Canaan, where his descendants became ■very numerous." " The name of Abram," adds Josephus, " is still held in great honour in Damascus, and a village owing its origin to him is shown and called Abram's dwelling (^A^pdfjiov OLKTja-i'i)." Perhaps Berzat-el-Chalil, " the marriage tent of Abraham," is meant, a village which lies one league north of Damascus, where the ravine of the Wadi Macrdbd opens into the •GUta, and where the memorial day of the patriarch's wedding, a popular festival of the Damascenes, is annually kept in spring (Wetzstein in DMZ. xxii. 105), so vivid is still the remembrance of Abram in and around Damascus. He is the most renowned of all the great men of antiquity in the mouths of the Bedouin tribes of the neighbourhood, who, if asked concerning their religion, call themselves Din Ihrd him. Ver. 2 is followed by the same saying of Abraham in a more comprehensible form, ver. 3 : And Abraham said : Behold, to me hast Thou given no seed : and, lo, the son of my house is my heir. No hereditary claim existed, but Abram had, as is seen from vv. 2 and 3, destined the inheritance to his tried and faithful servant, in case he should die childless. The promise of God however raises him above this grievous force of circumstances, ver. 4 : And, behold, the word of Jahveh to him, saying: This man shall not be thine heir, but he that shall go forth out of thine own body, he shall be thine heir. Instead of '•i?^!, we have here nsni, which presents an object to the mind, and instead of ^''^^!^P, xxxv. 11, U'V'O only used of the wife in the more recent custom of the language (xxv. 23), but here, as in 2 Sam. vii. 12, xvi. 11, of the husband: T'yisp. The ecstatic condition of Abram is to be conceived of as continuing, ver. 5 : And Re led him into the open air, and said : Look towards heaven, and count the stars, if thou canst count them. And He said to him: So shall thy seed be, numerous as the stars of heaven (xxii. 1 7, xxvi. 4 ; Ex. xxxii. 13; comp. the fulfilment, Deut. x. 22). Demeanour of Abram with regard to this promise, so paradoxical in
6 GENESIS XV. 6.
itself, ver. 6 : And Air am believed in JahveJi ; and He reckoned it to him for righteousness. The conclusion of the first portion of the narrative, as ver. 18 sqq. is of the second. The perf. states in ver. 6 the basis, as the Imperf. consec. does the fact of the imputation (comp. on i. 2). The verb p^, of whose various use we may take a survey even within the Pentateuch, means to be firm, certain, whence '^^^^^, Ex. xvii. 12, in its first physical meaning firmness and HDX = n:oK (adverbially P^, njpx and ^}^^), truth as firmness and certainty, transitively: to secure, to support, whence "^^OX, pillar, as that which supports, and JOK, a nurse, as he who supports, holds in leading strings, has care of. The Mph. means in a temporal sense to be wearisome, Deut. xxviii. 5 9 ; in a local sense, to be firm, unchangeable, see Isa. vii. 9, 1 Sam. iL 35, and frequently; then to be certified, to be verified, to be proved true, xlii. 20, by man or God: to show oneself trustworthy, partic. genuine, faithful. Num. xii. 7 ; Deut. vii, 9. As I^^.^ signifies faithful, Trto-ro?, the Hiph. prpKH signifies to trust, TriaTeveiv, the cherishing and mani- festing a frame or disposition, which is certain of its object and relies upon it ; with ? of the person or thing, Ex. iv. 8 sq., whose testimony is believingly accepted (comp. Lane under ^^T); with 3 of the person or thing, Deut. xxviii 66, which is believingly rested on as a firm foundation, a certain warrant. Both constructions are met with to designate the attitude towards God. 'n^ r»xn, Deut. ix. 23, but more frequently 'na poNH, xv. 6; Ex. xiv. 31; comp. iv. 31, xix. 9; Num. xiv. 11, xx. 12; Deut. i. 32. The LXX. translates here, koI iiriarevcrev "A/Bpafi tw Oew ; one of the New Testament phrases, irKneveiv et? or eiri top Qeov, iirl or iv Tfo ©e(p, would have been more in conformity with the text. For 'na poxn denotes the faith, not as assensus, but according to the Jiducia or acquiescentia in which it is perfected. "VVe are not merely told that Abram believed the testimony of Him who promised, but that he relied upon
GENESIS XV. 7, 8. 7
His person, and believingly rested in or upon Him. Jahveh reckoned it, this faith, to him (which is the proper meaning of 2^n, {^'■■■'^i here with p of the person, like Ps. xxxii. 2) as righteousness (pP^"^, comp. ^P^f?, Ps. cvi. 31, according to which the LXX, has kuI iXoyiadr] avTw eh hiKaLocrvvqv, like Eom. iv. 3; Gal. iii. 6; Jas. ii. 23). No external legal work whatever, but faith justified Abram before God, while as yet uncircumcised — a prechristian Scripture testi- mony that not in the way of law, but in the way of the promise which brings him salvation, does man attain to a righteousness valid before God, and that this righteousness, far from being self-effected, is as to its foundation a righteous- ness imputed in faith, which grasps the salvation offered in Christ. The promise too, here made to Abram, has truly Christ for its object {sub innumerdbili ilia posteritate latehat Chrisius, as Hunnius remarks) ; the faith in which he receives it, is faith in the promised seed, and Jahveh, in whom Abram believingly rests, is God the Eedeemer. But that this faith is meant to be regarded as the motive power of a new life, is shown by the passage, Ps. cvi. 31, which bears the same relation to Gen. xv. 6 that St. James does to St. Paul. From the righteousness of faith proceeds a righteousness of life, which, for the sake of the source whence it comes, is, like faith itself, reckoned by God as nj^nv.
According to the law, " To him that hath shall be given," the faith of Abram is rewarded with a renewed promise of the possession of the land, ver. 7 : And He said to him : I am Jahveh that led thee out of Ur-Casdim, to give thee this land to take possession of it. This self-testimony of Jahveh is the preliminary stage to that of Ex. xx. 2 — the one conditions and demands the other. It sounds Jahvistico-Deuteronomic. It is then no relapse to unbelief, no fit of weak faith, when Abram says, ver. 8 : 0 Lord of all, Jahveh, whereby shall I know that I shall possess it ? On ns3^ with euphonic Dagesh, see Ewald, § 2436; and on yT", with 3 of the means.
8 GENESIS XV. 9-11.
comp. xlii. 33; Ps. xli. 12; Job xii. 9. It is a question, like Gideon's, Judg. vi. 36 sq., and Hezekiah's, 2 Kings xx. 8, uot of doubt, but of supplication. God does not leave this justifiable desire of faith ungranted, ver. 9 : And He said to him : Take to thee a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. The part. Puhal K'p^'D means here, having reached three, i.e. three years. So most ancient trans- lators (LXX. Sam., Targ. jer., Syr. Jer.) ; comp, also 1 Sam. i. 24, eV /ioo-p^ft) Tpcerc^ovTi, where LXX. Syr. read \^b^D nsa. In spite of the various modes of expression, Isa. xv. 5, Judg. vi. 25, Ex. xii. 5 and elsewhere, no other meaning is possible, neither: having reached the third part of full maturity (which K'^ti'p, Baha mezia 68a, as a Denominative from ^yf, a third of full maturity, means), nor : tripled (i.e. three calves, like Onkelos), nor : divided into thirds, for Abram divided them not into thirds, but halves, ver. 1 0 : And he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the piece of each over against the other, and the hirds he divided not. On SrW}!! tJ'"'N, each, its piece = the piece of each, see on ix. 5. 11 sy is as collective as at Ps. viii. 9, cxlviii. 10; Ezek. xxxix. 4. They are the five clean sacrificial animals accord- ing to the future sacrificial ritual, which Abram is to take ; his leaving the turtle and the dove undivided is also in conformity with it (Lev. i. 17). From his laying the Q''"}'P? opposite each other, it may be inferred that he also laid the turtle dove opposite the pigeon, so that four portions lay on each side. This arrangement was to subserve a Divine purpose, the attainment of which was however endangered, ver. 11 : And the lirds of prey came down upon the carcases, hut Ahram drove them away. He knows not what purpose that which has been thus brought is to serve, but he seeks to preserve it uninjured for a purpose which he hopes to learn. And now preparation is made for the revelation about to be connected with the sacrifice thus lying ready,
GENESIS XV. 12-16. 9
ver. 12 : The sun was just about to go down, and a deep sleep hefell Ahram, and, lo, terror, great darJcness settled upon him. On the construction ^<i^/ ""np, see Ges. § 132, note 1: <^^l?Ji} is deep sleep, ii. 21, here a violent plunging of the natural life of perception and thought into uncon- sciousness and inactivity, a cessation and, as it were, a casting into slumber of the ordinary activity of the mind and senses, for the purpose of unsealing the inner eye. The LXX. here, as also ii. 21, has eKaraai<i. The succession of accents in irpi riDE'n nD''X is the same as at vi. 9. The awful and great darkness is supernatural, for it falls only on Abram, and indeed before sunset. After everything earthly has been rendered invisible to him, God lights up the future, vv. 13-16: And He said to Ahram: Thou art to know, that thy seed shall he a stranger in a land not helonging to them, and they shall serve them, and they shall oppress them four hundred years. And again the nation, whom they shall serve, shall he judged hy me, and afterwards they shall depart with great possessions. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and he huried at a good age. And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet fidl. The strange land, viz. Egypt, is first expressly named to Jacob. The subject of C^naj;! is the descendants of Abram : they are to serve the inhabitants of the strange land (nny, with an ace, like xxix. 15 ; Ex. xxi. 6 ; Deut. xx. 11). The LXX. has wrongly koX SovXooaovaiv ainov^, they shall enslave them (thy descendants), which would be 11?J?1 03. The Divine retribution begins with DJl. The expression I'ribx-^X Ni3n is like Ps. xlix. 19, and differs from xxv. 8. This is the first time in Holy Scripture that we meet with the word ^y>f, which (coming from V \>^) means release, deliverance from care and want, and therefore peace, in the sense of both contentment and satisfaction. T^"! "ini is an ace. of time (comp. xvi. 45). The LXX. correctly has : rerdpTrj hk yevea. The synecdochic designation of the
\
10 GENESIS XV. 13-16.
inhabitants of the Promised Land as "}bt<n is a different one from that at xii. 6, xiii. 7. Thus the sojourn in Egypt is to last 400 years, so that in (as in Nestor, reeved, ii. 1. 250) is a seculum of 100 years — a round number, instead of which we find, Ex. xii. 40 (Q), the more accmate statement, 430 years, with which the genealogy, Ex. vi. 16 sqq., apparently agrees. For the 137 years of Levi, the 133 of Kehath, the 137 of Amram, and the 80 of Moses at the exodus, un- doubtedly the representatives of the four generations, give above 400 years, but only if they are added together without regard to synchronism. Hence the LXX. already reckons, Ex. xii. 40, in the 430 the sojourn in Canaan. This is the view handed down in the synagogue (e.g. Pesikta de Bah Cahana, ed. Buber, 47&; Mechilta Parasha, ^2, c. 14), and thence among the Syrians, from which also St. Paul proceeds, GaL iii. 1 7. For if we reckon the 25 years from Abraham's entrance into Canaan, and the first promises given him to the birth of Isaac, the 60 years from Isaac's birth to that of Jacob, the 130 thence to Jacob's going into Egypt, together 215 years, with the 215 years of the Egyptian sojourn, they come to 430 years. The genealogy, Ex. vi. 16 sqq., with the numbers of the years of life of Levi, Kehath, and Amram, which to- gether amount to 407 years, prove at least that a generation might at that period be reckoned at 120 (in round numbers 100) years ; and we must at any rate estimate a generation according to the numbers in Ex. xii. 40, and not lessen the numbers to suit it. This is however a problem, the discus- sion of which belongs to Ex. vi. 16 sqq. or Ex. xii. 40, and not to our passage. The revelation here made to Abraham is both in its special and general meaning a new disclosure : he learns that the race, of which he is destined to become the ancestor, is to go through suffering to glory — henceforth a law in the history of redemption (comp. Luke xxiv. 26 ; Acts xiv. 22). What preceded this revelation now appears in the symbolical light thrown upon it thereby. The three years of
GENESIS XV. 17. 11
age of the heifer, the goat and the ram impress upon what is in question the stamp of holiness, for three is the number of God in His nature (comp. the number seven, Judg. vi. 25). The carcases of the animals lying opposite each other in fours allude to the four seasons ; the birds of prey rusbing down like harpies upon the pieces (comp. Virgil, JEn. iii. 244 sqq.) to the nations hostile to the Lord's people (comp. Deut. xxviii. 49) ; and the awful darkness presents an anticipation and prefiguration of the fact that the light of glory will arise only from the dark background of previous suffering. But before God manifests Himself in perceptible majesty, it gets yet darker within and without, ver. 17 : And it came to pass, the sun went down and deep darkness took place, and behold a smoking furnace and a Jlaming torch which passed hctween these pieces. The name of the sun, generally masculine, is here as elsewhere, only, Nah. iii. 17, Isa. xlv. 6, Mai. iii. 20, femi- nine. What follows M^l, is fashioned according to the scheme of contemporaneousness, like xxvii. 30, comp. vii. 6 ; the two perfects coincide, the state of the case is essentially the same at 12a (Driver, § 165). With sunset the darkness of night set in (HM for nn^n^ according to Ges. § 147, note 2), then between the parts of the sacrifice there passed an appearance as of a smoking furnace QfV, adj. = "{^V), i.e. (the point of comparison being only the cylindrical form^) of a pillar of smoke and a flaming torch rising up from it. It is Jahveh, whose glory is in its manifestation a shining light from a dark background, who has ordained for all His creatures darkness as the substratum of light, and who also permits His people to attain to light in no other way than through darkness. Thus manifesting Himself, He confirms
• See on tanner, Assyr. tinuru, Friedr. Delitzsch, Proleg. 146 ; D. H. Miiller in the Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, i. 23 sq. ; and for confirmation of the fundamental meaning there accepted, "hollow, concave vessel," Wetzstein in the Transactions of the Anthropological Society, 1882, p. 467. A detailed history of the word is given by Rud. Dvorak in the Zeitschrift fiir Keilschrift-forschung, 1882, but with the inadmissible result, that it is a word derived from the Persian.
12 GENESIS XV. 18-21.
what He had promised, vv. 18-21 : On that day Jahveh made a covenant with Ahram, saying : To thy seed I give this land, from the river of ^gypt to the great river, the river Euphrates — the Kenite and Kenizzite and Kadmonite, and the Hittite and Ferizzite and the Rephairn, and the Emorite and Canaanite and Girgashite and Jehusite, The perfect ''^r\2 ap- plies, as at i. 29, ix. 2 sq., to what is determined; elsewhere as at XX. 16, to what is performed at the time of speaking. It is nowhere else promised that the land of Israel is to reach to Egypt, hence the Q'''])fp iDp here, and the iroTa/j,b<i AlyvTrrov, Judith L 9, is the D^']-^'? p^^ (nahal Musur in Asurbanipal's account of the war) often named as the southern boundary of Palestine, the Wddi el- Arts, which, now as a shallow brook, now as a rushing torrent, runs through the entire northern portion of the Siuaitic peninsula, and falls into the Mediter- ranean near the village el- Arts, the ancient 'PivoKoXovpa, the " nose-docked town " (from KoKovpo<i, dock-tailed, then docked in general = koXo^o^) of the Ethiopian conqueror 'Aktio-uvt}^, Diodor, i, 60. The appellation of this boundary stream as D^Tifp "liiT'C', 1 Chron. xiii. 5, comp. 1 Kings viii. 65, Josh, xiii. 3, may arise from its having been erroneously regarded as the most westerly portion of the net of channels of the Nile, though it might also, as Ebers admits, have been so called as the first Egyptian water met with in coming from Palestine. On the names of the Euphrates, see on ii. 14, The nations cited are exactly ten. The Kenites dwelling in the farthest south-east, whose name corresponds with al-Kain, a branch of the Arabian tribe Kodaa (DMZ. xl. 181), the likewise southern Kenizzites (comp. on xxxvi. 15) and the Kadmo- nites, i.e. as it seems the Arabs dwelling farthest to the north-east, are first mentioned. Beginning thus from the border of the land, the enumeration proceeds in a zigzag from south to north to express absolute perfection, whose symbol is the number ten. Instead of the ten, six nations are named, Ex. iii. 8, 17, xxiii. 23, Deut. xx. 17 ; and seven, Deut. vii. 1,
GENESIS XV. 18-21. 13
Josh. iii. 10. In both instances the 'y?, '??i5, 'Jtoli? and D^xa-i here enumerated are omitted. The number seven is com- pleted by the here unmentioned "'^n. "Where only six are named, the ""^'p^ reckoned among the seven are wanting.
The transaction here designated by nna ma consists in the engagement, ver, 18, comp. 7, and its pledge. This trans- action has always been regarded (see e.g. the Targums) as the entering into a covenant by means of a covenant sacrifice ; and not incorrectly, although neither a covenant proper is entered into nor a sacrifice proper offered. There is no proper entering into a covenant ; for God grants and confirms a pro- mise to Abram, on which account it is He only who passes between the portions of the sacrifice. Hence it is not a covenant in the sense of a padio, but of a sponsio. rmn ma is also elsewhere used, both of the promises of God to man, Ex. xxxiv. 10 (also ma alone, 2 Chron. vii. 18 ; comp. Hag. ii. 5), and of the promises of man to God, Ezra x. 3. Nor is a proper sacrifice offered, for this laying of the pieces (^"'102 or D^'iTa) is not the same as the laying of the portions of the sacrifice upon the altar. Nor is it said that the fire of Jahveh consumed them (comp. Judg. vi. 21; 1 Kings xviii. 38) ; hence the expression of Josephus, Ant. i. 10. 3, Ovaiav irpoa^epei tco Oeaj, is unsuitable. On the other hand, it is still a sacrificial transaction, to which, indeed, although the central mark of a sacrifice — the oUatio — does not apply, its fundamental mark — the sacratio — does, for it is for the purpose of worship that Abram slays the animals and lays the pieces. Hence the animals slain and divided into pieces on the occasion of entering into covenants are also called in Latin and Greek lepeia and hostice, and the oath combined with this rite is designated in Demosthenes as ofivvvai Ka6' lepSiv or Ka6' lepdv T€\€Lct)v, in Pausanias as opKov BtBovai eVt TOfiicov (comj). Hesych. s.v. rcfiia), although the pieces of the animals were neither burnt in honour of God nor partially eaten, but buried or thrown into water, and the eating of them, as affected by
14 GENESIS XV. 18-21.
the curse, iuterdicted. Accordingly we find in this case the performance of what the word ^''If (from ni3=Kn2, to cut) originally means, and what the phrases n"'"i3 nna (Aram. Q*p "il2), opKia re/xveiv, fcedus ferire, i.e. ferienda hostia, facere foedus (comp. Pers. peimdn burtden, to cut an alliance, Turkish habini kymak, to cut in pieces = to conclude a marriage settlement) properly state. God accommodates Himself, says Ephrem {0pp. vol. i. p. 162), in this transaction to the custom of the Chaldeans, for it was their solemn usage to pass torch in hand between the divided carcases of the animals, laid opposite each other in an appointed order, and so to inaugurate the cove- nants they entered into. They thus imprecated upon them- selves a like death with these animals (comp. Stp^oTo/xety, Luke xii. 46) in case they transgressed the covenant. Comp. Liv. ix. 5 : ut eum ita Jupiter feriat quemadmodum a fetialibtis porcus feriatur ; xxi. 45 : (Z>w) ita mactarent, quemadmodum ipse mactasset agnum, and also the ancient oath, per Jovem lapidem, in which the swearer held a stone in his hand, and (according to Paulus Diaconus) said: Si sciens /alio, turn me Dispiter salva urbe arceque bonis ejiciat uti ego Imnc lapidem. Here, where it is Jahveh who binds Himself by a covenant, self-imprecation seems out of the question. But it is just this which is essential in this custom, and that this was the case in Israel also is shown by Jer. xxxiv. 18, where Jahveh gives this reference to the n^ian "lay. The passing of Jahveh between the pieces is an act of deepest condescension, to the same effect as His elsewhere swearing by Himself, xxii. 16, or by His life, Deut. xxxii. 40, or still more anthropomorphi- cally by His soul, Amos vi. 8 ; Jer. li. 14. It is thus that the occurrence is also viewed by St. Luke, Acts vii. 17, in his reproduction of the speech of Stephen. Jahveh condescends so deeply that He may testify to Abram as palpably, impres- sively, and memorably as possible, to afierdOerov t?}? ^ovXt}? avrov (Heb. vi. 1 7). But the deeper His condescension, tlie more majestic is His appearance. God's manner of manifest-
GENESIS XVI. 1-4. 15
ing Himself in His intercourse with the patriarchs is on other occasions more gentle and familiar. Here it is purposely more sublimely terrible than elsewhere.
THE EVENTS PRECEDING THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL, CH. XVI.
The second portion of the second section, ch. xvi., which relates the birth of Ishmael, shows us once more how every- thing went on in the family of Abram contrary to human thoughts and ways. Sarai remains barren after the covenant as before. She rashly gives up the hope of being called to take part in the realization of the promise, and associates her Egyptian maid with Abram, by whom the latter becomes the mother of Ishmael. The narrator is J ; but ver. 3 shows itself to be from Q, and the birth of Ishmael, ver. 15 sq., also is related in words from Q, because this source had in this case the advantage of greater accuracy.
A verse stating the circumstances precedes and is then followed by the facts aimed at in the historical manner, vv. 1-4; And Sarai, Abram' s wife, tare him no cliild: and she had an Egyptian maid, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram : Behold, now, Jahveh has restrained me, that I should not bare. Go in, I pray thee, to my maid, perhaps I may obtain children from her. And Sarai, Abram' s wife, took the Egyptian Hagar, her maid, after the lapse of ten years since Abram' s dwelling in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she con- ceived, and when she perceived that she had conceived, her mistress became little in her eyes, la is not a repetition of xi. 30 : the barrenness of Sarai continued in Canaan also. Probably Hagar was one of the female slaves bestowed upon Abram by Pharaoh, ch. xii. 16. The historic nature of the name is supported by the national name of the D^lin (^''^^^IJi]). Being Sarai's handmaid, she was, as is still the custom, entirely at her mistress's disposal. Sarai resigns her to Abram to use
16 GENESIS XVI. 5, 6.
her as nc^x (i.e. K'J.^'S) rim)^ that she may herself be built up, i.e. obtain children by her (xxx. 3 ; comp. 1 Pet. ii. 5), The idea is a different one from when, with reference to the cottage or arbour set up for the nuptials of a newly-married pair {DMZ. xxxii. 153), it is said of the man in relation
to the woman in Arabic l^jJx ^Jo, or in Bedouin diction
l^jlt {ji^jS-' The family is represented as a house, procreation as building, and becoming a mother as being built up. He who begets is called in Assyrian Idni, "my father," abu hdnij'a ; she who begets hdnitu, and that which is begotten hinittu or nahnitu. The original form of I? is hanj O, accord- ing to Arabic grammarians = yS), as that of YV is 'aaj
(Lic ^yns). /K Nia to a woman is the same as l^ J^ J, he went in unto her, viz. into the marriage chamber. Abram consents to Sarai's request, D"'^?^?. V^.T K"i52p (Mai. ii. 15). The intention was good, but also nothing farther. Ten years had then elapsed since Abram settled in Canaan (nsc'p without the tone on the first syllable, because it subordinates genitiv- ally the following subject). When Hagar found that she had conceived she felt herself raised above her former position, and behaved herself as if she had taken Sarai's place, her mistress, to whom she was indebted for her new position, being henceforth little accounted of by her. /'ipw?, impf. Kal, with a of the intransitive, j?y has an accented ultima, comp., on the contrary, y^'.i; the accentuation vacillates, Ges. § 67, note 3. Sarai now complains of the arrogant conduct of the concubine, and so requites it that she flees, vv. 5, 6 : And Sarai said to Abram : My suffering wrong is thy fault. I gave my maid, into thy hosom, and now that she sees she has conceived, I am little in her eyes — Jahveh judge between me and thee. And Abram said to Sarai : Behold, thy maid is in thy power, do to her as seems good to thee. And Sarai dealt hardly with her, and she jled from her. With IvV ^ppn Sarai
GENESIS XVI. 7. 17
makes her husband responsible for the injury she suffers (comp. Jer. li, 35), and appeals to the judgment of God. 'T'3"'3i has a super-punctuated second Yod, because p?, with the sutfix of the second person, elsewhere has always the singular form. Abram saw his closest relation disturbed, and left it to Sarai to deal according to her own judgment with her slave, who was indeed entirely at her disposal. Hie se Abram ostendit, says Augustine, non amatorem servum, sed genitorem liberum. Sarai abundantly requited Hagar's arrogance by unkind treatment ; and Hagar, who found the situation unendurable, took flight. Her name, '^^^, corresponds (we know not whether accidentally or intentionally) with this fact. For liagara (whence the
name Higra and the erotic js^^ J-*j union and separation) means to break off intercourse with any one, to separate oneself, to depart, in opposition to which mn has the mean- ing of to flee from the perverse, the crooked (comp. nnzi, cross-piece of timber) direction entered upon.
What a number of mishaps ensued from this course of action, which endeavoured arbitrarily to bring about the fulfilment of the Divine promise instead of patiently waiting for it ! God's faithfulness to His covenant however turned all into blessing, ver. 7 : And the angel of Jaliveh found her hy the fountain of vjater in the wilderness, hy the fountain on the way to "Sitr. Hagar was purposing to flee to Egypt by the way of Beersheba. She made use of the road at all times the most frequented : the way to liitr, a place no longer ascertainable (xx. 1) in "iVi^^ nnnrp (Ex. xv. 22), i.e. (according to Saadia) in the desert region of el 'Gifdr (jlis}!), from five to seven days' journey long, between the south-west of Philistia and the north-east of Egypt, reaching as far south as beyond Kulzum (Suez), and including the Tih heni Isrdil (the wilderness of Pharan). The angel of Jahveh there appears to her. This is the first time we meet with this kind of revelation of God by means of an angel. How are we to understand it ?
VOL. II. B
18 GENESIS XVI. 7.
Is the angel of God God Himself, making Himself visible as an angel, or only an angel of whom God makes use as the organ of His self-manifestation ? The angel is called explicitly mn'' (xviii. 33; Judg. vi. 14; Zech. i. 13, iii. 2, and frequently), wrhii and ^s (xxxii. 25 sqq. ; Hos. xii. 5, comp. 4), and designates Himself as the God of salvation (xxxi, 13; Ex. iii. 2, 6 sqq.). On the other hand, the very
name *]X^0 (from ^s^, cJ^ CJJ^> Aeth. la'dJca, to cause to go, to bid go, hence : sending, properly, as the Arabs rightly
interpret their cJJU, the accessory, and presumably the root-
form of (jJiU, n. verb, dbstr., then one sent) already leads to the personal distinction of the sender (xxiv. 7 ; Ex, xxxiii. 2 ; Num. XX. 16) and the sent. We have here then a problem with important pros and cons. The ancient synagogue regards the angel of God as a created angel, calls him pintDO, metator, as he who marches before and is the pioneer of Israel, and explains his speaking as though he were Jahveh Himself by Ex. xxiii. 21, according to which "his name is as the name of his Lord" (Sanhedrin SSb). The ancient Church, on the contrary, sees in this angel the appearance of the Son of God, the Logos, in the form of an angel. Tlavrl BrjXov — says Basil, adv. Eunom. ii. 18 — otv evOa koX dyyeXo^ koI &eo^ 6 avTO^ TrpocrrjyopeveTai, 6 fiovoyevi]'; i<m SijXovfievo^i. This prevailing ancient ecclesiastical view found welcome support in Isa. ix. 5, LXX. (fi€yd\T}<i ^ov\rj<; a'77eXo9), and Isa. Ixiii. 9, LXX. (ov irpea^v; ovSe ayyeXo'i, a>OC avr6<;). On the other hand, the view that the angel of God is everywhere a created angel, is found in the ancient Church only in the Clementines (Rom. xx. 7, in the closing portion made known by means of Dressel). It is also found in Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great, most decidedly in Theodore and Theodoret, and more recently in Grotius, Clericus, and Calixtus. This view has now for a long time been discredited, because Jewish expositors since the Middle Ages (see Levi b. Gerson
GENESIS XVI. 7. 19
on Gen. xvi. 7) have maintained the creaturehood of the angel of Jahveh in an antichristian, and Socinians in an antitrinitarian interest. More recently however Steudel has been the first to attempt its complete establishment, and V. Hofmann, Baumgarten and Kohler {Comm. on Zcchariah, 1861) are on the same side. The history (xviii.— xix. 28) will show that the LOED is conceived of as being in each of the three angels there appearing ; that not one is, in preference to the others, Jahveh Himself in visible manifestation, but that all three are so, though in different manners, according to the will of God, who is using them as His organs, hence that all three are finite spirits made visible (Philo, 0pp. ii. 17: lepai Kol delai (J3vcret<}, VTrohiaKovoi koX v'TTap')(Qt, rod nrpciiTov Geov, so too Josephus and the Talmud, Mezia 86&). Where then the 'n IK^o appears, it will not be Jahveh Himself, but the angel (^^??''?, xlviii. 16), or an angel (*1X^0 without an art, Ex. xxiii. 20, xxxiii. 2; Num. xx, 16; Hos. xii. 5) in whom Jahveh is and of whom He makes use as His organ. That the angel of Jahveh can, without being Jahveh Himself, call himself and let himself be called Jahveh, takes place, according to Berachoth ver. 5, i>jr im^B'Si' '•jsn iniDD D^K, i.e. because the delegated is equal to the delegator. With this may be compared that in the Iliad, 18. 170 sqq. Iris, the messenger of Juno, speaks as though she were herself Juno, and Talthybios, 4. 204, as though he were the person who sends him ; and further, that in Herodot. i, 212, the messenger of Tomyris speaks to Cyrus as though he were Tomyris himself; Psamenit, Herod, iii. 14, to the messenger of Cambyses, as though he were Cambyses ; Cyrus, in Xenoph. Cyrop. 3. 3. § 56, to the ambassador of Cyaxares, as though the latter were in his presence. We have too, in Zech. ii. 12 sqq., a remarkable example of the words of Jahveh and His angel being intermixed, and at Eev. xxii. 6 sqq. a New Testament parallel entirely corre- sponding to the manner of the 'n ixbo. Here the very same
20 GENESIS XVI. 7.
angel, who elsewhere distinguishes himself in the most decided manner from God and His Christ (xxii. 9), says : IBov ep^ofiat Ta'x^u. The angel of Jahveh, speaking from him- self, prays to Jahveh, Zech. i. 12 : How long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah ? And at Zech, iii. 2 he says to Satan : Jahveh rebuke thee ! which, according to Jude 9, is only said by one who ov To\/xd Kpiatv iireveyKelv ^Xaa(f)r}fiia<; (see Kohler on Zech. p. 60). When then he says to Aloses, Ex. iii. 6 : I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it is the invisible God who is speaking from him who is His organ. This is how the New Testament regards it. For Stephen, Acts vii. 30, calls the angel who appeared to Moses in the burning bush d<y<ye\o<i Kvplov, or, according to A. B, C. S., merely dyyeko';, and he cannot have thought of the angel, of whom he says, ver. 38, that he spake with Moses on Mount Sinai, as a Divine Being, since he says, ver. 53 : eXa/Sere vofjLov eh 8taTayd<; ayyeXrov, with which also St. Paul agrees, Gal. iii. 19 and Heb. ii. 2. The law is, as distinguished from the direct revelation of God in Christ Jesus, SiarayeU Bi dyyeXoiv, is 8i dyyiXcov XakrjOeU X0709 — these New Testament statements are absolutely opposed to the identi- fication of the angel of Jahveh and the Logos. Equally unfavourable to this view is it, that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 2, where he alludes to Gen. xviii. 19, would certainly have expressed himself differently if he had regarded one of the three angels as directly God (a fact to which Augustine appeals, de civ. xvi. 29). Also, that in the two first chaps, of St. Matthew's Gospel, the parallelism of which with the Pentateuchal primitive histories is unmistakeable, the Old Testament angel of Jahveh is transformed into dyye\o<; Kvpiov (an angel of the Lord). Hence the New Testament Scriptures are on our side if we say, that Jahveh manifests Himself in the 1X^0, in a manner which prefigures and prepares the way for the incarnation, by means of a
GENESIS XVI. 7. 21
finite spirit, which becomes visible. The angel of Jahveh is Jahveh's Q"'?3, and yet he is not.^ He is 1''JQ, Deut. iv. 37, but VJ3 TjS^p, Isa. Ixiii. 9. He is not that direct Presence of God which mortals cannot look upon, and therefore Manoah's fear proved groundless, when he feared he should die because he had seen God, Judg. xiii. 21 sqq. The angel of Jahveh is an angel in whom Jahveh lets His face be seen (xxxii. 31) ; but this is brought to pass by means of a created being, for no man can see it directly without dying, Ex. xxxiii. 20. He is, as i3"ipn ''O^ in the unique passage, Ex. xxiii. 20-22, declares, the medium and mediator of God's self-manifestation, but not God manifest Himself. The angelophanies of God were a prefiguration of His Christophany. Hence the mediator of the new covenant is called, Mai. iii. 1, '^Npo nnan (comp. Isa. xlii. 6, xlix. 8, and also Heb. iii. 1). He is called thus, not as the incarnate angel of Jahveh, but as the man in whom Jahveh fulfils the covenant, for the realization of which He was preparing the way by appearing in His angel. It is significant that in our passage the angel of Jahveh appears first, not to Abram, but to Hagar, and indeed after the concluding of the covenant, ch. xv. If he were the God of the revelation Himself, his appearance would have been no new event, since Jahveh had not only spoken, but also appeared (xii. 7) to Abram before, ch. xv. If, on the contrary, the appearance by the means of the angel is a new and peculiar manner of revelation, this explains the fact of its not taking place till after the conclusion of that covenant, the purpose of which it was appointed to serve, by being a means of that gradual realization of its promise which was now commencing.
Hagar is resting by a fountain when he finds her ; i^^^*^?!, like 1 Chron. xx. 2, for \}—. A fountain is called IIJ?, as though
^ The section, Ex. xxxii. 30-xxxiv. 10, can no more than Ex. xiv. 19 be
turned to account in ascertaining what is the idea of the 'n ISrD, without critical analysis.
22 GENESIS XVI. 8-12.
it were a weeping eye of earth, in Spanish Arabicized as ojo de agua. Shakespeare, in the Winter Night's Tale, compares a beautiful landscape to a female face, and the surface of the water to its eyes. Here at the fountain the angel sends Hagar back to her mistress, vv. 8, 9 : And he said : Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou and whither goest thou ? She said : I Jlee hefore Sarai, my mistress. And the angel of Jahveh said to her : Return to thy mistress, and low thyself under her hands. Upon this condition he promises her, again taking the initiative, an innumerable posterity, ver. 10: And the angel of Jahveh said to her: I will increase, yea increase thy seed, and it shall not he able to he numbered for multitude. Then taking the initiative for the third time, he promises her the son through whom the promise made to Abram, xv. 5, shall find a reflected fulfilment in her case, on the ground of her belonging to the patriarch's family, vv. 11, 12: And the angel of Jahveh said to her: Behold, thou art pregnant, and shall hear a son, and shall call his name Jismdel ; for Jahveh hath heard thy affliction. And he shall he a wild ass of a man; his hand shall he against every one, and the hand of every one against him. And he shall dwell eastward of all his brethren. Together with the participial adj. nnn, as at xxxviii. 24 and frequently, comp. 2 Sam. xi. 5, stands ^i?'', the unaltered root-form of ri"ip\ as at Judg. xiii. 5, 7 ; comp. on the contrary, xvii. 19 ; Isa. vii. 4. Elsewhere also in J, from iv. 1 onwards, the mother appears as the giver of the name, as the father does in Q, from v. 3 onwards. In the reason for the name ''^^yo'f ^. we have r\'\r['' instead of the more obvious D^n^s, xxi. 17. The genitival combination ^1^ t<7??, a wild ass of human species, is like -'"'ps D'lN, a fool of human species, i.e. one conspicuous in it as such, Prov. XV. 20. This image of the K"iQ, Arab. /cm, the beautiful and swift animal which when grown cannot be caught, described Job xxxix. 5-8, brings vividly before us the unbounded love of freedom of the hardy and frugal
GENESIS XVI. 13. 23
Bedouin, who despises the life of cities, and roves about, spear in hand, in the desert on his camel (delul), or subse- quently on his horse. The words 'i^l 7D7=732 iT describe an incessant war of attack and defence, as an Arabic poet says : I have fraternized with war ; if I do not stir up the war myself, I am the shield of him who stirs it up/ The words 'l31 \33-^y (like xxiii. 19, xxv. 18) state the eastern dwelKng- place of the Ishmaelites among those of the Abrahamites: the peninsula between the Tigris, the isthmus of Suez and the Eed Sea, which became the cradle of wandering hordes for the tropical latitudes of North Africa and South Asia, an active human fountain whose streams have flowed for millenniums far and wide, eastward and westward, conquering the nations from the Ebro to the Oxus, and remaining themselves invincible. Hagar rightly recognises in the angel who had thus placed before her eyes the future of her son, the Presence of Jahveh, ver. 13: And she called the name of Jahveh who spake to her: Oh, Thou God of sight; for she said: Have I here also looked after him that seeth me ? She calls him ""i^T ???, God of seeing, i.e. the All-seeing, whose all-seeing eye the helpless and forsaken does not escape, even in the remotest corner of the wilderness ; for — as she says — have I here (Q^H, elsewhere hue, Ex. iii. 5, here Jiic), even here in the wilder- ness, far from the patriarch's home, looked after him who is seeing me (who has seen me ?). ""i^T is generally, but wrongly, taken for a pausal form of ''^^7., which must have been ^^<^, with the tone on the penultima, like ''")if, from ^IJf, Ezek. xxvii. 17, found at Job vii. 8 (see Baer) as a various reading, but as a masoretically authenticated one, only at 1 Sam. xvi. 12. And ''n''X"i is usually understood, as already by Onkelos, in the sense of videns = vivus (like opewv or 8eSopKco<i = ^cov) mansi, which would have required "^^i^"!^ or nsT vs, or better, as Wellh. (Froleg. 2nd edit. p. 339,
' Schwarzlose, Lie Waffcn der alten Araber (1886), p. 34.
24 GENESIS XVI. 14.
note 2) reads, according to Judg. vi. 22, xiii. 22, Ex. xxxiii. 20: V^) V^^"]. But this V^] makes '•si nnx inexplicable, which cannot mean " after my seeing " (so already Gesch. 344), for which ^0^^^"! ''""^^ is the expression required. Hence "•xi """inx must be taken together, nnx in a local sense, like Isa. xxxvii. 22, and the "looking after" in the sense of Ex. xxxiii. 23. Jahveh appeared to her in His angel. "While he was speaking to her he saw her, but it was not granted her to look him in the face; however, as he was disappearing, she could look after him, whose gracious Providence had not overlooked her in her misery. The fountain also received a name from the occurrence, ver. 1 4 : Therefore the well was called Beer lachai rot; it lies between Kades and Bered. It was in remembrance of Hagar's experience a sacred place, xxiv. 62, xxv. 11. The b in the name is the Lamed of dedication, like Isa. viii. 1. If ^n"'S"i, lol, could mean vivus mansi, the explanation, "He who sees me is (remains) alive," might commend itself; but then God or the angel would be the speaker, which is inconceivable. Hence it is, on the contrary : the well of the Living One, my beholder, i.e. who sees me (like Job viii. 8, instead of V??\ Isa. xxix. 15, or ''?^n, Isa. xlvii. 10). Onkelos, with real correctness, has : Well of the angel of the Living One {'^^)'9 XO'p), who made himself visible to me. For t^'7P and T^^ the Syriac has : between DpT and ma nn, Onkelos : between Dpi and ^<^J^ (which in him, ver. 7 = "W^), Targ. Jerus.: between Dpi and n^lbn (Elusa) ; the Targums elsewhere render Kadesh-Barnea by ('"ix-a) nv'^p Dpi. The problematic situation of Kadesh was spoken of at xiv. 7. John Rowlands, whose observations H. Clay Trumbull found on the spot to be perfectly trustworthy, discovered Hagar's well, or at least that which is now esteemed
such, at Muweilih (^Ly<, the name of the black camel, which
is esteemed the best), a place still provided with water, south of Beersheba. It is a chief station on the caravan road from
GENESIS XVII, 25
Beerslieba along the 'Gebel es-Sur which runs from north to south, and is combined by Eowlands with -n:^'. The Bedouins not only connect the well of Muweilih, but also a rocky dwelling in the neighbourhood, with Hagar, perhaps because .:s^.i> and .s^^- (rock) seem to them as much combined as in the Text. Eec. of Gal. iv. 25. It is certainly this very well of which Jerome says : hodieque Agar puteus demonstratur. Here the fugitive Hagar seems to have had that manifestation of God by which she was directed to return to Abram's house. She also showed herself obedient, and became the mother of Ishmael, vv. 15, 16: And Hagar lore Ahram a son : and Ahram called the name of his son, whom Hagar hare, Jihnael. And Ahram was eighty-six years old when Hagar hare Jihnael to Ahram. That what the angel had predicted came to pass is told by J also, but the Eedactor preferred to reproduce it as found in Q. The birth of Ishmael took place in Abram's eighty-sixth year, for he was seventy-five years old at his entry into Canaan, and ten years (ver. 4) together with the time of Hagar's pregnancy had elapsed. Abram has now a son, but is he the seed which the promises of God have in view ? This question Abram cannot himself answer. He must often have asked it of God, till at last he received the answer related ch. xvii.
THE SIGN OE THE COVENANT, THE CHANGE OF NAME, AND THE PKOMISE OF THE BIRTH OF ISAAC, CH. XVII.
The third section of Abram's life begins with ch. xvii., a portion characteristic of Q. Elohim seals His covenant with Abram, giving him the name of promise, Abraham, and insti- tuting circumcision as the sign of the covenant (1—14). Sarai also receives the name of promise, Sarah, and is now distinctly designated as the mother of Isaac, who, while to Ishmael also are awarded abundant blessings, is to receive the one all-sur-
26 GENESIS XVII.
passing blessing, that God will make with him and with his seed an everlasting covenant (15—22). Elohim, who has since the Fall been enthroned far from men, and since the Flood far from the earth, having reascended, Abraham in his ninety-ninth year, and in Ishmael's thirteenth, circumcises himself, his son and his whole household (23-27). Thus this first portion of the third section, which corresponds with and continues the first portion of the second section, falls into three strictly distinct divisions. This strophic artistically rounded off design, with its terminating exclamations, its frequent repetitions like strokes upon the same nail, the Divine names wrhii and nc' bx, the whole system of favourite expressions grouped about these names and always found with them (njns, iyJ3 pK, naria, rb)n not ih\ n^i3 D^pn, and nnn m: not nna ma, -larb, nrn-h, nko nxo, nnjp, cip3-n3i50, n'tsyo Ninn c^Dan nnnaji, nh)]} nm^b and nna^ nbSv, n^r} Di'n nxjJ3, nnii nns), in short all and everything bears the mark of Q, who here gives completely in its historical place an important portion of the Thorah, which is after- wards taken for granted in the Codex, Lev. xii. 3, without farther explanation. Elsewhere too he refers to this funda- mental confirmation of the covenant, Ex. vi. 3 sq., and when xvii. 16 sq. is compared with xviii. 10-15, shows himself to be an independent and separate narrator, nna is repeated thirteen times, whence an ancient eulogy of circumcision {Nedarim 31Z>, comp. Berachoth 48&) says: im33B' Tih^D nWM
There has been much contention as to whether a custom existing elsewhere was transferred by Divine sanction to the race of the promise, or whether the origin of all circumcision is to be traced back to its Divine sanction for Abram. The circumcision of boys of thirteen, already existing among the Arabic Ishmaelites before Mohammed (Joseph. Ant. i. 12. 2), refers itself to the patriarch as a component part of the Din Ibrahim (the religion of Abraham). There is however, besides these two possibilities, still a third. "When Herodotus testifies
GENESIS XVII. 27
to the customariness of circumcision among the Colchians, Egyptians and ^Ethiopians, among the Syrians at the rivers Thermodon and Parthenios, among the Phoenicians and Macronians, and remarks that the Palestinian Syrians and the Phoenicians confess to having learnt it from the Egyptians, as the Syrians at the Thermodon and Parthenios do to having it from the Colchians (ii, 104): its dissemination by way of imitation among this circle of nations (to which belong also, according to Diodorus, iii. 32, the Troglodytes, and apparently, according to Jer. ix. 25, Edom, Ammon and Moab) is indeed still conceivable ; and we may assume, with Ewald, that the still existing custom among the Ethiopian Christians, the negroes of the Congo, etc., is the remnant of an ancient African view of the matter which started from the valley of the Nile. But we also meet with circumcision in America among many Indian tribes, e.g. the Salivas, the Guamos, the Otamocos on the Orinoco, who circumcise infants of both sexes on the eighth day after birth, as also among the inhabi- tants of Yucatan and the Mexicans (see Martins, Indianer Sudamerika's, p. 582 sq.). It has likewise been found in the South Sea Islands, e.g. in the Eiji Islands, in a manner similar to the Jewish, and among the most southerly negro tribes, e.g. the Damaras (Owaherero) in tropical South Africa, whose chiefs, we are told by Francis Galton, slew half a dozen oxen on a circumcision day, as on a day of festivity. Here we cannot imagine any connection with either the Abrahamic or the ancient Egyptian circumcision, unless we were, with the crack-brained author of the Palaeorama (1868), to transfer the primitive history of mankind from Asia to America, and let it be played out originally in the latter, and only imitatively in the former. The case is the same with heathen circumcision as with heathen sacrifice. As sacrifice arose from the feeling of the need of an atonement, so did circumcision from the feeling of the impurity of human nature. This too is the point of sight under which it is placed in Israel. The uncircumcised
28 GENESIS XVII.
is esteemed as ^P^, the foreskin npny as "^^^^ '^°''^^ ^^•> ^^ which account hereditary spiritual uncleanness is figuratively called (Lev. xxvi. 41; Deut. x. 16, xxx. 6 and frequently) npiy of the heart, while circumcision is regarded as the taking away of nNp;p (whence it is in Arabic simply called tulitr or tatliir, purification), and as the first of all covenant duties for every member of the holy nation, Ex. xix. 6 ; comp. Num. xvi. 3. The uncircumcised appeared not merely as one standing outside the holy covenant, but also as one naturally unclean (comp. Ex. xii. 48 with Lev. vii. 20). The natural and ethical prerequisites of circumcision are however implied in each other. The reason for circumcision appearing as a requirement of bodily purity, is to be found in the fact that human natural life culminates in the intercourse of the sexes, and therefore its carnalization culminates in the flesh Kar i^. (1^3, Lev. XV. 2 ; Ezek. xvi. 26), that there is the chief seat of both moral and natural impurity, and that there sin prevails most unrestrictedly and is transmitted in ever new combina- tions from parents to children. Hence also the injunction that the child is to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth (ver. 12 ; Lev. xii. 3), for both the male child and she who bare him are in a state of uncleanness for seven days, and the child is not to be subjected to circumcision till after separation for the embryonal aliment. To the physico-ethic prerequisites of circumcision is also added the historical, viz. that a nation of redemption is to be begotten, that it may become the redemption of the nations. There is therefore no place of human nature which could be more in need of a sign of the Divine approval than the place of generation. Circum- cision is intended to show that God approves of generation, notwithstanding the sinful corruption which has taken posses- sion of it, and purposes to use it in that work of redemption to which history is tending. The circumcised man is to know himself to be a member of a tribal and national society, with which God has entered into an eternal covenant, upon the
GENESIS XVII. 29
ground of promises which have for their contents the redemp- tion of mankind, and whose generations form a genealogical chain issuing in the redemption of the world. Circumcision is to remind him of the covenant into which he has entered with God, and of the high calling in which he has a share, is to be to him a perpetual reminder, warning not to obstruct in rude immoral lust his power of generation, and also, in its natural use, not to forget its impurity and need of sanctifica- tion. So far circumcision certainly is also, as Philo says, a sign of the r}^ovoiv eKTOfir) at KarajorjTevovcri, Sidvoiav. It told the man that he had Jahveh for his bridegroom, to whom he was betrothed by the blood of circumcision, Ex. iv. 25; hence not only the Jews, but the Ishmaelites and the Moslems in general, call the day of circumcision the circumcision marriage, and celebrate it with the solemnity of a wedding. Still circum- cision is no sacrament in the New Testament sense, and differs from baptism in this respect also, that it is no initiatory rite properly so called. Ifc is not circumcision which makes the Israelite an Israelite, i.e. a member of the Israelite Church. He is this by birth. For in the Old Testament the nation and the Church are one and the same. Every ba.'W'' p belongs as such to the PKib'^ pnp, for God has placed Israel in cove- nant relation to Himself, and in virtue of this position the nation is at the same time a religious community. This covenant relation involves however covenant obligations, which again have as their correlative covenant promises. The first of all these covenant obligations is the n^'''?. The reception of circumcision is for the born Israelite the fulfil- ment of his first covenant obligation. The born Israelite does not thereby become a member of the 'n ^ni?, but proves him- self to be such. The case is however different with the Gentile. He can in no other manner enter the community of the covenant than by submitting to the first covenant obligation, the "?''», by which he at the same time takes upon himself all the duties of a born Israelite, and receives all his
30 GENESIS XVII.
privileges and benefits. Circumcision, which is to the born Israelite only the seal of the relation in which the seed of Abraham is placed toward Jahveh, is to the non-Israelite the rite of admission, which qualifies him henceforth to keep the Passover with Israel (Ex, xii. 43-49), and so incorporates him into Israel that there is no difference between the circumcised "i3 and the nnm (Ex. xii. 48). So far then as it compensates in the case of the non-Israelite for birth among the covenant people, and in that of the Israelite is a seal of that birth. Circumcision and Baptism may certainly be com- pared as means of grace, incorporating into the Church. They are also similar, in that both are a recasting of an already existing rite of purification, for the sacrament of Baptism is in conformity with the nnj n^''3t2 (the baptism of proselytes), and at all events with that of John the Baptist. In other respects however they essentially differ. Circum- cision impresses an outward characteristic, Baptism an inward one. Circumcision places a man in relation, by way of pro- mise, to the coming redemption ; Baptism, by way of imparta- tion, to the redemption that is come. Circumcision is for the seed of Abraham, and only secondarily for those who enter it ; Baptism is for the whole human race without national preroga- tive, and also without distinction of sex. Circumcision is a sign in the flesh ; Baptism is a spiritual transaction, which is but transitorily represented in the earthly element of water, ireptTOfir} a'x^eipoTToiTjTO'i, Col. ii. 11. For the Old Testament Church is the visible organism of a nation ; the New Testament Church is, on the contrary, the body of Christ, ie. the invisible organism which the Lord, who is the Spirit, has produced for Himself. It is the vocation of the New Testament Church to carry on the development of that spiritual life which is its true nature, and to procure for it an ever more and more commanding, sanctifying influence upon the natural, both within and without her body ; it is, on the other hand, the vocation of the Old Testament Church more and more to internalize and
GENESIS XVII. 1. 31
spiritualize the sanctified natural life which is its true nature. The tendency of the New Testament Church is from within outwards, from the centre to the circumference, from the world to come to this world, to raise the latter to the former. The tendency of the Old Testament Church, on the contrary, is from without inwards, from the circumference to the centre, from this world to that which is to come.
The name 'n just appears, ver. 1, for the purpose of con- necting ch. xvii. with ch. xvi. (comp., on the other hand, XXXV. 11) : Ahram was ninety and nine years old when Jahveh appeared to Ahram, and said to him : I am M ^Saddai : walk before me, and he spotless. It was then twenty-four years after his migration, thirteen after the birth of Ishmael, and at least fourteen after the entering into covenant of ch. xv., when Jahveh appeared to him to seal the covenant by the institu- tion of a sign. The divine name '''^^ is, according to ancient interpretation, the same as ^'^ K''*^, He who is self-sufQcing — the All-Sufficient lKav6<; ( = aura/) /c???), which can in no respect be accepted. Neither is it an original plural : potentes mei (Noldeke), the form being opposed to this interpretation, and no trace appearing of the position of the word in the address ; but it is from Tif (according to the form ''2n), which, from the root-meaning of making fast or tight, i.e. knotting, barring,
barricading, contained in the Arabic a-j, advances to that of powerful intervention, and not from a synonymous ^'^f, which the usage of the Hebrew language does not exhibit, nor from a synonymous nVki', whence 1.^, the powerful, the Lord, plur. D^'jti'. Friedr. Delitzsch thinks differently,^ and would refer this Divine name to the Assyrian ladH, to be high. But even supposing that the proper name ■|^X''']B' is to be explained according to the Assyrian lade uru, the rise of the morning (=inE'n TVOV), which is very tempting, and granting also that
' See his Prolegomena, p. 95 sq. It is worthy of notice that the LXX. trans- lates ^ntJ' ba, xvii. 1, by merely e Siit tev, xxviii. 3, » enof |«*oi/, Ex. vi. 3, et«t
ui avTuv, and Ps. Ixviii. 15, rot ivavpanov.
32 GENESIS XVII. 1.
the form ''■=1^, not ''Y^, can be referred to a verb ^t,, we find the meaning, " the All-Powerful," far more sensible than the meaning, " the All-elevated," for which the Hebrew has a v(?hole series of other words, as li'^V, ^l (^i^?) ^kp-, ^Ip*?. The most ancient feeling for language derived '''^.^ from T7t:>, as may be inferred from Joel i. 15, and the former meaning is in any case more helpful to the understanding of Ex, vi. 2 sq. than the latter. The Divine names, D^i^s, nc' ha, nin\ are the signs-manual of three degrees of Divine revelation and Divine knowledge. D^^i'^? is the God who so made nature that it exists, and so preserves it that it consists, nc' ha is the God who so constrains nature that it does His will, and so subdues it that it bows to and subserves grace, mn'' is the God who carries out the purposes of grace in the midst of nature, and at last puts a new creation of grace in the place of nature. wrba is the God who created the soil of nature, "^i^ ba (explained by Ibn Ezra and Kimchi : njv^yn nDiyon n\*:o, by Nachmani: niir^rrnN ITiti', He who breaks through the in- Jluxus sidcrum, and therefore the course of nature) is the God who omnipotently ploughs it and scatters therein the seed of promise, nin"" is the God who brings this seed of promise to its flower and fruit. Hence the covenant with Noah and the Noachidse was made in the name wrha ; for this covenant is by its very nature a renewal and guarantee of the order of creation, which had been broken through by the Flood ; the covenant with the patriarchs in the name ''i^ ba, for it is by its nature the subdual of corrupted and perishable nature and the foundation of the marvellous work of grace ; and the covenant with Israel in the name nin"", for it is in its nature the completion of this work of grace and its carrying on to the climax of its perfection, to which nin^ "ips*, when occurring in the history of the patriarchs (xv. 7, xxviii. 13), propheti- cally points. The times of the patriarchs are the period of El-Shaddai. Their characteristic is the violence done to the natural to make it subserve the purposes of salvation. The
GENESIS XVII. 2-5. 33
ethic prerequisites of this new state are, with respect to Abram, a walk with constant regard to God and a disposi- tion entirely devoted to Him (^''^^, see on vi. 9). Thereupon God offers, ver. 2 : So will I make my covenant between me and thee, and will increase thee heyond measure, properly with weight, weight i.e. in the most important and intense manner. The phrase nna )n3 (here as at ix. 12; Num. xxv. 12) designates the covenant as a gracious free offer of God. The impression made upon Abram by the appearance and word of God, ver. oa : And Abram fell upon his face. Continua- tion of what God will perform in accordance with His covenant and change of Abram's name, 3&-5 : A7id Elohim talked with him, saying : As for me, behold, my covenant with thee, and thou art to become the father of a multitude of nations. And no longer shall thy name be called Abram ; but thy name shall be Abraham, for the father of a multitude of nations have I appointed thee. V^ here, like ''pj^f at xxiv. 27, stands first, in an absolute sense, correlatively with '"i^^?*!, ver. 9. Because the covenant implies something that is to be, ^''^ni may be used in continuation, in the sense of " thou art to become." The 1 before n\ii after a preceding x5 has, as at xlii. 10, the meaning of "D^5 "3. The accusative of the object is found with passives as at 5a, also at iv. 18, and frequently, it is an ordinary construction. ixtJ instead of "'?^?? is said with refer- ence to the name 135?"I3S, in which 3K, as also elsewhere e.g. DiPK'nt* (with Di7B'''ax), is the form of combination. |i»n (from non, to roar, to rush), which symphonizes with the last syllable of t^nnas, is purposely chosen instead of Py}\>, xxxv. 11, xlviii. 4, xxviii. 3. And while, where this promise is made to Jacob xxviii. 3 (Q'^y ij.ip^), xxxv. 11 (Qlia Sip), and to Joseph xlviii. 4 (Q^isy hr\\h)^ D''oy (o^ii) is meant of the national tribes to which the sons of Jacob should grow, we must here, where as nowhere else Q^ia jiOD is used, under- stand not Israel alone, but all the nations of whom Abraham became the ancestor : the Arab tribes descended from hiiu VOL. II. C
34 GENESIS XVII. 6-11.
through Hagar and Keturah and the Edomites. The quota- tion too (Eom, iv, 17) presupposes that the promise extends beyond Israel — the apostle placing it in the light of xii. 3, and understanding it spiritually. The name Ci"J3S means exalted father, or, the father is exalted, which certainly is to be understood as a word of acknowledgment with respect to God, like 3N"'^N, God is a father, "iry^^s, the father is a support, and the like (see Nestle, Eigennamen, pp. 182-188). By the change to Dm3X, the acknowledgment of God on the part of him who is named becomes God's acknowledgment of him. For Cin"i3X means — and this is certainly the best explanation — father of a Q^il ("P'^'^), of a rushing, i,e. a
noisy, multitude (Arab. aI&j ; comp. Isa. xvii. 12, 13) ; nor is
it perhaps accidental that a n, the fundamental letter of nin\ is interwoven in it. After the name of the patriarch is made the prophetic cipher of his high destiny, the promise is further unfolded and repeated in grander terms than ever before, vv. 6-8 : And I tvill make thee exceedingly fruitful heyond measure, and appoint thee to he nations, and Icings shall come forth from thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, accoi'ding to their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy pilgrimage, the ivhole land of Canaan, for an ever- lasting possession, and I will be their oivn God. This fact to which the promise returns is the climax of the covenant: God promises Himself, with all that He is and purposes and can effect, to the descendants of Abraham. Henceforth the narrative no longer speaks of the patriarch as Abram, but as Abraham.
The Divine address having now reached the goal so admirably prepared for, begins again, vv. 9-11 : Elohim said also to Abraham : And as for thee, thou shall observe my covenant, thou and thy descendants after thee, according to their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall observe, between
GENESIS XVII. 9-14. 35
me and you and thy seed after thee: Every male among you shall he circumcised. Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall he the sign of a covenant hetween me and you. The obverse to V^, ^a, follows in this nnsi, thou, on thy part. As nnn D'pn means at one time the making, at another the confirmation, of a covenant, so does n"'na mean at one time a covenant promise, at another, as here, a covenant obligation or condition. To circumcise (comp. on the notion. Job xxiv. 24) is called Pr? (V h^, perhaps related to no, from the drawing backwards and forwards of the cut- ting instrument), Niph. ^ip}, whence Dripo3=Dn?D3 (with an accus. of the object, as is also the case with the passive at vv. 5, 14, 24), not from a verb ?p3, which does not exist in this sense, and probably also the ivipf y2)\ (Ps. xxxvii. 2 ; Job xiv. 2, xviii. 16); or h>Ki (post-biblical ^no), Mph. ^iSJ (according to the post-biblical formation, jn?, ^S'^^, PH3, Luzz. Gramm. § 521), whence the imperatively used inf. abs. ?il3n, 10&. The mode of performance is now more particularly defined, the law of circumcision specialized, vv. 12-14: And eight days old shall every male he circumcised according to your generations: the home-horn and the hought with money of all strangers, who do not helong to thy seed. Circumcised, yea, circumcised shall he thy home-horn and he that is hought with thy money, and my covenant shall he in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And an uneircumcised one, a male, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin — this soul shall he extirpated from his fellow-countrymen, my covenant has he hrokcn. Circumcision is to be performed on a child when he is eight days old, in which injunction seven days are reckoned, according to Lev. xii., for purification from the uncleanness which adheres to the child as well as to the mother directly after birth. It is also to be performed on every slave of the patriarclial family, whether vernae or mancipia, so that the family may be esteemed a unity which is neither accidental nor one merely serving the earthly. Especially must this be
36 GENESIS XVII. 15, 16.
the case with the nation developing in this family, into which all who are susceptible of salvation in the heathen world are to be incorporated by circumcision as subsequently by baptism. Extirpation (nnipji) from the national society is to be the lot of the uncircumcised. The same threat is found with the command to observe the Sabbath, there including tlie capital punishment to be inflicted by the congregation, Ex. xxxi. 14, comp. also xxxv. 2, Num. xv. 32-36 ; its proper meaning however is the being snatched away by direct Divine judg- ment, according to tradition the premature and childless death of one who is uncircumcised and of full age. In this threat of the so-called Carath, i^^isVO (for which Ex. xxxi. 14 has riMsy 3nj?P) is interchanged with the synonymous ''^"iB^p, Ex. xii. 15, Num. xix. 13, or b^nf. myp,, Ex. xii. 19, Num. xvi. 9. The plural n''K)j; does not assume that the singular oy may signify a single fellow-countryman (as the post-biblical ^ia means also a single heathen) ; DV means the people as a whole, and ^''^V the parts of the whole nation (tribes, families and individuals, Dyn ''jb, Lev. xix. 18, comp. 16). The reason "isn ^n^n2"nx implies that it is not defectus, but con- temtus, which incurs the penalty of the Carath ; on the pausal "isn like tnn, Isa. xviii. 5, see Ges. § 67, note 6.
The Divine address begins again. Sarai's name, which she brought with her from her heathen ancestral home, is also to be transformed, in accordance with the new times rich in promise, Vv'hich were to begin with Abraham, vv. 15, 16: And Elohim said to Abralmm: Sarai thy wife — thou shalt not call her name Sarai, for Sarah shall her name he. And I will bless her and also give thee a son of her, and tvill bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of nations shall arise from her. The fundamental letter of the name nin'' is entwined in the name of the ancestress also of tliat promised seed, which is the germ and star of the promised future. The warlike (^1^, LXX. Xapa, from mb', to struggle, to fight, with " the old feminine suffix.
GENESIS XVII. 17-21. 37
which still occurs in the Syriac as ai, and is written I in the Arabic, e in the Ethiopic," DMZ. xl. 183) becomes a princess (irif, fern, of "i^, prince, LXX. Happa, with double p as a compensation for the length of the a; Assyr. sarratio, fem. of sarru, according to Triedr. Delitzsch,^ from lardru, to rise brilliantly, to beam forth). She is to become Q^i3, the twelve tribes of Israel, and the multitude of the heathen spiritually incorporated therein being traced back to her. The promise now included Sarah also in its miraculous circle. Impression made upon Abraham by the glorious yet paradoxical announcement, ver. 17 : And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and he said in his heart : Shall a child be born to one a hundred years old, or shall Sarah — shall one that is ninety years old bear ? The succession of interrogative particles l! * * 2^) ' ' H is more emphatic than at Num. xi. 12, 22, and the Dagesh in Pfii is like xviii. 21, xxxvii. 32. His desire concerning the son whom he already has, ver. 1 8 : And Abraham said to God : Would that Ishmael might live in Thy sight ! That he might only remain an object of God's loving care ! (Prov. iv. 3). This shall suffice him ; he ventures to ask and to hope for nothing higher. God's answer to the petition which thus evades His promise, vv. 19-21: And God said: Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall surely bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee : Behold, 1 have blessed him and made him fruitful and increased him exceedingly ; twelve princes shall he beget; and I have appointed him for a great nation. But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee about this time in the next year. The particle ^2X (apparently from V ^3, whence also ''?> ''^^j to be powerful =^o^ew^er, vcro) introduces a counter- assurance, and then an assurance in general (comp. Erubin ^ See the satisfactory proof in his Prolegomena, p. 92.
38 GENESIS XVIL 22-27.
20&, ^ax p^ nox, they answered: certainly). The h of 7Nylpi^';'pl is that of reference, as at xix. 21, xlii. 9; comp. Isa. xxxii. Ih. On tlie twelve CX^K'ji of Ishmael, see XXV. 12-16. Ishmael also is abundantly blessed, but the covenant surpassing all that is earthly is made with Isaac, who will be born about this time, '^"^[?^v' ^^^^> ^^ the year next following, properly that coming behind the present ; comp. oTTiadev, afterwards = future (see this referred to, xxi. 2). The name Jisliak (laugher) is to be the con- tinuous expression of the impression made upon Abraham by the promise. Its matter was so immensely great that he fell in adoration on the earth, so immensely paradoxical that he could but involuntarily laugh. Contrast is the essence of the ridiculous. What nti' ^K does, takes nature captive to the obedience of grace, and reason to the obedience of faith.
Cessation of the Divine address, ver. 22 : And ivlien He had ended His speakinfj with him, Elohim went up leaving Abraham. Jerome also marks the period thus : ut desiit loqui cum eo, etc. 22a being logically an accessory sentence, the subject ^^i?^?* is reserved for the principal sentence, ^yi can signify that God went away from Abraham, withdrew from him (comp. Ex. xxxiii. 1) ; but the parallel passage, XXXV. 13, shows that ascension to heaven is intended, — the heavenly one then had descended, for since the Fall God is far from man, and since the Flood the place of His throne has been super-terrestrial. Abraham now executes the order of Him who has disappeared, vv, 23-27: And Abraham took Ishmael his son and all his seitants horn in his house and bought, every male among the people of AbraJuim's house, and circumcised the fiesh of their foreskin on the same day, as Elohim had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety - nine years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. And Ishmael his son tvas seventeen years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. On one and the same day ivas Abraham circumcised and Ishmael Jiis son.
GENESIS XVIir., XIX. 39
And all the people of his house, the home-horn and those "bought of a stranger, were circumcised with him. The 3 of ''??'^^3, 23a, is partitive, like vii. 21, xxiii. 18, and like the p of ?3p, 12&; while, on the other hand, nsp, 27a, according to Lev. xxvii. 24, comp. Gen. xxiii. 20 (^TP, x xxiii. 19), belongs to ri3p». Dvy in biblical Hebrew serves to denote naturally lifeless, as 5:'??. does a naturally living being, hence eo ipso die, eodem die. On account of the great importance of circumcision, the obligation of which is presupposed in subsequent legislation, its performance is related as circum- stantially and accurately as possible.
THE HEAVENLY MESSENGERS AT MAMRE AND SODOM, CHS. XVIII.-XIX.
1. Benewed promise of a son ly Sarah, xviii. 1-15.
The Elohistic introduction, ch. xvii., which, by relating the inauguration of a new period for Sarah and Abraham, at the same time prepares for the birth of the son of promise, is followed by the second portion of the third section of Abraham's life, chs. xviii.-xix. In this the angelic visits in the grove of Mamre and in Sodom, together with the promises in the former case and the infliction of judgment in the latter which accompanied them, are, with the excep- tion of xix. 29, narrated throughout by that master of the epic art, J. He is at once recognisable by the flowing, vivid and graphic mode of statement which both enters into details and stedfastly pursues its conscious object, by the Divine name rwrv, together with ""inK, by the promise that the nations shall be blessed in the seed of the patriarchs, xviii. 18, comp. xii. 3, and by certain favourite expressions, such as ^f^}^ xviii 27, 31, xix. 2, 7, 19, 20 comp. xii. 11; I3"?y "'3 xviii. 5, xix. 8 comp. xxxiii. 10, xxxviii. 26; Num. x. 31, xiv. 43; n? r\'S xviii. 13 comp. xxv.
40 GENESIS XVIII. 1-3.
22, 32, xxxiii. 15. The style touches closely upon the Deuteronomic, e.g. in the frequent energetic imperfect form in Hn, xviii. 28-32, and in the ^^ contracted from nps, xix. 8, 25 comp. xxvi. 3, 4, Deut. iv. 42, vii. 22, xix. 11 (elsewhere only once in the Law of Holiness, Lev, xviii. 27 and 1 Chron. xx. 8). The first part of this historical picture, extending from xviii. 1 to xix. 28 (29), and continuing in the appendix, xix. 30 sqq., viz, xviii. 1-16, is (within the extant composition of extracts from sources), as it were, the continuous historical development of xvii, 21, Por the promise, which forms the central point of xviii. 1-16, is not very differently expressed, vv. 10 and 14, Hence it was not long after the institution of circumcision that the heavenly visitants made their appearance. Theophanies increase in frequency in proportion as that great event in the history of redemption, the birth of Isaac, draws near.
What follows is in accordance with its nature introduced as an appearance of Jahveh, ver. 1 : And Jahveh appeared to Mm hy the terehintJis of Mamre, as he was sitting at the door of the tent in the heat of the day. The grove of Mamre has continued to be the abode of Abraham since xiii. 18, xiv. 13. ^nxn nnsi is, like 106, the accus. of the place. He was sitting outside in the shadow of the tent, when suddenly a surprising sight appeared, ver, 2 : And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men standing at a short distance from him. He saw and ran to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth. The impression of the uncaused is enhanced by the expression nam. To remain standing was, according to custom, an unassuming appeal to hospitality, V^V over against him is equivalent to at some, but not at a great distance from him. The invitation and its accept- ance, vv. 3- 5 : And he said : 0 Lord, if now I have found grace in Thine eyes, pass not away from Thy servant. Let a little water he fetched and icash your feet and rest under the tree. And I will hring a piece of bread, and strengthen ye
GENESIS XVIII. 6-8. 41
your heart, after that ye may go farther, for therefore are ye come to your servant ! — They said : So do as thou hast said. With the expression of the condition is blended in W"QX, the wish that it may be so; so too at xxiv. 42, xxxiii. 10, xlvii. 29, 1. 4; Ex. xxxiii. 13, xxxiv. 9; compare the simple ^^, Num. xxxii. 5, xi. 15. The washing of the feet was, especially when sandals were worn, the first kind ofi&ce rendered to travellers on their reception {e.g. in the N. T. 1 Tim. V. 19, vcirretv Tov<i Tro'Sa?), and before they were entertained. ]Vf^ means here to rest thoroughly by leaning and propping oneself. To recline at table was not an ancient Semitic custom. CJ^/'^S sounds modest ; courtesy makes little of its own doings. Food and drink were, according to the ancient view, the strengthening of the heart, Judg. xix. 5, 1 Kings xiii. 7, comp. Acts xiv. 17. inx is here an adv. as at x. 18, xxiv. 55, Num. xxxi. 2 and frequently. Therefore — thinks Abraham — it has so fallen out, that I might have the opportunity of showing kindness to you; |3"?y "'?, as at xix. 8, xxxiii. 10, xxxviii. 26, Num. X. 31, xiv. 43, comp. 1.2"?^ 1.^'^^, Job xxxiv. 27, not everywhere the same as ""3 I3"?y or i^'il"!?"''!? : therefore that = because, but so conceived as it reads : for this purpose. The three men then accept the kindly persuasive invitation. ^1^\ as at xix. 21, has not a pausal Kametz. Abraham's hospitable pre- parations, vv. 6-8 : And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said : Fetch quickly three Sedh of fine meal, knead, and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave to the servant, and he hasted to dress if. And he took butter and milk and the calf which lie had dressed, and placed it before them, while he stood by them under the tree, and they ate. The tone in ^^S^^[} (according to Baer's text) is upon the ultima, but in xxiv. 67 upon the penultima.^ nijy (from :ij;, to curve, to round) is a usual dish
^ But see FrensdorfTs edit, of the Darche ha-Nikkud of Moses Punctator (1877), pp. 21 and xxxiii.
42 GENESIS XVIII. 9-12.
of hospitality, which the Bedouin women prepare rapidly and even while riding upon the camel ; the addition of three nsp (Aram, t^nxp, Assyr. sUtu), hence 1= 1 ephah, was super- abundant for three men, comp. Ex. xvi. 16. Butter and milk served, according to Bedouin custom, for the basting of the meat ; the traditional explanation of Ex. xxiii. 1 9 and elsewhere rejects this. It was also a requirement of jTood manners that Abraham should not sit with his honoured guests, but remain standing and awaiting their commands. The narrative — says Lane {Sitten unci Gebrduche, ii. 116) — con- tains a perfect description of the manner in which a Bedouin Sheikh of the present day entertains a traveller arriving at his tent. And General Daumas {Die Pferde dcr Sahara, p. 195) says: "A stranger appears before the Duar, he remains at some distance and says, Deif rdbht, i.e. a guest sent by the Lord. The effect is magical, all spring up, hasten towards him, and bring him into the tent . . . the master of the tent keeps him company all day long . . . there is never the impertinent question : Whence comest thou, or whither goest thou ? "
Now follows, ver. 9 sqq., the conversation at table. The guests beginning it, ver. 9 : And they said to him : Where is Sarah thy wife ? And he said : There in the tent. The fact that IvX has VX super-punctuated may point to a various reading lij, and is favourable to the view that a model copy is the basis of the Masoretic text. The promise and its impres- sion upon Sarah, vv. 10-12 : And he said: Return, yea return loill I to thee about the time when it revives, and, lo, Sarah thy wife has a son ; hut Sarah heard it in the door of the tent, and this was behind him. And Abraham and Sarah were old, locU stricken in age ; the rides, after the manner of women, had ceased with Sarah. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying : After I am worn with age should I have pleasure now, when my lord is old ? The definition of time, f^'D ny3, means at the reviving time, or rather, since n>n is without an article, at the time
GENESIS XVIII. 13-15. 43
when it revives, Ges. § 109. 25; comp. the synonymous expression irepLirkoixevov eviavrov, 1 Sam. i. 20. N^iTj, 10&, refers to the door, according to others (LXX.) to Sarah, which is contrary to the traditional text. The door was behind him who gave the promise, hence she heard without being seen by him. £3''K'33 is the monthly purification (comp. xxxi. 35, LXX. translates classically ra 'yvvaiKeia), which is the con- dition of the power of conception. These so-called rules had long been discontinued in the case of Sarah, hence what had been promised made her laugh. On the Perf ''r'^n^'n (should it yet be to me), see on xxi. 7. Her calling her husband V^ is quoted in her praise, 1 Pet. iii. 6. Her laughter however was that of contemptuous doubt, the laughter of Abraham that of delighted astonishment. He needed to have his faith encouraged, she to be brought back to the humility of faith, vv. 13, 14: And Jahvch said to Abraham: Why then did Sarah laugh, thinlcing : Shoidd I also really tear, when I am old ? Is anything unattainaUe for Jahveh ? At the set time I return to thee, at the time when it revives, and Sarah has a son. With D3pX f^x, " in very truth " (reality), comp. ni:ps Fl^J^ " yea certainly," Job xxxiv. 12, xix. 4. vb^\ is a synonym to "ly^l, xi. 6. Instead of nin''p/ like xxiv. 50, 1 Sam. i. 20, Hahn and Theile have here erroneously nirrip. Sarah's vain evasion, ver. 15 : And Sarah denied, say- ing : I laughed not : for she was afraid. But he said : Nay, thou didst indeed laugh. Matter of great and eternal importance is here related in plain and childlike words. Brought back to the humility of faith. Sarah received indeed the strength
^ The writing ni'rT'p (="'y"I_NO with audible x) follows the Masoretic rule,
D''JDO 3731 (S^V1?D) p''SD nCJ'D, *-e- Moses led (Israel) forth, and Caleb led (him) in, i.e. grammatically : the letters o, C, H make the X of ijnx audible; 3) ?> 3> on the contrary, make it quiescent, e.g. nVn^3 (with Metheg of the
counter-tone) and also n"l'n''1=''31XV The vox memorialis, which includes also the "), is ch]}^ 13 ^3, all in Him is mysterious, i.e. grammatically: the pre- fixes 3, 7, 3, 1 have after them a latent (quiescent) {<•
44 GENESIS XVni. 15.
of the naturally impossible, CTrei maTov rjiyrjaaTo tov irrayetX- Xdfievov (Heb. xi. 11). The fulfilment itself was the repeated appearance of Jahveh after the space of a year, for the God of the promise was Himself present to effect its fulfilment.
Dillmann is of opinion, with Knobel, that the three were Jahveh and two angels, and besides, regards the ''p^, da, as erroneous, because premature. But it is just this ''3'ix which leads to the true meaning of the narrator. It is not the case that one of the three angels is the appearance of Jahveh, but that there are three heavenly messengers, in whom Jahveh manifests Himself, three by reason of the threefold nature of their vocation, which is not to promise only, but also to punish and to deliver. Because however the message of grace to Abraham is a higher one than the messages of judgment and of mercy to Lot, the two are subordinate to the one, and Jahveh is specially present to Abraham in the one, whom he recognises as above the other two and addresses as ''p^, Lord of all (pnp according to the Masora, in distinction from "•JIX, my lords), because He has made upon him the impres- sion of a being in whom God is, and whom he is to receive as God Himself. A Greek legend tells of a similar event to that related in chs. xviii. and xix. : Jupiter, Mercury and Neptune visit an old man of the name of Hyrieus, in the Boeotian town of Tanagra, he prepares a meal for them, and at his request obtains, though hitherto childless, a son, Orion, Ovid, Fast. v. 494 sqq. ; Palceph. ch. v. And then — as a pendant to ch. xix. — Jupiter and Mercury are travelling in the form of men ; no one will receive them but Philemon and Baucis, an old and childless couple, wherefore the gods deliver them, taking them away with them to a mountain, and trans- forming the inhospitable neighbourhood of the hospitable cot- tage into a pool, and the cottage into a temple, Ovid, Metam. viii. 611-724. Here the three and then the two angels become respectively three and then two Gods ; but Abraham recognises in the three and especially in the one, and Lot in
GENESIS XVIII. 15. 45
the two, the presence of the one God. They treat them never- theless as human travellers, for the Godhead in them is con- cealed, and only manifest to the eye of the spirit. Josephus, Ant i. 11. 2, explains their eating as mere appearance: ot Se So^av avTM rrrapea'xpv iaOiovTwv. So too Philo (0pp. ii. 18) : repdariov koI ro fxr) ireiv&vra'i irecvcovTcov Koi firj iadlovra'; iaOiovTcov 7rape^€iv ^avraaiav, and also the Targum, Talmud Mezia 86&, Midrash, Tob. xii. 19, Ephr. Procop. and most of the Fathers. It must however be differently explained, whether we hold that the human form in which they appeared was only a symbolization of their invisible being, or that it was, as Tertullian, adv. Marc. iii. 9, asserts : non putaiiva caro, sed verce et solidce substantice humance. In the first case they ate, " as we say of fire that it consumes everything " (Justin, dial c. Tr. c. 34) ; in the other they ate, as the risen Christ did, of whom Augustine says : Quod manducavit, potestatis fuit, non egestatis. Aliter absorbet terra aquam sitiens, aliter solis radius candens : ilia indigentid, iste potentid. The intercourse of Jahveh with the patriarch was just at this time more humanely intimate than ever, because the birth of Isaac, the great type of the human appearance of God in Christ, was the subject of the message. At the beginning of the period of the v6fio<i, which brought to consciousness the infinite distance between the Holy God and the sinful creature, Moses heard from the burning bush the call : " Draw not nigh hither : put off thy shoes from thy feet ! " Ex. iii. 5. The patriarchal period is more evangelical, as the time before the law it is a pattern of the time after the law.
2. Abraham's transaction with God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, xviii. 16 sqq.
This second part of the Jahvistic portion, chs. xviii.-xix., forms a transition to wliat follows, as the first part was a connection with what preceded. It prepares for the history
46 GENESIS XVIII. 16-19.
of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrali. Departure of the three, ver. 1 6 : Aoid the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham ivent with them, to accompany them. According to an interesting tradition (Jer. Up. cviii. ad Eustochiuin), he accompanied them as far as the site of the subsequent Caphar-beruoha, whence the soUtudinem ac terras SodomcB may be perceived; ''.^£>"''y, like xix. 28, Num. xxi. 20, xxiii. 28. Eesolution of Jahveh, vv. 17-19: And Jahveh said : Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? For I Jcnevj him, that he will command his children and his household after him, that they Jceep the way of Jahveh, to do justice and judgment ; that Jahveh may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken of him. He knew him, i.e. He chose him in preventing love (yn\ like Amos iii. 2, and New Testament yivdoaKciv). The purpose of that loving communion with Himself to which
He has admitted him follows in ifx ]vrph (lJ?p=n3_vp, ^:^). He is to inculcate upon the present, and indirectly upon the future members of his family, the religion of Jahveh ('n ■^'J"^, like Ps. xix. 10, 'n r\^y), that they may practise tDQC'pi r^^)'^)i (so here and Ps. xxxiii. 5 ; Prov. xxi. 3 ; comp. Deut. xxxiii. 21, instead of the more customary npn^'l DDC'jd), so that Jahveh may realize to him what He has promised in respect of his great vocation in the redemptive history. The LXX., as also the Syr., adds to cltto ^A^pahfi, rov TraiSo? fiov (nay), for which Philo has rov <})i\ov fiov (comp. Jas. ii. 23). There is scarcely a passage where this "'■i^y (xxvi. 24) or '•^nN (Isa. xli. 8, 2 Chron. xx. 7) would be more in place than just here. Abraham is the friend of God, — an appellation which has become among Moslems a surname to his name, «d)\ iSA^, the insinuate, i.e. the intimate of God, or merely Jj.l=ciJ. whence also Hebron is called Beit-cl-chalil or El-chalil, and from a friend we keep nothing secret. Hence Jahveh dis-
GENESIS XVIII. 20-22. 47
closes to liim the judgment which He purposes to inflict, vv, 20, 21 : Then Jahveh said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is hecome really great, and their sin really very heavy. I will however go down and see if they have altogether done according to the cry concerning it, which has come to me; or if not, I will in- vestigate. The circumstantializing perfect nrsx mn^i is followed by the principal fact, viz. the communication, with nin"" noN''"!. The cry of Sodom is the cry for punishment which comes up thence demanding it. The assuring ""S (the case is such that then = revera) stands elsewhere also in the middle of the sentence, xli. 32: Ps. cxviii. 10-12, cxxviii. 2. nai is Milel, and therefore 3rd pr. ; comp. on the other hand, Hos. ix. 7. He will go down to see the state of the case (quite like xi. 5), viz. into the valley of the Jordan district, will in the long-suffering of His wi-ath see whether their behaviour entirely corresponds with the cry for vengeance which has proceeded from it. The Athnach, ver. 21, is rightly placed, the second member of the disjunctive question being made inde- pendent by a verb of its own. The PaseJc between npp | vc'y shows that n73 here is to be understood, not as in the phrase np3 n^y, "to put an end to," but as at Ex. xi. 1, as an adverb in the meaning of omnino. "^^Si^ is, according to the penultimate tone, not a particip. but a flnitum, hence n (^n) has, as at xlvi. 27, Job ii. 11 (comp. Ges. § 109), the value of a relatively used demonstrative pronoun, just as al {alii) and hal (Jialli), with the meaning " that which," are quite common {DMZ. xxii. 124) in the Bedouin speech and in the book
language also, e.g. <b ^e^^J^\ is q^d acccplus hahctur, may be
said. The departure for Sodom, ver. 22 : And the men turned thence, and went toward Sodom, and Abraham remained still standing hefore Jaltveh. A parallel verse to ver. 16 ; there all three are going farther, here two (xix. 1). But it is Jahveh who betakes Himself to Sodom in the two, while, on the other hand. He remains behind, Abraham continues stand-
48 GENESIS XVIII. 23-26.
ing before the one in whom Jahveh specially manifests Him- self to him, and through whose angelic-human form he rightly discerns the LOED. According to tradition, 226 is a jipn D'^iDID, corrcctio scribarum (see my Commentary on Habakhuk, pp. 206-208, and Perles' Biographie Salomons h. Adereth, 1863, pp. n^— n^), and was originally Dm2N ''zsb n»j? imy mn^i, ■which seemed unworthy of God, "'3D^ *ioy being the usual expression for standing to serve. The originality however of the existing reading is defended by xix. 27. The two others departed, while Abraham still retained the third, and in him Jahveh.
To Him he turns with intercession for Sodom, vv. 23-25 : And Abraham dreio near, and said : Wilt Thou then utterly cut off the righteous with the vncked? Perhaps there are fifty righteous in the city, wilt Thou really cut off and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous' sake that are therein ? Far he it from Thee to do thus, to kill the righteous with the vncked, so that it should happen to the righteous as to the vncked that he far from Thee. Shoidd not the Judge of all the earth do right ? The particle f]K, ver. 23 sq., means etiam, not as at iii. 1 in the
sense of adeo, but of revera (Saad. UjJu). Ntr: with (, like Num.
xix. 19 and frequently, means to grant acceptance and forbear- ance, i.e. forgiveness. In yK'ns P""!^!!, a is conceived of as a noun, like the Latin instar : in such correlative repetition of the objects to be compared, it may either precede, as here, comp. xliv. 18, Hag. ii. 3, or follow. 'H? nppn means, as is shown by the Targumico-Talmudic "^ ^'^'^ v}^, to the unholy ad profanum ; ^'vC in this sense is permitted for use, shown licitus by Jj^i>- ; "^^vC however is not a feminine with a retraction of the tone, for the penultimate accentuation is not found only before the monosyllabic ib, but elsewhere also, e.g. xliv. 7, before 1''"!!?Jf^. The question, 256, is like that at Rom. iii. 3. Jahveh agrees, ver. 26 : And Jahveh said: If I find in Sodom fifty righteous loithin the city, I will forgive the
GENESIS XVIII. 27-33. 49
whole place for their sake. Abraham reduces the number by- five, vv. 27, 28: And Abraham answered and said: Behold now, I have taken ^ipon me to speak to the Lord,, who am hut dust and ashes. Perhaps there may lack five of the fifty righteous : wilt Thou destroy the ichole city for lack of five ? He said: I will not destroy it if I find there forty -five. The ''iix interchauging here and vv. 31, 32, as at xviii. 3, with nins belong to the pxni n^p, i.e. the 134 true (really written) ijnx. The pair of words "iSi>?J "isy symphonize like 'VJ}\ "li'"", '^?}!\ P^, and the like. On the construction of the verb non with the ace. of what is lacking, comp. Ges. § 138. 3. "^^PH?, 28a, is equi- valent to n^j'cn "ii^Vja, for the sake of so few less as five. He again reduces the number by five, ver. 29 : And he continued to speak to Him, and said : Perhaps forty will he found there. He said : I vnll not do it for the forty's sake. He grows bolder, and deducts ten, ver. 2>0 : He said: Let not the Lord he angry that 1 spea.k: perhaps thirty may he found there. And He said : I vjill not do it if I find thirty there. On ? nnn he grows hot, he falls into the heat (of anger), see iv. 5. On the cohortative n"]?'l^|^l, see Ges. § 128. 2. From thirty down to twenty, ver. 31: And he said: Behold noiv, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord : perhaps there shall he found tioenty there. He said: I ivill not destroy it for the twenty s sake. From twenty down to ten, ver. 32 : Aiid he said: Let not the Lord he angry that I speak yet hut this once: Perhaps ten loill he found there. And He send : I will not destroy it for the ten's sake. Immediately after this promise Jahveh dis- appears, ver. 33 : And Jahveh went away, when He had finished speaking to Ahraham, and Abraham returned to his place. It is the syntactic scheme of the coincident, like vii. 6. Jahveh departed (not to Sodom, as Wellhausen, expunging \^Li', xix. 1, thinks), i.e. He withdrew from the further importunity of the bold petitioner, and the latter, perceiving the limit thus placed, returned to the grove of Mamre.
This intercession of Abraham, which, with increasing
VOL. IL D
50 GENESIS XVIII. 33.
boldness six times takes advantage of concession, is some- what singular. While however it excites laughter in a Voltaire, and while Hausrath and Gesenius find impressed upon it the stamp of the Jewish "trading spirit" (see Geiger's Jiidische Zeitschr. x. p. 157), it moved a Lavater to admiration. " As for the whole dialogue, — I exclaim as publicly as I can, — where in all the world is its equal in greatness and simplicity to be found!" It is, to begin with, highly significant that Abraham does not intercede specially for his relatives in Sodom ; that he believes in the existence of righteous persons among the heathen therein ; that his intercession proceeds from the assumption that man as such is his neighbour ; that it applies to the cities of those seven nationalities on which the Mosaic law inflicts unspar- ing extermination (Deut. vii. 2, xx. 16). The subsequent different measurement of the duty of Israelites towards fellow- countrymen and foreigners did not as yet exist ; religion had not yet assumed its temporary intermediate and national form. And what depths of Divine condescension, what heights of human faith do we here meet with ! Accompanied, indeed, by a boldness which New Testament piety does not sanction with respect to God. The intimacy borders on irreverence. Even the Son of man finds the 'iXeoo'i aoi of Peter (Matt, xvi, 22) unbearable, and how could we, in presence of the actual experience that war and calamities carry off, as Job ix. 22 says, both the righteous and the wicked, appeal to God's justice for the contrary ? We must lay our hand upon our mouth, hoping for a solution in another world of the enigmas of this. Old Testament piety is still affected by a residuum of polytheism, the gods of which were more human than Divine. The reduction too of the numbers from fifty to ten is more childish than child-like, but Jahveh condescends to this childish avaCheia (Luke xi. 8) of bargaining intercession. All answers to prayer depend upon such condescension. For when God created free beings, He at the same time granted the
GENESIS XIX. 1, 2. 51
possibility of allowing His actions to be determined by their conduct, and of permitting their prayer, i.e. their invocation of His goodness and mercy, to influence Him. The bold familiarity of the intercessor reduced to ten the number of the righteous, for whose sake Sodom was to be spared. But ten were not found. His intercession did not however fall to the ground. Four were found, Lot, his wife and his two daughters — these did not suffice to be the means of saving Sodom, but they were themselves not destroyed with the wicked, but delivered.
3. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah hy fire, and the deliverance of Lot, xix. 1-29.
In accordance with Deut. xxix. 22, the prophets frequently refer to the matter of this third part of the second portion by holding up, as a warning to the people of God, the fate of Sodom and the other cities (Amos iv. 11; Hos. xi. 8 ; Isa. i. 9 sq., iii. 9 and elsewhere), just as the "days of Gibeah " (Judg. xix.) are also remembered for a like purpose (Hos. ix. 9). Arrival of the two Divine messengers, ver. 1 : And the two angels came to Sodom at evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot, perceiving them, rose up to meet them, and bowed himself down with his face towards the earth. The gate is usually in the nearer East a vaulted entrance, with large recesses on both sides. It was here, beneath or near the gate, that people assembled either for business purposes, or to discuss, in larger or smaller circles, the affairs of the town (xxxiv. 10; Deut. xxi. 19). It was here that Lot was sitting, and when he saw the angels coming he rose up and went to meet them, greeting them no less reverently than Abraham had done, ver. 2 : And he said : Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray, into your servant's house, and stay the night and wash your feet and rise up early and go your way. But they said: Nay, we will spend the night in the
52 GENESIS XIX, 3-5.
street. Only here is ^'S'nan written instead of ^^J"'"".?!?. And only here do we incidentally find ""/nx with Pathach, which the Masora distinguishes as fsh, kolvov, from ''p'^_ as K'n'p. Lot's spiritual vision is weaker than Abraham's, he greets the men with only the courteous " my lords ; " he does not at first recognise them as angels, nor as the LOED, who was mani- festing Himself in them. He invites them in the kindest manner, but they refuse, just as Jesus (Luke xxiv. 28) seemed at first about to refuse the disciples at Emmaus. Their nay (Ven, Trtw/xaXa) is n^, written with emphatic Dagesh, as at 1 Sam. viii. 19, 1 Kings xi. 22. At last they yield to his solicitation, ver. 3 : And he urged them much, and they turned in unto him and entered his house, and he freipared a meal and talced sweet cakes, and they ate. Sweet cakes, niJfn (from y^'O, to suck in and out), are unleavened cakes, which would be the sooner ready. But before the guests retired, the sin of Sodom is manifested, vv. 4, 5 : They had not yet lain down, when the people of the city, the Ijeople of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the hoy to the old man, the whole people from the utmost end. And they called to Lot and said to him : Where are the men which came to thee this night ? bring them out to us, we will know them. The construction of D^p is like ii. 5, and, in a like connection. Josh. ii. 8. Instead of =in>:i5-nj)l • • nv^r?, xlvii. 21, from one end to the other, we have here and Jer. Ii. 31 <^^p, from the end, i.e. of the city in its whole extent. Without respect to hospitality, they say shamelessly what they desire : Dns^n nns N^ ^n^an^ Isa. iii. 9. The travellers are young and beautiful (Mark xvi. 5), the inhabitants of Sodom desire to "know" them, Judg. xix. 22; their unnatural lust, according to Itom. i. 27 a curse of heathenism, according to Jude 7 a copy of demoniacal error, according to the Mosaic law (Lev. xviii. 22, XX. 13) a nnyin to be punished with death (named by Ezekiel, xvi. 49 sq., as the worst among the sins of Sodom), wears no mask, no sesthetic nimbus, as in Greece. Lot now
GENESIS XIX. 6-0. 53
tries his utmost to save his guests, vv. 6-8 : And Lot ivent out to them to the entrance and shut the door behind him. And he said : Pray, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, I have tivo daughters who as yet have known no man. I will bring them out to you, and do ye to them as seems good to you, only to these men do nothing, for therefore have they come under the shadow of my roof The formation i^nn??!? is like "^^'li?, Judg. iv. 10, the former from nns, the latter from t^"]i?.. ?^^ for i^)^i^^, here Sb, as at 25a, xxvi. 3 sq., Lev. xviii. 27, Deut. iv. 42, vii. 22, xix. 11, and elsewhere only at 1 Chron. XX. 8, is no archaism ; the Arabic uld, Ethiop. ella, Aram. illen, illech, showing that this demonstrative originally ter- minated with a vowel (perhaps illai). \^'^V ""S (see xviii. 5) is said of the purpose of their becoming guests, viz. to be protected. Lot acts like the old man in Gibeah of Benjamin, Judg. xix. 23 sq. ; he is willing to sacrifice his duty as a father to the duty of hospitality, and commits the sin of desiring to prevent one sin by another. But this also is of no avail, ver. 9 : But they said : Stand back ! And they Said : This one came to sojourn, and is playing the judge : now will we deal worse with thee than with them ! And they pressed upon the man, upon Lot, and came near to break the door. The exclamation ^^\l ^}. has the meaning of move away ! *^'^\i (comp. the verb, Micah iv. 7) has the tone upon the penult. ; it is the locative of ^\}, which directs to a distance. They threaten Lot, the one man, who is enjoying among them the rights of hospitality, and yet . . . {imperf consec. of the contrasting context, the paradoxical result, like xxxii. 31 ; Prov. XXX. 25-27; Job ii. 3). The inf. intens. to t33pl emphasizes this troublesome censorious behaviour as incessant (Ges. § 131. 2>b). To take, with Hupfeld, the n of TiNn interrogatively, like Num. xvi. 22, Neh. vi. 11, comp. Judg. xii. 5, and also ^']^'^, Deut. xx. 19, is not advisable, the determinative of nnx (this one) being indispensable. The nriy is conclusive: they will consequently deal worse with
54 GENESIS XIX. 10-14.
hiiu than with his proUg4s. The permutative combination t2i^3 tr''N2 is like Tyn lina " 01103, xviii. 26. They prepare to break the door, when Lot's guests become his protectors, vv. 10, 11 : And the men stretched out their hand and took Lot in unto them, into the house, and shut to the door. And the men who were at the eiutrance of the house, they struck with blindness, from the least imto the greatest, and they wearied themselves to find the entrance. Instead of the more usual liiJV?, Zech. xii. 4, Deut. xxviii. 28, we here have Q'l"!???, from "ii?P, to make blind, a Shaphel — the original causative
form — with 1?.? =^ J, to blind. Summons to Lot to escape
with his famil}^ vv. 12, 13 : And the men said to Lot : Whom hast thou here ? Son-in-law, and thy sons and daughters, and all that heloyigs to thee in the city, bring them out of the place : for we are about to destroy this place, because the cry concerning them is become great before the face of Jahveh, and Jahveh has sent us to destroy it. The suffix of onpVV (to be understood like xviii. 20 sq., Clamat ad coehim vox sanguinis et Sodomorum) refers to the inhabit- ants, and the suffix of '^OC^r' ^^ the city, jnn is pur- posely an indefinite collective singular. Lot finds no audience with his sons-in-law, ver. 14 : And Lot went out, and spake to his sons-in-law, tvJio had taken his daughters, and said: Get you up, go out of this place, for Jahveh is about to destroy the city, — hut he was as one luho mocked in the eyes of his sons - in - law. The LXX. and Targ. Jer. I. have correctly : tol/? elXTjcf^oTai; ra? 6ir/aTepa<; avTov, not : qui accepturi erant filias ejus (Jerome), for in ver. 15 the two daughters, still at home, are distinguished from those who were married ; and the two saved with Lot have not, ver. 30 sq., to lament the loss of bridegrooms. Those offered to the Sodomites were still his virgin and, as may be also inferred from ver. 8, his unbetrothed daughters. In 1N^ lOip the X has the emphatic Dagesh to ensure its clear
GENESIS. XIX. 16, 17. 55
pronunciation between two u sounds (comp. Ex. xii. 31 ; Deut. ii. 24). This carelessness, when destruction was close at hand, is referred to Luke xvii. 28. Even Lot does not follow his preservers with the gratitude of a joyful faith, vv. 16, 17: And as soon as the daion legan, the angels urged Lot to hasten, saying : Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here, that thou he not consumed in the iniquity of the city. But he lingered; then the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and of his two daughters, hy reason of tlu forbearance of Jahveh ruling over him, and led him out, and let go of him outside the city. While the biblical 3 is always merely a preposition, io3 serves here like "i^'N3 as a conjunction, which its analogous forma- tion from 3 and io = nD permits, comp. Isa. xxvi. 18 ; Ps. Iviii. 8. The daughters still in the parental house are called nixviplin in distinction from those already married, as is ex- plained Bereschith rdUba c. 50, and in Ephrem. The angels urge Lot to hasten, but he delays : he is no Abraham, and it is not gladly, but with inward reluctance, that he leaves the beautiful city and his home in it. The angels are obliged to bring him and his family out by force, and this takes place Vpy 'n n^»n3. Olshausen would prefer n^DHS, but in the Psalms also Tionp, xxv. 7, and lionn xxxi, 17, are inter- changed. They do not let go of him (D^l'?, different in use from n"*;.!) till he is outside the city. Here Jahveh, speaking by the angels, invites him to save himself by hastening straight onward, ver. 1 7 : And it came to 'pass when they (the angels) had led them (Lot and his family) forth. He (Jahveh) said : Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, stay not in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, that thou be not consumed. Jahveh is in the two angels, as in the three : they are all three messengers, i.e. organs of God present in them (as the apostles were messengers and organs of Christ present in them). Without looking backwards (t3"'2ri-^N instead of the more regular t32ri-^x), he is to seek to place himself in safety
56 GENESIS XIX. 18-22.
by reaching the (subsequently Moabite) mountains. But here too he shows how weak and defective is his faith and obedience, vv. 18-20: Aiid Lot said: 0 Lord, not so. Beliold now, Thy servant hath found grace in Thy sight, and Thou hast magnified Thy favour, ivhich Thou hast showed to me to preserve my soul alive ; and L cannot escape to the mountain, misfortune might overtake me, and T die. Behold now, this city is near to flee thither, and it is indeed hut small : let me escape thither — it is indeed so small — that my soid may live. The deprecative ^^ strengthened by i^J (Euth i. 13) is followed by two sentences, each commencing with i^J'isn, and appar- ently marking two premisses, the first of which, ver. 19, gives, as a reason for the request, the mercy of God and the impo- tence of the suppliant, the second, 20a, the smallness of the thing requested, and then by ^^^^Tirppisx the conclusion. Lot now knows that it is Jahveh Himself who has snatched him as a brand from the burning; he no longer says ''P^, but V^ ; yet even with this nearness of God to him and care of God for him, he does not attain to entire obedience : the mountain is too far for him ; he fears lest the approaching catastrophe should catch him ('Pi^ain, with uniting vowel a, like xxix. 32; Ges. § 60, note 2); he would rather flee to the small town which is near, and whose insignificance might excite compassion. Jahveh agrees, vv. 21, 22 : And He said to him : See, I favour thee in this also, not to destroy the city of which thou hast spoJcen. Hasten to escape thither, for I can do nothing till thou art come thither — therefore the name of the city was called So'ar. The phrase "'JD Nb'J means to let the presence, appearance, or person of any one make an impres- sion and find access. The b of "i^'np is that of reference. ••fDn has 3, according to the Masora, like i2J33, Ex. xii. 27. "ina is an adverbial infinitive, like Ps. Ixix. 18. The city was that regarded by Lot as "lyp* ^ ^^'iA®' ^ small matter, and hence called "iVV (smallness), at the south-eastern entrance of the then valley of Siddim. The crusaders found it still
GENESIS XIX. 23-25. 57
existing under the name of Segor {y.^ or y:.j LXX. ^r)<ya)p),
pleasantly situated among palm-trees, girato lacu a -parte australi, hence, after going round the southern end of the Dead Sea on its eastern side, where it lay, not as Irby- Mangles and Eobinson suppose, upon the peninsula jutting far into the southern half of the sea from the east, but, as Wetzstein has pointed out, on the south-eastern end, in that part of the Arabah which is now called 'Gor es Sdfieli. The catastrophe, vv. 23-25 : The sun was risen ^ipon the earth, and Lot ivas come to Soar. Then Jaliveh rained down upon Sodom and. Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jahveh from heaven. And He overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that lohich grew on the ground. By sunrise Lot had already arrived at Zoar. nnyV has in Baer an accented local ah, but Heidenheim accentuates this word like ^^j^'^ according to Moses Punctator as Milel. The causative "'"'t^on has for its object rain proper, ii. 5 ; hail, Ex. ix. 18, manna, Ex. xvi. 4, here K'NJ n^"iS3 (for which we have n^Dii t^'s, Ps. xi. 6; Ezek. xxxviii. 22). ^sn, in the sense of evertere, refers not only to cities but to men (as at Prov. xii. 7 ; Isa. i. 7) and plants. Brimstone and fire came through the intervention of God present in His angels from (nxo^ like Micah v. 6) Him who is enthroned in heaven. The statement distinguishes still more decidedly than Hos. i. 7, Zech. x. 12, 2 Tim. i. 18, the supermundane and the historically manifested God. But we should be more correct to say that the mundane presence of God in the angels was a prefiguration of the icpavepcoBr) iv a-apicl, than to agree with Justin, Eusebius, and the Council of Sirmium, which decreed, after these authorities : Fluit Dei filius a Deo p)atre. Not only Sodom and Gomorrah, but Admah and Zeboiim, the two other cities of the Pentapolis (xiv. 2), as we are told, Deut. xxix. 23 (the fundamental passage for Hos. xi. 8), or, as it is here said, the whole plain, Zoar alone excepted, perished by fire and
58 GENESIS XIX. 26-28.
brimstone — a catastrophe to which Strabo, Tacitus, and Solinus Polyhistor also testify, and which, in the subsequent literature down to the Apocalypse, is often both alluded to and directly mentioned {e.g. Ps. xi. 6), Fate of Lot's wife, ver. 26: And Jiis wife looked hack from hshind him, and hecame a pillar of salt. She was following him and, whether from affection, compassion, or curiosity, looking about behind her, and became, in consequence of this disregard of the Divine command, a prey to the catastrophe. She was covered with a saline incrustation and changed, as it were, into a statue of salt. In the time of the author of the Book of Wisdom this (7r7]\rj aX6<i, Wisd. x. 7 (comp. Clement, ad Cor. c. xi.), was still pointed out. Josephus (Ant. i. 11. 4) declares that he had seen it : laToprjKa avjrjv, ert yap Kot vvv Bia/xevet. A poem among the works of Tertullian (ed. Oehler, ii. 773) relates of it, that when it is mutilated it completes itself again, which Irenseus (iv. 31. 3, 33. 9) explains typi- cally. These are legends which have their very obvious rise in the partly cylindrical, partly pyramidal cones of salt still found, in consequence of the winter rains, on the salt-mine track, Hagar Usdum, which extends not far from the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, two leagues and a half towards its southern extremity (see Tuch, Qumstio de Flav. Josephi loco B. J., iv. 8. 2, 1860). What is related in ver. 26 however is regarded as history in the New Testament also (Luke xvii. 32, comp. ix. 62). The disappearance of Eurydice when Orpheus, contrary to the command of Proserpine, looks round at her when brought from Hades before arriving at their native land, as related in the Greek legend, is somewhat similar. What Abraham had to behold next morning, vv. 27, 28 : And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood in the presence of Jahveh, and looked toward the face of Sodom and Gomorrah and toward the whole face of tlie country of the plain, and heheld, and, lo, the vapour of the land went up as the vapour of the furnace. Instead of |j?'V,
GENESIS XIX. 29. 69
smoke (Ex. xix. 18), we have here the less usual "lit^^p
(Arab. jUJi), steam or vapour (Ps. cxix. 83) ; comp. Wisd.
X. 7, KaTTvi^ofjuevr] •^epao^, and Brocardus : mare mortuum est semper fumans et tcnehrosum sicut os inferni, ut oculis meis vidi, oh tetrum valorem inde fumantem. So far the account of J, to which is now joined the sketch of Q, ver. 29 : And it came to pass, when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, then Elohim remembered Abraham and led Lot out of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. Thus Lot was delivered for the sake of Abraham, and indeed for the sake of his intercession. " In which " is the same as in one of which, like Judg. xii. 7. Instead of *^^^i[, occurring here only, 'i^srip is the Deuteronomico-prophetic word.
The Dead Sea, as it appears at present, has no kind of odour ; its water is clear as crystal, and has in fair weather the blue colour of heaven like other seas. Flights of birds are frequently seen passing over its waters. It nevertheless gives an impression of awe. Neither fish nor other living creatures are hidden in its bosom, those who enter it with the current from the Jordan dying immediately, and its lonely shores are entirely devoid of vegetation. The atmosphere over its waters is purest at night, but never quite pure. If it is agitated by a storm, the spray that is driven about covers everything with an incrustation of salt. Liquid bitumen is not found, but the Moses and Asphalt stone so frequent on the coast lead to the conclusion, that a great bed of asphalt forms the bottom of tlie sea. After the earthquake of 1837, which destroyed Tiberias, a mass of asphalt the size of a house appeared upon the sur- face, it was driven on to firm ground on the western side not far from Usdum, and furnished the Arabs with 150 ctr. of asphalt.'^ The length of this unique waste of waters amounts to 40, and its average breadth to 8 miles; at its
^ See Zincken, Fossile Kohlen und Kohlenwasserstoffe, 1884, pp. 327-331 (^Bituminose ScJiichien und Emanationen Falcistina's),
60 GENESIS XIX. 29.
southern extremity its whole breadth is fordable. According to Symond's measurement it lies 1231 feet, while the Sea of Tiberias is only 308 feet below the surface of the Mediter- ranean. As Moore found the bottom to be in some places 1700 feet deep, it reaches to almost 3000 feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean. The Lake of Achen in Tyrol, and especially Lake Baikal in Asiatic Eussia, are far deeper, but their situation is incomparably less deep, that of the Dead Sea being one of the deepest depressions on the surface of the globe. The view advocated by great authorities (Ritter, V. Schubert, Daubeny, J. B. Eoth), that the Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba originally formed one connected waterway, has been proved untenable by more recent investi- gations (Russegger, Eobinson, Thornton, Fraas). The land between the Arabian Gulf and the Dead Sea rises to a height of 2100 feet above the level of the sea, and it can be geologi- cally proved that the Wadi Arabah has undergone no elevation since the existence of the present basins. Lartet, who accom- panied the Duke de Luynes, arrived at the result that the Dead Sea had at all times been a basin for the deposits which fell on its declivities, and that its surface was at the end of the Tertiary period 100 metres higher than at present ; but that volcanic catastrophes subsequently took place at the east and north-east in the form of effusions of basalt, and that hot mineral springs, bituminous eruptions and earthquakes were, in historic times, the last forces which shaped the basin of the Dead Sea. Fallmerayer too (1853) is of opinion that the southern part of the Dead Sea, between the great peninsula jutting in on its eastern side and the hill of lava, ashes and salt, 'Gebel Usdum, was originally the dry land of the plain of Siddim, and was covered with water in con- sequence of a catastrophe. He thinks that the Dead Sea has advanced, and has volcanically overwhelmed tracts of land, which formerly lay beyond its reach, and in the enjoy- ment of sunlight. That where to-day are the bare peninsula
GENESIS XIX. 29. 61
and the Dardanelle current, there was once the termination and southern boundary of the Dead Sea. And that the formerly flourishing and abundantly watered Vale of Siddim, the Lectonia (ii. 14, 283 sq.) of Canaan, of which only the great Delta in Southern 'Gor remains besides its extremely irregular borders on the east and west, extended from this natural enclosure to the wall of hills across the Wadi Arabah, With this agrees also the result arrived at by Capt. Lynch, who undertook in 1848 an expedition to the Dead Sea in two boats, one of iron, the other of copper, which were brought thither over land. It was ascertained that the bed of the sea forms two sunken plains, one from 1000 to 1200, the other on an average only 13 feet below the surface. This shallower southern part, as may now be considered almost settled, would thus have to be regarded as the submerged Vale of Siddim. Fritz Noetling however judges otherwise in the three articles on the Dead Sea which he has published in the Berliner TageUatt, Aug. 1886. He denies that there is any kind of connection between a catastrophe in the time of Abraham and this body of water which has always existed in the deepest part of the Ghor, regards the Wadi Zerka as the only conceivable place of the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, and is convinced that the volcanic action in the region of the Dead Sea was still operative when the district had already almost exactly its present relief; for "the most recent streams of lava have flowed down from the plateau into the valleys, which were already hollowed out to their present depth." It is however evident from the circumstance that the stream of lava that has descended from the Attarus mountain chain appears to be sawn through the midst by the never resting water of the Wadi in such wise that its two portions adhere to both sides of the slopes of the valley in the form of terraces, that this last outburst of volcanic force in Palestine took place in the Alluvial period thousands of years previously. The narrator certainly does not tell us in ch. xix. that the cities were
62 GENESIS XIX. 30-32.
submerged in the sea which arose in consequence of the fiery judgment, only xiv. 3 seems to proceed from this view.
4. The incestuotis generation of Modb and Ben-Ammi, xix. 30-38.
The second portion of the third section of Abraham's life closes with xix. 30-38. What is here related is closely linked with xix. 1—28, and there is no valid ground against our admitting that it is still J who here continues the narrative. The distinction of age by '^"l.''?3 and htj?^ occurs also with him at xxix. 26, and VIT nvn at vii. 3. It is he also who relates how the hero of the Flood committed himself ix. 2 0 sqq., after having stood such a test of his faith ; and if the histories of Abraham, Gideon, David and other models of faith terminate with a fall from their ideal height, this is the less amazing in the case of Lot.
He moved from Zoar, and dwelt in a cave in the mountain, vv. 30-32 : And Lot went up out of Soar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him. And the first-horn said to the younger : Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in unto us according to the manner of all the ivorld. Up, we will give our father wine to drinJc, and we will lie with him and will propagate the race from our father. When invited to escape to the (Moabite) mountain, Lot had requested permission to flee to Zoar ; but it was just there that he now felt himself insecure and departed thence to the mountain, whither he had formerly desired not to go. There was this former nomad compelled by poverty and fear to become a dweller in a cave (n'jpsn with the article of the species, unless it has the meaning of the definite cave known as the birthplace of the two nations). The two daughters of Lot, called by Mas'^di, Zewt and 'Arva, are those who were still unmarried at the catastrophe. In the absence of all prospect of marriage, the younger is persuaded by the elder to
GENESIS XIX. 33-36. 63
the desperate resolve of lying with their father after they have made him drunk; P.^O"''? ^"?-1- ^^ ^^^^^ ^^® usual human manner of sexual intercourse, as the husband in the Jewish marriage articles promises : i^p^'^^ n-115^3 ini^ byx NJX1. Not as if they supposed that the Divine judgment had extirpated all men (so e.(/. Irenseus, iv. 31. 2) ; but that they felt themselves so branded as the remnants of an accursed city, that they feared that their family must die out with themselves who were without husbands and their aged father. It was not lust, but the wish to keep their race from perishing, that impelled tliem. The means was however worthy of Sodom, and Lot became the blind instrument of an infamy punishable by the subsequent law with death by fire. He is, as F. G. v. Moser designates him, a memorable example of an impure man, or, to speak more correctly (comp. 2 Pet. ii. 7), of a very frail righteous man. The proposal carried out, vv. 33-36: And they gam their father wine to drink that same night, and the first-horn came and lay with her father, and he knew neither her lying down nor her rising up. And it came to pass the day after, that the first-horn said to the younger : Behold, I lay last night with my father, we will give him wine to drink this night also, and come thou, lie with him, and we will pro'pagate the race hy our father. And they gave their father wine to drink that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he knew neither of her lying down nor of her rising wp. And the two daughters of Lot were with child hy their father. On two successive nights Lot became the blind instrument of a desire which obtained its satisfaction in a sinful manner. Nin n^"^?, ver. 33, for t<i'in n^pa, ver. 35, is in itself the more possible (xxxviii. 21 ; Ps. xii. 8), and here, as at xxx. 16, xxxii. 23, 1 Sam. xix. 10, the preferable expression by reason of the hiatus. nijiQO, thus pointed, may be contracted from nnnsrsp, like the Aramcean **1'!'9^'' J ^^^ ""C^ comes from -in», to be in front, commonly used in the Assyrian and meaning the approaching day, which forms, as it were, the front of the
k
64 GENESIS XIX. 37, 38.
present line of time. On ti'px, the previous evening, the evening (the night, the day before), from n*^'D, to graze, to touch (said of the sun sinking on the horizon), here, ver. 34, used as an accus. of time : to pass the night, i.e. the past night, see Fleischer on Job xxx. 3. With the writing, ^ri'"'J!'5, comp. Ges. § 47, note 3, VV has 3 of the object, like Ps. xxxi. 8; Job xii. 9, xxxv. 15. The formation nnati' is like n"i3p, Amos ii. 6, with n-jso, Ex. xxi. 8 ; Ewald, § 22od. The wine and evil lust combine to plunge Lot, not indeed into absolutely passive unconsciousness, but into animal insensi- bility, in which he surrendered himself without moral con- sideration to mere blind instinct. The point over the second ^ of noip^l is said, according to the opinion of the Midrash, to indicate ]}T noipni yT" i6 n23B'3B' {Nazir 23a), which Jerome also relates, but it certainly has only critical and not actiuil significance. Birth of the children, vv. 37, 38 : And the first- lorn hare a son, and called his name Moal, he is the father of Moab to this day. And the younger she too hare a son, and called his name Ben- Ammi, he is the father of the Beni-Ammon to this day. In consequence of their crafty incest they became the ancestresses of two nations, of the Moabites, who took possession of the dwellings of the Emim, and of the Ammon- ites, who took possession of the dwellings of the Zamzum- mim, Deut. ii. 9-21. The LXX. adds to the naming of Moab : Xejovaa 'Ek tov iraTp6<; fiou. That Moab means begotten by my father is clear, and according to i^^?^'^, vv. 32, 34, and ii^"'3X0, ver. 36, it seems to be equivalent to 2Np, But it is also possible that it may be equivalent to 3^ ^p, aqiia imtris (io=''iD, from njo, di^uere, fiuidum esse, like M3, from nij), for semen patris (comp. Num. xxiv. 7, Prov. v. 16, also Isa. xlviii. 1 , according to the extant text, though there "'J^p may be intended for 'pp), to which 'ps, Kcri ii23, Isa. xxv. 10, seems to allude. The name "'pri^ means, according to the naiTative, the son of parents of the same stock ; fi^V, the belonging to a nation {ahs. then concr.), is related to ^V as P035< is to Cjix.
GENESIS XX. 65
The people is called P'SV ''P,^, for which poy is first used at a later period of the language (Ps. Ixxxiii. 8, comp, 1 Sam. xi. 11, Heb. with LXX.).
Lot is not again mentioned, nor even his death. His history terminates the collateral line of Haran, and at the same time relates the origin of two nations interwoven in the history of Israel. De Wette, Tuch, Ewald, Knobel, Bohmer, and Dill- mann see in this narrative the invention of Israelite national hatred. But how should this be the root of the legend, when their descent from Lot is reckoned an honour to the Moabites and Ammonites, Deut. ii. 9, 19, and Israel is directed to leave unmolested the land awarded to them as t3i^ ''33, and consequently congeners ? It was not till they had behaved in an unbrotherly manner to Israel, that they were excluded from the congregation of the Lord, — on no other grounds but just this unbrotherly conduct, Deut. xxiii. 4 sq. And if lewdness (Num. XXV.) and want of natural feeling {e.cf. 2 Kings iii. 26 sq.) subsequently appear to be fundamental in the character and cultus of both nations, we are at least equally justified in assuming that these their hereditary sins are derived from their origin, as that the legend fashioned their origin accordingly.
Sarah's preservation at the court of abimelech, ch. xx.
The long Jahvistic section in four parts is now followed by an Elohistic one, relating how the honour of Sarah, which had been endangered by her being taken into the harem of Abime- lech, was preserved. This narrative is a pendant to the Elohistic narrative, xii. 10 sqq., where it is the harem of Pharaoh into which Sarah is carried off. Whether the two histories are two forms of the same legend or not, the narra- tors are at all events different. If Q is however regarded as the narrator of ch. xx., it is but a shallow inference to esteem him as such from the use of the Divine name D^^i>^^ Ilgen
{Urkunden des Jemsalemer Tempelarchivs, 1798) already VOL. II. in
66 GENESIS XX. 1.
distinguished two Elohists, and the same perception dawned quite independently upon Hupfeld {Quellen, 1853), especially with regard to ch. xx. Apart from nTh^ (n), which is besides exchanged, ver. 4, for "'Jit?, there is nothing which absolutely leads to Q, the tone of the language being more closely related to that of J {e.g. y}6 y^iir], xx. 15, xiii. 9 ; ^m D?^"!l, xx. 8, xix. 27 ; ■'?'^"^y, XX. 11, xii. 17; Dy non nb'y, xx. 13, xix. 19 ; pi, XX. 11, xix. 8), but also characteristically differing from it (e.ff. i^^ps, xx. 12, comp. ^^^^, xviii. 13 ; D''n^x with a plural of the predicate, xx. 13, like xxxv. 7, the ninps peculiar to him, XX. 7, with the usual nha^, xx. 14). It is also here only that Abraham is called K^?3, xx. 7 (comp. Ps. cv. 15), and the mediatorial position implied in this notion appears here in an instructive and ancient light ; the direction of Abimelech to the intercession of the patriarch recalls Job xlii. 8. It was in E that E found this narrative, which he here inserts retro- spectively and not in its original place, as e.g. the Synoptists bring in the purification of the Temple, which took place in the first Jerusalem Passover, in the third.
Abraham's departure to the south, ver. 1 : And Abraham departed thence to the land of the south, and dwelt hetiveen Kades and "SHr. He leaves Mamre and its curse-stricken neighbourhood and journeys 333n n^ns j so here instead of n3J3n, xii. 9, xiii. 1, with He locale to the connecting form, like xxiv. 67, xxviii. 2, xliii. 17, xlvi. 1 ; Ew. § 216&. The southern part of Canaan, the subsequent territory cf the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon, is divided by the features of the country into four distinctly separate parts. The moun- tainous (in^) or high land, on whose western slope lies a hilly district which gradually sinks into a plain {>YPf), forms the centre ; while towards the east the wilderness 0?1P) inclines towards the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea, to the south the South-land (3J3, Josh. xv. 21) forms in several plainly marked terraces a spur of the mountains towards the Petroean peninsula. It was here that Abraham sojourned in the district between
GENESIS XX. 2-5. 67
Kadesh and Sliur (where was, according to xvi. 7, 14, the well of Hagar), wandering occasionally from these his head- quarters to Gerar south of Gaza (see on xxvi. 17). Here in the south-west of Canaan already dwelt the Philistines ; for though the narrator both here and xxi. 22-34 calls Abimelech only king of Gerar, and not, as the narrator in ch. xxvi., king of the Philistines, yet this is not to be regarded as his abstinence from a non-historical anticipation (Bertheau, Kn.) ; it was an actual tradition that the Philistines had settled on this coast long before Israel became a nation (Hitzig, Philist. p. 146). Unlike as the Philistines of the patriarchal age are to those of the times of the Judges, Ewald refers to the unmistake- able similarity of the proper names, especially '^?p''?^, accord- ing to P. Haupt, not = Alimalhi but Ahimilki, father of the council, and masculine proper names in ath, as ^5^^« and nv3. Abraham fares in this pre-Mosaic Philistine kingdom as according to ch. xii. he had done in Egypt, ver. 2 : And Ahraham said of Sarah his wife : She is my sister, and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. He did not say it to her, but to others of her, ?^? like 7, 13&, Obad. ver. 1, comp. Ps. ii. 7, xli. 6. In the position which is given to the history by B, we should have to admit that Abimelech was not concerned for sensual enjoyment, but that he desired to ally him- self as brother-in-law to Abraham the wealthy nomad prince. But this time also Elohim interposes in her behalf, vv. 3-5 : And JElohim came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said unto him: Behold, thou must die because of the woman whom thou hast taken, since she is the wife of a husband. And Abimelech had not come near her, and he said: Lord God, wilt Thou destroy also a righteous nation ? Bid he not say unto me : She is my sister ? and did not she herself also sa.y : He is my brother ? In the integrity of 7ny heart and the cleanness of my hands have I done this.. We may hesitate as to whether ^T.^J^ here and xxxi. 24, 1 Kings iii. 5, is meant for an ace. of time or a dependent gen. ; the accentuation assumes the latter,
68 GENESIS XX. 6, 7.
and indeed correctly (Targ. Xv7"T NO^na). A dream, as the experience of one who is asleep, is the lowest grade of revela- tion, hence Elohim comes to Abimelech and Laban in a dream of the night ; but Jacob also, xxviii, 12, xxxi. 11, and Joseph, xxxvii. 5, receive Divine disclosures Dl^na (different from the vision of the night, xlvi. 2). It is E who delights in relating these Divine revelations by night. A married woman is called ^V? npya, as at Deut. xxii. 22, in post - biblical ter- minology ^''^ riK'X. Death is placed before the king as certainly at hand by en te moriturum. He was then (accord- ing to vv. 7, 17) sick like Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 1, and even on that account he had not come near her (Isa. viii. 3). ''^'"is here, as at xix. 18, is one of ^'s points of contact with J. The original text was perhaps P'''^.^ Q^l!, at all events ""ij, if it here meant an individual heathen (Targ. Jer. pooy in), would have to be regarded, as by Geiger, Urschr. 365, as a later insertion; "•13 however is like Dy (comp. on xvii, 14), an elastic notion, Abimelech is generalizing, which as king he had a right to do. The question is similar to xviii. 23, but there it is ^v<, adeo, here 03, o/iw?, Ew. § 354a; a nation which is nevertheless righteous. In K'in-DrK''ni^ km and the double-gendered sin stand incorrectly together. '33p"Dn3, in the innocence of my heart, is the usual expression, not ^3p ona. " Cleanness of hands," as in the phrase " to wash the hands in |Vp3," Ps. xxvi. 6, Ixxiii. 13. Abimelech's exculpation admitted, vv. 6,7: And God said to him in a dream : I also hwiv that thou hast done this in the integrity of thine heart, and I also withheld thee from guilt towards me ; therefore have I not suffered thee to touch her. And now give hack the man's wife, for he is a prophet and will pray for thee, and thou shall live ; tut if thou do not give her hack, know that thou shalt die, thou, and all thine. On the form ^onp, see Ges, § 75, note 21c; and with the construction with ?, comp. e.g. Ps. li. 6. )n3 with an accus. and p means either authorization, or as here and xxxi. 7, making possible, permitting. God commands the king under a
GENESIS XX. 8-13. 69
fresh threat at once to restore Abraham's wife, for he is a i^''?3. Such is the term applied to one who makes known, proclaims, speaks, viz. of God and Divine mysteries, xviii. 17—19, and not the authorized, the inspired, the God-counselled, or any other kind of passive meaning, but like Tpn, y]^, ???, the intensive of the 2>(^rL act, as shown in Fleischer's excursus to the former edition of this commentary. The Assyrian, which presents for naba the general meaning to call, to name, to reckon, does not alter it. From the fact that Abraham as ^''23 is an accept- able petitioner, an interceding mediator, we see that according to the scriptural view the official characteristic of the prophet presupposes the general one of piety and personal association with God (Wisd. vii. 27; 2 Pet. i. 21 comp. iii. 2).^ The imper. n^n} is not equivalent to >^^p^\ it declares, like Prov. iv. 4 and elsewhere, as well the means as the end intended. The God-fearing heathen monarch accepted the reproof of God, but not without taking Abraham to task, v v. 8-10: And Ahimekch rose up early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things audibly ; and the men were much afraid. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him : What hast thou done unto us ? and wherein have I been guilty against thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great guilt ? Deeds which ought not to be done, hast thou done to me. And Abimelech said to Abraham : What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing ? To speak "'.^TS3 of another means not confidential, but (comp. e.g. xxiii. 10) audible and unreserved communication. With 96 (what ought not to be done) comp. xxxiv. 7, and with r\''^1 n», Ps. xxxvii. 37. God's prophet thus put to shame seeks to excuse himself, vv. 11-13: And Abraham said: Because I thought, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me for my wife's sake. And she is besides really my sister, the daughter of
^ Kuenen {Einl. § 13, note 20) thinks that the designation of Abraliam as N''33 points to the century in which the prophets undertook the sjiiritual guid- ance of the people and were honoured as the confidants of the Deity, an in- ference on the ground of self-made history and devoid of internal necessity.
70 GENESIS XX. 14-16.
my father, hut not the daughter of my mother, and she "became my wife. And it came to 'pass, when Elohim led me forth from my father^ s house, that I said to her : This is thy favour which thou mayst show me ; wherever we come, say of me : He is my brother. ■"S, 11a, gives the reason for the understood sentence: I did it, comp. xxvii. 20, xxxi. 31, Ex. i. 19, like the understood "thou shalt" at Ex. iii. 12. Pi is restrictive, then, because what is simply thus and not otherwise is certainly the case, affirmative (as also at Num. xx. 19 ; Ps. xxxil 6). By the state- ment of Abraham that Sarah is his half-sister {o^otrdTpios:), what preceded at xi. 29, xii. 13, is incontestably completed. What he says too as to the time of his agreement with Sarah is easily reconcilable with xii. 11. Nor is it strange that he should speak of his wanderings according to outward appear- ance, reserving to himself their motive and purpose. Hence too D'^nps 'DN ^ynn may be an accommodation to heathen modes of thought and speech, but Israelite piety does not elsewhere shun to speak of the one God in the plural, e.g. xxxv. 7 ; 2 Sam. vii. 23; Josh. xxiv. 19; Ps. Iviii. 12; 1 Sam. xvii. 26. Dipsn-ba-^K stands for Dipon-^aa, attracted by what follows (comp. with respect to the art., Ex. xx. 24). Abimelech's obedience and generosity, vv. 14, 15: And Abimelcch tooh sheep and oxen and men-servants and maid- servants and gave them to Abraham, and restored to him Sarah his wife. And Abimelech said : Behold, my land is open to thee ; dwell where it seems good to thee. He also compensates Sarah, ver. 1 6 : And to Sarah he said : Behold, I give a thousand shekels of silver to thy brother : behold, let this be to thee a covering of the eyes for all those with thee, and in the presence of all, then art thou righted. The thousand silver shekels (Ges. § 120, note 2) are not the money's worth of the presents given for appeasing Abraham, ver. 14, but a special present, the purpose of which referred personally to Sarah, delivered to Abraham himself. It is clear what is meant by ^)TV. ^^°? : a covering of the eyes, which
GENESIS XX. 16. "71
renders one blind to what has happened (comp. Job ix. 24), and makes it as though it had not happened (comp. xxxii. 21). The only question is whether it was Sarah or those around her whose eyes the present was to cover. Dillm. explains it with Hofmann {Schriftbeweis, 2nd edit. i. 233): let it be to thee a covering of the eyes for all who constitute thy surrounding, that they may no more see dishonour in thee. Then ^, as dat. commodi, would precede the dative of destination. Tob^ which is improbable, and D''J"'y niD3 has indeed the meaning of a propitiatory present, and as such befits Sarah, on which account b:h cannot be equivalent to ^ah ; hence ']b is, on the contrary, the dative of destination, and b^h the dative of relation : with relation to all or for all who are with thee. We translate further: and in the presence of all — then (i a^ot?., like xxii. 4, then he lifted up) art thou proved (Passive to n''?^'^. Job xiii. 15, xix. 5), i.e. to be one to whom a propitiation is due. According to the most obvious view, nnai^'i is equivalent to JjinaiJI; the Dagesh lene is however lacking, as indeed it would be also at xxx. 15, if ^D!?^l were there equivalent to ^^\i^\. The punctuators however always place Dagesh lene in such formations, e.g. ^Vf?f for ^V^'f, 1 Kings i. 11 and frequently, and distinguish the second pers. '^^'y!}., xvi. 11, from the third pers. nsni5i, by the added Sheva (according to which Olsh. § 35&, must be corrected). They therefore took rinaiil as a participle, but scarcely like Gesenius {Thes. p. 700, 592): and she was con- victed (of her fault), since not shame, but the preservation of her honour is awarded to Sarah ; but nn3i:i stands ellipti- cally for nx rin3i:i (comp. xxiv. 30 ; Hab. ii. 10 ; Ps. vii. 10, xxii. 29, Iv. 20; Isa. xxix. 8, xl. 19), unless we prefer with Dillmann to point it T}'^'-^^A (comp. Konig, Lehrgcb. i. 423). By a truly royal extra present, Abimelech makes amends for the wrong done to Sarah, inasmuch as he thereby manifests a respectful acknowledgment of the marital relation against which he had unconsciously almost offended. Abraham
72 GENESIS XX. 17, 18.
accepts the money, because it was meant in all seriousness as an atonement. His prayer is heard, ver. 17 : And Abraham prayed to God, and Elohim healed Ahimelech and his loife and his maid-servants, and they hare children. We have here ninos instead of nnSK', the notion of service adhering more to nnstr than to niox, 1 Sam. xxv. 41 — the n in this plural formation, for which the Arab, is amavdt, is a compensation for an original i. The Arabic diminutive umajja (little maid) gave a name to the dynasty of the Umajjades. We here first learn that Abimelech and the women of his house were visited with sickness, according to which 1*1^.^1 seems to include Abimelech, and hence to be meant, as at Hos. ix. 16, of the power of procreation as well as of birth. Ver. 18 too may be understood of a hindrance to both conception and bringing forth. Ver. 1 8 : For Jahveh had fast closed every wonib of the house of A himelech for the sake of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. The additional clause rightly originates from the fact, that the sickness and recovery of the women took place in the short period of time between the carrying off and the release of Sarah. Those who were preg- nant had to lament the absence of travail pains, or their lack of result; the nmn (nyn) n^j? comprises both, when as here it means incapacity of giving birth, Isa. Ixvi. 9, and not as at xvi. 2, comp. xxix. 31, xxx. 22, incapacity of conception. It is here construed with *iy3, as in a like sense with njD, 1 Sam. i. 6. "^T^pV is found in both F, ver. 11, and J, xii. 17, xliii. 18. Ver. 18 might in itself well be a free exegetical addition; but the diction gives it, like xxii. 15-18, the appearance of conformity to the source.
BIRTH OF ISAAC AND EXPULSION OF ISHMAEL, CH. XXI. 1-21.
This fourth portion of the third section of Abraham's life is divided into two parts, the first of which, xxi. 1-5, relates the birth of Isaac, the second, xxi. 9-21, the expulsion of
GENESIS XXI. 1-3. 73
Islimael from the parental house. Apart from the paren- thesis, ver. 1, the first part, xxi. 1-5, is essentially from Q : it falls back upon ch. xvii., and forms one whole with it. The second part, xxi. 6-21, is, on the other hand, from F, in ver. 6, the counterpart to xviii. 12, and from J, in vv. 9-21, the counterpart to ch. xvi. The diction of this older Elohist nearly approaches the Jahvistico-Deuteronomic. Thus the likewise Jahvistic formula 1i?33 ^Wl\ is here repeated, ver. 14, as at xx. 8; and n'"iiX"^J?, vv. 11, 25, is not less Jahvistic, xxvi. 32. The noun ^p^«, vv. 10, 12, 13, is moreover so very Deuteronomic, that nnDB^ occurs with it only once, xxviii. 68, in Deuteronomy.
The occurrence in Gerar, according to the order here preserved, took place in the year which had been fixed, xviii. 10, 14, to elapse until the birth of Isaac. Ver. 1 points back to this promise given in Mamre : And Jahveh visited Sarah as He had said, and Jahveh did unto Sarah as He had spoken. The structure of the verse is like ii. 5«, and its contents are, as it were, the obverse of xx. 18. We have to give up the perception of the origin of these two verses ; enough that they form a transition from an extract from E to one from Q, for in ver. 2 follows the text of Q : And Sarah conceived, and hare Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time which Mohim had said. Following ch. xvii. 19, 21, the reference back to xvii. 21 strikes one immediately. According to xxv. 7, Abraham attained the age of 175, hence at Isaac's birth he had still a long life before him, and yet he was in D''JpT (only found besides here, xxxvii. 3, xliv. 20), and was, looking backwards, well stricken in years. He gives to his new-born son the name prescribed, xvii. 14, ver. 3 : And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bare him, Isaac. It is impossible that Ipi^n, thus written with Pathach, should be a participle, it is 3 pers., the article standing for "lE'X, as at xviii. 21, xlvi. 27. The circumcision of Isaac as prescribed,
74 GENESIS XXI. 4-7.
xvii. 1 2, ver. 4 : And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as Ulohim commanded him. Abraham's age at the time, ver. 5 : And Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. This refers back to xvii. 17. The construction of the Passive with ns (here and ver, 8, comp. on iv. 18) is, in the Pentateuch, no indication of a source. The extract from U now begins with an historical statement of the motive for the name of Isaac, ver. 6 : And Sarah said : Elohim has prepared laughter for me ; every one who hears it will laugh at me. The Pentateuch always has pnv, and never pnb, for to laugh. As at xvii. 17 (comp. Ps. cxxvi. 2), it is the laughter of joyful surprise that is intended, but here not unmingled with some feeling of shame. In "'r'"pnv^, as in vP^H, Jer. xxii. 15, the union of the syllables is loosened, Ges. § 10, note 2. Sarah is in a state of solemn maternal rapture, hence her words have a poetic elevation and arrangement. As ver. 6 is a distich, ver. 7 is a tristich : Slie said also : Who would have said to Abraham : Sarah shall give children suck ! For I have borne him a son in his old age. Tuch translates : Who will announce to Abraham : Sarah is giving children suck ! and takes the words as a call to take the joyful news to the father. But then instead of P?? we should expect T'?!, and instead of ni?'yn rather rip3;o and instead of Ci^ the more definite I?. In Num. xxiiL 10, Lam. iii. 37, also ''P, with a perfect following, means: who has done, i.e. ever ventured or been able to do. So here : Who has ever said to Abraham, for which we should say : Who would have said (and yet it is so) ; comp. on this use of the perfect in questions, xviii. 12, Num. xxiii. 10, Judg. ix. 9 sq., 2 Kings xx. 9 (where '^\} means ivcriine), Ps. xi. 3, Job xii. 9, Zech. iv. 10 {quis contemserit). Only with this meaning is the general plur. D^?3 (comp. Ii?3, xix. 29, as also Isa. xxxvii. 3, 1 Sam. xvii. 43) in place. The expres- sion is brief, well turned and choice ('^P, a poetic Aramaism,
GENESIS XXI. 8, 9. 75
occurs in the Pentateuch only here). Festival at weaning, ver. 8 : And the child greio, and was weaned : and Abraham prepared a great feast on the day of Isaac's weaning. This took place in his second or third year, a child being, in the East, often nourished by its mother or wet-nurse till its third year (1 Sara. i. 23 sqq. ; 2 Mace. vii. 27). To be weaned is called bpan, from «'0|, related to 1^3, J^ ; from the funda- mental meaning " to fill, to complete," may be explained all the meanings : to perform = to do actually, to develop fully = to ripen, JViph. to be suckled to the end = to be weaned. The announcement, the birth, the weaning of the child — all furnish matter for varied and joyful laughter; pnv^. means one who laughs, who has abundant joy. Our Lord (John viii. 56) expresses the deepest cause of this joy. Sarah the wife of the one, by becoming the mother of Isaac, became the mother of Israel, Isa. li. 1 sq., comp. Mai. ii. 15, Ezek. xxxiii. 24, and by becoming the mother of Israel, the ancestress, and thus indirectly the mother of the Messiah, who has flesh and blood from Isaac through Israel, and in whom Abraham became a blessing to all nations. Hence at Verdun the birth and circumcision of Isaac and the birth and circumcision of Christ are correctly placed together on the altar ; while above is the announcement of Isaac on the same line as the salutation of the angel. The ancient synagogal Haggadah, that Isaac was born on the night of the Passover, that night of redemption, also fits in to this historical chain. St. Paul, Gal. iv., equally regards what is further related, xxi. 9-21, as typical and allegorical history. Ishmael behaves insolently to his brother, ver. 9 : And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she lore to Abraham, mocking. The masoretically testified reading is PjlVP, with a small Pathach, i.e. Segol in pause, comp. pn^f, Ex. xxxii. 6 ; ^nn^, Deut. xxxii. 11, and the pausal transition of iy into *iy. The word does not here mean innocent joking, but insolent rude- ness (comp. xxxix. 14; Ezek. xxiii. 32, synon. w^, T.^Q). The
76 GENESIS XXI, 10-13.
contemptuous attested in word and deed, which Isaac suffered from Ishmael, is regarded by the apostle as a prophecy of the persecution which the believing Church of Christ suffers from the bondmen of the law given in the desert of Sinai, and thus in the Hagarene land. Hofmann closely connects ver. 9 with 8 : At the festival of Isaac's weaning, Ishmael, instead of sharing in the joy of the family, was mocking at the son of his father. Sarah's demand, ver. 10 : And she said to Ahraliam : Cast out this hond-woman and her son ; for the son of this hond-woman shall not he heir with my son, with Isaac. This request vexed Abraham, but God bade him comply with it, vv. 11-13 : The thing appeared very dis- pleasing to Ahraliam hecause of his son. But Elohim said to Abraham: Let it not he displeasing to thee hecause of the hoy and hecause of thy hond-maid ; in all that Sarah says to thee, hearken to her words ; for through Isaox shall thy seed he named. And also the son of the hond-maid will I make a nation, hecause he is thy seed. Sarah's request, in which proud contempt was mingled with just displeasure, was very repugnant to Abraham, not indeed on account of Hagar, who was and continued nothing more to him than his wife's bond -maid, but on account of his son whom she had borne, and whom he loved as his own flesh and blood (nniK"7y, on account of the turns, conditions, circumstances; comp. J^^=>-^, from JU-, to turn, an ancient "on account of" occurring outside the Pentateuch only Josh. xiv. G, Judg. vi. 7, Jer. iii. 8, comp. the corrupt passage, 2 Sam. xiii. 16). God however requires of him the denial of his natural feeling, basing this denial on the promise VDJ ^? Nnj^l pny^n '•3, and making it easier by the promise that He would also make the son of the bond-maid the ancestor of a nation, even him (a retrospective pron. like xlvii. 21), because he is his seed. Three explanations of this iv 'laaaK Kk'qOrjaeiaL (TOL airep/ia (Rom. ix. 7 ; Heb. xi. 18) are possible : after Isaac's name shall thy seed be called (v. Hofm., comp. Ges. § 154. 3a), or: in, through, from Isaac shall seed be
GENESIS XXI. 14. "77
called into existence for thee (Drechsler), or : in Isaac, through him shall it happen, that a seed of Abraham is spoken of (Bleek), or more accurately: through him shall a seed be bestowed on thee, who shall bear thy name, and propagate the blessings connected with it in a direct line (Kn. Dillm.). Since with the first view we should have expected ^p^, Isa. xliii. 7, xlviii. 1, and moreover the nation of the promise is only once, Amos vii. 9, called pn^^l, and since i^1\^ has indeed the meaning "to call into existence," Isa. xli. 4, Eom. iv. 17, but never so without an addition, the third view must be preferred. In Isaac shall the nation, which is and is called the genuine seed of Abraham (Isa. xli. 8), have its point of departure. Abraham understands this in a vision of the night, or a dream, for he acts in the morning according to the Divine direction, ver. 14: Then AhraJiam arose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin with water, and gave it to Hagar, laid it upon her nech, and the hoy, and sent her away. And she went and wandered in the wilderness of Beirliha . He obeyed the voice of God, much as his attachment to the child and his mother, and his compassion for both, strove against it. Ishmael having been at Isaac's birth, xvii. 25, thirteen years of age, must now have been fourteen, and yet Abraham puts him together with the bread and water upon Hagar's neck. So indeed according to the LXX., koX enrWrjKev iirl Tov ayfxov avrrj<i to iratSiov, which Dillm. looks upon as the original wording. But even supposing that £ was not as aware of the age of Ishmael as Q was, why should he have looked upon him as a little child to be carried by his mother ? why should IP^^TINI, governed by ]^^}, be a harmonistic correction ? The state of the case is in reality similar to r^^Jn'nsi, xliii. 15. Hagar no more took Ishmael astride upon her neck than his brothers took Benjamin in their hand like the money ; ^^, like p^'^, xviii. 1 4, is the perf. of the accessory action (Driver, § 163). J^nni is imp/. Kal from nyn, not VVT\. From Hagar's wandering in the wilderness, afterwards called that of Beer-
78 GENESIS XXI. 15-18.
sheba, we may infer that Abraham at that time resided in the Negeb. Nor does it follow from vv. 15, 16 that the narrator regarded Ishmael as a little child : And the water in the skin was spent, then she cast the child under one of the shrubs, and went and sat over against, about a bow-shot off; for she said : Let me not look upon the death of the child — therefore she sat over against and lifted up her voice and wept. The appellation 1.^.''. (comp. iv. 2 3 ; 1 Kings xii. 8 ; Dan. i, 4 ; Eccles. iv. 1 3) leaves the age undecided. To cast is like Matt. xv. 3 0 (comp. to cast into prison, Jer. xxxviii. 6), to lay down hastily, here said of the sudden resolve of hopeless resignation. The store of water was spent, and Ishmael in a state of extreme exhaus- tion was unable to drag on any farther, and she laid him down under a Dn"'b'. The branchy woody perennial desert plant which furnishes the usual fuel, and in the shade of which a scanty vegetation exists in the hot season, is still called ^^. Under such a shrub she laid him, that he might at least die in the shade, and sat down over against \inpp3 pn-in nK*!?, at the distance of shootings of the bow (Gen. like Jer. iv. 29), i.e. according to the usual comparatio decurtata: as far as bow-shots are accustomed to carry, from nriL), original form "into, Pilel mno, like ninti', Ges. § 75, note 18. Maternal love was not able to look upon the death of the child (^ nxi, said of compassionate beholding, as at xliv. 34, xxix. 32; Num. xi. 15), but at the same time could not lose sight of him. A voice of comfort then resounded from heaven, vv. 17, 18: Then Elohim heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of Elohim called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her : What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not, for Elohim has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Arise, lift up the boy and hold him with firm hand ; for I will make him a great nation. God heard (as the name ^syiOB'^ signifies); He who had entered into covenant with Abraham, even the Angel of the covenant, proclaimed from heaven words of comfort and encouragement to the mother, ^f wn iti'xa, where (= ~^fi C)ipp3, 2 Sam. xv. 21)
GENESIS XXI. 19-21. 79
he now is (in so helpless a state). With 13 ''1?''?!^'!' is here placed ^l^'^x, which elsewhere has to be supplied, ex qiio manifestum est, as Jerome remarks, eum qui tenetur non oneri matri fuisse, sed comitem. The immediate help, ver. 1 9 : Then Elohim opened her eyes, and she saiv a spring of water, and went and filled the shin with water and gave the hoy drink. Else- where (as at xxvi. 15) 1N3 means a well dug by human hands, here a spring that might be seen, Assyr. leru (differing from "ii3="iX3, cistern, i.e. a receptacle for rain water, Assyr. hunt), as at xiv. 10, with i^-' ^^^ bitumen spring.^ A spring from which water was flowing appeared before her eyes, which had become enlightened, and with it she refreshed the exhausted boy. How it afterwards fared with Ishmael, vv. 20, 21 : And Elohim was with the hoy, and he grew up, and dwelt in the wilderness and hecame an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Pharan, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. Entrance into adolescence is meant by ?"!!|in. The sentence concerning the vocation may be translated : growing up, he became an archer ; nnn, from nan, to increase = to grow,
comp. on Prov. xxviii. 2 8 ; Arab. V;, to grow up (whence
i^j, according to the spirit of the Arabic : educator, guardian, master). In the Mishnic too nan means the youth (plur. C^^), according to which E. Chananel and other ancient expositors (see Abulwalid's Lexicon) and the Targ. translate NHE'p ^\T\, juvenis Sagittarius, But it is better to take nnh as the more general word, which is more particularly explained by nf )■?, a caster (shooter), viz. an archer, a permutative com- bination as at xiii. 8 ; 1 Kings i. 2, v. 29 ; Ges. § 113. The LXX. too took nm in the sense of 331, to shoot (like xlix. 23 ; Ps. xviii. 1 5 ; Job xvi. 1 3), translating the two words together To^oT7)<i, and hence read n^'i? nnn in the same sense as nph ^f\>,, according to which Onkelos also translates (as Gr. Ven.
' See my article on the song of the well, Num. xxi. 17 sqq., in Luthardt's Zeitschr. 1882, pp. 449-451.
80 GENESIS XXI. 22, 23.
does, ^aXkwv To^w), and for which Hitzig on Jer. iv. 29, Hupf. on Ps. Ixxviii. 9, Kn. Olsh. Dillra. decide. V^^ ^mn is the name of the entire desert plateau, bounded on the west by 'Gebel Heidi and 'GelcTc, on the east by the Edom country, on the north by the southern mountains of Judaea, on the south by el-Tih proper, which here as a whole extending far and wide is opposed to the V^f i?<3 ""^IP. Hagar, herself an Egyptian, representing herein the father (xxxiv. 4, xxxviii. 6), took for her son a wife from Egypt.
TREATY BETWEEN ABRAHAM AND ABIMELECH, CH. XXI. 22-34.
The fifth part of the third section of the life of Abraham (xxi, 22-34) relates the solemn conclusion of a treaty between Abimelech and Abraham. The narrator is U, the same who related Sarah's preservation in Gerar, and the expulsion of Ishmael and his mother ; the scene is everywhere the south country, with the neighbouring Ger§,r and the great wilderness opening somewhat farther southwards. The diction of the narrator here too has points of contact with J, it contains specially classical expressions. The conclusion of the covenant (denoted by r\''-\2 ma, only used by J and JS, never by Q) is represented with the same archaeological preciseness as the history of the redemption by the Goel in ch. iv. of the book of Ruth. Only at the end does B complete and frame the narrative of U by an extract from J. The desire and pro- posal of Abimelech, vv. 22, 23 : And it came to jpass at that time, that Abimelech spake, and Phicol, the captain of his host, to Ahraham thus : Elohim is with thee in all that thou doest. How then swear unto me hy Elohim, on the spot, that thou wilt not he faithless to me, nor to my oJfspHny and posterity, that the same kindness that I have shown thee, thou unit show to me and to the country in which thou sojourncst as a guest. A friendly relation, introduced by Abimelech, already exists ; the question is concerning its establishment for all future
GENESIS XXI. 25-30. 81
time. Phicol accompanies Abimelech, to be present as a witness. The LXX. adds, from the Jahvistic counterpart (xxvi. 26), the name of n^nx. The appellations of the king and his official are Canaanite, as are also the Philistine names of the cuneiform inscriptions, '^[j, locative of the demonstrative [}, urges an immediate compliance. 133) PJ are a pair of words alliterating like an acrostic, found elsewhere only Job xviii. 19 ; Isa. xiv. 22. Abraham consents, ver. 24 : Then Abraham said : 1 swear. "S'^x added to V'^^^ (with the original i instead of g, like t^QE^X, Judg. xvi. 26, together with |v^X, Ezek. xx, 38) is as emphatic an expression as 2 Kings vi. 2 ; Prov. xxiv. 32. He swears, yet not without a "but," ver. 25 : And Abraham reproved Abimelech on account of the ivell of water, which the servants of Abimelech had taken away. The article points to some definite well, for an indefinite one would have been called D''0 "iJ^n (xxi. 19). The king declares that he has had no part in this unjust appropriation of Abraham's property, ver. 26 : Then Abimelech said : I know not who has done this, and neither hast thou told it to me, nor have I heard it except to-day. The perf. nDini^ 25a, relates in a preparatory manner to this declaration of Abimelech (in which the correlatives, neque . . . neque, are as explicit as e.g. at Num. xxiii. 25). This was satisfactory, ver. 27 : And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and they both made a covenant. Abraham however causes the acknowledgment of his property in the well, which had been disputed, to be confirmed by a special formality, whicli forms, as it were, an additional article of the covenant. This formality is symbolical and needs explanation, vv. 28-30 : And Abraham placed seven lambs of the flock apart. Then Abimelech said to Abraham : What mean the seven lambs which thoio hast set apart ? He said : Because thou shalt take the seven lambs from my hand, that it may be a luitness for me that I have digged this well. " Seven lambs of the flock " — this is one of the cases where, as at 2 Sam. xii. 30, Ps. cxiii. 9, VOL. II. s
82 GENESIS XXI. 31.
comp. on Cant. i. lib, the article is connected with the gen. only. In the question : what are (i.e. mean), etc., nan is not an adv. of locality as at 23a, but like nian (Zech. i. 9), an expression of the copula (Ew. § 297&). The <^PJ^?, inter- changing with ][}'^.^f, is an emphatic form, like i^^ps, xlii. 36 ; Prov. xxxi. 29 = rj3^, comp. n3nb=|n^3, l Kings vii. 37. On the absence of the article in n'K'na ync'TiN, see Ges. § 117, note 2. The testimony given by Abimelech by his acceptance of the seven lambs is like an oath, for seven is the number of God as manifesting Himself; and to swear V^f^ is the same as to seven oneself, i.e. to submit the truth of a statement to the Divine inspection. Hence seven things, as e.g. among the Arabs, seven stones smeared with the blood of the covenant- makers, and lying between them (Herod, iii. 8), are therefore in treaties the symbolical instruments of sanction in the name of God, or take the place of an oath for confirmation. Generally speaking, a gift, which one of the contracting parties accepts from the other, makes the contract the more binding. So in Homer, //. xix. 243-246, where Agamemnon, after swearing reconciliation with Achilles, sends also seven three-footed kettles and seven women to Briseis ; and similarly also Gen. xxxiii. 8-15. The name given to the place on account of the occurrence, ver. 31 : Therefore the jplace was called Beer -^ S6ha , for there they loth swore. K"Ji^, as at xi. 9, xvi. 14, has the most general subject. The name means the seven-well, or, what is indirectly the same, the well of the oath. After a similar covenant between Isaac and Abimelech, the servants of Isaac find a well, which they call nj'pB', and from it the name of the city is said to have been also called ynB' "IS3 (xxvi. 32 sq.). Eobinson actually found there not one but two deep wells of clear, excellent water, still called
«_juJl ~Jo (i. 337-341), which means, in Arabic custom of language, either the lion's well or also the well of impreca-
tion, for «_xwJl is a synonym of aa*]J^ " the curse " (DMZ.
GENESIS XXI. 32-34. 83
xxii. 177). The extra V2^ (Josh. xix. 2) has perhaps a similar relation to J'?f"'^??f as "1?1D, ^v^dp, has to ^y^ (Neapolis), and is thus the locality of Isaac's well, named as the annex of Beersheba, as Sychar is of Jacob's well. Con- clusion of the narrative, vv. 32-34 : And they made a covenant in Beer-^Seha ; and Abimelech and Fhicol, the captain of his host, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-^'Sdha, and there called upon the name of Jahveh the eternal God. And Abraham sojourned a long time in the land of the Philistines. Matter not appertaining to the narrative of E is here blended with it. According to J it is assumed, ver. 34 (xxvi. 1, 26), that Gerar was in Philistia and Beersheba, beyond the Philistine district. Both the treaties were without effect upon subsequent history. We nowhere find a trace that the Philistine nation remem- bered them, and Israel was directed to expel the Philistines from the land of promise, — a direction indeed which they did not carry into effect. But what is related, ver. 33 and xxvi. 25, from J made Beersheba, for all future time, a place of sacred remembrance which false worship turned to profit (Amos v. 5, viii. 14). Abraham there planted hf^ (as the Tamarix oricn- talis, abundant in Egypt, Petrsea and Palestine, is called), comp. those in Gibeah, 1 Sam. xxii. 6, and Jabesh, 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. The statement that he there called upon and proclaimed the name of Jahveh belongs to the series, iv. 26, xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33, xxvi. 25 ; comp. viii. 20, xii. 7, xiii. 18, xxxiii. 20, XXXV. 7. The additional name Ci?iy ?NI developes what the name nin;; declares, which hence designates, not Him who brings into existence, but the existing One, or Him to whom absolute existence belongs. Jahveh as such is obiy W, who in His power is always equal to Himself. Such He proved Himself to Abraham, ever and again meeting his weakness by His own faithfulness. Hence Abraham dedicates to Him a tamarisk. Its durable wood and evergeen foliage is a symbol of His eternity.^
1 Trumbull in his Blod Covenant (New York 1885) takes this tamarisk, as
84 GENESIS XXII. 1-19.
But hardly had the countenance of the Eternal been thus favourable to the patriarch than it was again overcast with clouds, and this time of the very darkest. For it seemed as though he were to lose the son of promise who, as ver. 34 gives us to understand by way of transition, had grown up in Philistia.
THE SACRIFICE UPON MORIAH, OH. XXII. 1-19.
This first portion of the fourth section of the life of Abraham corresponds with those of the call, of the covenant sacrifice, of the institution of circumcision, which open the three preceding sections. The father of the faithful is now perfected. The obedience of faith drew Abraham into a strange land ; by the humility of faith he gave way to his nephew Lot; strong in faith, he fought four kings of the heathen with three hundred and eighteen men ; firm in faith, he rested in the word of promise, notwithstanding all the opposition of reason and nature ; bold in faith, he entreated the preservation of Sodom under increasingly lowered con- ditions ; joyful in faith, he received, named and circumcised the son of promise ; with the loyalty of faith he submitted at the bidding of God to the will of Sarah and expelled Hagar and Ishmael ; and with the gratitude of faith he planted a tamarisk to the ever faithful God in the place where Abimelech had sued for his friendship and accepted his present, — now his faith was to be put to the severest test to prove itself victori- ous, and to be rewarded accordingly. Analysis leads to the incontestable results, that the narrative as to the warp of its fabric is from E with insertions from J, but that it was not J who worked up the account of E, but B who completed it from J, especially by taking from J the second angelic voice (vv. 15-18), the naming of the place with its explanation
also the terebinths of Mamre, as covenant trees, and, starting from the assump- tion that the fundamental rite of ancient covenanting (n'ln m3) con- sisted in a mutual mingling of blood, thinks besides that they were smeared with the blood of the covenant.
GENESIS XXII. 1, 2. 85
(ver. 14), and calling the angel of God (who could not well be called at one time D^^b^? ivh^ and at another nini IX^Jd), both at vv. 11 and 15, nin^ IX^D. It cannot however be main- tained that the goal of the journey was not already called p.? nnisn in B, especially as it is not necessary to regard Moriah as containing the Divine name n\ Not only does the Divine name D^^i'N(^) point to U as the original narrator, but also the mode of statement (03^5 after a Divine revelation by night, xxii. 1-3, comp. xxi. 12—14; the voice of the angel from heaven, xxii. 11, comp. xxi. 17 ; the ram seen upon looking up, xxii. 13, comp. xxi. 19) and also the mode of expression in nowise to be verified in Q, but in many instances found elsewhere in U (e.g. the local nb, xxii. 5, xxxi. 37) or akin to J (comp. HDIXD, xxii. 12, with xxxix. 6, 9, 23).
The narrative begins with the same acolouthic formula as XV. 1 : It came to pass after these events, God, testing Abraham, said unto him : Abraham ! And he said : Behold, here I am. The sentence '*iEi? D"'n'bxn"i is not an apodosis proper, but a state- ment of the circumstances of the apodosis which follows with "ipx^i (comp. without i, xl. 1). Abraham had in the midst of his Canaanite surrounding the practice of sacrificing children before his eyes. He saw how the heathen surrendered their dearest to appease the deity and render him propitious. Hence the question might easily arise within : Wouldst thou be able to do the like to please thy God ? Justice is done to the words " God tested him " when we thus psychologically account for the testing becoming a temptation. The tempta- tion had its origin in him, and it became a test when God received it into His plan and gave it a pre-descried goal. God desired thus to try him that he might stand the test. He calls Abraham by name, who answers with willing attention, "•pan. Now follows the hard demand, ver. 2 : He said : Take thy son, thine only one whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains that 1 will tell thee. The obj. is made
8() GENESIS XXII. 3.
prominent by a threefold ~ns. Isaac is called his only son not as the only one after the expulsion of Ishmael, but as the only one of his one proper marriage (Pro v. iv, 3, Cant. vi. 9). LXX. Tov ayairTjTov {i.e. IT'T), but this is stated by n^nx-iB^s, whom thou lovest as the long desired, the gift of God, endowed with the glorious promises of God. Of the inward conflict, which this command called forth in Abraham, we read not a word. He fought it out to victory, he remained firm in faith, of which Luther says : Jldes conciliat contraria nee est otiosa qualitas, seel virtus ejus est mortem oceidere, infernum damnare, esse peccato peecatum, diabolo diabolum, adeo ut mors nan sit mors, etiamsi omnium sensus testetur adesse mortem. The " Land of Moriah " occurs only here, but " Mount Moriah " (n>"}ii3n nn) is, as the testimony of 2 Chron. iii. 1 confirmed upon internal grounds says, the height upon which was the threshing-floor of Oman, the subsequent temple mount.^ Prepared for the worst, Abraham starts with Isaac on the morning after this revelation at night, ver. 3. Then Abraham arose early in the morning, and saddled his ass and tooh his two young men with him and Isaac his son, and clave wood for the burnt-offering and arose and went to the place that God had told him. By the two C^y^ whom he took with him are said, by the Targ. Jer. Firke de-Rabbi Eliezcr, ch. 31, and by the Midrash in general, to be meant Ishmael and Eliezer ; but we are not justified in assuming Ishmael's return to his father's house after ch. xxi., without such express testimony as xxv. 9, and Eliezer's age (comp. xxiv. 2 with xv. 2) and Ishmael's position in the family would prevent either of them being called lyj. The distance from Beersheba to Jerusalem by way of Hebron amounts to about 38 miles, and still when the traveller arrives on the third day at Mar Elias he is all at once sur-
' Kuenen {Einl. § 13, note 29) thinks, with WcUh. and Dillm., that JE (who •worked up the two into a whole) put Moriah in the place of another Ephraimite local name for the sake of transposing Abraham's act of faith to Jerusalem ; but to what purpose is this roundal)out way, why not rather suppose that the chronicler erroneously indicated the name Moriah?
GENESIS XXII. 4-10. 87
prised by the sight of the temple-mount; hence it is with topographical fidelity that we are further told, vv. 4, 5 : On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. Then Abraham said to his young men : Stay here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and return to you. Worship — he is certainly going to perform in a devout, submissive frame of mind an act of worship to God; return — so say in him both nature and faith, but with very different meanings, ver. 6 : Tlien Abraham took the wood for the hcrnt- offering, and laid it on Isaac his son, and took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they went both together. Upon this hardest path that ever father went with his child, Isaac at last breaks the long silence, vv. 7, 8 : Then Isaac spake to Abraham his father, and said : My father ! and he said : Here am I, my son. And he said : Behold the fire and the wood ; but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering ? Abraham said : Mohim will provide Himself the lamb for the burnt-offering, and they went both together. Isaac, by way of gradually venturing upon a question, says : ''^^. To this now heartrending word Abraham replies : "'i)3 ''^'^. After the deeply stirred father had uttered this word of affection, Isaac further asks about the lamb for the sacrifice. This question agitates his paternal heart to its inmost depth ; but master through faith of even the strongest emotions of nature, he finds the right answer, an answer inspired by forbearing love and foreboding hope : God will provide Him- self the sacrificial lamb (nx"i like HDV, Job xv. 22), and they went both together — the third stage of the journey, upon which each step was a fresh martyrdom for Abraham, and required a fresh victory. The simply yet deeply-felt and touching delineation recalls the last journey of Elijah and Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 1-8. Arrival at the mountain, vv. 9, 10 : And they came to the place which God had told him, and Abraham built there the altar, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar wpon the vjood. And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay
88 GENESIS XXII. 11-14.
Ids son. The narrative accompanies Abraham's victoriously advancing act of obedient faith step by step to the climax of the fatal moment. Isaac, whose fundamental characteristic is quiet endurance, lies without resistance like a lamb upon the pile of wood, and Abraham has already raised the knife for the deadly stroke. Then suddenly the angel of Jahveh lights up the thick darkness that has gathered over the enigma of this history, vv. 11, 12: Then the angel of Jahveh called to him from heaven, and said : Abraham, Abraham ! And he said . Here am I. And he said : Stretch not out thy hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that thou fearest Ulohim, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only one, from me. Isaac, after Abraham had not spared him (^^'n, to keep back = (^e/Secr^ai, Eom. viii. 32), was as good as already sacrificed. Abraham is proved to be one who fears God above all things, and obeys Him absolutely (Jas. ii. 21-23, comp. Heb. xi. 17-19). The animal provided by God for sacrifice, ver. 13 : And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, a ram in the rear had entangled itself in the thicket with its horns; then Abraham went and took the ram and offered him as a burnt-offering in the ;place of his son. Ganneau tries to make the ram ^^J? into a stag ?^X ; but it is not Isaac but Jephthah's daughter who resembles Iphigenia, of whom a stag takes the place. The reading inx b^s, KpLo<i eh (LXX. Samar. Syr. Targums, Book of Jubilees, Gr. Ven.), preferred by Olshausen and Ewald, tells nothing, while the local "'n^ (here as at Ps. Ixviii. 26, an adverb, and of like meaning as when used as a preposition, Ex. iii. 1) states why the animal had hitherto remained unperceived. The MSS. vacillate between the finite Tnx3 and the part. Tnx3 ; the noun sentence is more graphic. They also vacillate between ^3133 or (which better suits the plur. ^?3D) Tjaisn. Naming of the memorable place, ver. 14: Then Abraham called the name of that place Jahveh sees, so that it is said to this day : Upon the mountain Jahveh is seen, not as it is accented, upon the mountain of
GENESIS XXII. 14. 89
Jahveh (with the genitive attraction of the subject, as at V. Ih) there is He seen (a kind of elliptical relative sentence scarcely to be authenticated). " Jahveh sees " is meant like xvi. 13 and like " Jahveh hears " in ^nJ/'DK'"' (xxi. 17): He sees to it, interposing in extreme necessity. But n^v cannot be the passive of nsn in this meaning, for the JViph. in the sense of provideo'i is unauthenticated, and when in the course of the history this mountain is spoken of, nx")3 always means either the appearing (self-manifestation) of God or the appearing of men before Him. Nevertheless i^'^?, " so that " (as at xiii. 16, comp. x. 9), presupposes an internal connection of the words customary to this day (which besides form only a fragment of a sentence; comp. x. 9 ; Num. xxi. 14 sq.) with the saying of Abraham. Nor is this connection difficult to discover ; the niN"! of Jahveh coincided in the case of Abraham as in that of Hagar, xvi. 13, xxi. 17, with nixnn ; He saw to it by taking upon Himself to see, i.e. to interpose. This ver. 1 4 sounds like a voice from very ancient times, and not as if the word i^^^p were to be explained by it, which moreover cannot be explained from ^l '^^y?, something given to see (Ex. xxv. 40) = appearing of Jah, without phonetic difficulty ; we expect n^'snp (comp. n^fr'l'!) and the article nnbn, which also the chronicler, 2 Chron. iii. 1, still maintains is strange (for the case is different in Ps. cxviii. 5) ; the word seems rather to rank with nnn»n, l Chron. iv. 18, than with n^'5'SNO Jer. ii. 31. In any case ver. 14 does not read as if the naming, ver. 2, could be regarded as conscious anticipation. Nor do any of the ancient translators express the Divine name in nna, not even Symmachus, who translates t?}? oirracTLa'i; the Jewish Targums translate sjn^sn Nj}"is, Land of worship, the Samaritan Targum nnnn yis, and the Samar. Arab.: the chosen land. Differently again, and not worth mentioning, the LXX. and Syriac.
The narrative apparently terminates with ver. 14. What- ever may be the case with this ver. 14, it is evident why it seems to stand more appropriately here (nearer to vv. 8 and 1 3)
90 GENESIS XXII. 15-19.
tlian after the repeated promise which now follows, vv. 15-18 : And the angel of Jahveh called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said : By myself have I sworn, a saying of Jahveh, that because thou hast done this and not withheld thy son, thine only one — that I will bless, yea bless thee, and increase, yea increase thy posterity like the stars of heaven, and like tJie sand which is on the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall take possession of the gate of their enemies : And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Not an addition by It, but from/ (comp. xii. 1-3, xxiv. 60, also on it^X ^\>V, xxvi. 5) — a point of unprecedented lustre in the Old Testament, for Jahveh here swears what He promises, as He does nowhere else in His intercourse with the patriarchs (comp. the passages referring to it, xxiv. 7, Ex. xxxii. 13, Luke i. 73, Acts vii. 17) and for the first time in the sacred history ; for His promise that there should no more be so universal a deluge is indeed like an oath in value, Isa. liv. 9, but is not one in words. He swears by Himself, because He can swear by no greater, Heb. vi. 13, engages Himself by means of His own Person (n used in swearing of the means of corroboration). The exalted 'n'DN3, unusual as introducing Divine declarations in the primitive history, is the subsequent formula of attestation in prophecy (in the Pentateuch it occurs again only Num. xi v. 28, not even Deut. xxxii.). The resumption too of "'3 (that) at ver. 17 is very emphatic. Thus the form as well as the contents is exuberant, for the victor of Moriah is higher than the victor of Dan. Abraham conquered himself and offered up Isaac. He won him back as ancestor of an innumerable world, sub- duing people, possessing the gate of their enemies, and a seed blessed to be a blessing to all nations. Thus gloriously recompensed does the patriarch depart, ver. 19 : And Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-^Saa\
The change of the Divine name is occasioned by the account being composed from E and J, and is in its present
GENESIS XXII. 19. 91
state (which it has not attained without the interposition of B in ver. 11) significant. The God who commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is called D''n^x(n), and the Divine appear- ance, which forbids the sacrifice, nin'' 1N^». He who requires from Abraham the surrender of Isaac is God the Creator, who has power over life and death, and hence power also to take back what He has given ; but it is Jahveh in His angel who forbids the fulfilment of the extreme act, for the son of promise cannot perish without the promise, and therewith God's truthfulness and His counsel of salvation also coming to nought. In fact, the God who requires Abraham to sacrifice his only son after the manner of the Canaanites (2 Kings iii. 27 ; Jer. xix. 5), is only apparently the true God. The demand was indeed only made to prove that Abraham was not behind the heathen in the self-denying surrender of his dearest to his God, and that when the demand had been complied with in spirit, the external fulfilment might be rejected. Schelling exaggerates the contrast when he thinks that the same evil principle, which misled other nations to human sacrifices, is here called D''nbx. The Thorah knows of human sacrifice, and indeed of the sacrifice of a man's own children (sons or daughters, and especially the first-born), only as an abomination of Moloch- worship (Lev. xviii. 21, xx. 1—5 ; comp. Baudissin's Jahveh et Moloch, 1874, and Schlottmann's article, " Moloch," in Ehiem). Jephthah's vow was like that of Idomeneus on his return from Troy, heathen, Israelite and Canaanite popular notions coinciding at that period. The true Israel possessed in the transaction with Abraham an ever valid Divine protest against human sacrifice, and abhorred it. The ram in the thicket, which Abraham offered in the place of Isaac, is the prototype of animal sacrifice, which is here sanctioned upon the same mountain on which, during the entire Old Testament period, the typical blood of animal sacrifice was to be shed, while in the times of apostasy the abomination of human sacrifice, branded by the prophets, was
92 GENESIS XXII. 20-24.
continued in the valley of Bene-Hinnom below. The proto- type is however at the same time a type : quis illo (ariete) Jigurdbatur — asks Augustine (Civ. xvi. 32) — nisi Christus Jesus, antcquam imonolaretur, spinis Judaicis coronatus ? Isaac was only offered up iv irapaSoXr} (Heb. xi. 17-19), is pre- eminently the abiding parable of the son of Abraham and Son of God, who bore His cross of wood and was really sacrificed thereon, Christi in vidiviam concessi a patre, lignum passionis Slice hajulantis (Tertullian, adv. Judceos, c. 10). Isaac carried the wood, says also the Midrash {Pesikta rdbbathi, 54a), like a man who takes up his cross (21^s). The love of Abraham, loving God above all else and depriving himself of what was dearest for Him, serves the Church as a figure of the super- abundant love of God, who spared not His only-begotten Son, but, Eom. viii. 32, so loved the world that He gave Him up to death, John iii. 16. Hence ancient ecclesiastical art took delight in representing the sacrifice of Isaac especially upon sarcophagi. Quis piduram Ahrahce ceimens et gladium pueri cer- vicibiis imminentem — asks Gregory the Great in a letter to the Emperor Leo the Isaurian — 9ion compungitur ct collacrimatur ?
THE NEWS OF NAHOR'S FAMILY, CH. XXII. 20-24.
The special object of the second portion of the fourth section of Abraham's life, xxii. 2 0 sqq., is Eebecca ; she is therein as " the rose among thorns." For it contains intelli- gence concerning the progeny of Nahor, his brother, which in the difficulties of intercourse then existing arrived thus opportunely. It is J who, in the genealogy of the Cainites, and in that part of the ethnographical table which is to be referred to him, uses ih'> of tlie father ; the Kin-QJ too of vv. 20 and 24 is like iv. 4, 22, 26, x. 21 ; and though the deriva- tion of py and din here is not necessarily in opposition to X. 22 sq., yet it is more probable that intelligence which sounds so differently should be from a different than from the
GENESIS XXII. 20-24. 93
same hand. Hence Budde (pp. 220-226) will be right when he says that it is /, who here follows up the history of the temptation related by him, by what prepares for the history of Isaac's marriage which he is about to relate.
A connecting verse, ver. 2 0 : And it came to pass after these occurrences that it was told to Abraham thus : Behold Milcah, she also has home sons to thy brother Nahor. Eight sons of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, by Milcah, are now enume- rated and finally summed up with 'iJl n^x njb^ (n'psi for n|Nn, as fixed as ^l, Judg. vi. 14, comp. Josh. ix. 13). 1. y^)}, the first-born, who, according to x. 23 (which see), was the son of Aram and, according to xxxvi. 28, the grandson of Seir the Horite. Combining thus, we must distinguish within the old Aramaean py a younger Nahorite branch, and perhaps also a Seirite ingredient. 2. Ti3. In the book of Job a fourth opponent appears in the person of Elihu the Buzite (xxxii 1). Jeremiah seems, xxv. 23, to reckon the Buzites among the shorn Arabic wandering tribes ; and the Asarhaddon-Prisms mention, after the section treating of Arabia, a land Bdzu and a land Hazd, coinciding in sound with the iTn here named, 22a {Paradies, p. 306 sq.). 3. a"}5< '?^« ^^?^»p, i.e. certainly: the ancestor of a younger branch of the Aramaean people, x. 22. 4. "J^S, by no means the ancestor of the ancient Chaldseans, after whom D"''nB'3 nis is named, xi. 28, but of a Nahorite tribe mingled with them. 5. iTH, the cuneiform Hazu, perhaps Xa^rjvr), according to Arrian in Steph, Byz., a satrapy on the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. In Strabo, xvi. 736, a satrapy of Assyria between Kalachene and Adiabene bears this name ; perhaps these two Xat^rjvq are one and the same. 6. K'v?' As a masculine name, whz^ is Nabatsean, DMZ. xiv. 440. 7. fl?1\ 8. ^i<in|, which has always been a personal, and not a tribal or a local name. This Bethuel, called besides, as well as Laban, ''?>"l^|p in E and Q, begat (^b\) •^i^^n, the future wife of the son of promise. To these eight sons of Nahor, four more are added, ver. 24 : And his concubine, and her name
94 GENESIS XXIIL
was Eeumah, she also hare . . . The i of HOBn is not that of the apodosis : and his concubine, whose name was Eeiimah (which cannot be proved as syntactically possible from Ps. cxv. 7 ; Prov. xxiii. 24), but the relation is as follows : As to his concubine (xxiv. 29) of the name of Eeumah, she also bare, Ges. § 129, note 1. The children of Nahor by Eeiimah : 1. n3D. Places according in sound with this name, and geographically appropriate, are nnntp, one of the cities of Hadadezer, 1 Chron. xviii. 8 (for which 2 Sam. viii. 8, nL)3), and Thaebata in north-western Mesopotamia, in Plin. vL 30, compared by Kn., also Ge/Srjdd, according to Arrian in Steph. Byz. ; but according to Tab. Pent, xi., south of Nisibis. 2. Dn?. 3. tJ*!!"!!. Kn. mentions ^Arap')(a<i, north-west of Nisibis, in Pro- copius, de ocdif. ii. 4, but as not quite geographically appro- priate. The name means the sea-dog {j[)hoca), in Assyr. the wether (see Friedr. Delitzsch, Proleg. 77). 4. ■^p.V^, the ancestor of nayo mx, l Chron. xix. 6, of an Aramaean tribe settled TrXrjalov opou^ ^Aepfiwv, Euseb. and Jerome in the Onomasticon under MaxaOL ^^V}^^ "'? ^?« (2 Sam. xx. 1 5 and frequently without an article), i.e. Abel in Beth-Ma'acha is Abil, a little to the south-west of Banias. There are together twelve sons of Nahor, and their relative numbers are the same as in the case of the twelve sons of Jacob: eight by the wife Milcah, as in Jacob's eight by Leah and Eachel; four by the concubine Eeumah, as in Jacob's four by Bilhah and Zilpah. Another parallel to the twelve sons of Jacob are the twelve CX'-bi of Ishmael. To find at once an artificial schematism in such circumstances would be rashness ; accidental coincidences are often curious, and history itself brings much surprising schematism to pass.
DEATH OF SARAH, AND PURCHASE OF THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH,
CH. XXIII.
From this point onwards there follow only the last experiences, testamentary dispositions and arrangements of
GENESIS XXIII. 1, 2. 95
Abraham, and first in the third part of the section, the account, ch. xxiii., of Sarah's death, and of the acquisition of a family grave in the cave of Machpelah. Q, who delights in formulas and schemes, who is fond of an almost strophic arrangement, even when the matter is not of a nature to be tabulated, and who, in order to inculcate firmly what he testifies, does not shun tautological repetitions, is immediately recognisable as the narrator. Here in ch. xxiii. he works up matter especially adapted to his style of historical composition, not only with legal accuracy, but at the same time with such vivid direct- ness, that we are transposed into the life of the period with its forms of courtesy and mode of dealing. It is to him that we are indebted for this authentic narrative concerning the acquisition of the cave of Machpelah (comp. his intentional references thereto, xxv. 9 sq., xlix. 29-32, 1. 13), which is characteristic of his mode of statement, not only by the use of certain favourite words (such as *^f^^, f^-ipP, 2^in) and turns (such as the distributive ?, ver. 10, and 3, ver. 18), but also by a peculiar kind of historiographic art, which knows how to produce great pictures and impressions with the simplest means.
The portion is divided into two parts. The first two verses relate the death of Sarah and the mourninfr of Abraham, vv. 1, 2 : And the life of Sarah amounted to a hundred and twenty-seven years — the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Aria , which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. As Sarah was ninety (xvii. 17) at the birth of Isaac, he must have been thirty-seven when his mother died (comp. xxv. 20), so that at least twenty years elapsed between the occurrence on Moriah and the death of Sarah. Hence we cannot be surprised to find Abraham, whom we left, xxii. 19, in Beersheba, again in Hebron. Hebron lay to the north-east of Beersheba, about two-thirds of the distance thence to Jerusalem. The narrator first calls the town
96 GENESIS XXIII. I, 2.
i'?"]^ J^.^li?, and then explains this by P^n, just as at xxxv, 2 7 ; while, on the other hand, it is found without the older name at xiii. 18, xxxvii. 11. The name Kirjath-arba' is the more ancient, Arba', according to Josh. xiv. 15, xv. 13, xxi. 11 comp. Judg. i. 10, was the name of a ruler of the ancient city who belonged to the primitive gigantic popula- tion. The city was, according to Num. xiii. 22, built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt. The name might also mean the four-town, i.e. the town of four quarters, which to this day would be a suitable one (see Furrer's art. " Hebron," in the BihcUexicon) ; and when it is called, xxv. 27, '"'"'"ip yanxn, this meaning seems really to be combined with it. Since Caleb, in order to get possession of it, had to drive out this race of Anakim (Josh. xiv. 12 sqq.), while in Abraham's time these anything but barbarous Hethites, who, with other Phenician tribes dwelt in a wider circuit upon the mountains of Judah, were lords of the city,^ it must have often changed both masters and names. Sarah died here in Hebron, and Abraham went into the inner part of the tent, to the corpse of his wife, to mourn for her (tsp, Lat. plangere aliquem, Heb. with ^ of him to whom the planctus or 6privo<i applies, once "'3Q?, 2 Sam. iii. 31 : before the dead, when carried to the grave) and to weep for her ('"^1^337, with small dageshed a, as also the Q, Ps. xl. 15, and generally the aspirate after ^5 are mostly dageshed, but with exceptions such as
1 It need not be brought to bear against credibility of the Hethites of Hebron, that Q is the most recent of the Pentateuchal sources, for in the Jehovistic history also {JE) Tinn is everywhere an element of the population of the Holy Laud, whether ten nations (xv. 19-21) or six (Ex. iii. 8, 17, xxiii. 23, xxxiv. 11) or five (Ex. xiii. 15), or not reckoning Amalek, four (Num. xiii. 29) are named. And v^^here in Deuteronomy seven nations are named, vii. 1 (comp. Josh. xxiv. 11), or six, xx. 17, Tinn stand first. The historical authenticity of a southern branch of the Hethites is justly maintained by \V. Wright, The Empire of the Hittites (1884, 2nd edit. 1886), by Frederick Brown in his article the '•Hittites," in the Presbyterian Review, 1886, pp. 277-303, as well as by Sayce, Alte Denhmdlcr, p. 110. An allusion to the northern Hittite land (Josh. i. 4) is found Judg. i. 26 (comp. xi. 3, where LXX. S reads in the first passage '»inn, and in the second *nnn). In Egyptian documents, Kadesh on the Orontes, and in Assyrian, Carchemish, is the Hethite centre.
GENESIS XXIII. 3-6. 97
Jer. L 10, xlvii. 4). It is purposely that the narrator adds |yj3 n^^B. It was in the Land of Promise that Sarah the ancestress of Israel died. The Old Testament does not relate with such intensity of purpose the termination of any other woman's life — for Sarah is historically the most important woman of the ancient covenant, she is the mother of the seed of promise, and in him of all believers, 1 Pet. iii. 6, 979 iyevrjdrjTe reKva, she is the Old Testament Mary. In her unclouded faith Mary stands far above Sarah, and yet Scripture is silent concerning her age and death. This happens because he whom Sarah bore is not greater than herself, but Mary bore a son, before whose glory her own personality vanishes.
After Sarah's death, Abraham applies to the Hethites for a burying-place, vv. 3, 4 : And Abraham lifted up himself from the face of his dead and spoke thus to the sons of Heth : A stranger and a sojourner am I among you, give me a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. What now takes place is, as F. C. v. Moser remarks, a delightful scene of courtesy, simplicity, kind- heartedness, naivete, humility, modesty, magnanimity, not without some shadow of ambition and of the kind of expectation entertained, when in a bargain everything is ventured upon the kind - heartedness of the buyer. To bury is called i?i^, which, as the Syriac shows, means as a synonym of "i?y cumulare, tumulare, and hence points to humatio not cremAtio as the most ancient mode of burying. Abraham calls his dead ri» not nnp, because in the case of a corpse the distinction of sex is, as henceforth without im- portance, in the background. Answer of the Hethites, vv. 5, 6 : Then the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him : Hear us, my lord, a prince of God art thou among us, in the choicest of our sepulchres bury thy dead, none of us will withhold from thee his burying-place to bury thy dead. Here, as also ver. 14, the Sb after ibxb seems with the LXX. drawn to the next verse, and to need to be read there according to
VOL. II. G
98 GENESIS XXIII. 7-11.
ver. 13, ^^V^f 1^, "hear us, we pray," though the combination V -\bvq is according to Lev. xi. 1 allowable, and on the other side ^b with the imp. unusual (comp. on the contrary xvii. 18, XXX. 34). This construction is escaped by correcting with LXX. Samar. i^ into i6 after 11a (nay, my lord, hear us) ; but this ^h with the imp. is defended by ver. 13, it gives to the invitation a touch of desire, as the enclitic W does to the petition. Instead of the first "ino, Bereshith rahha c. 58 assumes the reading ^riD. Touched and encouraged by so respectful and kind a reception, Abraham combines with his thanks a definite request, vv. 7-9 : 2'hen Abraham rose and bowed himself down before the people of the land, the sons of Heth. And he talked with them, saying : If it is your will to receive my dead into a grave out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me Ephron the son of Sohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpclah, ivhich belongs to him, which is in the end of his field ; for its full money let him give it me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying- place. The Hethites, as the prevailing population of Hebron and its neighbourhood are called, " the people of the land," just as at Josh. i. 4 all Canaan is called per synecdochen T)^ D"'rinn. " Full money " is equivalent to the sum corresponding to the value of the piece of land, 1 Chr. xxi. 22. To express without saying so how readily and quickly this was done, the narrator at once introduces Ephron himself as speaking, vv. 10, 11 : And Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth, and Ephron the Hethite answered aloud before the sons of Heth, so many of them cls went in to the gate of his town, saying : Nay, my lord, hear me, the field give I thee and the cave that is in it, to thee I give it before the eyes of my fellow-countrymen, I give it thee to bury thy dead. To read vb for the first word of ver. 11 (2 Sam. xviii. 12 comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 30) is not so necessary as at 1 Sam. xiii. 13;^ for Maurer's
1 See K. Koliler's art. ou "h in Geiger's Jiid. Zeitschri/t, vi. (1868) 21 sqq.
GENESIS XXIII. 12-15. 99
remark that ^^ rustici quid habet is refuted by the fact, that the refusal of the purchase money is in itself a courtesy great in proportion as the refusal is a decided one.' It is a solemn deed of gift which Ephron performs, but which Abraham declines, vv. 12, 13 : Then Abraham bowed himself down in the presence of the people of the land, and spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying : If thou on thy part wouldst only hear me ! I give the price of the field, take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. Showing reverence before all the people to the chief of the city, and even exceeding him in expressions of courteous urgency, he answers that he will accept his offer, yet '^l^? with the earnest desire and only under the condition, that he will allow himself to be duly requited. D« is the optative and !|^ its intensifying permutative. Hitzig's explanation of the nriK"Di< " if thou agreest " is tempting, but the usage of the language nowhere shows the Kal of nix (to agree), but only the Niph. The combination of the two optative particles with the imperative is indeed rare, on which account LXX., Samar., Onkelos read y nnx DS (if thou wishest me well). It cannot be supported by Job xxxiv, ] 6 (where nr2 is to be accented as a subst.), still we think that it must be regarded as possible on the ground of our passage. Ephron now delicately gives Abraham to under- stand at what rate he values the land, while apparently persisting in his refusal, vv. 14, 15 : Then Ephron answered, saying to him : My lord, hear me — a piece of land of four hundred shekels of silver between me and thee, what is it ? And bury thy dead ! The bargain which is here made between Ephron and Abraham, is to this very day repeated in that country. In Damascus, when a purchaser makes a lower offer than can be accepted, he is answered : What, is it a matter of money between us ? Take it for nothing, friend, as a present from me (hedije minni) ; don't feel under any kind of constraint! {DMZ. xi. 505). Dieterici {Reisebilder, 2.
100 GENESIS XXIII. 16.
168 sq.) had a similar experience in Hebron: "In our excursions we had noticed a fine grey horse belonging to the Quarantine inspector. Mr. Blaine, my fellow-traveller, had appeared to wish to buy the animal. It now made its appearance at our tents. We inquired the price, and our astonishment may be conceived, when the dirty Turk offered us the animal as a present. Mr. Blaine declared that he by no means intended to take it as a present, when the Turk replied: What then are five purses (£25 sterling) to thee?" Similar experiences take place every day in Egypt (Lane, ii. 150). Abraham well understood the meaning of this figurative turn of speech, ver. 1 6 : But Abraham understood Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the money, which he had stated in the audience oj the sons of Heth : four hundred shekels of silver current with the merchant. The mercantile expression "inbp la'y exactly corresponds with JjU- qui pent passer, bonne a recevoir frequent upon coins, DMZ. xxxiii. 356 (comp. also
aLeU^ current coins, from Ju<U to trade together, to do busi- ness). Jerome translates, prohatce monctoe publicce. Money coined and certified by authority did not as yet exist, but even then merchants may have furnished the bars of gold and silver with a mark to signify that they were of full weight, as we are told of the Phenicians {Rhetor. Gr. xiii. p. 180, ed. Aid.), that they TrptaToi '^apaKTtjpa e/daWov upon weighed metal. The normal weight of the heavy (sacred or royal) shekel (>\>}l^ from ''i'^ pcndere) amounted according to Jewish tradition to 3 2 0 medium barleycorns, with which the weight of the Maccaba3an shekel (about 218 English grains, and so a little short of the half-ounce avoirdupois) tolerably agrees. If with Cavedoni, Numismatica biblica 1850, we admit that the shekel is to be reckoned as in the Mosaic law and in subsequent com- merce, the price would be high (nearly £525), which the Rabbis explain as the result of Ephron's covetousness (see Zunz, Zur Literatur, p. 138), but still not be incredible. For Jacob's
GENESIS XXIII. 17-20. 101
piece of ground at Shechem cost one hundred '"itpTi?, xxxiii. 19, and the site upon which Samaria was built two "i?3 of silver, 1 Kings xvi. 24, i.e. six hundred heavy shekels. Close of the transaction, vv. 17—20 : So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was hefore Mamre, the field and the cave therein and all the trees that were in the field, that were in its harder round about, remained to Abraham as a purchased possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, according as each went into the gate of his city. And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, lohich is before Mamre : the same is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And so the field and the cave therein remained to Abraham as a burying place on the 'part of the sons of Heth. The SilluJc divides the one connected sentence vv. 17, 18, into two, as e.g. also Ex. vi. 28, 29, Num. xxxii. 3, 4 (see Arnheim, ffebr. Grammatik, § 254, because it would have been too long if inter- punctuated as one). Qi^Jl of remaining as a lawful possession, as at Lev. xxv. 30, xxvii. 19. '^P???'? is throughout not the name of the cave, but of the district in which was the field with the cave in it. The occasion of its being so called is obscure. A Cod. PococTc. in Kennicott and a Spanish one offered for sale at the Viennese Universal Exhibition 1882 by Prof. Garcia Blanco of Madrid, have at ver. 9 the reading n?SG>n myo, certainly an error of transcription, but nevertheless a remarkable curiosity.
The first landed property of the patriarchs was a grave. Such was the sole possession which they purchased from the world, and the only permanent one they found here below, Abraham buys a grave in Canaan; he buys and will not accept it as a gift, that he may not appear to take from man what God has promised to give him (Iren. xxxii. 2). And what he purchases is a grave, just because he will rest when dead in the land in which as a living man he as yet has no possession, because he is certain through faith that the promise cannot deceive. In virtue of that promise, which
102 GENESIS XXin. 17-20.
will be fulfilled to hi^ posterity, the land of Canaan is holy ground. In this grave were Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Eebekah buried, there Jacob buried Leah, there did Jacob desire to rest after death, and there was his corpse actually laid. There rested the ancestors and ancestresses of the tribes of Israel,^ confessors even in death of faith in the promise. This burying place became the pundum saliens of the promised possession of the land. It is with a purpose that its honourable acquisition for the ancestors of Israel is so accu- rately described. It was the tie which continued to bind the descendants of Abraham in Egypt to the Land of Promise : it magnetically attracted their aspirations thither, and when they entered Canaan they were to know where the ashes of their fathers were reposing, and that they were themselves called to inherit the promise, trusting in which their fathers had been buried in Canaan.
When the city of Hebron is now approached from the north by the high road, the supposed district of Mamre passed, and the last mountain peak gone round, the view suddenly opens of the deep-lying valley of Hebron ( Wady-el-Chaltl), in the foreground of which the city spreads out to the right, and the fortified and palatial buildings of the mosque of Ibrahim with its two minarets to the left. This Harani (sanctuary) with its lofty external walls of not less than from fifty to sixty feet high, the lower part of which, built in peculiar pilaster style of colossal blocks of stone, belongs to the most ancient remains of buildings in Palestine, conceals beneath the floor of its interior and beneath its court the cave of Machpelah. The visit paid by the Prince of Wales and his suite to the Har§,m April 7, 1862, placed it beyond doubt that the shrines of the patriarchs, which are found variously adorned in recesses in the walls, are only Cenotaphs. At the corner of the shrine of Abraham however is a circular opening, about 8 inches in
1 According to Joscphus {Aiit. ii. 8. 2, Bell. iv. 9. 7), the eleven patriarchs of the tribes, whose graves (including Joseph's) another legend transports to Sichem. On Acts vii. 16, see my Hcbr. N. T.
GENESIS XXIV. 103
diameter, with an edge built up a foot high ending in a deep obscure space, and through which a burning lamp is usually let down into the burying place by means of a chain. The Crown Prince of Prussia and Capt. v. Jasmund looked down into it Nov, 18 G9, long enough to let them perceive all the details of this space measuring 40 feet square. It appeared empty, the floor polished by hand, the walls formed from the rock itself without masonry, and at the one end of the cave was seen a low grated opening, which seemed to lead to a second cave (LXX. ni'DDO to cnrrfkaLov to SiirXovv). The Haram, a building consisting of parts of very different dates (see Baedeker's Palestine, 2nd edit. p. 172 sq.), lies on the south- western slope of the mountain Gedlire. But the cave, accord- ing to vv. 17—19, lay '•jD^ or "'3Q"by of Mamre, i.e. opposite Mamre, and indeed in a southerly direction (comp. Josh, xviii. 14). Hence, as Consul Eosen rightly infers, Mamre must have lain on the eastern declivity of the height Bumeidi, a spur of tlie Kuppe Na'ir (recalling ijy) near to the remark- able well 'Ain el-'Gedid. The terebinths of the patriarchal time have indeed disappeared, but these were piana xiii. 1 8 ; and though the town was formerly of greater extent than at present, yet its situation must not be transposed to such a distance as by the tradition concerning Mamre (see on ch. xiii. towards the end).
THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC, CH. XXIV.
The fourth portion (ch. xxiv.) relates a furtlier arrangement on the part of Abraham, in view of his own death, viz. the marriage of Isaac, which was prepared for both by the glance at the Nahorite descent of Eebekah, xxii. 20-24 (/), and the blank left in Abraham's family by the departure of Sarah, ch. xxiii. {Q). It is self-intelligible that the statement, that Isaac married a wife of his father's Aramaic kindred, would not be omitted in either of the three chief sources of Genesis.
104 GENESIS XXIV. 1-8.
It is evidently Q who expressly mates it xxv. 20, and pro- bably U who mentions Eebekah's nurse by name and honours her memory, xxxv. 8. But nowhere did the history of this marriage offer itself in such detail to the redactor as in J; for it is to him that we are indebted for the charming idyll, the captivating picture of the wooing and bringing home of Eebekah in ch. xxiv. Everything here bears the mark of his pen : God is called m^^ the birthplace of Eebekah D^Il"^ Dli< (not D"^^5 112 as in Q, e.g. xxv. 20), the sum of all good, ^^^. 190 (vv. 27, 49, conip. xxxii. 11, xlvii. 29). Towards the end are found a few words which seem to lead to E, such as 3J3n px ver. 62 (comp. xx. 1, elsewhere only Num. xiii. 29, Josh. xv. 19, Judg. i. 15), and "^T^n ver. 65 (comp. only again xxxvii. 19); but vv. 62-65 cannot be referred to JS, without admitting that E relates the story as fully as J, which is improbable. We take ch. xxiv. as the sole work of J. The recapitulation of the servant falls under the same point of sight as Pharaoh's recapitulation of his two dreams — ancient epic delights in such repetitions. The ethic and psychologic sentiment of this history has been appre- ciated by no one so mucli as by F. C. v. Moser in his Doctor Leidemif.
It begins, ver. 1 : Abraham was now an old man, well stricken in age, and Jahveh had blessed Abraham in every- thing. His great age (the same expression as xviii. 11, J") obliged him, and his prosperity encouraged him, to think of Isaac's marrying and of the transmission of his blessing to his remoter descendants, vv. 2—8 : Then Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his house, ivho ruled over all that was his : Put thy hand, I fray thee, under my thigh. And I will make thee swear by Jahveh, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou take not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanite, in whose neighbourhood I dwell. But to my country and to my home shall thou go and take a wife for my son Isaac. And his servant said to him : Perhaps the woman vdll
GENESIS XXIV. 2-8. 105
not he willing to follow me into this land — must I then take hack thy son into the land whence thou earnest ? And Ahraham said unto him : Beware that thou take not hack my son thither. Jahveh, the God of heaven, who took me away from my fathers house and from my own country, and who spake to me and swore to me, saying : To thy seed luill I give this land, He will send His angel hefore thee, and thou shall take a wife for my son from thence. But if the woman he not willing to follow thee, then art thou free of this my oath, only thou shall not take hack my son thither. Parallels to this in both style and matter from J, are the mode of swearing, xlix. 29 ; the reference to God as God of heaven and earth, xiv. 19, 22, ^iV'^i'^^ rii3n vv. 3, 37 (not }j;jd ni:a xxviii. 1, 6, 8, xxxvi. 2, Q); '>'T\Vi. and im!?"iD vv, 4, 7, like xii. 1, xxxi. 3, xxxii. 10. Isaac's wife must be one corresponding with his Divine call- ing, and therefore not one of the daughters of the Canaanite (comp. on the matter, Ex. xxiv. 16, Deut. vii. 3 sq.), though such a marriage, externally regarded, opened up all manner of favourable prospects. Nor must Isaac return to Arama^a, whence the God of redemption brought Abraham, he is not to leave the district into which God has transposed his father and himself; on the contrary, his future wife must come to it. But if none can be found, or if the one found is unwilling to leave her home ? About this Abraham is not anxious. He leaves the future of his son absolutely to the direction of Jahveh, and appoints the eldest retainer of his house to be the wooer — certainly the Eliezer mentioned XV. 2 {E), who, since sixty years have now elapsed, was himself an old man. He is to take a so-called bodily oath, by putting his hand under Abraham's thigh. By placing his hand *ii^ nnn of Abraham, he binds himself upon the basis of the covenant of circumcision. If the woman will not follow him, the wooer, to the land of promise, he shall be
released {^^} A^ijjh.), free or quit (^?3 like ^ DMZ. x.xii. 129)
106 GENESIS XXiy 9-14.
from the obligation imposed on him by his oath (nri2t', for which ver. 41 n-N = Arab, alwa, with unchangeable a,
comp. ^\ conj. iv. from Jl to swear). The servant swears,
sets out upon his journey, and on his arrival prays for God's decision, vv. 9-14 : Tlien the servant put his liand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore to him concerning this thing. And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed with all kinds of precious things of his master's in his hand — he arose and went to Aram of the two rivers, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city hy the well of water at evening time, at the time when the water-drawers come out. And he said: Jahveh, God of my master Abraham, let it happen favourably for me this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham ! Behold, I stand at the fountain of water, and the daughters of the inhabitants of the city are coming out to draw water. Let it then thus happen ; the damsel to wliom I shall say : Let doum, L pray thee, thy pitcher that L may drink, and she shall say: Drink, and I mil also water thy camels — this one Thou hast appointed for Thy servant, for Isaac, and thereby shall I know that Thou hast showed kindness to my master. The journey of Hazael, 2 Kings viii. 9, was similarly supplied. Dl'lH,? ^1*!? (ancient Egyp. Neheren, Neherina, Naharina) is the country between the Euphrates and Tigris (in the strict sense ex- clusive of Babylonia), called since Alexander rj MeaoTrora^ia, that is, Xvpia, the land north of the great desert, which the Arabians call the i'j;:?-. nipn means here, as at xxvii. 20,
to cause to meet, to let happen, viz. what one has in mind. "iwn (from ij'3, to shoot forth, to shake out, of the fruit of the body, therefore one not long since born) is in the Pentateuch and in this exclusively, double-gendered. "T^.V^n is written only Deut. xxiL 19, everywhere else it is the Keri to nyjn, which is pointed as fem. n^3in, 14& (LXX. rjToifiaa-a<i), is meant of pointing out by means of an act, here with h as
GENESIS XXIV. 15-21. 107
appointed for the son of Abraham, na does not refer to the maiden, but is a neutral fern, as at xv. 6, 8. Guidance of her who had been prayed for, vv. 15-21 : And it came to pass: he had not yet ceased speaking, lo, Rehehah came forth, who ivas horn to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, with her pitcher on her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look on, a virgin, and no man had known her — she went doivn to the fountain, filed her pitcher and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said : Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from thy pitcher. And she said: Drink, my lord, and let down quickly the pitcher upon her hand, and gave him to drink. And when she had given him enough to drink, she said : I will draw also for thy camels, till they have drunk enough. And she giiickly emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. And the man looked wonderingly at her, holding his peace, to know whether Jahveli had prospered his journey or not. The name i^P^] means a tie, a band (Lat. copula), i.e. a collar for coupling to and coupling together. A maiden is called npiriii (Assyr. latHltu, fern, of hattllu, a youth), certainly from ?n3 JJo to separate, reflective tabattala, to keep oneself in modest consecrated retirement, from her characteristic of maidenly remoteness from marriage, and niopy
(ver. 43), from thv = *U to be marriageable, V Ji to swell,
from the characteristic of nearness to marriage by reason of maturity. The Talmud {Jelamoth 61&) is correct in inferring from the addition nyT ^ t'''Xl, 16a, that nhrQ does not in itself imply the characteristic of virgin purity, but only states age and condition (myj k^jn n^ina px). The servant beholds with astonishment, and regards with investigation the quick and welcome alacrity of the maiden to serve him and to anticipate his wants. Knobel and Dillmann take nsnc'n as equivalent in meaning to nynt^n, but the analogy of DipiriK^n and "Ii^iiin rather favours the derivation from hnb' desolate,
108 GENESIS XXIV. 22-27.
then also like the Aramaic nn^, nnri^ r\]n^ to be confused, to wonder ; on the connective form of the participle before p comp. Ps. Ixiv. 9. The maiden answers perfectly to the moral test, she indefatigably fetches water from the deep well, to which, according to ver. 16, she went down and fetched water Tor the man and his cattle ; hence it was a spring enclosed by a wall with steps leading down to it (Burckhardt, Syrien, p. 232), and is therefore alternately called Cisn 1X3 and D''on py ; note how nn:^, which has itself no Siphil, borrows one from np^i'. Preliminary requital and inquiry, vv. 22, 23 : And it came to pass after the camels had drunh enough, then the man took a gold nose-ring, a half shekel in weight; and two hracelets for her hands ten shekels of gold in weight. Tlien he said : Whose daughter art thou ? tell me, I pray thee ! Is there room in thy father's house to lodge us in? He makes her a present of a nose-ring (ver. 22, comp. 47, Ezek. xvi. 12, and on the other hand Gen. xxxv. 4, where nT3 means an ear-ring) weighing a V?^, i.e. half a shekel of gold, no very great weight in itself, but great for this ornament, which was fastened to one of the nostrils. The nose-ring was in use from Egypt to India, and is still so among the Arabs as a betrothal gift. He also gave her a pair of bracelets of ten shekels of gold. 3nT is the ace. of nearer definition to nibj? (erg. bi^C'), like ^y^ in n:;r n^sp, xvii. 17, xxiii. 1. Answer of the maiden, vv. 24, 25 : And she said to him : I am the daughter of Bcthuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor. And she said farther to him : We have both straw and provender enough, also room to lodge in. She calls herself, with a circumstantiality which betrays self -conscious- ness, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah (comp. on the inverted position of the genit. apposition, ii. 196, xiv. 12) the wife of Nahor, and represents her home in as hospitable a light as possible. The pious servant first of all gives thanks to God, vv. 26, 27 : And the man bowed and fell down before Jahveh. And he said: Blessed be Jahveh, the God of my
GENESIS XXIV. 28-33. 100
master Abraham, who has not withdrawn His mercy and truth from my master — me, yea me has Jahveh led hy the right way to the house of my masters brother. Bowing (viz. of the head, 1p"]i^) and falling down appear in combination at xliii. 28 (J) also, ion is free love, and nox truth, sincerity, faithfulness, binding itself to what love has promised. ''?i^ stands as nom. abs. emphatically, first like nns xlix. 8, Deut. xviii. 14. "H^"^? is, as ver. 48 shows (corap. on Job xxxi. 7), equal to, by the right way. Eebekah's intelligence and its impression upon Laban, vv. 28-31 : And the maiden ran and told her mothers house accord- ing to these things. And Rebekah had a brother, of the name of Laban, and Laban ran to the man outside at the fountain. And it came to pass, when he saw the nose-ring and the bracelets on the hands of his sister, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister saying : Thus spake the man to me, then he came to the man, and lo, he was standing by the camels at the fountain. And he said : Come in, thou blessed of Jahveh, wherefore standest thou without ? and I, I have made room in the house, and a place for the camels. As the text stands, the mood of the sequence "•n"!, 30&, declares the effect from the cause by a retrogressive movement of thought, but probably the sentence : and Laban ran to the man outside at the fountain, has been removed from its original place before N3'l, 30& (Ilg. Dillm.). Instead of nk")!) the Samaritan has insia ; this is not necessary as far as the style is concerned, ip'y stands briefly for l^'y »«in^ see on Ps. vii. 10. The entrance and zeal of the servant, vv. 32, 33 : And the man came into the house, and he unloaded the camels and gave straw and provender to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the men's feet that were with him. And meat was set before him to eat, but he said : L will not eat till I have said what is incumbent on me. And he said : Speak on ! In ver. 32 Laban is the subject to nnQ|'i_ and iri^i, the change of sub- ject disappears if we read ^5?>^ (Jerome introduxit), but then B'^K'-nx might be expected. The object of his journey is asked by no one, for this would be contrary to Eastern
110 GENESIS XXIY. 34-49.
hospitality, which does not permit such a question at least till after a meal. The Keri runs passively 0^*1 (there was placed), not Q^*], as mistakenly in recent editions — the Chethib is Db'"'^! (one placed, like 1. 26, comp. Isa. viii. 4), to be read as written, 1. 26, from DB'\ which is not authenticated else- where, but verbs '•D. like 20\ "ib% cya^ (=K^3, to be ashamed), offer metaplastic forms. The servant will eat nothing till he has said what is incumbent on him to say. The subject to "lOXM 33& is Laban, who represents the family of Bethuel. The two verses 32, 33 are a specimen of the carelessness of the Oriental style, which leaves only too much to be supplied by the reader, vv. 34-49 : And he said : I am the servant of Abraham. And Jahveh has abundantly blessed my master, so that he has become great, and has given him sheep and oxen, and silver and gold, and servants and maidens, and camels and asses. And Sarah, my masters wife, bare my master a son after she was old, and he has given him all that was his. And my master made me swear thus : Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanite, in whose land I dwell. Nay, to my fathers house shalt thou go, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son. And I said to my master : Perhaps the woman will not follow me. Then he said to me : Jahveh, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with thee, and will prosper thy way, that thou mayest take a wife for my son from my kindred and from my father's house. Then shalt thou be clear of my oath, if thou go hence to my kindred; and if they vjill not give thee, thou shalt be clear of my oath. So I came this day to the fountain and said : Oh Jahveh, God of my master Abraham : Oh that thou now mayest prosper the way that I go. Behold, I stand by tlie fountain of water, and let it happen : the muiden who comes out to draw, and I say to her : Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink from thy pitcher, and she says to me. Both drink thou and I will draw for thy camels — let her be the wife ivhom Jahveh has appointed for my master'' s son. I had not yet ceased to speak in my heart, when
GENESIS XXIV. 50, 51. Ill
lo, Rebekah came out with the pitcher upon her shoulder and went down to the well and drew, and I said to her : Give me, I pray thee, to drink ! Then she hastened and took her pitcher down from her, and said : Drink, and I will give drink to thy camels also; and I drank, and she gave drink to the camels also. Then I asked her and said : Whose daughter art thou ? SJie said : The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, whom Milcah hare to him. Then I put the ring upon her nose, and the bracelets upon her hands. And I bowed myself and fell down before Jahveh, and blessed Jahveh the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way, to take the daughter of my master's brother for his son. And now, if ye be willing to show kindness and truth to my master, tell me ; but if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. The form of the oath is purposely omitted at ver. 37. When the servant says, 365, that Abraham has given all that he has to Isaac, this is meant of his resolution to do so (comp. Isa. liii. 9), which is carried into execution, xxv. 5. The nVqk 38a is that of the oath (Ps. cxxxi. 2, Jer. xxii. 6), which thence after a previous denial means, " no, but," Ezek. iii. 6 (comp. Mark iv. 22, according to the reading eav firj (pavepcoOy), stronger than "0^5 ''3 (the reading of the Samar.). N3"^^;-DS 42&, means " if thou really art, as I wish," etc., comp. W'DN xviii. 3 (see there), '^^r^^ 45a, as at viii. 21 — he had then brought his desire before God with the silent voice of the heart. " Brother," 486, is more accurately brother's son, as at xiv. 16, xxix. 12. In ver. 49, rittxi npn stands for the manifestation of kindness and the faithful undissimulating dealing of men with each other. The consent, vv. 50, 51 : Then answered Laban and Bethuel, and said : From Jahveh does this thing proceed, we cannot say unto thee evil or good. Behold, Eebekah is at thy disposal, take her and go, and let her be a wife to thy masters son, as Jahveh has spoken. liebekah had not yet seen the man for whom she was wooed, neither is she asked whether she is willing to be his. Nor is it even her father, but her brother,
112 GENESIS XXIV. 52-58.
■who has the first word respecting her. This is the result of polygamy; in the history of Dinah also, it is the brothers who act independently of the father; " not evil or good " (here as at xxxi. 24) is equivalent to " absolutely nothing," and "•jsb, to be some one's (here as at xiii. 9, xx. 15), is equal to being at his free disposal. They give Eebekah to him, with the acknowledgment that Dominus locutus est. The servant then thanks God for the issue of his wooing, and now empties before them the far from exhausted store of presents which he had brought with him, vv. 52, 53 : And it came to pass, when the servant of Abraham heard their words, he fell on the earth hefore Jahveh. And the servant brought forth silver vessels and gold vessels and garments, and gave them to Rehekah, and he gave costly presents to her brother and to her mother. The first gifts are V^'O (xxxiv. 12) of the bridegroom for the confirmation of the betrothal, the so-called ehva or eehva in
Homer, and the others (ni^-ijip from lyo S:s\^ to be precious,
costly, Lth.: jewels, which is not unfitting, especially 2 Chron. xxi. 3) come under the point of view of the ">'!'to to be paid to the relatives of the bride (xxxiv. 12), see Eiehm's HW. under Ehe, § 4. The servant presses for departure, vv. 54-58: Then they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and spent the night, and when he rose tip in the morning he said : Send me away to my master. And her brother and her mother said : Let the maiden stay with us a few days, perlmps ten, then let her depart. But he said to them : Detain me not, since Jahveh has prospered my way, send me away that I may go to my master. They said : We will call the maiden and inquire at her mouth. And they called Eebekah and said to her : Wilt thou go with this man ? And she said : I will go. The statement of time liti'V i>« ^V1 means some days (as at Isa. Ixv. 20, elsewhere: a long time, iv. 3, xl. 4), or even (or rather) ten (a decade of days). The Samar. has trin IX D^c\ Eebekah's bashful but decided brief answer ^^« settles the
GENESIS XXIV. 59-65. 113
immediate commencement of the journey, Tlie dismissal^ vv. 59-61 : Then they sent away Rehehah their sister and her nurse, and Ahraham's servant and his people. And they Messed Eebekah and said to her : Our sister, become thou thousands of myriads, and may thy seed possess the gate of their enemies I And Rehehah arose and her maids, and rode tipon the camels and followed the man ; so the servant took Rehehah and went away. Dnhsi npai'nx is said according to the rule a potiori, the relation to Laban being generalized. The nurse (Deborah, XXXV. 8) remained, according to ancient custom (in Homer also), a member of the family and the immediate attendant upon her former nursling. The blessing, with which Eebekah is dismissed, proceeds from the frame of mind to which the family of Nahor had been raised by intercourse with the servant of Abraham. The Talmudic tractate n^D begins by drawing from our passage, in agreement with Euth iv. 11 sq., the conclusion, that " a bride, whether a virgin or a widow, without a previous blessing is interdicted to her husband like
one unclean." ^irnhx has Zaheph gadol, which always stands alone without a servant, and is less separative than the pre- ceding Zaheph haton (n^). The imperative ^"IH is vocalized
like ""'.n Ezek. xvi. 6. The combination nnnn ^D^x is like "'si'^! ^'^ Ex. xxxii. 28, and DV "^^f"! Ps. iii. 7 "(Ges. § 120. 2); the genitive is a generic designation of what is enume- rated. "With riN between the vocative and imperative, comp. Jer. ii, 31 ; the pronoun is intended with the distinct- ness which is expressed in the vocative. The wish 60i is almost identical with xxii. 17 (J). There we have VTN, here the poetical VXpB'^ as also n^n-i is the older and more refined word for in"! (=ni3-) = ms-i). The arrival of the travelling company and the first meeting of the betrothed, vv. 62-65 : And Isaac was just coming from the way to the vjell Lahaj Roi, for he dwelt in the land of the south, — for Isaac had
gone out into the field towards evening to indulge in his thoughts, VOL. II. H
114 GENESIS XXIV. 02-65.
— and he lifted up his eyes, and behold, there ivere camels coming. And Rehekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she alighted from the camel. And she said to the servant : JJ^o is that man who is coming to meet us in the field ? The servant said : It is my master; then she took the veil and covered herself The structure of the sentence vv. 62, 63 is clumsy: first a sentence preparatory to tlie main fact with the perfect »<3, then an explanatory sentence of condition with ^tfV Nini, then following this sentence of condition a parenthetical sentence more nearly explaining this accessory fact K3, and now the main fact with 1'':''^ Sfe»l. It is assumed that Abraham was then still dwelling at Beersheba, xxii. 19, south of which lay Hagar's well in the well-watered Wadi el-Muweilih, where Isaac dwelt after the death of Abraham, xxv. 11. Maimonides already remarks, that it is here purposely not said i^;30 N3,^ because it would then appear as though he already had his dwelling there. It cannot however be meant that he was just returning from a visit to Hagar's well, for this was too far distant from Beersheba for an evening walk (63a), but that he was coming from an evening walk in the direction of this his favourite place, a place hallowed as it had been by a manifestation of God: Ni3p=xi3^p 1 Kings viii. 65, comp. KuJ' XXXV. 16, «'4 Num. xiii. 21. It was in the twilight (nny riiJD^, as it began to be evening, comp. Deut. xxiii. 12, Ex. xiv. 27) that he went into the open air D^i^y, to meditate. So most ancient translators, taking mi:6=n^b6 Bs. cxix. 148, either in the meaning meditari (LXX. Aq. Symm. Vulg.) or directly (comp. Bs, cii. 1) orare (Talmud, Targums Sam. Saad. Luth. Kimchi, Gr. Ven.), in opposition to which Syr. translates nA^mVn^ to take exercise, as though it were t:vj'p, as Gesenius desires to read. This is one of the passages on which the obligation of the Minchah-prayer is based. Isaac is of a quietly enduring, contemplative disposition, and it is in con-
1 To read thus, rejecting the N13 (de Lagarde, Olsh.), is an old proposal ; see the Lembergcr Zdtschrift J'l^nn Jahrg. iii. (1856) p. 98.
GENESIS XXIV. 66, 67. 115
formity with this his character that he should go in the direc- tion of Hagar's well (xvi, 13 sq.), to think over the matter of his marriage in silent soliloquy before the Lord. Here the looks of those who were betrothed by God's guidance meet. Eebekah (according to Eastern notions of courtesy in the presence of one who is to be met with reverence) quickly alights from her camel (J>P^, as at 2 Kings v. 21, of intentionally falling, i.e. swinging oneself down, LXX. KaTeTTT^Srjaev, a stronger word for this manifestation of respect than ^11 1 Sam. xxv. 23, and njy Josh. xv. 18, Targums nyannN, she bowed, sank down, let herself slip off), and to make herself certain, asks the name of the man {^fp^} as ordy one more, xxxvii. 19)^ who is coming towards them ; and when she hears that it is Isaac, she modestly takes her veil, ^l^i'^ (from W^ c_a*J to lay together, to fold, to make double or more) is, according to Abenezra, of like meaning with inn (by which it is translated in Targ. Jer.), and the latter of like meaning with the Arab.
\^^ ; the LXX. translates both here and Cant. v. 7 Oipiarpov (Jer. pallium), a light summer wrap which covers the body and especially the head, the veil or hooded mantle, which is mentioned by Tertullian, de velandis virg. ch. 17, Jerome, ad Eustoch. ep. 22, and elsewhere, as an Arabic feminine garment (see Lagarde, Semitica, p. 24 sq.). It is of similar kind with the white linen wrapping shawl, with which Syrian women cover themselves out of doors (M^), not the face-veil which
forms a separate piece of clothing (j-J;j) ; for this muffling of Moslem women is a later custom, which Muhammed bor- rowed from the court of the Sassanidse. Eebekah, drawing her mantle over her face, covered herself (nupsit), as Sulamith in Canticles, who as a bride wears the bridal veil ns^. Bringinc^ home of the bride, vv. 66, 67 : And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. And Isaac hrought her into the
^ In the Samaritan usage of language the sense of brilliant (illustris) is com- bined with n6n (DMZ. xxiix. 196).
116 GENESIS XXV. 1-11.
tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rebekah and she "became his wife, and he loved her and was comforted for the loss of his mother. The history started at ver. 1 sqq. from Abraham, but does not return to him ; we do not however miss this if we look at XXV. 1—11, in which cT" certainly has a share, and if Abraham's remarriage followed the marriage of Isaac. In cases where the widowed father remarries, the affection of the son cleaves the more ardently to the deceased mother, isx nnb' n^i]ii^ is less unusual than vJi^C' Josh. vii. 21 (both times withKateph instead of silent Sheva, comp. n2J3 xiii. 14); for the justification and explanation of this combination of the determinate substan- tive with the genitivally conceived proper name, see Ges. 22 nd ed. § 111. 2. There is no grammatical necessity for regarding ^SK nnb' as a gloss (Wellh. Dillm. Nold.), and the assumption that in the mind of the narrator of ch. xxiv. Abraham had mean- time died, is not so certain as to make us accept the notion that V3K nns originally stood in the place of ies nns (Wellh. Kuen.), or that the whole sentence 67& is a recent addition (Dillm.). With this " after his mother," i.e. after he had lost her, comp. ""JB^, "before me," i.e. before I came, xxx. 30. The grief of Isaac for the loss of his mother was alleviated, when a much loved wife filled up the void made by the death of Sarah.
ABRAHAM'S DESCENDANTS BY KETURAH, AND HIS DEATH, CH. XXV. 1-11.
(Parallel with 1 Chron. i. 32, 33.)
A fifth portion, xxv. 1-11, relates Abraham's remarriage and death, partly according to J, partly according to Q. Vv. 1-4 keep to the manner of the Jahvistic element of the ethno- graphical table (nb^ for n"'hn, and the summary 4h quite like X. 296) ; NSC' and pn are traced back otherwise than in Q X. 7. In 5-7 this genealogical portion is continued. In ver. 5 we recognise the autlior of xxiv. 36. On the other hand, 7-1 la bears as distinctly as possible the impress of Q,
GENESIS XXV. 1. 117
who also refers in xlix. 31 sq. to what is here related, nn ''p2, which occurs eight times in eh. xxiii., and besides in XXV. 10, xlix. 32 (for which J uses the collective "'^C'l'), is peculiar to him. In 11& (the dwelling of Isaac at Lahaj Eoi) ver. 6 proceeds in accordance with xxiv. 67. The picture thus composed from two documents is nevertheless a single one. For it is no contradiction, e.g., that according to ver. 6 only Isaac is with Abraham, and that according to ver. 9 Isaac and Ishmael together bury him ; Ishmael having hastened thither on the intelligence of his father's death.
Abraham's remarriage, ver. 1 : And Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah. According to the statements xxiii. 1, XXV. 7, comp. xvii. 17, Abraham had still a life of about forty years before him. The construction is like xxxviii. 5, and both in matter and diction resembles xvi. 3, where Hagar also is called Abraham's HK'X. Keturah however is not a secondary wife during the lifetime of his wife. Augus- tine, de civ. Dei, 16. 3 4, justly lays stress upon this against the opponents of the secundce nujptice. She is indeed also called, ver. 6, comp. 1 Chron. i. 32, tJ'.J?''a ; she does not stand on the same level as Sarah, who as the mother of the son of promise stands alone. But in other respects no blot attaches to the second marriage. The relation too to Keturah contributes to the fulfilment of the word of promise, which appointed Abraham, xxii. 4 sq., to be the father of a multitude of nations. The sons and grandsons of Abraham by Keturah form however no special nn^n ; they are but offshoots of the tree whose growth is depicted in Genesis. The list, which in opposition to the account of Kleodemus " the prophet " in Joseph. Ant. i. 15 gives an impression of its historical truth, contains in part at least names of Arab tribes still recognisable. These must long ago have become such, when Israel was in course of develop- ment at a distance.^ The Arabic genealogies know indeed
' See Wetzstein's article on Northern Arabia and the Syrian desert in Kohner's Zeitschr. fiir Allgcm. Erdkunde, Annual issue xviii. 1865.
118 GENESIS XXV. 2.
nothing of a great kindred of tribes descended from Keturab, and Sprenger even fatbers upon tbe genealogist the absurdity of making Arabs, with whom be was acquainted as dealers in spices, sons of a Keturab (mit^p = nnbp, frankincense). But \jybi is actually alleged to be tbe name of a tribe in the
neighbourhood of Mecca (comp. also Jbj the present name of the peninsula of Bahrein). Direct descendants of Abraham by Keturab, ver. 2 : And she hare him ]1P\} Knobel com- pares Za^pdfi in Ptol., the royal city of the Kinaedokolpites CisJSS] DMZ. xxii. 663), Grotius the Arab tribe of the Zamareni in Pliny 6. 32. § 158. Tbe Kaaaavlrac, dwelling south of the Kinaedokolpites on the Eed Sea, have nothing to do with l^i^^, for these are the Gassanidse (o'*--^ {DMZ. xxii. 668); Arab genealogists give (ji-'V. ^^ ^^^ name of a portion of the ancient population of Yemen {DMZ. x. 31). The name of the Wadi Afecldn near tbe ruins of the town Dedan accords with I'jp, and the name of the town Madjan {Mati'qvri in Joseph. Ant. ii. 11. 1), five days' journey
south of Aila, with T^p. ^s^ and ^^J^^ were the names of an ancient Arabian god (see Hitz. on Prov. vi. 19). Ptolemy mentions a MaBtd/xa in the north of Arabia felix, vi. 7. 27, and MoBiava {= pno) in the west of Arabia felix on the east coast of the ^lanitic Gulf, vi. 7. 2. uLio^j-i. SJaubachum in 'Gebal, whose name, meaning thicket, salius, became famous in the times of tbe Crusades, has nothing to do with p3C'* (see on xxxvi. 20). nic' can scarcely be combined with tbe tribe
i':^\j^]\ es-Sejaiha, eastward of Aila, and by no means witli SaKKaia, Ptol. v. 15. 26, which is on the contrary to be con- nected with the "SaJcJca Ui-l above Duma and T^md in East- Hauran, nor with the two villages of the name of Sihdn (with
1 On the phonetic law, according to which the LXX. reads Ztftlipxy for pDT, Jiecfifipn for X1DD, 'Afifipecft. for QIDj;, etc., see Flecker, Scripture Onomatolo(jy (London 1S83), pp. 26-28.
GENESIS XXV. 3, 4. 119
(jm), one of which lies in the Nukra one league north of Umm Weled, the other in south Golan. Triedr. Delitzsch has shown {Paradies, p. 297 sq., and the "Essay on the Land of Uz," Zeitsclir. fiir Keilscliriftforscliung, 1885), in cuneiform inscriptions, a land of Suhu, which lay at all events north of Hauran, and north-eastwards of the great Palmyra road, and also a land Jasbulc, coinciding phonetically with P3^'*. The Jokshanidae, 2>a : And Joksan hegat "Sebd and DedCm. The tracing of ^'^^ and \y\. to t^>3 x. 7, is not incompatible with their Semitic derivation here and x. 28 (see on these two passages). The LXX. in Isa. Jer. Ezek. writes for pT AatBdv,
similar in sound with the name of the ruins of the town ^Ujo^^ (Jakut ii. p. SH^<J, line 3) on the borders of the Belk^ towards Hig^z, according to Wetzst. at the eastern foot of the Hisma mountain chain, where is also found a valley of Meddn sloping towards the east ; farther off lies Ddden, Syr. Didin, the name of one of the islands of Bahrein. The tribes descending from Dedan, Sb : And the sons of Deddn were D"iWt«, of whom no trace is elsewhere found, for IIS'K Ezek. xxvii. 23 is Assyria, and ^IVtrsn 2 Sam. ii. 9 probably an error of transcription. The
tribes **uLj and f^\ may perhaps be combined with the DC^'1L3^
and Ci'S^^p, unless their names are to be regarded, as by Renan, as mutilated from D''{J>'iD^ and wo^h {DMZ. xx. 175, xxiii. 298). Ramification of Midian, ver. 4 : And the sons of Midian : HD^y, according to Isa. Ix. 6, a trading tribe bringing gold and frankincense from Sheba; I2y, with which Wetzstein compares
jss. a district in the 'Alia, i.e. the highland between the Tih^ma range and the Aban, after which this part of Arabia was called ^£ jk^, the Ncjd of 'Ofr; '^3^, which harmonizes in sound with the district TIandlcia compared by Knobel and Wetzstein (Burckhardt, Arabien, p. 690 sq., comp. Ritter, Frd- kunde, xiii. 451), three days' journey north of Medina, where Ibrahim Pasha had a standing camp on account of its abund-
120 GENESIS XXV. 5-7.
ance of water ; V^'^X and njn"?x, about which there is nothing to say but that yTiax and ^syni occur as Himjaritic personal names {I)MZ. xxvii. 648), as mtJ'X and \^\:h do as Nabatsean {DMZ. xviii. 447). It cannot be wondered that some of these ancient names should, in consequence of the many migrations, intermingling and wars of the Arabic tribes, have been lost without leaving a trace behind.
Abraham makes Isaac heir of all, and gives gifts to the sons of the concubines, vv. 5, 6 : And Abraham gave all tJiat he had to Isaac. And to the sons of the concubines whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son during his Ufetime eastward into the east country. He gave all that he possessed to Isaac, i.e. as at xxiv. 36 : he promised it to him, and gave it to his management. The concubines are Hagar and Keturah, we know of no others. ^'^.^''? (TraXKa^, pellex, or according to an old writing pcelex) occurred in J at xxii. 24. "The east country " is Arabia in the widest sense, in the first place Arabia deserta and petrcea, and then farther southwards the whole Arabian peninsula. It is not without reason that we have here, ver. 6, the apparently superfluous ""H ^S'liya. The Mosaic law and ancient Hebrew custom know only of a so-called intestate hereditary right, i.e. one independent of the testamentary disposition of the testator, and regulated according to the degree of lineal hereditary succession. If then Abraham desired not to let the sons of his concubines depart empty, he was obliged to provide for them by gifts during his lifetime. The history of Abraham's life now comes to an end, ver. 7 : And this is the amount of the years of Abraham's life ichich he lived: a hundred and five and seventy years. The marriage of Keturah took place in the fourth decade, before the end of this long life (subse- quent to the 137th year), which on reckoning up extended to about fifteen years beyond the birth of the twin children, but which, as in the case of Terah, is here anticipatively
GENESIS XXV. 8-10. 121
finished off. His death, ver. 8 : And Abraham expired and died in a good old age, old and full, and ivas gathered to his people. The promise xv. 15 was fulfilled. In the case of Isaac, whose death resembled that of his father, we find XXXV. 29 instead of V?^ the fuller expression cp^ V2^, like plenus vitm and satur ac plenus rerum in Lucretius. On ^21^=0^ ^p.3 see on xvii. 14. ^P^?.! has always in this phrase, when it appears in the form of the imp. consec, the tone drawn back (notwithstanding the Tiphcha), ver. 17, XXXV. 29, xlix. 33, Deut. xxxii. 50, comp. on the other hand Num. xx. 24, xxxi. 2. This tiDX''l yin is, accord- ing to Bathra 16&, the special expression for the death of the pious. For as the fulness of life of the patriarchs denotes a desire for another world, where they will be delivered from the tribulations of this, so is union with the fathers not a union merely of corpses but of persons. That death does not, as might appear from iii. 19, put an end to the individual continuity of man, is a notion univer- sally diffused in the world of nations, — a notion originating from and justified by the fact, that not only wrath but mercy was proclaimed to fallen man. Believers however knew more than this, but only by the inference drawn by faith from the premisses of the Divine promise, and breaking through the comfortless notion of Hades. Kara m-larLv airedavov ovtoi Trai/re?, Heb. xi. 13. They were united in faith to Jahveh, as He the ever-living One united Himself to them by His word and placed Himself in a mutual relation to them, which could never cease. Thus also did Abraham depart from this world, after he had already long departed from its history, and had spent in the quiet of his home decades of which history tells us nothing. His burying, vv. 9, 10 : And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Sohar the Hethite, which is before Mamre, the field which Abraham bought of the sons of Heth. There was Abraham
122 GENESIS XXV. 11.
buried, and Sarah his wife. Isaac and Islimael, who after Isaac ranks highest among the sons of Abraham, buried him. It is not thence to be inferred that Ishmael was at that time still in his father's house. The blessing of Abraham as regards this world is now transferred to Isaac, ver. 11a; And it came to pass after Abraham's death, that Elohim blessed Isaac his son. Thus is fulfilled the covenant promise, xvii. 21. Thus far Q; lib is added from J: Aiid Isaac dwelt by the ivell Lahai-rol. His dwelling by Hagar's well was certainly not without the influence of the answer to prayer there received and never to be forgotten. Beersheba had hitherto been the common residence of himself and his father, xxii, 19. Later on in the evening of his life we find him at Mamre, xxxv. 27 {Q). The life of the patriarch was a pilgrimage without a settled dwelling-place.
VII. THE TOLEDOTH OF ISHMAEL, XXV. 12-18.
(Parallel passage, 1 Chron. i. 28-31.)
Before the history of the seed of promise can go on with- out interruption, the history of Ishmael must be finished off in accordance with the method of the fundamental document (Q). This is now done, ver. 12 : And these are the generations of Ishmael the son of AhraJiam, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, lore to Ahraham. This general title is particularized, ver. 13a; And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, hy their names, according to their generations. Before oniDK^'a, these sons of Ishmael must be supplied in thought. They are now specified according to their names and sequence. There were twelve of them according to the promise xvii. 20, corresponding with the twelve tribes of Israel. The blessing of Ishmael, who was also the seed of Abraham and, differing herein from the sons of Keturah, received Divine promises, made chs. xvii. and xxi. in the name DTibs, and ch. xvi. in the name nins is a reflection of the blessing of Israel. The first-born of Ishmael was, accord- ing to 13&, n^33. Nebajoth and Kedar are mentioned together not only Isa. Ix. 7, but also Plin. h. n. 6, 32 {Ndbatcei et Cedrei) ; Kaiddr and Ndbit {Ndbt) written with L,2^ are known also to Arabic and Armenian historians (Hiibschmann, Zur Gesch. Armenicns, 1865, p. 12) as, according to biblical precedent, descendants of Ishmael
or also of Madian. Along with this occurs kvj (Gentilic
124 GENESIS XXV. 13.
Ljj, plur. of the nation in its manifold totality, ]s\jj\), genea- logically traced back to ^^ i.e. K^o x. 23, or otherwise, as the name of the Aramaean population of Egypt as far as the Tigris (comp. 1 Mace. v. 24 sq., ix. 35), and especially of the districts between the Euphrates and the Tigris. It is on this account that Quatremfere in his Mdmoire sur les NabaUens, with the concurrence of Causin, Eitter and Steinschneider (see his additions to Brecher's Die Bescli- neiduncf, p. 1 1 sq.), rejects the combination of the Nabatseans with the Ishmaelite nr33. Schrader also (KAT. 147, 414) distinguishes the north Arabian Nabaitai from the Baby- lonio-Arama^an Nabatu, while Winer, Kless (in Pauli's BE. vol. i, 377 sqq.), Krehl {Religion der vorislam. Arab. 1863, p. 51), Blau {D3IZ. xvii. 51) and Noldeke (D3IZ. xxxiii. 322 sq.) adhere to the connection of the Nabatoean t33j with the biblical nvaj. The manner of writing the name varies ; upon the coins of Nabataean kings in33 and ma: are interchanged (see Levy in DMZ. xiv. 317), and in the Targum and Talmud the forms Di:, t3ll3, miJ and even ns: are found together (see Geiger, id. xv. 413). The Assyrian inscriptions write the name in all its forms with t (nabaitu, adj. gentil. nabaitai), not with t (Friedr. Delitzsch, Paradies, 29 G sq.). The supposed ancient ISTabatcean writings derived from Babylonia, to which Chwolson (1859) gave credence, are, as is now acknowledged, the fabrication of Ibn-Wahslja, who says he translated them into Arabic. The name of the Nabataeans is in these writings one of much further reach, including also the Chaldaeans, Syrians, and Canaanites, and has hence neither certainty nor outline. It u on the contrary certain that in the first century B.C., and down to the time of Trajan, the Nabataeans were a prominent and civilised people whose realm extended from the iElanitic Gulf to the land east of Jordan, past Belk^ as far as Ilauran, — written memorials of this people are found
GENESIS XXV. 13. 125
from Egypt to Babylonia, but Arabia Petrsea is the cbief mine for them. The supposed ancient Nabatsean writings might, if they contained any ancient germ, coincide with this period of Nabattean civilisation, with which was combined the flourishing period of Christianity in Arabia Petrsea (see my Kirchliches Chronikon des petr. Ardbiens, Luth. Zeit- schr. 1840, iv. 41. 1); and whether this civilisation had its starting-point in Babylonia or Arabia, the one is quite as com- patible as the other with the Ishmaelite origin of the mp ijn, nor is the Aramaic language of the inscriptions and forms of incan- tation contrary to this origin. We know indeed but little of pre-Islamite Arabic and its dialects. But the few remains which have been preserved, e.g. the cry Malchan, with which, according to Laurentius Lydus {de mensibus, iv, 75), a Saracen is said to have pierced the Emperor Julian, recognised by the purple, in the Persian "War, make it probable that idioms lying midway between the Aramaic and Arabic with which we are acquainted, were in existence. The Aramaic idiom of the Sinaitic inscriptions is moreover of a strongly Arabic tinge {DMZ. xiv. 379). The nomadic people mentioned together with Kedar in the times of the Israelite kings must have been as yet politically insignificant, for they are not men- tioned in the history of the kings, though this mention might be expected in such connections as 2 Chron. xvii. 11, xxi. 16, Ps. Ixxxiii. 7. Petra appears as an Edomite town, and in the Syro - Ephraimitic war Eezin made Ailat an Aramaean colony. But what objection is there to accepting the notion that Ishmaelite wandering tribes may have been subsequently swallowed up in the renowned civilised nation of the Nahatcei, who constructed their marvellous buildings upon the ancient Seirite mountains, but were despised by the Arabs as townsmen and pikemen, and not acknowledged as their equals because of their settled habits and industry ? — Ishmael's second son is I'li'. This people of north-western Arabia, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament as nomads dwell-
126 GENESIS XXV. 13.
ing in tents and as good bowmen, was already known to Pliny (5. 11) as the Cedrei. Kedarenes dwelt eastward of the ISTabatsans in the desert beyond Babylonia (Isa. xlil 11, Ps. cxx. 5). They had disappeared in the first period of
Islam. Jefeth on Cant. i. 5 substitutes \J^ji the tribe of Muhammed. The third son of Ishmael is ^^^S^i^, according to Friedr. Delitzsch {Paradies, 301 sq.) the north Arabian tribe of Idiha'il. — The fourth son is Ci^3D, and the fifth VCB'p, names which occur together also in the genealogy of the tribe of Simeon (1 Chron. iv. 25). The name of the Maiaaifiaveh somewhat north-east of Medina, Ptol. vi. 7. 21 (comp. DMZ. xxii. 672), and el-Mismije in Legah, the name of the largest town in the mid-Syrian volcanic region, sound like V^^'^, but actual connection is doubtful in both cases. The sixth son no^'i, probably ^ovfiaOa, Aov/x€9a in Ptolem. and Steph. Byz., Domatha in Plin., the present JjJesrl ^^^j in the lowest depression of the Syrian land of JVufud, the so-called G6f whence proceeds the question to the prophet, Isa. xxi. 11, is about forty leagues north of Tcimd. The seventh son Nb^ sounds like the Maaavoi, Ptol. v. 19. 2, north-east of Duma. An Assyrian inscription in Friedr. Delitzsch {Paradies, 302) mentions a Mal'ai (from nK'D ?) who surprised the Nabatoeans {Nihaaiti) after the Assyrians had withdrawn. The name of the country nc'D is also probably concealed in Pro v. xxxi. 1, XXX. 1, which see. — On the eighth son Tin (as according to the Masora 1 Chron. i. 30 is also to be written, with which agree the LXX. Sam. Jos., and according to which Targ. Jer. translates ^?"'1Q) there is nothing to be said. The ninth son N^^J^ does not correspond with ♦jJ Ju in the neighbour- hood of the Persian Gulf {Qaifioi in Ptol.), but with the
trading tribe of NiO'^ri px ( U>J Assyr. Tem'u, upon the borders of the Negd and the Syrian desert). Job vi. 19, Isa xxi. 14, mentioned in Jer. xxv. 23 between Dedaa and Bxiz,
GENESIS XXV. 13. 127
and not to be confused with the Idumsean ip''^, xxxvi. 42, though it almost seems as if l^''? mentioned Jer. xlix. 7 sq., Ezek. XXV. 13, together with Dedan were equivalent to ^^^"'n, Arabian geographers give the name of Timan to the southern half of the Negd, but are acquainted also with a Petreean Teman in northern 'Alia called .J^\ j J ^r*^ ^^^ ruins of Teman. Wetzstein has also brought to our knowledge still exist- ing trans-Hauranian localities called Temd and Duma. There is also found in East Hauran, three and a half leagues south of Tem§,, a still stately town of Buzdn. Nevertheless the places here named are more probably to be sought in the Negd than in East Hauran. — The tenth and eleventh sons are "'i'^"'. and iJ'''Dj, both mentioned by the Chronicler, 1 Chron. v. 18—22, in conjunction with 3']i3, whose name has been preserved in the
Hauranian Nudebe ( iU) jJ ) in the Wadi el-hutm, and with the ^''^''I^l', i-^- ^Aypaioi or 'Aypie<i, whose capital was ..csj^ (Ethiop. and Himjar. hagar town), in Plin. h. n. 6. 32 Hegra on the Persian Gulf ; they there appear as involved in war with their neighbours the trans-Jordanic tribes of Israel. Of t^''?'^ we know nothing else. The i^^"! however, according to Strabo, are the plundering 'Irovpatot dwelling on Lebanon and the Hauran chain {Iturcei sagittarii in Cicero, Fhilipp. 2. 44) ; the inhabitants of the highest part and of the eastern slope of the Druse mountain chain in Haur&n are perhaps their descendants. — The name too of the twelfth son nmp is not elsewhere to be pointed out, for D'li' \J3 mentioned with Midian and Amalek Judg. vi. 3, with Moab and Ammon Isa. xi. 14, Ezek. xxv. 4, 10, is a collective name; but XapaK7]voi, which certainly means the men of the East, appears originally, like •"'^'ji^., as a separate tribe upon the Sinaitic peninsula or elsewhere. We need not be surprised to seek in vain for most of these names in Wlistenfeld's and Sprenger's lists, for even the great tribes, who made a figure in the beginning of the history of Islam, have now disappeared
128 GENESIS XXV. 16, 17.
together with their names. Closing summary, ver. 1 6 : Tlicse are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their settle- ments and their encampments, twelve princes according to their nations, ribx is found also in Q at Num. xxv. 1 5, where Arabs are spoken of, as the word for nations. Two kinds of dwelling- places are here distinguished, first D^ll^n, the special name for the groups of houses placed within the steppe, and enclosed on every side for fear of surprise, — as described by Burckhardt (translated by Gesenius, p. 1043) among the villages of the G^q/"— from 1V!7 to enclose, comp.^^-, -^-.^ and especially -^b-, to live in a courtyard walled round (Jiadar, haddr, haddra) ; here as at Lev. xxv. 31, and to this day with the obliteration of the characteristic " walled round," the general name for a settled abode (with houses of plaster or stone) in contrast with wandering and tents. Then rih^p (from i^d, comp.
Jio ^4) encampment (identical in meaning with ci^^rJw? sirdt
andjUj dudr), i.e. circvldiX groups (comp. .*!?, jj<-> circle, cir- cumference) of pitched tents (haircloth tents, icabar). The first appellation of the kind of dwelling designates the stationary, the second the wandering sons of Ishmael. Dura- tion of Ishmael's lifetime, ver. 17 : And this is the amount of tJie years of Ishmael: a hundred and seven and thirty years, and he departed and died, and was gathered to his people. Dwelling- places of the Ishmaelites, ver. 18 : They dwelt from Ilavilah to "Sur, which is before Egypt as far as towards Assyria, east- wards of all his hrethren came he to dicell. The topographical "•JQ'by denotes a position which so covers the front of any place, that it may be seen thence before arriving at it. In itself it tells us nothing of the quarter, comp. Josh. xv. 8 " westwards ; " xviii. 4 " southwards," but standing alone it has here, as at xvi. 12, the meaning of eastwards (comp. Deut. xxxii. 49, 1 Sam. xv. 7, 1 Kings xi. 7, Zech. xiv. 4, comp. Num. xxi. 11). The ^'W usual elsewhere of the territory devolving to any one, means here as at Judg. vii. 1 2, to settle.
GENESIS XXV. 18. 129
Luther translates after the "Vulgate : coram (^^2'^y as at xi. 28) euTictis fratribus suis obiit. But ''S3 is used of falling in war,
and not like the Arabic js>~ exactly in the meaning of dying ; and the prediction xvi. 12, the fulfilment of which is the point in question, shows that it is here synonymous with \yy. Luther explains it in the Enarrationes more correctly : terrain occuparunt, but with a mistaken interpretation of ^33 after Dv''Q? (invaders) instead of settlement (comp. xxiv. 64). The np'^'in here coincides locally with the Joktanite Havilah x. 29, the country of the XavXoTatoi, mentioned between the Nabatseans and Agreeans by Eratosthenes in Strabo, xvi. 4. 2. Between this Havilah on the Persian Gulf and the desert of Shur lying towards Egypt, the Ishmaelites spread themselves over the Sinaitic peninsula and the trans-Jordanic deserts of t'le Higaz and ISTegd, as well as further up Mesopotamia nnitr'K ^>53 in the direction of Assyria, i.e. as far as the lauds under Assyrian sway. Comparing indeed 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, the suspicion is aroused that nnVk^'K "^xa is a recent gloss which erroneously interprets the niK^, — what it states is however correct as to matter (Dillm.), and the sentence bsi vnx b^ ''^Zi'bv, to which Wellh, also objects (Composition, i. p. 410), is quite unassailable. But it is possible that ver. 18 is an addition from J, in which its original place was perhaps after ver. 6.
VOL. n.
VIII. THE TOLEDOTH OF ISAAC, XXV. 19-XXXV 29.
THE THKEE PERIODS OF THE HISTORY OF ISAAC,
We have already had preliminary information concerning Isaac, but his proper history according to the view and plan of Genesis commences here. It is opened by B with matter derived from Q, who furnishes its scaffold and framework, vv. 19, 20: And these are the generations of Isaac, the son of Ahraham ; Abraham hegat Isaac. And Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Eebehah, the daughter of Bethuel tlie Aramcean from Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban tlie Ara- mcean. The rii?in of Isaac assume that he is an independent commencement. And this he became after obtaining a wife in Eebekah from DIJ^ pi?. Here for the first time we meet with this name of the Aramaean plain, occurring elsewhere only in Q and never out of Genesis. It is perhaps (comp. Spiegel, Erdnische Alter thumskunde, i. 289) of a narrower meaning than the Jahvistic Q^inj Dnx, and denotes those plains of the immense fruitful campi Jllesopotamice (Curtius, iii. 2. 3, V. 1. 15) in which lay Harran and Edessa {Urhoi). The
word ns (^^J*^) is of like root with liiJl the broad desert
plain, and properly means the extended level ; in Aramaic and Arabic it is transferred to the oxen yoked to the plough and to the plough itself {DMZ. xxviii. 623). But even in these tongues its original meaning of plain, field, cultivated land (Gr. ireZlov, which however means trodden ground),
130
GENESIS XXV. 19, 20. 131
« /
whence til Jo as the designation of the landowner is derived, has been maintained as a local name {DMZ. xxix, 433). Hos. xii. 12 has "rrw for n? (comp. Shabhath 118& nb'=^ni5J*). Isaac's marriage with Eebekah, who came from this Aramoea, remained childless for twenty years ; it was not till fifteen years before the death of Abraham (not after that event, as Josephus, confusing the historiographic with the historic sequence, thinks) that Eebekah bore children, and that the new beginning appointed to take place with Isaac made an advance. The Toledoth of Isaac are divided into three sections : the first extends from the birth of the twin children amidst marvellous circumstances to the sending away of Jacob to Harran, xxv. 21 to xxviii. 9 ; the second begins with Jacob's dream of the heavenly ladder on his way to Harran, and reaches to his final peaceable departure from Laban, xxviii. 10 to xxxii. 1 ; the third begins with the miraculous experiences of Jacob during his return, at Mahanaim and Peniel, and terminates with the death of Isaac, xxxii. 2 to xxxv. 29. The history of Isaac differs from that of Abraham by the chief personage not being as in the latter the patriarch himself, but his son Jacob. Isaac is the middle, the entirely secondary and rather passive than active member of the patriarchal triad. The usual course of the historical process is, that the middle is weaker than the beginning and end, the fundamental figure of its rhythmic movement is the amphimacer — u— . And thus also does the patriarchal history advance to its goal. What is told us of Isaac is comparatively little, and we see Abraham's history repeated in parvo. Isaac is blessed for Abraham's sake, and he himself blesses with the blessing of Abraham, while in the respect shown him by Abimelech, in the long barrenness of his wife, in her exposure to danger by his faithless policy, in his two dissimilar children, in his domestic vexations — in all these he is the copy of Abraham ; even the wells which he digs are those of Abraham wliicli have been stopped up by the Philistines, and the names he
132 GENESIS XXV. 21.
gives them are the old ones renewed. He is the most passive of the three patriarchs.
THE TWIN CHILDEEN AND ESAU S FIRST SALE OF HIS BIRTHEIGHT TO JACOB, CH. XXV. 21-34.
The patriarchal history began with the separation of Abra- ham the Shemite from the mass of the nations ; it continued with the separation of the son of promise from Abraham's other progeny ; it closes with a fresh separation made between the twin sons of Isaac. The birth of these twin sons and their separation by Divine choice and then by their own decision is related in the first section of the life of Isaac, XXV. 21-34, in which vv. 21-23 may be certainly dis- tinguished as derived from «/, and 26J as from Q. In the rest the analysis is uncertain, for it is not necessary to assume that 25a purposes to give another occasion for the name Qii.>*, and xxvii. 35 sq. an explanation of the name 3py^ in contra- diction to ver. 26, both according to E in distinction from J. Neither is it necessary to regard Eebekah's exposure to danger by reason of her beauty, xxvi. 6—11, as occurring before she became a mother.
Isaac's prayer for the blessing of children, ver. 21 : And Isaac prayed to Jahvch in respect of his vnfe, for she was barren. And Jahveh was entreated by him : JRehcJcah his wife conceived. He prayed i^K'X npb?, i.e. as at xxx. 38, with respect to her from n33 ,^ij figere oculos in aliqiia re. The verb "iny properly means to burn incense (Syr. Arab. "it3y="iDp^), which meaning is favoured by Ezek. viii. 11, where inj? means the scent (of the cloud of incense) — the Arab.^^ retreating from this original meaning, is more generally : to bring sacrifices, not merely with an object (Jdkut, iii. p. 912, Z. 13), but also absolutely {id. p. 913, line 2), as also ''^ni; Zeph. iii. 10 means my worshippers (by sacrifice and prayer) — the transition from adolere to sacrificari (comp. Oveiv) and then to colcre (corap.
GENESIS XXV. 22, 23. 133
tl^-«uj), and farther to precari, is natural. The Mph. "inV,^. is a synonym of n^yj, to let oneself be entreated. The Talmud and Midrash combine inj; with inn in the meaning of to engrave = to penetrate, for which the Arabic is appealed to (see Pesikta de Bab Cahana 162&, ed. Buber) ; another Haffsadic meaninfj is found in Buxtorf, Lex. Talmud, col. 1687. Apparent menace to maternal hopes, ver. 22: And the children thrust each other within her, then she said : If it he thus, for what purpose am I? And she went to inqvAre of Jahveh. The thrusts within seem to her indications not of the favour but of the wrath of God. Hence she complains and inquires: Why (comp. xxvii. 46) do I live at all? nap in its first meaning ad quid, cui rei, as e.g. at Amos v. 18. Eebekah is of a sensitive, sanguine disposition, as prompt in action as she is easily discouraged; she maintains however amidst all her changes of emotion a direct regard to God and to His promise. So too here : she goes to some holy place consecrated by revelation and by the worship of God ti'i']? 'rrns ad petendum Domini oraculum, and receives comfort and information, ver. 2 3 : Jahveh said to her :
Two nations are in thy womb,
And two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels y
And a nation overcomes a nation,
And the elder will serve the younger.
The poetic form of this tetrastich is unmistakeable. We here see how akin prophecy is to poetry. In xxiv. 60 we had the poetry of the nma, here the poetry of the nxi33. The answer corresponds as to its tenour with the paradoxical character of the patriarchal period. After the long barren- ness of Eebekah, which made the life of Isaac an enigma, is removed, the mark of an inversion of natural order is im- pressed upon Eebekah's children even in their mother's womb. God's thoughts, which are far above men's thoughts, are here ordering everything. Birth of the twins, vv. 24-26 : Jl^ie7i then her days were fulfilled to he delivered, hehold there
134 GENESIS XXV. 24-27.
were twins in her worrib. And the first came forth ruddy quite like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. Afterwards his brother came forth, his hand holding to Esau's heel, and his name was called Jaakoh, and Isaac ivas sixty years old at their hirth. The twins are here called DOin, contracted from CpiXPi xxxviii. 27, comp. ©wfid^ = XCin. The first-born appeared ''?io*li<, i.e. with flesh of a red- brown colour (comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 12, xvii. 42), and quite lyb' n"i;iX3 (Zech. xiii. 4 comp. Heb. xi. 37), i.e. as to his whole body like a mantle (from "ilK amplum esse) covered with hairs (from "1J?^ horrere, to bristle, comp. hirtus, hirsutus, rough), an anomalous luxuriance of hair (Hyper- trichosis), which sometimes occurs in the newly born, here, as was also the darker colour of the skin, a prognostic of bodily strength and fierceness. In "^W here and xxvii. 11, 23, there may be an allusion to the national name "^W, but no actual line of connection is drawn. The second born made his appearance holding the heel of his brother, with his hand held above his head. We are not told that it was thus in his mother's womb (a position of twins hardly possible), but that he followed his brother with this movement of the hand. They called (}^y;')) the one l^V, the hairy, the other they called (^"Ji^!!! as at xxxv. 8, xxxviii. 29 sq.) 3py?, the heel-holder, i.e. the crafty (comp. Hos. xii. 4). Eeifraann, referring to the interchange of v and 3 in Galilean-Samaritan, explains IK'J? as " the covered over," from nb'y = np3 ; but the
Arabic (J^^ hirsutus^ makes the existence of a verb ^^'V (y^V)> to be hairy, probable, whence is formed "it^'y after the forma- tion 333;, like i"ip. and 33n. Isaac was sixty years old, and had hence been married twenty years, when they were born (Dnk nn73 without a subject: at their birth, Ew. § 304(/, comp. "•PJ"??, when one bears, iv. 18). The different characters of the two brothers, ver. 27 : And tlie hoys greio, and Esau was a
* Notwithstanding the anomalous change of '^ and C_j (Aramaic D), see Fleischer on Levy's Ncuhebr. WB. iii. 732.
GENESIS XXV. 28-30. 135
man skilled in hunting, a man of the field, hut Jacob an amiaUe man, dwelling in tents. Esau appears also as a sportsman under the name of Ovao)o<i in Phoenician legends. ^'^^ ^^^ is here not so much the praise of piety, as the designation of natural temperament : a perfect and, because love is the bond of perfectness, a kind and amiable man (comp. the ancient Arab, ^b", used of loving devotion), not wandering about as a hunter in the open field, but dwelling in tents as a shep- herd (iv. 20). Eelation of their parents to them, ver. 28 : And Isaac loved Esau, because he relished venison, and Rebekah loved Jacob. The former was the favourite of Isaac because venison was in his mouth, i.e. because he often ate and liked it ; the latter was the favourite of Eebekah, who was better pleased with his quiet, gentle and thoughtful disposition, than with the boisterous, wild, clumsy Esau. The fatal lentil pottage, vv. 29, 30 : And Jacob sod 'pottage, then came Esau from the field and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob : Oh let me swallow of the red, the red there, for I am faint — therefore his name was called Edom. Another motive for the name Di"'X (the red-brown) was perhaps hinted at in V^^l^ ; the designa- tion is expressly based only upon DH^, that red, i.e. yellow- brown lentil pottage ^olvcklSlov. Elsewhere too, e.g. among the Arabs (comp. Abulfeda's hist, anteislamica and Wetzstein's inscriptions in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1863, pp. 335-337), innumerable names have a similarly accidental origin,^ and he who finds it impossible that the fortunes of a nation should for a thousand years be connected with a dish of lentils, if he will only look into the history of the world, and especially of the East, will not look in vain for parallels. Lentils (adas) are and were a favourite dish in Syria and Egypt ; besides Esau was hungry, so that the appetizing meal (1^3, a noun formed from the verb *T'T, Eiph. T][}, with the
^ If a Bedouin girl is born at night, she is called LSla ; if when snow is falling, she is called Thelga ; if her mother's eye encountered at her birth a swarm of ants, she is called Nimla, etc.
136 GENESIS XXV. 31-34.
preformative na common in Assyrian, and with the retention of the characteristic middle sound), pleasant to sight and smell, was a trial to his self-denial, to which he was unequal. Jacob profits by his moment of weakness, vv. 31—33: Then Jacob said : Sell me first of all thy hirthright ! And Esau said : Behold, I am about to die, and of what use is the birthright to me ? And Jacob said : Then first swear to me, and he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. The hardly translateable Di'3 means just now, first of all, before all else, comp. 1 Sam. ii. 16, 1 Kings i. 51, xxii. 5. Esau consents to the bargain, profanely preferring (Heb. xii. 16) the palpable and present to the unseen and future. Jacob's cheap payment, ver. 34 : A7id Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil yottage, he ate and dranh and rose wp and went away, and Esau despised his birth- right, i.e. he thought no more about it, till he saw too late how foolishly he had acted. The nnbn generally consists in the right to the larger portion of the inheritance, xlviii. 19, xlix. 3, Deut. xxi. 17, but we do not see Jacob afterwards lay claim to anything of the kind. In this instance it is the claim to the ^i^'^?^ ri3"}2 in the sense of xxviii. 4, and the princely and priestly prerogative involved in it, for which Jacob is concerned. " Before the tabernacle was erected " — says the Mishna Scbachim xiv. 4 — " the Bamoth (local sanctu- aries) were permitted, and the Abodah (the priestly office) was with the first-born ; but after the erection of the tabernacle (the central sanctuary) the Bamoth were forbidden and the Abodah was with the Cohanim." Jerome thus correctly reports as Jewish tradition, hcec (viz. the sacerdotium) esse primogenita quce Esau fratri siio vendiderit Jacob. In a word : the first-born is the head of the patriarchal family, and the right of the first-born includes the representative privileges derived from this exalted position. Esau's forfeiture of these privileges is, according to Eom, ix. (comp. Mai. i. 2 sq.), a work of free Divine election, but not without being at the same time, as this narrative shows, the result of Esau's
GENESIS XXVL 137
voluntary self-degradation. As Ishmael had no claim to the blessing of the first-born, because begotten Kara adpKa, so does Esau, though not begotten Kara adp/ca, forfeit the blessing of the first-born, because minded Kara adpKa. The unbrotherly artifice of Jacob is indeed also sinful, and we see this one sin produce first the sin of deceiving his aged father, before whom Jacob did not venture to assert his purchased claim to the blessing, and then penal consequences of every kind. By reason however of the fundamental tendency of his mind towards the promised blessing, Jacob is the more pleasing to God of the two brothers ; hence his sin itself must contribute to the realization of the Divine counsel, and his dishonour to the dorification of Divine grace.
VARIED CONFIRMATION OF THE PROMISE TO ISAAC, CH. XXVL
The second portion, eh. xxvi., tells us of Isaac's joys and sorrows during the period of his Philistine sojourn, and thereby gives us a picture of his life in general — a life bearing the relation of a copy to that of Abraham, but also made illustrious by appearances of God (vv. 2, 24), and thus maintained at the patriarchal level. The narrator is J, in whose work this mosaic of matters concerning Isaac perhaps preceded the birth of the twin children. This narrator is announced by the Divine name nins the continuations of the promise that the nations shall be blessed in the seed of the patriarch, 4&, comp. xxii. 18, the series 'n U^2 t«ip"'"i in ver. 25, and by other particulars. Both diction and matter however point in many respects to ^, e.<7. nnN"by 32a, and the mention of Phicol with Abimelech ver. 26 comp. xxi. 22, hence the source may more correctly be designated as JB {i.e. J with matter from E worked into it). In vv. 1-6 Dillmann thinks he can even separate from each other the elements belonging respectively to J and U. Undoubtedly ver. 5 in this passage is from the hand of the
138 GENESIS XXVI. 1-6.
Deuteronomist. It has a special connection with the closing portion, xxvi. 34 sq. 1. Renewal of the promise inGeeae, xxvi. 1-6 : And there arose a famine in the land, beside the former one, which arose in the days of Abraham, and Isaac vjent unto Abimelech, king of Gerar. And Jahveh appeared unto him and said : Go not down into Egypt, remain in the land that I vnll tell thee. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee and bless thee, for to thee and to thy seed will I give all these lands and fulfil the oath which I swore to thy father Abraham, and I will increase thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give to thy seed all these lands, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, for a reward that Abraham obeyed my bidding and observed my precept, my com- mandments, my statutes and my instructions. Then Isaac dwelt in Gerar. xii. 10 is referred to by 'iJI "i^pp (in meaning = )p inp) ; the narrator as here is there J, the reference however is surely an addition of ^'s. The facts related resemble each other as to matter. The famine directs Isaac's as well as Abraham's view to Egypt, the granary of the Holy Land in such cases, and he journeys on the road thither first to Gerar (three leagues south of Gaza in tlie broad and deep 'Gurf el- Gerar where Rowlands discovered ruins). This district was still governed by a king who had been on friendly terms with Abraham, eh. xx. 21, 22 sqq., and who bears here the title D''riC'^Q !17!0 which was missing in the text of B. Arrived in Gerar, Isaac receives Divine direction to pursue his journey towards Egypt no farther, but to remain (pL") in the land which God points out to him : he is to sojourn in the land where he now is, viz. Philistia (i^ia, the standing word for the sojourning of the patriarchs in Canaan and Philistia) ; at the same time the fulfilment of the oath by which God confirmed His promises to Abraham upon Moriah is assured to him, and indeed for the sake of Abraham's obedience. The relation both in diction and matter to xxii. 15-18 is unmistakeable. But there is in vv. 2-5 many a token of the interposition of a
GENESIS XXVI. 7-11. 139
more recent hand.^ The expression ?^?I^ ni^nsn"73"ns, i,e. Canaan proper with the neighbouring lands, is peculiar (comp. W'p\ T\St\;^ in 1 Chron. xiii. 2, 2 Chron. xi. 23) ; ^^'^ is here no archaism, but an abbreviation of the original n^^?n (see on xix. 8). The combination ''nhini ""riipn '•ni^jp has a Deuteronomic ring (the plur. niiin however occurs only Ex. xvi. 28, xviii. 16, 20, Lev. xxvi. 46, and not in Deuteronomy), Abraham's performance of the obedience due to God being thus divided according to the language of subsequent legislation. 2. Pre- servation OF THE patriarch's WIFE IN GeRAR, XXvi. 7-11. It is conceivable that what is here related may have taken place in the period preceding the birth of the twin children, and may be introduced here retrospectively in an appropriate connection. But this is unnecessary, for it is found now as formerly that a woman may be still seductively beautiful, even after she has borne children. Her cowardly exposure, ver. 7 : And the people of the place ashed him concerning his wife, and he said : She is my sister, for he feared when he thought : Let not people of this place kill me for the sake of Eehekah, for she is fair to look on. The b after fjxB' is that of relation, and there- fore of the object of the inquiry, as at xxxii. 30, xliii. 7, comp. bs and h after noK xx. 2, 13, where also by (on account of), ver. 3, is equally used as here and at ver. 9. He who was untruth- ful through fear of man is put to shame, vv. 8-11 : And it came to pass when a long time had passed there with him, that Ahimelech, king of the Philistines, looked through the window, and he saw and behold Isaac was caressing with Rehekah his wife. Then Ahimelech called Isaac and said : She is certainly thy wife, and how canst thou say she is thy sister ? And Isaac said to him : Because I thought : Let me not die on her account. Then said Ahimelech : What hast thou done unto us ? In a little one of the people might have lain loith thy vnfe, and thou wouldst have brought guilt upon us. And Ahimelech commanded the people
1 So already Hitzig, Begriffder Kritik (1831), p. 169 sq.; comp. Kuenen,^niZ. (1887) § 13, note 31.
140 GENESIS XXVI. 12,
thus : Whosoever toucheth this man or his wife shall die the death. The juxtaposition of pn^O pnx"" sounds like a play upon the words : Isaac isaacabat cum Rebecca h. e. hlandiehatur uxori. In distinction from one - sided playing with 3 pny, ntj! pm means exclianging jests, caresses. Ver. 9 is parallel with XX. 9, "^"^^ quomodo is here equal to quo jure. With 3?^ t3J?03 pcene concuhuissct comp. Ps. Ixxiii. 2, xciv. 17, cxix. 87, Prov. V. 14. rixnni has the tone on the ult., like ^3"i 22a and nm Isa. xi. 2, on account of the else scarcely audible j? which follows. Isaac, in consequence of saying that Eebekah was his sister, has an experience essentially the same as that of Abraham in Egypt and afterwards in this very place Gerar. xxvi. 7-11 also resembles ch. xx. in mode of delineation and tone of lan- guage. These events were nevertheless regarded by the ancients as different (comp. Ps. cv. 1 4 with chs. xii. and xx. ; cv. 1 5 with xxvi. 11), indeed they are also characteristically distinguished from each other by the fact, that Jahveh does not suffer Ee- bekah's exposure to danger by the fault of Isaac to go so far as in the case of Sarah's by the fault of Abraham. The Philistine king being here as in ch. xx. called "^^P"'"?^ suggests the con- jecture, that this was a general name of Philistine as "Tyia was
of Egyptian, ii^^ (piur. ^ijj^lj^) of Jamanite, and Lummo of
Etrurian kings (comp. 1 Sam. xxi. 11 with Ps. xxxiv. 1) ; nevertheless it may perhaps be the same Abimelech as at ch. XX., though about eighty years had elapsed. The same chaste and God-fearing behaviour speaks for tlie sameness of person, while the thought that he might himself have appro- propriated Eebekah being entirely absent from him, speaks for his meantime much advanced old age. 3. Isaac's
INCREASED POSSESSIONS, WHICH BECOME OBJECTIONABLE IN
Gerar, xxvi. 12-17. Success of Isaac's Philistinian agricul- ture, ver. 1 2 : And Isaac sowed in that land and gained in the same year a hundredfold, and Jahveh blessed him. He obtained, gained (as nxd means) in that same year, which followed the year
GENESIS XXVI. 13-17. 141
of famine, '3''*iy^ nxo a hundredfold, i.e. according to Luke viii. 8 Kapirvv eKarovraiiKaalova, as at present occurs only in the " red earth " (the lava soil) of Hauran. We see from this union of agricultural with nomadic life (comp. xxxvii. 7), not as yet found in the history of Abraham, that Isaac, encouraged by the Divine promise, had set firm foot in the land. It was not till their sojourn in Egypt that tillage and the rearing of cattle became equally pursuits of the Israelites, and not till after the Exodus that the former obtained the upper hand. Isaac's increased prosperity excites envy, vv. 13, 14 : And the man hecame great and became continually greater, till he became very great. And he possessed herds of small cattle and herds of oxen and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. Instead of the inf. absol. PHJI. 2 Sam. v. 1 0 (comp. above, viii. 3, 5) we have here -'IJI. 3rd praet. like 1 Sam. ii. 26 in accord- ance with Josh. vi. 13, Isa. xxxi. 5, or also the participial adj. in accordance with Judg. iv. 24, 2 Sam. xvi. 5. D''riK'73 is always without an article in the Pentateuch ; H'nay besides here occurs only in the imitative passage Job i. 3. Consequences of this envy, vv. 1 5-17 : A7id all the wells, which the servants of his father had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philis- tines stopped up and filled them with earth. Then Abimelcch said to Isaac : Go forth from us, for thou art become too miglity for us. Then Isaac departed thence and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dioelt there. The verbs referring to the fem. plur. nnX3 have the suffix um instead of un, the former being used for both genders. Ewald 249&, 3. The style of expres- sion of ver. 15 places its statement in a circumstantializing relation to ver. 16. The self-help of his people gives occasion to the demand of the king, that Isaac should depart from the district of Gerar. Such well-digging on the part of Abraham is spoken of xxi. 25-31. It is in accordance with the character of the enduring Isaac, that he willingly submits and leaves the district of the town of Gerar, taking up his abode in the valley of Gerar. Here iv Tepdpoi^ iv tu> -x^eifiappo), Constantine,
142 GENESIS XXVI. 18-22.
according to Sozomenus, vi. 32, erected a monastery. 4. Isaac's
KESTOEED AND NEWLY DISCOVERED WELLS, XXvi. 18-22.
Eedigging of the stopped up wells, ver. 18 : And Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had digged in the dags of his father Abraham and the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death, and called them by names like the names by which his father had called them. Thus the self-help of the Philistines had not been limited to the district of Gerar. The conjunctive form of the plural of "ii:53 was at xiv. 10 J^i""^!., here and Deut. x. 6 rii"iN3 like the chief form. The subjects of li2n are the "l''?^? ^'^^i' 15a. The newly discovered spring, vv. 19, 20 : A7id the servants of Isaac were digging in the valley and found there a spring of living water. Then the herdmen of Gerar strove with the herdmen of Isaac, saying: The water belongs to us; therefore he called the name of the spring 'Esek, because they had contended with him, Isaac's people discovered a vein of water, which was not difficult to lead upwards and lay hold on (see my discussion on such desert springs in Luthardt's Zeitschr. 1882, p. 454 sq.). P^V means contention; the verb pB'y (post-biblical poy) seems related to riK^y asfacessere to facere. A second new well, ver. 21 : And they dug another well and they strove about that also, then he called its name Sitna, ie. enmity. A third new well, ver. 22 : And lie departed thence and dug another well, and about this they strove not, then he called its name Rchobdth and said : Truly now liath Jahveh made room for tis, and we may increase in the land. A Wadi Euhaibe was found by Eobinson south-west of Elusa (Chalasa) with extensive ruins of a town of like name upon a hill ; he came from Euhaibe to Chalasa and found there also a Wadi "Sutein pointing to the well njob. The name HiahT means distances, spaces for free movement, in opposition to nhv augus- tiae. ""S in stating the reason for the name is not merely on recitativum, to which like the Aramaic ''1 e.g. Dan. ii. 25, it has been certainly diluted, but means, with a transition from the reason-giving meaning to the confirmatory: truly, indeed, like e.g.
GENESIS XXVI. 23-29. 143
xxix. 33, Ex. iii. 12, iv. 25, and in the connection nriy ''3, truly now, xxix. 32, especially in the apodosis of a hypothetical prodosis : truly then, so . . . now, xxxi. 42, xliii. 10, Job iii. 13, with the preterite or with the imperf. as at Job vi. 3, viii, 6, xiii 19, comp. tS"''3 Job xi. 15, according to the nature of the prodosis. 5. Isaac's departure from the valley of Gerar and abode at Beersheba, xxvi. 23-25 : And he ivent itp thence to Beerseha. And Jahveh appeared to him, that same night and said : I am the God of Ahraham, fear not, for I am with thee and will Mess thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Ahraham' s sahe. Then he huilt there an altar and proclaimed the name of Jahveh and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servant bored a well. In Beersheba (12 leagues south-west of Hebron), where, according to the present composition of Genesis, Abraham had dwelt for a long period between his two sojourns in Hebron, ch. xviii.-xix. 23, are the promises made to his father confirmed to Isaac. He there built an altar, held solemn acts of worship and there stretched (DtJ^'tD^l) his tent : his servants also bored a well in the neighbourhood of his new quarters. On the distinction of the synonyms nsn and n-i3 see my discussion in Luthardt's Zeitschr. 1882, p. 452. 6. Abimelech's covenant with Isaac, xxvi. 26-33. This event of Isaac's life bears a striking resemblance with what is related in the life of Abraham, xxi. 2 2 sqq. What is here related by J is strikingly like what was there related by E. When about to enter into a covenant with Isaac, Abimelech is here as there accompanied by Phicol, vv. 26-29: And Ahimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzat his friend and Phicol his captain of the host. Then Isaac said to them : Wliy are ye come to me, since ye hate me and have driven me from you ? They said : We saw plainly that Jahveh is with thee, and we thought : Let there now he an oath hetwixt us and thee and we will make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no evil, as we have not molested thee and as we have done unto thee nothing hut good and have sent thee away
GENESIS
XVL 30-33.
m peace — thou art nov) tlw. lysed of Jahveh. Tlie k with him, beside Phicol, A] fezath (with the origiii ending like n^'pa, riDba ZAh ail the like) his friend, i. Rcllor ; the name " friend " ay here already desigi merely a personal but an ofl ial relation, as subseqi the Persian and Eoman impei I courts (perhaps also i| if according to A. Geiger Ht e^iaio^ = '•o^n-s the brc friend, comp. on xli. 4.'^). 1 re as at xxi. 22 they ledge and bear testimony t the patriarch, that Jj with him (iK") 28a = "J*"), as on xx. 6 =NJ2n, see note 2). The declaration oath for which 11 to the patriarch, and the re& n for so doing, are ^ij xxi. 22 sq. (nJ'N as a syn. o nna, like Deut. xxix.i comp. Ezek. xvi. 59). nbi; has here Tsere in syllable as in only three o1 »r passages, Josh. vii. Tij)Ji,chah and therefore in ha] pause, 2 Sam. xiii. 12 xl. 16, perhaps to guard a^; ist the confusion of syllable of the second word ith the last of the on Isa. Ixiv. 3. The conson ce nny nris is like ""JJ xl, 18 and frequently. The inclusion of the covei .'^0, 31 : Then he made them < feast and they ate anl And they arose itp hetimes in he morning and sicoi another, and Isaac accompany him in peace. There is nothi xxi. 23, it finds its parallel at name of the subsequent Beers! the covenant by reason of a we vv. 32, 33 : A7id it came to ] servants came and made report which they had digged, and sav Then he called it ^Sih'ah, thcr to this day. The well with th ;)oring of which Isaa^ were occupied (ver. 25) soon ai r his settlement at here intended. They now ; nounce to him theii the covenant just concludei vith Abimelech givea
them, and they dcpai said of a covenant xxi. 54, but here as )a originates on the oc standing in connection IS on the same day thi him vrith respect tc ■0 him : We have fox yre the city is called
iJljlllJ
-■tWachioir-
: apply
-■lit to
V.idk.
:-astkKtlie
n*^^ i^?^
to Isaac toBsn as being n narradve eoTrfEg Beerdieba, ni : ns is firan /. of itself staiptibe contraiT t^ /"fe iijjijj imlii ifii, I its name vitk ;^in cemiiig two t ly Isaae,aad MKr also oeear dbwki-- to Tenew&eddK. ie. chiODolo^ea^T Fhicol agaoB ^ of at cL zxl I the king aad . same oaao. 7. L txu forty ymntii,. Bern tie H^ik oc Awd tJuy Toat m fr^ abitteroesrf i|kx oflattenairffaffr names aad ftae s wife, xira. 5, »t _ oni prtSEDt JAw ji^ ^«»ng 1«mL It i '"n^pnac) apsar Canaanite ^mc (comp. ai»Tc J1T« t: fonn of tie i<epv«0it tfaee
that the ▼OLIL
^
144 GENESIS XXVI. 30-33.
in peace — thou art now the blessed of Jahveh. The king has ■with him, beside Phicol, Ahuzzath (with the original fern, ending like ri;;p3, npc'a 34& and the like) his friend, i.e. coun- sellor ; the name " friend " may here already designate not merely a personal but an official relation, as subsequently at the Persian and Eoman imperial courts (perhaps also in Egypt, if according to A. Geiger IlToXefialo^; = ''?D^n"Q the brother, i.e. friend, comp. on xli. 43). Here as at xxi, 22 they acknow- ledge and bear testimony to the patriarch, that Jahveh is with him (ixn 28a = nN-;, as it^n xx. 6=:Non, see Ges. § 75, note 2). The declaration on oath for which they apply to the patriarch, and the reason for so doing, are similar to xxi. 22 sq. (n?x as a syn. of nna, like Deut. xxix. 11, 13, comp. Ezek. xvi. 59). ^^}^.^ has here Tsere in the final syllable as in only three other passages. Josh. vii. 9 with Tiphchah and therefore in half pause, 2 Sam. xiii. 12 and Jer. xl. 16, perhaps to guard against the confusion of the first syllable of the second word with the last of the first, see on Isa. Ixiv. 3. The consonance nny nm is like ""^y V^,l Ps. xl. 18 and frequently. The conclusion of the covenant, vv. 30, 31 : Then he made them a feast and they ate and dranlc. And they arose up betimes in the morning aoid sivore to one another, and Isaac accompanied them, and they departed from him in peace. There is nothing said of a covenant repast at xxi. 23, it finds its parallel at xxxi. 54, but here as there the name of the subsequent Beersheba originates on the occasion of the covenant by reason of a well standing in connection with it, vv. 32, 33 : And it came to pass on the same day that Isaac's servants came and made report to him with respect to the luell which they had digged, and said to him : We have found water. Then he called it ^ Sib' ah, therefore the city is called Bccrlcb'a to this day. The well with the boring of which Isaac's people were occupied (ver. 25) soon after his settlement at Beersheba is here intended. They now announce to him their success, and the covenant just concluded with Abimelech gives occasion
GENESIS XXVI. 34, 35. 145
to Isaac to name this well ^V^p. An oath is called a sevening as being an asseveration by seven things, as shown by the narrative concerning the origin of the name of the town of Beersheba, xxi. 28-31, taken from U, while the one now before us is from J. The similarity of the two histories does not of itself stamp the one as a copy of the other (comp. on the contrary e.(/. Judg. ix. in relation to Gen, xix.). There are many indications, as we saw on xxi. 31, that Beersheba had its name with relation to two treaties with Abimelech con- cerning two wells, the one made by Abraham, the other by Isaac, and names with two similar historical connections also occur elsewhere. At ver. 18 also we find Isaac preferring to renew the old names of the wells. It is indeed difficult, i.e. chronologically difficult, to separate the two stories, because Phicol again appears with Abimelech, whom one may think of at ch. xxi. as still very young; Jacobus Edessenus takes the king and the captain of the host for grandsons of the same names. 7. Esau's marriages, xxvi. 34 sq. : And Esau was forty years old, then he took to wife Jehudith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basniath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of heart to Isaac a.nd Bebehah, properly a bitterness of spirit (irib = morra Pro v. xiv. 10), i.e. a cause of bitterness of feeling. In the nnbin of Esau ch. xxxvi, their names and those of their fathers, as also that of Esau's third wife, xxviii. 9, are given somewhat differently from those in our present Jehovistic portion, without however their identity being lost. It is striking that n''*iini (a patronymic from nn^n"; praise) appears here (against xxxvi. 2) so early as a Canaanite name. The formation nob's here and xxxvi. 3 (comp. above n^ns and xxviii. 9 n^np) is an ancient principal form of the feminine. The terminations ci>-^, *— -, *-- represent three successive periods of the language {DMZ. xvi. 1 6 0). The most obvious explanation of the difference between xxvi. 34 sq., xxviii. 9 and xxxvi. would be to adopt the view that the narrator is here J and there Q. There is much to VOL. II. K
146 GENESIS XXVII.
favour this : the marriage of Esau in his fortieth year is similar to Isaac's in his fortieth year, the exclamation of Eebekah xxvii. 46& to her exclamation xxv. 22a, and rin nm might also have been once written by J, especially as in the passage xxviii. 1-8, which is in any case Qs, Jy33 niJa is said for it. But xxviii. 8 cannot be separated from xxviii. 9 of which it is the premiss, and Vtr:"by xxviii. 9 points back to xxvi. 34 sq., so that in fact xxvi. 34 sq., xxvii. 46, xxviii. 1-9 must be attributed to the same author and hence to Q. Consequently the wives' names are here given according to the wording of the text of Q, and the fact that they nevertheless run differ- ently in the Toledoth of Esau, which is as to its foundation derived from Q, obliges us to adopt the view that i2 there inserted them from another source, in accordance with his principle of preserving two differing traditions and not violently reconciling them. In the mosaic ch. xxvi., ver. 34 sq. forms, in the present form of the composition, the concluding portion. Through all these seven short histories from the first forty years of the independent story of Isaac's life, there runs like a thread the purpose of showing how Isaac also, though less great in action than in endurance, nevertheless came under the blessing and protection of Jahveh, honourably through all com- plications, and rose to more and more wealth and respect. His life is an echo of the life of Abraham. All its vibrations arise from the powerful impulses given in the life of Abraham. Nevertheless the son of promise is not unworthy of his father. He manifests in " elasticity of endurance " (Kurtz) a special greatness, which has been transmitted as an ineradicably tenacious vital faculty to the nation descended from him
JACOB OBTAINS BY CEAFT THE BLESSING OF THE FIRST-BORN, CH. XXVII. 1-40.
This third portion also gives us an equally double-sided picture of Isaac : he shows himself weak, passive and pliable
GENESIS XXVII. 1-4. 147
in the hands of men, hut elevated and inwardly profound, and at last ohedient to God alone and strong in Him. The narrative is composed of the accounts of J and E worked into each other and completed from each other by i2. This is seen from the two l'^?!!!?'!!, one of which 236 follows the testing by touch, the other 2 7a the testing by smell ; from the two equivalent \T1 30a; from ver. 34 sq. in relation to vv. 36—38 with the twice told outburst of grief on the part of Esau ; from the reiterated " until thy brother's fury turn away," 44&, 45a. The aged father makes preparations for the blessing of the first-born, vv. 1-4: And it came, to pass, lohen Isaac was old and his eyes had become dull of sight, that he called Esau his elder son and said to him : My son ! And he said : Here am I. He said : Behold I am old, I Icnow not the day of my death. Tahe then, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy how, and go out into the field and hunt me venison, and make me a savoury dish such as I love, and hring it me, that I may eat, that 7ny soul may hless thee before I die. The occurrence falls, according to xxv. 26, xxvi. 34, in a period when Isaac had already passed his 100th and his sons their 40th year. The principal sentence introduced by "'!?''.!! is continued with i^y!% The impf cons, designates his dulness of sight as a result of his having grown old. The ]ip of niX"ip is the negative (away from seeing), like xvi. 2, xxiii. 6. v'? is the quiver (nsips) with a shoulder-belt, a7ra^7e7/).,forming together with the bow the usual hunting equipment (Isa. vii. 24). For "1^^ the Chcthih has ht;; commonly used in the general meaning of diet, but here quite appropriate as a nomen unitatis. The weak side of Isaac's preference for Esau is here betrayed, in that he desires the dish of game, which he is fond of (3[]^ vv. 4, 9, 14), not only for the sake of enjoying it, but that his son may, before he blesses him as a father, show the willing obedience of child-like affection. In Arabic a present is plainly called tabarruh as the means of obtain- ing a blessing. Hereupon Eebekah urges Jacob to obtain
148 GENESIS XXVII. 5-13.
his father's blessing, by bringing him a spurious dish of savoury meat, vv. 5-10 : And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, to bring it. And Rchekah said to Jacob her son : Behold, I have heard thy father speak unto Esatc thv^ : Bring me venison and make me a savoury dish, that I may eat, and J will bless thee before Jahveh, before my death. And now, my son, hearken to my voice in what I bid thee do. Go now to the flock and fetch me thence two young goat-kids, and I vnll make of them a savoury dish for thy father such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and bless thee before his death. It is not without emphatic meaning that Esau is called Isaac's, and Jacob Eebekah's son. Instead of N^anS the LXX. has suitably V3N^ (for his father), but the former cannot be criticized either as to matter, see vv. 4, 7, nor as to syntax (on account of the missing suffix, comp. 31a, Jer. xli. 5). '^ ''pS? 7a is important and not pleonastic. Kebekah knows that it is done in the presence of Jahveh, and therefore with divine reality, with prophetic power. The b of it?'i?^ Sb is not that of the norm but that of reference, Ges. § 123. 2. "".Ha from na is inflected just like ^^jf? from ^nf* (Backe). Jacob's objection appeased, vv. 11—13: Then Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: Behold, Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man, perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to him a mocker and bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing. And his mother said to him : I talx thy curse upon me, my son ; only hearken to my voice and go fetch (them) me. VJ!}^^^ does not mean "a deceiver," but contempt is here combined with the deceit, the kind of deceit being like a joke phayed upon an aged father. Jacob fears, if detected, to bring upon himself a curse and not a blessing. Rebekah however replies decidedly : Let the curse thou meetest lie upon me, I will bear it and its consequences — a proof that, notwithstanding the impure means by which she incurred guilt, she yet leaned upon the word of promise.
GENESIS XXVII, 14-23. 149
and now when this was threatened with frustration, was willing at any cost to promote its fulfilment. Preparation for the deception thus planned, vv. 14-17 : Then Bebekah took the garments of Esau her elder son, the costly ones, ivhich she kept in the house, and clothed Jacob her younger son. And the skins of the kids she put upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck, and gave the savoury dish and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of Jacob her son. ^ijn may, according to 2 Chron. XX. 25, he repeated as the governing word before riipnn (garments of the desired one, i.e. such as are the object of desire), or we may, according to Lev. vi. 20 (where "1.^3 is construed as a fem.), take it as an adj. (Eeggio : gli abiti piiu preziosi). 0^22 means at home, within ^\}^^, which however is not so usual, as the opposite of 'T]^? (xxxiv. 5) would be more accurate. I''')'^^^ is the inflected form of the dual which does not occur in the principal form, and means the fore and hind parts of the neck. Jacob begins to carry out the plot, vv. 18-20: And he came to his father and said : My father, and he said : Here am I, who art thou, my son ? Then Jacob said unto his father : I am Esau, thy first-born, I have done as thou saidst unto me ; rise up then, sit and eat of my venison, that thy sold may bless me. And Isaac said to his son : How hast thou found it so quickly, my son ? And he said : Because Jahveh thy God favoured me. The construction tN^pp i^'^l'P is like xxvi. 18, xxxi. 27. Ges. § 142. 2. On "^^h nnpn see on xxiv. 12. The test by feeling, vv. 21-23: Then Isaac said to Jacob: Come near, I 'gray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou there be my son Esau or not. Then Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said : The voice is Jacob's voice and the hands Esau's hands, and he discerned him not, for his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. The interrogative n in nnsn has Pathach, as also Judg. vi. 13 must be pointed, nt nrix means, thou whom I have there before me. '''^?D.-?^5 is in the present connection an anticipation of the result, since we are told farther on how he
150 GENESIS XXVII. 24-29.
proceeded to bless him, and in what words. Isaac makes a further trial, takes the offered meat and, confirmed by the smell of the garments that Esau is before him, prepares to bless him, vv. 24— 27a; And he said: Art thou there, iny son Esau ? And he said : I am. And he said : Bring it here to me, that I may eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. Then he hrought it near to him and he ate, and he brought him loine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near, I pray thee, my son, and hiss me. Then he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said. Perplexed by the voice, which was not that of Esau, Isaac asks again whether it is Esau who is standing before him, and Jacob affirms it with emboldened composure. The psychologic acuteness and rigid objectivity of the narrative are admirable. The deceived father eats and drinks, and inaugurates his son for the blessing with a kiss of grateful affection (^i^tJ^ with -: under a non-guttural after ^ as at ii. 1 2 and frequently, from p?'3 with f according to an ancient original construction). While kissing him he smells the odour of his garments. They were the garments of Esau the sports- man, saturated with the odour of the luxuriant vegetation of the field. The deception was thus perfect, and Isaac blesses him and says :
276 See : The smell of my son is as the smell of afield Which Jahveh has blessed,
28 And GOD will give iliee of the dew of heaven And of the fatness of the earth.
And corn and wine in plenty.
29 Peoples shall serve thee
And nations bow down to thee.
Be lord over thy brethren,
And thy mother's sons shall bow dovm to thee.
Cursed be they that curse thee,
And blessed be they that bless thee I
The odour of the garments gives rise to the first thought of the blessing, it is the God-blessed Paradisaic plains of the Promised Land that appear before the mind's eye of Isaac, and
GENESIS XXVII. 27-29. 151
Lis son seems to him to be scented with the perfume of this his inheritance (Hos. xiv. 7). It is true that God the Creator is also called nin^ {e.g. Ps. civ. 16), but here where we find ver. 28 n\i^Nn used, the reason for the change is, that the plains of Canaan, which are blessed by the God of the history of redemption, are the subject of thought. Heaven and earth are to dispense their mingled powers, the former its dew, the latter the soil of its most fruitful tracts, to produce an abund- ance of the noblest products, corn (edible grain) and wine. Although "".^OK'p has a non-dageshed Shin, it is nevertheless, as also it is here and there pointed, the same as ^.^P^O, parallel with byjp, comp. DN^'Jp XXV. 23, D^rifP for D^riro Jonah iv. 11, perhaps also Vn3DJ?=V-i3i3a Deut. xviii. 8. \3m is a plural to be referred not to )»f' but to '^^^=]'of (whence D^30'^ loca pinguia), and formed like C''?'?!?, ri^PPQ — ''P.^^V with a formative Mem would not indeed be inadmissible, but has the parallelism against it both here and ver. 29. After pointing to a land loaded with abundant blessings by Jahveh, the blessing rises to the future position iu the world of him whom it con- cerns. It passes far beyond the limits of the person of Jacob and the immediate future, gives to him who receives it and to his seed supremacy and exaltation above the nations both kindred and remote, and makes the relation of God to them con- ditional on the relation they take up to him and to his seed. It is the blessing of Abraham transmitted from Abraham to Isaac (xii. 7 and elsewhere xx. 1 7, xii. 3), which Isaac by the spirit of prophecy and in poetic diction here bestows upon his son. *i''?3 after the formation of the Aramaic part. pass, occurs only here (comp. the ref. 37a). The Chcthib 1^nt^''"l is rightly interpreted by the Keri: it is, as at xliii. 28, an incorrectly defective writing. As CSV and ^""ip^h are interchangeable words without any difference of conception, so too do T'nx and ^BX ""n coincide, comp. Ps. 1. 20, Ixix, 9, while on the other hand Lev. xviii. 9, Cant. i. 6 speak without parallelism of step-brothers and sisters. The construction of the plural in
152 GENESIS XXVir. 30-33.
29& with the sing, of the predicate is individualizing or dis- tributive ; it is repeated Num. xxiv. 9, comp. e.g. Zech. xi. 5, Ges. § 146. 4. The evolution of thought advancing in parallelism, the first smooth then impetuous rhythm, the expressions (the more unusual nxi for ^}J}, P.^v" \^P^, '^y[}. for >^'!J\, like ^yi} Job xxxvii. 6 and ^)i} Isa. xvi. 4, "f^a) and thoughts — everything is here poetical. The aged patriarch once more renews his youth and hovers on the wings of prophecy over the new era which commences with his son.
Esau now arrives, Isaac sees through the deception under which he has suffered, but declares the blessing imparted to be irrevocable, vv. 30-33: And it came to pass when Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and it came to pass when Jacob had only just gone out aivay from Isaac his father, that his brother Esau came from his Minting. And he also prepared a savoury dish and brought it to his father, and said to his father : Let my father arise and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. Then Isaac his father said to him : Wlio art thou ? And he said : I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau. TJien Isaac was terrified with an exceeding great terror and said : Who then was it that took venison and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou earnest, and blessed him — blessed also shall he be! It is unmistakeable that in 30a two different expressions of one and the same thing are joined together, the first from J, who uses with preference the phrase p npp (xviii. 33, xxiv. 15, 19, xxii. 45, xliii. 2), the other therefore certainly from E (Dillm.), who must also have written 30&, for the two sentences stand in mutual relation according to the scheme of the contemporaneous (comp. on vii. 6), wliicli here (comp. on the contrary 2 Kings xx. 4) strengthens the expression of the exactly coincident to the inf. intcns. which adds vix exierat Ew. 312a (comp. ZlAd), ^'i^l introduces the two facts as simultaneous (Driver, § 165). Undeceived to his great terror, Isaac would immediately ask himself, whether what had been done were not a sinful trifling
GENESIS XXVII. 34-38. 153
with God's blessing, and the conviction would also forth- with be pressed upon him, that it was the operation of God which had repressed his doubt as to whether he, who was to be blessed, were before him ; and as it was now Jacob and not Esau, he would see his love for Esau, who had lost all higher consecration, condemned. To retract the blessing of Jacob seems to him impossible, for while blessing he had surrendered himself as an instrument without will into the hands of the Almighty and All - knowing, and is therefore obliged to acknowledge the indestructible objective power of his blessing : I blessed him ("inDiaxj, most editions errone- ously in2i2Xi), also he will remain blessed ; DJ (Samar. DJi) stands first, but belongs according to the sense to ^^"T' (comp. 1 Sam. xxviii. 20 and on Job ii. 10). Isaac remembers the saying of God xxv. 23, which with the intimacy of his marital relation could not have been hidden from him, and perceives that Divine Providence has obliged him against his will to fulfil it to Jacob. Hitzig with the concurrence of Olshausen corrects : "'•"'^"i J 'nil? na, but that would say : I have also truly blessed him, and it is a pity to miss the expres- sion of unchangeableness. It is more possible that \T'i is with LXX. Samar, to be inserted before ver. 34, though it is perhaps omitted for the same reason as at xliv. 3, comp. XV. 17. With a violent outburst of grief Esau entreats his father to give him also a blessing, ver, 34 : When Esau heard the words of his father he raised a cry, exceeding loudly and Utterly, and said, to his father : Bless me also, I pray thee, my father ! On ''^^"Q^, also me (like "^J^^'^^^, also thee, Prov. xxii, 19), see Ges, § 121, 3. The ^?S-D3 'iy)^ is repeated 38a after Isaac has more expressly declared the irrevocability of the blessing bestowed, vv, 35-38 : Then he said: Thy brother came with craft and took away thy hlessing. And he said: Is it that he is called Jacob (pverreacher) and he has noio tvnce overreached me ? My birthright he took away, and behold, he has now taken away my blessing, hast thou reserved no blessing for me? Then
154 GENESIS XXVII. 39, 40.
Imac answered and said : Beliold, I have appointed him thy master and have given to him all his brethren for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him, and what in all the world shall I do for thee, my son ? Esau said to his father : Is this blessing thy only one, my father ? Bless me also, I pray thee, my father ! And Esau lifted tip his voice and wept. He can produce no change of mind in his father, /xeTavoia<i TOTTov ovx evpev, Heb. xii. l7. The question with ''^n (Job vi. 22) stands here, as at xxix. 15, in a paratactic double sentence, which by transposing the period runs thus : Is it because he bears this name now twice come thus to pass ? The denominative 3py means to hold the heel in order to get before ; the text. rec. followed by Ben-Asher has ''^??P}. from 3py! Jer. ix. 3, Ben-Naphtali \33pi;M with a helping Pathach. The verb ']'0D is at 37a combined with a double accusative as at Ps. li. 14, as is also Ipp at Judg. xix. 5. The writing nap for ^p (only here in the Pentateuch) is like the writings iii. 9, Ex. xiii. Ifi. t5iDJ< in the interrogative sentence stands either after the interrogative word ver. 33, or after the prominent word of the interrogative sentence, comp. Ex. xxxiii. 16, Job ix. 24, xxiv. 25. The vocalization ^^1?J^ with Khateph is similar to npc^ 28b. Isaac, acceding to Esau's impetuous request, bestows upon him also a blessing, which is however only a shadow of Jacob's blessing, and at the same time brings upon this latter blessing a cloud reproving the impurity of the means by which it had been obtained, ver. 39 : And Isaac his father ansivercd and said to him:
Behold, far from the fat plains of the earth shall be thy duelling, And far from the deio of heaven above, 40 And by thy sword shalt thou live And serve thy brother. But by restlessly struggling Thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
The first question of all is, whether the two ip have a par- titive meaning (Meissner in Luth. Zcitschr. 1862) as in the blessing pronounced upon Jacob, ver. 28 (where it is at least
GENESIS XXVII. 39, 40. 155
assured to the IP of ^^^), or a privative (Keil, Dillm. and others). For that the o of ""aDtro is not a formative letter, as might be thought from the present punctuation (comp. on the contrary 28a and the Targums on our passage), is here shown still more plainly than at ver. 28 by the parallel h^D. It is indeed true that, since Isaac desires to bestow a blessing upon Esau, there is no necessity for his denying him a fruitful land ; Esau's servitude in opposition to Jacob's lordship is a dark shadow enough in this supplementary blessing. But there are besides linguistic and actual reasons against the partitive, and for the negative meaning. (1) The mountainous country of the Edomites is, as Seetzen says, perhaps the most barren and desert in the world (on which account T'^K' can hardly, with reference to its natural condition, be equivalent with the Arab.^x.i)^l "the overgrown"). Robinson describes the hills in the west of the Arabah as entirely unfruitful, the Arabah itself is the most dreadful stony desert to be met with, the plateau east of Wadi Musa bears the aspect of being hardly worth cultivation. Burckhardt, who passed through this mountainous district from Maan in a south-westerly direc- tion, following the course of the Wadi Gharundel, found it entirely barren, and the declivity, which was composed of bare chalk and sandstone, utterly devoid of vegetation. The fact that the mountainous country about Petra and elsewhere has been transformed by skill and industry, especially by means of terrace-building and artificial irrigation, into a land of hanging gardens, cannot be used, as by Pusey {Minor Prophets, p. 144), in favour of the partitive sense of the ip. The land and soil of Idumsea were for the most part unfruitful, and in the blessing the reference to the country concerned not the results of cultivation but the natural conditions. And (2) it is in opposition to ver. 37 that Isaac, after declar- ing that he has already bestowed upon Jacob the blessing of superabundance of the fruits of the earth, should begin the blessing of Esau in like terms with that of Jacob. But (3)
156 GENESIS XXVII. 39, 40.
we have also in Mai. i 3 : Usau have I hated, and made his
mountains a desert and his inheritance desolate tracks, so far as
we understand the prophet as St. Paul does Eom. ix. 13 (see
Kohler on the passage), an ancient testimony to the privative
meaning. Desolation is the lot to which tlie land of Edom
is again and again doomed in virtue of Isaac's history-making
word of prophecy, though art may, as we still see by the ruins of
the valley of Petra, have transformed it. The more elevated style
of writing prefers the pregnant use of p in the sense of absque
(2 Sam. i. 22, Job xi. 15, xix. 26, xxi. 9, Isa. xxii. 3), and
with respect to the dilogy {de and then absque) xl. 13, 19 sq.
may be compared. The words : far from the dew of heaven
above pvp elsewhere a prep., here an adv. as at xlix. 25,
Ps. 1. 4), have their natural truth iu the many ravines and
depressions of the Idumsean mountains, which are inaccessible
to the fertilizing dew. Edom is truly " a dweller in the clefts
of the rock," Obad. ver. 3 (Jer. xlix. 1 6). Thus the land of
Esau will be, as Isaac predicts, a sharp contrast to the land
of Jacob. For this very reason the peaceful pursuit of
agriculture will not be his source of maintenance, but upon
his sword (>V of the means of support as at Deut. viii. 3, comp.
Isa. xxxviii. 16) will he live. Here first does the statement
concerning Esau take a favourable turn. "'^'^J? compares, like
Num. xxvii. 14, the cause and result. The Iliph. ^^"!^ (from
nil jI,) means wandering hither and thither, roaming about,
hence : leading an unrestrained, roving, freebooter kind of life.
Dillm., according to the Arabico-Ethiopic but (comp. Niildeke,
DMZ. xxxviii. 539 sq.) contrary to the Hebrew use of
language, renders : when thou shalt strive, exert thyself.^
The fundamental meaning of the verb P").^ is to break, /m?;^c?'e,
which here has the special meaning to break off, as elsewhere
to break loose = to free oneself and to break to pieces = to
1 The Ethiopic text of the Book of Jubilees vacillates, as Dillmann has shown in his contributions from the Book of Jubilees to the criticism of tlie text of the Pentateuch (delivered in the Royal Prussian Academy of the West, JIarch 1, 1883), between the Masoretic reading I^ID and the Samar. "nSD si magnusfacimfueria.
GENESIS XXVII. 39, 40. 157
crush. It is not freedom from the rule of Israel that is promised to Edom, but restless and not unsuccessful straggles for freedom. Edom became indeed a dopv^&Se'i koI araKTov edvo<; aei re fi€Te(opov irpc^ ra KLvrj^iara Koi fieTa/3o\ac<; X^'^pov (Joseph. Bell. 4. 4. 1), and his relation to Israel was a ceaseless interchange of subjection, rebellion and resubjection. An afterpiece of this change was still shown in the time of the Eoman Empire : it continued an ineffaceable obscuration of the blessing of Jacob, that it was an Idumsean dynasty and the admission of the Edomites into Jerusalem when threatened by the Eomans, which was the downfall of the Jewish State. Thus were strictly fulfilled the blessings of Isaac upon Jacob and Esau which he spoke iriaTei irepl fxeWovrcov, Heb. xi. 20. Modern criticism indeed carps at this, and says the author who wrote xxvii. 40 knew, according to its judgment, not only of David's conquest of the Edomites, but also of their revolt against Solomon and their subjection by Jehoram of Judah. For such criticism denies the truth and reality of prediction, and the entire patriarchal history is according to its notions national history in the form of legendary family history. Our standpoint is fundamentally different ; we believe in the power of a believing, prayerful blessing, when the energy of an intellect, which has sunk itself in God's word of promise and counsel of grace, and of a will whose strength is derived from the fulness of God, are therein comprised. There is in Isaac's blessing an efficacy which is far-reaching, a magic which fashions the future, God and his ego are therein one (comp. ver. 37 with Jer. i. 10 and other passages). Isaac himself knows this (see ver. 37), and Eebekah together with Jacob knew it. Both therefore think that they must at the decisive moment take care that God's promise shall not fall to the ground. But God has no need of creature help to make His faithfulness stand. Hence, though Jacob continues to be the possessor of the blessing as, in accordance with the counsel and promise of God, he was
158 GENESIS XXm. 39, 40^
to be (Bom. ii. 10—13), yet the Divine judgment falls upon him and lOLpoii gyqij member of his family in proportion as they hare been sharers in his transgression. Isaac is punished for his preference for Esau, a preference determined not accord- ing to the ascsertained will of €rod, but according to natural affei^on, by tiie deception which he undergoes. Esau is poni^ed for pio^uiely despising the blessing of the first- born by its loss. Eebekah is punished for her contrivance of aba fitand by separation &om her favourite son, whom she never saw again, while the life of Jacob was, from the time when he confirmed himself in the possession of the sinfully purchased birthright by sinfully and surreptitiously acquiring the blessing, one long chain of hardships, disappointments, strifes and anxieties» which made him fully feel how he had sinned against his brother and &ther. The Fathers down to the Middle Ages see in the part Jacob played in ch. xxvii. an acting according to Divine impulse, and, after mystically im- porting into ch. ixvii., as already into xxv. 23, all manner of typical references to Xew Testament matter, pass sentence on Jacob's iiand in accordance with the precedent of Augustine : no* esi memdaeimM aed Mfstmnm. It was Duns Scotus (f 1308), the Dodor SMbtUis, and after him Xicolaus de Lyra, the Doetor plamtSt who first recognised its moral repreheusible- ne^ bat still withont a right perception of the Divine side of the oocorxence.* The scriptnral account itself abstains from all comment — bnt the history of aftertimes passes the severest criirf<>iRm upon Jacob's conduct. The government of God which can make even sin subserve its purposes, soars so high above this tanked web that, without infringing human freedom, nothing comes to pass bat what He has foreseen and pre- determined.
> S«e Prtrai Hold. Jmtak mmi Am, Tfpii wtd Kamiatik, ISSl, an instnic- tiT« moBOgc^li, vliiek gjena die bistarj of opinion on this occarrence and intelligntiy aeda to find tihe i^t mediam between the patmtic »m eal •■d tbe mtin— Hrtfc am mt mi§iUrimm ted
GENESIS XXVII. 41-45. 159
JACOB'S FLIGHT TO HAEAN, CH. XXVII. 41-XXVnL 9.
The fourth portion, xxvii. 41 to xxviii. 9, relates the flight or dismissal of Jacob to Haran. Esau is meditating assassina- tion, ver. 41 : And Esau laid snares against Jacob, because of the blessing whereioUh his father had blessed him, and Esau said in his heart : The days of mourning for my father are near, then will I slay my brother Jacob. Luther (like Bedarschi in his Synonymik) takes "lax as the gen. of the subject : that my father must bear sorrow (viz. on account of Jacob when he, Esau, shall have avenged himself on him), but the gen. follow- ing upon »>? ("''??) always designates the object. The prudent mother proposes to her favourite to escape the vengeance of his brother by fleeing to his uncle in Haran, vv. 42-45 : And the words of Esau, her elder son, were told to RebeTcah, then she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him : Behold, Esau thy brother will comfort himself on thee to kill thee. And now, my son, hearken to my voice and arise, flee to Zdban my brother to Haran, and tarry with him some time, until thy brotJier's fury turn away from thee, until thy brother's v)rath turn away and he, forget what thou hast done to him, then will I send and fetch thee thence — why should I be deprived of you both in one day ? The Hith/pa. cnjrin means here (as a weaker power of CljJjnn parallel to the Niph. Dn? Isa. i. 24) to procure oneself comfort, rest, satisfaction ; the participial construction declares that Esau is purposing this. Eebekah mitigatingly says -^fiepa<; TiVa? (LXX. comp. xxix. 20) for the purpose of thus gaining him over to her plan. On ?'y^ with the accusative see Ges. § 183.3. Both would be lost at the same time, Jacob by means of Esau, Esau in accordance with ix. 6 by the execution of the penalty against the murderer, or even that as a murderer he would not at all events be able again to enter the presence of his parents. The varying expression in 44&, 45a (comp. xxxi. 18) points to extracts from diff"erent sources. But that Jacob may not depart unaccompanied by his father's blessing, Eebekah
160 GENESIS XXVII. 46-XXVIII. 5.
expresses to the latter her vexation at her Hittite daughters-in- law (xxvi. 34, Q), and urges him to send Jacob away, to seek a wife in another country, ver. 46 : And Eehekah said to Isaac : I am weary of my life, hecaiise of the daughters of Heth ; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Hcth, like these of the daughters of the land, of what use is my life ? The text is compounded from Q (of whom nn ni33 and rin n^33 are cha- racteristic) andt/ (comp. xxv. 22). There were certainly good grounds for Eebekah's displeasure at Hittite daughters-in-law, and hence her wish in respect of Jacob was justified. It was therefore from no lack of independence that Isaac felt the same desire, though it showed his natural weakness that he did not in this respect act of his own accord, but on the instigation of his wife, who, with her excessive sensitiveness, understands the art of turning her husband which way she chooses. Isaac calls Jacob and sends him with his blessing to Aramsea, to marry there, xxviii. 1—5 : Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and commanded him and said to him : Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee from thence a loife of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. And God Almighty will bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and thou shall become a company of nations. And He will give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to possess the land of thy sojourn- ings, lohich God gave to Abraham. Tims Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Esau and Jacob. Characteristic tokens of the style of Q are here plentiful : ni33 IWS (like xxxvi. 2, for which J has '3j?33n n^:3 xxiv. 3, 37), I^^i^ n? (see the introduction to the history of Isaac), ^IK' ?K with D^^^K, naini man, nnjrp ps (xvii. 8) and D'»y S^P certainly not to be restricted to the tribes of Israel (xxxv. 11, xlviii. 4). The Segol of Cl")^< nj^a follows a well-known euphonic law, because the original form n3"nB and the orthophonic Gaja in the
GENESIS XXVIII. 6-9. 161
final syllable ah are intended to prevent this from being lost owing to the ^? following, comp. ^IDari raa xliv. 2, n-ib'rvK'n xi. 2.5. '^'^Vv 4& has a subjective suffix as at xix. 21. Bethuel is particularly designated as the father and Laban as the brother of Eebekah, and herself as the mother of Jacob and Esau, to facilitate the survey of the impending extension of family relationship, and at ver. 5 the fact that Jacob willingly obeyed the paternal behest is, according to the present arrange- ment of the historical matter, summarily anticipated, as at xxvii. 23 the fact that Isaac blessed him. Hosea is referring to what is related xxvii. 43, xxviii. 5, when he says, xii. 13 : ^1^ "^l^ '^'?T. rr^?'!!. Esau now takes example and tries on his part to do what is agreeable to his parents, vv. 6-9 : When Esau saio that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from thence, and that while blessing him he gave him a charge, saying : Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob had hearkened to the voice of his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram; then Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing to his father Isaac, and Esau ivent to Ishmael and took unto his wives Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebajoih, to be his wife, Esau shows himself good-natured, but with limited perception and through jealousy of Jacob, hence not from pure motives. When it is said that he went Pxy^'^vX, Ishmael himself (like Ephraim himself at 1 Chron. vii. 22) seems intended, and this is possible, if with Dillmann we infer from xxvi. 34 sq., xxvii. 46, that Jacob migrated to Aramsea between his fortieth and fiftieth years, for Ishmael was, according to xxv. 17, 137 years old, and Jacob's forty-fifth year coincides with Ishmael's 119th year (comp. xvii. 24 sq., xxi. 5, xxv. 26). But if, in a lawfully harmonistic manner, we take xlvii. 9, xli. 46, xlv. 6, XXX. 22-26, xxix. 27 into the reckoning, Jacob was seventy- seven at his migration into Syria (Kohler, Gesch. i. 135), and
this leads us beyond the limits of Ishmael's life, so that ^j;si:u'> VOL. II. L
1G2 GENESIS XXVIII. 10-22.
here, like e.g. 3^3 Josh, xiv, 14, can only be meant of the family of Ishmael. Esau's third wife was called Mahalath (for which we have, xxxvi. 2, Basmath). She is said to be the sister of the first-born of her brothers, who is named instead of all the rest, XXV. 13, as Miriam is always called the sister of Aaron.
Jacob's deeam on the road to Mesopotamia, ch. xxviii. 10-22.
Jacob's journey, which he had already begun xxviii. 5, is now more particularly described with a retrospective glance at its commencement. There its goal was called ms nna, here nain. Mosaic stones from J and E are added to the narra-
T T T
tive of Q. Jacob becomes from henceforth the motive-principle of the history of Isaac, the second section of which begins at xxviii. 10. Tlie portion xxviii. 10 sqq. relates the divine manifestation, which Jacob experienced on the soil of Luz, afterwards Bethel, after some few days' journey, and by which the blessing bestowed was solemnly confirmed to him by God Himself. We have here the first dream revelation in the life of the patriarchs (not reckoning the dream of Abimelech, ch. XX., nor that of Laban afterwards). Henceforward this mode of revelation becomes more frequent. Such experiences were however no everyday matter in their lives. Jacob was now far past forty years old, and the whole history of his life has only five Divine revelations to show, two CJ^^Hj? xxviii. 12 and xlvi. 2, two with i»N*l xxxi. 3, xxxv. 1, one with N"JM xxxv. 9. It is E who delights in narrating Divine mani- festations in the night. Those portions in xxviii. 10 sqq., in which God is called D\n^s*, belong with their contexts to him ; hence ver. 12, with 11, vv. 17-22 are his, while on the contrary vv. 13-16 show themselves to be /'s by the Divine name T\\r\\ the promise of the blessing of the nations in the seed of the patriarch and other particulars. Both narrators give accounts of a Divine manifestation by night at Luz-
GENESIS XXVIII. 10-12. 163
Bethel (so that both must have furnished what is said at ver. 19): E giving prominence to the dream, J" (whom in opposition to Dillm. Kuen. and others we recognise also at xxii 14-18) to the words of God; B has combined these two accounts as supplementing each other. Starting- point and goal of Jacob's journey, ver. 10: And Jacob departed from Bcersheha and went to Haran. A counterpart to xxviii. 5. Beersheba had been since xxvi. 23 his father's place of abode. This verse joins on to xxvii. 44, and is there followed by completions from Q. Now begins the text from E, vv. 11, 12: Then he lighted upon a place and passed the night there, for the sun was set, and he tooh one of the stones of the place, made it his pillow, and lay doivn to sleep in that place. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up upon the earth and its top reached to heaven, and behold angels of Elohim ascending and descending xipon it. He lighted upon a certain place (ciip'SiL, comp, certi homines, i.e. certain in the abstract but not to be more particularly designated), probably a hill-top inviting for its pleasantness and safety, and then prepared his night's quarters by making one (ver. 18) of the stones of the place his pillow. I'ncri^^^ for vnb'xna (comp. niy^riD for niypipD) is the usual extensive plural for parts of body and space, the principal form to be accepted for which is riK'X'np, ne'x-iD (comp. Q3^nb'xno Jer. xiii. 18, from nt^X")D, Bottch. § 695). There upon his hard pillow sleeps Jacob, banished from his home, about to encounter an uncertain future, purposely fleeing from the company of mankind in a foreign land, solitary and without a roof over his head. He is there comforted by a divinely-effected dream. The nsn (three including 13a) are finger-posts of childlike astonishment at the glorious appear- ance which the participles describe, as from a post of observation. The ladder is an image of the invisible, but actual and unceasing connection in which God, by the ministry of His angels, stands with the earth, in this instance with Jacob, who is now where the ladder has its earthly standing
164 GENESIS XXVIII. 13-16.
place ; in his behalf are the angels of God " ascending and descending upon it " (the same expression as Piov. xxx. -1, John i. 52), to fetch and receive commands, to bring them down and execute them. Before the happy dreamer can inquire of one of the angels, he hears the word of Jahveh, and thereupon awakes, vv. 13—16: And behold Jahveh stood beside him and said : I am Jahveh, the God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac ; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread to west and east and north and south, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in thee. And behold, I am with thee and will keep thee whitherso- ever thou goest, and vnll bring thee bach to this land, for I will not leave thee, till I have performed what I have told thee. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said : Surely Jahveh is present in this place and I knew it not. In the present con- nection it seems as if Ivy 13a must be referred to the ladder (LXX. Targums, Jerome) : there, where the ladder reached to heaven, God Himself was present to the dreamer ; but ?y 3lf? means everywhere in J standing beside, xviii. 2, xlv. 1, and this is also its meaning Amos ix. 1. Jahveh there stood at his side (Eashi : r\ty:h), and His word is added to the silent image. The God, whom angels and all powers serve, will fulfil to Jacob the great promises, xii. 36, xiii. 14-17, and not take from him His special protection until He has first (DX it^K *iy without obliteration of the conditional meaning of D8< as at Num. xxxii. 17, Isa. vi. 11, comp. D^« *iy xxiv. 19, Euth ii. 21, and see on xxxviii. 9) fulfilled what He has promised to him. When Jacob awakes from sleep he says : Truly (|?K only again in the Pent. Ex. ii. 14) Jahveh is in this place; con- trary to expectation, he has learned that this too, far from the holy places of his family, is a place of Jahveh's gracious presence, that He has gone with him into this strange land, that he may not be, like Ishmael, a broken-off branch. Now follows the exclamation of Jacob on what he beheld, from
GENESIS XXVIII. 17, 18. 165
E, ver. 1 7 : And he was afraid and said : How awful is this 2)lace ! this is none other than a house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. He has here had a glimpse of the government of God and of the supersensuous world (Wisd. x. 10); it is as though this were the abode of God and of His good spirits, as though this were the gate of heaven, by which they enter and depart. It is now related what Jacob did the next morning, ver. 1 8 : And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had made his pillow, and set it up for a memorial pillar, and poured oil upon it. He consecrates the stone as a memorial, as the foundation of a sanctuary ; for the pure, golden, gently penetrating oil is a symbol of con- secration. This setting up and consecration of memorial stones (comp, xxxi. 45, Ex. xxiv. 4, 1 Sam. vii. 11) recalls the heathen worship of anointed stones and baetylia (Xidot Xt-n-apoi. aX7]\ifj.fx,6voi, lapidcs uncti, hthricati, unguine delibuti) which had spread from India throughout the whole East as far as Greece and Eome, where Cybele was worshipped in the black stone from Pessinus ; this heathen custom is the idolatrous form of the patriarchal custom which exists to this very day (August. Civ.xyi. 39)} The baetylia were especially meteoric stones, which were traced to this or that god, and held to be pervaded by deity, at least those which chiefly received the names ^airvKoi,, ^airvXia, hetyli were such (Photii Bihl. i. p. 348, ed. Bekker ; Plinii h. n. xxxvii. 9, comp. Orelli on Sanchun. p. 30 sq.), a name which may have been occasioned by the fetish-like degenerate veneration of the memorial stone at Bethel (comp. the fate of Gideon's ephod, Judg. viii. 27). Dietrich however (in Grimmel's article, de lapidum cultu apud Patriarchas qucesito, Marburg 1853) refers it, in the meaning of amulet, to the verb ?t3|i to make ineffectual. In Carthao-e they were called, according to Pausanias, x. 24, and Priscian,
^ Dr. Alex. Robb (now of Jamaica) told me of such a stone in U-w^t on the Old Calabar river in Western Africa, worshipped by the negro tribe there as fallen from heaven and bestowed upon their ancestors by the God of heaven (whom they called A-bd-ai), to be their tutelary deity.
166 GENESIS XXVIII. 19-22.
V. 3, 18, a'bbadires = -\'<m px. The Thorah forbids, because of their heathen abuse, any erection of nn^o Lev. xxvi, 1, Deut. xvi. 22, and commands the overthrow of such as exist, Ex. xxiii. 24, xxxiv. 13, Deut, xii. 3. The prophets rebuke the degeneration of the custom (Hos. x. 1 sq. comp. iii. 4), without finding it reprehensible in itself (Isa. xix. 19). Change of name of this patriarchal place of revelation, ver, 1 9 : And he called the name of that place Bethel, on the contrary Lnz was its name formerly. Jacob called the place where he had set up the na^'D, ?^T\^'^ (written in the MSS. sometimes as one word, sometimes as two) ; whereas the town was called nb formerly (dSx") elsewhere xlviii. 19, Ex. ix. 6, Num. xiv. 21 in a rhe- torical, here in a historical connection, originally a noun, Assyr. damn, in which the meaning : before, opposite, shows the radical meaning, comp. 1.^3). This is not however to be so under- stood, as though the ancient Luz and the more recent Bethel were absolutely the same, but so that the ancient Luz (xlviii. 3) gradually retreated and disappeared before Bethel, which lay near it. Josh. xvi. 2. The appellation bsn^l xii. 8, xiii, 3 is antici- pative. The ruins still bear the name of Beitin. It lies forty- five minutes from el-Bireh (Beeroth) and three hours by horse from Jerusalem, on the declivity of a hill between two valleys, which still, as in the days of Abraham, affords the most excellent pasturage, but belongs to the holy places which have fallen into oblivion. Jacob's vow, vv. 20-22 : And Jacob made a voio and said : If Elohim will he with me and keep me upon this way that I go, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, and I come back in safety to my father's house, then shall Jahveh be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a memorial pillar shall be a house of Elohim, and of all which thou shalt give me I will give a tithe to thee. The apodosis begins at 216; then will he have Jahveh, and him alone, for his God, without turning to other gods. This fundamental oath sounds like an echo of the promise xvii. 8, comp. Ex. vi. 7 and frequently. The words of God flow forth 22b in an address to God. We here meet
GENESIS XXIX. 1. 167
for the second time since xiv. 2 0 in the primitive history witli the custom of giving a tithe to God ; it is common to almost all antiquity, the legislation Lev. xxvii. 30-33 and farther on does but regulate what already existed. How ver. 22 was fulfilled, we partly learn in ch. xxxv. Bethel became already in patriarchal times a place of sacrifice, and in the times of the Judges the sanctuary, Judg. xx. 18, 1 Sam. x. 3, with the ark of the covenant, Judg. xx. 18, stood here for a long period upon Mount Ephraim. The Divine name D^rha. in vv. 12, 17 is of itself no certain token of a source : the matter there in question is indeed a glance into the world of spirits, and also the origin of the local name hi^n'^l. But the case is different with n'^rhii 20h and with ti'rhiih ''b nin'- n\-ii 216. In the report of the vow J seems to be blended with U, or it may have been taken as it stands from JE. Jacob will on his return to his home be determined by his experience of Divine assistance to choose Jahveh for his God for ever, to make the stone which he has set up the foundation-stone of a house of God, and to tithe, i.e. to apply to the purpose of Divine worship, every blessing bestowed on him.
Jacob's two maeeiages in haean, ch. xxix. i-so.
The second portion, xxix. 1-30, which continues Jacob's experiences in a strange country and first his involuntary double marriage in Haran, is compounded, like ch. xxvii., from J and E worked into each other. In the first half J, in the second E predominates, in ver, 1 5 the transition is made from J to E (Dillm.). But no Divine name occurs, and strik- ing characteristics are lacking. In the second half nnstr is found, where according to the usual diction of E we should expect n»s, and the distinction of age by m"'33 and m^^V is elsewhere only found in J (xix. 30-38).
Ver. 1 is peculiar : And Jacob lifted up his feet and ivent to the land of the sons of the East. Encouraged by what he had
168 GENESIS XXIX. 2-12.
heard and seen in his night dream, he continues his journey refreshed and cheered ^'J'?-"'"? ^T^^> *-^- ^o Arabia deserta, which reached as far as Euphrates including Mesopotamia lying beyond that river. In J xxviii. 1 0 his destination was called nj"in, in Q xxviii. 2 D'^^? '^^'7.?, here we have the third and most general designation, as Dillmann conjectures from E, but according to xxv. 6 more probably from J, to whom what follows, at least as far as ver. 15, belongs. The meeting with Eachel, vv. 2-12 : And he looked and hehold a well ivas in the field, and, lo, three flocks of sheep lying heside it, for out of that well they used to water the flocks, and the stone at the mouth of the well vms great. And thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flocks, and brought the stone again to the mouth of the well, to its place. Then said Jacob to them : My brethren, whence are ye ? And they said : Of Haran are we. And he said to them : Know ye Laban, Nahor's son ? And they said : We know him. Then he said to them : Is it well with him ? And they said : It is well, and behold, Eachel his daughter is coming even now with the sheep. And he said : It is indeed still high in the day, nor is it yet time to drive in the cattle ; water the sheep and go hence and feed them ! And they said : We cannot, till all the flocks are gathered together, then they roll avjay the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with the sheep, which belonged to her father, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Eachel, the daughter of laban his mothers brother, and the sheep of Laban his mothers brother, that Jacob vjcnt near and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Eachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Eachel that he was her fathers relative, and that he was Eebekah's son — and she ran and told her father. The imperf. >pp] 2a is, like ii. 6, meant of custom in the past, and continues here as there in the perfect, Ges. § 127. 4&, Driver § 113. 4^.
GENESIS XXIX. 13, 14. 169
n?n3 is the predicate and "i^^sn ''r''^V a completion of the subject, comp. Job xxxvii. 22h, Micah vi, 12b; for it is the greatness, not the position that is emphasized. Laban is called by Jacob oa "iinr|3. Bethuel, of whom Laban was directly the son, is strikingly kept in the background in the history of Isaac's marriage also, ch. xxiv. Jacob inquires concerning the welfare of Laban : v QvK'n (comp. xliii. 2 7 sq.) ; they are able to give him the information desired, and point to Eachel, who was just approaching with her flock (ni>3 participle) ; and when he invites them, the day being yet great, i.e. still far from passing into the evening, when the cattle have to be put in the stall, to water the flock, they excuse themselves by saying that the rolling away of the stone requires the united strength of all the shepherds. While he is thus talking with them Eachel arrives (nss preterite like xxvii. 30), bringing the flock which is her father's Q ■>^'^5 like xl. 5), that it may be watered with the other flocks ; and Jacob then rolls away alone the great stone from the mouth of the well. Such gigantic strength was given him by the affection of blood relationship (as is prominently shown by the threefold i?3X "nx), and at the same time by a presentiment of love, for his father's words xxviii. 2 were ever ringing in his ears. Hence various feelings were combined in the kiss and in the tears that followed, ver. 11. Laban also now hastens to the scene and gladly welcomes his nephew, vv. 13, 14: And it came to pass when Lalan heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him into his house, and he told Laban all these things. Then Laban said to him : Surely thou art my flesh and bone, and he abode with him a month of days. The genitive after VO^ (e.g. Isa. xxiii. 5) and ^J;1Dt^' (e.g. 2 Sam. iv. 4) is (except perhaps Isa, liii. 1) always objective. Laban, when he hears the news of Jacob's arrival, runs to meet his brother, i.e. nephew (ns like ver. 1 2), spreads out his hands to embrace him (p p^n as at xlviii. 10), overwhelms him with
170 GENESIS XXIX. 15-20.
kisses (as is meant by p^^ as distinguished from P^^ ver. 11), and brings him, as being indeed his flesh and bone (as at ii. 23), into his house, where Jacob relates to him " all these things," i.e. his arrival at his journey's end and the providential meet- ing at the well. It is affection which makes Laban so speedy and so kindly, but also, no less than at xxiv. 29, a selfish and calculating eye to the future. He knows however how to hide his intentions under the appearance of the greatest unselfishness. So Jacob remains cpj K^h (xli. 1, Num. xi. 20 sq. and frequently) a month of days, i.e. a full month, during which Laban perceives of what service Jacob, the experienced shepherd, can be to him. His compact with Jacob, who serves him seven years for Eachel, vv. 15-20: Then said Zahan to Jacob : Is it because thou art my kinsman that thou shouldest serve me for nought ? Tell me, what shall be thy wages ? And Laban had two daughters, the name of the elder was Liah and the name of the younger Bahel. And the eyes of Leah were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and fair to look on. And Jacob loved Rachel and said: I unll serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. Then said Laban : It is better that I should give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man ; abide with me. TJien Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his eyes as a few days, because of his love for her. The sentence beginning with ''?n (as at xxvii. 36) as inwardly organized runs thus : Should I, because thou art my kinsman, require from thee gratuitous service ? Laban had two daughters (two, and not one only, as we here learn for the first time), of whom the
younger Eachel (^nn j^ ewe lamb) was beautiful in face
.Si
and figure; the elder, Leah (nxp i'U wild cow, a kind of antelope^), had on the contrary weak eyes (LXX. rightly: aaOeveU, Vulgate wrongly : lippis oculis), hence she lacked an important feature of female beauty. Jacob offers to J See Job, 2nd edit. p. 607, comp. Zimmern, Bahyl. Busspsalmen, p. 20.
1
GENESIS XXIX. 21-30. 171
serve seven years for Eachel ; Laban plays the agreeable and accepts the offer. The hand of a cousin is to this very day among the Arabs due to her cousin in preference to any other wooer, and husband and wife generally address each other, jd hint 'ammt and jil ibn 'ammt, i.e. oh my female cousin, my male cousin. The seven years passed by to Jacob like a few days, "the other days lighted by hope disappeared as one day," as Camoens paraphrases it in his 29 th Sonnet. One might have thought that they would rather have appeared long to him. Both are true : amor jpaucos dies cestiinat ^lurimos affective, non autem appreciative (Calov.). Laban's deception and excuse, and Jacob's second seven years' service, vv. 2 1-3 0 : Then Jacob said to Laban : Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban assembled all the people of the place and gave a feast. And it came to pass in the evening, that he tooh Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. And Laban gave Zilpah, his handmaid, to his daughter Leah for her hand- maid. And it came to pass in the morning, behold it was Leah, and he said to Laban : What hast thou done to me ? Did not L serve with thee for Rachel ? And why hast thou deceived me ? Then Laban said : Jt is not the custom so to do in our place, to give the younger before the first-born. Stay out the week of this one, and we will give thee this also for a service which thou shalt serve with me seven other years. And Jacob did so and fulfilled his week, then he gave him his daughter Rachel to wife. And Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, Bilhah, his handinaid, to be her handmaid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with him seven more years. When the seven years were over, Jacob demands his wife {^^"^ before a following n with the tone upon the ult.), for such she is already in virtue of the marriage contract, and when the marriage feast (nriB'D), i,e, the first and special day of the marriage festivities, is over, he experiences, while intoxicated and blinded by love, a deception similar to that
172 GENESIS XXIX. 21-30.
which he had played upon his father. Instead of Eachel, Leah (veiled, comp. xxiv. 65) is brought to him. Laban gives her Zilpah for her handmaid, which particular, as well as his giving Bilhah to Eachel, ver. 29, added in a manner which interrupts the connection, seems inserted from Q. When he reproaches Laban with this fraud, which was no less shameful an injustice to Eachel than to himself, Laban excuses himself by appealing to a custom of the country (nb^r'N? comp. xxxiv. 7) not to marry the younger daughter before the elder — a custom stubbornly adhered to also in India and in the old imperial towns of Germany. He ofifers however to give him Eachel also after the lapse of the seven days' (nxf V2^) marriage festivities, viz. Leah's (Judg. xiv. 12, Tobit xi. 18, the duration down to the present time of a marriage among the Syro-Palestinian peasants, the Nestorians, etc.), if he will promise to serve him seven years more. It was the custom only to give a daughter in marriage for a price ("'l'^), but Laban bargains with his daughters like wares, without any regard to relationship, and it is of this that they complain, xxxi. 15. Jacob agrees and receives Eachel also. Both daughters have only one handmaid each, Eebekah had more, xxiv. 61, but Laban was avaricious. Jacob has now two wives instead of one, one more, one less beloved. Of the two 03 ver. 30 the second in conjunction with IP means adeo magis quam, but no other example for this use of D3 with p can be adduced, LXX. Jerome leave it unexpressed, Dillm. expunges it. Thus is Jacob the deceiver deceived by Laban. And this same Jacob, who, as Hosea says xii. 13, served for a wife and for a wife (n^S3 with a of the reward as at ver. 18), kept sheep, became the ancestor of the nation which, as Hosea goes on to say, was led by a prophet out of Egypt and by a prophet was preserved. It is to this double, and, according to the subsequent law (Lev. xviii. 18), detestable double marriage, that the people of the law owed their origin. TheThorah relates it without concealment and without palliation.
I
GENESIS XXIX. 32, 33. 1*73
BIRTH OF THE ELEVEN SONS OF JACOB, CH. XXIX. 31-XXX. 24.
The third portion, xxix. 31-xxx. 24, leads us straight to the origins of Israel, and transports us, so to speak, into the midst of Israel's natal hours. The birth of these ancestors of Israel was found in both J and E, related in the respective manner of each; the narrative as we now have it is a com- bination of these two sources. They may be distinguished by the change of the Divine names both in the mouth of the women, e.g. xxix. 32, xxx. 6, and of the narrator himself, e.g. xxix. 31, xxx. 17. Here and there two explanations of a name stand side by side, xxx. 20, and we see from the change of the Divine names, that one is taken from J and the other from E, xxx. 23, 24. The statements concerning the hand- maids, xxx. 4(Z, 95, join on to xxix. 24, 29, and look like woof- threads from Q. Eachel is the more youthful and blooming of the two sisters, and the best beloved of Jacob ; but Eachel remains childless, whereas Leah, the less beloved (ver. 30) and comparatively hated (nsiDC' as at Deut. xxi. 15), is blessed with children. Onn nna LXX. avoi^eiv ttjv firjrpav is the opposite of Dn"i. "i?? 1 Sam. i. 5, Job iii. 10. Jacob's first son Eeuben, by Leah, ver. 3 2 : Zeah conceived and hare a son and called his name Be€ben, for she said : Surely Jahveh hath beheld my affliction, for now will my husband love mc. The name means : See, a son ! It is an exclamation of joyful surprise. ^3 is, as at xxvi. 22, explicative, confirmative, assertive. 3 '"i5<"i meaus to behold witli heartfelt interest, as at 1 Sam. i. 11, Ps. cvi. 44, comp. above xxi. 16. The impf. ••jnnN"; has the connecting vowel a as at xix. 19. Jacob's second son Simeon, by Leah, ver. 33 : And she conceived again and bare a son, and said : Surely Jahveh has heard that I am hated and hath given me this also, therefore she called him "Sim'on. The transition from the explicative to the assertive, from the confirmative to the affirmative meaning of o is here evident, the name means : hearing. Jacob's third son Levi, by
174 GENESIS XXIX. 34-XXX. C.
Leah, ver. 34 : And she again conceived and tare a son, and said : Now this time will my husband he attached to m,e, for I have home him three sons, therefore she called his name Levi. For N-ii? (they called, like xi. 9, xix. 22, xxv. 30) LXX. Samar. Syriac reproduce the expected "^^11^. The name means the attached, from an assumed v annexation societas formed according to the formation 13. Jacob's fourth son Judah by Leah, ver. 3 5 : And she conceived again and hare a son, and said : This time I praise Jahveh. Instead of nriy 32& and Qysn nny 34(1 (like nr nriy l Kings xvii. 24), we have here, as also in J ii. 24, oysn The name nnin^_ is formed after the analogy of the passive to nnirT; Neh. xi. 17 (comp. the forms Ps. xxviii. 7, xlv. 18), and means (since n— as a masculine termination arising from n— cannot be proved) the being praised (Joseph. ev^apta-Tia, Jerome confessio), hence as a proper name one who is the subject of praise. After these four births a pause takes place with Leah. Eachel is vexed to death that she has no children — the modest desire of husband and wife for the blessing of children is a characteristic of virtuous marriage. Her grief was just, but it made her unjust towards her husband, xxx. 1, 2 : When Eachel saw that she hare Jacob no children, EacJiel was envious of her sister and said to Jacob : Give me children, or I die. Then was Jacob wroth with Eachel and said : Am I instead of Elohim, who has denied thee the fruit of the womb ? It is a childish demand which she makes of her husband (comp. with this nan the nn nn with reference to cnn "ivV Prov. xxx. 15 sq.), to which he cannot but answer indignantly : Am I in the place of God ? (to be explained as 1. 1 9 must, according to 2 Kings V. 7). Jacob's fifth son Dan by Bilhah, Eachel's handmaid, vv. 3-6 : And she said : Behold my handmaid Bilhah, go in unto her, that she may hear children upon my knees, and I also may obtain children by her. And she gave to him Bilhah her handmaid to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob a son. Then EacJiel said : Elohim
GENESIS XXX. 7, 8. 175
has done me justice and also hearkened to my voice and hath given me a son, therefore she called his name Dan. The Divine name wrhvi, leads to E, and so also does ^1D^? which is characteristic of this writer. It is here however inter- changed with nns^'j perhaps through the regard of E to the text of other sources. The person upon whose knees a new-born babe is laid (1. 23, comp. Job iii. 12) owns it as his own child. On ^323 to be built up (not a denominative : to become possessed of children) see xvi. 2. The name pj cor- responds to the Latin vindex, defender, advocate. She calls him thus, because Elohim has taken her under His protection, has heard her prayer and taken from her the undeserved reproach of childlessness. Jacob's sixth son Naphtali, the second by Bilhah, Eachel's handmaid, vv. 7, 8 : And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, again conceived and hare Jacob a second son. Then Bachel said : Wrestlings of Elohim have I wrestled with my sister and have also prevailed ; so she called his name Naphtali. The name signifies that which has been the object of the struggle, that which has been obtained by wrestling. The Ci^^^? 7''^?? are the prayerful wrestlings of tempted faith. A wrestling with Leah, but in truth with God Himself, who seemed to have bestowed His favour upon her only, or perhaps more generally: struggles such as only a higher Being is able to sustain, super- human struggles, D'Ti^s being thus not gen. objecti but subjecti. Hengstenberg and Drechsler define the notion yet differently : struggles whose issue bears the character of a sentence of God ; the idea of a Divine sentence of the concursus specicdis- simi prevailing from xxx. 1-23 being also the reason for the use of n\nbx here instead of rwrw The change of the Divine name is however caused by that of the source of the extracts. It was intentionally that the author of Genesis interwove both Divine names into the origins of Israel, and it is cer- tainly not accidental that the name rwTV* is impressed upon the first four births, and the name DM^x upon the seven others. We are to be impressed with the fact, that the covenant
176 GENESIS XXX. 9-13.
faithfulness of Jahveh and the wonder-working power of Elohim concurred in laying the foundation of Israel. Jacob's seventh son Gad, by Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, vv. 9-11 : When Leah saw that she had ceased from hearing, she took Zilpah, lier handmaid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, LeaKs handmaid, hare Jacob a son. Then Leah said: Good fortune ! and called his name Gad. She called him "13 pro- pitious star, saying (according to the Chethih) : ^3? with fortune ! (LXX. iv Tvj(ri), i.e. for my happiness, or (according to the Keri which takes 2 as an abbreviation of xn) : "ij ^<3 which the Targums and Syr. explain : fortune is come. It is true that the Keri may be also explained (according to xlix. 1 9) : there come troops (Venet. rjKei a-TpaTevfia), viz. troops of children. But I3=nn|i is not to be authenticated in this unwarlike meaning, and the mythological appellation of fortune (Arab, gedd), in accordance with 13 ^V^ (Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7, comp. Isa. Ixv. 11), cannot seem strange in the mouth of an Arampean woman. In later times, the commencement of which cannot be determined, the notion of the IJ bv^ was united to the planet Jupiter, as that of the mnc'y li (on Carthag. III. in Gesenius' Monumenta) to the planet Venus. The Turanian name of Jupiter on inscriptions is Luhat guttav (guttam). Jacob's eighth son Asher, his second son by Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, vv. 12, 13 : And Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, hare a second son to Jacob. Then Leah said : Happy me ! for the daughters will call out Happy art thou ! so she called his name Aser. The name means the happy one (from "'K'X="itt'^ wwuJ whence jusr, happiness) — thus Leah called him saying nt^'Kn Happy me ! (which by altering this strange 3 in accord- ance with the preceding *133 may also be read ^X'X3=^"i^'K N3). "•a is followed, as frequently, e.g. Isa. Ix. 1, by the perf. of certainty, and T\):2 is in poetic fashion without the article (LXX. al <yvvalK€<;, comp. Mary's magnificat, Luke i. 48). It now again becomes Leah's turn to bear, notwithstanding the love-apples obtained by Eachel, vv. 14-16 : And Reuben went
I
I
GENESIS XXX. 14-16. 1*77
in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and hroiight them to Leah, his mother ; then Rachel said to Leah : Give me, L pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said to her : Ls it too little that thou hast taken my husband from me, to take also my son's mandrakes ? Then Rachel said : Let him then lie with thee this night for thy son's mandrakes. When then Jacob came home from the field at even, Leah went to meet him and said : Thou must come in unto me, for L have hired thee, yea hired thee, for my son's mandrakes. The LXX. correctly translates Q''X'i'n ixri\a fiavSpayopcov ; ''1^'n (in accordance with the formation w) from nn (0^^"^), ancient 'Kgy^tia.n duda,dudua, dudu (see Briigsch, Z^fc neue Weltordnung, etc. 1881, p. 38), is the mandragora autumnalis which blossoms in November at the commencement of the winter rain. It comes from the Persian merdum gidh, man-plant, Aram, and ArRh. jahruh, by which the Targums (comp. Sanhedrin 995) and the Syriac translate it, or also Ivffdh, by which Saad. renders it. Its flowers of purple inclining to dark blue become in May and June (Cant. vii. 14), or what is the same, in the days of wheat harvest, yellowish green apples, about the size of a nutmeg, of a particularly pungent odour (Arab, tuffdh esseitdn or tuffah el-megnun or laid el-ginn, daemons' eggs). The mandragora is a plant frequently found in Palestine and also in Aramaea, its fruit and root are esteemed as a means of promoting fertility and as an Aphrodisiacura in general, on which account it is
figuratively called ^LJl .sj^s. (servant of love's salute), and
is glossed by ^^\ jlLc (lovers' herb).^ Circe used the root in lier charmed potions, and Hamilcar brought upon his adversaries the Libyans the sleep of intoxication, by means of wine in which this root was mingled. But the perfect plant, drawn out uninjured, with its root reaching from
' See Wetzstein's Excursus on the Dudaim in Comm. zum Ilohenliede, pp. 439-445, and James Neil's (formerly pastor of Christ Church, Jerusalem) article on the same suhject (with an illustration) in the Jewish Intelligence, 18S6, pp. 194-196.
VOL. II. M
178 GENESIS XXX. 17-20.
three to four feet and sometimes deeper, with its egg-like fruits in their leafy nests, was reckoned particularly valuable and effectual. Of such kind were the Dudaim whicli Reuben brought with him from the field. When Eachel begs for them, with a purpose which she has no need to express, Leah gives her an indignant refusal. T\npb (not nnip;' or ^^P^) is, as the Targums also take it, *??/. consir.: ut pra'reptura sis. Eachel however obtains the mandrakes by renouncing her husband for the next night. ^<1^ np^a (instead of i^'^T^n) as at xix. 33. Since Eachel however remains barren notwith- standing the mandrakes, it is again shown that an incalculable power presides over the history of the patriarchs. Jacob's ninth and Leah's fifth son, Issachar, vv. 17, 18: Then Eloliim hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. And Leah said : Elohim hath given me my hire, because I have given my handmaid unto my husband, and she called his name Jissachar. The Ttwtus rec. points "^^^'f^., while accord- ing to Ben-Asher "i^t?';, its Kc7'i, is pcrpetuum, against which Ben- Naphtali read ">3b'U'"'_ affert prcemium, or according to Baer read just like Ben-Asher, but wrote ""^j^'"^^.; Moses b. Mochah read, according to Jer. xxxi. 16, 2 Chron. xv. 7, "'P^T.'! est i^rccmium, see Pinsker, Zur Gesch. des Karaismus, p. 98 sq. Leah regards this son as a reward ("'t>*x=iC'X nnn or "^f^. ">^3y3 like xxxiv. 27, xxxi. 49) of her self-denial, not, as Josephus takes it (= e'/c fiicrdov jev6fjievo<;), as a compensation for the man- drakes. Jacob's tenth and Leah's sixth son, Zebulun, vv. 19-20: And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Then Leah said: Elohim hath endowed me with a good dowry ; this time my husband will esteem me, for I have borne him six sons, so she called his name Zebuhin. The mean- ing, to present, is assured to the verb nnr by the Aram, and Arab. ; it occurs only here, but all the more numerous are the proper names formed from it (see the Lexicon). Can there be here two interpretations by different narrators, one of whom assumes that P^?? is formed from nar ? Scarcely,
GENESIS XXX. 22-24. 179
for he would see in the name only an allusion to 121, and would then be responsible for the interpretation. At all events, the name is explained first from its consonance with ini and then from i?2T as its stem -word. Certainly ^ar has been understood in the meaning to dwell, which is by no means assured to it ; verbs of dwelling (inhabiting) of course take the accus. {e.g. also iij Ps. v. 5), but " he will inhabit me," for " he will hold to me " (Jerome mecum erit), is an im- probable expression. The Assyrian offers for ^nT the more suitable meaning to raise up, to elevate, with which the LXX. aiperiel fie, i.e. according to Hesychius irpoTifxorepav fxe ri<yrjaeTaL, may be brought into connection and to which ?^3T (a thing erected = dwelling-place) may fitly be referred (Guyard, Friedr. Del.) ; the opposition of Halevy is here of no avail. Birth of a daughter to Jacob by Leah, ver. 2 1 : And afterwards she lore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Dinah, who was not Jacob's only daughter, xxxvii. 35, xlvi. 7, could not be left unmentioned because of ch. xxxiv., but is, as being a daughter, dismissed in few words (corap. iv. 22, Num. xxvi. 46). Jacob's eleventh and Eachel's first son, Joseph, vv. 22-24 : Then Elohim remerribered Rachel, and Elohim hearhened unto her and opened her womh. And she conceived and tore a son, and said : Elohim hath talcen atoay my reproach. And she called his name Joseph, saying : May Jahveh add unto me another son. At last God remembered Eachel also (like 1 Sam. i. 19), and granted her so long seemingly unheard petition. The name of her first own son is interpreted by E " Taker away" (viz. of the reproach) of childlessness (like Isa. iv. 1 of celibacy), by J "increaser," as the first who is the precursor of a second. The addition is characterized by idx^, which occurs nowhere else in the giving of names.
The passing notice of Dinah, Leah's daughter, has its appro- priate place after the six sons of Leah, without our having to infer therefrom that her birth took place before that of Joseph. The first four births of sons (Reuben, Simeon,
180 GENESIS XXX. 22-24.
Levi and Judali) by Leah happen in the first four years of the second seven years, the two by Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, in the fourth to the fifth. During the fifth year Leah is in vain expecting the blessing of children, and at last, after the example of Eachel, gives Zilpah to her husband, and she bears to him Gad and Asher from the sixth to the middle of the seventh year. Meantime Leah is again blessed with children, and brings forth Issachar at the end of the seventh year of the now elapsed second seven years, Zebulun in the first of the last six years (of the twenty, xxxi. 38), and Dinah in the second of the six. Eachel however bore a son, as is evident from ver. 25, at the end of the second seven years; hence the birth of Joseph took place between the births of Issachar and Zebulun (not before that of Issachar, as Astruc, Conjectures, p. 396 sq., thinks), and probably in the last month of this seventh year (comp. Demetrius in Euseb. Frcvp.ix. 21). Unless we place two of Leah's births in the six years (xxxi. 41) after the two seven years, Leah must have borne seven clnldren within the seven years, during which a considerable interval of vain expectation elapsed. Kurtz accepts this, limiting the period during which Leah was certain that a cessation had taken place to "a few months." But at xxxvii. 35, xlvi. 7, daughters of Jacob are mentioned, concerning whose births nothing is said, and elsewhere in Genesis homogeneous events are, as here in the case of the children with which Jacob's two marriages were blessed in Aramtea, taken together as though continuous, the distribution of the succession of time, as here of the 7 + 7 -f 6 years, being left to the reader.
NEW COMPACT FOR SERVICE BETWEEN JACOB AND LABAN, XXX. 25-XXXI. 3.
When Eachel after long yearning became a mother, the second seven years of service had elapsed ; the fourth portion, i-xx. 25 to xxxi. 3 (from /, though with here and there a
GENESIS XXX. 25-34. 181
glance at E), now relates how a new compact for service between Jacob and Laban came to pass, and how Jacob, during this new service, attained great wealth in cattle through an artifice blessed by God. Jacob presses for his dismissal, and Laban for Jacob's stay, 25—30 : And it came to pass when Rachel had lorne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban : Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served thee, that I may go; for thou hnowest my service which I have done for thee. Then Laban said to him : Oh, if I have found favour in thine eyes — ! I have well marked that Jahveh hath blessed me for thy sake. Then he said : Decide thy wages, and J will give it. And he said to him : Thou knowest how I have served thee, and what thy cattle have become with me. For a little, which thou hadst before my time, has spread into a multi- tude, and Jahveh hath blessed thee where L turned my foot, and now, when shall L work also for my own house ? The apodosis to ^3"DX 27a must be completed according to xviii. 3 : so let thy purpose be — a courteous oh not so ! (comp. xix. 18 sq.). B^n3 is a heathen expression for inquiring into the future by means of magic, and then means in general divinare, to per- ceive, to remark (xliv. 15). The two 'ion"'1 with the same subject (Laban) in vv. 27, 28 show that H, wherever it is possible, reproduces the words of his authorities unaltered. We translate cyo 30a "a little," for "the little" is called ^^^p. ^-ff- Deut. vii. 7. We have already had yiQ, to spread, in t/'xxviii. 14. V?1?, at my foot, is equivalent to: blessing followed wherever I went (comp. Job xviii. 11 ; Isa. xli. 2 ; Hab. iii. 5). ^ rm>j; a pregnant expression : to act, to work, to take trouble for any one. New compact between Jacob and Laban, vv. 31—34: Then he said: What shall I give thee? And Jacob said : Thou shall give me nothing, if thou ivilt grant me this thing : L will again tend thy flock and take it under my care. L will to-day go through all thy flock, taking out from it every speckled and spotted one and every black one among the
182 GENESIS XXX. 31-34.
lamls, and the spccldcd and spotted among the goats, and that shall he my hire. And on the morrow, tvhen thou shall inspect my hire, my own righteousness shall testify against me hefore thee : every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lamhs, let that with me he reckoned stolen. Then Laban said : Well, let it he according to thy word ! Jacob lets himself be prevailed upon again to tend and keep Laban's flock under a certain condition (ip'^ as at Hos. xii. 1 3. Comp. on the explanatory, surpassing compensation of the one notion by the other, Ps. xv. 4). The transaction is carried on with the same conventional forms of Oriental courtesy, as that in ch. xxiii. between Abraham and the Hethites. The sheep are in that country almost all white (Cant, iv. 2), only a few, chiefly rams, black, the goats for the most part if not black (Cant. iv. Ih) of a dark colour, and only very seldom white or spotted with white. Hence it is apparently a very small wage for which Jacob stipulates, when he claims all the speckled, spotted and black among the sheep (D^?f p for the later C^??, a Pentateuchal form occurring also in Lev. Num. and Deut.), and all the speckled and spotted among the goats, which are now and henceforth may be produced in Laban's flock. This is the sense of ver. 32 sq. After the preceding '^'^V.^., "'?'? cannot, as Tuch, Baumg., Kn. understand it, be im- perative, it is infin. absol. Consequently ^l^b* n^ni cannot, as Tuch, Baumg., Kurtz and already Luther take it, mean : and all that in future happens to be of an abnormal colour in the now normal coloured flock shall be my hire ; nab' n^ni aims at the present, but in such wise that all that may in the future happen to be of abnormal colour is at the same time stipulated for. It is in accordance with this that ver. 33 must be explained : my own rectitude shall, when thou shalt to-morrow and henceforth make investigation concerning that which is claimed by me, testify against me (3 nay everywhere else, also 1 Sam. xii. 3, and therefore certainly here too used of witness against or accusation). Luther 1545 with the LXX. and
1
GENESIS XXX. 35, 36. 183
Jerome rightly understands the Qini in the sense of -ik'XI, Qin ijrx, for Jacob claims for himself the black sheep as those of abnormal colour ; hence it is not the black, but those that are not black, tliat are to be regarded as stolen by him. Laban gladly consents, ver. 34 : Yea {][} as in the Mishna diction) let it he (^h as at xvii. 18) according to thy word. It might now be thought that Jacob would undertake the separa- tion, instead of which Laban undertakes it himself, vv. 35, 36 : TJien on the same day he removed the striped and spotted rams, and all the specJded and spotted goats, all upon tvhich uris any white, and every Mack one among the lamhs, and gave them into the hands of his sons. And he fut a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacoh, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban s flocks. Laban himself separates the unusual coloured cattle, especially the rams ^""^l^ (which is certainly not made prominent without intention), and delivers these separated and unusually coloured cattle to his sons (comp. xxxi. 1), for Laban's own flock, consisting now of only normal coloured cattle, was pastured by Jacob. He then orders a separation of three days' journey {i.e. about 3x7 hours) be- tween the two flocks, in order to prevent any copulation between the normal and abnormal coloured cattle. We cannot here escape the impression, that the accounts of two authori- ties are here worked into each other ; nevertheless, the narra- tive, as we have it, must be capable in the mind of R of being drawn together into one harmonious picture. Hence we shall have to conceive that Laban, in order to guard against any diminution, himself undertook the separation, and for the same reason delivered what belonged to Jacob to his (Laban's) sons, and entrusted what was his to Jacob. It is strange indeed that ver. 32 is left in the wording which leaves unexpressed Jacob's meaning, that what is produced of an abnormal colour in the future is also to belong to him. Hut that this is Jacob's meaning is presupposed, as the further course of the narrative shows.
184 GENESIS XXX. 37-40.
In order to obtain within the one coloured flock of Laban the greatest possible number of abnormal coloured births, Jacob in his inventive policy makes use of two artifices. The first stratagem, vv. 37-40: Then Jacob tooh fresh rods of storax, almond and 'plane trees, and peeled thereon white stripes, laying hare the white that was on the rods. And he placed the rods, ivhich he had peeled, in the gutters, in the water troughs, where the cattle came to drink, over against the cattle, and it was pairing time tvhen they came to drink. And the cattle mated among the rods, and the cattle hrought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and turned the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black among Laban's flocks, and made droves apart, and put them not to Laban's cattle. Of the three kinds of trees n:np is the storax tree (styrax offxinalis, from i^^ in accordance with the formation npx=^337
JjJ on account of the fragrant milk leben thickening to a gum which flows from its wounded bark) — not the white poplar, which is called ^ '{ba^ {DMZ. xvi. 588); n^ the almond tree (the more Aramaico-Arabic name for Ipt^' amygdala, whose
fruit is called almonds, or almond nuts, nuces, Arab, j^ l6z), and |io"iy the plane (platanus orientalis, from DIV denudare, because the smooth bark of the tree comes off every year and leaves it bare). In the fresh sticks of these trees he peeled white stripes (riiS^'S peeled places) by exposing the white (^t^'no adv. Ace. for ^t^'H dccorticando), and placed (J'i'v in distinction from n^'n of temporary placing) the parti-coloured sticks in or near the troughs D''t?ni. (perhaps from J xxiv. 20), which is ex- plained by D'cn ninpK' (plur. of ^?p with the n taken root- wise as in riinD3). |x^n npb^ belongs to the remote JJJ!! as y:t:i? 33a to tlie remote "n-nn^yi, unless the meaning is, that the animals stood while drinking on both sides of the trough opposite each other, so that njnmi is meant of the instinct excited by the help of this position. This njpmi instead of
GENESIS XXX 41, 42. 185
•^^^PDIi^^ (from Don, as at 1 Sam. vi. 12, Dan. viii, 22) is one of the three forms designated by the Masora as D'iy:mx p^», hybrid words. Thus they mated 0'2n^i=iQn>l from Don, though it also might be impf. Kal from onj for ^on*l, according to a similar change of sound, as at Ps. li. 7, comp. Judg, v. 28, for ^on>i) among the rods, and this produced unusual coloured animals among the lambs. Then Jacob separated these unusual coloured lambs and kids from the normal coloured animals belonging to Laban, and so led the latter that their faces were turned to the parti-coloured, so as to obtain continually fresh additions from the flock of Laban. Hence it must have been arranged, at least at the first, that from the first separation (ver. 35 sq.) to a second and final one, the flocks of Laban should remain together under the care of Jacob. For other- wise it cannot be explained that Laban should so easily have connived at the normal and abnormal coloured cattle remain- ing together and not from time to time have continued the separation made at the beginning, that he should even have looked on quietly, when Jacob formed separate flocks of the parti-coloured cattle obtained by stratagem, for the purpose of overlooking his property, and at the same time of obtaining continually fresh increase by turning the faces of the one- coloured animals towards the numerous parti-coloured ones. If instead of ?^ we are with Kn. to read ?3, according to the Targums and Saad., it is to be explained : he placed in the sight of the sheep all the striped and dark -coloured animals (so that they had always had the latter in their sight). But tliis is of no avail. It cannot be mistaken that the words |n''l to p^ |Ki*a in ver. 40 import an alien element into the narrative ; they give the impression of being an insertion, the contents of which are opposed to what precedes (the separation) and follows (the formation of separate parti- coloured flocks). The second stratagem, vv. 41, 42 : And it came to pass, whenever the strong sheep conceived, then Jacob used to lay the rods in the gutters before the eyes of the sheep, that
186 GENESIS XXX. 41, 42.
they miglit mate among the rods. And ivhen the sheep were feeble he laid them not therein, and thus the feeble became Laban's and the strong Jacob's. The apodosis begins with 2^. not D^'*l, because it was not a single but a repeated act. The strong animals are called nintTippn (425 D'T^'i^n), the compact,
i.e. the fall, the sturdy (comp. 7"}}, ^'na, xJ = Engl. strength),
and the feeble 0''?pyj^, from pjDy, to wrap and to weaken ; the Hiph. Fi'^jayn means, as intrinsically transitive, to show weakness. The form '^3»nv is Fiel (xxxi. 10) from nrv>, with the suffix enna instead of an = ahnn. Only during the mating of the strong sheep did he put in the sticks, that they might con- ceive among them, and not when, on the contrary, the sheep were in a feeble condition, i.e. when in consequence of bad pasture the rams and ewes were less strong. This means, perhaps, that he laid them there in summer (according to Varro and Pliny : a tertio Idus Majas in X Calcnd. Aug., with vis in July and the first half of August), so that the strong (unusual coloured) winter lambs became his, but not in autumn (Pliny : postea concepii invalidi), so that the weaker (usual coloured) spring lambs were left to Laban. Luther ou the contrary : Also wurden die Spetlinge Zabans, aber die Fruelinge Jacobs, according to which Jacob must have carried out his artifice from towards the end of September till October, when the lambs would be brought forth in March and April. The text itself gives no kind of indication as to whether Jacob had in view the winter or the spring lambing. For the rest it is a well-known fact that what is presented to the senses of the pregnant animal is imitated in the formation of the offspring, and that in no animal has the imagination of the mother such influence upon the offspring as in the sheep ; on which account sheep-breeders, to obtain white sheep, make use of a like means with Jacob, by placing something white in the drinking troughs of the sheep, giving them troughs made of quite white stone, or hanging up white cloths in their
GENESIS XXX. 43-XXXI. 3. 187
stalls, just as horse-breeders, to obtain a fine breed, hang up representations of fine horses before their foaling mares (Friedreich, Zur Bihel, 1. 36-41). Jacob's increasing pro- sperity, ver. 43 : Thus the man increased exceedingly, and obtained many sheep, and maidservants and men-servants, and camels and asses. At ver. 30, and at xxviii. 14, also p2 of the person is found in J; corap. notwithstanding the ^^^ ^^^f (elsewhere only in Q, vii. 19), the Jahvistic parallels in matter and style, xii. 16. nian |XV does not mean: many flocks, but many heads of sheep and goats, comp. e.g. Num. xxxi. 32. Jacob's prosperity increased immensely, but (as is further narrated according to J) it was now also time that he should quit the place, xxxi. 1-3 : And he heard the words of Labans sons, that they said : Jacob has taken to himself all that was our father's, and of our father's property has got for himself all this wealth. And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and it was no more towards him as yesterday and before yesterday. And Jahveh said to Jacob : Return to the land of thy fathers and to thy home, and I tuill be with thee. Jacob's brothers-in-law hav- ing been, contrary to Oriental custom, still silent individuals at their sisters' marriages, were still quite little fourteen years ago, and perhaps not born twenty years ago; now however they are grown up (xxx. 35) and of age. 11^3 weight, means both a great quantity (of wealth only here in the Pent., but comp. xiii. 2) and an imposing appearance (gravitas, gloria). nb'V to obtain, to gain, as at xii. 5. ^Si'-x after \^Q, as at Lam. iv. 1 6. On nn!pi^ see on xii. 1, and compare the reference to it xxxii. 10.
Jacob's flight and final peaceable depaktuke from laban, cii. xxxi. 4-xxxii. 1.
The fifth and last portion of the first section of Isaac's life now follows, not of Jacob's, for Isaac is still alive and rules the history, which Jacob only stirs. The close of the former portion, xxx. 43-xxxi. 1-3, bore the stamp of J, but now the
188 GENESIS XXXI. 4-13.
text of E is resumed and prevails, xxxi, 4-xxxii. 1, though other elements, especially parallels in matter from J and in ver. 18 from Q, are perceived to be worked into it. The different source is already betrayed by the behaviour of Laban, and Jacob's prosperity, notwithstanding, being some- what differently represented here and in ch. xxx.
Jacob summons Eachel and Leah to the field and lays before them the motives of his resolution to return home, vv. 4-9 : Then Jacob sent and called Bachel and Leah to the field unto his Jlock, and said unto them : I see the countenance of your father, that it is not towards me as yesterday and hefore yesterday, hut the God of my fathers was with me. And you know that with 7ny whole power I have served your father. But your father has deceived me and changed my hire ten times ; hut Elohini has not allovjed him to do me harm. If he said : The speckled shall he thy hire, then the whole flock hare speckled ; and if he said : The striped shall he thy hire, then all the flock hare striped. And so Elohim has taken aivay the flocks of your father and has given them unto me. Expressions peculiar to E are nnbb'a (=i3b') here and ver. 41, xxix. 15, and Q'?b mrj^ here and ver. 41, ten (= many) times, instead of the synonym- ous coys T\-}t% n^nxi instead of \t^'^\ which occurs besides only three times in Ezekiel, is also worthy of notice (Assyr. attina). The use of gender is here also shown to be im- perfectly developed : P''?^f with respect to the wives being exchanged 96 for D?"'?^^ It is from E that it is here told that Laban did not keep to his agreement with Jacob, but fooled him (^rin niphil of bhr\^ Ew. § 127c?) by ever and again changing the hire allotted him, but without profiting thereby, because God frustrated his selfish intention. Continuation of Jacob's address to his wives, vv. 10-13 : And it came to pass at the pairing time of the cattle, that I lifted up mine eyes and saio in a dream, and hehold, the rams which leaped upon the sheep were striked, speckled and dappled. And the angel of God said to me in a dream : Jacoh ! And I said : Here am I. And he
GENESIS XXXr. 14-16. 189
said : Lift up thine eyes and see : All the rams which leap on the sheep are striped, specJded and dappled ; for I have seen all that Lallan docth to thee. I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointcdst a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me — now arise go out of this land and return to the land of thy home. What appeared in the former portion to have been obtained by Jacob's artifice, is here represented as the blessing of Elohim. That the Divine direction, now to return home, closely follows in the dream-vision upon the image of the leap- ing upon the cattle of unusual coloured rams, and thus took place at the end of the six years (Dillm.), is perhaps based only on the circumstance, that what was objectively related in U is here taken up retrospectively in Jacob's address. Jacob should and must at last have been inwardly conscious, that after all it had been God's providence and not his own artifice which had protected him against Laban and made him so wealthy, that, as Antonio says in Shakespeare, it was " a thing not in his power to bring to pass, but swayed and fashioned by the hand of Heaven." The variegated animals are here railed, ver. 12, ^IpV banded — which appeared already xxx. 35 D'^npi spotted and C^l? dappled (here for the first time), from Tia = j:^j variegare, syn. with D"'5<^9 xxx. 32, 33, 35 in J. The manifestation at Bethel to which ver. 13 refers is that related xxviii. 12, 17-19. The demonstrative prominence of the first member of the st. constr. in ''Nn''3 7xn is like ^^Jsn 'ilti'^? Isa. xxxvi. 8, and in cases like 2 Kings xxiii. 17, where apposition cannot be supposed instead of annexation ; comp. ^aj n^ynn upon the pillar of the Jehavmelek of Gebal, " the Ba'alat of Byblos." The two wives approve of Jacob's pro- posal ; their father has alienated their hearts also by his unkindness and covetousness, vv. 14-16: Thai Rachel with Leah answered, and they said to him : Have we yet a portion and inheritance in the house of our father? Are we not esteemed by him as strangers ? for he has sold us, and has even quite devoured the price paid for us. Nay, all the wealth
190 GENESIS XXXI. 17-21.
which Ulohim has tahcn from our father belongs to us and our children ; now then, whatever Elohim has told thee, do ! Laban sold his daughters for the price of fourteen years' service, without giving them, as a marriage portion, anything that Jacob's services had procured for him. He has abundantly profited by this ^ps paid to him as "inb ; na with the inf. dbsol. like xlvi. 4 (and 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, if we are to read there with Hupfeld i^^^"]) increases the emphasis. ''3 16a confirms and strengthens, see xxix. 32 sq. They can with a good conscience look upon what Jacob has, by the blessing of God, obtained for himself during his time of service, as their marriage portions, which have been extorted from him. They are contented that he should prepare for departure. The return home, vv. 17-21: Then Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives upon the camels, and carried away all his cattle and all his property which he had made his oion, the cattle of his getting, which he had made his ovm in Padclan Aram, to go bach to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. And Laban luas gone to shear his floch, then Rachel stole the teraphim of her father. And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramaean, in that he made no communication to him, for he meant to flee. So he fled, and all that belonged to him ; he arose and passed over the river, and set his face tovMrd the mountains of Git ad. In ver. 18 the text of E from ic'ivnxi onwards is illustrated from Q, comp. xii. 5, xxxvi. 6, xlvi. 6. When this happened Laban had gone sheep-shearing, which, as must be inferred from ver. 27, was then as later (xxxviii, 12 sq., 2 Sam. xiii. 23 sq.) celebrated as a rustic festival, and would with such laroe flocks as Laban's last above a week. Eachel made use of her father's absence to steal his ^''^y} (a Pluralctantum like 27enates, sometimes an actual plural as here, comp. xxxv. 2, some- times an intensive one, as at 1 Sam. xix. 13, like QV*^^, ^\^}' the tutelary gods or god of his house, properly dispenser of
prosperity, from einn, ^j, uJ.Ju to be opulent, to live well,
GENESIS XXXI. 22-25. 191
whence ^", prosperity, superfluity, as the Penates have their
name from the penus, the domestic store-chambers, as protect- ing and filling them).^ Eachel, like ^neas, took the teraphim penatiger (Ovid, Met. xv. 450) with her, but in an unlawful manner, not for the purpose of withdrawing her father from these idols (Ephrem and others), but to take with her the fortune of the house. For Laban was, as he is called xxxi. 2 0 and also elsewhere in U and Q, 'isix, and therefore, as thus hinted, if not wholly, still half a heathen. The verb 33J with nb, or just the Ace. of the person, ver. 27, means, like KXiirreiv voov and KXeTTTeiv TLvd, to deprive any one of the knowledge of anything, to delude him ; the original meaning of 33J is to bring aside, which acquires the more special meaning of removing (purloining), or also, as at 2 Sam. xv. 6, of tempting. Jacob deceived Laban in that ({jj?, Samar. -iy) he did not tell him beforehand that he was about to depart (Vr^ with the verb. fin. as at Job xli. 18, Hos. viii. 7, ix. 16, Chethib Isa. xiv. 6 ; Ew. § 322a); he let nothing be perceived, for he intended to depart secretly (clam se subdudurus crat, for di3 properly means to flee, ma, on the contrary, to depart, to withdraw). So Jacob with all that was his passed over the river (which can only mean the Euphrates), and thence proceeded in the direction of the mountains of Gilead. Pursuit, warning and overtaking, vv. 22-25: And it was told Laban on tJie third day that Jacob had departed. And he took his brethren with him and pursued after him seven days' journey, and overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. And. Elohim came to Laban the Aramaean in a dream at night, and said to him : Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. And Laban came up with Jacob ; and Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountain of
1 Ad. Ne\;baucr in The Academy, 1886, No. 756, conjectures a connection between QiKD"! and D''D"in ; but the teraphim do not appear to be adored manes (ancestrfil spirits), and the existent verbal stem P)"in excludes the derivation from nD"l-
192 GENESIS XXXI. 26-30.
Git ad. The point of departure was according to all informants Haran. If Gilead could not be thence reached in a seven days' march, and not by a nomad with his flocks in from ten to twelve, E and t/must bear the responsibility ; the conjecture that E placed Laban's dwelling nearer to Gilead (Dillm.) being unjustified. Since however 236 ('i31 P?1!l) belongs in all probability to E and ver. 25 ('"IJI Jt?''!) to J, the conjecture is suggested that there was in the text of J" a more particular designation of Jacob's halting-place than 1^3, which was left out by U because of 23& (Dillm.). The mountain chain of Gilead is divided into a northern and southern half, separated by the ravine of the Jabbok. The meeting took place before the subsequent passage of the Jabbok by Jacob, hence some- where in the hill country 'Agliin between the Jarmuk and the Jabbok. The kindred of Laban are called his brethren, as e.g. 2 Sam. xix. 13. Laban is directed to behave to Jacob in an entirely passive manner, i.e. not to meet him in a hostile spirit. What now follows is not meant to be regarded as a transgression of the Divine admonition on the part of Laban.
The eloquent reproof, vv. 26-30, is limited to bitter reproaches, in which paternal affection and hypocrisy dve intermingled : Then Laban said to Jacob : Wliat hast thou done ? that thou hast stolen my heart and carried away my daughters as captives of the sword. Why didst thou depart so secretly and deceive vie and hast told me nothing, so I might have sent thee aivay with mirth and with songs, with tdbret and with harp, and hast not let me Jciss my sons and my daughters — thus hast thou done foolishly. It was in my jJOioer to do thee harm, hut the God of your father spake to me in the past night saying : Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or ill. And noio thou wentest forth uncontrollably because thou sorely longest for thy father's house — why hast thou stolen my gods ? The apodosis to "b msn"^"^! logically begins with ^qV^'Xi. 27b. The LXX. apparently read 1^1. kuI el, but comp. a similar apodosis after
GENESIS XXXI. 31-35. 193
i6 at Ps. Iv. 13, Job ix. 32 sq., xxxii. 22. On 'i:il nnipb-a, cornp. 1 Sam. xviii. 6 and LXX. 2 Sam. vi. 5. nib'i;? or even the inf. abs. '('^V might (according to the beginning of ver. 27) follow '^^r'??'? ; we find however the inf. constr. without ? (Ges. § 131. 4, note 2), which in E is written also 1. 20 and even with a suffix Ex. xviii. 18 itJ'j; (comp. HN") xlviii. 11). ^X in the phrase: it is, or: it is not '''i^^ "PXp, means power (from ^"ix, whence also TO^x Ps. xxii. 20), pro- perly the powerful matter, or (since ???, Assyr. ilu, seems to have only a tone-long e and originally a short i) perhaps reach, especially reach of power (according to Lagarde, from npx^ like t2p from HDD). He could avenge himself, but " the God of your father," he says, i.e. the God of Isaac, who is now the liead of the family to Jacob's wives also, warned me t^'^X in the preceding night ; we already read this word conceived of adverbially as an Ace. xix. 34 (where see), and it occurs again only here in ver. 42 and Job xxx. 3, 2 Kings ix. 26, while the Assyr. freely uses musu (plur. musdti), late evening, night, as a noun. The strengthening inf. intens. h^\^ and ^M? (to long for, here : to long back, as in the Bedouin i«_£*.»^, DMZ. xxii. 158) are psychologically significant. The nrij;i. looks towards the inquiring nap ; we should say, transposing the sentence : now then, why, if sore home-sickness irresistibly impelled thee, hast thou stolen my gods ? Jacob's excuse and pro- test, vv. 31, 32 : Then Jacob answered and said: Because I was afraid; for I thought, lest thou shouldst perhaps even rob from me thy daughters. With whom thou shalt find thy gods, he shall not live ; in the presence of our brethren, look strictly to what is found with me and take it to thee ! — Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. Instead of i^V ' ' "i.^'X (xliv. 9 sq.), is apud qucm, we here read "'^'X Dy, apud quern (is vivere desinat). n)n^ has rightly scgolta ; for 'i^''nx 133 refers not to the execution, but to the inspection, which is to be made before the eyes of all the persons belonging to them both. Eachel's stratagem prevents the discovery of her theft, w. 33-35: Then Zaban VOL. II, N
194 GENESIS XXXI. 36-42.
vjent into JacoVs tent and into Lcalis tent and into the tent of the two handmaids and found nothing, and having come out of Leah's tent he loent into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them into the saddle of the camel and was sitting upon them, and Lahan felt about all the tent and found nothing. And she said to her fathe7' : Let not my lord he angry that L cannot rise up before thee, for it is with me according to the manner of women — so he sought but found not the teraphim. Thus Eachel, whose turn came next to Leah, and with whom the narrative now tarries longer (the hand- maids being here, where the historic course of Genesis is reflected in parvo, despatched extra ordinem), was able to deceive her father, by putting the teraphim into the saddle of the camel and then sitting upon it. On nincx, plur. of noK, see on xx. 17. The saddle is called l? from its (basket- shaped) roundness. Luther, misunderstanding the stramenta of Jerome (after adyfiara of the LXX.), translates die strew der Kamel. She excuses herself from rising before her father' (^350, like Lev. xix, 32) because of her condition. The stratagem was cunningly devised, for even though Laban might not have esteemed it unclean and unfitting to touch the seat on which she sat (see Lev. xv. 22), how could he have thought it possible that a woman in her circumstances should be sitting upon his gods ! Thus Laban stands dis- comfited, and the right of casting reproach is all at once transferred to Jacob, who upbraids him with the injustice of this hostile pursuit, and with all the faithful, unselfish and hard service which he has rendered him, vv. 36-42 : Tlicn Jacob u'as angry and chode with Laban ; Jacob answered and said to Laban : Wliat is my offence, what is my sin, that thou hast pursued after me ? Thou hast felt ahout all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stiff? Set it here in the presence of thy and of my brethren, let them judge between us two. Ln the twenty years that I have been ivith thee, thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams
GENESIS XXXI. 36-42. 195
of thy fiock have I not eaten. That which was torn I brought not home to thee, I myself replaced it, of my hand thou didst require it, that which was stolen by day and stolen by night. Where I was by day, the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and sleep fed from my eyes. Twenty years have I spent in thine house ; fourteen years I served thee for thy two daughters and six years for thy flock, and ten times hast thou changed my hire. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had been for me, surely then thou wouldest have sent me away empty — my affliction and the labour of my hands hath Elohim, seen and decided yesternight. In ver. 36 ■•rixisn no is to be written with Pathach before n, as at Job xxi. 21. The phrase "'^nN ppn to pursue violently, is repeated 1 Sam. xvii. 53. That the mother sheep did not drop their lambs (miscarry l''?^ 38a), shows that he had treated them gently (comp. xxxiii. 13), and that God had blessed his care- fulness. In ver. 39 ^^^, LXX. airoTivvveLv, has the same meaning as D??' Ex. xxii. 12 ; ns^nx for i^iixtsnx is formed as from nDn=NDn. The twice repeated "'0333 has the connective i, which here as everywhere, with the exception of Lara. i. 1, Hos. X. 11, has the tone on the xdt. ; the T ought to stand at njians, for na^'pan n^o points onward to what was lost and Jacob had to answer for. The verb "TlJ (related to 1« iv. 12) appears only here, ver. 40, in the Pentateuch. " My sleep " ''T\W is that which is fitting and should be allowed me (Isa. xxi. 4). According to the statement of time in ver. 41, the births of Jacob's eleven sons, with that of Dinah and certain other daughters, takes place in the last 7 + 6 years of his Aramsean sojourn, see above xxx. 24. The speech of Jacob has, by reason of the strong emotion and self-conscious eleva- tion expressed therein, both rhythmic movement and poetic form. Its truth, and especially its close, cuts Labau to the heart, ins fear is here equal to the object of fear (o-e/3a9 = crk^aafia). nriy^a with the praet. begins the apodosis of a hypothetical prodosis referring to the past, as at Num. xxii.
196 GENESIS XXXI. 43-48.
29, 33, 1 Sam. xiv. 30, comp. ^3 1 Sam. xxv. 34, 2 Sam. ii. 27. Laban disarmed offers reconciliation and to enter into an agree- ment, vv. 43, 44: Then Laban answered and said to Jacob: The daughters are my daughters and the children are my children, and the flocks my flochs, and cdl that thou seest is mine ; hut for my daughters, — what shall I this day do, or for their children whom they have borne ? Come then, we will make a covenant, I and thou, and it shall be for a witness between me and thee. The subject to n^ni cannot be n''"}3, which is fern., but a neuter, " it," viz. the present occurrence. Jacob incor- porates and fixes this ^V in a monumental form, ver. 45 : Then Jacob took a stone and set it up for a memorial pillar. Thus it stood in E, but now J" is further added to E, vv. 4G-48 : And Jacob said to his brethren : Gather stones ; and they took stones and made a heap, and ate there upon the heap. Laban called it Jegar sahadHtha, and Jacob called it Gated. And Laban said : This heap is witness between me and thee this day, therefore he called its name Gated. The heap served, as is summarily remarked beforehand 465 (comp. the anticipations xxvii. 33, xxviii. 5), as a table for a common covenant repast (comp. xxvi. 30), and is called by Laban Nrrnnb "ir_ (which is both East and West Aramaic), by Jacob "'J???, the heap of witness. These are the only two D^3^n nnm in the Thorah, as the tractate Sofrim i. 1 0 expresses it. In the Jerus. Talmud {Sota vii. 2) and elsewhere this language is called ^diid, avpiari
{DMZ. xxv. 128 sq.). The verbs inif ^!^°, J^^ and niy have
the fundamental meaning of making firm, the verb "^T. that of heaping together, ^?a that of rolling. Thus the appellations are pretty nearly identical. It was formerly inferred (Bochart, Huet, le Clerc, Astruc and others) from this passage that Abraham brought with him from Ur Casdim the Aramaic language and exchanged it in Canaan for the jwa nsb' (Isa. xix. 18). The case, on the contrary, is that the Terahites, who remained in Mesopotamia, there became acquainted, during the
GENESIS XXXI. 49. 197
180 years which elapsed from between Abraham's migration into Canaan and this occurrence on the mountain of Gilead, with the Aramaic speech of the country, but that in the family of Terah the Babylonio-Assyrian, which differed less than the Aramaic from the tongue of the Canaanites who had migrated thence (from the Erythraean Sea), was spoken. Hence a change of language cannot be spoken of in the same manner in the case of Abraham as in that of his kindred in Haran (Konig, Lehrgeb. § 4. 2). — In 48& the style betokens the hand of J ; the same formula xi. 9, xix. 22, xxv. 30 (xxix. 34, where however the reading may be •^^lii'J, shows that X^i^ is to be understood with the most general subject (they called), and at the same time indicates that ver. 47, where Jacob is said to have given the name, was written by another hand, viz. E. That we have here materials offered by different sources worked up together, is also shown by the connection, ver. 49, not fitting in with what preceded: And Mispa'h,for he said: May Jaliveh ivatch between me and thee, when we are out of sight of one another, nayisni has no other connection than with the preceding: therefore he called the heap of stones "IV^?, and this place of the meeting of Jacob and Laban was called navon, because (""^*^, as at xxx. 18, Deut. iii. 24) he (Laban) said — the words of Laban are taken from his speech in J, and nsvom ")»S "IK'S seems to be an addition by E. The well-known Mizpah in the mountains of Gilead, the residence of Jephtha (Judg. xi. 34), the subsequent Gadite city of refuge, cannot here be intended, for the Mizpah in question lay in the neigh- bourhood of the Jabbok (see Miihlau under Mizpah-Mizpeh in Piiehm's HW.), which Jacob did not pass over till after the reconciliation with Laban. The Samar. reads na^oni (in the Samar. Targ. nnoypl), which Wellh. turns to account for the analysis of sources ; but the explanation 'i:i nns IB'N and nssioni are surely derived from the same hand, and naSDni cannot be equivalent with nsvoni, these words having different verbal stems and expressing different notions. The exclamation
198 GENESIS XXXI. 50-53.
of Laban 'iJI ^^1, with which iv. 14 can hardly be compared, because dissimilar, is continued, ver. 50, in words from E: If thou shalt ill-use my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives beside my daughters, it is not a man that is with us — heJwld, Mohim is witness between me and thee. In order not to be betrayed into a false analysis, it must be observed that the covenant obligation, which Laban here imposes upon Jacob, is a different one from that in ver. 51 sq. Here the only matter is that Jacob shall be a faithful and considerate husband to Laban's daughters. With regard to the Divine names in ver. 49 sq., they testify to both / and E. The appeal to God, as surety of the covenant, does not come into collision with the memorial of the covenant. Another covenant obligation, whose acceptance the memorial is to recall to future ages, consists in this, that the boundary of which it is the mark is not to be passed with hostile intention, 51— 53a; And Laban said unto Jacob : Behold this heap of stones and behold this •pillar, which I have set up between me and thee. Let this heap be witness, and let this pillar be witness : neither will I pass over this heap unto thee, neither shalt thou pass over this heap nor this pillar unto me, for ill. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us, the God of their father ! The express threefold juxtaposition of the two monuments looks like the comprising together of two accounts, in one of which the nnvD and in the other the ^a was prominent. V^'i^^* — nriN-DK answer to the correlative sive . . . sive, as at Ex. xix. 13; the DN of the oath is not intended, for vh DX is an affirmative oath. "^T^yi is to be understood according to Job xxxviii. 6 and 11^. in the name of Jerusalem. The Q^l"'?^f ^^^ coming in afterwards in a supplementary manner, and hence as a later addition, is not meant to signify " the gods of their father," but, on the contrary, makes the God of Terah, as a higher unity and as a bond of union between the two parties, predominant to the God of Abraham and Nahor. Jacob however does not enter into this syncretistic view of Laban, ver. 53&.- Then
GENESIS XXXI. 54-XXXII. 1. 199
Jacob swore, hy the fear of his father Isaac. He swears by the God reverently adored by his father. The narrator, as at ver. 42, is E. What was anticipatively related from J, ver. 46, now follows in the more detailed form in which it is found in E, ver. 54 : And Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mountain and called his brethren to eat bread, and they ate bread and remained all night in the mountain. This was the covenant-repast as at xxvi. 30, where however we are not told, as here and xlvi. 1, that there was an offering of the flesh. Elsewhere on the contrary v;e meet indeed with altars in the patriarchal history, but, except in the sacrifice at Moriah, without mention of sacrifices offered thereon. Next morning a peaceful departure takes place, xxxii. 1 : Early in the morning Laban rose up and hissed his sons and daughters and, blessed them, and J^aban returned to his place. Though 15 sounds like xviii. 33 (but comp. also Num. xxiv. 25), the account of E still continues. Laban in caressing his children does what, according to xxxi. 28, he had desired to do.
THE ANGELIC VISION, THE NIGHT AT PENIEL, AND THE UNEX- PECTEDLY KIND BEHAVIOUR OF ESAU, XXXH. 2-XXXIII. 17.
The third section of the Toledoth of Isaac, derived from E and J, begins with xxxii. 2. A narrative portion from J closes with pjl xxxii. 14a, and one from E with \> ^'^^\ xxxii. 22&. What was first related in the words of J" is repeated ver. 23 sq. in the words of E, to whom we are indebted for the narrative of the conflict at the Jabbok. The Divine name D'Ti^x however appears both at xxxii. 29 (where the subject gives occasion for it) and at xxxiii. 5, 11 in a Jahvistic con- text (comp. e.g. also xxviii. 21), it is of itself no decisive criterion against J, to Vv^hom Wellh. ascribes vv. 23-33. Driver also {Critical Notes, 1887, p. 41) thinks it probable that 24-32 is derived from J. So too Kuenen, to whom the history of Jacob's conflict at Jabbok seems to bear the stamp of the " pre-
200 GENESIS XXXII. 2-6.
prophetic" traditions of the Hexateuch {Einl. § 13, note 23). It is evident that the answer to the question, whether / or ^ is the narrator, remains an uncertain and purely subjective one. The connection of the family, to whom the promise is given, with Paddan Aram is thus peacefully dissolved, and the pro- gress of the sacred history, turned quite away from this its mother country, advances henceforth towards Egypt, where the family was to grow into a nation. Accompanied by the blessing of Laban, Jacob continues his journey, vv. 2, 3 : And Jacob went on Ms way and angels of EloTiim met Mm, and Jacoh said when he saw them : This is God's host, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Angels of God, in whom he recognises a host of God given him as an escort, meet him (comp. 1 Chron. xii. 22), and he names the place after the angelic host added to his own, or perhaps after the protectors of his previous and future journeys, D^^nro (two camps) — the name of a subsequent Levite city, in the territory of the tribe of Gad, north of the Jabbok. Here, according to a statement of Estori ha - Parchi, recently confirmed by Eli Smith, is still found between Jabbok and Jarmuch (iia-i' by Talmudic and Arabic corruption from 'lepofxa^), upon a mountain terrace above the two -branched Wadi Jabes, a place called Zajb^ Mahne. Hitzig and Kneucker place Maha- naim farther northwards in the Jordan valley, where the Jarmuch flows into the Jordan, but where not a trace of the ancient name is to be found. The name D;n» is inscribed upon the Karnak tablet of the march of Shishak ; the termina- tion ajim might, as in D^bc'n^ and the like (comp. Kohler, Gesch. ii. 176), be a diphthongally formed am (Wellh.), but the name is in the Bible always written D'?no, and the Dual represents more aptly than the singular, the meaning and aim of what is related. Jacob's message to Esau, vv. 4-6 : And Jacob sent messengers before Mm to his brother Esau, to the land of Sc'ir, the field of Edom. And he commanded them saying : Speak thus to my lord, to Esau : Tims saith thy servant Jacob :
GENESIS XXXII. 7-9. 201
/ have sojourned with Zahan and stayed till now, and I have oxen and asses, flocks and men-servants and maid- servants, and I have sent to tell my lord, to find grace in thy sight. Esau then was already dwelling in "I'V?' P^, though its final occu- pation and possession, related xxxvi. 6-8 from Q, and accord- ing to which it is here anticipatively called Qil.^ i^l^ (comp. xxxvi. 6), did not take place till afterwards. A third name of the country in Targ. Jer. and Samar. is rhii px the Gebalene ('G^eMZ = mountains), in»sn is in the favourite impf. energicum of the Jahvistico-Deuteronomic style. The imperfect form inx (=nnsx) is syncopated like ^lI^ Prov. viii. 17. The historical tense '^npf'^J (as at Ezra viii. 16, Neh. vi. 3, 8) has the intensive ah, which enhances the vividness of the notion of the verb and occurs four times in the Pentateuch, Ges. § xlix. 2 ; Driver, § 72. liB^ used here collectively, and whose plural occurs but once, Hos. xii. 12, is without example elsewhere. Eeport of the messengers and Jacob's pre- cautionary measures, vv. 7-9 : The messengers retiLrned to Jacob saying : We came to thy brother to Esau, and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed, and he divided the people that was with him and the flochs and the herds and the camels, into two companies, and said: If Esau comes to the one company and smites it, then the company that is left will escape. The circumstance that Esau has such a host for offence and defence, is explained by his having to maintain himself in Mount Seir, upon which he has set his mind, against the not yet subjugated and supplanted Horite aborigines. The reader is left as much in the dark as to Esau's purpose and disposition, as Jacob was. This advance, which caused Jacob so much fear, did not manifest any change of mind since xxvii. 41. The angelic manifestation at Maha- nain still hovers before him, but the threatening reality is again encamped between him and this consolatory picture. Preparing for the worst, he divides his people and flocks into
202 GENESIS XXXII. 10-14.
two companies, that if Esau should smite the one ("^.J^l? first fzm. as at Ps. xxviL 3, then was. as at Zech. xiv. 15) the other "^^vp, t.e, to an escape, i.e. will be an escaped and preserved one. Nothing indicates a reference by this divi- sion to the Dual D)3no (Dillm.). Jacob does not however rest satisfied with this prudent arrangement, but by believing prayer grasps through the dark future the promise of God, vv. 10-13 : And Jacob said: God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Jahveh, who saidst unto me : Return to thy country and to thy home and I will do thee good — I am less than all the favours and all the truth ichich Thou hast showed to Thy servant, for with my staff passed I over this Jordan, and now I am become two companies. Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children. And Thou didst say : I will surely do thee good and will maJce thy seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. The comparative p of ?2rp ''ri3b|5 ver. 11, denoting distance, does not refer to incapacity of requital, but to unworthiness of reception. The non is in DHDn (only here in the Pent.) resolved into its manifestations ; riDS (the faithfulness or truth which keeps its promises) did not admit of such a plural. " The mother with the children" is, as at Hos. x. 14, a proverbial expres- sion in accordance with Dent. xxii. 6 (by, as at Ex. xxxv. 22, comp. on Ps. xvi. 2). The prayer is of one cast. Tuch thinks it unsuitable in the narrator, to make Jacob call upon God to keep His word. But to keep to His word the God who keeps His word, is the way of all true prayer. Upon what else can Jacob rely but upon the promise of God, and how else can he do so but by praying ? With such prayer did Jacob chase away his fear, 14a; And he lodged there that night. There, viz. where he had received the message and undertaken the division into two companies. Since no D3^'|5 follows, what is further related must be thought of as taking place during the uight season, and this is also confirmed by ver. 23. What
GENESIS XXXII. 14-22. 203
lies between 14a and 22& appears to be from E, but the analysis is not certain and is moreover unimportant. Pre- parations for appeasing Esau, 14&-22 : And he took of what he had in his possession a present for Esau his hrother. Two Mindred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and tioenty rams, thirty milch camels with their foals, thirty cows and ten hulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals, and delivered it into the hand of his servants in single separate droves, and said to his servants : Pass over before me and leave a space between drove and drove. And he com^manded the first, saying : When Esau my brother meeteth thee and asheth thee, saying : Whose art thou and whither goest thou, and to whom do these before thee belong ? Then say : To thy servant Jacob, it is a present sent to my lord Esau, and behold he also is himself behind us. And he com- manded also the second, also the third, also all who followed the droves, saying : Just so shall ye speak to Esau, when ye meet him. And ye shall say : Also behold thy servant Jacob is behind lis ; for he thought : I will appease his face by the present, that goes before me, and afterwards see his face, perhaps he will accept my face. So the present went over before him, while he passed that night in the company. " What had come to his hand" is to be explained according to "n* }S!f the flock of his possession, Ps. xcv. 7. The proportion of ten to one in the selection of male and female animals is like 2 Chron. xvii. 11; comp. Varro, £?e re rust. ]i. 3. The abbreviation D^JVl (for D^^'Vl) is like iVf'i Job iv. 2. The verb t:'ja 18a (a syn. of j;:q) only occurs again in the Pent, at xxxiii. 8, Ex.
iv. 24, 27 ; in ^K^JQI 185 from ^'If., a secondary form of K'SQ^
1 Sam. XXV. 20, the close of the first syllable is dissolved, comp. Cant. viii. 2, where Ben-Asher reads ^Pf^ji^? and Ben- Naphtali ^pv*^^- In like manner is D3X|Sb3 modified from D3NVD3, the original combination of syllables being dissolved. The verb "123, i^iXdaKeaOai, which, when the sinner is spoken of in relation to God, never has God or His wrath as its
204 GENESIS XXXII. 23-25.
object (see the ground of the exposition in the Comm. on Heb. ii. 17), has here 216 the accus. of the person offended, and at Prov. xvi. 14 the accusative of the wrath. The Samar. Targum here translates "'DtJ's and vi. 14 ^3t:>ni, and hence assumes both here and there a like original meaning for -|QD. To accept the face of any one 21h (comp, xix. 21) is equivalent to favouring his person and interests, receiving him favourably. The night of 22& is the same as that of 1 4a. That extracts from different sources are discharged into these statements is apparent from vv. 23, 24, where the two sources are seen flowing side by side : And he arose up in that night and took his two wives and his two handmaids and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of Jahbok. And he took them and "brought them over the stream, and brought over what belonged to him. On sin rh'h2 " in that night," comp. xix. 33, XXX. 16. Instead of ib'iC'KTis the Samar. has "h "iB'S b^ ns, which is involuntarily substituted for the pregnant briefer expression. Though V"jp^, not '■"^zi, is used, Dinah is left unnoticed. The Jabbok is not the Jarmuch (Ew.), nor mentioned by mistake in its stead (Hitz.), but (if we take 'Gebel-Aglun as the place of the meeting with Laban) the eastern affluent of the Jordan (now called ez-Zerkd on account of its clear blue waters), into which it flows about li leagues south-west of the place where it issues from the mountains. The Syrian caravan road leads to the ford of its upper course ; traces of ancient buildings project half-hidden from the rushes and thickets of oleander ; the district and the region about the banks of the ford testify that ancient civilisation was there active.
When Jacob was now again alone on the northern bank, he had to undergo a long and difficult conflict, ver. 25 : And Jacob remained behind alone, and a man wrestled with him till the break of day. What is here related, ver. 2 5 sqq., gave, in the opinion of the narrator, its name to the stream, for it is surely intentionally that he uses the Niph. p3>??., not elsewhere
GENESIS XXXII. 26-29. 205
occurring (from p3K radically related to pnn to hold fast to, to close with one another), hardly a denominative, from P^? ^ust : to make oneself dusty (LXX eiraXaiev, comp. Trakr] = pollen, pulvis, a-vyKovtovadat). Hence P^l is not in his mind equivalent to p"^J, from Pp3 evacuans aquas, but to p'3N;''_, according to the kind of syncope in I3???'n Job xxxv. 11, '??.m5 2 Sam. xxii. 40. The Samar. has in the Heb. text pim, in the Targ. jj'trjxi : he effected contact, i.e. a violent struggling embrace (Apliel of tj'K'J contrectare, no denominative from m^ clod. Job vii. 5, as Ges. in the Thesaurus assumes). Straining of the hip of him who was not to be prevailed against, ver. 2 6 : And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the socJcet of his hip ; then was the socket ofJacoVs hip strained, as he wrestled with him. The unnamed sees that he i'' b'y NP (comp. Ps. cxxix. 2), properly, that he is not equal, not superior to him, and he therefore gives him a blow on the socket of the hip,
so as to strain it {VP_^\ from VP^, «J, to fall, to fall out, to
occur, LXX evdpKTjaev, torpuit, from vapKaw, which does not exactly correspond, but rather luxari), the sinew of the hip undergoing during the wrestling so violent a strain, that Jacob was lamed in consequence. The wrestling having lasted long enough, without Jacob being conquered, the unnamed says, 27a: Let me go, for the day hreaketh. But Jacob, divining and feeling that it is a Divine Being whose attack he has had to sustain, keeps hold of the man and cries out, according to Hos. xii. 5, with tears and supplications, 27&; / loill not let thee go unless thoxb hless me. Then the marvel- lous Being says to him, ver. 28 : What is thy name ? And he said : Jacob. The question is only preparatory to the com- munication which follows, ver. 2 9 : Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel ; for thou hast fought with Elohim and with men, and hast prevailed. Instead of the more usual K"?.i5^. xvii. 5, xxxv. 10, we here read "i?s^. In D^K'JX Esau and Laban are thought of. In ?b) the Hoijh. of b"i3 gives the imperfect
206 GENESIS XXXII, 29-33.
form ^^^^], properly, capax /actus es. The verb mB> to contend, is connected with the Arabic ^^, I-, HI., IX. (different from the V IC to put in a row, serere, and i^, Heb. and Babylonio- Assyr. : to rule). Ancient translators all render n^l^ like the LXX ivLa^va-a<;, they did not understand the distinction between the verbs mc' to contend and i"!^ to rule (comp. "^^l) Hos. xii. 5 : he fought, from 11^' = mfc', and on the other hand litJ'J Isa. xxxii. 1, they will rule) ; but Luth. correctly : For tJwu hast fought with God and with men. After this oracular saying, Jacob, on his part, also desires to know the name of the wondrous and, as he now the more certainly knows, Divine Being, with whom he has to do, w, 29, 30 : Then Jacob asked and said : Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said : Wherefore askest thou after my name ? He gives no answer, and yet answers : And he blessed him there. It is the same niiT' "[sbo who replies to the same question from Manoah, Judg. xiii. 18 : Wherefore askest thou after my name, which is Wonderful (yf K^n^) ? His name is not com- prehensible for mortals, but the fact of blessing tells Jacob plainly enough Who is before him, viz. the Almighty Himself in His "jK^o. His blessing has shed light upon the darkness of Jacob's soul. It was night there, but light appeared during the conflict, and now it is full bright day within and without, ver. 3 1 : Then Jacob called the name of the place Penul ; for " I have seen Elohim face to face, and my life was presaged." The name bsOQ (or -'i^iJS with the connective sound H, like ^nn, iDip) means, as the LXX translates it, etSo? Qeov. He has seen God and yet (contrary to the rule, Ex. xxxiii. 20) is preserved ; the impf. conscc. here denotes a result contrary to expectation, as at xix, 9, xlix. 24; Driver, § 74/3, When Jacob now goes farther southwards with his family, ver. 32 : The sun rose upon him, as he went over Penucl, and he halted upon his hip. A popular custom recalling this circumstance, ver. 33 : Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew of the hip, which is in
GENESIS XXXIII. 1-3. 207
the socket of the hip, because he touched it. Even here the subj. continues unnamed, as a mystery not to be unveiled. This
sinew {nervus ischiadicus) has the name nc'lin Ti^ \^\ ^x.,
as the torpifying or paralysing one, i.e. the one which causes such a condition, whether momentarily or permanently (see
Ges. Thes. p. 921&) ; the Arab. 1**aJ, which of itself already means the nerve of the hip, shows that r\mr\ is gen. appositionis. The straining, stretching, or crushing of this nerve would result in paralysis. The riDTiB' (an allusion to ritual slaughter) under- stands by it the internal sinew of the so-called hindquarter, including the external, and the ramifications of both.
The meeting of the brothers now follows, xxx. 1-16. Esau approaches, and Jacob prepares for the worst, vv. 1-3 : And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children tmto Leah and Rachel and unto the two handmaids. And he placed the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. And he himself went before them and bowed himself seven times to the earth, till he came near to his brother. The verb nvn to divide, had at xxxii. 18 the meaning of separating, here lb of sharing ; he shared the children to their mothers, so that in the long train, the handmaids with their children went first, then followed Leah with hers, while Eachel with her only child Joseph closed the procession. Thus at the passage of the Jabbok he reunited the divided companies, and still so mis- trusted Esau, as to place the members of his family at a distance from him, proportioned to the degree of responsibility in which he stands to them ; nor has he really any reason for not mistrusting him, and at all events nothing can release him from the care for their safety, which his family have a right to expect. He puts himself at the head of the train, and on ap- proaching his brother bows reverentially before him seven times. The '^)}n|i'^'?, irpoa-KvvrjdL^, fully performed, took place with
208 GENESIS XXXIII. 4-7.
n^ix CSX, Gen. xix. 1, comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 23, 2 Sam. i. 2, hence, as is traditionally explained, with D vJ"]"! Q^T^ DilJ'a^ exten- sion of the hands and feet ; or only suggestively by bending, as one about to prostrate himself (comp. 1 Sam. xx. 41). At all events Jacob meets his brother with such superabundant courtesy, as we nowhere else meet with in sacred history. It was politic but not hypocritical. He had truly sinned against him, and ought to feel ashamed. The external was the expression of the internal self-humiliation which he experienced, in remembering his fault. Esau makes less ceremony, for he has a comparatively better, and none too tender a conscience ; he has let fall his resolve to slay Jacob. The freebooter life awarded him by his father, by which he too may be in his fashion powerful, pleases him. And now that the passion of revenge has spent itself, the brotherly affection, which was never extinct, is rekindled at the sight of Jacob, ver. 4 : Then Esau ran to meet him and emhraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. The six points over ^i^i?^'l have the value of a critical 6^e\6<;, on which account this word is missing in many MSS. of the LXX. The Midrash however takes them as a mark of interrogation, which casts a doubt on the sincerity of this kissing, and would rather read inac^M (he bit him) ; but this is against Esau's character. As all kinds of shadows pass across the piety of the sou of promise, so on the other hand is the energetic son of nature capable of noble impulses and emotions. The Divine grace, which ruled in the paternal house, had not been without influence upon him also. He inquires after the women and children in Jacob's retinue, who all salute him with the utmost reverence, vv. 5-7 : And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and he said : How are these related to thee ? And he said : They are the children which Elohim has graciously given thy servant. And the handmaids drew near, they and their children, and they hawed themselves. And Leah also drew near and her children, and they bowed themselves.
GENESIS XXXIII. 8-11. 209
And last dreiu near Joseph and Rachel, and they lowed them- selves. Here, as at ver. 11, Jacob calls the God who has so richly blessed him D^^^s, and that in the midst of the Jahvistic text ; it almost seems as if he purposely suppressed the name which God bears as the God of the history of re- demption. Esau then inquires concerning the company which he had met — he had already heard from the shepherds that it was a present for himself, but this he ignores, vv. 8-11 : Then he said : What meanest thou hj this company which I have met ? And he said : That I may find grace in the sight of my lord. Then Esau said: I have abundance, m/y brother, keep rvhat is thine ! But Jacob said: Nay, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thy sight, receive my present from my hand, for for this cause have I seen thy face, as the seeing of the face of Elohim, and thou hast received me kindly. Take then, I pray thee, my blessing, which is brought to thee, for Elohim has dealt graciously with me and I have all. And he urged him. Then he took it. In the question 8a, ""P stands by attraction (as at Judg. xiii. 17) for no (xxxii. 28) ; it relates to the now united five droves (xxxii. 15 sq.). Esau declines the present; omit- ting the title of my lord used by Jacob, he says : 3"!^ V"^^^^ i.e. not only enough ("""."n), but more than enougli. Jacob however requests its acceptance : i^^^-QN expresses condition with the addition of request, as at xviii. 3, xxx. 27 ; the ex- pression of the request follows in J^ni??"!, according to Ges. § 126, note 1. On ir^r'? (where '3 tr^^V might be expected) see on xviii. 5, here : because occasion and opportunity were offered me to bring thee a gift of homage, therefore have I seen thy face D''"??i< ''.■?3 nkns. If Jacob here means to say, that as great a happiness has been bestowed upon him as if he had seen the face of God, this would certainly be " odious humility " (Kn.). But it must be explained in accordance with such passages as 1 Sam. xxix. 9, 2 Sam. xiv. 17. Jacob means to say that elohimish (we should say heavenly) kindness looks upon him from Esau's face, nor could he think VOL. II. 0
210 GENESIS XXXIII. 12-15.
otherwise ; for he must have recognised in the disposition of his brother, thus changed against all expectation, the work of the God who hears prayer and disposes the hearts of men (comp. xxxi. 24 with Ps. xxxiii. 15), and so have seen in his, a reflection of the Divine kindness, n^rha and not nin^ was here too in J the Divine name appropriate to the meaning. Dillm. agrees with Wellh. that in 10& another meaning of the name ^s'':s is indicated, than that given in U, xxxii. 31. Jacob calls the present expressing his wish for a blessing ''K^^l^, my blessing. nj«3n is equivalent to nxn^n ; dth — ath, is the
original feminine termination ; comp. the forms of verbs sb Deut. xxxi. 29, Isa. vii. 14, Jer. xliv. 33, Ps. cxviii. 23, and
of verbs nb' where it is less frequent, Lev. xxv. 21, xxvi. 34 ; Ges. § 74, 75, note 1. ''Jan is contracted from V??'?. A second reason is added with ''p], as at 1 Sam. xix. 4, Isa. Ixv. 16. Esau had said : I have abundance ; Jacob can, in the con- sciousness that Jahveh is his God, without hyperbole outvie him and say : I have all. By thus pressing Esau he induces him to accept the present. Then Esau remembers the onward journey and offers to escort him, but this Jacob declines, vv. 12—15 : Then he said : Let us jourtuy and go onwards, and I will go in presence of thee. And he said to him : My lord Jcnoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds are upon me as giving suck, and if they are overdriven one day, all the sheep will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, go hefore his servant, and I will move forwards at my ease according to the pace of the cattle that is hefore me, and according to the pace of the. children until I come to my lord to Seir. Then said Esau : Let me, L pray thee, place with thee a portion of the people that are with me ; hut he said : Wherefore ! Let me find favour in the sight of my lord ! Esau will precede "^^p Jacob, so that the latter having him in sight may be sure of protection. But Jacob declines ; he does not yet feel that this would be safe, is the remark of Kn. But could he who wrestled with God
GENESIS XXXIII. 16, 17. 211
have so soon become again a designer aud a coward ? No ; the vocation of which Jacob is conscious, by reason of the blessing of the first-born, obliges him, like Abraham in the presence of the five kings, just now to maintain his indepen- dence in the presence of Esau, and not to involve himself in any fresh obligation to him. Besides, the reasons for which he deprecates his escort are no empty pretence, for he does not desire that Esau should accommodate himself to the diffi- culties of his advance, and he is unable to accommodate himself to the warlike pace of Esau and his people, being obliged for the sake of the children and flocks to avoid over- exertion : vy ni?y lactantes (as at Isa. xl. 11, not lactentes, because properly sustentantes, see on Ps. viii. 3) super me, i.e. make special care incumbent on me, because in the condition of giving suck, and should any one overdrive them (Urn for Hn, as at xxvi. 1 5 and always), etc., — the usual hypothetical con- struction with the Perf. in both prodosis and apodosis, xlii. 38, xliv. 29, comp. xxxi. 30, Ex. xvi. 21 ; Ges. § 155. 4a. The b of ""tpxp and pi")!? is that of measure ; i^^Npp here means pro- perty = cattle, as perhaps also at 1 Sam. xv. 9, comp. 'peculium, pecunia, property consisting in cattle. Jacob's destination is Hebron, thence he seems to purpose visiting his brother in Seir : he deceives him by deceiving himself. Esau proposes to leave at least some of his people with him as an escort, but this too Jacob courteously deprecates as unnecessary. They consequently separate and depart in different directions, vv. 16, 17 : Therefore Esau returned on his way that day to Seir. And J acoh journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made hooths for his cattle, therefore he called the name of the place Succoth. The uninterrupted prosecution of his journey was not possible to Jacob, his household required forbearance and rest : only necessity makes this trans- Jordanic sojourn comprehensible. Jerome in his Quaestiones on this passage remarks : Sochoth usque hodie civitas trans Jordanem in parte Scythopoleos. There is actually still a place, <-rj^L-, south of
212 GENESIS XXXIII. 16, 17.
Beisan ( = Bethsean = Scythopolis), " upon a low bluff at tlie end of the ridge above the Wddi el-Mdlih " (Robinson in DMZ. vii. 1, p. 59). This Succoth lies in parte Scythopoleos, but not trans Jordanem. There must however have been also a Suc- coth on the other side of Jordan, which Jacob, coining from Mesopotamia by Mahanaim and Peniel and crossing over Jordan to Sichem, would pass. Sichem is emphatically called, xxxiii. 18, the first Canaanite town, i.e. the first place in the country west of Jordan which he reached. A Succoth situate trans Jordanem is also required : (1) Because a Gadite Succoth is named with Beth - ISTimra and other east - Jordanic places, and this must have been, even on this account, on the left bank of Jordan, because the tribe of Gad had no possessions on its western side. (2) Because Gideon, Judg. viii. 4-8, having passed over Jordan, comes to Succoth and thence to Penuel. If then the Succoth, between which and Zarthan Solomon had the temple-vessels cast, lay in the neighbourhood of Scythopolis, 1 Kings iv. 12, upon the western side, so that we must distinguish between an eastern and a western Succoth, both P»V3 Josh. xiii. 27, Ps. Ix. 8, there must beyond all doubt have been one east of Jordan, and this is Jacob's Succoth. Kiepert's maps transpose it close to the left bank of Jordan above the Wadi Jabis ; but then Jacob must have gone northwards and thus have twice passed the Jabbok, which may be admitted, although the narrative does not say so. It is more probable however that this Succotli on the left bank lay between the Jabbok and the high road, which leads from Salt in Gilead to Sichem (Kohler, Gesch. i. 147; Keil, Dillm.). Ver. 17 also bears in the i^y^ ir^V (therefore he called) the mark of J (comp. xi. 9, xvi. 14, xix. 22, XXV. 30, 1. 11).
Before proceeding farther, we would once more review the wonderful experiences of Jacob at Mahanaim and Peniel. At Mahanaim, on the threshold of the Land of Promise, is fulfilled to him what he had dreamed at Bethel, when on
GENESIS XXXIII. 16, 17. 213
the point of leaving it. What he here experienced, is thus in the mind of the narrator no second dream- vision. The host of God has invisible reality outside himself (a reality made for the moment visible), as indeed already follows from its being appointed to protect him. Are we to judge otherwise concerning the occurrence at Peniel ? It is for the most part transposed, as already by Eusebius (in the Eclogce pwph.), to the sphere of the dream or ecstasy. " A mystic obscurity " — says Krummacher in his Paragrajphen zu dxr lieil. Gesch. 1818 — " rests upon this appearing, which is with peculiar simplicity represented not as a dream-vision, which it indisputably was, but as an historical event, and as such it may with full justice be esteemed, for does only the material, and that which is an object of sight and touch, belong to history, and is that which can neither be laid hold of nor comprehended excluded from it ? " And Hengstenberg : " In an external conflict and struggle, victory is not obtained by prayer and tears as by Jacob, according to Hos. xii. 4 sq." Umbreit {Studien u. Kritiken, 1848) passes the final sentence: "If we try to explain the passage literally, darkness settles upon it, and we see no gleam of light, except the rising sun." Certainly the occurrence here related belongs not to outward and visible history, but to the spiritual life ; but it is not on that account purely subjective. The Being with whom he contended was not present only to Jacob's imagination, it was not merely an attack caused by his own conscience, but an attack objectively real by God Himself. The is^D (Hos. xii. 5) had not indeed flesh and bone, he opposed force to force in virtue of the power, which the spirit has over the material, just as our spirit also, though it has not flesh and bone, sets this in motion as it chooses. But that Jacob conquers God in the Divine man, is possible, because it is only with a certain measure of His omnipotence that God opposes him. And why does he wrestle with Jacob in this hostile manner ? Because, as now comes clearly to light in view of the meeting with Esau, his
214 GENESIS XXXni. 16, 17.
possession of the blessing is not unspotted by sin. It is for this reason that he is attacked, and that not merely by his own conscience, which testifies against this sin, but by God Himself, who makes him feel it. But the faith in the depth of Jacob's heart breaks through sin and weakness and attack, grasps the mercy of his Adversary notwithstanding His hostile demeanour, and wrings anew from Him that blessing, threatened with annihilation, which he now obtains purified from dross, sanctified, transfigured as a Divine gift, a gift of grace. The straining of his hip was a reminder that his natural strength was nothing. What made Jacob invincible was, as the Divine touch proved, not his hip (Ps. cxlvii. 10), but his faith. It was by this that he anew obtained the blessing, which he had till now possessed as the acquisition of his carnal subtlety. For the blessing of the first-born, out of which he tricked Esau, could neither be the basis of a birthright valid before God, nor the root from which the holy nation was to grow. It becomes this in this conflict, in which Jacob re-obtains it as the prize of his victorious faith, and from which he comes forth with the new name of ^sib'% which (of like meaning as it seems with ^I'p) does not directly signify the fighter of God, i.e. fighter with God (for, as Nestle, Eigennamen, pp. 30-63, has shown, b^? is, in all personal names compounded with ^s, intended as subject, not as object), but " God fights," yet so that this, by reason of the occasion, acquires the meaning of one with whom God fought and who thus had to fight with God ; thus e.g. pny^ means the laugher, but according to its meaning is the designation of him who was the object of laughter; also P'^! (=pbx^) means the wrestler, but designates the stream where the wrestling took place. Thus Jacob is called bsib''' as the man fought with by God, but connotatively as the man who sustained the fight with God. This name he henceforth bears, especially in /, but in none of the sources so exclusively as Abram and Sarai bear those of Dmns and mb* after they were given them by God, xvii. 5, 15. For these two names designate the transition
GENESIS XXXIII. 18-20. 215
into a new and ever-continuing position effected and appointed by the Divine will and promise, and therefore entirely abolish the former names. But the name bant^'' denotes a spiritual demeanour determined by faith, beside which the natural, determined by flesh and blood, was henceforth to go on in Jacob's life. Jacob-Israel is herein the prototype of the nation descended from him.
THE SOJOURN IN SICHEM. SIMEON AND LEVl's VENGEANCE FOR THE DISHONOURING OF DINAH, CH. XXXIII. 18-XXXIV,
The second portion of the third section of the Toledoth of Isaac, xxxiii. 18 to xxxiv., relates to the atrocity perpetrated by Simeon and Levi upon the Sichemites. Vv. 18-20 form the transition : And Jacob came in peace to the city of ''Sechem which is in the land of Canaan, upon his journey from Paddan Aram, and he encamped before the city. And he bought the piece of ground, where he had pitched his tent, at the hand of the sons of Hamdr, the father of ''Scchem, for a hundred ICsitah. And he erected there an altar and called it " El God of Israel." The LXX, Syr. Euseb. Jerome take D?^ as the name of a place, and Salim is actually the name of a village situated on a rocky eminence east of Nablus, certainly that near which John baptized, John iii. 23, and from which the valley of Salem, Judith iv. 4, had its name. But then ^^p T'V would be in opposition to this thf, which is inadmissible (for that a daughter city should be called ya of the mother city is without authentication) ; hence of the two meanings : in Salem and in pace (see Eonsch, Buch der Jubilden, pp. 141-143), which the Leptogenesis places together, d^B' has here the
latter (whence Saadia translates : he came U!L to the city of Nabulus) ; d"?*^ is equivalent to Di^K' xliii. 27 (as the Hebreeo-Sam. reads : ujaha jaakob salom ir eskem), or Di'P^'3, in safety, he came to the city of Shechem as it was promised him, xxviii. 15, comp. 21. The territory of Sichem (situate,
216 GENESIS XXXm. 18-20.
as |j;j3 pK2 "lt^'S states, in Canaan proper on the right of the Jordan) is already mentioned in Abraham's time, xii. 6 ; the then still new city was regarded as founded by Chamor, a Hivite prince, and called after his son (Judg. ix. 28, comp. Josh. xxiv. 32). That father and son are called Asinus and Humerus recalls the blessing of Issachar, xlix. 14 sq., though the ancient position of Sichem upon the " shoulder " of Gerizim makes the allusion doubtful. In any case there is no need to refer the name iian to an ass honoured as a deity {DMZ. xl. 156). Nor need we be astonished to find the C^.n, who dwelt in the period after Moses from the Antilebanon to Hamath, Josh. xi. 3, Judg. iii. 3, here in the midst of Canaan, where they formed a small kingdom, as in Gibeon, Josh. ix. 11, 19, they formed a small republic; Mount Ephraim may have been their original abode, whence they were subsequently driven northwards until they disappeared after the time of Solomon (1 Kings ix. 20). In the neighbour- hood C.^QTisi as at xix. 13, Lev. iv. 6) of this Sichem Jacob encamped and bought the piece of ground on which he pitched his tent, from the ruling family of the oac' -"ax "li^n'V.^ (comp. Judg. ix. 28), for one hundred Kesitah (to which Josh. xxiv. 32 refers), as Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah from the Hethites for four hundred shekels, xxiii. 16 (both which purchases are entangled into one. Acts vii. 16). LXX, Onkelos, the Targ. Job xxiv. 11 and Jerome translate nL5"'b'p by NSlin lamb (comp. Samar. NDiiy and with it the Syr. |Eniy money) — a meaning which r\\yt*\> must, according to Gen. Bdbha c. 79, have really had in the common tongue. R. Akiba however relates (Bosch ha-Shanah 26a) that in Africa (certainly among the Carthaginians) he heard a coin
called HD^b'P, which is not improbable, LuJ being applied to
all sorts of designations of quantity. We are not obliged with Cavedoni to understand nD^'^p of an uncoined piece of silver of the value of a lamb, or with Poole of a weight in the shape
GENESIS XXXIII. 18-20. 217
of a lamb (such weights occur indeed among the Egyptians, Assyrians, and also among the Persians, in the forms of lions, dogs, and geese), but nto'^^'p means directly a weighed piece of metal, and one indeed, as shown by xxiii. 16, Job xlii. 11, of considerably higher value than the ^i^.^, but not more par- ticularly definable (comp. Madden, Eidory of Jewish Coinage, 1864, p. 6 sq.). The piece of ground, acquired at this price by Jacob, was the plain extending at the east end of the narrow valley between Ebal and Gerizim, where Jacob's well and Joseph's grave, from one to two hundred paces north of the latter, are still shown (Josh. xxiv. 32). Upon this piece of purchased ground Jacob erects an altar, not a "^^i^'P, for the circumstance that 3'5fn is used, xxxv. 14, 20, for the erection of a pillar, does not prove that here too nano was substituted for an original nnifO belonging to 3^'.l (Wellh. Dillm.). He calls the altar ^^'iV\ ''\P^. -'??. Having returned in safety from a strange country, he again settles in Canaan, and according to his vow thankfully acknowledges the God whom he calls h^, and who appeared to him in Bethel, xxxi. 13, as Ids God, the God of Israel (see xxxii. 25 sqq.). The name ^^'W'^ ''n^s ^x as the name of the altar is meant, as it were, of its inscrip- tion. In the Mosaic period ^K-ib"" M^X W was changed into bs"ib>'' '•n^s mn^ Ex. xxxiv. 23, the favourite name for God in the book of Joshua.
From D^fr? n?P ^^"2? xxxiii. 18a it is seen that R is here speaking in words from Q, to whom belongs also ver. 19, the counterpart to the purchase in Hebron, ch. xxiii., while on the other hand ver. 20, the counterpart to Ex. xvii. 15, may be derived from E. In the history of the vengeance taken on Shechem for the dishonouring of Dinah, which now follows in ch. xxxiv., and which the unconnectedly inserted notice xxx. 21 had in view, Q and J are the chief narrators. The accounts of both as met with by R essentially agreed. In both cir- cumcision was made a condition to the Shechemites, after Dinah had in both been carried of and dishonoured by the
218 GENESIS XXXIV. 1, 2.
young prince, but most anxiously demanded by him in marriage — in both she is taken, and is again taken back, 21, 176, 266. In vv. 1-2, 4, 6, 8-10, 14-18, 20-24, Q is unmistakeable ; the demand of circumcision is repeated, 156, 226, in the same words as in xvii. 10, and the transac- tion at Shechem is similar to that at Hebron, eh. xxiii (comp. the twofold n"")? nyti' ''NV"'-b ver. 24, and the twofold ^3 ITy "^W ""K^ xxiii. 10, 18). Just as evident is J's mode of statement at vv. 3, 5, 7, 11-12, 19, 25-26, 30-31. Cer- tainly the term KOt? for dishonouring is authenticated else- where only in the Priest Codex and Ezekiel, but the formula ^X")K^''3 TWV nba: is Deuteronomic, Deut. xxii. 21, and ■)y3 = mi'j (which in the Pent, occurs only once, Deut. xxii. 19) is each of the twenty-one times (in Gen. xxiv. 14, 16, xxviii. 55, 57, xxxiv. 3a, 36, 12) Jahvistic or Deuteronomic. In Q Hamor, in J Shechem is the chief speaker, which is easily fitted together; it is clearly seen from vv. 8-10 {Q) and 11-12 (J"), how the two accounts are placed side by side to complete each other. The case of the abruptly commencing portion, vv. 27-29 (with ver. 13), is peculiar; this like xlviii. 21 seems to come from E, who has related the conquest of Shechem only according to its external aspect, as a deed of arms by the sons of Jacob. This apportioning of sources seems to me more than probable, while Dillm. thinks otherwise, and Kuenen makes a different analysis. Evidence and agree- ment are here scarcely attainable.
Dinah visits the city from the new dwelling-place of her father, ver. 1 : Then Dinah, the daughter of Leah whom she hare to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. It is Q who thus begins : " Daughters of the land," like xxvii. 46, comp. " people of the land," xxiii. 12. The son of the prince of the land is captivated by her beauty, keeps her with him and dishonours her, ver. 2 : And "Sechem the son of Hamor the Hivitc, the prince of the land, saw her, took her, lay vnth her and humiliated her. Cajetanus (Thomas de Vio) already remarks
GENESIS XXXIV. 3-7. 219
in his Comm. on Genesis : Multis annis post reditum Jacohi ex Mesopotamia peractis hoc accidit et ad minus apparet quod anni fiuxerunt decern, ut et Dina esset nubilis et Simeon et Levi ad helium dispositi. Such is also the view of Bonfr^re, Petavius and Hengstenberg {Auth. 2. 352 sq.)- Dinah was then, as also Demetrius in Euseb. Prcep. ix. 2 1 computes, in her sixteenth year, i.e. assuming that she was born in the second seven years of the Aramaean sojourn. According however to the after calculation, given ch. xxx., she was in her fourteenth, Simeon in his twenty-first, and Levi in his twentieth year. It may be objected against both these state- ments of Dinah's age, that the time from Jacob's return to the selling of Joseph, which took place after Jacob's entrance into his father's house, amounts to only eleven years (from Joseph's sixth to his seventeenth year), and that one year is too short for the occurrence in ch. xxxv. But much can happen in a year ; we must therefore adhere to the view, that Dinah's dishonour falls in the tenth year after the return to Canaan. Is nnx with ^pf*] the ace. of the object ? Accord- ing to xxvi. 10, xxxv. 22, Lev. xv. 18, 24 and other passages it seems so, and the Keri ^}'^'^f] Deut. xxviii. 30, assumes that this pregnant construction of 33B' (i^nx instead of the expected J^OV) is possible, nay usual. In Dinah's case matters were different from Thamar's, whom Amnon, after the satis- faction of his passion, hated as much as he had loved, vv. 3, 4 : And his soul clave unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel and spake to the heart of the damsel. And "Sechem said to Hamor : Get me this damsel to wife. The young seducer only loved her whom he had seduced the more, soothed her with pleasant prospects of the future, and actually entreated his father to take him the damsel for a wife ; for the marriage of children was, according to ancient domestic arrangement, the business of parents (xxiv., xxi. 21). Jacob hears what has happened, the sons of Jacob hear it, and mean- time the wooer arrives, vv. 5-7 : And Jacob heard that he had
220 GENESIS XXXIV. 8-10.
dishonoured Dinah his daughter, and his sons were with the cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor, the father of "Sechem, came out unto Jacob, to com- mune with him. But the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it, and the men felt grieved, and were very wroth, that he had wrought folly in Israel in lying vnth Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. The dishonour of a sister was a matter which touched the brothers even more closely than the father. The expression 76, there being as yet no people of Israel, sounds anachronistic, like Deut. xxii. 21, Judg. XX. 10, 2 Sam. xiii. 12 sqq., Jer. xxix. 23 ; but it is only so to a certain extent, since the family of Jacob with its dependants had already the semblance of a family develop- ing into a nation (com p. xxxv. 6). "^^33 nby is the standing expression for carnal transgressions, which are more accurately called n?3T, Judg. xx. 6, and ?9^; n^33 because the man who follows his carnal impulses in opposition to nature, honour and decency, is a paragon of folly. The potential nby^ means here: so should it not be done, as at xx. 9, Lev. iv. 27 (comp. xxix. 26 : so it is not wont to be done). Hamor now comes and woos for his son, vv. 8-10 : Then Hamdr spoke to them thus : The soul of my son ''Sechem is bound to your daughter ; I pray you, give her to him to wife. And make ye alliances with us, give your daughters to us and take our daughters to you. And dwell with us — the land shall be open before you, dwell in and pass through it and settle therein. " Your daughters " zeugmatically include the brotliers, who are here especially concerned, 'linx after " make ye alliances," cannot be meant as an ace. but stands for =i3r)S (1 Kings iii. 1), for which also !i:3 or 37 would be allowable, "ino combined with the ace. like vv. eundi, is here meant of passing through the land as inb (xxiii. 16), hence of liberty to trade (different from xlii. 34). Tns3 to settle is, like n^n^*, an expression of the Elohistic style, xlvii. 27, Num. xxxii. 30, Josh. xxii. 9, 19. The old prince is ready to fraternize with Jacob, but the young prince also,
GENESIS XXXIV. 11-18. 221
without waiting for Jacob's answer, places in the balance words, with which his love for Dinah inspires him, vv. 11, 12 : And "Sechem said to her father and her brothers : Let me find grace in your eyes, and what you shall say to me I will give. Lay ufon me a very high price and dowry, and I ivill give what- ever you say — only give me the damsel to wife. He will agree to everything to the highest *inb bride-purchase money (Arab. mahr, Syr. mahra) and the largest ]^tp bridal present (Gen. Eabba : pia k~iQ, irapdi^epva, according to a common inaccurate use of this word of the gift of the husband to the wife, comp. Ex. xxii. 1 5 sq. LXX), if they will only give him the maiden to wife. It sounded extremely flattering to Jacob and his sons that their flesh and blood should be so highly esteemed. But if they had consented to the offer of Hamor, the family of Jacob would by blending with the heathen have forfeited their redemptive vocation ; and if the brothers of Dinah had let the matter be settled with money, they would have defiled their more than princely nobility and sacrificed their moral feeling to Mammon. This they refuse to do, and appear thereby morally great ; but their moral greatness is blackened, by passion making them inventive and inspiring them with a plan of revenge, which, unless God had presided over this entanglement of good and evil, might easily have proved the destruction of the sacred family, vv. 13-18 : Then the sons of Jacob answered "Sechem with guile, and said, because he had dishonoured Dinah their sister. And they said to them : We cannot do this to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised, for that is to us disgraceful. Only on this condition will we consent unto you, if ye become as we are, that you let every male among you be circumcised. Then will we give our daughters to you, and vjill take your daughters to us, and we will dwell vnth you and become one people. And their words were acceptable in the eyes of Hamdr, and in the eyes of "Sechem the son of Hamdr. The sons of Jacob answered "^piP? and said, because, etc. In any case n^i'K (as at ver. 27 - jV"') introduces the reason for
222 GENESIS XXXIV. 19.
their concealed plan of vengeance, and we must either read here, transposing the words, nDi^n nnT'l (Olsh. Schrad. Dillm.), or, which is less probable : "'|i"^ means here to act from behind, a Piel meaning of jJ to be or go backward (trans, to lead, to bring backward), proved for the Hebrew also by "Yll (see on Ps. xxxviii. 2), and shown to be at least possible by 2 Chron. xxii. 10, where "^TVX assuming the integrity of the text, has the meaning of murderous destruction. They cannot give their sister to one who is uncircumcised, because that (the state of uncircumcision) is a disgrace with them ; but nxfa for this, i.e. this act on their part, they will consent unto them (niw from niK, not imperf. Kal like ^"^l, but imperf.
-i
Niph. to agree about anything, allied to nnx, j\, used in
post-biblical diction as a participle : agreeing to, suitably) if they (the Hivites) become as they (the Jacobites) are, ^iisnb by all the males among them submitting to circumcision ; then will they give to them their sister (i^D??, pc^/ conscc. according to Ges. § 126. 6, note 1), and unite themselves with them as one people. Shechem hastens to fulfil the condition, ver. 19 : And the young man deferred not to do the thing, for he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the most honoured in all the house of his father. The con- dition did not displease the two wooers. Shechem really loved Dinah, besides circumcision was the custom of most of the Canaanites and Egyptians, while heathen worship required far greater mutilations ; the thousands of Koman proselytes who, according to Cicero, ^ro Flacco, c. 28, filled Italy, show how much more compliant antiquity was in this respect than modern times would be. The account as at present constructed here at once remarks that the young man, whose example would go far, because he was the most respected member of his family, made no delay ("ins for *ins, like |Xp). The different sources betray themselves by the circumstance, that in ver. 20 both first return home, and he would hardly undergo
GENESIS XXXIV. 20-24. 223
the operation previously. The princely pair now proclaim in the city, and indeed in the gate (the Oriental forum), the treaty entered into, vv. 20-24: Then came Hamdr and Ids son "Seclicm to the gate of their city and spake thus to the men of their city : These men are friendly with us, and they will dwell in the land and go throicgh it ; and the land, behold it lies before them spacious towards the right hand and the left: we will take their daughters to us for wives, and we will give them our daughters. Only under this condition will the men consent unto us, to dwell with us, to become one people, that we circum- cise every male among its, as they are circumcised. Their cattle and their property and all their beasts of burden, will not this be ours? Let us only consent to them, that they may dwell with us. Then to Hamor and his son "'Sechem hearkened all that went out to the gate of his city, and all the males were circumcised, all that went out to the gate of his city. Dp^ xxxiii. 18 means to be in safety, here, to be in good relation, to stand on a peaceful friendly footing with (nx, corap. DV 1 Kings viii. 61 and frequently). They give to Jacob and his family the praise of being thoroughly well-meaning people. Besides, the land is of such spacious extent (Ps. civ. 25) that they may go about in it, without becoming inconvenient ; they next declare the certainly unwelcome condition which is to cost the Shechemites blood (Q v^SJ, partic. of the Niph. which like the praet. runs through the whole scale of vowels : "133, DD3, fe?), but at the same time somewhat sweeten it by adding that their cattle, beasts of burden, and property in general (to be explained according to xxxvi. 6, Num. xxxii. 26) may be looked upon by them, the Hivites, as their own, or may in the end become theirs. This recommendation of the treaty, which Jacob and his family indeed must not hear of, although it was only a rhetorical artifice, inclined the Shechemites to consent, for self-interest is the door to all hearts, and all who went out to the gate of Shechem's city (xxiii. 10, 18) submitted to circumcision. The operation of
224 GENESIS XXXIV. 25, 26.
circumcision is however no slight matter ; it may, if unskilfully or incautiously performed, become dangerous through haemor- rhage, caries, etc. Adults have therefore to lie in bed and keep quiet for three days, while frequently healing does not take place till from thirty-five to forty days. Hence, on the third, the critical day, the men of Shechem were all down (comp. Josh. V. 8), and thus fell victims to a sudden and malicious attack, vv. 25, 26 : And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took each his sword and surprised the careless city, and hilled every male. And Hamdr and his son "Scchem they killed with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of ''Seche7n's house and departed. They came upon the city npa, not as Luther, thiirstiglich, i.e. rashly, confidenter, but to be referred to the city : in a condition free from care (comp. Ezek. XXX. 9), struck down every male, and especially the two princes, according to {Kara) the edge of the sword, i.e. letting this, which is conceived of as a mouth that devours, have its way. It was Simeon and Levi, tlie " two sons of Jacob," who carried out this sudden assassination, which their father disowned shortly before his death, xlix. 5-7. In vv. 27-29 however, the other sons of Jacob are also participators: The sons of Jacob fell upon the slain and plundered the city, because he had dishonoured Dinah their sister. Their sheep and oxen and asses, and what was in the city and what was in the field, they took away. And all their property and all their children and wines they carried away captive, and plundered all that was in the house. The beginning is abrupt (comp. on the other hand 7a) and nnn ncs-b nsi drags behind, just as innTI does in ver. 13; the refrain-like "because he had dis- honoured (her)," common to vv. 13 and 27, proves that vv. 13, 27-29 are taken from a special source, which, turning away from the moral aspect of the matter, relates the conquest of Shechem, in the sense of xlviii, 22, as a deed of arms on the part of the whole family of Jacob. The two nsi 28Z^ may be
GENESIS XXXIV. 30, 31. 225
conceived correlatively like Num. ix. 14, the ^ of nsi 29& perhaps in the sense of etiam ; but probably as in ver. 13 (read n»"i03 nmn), so here too, a displacement of the text may have occurred, and the original text may have run : ni<l irn^ nt:' n^23 "^^'^ ^3 (comp. Obad. ver. 11, 2 Chron. xxi. 17). Now follows the continuation from J, which joins on to ver. 26, vv. 30, 31 : Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: Ye have troubled me, to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and Pherizites, and yet I am a numerable people, and if they gather together against me, they will smite me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. The verb n^y to shake together, conturbare, is found in the Jahvistic style also at Josh. vi. 18, vii. 25. tr''^53n to make evil, especially of evil odour, here with the accus. of the person, Ex. v. 21 with the accus. 12^'''^"n^<. " Canaanites and Pherizites " as the popu- lation of the country also at xiii. 7. ^spp '•no numerable = few people, is Jahvistico-Deuteronomic (Deut. iv. 27) ; ipB'? (and T'pt^'i?) is a frequent word in Deut. (occurring elsewhere in the peroration of the law of holiness, Lev. xxvi. 30). Jacob laments the fatal deed, but they (Simeon and Levi) justify it, ver. 31: But they said: Should one treat our sister as a harlot ? The verb nb'y tractare, as at Lev. xvi. 15 and frequently, njirsn has 3 raph. as at xxvii. 38, Job xv. 8, xxii. 13, and Gaja before the Pathach in distinction from the article, it is uncertain whether with t majusculum, comp. FrensdorfF, Oehla-v;e-Ochla, p. 88. Simeon and Levi have the last word, but Jacob speaks the last of all in his testamentary sayings. The most sinful part of it was, their degrading the sacred sign of the covenant to so base a means of malice. And yet it was a noble germ which exploded so sinfully. The Divine righteousness, which fashioned the subsequent history, turned this also to account. The energetic moral purity, which the two tribes display in these their beginnings, was sanctified by grace and profited all Israel. When this 13 considered, the view of the vengeance of Simeon and Levi,
VOL. II. p
226 GENESIS XXXV. 1-8.
wliicli underlies xxxiv, 27-29, xxxv. 5, xlviii. 22, and accord- ing to which this warlike occurrence was perhaps related in the 'n nian^o 'd Num. xxi. 14, will be found explicable. The unbending strictness, with which the history abstains from interposing any judgment or reflections, is admirable.
THE LAST EVENTS OF ISAAC'S LIFE, CH. XXXV.
The third and last section of the Toledoth of Isaac ends with the third portion, ch. xxxv. The contents of this chapter are as miscellaneous as Old Testament biographies in general, as also Arabic biographies, are wont to be towards their close. From Succoth Jacob went to the district of Shechem, every station bringing him nearer to his father's home. Between his arrival in Canaan however and his entrance into that home an interval of several years, during which he lived at a distance from his aged father, took place. 1. Return to Bethel and death of Deborah, xxxv. 1-8, from E, without interpolations being (as by Dillm.) denied to him. The reason for his long sojourn in Shechem is unknown to us. An inner voice now directs the patriarch to leave the neighbourhood of Shechem, which had been so cruelly devastated, and to go to Bethel, where upon his flight he had had the encouraging dream-vision of the ladder reaching to heaven : And Elohim said to Jacob : Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and build there an altar to the God that appeared to thee, when thou fleddest from the face of thy brother Esau. Then Jacob said to his household and to all that were with him: Put away tJie strange gods which you have among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments. And we will arise and go up to Bethel, and I will erect an altar there to the God who heard me in the day of my distress, and was icith me in the icay that I went. Then they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth lohich was in ShccJiem. And they
GENESIS XXXV. 1-8. 227
journeyed, and a terror of Elohim was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, vjhich is in the land of Canaan, the same is Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, for there God manifested Himself to him, when he fled before his brother. There Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried below Bethel under the oak, and they called its name the oak of weeping. Before starting on the journey to Bethel, by which he obeyed the behest of God, and at the same time fulfilled a promise formerly made to Him, Jacob bids those belonging to both his narrower and wider family circle, to put away their " gods of the strange land " (13J, original form ntkar, like 3jy, '^^'^), which had been long enough tolerated from his too indulgent affection for his wives, and to make fit preparation for visiting the holy place (Ex. xix. 14 sq.). There in Bethel is he to dwell, there is he, in conformity with his vow, to make this place a house of God, i.e. a place of worship, xxviii. 22, to build an altar to the God who heard him in the day of distress (comp. the saying Ps. xx. 2, which perhaps alludes to this passage of Genesis), and was with him on his way to the strange country. Then they gave to the patriarch all the strange gods (among which were Eachel's teraphim) ; they gave him also their earrings (which served as amulets or charms, Targums i^l^lP ; comp. talisman = reXecriia), and he buried these things, which would profane the holy place, ^^y} ^f I?, in Shechem. The LXX adds koL aircokeaev avrd ew? T^9 arj^epov r)fiepa<i. The place overshadowed by this tere- binth consecrated by Jacob, and perhaps already by Abram (xii. 6, comp. Deut. xi. 30), was in Joshua's time (Josh, xxiv, 26, where it is pointed npsn, comp. on the other hand Judg. ix. 6) esteemed as a 'n tTjpp, and Joshua there erected the memorial stone of the oath of covenant faithfulness to Jahveh here taken by the elders of the people. The ancient patriarchal injunction : "'^-'^ ^i?^??."^? ^'^^9'^, is purposely re-
228 GENESIS XXXV. 1-8.
peated in Joshua's address, xxiv. 23. Ver. 5, which joins on to xxiv. 27—29 and furnishes an indispensable explanation, explains how it was that Jacob could thus quietly prepare for and take his journey, and hence must not (with Dillm.) be denied to E as an insertion of R (the redactor). " A terror of Elohim," D^nSi^ nnn (comp. 2 Chron. xx. 29, Zech. xiv. 14), i.e. one more than natural (according to heathen expression : iravLKov Belfia), fell upon the cities round about, none ventured to pursue the sons of Jacob, who had smitten and plundered Shechem ; and so Jacob arrived with all his household, which, especially now, when the women and children taken prisoners from Shechem were added to it, was so numerous that they could be called a Dy at Luz " in the land of Canaan " (comp. xlviii. 3). It is not strange (even though 6a were not E's), but of deliberate purpose, that Bethel, the station which became so important on the outward journey, is here on the return journey, when it acquired new importance, so circumstantially designated, as at xxviii. 19, by both its new and its ancient name. He builds there an altar, and now calls the place of the altar, as formerly the whole spacious part in front of Luz, ^^^''1^ ^^ (comp. xxxiii. 20), in remembrance of the former Divine manifestation on his flight from Esau (comp. on the plural of the verb combined with Q"''?^^.'^ -xx. 13). This is the fifth altar in the patriarchal history. Abraham erected one in the neighbourhood of Bethel, xii. 8, comp. xiii. 4, and one in Mamre near Hebron, xiii. 8 ; Isaac one in Beersheba, xxvi. 2 5 ; Jacob one in Shechem, xxxiii. 20, and one here in Bethel, — it is nowhere said that sacrifice was offered on these altars ; they seem to be regarded by the narrator as places of devotion, not of sacrifice. Eebekah's nurse, who had followed her mistress to Canaan, xxiv. 59 (J"), called, as we here first learn, Deborah, was then found among the followers of Jacob who journeyed with him ; a circumstance for which we can imagine many reasons, but only by means of worthless conjectures. Being now of advanced age, she died at Bethel, and was buried
GENESIS XXXV. 9-15. 229
below Bethel, under the oak, which received the name of ri02 |i?X oak of weeping, or oak of mourning (><'Ji??!l, as at xxv. 26), probably the very tree which is called ^"'i^'n "loh Judg. iv. 5, perhaps also one and the same with inri pN* 1 Sam. X. 3. This Deborah must have been a faithful nurse and family friend, since the house of Jacob so lamented her, and both legend and history found her worthy of such perpetua- tion. If, according to heathen legend, the nurse of Dionysos (n03, BaKj(o<iT) is buried in Scythopolis (Plin. h. n. 5. 18), and there is a grave of Silenos in the land of the Hebrews (Pausan. Eliaca, c. 24), with which J. D. Michaelis already combined xxxv. 4, these are, like the name and cultus of the Bactylia, distorted echoes of what is here related. 2. The
KENEWAL OF THE HONOUKABLE NAME OF ISKAEL, VV. 9-15: And Elohim appeared to Jacob again on his return from Paddan Aram and Messed him. And Elohim said to him : Thy name is Jacob, thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall thy name he. And Elohim said to him : I am El Shaddai, be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall arise from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land, ivhich I have given to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will 1 give the land. And Elohim went up from him at the place where He had spoken to him. And Jacob set wp a pillar at the place xvhere He had spoken to him, a pillar of stone, and he poured thereon a drink-offering and poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the place, where Elohim had spoken to him. Bethel. Elohim appears again (niy by i2 as a retrospect at xxviii. 11 sqq.) to Jacob when returned from Aramsea (Q"^fr* H?), gives him the name of Israel, and renews to him the promises given to Abraham, eh. xvii., that Q^ia ?npl ^ia, a whole nation, nay a multitude of nations, shall arise from him, and kings proceed from his loins ("^^■*7^'!?» as at 1 Kings viii 19, 2 Chron. vi. 9, for which else- where V^._. ^^\ xlvi. 26, Ex. i. 5, never \Jn9), and that He will give to him and to his seed the land promised to the fathers
230 GENESIS XXXV. 9-15.
(n^C'"^^ at the beginning and close of the verses, comp. the palindrome, ii. 2, vi. 9, xiii. 6, Lev. xxv, 41, Deut. xxxii. 43, and comp. on this figure, Jesaia, p. 408), calling Himself as He did, ch. xvii. (but never with respect to Isaac), "''=!^ ?^?. Elohim then goes up (^'I?!! just as at xvii. 22), and Jacob erects upon the spot, where this revelation was vouchsafed, a stone memorial pillar, pours out upon it a drink-offering, probably of wine (comp. Ex. xxx. 9), pours oil upon it, and calls the place ^^rr'a. This is the second time that the bestowal of this name is related, comp, xxviii. 19 (not the third time, since the name of the altar place bsn"-! h^ ver. 7 presupposes that the local name ^sn'-a already existed). Both these occurrences, the change of Jacob's name and the erection of a memorial pillar, have already been related by E, the former xxxii. 25 sqq., the latter xxviii. 18. Here the manner of Q is unmistakeable, tliough not unmixed.^ The manifestation which Jacob experienced on his return journey from Aramrea is here comprised in one entire picture, and the erection of the pillar with the bestowal of the name Bethel is postponed in the same manner that the Synoptists retrospectively transpose the purification of the temple by Jesus, which took place at the first Passover, to the last. A libation is here added to the anointing of the memorial stone with oil, perhaps to make this consecration symbolically an expression of thankful joy. Jacob himself looks back, xlviii. 3 sq., to this appearing of God in Bethel. It is easily conceivable in the position which it occupies. Jacob has now again arrived at Bethel, whence he started ; for what other purpose has God directed him to Bethel but to crown him, at this closing point of his history, as at its commencement, with promises of blessing ? 3. Birth OF Benjamin and death of Eachel, vv. 16-20: And tliaj
1 According to Kuenen {Einl. § 13, note 4), the account of P^ = Q) is enlarged by R from JE, and Hosea is based upon J. It is certain that Hos. xii. 5, wlio there follows the course of events, intends none other than this very theophany in Bethel (not xxviii. 11 sqq.), and that his reference cannot be utilized for the date of Q.
GENESIS XXXV. 16-20. 231
journeyed from Bethel, and there was still a hibrah of land unto Ephrath, then Bachel travailed and had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in such hard labour, that the mid- wife said to her : Fear not, for this time too thou shalt have a son. When then her soul was departing — for she died — she called his name Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin. And Bachel died and was buried in the way to Ej^hrath, the same is Bethlehem. And Jacob erected a pillar upon her grave, the same is the pillar of BacheVs grave to this clay. "With respect to the source of this portion, one thing is certain, viz. that 17J leads us to infer that it is from the same writer as XXX. 24, therefore from J, and also from the same as xlviii. 7 (which see). The noun ni33 (also Assyr.) is a measure of length from the stem i?3 (whence also 132 long ago), and cannot be more closely defined ; the Onkelos - Targ., which translates ^V'y^ ^11? (properly a yoke or acre of land, from
^"]? wiij.o to plough), gives a precedent for a transposition of
sound ; the word means in general a considerable length, and probably, as may be inferred from this passage together with 2 Kings V. 1 9, an hour's journey, so that the Persian Farsakh or Farsang, irapaa-d'yyr]^ (Syr., Arab., Samar. Tavus), which according to Talmudic estimates amounts to four miles (milliaria), according to Arabic estimate to 12,004 ells, corresponds. Jacob was as near as this to Bethlehem when Eachel was seized with travail pains and had hard labour (Biel ^fp, here the intensive of the Kal : to be very hard, to have great difficulty, Riph. as really transitive, to inflict or suffer hardship). The midwife (comp. xxxviii. 28) en- courages her. When Joseph was born, Eachel had wished for another son, xxx. 24. She must now, in this hard birth- time, brace herself for the fulfilment of her wish. But she dies (nnp fnitum, as also xlviii. 7), and while dying names her new - born son "'?i^5"t3 " son of my sorrow ; " T!^, from j^s to breathe, whence it means sometimes emptiness in a
232 GENESIS XXXV, lfi-20.
physical and ethic sense, sometimes exertion of strength, painful effort, and especially hard labour in childbirth (comp. Isa. xlii. 14). Jacob however called him PP^^n (always according to the Kert and 1 Sam. ix. 1 one word, and with i in the first syllable as more homogeneous with the following ^ comp. Arab, ihn = linj, here with > in the last syllable, but mostly written defectively Pl'^^) " son of pro- sperity," whether because this son was born in the time of his prosperous independence, or because he completed the fortunate number of twelve sons. The right side is, according to both Eastern and Western notions, the lucky side {DMZ. xxi. 601-604). It is true that there is no further authentication of the meaning fortune, power, pro- sperity (like J. J^^. ) for p^^, but much that is unauthenticated
is elsewhere found in proper names. The ancient interpretation filius dierum is rejected by Jerome, while he himself explains Jilms dexterce hoc est virtutis. " Son of the south " is more suitable (Ps. Ixxxix. 13), in distinction from those born in Aramsea (Arab. Schdm, the left = northern) (Kashi) ; but Canaan nowhere bears this name. Jacob buried his beloved wife on the way to Ephrath-Bethlehem, and erected upon her grave a ar^Xi], of which the narrator says that it is to be seen " to this day." A chapel is now built over Eachel's grave, which the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, two leagues to the south, passes. It lies to the right, about 300 paces from the road, in a small hollow under a group of olive- trees. It is only half a league thence to Bethlehem ; the burying -place and the birth-place would certainly not be exactly the same (with which xlviii. 7 is also compatible). 1 Sam. X. 2 however is in apparent contradiction with this specification of the place, which in the time of Jesus was thus and no otherwise understood. Matt. ii. 16-18. Then. V. Lengerke, Kn. Graf, Hitz. Dillm. and others (see the articles " Eachel " in Eiehm's HW., and Ryssel, Untersiichungen
GENESIS XXXV. 16-20. 233
iihei' Micha, 1887, p. 247) get rid of the contradiction by expunging Dn< '^''? '^'''? here and at xlviii. 7 as incorrect glosses, and placing Ephrath in the territory of Benjamin, between the Eamah of Samuel and the Gibeah of Saul. But at 1 Sam. x. 2 we have nypv, where, according to this hypo- thesis, we should have expected max ; the " less known " ^ Benjamite Ephrath having been invented purely in the interests of criticism (Kohler, Gcsch. i. 150); and it is an incorrect inference from Micah iv. 8 (see Caspari, Micha, p. 151), that the station "i']??"''!^'? ver. 21, leads us only to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and not quite to that of Bethlehem. The tower of the flocks (for the protection of the flocks, comp. 2 Kings xviii. 8, 2 Chron. xxvi. 10) is in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, where tradition also, since the time of Jerome, though uncertain as to the exact locality, places it, 20 minutes east of the city (Tobler, Bethlehem, p. 255 sqq.), and n^ax (with He local '"'ri'iaK, the usual form out of Genesis, Euth iv. 11, Micah v. 1) is Bethlehem (as is also evident from 1 Chron. iv. 4), the native city of David ; it shares the name i^^"]?^ only perhaps with Kirjath-Jearim (see on Ps. cxxxii. 6), which however lay out of the route of both Jacob and Saul, assuming that Eamah of Samuel is one with Eamathajim Zophim = Eamah of Benjamin, the position of which, two leagues north of Jerusalem, is now occupied by the village er-Edm, situate upon a cone-shaped hill east of the road to Nablus. Keil combines 1 Sam. x. 2 with the elsewhere testified situation of Eachel's grave, by supposing that the city, 1 Sam. ix. 6, where Saul finds Samuel, is not Eamah (Eamathajim Zophim). But this is very improbable, H''^ P.^ ver. 5 pointing to the Eamah or double Eamah, dis- tinguished from other Eamahs by the additional name D^Qi^. The contradiction in question between 1 Sam. x. 2 and Gen. XXXV. 2 0, xlviii. 7, must be acknowledged, for in 1 Sam. x. 2 Eachel's grave is transposed into the territory of Benjamin, 1 So Eugen Hermann, Prolegomena zur Gesch. Sauls (1886), p. 38.
234 GENESIS XXXV. 21, 22.
and this never extended so far southwards as the neigh- bourhood of Bethlehem, where, according to Gen. id., Eachel was buried. Jer. xxxi. 15 is also favourable to the local definition of 1 Sam. x. 2, according to which Samuel sends Saul back to Gibeah (now Tuleil el-Fitl, Bean hill). For he makes there Rachel, the ancestress of the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin, rise from her grave at Eamah and lift up her voice in lamentation over the depopulated land of her children. np"i is that Eamah of Benjamin, where the exiles of Judah and Benjamin assembled after the catastrophe of Jerusalem (Jer. xl. 1). Thus no other expedient is left, than to admit the existence of two traditions concerning the burial-place of Eachel, one of which placed it at the borders of Benjamin, the other in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, which indeed bore the name of '""n")?? ■^l?? ^""^ (Micah v. 1), or simply ri"iDS from the district in which it lies. Eachel died in about the 50th year of her age, at latest in the 106th year of Jacob's, so that Benjamin would be at tlie time of the migration into Egypt at least 24 years old. 4. Jacob's fuether joukney, and Eeuben's disgraceful act, vv. 21, 22a; And Israel journeyed and pitched his tent heyond the tower of the flocTcs. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went in and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it Jacob may have tarried some considerable time at the station beyond Migdal 'Edcr, though not so long as at Shechem. f2f^ has a dageshed 3 contrary to rule (see on Ps. xl. 1 5). Eeuben here carnally transgresses against Bilhah, the ^."JtB (see on xxii. 24) of his father. On Eeuben's incestuous act nothing further is said but, in preparation for xlix. 4, that Israel heard of it. In this portion, vv. 21, 22a, the threefold repetition of ^xnb'^ (after 3pv^ had preceded at 20a) is striking; so also is the abrupt b^«"lt^>* j;»C'"'l for which the space in the middle of the verse (piDD y^'0{{2 spDQ) makes as it were a break ; after it a Pethiiche (e), just as at Deut. ii. 8 a Seth^iine (d), begins in
II
GENESIS XXXV. 22-29. 235
the middle of the verse (see Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. under xons)/ The LXX fills up the space by koX irovqphv i<^dvrj evwiTLOv avTov (comp. on iv. 8). These mxpDQ, of which three occur in the Pentateuch and twenty-eight from Joshua to Ezekiel (most of them in the books of Samuel), are men- tioned in neither the Talmud nor Midrash, and hence seem to be an arrangement of the post-Talmudic Masoretes, which was however only imperfectly carried out. 22a is doubly accentuated : b^']^\ has Athnach and also Silluk, according as from \n"»"i to hiO'^y is read as a half or as a whole and com- pleted verse. Those who read ver. 22 by themselves con- clude it with ^N"ib'\ but those who read it in public hasten past its objectionable conteots, and conclude with it^^V D^^B' (see Heidenheim in loco, and Geiger, Urschrift, 372 sq.). 5. List of the sons of Jacob, accoeding to their mothers, vv. 225-26 (parallel with 1 Chron. ii. 1, 2): So then the sons of Jacob were twelve. The imp/, consec. joins on to the account concerning the second son of Jacob by Eachel. Hereupon follow the twelve, according to their mothers, and within this division, according to their ages (in accordance with chs. xxix. and xxx.). The list closes, 26&; These are the sons of Jacob, which were horn to him in Paddan Aram Cip.^ instead of '^'^J! xxxvi. 5, according to Ges. 143. lb). This, strictly speaking, applies only to the eleven, and not to Benjamin ; but it is referred to him also as completing the number twelve, and as supplementing the eleven ; besides, he too was born, not in the house of his grandfather, but on the home journey from Aramaea. The list is from Q. It would be too improbable to suppose that he regarded Benjamin also as born in Haran. 6. Jacob's arrival at his father's house, and the death of the latter, vv. 27-29: Aiid
' This halving of the verse before VrT*") is ancient. E. Chaninah b. Gamliel ■was listening in the synagogue of Cabul to the Methurgeman, who was about to translate 22a, and called out to him : Stop, only translate jliriK, t'.e. the second half! Megilla 25d. The Orientals however placed Silluk with Soph pasuk after ^S"li^^ V'O&'i (see Baer's edit, of the five Megilloth, p. v.).
236 GENESIS XXXV. 27-29.
Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre of Kirjath-Arha, the same is Hebron, where Abraham^ and Isaac sojourned; and the time of Isaac's life amounted to one hundred and eighty years. And Iscuic departed and died, and was gathered to his people old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Continuation from Q. Isaac at this time dwelt in Elone Mamre, near the city V^l^^i^, i.e. of the Anakite chieftain of that name (comp. pipn Num. xiii. 22 and fre- quently, nsin 2 Sam. xxi. 16 and frequently), the subsequent Hebron, which (already dedicated by Abraham, xiii. 18) remained a place of worship down to the time of the kings (2 Sam. XV. 7). The name Hebron was the usual one in the time of the narrator (comp. Josh. xiv. 15, Judg. i 10). City of Arba' was the more ancient name, Mamre that of the site of the terebinths upon its territory (comp. xxiii. 19 with xiii. 18). It is strange that Jacob should not till now have come to Mamre. Could he have been a decade in Canaan without seeing his aged father ? Certainly not. But it was now that he first came to him to dwell entirely with him. Did Jacob and his mother ever meet again ? Pressel thinks so, but the silence of the narrative favours Grossrau's view : ^ " Rebekah had indeed hoped that, when Esau's wrath was mitigated, she should be able to send for her favourite son ; but no message of this sort reached Jacob, and when he returned through his own resolve, Eebekah was buried." The Toledoth of Isaac are now closed at ver. 28 sq. This was not as yet the chronological place for recounting Isaac's death ; for if we admit the dates not derived from Q in the history of Joseph into the chronological web of Q, the following relations of time result. Jacob having been born in Isaac's 60th year, xxv. 26, and Isaac living, as we are here told, to be 180, Jacob would be 120 when his father died; and as Jacob was 130 years old when he was pre-
^ 111 his Commentary on Genesis (1887), p. 262 sq., in which he tries to show that Genesis was written by one author, Moses.
GENESIS XXXV. 27-29. 237
sented to Pharaoh, xlvii. 19, Isaac died only 10 years before the migration into Egypt. And since from 9 to 10 years (the 7 fruitful and 2 of the barren years) elapsed between Joseph's elevation in his 30th year, xli. 46, and the migration, Isaac did not die till about the period of Joseph's elevation. Besides, since at Joseph's elevation in his 30 th year 13 years had elapsed since he was sold in his l7th year, Isaac was, when Joseph disappeared, 167 years old. Hence he shared for 13 years the grief of his son Jacob for the loss of Joseph, and his life ended in the deep unilluminated darkness of this sorrow. The history buries him thus early in order to pass on over his grave to the new great turn in the history of Israel. Hitherto the history of Jacob has been always subordinated to the history of Isaac, from which Jacob starts and to which he returns. But now that he has become the father of twelve sons, from whom the twelve-tribed nation of Israel descends, his own independent Toledoth may begin. The history of the patriarchs outlives itself by losing itself in an old age of scarcely any historical importance. But for the patriarchs themselves it was of the greatest importance. They became thereby full of years. They longed to have done with this world, they longed therefore for the other world. The other world was night to them, for the sun of the New Testament Easter morn had not yet risen, but the star of the name of Jahveh shed a light for them also upon the other world. The ^px*l V^y-px (here said ver. 29 of Isaac, xxv. 8 of Abraham, xlix. 33 of Jacob) tells us more than that their corpses were gathered to the corpses of their people. Their souls were associated with the souls of their people in Hades, and because heaven would be no heaven without God (Ps. Ixxiii. 25), so too was Hades no hell for those who had God in their hearts.
IX.
THE TOLEDOTH OF ESAU, XXXVI.
(Parallel with 1 Chron. i. 35 sqq.)
EsAU and Jacob joined hands once more over the corpse of their father. Thence their ways separated without ever again meeting. Hence Esau is finished off in this ninth and last but one chief division of Genesis. The Toledoth of Esau precede Jacob's as, xxv. 12 sqq., those of Ishmael preceded Isaac's. The historiographic course of Genesis is not how- ever the only motive for this arrangement. It has besides this the historical motive, that the development of the branches broken off from the good olive tree, and growing up independently, far outstripped the development of this good olive tree itself. Just as secular greatness in general grows up far more rapidly than spiritual greatness, so did Ishmael and Edom become nations long before Israel. It is on this account also that the Toledoth of Esau precede those of Jacob. The important genealogico - ethnographic section is "a model of the manner and method in which Q was accustomed to produce the material he had in hand, these being elsewhere obscured by the rending asunder of his portions " (Dillm.). Nevertheless, although the systematic arrangement of the portion has come down to us undis- turbed, the interposing hand of the redactor may be discerned — (1) in that the title, nnbn n^Nl ver. 1, is repeated at ver. 9 ; it is very probable that, in the text of Q, xxxvi. 6-8a (as far as i-'ytj' inn) and xxxvii. 1 originally stood after xxxv. 29. The redactor so expanded the intro-
GENESIS XXXVI. 1-8. 239
duction "which followed the title, ver. 1, that its repetition after the expanded introduction seemed to him necessary. (2) The names of Esau's three wives differing from xxvi. 34, xxviii. 9, are owing to his interposition. It is a matter of hesitation whether the names, as contained in the historical work of Q, have been preserved there or here in ch. xxxvi. The hand of R having elsewhere interposed within vv. 2-8, the names here may also be derived from another source. Then, having once given the preference above Q to this other source, the three names would have to be altered accordingly throughout vv. 10-18. On certain other passages, whose origination from Q is open to question, we shall speak in their respective places.
Title, ver. 1 : And these are the generations of Esau, the same is Edam. For ens Kin we have ver. 43 D"n« '•as ; in Q, as far as we know him, no cause is stated why Edom became a proper name of Esau. The title is now, in the first place, followed by an introductory passage. 1. xxxvi. 1-8 (parallel with 1 Chron. i. 35). The fikst beginnings of the eace DESCENDED FROM EsAU : Esau took to him wives of the daughters of Canaan : 'Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholihamah, daughter of 'Anah, granddaughter of Sih'on the Hivite, and Bdsmath, IshmaeVs daughter, the sister of Nebajoth. And 'Adah hare to Esau Eliphaz, and Bdsmath hare Reuel. And Oholi- hamah hare Je'Hs and Jalam and Korah — these are the sons of Esau, which were horn to him in the land of Canaan. Tlien Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all the souls of his house and his cattle and all his heasts, and all his possessions, which he had made his oiun in the land of Canaan, and went into a land . . . away from Jacob his brother. For their substance was too great for them to dwell together, and the land of their sojournings as strangers was not able to bear them, because of their cattle. So Esau dwelt in Mount Se'ir ; Esau the same is Edom. This Dlix Nin iiry takes IS up again and gives us reason to expect that what lies between the two will
240 GENESIS XXXVI. 1-8.
show signs of the revising hand. The perf. r\\>b is related as a circumstantializing premiss to the main fact '131 l?^!), and is in itself (like y]^ iv. 1) only Pluperf. with reference to this, but here it is at the same time such with reference to what has already been related. The name of the country after P.^"''^ ver. 6 is omitted: Tyc' (Syr.) not nns, for -^'V^ pK (ver. 30, xxxii. 4) is with respect to Di"'!!? P^ (ver. 16 sq., xxi. 31) the narrower notion : the former in its strictest sense is the hill country in the south of Judah westward of the Arabah (now inhabited
by the Azazim), while the latter includes also the chain (Jljc^ and 'i\ .a!^) stretching on the eastern side of the Arabah from
the Dead Sea to the ^lanitic Gulf (Kn. Dillm.). The LXX, Sam. correct the defective px into |j?33 pso, which tells nothing. There, according to JE, Esau already dwelt in Mount Seir, at Jacob's return from Aramsea, xxxii. 4, xxxiii. 14, 15. It is here in Q, ver. 6 sq. (comp. with the expression, xii. 5, xxxiv. 23, xiii. 6), that the separation after the return is first carried out. The names of the three wives differ in ver. 2 sq., and xxvi. 34, xxviii. 9 : (1) '^nn pbx-na nny, for which at xxvi. 34 we have nrpb'n ; (2) ^?nn fiV2)rm mrna noT^ns*. "•^inn here is, as ver. 24, together with 20, shows, an error of transcription for "'"inn. The name of this second wife is given, xxvi. 34, as "nnn ""I???'"? n-'nin^. The Gentilic appellation "nnn (instead of nnn) may be taken as the most general designation of the heathen population dwelling around the family of Isaac ; for not only at xxviii. 1, comp. xxvii. 46, but here also, the two wives are called ;i?33 ni33. Only an ingenuity leaning upon any random support will combine ^l^^s and n3^ (Hengst.), though Oholibamah is, notwithstanding 255, really the daughter of 'Anah, the well discoverer. For the appellation py3>-n3 makes her the grand-daughter (Luther, neffe = ncptis) of Zibeon, and so the daughter of the Anah men- tioned, not at ver. 24, but at ver. 25. The combination of two na, one meaning daughter, the other grand-daughter, is striking ;
GENESIS XXXVI. 9-14. 241
it is however repeated ver. 14, and is found yet a third time ver, 39, so that it has to be regarded as linguistically possible ; but ancient translators (here in ver. 2, LXX, Samar. Pesh.) all incline to the exchange of ni for p. And how about n''Tin^ instead of nm''^nx ? The difference is here so great, that Ewald regards Judith the Hethite and Oholibamah the Horite as two different persons ; but it is too unanimously testified that Esau had three, not four wives. Hengstenberg appeals to the fact that in the East women often change their names at marriage; and Kurtz also explains the difference of the names by " the great fluctuation especially in female names in the East." Perhaps it is with reference to this double name nDTbnx=n"'*Tin>, that Ezekiel ch. xxiii. calls the kingdom of Judah Oholibah; for it may be supposed that the text of the Pentateuch in the time of Ezekiel already contained these irreconcilable state- ments concerning Oholibamah. (3) '''^y??'!"'^? nob's is called xxviii. 9 J^PQ^. The Samar. leaves the names my and n»n"'!?ni< unaltered, but changes noB^3 here throughout ch. xxxvi. into rbiilD. It may be said that Basmath bore besides the name n^nio, or that this (from vn, synon. '•'jy jewels) was the sur- name of 'Adah. Still, however we may reconcile and combine, there still remains a discrepancy, which must be set to the account of the non-concurrence of historical tradition in this respect, and we owe it to the redactor that this has been preserved undiluted. After a repetition of the title, ver. 9, in which, in accordance with the tendency of these Toledoth towards national history, we have DHK ''at* in place of the Dins Nin of ver. 1, and which is linked to ver. 8, and what precedes by Tyb' "ina, the next passage, 2. xxxvi. 9-14 (parallel with 1 Chron. i. 36, 37) treats of the three main BRANCHES OF THE Edomites. The names of the sons and grandsons of Esau are here personal names, about to become the names of tribes, hence the repetitions from No. 1. The two wives, who bore but one son each, form as many tribes
as they had grandsons ; from Oholibamah, on the contrary, VOL. II. 0
242 GENESIS XXXVI. 15-19.
proceeded three tribes after her three sons. In ver. 12 pb^iV is designated as the son of Eliphaz by Timna', a Horite concubine. Is he then to be regarded as the ancestor of the Amalekites ? But these already, xiv. 7, appear as lords of the northern portion of the Tih between the Negeb and Egypt, and at Num. xxiv. 20 they are called as the most primitive, or also (comp. Amos vi. 1) as the chief nation D^i3 JT'B'X"!, as at 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, with reference to the land of Shur (i.e. the desert El-Gifdr) towards Egypt D^^iVO "IK'N Y^\^n ni3K'^. The Arabic legend also, the historical value of which cannot however be estimated very highly, refers the eponymous ancestor of the 'Amdlika, whom it calls 'Imldk (Amldk) or 'ImliJc, to another Semitic origin, and transposes their rule from Jemen to Syria to times so ancient, that their name may be a general designation of the people of primitive antiquity. Hengstenberg, on the con- trary, following Josephus, who. Ant. ii. 2. 1, calls 'Afjia\7)KiTi,<i a portion of Idumsea, adheres to the view that the entire Amalekite nation is here referred to an Edomite origin {Authentic des Pent. ii. 302 sqq.). The truth probably lies in the middle. An Edomite tribe proceeding from Timna', the concubine of Esau, which mingled with the Amalekites, and brought within the Edomite circle of peoples, the name of that ancient people is here called Amalek. For " the rem- nant of the Amalekites that escaped," whom the Simeonites destroyed at some undefined time before the Babylonian exile, 1 Chron. iv. 42 sq., dwelt in Mount Seir (see Noldeke, Ucher die Amalekiter, 1864, comp. DMZ. xxiii. 297). The Chronicler, 1 Chron. i. 3G, seems to reckon V^pri and V^OV among the sons of Eliphaz, but p^nyi yjom 36& only range there as figures of what is related Gen. xxxvi. 12. 3. xxxvi. 15-19. The Q'Q^^x DESCENDED FROM Edom. This is the special appellation of the Edomite (and Horite) phylarchs or chieftains, which is trans- ferred to the Jewish only by Zechariah (ix. 7, xii. 5 sq.) : it is a denomin. from ^Ss Micah v. 1, thousandhood (comp. ij^^ tribe, family), or more generally (from ^^ to join oneself)
GENESIS XXXVI. 15-19. 243
society. The form (comp. H^n, Qin"}) does not agree with taking the word as meaning tribe (Kn.) or canton (DMZ, xii. 315-317), as it has everywhere a personal meaning {e.g. Ex. XV. 15). Of Esau's five sons, those of Adah (Eliphaz) and Basmath (Ee^el) are fathers of seven and four D''S1^X, the three sons of Oholibamah being directly such, thus making fourteen chiefs of tribes. nVp fii?xt ver. 16 however has come in from ver. 18, and should, as by the Samar., be expunged : there then remain thirteen, not twelve. Their number becomes twelve if, with Dillm., we expunge P.?py. ^^, with which 12a also falls away as an insertion. Amalek is indeed descended from neither of the three legitimate wives ; hence, when this is considered, the cdi^x descending from these are actually twelve. I^'^ri (Obad. ver. 9, Amos i. 12, Jer. xlix. 7, 20, Hab. iii. 3) became the name of a district and town (ver. 42) in north-eastern Idumsea ; Jerome places a town Qaifidv, quinque millibus, from Petra (Eitter, xiv. 128 sq.).
isy ("SX in Chron.) recalls <L.iUi!\ the name of a village and of a rivulet flowing into the Dead Sea, southwards from which Gebalene (JUp"), ^•^- northern Idumsea, is entered (Eitter, xiv. 1031). This rivulet is also called el-Kurdhi,v}\ih. which Kn. compares np ; but the important town _ J, in the
Wadi el-Kor4, is more likely (Wetzstein, Nordardbicn und der syr. Wuste, p. 123). More uncertain is the comparison of J?:pn as a local name, ver. 40, with Thamana of the Notitia dignitatum. This is certainly the same as Theman or Thamara (see on xiv. 7). There is nothing to be said of lOiK (w. 11, 15), awa (vv. 11, 16), nm (w. 13, 17), nnr {id.), hdk^ {id.) and ^]''? {id). T^ip too (vv. 11,15, 42) is unknown as an Edomite tribe. Othniel is called TJp"p, and Caleb, who gave to him, his younger brother, his daughter to wife, bears the surname ''??ipL', and a race dwelling in the south of Canaan are called Kenizzites, xv. 1 9, their geographical proximity favouring a
244 GENESIS XXXVI. 20-28.
historical connection with tlie Edomite Tip. The middle term ■•npn XV. 19 is however to us indefinable. The last words, Dinx Kin 19&, have wandered from their right place after IK'V (comp. 85 and the displacements xiv. 12, ii. 19). 4. xxxvi. 20-28 (parallel, 1 Chron. i. 38-42). Survey of the descend- ants OF Seir the Horite, the ancestor of the ^''th, TpwyXohvrac, the aborigines of the mountainous country abounding in caves, who were extirpated by the Edomites, see Deut. ii, 12, 22, (comp. the descriptions Job chs. xxiv., xxx., which perhaps relate to a gipsy-like decayed remnant of the Horites), and on the other hand Gen. xiv. 6, where they appear as still an independent people in possession of their Mount Seir. Seven sons of Seir are named, and the sons of these, together with two daughters, who are expressly mentioned : Timna', the " sister of Lotan," and so the daughter of Seir, who, according to 12a, was, as the concubine of Eliphaz the son of Esau, the mother of Amalek ; and Oholibamah, " daughter of 'Anah," who, according to ver. 20, was the sister of Zibeon, and not, as ver. 2 requires (where the second na must mean grand- daughter), his daughter, for Oholibamah is surely the there named wife of Esau. We have here a rude discrepancy. At 2 5&, Oholibamah is brought before us as the daughter of 'Anah the son of Seir, while according to ver. 2 she is the daughter of 'Anah son of Zibeon, and thus of another and subsequent 'Anah. But to expunge 2 oh, as an erroneous gloss, on this account (Kn.) is surely unnecessary; the statement should stand at the end of ver, 24, and has thence erroneously come into ver. 25. It is an easier accommodation which makes ^^V. and ptJ*^ the names of both sous and grandsons of Seir (Dison the son of 'Anah, 'Anah the son of Zibeon) ; the recurrence of the names is not strange ; Tuch conjectures that the two grandsons of Seir are also cited in ver. 20 sq. as his sons, because they formed independent tribes with chiefs of their own, 2-ih says of 'Anah the grandson of Seir, that this is the 'Anah who, when he was feeding the asses of Zibeon his father, found the D"'.?'.
GENESIS XXXVI. 20-28. 245
in the wilderness. Luther translates : wlio found mules in the wilderness, this being the ancient Jewish meaning, accord- ing to the consonance of rjfiiovoc and rjiiiav, whence it would designate hybrids from a stallion and a female ass, or from a male ass and a mare — mulorem nova contra naturam animalia, which Jerome refers to as an old Jewish view : " the race of Esau," says a Midrash, " was not only itself given to illegal connections, but also seduced the animals to them." But it speaks against this interpretation — (1) that J<->p used thus by itself can only be meant of a local finding ; (2) that 'Anah was feeding asses and not horses also ; (3) that mongrels of both are elsewhere called Q""]"'^ (Aram. ^^^'^^^). Still less tenable is the identification of CD'' with the race of the D'^O'^X, as Samar. and Onkelos translate and Ephrem explains it (Lagarde, Orientalia, ii. p. 58). Q'P.I are probably hot springs (akin perhaps to Dis Assyr. H-mu, im-mu, day, named
according to Dvn Dh), whence the Syrian translates ] IXn (Diodor. of Tarsus : irrjyi^v), perhaps the sulphur springs of Kalirrhoe (the ancient Lesa', x. 19) below the Zerka Macin, about two leagues on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. Here a warm spring flows in the ground, and receiving from several parts an increase of seething water, deposits abundance of sulphur. In favour of this meaning of D''D"' (LXX. iaixeiv) is Jerome's information, that this is also in the Punic the word for aquce caldm (if he does not confuse D''^"' with CKin,
Arab. <u\^\a-^), as are also the wording and situation of what is related. The addition that 'Anah was just then keeping his father's asses, may point out that the animals themselves contributed to the discovery, as the whirlpool at Carlsbad is said to have been discovered by a hunting dog of Charles the Fourth, who, while chasing a stag, got into a hot spring, and attracted the huntsmen by his howling. In ver. 24a we must, with LXX, Sam. Syr. and 1 Chron. i. 40, read njJ< instead of njNi (unless perhaps a preceding name has fallen
246 GENESIS XXXVI. 29.
out), and ]f'^. 26a must be corrected, as in Chron., to |b''"n (LXX, Pesh. Jer.). The ancient Semitic worship of animals inferred by Eobertson Smith, in his article, " Animal Worship and Animal Tribes " {Journal of Philology, ix. 75 sqq.), from certain names of animals in this register of the descendants of Seir, is rightly rejected by Dillm. and Noldeke as not demonstrable. The name ?^it^ has been transmitted in Syria Sooal (Judith iii. 1, according to the Vulgate and Luther), corresponding with the name of the third province kept by the crusaders below Arabia sccunda, viz. 'Gebdl below Kerch. The fortress Mons regalis, founded by Baldwin, and surrounded by a forest of olive trees, is also called Sobal, or more correctly (see on XXV. 2) Sobak (thicket, as a bishopric : Saltus hieraticus). The Arab tribes ^J^}i^'^> cJ^^^-*>- (^sj^ao-), ^'Ij^^ a,nd -JL)^ (com- pared by Kn.) are similar in sound to if^V, }^on, Iffi«, ib'^T (IK'n) (the dwelling-places of these tribes are not against this com- parison), and 3fenochia of the Hot. dign. and the district of Movvuxcdrt'i westward of Petra in Ptol. with nn30. |pj; recalls the \\>V.^. \^3, after whom a wilderness station is named. Num. xxxiii. 31, Deut. x. 6 ; p^^ the Areni in Plin. vi. 32. But that py, named with l"i>? 28& as a son of Dishan, should have given his name to the (PV^) Y^V p.?, lias against it x. 23, xxii. 21 ; this y^^ being certainly an individual of no further significance of the Horite race ^ conquered by the Edomites. The other names also defy national and provincial explana- tion. 5. xxxvi. 29 sqq. The seven Horite princely
RACES FORMED FROM THE SEVEN SONS OF SeIR. Thcse are
runs this concluding sentence in the style of Q (while- the anticipation 215 seems inserted from a more recent hand) — the chiefs of the Iloritcs ^[p^^^ as their (the Horites') cJiiefs in the land of Seir are each called (the ? is that of the relation of the individual to the whole and of the whole to the individual, frequent in enumerations). Perhaps the vocalization Dj^'Sp^^f
1 An is, as in Horite proper names, a favourite ending in the inscriptions brought from Temd by Euting. See the Oxford Studia Biblka (1885), p. 214.
GENESIS XXXVI. 31-39. 247
(Dillm.) would better correspond with the intention of the author. 6. xxxvi. 31-39 (parallel with 1 Chron. i. 43-50, comp. the apocryphal close of the book of Job in LXX). The
EIGHT KINGS OF EdOM DOWN TO THE TIME OF THE NARRATOR.
The title, ver. 3 1 : A^id these are tJie kings that reigned in the land of Edom hefore there reigned a king over the children of Israel. It does not necessarily follow from this, that the writer lived till the time of the Israelite kingdom,^ though it looks like it ; and it cannot be denied that the author of the historical work beginning with X"i2 n""tyK"i3 represents, as compared with J, E and D, a more recent stage in the development of Mosaism, and thus has the commencement of Israelite king- ship far behind him. It is however still a question, whether in this list of kings he transposes himself to the standpoint of the time of Moses, or whether he brings it down to the beginning of the Israelite kingdom {i.e. to Saul-David) ; for that be brings it down to his own actual present is excluded both by the brevity of the list, which contains only eight kings, and by the fact that the independence of Edom and the continuance of its native sovereignty ceased with Saul and David. The author of these Toledoth is the same, who delights to record the promises of kings arising from the patriarchal race (xxxv. 11, xvii. 6, 16); he expressly notices that Edom became a monarchy earlier than Israel, that tlie shoot which was cut off sooner attained such maturity, inde- pendence and consistency, than the seed of the promise. In these Toledoth he has hitherto been going backwards, to describe the Idumsean hill country according to its former inhabitants ; he now goes forward and brings the history of Edom to a certain point. None of the eight kings is the son of his predecessor, their places of origin are also different. Hence Edom was an elective monarchy ; the chiefs
^ In tliis matter I agree with E. C. Bissell in liis important work, The Pentateuch, its Origin and Structure (New York 1885), p. 141, especially as I, like himself, regard the law of the king in Deut. xvii. as ancient Mosaic.
248 GENESIS XXXVI. 31-39.
of the tribes were, according to Isa. xxxiv. 12, the electors, and the dignity of the D"'S"i^s was hereditary in noble families. The name of the first king "iiy?"i| V?3 sounds provokingly like the name of the seer "^iy^'l^ QVf? ; his native city was fi3^?'^. (LXX Aevva/3d), a local name which cannot be pointed out as Edomite, but which is testified to as occurring in the neighbouring lands. Kuenen notes besides Aava^d in Palmyrian Syria (in Ptol. and in Assera. Bill. Or. iii, 2), Aavd^r] in Babylonia (in Zosimus, Hist. iii. 27), Dannaia and Dannaba in Moab (by Jerome on this passage testified in Lagarde's Onom. 114 sq.). The second king is nnri| niv of n-i^2 ; according to the LXX (at the close of the translation of the book of Job, comp. Jul. Africanus in Eouth, Reliquicc, ii. 154 sq.), Job is said to be one and the same with this Jobab ben Zerah (ben Re uel), — an untenable conjecture, although there may be some relationship between the names 33i\ 3V xlvi. 13, JilIci, ^I6/3a<} (the name of a Mauritanian king) and 2i'X, The native place of King Jobab, ITJV?, has been rediscovered as a village with ruins under the diminutive name el-Busaire in 'Gebal (different from the similarly named ancient town in Auranitis, cele- brated in ecclesiastical history, viz. Hauran, the birthplace of the Emperor Philip the Arabian). The third king is DK'n of the ''J1?''?l' n?' *^® province of Teman in the northern part of Edom. The fourth king is l"]^"!^ "'Ii), who is more particularly designated as he who smote Miclian in the field of Moab, whence Hengst. rightly infers that the time of his sovereignty is not to be placed far after the Mosaic period; for after Gideon, the Midianites almost disappear from history (comp. ICautzsch, art. " Midian " in Ptiehm's HW.), and it is improbable that the field of Moab should have been a place of battle between the Midianites and Moabites in later post-Mosaic
history. Kn. combines the ridge of hills ^i^ on the east side of Moab (Burckhardt, Syr. 638) with n'^V the birthplace
GENESIS XXXVI. 31-39. 249
of Hadad. The fifth king is npipb', of the otherwise unknown ni^ntJ'p, which apparently signifies place of Sorek vines. The sixth king, ?iXf , would he a foreigner if nnjn, in the name of his native town "^i^^^ ^i^'^"!, had to he understood of the Euphrates; but a smaller river (2 Kings v, 12), a canal (Ezek. i. 3), and even non-perennial WMi (see on xv. 18) may also be called a nnj, and an Idumsean Eobotha is men- tioned by Eusebius, Jerome, and the Notitia dign. as still existing in their time. The seventh king is Ijn -'V? (which is equivalent to the Punic ''V?''3n, Hannibal), his father was called "i'33y (again a name of an animal) ; there is no state- ment of his birthplace. Of the eighth king, on the contrary, the city, wife, wife's mother, and grandmother are given, without niojl being added, as though he were still living when this list was written. His name is i']^!. In the text of Chronicles it is like that of the fourth king, *T3i|, just as the LXX 1 Kings xi. 14 writes "Ahep for Tin of the Hebrew text. mn Ahah, not "itn Ahep (Justin : Adores), is an Aramaic, and therefore not an Idumsean name of God (see Zeitschrift fur Kcilscliriftforschung, ii. 165 sq., 365). A proper name mn (ornament) perhaps existed beside it, or owes its existence simply to the misunderstood nin. The native city of the last-named king was ''PS, for which the LXX gives ^oycop, therefore niys, which accords in sound with the Edomite ruins Faiiara (Eitter, xiv. 995). This eighth king has nothing to do with the Hadad of the time of Solomon ; for though the latter was an Edomite of royal blood, he married a daughter of Pharaoh, and was never king of Edom (1 Kings xi. 14—22). It might rather be supposed that the last-named was that king of Edom, of whom Moses in vain requested permission to pass through hia land. Num. xx. 14. And there is nothing against the view that Q is here communicating a document, whose original author was a contemporary of Moses and survived to the entry into the promised land. Now follows — 7. xxxvi. 40 sqq.
250 GENESIS XXXVI. 40.
(parallel with 1 Chron. i. 51 sqq.) a list of the Edomite D"'Bl?Sj according to their families, according to their places, with their navies. To what purpose is this second list ? We had above, vv. 15-19, the names of fourteen (thirteen) Edomite CSl^K, here the names of eleven, among which only two (T:p and pTi) agree with the former. The Chronicler introduces the list with the words : Tlien Hadad died and, etc., which sounds as if after Hadad's (Hadar's) death the kingship became extinct, and the old tribal constitution, with its hereditary aristocracy, went on (Bertheau). In any case this list gives, without respect to the kingdom, a survey of the districts into which the land was divided in the time of its author ; the former list was historico-genealogical, this is geographico-statistical (Dillm.). The title, in which the chief tone falls upon Dnbp»p, is in the style of Q, who however took this list of districts, as well as the list of kings, from an ancient source. The chiefs of T3p and l^'^ occurred also in the other list. The concubine of Eliphaz is called y^pri, and non'^'rjns the daughter of 'Anah is the Horite wife of Esau, vv.
T T • t; |T O ^
2, 14, 18, 25 ; nry (for which in Cbron. n;^y) is one and the same name as IJ^V, one of the grandsons of Seir, 23a. The remaining six names are new. Nothing worth saying can be told concerning nn^, ^^"^3? and DTV, for which the LXX has Za^mv. In |'::"'Si (p^is), on the contrary, we at once recognise that encampment of Israel where Moses set up the brazen serpent, Num. xxi. 9 sq., comp. xxxiii. 42 sq., celebrated, under various Greek and Latin forms of the name, for its mines, to wliich, during the Diocletian persecu- tion, a multitude of Christians, to whom the dedication of the Apology of Origen is addressed by Tamphilus, were sent for penal servitude {ad ceris mctalla qua^ sunt apud Phoenum Palcestince damnati). After the fifth century it became the seat of a bishopric, not quite two leagues distant from Dedun. According to Jerome, ^)^ is certainly no other than Elath, or, as it is called, xiv. 6, ^^<^ y^.
GENESIS XXXVII. 1. 251
■i^'30 is not Petra (Kn.), which is called V^p, 2 Kings xix. 7 : the LXX has for it Ma^dp, on which Eusebius (Lagarde, Onom. 277) makes the credible remark, ert koI vvv Kcofirj fxeyLarr] Ma^aapa eVt t^9 Te(3aXr)vri<;, vTraKOvovaa ry Ukrpa. The list of chiefs and districts closes with the subscription : These are the chiefs of Eclom, according to their dwellings in the land of their possession, while the concluding endorsement, this is Esau, the father of Edom, looks back at the whole many-membered Toledoth — this great nation that dwelt in the land of the Horites, with its chiefs and kings, proceeded from him.
The register of the race of Esau-Edom is now followed by a verse, which joins No. 9 of the Toledoth with No. 10, xxxvii. 1 : And Jacob dwelt in the land of the pilgrimage of his father, in the land of Canaan. Esau, as formerly Lot, vacated it, and thus was fulfilled the purpose and promise of God (xvii. 8). If this verse had originally stood after xxxvi. 8, it would have begun ^^\ "^PTX As it at present stands, it points back to it, for the purpose of forming the transition from the one Toledoth to the other.
X.
THE TOLEDOTH OF JACOB, XXXVII.-L.
That the title : These are the generations of Jacob, should be followed by : Joseph was seventeen years old, and was feeding the flock with his brethren, seemed so strange to ancient expositors, that they felt obliged to regard this superscrip- tion as the subscription of xxxv. 23-26, aud as referring thereto past the parenthetical portion ch. xxxvL A Lapide however closely approximates to the right state of the case, when he says : Quasi dicat : deinccps enarraio posteros Jacdbi eorumque casus, eventa et gesta, maxime Joscphi. The nnbn apy are, according to their proper notion, the history of Jacob in his sons, not merely in Joseph, though chiefly in him. It is utterly contrary to the meaning of the title to regard chs. xxxvii.-l. as the history of Joseph, for then ch. xxxviii. would be a disturbing episode, which it by no means is. The matter is, on the contrary, divided as in the pn^'"" mhn (xxv. 19). There Jacob, here Joseph, is the active principle of the history that follows. The twelve sons of Jacob are the seed-corn of Israel. Egypt is the foreign land, where a nation is to develop and come to maturity from the twelve. To precede his family thither, and there to prepare a shelter for Israel during its development, was Joseph's high vocation. Sold into Egypt, he makes a path to Egypt for the house of Jacob ; and the same land, in which he grew to man's estate, was imprisoned and attained high rank, became for his family the land of their ripening into a nation, and of their deliverance. The history of Joseph is so far the opening of
GENESIS XXXVII.- L. 253
the history of Israel, and a type of the path of the Church and the Church's Head from humiliation to exaltation, from bondage to freedom, from suffering to glory. The treatment he received from his brethren, turned by the message of God to their safety and that of the nation descending from them, is a type of the treatment Christ received from His people, which the counsel of God turned to the world's salvation, and will at last turn to the salvation of Israel.
The Toledoth of Jacob, which include the history of Joseph, are divided into four sections. The first section reaches from the selling of Joseph into Egypt to his eleva- tion, chs. xxxvii.-xli. ; the second, from the first appearance of his brethren before him to his declaration of himself, chs. xlii.-xlv. ; the third, from the migration of the house of Israel to Egypt to their prosperous settlement and increase in Goshen, chs. xlvi.-xlvii. 27; the fourth, from Jacob's entreaty to Joseph to bury him in Canaan to the burial of Jacob and death of Joseph, chs. xlvii. 28-1. The beginnings of these sections (xxxvii. 1, xlii. 1, xlvi, 1, xlvii, 28) show that Jacob still rules the history, though, with the exception of ch. xxxviii., there is none in which Joseph's name is not the more prominent.
" The sources from which B (the redactor) composed this last division of Genesis are, for the first two sections, almost exclusively B {El^) and C {J). The plan and the greater part of the execution of this noble, almost dramatically arranged history of Joseph is from B. But B has also delighted in adopting and artistically working into it matter from C, whose narrative was on the whole similar though in particulars different, and in parts more excitingly told and with more didactic insight. Not till xlvi.-l. is A {Q ot El ^) again made much use of, and there the three sources flow on to- gether." We cannot deny our concurrence with the net results of the analysis thus formulated by Dillraann, although we must acknowledge our own inability to follow in detail his acute and almost clairvoyant disentanglement of the various threads.
254 GENESIS XXX VIL 2.
There is more for us than for him whicli is beyond the limits of the knowable, as will be at once shown in the restraint we have felt obliged to impose upon ourselves in our analysis of ch. xxxvii. It is however undeniable that the redactor, without glossing over their differences, has here combined different accounts into one. In the one account Joseph is, according to the proposal of Eeuben, cast into a pit, from which he intends to deliver him, but a passing caravan draws him out of it and takes him to Egypt. In the other account it is Judah who counsels against the slaying of a brother and causes him to be sold to a passing caravan. In the one account these merchants are called °''?']P or DVJI^ 28a, 36, and in the other D'r^.V^f. 25, 27, 286. But whether they are two different accounts, according to one of which Joseph was hated by his brethren for his tale-bearing, and according to the other for his dreams, is to us questionable. We shall not however conceal in this matter what speaks in favour of a working up together of dififerent accounts, which do not by their matter exclude each other.
JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT, CH, XXXVII.
The first verse wants nothing of internal unity, xxxvii. 2 : {These are the generations of Jacob:) Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and he was a young servant with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, and he brought evil report of them to their father. The syntactic state of the three sentences is essentially the same as i. 2, 3 ; the perf. sentence with the noun sentence ruled by it precedes and circumstantializes the main fact i*?)!!, at which the period aims. There is also a close connection in matter. It is first said generally that Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brotliers (for }SV3 is obj., nyn being, after the manner of verbs of ruling, construed as at 1 Sam. xvi. 11, xvii. 34); the brothers here are without
GENESIS XXXVII. 3. 255
distinction the sons of his father's two wives and two concubines. Then this statement is particularized by say- ing, that he was given to the sons of Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali) and to the sons of Zilpah (Gad and Asher) as a "iW (nsi as a preposition being here repeated). Nothing can be done with the meaning youth ; any one's "ly: is, according to the custom of the language, his young servant, Judg. vii. 10, ix. 54, xix. 13.'^ n^-n is not so indifferent a word as report, but means (from 321 to sneak, Assyr. and Aram, to lay in wait, to harass) slander, scandal. ^V"]^ ^^^\ which might mean the slanderous conduct of the brothers, is purposely not said ; the more appositional co-ordination of the indefinite nj?"i (as at xliii. 14, Ezek. xxxiv. 12, Ps. cxliii. 10, Ges. § 111. 2b, comp. my commentary on the Psalms on 2 Sam. xxii. 33) suggests rather taking the brothers as object. That Jacob should let his comparatively more remote sons be thus secretly overlooked by Joseph, was the consequence of his affection for him, ver. 3 : And Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, for he was born to him in old age, and he made him a garment reaching far down. The narrator, who after xxxv. 10 intelligently interchanges the names b^X'sb'' and 2PT, is J. Benjamin as still very young is left out of consideration ; but tToseph had been born seventeen years before, after the two Aramaean septennaries, when Jacob, who was of full age when he migrated to Aramaea, had already entered the age of the C^i^f. On n3h3 see on iii. 21. A D''P|) n:n3 is one reaching to the end of the arms and down to the feet, the ends of the legs ; for 1^ DQ Dan. v. 5, 24 is the more exact designation of the hand as distinguished from the arm, and Q^DQN Ezek. xlvii. 3 (from DQX = DDN = DQ) mean the extremities, viz. the lower (D^'pjn ''DSX), hence (with respect to the skeleton) the ankles, which agrees with C'ESi n:h3 ; it is called a -^ctcov Kap7rcoT6<i
' Unless 'ill ns!?T ^JITIX followed, nyj XIHI might be taken, as by Rosin (Juhelschrift on Zunz's 90th birthday, 1884), as a preliminary adverbial sentence (comp. xviii. 8, xxiii. 10) : when he was still young he brought . . . thus giving a retrospective motive for the sale in his seventeenth year.
256 GENESIS XXXVII. 4-7
(LXX, Aq. 2 Sam. xiii. 18), i.e. reaching down to the wrist {jcapiTO'i ')(eip6<i), and also da-rpayaXeio'; (Aq. here), i.e. talaris (from tali), reaching to the ankles, hence a 'x^itodv 7roB^pr]<i and at the same time 'xeipihuiTO'i (provided with sleeves).^ The D"'Da n^na is, according to 2 Sam. xiii. 18, a kind of ^VP, and is there mentioned as the distinguisliing costume of the un- married daughters of a king. This preference for the favourite dislocated the brotherly relation, ver. 4 : Then his brothers saw that his father loved him more than his brothers, and they hated him, and could not say peace to him, i.e. could not address him (is'n, as at Num. xxvi, 3, with an accus. of the obj.) with the wish ^p Qv^ (prosperity be to thee !), hence they did not control themselves so as to give him a friendly greeting (comp. b^'^ Dii'K'^ xliii. 27, Ex. xviii. 7, i.e. "^ Di^K'n, to put the question : Is it well with thee ?).
We are now told how Joseph increased the hatred of his brothers by relating his dreams to them, ver. 5 : And Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to Ms brethren, then they hated him yet the more. If vv. 5-11 are, as it appears, derived from another narrator, it is the redactor who links together the extracts from the two sources by the words, " then they hated him yet the more." This increase of hatred, on this fresh account, does not of itself exclude that which existed because of his father's preference. I cannot see that 56 is here un- suitable (Dillm.), the whole verse being related, as its theme, to what follows (like ii. 8 to ii. 9-15). The first dream, vv. 6, 7 : And he said to them: Hear, I pray you, the dream that I have dreamed: And lo, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and, behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up, and, behold, your sheaves stood round about and bowed themselves before my sheaf. Two *^}J}\ are found in one verse, xxix. 2,
1 lu the Mishnic and Syriac DE3 means not extremity but surface (see Men-
achoth i. 2 : he has to stretch out his finger "IT DD ?]} to the whole extent of the hand, i.e. without curving or doubling) ; Miihlau-Volk in Ges. Lex. 10th edit., seek to deduce the meanings cut oflF (terminate) and extend from the same root.
(5ENESIS XXXVII. 8-11. 257
here there are three. The name for sheaf nspx occurs only here and Ps, cxxvi. 6, and the denominate D?^? only here. The dream of Joseph shows that his father, like his grand- father (xxvi. 12), combined agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Eeception of the relation of the dream, ver. 8 : Then his hrethren said to him : Shalt thou indeed he king over us, or shalt thou hecome our ruler, and they hated him still more for his dreams and his words, i.e. on account of the arrogant tenor of such dreams and the insulting candour with which he related them. As Joseph had as yet told them but one dream, the plural vribpn is striking; it must be understood as the categorical plur,, but leaves room for the conjecture that 86 (and therefore oh also, as results retrospectively) did not belong to the text of the excerpted sources. The second dream and its reception by his brethren and his father, vv. 9-11 : And he dreamed yet a dream and told it to his hrethren. He said: Behold I have dreamed again, and lo, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars cast themselves down hefore me. And he told it to his father and his hrethren ; then his father rebuked him and said to him : What is this dream that thou hast dreamed — shall we, I and thy mother and thy hrethren, indeed come to how ourselves down to the earth hefore thee ? And his hrethren envied him, hut his father kept the thing in mind. The sentence vnx^ ink nsp;i is, in respect of the V2X-i5N isp^i vnx~7Xi which follows in ver. 10, not only superfluous, but interrupting ; accordingly the LXX takes koI Bnry^aaro avTo TO) iraTpl Kol Tot9 dSeX^ot? avTov into ver. 9 and expunges it in ver. 10. In any case this second isd^i (without ink) belongs to the original text, comp. "JSH 5a. By the eleven stars may certairdy be meant eleven of the stars of the Zodiac ('^i''?^), for Joseph does not say "iC'yn im^ because he thinks of himself as the twelfth. The sun is Jacob-Israel, the eleven stars the eleven brethren, and the moon the dead but unforgotten and unlost Eachel. The dreams were images of the future elevation of Joseph over the whole house of Jacob. VOL. II. K
2o8 GENESIS XXXVII. 12-u;
They came from Joseph's deeply gifted presentieat mind
(Biblische Psychol, p. 280 sq.) not without God, but the counsel
of God was still concealed from human eyes. Hence this second
dream brings upon the dreamer quite a harsh rebuke from hii
father. But while the brethren persevered in their suspicious
jealousy, Jacob, without his affection for him being diminished,
kept the thing in memory, "i^^, LXX Bierijprja-e, like avveTijpei
Luke ii. 19.
When then Joseph was on a certain occasion sent by his
father to a distance to see after his brethren, they resolved, as
soon as they saw him, to get rid of their hated brother by
violence, vv. 12-18. It is at once perceived by the name
ijKib'"' that J is here the narrator, vv. 12 — 14: Then his
Irethren went to feed their fathers sheep in Sichem. And
Israel said to Joseph : Bo not thy brethren feed the flock in
Sichem ? Up then, I will send thee to them ! He said to him :
Here am I. And he said to him : Go now, see after the welfare
of thy brethren and the welfare of the flock, and bring me back
word. So he sent him forth from the vale of Hebron to Sichem.
When Jacob migrated to Aramaea, it was done from his
father's house in Beersheba ; and when after a long period he
returned by indirect journeys to his father's house, it was in
Hebron, one of the few cities of the Holy Land which are
situate in valleys. It seems strange that the sons of Jacob
and their flocks should have gone so far north as the district of
Shechem, the city which, since it was so murderously attacked
by Simeon and Levi, was at strife with his family. The
enmity of the Shechemites must have been in some manner
appeased between the sojourn of Jacob in Shechem and in
Hebron.^ hk 126 is over-punctuated, and as to style might be
dispensed with (comp. e.g. Isa. Ixi. 5 with Ezek. xxxiv. 8).
Joseph willingly consents to his father's proposal to send him
1 Kuenen {Einl. § 13, note 7) conjectures that R with respect to P^ substituted Hebron for some other city. But the burial of the three patriarchs in Mach- pelah near Hebron is not a mere view of i^, but a national tradition, with which 1. 5 is only apparently in contradiction.
GENESIS XXXVII. 15-18. 259
to Shechem (where we may imagine the brothers feeding their flocks in the plain of Machnah on the west of the city), to inquire after their welfare and that of the flocks (uvf welfare, then ambiguous, like valetudo). He accord- ingly goes to Shechem, in the neighbourhood of which however he seeks in vain for his brothers, vv. 15-17: And a man met him, and lehold he was wandering in the field, and the man asked him saying : What seekest thou ? And he said : I am seeking my brethren ; tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding. And the man said: They have departed hence, for I heard them say : We will go to Dothajin. Then Joseph went after his brethren and met them in Dothan. The classic style prefers to leave subjects and objects unex- pressed, where they can be dispensed with. So here we have nj;h nani without Kin, D^npk 'r^m for D'JyiV?^ (Samar.), comp. 4a *i?.!l he told (it), 10a iSD^i he related (it), 21a Vpfn |niS"i and Eeuben heard (it). A similar instance already, vi. 19, and here a little farther on, 21a, 25&, 27&, 32a. The question runs : What seekest thou ? for the inquirer does not yet know that Joseph is seeking persons. The form of the name ^nM interchanging with \rh is like VM, D^^^'^i^ po^, no Dual, but a diphthongal pronunciation of the termination an {dm)} the Greek writing Awdaei^i, or what is the same, Ao)6at/j, in the LXX, and Judith iv. 6, vii. 3. viii. 3 repro- duces D^nM • the name Acoraia, id. iii. 10, is the same hellenized. Tell Dothdn, a beautiful hill, at the southern foot of which bubbles forth a spring, about five leagues north of Sabastija (Samaria), as Eusebius and Jerome already state, west of 'Gennin, and westward (see Biideker, p. 237) of the road leading from Nabulus to 'Gennin, still marks the situation of the place. Seeing Joseph at a distance, the brothers agree to get rid of him, ver. 1 8 : They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they made him the object of a crafty plot to
^ See Wellhausen, Composition des Heaateuchs, on Gen. xxxii. 1-3 (D^JnO) ; comp. Merx' Archiv, iii. 352.
260 GENESIS XXXYII. 19-22.
hill him. Thus is ^33nn conceived with an accusative object instead of with ia Ps. cv. 25: "they treated him craftily" would not do full justice to the notion. If it is E who refers, vv. 5-11, the hatred of the brothers to Joseph's dreams, it is from him also that vv. 19, 20 are derived. Arid they said one to another : Behold, this dreamer cometh ! And nx)W up, let its hill him and cast him into a pit and say : A wild least has torn him to pieces ; and we shall see what will become of his dreams. The n^rn enhanced to ^f^^ ^ occurs in J, besides here only at xxiv. 65. The combination riio^nn ^ya is without an analogous example in the Pentateuch. ii2 (="'^3) is the pit as distinguished from 1^3 the well. The HNnj is just as scornful as nNia ;ypp Isa. V. 19. When they have killed him and left his corpse to decay in a pit, they think it will then be seen how ridiculous were his high-flown dreams. But here too man's sin and God's plan are found to work together. The elevation dreamed of by Joseph becomes the means of his brethren's downfall, to become subsequently that of their uprising. God makes sin itself subservient to His plan, and thus a co-operating factor in the coming deliverance.
Postponement of the murder by Eeuben, vv. 21, 22 : And Iieid)en heard it and delivered him out of their hand, and said : We will not tahe his life. For Eeidien said to them : Do not shed blood, cast him into this pit, which is in the wilderness, and do not lay hand upon him — (this he said) — that he might deliver him out of their hand and restore him to his father. Ver. 21 is, like ver. 5, an anticipative summary of what follows. Instead of itt'W n^n he smites the life of such an one (Lev. xxiv. 17 sq.), K'??3 ^i'\'2r\ -with two accusatives (Ges. § 139, note), he smites his life, i.e. kills him (Deut. xix. 6 and frequently), is also used. It cannot be discerned from the style whether ver. 21 sq. is derived from J" or E. But that their different accounts are farther on combined is seen from the merchants who took Joseph with them to Egypt being twice called
♦ The Samar. translates : the splendid (excellent) dreamer, comp. on xxiv. 65.
GENESIS XXXVII. 23-27. 261
Ishmaelites (vv. 25, 28&) and twice Midianites (vv. 28a, 36); in ver. 2 8 the excerpts from the two sources strike sharply against each other. One source {£J) related that Eeuben dissuaded them from killing Joseph and advised them to cast him into a pit and to leave him to his fate, intending to take him out secretly and to help him to escape to Hebron. But that when after some time he came to look after him, he had disappeared ; some passing Midianite merchants having drawn him out and carried him away, as Joseph himself says, xl. 15: I was secretly stolen out of the land of the Ibrim. The redactor gave the preference to the narrative of J, according to which Judah advised not to kill but to sell him to the Ishmaelites, subordinating to it and arranging in it what he derived from U. Next follows the casting into the pit, related in E and J, vv. 23, 24 : And it came to pass when Joseph was come to his hrethren, that they took off from Joseph his garment, the garment reaching far down which he had on, and took him and cast him into the pit ; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. They strip him of his long tunic (l3''K'3n with two accusatives, like K'^apn Ges. § 139. 1), because they mean to make it by and by the means of diverting suspicion from themselves. Like Joseph, Jeremiah also was cast into a pit wherein was no water, but Jeremiah sank in mire, Jer. xxxviii. 6. By the advice of Judah he is sold, vv. 25-27 : And they sat down to eat food ; then they lifted up their eyes and saw, and hehold a travelling company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels laden with tragacanth and lalsam and ladanum, upon the way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brethren : What profit have we that we slay our brother and conceal his hlood ? Up, let lis sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our flesh — and his brethren hearkened (to it). The Midianites (who according to xxv. 2 are only a collateral tribe of the Ishmael- ites proper) are called Ishmaelites, Judg. viii. 24, whence it appears that this had become a general designation of the
262 GENESIS XXXVIl. 2&
desert tribes, who are elsewhere called D"'?')?? or (from ladu, desert) Bedouins, n^ik (fern, from nnk a traveller, plur. ninnk Isa. xxi. 13, or, as if it were a fem. from nns, ninns Job vi. 19) means that which is travelling, viz. a travelling com- pany, called in Persian Tcarwdn. The caravan, which came within sight of Jacob's sons as they were resting and eating, was from Gilead, and its camels were carrying spices, which were then as now the chief articles of import of the Arabico- Egyptian caravan trade. riNbJ is tragacanth or tragant (see this article in Eiehm's HW.), the resinous gum of the Astragahis gummifer and many other Palestinian kinds of astragali. ^^V (according to the formations ''P''., ^^?"!) is not real balsam from the balsam tree, but (see Mastix in Eiehm) the gum of the Fistacia lentiscus,i.e. the mastix tree. Vi^ is ladanum, i.e. the aromatic gum (X'qSavov, Xdhavov) of the Cistiis creticus (X77S09, X^Soi/). The caravan had crossed over Jordan at Beisan, as is still done, and was taking the high road which led from Beisan and Zer'in to Eamleh and Egypt, and entered west of 'Gennin the plain in which Dothan lies. Judah advised his brothers to sell Joseph to these travelling Ishmaelites, opposing, as Abravanel remarks, three reasons against depriving him of life. This murder would be criminal fratricide (13?.^3 I3^n^, an appositional connection ac- cording to Ges. § 113) ; and as it would bring them no profit — not even the satisfaction of revenge, since they would have to conceal the deed — there was no object to gain by it. His proposal found approval. F is now the narrator, 28a, and joins on to Eeuben's counsel, who was purposing to deliver Joseph : Then there passed hy Midianite merchants, and tlicy drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit. It is the meaning of F that the Midianites drew him up, but of the composition, as we have it, that the brothers did this, as the caravan was approaching, so that what now follows from J joins on to 28a without contradicting it. 28J ; And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph to Egypt. We must supply ^\>}^ or D'i'iJ^ (Lev. xxvii. 3,
GENESIS XXXVIL 29-35. 263
2 Kings XV. 20). The average price of a slave was, according to Ex. xxi. 32, thirty shekels. A slave afterwards cost just as much (120 drachma =30 tetradrachmic shekels) in the market of Alexandria (Joseph. Ant. xii. 2. 3), — the Midianites would of course make a profit by the transaction. Eeuben's consternation, according to F, vv. 29, 30 : Then Eeuhcn came hack to the pit, and hehold Joseph was not in the pit ; and he rent his garments and returned to his brethren, and said : The hoy is noi there, and I — whither shall I go ? ! He, the most respon- sible, because the eldest of the brothers, desired to rescue Joseph (226, comp. xlii. 22), and now he sees to his horror that the expedient, by which he had thought to effect this, has turned out to Joseph's ruin. Henceforth the narratives of J and E concur. The text has chiefly the tone of J; the Midianites again mentioned at the close are a sure token of E. The sending of the blood-stained garment, vv. 31, 32 : And they tooh Joseph's garment, and hilled a he-goat, and dipped the garment in the hlood. And they sent away tJoe garment that reached far down, and brought it to their father and said : This have we found; see now carefidly whether it he thy son's garment or not ? A similar ~^^^ of testing observation is found xxxviii. 25, xxxi. 32. The n of njhan Is the interrogative, which before a consonant with Sheva cannot be other than n, and this either with a Metheg like f^JiT?p xxxiv. 31, or as here (comp. Ges. § 100. 4) with a following Dagesh. When the aged father sees the bloody garment of his favourite son, he immedi- ately comes to the conclusion contemplated by the brethren, and mourns for him as one dead, vv. 33-35 : And he looked carefully atid said : My son's coat ! A wild heast has devoured him, Joseph is torn, yea torn to pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth about his loins, and mourned long for his son. And all his sons and daughters arose to comfort him, hut he refused to be comforted, and said : Nay, I will go down to the world beneath mourning for my son. So his father wept for him. That Joseph is torn to pieces is designated as
264 GENESIS XXXVII. 36.
a fact by ^^b, and as quite beyond doubt by the inf. intens. «l'"in (Kal according to Ges. § 131. 3, note 2). In xliv. 28 ^X is added as a still further enhancement. Instead of V1J3 mp, we have here vnpDb' ]}'^p^ as at xliv. 13, a variation critically unimportant. Jacob grounds his rejection of the consolation of his sons and daughters (comp, above, p. 180) on *i?.^"'3. It is here and farther on in the history of Joseph, xlii. 38, xliv. 29, 31, that the fem, noun Sheol (masc. only Job xxvi. 6, but then with a preceding predicate) is mentioned for the first time in the 0. T. ^'^W, from hii^=hvv}, ^IB' V b:^, J-j, to be slack, languid, to hang down, to sink down, means the hollow (see on Isa. v. 14, and xl. 12, \b]}^2), and corre- sponds with tian, the deep, the Egyptian name for the sub- terranean world. The later usage of the language may have thought of the verb i'NB' to summon, and, as seems to follow from Prov. xxx. 15 sq., Isa. v. 14, Hab. ii. 5, have under- stood Ijikb' of the place to which all terrestrial beings are summoned.^ Thither is Joseph gone, thither, where human existence continues in a shadowy manner, will Jacob follow him ; till then there is no more com- fort or joy for him. 72^ is equivalent to fii^^ xlii. 38, xliv. 31; b^i^nn 345 also means not merely mourning attire, but especially the grief of mourning (Num. xiv. 39). The sale of Joseph into Egypt, according to B, ver. 36 : And the Midianites sold him into Egypt, to Fotiphar, a court official of Pharaoh, a captain of the guard. C^rip 28a are here called D'jno, which, according to xxv. 2, is the name of a tribe nearly akin to Midian. So too "iD''t3i3 here and at xxxix. 1 is the shorter form of the name ViQ ""tiiES xli. 45, xlvi. 20 ;
^ The name of this world below is in Assyrian iudlu (written Su-dlu, as if it meant the powerful city) ; the verb Sa'dlu means to question, to decide, to rule, and according to the Assyrian usage of language, the notion of a requisitionary summoning power for pIXC' is the result. The best word for it is the world beneath, for hell is equivalent to yiMo.. Luther himself felt tliis, wlien he ex- changed " HoUe " (hell) in Gen. xxxvii. 35, xlii. 38, xliv. 29, 31 (as he sixty- seven times translates ^Xtf), for " Grube " (pit). See Kamphausen's article on the subject in Zimraermann's Theol. LitercUurblatt, 1872, Nos. 6, 7.
GENESIS XXXVII. 36. 265
LXX neTe<f)prj'i or n€VTe(f)pr]<; (see Lagarde, Genesis, p. 20). The name (compounded from p-et-e-ph-ra) he who (et = ent) is the (e = em) sun -god's/ compare the names IleTea/jirji/, IleTefiTrafxevTr]^, TIiTe(JL<i and the shorter DDS (belonging to the goddess Muth). The sun-god is called Pa or Prj, with the aspirated article Memphitic ^prj. Dno, gelding (eunuch), which is also Babylonian and Himyaritic, means likewise by an obliteration of the fundamental meaning, a courtier in general, as the Arab. *(^l>- means contrariwise first, a servant and then a eunuch. " Slayer" in the official title ^''^atan -i^ is not equal to butcher (Luth. in Comm. praefedo laniorum) or cook (LXX dpxi'/^ajeipo';), but the executioners (comp. nata Ezek. xxi. 15, Lam. ii. 21), the inflictors of capital punishment, were so called (Jer. magistro militum), Potiphar was captain of the bodyguard, who as such had to execute capital punishment on the condemned, like Nebuzaradan and Arioch, who bore the same title at the Chaldsean court. It was on this account that the State prison was under his supervision,^ xl. 3 sq. In the time of Herodotus Pharaoh's bodyguard consisted of 1000 Hermotybians and 1000 Kalasirians, who were dismissed daily, so that the whole army might enjoy the advantages ot the profitable service at the court. At the time however that Joseph came to Egypt, the military class was not yet organized. The sale of Joseph took place in his seventeenth year, for this statement of his age xxxvii. 2 is certainly intended as the chronological setting of what is afterwards related. Joseph was born, xxx. 25, after the second 7 years of the Meso- potamian service had elapsed. This lasted 20 years, xxxi. 38; but granting that it is consistent with xxx. 25 to delay Joseph's birth to the sixth year after the 7 4-7, yet it
^ The name Ra means, according to Brugsch, " the maker of existence" (gui facit esse), viz. to the perception of the senses ; see the article on the Egyptian religion by Victor v. Strauss and Toruey in the Conserv. Monatsschr. Aug. 1882.
- See the illustration of the white castle of Memphis (after the mosaic of Praeneste) in Cunningham Geikie's instructive Hours with the Bible, vol. i, (1881) p. 461.
266 GENESIS XXXVII. 36.
could not possibly have been in the twentieth year, for Joseph at the return to Canaan was, according to xxxiii. 7, no longer a suckling. But supposing him to have been born after the 7 + 7 years, he would have been at the return a boy of 6. There would thus be 11 years between Jacob's return and Joseph's disappearance, during the far greater part of which Jacob would be not yet with his father, but at Succoth, Shechem, and in the district of Bethlehem. If then Jacob arrived at Haran in his seventieth year, we must raise these 11 years from the return of Jacob to the selling of Joseph to 17, for the 130 years of Jacob on his appearance before Pharaoh (xlvii. 9) can only be obtained by adding together the 70 years of Jacob when he migrated to Meso- potamia, the 2 0 years of his sojourn there, 1 7 years from his return to Joseph's disappearance, 13 years thence to his elevation, and 10 years thence to the migration into Egypt. But if Joseph were 6 years old at his father's return to Canaan and 17 at his own disappearance, it is impossible to admit 17 years between the return and this disappearance. Hence Jacob at his arrival in Haran cannot have been 70, but 76 (see Demetrius' statement in Euseb. Prmp. ix. 21), and so 90 when Joseph was born, 107 when he disappeared, 120 at his elevation, and 130 at the migration to Egypt (130 = 76 + 14 + 17 + 13 + 10). Jacob's 107th year would be the 167th of Isaac, who lived to be 180. Hence the selling of Joseph hap- pened only in appearance after Isaac's death. It was not in reality, but only to history, that he died long before that event. It is historiographic art to break off in the history of Joseph at xxxvii. 36. "We thus get to experience with him the comfortless darkness of the two decades, during which hopeless and sorrowful longing was gnawing at the heart of the aged father, and the secret curse of deadly sin deceit- fully concealed was weighing on the souls of his children. Meantime another history is related, which seems, but is not an episode. For the superscription of this long tenth part
GENESIS XXXVIII. 1, 2. 267
of Genesis is not f\0V nilSin but apy rrrh^n, and the con- tents of ch, xxxviii. are of no less importance than the history of Joseph to the history of Jacob, nay, are even in causal connection with it. For the impulse to a new move- ment in conformity with the promise, which the history of the line of promise received in Joseph, found its occasion in the danger, manifest from ch. xxxviii., it was in, of settling itself in a manner contrary to the promise ; and when it came to pass that the now separating paths of Jacob's family attained in his lost but re-found son to the unity of a new turning-point and goal, we need to learn how the family of Judah, which migrated with the rest into Egypt, and was to be the chief and ruling tribe, originated.
THE TWIN CHILDREN OF TAMAR AND JUDAH, CH. XXXVIII.
It is with a vague SI'I'l' ^V.'^ that what follows, at least what next follows, is inserted during the period in which Joseph disappeared, and was regarded as lost, ver. 1 : And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his "brethren and turned in to a man of Adtdlam, of the name of Hirah. The hill country of Judah is thought of as the point of departure in 1^! ; it was there that Jacob dwelt in Hebron, and that Judah and his brethren lived. 'AduUam, whose king is mentioned Josh. xii. 15, lay in the plain of Judah, Josh. xv. 35, north-west of Hebron, probably (see Badeker, p. 212) one league south of Socho (^Suweke). Here dwelt a Canaanite named nrn (which may mean " freedom," like niin, Syr. hirUtha), to whom (^V, as at 1 Sam. ix. 9) Judah turned; OM devertit, like ver. 16. It is un- necessary to understand t2?!! in this passage according to xii. 8, and to complete it by y?^^. Here in Adullam Judah married, ver. 2 : And Judah saw there the daughter of a Canaanite man, whose name was ^SHa, and took her and went in unto her. Having made a heathen his colleague, Judah
268 GENESIS XXXVIII. 3-10.
went farther, and made a heathen woman his wife (as, according to xlvi. 10, did Simeon, as well as Ishmael and Esau). She was the daughter of a Canaanite named J?^tJ', and therefore not belonging to the little town of AduUam. We leave conjectural explanations of this name and of those which follow to the dictionaries. Judah's three sons by the daughter of Shua, vv. 3—5 : And she conceived and hare a son, and he called his name 'Er. And she conceived again and hare a son, and called his name OTian. And she yet again hare a son, and called his name Sela, and he was at Chez's) when she hare him. 1 Chron. ii. 3 sq. is a compendium of what is related here and to the end of the chapter. S"*?? is one with 2''??^?, Micah i. 14, in the plain of Judah, Josh, xv. 44, differing from the north-Palestinian SV^X (Ecdippa, now Zih), Josh, xix. 29. That Chezib is the birthplace of the ^j^tS'n nnaiJ'D (Num. xxvi, 20) seems also pointed out by ""'^y^ N3Tb^ 1 Chron, iv. 20, belonging to this branch of the tribe of Judah. Instead of the syntactically striking n\ni, the LXX has avTq Se yjv, hence K*ni. ^5"^p*!! 36, along with two ^"Ji?'?^, is also strange. The Samar. and Targ. Jer. read Nipm all three times. The marriage of Er and his early death, vv. 6, 7 : And Judah took for his first-horn 'Er, a wife, of the name of Tamar. And 'Er, Judah's first-horn, was evil in the eyes of Jdhveh, and Jahveh slew him. Tamar (whose name means the palm, a common ancient figure for a woman of slender figure and for imposing female beauty) was undoubtedly a heathen, and indeed of unknown descent. Her husband, without leaving issue, died an early death as the penalty of his wickedness. The sin of Onan, vv. 8—10 : Then Judah said to Onan : Go in unto thy hrother's wife, and enter into a hrother-in-law's r.Mr'^iage with her, and raise up seed to thy hrother. But Onan knew that the seed woidd not he his, and it came to pass whenever he went in unto his hrotliers wife, he destroyed it to the ground, lest he should give seed to his hrother. And wlmt lie did was evil in the sight of
GENESIS XXXVIII. II, 12. 269
Jahveh, and he slew him. What here appears as a custom became subsequently Mosaic law, viz. that when brothers dwell together, and one of them dies without leaving a son, her husband's brother (02^ levir) shall be ^TJ?, i-^- enter into husband's brother (levirate) marriage with the widow, and her first-born shall bear the name of the deceased, that his name may not become extinct in Israel, Deut. xxv. 5 sq. Onan agreed to his father's demand, but through coveting the inheritance and out of malice ^ prevented its purpose. '^'^J]\ is purposely said 9&, and not ^7:1, because not a single but a repeated occurrence is intended, as at Num. xxi. 9, Judg. vi. 3 (comp. XXX. 41) ; Qi<, followed by a perf., has here as there a temporal signification, and the meaning of quotiescunque (comp. Ps. xll 7). The expression to destroy to the ground is like Judg. xx. 21, 25. The inf. t\2 for nn occurs again in the Pentateuch, Num. xx. 21. After the premature death of Onan also, Judah consoles his daughter-in-law with the prospect of Shelah, ver. 1 1 : Then Jvdah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law: Remain as a widow in thy fathers house, until my son "Selah is grown up. For he thought : lest he also die like his brothers. And Tamar went and remained in her father's house. That a childless widow should return to her father's house (Lev. xxii. 13) has been at all times a natural custom. Thither does Judah direct his daughter-in-law, giving her hopes of marriage with his youngest son, who was not yet of marriage- able age, but attracts her thither with this prospect, because he fears that marriage with her would be as fatal to Shelah as to Er and Onan. Meantime Judah also becomes a widower, and an opportunity arises for the carrying out of a crafty design by Tamar, ver. 1 2 : And after a long time had passed, Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and when Judah had ended his mourning, he went tip to his sheep-shearers, he and Hirah the Adidlamite, his companion, ^ K? in 17 Xp *3 has the einpliatic Dagesh. as also at xix. 2.
270 GENESIS XXXVIII. 13, 14,
to Timnah. In 136 it is Judah himself who is said, liko Laban, xxxi. 19, to shear his sheep. It was an act performed in the presence and under the oversight of the owner of the flock, and was, like the vintage, a festival given by him to his servants (1 Sam. xxv, 11), to which guests also were invited (2 Sam. xiii. 23-27). Thus Judah here takes Hirah, his companion, with him. The LXX and Jerome read inj?\ which ver. 20 may seem to favour. There are three Timnahs (for which now Tibneh) ; that here meant is the one mentioned Josh. xv. 57, together with Gibeah, in the hill country of Judah (see Miihlau in Riehm), between Socho (^Suwehe) and Beth-shemesh {'Ain "Sems), the Tibneh of the 12th route in Badeker, p. 212. p^, not of the place, but of the persons to whom they went up, is here combined, as at Josh, ii. 8, with rh]l- Tamar hears of it, disguises herself, and places herself on the road to Timnah, vv. 13, 14: And it was told Tamar, saying : Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep. Then she 'put off her widow's garments, and covered herself with a veil and disguised herself, and so sat at the entrance of 'Enajim, which is on the way to Timnah ; for she saw that ^Sela was grown up, and yet she was not given to him to wife. TfJp xxxi. 19 is here ex- changed for the infinitive form Tip. And instead of Dsnril xxiv. 65, we have here the active: she made a covering of her veil (as at Deut. xxii. 12, in opposition to which we find Jon. iii. 6 : he spread sackcloth) in order not to be recognised as his daughter-in-law. ^Vynril is not meant of ornaments (nait n*B' Prov. vii. 10) (LXX, Onk. Syr.), but of disguising after the manner of a harlot (like n'tp'y Cant. i. 7). She intended to appear, according to Canaanite custom, as a ncni? (Assyr. hadistu), i.e. one exposing herself in honour of Astarte, the goddess of love, and in this, according to ver. 21 sq., she suc- ceeded. She seated herself at the entry of the village (hence nns not ly^) 'Enajim, in order to escape by stratagem the dis- grace of childlessness : non temporalis usum lihidinis requisivit.
GENESIS XXXVIII. 15-18. 271
sed successionis gratiam concupivit (Ambrose). As in'l (p^"^) and pn''^ (D^'nM) are interchanged, so is ^y)! one with D^^yn in the plain of Judah, Josh. xv. 34 (comp. here ver. 21 W:^V2). Ancient translators (Targums, Syr. Jer. Saad.), the LXX excepted (Alvdv), ignore that wy]} (two fountains) is here the name of a town. K. Chanan in Jalkut, § 145, already correctly appeals to Josh. xv. 34. Judah sees her and is seized with carnal lust, vv. 15, 16 : Then Judah saw her and took her for a harlot, for she had covered her face. And he turned aside to her in the way and said : Coine then, I will come in unto thee. For he knew not that she was his daughter- in-law. And she said: What wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me? His not recognising her as his daughter-in-law arose from her being veiled, and his taking her for a harlot from her disguise and her sitting on the watch. Then he turned aside to her (nD3 as e.g. Num. xx, 17, and really like "i"?B Hos. iv. 14) ^"["^l'"'''? where she was sitting by the way; LXX, i^eKXive 8e tt/jo? uvttjv ttjp 6S6v^ '■i"nn as accus. of the more particular definition which Lagarde and Olsh. prefer. As the price of her compliance, she requires a kid; and as he cannot give her this at once, a pledge, vv. 17, 18: And he said : I will send thee a kid from the flock ; and she rejolied : If thou give me a 'pledge till thou Bend it. And he said : What pledge shall I give thee ? And she said : Thy signet ring and thy cord and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he gave it to her and went in unto her, and she conceived ly him. She requires as a price a kid, the favourite sacrificial animal of Hetaeri in the worship of the goddess of love (see Movers, Phonizier, i. G80) ; and as ii3"iy, a pledge (in Greek and Latin a word borrowed from the Semitic), three articles closely connected with his person, and therefore making him the more certainly recognisable. Judah's signet ring QHin is the only possible but still uncertain trace of the use of writing in the patriarchal history ; the verb 3n2 does not occur in Genesis, and onn in itself means only to close, to
272 GENESIS XXXVIII. 19-24.
close up. The signet ring was worn on the breast (Cant, viii. 6) on a cord ('''''?2)), a multiple one (whence ver. 25 C^nsn, comp. nntij? of a multiple crown, Zech. vi. 11). The travel- ling or walking staff is here called ntso as distinguished from the natural stick ?i50 xxx. 37, xxxii. 11 (only accidentally- sounding like hacidum). " Every Babylonian — says Hero- dotus, i. 195 — wears a signet ring and a staff cut by hand, and on every staff is something set upon the top, an apple, or a rose, or a lily, or an eagle, or something of the kind, for no one may carry a staff without a sign." The Jahvist testifies that this custom prevailed in Canaan also. Tamar now resumes her widow's garments, and the harlot, whom Judah causes to be sought for, is nowhere to be found, vv. 19-23: And she arose and went aivay and put off her veil from her, and she put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid through his friend the Adidlamite, to fetch the pledge from the woman's hand, and he found her not. Then he asked the men of her place, saying : JVliere is the hieroduU that was oJ 'Enajim hy the way ? But they said : There is no hierodide here. And he returned to Judah and said : I have not found her ; and also the people of the place said : There is no hierodide here. Then Judah said : Let her keep it, that ive may not he a laughing-stock ; I sent indeed the kid and thou hast not found her. The connection N^n "^Knijin is like N^n ^J^"^ xix. 33, comp. Judg. vi. 14, nr ^nb and '3>p nr Ps. Ixviii. 9. Instead of the usual ^13 (e.g. also xlviii. 9), nj3 is only once written, 1 Sam, xxi, 10. Jerome aptly translates np"ni^n by habeat sibi. It is apparent from Judah's unwillingness to let what he has done be known, that he was ashamed of it. When Tamar's condition was manifest, she was condemned to be burned, ver. 24 : And it came to pass after about three months, that it was told Judah saying : Thy daiighter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and also she is with child in consequence of her harlotry. And Judah said : Bring her forth and let her be burned. The o of B^cp is not preformative (according
GENESIS XXXVIII. 25, 26. 273
to the formation "linap, liop) but prepositional : after three months, hence the same as ^^ ; the constructive ^bf stands here with a masc. as at Lev. xxv. 21 with a fem. It also sometimes occurs elsewhere that | stands before a word provided with a preposition ; see Lev. xxvi. 3 7, 1 Sam. xiv. 14, Isa. i. 26 and 1 Sam. x. 27, where we must read with the LXX t:nhp3 "a month later," instead of tJ'nnM. ^p.^ does not here stand first in the announcement, but before the adjective •"'7'?, the point of gravity of the announcement (comp. on the contrary xxii. 20), Judah as the head of the family pronounces the sentence of death, as Laban does xxxi. 32. Tamar being to a certain extent the betrothed of Shelah, who had not expressly resigned her, her yielding to another man was regarded as the unfaithfulness of a bride or a wife ; but the punishment of death by burning pronounced upon her is not in accordance with the Mosaic penal law, which inflicts this penalty only upon carnal intercourse with a mother and daughter at the same time, and upon unchastity in the daughter of a priest, Lev. xx. 14, xxi. 9. The capital punishment to be inflicted upon the unfaithful wife is left undetermined, Deut. xxii 22, but seems, like that of the newly-married woman found to be deflowered and of the betrothed who was proved unfaithful, Deut. xxii. 20 sq., 23 sq., to have consisted in stoning, and to have been, according to Ezek. xvi. 40, so also understood, comp. John viii. 5. Judah's profound confusion, vv. 25, 26 : She is brought forth, and at the same time she sent to her father-in-laiu saying : Of a man, to whom these things belong, am I with child ; and she said : Look carefidly, I ;pray thee, to whom, the signet ring and the cord and the staff belong. Then Judah acknowledged and said : She is more righteous than I, for because (that it thus happens) / gave her not to my son Shelah. And he continued not to know her again. The con- struction 25a serves to express what is contemporaneously done or experienced by the same subject, just as at 1 Sara.
ix. 11 ; comp. the same scheme with a different subject in the VOL. II. S
274 GENESIS XXXVIII. 27-29.
account of the flood, vii. 6. On |3"?y ""S, when we rather expect ''3 I?."''^, see on xviii. 5, It is noble of Tamar not to disgrace Judah publicly, and rather to go to death than at once to name him. Judah acknowledges the three pledges as his, and, struck by conscience, confesses that he is himself to blame for this result of the matter.^ This public confession of his fault (comp. as to the ex- pression that of King Saul, 1 Sam, xxiv. 18) is the first good trait that is related of Judah. There was no need for saying that now she was not burned, though there was for telling us that Judah left her in future unmolested. Tamar's twins by Judah, vv. 27-29 : And it came to pass at the time of her delivery, and hehold, twins were in her womb ; and it came to pass, when she travailed, a hand came to sight ; then the midwife took and hound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying : This came forth first. And it came to pass as he drew hack his hand, and hehold, his hrother came out, and she said : How hast thou on thy part torn a rent ! and they called his name Peres. And afterwards came his hrother forth, on whose hand was the scarlet thread, so they called his Zerah. The time of travail and the delivery itself, as the result, are dis- tinguished. Whether iri*!l is conceived of with an indefinite personal subject : then he (it) stretched out a hand (Dillm.), which the retrospective i"i^"^y 28& seems to favour, or imper- sonally, then there was, i.e. appeared, a hand, is questionable ; the possibility of this impersonal comprehension is apparent from Job xxxvii. 10, Prov. xiii. 10 (in opposition to which Prov. x. 24 may have to be read, as by Hitzig, \^':). It is unnecessary to read with Driver {Eeh. Tenses, § 135. 6, note 2) n^K'na instead of ^TP? ; 2''^'?? as a definition of time : as he was in the act of drawing his hand back, is defended by nrnb3 as it (the vine) was in the act of sprouting, xl. 10: n"'K^'M=n''{^D inisna with a not of comparison but of time; in
1 Because this is to his honour, this history is not only read in Hebrew, but also translated by the Methurgeiuau Mtgilla 256.
GENESIS XXXVIII. 27-29. 275
post-biblical Hebrew this use of the participle instead of the finitum is of frequent occurrence, e.g. Shdbbath ii. 5 ona = DriK'a when he spares (comp. Eashi on the passage, and also Geiger, Spraclie der Misclmah, § 24. 2), or: 3 is Cafh veritatis intro- ducing the predicate : then he was (showed himself as) draw- ing back his hand. A piece of wool dyed, not purple but scarlet, with the dye of the cochineal gall-insect coccus cacti, is here called V^. Without some such external identification as that employed by Tamar's midwife, there is really no certain token by which, after delivery has been completed, the first-born can be recognised. This time however it was of no avail, the turning of the one thus marked leaving space for the twin brother to come forth first. Jerome correctly takes ^vj? in the exclamation of the midwife in the sense ol jpropter te (comp, XX. 3); H? is not meant oi ruptura jperinaei, but only of a breaking through by means of push upon push; the accentuation seems to take pQ Y^V as a sentence bv itself, as at xvi. 5 : upon thee lies the fault of the breach (Heidenh. Eeggio) — but what follows upon no must be taken together as an exclamation of puzzled astonishment. The name nnr as well as p.f refers to something memorable from birth, the " brightness " alludes to the bright-coloured string ; nnr, a reference to the word crimson, Aram, "'linr, ^.linr (Eashbam, Heiden. and others), Assyr. zarir = zahrir. Instead of N"Ji?n with the most general subject : they called, the Samar. Targ. Jer. I. and Syr. give both times ^'^\?^].
It was thus, as this historic picture taken entirely from / relates, that the beginnings of the tribe of Judah were formed by a wondrous co-operation of human sin and Divine appoint- ment. Perez, Zerah and Shelah are the three ancestors of the three chief families of the tribe of Judah at the departure from Egypt, Num. xxvi. 20. Through Perez, Tamar was the ancestress of the first and of the second David. How homely are the pictures of the ancestors of Israel ! There is almost more shadow than light in them. National ambition
276 GENESIS XXXIX
played no part in, or with them. Not a trace of mythic idealization is to be seen. The ancestors of Israel do not appear as demi-gods. Their elevation consists in their con- quering, in virtue of the measure of grace bestowed upon them, or, if they succumb, in their ever rising again. Their faults are the foil of their greatness with respect to the history of redemption. Even Tamar with all her errors was, through her wisdom, tenderness and noble-mindedness, a saint according to the Old Testament standard.
At the selling of Joseph in Dothan, Judah had apparently not yet separated from his brethren. Hence it must have been after this event that he made common cause with Hirah the Adullamite. Between Joseph's disappearance and the migration of the family of Jacob to Egypt, there are, as we saw on ver. 37, some twenty years. Within these two-and- twenty years or so, was the history of Judah and Tamar played out. When at xlvi. 12 two sons of Perez, one of the twin brothers, are named among those who came into Egypt, these are great- grandsons of Jacob, who, though born in Egypt, are regarded as coming into Egypt in their fathers (see on xlvi. 8 sqq.).
JOSEPH IN POTIPHAK'S HOUSE AND IN PEISON, CH. XXXIX.
The history of Jacob in his son Judah, related ch. xxxviii., is now followed by the continuation of his history in his son Joseph. Different hands were not to be discerned in ch. xxxviii., all was by J (C), even without the intervention of the redactor. Ch. xxxix., on the contrary, though through- out from /, — apart from xlix. 18 it is the only section of Joseph's history in which the Divine name mn^ appears, and that seven times, — has not remained in the same manner intact. It may be assumed, but cannot be sufficiently proved, that E (B) is here and there blended with J {(T) ; the hand of R is however at once apparent in ver. 1, where the history of Joseph is again taken up from the point at which it had
GENESIS XXXIX. 1-5. 277
arrived at xxxvii. 3 6 : And Joseph was brought down to Egypt ; and Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian man, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites who had brought him down thither. 1"]^'! is not used in continua- tion, for what is related is out of connection with ch. xxxviii. The more particular designation of the " Egyptian man," according to his name and dignity, is inserted by B from E in accordance with xxxvii. 36 ; for this writer gave the name and title of the master to whom the "Midianites" sold Joseph, while J merely says that he who bought Joseph from the " Ishmaelites " was an " Egyptian man," a distinguished person and a man of property, as appears from the account which follows. He made a profitable purchase ; Joseph had good fortune, and brought it to his master, vv. 2-5 : And Jahveh was luith Joseph, and he was a prosperous man^ and he tvas in the house of his Egyptian master. And his master saw that Jahveh ivas with him, and that all that he undertook Jahveh caused to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found favour in his eyes and served Mm, and he made him overseer over his house, and put all that belonged to him in his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer over his house and all that belonged to him, that Jahveh blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph's sake, and the blessing of Jahveh was shown in all that belonged to him, in the house and in the field. The second "'H!'! 2b is striking, but it is, as ver. 20 shows, the style of J, as the expression of continuance in the given condition ; xl. 4& is by reason of the definition of time added to vrfl, not quite analogous. It was according to WX nin^ 2>a that we explained nin''-nx, iv. 1, of helpful support. The Egyptian master saw that Jahveh (equivalent in J to cn^N) was with him, made him his first servant, and placed everything under his eye and care. i?"B'p3, all belonging to him, is possible, Ges. § 123. 3«, but the elliptical expression might rather be expected after the full one in vv. 5, 8. tt^p with a perf. following
278 GENESIS XXXIX. 6, 7.
occurs in J" at Ex. v. 23, ix. 24; ??f? too is Jalivistic (xii. 13, XXX. 27), and elsewhere in the Pentateuch only Deuteronomic (Deut. i 37, xv, 10, xviii. 12). 1''phri, praeficcre, is construed alternately with 3 (comp. Jer. xli. 18) and by (comp. xli. 34). It is regular that the predicate "'Tl in the genus potius should precede the subject 'n naiiij Ges. § 147a, especially in the case of \T'i, which corresponds with the neuter " there was, there was shown." Joseph possessed his master's fullest confidence, and was a man of goodly appearance, ver. 6 : And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and with him he troubled himself about nothing but the bread that he ate ; and Joseph was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. (p) ?x nrj? to leave (to confide) to any one, is said. Job xxxix. 11, 14, comp. Isa. x. 3, here with 1!!3 of him to whom some property is entrusted. St^'^ refers to Joseph. He let him take care for everything that another could take care for, so that nothing was left but his eating, which it was self-evident he nnist himself care for. The young superintendent of his house was factotum, he was handsome in form (growth) and appearance (countenance, complexion, hair) ; the narrator distinguishes in the same manner it?i^ and fi?5"}P xxix. 17. In the Moslem legend he is esteemed from this time forward as the ideal of youthful male beauty ; in Persian figurative language he is called mAhi Kand'n, the moon of Canaan, His master's wife falls passionately in love with him, ver. 7 : And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wifi raised her eyes to Joseph and said : Lie toith me, I pray thee. On bx D;rj; Nb':, Assyr. nalU ind ana, see the discussion in Luthardt's Zeitschr. 1882, p. 125, and Friedr. Delitzsch, Prolegomena,^. 48. She cast upon him love glances; ?>*t< has
the same root as J-^j the association of love. There have
been at all times and in all nations such women with adulterous lusts. De Roug6 has given a similar history from the papyrus d'Orbiney, which is written in hieratic characters
GENESIS XXXIX. 8-12. 279
{Revue arcMologigiie, 9 th year).^ Joseph however had no ear for her unchaste proposal, vv. 8, 9 : But he refused, and said unto Ms master's vnfe : Behold, my master cares with me for nothing in the house, and all that belongs to him has he given into my hand. He is not greater in this house than I, and he has withholden nothing from me hut only thee, because thou art his wife, and hoiu should I do such great wickedness and sin against God ! The relator does not say '^3^^ xp, but, which better expresses the act of self-control, i?<91^- (Keggio). After the preceding ^h, no 8a means quidquam, as at Prov. ix. 13 ; the more emphatic expression for it is riDixp 9a (the French point). If we had r^? instead of 13.3''X 9a, this would state : there is none greater in this house than I ; ^3J''X has a personal subject : he is not greater in this house than I, i.e. he has placed me on a level with himself (comp. on Eccles. vi. 2, where the case is similar). The confirming "l??'^?^ (quoniam, since) occurs in the Pentateuch only here and ver. 23. That which is repugnant is also rejected with ^''i? at xliv. 8, 34, Ps. cxxxvii, 4. Joseph recog- nises the inviolability of marriage, and recoils from such faith- less ingratitude towards his master. A last but unsuccessful attempt to seduce him, vv. 10-12 : And it came to pass, as she persuaded Joseph day by day and he hearkened not to her, to lie by her, or to be with her, then it came to pass, about the same time, that he came in to do his work, and there were none of the men of the house within, that she caught him by the garment saying : Lie vjith me ; but he left his garment in her hand and fled and went out. nay T\vrb used in the sexual meaning of avvekOelv, crvvelvai, cvvovaia, is perhaps from E, where what the woman desired might have been so expressed. Besides n?n Di>3 1. 20, nrn crna occurs elsewhere also, e.g. Deut. vi. 24, comp. ii. 30 : about this day, i.e. this time. His not snatching the garment out of her hands arose from respect,
' In the Moslem legend it has grown into the sentimental loves of Jusuf and Suleiha ; see the Hungarian work of E. Neumann, A Mohammedan Jozef-monda (Buda-Pesth 1881).
280 GENESIS XXXIX. 13-19.
and his fleeing was a flight from temptation, lest he should succumb to it. "^n^sn Ha being meant of the inner part of the house, n^nn must certainly be understood not of the street outside the house, but of the more external part of the house itself; nevertheless, since i''p3 is meant of the upper garment, we may also think of flight into the open air. The revenge of the rejected, vv, 13-15 : Aoid it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled out, that she called the men of the house and said to them thus : See, he has hrought in unto us a Hebrew man to mock its; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled and went out. That she does not give the man his proper name, but says " he," is a characteristic trait. A " Hebrew man " was, according to xliii. 32, xlvi. 34, no epitheton ornans in anti- Semitic Egypt. In 123 she comprises herself and the house- hold, especially the females ; " he " seems, by having brought this foreigner into the house, to have intended to risk their honour. It is with the design of not betraying the true state of affairs that she does not say : he left his garment ^1^,?, but vV^. Having thus gained over the household, who would certainly not be inclined towards the favoured foreigner and strict overseer, she preserves the means of proof for the purpose of exciting her husband against Joseph, vv. 16-19: And she let his garment lie hy her until his master came in, and she spake to him just such words, saying : The Hebrew slave, whom thou hroughtest to us, came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass, when I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment near me and Aed out. And it came to pass, ivhen the master heard the words of his oion wife, which she spake to him, saying : Such and such things did thy slave unto me, that his un'ath was kindled. The narrator transfers himself to the standpoint of the wife, when he says : she waited till his (Joseph's) master came, not : till
GENESIS XXXIX. 20-23. 281
her husband and still less her lord came, for petticoat govern- ment was indigenous in Egypt, Diodor. i. 27. ^})^[} '^''"1?'^? I7a, pointing backwards, as at xxiv. 28, xliv. 7, means "such words ; " here, according to the context, what was said having been already repeated, "just such words." In 19a the use is somewhat different, the formula there meaning " such things," as at 1 Sam. ii. 23; in Hebrew diction the notions word and thing are both included in nm. Joseph's master was angry ; the marriage laws of Egypt were, as Diodor. i. 78 says, severe ; he did not however inflict their heaviest penalty on Joseph ; his anger would certainly be more excited by the vexatious nature of the occurrence, since he would hardly regard his wife as truth itself, ver, 2 0 : And Joseph's master took Mm and put him into the public prison, the place where the king's prisoners v:ere imprisoned, and he remained there in the prison, properly the house of the enclosure (=inDn n"'3, as Hebraeo-Sam. reads), not: of confinement (as though ■inD="iJD, (jcsj-.-, whence sign, dungeon) ; the prison-house is thus called as being a fortress surrounded with a wall (Syr. sahretha) — a designation which occurs (instead of lisn ri''2 or Q''"!iDXn n''2) only in the history of Joseph and in J. According to this narrator, Joseph's master is a wealthy private man, who is left unnamed, and he consigns Joseph to prison from his own house ; while according to E he, viz. Potiphar, is captain of the body- guard and has his official residence in the State prison. The addition D^1^D>? -i^sn (n;px) niDS-n^'K (=q^ -it^»X , . xl. 3, as at XXXV. 13, comp. on Diplp Ges. § 116. 2) helps to accommodate the two accounts. Joseph's prosperity in the prison, vv. 21-23 : And Jahveh was ivith Joseph and shoiced him favour, and worked him favour in the eyes of the keeper of the prison. And the captain of the prison delivered into Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the public prison, and everything that had to be done there was done by him. The captain of the p)rison looked after nothing in his hand, because Jahveh was vjith him, and whatever he undertook Jahveh made to prosper
282 GENESIS XL.
The expression \i'V| ^3n ]m is like Ex. iii. 21, xi. 3, xii. 36. To D^'y must be added in thought the most general subject, as at Isa. xxxii. 12 (Driver, Hebrew Tenses, § 135. 6) : every- thing that they had to do there, he did, i.e. it was done by his orders and under his supervision. The enhancement noisJp"P3 is found only here ; nK"i with the accusative means to see after anything, to make it one's business : the captain did not trouble himself about anything that was in his (Joseph's) hand, he left him a free hand, he trusted him blindly. The concluding words are, as it were, like the refrain to ver. 2 sq.
THE DREAMS OF THE TWO STATE PRISONERS, AND JOSEPH S INTERPRETATION, CH. XL.
From ch. xx., the model portion for E (B), onwards, this narrator appears pre-eminently as the writer, from whom proceeds an account of the impulse given to the course of history by dreams. This already makes it probable that the narrative, which now follows, is chiefly derived from this source. To this leads also, in relation to xxxvii. 28a (down to man-p), the statement of Joseph, " I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews," and the statement found in xl. 3 in its variation from J {(J), who makes Joseph's master deliver him up to the ■>[iBr' JT*?, outside his house. But apart from the harmonistic additions in vv. 3, 5, 15, according to which Joseph was put in the prison before the two officers of Pharaoh, J may be recognised by the style at xl. 1, comp. xxii. 1 and xl. 10 nnnb3, comp. xxxviii. 29. It seems to be J himself who is here relating after E.
Here for the first time we meet with the intervention of the king of Egypt in the history, and the question arises, whether this Pharaoh belongs to a national Egyptian dynasty, or to one of the three Hyksos dynasties — tlie first having the names of six kings — which, according to Manetho, pre-
I
GENESIS XL. 283
ceded the eigliteen native dynasties. The Hyksos — says an extract in Josephus, c. Ap. 1. 14, from Manetho's Egyptian history — invading Egypt from the East, subjected it, ruled it for 511 years, and receiving free egress, after being at length conquered by Misphragmuthosis and besieged by his son Tethmosis in Avaris (the border fortress erected in the east against the Assyrians), marched through the desert towards Syria, and, not daring to advance as far as Syria from fear of the Assyrians, who then ruled over Asia, founded Jerusalem in Judsea. The name TKHfl^, says Josephus, means, accord- ing to Manetho, ySao-tXet? 7roi/xeve<;, or, according to another copy of the historical work, al-^QiakcoTot 7roi/jieve<i. Both explanations are linguistically legitimate, for sasu is the hieroglyphic name of a brave pastoral people involved in many ways with Egypt, and s6s means in Koptic (as in the common tongue) shepherd, while hak (often with the addition of the vowel a, and often also with the determinative of a sitting figure of a king) means in the monumental language prince (chief), and written with other hieroglyphics it means also prisoner (DMZ. xxxi. 453), like the Koptic hole, to sur- round ; heJc, surrounded. Julius Africanus has, instead of 511 years for the total duration of the three Hyksos dynasties (the first of which is stated by Josephus to have lasted 259 years 10 months), 284 + 518 + 151, hence nearly 1000 years. Another fragment in Josephus, c. Ap. i. 2 6 sq., relates that the lepers of Egypt being removed by Amenophis to the city of Avaris, where the Hyksos, driven away by Tethmosis, had dwelt 393 years before, rose up, under the Heliopolitan priest Osarsiph, afterwards called Moses, against the king, and after practising, with the help of the Solymitan Hyksos, whose aid they had invoked, all kinds of cruelties and abominable profanations of holy things, were at last, after the thirteen pre- dicted years of their rule over Egypt had expired, expelled from Egypt to the borders of Syria by Amenophis, who had fled from them to Ethiopia and his son Sethon-Earases. Manetho
284 GENESIS XL.
himself says (as Josephus twice brings forward) that this second narrative is derived not from original Egyptian sources, but e/c rwv ahecnrorw^ /xvOokojovfievcov. Other authors give still more confused accounts : Chseremon (Joseph, c. Ap. 1. 32), that the unclean, who were expelled from the country by Ameno- phis, led by Tisithen-Moses and Peteseph- Joseph, joined themselves with those in Pelusium, and forced Amenophis to flee to Ethiopia, until his son Eamesses drove them, the Jews, to Syria, Lysimachus {id. 34), that under the Egyptian king Bokchoris, the lepers and those who had scabies among the Jewish people were drowned, and that the rest of this un- godly multitude, being cast out into the wilderness, went on to 'lepoavka (city of the sacrilegious), afterwards called 'lepocroKvfia, burning and plundering on the way. Justin {Hist, xxxvi. 2, comp. Pompeji Trogi Fragm. ed. Bialowsky, p. 32), who takes Moses for the son of Joseph, says : Aegyptii quum scabiem et vitiliginem paterentur, responso moniti eum cum cegris, ne pestis ad plures serperet, terminis Aegypti pellunt. Dux igitur exsidum f actus sacra Aegyptiorum furto abstulit, quce repetcntcs armis Aegyptii domum redirc tempestatihus compidsi sunt; Tacitus {Hist. v. 2): Sunt qui t7'adunt, Assyrios con- venas, indignum agrorum populum, parte Aegypti potitos niox proprias urhcs Hebraeasque terras et propria Syriae coluisse. Hence we are obviously to regard the Hyksos and Israelites as one people. Josephus boasts of their being his ancestors. H. Grotius, Herm. Witsius, Basnage, Perizonius and others are on his side. Hofmann in an article " Unter welcher Dynastie haben die Israeliten -^gypten verlassen " (in Studien u. Kritihen, 1839), and in his letter to Bockh on Egyptian and Israelite chronology (1847), has tried to show, that the Hyksos were the Israelites, transformed by Egyptian vanity into a conquering nation. But many ancient investigators, such as Cunseus, Scaliger, Pezronius, Bochart, Marsham, Jas. Usher, Erider. Spanhemius, already perceived that this view was un- tenable ; and now the view of Ewald, that the Hyksos were
GENESIS XL. 285
Hebrew tribes who penetrated into Egypt before the Israelite migration, may be regarded as generally prevailing. The papyrus Sallier I. (in Ebers, pp. 204-206) confirms this episode of foreign usurpation. The worship of Sutech (Set), which has since prevailed, and the horse which has since become native in Egypt, are characteristic. But while the combination of the Hyksos with Israel has failed, it is on the other hand almost universally acknowledged, that the lepers who, according to Manetho's second account, dwelt for a time with the Hyksos, were the Israelites. This view also has ancient advocates, and reaches back — as may be inferred from the narrative of Hecataeus of Abdera in Diodor. xl. 3, comp. xxxiv. (ed. Bekk.) — to the early time of the Ptolemies. Schiller in his Sendung Mosis states it, but without considering that the dark colour of the tradition must be for the most part laid to the account of Egyptian national hatred. We have accord- ingly to distinguish between two expulsions of foreigners from Egypt : the casting off of the yoke of Phoenician or Arabic conquering invaders by a sovereign of the 17th or 18th Dynasty, according to Wiedemann, Amosis (Ahmes), father of Amenophis I., and the Israelite exodus, represented as the removal from the country of a people who defiled it, under Menephthes (Merneptah, lower Egyptian Mernephtah), son of Eamses II. Miamun of the 19 th Dynasty. The capital of the kingdom in the time of this pair of rulers was Thebes in Upper Egypt, the home of the dynasty ; but they resided in Tanis, the ancient capital of the Hyksos in the eastern Delta, the chief place of the worship of Set, after whom the father of Eamses II. was called Seti. The period of the Hyksos was then long past. But was the king under whom Joseph came into Egypt one of the Hyksos or not ? Greek chronographists and Barhebraeus call him Apophis (Apepi), a king of the loth Manethonian, the 1st Hyksos Dynasty. Wiedemann in his Egyptian history, 1884, advocates the view that the Pharaoh of Joseph was a Hyksos, but a later one than this
286 GENESIS XL.
first Apepi, So too Dillm., who says that Joseph's elevation took place in the Hyksos period, not in the time of their first impetuous eruption, but when they had become Egyptianized.^ But apart from the fact that tlie rule of the Hyksos is a still indefinable, confused and indistinct matter {DMZ. xxxix. 148), the view, that the Hyksos ruled in Egypt from Joseph to Moses, is opposed by the one grave objection, that the people of Egypt, to whom Israel was in bondage, appears throughout the Old Testament Scriptures as a foreign, and by no means kindred race, and that the aim of the migration of the house of Jacob to Egypt, viz. to grow up into a nation far from the danger of intermixture, excludes identity of origin.
It is striking that in the first account of Manetho in Josephus, the first king whom the Hyksos elected from among them is called Salatis (as also ^aiV?;?, a^' ov koI 6 SatTT]<; vofi6<;, regarded by Afric, Euseb. and the school of Plato as an objectionable various reading), and that at xlii. 6 it is said of Joseph (the all but sovereign of Egypt, see Artapanus in Euseb. Fraep. ix. 23): i^i^ri Kin eion pxn-py. These and other combinations, as 'TKam and njjpp ^B'JK xlvi. 34 (xlvii, 6), "Al3apL<; or Avapi<i (Hyksos fortress) and D''1?V "'"'S' (xl. 15), are however but ignes fatui. How very much we are groping in the dark with respect to the organization of the Hyksos sovereignty, and Israel's sojourn in and exodus from Egypt, is shown by Kohler's examination of the matter in his History of the Old Testa- ')nent, i. 237-245. He finally considers it most probable that the migration of Israel must be placed before the invasion of the Hyksos, the Hyksos rule limited to a period of between two and three hundred years, and the exodus dated after the expulsion of the Hyksos, perhaps the middle of the 18th Dynasty.
1 V. Strauss-Torney in his article, " Israel von Joseph bis Mose nach agyp. Quellen," in the Conserv. Monats.schri/t for 1880. places the immigration in the year 1944/3 under the Hyksos-Pharaoh Archies (Aseth).
GENESIS XL. 1-4. 287
Offences of Pharaoh's cup-bearer and baker bring them both into the prison with Joseph, vv. 1-3 : And it, came to pass after these things, the cup-hearer and haker of the king of Egypt offended their lord the king of Egypt, and Pharaoh was wroth with his two courtiers, with the chief of the cup- hearers and the chief of the hakers, and he gave tlieni into the custody of the house of the chief of the hody -guard in the prison, the place where Joseph was imprisoned. The cir- cumstantiality of the narrative shows that two accounts are here interwoven, with a careful preservation of their words, notwithstanding the tautology thence arising. The main fact which follows in ^V|T1 is introduced by "'H^l ; the accessory fact precedes in the circumstantializing perf. I^^^n, as at Ex. xvi. 22, Deut. ix. 11 sq., Jer, xxxvi. 16, Ezek, i, 1, though ixt^n may also, according to the scheme xiv. 1 (see there), be regarded as the main fact at which "'H^.l aims. C]vp is the usual word for the anger of high-placed personages, e.g. Esth. i. 21, 1 Sam. xxix. 4. The Kametz of D''np (see on xxxvii. 36) is treated as immutable in VpMD as in ''P"'"]?, Esth. ii. 21, comp. ''if'iS) Dan. xi. 14, and on the other hand as mutable in "'D''"}p 7a (as in D''"ip^ xxxvii. 36, comp. P'lS Isa. XXXV. 9). The captain of the body-guard (execu- tioners) dwelt, as we are here told, in the prison building, which was under his charge, and he gave the two aristocratic prisoners to his slave Joseph to wait upon, ver, 4 : And the captain of the guard gave them into the charge of Joseph, who ministered to them, and they remained some time in custody. As the accounts are before us for their mutual completion, the "inon JT'n ib xxxix. 21-23 is the subordinate oflficer of the chief commander of the executive, and the latter, the master of Joseph, disposes, in virtue of his right of possession, of those consigned to prison, and placed under the oversight of the keeper. Whether and in what connection the imprison- ment of Joseph himself was related by E, must be left unsettled, cp^ desiguates a lengthy period, as an indefinite
288 GENESIS XL. 5-8,
number of days, iv. 3, Neli. i. 4, Dan. viii. 27, comp. 1 Sam. xxix. 3. We now see how Joseph preserved his undaunted character in a prison also, and how, as the reward of his fidelity, the wisdom of a prophetic spirit was implanted in his pure soul (Wisd. i. 4). He finds his two fellow-prisoners depressed on account of their dreams, which they are unable to interpret, and gets them to relate them, vv. 5-8 : And loth dreamed a dream, each Ms dream in one and the same night, each according to the interpretation of his dream, the ■cup-hearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were imprisoned in the prison. And Joseph went in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and hehold they were sad. Then he ashed the courtiers of Pharaoh, which were with him in the custody of his master, saying : Why are your coun- tenances sad to-day ? And they said to him : We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one to interpret it to i(s ; and Joseph said to them : Are not interpretations God's I Tell it, I pray you, to me. It is seeking for difficulties where there are none to take ^'TTP Qi-'D genitively, somnium amhoriim (Reggio) ; Qi'T', formed according to "li^n, 1iD\ "'^'*"r", is not a connective form, but is here the ace. object governed by i»^n>i (an accessory form to lopn^i, Ges. § 63. 2); liinsi (explanation interpretation from iriQ,^) combines the notions of interpretation and meaning. Their saying : we have dreamed a dream (not : dreams), seems to proceed from their thinking that their dreams, which they had related to each other, were essentially identical. And with the com- plaint ink K nnbi is certainly combined the afterthought, that as prisoners they could not apply to the Q''?>t5nn. Joseph however directs them from men to God, " interpretations are God's," i.e. His affair and gift, and by requesting them to tell them to him, he puts it before them as possible that God will not withhold from him the ability which comes from Him alone. Here too the circumstantial character of the narrative manifests different hands. The dream of the
■ GENESIS XL. 9-15. 289
cup-bearer, vv. 9-11: And the chief of the cup-hearers told Joseph his dream, and said : In my dream, behold I had a vine before me. And in the vine were three branches, and while it was sprouting, its blossom also already shot forth, its clusters of blossom ripened to grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I tooh the grapes and pressed them, and handed the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Ou nrnba for nn~i3 nnrna^ see on xxxviii. 29. Sprouting, blooming and ripening coincided in a manner significant of the immediate fulfilment of what the dream imagery indicated, i^')'^ sounds like an inflection of T-?, which in the meaning blossom is warranted by Mishnic Hebrew (see Levy), but the construction with nnpy shows that it is intended as an abbreviated nn^j, as at i^3Si Pro v. vii. 8 = ^^33; see on the abbreviation with an added suffix the comm. on Ps. xxvii. 5 (4th edit, p- 260). Viticulture, said to be derived from Osiris, was, as is evident from Ps. Ixxviii. 47, cv. 33, comp. Num. xx. 5, already well known in Egypt from the times of the ancient kingdom, and the statement of Herodotus, ii. 77, must be limited accordingly. Strabo, Athenaeus and Pliny describe the various wines and wine lands of Egypt. Nor is it true that, in the time of Psammetichus only, new must was drunk and fermented wine forbidden. Plutarch, de Iside, c. vi., tells us the contrary. The people drank wine without restriction ; the kings, as being also priests, only so much as the sacred writings allowed, but after Psammetichus this restriction ceased. The ancient monuments show us all kinds of utensils used in wine - making, busy grape - treaders, sleepy tipplers, even drunken women {DMZ. xxx. 407). Ebers sees in the pressed juice of the grape, which the cup-bearer hands to the king, a kind of cooling drink; this feature in the picture however has in itself no significance, but naturally resulted from the entire symbolism of the dream. Joseph's interpre- tation, vv. 12-15: Then Joseph said unto him: This is its
interpretation : The three branches are three days. In yet three VOL. II. T
290 GENESIS XL. 12-15.
days will Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee to thine office, and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into his hand according to the former manner, when thou wast his cup-hearer. Only mayest thou keep me in thy remembrance when it is well with thee, and do Jcindness, I pray thee, to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. " To lift up the head of any one " is also used at 2 Kings xxv. 27 of release from prison and rehabilitation ; in Assyr. also ullH r6su = to bring to honour (Friedr. Delitzsch, Prolog. 155). "i^'^, which xxxix. 20 meant "where" of place, here means "when" of time, as e.g. also at 2 Sam. xix. 25. The restriction with "DX 13 (always with the DX makkephed, except in the three passages, xv. 4, Num. xxxv. 33, Neh. ii. 2, where ''3 has Makkeph) is like fiovov iva Gal. ii. 10. DX '•3 is here also, as at Micah vi. 8, Job xlii. 8, the confirmation of an implied negative sentence : I ask of thee nothing but that thou mayest (only that thou mayest). Driver, § 119S, stumbles at this modal sense of the perfect ; but if something future has pre- ceded, the perfect following DK '•3 shares in the reference to the future, without nx ''3 interrupting the otherwise regular consecutio temporum, 2 Sam. v. 6 (where we must translate imo dbigent te), 2 Kings xxiii. 9. Hence the alteration of ^3 into li^ (Wellh. Driver) is syntactically unnecessary and not really preferable ; for with this verumtamen si memincris " 13? is placed under conditions, while Joseph evidently means to entreat it " (Dillm.). He calls the land of Canaan Dnayn ps, so as at the same time to state his nationality. He was able to call it this as the land where Abraham the Ibri (xiv. 13) and his descendants had dwelt.^ And though he says he was stolen away (after xxxvii. 28a), not sold (xxxvii. 285), he was still the victim of a crime which his brothers perpetrated on him ;
^ See Herm. Witsius' (t 1708) remarks on the subject in S. J. Curtis' 'Sketches," Bibliotheca sacra, 1885, p. 318 sq.
GENESIS XL. 16-19. 291
but concerning this he is purposely silent. In the account of his brothers' revenge, ch. xxxvii., the stone-lined rain-water pit, into which Joseph was cast, was called "lis by both narrators. Such pits were elsewhere also used as dungeons, on which account IM became, as here, the general name for a dungeon or a vault serving as a prison.
The dream of the baker, vv, 16, 17: And the chief haker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph : 1 too in my dream — and hehold three baskets of white hread upo7i my head, and in the uppermost hasket all kinds of food of Pharaoh's takers' work, and the hirds ate it out of the hasket upon my head. He means to say : I also saw a like thing in my dream, but immediately starts off to relate this like thing. To carry a basket on the head was the custom of Egyptian men (Herod, ii. 35), especially, as the monuments show, of bakers.'' Onkelos mistakenly translates ''I'n ''?p as lin^ "(h^, baskets of the nobility, i.e. with fine bread ; Eashi and others : broken baskets, baskets with holes in them ; but """in is an adj. rel. (from iin, akin to iin "nn candere, and then
candium esse) and means like ijj^^ white or fine flour and
bread made of it (comp. ''lin white cloth, Isa. xix. 9, and j .^^
silk as dazzlingly white). Targ. Jer. correctly has i^)i?^ xris, and so already has the Jerus. Gemara to Beza ii. 6. The p of ''3^ is partitive, like vi. 2. Joseph's interpretation, vv. 18, 19 : Then Joseph answered and said: This is its interpre- tation : The three baskets are three days. In yet three days toill Pharaoh lift up thy head from thee and hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. As in the quasi- blessing of Esau "'JOB'b is ambiguously repeated from the blessing of Jacob, xxvii. 39, comp. xxviii., so here 'HtJ'XvnK ^f3\ has the sense of auferet caput tuum, while when said of the cup-bearer it meant efferet. Beheading was an
1 See the chapter on bread-baking in Wcenig's PJlanzen im alten ^gypte,
1886, pp. 174-180.
292 GENESIS XL. 20-23.
ordinary capital punishment, and the hanging of the corpse upon a tree (stake) an enhancement of the punishment (in use also according to the Mosaic penal law, Deut. xxi. 22 sq.). That Joseph did not keep back so crushing an interpretation, is a proof on the one hand of his Divine certainty, and on the other of the courage which was combined with his truth- fulness ; in any case, he would feel that it was well for the unhappy man to be prepared for the worst.
The fulfilment of the interpretations, vv. 20-23 : And it came to pass on the third day, Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, and lifted up the head of the chief of the cup-hearers and of the chief of the bakers among his servants. He restored the chief of the cup-bearers to his office of cup-bearer, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And the chief of the bakers he hanged, as Joseph had interpreted. And the chief of the cup-bearers did not remember Joseph — he forgot him. The LXX rightly has r)iJbepa yevia-eo)^ ^apaco, and Targ. Jer. I. nynST spiJa DV ; the inf. Hoph. ^'i]>J}, which means the having been born (different from the inf. Niph. 1?^^^, e.g. Hos. ii. 5, the being born), is as at Ezek. xvi. 5, comp. 4, combined with an accus. object. That the king's birthday was kept as a holiday in Egypt, is confirmed, at least for the Ptolemaic period, by the bilingual tables of Eosetta and Canopus. Eashi understands C'sn \^m 20& according to Ex. xxx. 12: he counted over his servants, and among them the two also. Then there would be an addition to the two meanings of tollere caput the third of recensere, which is improbable ; the Targ. Jer. correctly renders it : he raised (Dpi"") the heads of the two in different manners, "^i?^^ 21a does not as apartic. mean the cup-bearer, but his office (15 13a). When the cup-bearer was reinstated in his office, his ingratitude made him have no effectual remembrance of Joseph, so that he really forgot him.
GENESIS XLI, 1-4. 293
PHAEAOH'S DEEA.MS AND JOSEPH'S ELEVATION, CH. XLI.
The chief source from which this narrative is obtained is the same as the preceding. E (B) may be recognised by such expressions as nns and fnriD, which occur exclusively in these portions of the history of Joseph, and J? office, xl. 13, xli. 13, as also by the form n:3"}ip xli. 21 (^ elsewhere also, xxx. 41, xxi. 29, xxxi. 6, xlii. 36, indulging in such emphatic pro- longations), and the Divine name D\n^s xli. 15 sq. (where / would have suitably had nin''), but especially by the particular, that Joseph is here called the servant appointed by the captain of the guard for the two State prisoners. As J would certainly also relate the elevation of Joseph through the verifi- cation of his interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, the question arises whether many traces of a parallel text of J may not be more easily explained by the view, that we have before us the narrative according to F, as reproduced by J, than by supposing that a interpolated the text of U with additions from J.
Pharaoh's first dream, vv. 1-4 : And it came to pass after two full years, and Pharaoh dreamed, and hehold he stood hy the Nile. And hehold, there came out of the Nile seven kine, beautiful of form and fat of flesh, and they fed in the reed grass. And hehold, seven other kine came up after them out of the Nile, ill-favoured and lean of flesh, and stood beside the kine on the brink of the Nile. And the ill-favoured and lean- fleshed kine devoured the seven kine beautiful of form and fat of flesh. The structure of the sentence is the same as at xlii. 35, comp. XV. 17, xxix. 25; the apodosis begins with nam, and n'yisi Dph is a preceding adverbial sentence (Driver, § 78). "ipj? is left after nan without the subject being expressed, as at xxiv. 30, comp. nj?h r\:n xxxvii. 15 (Driver, § 135. 6). To D^njti' is added as the accus. of more exact definition Q")?^ (Ges. 118. 3): two years of days are two full years, like Ci"'0^ C'nn xxix. 14, a full month. iN^, as the name of the Nile, may be an assimilated Egyptian word, in itself it is however Semitic,
294 GENESIS XLI. 5-8.
and used as much of the Tigris (Dan. xii. 5 sq.) as of the Nile, and even of mine-shafts (see Friedr. Delitzsch, Hebrew Language, p. 25). ins, on the contrary, is an indigenous Egyptian word : achu from acli, redupl. achach to become green, LXX dx'' (with the more recent final i), which must have been so much transferred into Egyptian Greek that rihy Isa. xix. 17 is translated by to dxi^ to ^ktopov, on which Jerome remarks : quid Mc sermo significarct, audivi ah j^gigptiis, Jioc nomine omne quod in palude viride nascitur appellari. In- stead of nip"! the Samar. has mp"), like the Masoretic text of ver. 19 sq., 27; nipT brought down, thinned, is a third synonym. The designation of the brink of the Nile by T\^f is no poetic image ; nsb* means not only the edge of the mouth (the lips), but the rim of anything, that whereby it comes in friction or into contact with other things (see on the root on iii. 15). Pharaoh's second dream, vv. 5-7 : And he slept and dreamed a second time, and hchold, seven ears of corn came up upon one sialic fat and well-favoured. And behold, seven ears, thin and blasted by the east vjind, sprang up after them. And the thin ears swalloiued up the seven fat and full cars — then Pharaoh awoTce, and behold it was a dream. The — in Qy^?' from riVrj' is like that in I33i5n from ^pri Num. xxiii. 25. The adj. Nnn healthy, strong, fat, is also applicable to ears, which can indeed be sickly and shrivel ; such a sickness is the blight nsnE^ (liQ'^tt'), mostly caused in Egypt by the dreaded Chamsin, blowing from the south-eastern desert districts. The swallow- ing up of the first ears by the second is not really meant, for "the absolutely irrepresentable cannot be dreamed" (Heidenh.) : the seven lean ears shot up above the others and so concealed them, that they had, as it were, vanished. Vain interrogation of native scholars, ver. 8 : And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called all the scribes of Egypt and all the wise men therein. And Pharaoh told them his dream, and no one was able to interpret them (the two dreams) to Pharaoh. In the similar history of Nebu-
i
GENESIS XLI. 9-13 295
chadnezzar's dream, the Niphal CJ'sni Dan. ii. 3 precedes the Hithpael oysnrii with a similar recession of the tone. Pharaoh sends for all the Ci"''?pin and all the wise men of Egypt. He did what Ptolemy, according to Tacitus, Hist. iv. 83, did in a similar case: sacerdotihus Aegyptiorum, quihts mos talia intellegere, nocturnos visus apcrit. Q'''?^"!'!' (from the non-occurring sing. Db"in) is a Semitic word formed perhaps in consonance with an Egyptian one, a secondary formation from ^"^n pen, mode of writing, a writing, Isa. viii. 1. The LXX translates it i^iryrjTai, i.e. according to Hesychius: olirepl lepwv Kol SioarjfJieicov i^rjyov/jLevoi. i€po<ypafifjiaTec<i would be more suitable. Egypt was familiar with Manticism of every kind. The plur. Q^ix, referring back to iopHTix, looks almost like a hint that the native scholars looked upon the essentially one dream as two different dreams, and were thereby led astray. Eeference of the chief cup-bearer to Joseph, vv. 9-13: Then the chief of the cup-hearers spoJce to Pharaoh saying: I remerriber my sins this day. Pharaoh was angry with his servants and. gave me into custody of the house of the captain of the guard, me and the chief of the takers. Then we dreamed a dream in one and the same night, I and he, we dreamed each after the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with us a young Hebrew man, a slave of the captain of the guard ; to him ive told it, and he interpreted to us our dreams, according to the dream of each he interpreted. And it came to pass, as he had interpreted to us, so it happened; me he reinstated in my office, and him he hanged. The combination HX ~\3r\ is neither here nor at Ex. ii. 1, iii. 22 an accusatival one; ns is a preposition, as at xlii. 30, xxiii. 8. Tlio LXX rightly renders rrjv dfiap- riav fjiov avaixifivrjaKoi arjixepov, not: I bring it to mention, but (as at xl. 14) I bring it to remembrance ; but he says "'i^on (not "'X^n), respectfully magnifying and not diminishing the offence, which had incurred the anger of Pharaoh. Instead of the first *ris, the LXX, Samar. have the preferable onis*. The genit. combination in the custody of the ... is repeated from
296 GENESIS XLI. 14-lC.
xL 3. The intensive ah with the 1 'pl. impf. nopnsi, -which makes the historical statement only the more emphatic, finds its equal in ^^Vy[, Ps. xc. 10, and elsewhere occurs almost only in the 1 sing., e.g. xxxii. 6, Ew. § 232^. i^Xn? t^'''N is, according to the scheme discussed in rem. on ix. 5, equi- valent to ^'^ Di^ns, as ip'^'^X ^'i^ xlii. 25 is the same as in the sack of each. Joseph's appearance before Pharaoh, vv. 14-16 : And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they dis- missed him qideldy from prison ; he shaved himself and changed his garments and came lefore Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to Joseph : I have dreamed a dream, and no one can interpret it, but I have heard say of thee, that thou hearest a dream to (at once) interpret it. Then Joseph answered Pharaoh saying : It belongs not to me, God will answer what will profit Pharaoh. The prison is here called lia, as at xl. 15. The LXX has dvro 70V o')(yp(i)[iaTO<i, i.e. according to xl. 14, xxxix. 20 rr'nirp. The unnamed subject of '^'^'^T). is as frequently {e.g. Zech. iii. 5, comp. Luke xii. 20) the attendants: they quickly dismiss (not fetch) Joseph, and, being free for his departure to the palace, he shaves himself (n?? reflexive, like TD"! to wash one- self) and changes his garments ; for to shave off all hair from the body, was in Egypt a main article of cleanliness and purity ; and that no one should appear before a king in his work-day garments, is self-understood. With respect to shav- ing, Joseph had as yet had no reason for conforming to Egyptian custom. ^vV de te, as at 1 Kings x. 6 : The king has heard say concerning Joseph, that he only needs to hear a dream, to be able at once to interpret it. He however refers the king, as he did (xl. 8) the two prisoners, from human intervention to God. TI^V^^ xli. 44 without the excepto te ; thus the "'ly^? forms a thought of itself : without me = I can do nothing at all (like I may (take) nothing at all, xiv. 24). God alone is able to do it, and He can give the power ; He will give as an answer (to me who inquire of Him) the welfare of Pharaoh, i.e. what shall be for his welfare. This sounds hope-
GENESIS XLI. 17-32. 297
fill, though it does not prejudge. Pharaoh again repeats his double dream, vv. 17-24: And Pharaoh said to Joseph: In my dream, hehold I stood on the brink of the Nile. And behold seven kine rose ii]) out of the Nile fat of flesh and beautiful of form and fed in the reed-grass. And behold seven other kine rose up after them, poor and very ill-favoured, and fallen away in flesh. I have not seen their like for badness in all the land of Egypt. And the fallen away and ill-favoured kine ate up the seven first fat kine. And they went into their inside, and it could not be seen that they had gone into their inside, and their ap'pearanee ivas ill-favoured as at the beginning — then I awoke. And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears shot up on one stalk, full and fair to see, and behold seven ears withered, thin and blasted by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears— I told it to the scribes, and none of them coidd give me an explanation. In such repetitions Hebrew authors, and even poets in their refrains (see Psalms, 4th edit, p. 350), delight in small variations instead of literal identity. So e.g. xxiv. 42-47 with relation to xxiv. 11-24. It is a needless conjecture that the variations are worked in from the parallel text of J (Dillm.). In Pharaoh's repetition of his double dream the adjectives rii?"n, nip"i and Th'ori as well as the greater detail, 19&, 21a, are new. On the sing. ][}''^y^ 21a, see Ges. § 93. 3, note 3. And on on^^nf? 23b, instead of the more correct in"'"?.D|^, comp. xxxi. 9, xxxii. 16, and ^t^^)_ xx. 17. Joseph's interpretation, vv. 25-32: Then Joseph said to Pharaoh : The dream of Pharaoh is one ; what God intends to do he has announced to Pharaoh. The seven well-fawured kine are. seven years, and the seven zoell-favoured ears are seven years. The dream is one. And the seven lean and ill-favoured kine, which came up after the former, are seven years, and the ears empty and blasted by the east wind will be seven years of famine. This is the word that I said unto Pharaoh : Wliat God intends to do He has shown unto Pharaoh. Behold, seven years arc ai-)proaching, a great 'plenty in the whole land of Egypt. And
298 GENESIS XLI. 33- 3o.
seven years of famine shall arise after them, and the plenty is forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine loill consume the land. And the plenty will not he noticed in the land by reason of the famine following, because it is very grievous. And in respect of this that the dream was twice repeated to Pharaoh, (this happened) because the thing is settled with God, and God will speedily bring it to pass. Osiris was to the Egyptians the God of the Nile, whose symhol was the bull (Diod. i, 51), and Isis-Hathor the goddess of the fertile and all-nourishing earth, whose symbol, the cow (Macrobius, Saturn, i. 19), was also that of the moon and the lunar year — hence the inter- pretation of the kine by fruitful or unfruitful years, according to the favour or disfavour of the Nile, was an obvious one ; but it needed Joseph's divinely attested insight into the future, to answer not only for this apparently obvious and simple in- terpretation, but also for the results of fourteen years. On the determinated adj. with the undeterminated chief notion in V2^ nhbn nns 26a, see on i, 31. Instead of T\\^'\ the second seven ears are called 27& nip^n (the opposite of nisi50) ; nij?"! is only said of the kine. In the remark that the seven empty ears are seven years of famine, i.e. will be proved to mean such, the centre of gravity in the meaning of the two dreams is antici- patively alluded to. The " word " (i^'^l', comp. Acts xv. 6 in Lnther's, and in our Hebrew translation) 28ft is what he said 25&. Dip " arise" (priri), said of years, is a kind of personifying transference of the diction of Ex. i. 8. As the swallowing up is alluded to by nac':!, so by J^l^^^'^^"^] is it signified that nothing of the seven fat morsels was perceived in the seven lean kine ; the famine will be so great that the stores will visibly dis- appear. The elliptical brevity in ver. 32 is like xxxvii, 22 {E). ^y introduces that to which respect is had, as at Euth iv. 7 (comp. b xvii. 20), and ^3 confirms the said state of matters (comp, on xviii. 20). Joseph's counsel, vv. 33-36 : And noio let Pharaoh look for a prudent and u-ise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh set
GENESIS XLI. 37-iO. 299
to work and appoint overseers over the land, and take up a fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty. And let them gather all the food of these coining good years and heap up corn under the hand of Pharaoh in the cities, and let them keep it. And the food shall he for a store for the land for the seven years of famine which will come upon the land of Egypt, that the land he not ruined through the famine. The jussive ^5^^ has, according to the Masora, the tone upon the ultima (Kouig, p. 561), and has on that account Tsere instead of Segol in the last syllable, as Abeuezra expressly states in his two Grammars. In 34(X we must not explain : constituat Pharao et praeficiat praefectos (Dillm.), which is tautological; Ges. rightly compares the Latin fac scrihas, the object of HK^JJ^ is what is afterwards specified, or also : rwy has in itself the completed sense of acting or setting to work ; 1 Kings viii. 32, comp. Ps. xxii. 32, is similar. Pharaoh should take during the seven fruitful years the fifth part of the entire harvest, by means of commissioners, and store up this corn (13) under Pharaoh's hand, i.e. in royal magazines, that the store of food thus laid up (pDN') may save the land from starvation during the years of famine. The verbal copiousness of ver. 3 5 may arise from the two accounts being here compressed into one, as in vv, 48, 49 (comp. xxvii. 44 sq., xxxi. 18). Elevation of Joseph to be the highest of&cial in the land, vv. 37-40: And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants: Shall we find a man like this, in whom is the spirit of God ? And Pharaoh said to Joseph: Since God has showed thee all this, there is none prudent and wise as thou. Thou shall he over my house, and according to thy hidding shall all my people he rided, only hy the throne loill I he greater than thou. Arnheim trans- lates 38a "will there be found;" but we have not t<>*»)n, nor is NVJ33 t\iQ parte. Niph., for "will found be = exists" would be expressed in ancient Hebrew by ^"!\[ ; Piashi already correctly
300 GENESIS XLI. 41, 42.
gives : sliould we find, if we should go and seek for. To translate 40a " upon thy mouth shall all my people kiss " (Ges. Kn.), is impracticable ; for though pB'j to kiss = to do homage, is now also corroborated by the Assyrian, the kiss of homage is a kissing of the foot, not the mouth, for which ^13y"?3 would certainly be an intolerable subj., and besides we find in Biblical Hebrew ip^3 or v ppi (he kissed him), but not VQ hv pE^:. p^2 means to join, especially mouth to mouth, i.e. to kiss, but also to fit to (whence the armour a man puts on is called P^'}^), and here (but not at Ps. ii. 12) with an internal obj. : disponere (res suas), to submit to (comp. Jii
<l*uij); hence TP'^V like xlv. 21. NMH is the accus. of more exact definition, according to Ges. § 118. 3. Honours are heaped on Joseph, and first the insignia of his office are be- stowed, vv. 41, 42 : And Pharaoh said to Joseph: Behold, I have placed thee over the lohole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on the hand of Joseph, and Joe clothed him in hyssus garments and put the gold chain on his neck. Ver. 41 was not absolutely needed after ver. 40, and may have been taken from the parallel source, but stands here as the solemn act of institution, following the declaration of Pharaoh's will (see on "'Ji'nj i. 29). riyao like Dnin, Arab, chdtim, means the signet ring, which is confirmed as Egyptian by impressions from the signets of the Pharaohs, Cheops, Horus, Sabaco. ^^'V.^^ are garments of cotton (there were cotton plantations in ancient Egypt, see Ebers, Lurch Gosen zum Sinai, 2nd edit. pp. 490-492), or also fine white cotton - like Hnen ; for ^V, ancient Egypt. schenti, means both ; while J*!i3, ancient Egyptian pek, is the proper word for fine linen. Priestly garments, by which Joseph is here distinguished, might not be of woollen, but might be of either cotton or linen.^ 3njn inn (T'n-i from
1 The white head-gear usual among the wandering tribes is now called /jiiLi, properly the fine white cotton texture, of which it consists {DMZ. xxxii. 161),
GENESIS XLI. 43, 41. 301
1T\, Lj^, V 31 to fix closely) is the gold chain usual as an official distinction, a mark, according to Elian and Diodorus, of the dignity of a judge, but here of like significance with the " golden collar " occurring on the monuments as a reward. Joseph is presented to the people as the highest representa- tive of the king, who appoints him an almost absolute ruler with himself, vv. 43, 44 : And he made him ride in his second chariot, and they cried before him : Ahrech ; and he placed him over the whole land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said to Joseph : I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no one lift up hand or foot in the whole land of Egypt. As riitJ'lsn \\['2 is the second priest of highest rank after the K'i^'in ina^ so is ri??"!^ njK^n the next State chariot to the exclusively royal one. The call to show profound respect expressed in T}?^, is satisfactorily explained as an Egyptian cry assimilated to the Hebrew : " Cast thyself down ! " The Coptic alork, imper. of hor, to cast down, with the suffix of the 2nd pers., means this (Benfey, Verhalt. der dg. Spraehe zum sern. Sprachstamm, p. 302 sq.). In Hebrew 'HI^X is to be understood as the inf. abs. Hiph. of ^la (comp. D''3K'NI Jer. xxv. 3), whence Jose b. Dormaskith in Sifri (65a, ed. Eriedmann) explains it by D'^Dia!?, and Jerome translates : clamante praecone ut omnes coram eo genu fleeter ent} The Targum and Midrash, on the contrary, explain "in^x as a compound from 3k and •]T pater tener (highly respected though young), which must be left out of consideration, or from 3K and ^"i pater regis (see Eashi on this passage), which is in itself permissible,
^ In Macropedius' Josephus, sacra fahula, the herald Thalthybius goes through the city with Joseph and proclaims : luTnpa, x'o<ri/.ov regis edicto hunc juheo vocarier Genuque Jlexo jEgyptiis ah omnibus adorarier ; see v. Weilen, Der dgyptische Joseph im Drama des XV J. Jahrh. 1887. The view quoted by Kohler {Oesch. i. 156) from the Speaker's Commentary, that *]^3S means the same as the Hebrew S3"ncb', has, notwithstanding its Egyptologic demon-
strability, this first of all against it, that it does away with the kinship of meaning between the original word and its Hebraized form (comp. my Jesurun, p. 107 sq.). Still farther off is v. Strauss-Torney's explanation: "he who opens knowledge."
302 GENESIS XLI. 45.
" father of tlie king " being actually the title which Joseph gives himself, xlv. 8&, and having other Oriental analogues as the title of the highest official at the side of the king. Apparently however it cannot be adopted, because "i") = rex {Baha hathra 4a Nsn "13 vh) xa"") i6, " not king and not king's son") is a borrowed Jev/ish word derived from the Latin. But Friedr. Delitzsch points out in his Hebrew Language, p. 26 sq., that aharalclcu is in Assyrian the appellation of the highest dignitary in the kingdom, and is ideogrammatically explained by " friend of the king ; " even the goddess who is the supreme protectress of a sanctuary is called aharaJckatu. Since neither a Hebrew nor an Egyptian medium is per- ceptible for the use of this Assyrian word,^ itself inexplicable in Assyrian, some curious chance must certainly have had a hand in the matter.^ The inf. ahs. pn3l continues the finitum in an adverbially subordinate manner as at Isa. xxxvii, 19, Ex. viii. 11, Lev. xxv. 14, Judg. vii. 19, Hagg. i. 6, Zech. iii. 4, xii. 10, Eccles. iv. 2. In ver. 44 is repeated what was already virtually stated at ver. 40, viz. that Pharaoh is king, but that Joseph is to be ruler. Joseph's change of name and marriage, ver. 45 : And Pharax)h called Joseph's name Sdphnath Paneah, and gave him Asnat, daughter oj Fotiphera the priest of On, to wife, and Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. The LXX paraphrases the name Wovdofi- ^av^X' which, as Jerome testifies, and as is, with the exception of one letter, confirmed by the Coptic, means salvator mundi, p-sot-om-ph-eneh (from sot, sote salvation, and cneh age, world), but the nasal p-sont, iustead of p-sot, thus remains unexplained. It seems therefore more obvious to regard nays as the Egyptian anh life, provided with the article (whence the temple quarter of Memphis was called p-ta-anh, the world of life), and with Eosellini, Lepsius, Ormsby and others, to
' The opposition of Haldvy in Hecherches Bibliques, No. vi. p. 24, must still let the fact stand that abarakku and aharrakl-atu are, in Assyrian, the names of high dignity.
* See the Assyrian Dictionary, pp. 68-70.
GENESIS XLT. 45. 303
explain the name as compounded of sont to support, to pre- serve, and anh, " support {sustentator) of life " (n3Di*=n3i'D). Josephus, Ant. ii. 6. 1, by explaining the name KpvirTwv €vpeTT]<i reproduces the impression made by the Hebraized word upon Jewish ears (see Bereshith rdbhah, c. 90); the Jewish Pajtanim use ^)V^ as a four-lettered verb, with the meaning to uncover, to reveal {DMZ. xxxvi. 402), The name of n3p5< (LXX ^AaeveO) apparently means one belong- ing to the goddess JSFeith, the Egyptian Athene ; Brugsch, Gcsch. p. 248, identifies it with Snat (Sant), a female name frequent in the ancient and middle kingdom. On the name of her father I^'^S ^pi3 (one dedicated to the god Ea), we have already spoken at xxxvii. 36. He was a priest in }k (px), which the LXX rightly translate 'HXtouTroAt? in the history of Joseph ; they also thus render the synonymous D.5< Ezek. XXX. 1 7 ; while, on the contrary, the Coelesyrian l)x (Helio- polis) is paraphrased as '/2i/. In ancient Egyptian it was called An (Amt), or more precisely Amimhit, Anu of the north, in Coptic Un or On, which means light, according to Cyrill on Hos. v. 8 ^Xto? ; the sacred name of the city was ta-Ea or pa-Ea, house of the sun (as at Jer. xliii. 13 JT'n ^fi}, comp. on Isa. xix. 18). The worship of the sun was the most ancient form of the Egyptian religion ; Amon-Ea was called, subsequently to Ahmes I., the king of the gods.^ Joseph, the husband of the priest of the sun's daughter, has now become an Egyptian to the Egyptians, the favourite son of Jacob a ruler of the heathen ; he is admitted into the priestly caste, to which the kings of Egypt also belonged, or into which they had to be admitted, if descended from the military caste. Thus raised to be ruler of the land, he
1 See Krummel, Die Beligion der alten uEgypter, 1883, p. 19 sq. One of the obelisks, which stood in front of the temple of the sun, the most ancient, erected by King Osirtases I., is still there ; of the two others, which bear the names of Tutmes 111., Ramses II., and Seti II., one now adorns the Thames Embankment in London, the other the public park in New York. See J. Leslie Porter's E(jypt, Physical and Historical, 1885, p. 18 sq.
304 GENESIS XLT. 46-43-
went out over the land of Egypt, ^V i^'^'^ as at Ps. Ixxx. 6, This is now told once more in the words of another narrator, ver. 46 : And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh hing of Egypt; and Joseph went out from before Pharaoh and went through the whole land of Egypt The combination 0^.^? '^^'? •^V'!? occurs only here in Genesis, and is next met with Ex. vi. 11, and farther on in Q {A). To this narrator belongs the statement of age at xxxvii. 2, and consequently here also : hence from twelve to thirteen years elapsed between Joseph's sale and elevation. The tone of diction 46a is like that of xlvii, 7, and 46& like that of xlvii. 10. Joseph's arrangements during the seven fruitful years, vv. 47-49 : And the land bore in the seven years of plenty by handfuls. And he gathered all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid vp the food in the cities, the food of the ground round about any city he laid up in that city. And Joseph heaped tip corn as the sand of the sea, exceeding much, so that he left off number- ing, for it was beyond numbering. The noun T9P, with its derivative yop, is native in the Minchah law. Lev. ii. 2 and onwards ; the former means the hand forming a hollow for grasping, the latter to take away a handful {mani- pidum or pugillum). Consequently ^Vpi?? (with an adverbial ? in the sense of the Greek Kara or avd, Ew. § 2l7c^) here means, in such abundance that the whole hand was always needed for taking what offered itself, not : in bundles, manipidatim (Ges.), which does not give the notion of great abundance ; but, if the expression may be allowed, in full- handed manner. In ver. 48 the undeterminated CJ^ J.'?K' is intolerable ; it cannot mean per scpiem annos, for ?3k (without an article) points to a genitival relation, so that we have to write according to ver. 35 CJB'n yatr, or, since this does not else- where occur thus without an addition, V^^^ ''?.f Vy^ (as at ver. 53). The LXX, Sam. take over V^^* into the relative sentence: ra ^pcofiara twv eirra irwv iv oU rjv rj evdrjvia (y3fn n\n) iv tt)
GENESIS XLI. 50-52. 305
<yr} AlyiTTTov. Heidenh., Eeggio and others understand T^i?*! and l^^] with the most general subject: they collected, they put; but that we have ^Di' in ver. 49 and not already ver. 48, just shows that the narrative is not of one cast. Joseph collected the whole produce of cereal food (?3X^ viz. "i?, comp. ver. 35) of the seven fruitful years, by placing granaries ^ in the cities for the harvest within their territories, and the corn to be stowed up was very much, like the sand of the sea (a usual hyperbole, xxii. 17, xxxii. 13), so that he left off keeping account of it, because of its enormous quantity, Joseph's sons by Asnath, vv. 50-52: And there were two sons horn to Joseph "before the coming of the year of famine, which Asnath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, hare him. And Joseph called the name of the first-horn Manasseh, for " Elohim has made me forget all my trouhle, and all of my father's house." And the name of the second he called Ephraim, for " Elohim hath made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." The passive "W!., with a plural subject following, is like x. 2 5 {J), comp. xxxv. 2 6 {Q), and the more particular statement with "iK^t? [quos, quern, quam) without pronouns referring backwards, like xvi. 15, xxv. 12, xxxiv. 1 (Q). The year of famine is self-evidently the first of the seven. The Aram aico- Arabic form V?'? for ''^t'J (comp. ipli' Num. xxiv. 17 for "^i?."'.!?) is chosen because of its consonance with the name ; >^^^. is a causative Fiel, like ont Job xxxiii. 20. bn^. Ps. cxix. 49, "^tfjp he who brings into forgetfulness, i.e. his former sorrows, and also the fate of his family, which had formerly caused him great anxiety.^ C^nsx means double fruitfulness, the Dual being used in Egyptian also in a super- lative sense, e.g. double - Jbis = Jbis kut i^., comp. Q'linti'
^ ni33DQ Ex. i. 11, from pD to take care of; see Friedr. Delitzscb, Proleg.
p. 186.
* In a bilingual Cypriote inscription (in the possession of Colonel Warren), the erector of the dedicated image is called in the Phoenician text DHJD, in the C3'prio-Greek Ma»a<r<r»f, which is certainly a confusion caused by the kindred meanmg.
VOL. II, U
306 GENESIS XLI. 63-55.
double dawn, 1 Chron. viii. 8, and the allusion to tlie meaning of the name Ephraim, Hos. xiii. 15.
It is strange, remarks Kn., that Joseph, who so affectionately- loved and was equally beloved by his father, did not give him early notice of his safety and exaltation, but let a number of years pass by without doing so, and then only found occasion for this communication on the arrival of his brethren. This obvious objection is met by the consideration, that the news would have destroyed the peace of his father's family, so he went on trusting in God, who could bring all to a happy issue. In the first place his prophetic interpretation had to be con- firmed by the result. This now took place, vv. 53—55 : And the seven years of plenty that loas in the land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said, and there was famine in all lands, hut in the land of Egypt there was hread. And the whole land of Egypt was famished, and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians : Go to Joseph ; what he saith to you do. In ver. 48a vn is used with respect to ^''}'^' ; here n^n in conjunction with V'^'^^. There was bread in Egypt, i.e. in the granaries ; and when, after the consumption of private stores, the general scarcity was felt there also, Pharaoh referred those who supplicated his help to Joseph, who now opened the granaries and sold to natives and foreigners the corn there stored up, vv. 56, 57: And the famine extended over all the face of the land : and Joseph opened all the store- houses and sold to the Egyptians, and the famine prevailed in the land of Egypt. And the whole popidation of the earth came to Egypt, to Joseph, to hvy, for the famine prevailed in all the earth. Ver. 56 ought to end with : ^7,>'??' (Dillm.) ; it treats throughout of Egypt. The famine increased there, and at the same time in all the neighbouring countries. Q'1'3 "iC'X'baTiN, all places wherein was found ; the subj. is missing, just as when xh^ xlix. 10 means: he whose is. Both phrases are as to style impossible. The Samar. adds na (corn), but we also
GENESIS XLII. 1-4. 307
want irnvii^n ; perhaps nnn "it^'X is corrupted from in niii'ix, whence the LXX has 7rdvra<; roy? aLTo^oXcova^;. The verb nnc' is a denom. from i??i' food, perhaps as that which breaks hunger and thirst (Ps. civ. 11), according to Fleischer on Prov. xi. 26 what is crushed, ground, and means in Kal to
buy food (comp. jlb to buy, from ]; « v>. iJj^ corn), Hi'ph. to sell food (comp. I?T to buy, Pa. to sell); in 56& however Kal is used with the meaning of Hiph. Notwithstanding this sale the famine increased ; the impf. cons. Pl.nn"! has a con- trastive meaning as at xix, 9 (comp. the jperf. cons. Judg. xiii. 13). On the hyperbole P.'Jv'"''^ "all the world," see on vii. 19. ^Di''"''?? is intended to be drawn to W3. Such a common famine of Egypt and the neighbouring countries has often occurred, e.g. in the years 1064 and 1199 of our era. The monuments also testify to such years of famine (Brugsch, Histoire d' Egypte, i. p. 56). The danger was all the greater in presence of the condition of the canal and irrigation system of Lower Egypt. Strabo relates, that before the times of the Prefect Petronius, famine broke out in Egypt, through neglect of the waterworks, when the Nile rose only eight ells, and that eleven ells were needed for a specially good year, while he so managed, that ten ells only were needed for the best of harvests, and that eight caused no scarcity.
THE FIRST JOURNEY OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN TO EGYPT WITHOUT BENJAMIN, CH. XLII.
With ch. xlii. begins the second section of the Toledoth of Jacob, extending from the first appearance of the brothers to Joseph's discovery of himself, ch. xlv. The chief narrator in ch. xlii. is E ; see on ver. 38. Departure to Egypt to fetch provisions, vv. 1-4 : And Jacob saio thai there ivas food in Egypt. Then Jacob said to his sons : JVliy look ye one upon another ? And he said : Behold, I have heard that there is food in Egypt ; go down thither and buy us thence food, that
308 GENESIS XLII. 5-8.
we, may live and not die. Then Joseph's hrethren, ten of them, went down to huy corn from Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not zvith them, for he said : Zest peradven- ture mischief befall him! The Hithpahcl nxinn 1& is a reflexive of reciprocal meaning (comp. on ii. 25): to look at each other in a helpless, inactive manner, hti to live, ver. 2b, is as frequently (xliii. 8, Num. iv. 19) equivalent to remain alive. The brethren of Joseph to .the number of ten go down to the land of the Nile valley. So many go that they may get the more and to bring away the more. niK'yn is not said ; the translation above follows the accen- tuation. In ^3Xnp^ 4& xnp = mp contingere, as at ver. 38, xlix. 1, Ex. i. 10, Lev. x. 19; comp., on the contrary. Gen. xliv. 29. Jacob from apprehension keeps back his youngest, and now also his only son by Eacliel. The ten now appear before Joseph, and are recognised by him, but he is not recognised by them, vv. 5-8 : So the sons of Israel came to buy among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph, he was the governor over the land, he it was loho sold food to all the people of the land. Then came the hrethren of Joseph and prostrated themselves before him, with the face to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren and knew them, but he made himself strange towards them and spoke roughly to them, and said to them : Whence come ye ? They said : From the land of Canaan, to buy food. Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. They appeared before Joseph among th(! many whom a like necessity drove to Egypt, and fell down before him with their faces to the earth ; for he was the ^T^ (a word occurring elsewhere only in Ezek. and Eccles., and in Aramaic in Dan. and Ezra) over the land and director of the sale of corn. " The author," remarks Kn., " delights in testify- ing that Joseph was the lord or ruler of Egypt (vv. 30, 35, xlv. 8 sq. 26, xli. 40, 44), and it almost seems as if the legend of the Hyksos were transferred in the Hebrew tra- dition to the Hebrews, ts^'??^' is the same word as Salads
GENESIS XLII. 9-17. 309
or Salitis, the name of the first ruler of the Hyksos in Egypt (Joseph, c. Apion. i. 14 ; Euseb. CJir. Ann. i. p. 224)." Joseph at once recognised his brethren, and remembered his dreams with respect to them : the sheaves and stars bowing down to him were vividly present to him ; but they did not recognise their brother, whom they had not seen for about twenty years, and who had meantime grown up, become Egyptianized, and raised to an incredible elevation. He also studiously dis- sembled before them p33 to fix one's eyes upon, to look keenly at, which might mean both recognition and non- recognition, whence the HitJqmhcl is both to make oneself known. Pro v. xx. 11, and to make oneself unknown, like the iWp/i. Prov. XX vi. 24), spoke to them nic'i^ harshly as to matter and tone, and let them, who said they came from Canaan and yet did not look like Canaanites, feel the Egyptian mistrust of foreigners. Joseph accuses them of being spies, and insists upon testing the truth of their exculpation by their sending for their youngest brother, vv. 9-17: Then Joseph remembered his dreams ivhich he dreamed concerning them, and said unto them^ : Ye are spies, to see the naJccdness of the land are ye come. And they said: Nay, my lord, tut to huy food are thy servants come. We are all sons of one man, we are honest men, thy servants have never been spies. And he said to them : Nay, surely to see the nakedness of the land are ye come. And they said : Twelve brethren, sons of one ma.n in the land of Canaan are we thy servants, and behold the younyest is at the time with our father, and one is not. Then said Joseph to them : That is it which I spake to you saying : Ye are spies. Hereby shall ye be proved, that ye, as truly as Pharaoh lives, shall not go hence, unless your younger brother comes hither. Send one of you, that he may fetch your brother ; but ye shall be imprisoned, that your words may be proved, whether there be truth with you or not, by the life of Pharaoh ! surely ye are spies. And he put them in ward three days. He calls them ^/nP, those who go about for the purpose of espionage, a
310 GENESIS XLII. 9-17.
more ignoble word than D"'"!'^ (those who go about for the purpose of reconnoitring). They deny it; the i of T'"!|?J;7-. as at xvii. 5& = ''3 elsewhere {'^^ ''3). The form I3n3 occurs again in the Pent, only Ex. xvi. 7, 8, Num. xxxii. 32, and out of it 2 Sam. xvii. 12, Lam. iii. 42. They bring to his considera- tion, that a father would not expose so many of his children at the same time to the danger of acting as spies. Joseph however insists that they have come to see the nakedness of the land (the order of the words is here such as it frequently is in interrogation, Judg. ix. 48, Zech. ii. 4, Neh. ii. 12). In ver. 13 it should be yiiv i3n:K D'-ns ib^y Wi^ (comp. ver. 32), the order of the words is inverted in a scarcely possible manner, or else a separative must be placed at inay : Twelve of them are thy servants, brethren are we. Pi^n (of Benjamin) is a relative designation of age : natu minor {minimus). To say pp he is dead instead of ^3rK (like v. 24), goes against their heart and conscience. Joseph does not allow his accusation to be as yet silenced, 14& Tnai IK'S Kin hoc (neutrally, as at xx. 16) est quod dixi; what they say of their two missing brothers strengthens the suspicion, to which he is giving feigned expression. By what he at once adds will he test them
(|n3 according to ^^csj-o properly to try by rubbing, especially
on the touch-stone), he swears to them by the life of Pharaoh (Pharaoh lives = as truly as Pharaoh lives, 'n an abbreviated ■•n, as at Lev. xxv. 36) that they shall not be at liberty to depart unless they procure at once their pretended youngest brother ; if they do not do this, they are, as he again asserts by the life of Pharaoh, really C? Ew. § 330&) spies. Hereupon, in order to make them compliant, he puts them in prison for three days (ciDS*, like Isa. xxiv. 22 and elsewhere). The purpose of his behaviour to them is not, to make them atone for a time for the injustice they did him, but to find out, before he becomes to them an actual proof of Divine mercy, whether they regard themselves as deserving of Divine punishment for
GENESIS XLII. 18-22. 311
the crime they committed against him, and to convince him- self, before he grants them his own forgiveness, that the other son of Eachel has not experienced like injustice at their hands. How faithfully is the constraint delineated, which Joseph imposes on himself by speaking so roughly, and by concealing his fellowship with them in the worship of one God under the oath by the life of Pharaoh ! One feels how much his words contradict the feelings of his heart. On the third day he gives a milder form to the test to be applied, vv. 18-20 : And Joseph said to them on the third day : This do and live, I fear God : If ye are honest men, let one of your "brothers remain in the house of your prison, hut go ye, carry food for the famine of your houses, and hring your youngest Irother to me, so shall your words he verified, and ye shall not die — and they did thus. On the two imperatives : This do and live! see Ges. § 130, 2, and on inx D3"'nK (comp, xliii. 14) instead of nnxn (as at ver. 33), Ges. § 111. 25. The other nine are to take home the corn of the famine of their houses, i.e. for the famine (Gen. of purpose as in "Ii?iT "lorp Isa. XXX. 23) of their families, and to return with their youngest brother, that so their words may be verified and they may escape death (death by starvation, not the penal infliction of death, to which the pretended harshness of Joseph nowhere rises) ; for he fears God and will not punish on mere suspicion. The brethren see the chastening hand of God in what they are experiencing, vv. 21, 22: And they said one to another: Truly we are expiating on account of our brother, the distress of whose soul we saw, when he entreated us and we did not hear, therefore has this distress befallen us. And Heiiben ansvjcred them saying : Did I not speak to you saying : Bo not sin against the boy, hut you did oiot hear me, behold therefore is his blood avenged. From ver. 21 onwards follows the more particular narration of what was summarily anticipated in p'^J^J^'J ver. 20. While still standing before the unknown Joseph, they say to each other.
312 GENESIS XLII. 23-28.
that tliey are expiating the crime which they so unmercifully committed against their brother; /3S truly, as at xvii. 19, Dti'X making expiation, paying (Ezra x. 19), elsewhere worthy of penance. Eeuben who, as was related in ch. xxxvii. from E, had saved Joseph's life, who was not present when he was sold, and must therefore have thought him dead rather than still alive, answers that he had said to them in vain : Do not sin O^^^l^* ^^^^^^ ^ helping Segol for ixpnJ^) against the boy, and that now evidently his blood is required, i.e. from those who laid violent hands upon him (ix. 5), Joseph hears it and weeps, vv. 23, 24: And they knew not that Joseph understood it, for the interpreter was hetvjeen them. And he turned himself from them and wept ; then he returned to them and talked with them, and took from them Simeon and hound him hefore their eyes. They did not know, while they were thus talking together, that Joseph understood them, for yhip"^ with the art., the interpreter usual in such cases, was between thera (ni3''3, like xxvi. 28); but he well understood all, and withdrew a little from them and wept. Painful remembrance of the past, thankfulness for God's gracious dealings, unextinguished brotherly affection and joy at the penitent confession he had just heard — these were the emotions which found vent in tears. Then returning to them, he agreed with them that Simeon (purposely not Eeuben, but the next oldest) should remain behind, and had him bound before their eyes. His provident dismissal of them combined with a fresh test, vv. 25-28 : Then Joseph commanded, and their vessels were filled with corn, and he had every man's money put again into his sack, and provender given them for the journey, and so it was done to them. And they laded their food upon their asses and departed. And one opened his sack to give his ass provender at the resting-place, and saw his money, and behold it lay tippermost in his sack. And he said to his brethren : 3fy money is restored, and belwld there it is in my sack — then their heart failed them, and they said
GENESIS XLir. 29-34. 313
trenibling one to another : What hath Elohim clone to tis ? N^pb might follow upon 1^11 25rt, but the two possible con- structions are intermixed. C^?, Ci"'i?'t?' and ni^rlc^^ (which latter is the prevailing one in ch. xliii. sq.) are interchanged as the appellation of their baggage. The mistakeable '^VJ) 25h, for which after i^^/P^l we should rather expect ^^*V^), is strange. Thus they laded their asses with their corn and departed. There were then already caravansaries or khans (the former from the Pers. ^\j^, the latter from the Pers. ^\s>- or ^j\^, which both mean domus and especially diversorlum), i.e. sheds or cart-houses erected on the desert road. Into such a P-'p (as at Ex. iv. 24 = D'n^&5 th^ Jer. ix. 1) they entered. But when one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender, he found therein his money. This he told and showed it to his brethren (nsn ni\ as at xxxviii. 24) — then their courage failed them, and turning trembling to each other (?X Tin, a similar constr. pregnajis to xliii. 33, Jer. xxxvi. 16) they acknow- ledge, that the chastening hand of God is at work in the matter. It is obvious that the others also opened their sacks — perhaps the source which is here accommodated to ver. 35 said so (Wellh. Dillm.). They return and relate their experiences, vv. 29—34: And they came to Jacob their father to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying : TJie man, the lord of the land, spahe roughly to lis and took us for spies of the country. And vje said to him : We are honest men, we tvere never spies. We are twelve brethren, sons of our father, one is not, and the youngest is noio with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of the land, said to us : Hereby shall I hnovj that ye are honest men, leave one of your brethren with me and, take {corn) for the need of your houses and depart. And bring your youngest brother to me, so shall I know that ye are no spies, but honest men ; I will give you your brother and ye may go through the land. On their return to their father, they related to him all that had happened to them, and stated that everything now depended
314 GENESIS XLII. 35-08.
upon their bringing Benjamin with them. | \^^] ver. 30 means placing on a level ; Ben-Naphtali here read D''i'3"U33, but the text, rec, which follows Ben-Asher, has DvJips ; tlie former reading is favoured by 1 Kings x. 27. In 335 we must read with the LXX D^nu inyn '\:if m) (as at 19&), for that pan may mean the needs of hunger cannot be inferred from passages like Neh, ix. 15, Ps. Ixix. 22, Ixxviii. 29. In 34a the second "'? has regularly the meaning of imo. "ino 34& with an accus. as at xxxiv. 10, 21: to go through. A startling surprise, ver. 3 5 : And it came to pass : they emptied their sacJ{s, and behold every man's bundle of money was in his sack ; and they saio their bundles of money, they and their father, and they were afraid. The discovery of one at the nightly resting- place was now repeated in the case of all. On isp3"";i"iv {J'^K = ^''^ f)p3""ih>*, see on ix. 5. 1^5'l*1 and 'li^'^''!'^ is an obvious and frequent play upon the sound. The complaint of Jacob, ver. 3 6 : Then Jacob their father said unto them : Me have ye bereaved of children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye ivoiild take Benjamin away ; all comes upon me. The perf. CinpSK' refers to Joseph, Simeon, and in anticipation of the worst to Benjamin. n3?3 for l?3, as at Prov. xxxi. 29, comp. the forms xxi. 29, Ex. xxxv. 26. Eeuben's voluntary pledge, ver. 3 7 : Then Reuben spahe to his father saying : My tiDO sons shalt thou kill, if I do not bring him home to thee ; trust him to me, and I will bring him bach. He offers his two sons as a pledge (at the migration to Egypt he had four). " Give him to my hand," i.e. entrust him to me (as at 1 Sam. xvii. 22). Jacob however has no ear for this, ver. 38: He said : My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left ; and if mischief befall him by the ivay that you go, you ivould bring down my grey hairs xuith sorrow to the grave. The complaint is repeated, evidently from the same source, at xliv. 29-31, and certainly from the same source as the similar complaint at xxxvii. 35, viz. from /. It is evident how the first journey to Egypt terminated in J, from the repetition
GENESIS XLIII. 1-5. 315
xliii. 3-7, xliv. 20-26, whence "Wellh. and Dillm. conclude that the retention of Simeon as a hostage was not mentioned in the Jahvistic account. The account in ch. xlii. is as to its main features from E, but with insertions from J, to whom ver. 38 certainly belongs. If this verse is taken as an answer to Eeuben's ojffer, as it stands here, the circumstance of Jacob's omission of all mention of Simeon furnishes of itself no critical conclu- sion,— it is explained by his preference for the son of Eachel; the one threatened loss banishes every other from his consciousness.
SECOND JOURNEY OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN WITH BENJAMIN TO EGYPT, CH. XLIII.
This portion of the narrative gives from first to last the impression of being from J. Supposing that this narrator did not mention the retention of Simeon as a hostage, vv, 14, 236 appear as insertions from E (Dillm.). For the rest, all is of one cast and a genuine model of the Jahvistic style. Not very long time elapses before a fresh purchase of corn becomes a pressing necessity, vv. 1, 2 : And the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when they had consumed the corn which they had Irought from Egypt, their father said unto them : Go again, luy us a little food. Everything corresponds as to style with J: 1?3 like e.g. xii. 10 ; i? n^3 like xviii. 33, xxiv. 15 and elsewhere ; t^VD (a little), like xviii. 4, xxiv. 17, 43 — a little food, for however much they might get, it will be but little in proportion to the need. Judah declares that they are willing to go, but not without Benjamin, vv. 3-5 : And Judah spahe to him, saying : The man protested, yea protested to us saying : Ye shall not see my face, unless your Irother he with you. If thou wilt consent to send our brother with us, we will go doivn and luy thee food ; hut if thou wilt not consent, we will not go down, for the man said unto us : Ye shall not see my face, unless your hrother he with you. The man (this {J'"'8<n used of Joseph is repeated in a striking manner farther on, and he is generally
316 GENESIS XLIII. 6-10.
called tj'^i^n and n''C'3^5^), says Judah, expressly declared (niy to repeat, Hiph. to say again and again) that he would not suffer them to appear before him unless (''Jii?3 mostly prcetcr, here nisi, as at Ex. xxii. 19) Benjamin were with them. Judah, from forbearance for his aged father, gives the mildest statement of what Joseph had said. Jacob's reproach, the justification of the brethren, and Judah's pledge, vv. G-10 : Hien Israel said : Wlierefore have you done me this evil, to inform the man whether you had yet a brother ? But they said : The man inquired, yea ingidrcd after %ts and our family saying : Is your father yet alive ? Have ye another brother .? And we told him according to these words — could we then know that he would say : Bring your brother down ? And Judah said to Israel his father : Send the hoy with me, and we will arise and depart, that ive may live and not die, hoth we and thou and our children. I will he surety for him, of my hand shall thoic require him ; if Ihring him not to thee again and set him before thee, I will he guilty before thee for ever. For if we had not delayed, we should have already returned twice. The reproachful nn7 has the tone upon the ultima, by reason of the following aspirate. The interrogative n stands 6b (" whether yet ") in an indirect question, as at viii. 8. They answered him as they were obliged to do, according to his questions ("'3"<'y, as at Ex. xxxiv. 27, Lev. xxvii, 8, 18, Num. xxvi. 56, Deut. xvii. 10). With 7& comp. Jer. xiii. 12 ; yn: has here a past meaning by reason of the historical connection. In ver. 8 sqq. Judah again entreats his father, in consideration of the starvation with which they are threatened, to send Benjamin with them ; he will be surety for him, and will, if he does not bring him back, bear tlie guilt of it all his life C^'^^'^V ''^^ ^^ ^ Kings i, 21). nrii;-"'3 (surely then) stands in the apodosis of the conditional sentence as at xxxi. 42, Num. xxii. 29, 33, 1 Sam. xiv. 30, Job iii. 13. With this last saying Judah cuts the knot asunder. Israel submits to the inevitable, but at once knows also how to gain composure in God and to act
GENESIS XLIII. 11-14. 317
wisely under the circumstances, vv, 11-14: Then their father Israel said unto them : If there is nothing else, then do this. Take of the cutting of the land in your vessels, and take it down for a present to the man, a little balsam and a little honey, tragacanth and ladanum, pistachio nuts and almonds. And take double money in your hand, also the money returned in the top of your sacks take hack in your hand, perhaps it was an oversight. And take your brother and arise, go back to the man. And God Almighty give you merey before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin ; but as for me, let me be childless if I am to be so ! ^isx^ though stand- ing with the conditional sentence, logically belongs to the imperative, comp. xxvii. 37, Job ix. 24, xxiv. 25. It is remarkable that pjy is never used in ch. xliii., and that '"inriJpx always (six times) stands instead, p.^n '"ilP'fP is generally translated : Of the prize, i.e. the choicest productions of the country ; so highly poetic an expression is however the more strange, since the ancient custom of the language always uses "lOT and its derivatives exclusively with reference to Divine worship, and only y'V) in a wider sense (see Malbim on Ps. ci. 1) — hence nnDT from "ipT to pluck off the portion =: produce, will here mean that which is cut off before the harvest —
cutting. Dillra. compares the Arab. -<«j (fruits, LXX airo Twv KapirSiv Tr)<i 7^9), Dav. H. Miiller (in Ges. Lex. 10th edit., p. 983) the Aramaic jiQj mirari, hence mirdbilia (syn. Arab. 'agdib). On ''">V, rij<b3, db see xxxvii. 25, where these three spices are mentioned as caravan wares. They are also to take
with them tJ'nn = ^_^:'^\ Vm to be compressed, thickened,
grape syrup, i.e. must, boiled down to a third of its quantity, of which three hundred camel loads are still annually sent to Egypt from the neighbourhood of Hebron. C^'JDS pistaccio nuts, as Samar. Rashi, Tavus translate, the almond-like fruit of the Pistacia vera, Talm. njtia, N»tp^3, LXX Tepe^tvdou, cer- tainly with the same meaning, since boin, Arab, bofm, in the
318 GENESIS XLIII. 15-17.
later usage of language designated both Fistacia tcrehinthiis and Fistacia vera, and 2"'']Pp^ almonds, the fruit of the Amyg- dalus communis, which was more rare in Egypt. They were moreover to take doable money with them, that which was required for new purchases, and that first purchase money, which certainly had come back to them only through an over- sight (^tj'^sn according to the Masora with Pathach instead of Kametz). The combination nrc^'o Pip3 is appositional, as at Ex. xvi. 22 ; comp. f)D3"n3p'p ver. 15, the double in money (ace. of the more exact definition, Ges. § 118. 3), as at Deut. xv. 18, Jer. xvii. 18. Jacob's speech continues to ver. 14, as might be expected ; but perhaps here the expression of resignation, as it was found in E (comp. xlii. 3 6), is preferred. The other brother, "ins D3''ni< for "insn, as at xlii. 19, comp. 33, is Simeon, who was left as a hostage. The concluding words are the expression of submission to the unalterable, comp. Esth. iv. 16 with 2 Kings viii. 4. Ges. § 126. 5, elsewhere an expression of the aimless, 2 Sam. XV, 20, 1 Sam, xxiii. 13, or of the boundless, Zech. x. 8. "ribiti' has a pausal a from o as in Y^V'l, ^'?n.) and IV for rjJ xlix, 3, f]^tp: for ^y^\ xlix, 27, Ew, § 93. 3, comp. Hitzig on Isa. lix. 17. Journey and arrival, ver. 15: And the men took this present, and double money tooh they in their hand, and Benjamin, and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood hefore Joseph. With pp^^JSTixi comp. xxi. 14 "'.^'[•"riNi ; Ben- jamin was then somewhat over twenty years of age. When Joseph saw him and was thus convinced that the brothers had done him no violence, he prepared a solemn reception for them, vv. 16,17: When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house : Bring the men into the house and slay cattle and make ready, for the men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph had said, and hrought the men into Joseph's house. Instead of nnp nap we have n3D nhu dissimilarly vocalized. Meat formed in Egypt also a main element of food at both priestly and royal tables (Herod, ii, 37, 77). Their fear when brought in, and how it was allayed, vv.
GENESIS XLIII. 18-25. 319
18-25: Then the men were afraid, when they were drought into Joseph's house, and said : Beca^ise of the money that was returned in our sacks the former time are we hroiight in, that they may roll upon us and attach us and take us for slaves, together ivith our asses. And they came near to the man that was placed over Joseph's house and spoke to him, at the entry of the house, and said : Oh, my lord, we came down once hefore to buy corn. And it came to pass, when we came to the resting- place and opened our sacks, behold the money of each was at the top of his sack, our money according to its weight ; now we bring it back in our hand. And other money have we brought with us in our hand, to buy corn; we do not know who put our money in our sacks. And he said : Be of good courage, fear not, your and your father's God has given you treasure in your sacks, your nfioney came to me. And he brought out Simeon to them. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present, before Joseph came at noon, for they had heard that they shoidd eat with him. By npnn they mean their first (previous) Egyptian journey. Instead of 3t^'TOn 12& we here have SE'n, which better expresses that the How is to them un- known aucl incomprehensible. Because they fear to be treated as embezzlers of others' property (the accusation of being spies is out of question), they seek to prevent what they fear, by explaining the state of affairs to the steward at the door of the house, which they so dread to enter. At the place of halting for the night, they discovered to their terror the purchase money returned in their corn-sacks (for these must, xlii. 27 sq., be completed according to the meaning of J ; comp., on the other hand, xlii. 35). The steward discreetly gives a wise and kind answer : Peace be to you, i.e. lay aside your care and anxiety, I had your money quite right, hence what you found is a treasure given you by your God (Di^C' D37 in the 0. T. always expresses encouragement and con-
320 GENESIS XLTII. 26-31.
gratulation, in later Hebrew, as in Aram, and Arab., greet- ing). He then brought Simeon out to them, led them into Joseph's house, and showed himself ready to serve them in various ways. They were now expecting Joseph, with whom, as they heard and also believed, they were to dine at noon, and they laid out their present to the best advantage (outside in the hall). The meeting before the repast, vv. 26-31 : TVhen Joseph came home, they Irought him the present, which they had drought with them, into the house, and cast tJiem- selves dovm to the ground. And Joseph asked tJicm of their welfare, and said : Is your aged father, of whom you spake, well, is he still alive ? They said : Thy servant, our father, is well, he is still alive ; and they bowed and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mothers son, and said : Is this your youngest brother of whom ye spake ? And he said: Elohim be gracious to thee, my son! — Tlien Joseph made haste, for his affection was kindled for his brother, and he was forced to weep, and he went into the inner room and wept there. Then he washed his face, came out, restrained him- self and said : Set on the meal ! The present which was D'l^s v/as, according to xxiv. 10, xxxv. 4, what they had brought with them, and this they made ready for presentation. ix''3M has Mappik in the N that it may be plainly pronounced as a consonant; this occurs also Lev. xxiii, 17, Job xxxiii. 21, Ezra viii. 18, Olsh. § 32c?. The reverential salutation is designated as at xviii. 2, xix. 1 and frequently, and is at 28Z* combined with ^'li?*! as at xxiv. 26, 48. When he sees Benjamin, his brother by the same mother, he makes inquiry, but without waiting for an answer greets him with a hearty : "Elohim be gracious to thee, my son " (l^n; like Isa. xxx. 19 for "l^n^ Ew. § 251c?). He was obliged, while thus speaking, to hasten, for — such is the literal meaning of 30a — his bowels ■'"'Pni, LXX ejKura (evrepa), here equivalent to organs of feeling = feelings (as at 1 Kings iii. 26, Prov. xii. 10, comp. Isa. Ixiii. 15, Syr. rahmS = airXdyx^^"' 2 Mace. ix.
GENESIS XLIII. 32-34. 321
5 sq.), were glowing (for which Syr. ci^i i-^- li'J^JnJ or li^buns they rolled themselves, DMZ. xxvi. 800, but see on Job iii. 5), i.e. he was overpowered by sympathetic affection and "he sought to weep," i.e. felt an irresistible impulse to do so (comp. a similar active expression for strong emotion, Isa. xiii. 8a), and went
^111''!) into a chamber (Tin, j ji:>. from tin to retire, to hide) and
there gave vent to his tears. Then he washed his face, came back again, and, controlling his feelings, commanded the repast to be served. The feast, and the preference shown thereat to Benjamin, vv. 32—34: And they set on for him apart and for them apart, and for the Egyptians who ate with him apart, for the Egyptians cannot eat with the Hebrews, for that is esteemed an abomination hy the Egyptians. And they sat hefore him, the first-horn according to his birthright and the younger according to his youth, so that they looked one at another astonished. And they took messes to them from him, and Benjamin's nuss was five times greater than that of any of them, and they drank and were full in his company. Joseph, as the illustrious head of the priestly order, was served apart, and the sons of Jacob and the Egyptians who ate with them apart, because Egyptians could not, i.e. might not, eat with Hebrews ; this lv3i* vb (the form of the impf. energicum having slipped in) is Jahvistico-Deuteronomic, iO bain, used of moral impossibility, running through the whole of Deut. : xii. 17, xvi. 5, xvii. 15, xxi. 16, xxii. 3, 19, 29, xxiv. 4, comp. Ex. xix. 23. ^'1'^ refers to eating with foreigners iu general, which ancient Egypt repudiated both from superstition and national pride, Diodor. Sic. i. 67, even their knives, forks, and crockery were avoided as defiled through their participation of sacred animals, Herod, ii. 41, comp. Ex. viii. 22, much more eating in common with the shepherd people of the Hebrews. Thus then they sat before him arranged from the first-born down to the youngest, exactly according to their respective ages, at which they
VOL. II. X
322 GENESIS XLIV.
looked at each other with the greatest astonishment (?^ Picn like ^^ Tin xlii. 28). nixb'O is meant of messes for guests of honour, whom the entertainer pointed out. X^5 " they bore," has an unnamed subject, as is usual where the servants in waiting are intended (e.f/. xxiv. 33 in J", in opposition to which b'yi they did, xlii. 25, which may be from JE). Benjamin's mess was five times greater (comp. the occurrence of this number with respect to Egyptian matters, xli. 34, xlv. 22, xlvii. 2, 24, Isa. xix. 18) than the mess of any of the others, just as the kings in Sparta were served with double portions, but ov^ Xva BiirXda-ta Kara^d'^oiev (Xen. de rep. Laced, xv. 4). The brothers drank and were drunk (to be understood in the sense of Hagg. i 6), iisv feeling themselves at ease in his presence. The anxiety of conscience, which they experienced at the sight of the strange Egyptian lord, was now lost in a heartfelt delight, which was to them as inexplicable. But Joseph, the unknown and yet so well known, who has the key to the mystery, delights himself in the intoxicating rapture of these dearest of all guests, whom the LORD has brought him, and praises that wonderful leading of God, the glory of which beams upon him from their happy faces.
THE LAST TEST, CH. XLIV.
Yet one last trial is inflicted by Joseph upon his brethren. He has convinced himself that they have not done external violence to Benjamin as they did to himself, but he desires to be finally assured that the hardness of heart and want of feeling, which had formerly plunged their father into the deepest grief for his child have now passed away, and that a similar deed is impossible to them. The pastor-like spiritual wisdom with which he masters his natural feelings, to tread with them the way of God, is admirable. The mode of delineation is like that of ch. xliii. ; J is unmistakeable, and his text is here without admixture.
GENESIS XLIV. 1-6. 323
The brethren are dismissed with full sacks and with Joseph's cup, vv. 1-3 : And he commanded the stevjard of his house saying : Fill the sacks of the men with food, as much as they can carry, and put every mans money at the top in his sack. And my cup, my silver cup, place at the top in the sack of the youngest, and his corn money ! And he did according to the saying of Joseph, which he spake. The morning hecame light and the men were sent avjay, they and their asses. In this portion of the narrative also nnnpx is used throughout for \>^, and ^^^ (here and ver. 25, as at xliii. 2, 20, 22) for 13; the energetic imperfect form F'-'p^', as at xliii. 32, is also characteristic of J. What is aimed at is to accuse them of theft. The superabundance of what they get for their money will stamp the theft of the silver cup as all the more glaring a crime. An eventual abandonment of Benjamin was deprived of all shadow of justification, by the fact that property not belonging to them was found in the sacks of all. The juxtaposition : the morning became light (lit^ Ges. § 72, note 1) and the men are sent away is similar to xix. 23 in «/; it is the syntactic scheme of the contemporaneous which we already met with in Q, vii. 6. The pursuit and accusation, vv. 4-6 : They were just gone out of the city and were not yet far off, when Joseph said to the steward of his house : Up, follow after the men, and when tlwu hast overtaken them, say to them : Wherefore have ye returned good for evil ? Is not this it, out of which my lord drinketh, and hy which he is accustomed to predict ? An evil deed have ye done therein. He overtook them and said these tvords to them. 4a is likewise the scheme of the contemporaneous. The city is left unnamed ; it would have been Zo'an (Tanis) if the Hyksos had then been ruling in Egypt, which, as we have seen on ch. xl., is improbable. Hence we shall have to regard it as Memphis, as Kn. also thinks, though as the supposed capital of the Hyksos. HT 5« refers to the cup ; he purposely does not add rPID, he is certain of the fact of the theft, and takes it for
324 GENESIS XLIV. 7-13.
granted that they will know what is in question. On 3 nriE' to drink in = to drink out of anything, see Ges. 154. 3a. By the second in is meant, that by looking into this cup he was accustomed to investigate mysteries (K'n: divinarc olcovi- ^eaOai, as the LXX translates here and xxx. 2 7). In Egypt, the land of soothsaying and magic (Isa. xix. 3, Kiddushin 49&), hydromancy, i.e. predicting from the appearances pre- sented by the liquid contents of a goblet (/cuXi/co/xai/Teia), a dish (XevKavo/jiavTela), or some other vessel, either alone or with something thrown into it, was customary. The cup, which is described to the men as Joseph's favourite cup and as a sacred vessel, is called y''?3 from its calyx-shaped form ; it was a Ki^copiov like the Egyptian goblets which narrowed downwards {Athen. xi. p. 477, comp. Bidymus Chalcenter. ed. Schmidt, p. 75). Their offer, and the terrible and surprising discovery, vv. 7-13: And they said to him: Wlierefore speaJceth my lord such things ? Far he it from thy servants to do such a thing ! We hrought hack to thee from the land of Canaan money which we found at the top of our sacJcs, how should we then steal silver or gold out of thy lord's house ? With whomsoever of thy servants it is found, let him die, and let us also he henceforth hondmen to my lord. Then he said : Now then, as ye have said, so let it he : he ivith lohom it is found shall be my bondman, and ye shall be free of punishment. Then they hastened and let down each his sack upon the ground, and opened each his sack. And he searched ; he began at the eldest and ended at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their garments, and each laded his ass, and they returned to the city. Earlier Jahvistic portions furnish parallel expressions to all and everything here, e.g. to the repudiating T?? xxxix. 9. We should expect ^D3[i (Samar.) instead of ^p? at 8a, but it is not necessary (comp. the trans- lation above). In 10a D? is placed first, though it logically belongs to a following member of the sentence as at 1 Sam. xii. 16, Hos. vi 11, Zech. ix. 11, Job ii. 10. Joseph's
GENESIS XLIV. 14-34. 325
steward does not wish to be so harsh, but to deal more gently. With ready alacrity they assisted him in the search, which he effected according to their ages, and they may have been already triumphing, that their innocence was mani- fested, when the cup was at last found in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their garments, reloaded their asses, and in- stead of leaving Benjamin behind as a bondman, return to the city. On their arrival they all desired to share the fate of Benjamin, vv. 14-17: Then Judah and his brethren went into Joseph's house, and he was still there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them : What deed is this that ye have done ? Bid ye not know that such a man as I can divine? And Judah said: What shall we say to my lord, what shall v)e speak., or how shall we clear ourselves ? God hath laid hold of the iniquity of thy servants, and we are noio bondmen to my lord, both we and he in whose hand the cup was found. But he said : Far be it from me to do thus. The man in whose hand the cup was found, let him be my bondinan, and as for you, go up hence in peace to your father ! Judah is placed foremost, because he had become surety for Benjamin. They find Joseph, who was expecting them, in a state of anxious suspense, still in the house. He addresses them harshly : they might surely have known that a man like himself would know how to find out what is concealed and would soon discover their deed. Judah does not contradict the accusation, the proof is overwhelming. He sees therein the hand of God, who is thus laying hold of and visiting upon them the still unavenged crime they committed against their brother. Joseph however does not admit that they ought all to become his bondmen, he will only retain Benjamin, the really guilty one, and the rest shall return to Canaan Di?^p (with ? of condition, which form a an adverbial notion) peacefully, i.e. unmolested (1 Sam. i. 17, XX. 42). Judah's remonstrance, vv. 18-34: Then Judah drew near and said : Oh, my lord, let thy servant, I
326 GENESIS XLIV. 18-34.
jpray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger hum against thy servant, for tho2i art equal with Pharaoh. My lord ashed his servants saying : Have ye yet a father or a brother ? And we said to my lord : We have an aged father and a young child born to him in his old age, whose brother is dead, and he only is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst to thy servants : Bring him dovm to me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we answered my lord : The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave him — his father would die. But thou saidst to thy ser- vants : Unless your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we had gone up to thy servant, our father, we told him the words of my lord. When then our father said : Go again, buy us a little food, we said : We cannot go down ; if our youngest brother is with us, then will we go down, for we may not see the man's face except our youngest brother be with us. Then thy servant, my father, said unto us : Ye know that my wife bare me two. The one went away from me, and I said : Certainly he is torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since. Now ye will take this one also from before my face, and if an accident befall him, ye will have brought down my grey hairs with unhappiness to the grave. When then I come to thy servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, seeing his soul is linked to the boy's soid, it will come to pass, when he sees that the boy is not there, he will die, and thy servants will have brought down the grey hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant brought away the boy from his father and became surety, saying: If I bring him not back to thee, I will bear the blame to my father for life. Tlierefore let thy servant remain instead of the boy as bondman to my lord, but let the boy go up with his brethren. For how could I go to my father, except the boy be with me ? Oh no, I cannot see the sorrow that unit come upon my father. We have already had, xliii. 20, the courteous ''3 with which Judah begins. He desires to speak '3TX3 of the
GENESIS XLV. 327
great lord, i.e. directly (without an interpreter) and audibly (comp. 1. 4, but also xx. 8 and xxiii. 16). Thou and Pharaoh — he says — are equal one to another (3~3, as at xviii. 25). '^''?I?? 'V!. 20a is equivalent to D^Jprp xxxvii. 3 (comp. on iv. 23), and the added Jt^i? does not describe Benjamin as a little child, but as still in the bloom of youth (and born in his father's old age, comp. 1 Kings iii. 7, 2 Chron. xiii. 7). By V^y \yy np^K'Ni 21& Judah explains the desire to see Benjamin as one of gracious intention (comp. Jer. xxxix. 12, xl. 4). Tix 28a is affirmative, as at xxix. 14. nynn 296 or Jira 315, xlii. 38, to go down to Sheol, is the opposite of Di7^'3 XV. 15. The emotionally repudiative JS 34& with the chief sentence understood is similar to xxxviii. 11, xlii. 4. — Judah's words are those of a heart which makes its owner eloquent, words subdued by wise moderation and overmastering grief, but manly and bold from a deeply-stirred feeling of duty, enhanced by the consciousness of his former guilt. Before him stands the lord of Egypt, whose heart he is trying to pierce; behind him are his prostrate brethren, all of whom he is representing. Judah was the most eloquent among his brethren. It was his eloquence that at last induced his father to entrust Benjamin to him, xliii. 8-10; he, by whose advice Joseph had been sold as a slave, condemns himself to slavery, for the sake of saving Benjamin. The change of disposition in his brethren has now been sufficiently tested, and a continuance of the restraint, which Joseph has put upon himself, is no longer possible. The force of both the pain and the rapture of love can no longer endure restriction. The moment for the most touching and sacred scene of recognition — a turning-point full of important results in the history of Israel — has arrived.
THE RECOGNITION, CH. XLV.
The chief narrator seems here also to be J, his account being however completed from E. The passage vv. 17-23
328 GENESIS XLV.
is that which is the most certainly derived from the latter. The Divine name D\i^N (n\~i^J«n) decides nothing, for only at xlvi. 2 does E, and at xxxix. 2, 3, 5, 21, 23 does J^ announce himself by the former, calling the God who presides over the history of Joseph d'Ti^^x, and the latter calling Him mn\ Joseph himself never calls Him nin"" (not even in ch. xxxix.), but six times DTi^sn and nine times wrh^. Pharaoh also, the brethren and Jacob call God wrh^ (n) with or without the article ; and what is striking, Jacob, in a text derived from J, xlviii. 2 0, even calls the God in whose name he is blessing wrh^. Nor is ^Kib'' for npj?'' any safe criterion. Certainly this name makes us think in the first place of t/" (p. 225); but E also calls the sons of Jacob b\frw'' '':n at xlii. 5, xlvi. 5, and here ver. 21. In ch, xlviii. the names are interchanged both in the parts taken from E and those taken from J, and is it then J, who at XXXV. 21 sq. says ^sib''' three times in one breath ?
Joseph has hitherto suppressed his feelings, for the sake of carrying out the plan of simulation which he had devised. His object is now attained. He has convinced himself that Benjamin is still alive, and has not become like himself a victim of his brothers' envy. He has taken a deep look into his brothers' hearts and has found them changed for the better. He has heard them, and above all Eeuben (the comparatively least guilty, yet still as an accessory not innocent), repent and bewail the crime committed against himself, which is now visited upon them. Their tender affection for their aged father, and their loyalty towards the only remaining son of Kachel, have been made manifest by Judah's speech. They cannot but regard Benjamin as the guilty one, who has by theft plunged them all into misery ; but they do not load him with reproaches, they do not regard themselves as released from the promise given concerning him to their father, they take the blame upon themselves as for their common act. Their conduct under this last test is the clear reflection of their wakeful conscience, of their converted heart. At the
GENESIS XLV. 1-3. 829
same time he looks into the whole depth of his miserably deceived father's mourning of now twenty-two years' duration for himself, his lost son. By sympathy he is sharing the anxiety which that father is now certainly undergoing about Benjamin. Any longer continuance of the seeming callousness, which he has not even been able to maintain without inter- mingling in it various marks of kindness, would be the greatest self-torture, and is indeed in the overwhelming rush of emo- tion utterly impossible, ver, la: Then Joseph could no longer restrain himself before all them that stood before him, and he cried : Make every one go out from me ! At the first sight of Benjamin it already became difficult to him to restrain him- self (xliii. 31), but he did it because of the bystanders (7y 3^3, as at xxiii. 2 and also xxviii. 13) ; he now commands them to retire, their presence being, as is shown by vyo, an intolerable burden. He is thus left alone, and as the narrator, with profound consciousness of the significance of this scene in the redemptive history, adds, ver. lb : Aiid there stood no one with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brethren. The Eithpa. V^inn only again at Num. xii. 6, properly to make oneself known, comp. ''"^snn to make oneself great. It was a transaction so tender and sacred, that the presence of an observer could not but be regarded as a profanation, a mutual outpouring of hearts, which, beside God, Who knows all things, no one ought to hear, and indeed no one was capable of understanding, ver. 2 : Then he burst out into loud vjeeping, and the Egyptians heard it, and the house of Pharaoh heard it. The Egyptians (D;'ivp=n''n^*an) outside heard it, and the news that some extraordinary occurrence must have happened soon reached Pharaoh's palace. His first word is, ver. 2>a : I am Joseph, and his next : Is my father yet alive ? He has already often heard that he was alive and has himself already asked it, but it is the first and greatest need of his heart again to assure himself of it. But his brethren — continues the narrator, ver. 3b — could not answer him, for they were dismayed before him.
330
GENESIS XLV. 4-13.
Then Josepli said to them, ver. 4a; Come nearer to me, I pray you, and they came nearer. And he said further, vv. 4&-13 : / am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt; and n^w trouble not yourselves, think not that you must be angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for JSlohim sent me hither before you to preserve life. For there have now been two years of famine in the land, and there come yet five years, in which shall be neither 'ploughing nor harvest. So then Mohim sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth and to spare your life for a great escape. Now then — it is not you that sent me hither, but God, and He has made me a father to Pharaoh^ and lord of all his house, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt. Go up qnichly to my father and say unto him : Thus saith thy son Joseph : Elohim hath made me lord of all Egypt, come down to me, tarry not. And thou shall dwell in the land of Goshen and shall be near me, thou and thy children and thy children's children and thy cattle and all that is thine. And I will nourish thee there, for there are yet to be five years of famine, that thou mayest not come to poverty, and thy household and all that is thine. And behold your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And tell my father all my honour in Egypt, and all that you have seen, and hasten, bring my father hither to me. On ••nk . . "iB'Si (relative of the 1st pers.) see Ges. § 123, note 1. DnnDJp corresponds with J's description of the procedure, according to which Joseph was sold by Judah's advice, xxxvii. 26, 27, 28?), comp. (according to E) xl. 15a. The peculiar ''TV'2, nin 5a also belongs to the style of J at xxxi. 35, besides which a similar example to C)^n3K' nt is also found at xxxi. 38, 41. The phrase nnxp! Dib' 7a is like 2 Sam. xiv. 7. The ni""!!!]^ which follows is combined with
' The Codex of R. Meir and that which was, as the Midrash on Genesis of JIose-ha-Darshan (in MSS. at Prague) says, preserved in the Sevenis synagogue at Kome, read here ^itJ'^l, i.e. as it is explained 'Jl^>1 (and he lent me to
Pharaoh that I should be a father to him), an incredible various reading (see A. Epstein in Gratz's Monatsschrift, xxxiv.).
GENESIS XLV. 14, 15. 331
D3? in the sense of n^np nnp Ezra ix. 8 sq. : to you for a great escape (comp. xxxii. 9 in J" and the Assyr. haldtu to live, properly to escape, to be preserved). They are the notions n"'1KK' and HD^bs, which subsequently attained so great importance in prophecy, which here appear by way of prelude in the mouth of Joseph, the type of Christ, the preserver of his family, and in it of the future nation (see Hoelemann in the Sachs. Kirchen- u. SchulUatt, 1873, No. 14). "Father to Pharaoh " is the title of the highest dignitary, who as first councillor is always near the king, comp. on T}!^'^ xli. 43. 7^^ here corresponds with ^Y^ in E, xlii. 6. Dwelling in Goshen (see concerning this district of Lower Egypt, situate at at all events on the east of the Nile, on xlvii. 2 7 ; the LXX translates in this passage eV 7^ reae/M ^Apa^ias;), and therefore on the soil of Pharaoh's kingdom, Jacob is near his son, and incomparably easier to be reached, than at that time in Canaan. There he will nourish his family (73??, as at xlvii. 12, 1. 21) and protect them from poverty in the years of famine which are still to come i^*"}}}^ transformed from Bn''=B'n hardly: taken possession of = to be without posses- sion). "Your eyes see" sounds Deuteronomic, Deut. iii. 21, iv. 3, xi. 7, xxviii. 32, which is not strange in the Jahvistic style. Three times does Joseph (vv. 7, 8, 9) bring it forward to comfort them, that what they did, had been of God's disposing for their own good. What a thoroughly noble heart it was, that he opened to his brethren ! When he had thus poured forth his heart, vv. 14, 15 : He fell ttpon his Irother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his nech. And he hissed all his brethren and wept on them, and after this his brethren talked with him. That DnyV has not a causal (as e.g. at Lam. 1. 16) but a local meaning is shown by the preceding " on his neck." It is not to be seen why ver. 1 5 should be from B (Dillm.), and not, like ver. 14, from J (comp. xlvi. 29, xxxiii. 4). It was now that the brothers first ventured to approach him, the string of their tongues is now loosened, and they are able to
332 GENESIS XLV, 16-20.
talk with hira. The sacred history maintains in the history of Joseph all its greatness ; here especially, in the scene of the recognition, all is nature, all spirit and all art ; every word is as it were bathed in tears of sympathy, in the heart's blood of love, in the wine of rapture. Never, says Klopstock, have few words expressed more noble passion. The foil however of this history, so beautiful in itself, is the Antitype, Who sheds over it His glorifying light. For after the Jewish nation delivers Jesus into the hands of the Gentiles, the anti- typical history of this fraternal treachery also discharges itself into adorable depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Ad Jioc enim — remark Augustine, Eabanus Maurus and others on this subject — Christus a Judceis traditus est gentibus, tanquam Joseph j^gyptiis a fratribus, ut et reliquice Israel salvce fierent.
The intelligence of the arrival of Joseph's brethren, which soon reached the palace, made a favourable impression upon Pharaoh, and therefore of course upon the court officials, ver. 1 6 : And the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying : Joseph's brethren are come ! And it was pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants. The interposition of this information was needed by what follows in ver. 1 7 ; hence the narrator is not necessarily another than in ver. 2, but still J (conip. ''J''y3 nD\ xll 37). The command of Pharaoh, vv. 17-20 : And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: Say to thy brethren: This do : lade your beasts and go hence to Canaan. And take your father and your families and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, arid eat the fat of the land. Now thou art commanded (to say to them) : This do ye : take you out of the land of Egypt waggons for your little ones and your wives, and set your father upon one and come ! And let not your eyes rest regretfully upon your stuff, for the best of the land of Egypt is yours. It was an act of gratitude for the king to invite the family of Joseph to Egypt ; this free and honourable invitation implied the right of Israel to leave it also without
GENESIS XLV. 21-24. 333
obstruction. There is not a word of this invitation in xlvi. 28 sqq.; but this involves no contradiction, the matter there in question being the securing their possession of the land of Goshen, by reference to their occupation of shepherds ; never- theless since xlv. 28 sqq. is from J, xlv. 17-20 may be from E. ;yD to load, is aira^ 767/?. (comp. ?y Dny in J xliv. 13). "T"??? occurs also in the book of the covenant, Ex. xxii. 1, and elsewhere only Num. xx. 4, 8, 11, Ps. Ixxviii. 48, Arab.^^j camels, as the chief element of property in cattle {DMZ. xxx. 674). On iNb"Wp comp. Isa. xxii. 15, Ezek. iii. 4; on the 21LD interchanged with 27n of the land, 2 Kings viii. 9 (differing, as Dillm. remarks, from y'\^T\ 2\y'l2 the best part of the land) ; and on D'nri"7X Dpi^y Deut. vii. 16 and frequently, it is an expression native to Deut. within the Pentateuch. After '^n\'!y we must with the Syr. supply T'nx"?^! "ibx ; but according to the LXX Jer. T\7\''Xi was incorrectly written for orix n-iv (Dillm.). Execution of the royal command, and supplies for the journey, vv. 21-23 : And the sons of Jacob did so, and Joseph gave them waggons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the journey. To all of them he gave each man new raiment, and to Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five new suits of raiment. And to his father he sent on this manner, ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and victuals for his father upon the journey. Ancient Egypt was rich in vehicles and horses for both warlike and peaceful purposes, comp. 1, 9 with Isa. xxxvi. 9. npoK' niDpn changes
of raiment, then like iJjo new garments in general, as at Judg.
xiv. 12 sq., comp. ver. 19 and frequently. Instead of riNfa we have everywhere else nxfa with a foretone Kametz ; the mean- ing is the same, not like the LXX, Vulg. : as many changes of raiment, but so many presents, viz. the following. The dismissal, ver. 24: So he sent his brethren away and they departed, and he said to them : Fall not out on the way, viz. as
334 GENESIS XLV. 25-28.
to the share of one above another in the injustice committed which had now to be confessed to their father, or from envy at the preference of one above another. The LXX and all ancient translations correctly give firj opyL^eade, while on the other hand the explanation : Tremble not, i.e. be of good cheer on the way, gives here a superfluous and moreover an inaptly expressed thought. The arrival, the announcement and the impression made, vv. 25-28 : And they went up out of lEgypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. And they told him saying : Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over the whole land of Egypt ; and his heart was numbed, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them, and he saw the waggons which Joseph had sent, then the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said : Enough, Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. With ''31 the announcement turns into an oratio obliqua. i^? iSJl does not mean : his heart re- mained cold (Kn. Arnh. Keil), but it became cold, it stared at the fabulous narrative without being able to grasp it as true. But when he recognised, in the words and conduct of Joseph as they were related to him, the image of his son, and when the waggons, which were before him, brought to his eyes his rank and wealth, he exclaimed, esteeming rank, wealth and presents as nothing : Enough (briefly, as at 2 Sam. xxiv. 16,1 Kings xix. 4 for ''^'^1), my son Joseph is alive, and faith and love renewing his youth : I will go and see him before I die. Jacob believed not — then the spirit of Jacob their father revived and Israel said — what a judicious change of name ! The feeble old man says : I will go and see him, as if he needed the aid of no one in going to Egypt Joseph is the one thought in which he is absorbed. This one thought he follows like a magnet, turning neither to the right hand nor the left. But this Jacob to whom the spirit of his youth thus returns is Israel. It is the nation of that name whose migration to Egypt and its birth there is decided by this npps.
GENESIS XLVI. 1-4. 835
THE EEMOVAL OF ISRAEL TO GOSHEN IN EGYPT, CH. XLVI.
Here begins that third section of the Toledoth of Jacob which extends from the migration to Egypt to the pro- sperous sojourn and increase in Goshen, ch. xlvi.-xlvii. 27. 1. Eemoval of THE FAMILY OF JACOB, xlvi. 1-7. This is the first of the three portions of which ch. xlvi. is composed. The account down to ver. 5 is by E, and its amplification, ver, 6 sq., by Q. That J has a share in ver. 1 sq. is inferred from Beersheba being, according to E, the dwelling-place of Jacob, and not merely the intermediate station. But this assumption cannot be proved (comp. on xxxvii. 14). 15 is also similar to xxxi. 54, and 2a to xx. 3. In vv. 3-5 indeed the tokens of E are incomparably more abundant ; in the first place, ver. 5, comp. xlv. 19 (where at the same time 21a showed that ^snc^' for npy is no decisive sign against him), and 35, comp. xxi, 13. Parallels are also furnished in E to conspicuous particulars of style, while, on the other hand, ver. 6 sq. is a transition to the following catalogue of names similar in style to the second Elohist. The departure, ver. 1 : And Israel departed with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Travelling from Hebron, xxxvii. 1 4, in the direction of Egypt, Jacob arrives at Beersheba ('"'l?^^ y?Kj, comp. xxviii. 2), where were the tamarisk planted by Abraham, xxi. 33, and the altar of Isaac, xxvi. 25. There he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac (according to xxxi. 54, sacrifices with a sacrificial repast, the only passage, apart from ch. xxxi., where the patriarchs appear as sacrificing), just when he was, certainly not without a deep feeling of melancholy mingled with his joy, about to leave the Land of Promise. Manifestation of God in Beersheba, vv. 2-4 : And Elohim spake to Israel in a vision of the night, and said : Jacob ! Jacob ! And he said : Here am I. Then He said : I am El, the God of thy father, fear not to (jo down into Egypt, for I will there make thee a
336 GENESIS XL VI. 5-7.
great nation. As for me, I will go dotvn with thee to Egypt, and I will also bring thee up again, and Joseph shall close thine eyes. The plur. HNno is the intensive plur. expressive of grandeur and importance. The inf. nn"! stands midway be- tween n"i"i and iTJ7., according to nV'^, ^"17, the ancient original form ridat, and n^y'Da is like /'bs'Da, xxxi. 15, both in E, corap. ^^<, Isa. xxxv. 2, and on the inf. ahs. of Kal with Hiph., Ges. § 131, note 2. However high Joseph might stand in Pharaoh's favour, Egypt was still a foreign land, and it would not be without apprehension that Jacob would con- template his own and his descendants' future. His heart would cleave to Canaan, which was his native land by nature and his true home by promise. Hence it is that the Divine encouragement vouchsafed him takes the form of an assurance, that he does not go to Egypt alone, nor without hope of return. Thus reassured he continues his journey, ver. 5 : And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel iodic their father and their little ones and their ivives in the waggons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. In an Egyptian painting there is a representation of an Ethiopian princess returning to Thebes, the capital, in a waggon, under a sunshade attached to it, with her servant guiding the two cows harnessed to it. The body of the vehicle, resting on two wheels, is only just large enough for two persons, as are also the frequently depicted state chariots and war chariots ('^??"!^ and 33"), Egypt, markabuta). The waggons which Joseph sent were, on the contrary, certainly four-wheeled conveyances, like that of the chamberlain. Acts viii., who, though surely not without servants, yet asked Philip the deacon to sit beside him. In such waggons drawn by oxen did the women and children of the patri- archal family travel with their aged father. The cattle were driven, and the rest of their goods packed upon asses and camels. Thus they came to Egypt, vv. 6, 7 : And they took their cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land
\
GENESIS XLVI. 0-7. 337
of Canaan, and came to Egypt, JacoT) and all his seed with
him. His sons and his sons' sons with him, and his daughters
and his sons' daughters and all his seed brought he with him
to Egypt. It is the same kind of statement as at xii. 5, xxxi.
18, xxxvi. 6, comp. also on ins vii. 7, 13, and other passages.
Here follows the second of the three portions of which
ch. xlvi. consists : 2. A catalogue of the names of those
WHO migrated to Egypt, vv. 8-27. Kuenen (Einl. § 6,
note 1) regards this as a piece of patchwork put together
from Num. xxvi. In our opinion its author is Q, who is
characterized both by ms pD and i^T. ''?*V^ (ver. 26 as at
Ex. i. 5, comp. Gen. xxxv. 11, elsewhere only at Judg.
viii. 30); nor is "^x 17^^] ver. 20 against him, for he thus
writes at Num. xxvi. 60; also (as the Jahvist does, iv. 18)
B may have interposed here and there, but nothing can
with certainty be shown to be of his insertion, except the
relative sentence in ver. 20, and that not from its contents,
but from the syntactic harshness of the annexation. The
words VJ2^ npv^ are the title and theme of the table, which
is arranged, as it were, in four columns. Jacob stands at
the head, and his sons are classified according to his four
wives, Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, Bilhah ; all is clear, it is only
strange, but not doubtful, that in ver. 1 5 Jacob is reckoned
in with the ns7 ""Jn (with these, because his seed began with
them), instead of being added to tbem. Under Leah stand
Eeuben with four sous = 5 ; Simeon with six = 7 ; Levi
with three = 4 ; Judah with five sons, of whom 'Er and
Onan are, as is remarked, omitted, as having died in Canaan,
and two grandsons, as a compensation for the two sons who
died childless = 6 ; Issachar with four sons = 5 ; Zebulun
with three = 4 ; and Dinah (who, having fallen, remained
single, and moreover did not become a mother). She is
hence mentioned alone, and is included in the computation
as being also the eldest of the daughters, ver. 7. Thus we
have 5 + 7 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 4+1 = 32, but with Jacob, 33, vol. il y
338 GENESIS XLVI. 27.
Under Zilpah stand Gad with seven sons = 8 ; Asher with four sons, a daughter (Serah, who, like Dinah, is enumerated for a special reason) and two grandsons = 8, Hence 16. Under Eachel, Jacob's wife Kar i^. : Joseph with two sons = 3 ; Benjamin with ten = 11, consequently 14. Under Bilhah : Dan with one son = 2 ; Naphtali with four = 5, consequently 7. These together (33 + 16 + 14 + 7) make 70 souls. The catalogue however reckons at first, ver. 26, only 66 descendants of Jacob (who "came forth out of his loins," comp. xxiv. 2), leaving out of the computation Jacob and Joseph with the two sous of the latter, whom the family that migrated to Egypt found there. If however Jacob and Joseph, with Ephraim and Manasseh, are added, there are 70.^ And Joseph's sale into Egypt being, as he himself regarded it, xlv. 2, only a sending thither beforehand, the account is quite right when it says finally, ver. 27&; All the souls of the house of Jacob vjhich came into Egypt ('^^■f'']"'^?'? "'^'^, see Ges. § 109) were seventy. The same number is given Ex. i. 5, Deut. X. 22. The LXX however, comp. Acts vii. 14, reckons k^ZofxrjKovTa'irevTe, counting, in accordance with its enlarge- ment of ver. 20 (which omits 132 the son of Ephraim, Num. xxvi. 35), three grandsons and two great-grandsons of Joseph, and at last, ver. 27, by the addition of 9 Josephites to the 66 descendants of Jacob makes the number 75.
So far all is clear. But taking the statement literally, that the sixty-seven — for this is their number including Jacob and excluding Joseph with Manasseh and Ephraim — came to Egypt, difficult questions arise. Since there are only about two- and -twenty years between the sale of Joseph and the migration of Jacob,^ and the birth of Judah's twin children
^ According to ancient Jewish explanation the meaning is, that wlicn they came into Egypt, by inchiding among them Joseph and his two sons and Jochebed who were born S^llii' ''^1 {i.e. at the wall of Sesostris at the eastern boundary of Egypt), there were 70 of them ; see Targ. Jer. and l^ashi on xlvi. 26, and liriill's Jahrhiichtr fiir jiid. Lit. u. Gesch. 1883, p. 100 sq.
* Kaiizleirat Paret, in his work on The Era of the World, 1880, p. 24, in
GENESIS XLVI. 27. 339
takes place after the former event, Perez, who, according to ver. 12, came to Egypt with Hezron and Hamul, must have been born and already have begotten two sons within these twenty-two years. This is not impossible, but with regard to patriarchal custom improbable. A greater difficulty arises from the fact of ten sons being awarded to Benjamin (according to the LXX : three sons with five grandsons and a great-grandson). Benjamin appears indeed in the preceding history not as a boy in the ordinary sense of the word, but at all events as still a young man. His birth took place, as we saw, p. 234, in the 106th year of Jacob (the last before Joseph's disappear- ance), and perhaps some years earlier. Hence, at the time of the migration he was perhaps twenty-four years old (according to Demetrius in Eus. Praep. ix., twenty-one eroiv ky)), and as such might as well be called "ly? as Joseph when nearly thirty, xli. 12, comp. xlvi. ; Absalom is also called "ii?3 2 Sam. xvii. 32, and Solomon, 1 Kings iii. 7, calls himself pp nyj, while at xiv. 24 n"'"iyj are men fit for war. But this was an age at which, even if he is made, as by Grossrau, a polygamist, he could hardly have already had, and certainly according to the impression made by the preceding narrative had not had, ten sons. Nor is this indeed the meaning of the list. The rude contrast said to exist between A (Q) and C (J), by the former making Benjamin a man above thirty, and the latter representing him as a young boy, is improbable in itself, and is done away with by the obvious view (Hengstb., Eeinke and others), that those grandsons of Jacob, who were not born till after the migration, are regarded as members of bis family, who came into Egypt in their fathers. The expres-
which he relies for chs. v. and xi. on the numbers of the LXX, thinks that tlie sojourn in Egypt amounted to 400 years, to 430 if we date it from Joseph's arrival there ; for that from Joseph's sale to the settlement of the family of Jacob in Egypt there elapsed 30 years. But the statements, xxxvii. 2, xli. 46, xlv. 11, give 13 -[-7 + 2 years, which cannot be extended to 30. Paret is how- ever right in saying that 215 years are insufficient for the number of the people assumed, Ex. xii. 37, comp. Kohler, Gesch. i. 164 sq.
340 GENESIS XLVI. 27.
sion of the catalogue is consequently cautious, it does not say 3pr-Dy but 2py^b (3pi;^-n>3^) 26a, 27&. "This view," objects Kn., " is inadmissible ; the narrator reminds us only in the case of Manasseh and Ephraim that they were born in Egypt ; he makes this remark repeatedly, and hence with special purpose (vv. 20, 27, Ex. i.)." But the remark with respect to Manasseh and Ephraim distinguishes these two, as found in Egypt, from those who migrated thither. That many of those named were not born to their fathers till after the latter had come to Egypt, is not contrary to either the object or meaning of the list. From xlii. 37 {E) we know that Reuben had two sons at the time of the second journey to Egypt, but the list reckons four as coming to Egypt with their father. We see by the counterpart, Num. xxvi., what the author was con- cerned about : he desired to show that the roots of the subsequent nation were transplanted to Egypt in the family of Jacob ; he names the ancestors of the families, who were at the time of the exodus the most notable and numerous (as many as five were then already extinct). In such enumera- tions the power of the idea over the materials is shown. The sacred historians enclose their materials in the frame of significant numbers. Ten is the number of the finished whole, upon which is impressed the characteristic of sacred- ness by multiplication with seven, the number of disclosed unity, and especially of the Divine glory. The number 70 (= 7 X 10) stamps the little band of emigrants (Deut. xxvi. o) as the holy seed of the people of God.
The list of names, Num. xxvi., differs in many respects from that of Gen. xlvi. The LXX modifies the latter by the former. Two of the sons of Benjamin appear, Num. xxvi., as his grandsons. And ten names of the same persons there differ more or less. The deviating pairs of names are either two different names of the same meaning, as inV and nnt, nv (from 315< = c_jT) and svj'j, or slightly differing forms of the same name, as hmi\ and ^t<i»3, P^sy and |isv, nnx and nnjc,
GENESIS XL VI. 28. 341
Csn and DSin^ or the abbreviated and the full name, as '•ns and ^IV^, or apparently various readings of the tradition, as fs^x and Vf^', ^'?2» and DB'iSK'', d'm and DmtJ'.i Other differ- ences are found in the lists of the Chronicler, and especially in the portion 1 Chron. vii. 14-29 comp. Num. xxvi. 28-37, which carries on the genealogical table of the descendants of Joseph beyond Gen. xlvi. (comp. xlviii. 6).
After the list, xlvi. 8-27, whose contents and object extend beyond the immediate present, the narrative is again taken up, and the third of the three portions of ch. xlvi. now follows. 3. The meeting and eeception in Goshen. The narrator is J, as is at once perceived by the prominence given to Judah. Judah sent before, ver. 28 : And Judah he sent lefore him to Joseph, to give information lefore him to Goshen, and they came to the land of Goshen. Instead of n'linp the LXX, Sam. Syr. read r."iK"inf5, which Wellh. Dillm. pronounce to be Niph. : that he (Joseph) might appear before him (Jacob). It is indeed fitly said, 29&, of Joseph, the ruler of Egypt, that he appeared before (showed himself to) his father ; but the lower cannot without discourtesy and irreverence send word to the higher to appear before him. The translation too of Arnheim and others : that he might show the way to Goshen before him, is impossible ; for that would only have meaning and purpose if Jacob and his family had gone directly after him, which is excluded by npK'. The purpose of sending the energetic and fluent Judah was, that he might take information to Goshen of the approaching arrival of the family. Both VJDp refer to Jacob ; the second includes the obj. of mm : information before him, is that of his speedy following (comp. Ex. XXXV. 34 : to instruct, to give information). Luther too
^ If Alfred Jeremias, Die Babylonisch-assyr, Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode (1887), p. 123, is in the right, when he says that Zion is called ?N''"IX Isa. xxix. 1 sq., with reference to the Babylonio-Assyrian AraM, which on the one side is the seat of God (comp. Ps. xlviii. 3), and on the other conceals within it the world beneath, the proper name ^pS^X (here and Num. xxvi. 17)
might be compared with the Greek proper name 'OXviatios.
342 GENESIS XLVI. 29, 30.
gives this explanation of the ambiguous words: ut doceat Juda et signified fratri Joseph adventare patrcm et hortetur eum ut veniat in Goscn ; the LXX, taking the commission of Judah as an announcement to Joseph, translates with more exact designation of the place of meeting : tov Se 'lovha aTTeareCkev e/xirpoadev avrov irpo^ 'I(oar](f> avvavTrjcrai avTw KaO' 'Hpcocov iTokiv eh jrjv 'Pa/xeaar]. The Memphitic trans- lation has : " at Petom the city in the land of Eamses." The excavations of E. Naville (1883) in Tell el-Maskhuta make it overwhelmingly probable, that it was not the store-city Eamses, but Pithom {i.e. the place of the god Tuen) that was situate there. The inscription EPO CASTEA upon a stone, which was found in a wall of the Eoman settlement hard by the ruins of Pithom, speaks in favour of Hero (Heroonpolis) being a more recent city near Pithom.^ It may well be supposed that the meeting between Jacob and Joseph took place here, the latter coming from Memphis for the purpose. On the arrival of Jacob and his family, Joseph hastens to welcome his father, ver. 29 : And Joseph made ready his chariot, and tvent up to meet his father to Goshen, and he appeared before him and fell upon his neck, and wept on his neck a long time. The n^y, generally used of the journey from the valley of the Nile to Canaan, stands here for that from the interior of Egypt towards the wilderness ; and the i*"!'.!!, elsewhere only used of Divine appearances, corresponds with the mnn with respect to the brethren. The high-pitched expression serves to designate the solemnity of the meeting. He who falls upon his neck seems to be Joseph, but perhaps it is Jacob (Eeggio), after Joseph had made himself known to his uncertain and anxious father (com p. the change of sub- ject, Ps. Ixxii. 15). niy (from my, jU rcdirc) means, as at Euth i. 14, Eccles. vii. 28, again and again, repeatedly and con- tinually. The aged father's overwhelming joy, ver. 30 : Then
1 See Dillraann's article on "Pithom, Hero, Klysma," in the Report of the Royal Academy of Sciences, xxxix., 1885.
GENESIS XLVI. 31-34. 343
Israel said to Jose'pli : Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, that thou art yet alive. A similar oysn as at ii. 23, xxix. 34, XXX. 20, at the attainment of a wish. Advice to the newly-arrived, vv. 31-34 : And Joseph said to his brethren and to his father's house : I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him : My brethren and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come to me. And the men arc shep- herds, for they have always been keepers of cattle, and they have brought with them their flocks and. their herds and all that they have. When then Pharaoh shall call you and ask you, What is your occupation ? say : Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth up till now, we as our fathers — that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. The last words also form part of Joseph's address. Kn. lays stress upon jxv, in distinction from "ip3, for sheep and goats were not among the Egyptians customary sacrificial animals, because their flesh did not form part of the priestly and royal diet, and because woollen fabrics were esteemed unclean by the priests and not used for the apparel of the dead. But the conclusion, that shepherds and goatherds were therefore nnyin in a high degree to the Egyptians, is not confirmed. Only swineherds were such (Herod, ii. 47), and they were nevertheless reckoned together with cowherds among the seven castes (Herod, ii. 164), both together forming the herd caste (Diod. i. 74). The name ^ovKoKoL is only an appellation a potiori, for pictures of goat- keeping and sheep-tending appear on the monuments, together with representations of cattle- rearing, while among the herds appear together with asses and horned cattle, also sheep and rams, goats and he-goats by thousands ; goats, wethers and he-goats are being driven over the newly-sown fields, to tread the seed-corn into the soil ; and the flesh of sheep and goats is customary and favourite food. In xlvii. 17 not only horned cattle, but also flocks of small cattle, are mentioned, together with horses and asses, as property of the Egyptians.
344 GENESIS XLVII. 1-27.
Hence the statement of Joseph can only be a strong expression for the depreciation of the shepherd caste as the lowest, and not for the depreciation of non-Egyptian nomads (Dillm.), for the reason 34& sounds unlimited (comp. on the contrary xliii. 32). Graul in his Travels, ii. 171, remarks, that the shepherds and goatherds on the monuments are depicted accordingly — they are all long, lean, haggard, sickly and almost ghost-like forms, recalling the famished appearance of those Indian castes who are similarly contrasted with the well-fed appearance of the agricultural Brahmanic state. Joseph hopes that Pharaoh, when he learns tlieir occupation, will the more readily allow them to dwell in Goshen, far away from the centre of the country, that fertile district which his brotherly affection intended for them (xlv. 10), while Pharaoh had only offered in general terms to give up to them " the best of the land" (xlv. 18, 20). At the same time Joseph's wisdom sought to prevent his brethren from coming to the court and having too much inclination for, and contact with the Egyptians ; he took care for this beforehand, by aflBxing to them a vitium originis (v. Moser).
THE SETTLEMENT OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT, AND THEIR PROSPEROUS AND CONTINUED EXISTENCE THERE DURING THE EXTREMITY OF THE FAMINE, CH. XLVIL 1-27.
The narrator from ver. 1 onwards is J, but R seems from vv. 5-11 to have kept to Q; 3p''p 6a, 11a, occurs again indeed only in the Book of the Covenant, Ex. xxii. 4, and Dppy"i px is without further confirmation in the Hebrew text. The LXX has it once more, xlvi. 28, in a Jahvistic connection. If however Q has a share in the composition, vv. 5-11 almost entirely, and ver. 27, belong to him. Only tT and E have claims to the rest, without its being possible to effect any certain division.
Joseph now announces to Pharaoh the arrival of his family,
GENESIS XLVII. 1-6. 345
ver. 1 : And Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said : My father and my brethren and their sheep and their oxen and all that they have are come from the land of Canaan, and behold they are in the land of Goshen. He thus did as he had told his brethren, xlvi. 31 sqq., he would, when he also instructed them how to behave towards Pharaoh. The audience and the king's decision, vv. 2-6 : And out of the tody of his Irethren he took five men and presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren : What is your occupation ? And they said to Pharaoh: Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh : To sojourn as strangers in the land are we come, for there is no pastiire for thy servants' flocJis, for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan, so thy servants wish to dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spalce unto Joseph saying : Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee. The land of Egypt is before thee, in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell ; let them dwell in the land of Goshen, and if thou hnowest that there are able men among them, place them as chief herds- men over my property. In 2a nvp^ (with p raphatum) as at Ezek. xxxiii. 2 and riiVi?p 1 Kings xii. 31, has still its un- diluted original meaning : out of the collective whole (this is conceived of as the circumference, comp. xix. 4) ; n^i^o for the meaning : a part (some), is in use both in the Talmud and already at Neh. vii. 70, Dan. i. 2. On the number five, see on xliii. 34. It is characteristic of the Egyptian custom and way of looking at things, that the first question which, as Joseph had expected (xlvi. 33), is put to them by Pharaoh, relates to their occupation. They answer, ver. 3 sq., truth- fully and discreetly according to Joseph's directions, ny'i is a generic singular, Ges. § 147c, but certainly a mere error of transcription for ''VS Pharaoh grants their request to be allowed to dwell in Goshen, by authorizing Joseph to settle his relatives wherever he chooses, in the best part of the land, therefore in Goshen as they desire it, and directs him, if he
346 GENESIS XLVII. 7-10.
knows of competent men among them, to make them chief keepers of the royal cattle (which were consequently in Goshen as the best pasture land). The audience of the five not taking place in Joseph's presence, the information given by Pharaoh to Joseph contains nothing inappropriate, hortatory being easily transposed into recapitulatory speech. It is however evident from the text of the LXX, a text apparently as they found and not as they arbitrarily corrected it (Wellh. Dillm. Kuen.), that in the Hebrew text two accounts are interwoven, that of J and that of Q, who has been continuing from xlvi. 27 (Dillm.). That Q also related the presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh, results even of itself from the analysis of vv. 5-11, and is confirmed by the LXX, in which ver. 5 of the Hebrew text is preceded by : rfKdov he el<? AtyvKTOv Trpo? Icoarjcf) laKcold kol ol vloI avrov Kai ■tjKovae ^apaci) /Sao-iXev? AlyvTTTov kol etTre ^apao> irpo^ ^I(0(T^<f> KTk. Jacob presented to Pharaoh by Joseph, vv. 7-10 : Then Joseph brought his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob : Hoio many are the days of the years of thy life ? And Jacob said to Pharaoh : The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and have not attained to the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. Not till after the brethren had given account to the king of the external concerns of the family, because Jacob was him- self too old and infirm to act independently in this new turn of domestic affairs, did Joseph bring in his father also. The' aged Jacob greets the king with a blessing. "When the latter asks him how old he is, he calls the hundred and thirty years of his life t^yp, for Abraham lived to be one hundred and seventy and Isaac one hundred and eighty years old (xxv. 7, XXXV. 28), and he feels himself, as the perf. ^V^n ab shows, near the end. He had moreover a right to mention the
GENESIS XLVII. 11-14. 347
CV"^ he had experienced ; for hard work, long and profound grief and also much self-inflicted misery lay behind him. He regards his own and his father's unsettled homeless earthly life as a pilgrimage, compared with the rest beyond, which, because hidden with God, is his true home, Heb. xi. 13-16, comp. Ps. cxix. 19, 54, xxxix. 13, 1 Chron. xxix. 15. The narrator is silent as to what further questions on the part of Pharaoh followed this answer ; he only tells us that Jacob departed blessing Pharaoh, as he had also thus greeted him. The settlement, ver. 1 1 : And Joseph settled his father and his brethren and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. The land of Goshen is here called DDOi;n px, for which, Ex. ill, the Dppj?"i is vocalized in pause as a tri- syllable ; the appellation of the eastern pasture land alternates in the Hebrew text, and hence furnishes to analysis no cha- racteristic of a source.
The settlement takes place during the seven years of famine, which furnish the outer frame of the narrative. The narrator (it is uncertain which) finishes this off, to return to the closing period of the scarcity, ver. 12 : And Joseph pro- vided his father and his brethren and all his father's house with bread, in proportion to the children. The verb ^JP"? is, according to Evv. § 2835, combined with a double ace, and fl^n ''sp means properly in proportion to the little ones (who would eat most, and whom one would be most unwilling to see wanting), hence according to the size of each family. What is now related, vv. 13-26, is no interpolated episode, but shows us the influential activity of Joseph in Egypt at its culminating point. The famine increased, and all the ready money came into the royal treasury, vv, 13, 14: And there was no bread in all the land, for the famine ivas exceed- ing sore, and the land of Egypt was exhausted and the land of Canaan by reason of the famine. And Joseph collected all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land
348 GENESIS XLVII. 15-20.
of Canaan for the food which they hougld, and Joseph hrought the money into Pharaoh's house. All the store of money in both countries came into the State treasury, which stood at the king's disposal. Egypt and Canaan were both quite exhausted by reason of the continuance of the famine : "^p^l from '^i^?='^>^^, whence differing in form •^Of' Prov. xxxi. 18, syn. ^'is> Zech. xiv. 18, where v. Hofmann acutely conjectures that •^9^,^^- or ^'^^\ was the original : thus it (Egypt) was utterly dried up. As those who were famished could pay no more money, Joseph takes the cattle, which they possess, as payment, vv. 15-17 : So the money failed out of the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan ; then came all the Egyptians to Joseph saying : Give us bread, for why should we die in thy presence ? our money is at an end. And Joseph said : Give your cattle, and I will give you for the value of your cattle, if the money is at an end. And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses and for the cattle of the flocks and the cattle of the herds and for the asses, and satisfied them with bread for the value of all tJieir cattle that year. DSX used here and at Ps. Ixxvii. 9, Isa. xvi. 4, xxix. 20, is without further confirmation in the Pentateuch. bn? used here 17& in the sense to appease, to quiet, proceeds from the meaning to rest, to lie down, which Friedr. Delitzsch (in the Athenaeum, 1883, p. 569 sq., and often since) has shown to be the root-meaning of bm, Assyr. nahAlu, synon. of ndhu and rabdsu, according to which 2 Chron, xxxii. 22 is also explained, without our needing to read Di?? n;'i, hence : he satisfied them with bread. The further offer to which they are compelled by want next year, vv. 18-20 : And that year ended, and they came to him in the second year and said to him : We cannot conceal from my lord, but (must tell) tliat our money and possession in cattle is gone to my lord, there is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land ? Buy us and o%ir land for bread, and we and our land will be
GENESIS XLVII. 21. 349
slaves to Pharaoh, and give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not lie loaste. And Joseph hought all the cidtivated land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold ea.ch man his field, because the famine covipelled them ; so the land became Pharaoh's. The peculiar expression n^^n Qi^Jjil has its equal only at Ps. cii. 28. ""^t^? is used as Monsieur is, though several are speaking, "DX ""S is not to be separated : " that as , . ." it is the usual " but," to be explained by means of an ellipsis {e.g. after solemn affirmations, 2 Sam. xv. 21, 1 Kings XX. 6, 2 Kings v. 20). They offer themselves and their lands as payment ; the latter to become crown property, themselves bondmen ; n^'l? (everywhere else corpse) here as at Dan. X. 6, Ezek. i. 11, 23, Neli. ix. 37. To die and to become slaves is by a zeugma referred also to the land, as the latter expression is at xliii. 1 8 to the asses. The in trans. Kal form D^'ri from DJ?K^is found also Ezek. xii. 19, xix. 7. We translate ver. 2 1 according to the LXX : And he made the people bond- men from one end of the realm of Egypt to the other. Such is the thought which we expect according to ver. 20, viz. that Joseph made the people themselves vassals to Pharaoh. The LXX answers to this expectation, and like the Sam. and Hebr. Sam. translates : Kal rov \aov KareSovXcoaaTo avTw eh TratSa?. Hence it must have read (comp. also Jerome): Dyrrnxi Dnaj;^ inx T'^yn, i.e. according to a like causative meaning of the Hiphil, as at Jer. xvii. 4 : and he made him (viz. Pharaoh) enslave the people to slaves; Houbigant, Kn. Dillm. Eeuss, Kamph. {Jenaer LZ. 1876, p. 170) find this reading correct, and in fact it entirely obviates the difficulties of the Masoretic text. The latter can mean nothing else, than that Joseph translocated the agricultural population from one end of the kingdom to the other. ■>''?.^i3 to cause to depart from one place to anothCT. The translocation took place for the sake of removing from the soil those whose property it had hitherto been, and of thus avoiding future disturbances. But what is the meaning of D'lV.^ ? According to Onk. Eosenm.
350 GENESIS XL VII. 22-26.
I
Ges. Tuch, Eeggio : from one city to another ("i^V? "^^VP 2 Cliron. XXX. 1 0) ; but Q'li'i^"^^, which we expect instead of Q"''}V^, if it is to be a statement of the place whither, could not have this meaning. Perhaps nny^ of the Masoretic text is to be under- stood distributively : according to each city (like ti'^np every fifth, 26a, comp. Josh. vii. 14), and what is meant is, that he divided the whole people among those towns in which the granaries at that time were, and which were also subsequently to form the centres of appointed districts, vo^oi (comp. xli, 48). But however it may be explained, the expression is too scanty and inexplicit — the authentic text is that reproduced by the LXX. Exemption of the landed property of the priests, ver. 2 2 : Only the land of the priests hought he not, for tJie priests had an appointed portion from Pharaoh, and ate their appointed iiortion, which Pharaoh gave them, therefore they sold not their land. The lands of the priests were inalienable ; nor did they need to alienate them, since they were besides pro- tected from famine ; pn a legal appointment, something legally appointed, here both times in the latter concrete sense, as at Ps. Ixxxi. 4 and Prov, xxxL 15. Taxation of the people, vv. 23-26: And Joseph said to the people: Behold, I liave hought you this day and your land for Pharaoh ; here is seed for you, and sow ye the land. And it shall come to pass at the ingatherings that ye shall render a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts shall belong to you for the sowing of the field, and for your food, and that of your households and children. And they said : Thou hast saved our lives, let us find grace in the eyes of my lord, and we ivill he hondmen to Pharaoh. And Joseph made it a law to this day in the land of Egypt, that to the amount of a fifth shoidd helong to Pharaoh, only the land of the priests, that alone hecame not Pharaoh's. The demonstrative K|? 236 occurs again only Dan. ii. 43, Ezek. xvi. 43, comp. Nn Dan. iii. 25. The a of nxinria is the temporal, at the ingatherings, i.e. as often as the harvest is gathered and brought home. We already had riT in the meaning "parts" at xliii. 34 (five parts
GENESIS XLVII. 23-26. 351
= five times), ^^ii 26a refers neutrally to what has been just related, and to this Joseph gave the character of a fixed ordinance. The soil of Egypt was, from this time onwards, partly royal domain and partly the property of the priestly caste. According to Diodor. i. 73, it was divided into three parts, the third belonging to the warrior caste. According also to Herodotus (ii. 168), it was among the privileges (yepea) of the warriors to have their own share of landed property, every warrior receiving for his own twelve excellent dpovpac exempt from taxation. The Scripture narrative how- ever tells us nothing of the exemption from taxation and landed property of the soldiers, because this appointment was of later origin ; it was cancelled by Sethos the priest of Hephaestos, when he came to the throne (Herod, ii. 141). We cannot expect a remembrance that it was through Joseph that all the land in Egypt became the property of the crown, from those who report according to the statements of Egyp- tians. According to Herod, ii. 109, Diodor. i. 73, it was Seccoarpi'; (^eaocoa-a) who divided the country into thirty- six vofioi, and made it over by square measurements to the Egyptians for a yearly tribute (comp. Artapanus in Euseb. Praep. 9. 23). That a certain allowance of provisions was, as the scriptural report declares, given by the king to the priests, and that this obviated the alienation of their lands in the years of famine, was an ordinance which may have been afterwards annulled, because their landed property more than sufficiently supplied tlieir wants. Diodorus at least (i. 73) reports, that the Egyptian priests defray the expenses of the national offerings and support themselves and their servants out of the revenues of their lands. Herodotus also says (ii. 37) that the priests have no need to use their private property (rcuv oIktjicov) for their support, but that their sacred bread is baked for them, and that each (kKaaTw) has daily a quantity of goose and beef for his consumption, that gi-ape wine is also given them, viz. the produce of the farming of the order — that each
352 GENESIS XLVII. 27.
lives very well, and at the expense of the community. The proceedings of Joseph preserved, in the first place, the interest of the king and respected the privileges of the priests, but abolished the free peasant class. It is left to the readers to pass their moral and politico-economical verdict upon them. Joseph undoubtedly had in vievir no less the good of the country than that of the king, when changing the dispro- portionately divided landed property into uniform parcels of copyhold liable to rent. Besides, the tribute of a fifth was, with the astonishing fertility of Egypt, a very tolerable burden. Nevertheless G. B. Niebuhr is in the right when he says, that the history of Joseph is a dangerous model for crafty ministers. Nor can Ebrard and others be contradicted when they assert, that in Joseph's financial speculation, as well as in Jacob's bargaining for the birthright, one of the unamiable sides of Semitic (Jewish) hereditary peculiarity comes to light.
Ver. 27 now returns to the family of Jacob in Goshen, of whom we certainly have to think as not exempted from the fee levied upon the whole country : And Israel divelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen ; and they settled therein, and they were fruitful and multiplied. The close, especially 27b, is in the style of Q (xxxiv. 10, xxxv. 11).
We have now arrived at the place for discussing more particularly, than has hitherto been done at xlvi. 28, the province of Goshen (LXX Tecreyx, Artapanus in Euseb. Kaiadv, Keaadv). It is to be sought for in Lower Egypt on the east side of the Nile. Its eastern boundary was the desert of Arabia-Petraea leading towards Philistia (Ex. xiii. 17, comp. 1 Chron. vii. 21), on which account the LXX translate, xlv. 10, xlvi, 34, Feaefi 'Apa^la<i. On the west it extended as far as the Nile, for the Israelites had abundance of fish. Num. xi. 5. Which part of the Nile was its western boundary will be determined, according as the question. Which was then the royal city ? is answered. For Goshen was not very far from thiSj since Joseph there had his family near him, xlv. 10,
GENESIS XLVIl. 27. 353
and there was easy and rapid intercourse between Goshen and Joseph's dwelling-place, xlvi. 28, xlviii. 1 sq. Num. xiii. 22, comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 12, 43, is appealed to, to show that Tanis ]V^ was then the capital (Bochart, Hgst, Baumg. Kurtz) ; but this testimony holds good only for the time of Moses, not for the time of Joseph. In his time Memphis (on the left bank of the Nile south of the subsequent Cairo),^ Hebr. p]b or f\: (see on Isa. xix. 13), founded, according to Herodotus, ii. 99, before Menes, was the royal city with its famed Ptah-temple, which stood where are now found the monuments, and among them the Colossus Eamses (the Sesostris Colossus of the ancients) at Mitrahine. Philo also thinks of Memphis. In or near to Goshen lay, at the time of the exodus, the cities Dha and cppiyn, magazine - cities,^ provisioned fortresses, in the building of which the Israelites were compulsorily employed, Ex. i. 11. Goshen is at xlvii. 11 anticipatively called ^^< DDpp. (Targ. Jer. pDi'^^DT Ny"i«), from Eamses, the place of assembly and departure at the time of the exodus, Ex. xii. 37, Num. xxxiii. 5. Pithom is iTarou/zo?, past which flowed, according to Herod, ii. 158, the canal from the Pelusian branch of the Nile to the Eed Sea (jrapa ndrovfxov rrjv ^Apa^iav trokiv) ; it was a city dedicated to the god Turn, the ruins of which, as E. Naville has shown (see on xlvi. 29), are concealed in the Tell el-Maskhuta ; while, on the other hand, Lepsius^ and others take this for the situation of Eamses {Pa- Ramses -Miamun), and transfer Pa-Tuin to the neighbourhood of the Tell Abu Suleman. In any case Goshen lay to the west of the Wadi Tumilat, which originally be- longed to the desert, and the cities of Pithom and Eamses about denote the line of the southern boundary of Goshen.
1 See A. Wiedemann's essay, " The Age of Memphis," in the Biblico-Archa'o- logical Proceedings, 1887, pp. 184-190.
2 Magazine is the Arabic '^^, DiJSDD '•"IJ? are cities with stone liouses,
whence the people are provided for (from pD to provide for, Friedr. Delitzsch, Proleg. 186).
^ Zeitschr. fiir dg. Sprache u. Alter thumskunde, 1883.
VOL. II. Z
354 GENESIS XLVII. 27.
Its eastern boundary was, according to Ebers, the Isthmus of Suez and the line of fortifications that protected the country against its eastern neighbours. Of the western boundary the extreme southern point was the city of Heliopolis, the northern that of Tanis. On the north it was terminated by the Menzale lake and the marsh of Pelusium. Hence it would reach west- ward as far as the Tanitic branch of the Nile. But perhaps it did not extend so far either westward or northward ; it may have been bounded on the west and north by the Pelusian branch of the Nile ; and Fakus (according to Ebers/ Pa [Pha\ Kos = r^3) have been its northern point. The district thus bounded comprised both desert and cultivated land. At present the Pelusian branch of the Nile is quite choked up with sand, and the country is less frequently covered by the Nile, but the region of Bubastos, as far as the entrance of the Wadi Tumilat, and for the greater part the latter itself, the Wadi Sebabiar and other districts, are still capable of cultivation, while there are some which are like luxuriant gardens. The region,
whose name partly coincides with Goshen, ijj^\ *^^1 (the eastern district), is still one of the most fertile and lucrative provinces. Its capital is BelMs, according to which Makrizi determines the western boundary of Goshen. North-east of it lies Sadir (between Abbasle and Chasbi), by which Saad., the Arabic translators and Samar. render pj ; in the neigh- bourhood of this Sadir, Arab tribes were settled, as Makrizi {Ueber die in Aeg. eingewanderten Stamme, ed. by Wiistenfeld, p. 39 sqq.) states, like Israel in ancient times.^ Of the whole period between the 130th and 147th years of Jacob's life
1 See his Dwc/t Gosen znm Siimi, 2nd edit. p. 519, and "Historical Truths of Israel's Sojourn in Egypt," in the Sunday School Times, 1887, Ko. 18 (in which he always identifies Rameses, for the building of which the 'Aperu are dragging bricks, with Tanis, and the Mperti with D"'"l3y)-
" We leave out of consideration the view, which Cope Whitehouse, in the Proceedings of the Biblico-Archa^ological Association, 1885-86, seeks, after the precedent of Jablonski (in the Pantheon Aegyptiorum), with great confidence whimsically to confirm, that Goshen was Fajum, with the adjacent districts of the Nile valley, in a northern direction towards Gizeh and Heliopolis.
GENESIS XLVir. 28-31. 355
nothing further is told us, than that Israel settled and in- creased in this district.
TESTAMENTARY DISPOSITIONS OF JACOB, CH. XLVII. 28-XLVIII.
From this sketchy remark, in which the threads of the history of Israel are again taken up, the narrator proceeds to the testamentary dispositions of Jacob. The fourth section of the Toledoth of Jacob commences here. Jacob has become much older since his entry into Egypt, and feels that his death is near, vv. 28—31 : And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, so that the days of Jacob, the years of his life, amounted to one hundred and forty-seven years. And the days of Israel drew nigh to death, and he called his son Joseph and said to him : If I have found grace in thine eyes, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me : Bury me not in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers, and talic me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying-place — and he said: I will do according to thy word. And he said : Swear unto me ; and he swore to him, and Israel stretched himself upon the head of the bed. Apart from ver. 28, we have the text of J, according to whom Jacob's wish and intention with respect to his burying is related ; the direction is here given to Joseph and repeated to the twelve, xlix. 29-32, according to the text of Q. How Jahvistic the style is, is shown by parallels such as " the days draw nigh to death," Deut. xxxi. 14 ; i<3"DK xviii. 3 and frequently, the kind and manner of the corporeal oath, as at xxiv. 2 ; '^'9^). *ipn xxiv. 49, xxxii. 11 ; "to lie with (pv) the fathers," as at Deut. xxxi. 16, and in the kindred Deuteronomistic remarks in the book of Kings, 1 Kings ii. 10. Jacob desires Joseph to put his hand under his thigh, and thus to assure him on the ground of the covenant of circumcision made with Abraham, the actual proof of faithful love, that he will not bury him in Egypt, but
356 GENESIS XLVII. 28-31.
with his fatliers in Canaan (1. 4) — in the promised land, which is appointed to be the place of the promised redemption. Joseph swears. His aged father had sat up in his bed for the purpose. And after Joseph has sworn, Israel (for so is he called at this solemn moment) stretches himself upon the t^^lpi^ Si'Nn, To rise from the bed, sitting up in which he had talked with Joseph, and cast himself upon the ground, to thank God for the proof of His mercy involved in Joseph's sworn promise, was not possible to him, because of the infirmity of age. Hence he imitates the •^^JDJ?^*'? by turning himself (like David, 1 Kings i. 47) in the bed, and stretches himself towards its top, worshipping with his face downwards, Vulg, adoravit Deum conversus ad leduli caput. Bohmer, on the contrary : he bowed himself at the head of the bed in the direction towards its foot. According to a different vocalization, LXX (Syr. It., comp. Heb. xi. 21) : irpoaeKVvqaev 'laparfK IttI to uKpov rov pd^Bov (Htssn) avrov = avTov, as Eabanus Maurus remarks. According to this reading he made use of the staff, with which he had walked all his life (xxxii. 11), to raise himself in the bed, and now worshipped upon it, while calling to mind God's help during his pilgrimage and its end in another world. This passage, xlvii. 28-31, is the first portion from the last days of Jacob. The second, ch. xlviii., relates his adoption and blessing of )iis two grandsons. The narrative as we have it accredits itself as a mosaic from all three sources : vv. 3-6 (7) is from Q, all the rest from JU, but so that notwithstanding editorial intervention, the portions respectively derived from J and E can still be distinguished. Following Dillm. and Budde (art. on Gen. xlviii. 7 and the adjoining sections in Stade's Zeitsclir. iii. 56 sqq.), we separate them as follows: J, 1 sq. 8 sq. 13 sq. 17-19 ; E, 10-12, 15 sq. 20, 21 sq. ; Kuenen claims for E, vv, 1 sq. 8-12, 15 sq. 20-22. In the introduction to ch. xlv. we already stated, that here in ch. ilviii. neither bxib'^ (for npy^) nor DM^S (for which we expect
GENESIS XLVIII. 1-6. 357
niM^ ver. 20) is a certain token of a source. What is decisive both here and elsewhere is, that the two threads of the narrative, which B (perhaps already the redactor of JE) intertwined, can be separated. The case of ver. 7 is peculiar. Budde brings forward the conjecture, that in xlix. 31 bm-nsi originally stood also after nx^TiN, that a redactor expunged this, and for it inserted the wording of xlviii. 7 from xxxv. 16a, 19. The conjecture is supported by the expedient, that according to Q Rachel also was buried in the cave of Machpelah. But we are certainly told that Eachel died on the journey from Aramaea to Canaan, was buried in the neighbourhood of Ephrath, and by no means at Hebron ; and her death being the consequence of the birth of Benjamin, xxxv. 26, must be accommodated to this. If xlviii. 7 is really a " lost post," it must have become such some other way.
The aged and bed-ridden patriarch carried out this con- firmation by oath of his desire, xlvii. 29, in anticipation of his approaching death. He is now actually ill, the end seems imminent, and Joseph is summoned, vv. 1, 2 : And it co.me to pass after these things, when Joseph ivas told, Behold, thy father is sick, and he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim. And when they told Jacob, and said : Behold, thy son Joseph has come to thee, and Israel strengthened himself and sat up in bed. Both "iK)N*i and l?!? have the most general subject, as at xliii. 34, and, according to the extant text, xlii. 25 also.' The interchange of the names ipl)'' and ^xib''' is not everywhere so significant as here. Jacob lies down sick, Israel draws him- self up. On the arrival of Joseph, Jacob begins to speak of the blessing and the promises of God, by reason of which he raises Joseph's two sons, as though they were his own, to the station of ancestors of two independent tribes in the nation descending from him, vv. 3-6 : And Jacob said to Josrph :
' Jewish expositors in such cases explain "l)0K"'l=1CXn "110X^1, and this cor- responds with the spirit of Semitic speech (see Driver in the Expositor, 1887, p. 260).
358 GENESIS XLVm. 7.
El "Sacldaj appeared to me and blessed me in Zuz in the land of Canaan, and said to me : Beliold, I make thee fruitful and numerous, and make thee a company of peoples, and give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. Now then, thy two sons, vjhich were horn to thee in the land of Egypt, before I came to thee to Egypt, are mine, Ephraim and Man- asseh shall be mine like Reuben and Simeon. And thy seed, lohich thou hast begotten after them, shall be thine, after the name of their brethren shall they be called in their inheritance. The manifestation of God, to which Jacob looks back, is that which was vouchsafed to him in Luz-Bethel after his return from Aramaea, xxxv. 6 sq., 9—1 5 ; the wording of the promise, however, is more closely in unison with that given to him when going to Aramaea, xxviii. 3 sq. The placing of Ephraim first, in opposition to their succession in age, ver. 1, comp. xli. 50-52, is done in accordance with the express declaration of purpose which follows farther on. Jacob places Ephraim and Manasseh on a level with his own first and second born sons as independent heads of tribes, while, on the contrary, Joseph's other sons form no separate tribes, but are to be reckoned as belonging to the tribes of their brethren. Jacob's speech is interrupted by a reference to Eachel, Joseph's mother, ver. 7 : And as for me — when I came from Paddan, Rachel died from me in the land of Canaan, in the way, a kibra of land before Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. In the presence of Joseph, the remembrance of his never-forgotten wife thrills powerfully through him. It is as though he wanted to lead Joseph to his mother's grave, and there to give him or receive from him a promise. His regarding Ephraim and Manasseh, who were by birth natives of Egypt, as his immediate sons by Eachel, also redounds to the honour of this prematurely lost wife. It is essentially thus that Kn. also explains the apparently uncaused, and in any case abrupt close of Jacob's speech. Budde sees in ver. 7 as thus explained " a senti-
GENESIS XLVIII. 8-12. 359
mentally dramatic picture " which was not to be expected in a historical book, and least of all in Q. But even if it is less coloured up, the fact still remains that it is in Joseph's presence that the remembrance of Kachel forces itself upon the patriarch, and that the reason for his self-interruption is to be sought for in N^'l 8a, while, on the contrary, in ^'s own text the request to bury him with his fathers in the cave of Machpelah, xlix. 29-32, is joined on to xlviii, 7 (Nold. Dillra.). Omitting in thought the introduction commencing 'lJl l^!'! xlix. 29a, which was induced by the interstratification of xlviii. 8-xlix. 28, the ''J^?! here fitly continues the ""J^ there: he buried Eachel in Ephrath, but yet desires to rest with his fathers in Hebron. vV "^PP implies that he possessed her, and that by dying she was torn from him ; I'^Q alone for nii< pa occurs nowhere else, but why should not this abbreviation be possible ? Dnb n''3 i«in, on the contrary, is a gloss, but in itself not a false one, taken over from xxxv. 19 (see on this passage). The patriarch, who was almost blind, interrupts himself, now first perceiving that he is not with Joseph only, vv. 8,9: And Israel heJield Joseph's sons and said : Who are these 1 And Joseph said to his father : They are my so7is lohom Elohim hath given me here. And he said : Brifig them hither to me that I may hless them. The narrator is J: nf3 hoe loco, as at xxxviii. 21 sq., Ex. xxiv. 14. l^?!)?^,! has in Baer pausal Segol according to the Masora (as at ^inn"; Deut. xxxii. 11), against which Tsere is witnessed for by Num. vi. 27. His grandsons brought to Jacob, embraced by him, and led away, vv. 10-12 : And the eyes of Israel were dim from age, he could not see, and he brought them nearer to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph : I did not think to see thy face again, and behold Elohim hath given me to see thy seed also. Then Joseph led them away from his knees and bowed himself in his presence to the earth. The patriarch had sat up in the bed as one about to rise, so that he could take the two between his knees, kiss them, and press
360 GENESIS XLVIII. 13, 14.
them to his heart (P^^ and P?n with a Dat. as at xxix. 13), from which it by no means follows, that the narrator thought of them as little children ; they were youths, but still under age and under the guidance of their father. The inf. constr. nxn is like nby equally used for nm^ xxxi. 28, 1. 20, Ges. § 75, note 2. tPB elsewhere to decide, to judge, has here the more general signification of thinking, and the 1 sing. per/, is in the pausal form "'0^73, occurring in only four verbs, see Koenig, Lehrgeh. i. 189. It is questionable whether vasp refers to Joseph, so as to be equivalent, as at Num. xxii. 31, to Q";2i< elsewhere {e.g. xlii. 6), or to Jacob, and is so equivalent to Vjsb, which is, according to 1 Sam. xxv. 23, comp. 2 Sam. xviii. 28, not less permissible, and seems to me preferable. The LXX has Kal irpoaeKvvqaav avra, (not avrov as in Lagarde, 1883). The prostration is here the reverent expres- sion of Joseph's thankfulness to Jacob for the affection shown towards his two sons. In the present combination of the extracts from different sources, the thankfulness is at the same time a request. For he leads them back to his father, who blesses them, giving to the younger the preference above the elder, vv. 13, 14: Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim in his right hand to Israel's left, and Manasseh in his left hand to Israel's right, and brought them near to him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his Uft upon the head of Manasseh : he crossed his hands ; for Manasseh was the first-horn. The perf. ^2tr stands syntactically (as at D'y' xxi. 14), wliere the part, would also be allowable. Luther translates like Ouk. Saad. Gra3C.-Ven. : and did thus wittingly with his hands ; on the other hand, the tradition of both the Greek and Latin Churches takes this laying on of hands of Jacob as, being in its correct translation : he entwined, i.e. crossed them, one of the most ancient types of the cross, LXX ivaWd^, and similarly Syr. Targ. II. Ar.-Samar. Tavus Vulg., from bb*, complicare = bju' ( J^) in ^'^^'^ (^iJp) a plait, a cluster of
GENESIS XL VIII. 15, 16. 361
grapes. This is the first blessing by laying on of hands recorded in Holy Scripture. By means of laying on his hands, he who performs this places himself in a relation of mutual action with him who is the subject of it. This act is, according to its most obvious purpose, the vehicle by which something is conveyed and received. With hands laid on crosswise, Jacob, whose wish coincides with the counsel of God, now proceeds in the power of faith to bless Joseph in his children, vv. 15, 16 : And he blessed Joseph, and said: The God in vjhose presence my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who hath tended me as a shepherd since my existence to this day, the angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac be named through them, o,nd let them increase in multitude in the midst of the land. The picture of God as a shepherd is suggested to Jacob by his own pastoral vocation ; we meet with it again in the psalms of David, and especially of Asaph. The expres- sion i^.^ij Di'n"'Ty '''liJ'!? recurs in the section on Balaam, Num. xxii. 30. DHS 16a would not be meant differently from xxi. 1 2, hence in the sense of a secondary cause (comp. ix. 6a). Ephraim and Manasseh, by becoming independent tribes, pro- pagate the names of their three ancestors, with the promises attached to these names. Targ. II. takes the two d\n^Nn voca- tively and : " the angel . . . bless . . . " as the supplication, but certainly ^^^l is the common predicate of the complex notion which forms the subject. The subject, whose blessing is desired, is a threefold one ; but as results from the omis- sion of the conjunctive "i, which was to be expected at least in the third place with ^i<?^n, and from the singular pre- dicate (to which Novatian, de trinit. ch. xv., already draws attention), a single one ; the ^^^^f? also is thought of as Deus de Deo: it is God revealing Himself in the appearance of an angel, God the Eedeemer who at last, as God in Christ, fulfils media- torially the counsel of redemption. When however Jacob in the act of blessing lays his right hand on Ephraim's head,
362 GENESIS XLVIII. 17-22
this appears to Joseph an unconscious mistake, vv. 17-19 : And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraion, it tvas displeasing in his eyes, and he laid hold of his father s hand to remove it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh. And Joseph said to his father : Not so, my father, for this is the first-born, lay thy right hand upon his head. But his father refused, and said : I know, my son, I know ; he also shall become a people, and he also shall become great ; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed ivill become a fulness of nations. On i2'"P!' I! hand of his right side, comp. Ps. cxxi. 5, and on pn of grasping and holding the hands, Ex, xvii. 12. Jacob refuses to change his hands ; he knows well, viz. that Manasseh, not Ephraim, is the first-born, but the latter will be more powerful than he. This was not fulfilled in the immediate future, for at the numbering. Num. xxvi. 34, Manasseh was 20,000 above Ephraim. Subse- quently however, together with the retention of the name ^snb'*, Ephraim gave his name to the whole kingdom, and was from the time of the Judges the greatest of the tribes in power and extent. In D^isn ^^ the determinate adheres to the second member of the st. constr. (as at xvi. 7, see on this matter remarks on ix. 20), and W^M refers, as at xxxv. 11 (comp. D''»y xxviii. 3, xlviii. 4), to the tribes of Israel ; D^i3 P^lI xvii. 5 has a wider meaning, and indeed that of to irXrjpwfxa i&v eOvSiv, Eom. xi. 25. The blessing continued, ver. 20 : And he blessed them that day, saying : With thee shall Israel bless, saying: Elohim onaJce thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh — he set Ephraim before Manasseh. The speech is addressed to Joseph, who is thus abundantly blessed in Ephraim and Manasseh. The blessedness of both became proverbial (comp. on xii. 3, and the cursing formula, Jer. xxix. 2 1 sq.). The last word of bless- ing to Joseph, vv. 21, 22 : And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die, but Elohim ivill be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. And I have given to thee one tract of land above thy brethren, which I took from the Emorite with my suvrd
GENESIS XL VIII. 21, 22. 363
and my low. By 03?' ridge of land, is at all events meant a part of the Canaanite mountainous district ; "^^^ is the more quickly uttered form of word, which in closely connected speech occurs also elsewhere, and very frequently in this numeral, e.g. 2 Sam, xvii. 22, without a relation of annexation (see Philippi on the Status constructus, p. 59). On the use of by in ^"'nx"?y "beyond thy brethren," see on Ps. xvi. 2. '^'P^'} here as at XV. 1 6 is the favourite general name in J for the population of Canaan (comp. Ezek. xvi. 3). But — and this is the main question requiring an answer — what is meant by "Tinpfj ? Jacob — says Tuch — looking prophetically forward over four centuries and beholding as present the state of things after the conquest of the Promised Land, rightly says, as the representative of his descendants, '131 ^nnj?? "iJi'X in the per/, proph. " JSTeverthe- less," he continues, " the unusual expression D3tJ' is chosen for the very probable purpose of playing upon the name of the well-known place of the same name [so Jerome : pidcre allusit ad nomen]. For Sichem was really situate in the portion of Joseph, Josh. xxi. 21, and was specially consecrated to his memory by the fact that his bones were buried there. Josh, xxiv. 32, in the field purchased by Jacob, xxxiii. 19." "We could not in our retrospective view of ch. xxxiv., and especially xxxiv. 25 sq., comp. xxxv. 5, help remarking, that the ven- geance of the sons of Jacob upon Sichem had a bright side, on which it was represented by E, and to this xlviii. 21 sq. also refers. Sichem seems indeed to have prematurely become a town with a predominantly Israelite population, an " ancient tribal possession." ^ But in the intention of this composition of extracts from sources, as it has come down to us, and in which xlviii. 2 2 and xlix. 5 — 7 are in all but direct contact, '•nnpi' cannot be so understood as to make Jacob appropriate to himself on its brighter side the deed of arms of his sons. "Tinpb must be conceived of — as by Tuch — as spoken in the power of a prophetic self-consciousness raised ^ See A. Eckstein, Gesch. u. Bed. der Stadt Sichem (18S6), p. 18 sc[.
364 GENESIS XLIX. 1, 2.
above itself. Kuenen's former conjecture "mna ab (not with my sword, but by means of honourable purchase) is very tempting, as it removes all difficulty.
Jacob's peophetic sayings conceening his twelve sons
CH. XLIX.
The third portion, ch. xlix., carries on the history of Jacob's last days and records his last words. These have been called, and not incorrectly, the blessing of Jacob, for xlix. 28 refers back to them. They are however introduced at ver. 1 as a prophecy, and are indeed both : words of prophecy as dis- closures made by God concerning the future history of redemption ; words of blessing as wishes strong through faith, and bringing within themselves the energy for their accom- plishment. In lofty words, which already indicate his solemn frame of mind, the patriarch summons all his sons (Joseph included), vv. 1, 2: And Jacob called his sons and said: Assemble yourselves, that I may announce to you what will befall you at the end of the days. Come together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hcarhcn to Isra£l your father, mp (to befall), xxiv. 12, xxvii. 20, xlii. 29, xliv. 29, is also exchanged for xip at xlii. 4, 38. From the standpoint of the present, the future may be regarded either as that which lies before us, which is coming (rii'nxn Isa. xli. 23, xliv. 7, Q^'SCi Isa. xxvii. 6), or also as that which lies after us (Greek ra oiriaoi), whose development is still kept back, and will come after the present course of time, will succeed it (Orelli, Hchr. Synonyma dcr Zeit u. Ewigheit, p. 14), hence as nnnx (Assyr. adverbially ahrdtas the future), which as the opposite of the beginning of time means the end of time (the last time), or as the opposite of the present, the time following (the time to come). It has this latter meaning, e.g., at Jer. xxiii. 20 and also Deut. xxxi. 29, though it there already designates not the time to come in general, but in an eschatological sense, like iv va-Tepoi<i
I
GENESIS XLIX. 1, 2. 365
Kaipoh, 1 Tim. iv. 1, Mostly however D"'Pjn nnnx denotes the final future, the extreme end, but this not merely as the last epoch at the end of the course of time, hut as that final period, lying entirely beyond the present course of develop- ment, which will bring the work of God to its full and final realization. In such wise also, that the notion varies in proportion to the stage of development, to which the work of God has advanced in the present, and to the horizon of the present thereby given, and the range of vision thereby deter- mined. For in the prophetic prospect, the final redemption is ever combined with the promised event of the immediate future ; both advance in close union even when they do not perceptibly coincide, and the progress of the expected redemp- tion is such, that it is by this immediate future, when it is realized and shows itself to be only a portion of that work of God which is in a process of development, that the fulfilment of the glorious and most glorious, which is yet ia arrear, is pledged, and a deeper understanding of it brought about. Thus the view of Jacob, who is borne by the spirit of prophecy beyond the sojourn in Egypt, is fixed upon the promised possession of Canaan by the nation of the twelve tribes. To him this stands in the foreground of the n"'JD''n n^inx ; it is the watchword of his hopes ; all that follows stands on a line with this one fundamental hope, as in a picture painted without perspective. It is just in this circumstance that we have a strong proof that no mere recent fiction is before us. At a period which evidently and palpably was not as yet the promised end of the days, no one would have put into Jacob's mouth a prophecy concerning it as the end of the days ; while, on the other hand, he could not, according to the tenor of the promises made to the patriarchs, but con- centrate all his expectation of redemption in the promised possession of the land. By the criticism, indeed, which either denies miracles, whether in the spiritual life or in history, or as much as possible attributes them to natural causes, these
366 GENESIS XLIX. 1, 2.
prophetic sayings will be d priori regarded as a vaticinia post eventuvi, or as Hupfeld expresses it, as a prophetic myth. Ewald insists upon the "truth which since 1828 he has publicly taught, and which will always force itself upon every better mind, that these sayings belong to the time of Samson" (Jahrh. 5. 238). Anger and Dillm. also make the time of the Judges their horizon. But we may with good reason regard the parallels in the Song of Deborah (Judg. ch. v.) as well considered and effective references, while borrowings of this kind would make the author of Gen, xlix. 3-27 show a poverty of thought which he by no means manifests. Hupfeld and others still now deeply depreciate ch. xlix. And Kuenen {Mnl. § 13, note 16) agrees with Eenan and Land in regarding these as sayings of different periods here worked up into a whole. If everything is regarded as prediction invented from after events, it must be indeed looked upon as such patchwork. We too might deal with such criteria, but are kept from so doing by our inmost convictions. Neither in the Old Testament nor the New, is the non- reality of historical or spiritual miracles the necessary con- sequence of critical analysis. But if prophecy is no delusion, testamentary words of a prophetic character might be expected from the departing ancestor of the chosen people ; and if his discourse to his sons consisted of single sayings applying to individuals, it is quite comprehensible that these sayings, and consequently the blessing which was composed of them, should have remained in the memory and on the lips of the twelve tribes. And when and for what purpose should this blessing have been invented ? The saying concerning Eeuben affixes on him a blot, for the preservation of which subsequent history furnished no reason. The saying concerning Simeon and Levi is depreciative and reproving in a manner only con- ceivable from the pre-Mosaic standpoint. The saying con- cerning Zebulun contemplates an extent of the territory of his tribe, which was not realized either in the time of Joshua
GENESIS XLIX. 3. 367
or under the Kings. And the saying concerning Issachar gives a picture of this tribe differing from the Song of Deborah, Judff. V. 15a. So too can ver. 23 also be understood without being a reflection of Syrian warfare.
The patriarch knew his children, knew the circumstances of their birth, knew the dispositions they had manifested, and was therefore naturally capable, so to speak, of casting their nativity.-^ And his blessing bears throughout the mark of the date claimed for it, and of that spontaneity, both human and Divine, which distinguishes the pro- phecy of the redemptive history from heathen Manticism. For all such prophecy is of an ethic nature, and for that reason no deluding spell ; the history is the product of the interaction of God and man, and hence something different sometimes comes forth from what prophecy had predicted by promise and threat.
It cannot be determined from which of the three main sources of the Pentateuch the redactor has taken this prophetic portion. In itself, and especially by reason of nirr" ver. 18, it suggests our regarding J as the source; but the framework, vv. 1 and 28, leads to Q, who is not absolutely excluded either by mn'' ver. 18 nor by ver. 285 (see there).
The first saying, xlix. 3 sq., passes sentence upon Eeuben and determines his future. In every genealogical table of the twelve, from xxxv. 23 to 1 Chron. v. 1, Eeuben stands first, as the first-born among the sons of Jacob ; hence, looking back with joy and sorrow to his Aramaean servitude, he greets him: ""pis* n^K^Nni ^nb nns nb3 |3ini, Rml&n, mij first-lorn, thou, my might and the first -fruits of my strength. He is the product of Jacob's full manly strength, and the first offspring
1 Such is the assumption, correct in itself, upon which Heinr. Mosler, in his work, Die jiidische Stmnmverschiedenheit, 1884, defends the authenticity of Jacob's blessing, with much profound insight, which is however overgrown with oddities. So too does Dicstel, Der Serjen Jalcohs, 1853, who thinks that the sayings are connected with the position and conduct of the twelve during the sojourn in Egypt.
368 GENESIS XLIX. 4.
of his generative power after a long and unspotted celibacy (jis ri''tJ'"i<7, as in legislative prose, Dent. xxi. 17, conip. Ps. Ixxviii. 51, cv. 36). And how Eeuben towers as the first- born above his brethren ! He is TI? inil nxb' in"', pre-eminence (properly superabundance) in dignity and pre-eminence in povxr (TV, not an adjective, but, as the order and parallelism show, the pausal form of fy, comp. xliii. 14), i.e. precedence, both in respect and power, is due to him above his brethren, a position excelling theirs in both respects. But Eeuben has deprived himself of his privilege : "inin"?x D^S3 tns, Boiling over like ivater, thou must have no pre-eminence, i.e. not as boiling over, or because thou art such. The words D''03 triD are a descriptive and, at the same time, a confirmative apposi- tion of the subj,, which is more probable than taking it vocatively (Oh, boiling over like water !) or making it form a noun sentence by itself (viz. a boiling over of water is come to pass). The Hebraeo - Sam. obliterates the plasticism of poetic diction by changing rns into nrriD, whence most ancient translators, except Symm., render it according to the reading virep^eaa';, and Graec. Ven. kov^o<; co? vhcop. The moral nature of Eeuben is notified in a rapid picture, his characteristic is passion, like bubbling up, boiling water (rriD, not subsilire, of which also Targ. Jer. Deut. xxxii. 15 is no
confirmation, but hdlire, fcrvcre, not related to ts, ji to spring up, but, on the contrary, a shade of the V ns to breathe, to blow, comp. j^s \^i to swell, of the inflation of pride). The
Samar. translates, in accordance with the original meaning, ^V^"^^ (from Vn"i = nrn), also Symm., whose yTrepfeVa? is a participle giving the reason (which Field exchanges for the less apt virepe^eaas;), the LXX more freely : i^v^pi(Ta<;, in the sense of Ezek. xlvii. 5 i^vl3pi^ev to vBcop = n^on in3. Because he indulges his sensuality, he incurs the loss of precedence, and the reason is now more particularly stated : For thou didst go u'p to the bed of thy father, then didst thou defile, i.e.
I
GENESIS XLIX. 3. 369
didst perpetrate a deed, defiling that which should have been sacred to thee — the verb J^ppn is left without an object, this OJ'i^'!, for which, according to 1 Chron. v. 1, the Chronicler read "yi^"!, plur. like '33tJ'b Ges. § 108. 2, note 2) being made the object of an independent sentence (comp. a like case with the subj. Ps. Ixxii. 17&). Deeply annoyed, Jacob turns from this criminal encroachment of Eeuben upon the rights of his father and chief, xxxv. 22, as from an intolerable sight, and speaking to himself says only, with hollow voice, i^/V ''J'l^'! : he went up to my bed ! The first blessing is thus limited to Eeuben's not being expelled from the number of the twelve, but in other respects it is changed into the curse of degradation. According to Deut. xxi. 17 (the passage in which ijk n"'t^'X'^ occurs), a double portion of the inheritance was the due to the first-born, and he was naturally the representative of the family and had precedence among his brethren. The deep and important results obtained by the birthright, are shown in the history of Esau and Jacob. Eeuben thus loses not merely the property, but the rank of the first-born — he loses that position in the national and redemptive history which properly belonged to him. We are told 1 Chron. v. 1 sq., to whom Eeuben's privileges were transferred : Joseph received the ^"p^, i.e. the double portion of the inheritance, but the princely position went to Judah. Jerome, together with the Targums and Midrash, reckons not only regniim and hmreditas, but also sacerdotium, among the privileges of the first-born, and hence translates (being herein Luther's predecessor) : prior in donis major in imperio. But 1 Chron. v. 1 sq. shows that only regnum and haereditas are here under consideration. It was by the providential leading of God, whose plan hovers over all free human action, that the double inheritance was transferred from the first-born of Leah to the first-born of Eachel. But that what was here brought to pass by God's righteous govern- ment, may not be imitated by human caprice, the Thorah, Deut. xxi. 15-17, forbids the preference of the first-born son of the VOL. II. 2 A
370 GENESIS XLIX. 5.
beloved wife before that of the hated one. The blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 6, takes up the words of Jacob concern- ing Eeuben so far as to promise him indeed continuance, but (since there is no necessity for making '''T'!~'''!'r'''?"'- '^i^h Ges. Baumg. Graf and others) fewness of numbers and general insignificance. This history fulfilled. That Eeuben had at the second numbering, Num. xxvi. 7, when compared with the first, Num. i. 21, suffered the loss of 3000 men, cannot, in view of the still more considerable losses of other tribes, come into consideration; but the fact, that in the time of the Kings from David onward only a Moabito-Ammonite and no longer a Eeubenite region east of Jordan is spoken of, cer- tainly does. The tribe of Eeuben had not wholly died out, 1 Chron. v. 6, but had become quite powerless, and had already so entirely vanished from the sight of Isaiah, that his elegiac lamentation, ch. xv. sq., has only Moab as such for its subject, without any regard to his Eeubenite fellow-country- men. History knows nothing of the deeds of this tribe beyond the victories of the Eeubenites and Gadites over Sihon king of the Amorites, and a victorious campaign against the Hagarens in the time of King Saul, 1 Chron. v. 8-10, 18-22. In post-Mosaic times its national importance soon sank to nothing, no judge, king, or prophet being desig- nated as a Eeubenite.
Now follow the second and third sons of Leah, ver. 5 : D"'nx Mpl pyoK^ Simeon and Levi arc brothers. Brothers in the fullest sense of the word, not merely of the same parents, but of the same nature, as was shown by the treacherous and cruel vengeance which in common they inflicted on the Shechemites : Di!'"''D""i?^ °PC "•? instruments of violence arc their slaughter weaiwns. The Hebraeo-Sam. and perhaps Onkelos also read i^? for "h^ : their slaughter weapons have executed violence. It was D»n, i.e. a deed of violence by the stronger against the weaker and unarmed ; for, that they might be able to take vengeance upon them, they first rendered the
GENESIS XLIX. 5. 3Yl
Sliechemites incapable of defending themselves. The meaning murderous weapons is in any case the most obvious for DiiTn^a ; the Midrash (Bereshith rdbha, c. 99 and elsewhere) remarks, that in Greek nmn swords, are called pi^ao, i.e. fjid^aipai (Goth, mikja, from the V fxaic to pierce, Lat. mac-tare), with which Donaldson also {Jashar, pp. 128, 196) regards it as one and the same word " changed by Greek mercenaries of David (1 Chron. xi. 36, Kavpo<; 6 iJ,a')(^aipo(p6po<;) " into Hebrew. But n^DO is no more fid'^aipa than the Assyr. pilakkua is the Greek TreXe/cu? ; it comes from "i^S (after the formations ^"1??P, '^yp, ^IP.P), which means to dig (for which
usually nn3) and to round (comp. "133=13"!2, Arab. C properly
of the ricochetting ball i" <), both meanings being combined in
that of a round digging or boring out, so that it might also be used of the weapon which bores a round gaping wound, like ip3 and ii^3 Ps. xxii. 17, comp. thereon, p. 233 of the Comm., according to the LXX, Pesh. ; the verbs opvaaeiv and fodere (Jiastd) — stimulo fodere lovem is even said — also admit the sense of piercing. Tuch, Baumg. explain otherwise : twistings, from "i"!^, which however means to round and not to twist ; de Dieu, Schultens, Maurer : intrigues, from 130 —J>^, without any support in Hebrew diction ; Kn. Luzzatto, Merx and others : marriage contracts, after the Syr. »«->^ dcsponsare (with reference to xxxiv. 15 sq.) ; but then v3 is not suitable. Schroter gives another meaning {DMZ. xxiv. 525) : their signs of recognition, from 133 (so that the punctuation would have to be Dn-'miso). It would be better to explain with Targ. II. III. Syr.: their nature indoles, but Ezek. xvi. 3 (comp. also Isa. li. 1) is not sufficient to prove this meaning for the word, and Don "hi: shows itself to be the predicate, not the subj. The meaning instrument of piercing is the most certain. Dillm. denies to the verb -n3 the meaning to pierce, and would rather understand a curved instrument, from iia to be round, hence something of a sabre. Perhaps the Assyrian, in which -113 in
372 GENESIS XLIX. 6.
the meaning to cut, to hew, to fell, is a sjm. (Friedr, Delitzsch, Proleg. 121), gives the decisive casting vote. Jacob, who had already, xxxiv. 30, made bitter complaints of the deed of Simeon and Levi, here on his death-bed repudiates all share in it, ver. 6 a ; Into their council, my soul, come tliou, not ; with their assemhly, my honour, he thou not united. On nio, see on Ps. XXV. 14 : it means compression, constipatio, in the sense of con- centrated closeness, impervious to light, and consequently both the secret meeting and the secret matter. *inn is imjof. Kal of inj, and *']^3 here as at Ps. vii. 6, xvi. 9, xxx. 13, Ivii. 9, cviii. 2, used of the soul as the glory of man, the Divine image, is as the name of the &o\A feminine, as is also e.g. Jisy as the name of the wind, and -'.p.? as that of a fetter. On the misconception or intentional setting aside of nuD, the name of the soul, by ancient translators, see Geiger, Urschrift, p. 319. Reason for this repudiation, ver. 6&; For in their tvrath they slew men, and in their self-vjill they maimed oxen. Unrestrained self-will, which disregards truth and justice, is here, as at Dan. viii. 4 and frequently, called p^"!. On the exegetical and historical connection of the translation suffo- derunt murum (n^B') in Jerome, see Fiirst in BMZ. xxxv. p. 132 sq. Tlie LXX, as it already lay before the Itala, has aireKreivav avOpdoTvovi and ivevpoKOTrrjaav ravpov, hence lit', not "W (as Onk. Aq. Symm. : Td-)(o<i). According to Herder and others, liB' is said here to mean figuratively (as at Deut. xxxiii. 1 7) the same as K'"'* : they slew the princes of Shechem together with the people like defenceless animals, whose sinews had been cut, and Eeuss thinks it possible that "lic' is an image of the male population maimed by circumcision. Since however, according to xxxiv. 27-29, they took pos- session of the flocks and herds, and cared more for vengeance than for booty, "liK' 'iiipV is meant in its literal sense : they cut the knee tendons (LXX ivevpoKoir'qaav) of the oxen, whom they either could not or would not bring away, for the purpose of laming them and making them useless, which is also called
}
GENESIS XLIX. 7. 873
in Arab. .iix. This treacherous and cruel act of vengeance though inflicted on Canaanites, is pronounced by Jacob to be a sin worthy of condemnation, ver. 7 : Cursed is their anger, which was so fierce, and their wrath, which was so cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. The predicates TV and HK'i? (unbending and inexorable) are also inter- changed, Cant. viii. 6. The Hebraeo-Sam. (which the other Samaritan texts follow) has here changed inx into -iinx (="inn praiseworthy) and Dniny into nman (their association) to get rid of the curse {DMZ. xx. 160-162); the prayer of Judith also in ch. ix. (see thereon Fritzsche) begins by praising the righteous retribution executed by her ancestor Simeon (with Levi). The patriarch solemnly repudiates all share in this massacre. The punishment of Simeon and Levi is division and dispersion. Their fierce resentment is deprived of the support of an independent territory, and their despotic violence of a prerequisite of political power. The cities of Simeon lay as a powerless and almost nameless enclosure within the territory of the tribe of Judah (Josh, xix. 1-9, ch. XV.), and when the descendants of Simeon found their dwelling-places no longer sufficient, they emigrated in two companies and conquered dwelling-places and pasture lands outside the Holy Land (1 Chron. iv. 38 sqq.). Simeon is left quite unmentioned in the blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxiii., and disappears almost entirely after the disruption of the kingdom.^ Levi received no territory of his own, the Levites being scattered among all the tribes, within which the law, Num. xxxv. 1—8, allotted to them forty-eight cities. Sub- sequently this scattering became a means of the clerical voca- tion of the tribe of Levi, here it appears as the punishment of a brutal fanaticism. This penal sentence on the two brothers is a proof of the great antiquity of the blessing. The blessing
1 The Midrash NtJ^n says : h'^l^ll t3B"lB' nSi H^O vh TiOyn ^ pyOB' ni3^"l py> with reference to Num. xxv. 14 ; see Epstein, Beitrdge zur jiid.
Alterthumskunde (1887), p. 24.
374 GENESIS XLIX. 8.
of Moses, Deut. xxxiii., is silent concerning Simeon, and speaks quite otherwise of Levi, The difference between the two periods at once strikes the eye.
No blessing without a shadow has attached to the first three sons ; an unobscured blessing now comes with so much the greater intensity upon Judah, the fourth son of Leah. The Samar. Targum tries as much as possible to turn the blessing of Judah into an insult {DMZ. xxx. 348). It is indeed true that Judah's previous life had not been unspotted ; he sinned against Joseph, he sinned with Tamar, but these sins are now expiated, and they bore within them reasons in mitigation of their guilt. For it was Judah who wanted to sell Joseph rather than to shed his blood ; it was he whose nobleness of mind towards his father and brethren made him so irresistibly eloquent before Joseph ; and though not in- accessible to sensual temptation, he was, as the transaction with Tamar shows, of an heroic character ennobled by the fear of God. To him is transferred the princely dignity of the first-born, which Reuben liad forfeited (1 Chron. v. 2). His name, according to xxiv. 35, signifies the being praised; this nomen Jacob takes hold of as an omen and explains it as a prognostic of Judah's future, ver. 8 : Jiidah — thee shall thy hrethren praise : thy hand upon the neck of thine enemies ! thy father's sons hotv down hcfore thee. The pers. 'pro. stands first as nom. dbs., as e.g. at Deut. xviii. 14&, comp. ""ajx xxiv. 27 (Ges. § 145. 2). Judah will be the ever victorious; his enemies flee, but they do not escape him, he grasps them by the throat (Job xvi. 12). His heroism procures him the homage and respect of his brethren, and that not only of his five brethren by the same mother (see on xxvii. 29), but of all the sons of their common father. Judah obtains this exaltation above his brethren by the lion-like nature wliich God bestows upon him : nnin^ nnx n« a lions whelp is Judah. Jacob has now before him the person of Judah, the ancestor of the lion tribe, hence he compares him to a young lion.
GENESIS XLIX. 9, 10. 375
But his view is immediately transferred to the tribe in the full strength of its maturity : from the, prey, my son, hast thou gone up — he stoops down, he couches like a lion and like a lioness, who woidd rouse him up ? Jacob in spirit beholds his son as having become that to which he is destined. On pi see on iv. 7. Scripture is rich in names and images of lions, for it was then easy to become by personal observation acquainted with the lion, which has now almost disappeared from the lands of the sacred history. As a lion, which after he has obtained his prey goes up (p?V in its first meaning, not as at Isa. liii. 2, Ezek. xix. 3, in the sense of growing up) from the forest dwelling to the forest mountain to his den (Eccles. iv. 8, comp. opea-'npoc^o'i, the epithet given to the lion in Homer), so does Judah return from all his conflicts to his dwelling-place; there he couches in proud repose like a lion and like a lioness (who is still fiercer in defence of her young), who would venture to stir him up and to occasion fresh conflicts ? The historical great- ness of Judah is now further described, the image of the lion being laid aside, ver. 10 : The sceptre shall not depart from Judah and the leader's staff from bettceen his feet, until he comes to Shiloh, and to him devolves the obedience of the peoples. The LXX, Targum Samar. Saad. Gr. Ven. and the ancients in general understand Pi?.np personally of a leader in peace or war, as at Judg. v. 1 5 and elsewhere, and as ''t??'^ 2 Sam. vii. 7 {■=:(TKr^'mov')(pL) is perhaps meant; and "ivJ"} pso is accordingly used as atDeut. xxviii. 57 of the coming forth from the maternal womb (comp. the euphemisms, Isa. vii. 20, xxxvi. 12, and Homer's TrtTrreiv /xera iroaal yvvaiKoi;, 11.19. 110 = to be born), hence a ruler from the maternal womb of Judah, a not impos- sible expression, Judah being conceived of not as an individual but as a tribe, which at once bears and begets. Luther other- wise : noch ein meister von seinen Fiissen, in which Pi?.'no is (as in lavjgiver of the English A.V.) understood, according to ^*■^S9 of the Targums, with reference to the circumstance that scrihce inter pedes regum aut magistratuum sub illis sedere solent.
376 GENESIS XLIX. 10.
The Mecklenburg KirchenUatt, 1885, p. 5: the territory upon which he walks — an impossible rendering, for the ground is not between, but under the feet. Considering that ppno has no less frequently the meaning ruler's staff, suggested by the parallel tsac' (Num. xxi. 18, Ps. Ix, 9), than the personal meaning ruler ; secondly, that a long staff held by the upper end is the insignium of the Assyrian kings, and that the Persian king represented in a sitting posture upon the monu- ments of Persepolis holds it between his feet ; and thirdly, that the choice of more dignified expressions than the objection- able IvJn p3» (especially so as a declaration concerning an ancestor) were furnished by the language (see xlvi. 26, xxxv. 11, Jer. xxxiii. 26, Ps. cxxxii. 11), on which account the Hebraeo-Samar. writes vbn pan (from his banners), it must be explained: Judah will ever bear the sceptre, and the ruler's staff ever rest between his feet. Ever — for that ver. 10 awards the princely position to Judah, not merely for a period but for ever, is already required by the character of the saying as purely one of blessing. It is not meant that Judah shall bear the sceptre till the new turn of things and then lose it, or as the passage is already explained by Justin, Apol. i. 32, and in the Clementine Horn. iii. 49, and is still explained, e.g. by F. T. Bassett, Grossrau and others, that the Messiah will come at a time when the sceptre has departed from Judah, i.e. when the Jewish people have fallen into subjection to the heathen, which, according to Verbrugge (1730), was definitively ful- filled by the issue of the revolution under Hadrian. In an Advent festival play by Hans Sachs (written Dec. 8, 1730) it is by this saying interpreted in this sense, that the Jewish Eabbi is finally overcome by the Christian doctor. But ny in this blessing cannot possibly be such an exclusive " till" Nor, on the other hand, is there any reason for translating withHitzig {Bihl. Theologie, p. 153), G. Baur and others: "as long as he shall come to Shiloh," for though B' ny (Cant. i. 12) and ^V scq. infin. (Ex. xxxiii. 22, Judg. iii. 26, Jon. iv. 2,
GENESIS XLIX. 10. 3V7
comp. 2 Kings ix. 22) may mean "as long as," yet "3 "ly nowhere expresses limited duration, but the terminus ad quern. Still less do we need, with an ancient MS. in Pinsker (Zur Gesch. des Karaismus, p. sp), to draw iy to what precedes with Athnach instead of Jethih (not ... for ever, for he will come . . . ), but ''3"iy with the impf. following has the same temporal sense as i^>^ IV " until that " (elsewhere followed by Q. perf. of gradative meaning, xxvi. 13, xli. 49, 2 Sam. xxiii. 10, 2 Chron. xxvi. 15), and here denotes the turning-point to which Judah's greatness lasts, not then to cease, but to be enlarged to sovereignty over the peoples, comp. on this use of ^y xxvi. 13, xxviii. 15, Ps. ex. 1, cxii. 8. ew? Matt. v. 18. nnipl is neither equivalent to nipri (LXX, Syr. Yulg.) nor to the Talmudic n'n;? assembly (both Arabic translations), but as
at Prov. XXX. 17, obedience, from '"^i?^ i3^ (for which also
ni?J LS^" "alienee the nom. pers. nj^^, the obedient, the pious) ; here, as at Prov. xxx. 17 with Dagesh dirimens, a connective
form, not of nni?^, but ^'^^^. (^f^j). like nanip the approach and n-i2f3 (parallel nnjpc') the watch, Ps. cxli. 3. n^sy might mean the Israelitish tribes, as at Deut. xxxiii. 3, Hos. x. 14 and frequently. But the leadership of the tribes was already awarded to Judah in 'iji iid"' vh, and the question as to whether he would maintain this with respect to the peoples around was pressing ; hence D^cy will not have the meaning of Deut. xxxiii. 3, but of Deut. xxx. 17. But if the nations of the world are intended, this suggests taking n>''-^ (such is the Masoretic writing, see Frensdorff, Masora magna, p. 322 sq., besides which however npK' and W occur in MSS.) as a name of the Messiah. Jacob has before him in his sons the twelve- tribed nation. A nation however needs a single leader. This suggests taking nb^B> personally. The king of the latter days exalted above the heathen might be meant as at Num. xxiv. 1 5 sqq. ; moreover, the Messianic interpretation of nb^B> has the recommendation of being ancient (Sanhedrin 986).
378 GENESIS XLIX. 10.
But it rests in its traditional form upon an explanation of the word which cannot be accepted. When the Samar. texts write nV^, and Onkelos, Targ. Jer. II. Syr., whom Aphraates, Ephrem, Bar - Hebrteus (see his Scholia published by E. Schroter in DMZ. xxiv.) and Saadia follow, translate : donee veniat Messias cujus est rerjnum, Aquila and Symmachus (comp. Constitut. apost 6. 11) : w uiroKeirai, (whom it is reserved for and belongs to, viz. r} /SaaiXela), Peshitto : is cujus illud (sc. regnum) est, all these proceed upon the assumption that rh^ (the Masor. reading) or rb^ (an ancient variation) is equivalent to i^'=v "iK'K. The translation also of the LXX (Theod.), e&)9 av eXOrj ra airoKeifMeva avrw (continuing; koI auT09 TrpoaBoKLa idvcov), proceeds from the reading <^pf, only it does not directly make the person of the Messiah the subject, on which account Justin, Dial. c. 120, would willingly stamp the (I d'TTOKeiTat, of Aq. and Symm, as the original reading of the Alexandrine translation. Eusebius {Fclog. proph.) rightly explains ew? av KOfiicrrjTat (according to the context, not the Messiah, but Judah through Him) ttjv Kara twv oXcov (3acn\eiav. With nb^C = i^ ^C'^{ agrees the saying of Ezek. xxi. 32, where the utter destruction of the royal crown, which had been so shamefully desecrated in Zedekiah, is predicted vrin;i osrbn i^""it;'S sla-ny, i.e. till He comes to whom the government belongs, and on whom Jahveh bestows it. But this 'h ''\^^, of Ezekiel (LXX w Ka9i]Kei,, strangely without any rendering of DDC'lon) is certainly only such a modification or bending of n^''^' as Jeremiah also frequently allows himself when borrowing older passages of Scripture. For it is im- possible that rb''^ should be equal to bf, and the same must be said of rh'^ also, for, not to mention that nb=i^ cannot be authenticated, t^="'^'^| as the first letter of a proper or quasi- proper name is also unexampled, and w (for which we should at least expect with reference to U3B' or ppno, «<^^ w) cannot of itself mean the same as \b'^ mabonty ^D " he to whom the kingdom is due." Wellhauscn indeed {Gcsch. p. 375)
GENESIS XLIX. 10. 379
manages to help the ^^^ to become a subject by expunging ibl and then translating : till He comes to whom the obedience of the nations is due — this is however no untying, but a cutting in twain of the knot. Stade (Gesch. p. ICO) further enhances still more the violence practised, by the conjecture that ver. 10 is a post-exilic addition. Another ancient view (Targ. Jer. I. Jepheth, Abulw. Kimchi^), which derives nb''^' from b\^, like rih'P from "^'V, and this b\^ from hw=hb^ (whence the Talmudic b'b^, Arab. Jj^L> foetus, young) and npK' (whence i^vti' afterbirth), must, if for nothing else, be rejected because this designation of the Messiah (according to Jos. Kimchi and Dav. Costelli in his II Messia, 1874: of King David) as the son of Judah, would be among all possible designations the most ignoble. Comparatively more attractive is the solution y? ''^ (to whom the consecrated offerings of the nations belong, according to Ps. Ixviii. 29, in the Midrash ZcJcach tob on the passage) and Lagarde's n7t}'=np"'X^" "bis prayed for or longed for one ; " while, on the contrary, Jerome's donee veniat qui mittendus est is a bold quidproquo. There is no need of such byways and ventures for understanding rh''^ of the Messiah. If rh^ is a proper name, it designates the Messiah as the bearer or bringer of rest, and is synonymous with nbptr, which accord- ing to 1 Chron. xxii. 9 is equal to nm3?p ^^\^^ and the Samar. translator of the Pent, into Arabic (Abu-Sa'id) actually trans- lates rh^, ^Uai-;, referring the prediction to Solomon. So too
Donaldson: Habemus vatem Salomoneuvi, sui temporis lauda- torem. Luther explains somewhat differently, and refer- ring to V?' prosperity and welfare, translates : der Helt, as " one who prospers, who freely carries out his plan ; " but the meaning : the peaceful, peaceful kingdom, peacemaker,
1 So too Samuel ben Cliofni in the Arab. Comm. of Israelsohn (Petersburg 1886) on Gen. chs. xli.-l. : TO^^ = <J.1a«J. iijj. (bis son and descendant). This Gaon does not mention the explanation \^^ at all. Paulus Cassel (Afessianische Stellen, 1885) even explains: scion, from nbti' = n?5^.
380 GENESIS XLIX. 10.
certainly a more appropriate name for the Messiah, is a far more obvious one. For at Micah v. 4 He is called Di''^, as at Eph. ii. 14 elprjvq, Isa. ix. 5 Di-'tt>"nb', and at Zech. ix. 9 sq. he comes to Zion as the King of Peace. The ending would then be the same as in the proper names ii^. ^"in nrhp and others, whose oh or 6 is weakened from 6n, and though n?^ cannot be regarded as the verb lying at the root (from which the noun must have been PyK', or if we compare lil""? ti'iD^p "litD""!? ni?''B', "'i7^K'=''ipr'), yet bw, synonymous with npii*, can, and this means to hang down loosely, to be unstrung, to rest, whence '"i^T as a proper name means a quiet, homelike place, inviting to rest (comp. np3 Josh. XV. 51, from p""?), or a peaceable happy person bringing peace and happiness, without our needing to have recourse to Eodiger's expedient, that rh"'^ (LXX Judg. xxi. 12 and frequently Xv^oofi with ^rjXco) is weakened from U\yp. At all events it is a proper name, for a nomen appcll. rhzK with the meaning of rest or place of rest, would be unique as to formation; even nM3X Prov. xxvii. 20 (Chethib), as a name of Hades, being rather a n. pr. than a n. appell. The language has the nouns 'h'^ (not ^b^) nj7K' Dr?f nmjo, with the meaning of rest. To take it as an appellative : till rest comes (Neum. Hofm. Eeuss), or : till he comes to the resting-place, seems with such a store of synonyms inadmissible.
But the rh''^} of our passage is no a-rr. <y€<yp., and the first question of all must be, what n>^ or, as it is everywhere else written, i^^p (i^tJ*) means elsewhere. It is there the name of an Ephraimite town in the country on this side Jordan (hence iy?3 P>;? "^P^ ^W Josh. xxii. 9, xxi. 2, Judg. xxi. 12), the ruins of which are still to be seen, in conformity with the statement Judg. xxi. 19, "on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, on the south of Lebonah (Lubban)." They still bear the name of Sellin {^ikovv in Josh.^), and lie upon a bare height above the village Turmus Aja, which is situate on a plateau enclosed
1 See G. Bottger, Topographisch-hist. Lex. zu Josephus (1879), p. 231.
GENESIS XLIX, 10. 381
on all sides by hills. When the name of this town is used as an accus. of direction, it is said just as here npK' Nn Josh, xviii. 9, 1 Sam. iv. 12, r\h^ N''2n Judg. xxi. 12, 1 Sam. i. 24, rh^ rh^ 1 Sam. iv. 4, rh^ ^^^ 1 Kings xiv. 2, 4. The next thing then surely is to see whether " till he (Judah) comes to Shiloh " gives a meaning agreeable to the context and to history. It has been objected against this geographical com- prehension of n^''^', which has been preferred by Herder and since him by many others, that the name Shiloh did not originate till Joshua's time, and that the place was formerly called '"iJKn (Hgst.), or that n"^^ n^xn^ in the meaning of " meeting at the resting-place," was the full name then given it (Hofm.) ; but the Taanath Shiloh of Josh. vi. 6, in Euseb. and Jer. Thanath {Tlunatli), now Ain Tdnah, is a north- eastern border tov/n of the territory of Ephraim, differing from Shiloh. It was the name of a place already existing, which Jacob made, as he did the names of his sons, an omen of the future. Why should he, who had resided for a period near Shechem, not have known of this mid-Palestinian Shiloh ? At ver. 13 be names i'T'V, and at ch. xlviii. uses the word Q3tJ' district, with an allusion to Shechem, just as he here uses the word rh^ not without consciousness of its meaning of place of rest. But the question is — (1) Did Judah maintain this stated supremacy among the tribes till the twelve-tribed nation assembled at Shiloh ? and (2) Was Shiloh the turning- point from Judah's tribal to his national sovereignty ? With respect to the first question, it is not against an affirmative answer, that, first Moses, a Levite, and then Joshua, an Ephraimite, were the leaders of the people on their march to Canaan — for Moses and Joshua were what they were not by reason of their descent from this or that tribe, but in virtue of the Divine choice personally resting on them ; and the question here is as to the relation of the tribes to each other. Nor is it any contradiction, that Eeuben, Gad and half of Manasseh marched before (*:d^) Israel (Num. xxxii. 17, Deut.
382 GENESIS XLIX. 10.
iii. 18 and frequently) — for they marched before the other tribes, but not at their head. The primacy of the tribe of Judah among the tribes was really that which Jacob pre- dicted. At the first numbering of the people in the wilder- ness of Sinai, Judah appears as the most numerous of all the tribes. Num. i., and at the second in the plains of Moab he had, notwithstanding the judgments meantime inflicted, increased, Num. xxvi. In the order of encampment he is the first tribe of the three, who form the front of the square encamped about the sanctuary, and hence the bearer of the first of the four chief standards. Num. ii. ; and when the signal for starting was given, the three tribes (Judah, Issachar and Zebulun), which together were called the camp of Judah, Avere the first to move. Num. x., comp. ii. 9. Judah also maintained this position during the wars of conquest under .Toshua ; for when the conquered country was divided, it was Judah who in Gilgal received first of all the tribes his hereditary territory, Josh. xv. The camp was then trai>6- ferred to Shiloh in the heart of the country. Here the tribes assembled, Judah at their head ; here the sanctuary was set up and the division of the land completed. This coming to Shiloh undoubtedly forms the boundary between two periods of Israel's history. We only need to read how the assembling of the people at Shiloh is related, Josh, xviii. 1 : " And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there, and the land ivas subdued hefore them" Is not the coming to Shiloh here held up as a deeply cut mark in the history of Israel ? Then was fulfilled what Moses had in his blessing entreated for the tribe of Judah, Deut. xxxiii. 7 : " May Jahveh hear the cry of Judah and bring him home to his people — his hands contended for himself, and thou art his help against his oppressors " (see the Targums and Volck on this passage). The coming to Shiloh, till which Judah had not ceased to stand at the head of the tribes, was the commence-
GENESIS XLIX. 10. 383
ment of the settlement and possession ; n^'^C' became what its name denoted, the resting-place of Israel, comp. Josh. xxi. 42, XX. 4 with xviii. 1.^ The second question is, whether after Judah, the Ti^ (1 Chron. v. 2) of the tribes, had come as a victor to Shiloh the coy nnp"» ih was fulfilled. This too is con- firmed, if only we do not forget that Jacob's prediction, like all prophecy, has regard to the climax of the time following and overlooks the interval which elapses. It is not necessary, in order to regard the prophecy as fulfilled, that the tribe of Judah should, after Shiloh became the head and centre of the tribes, have always maintained and exercised its princely rights; it is sufficient that the time of the Judges shows single fulfilments of the prophecy. Tor when Joshua was dead, the tribe of Judah was called to take the preced- ence in the war against the Canaanites, Judg. i. 1 sc[., and afterwards in the war against Benjamin, Judg. xx. 1 8 ; and when the people submitted to that rule of individual judges imposed upon them by circumstances, it was Othniel, of the tribe of Judah, who was the first of the series, Judg. iii. 9. Besides, did not Judah, after being, during the disorganized period of the Judges, kept back from its dignity as the chief tribe, become the royal tribe of Israel ? Elohim chose not the tribe of Ephraim, as it is said Ps. Ixxviii., but chose the tribe of Judah, the hill of Zion which He loved. David and Solomon, through whom the victorious conflicts and peaceable sway promised to him were gloriously fulfilled, were of the tribe of Judah. What Israel experienced under David and Solomon was not indeed as yet the period of final and unfading glory,
1 Driver, in the Expositor, 1885, vol. vii., and in his exegetical studies on Gen. xlix. 10 in the Cambridge Journal of Philology, vol. xiv., thinks himself obliged to understand 03ti' in its strict meaning of "a royal sceptre" (but comp. Num. xxi. 18), and therefore finally acquiesces in the explanation according to the LXX : till His (Him appointed to Him by promise) shall come (which Briggs also follows in his Messianic Prophecy, 1886). We are thankful for the information, that the explanation quousque veniat Silo of Seb. Munster's translation (1534) and that of Herder, after the precedent of W. G. Teller (1766), are in circulation.
k
384 GENESIS XLIX. IL
But did not the kingship of Jadah, given Him according to promise, become the tree from which Jesus Christ, the pre- dicted Z(3mach, grew ? UpoBrjXoi^ ^ap on i^ ^lovSa avare- TaXKev 6 Kvpio'i rjixoov, Heb. vii. 14. In Him Judah is for ever the Adored, the Victor, the King, the universal Euler. For though it is true that the super-terrestrial existence of the exalted Eedeemer, as such, is one which is also super-national, yet the earthly history, from which He proceeded and rose on high, was not thereby undone. Even in heaven the seer, who was transported thither, was comforted by one of the elders before the throne with the words : Weep not ; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath overcome, Eev. v. 5.
Thus the prophecy has Christ as the goal of its fulfil- ment ; it is Messianic without our needing to understand nb''tr personally. Judah is the subj. of NT, and remains such in ver. 11 sq., which describes the full blessing of Judah 's peaceable possession, when he shall have come to Shiloh: Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washes his raiment in wine and his mantle in the blood of the grape. His eyes dark with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Judah binds without concern (in Judah they bind) the wild foal to a tree bearing good fruit instead of a stake — the fruit- fulness of the land is so great that there is no anxiety to prevent damage. ""Ipi* with the ancient and almost always accented connective sound, stands before a word with a prepos., as at Ex. xv. 6, Ps. cxi. 5, Obad. 3, Isa. xxii. 6, Micah vii. 14, Lara. i. 1, Ps. cxxiii. 1 and frequently, aud ^^^ has the same connective sound as the first member of the
Stat, constr. as at xxxi. 39. Besides laa^ ^^Li, ^^"P? desig- nates a special kind of good wine from the light red colour of its grapes, or rather of their juice. For light red is in Syria and Palestine the colour of the so-called white wine, while the red wine is black vino nero. On the perf. 11& as expressing the abstract present, see Ges. § 126. 3. nhiD is
GENESIS XLIX, 11. 385
contracted from nhllp, from niD to wrap round, not maimed, from nreD3 as the Samaritans read. The connective form i^fj follows the analogy of ^3X Ps. xxxv. 14, Olsh. § 167&. Then — for this is the meaning of these images — begins a time of happy and prosperous peace. The disquietude of battle will then be at an end. Judah rides upon the animal of peace, and the land is full of vines, the seed of peace (Zech. viii. 12), and abounds in wine. The eyes of Judah then no longer flash with eagerness for the battle, but are dimly
dark C^^^pn adj. after the formation '-}r\W, from f'?n, JX^, cli3j»^ to be firm and close, then to be dark (Assyr. ahdlu^))
with wine, and his teeth white with milk, his mouth being full of this childlike and rural nourishment. To understand the two p comparatively : his eyes have a darker fire than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk, gives a trait more adapted to Canticles than to this context. Judah has finished his conflicts, and now enjoys in confident peace the abundance of his land. The territory of Judah was favourable for the culture of the vine (Josh. i. 7 sqq., iv. 18,2 Chron. xxvi. 1 0), especially the hilly district of Hebron and Engedi (Num. xiii. 23 sq.. Cant. i. 14), and not less so for cattle-breeding, especially the excellent pasture land at Carmel and near Tekoa (1 Sam. xxv. 2, Amos i. 2, 2 Chron. xxvi. 10). And such a simple, idyllic, peaceful life was indeed, during the period of the Judges, the happy lot of Judah above all the other tribes. In the times of David and Solomon all Israel shared in the prosperity of Judah, 1 Kings v. 5. But with Solomon it came to an end. The Ephraimite Shiloh was not yet the turning-point to true and lasting prosperity. Hence vv. 10, 11 are also eschatologic. The promise of peace bestowed upon Judah, was first fulfilled in Him who entered rejoicing Zion riding upon an ass and spake peace to the nations, and not perfectly and enduringly in Him, till not only
^ See Friedr. Delitzsch in Zimmern, Bdbyl. Busspsal. p. 115. VOL. II. 2 B
386 GENESIS XLIX. 13.
He Himself, in whom the history of Jiidah is recapitulated, shall have entered into the KaTuTravaa of the other world, but shall also have fetched His Church into that KardiravaLf of the other world, which is the heavenly counterpart of the n^^y' of this world and of the full enjoyment of earthly peace. The prophecy sounds as if it were national, temporal, earthly ; but viewed in the history of its fulfilment, it discloses relations and facts of a spiritual, eternal and heavenly nature.
If the succession of birth were observed, Dan and Naphtali, the two sons of Bilhah, and then Gad and Asher, the two sons of Zilpah, should follow Judah. Instead of this, the four already named sons of Leah (Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah) are followed by her two other sons, and in such- wise that, as in the blessing of Moses, the sixth, Zebulun, precedes the fifth, Issachar. The blessing pronounced upon Zebulun, ver. 1 3 : Zebulun — near to the coast of the sea shall he dwell, yea he, near to the coast of the ships, and his side leans on Sidon. The Kini occurring three times in ch. xlix. is justified at ver. 19, and to a certain extent at ver. 20, by the contrast ; here it is only a corroborative idemque ; this rather pleonastic than emphatic use of the personal pronoun recalls tlie style of Hosea. The territory of Zebulun at its western extension never directly reached the Mediterranean (see Josh, xix. 10-16), nor did that of Asher to whom the Q''I3^ Pjinp Judg. V. 17 is, in accordance with Josh. xix. 20, transferred. It was shut in on the north in the direction towards Sidon and on the west towards the Mediterranean by Asher. Thus the fulfilment did not come up to either the wish or the prophecy, as e.g. Acco and Sidon also, which were allotted to the tribe of Asher, remained in the possession of the Canaanites, Judg. i. 13, Josh. xix. 28. Besides hv the reading ny (Targ. Jer. Samar. and Codices) is also found. The plur. D'?! does not refer to the western sea and to the sea of Kinnereth, but means (comp. Gen. i. 10) the main sea, as is evident from
GENESIS XLIX. 14, 15. 387
Judg. V. 15. In what sense Ins position with respect to the main sea is a blessing to Zebulun is indicated in n>;^{ fiin. It is through his nearness to the sea that he becomes a pro- sperous tribe, rejoicing in the blessings of marine commerce ; a tribe which, as Deut. xxxiii, 19 says of him and of his neighbouring brother Issachar, sucks the accumulated abund- ance of the seas and the hidden treasures, which are carried from the sandy coast into the interior.
Zebulun is followed by his elder brother. The saying concerning Issachar, ver. 14 : Issachar is a hony ass, stretching himself between the sheepfolds. Geiger's conjecture D"}ji "il^^n (an ass of burden of foreigners), approved by Schroter and Olsh., does not give the meaning put upon it, for which we should on the contrary have expected instead of onj, Dnt or D^"iD3 ; nor is it true that D"?.?. "iion means an emaciated ass, the expression points to a strong-boned ass. D^nsK'sn, the square sheepfold, is an image of the country within which Issachar, contented with material advantages and enjoyments, and indifferent to the honours of victory and independence, quietly employs and takes care of himself, ver. 1 5 : He saw rest that it was good and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to the burden and became a serving task-worJccr. Instead of the neutral niD (good, or : a good) the Samar. needlessly corrects naic. The phrase " to become '^^V'Otp," i.e. a serving (task-working) tributary, is found also in historic prose. Josh. xvi. 10, 1 Kings ix. 21. The bright side of the saying is, that Issachar will become a robust and hardy race, and receive a pleasant country, inviting to comfortable repose (according to Josh. Bell. iii. 3. 2 also, top Tjicia-a yi]<i (jiiXoirovov, the attractive Lower Galilee with the lovely and fertile plain of Jezre'el) (the Midrash understands by D^yj, Nain in the west of the so-called Lesser Hermon). The dark side, that he is no freedom-loving fc^^3, but a willingly labouring "^i^^], who, through his tendency to gain and comfort, will rather submit to the yoke of foreign sway, than risk his
388 GENESIS XLIX. 16, 17.
profits and possessions by warlike efforts.^ Eitter finds here described the occupation of the nomadic tribes in the neigh- bourhood of Phoenicia, who furnished the Phoenicians with their caravan horses, and were their carriers ; for the territory of Issachar, to which belonged the great plain of Jezre'el towards Beisan, lay on the high caravan road between Phoenicia and the Jordan, leading to Arabia and Damascus {Erdkunde, xvi. 19). At all events the yoke upon the neck (Isa. X. 27) is no blessing, and t?'y Dp? n\n to be bound to villeinage, to be, as it were, taxable in labour, does not become Israel, the nation called to free dominion, 1 Kings ix. 22, comp, Prov. xii. 24, but the Canaanites, upon whom was inflicted the curse of bondage, Josh. xvi. 10, 1 Kings ix. 20 sq., and the enemies of Israel in general, so far as they are not utterly extirpated, Deut. xx. 11.
After the six sons of Leah comes the turn of the sons of the handmaid, whose sons were born before Kachel's own sons, and first of Dan whose nomcn Jacob makes an ovien of his future, ver. 1 6 : Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. By '^^V is meant Israel, as at Deut. xxxiii. 7, he will defend this as an independent tribe, without being lost among the other tribes ; on the contrary, he will stand up with them for the rights and honour of the nation notwithstanding his smallness, for what he lacks in power he will compensate for by stratagem, ver. 1 7 : Dan is a serpent in the way and a horned snake in the path, which hites the necks of the horse, and he that rideth it falleth backwards. The i of pB*! is, as fre- quently, consecutive without being conversive. i^ph can scarcely mean the carriage driver (L. Geiger), but in its direct
^ The war-ass indeed stands in Arabic (t_..?.j:SlJ\ jL4,r»- DMZ. xxxvi. 272)
on a level with the war-horse, so that not only the notion of endurance but also
that of eagerness for battle is combined, e.g. in the surname ij l^\j^ il<«>>-
" the ass of Mesopotamia," borne by the Chalif Merwan II. {DMZ. xxxiv. 735). On the other hand, the stupidity of the ass is proverbial in the East also [DMZ. xl. 266 sq.).
GENESIS XLIX. 18. 389
reference to did, as also at Ex. xv. 1, the rider eqiio vehentem. jb'-aK' (from f[Q^ to rub the ground, to creep) is according to Jerome cerastes (K€pdcrTT]<i), i.e. the horned viper. This viper has the brownish yellow colour of the sand, from which it protrudes its knot-like antennae, and inflicts its deadly bite on any one treading on it unawares (Diod. 2. 49, 20. 42, Plin. 8. 23, Solinus, p. 136, ed. Mommsen) ; it is called in
Arabic ^JLo (the horned) or (according to Curt Vogel in Vom Fels zum Meer, 1881, November) _lil Leffdh (the striker,
i.e. biter). The territory of Dan lay between Judah and Ephraim, and only attained in some degree its requisite size by the relinquishment of some of their cities by these two tribes. Dan was nevertheless an independent tribe like any other, and held his own against Canaanites and Philistines, with whom he was by his bold craftiness involved in constant strife. This trait of character in Dan shows itself in the expedition described ch. xviii., and reaches its climax in the romantic chivalry of Samson. The patriarch, beholding the nation that descends from him imperilled by obstinate conflict with the nations of the world, and the future salvation threatened together with it, looks up in prayer to Jahveh, ver. 18: / hope for Thy salvation, Jahveh ! The name of Jahveh does not exclude the possibility of Jacob's blessing being derived from Q or E. Jacob's end is indeed the threshold of the Mosaic period, the sign manual of which is this name. In no case is ver. 18 a heterogeneous insertion (J. D. Mich. Vatke). It is just the prophetic glance of the seer at the history of the tribe of Dan, which he beholds involved in obstinate and enduring conflict with the Philistines, so far his superiors in numbers and military power, which is changed into an upward glance to the God of salvation. The meaning of nin^ TT'ip "[TW'W'b cannot well be better developed than in the Jer. Targum : " Yet not to the redemption wrought by Gideon, the son of Joash, does my soul look, for it is temporal; not
390 GENESIS XLIX. 19, 20.
to the redemption wrought by Samson, the son of Mauoah, is my longing directed, for it is transitory ; but to the redemption which Thou hast promised to bring to Thy people, the seed of Israel, through Thy word. To Thy redemption, 0 Jahveh, to the redemption of the Messiah, the Son of David, who will one day redeem Israel and bring him back from exile, to that redemption is my sight and my desire directed, for Thy redemption is an everlasting redemption." The patriarch expects the full and final redemption of Israel from all hostile powers, not from man, but from an act of Jahveh Himself.
Then having, as it were, obtained from Jahveh's fulness new power and matter for blessing, he turns to Gad, his first son by Zilpah, ver. 1 9 : Gad — a warlike throng shall press iipo7i him, and he shall press upon their heel. The verb ma (nij), with which the name "(3 is here brought into combination, means to cut into, to press upon, to attack in a hostile manner (with an ace following as at Hab. iii. 16, or ^V as at Ps. xliv. 21). Gad had to dwell beyond Jordan and there to endure much from the Ammonites, half of whose territory was taken possession of by him (Josh. xiii. 24-28), and from the marauding desert tribes in general, but faithful to
his name he will victoriously resist their raids (lu\}z), put- ting the hostile troop to flight, following on their heels and slaying the fugitives. Saying concerning Asher, Jacob's second son by Zilpah, ver. 20 : From Asher comes fat, his bread, and he yields royal dainties. To understand " from Asher (i.e. as to what comes from Asher) — his bread is fat " is forced ; i^nf? is in apposition to napt' : fat, fat food as his daily nourishment. But all these sayings begin with the mere name of the person to be blessed ; and we must, with Scheid, Bleek, Kn. Olsh. take over the » of lU'xa to npy (Q^pj; their, the oppressors' heels), so that the saying may begin more smoothly: Asher — fat is his bread. On Nini see on ver. 13. The pro- duce of his soil is so abundant, that besides feeding on the
GENESIS XLIX. 21. 391
fat himself, he furnishes kings with the dainties of their tables. ^}^^ is meant to recall I^^', according to Deut. xxxiii. 24, Asher dips his foot in oil. His territory in the low lands of Carmel along the coast of the Mediterranean (Judg, V. 17) up to the more mountainous districts of Sidon, was one of the most fertile of lands, and yielded excellent corn, wine and oil. Saying concerning Naphtali, Jacob's second son by Bilhah, ver. 21 : Naphtali is a hind let loose, one wJio is the hringer forth of goodly words. Two things are here allotted to Naphtali : unrestrained agility of movement and the gift of refined and agreeable speech. The former alludes to the independent possession of a mountainous district, in which he ranges unfettered, and the latter marks him as the poetic and eloquent tribe of Israel ; of this however no evidence can be produced except that the song of Deborah, Judg. v., is introduced as the song of Deborah and of Barak the Naphtalite — by the commendation " Naphtali upon the high places of the field," ver. 18, it enters into relation with the blessing of Jacob, nmrj' n>si means a hind let loose, left to itself (comp. niTj? Deut. xxxii. 36), roaming about at will; the point of comparison is not, as in the image of the gazelle 2 Sam. ii. 18, 1 Chron. xii. 8, swiftness, but as at Hab. iii. 19, the happy state of freedom. Hence ancient translators (Targ. III. Syr. Saad. Pers.) have incorrectly allowed them- selves to be led by nni^K' to the notion of a messenger, and to make the image represent Naphtali's successful qualifica- tion for the vocation of a messenger. The LXX reads differ- ently and translates : w<? o-reXe^os dvet/jbevov, eVtStSoi'? iv toJ ryevvrjfxari koXKo^, i.e. like a tall stem supplying beauty in the fruit. It cannot be certainly determined upon what wording of the text this is founded : o-reXep^o? seems to be a general- izing rendering of n^"'N (although this is translated T€pe(3tvdo<i XXXV. 4 and orTeXe;!^o9 is more closely defined Job xxix. 18 : oxjirep crreXe^o? (f3oiviKO<;), and eV tw yevvrj/xari points rather to nD3 than to "'"^.P^ (Wipfel). In no case can o-TeXe^o'i
392 GENESIS XLIX. 22.
aveifiivov mean virguUum resolutum (Jer.) or truncus ex quo virgidia {^Xaa-rrj^aTO) 'prodeunt (Schleusner), but ou the contrary stirps procera (from avievat, to cause to grow). Hence Bochart, Lowtb, Herder, Ew. Olsh. Dillm. read and trans- late : Naphtali is a slender terebinth, one who bears a pleasant crown ; for Naphtali's territory — as Hofraann explains the image — rises from the Lake of Gennesareth to Mount Lebanon ; the roots of the terebinth rest by the lake, pleasant cities are the branches which it casts forth, and Mount Lebanon, to which it extends like an arch, is its crown. The Masoretic text however has the testimony of Targums and the Samar. in its favour ; besides, with this figure we should expect ^}iT}^'^, and moreover ni?K^ in the meaning of stretched, slender, is uncorroborated and linguistically improbable.
The sayings concerning the sons of the handmaids close with Naphtali. They began with Bilhah's son Dan and terminate with her son Naphtali, Zilpah's two sons. Gad and Asher, standing between them. Eachel's own sons, Joseph, born in Aramaea, and Benjamin, born on the way to Ephrath, form the conclusion (xlviii. 7). Joseph is the deliverer, the stay, the pride of his family ; it has really come to pass that the sun, moon and stars, i.e. his father, mother and brethren, bow down before him ; the blessing pronounced upon him flows from the fulness of grateful love, and is therefore the most comprehensive of all, vv. 22-26. The image, with which it begins, is perhaps occasioned by the name Q'lf^, ver. 2 2 : The son of a fruit-tree is Joseph, the son of a fruit-tree hj a fountain, wlwse branches run upon the wall, or if we esteem the chief point of the comparison to be not support and shelter by means of a prop, but productive power and eleva- tion : over the wall. Both " up " and " over " are implied in 7J(. The absence of Makkeph cannot be the reason that iji and |3 are pointed with Tsere, for the word with Mahpaeh, e.g. at xvii. 17, is equally pointed 13 without Makkeph; the point- ing takes |3 as a plur., ni:3 branch, as fem., and JTja=n"iQ (with
GENESIS XLIX. 23, 24. 393
dtK for ath as in rib>y Lev. xxv. 21, nn^r and the like) as an adj. to it (Targ. Eashbam : a growing son, Eashi : a noble son), which is linguistically impossible. The connection is genitival (hence n"j3")n), son of a fruit-tree ( = ns-ib, Isa. xvii. 6, of the olive tree, usually of the vine). In India also daughters and branches are interchangeable words (Eoberts, Oriental Illustrations, p. 55). Aeschylus, Oed. Col. 701, calls the olive tree TraiBoTpocpo'i with respect to its fruits. The sing. •^7^]? comprises in a whole the branches, which are compared to daughters (comp. Zech. vi, 14, John i. 20). We can hardly entertain the notion that nic^ is in some way con- nected with "liB' a bullock, the emblem, according to Deut. xxxiii. 17, of Joseph {DMZ. xxiv. 539, see Volck, Segen Mosc's, on this passage). On the other hand, Ps. Ixxx. 16 is not out of relation ; for Ps. Ixxx. is, as it were, a commentary on the comparison of Joseph to a young vine. Who is to be understood by the nVa the fruit-tree, whether Eachel or Jacob or all Israel, is not the question ; me p is a per- ceptibly indivisible image. Luth. translates : Die Tochter treitcn ein her im Regiment (of the daughter cities of the two tribes of Joseph), which, even if it were i^ib' instead of nicr, would be linguistically impossible. What now follows is no retrospect to the past experiences of Joseph, the warlike imagery being inappropriate to express Joseph's victory over the persecutions he endured both at home and in Egypt. The historical tenses express something future, which is present to the mind of the patriarch as an accomplished fact, vv. 23, 24: The archers sorely pursue him and shoot at him, and make war upon him. But his how remains in finnness and the arms of his hands move nimhly hy the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from thence, tJie shepherd, the stone of Israel. The LXX, Sam. translate l^'^J from y\ to make war, but ^3ni from 3a"i, a VV mid. 0. like nt Isa. i. 6, and ^sh Job xxiv. 24, Ges. § 67, note 1, is more significant. ]^''^^ is equivalent to in'N Dippa at a place of firmness, from which he Deither
394 GENESIS XLIX. 23, 24.
swerves nor falls. f]3 is the same as the Arab, jj to be
nimble, active. His arms are called the " arms of his hands," as ruling his hands and imparting to them elasticity and energy (comp. Ps. xliv. 3). Luther already remarks on vi'S CJfn : hos vivos sagittarum intelligo non tribum Juda, ut alii volunt (the Midrash understands it, according to Ps. cxx. 3, of his slanderous brethren) sed Syros, qui vehementer afflixerunt hoc regnum et fuerunt insignes sagittarii ; we have indeed to think chiefly, but not exclusively, of the Syrians. In 1^3X n;p 'iJl Dpi?";, '•T'D is inconvenient. Olsh. approves of Lagarde's con- jecture ^nty'D. As the words stand, the p of n^o designates the cause or source of this invincible defence : from the hands of the 3py^ T^N (a Divine name occurring also in Isa. and Ps. cxxxii.), these hands strengthening and supporting his (Joseph's) hands. The terms that follow are permutative: from thence (Dtpp, i.e. from God, like DK' Eccles. iii. 17, with God, hence, according to the meaning, dvcoOev) : the shepherd (xlviii. 15, comp. the echo of this Ps. Ixxx. 1), the stone (p^, as elsewhere "I'lV : the immoveable foundation and protection) of Israel. The Syr. reads Dt^, according to which Oettli ^ proposes : bir\\i^\ T-^s nyn DK'p, but this DK'P (from the name = the disclosed fulness of strength) is without analogy, and bsib'^ }3K as a bold variation leaning on hiO\i^ ")iv (2 Sam. xxiii. 3, comp. Isa. viii. 14) must be esteemed possible. Luther translates : aus jenen (the Josephite tribes) sind komcn Hirten und Steine in Israel, i.e. great rulers and prophets. But the rulers of a people are called shields, pillars and the like, not stones. The moderns see in spy ins, which they translate the " ox of Jacob," an after influence of the ancient Semitic worship of the ox, as in biTib?'' pS of the ancient Semitic ■worship of stone fetishes or baetylia, but the appellations are in no need of such intervention by the history of religious. Ancient Jewish explanations already attempt to make bir\tr> px
1 Theol. Zeilschr. aus d. Schweiz von Fiiedr. Weili, 1885, p. 147 sqq.
GENESIS XLIX. 25, 26. 395
dependent as an obj. on nyi ; so does Dillniann, who, reading nj?'-i, explains with Herd. Ew. : Shepherd of the stone of Israel, which would be equivalent to the God of Bethel — very- improbable, since ''ly^ ought in this sense to stand instead of the misleading nj?*-i. The blessing now turns from the descriptive to the supplicatory tone, the p, referring to the cause in the former sentence, still at first continuing, ver. 25 :
By the God of thy fathei may He help thee — and with Shaddai
— may He bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep couching beneath, blessings of the breast and of the ivomb. It is unnecessary, either with Ew. § Sola, Dillm. and others, to alter, according to the LXX, Syr. Sam. Vulg., the nxi, used as at iv. 1, v. 24, into b^], or, with Kn., into rixp, or to take it under the after influence of the IP (comp. Isa. xlviii. 9, 14, xlix. 7, and perhaps liii. 8) in the sense of nxpi ; for " by the God of thy father " and "with Shaddai" (used instead of '^^ bx only again in the Pent, in the sayings of Balaam) continues the thought of whence and in whose fellowship the bow and arms of Joseph would be so invincibly strong ; "imn'^l is developed in the ace. which follows (comp. ver. 28). The combination ^VD n]K)f is like xxvii. 39, Ps. 1. 4. Eain and dew from above, springs and moisture from beneath, shall shed their fertilizing powers on Joseph's territory, and his cattle shall never fail in productiveness and abundance of milk. It is superabundance which Jacob desires for Joseph, ver. 2 6 : The blessings of thy father tower above the blessings of my parents even to the boundary of the everlasting hills, may they come %ipon the head of Joseph and upon the crown of the illustri- ous among his brethren. The LXX already combines ny *"i"in, and the Sam. translates ^V^^ t^^^ (^VD nio=ny nn) ; a varying translation of Targ. III. combines parents and hills in '^'wr\ (" above the blessings with which Abraham and Isaac, who were like the hills fc^Jl^t^p r?''rip'n, were blessed ") ; and Eashbam, like S. J. Eapoport (on Ereund's Hiilfsbuch, 1866), takes '^in as a collective plural like '"lin^ '?^ti'n in the
396 GENESIS XLIX. 26.
meaning hills. Since however hor appears elsewhere only in proper names as a dialectic form, we must adopt the view that ^ijn is either softened or miswritten from ''^!'n (as perhaps n^C' Ps. xcii. 12 is from ''I'l^)- That ny mn is meant for " everlasting hills " (Ges. Win. Tuch, Kn. Dillm. and others) is certainly, as supported by Deut. xxxiii. 15, corap. Hab. iii. 6, very probable. In the text as we have it Q''li'i means parentes, in which sense it is common in post-biblical and also in biblical Hebrew, as niin mother (Cant. iii. 4, Hos. ii. 7) shows (comp. Arab, ummdni, probably both mothers = parents) ; and ^)^'^, which elsewhere means concupiscentia (from nis), may be taken in the sense of terminus (from nis Num, xxxiv, 10 := nxn Num. xxxiv. 7 sq., nin 1 Sam. xxi. 14, Ezek. ix. 4). According to this traditional text, the patriarch intends to say, that he so far surpasses the blessings bestowed on him by his parents, in his blessings of Joseph, that the latter tower above the former like the highest summits of the everlasting hills — but wherein did this superabundance con- sist ? Here the answer is wanting. But if we read ny mn, mxn deprived of the prep, ny will now mean not the boundary mark, but as the parallel word to nbia, will (without our needing, with Olsh., to correct it to the equally plural nisnn) mean the charm, i.e. the charming endowment " of the ever- lasting hills " with all that is beautiful, enjoyable and useful, a meaning confirmed by Deut. xxxiii. 15 (Wiy niyai '^^^P''), and the sense will be, that the blessings which Jacob inherited far exceeded the bestowal of an elevated and excellent hill- country, which is also confirmed by xxvii. 27-29. Reuss rif^htly says : La Mnddidion morale die patriarche vaut encore mieux que la h6n6diction materielle de la nature. In this view ^133 is understood historically, while in the Masoretic reading he who blesses would mean that he is now grasping at a blessing beyond what he himself received. Thus, however we explain it, the blessings implored upon the head of Joseph, on the crown of the i'?? among his brethren, are
GENESIS XLIX. 27. 397
superabundant. ^i^\> and not tJ'S<'"i3 is purposely said, because ti'xia (or B'KT^J/) is the usual expression for the coming down of a curse upon the head of some one, and ^'itrh for the coming down of a blessing (Deut. xxxiii. 16, Prov. x. 6,
xi. 26). "iVJ means separated (from 1I3, ,jj), and the ques- tion is, whether Joseph is here and at Deut. xxxiii. 16 said to separate from his brethren (Onk. Pers. Gr.-Ven.) on account of his chastity and self-denial, and thus a Nazir in the moral sense (Jer. Saad. Ar.-Sam. Luth.), or on account of his acquired power and elevation in Egypt, and thus as a dedicated one = prince (Targ. II. and III. LXX), unless the word in this sense is perhaps combined with 1T3 diadem (Sam. Syr. Arnheim). As the transference of this word to the moral region in general is not to be proved, ina desig- nates Joseph as elevated to princely rank, and as by means of Ephraim and Manasseh the inheritor of this precedence in power and dignity.
After this long saying concerning the blessing of Joseph, in which grateful affection struggles for utterance, follows all the more briefly the saying concerning Benjamin, Joseph's own brother and the second son of Eachel, ver. 27 : Benjamin — a wolf that tears, in the morning he devours the prey and in the evening he divides the spoil. The comparison with the raven- ing wolf has apparently a touch of moral criticism, as that of Issachar with the bony ass has a touch of irony. The LXX translates XiKo^: apira^; but ^19 does not properly mean rapere, but carpere, and according to the context decerpere (viii. 11) or discerpere (xxxvii. 33). S]-id ?rx Num. xxxiii. 24 may be also said instead of IV ^3N, for what has been torn or is being torn (bitten) is called ^'}}^. The Fathers (since Tertullian) have dreamt in a contrast between 27a and 275, but morning and evening together give the notion of incessant victorious spoiling. What a warlike tribe Benjamin became is shown in the time of the Judges by his participation in the contest
398 GENESIS XLIX. 28.
for freedom under Deborah, Judg. v. 14, and by his war with all the other tribes, waged indeed in an unrighteous cause, Judg, ch. xx, sq. Ehud the judge may also be regarded as an example of the warlike character of this small tribe, but above all King Saul, who everywhere appears surrounded by his brave and armed tnbe (1 Chron. viii. 40, xii. 2, comp. 2 Chron. xiv, 7, xvii. 17) and accompanied by his heroic son Jonathan, and whose victorious deeds had in the history of Israel the significance of a pioneer's.
All these are the tribes of Israel, says ver. 2 8 retrospectively, tv^elve, and this is what their father spoke unto them and blessed them, each with what was conformable with his blessing he blessed them. The interpunctuation of 28a is correct, "^^V CJB' is brought in afterwards, "together twelve." In 28Z> the circum- stantial expression " with what was conformable with his bless- ing" appears strange, perhaps ik'n is corrupted from b^'-n (Olsh.) : man by man according to his blessing (that appertaining to him), compare the erroneous i^'x corrected in the Kert, 2 Sam. xxiii. 21, Num. xxi. 30. This closing verse is in the style of Q (comp. i. 27, Num. i. 44). That it excludes Q as the narrator of the twelve sayings (Kn. Dillm.) is without founda- tion— the retrospect assumes that the sayings concerning Eeuben, Simeon and Levi conceal blessings behind the form of curses. There are twelve tribes, not thirteen, for the double tribe of Joseph is reckoned as one, as at Deut. xxvii. 12, comp. xxxiii. 13. More frequently however, e.g. Num. ch. i. sq., xiii., Ezek. xlvii. 13, xlviii. 4 sq., Ephraim and Manasseh are counted as two tribes, and the number twelve maintained, by the tribe of Levi, which as the priestly tribe was scattered among all the rest without separate territory, solid unity, or political importance, being left unmentioned and unrepresented. There are however other computations which seem strange. In the blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxiii., Simeon is passed over, and the number twelve made up by the double tribe of Joseph counting as two and Levi being
GENESIS XLIX. 29-33. 399
expressly reckoned. And in the prophecy of Ahijah, 1 Kings eh. xi., where the one tribe which is left to the house of David is the tribe of Judah, the ten tribes are thus made up, Levi is left out of consideration, and Benjamin, which partly by territory and entirely by inclination belonged to the northern kingdom, is added (Kohler, Gcsch. ii. 457) to Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Asher, Gad, Keuben and Dan ; the tribe of Simeon, which never had a settled territory and remained without political independence, being left out of the computation. The number twelve in like manner results in the Apocalypse ch. vii., but here Simeon is specified, and on the other hand Dan is enigmatically passed over. Everywhere twelve remains undiminished and unexceeded as the sign manual of the covenant people.
Jacob's last request and his departure, vv. 29-33 : And he charged them, and said to them : I shall soon he gathered to my people, hury me with my fathers in the cave ivhich is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, which is in front of Mamre in the land of Canaan, vjhich Abraham bought together with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying -place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah Ms wife, there they buried Isaac and Bebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. — The field bought and the cave therein from the sons of Heth. And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and departed, and was gathered to his people. The sentence 'iJI n:j^ IK'S, in which nnl'nTix is antecedently intended, is defended from the suspicion of being a gloss by 1. 12 where it is repeated; but ver. 32, which joins with nothing, is a marginal note in explanation of "the cave with the field" 30b which has been admitted into the text ; it shows at the same time that all the three istk in ver. 30 are meant to refer to the cave. It is here expressly said that Isaac, Eebekah and Leah had been buried in the cave of Macphelah. He nmst renounce lying near Kachel, because the neighbourhood of her grave was still
400 GENESIS L. 1-3.
ill the hands of the Canaauites. His drawing his feet into the bed refers back to xlviii. 2, although his sitting up, a;i there mentioned, need not necessarily be conceived as con- tinuing beyond xlix. 1. On I'^V"''^ ^DX'!i see on xxv. 8. He died in full consciousness, without a struggle, comforted by the hope of the salvation of Jahveh, willingly passing into another world to join his fellow-ancestors of that people for whom he knows this salvation of Jahveh was intended, and hiding in him his personality, as that of which he could not be deprived. It is intentionally that the brief Don is omitted, the last moments of the ancestor of Israel are kept back as long as possible, the reader is to see and feel that he departs from this world in a manner consistent with his piety and dignity. We already know from xlvii. 28 the length of his life in this world.
THE BURIAL OF JACOB AND DEATH OF JOSEPH, CH. L.
It is evident from the junction of 12 sq. with xlix. 29 sqq. (Q) and of ver. 4 ('i:i1 13T1)-11 with xlvii. 29 sqq. (J'),as well as from the similar kind of statement in vv. 19, 23 and xxx. 2 sq. (B), that E has here brought together the three main sources, but no certain separation into J and U can be carried out, especially since judgment is divided as to xxxiii. 18-20, and the use of the Divine name here (comp. the introd. to ch. xlv.) affords no support In the closing portion too, ver. 1 5 sqq., which is by general acknowledgment traced to F, much is also found which is Jahvistico-Deuteronomic, and which we could not set to the account of B.
Joseph with the corpse of his father, ver. 1 : Aiid Joseph fell upon his fathers face, and wept upon him and hissed him. Thus was fulfilled tlie promise, xlvi. 4. The embalming, vv. 2, 3 : And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to emhalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days ivere passed thereat, for so long is the time of
GENESIS L. 4-6. 401
embalming accustomed to last, and the Egyptians mourned for liim seventy days. The physicians (LXX evTa(f)iaa-Tai = rapt^aral) are called Joseph's W'ilV, not because they belonged to a caste subordinate to him, the priest (for a caste of physicians was probably first found under Psammetichus), but because physicians in his private service are intended; moreover it was the subordinate priestly class of the pastophori (Egypt, the Kolchyti) who, being according to Clem. Alex, in possession of the last six (medical) of the forty-two so- called Hermetic books, performed the embalming and burial of corpses and the worship of the dead in the grave chapels. These executed the embalming (Q''P.?n) in the customary forty days, and the Egyptians mourned for the dead seventy days (these forty included). Diodor. i. 91 reckons more than forty days for embalming (another reading is thirty) ; Herodot. ii. 86, 88 exactly seventy; the shortest delay, if the greatest possible haste was made, would have been forty. The corpse was opened by an incision in the side, the intestines and the brain were taken out and separately preserved in vessels (canopi). The drying (mummyizing ^) of the body was pro- moted by the insertion of bituminous material, it was wrapped in numerous bandages and layers of byssus or linen, and, after remaining seventy days in the house of those to whom it belonged, was enclosed in a coffin and buried.
Pharaoh's permission to bury the dead out of the country obtained, vv. 4-6 : When the days of mourning for him were passed, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh saying : If I have found grace in your eyes, syeak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh sagging : My father made me swear, saying : Behold, I die — in my grave which 1 have digged for myself in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou hury me. And now I would go up and hury my father and reticni again. And Pharaoh said :
1 The word " mummy," in use since the thirteenth century, is derived from the Persian mUm, wax, and travelled back to the Persian in the foreign form mUmia = f/sv/jiia as the name of a medical remedy.
VOL. II. 2 c
402 GENESIS L. 7-11.
Go up and lury thy father as he made thee swear. The form n'^2. (with niD2 XXXV. 8) is like r\>2f Num. xxi. 29. Joseph does not himself go at once to Pharaoh, but, desiring to go out of the country with all his family and a great retinue, he first seeks, for the sake of avoiding malicious insinuations, to dispose Pharaoh's surroundings to favour his request. Besides, etiquette forbade him, a mourner (and therefore unshorn and unadorned), to appear in his own person before the king. That Joseph makes his father describe the grave in which he desired to be buried as prepared by himself, is an abbreviation suited to the brevity of the communication. The verb ma means to dig, and according to Deut. ii. 6, also to bury, whence the Syr. tis:>\ translates {emi), but a grave being spoken of " I digged " (LXX, Targ. Jer. Jerome, Gr. Ven.) is according to the custom of the language the more obvious, and is confirmed by 2 Chron. xvi. 14. The king and the court did not need to be acquainted with details, and Onk. correctly renders the word by n^priN (I have prepared), which is what is meant. The escort and mourning solemnity, vv. 7-1 1 : Then Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went iLp all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his hoiise and all the elders of the land of Egypt. And the ivhole house of Joseph and his brethren and the house of his father, only their little ones and their flocks and herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and the host teas a very imposing one. When they were come to the threshing-floor of Atad, tvhich is bexjond Jordan, they made there a great and very imposing mourning solemnity, and hi ordered a mourning of seven days for his father. And when the inJiabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the threshing-floor of Atad, they said : This is a great mourn- ing of the Egyptians, therefore they called the name of it Abel- Mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. The principal courtiers and state officials journeyed with him, to show the last respect to the father of the chief ruler of Egypt Q??] is here a name
GENESIS L. 7-11. 403
of dignity, as at xxiv. 2), Chariots and horsemen (comp. Ex. xiv. 9, XV. 19, and above on xii. 16) enhanced the pomp and served as escort. It was a very great, i.e. imposing n^riD, They took the indirect route through the wilderness round the Dead Sea, because they desired, without touching upon PhOistia and Idumea, to shorten as much as possible tlie passage through foreign and mistrustful states. They halted in Goren-Atad ('^^^5 a thorn pdfivo<i, as Dioscorides explains it, and pa gathering-place, viz, of the corn for threshing) beyond Jordan, and Joseph there ordered a seven days' mourning for his father. The place was afterwards called, in allusion, as the narrator thinks, to this mourning p?^) of the Egyptians, Dnvp b^S, the plain of the Egyptians. V. Eaumer, Ritter, Kn. and others are indeed of opinion that this Goren-Atad is said to have lain n"i*n nnyn from the point of view of the funeral procession, and so on the west side of Jordan, as required by the statement of Jerome : Ai-ea Atad locus trans Jordanem, in quo planxerunt quondam Jacob, tertio ah Hierico lapide, duohus milihus ah Jordane, qui nunc xocatur Betagla, quod interpretatur locus gyri, eo quod ihi more plangentium cir- cumierint in funere Jacob. The trans Jordanem here can only be a quotation from this passage, for the distance stated points to the western side, where was the ancient n7jn-n^3, situate on the southern boundary of Benjamin toward Judah, whose position has been ascertained by the discovery of the well and castle of Hagla ^ of a league south-east of Jericho and 1^ leagues from the Dead Sea. Not equally certain however is the identity asserted by Jerome of Area Atad and Betagla (npjn-n''3) in his possible indeed, but in this instance far-fetched interpretation of ni^jn (which means partridge), by gyrus (circular motion). This might be reconcilable with ver. 10, where p"i\T "layn may proceed from the view -point of the funeral procession, but not with ver. 11, according to which piM "layn IK'S DnvD isas, tlie plain of Egypt on the other side of Jordan, became
404 GENESIS L. 12-15.
the usual name of the locality (i^l?^ i?~''y, as at xxxiii. 17). Hence we must regard Goren Atad or Abel Mizraim as some place unknown on the east of Jordan, to which the attention of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the country (on this side), which was the goal of the journey, was attracted by the unusual mourning solemnity performed by so many dis- tinguished foreigners. Conclusion of the funeral journey from Q, vv. 12, 13 : And his sons did to liim as he had com- manded them, and his sons brought him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought together with the field for a possession of a hurying-'place of Ejfliron the Hittite before Mamre. From the floor of Atad the procession passed over Jordan by the most southerly of its three fords, situate below the sea of Tiberias (the upper of which was at Beisan, the middle one from Nablus to Salt, the lower at Gilgal), to bring the patriarch, in accordance with his last will, to Canaan, and they buried him there in the hereditary grave, which undisputedly belonged to him. The abrupt 1\23 12a shows that the brief narrative in Q was thus continued in adjunction to xlix. 33. The blending with JE, as it is before us, states, what is besides obvious, that the transference of Jacob to Hebron was per- formed by his sons alone, the Egyptian retinue being left behind.
Eeturn from the burial, ver. 14 : And Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren and all that went up vnth him to bury Ms father, after he had buried his father. It is the text of /, in which Joseph, as was according to xlvii. 30 sq. to be expected, is the chief figure in the burying. The anxiety of the brethren, ver. 1 5 : Jllicn then Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said : If now Joseph slioidd treat us as enemies and should requite us all the evil which we did to him ! The narrative here proceeds according to E with assistance from J. It is a hypothetical sentence in the tone of an exclamation (here beginning with "b as Ps. xxviL with
GENESIS L, 16-21.. 405
i*.?i'?), in which is latent the apodosis : what would then become of us ? Deputation of intermediaries to Joseph, vv. 16, 17: And they sent a message to Joseph saying : Thy father commanded hefore his death saying: Thus speak ye to Joseph: Forgive, I pray thee, the crime of thy hrethren and their sin, for they did evil to thee, and now, we pray thee, forgive the crime of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake to him. Certainly their father would not once only, but often, have impressed upon them this duty in the case of his death, and at the same time have allayed their anxiety by such counsel. There is no need for sup- posing that this was expressly related in either E or JE.
y
S3X has Pazer on the tone syllable and Munach on the pen- ultima instead of the countertone Metheg ; in Ex. xxxii. 31 also (the only passage of the Pent, where it occurs in J besides here) it has emphatic double accentuation (Konig, Lehrgeb. i. 678 sq.). On Nb': with a dative obj. comp. xviii. 24, 26. In the nnyi which follows is inserted the foundation for their request, viz. the oneness of his and their God. It was with tears that Joseph received their message, and they now come themselves, vv. 18-21 : Then went also his hrethren and fell down hefore him and said : Behold, we will he thy slaves. But Joseph said to them : Fear not, for am I in the place of Elohim ? You meant indeed evil against me, hut Elohim meant it for good, to do as it is this day, to preserve a great nation alive. Nov) then fear ye not : I — / loill nourish you and your family. Thus he comforted them and spoke to their heart. The question ""J^ ^''^^ nnnn meant at xxx. 2 : have I the power, here : have I the right, to interpose in God's dispen- sation, and both times : am I not bound to submit to God ? The form of the inf. constr. nby is like "^51 xlviii. 11, comp. n"]"! xlvi. 3. The promise 'i3l ''???^ sounds, if we compare xlv. 11, xlvii. 12, as if the famine were still continuing, but what had occurred once might occur again, even if not for so great
406 GENESIS L. 22-20.
a length of time ; hence it is unnecessary to ascribe to ^ a different chronology (Kn. Dillm.) ; besides, the narrator here may just as well be J as E, for it is not certain that xlv. 7 is from E, comp. nvnn^ xix, 19, nyay Xum. xxi. 6, a^'by 121 xxxiv. 3, and HTn Di'3 Deut. ii. 30, iv. 20 and frequently, for the style of J, especially here, is the nascent style of B. Eemainder of Joseph's life, his last will and his burying, vv. 22—26 : And Joseph remained in Egypt, he and the house of his father, and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years, and Joseph saw the sons of Ephraim of the third genera- tion ; the sons also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were horn upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brethren : I die, and Elohim will certainly visit you and bring you up out of this land into the land which He sware to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph took oath of the sons of Israel saying: Elohim will visit, yea visit you, and ye shall bring up my bones hence. And Joseph died an hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and they put him in a coffin in Egypt. The sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh (N"um. xxvi. 28 sq.), are the great-grandsons of Joseph, hence Q^F^ \^? do not mean children of the third generation to the exclusion of the ancestor, i.e. great-great-grandsons (=Q''V?"1), but great-grand- sons, so that Q^^Fr' is not a proper but an appositional genitive (Tuch, Kn, Dillm.). The question, v;hy it is not also stated through which of the sons of Ephraim (Num. xxvi. 3 5) it was that Joseph became a great-grandfather,^ is settled by the circumstance, that none of the sons of Ephraim were equal in historical importance to Machir, the son of Manasseh (see Num. xxxil 39 sq., Deut. iii. 15). To be born on any one's knees is equivalent to being received into his or her bosom with paternal or maternal joy (xxx. 3). On the fulfilment of what Joseph caused to be promised to him with an oath, see Ex. xiii. 9, Josh. xxiv. 32. After it33n»i with the unnamed
^ Started and answered in a needlessly circuitous manner in Lion Gomperz' Nachgelassenen Schri/ten (Wien, Lippe 1887).
GENESIS L. 22-26. 407
subject of the persons employed (see on xli. 14), the sing. D^''*i with a similarly general subject is harsh (comp. however xliii, 34, xlviii. 1 sq.), and a Keri DK^VI would have been still better applied here than at xxiv. 33 (Konig, Lehrgeb. i. 435 sq.). He was embalmed and laid Qp.^^^ Jhsa. A
stone coffin is still called Jj| ( J^l ), in Bedouin J\j, which
also occurs, written n:-is, in Hauranian inscriptions {DMZ. xxii. 264). It is here, as the article shows, the sarcophagus in common use in Egypt, which might consist, like that of Mycerinus discovered in the third pyramid, of the wood of the ficus sycomoTus, but was mostly of stone, frequently of porphyry, from the porphyry quarries still to be seen of the oasis of Bethin in the Sinaitic peninsula. The Haggada (in the Talmud, Midrash and Targum) turns it into a metal coffin, which was sunk in the Nile for its greater security.^
nn^ion — with this statement, in itself self-comprehensible, in its connection with the whole subject significant, the first book of the Thorah closes. Israel is still in Egypt, and is there in full process of growth into a nation, waiting to be brought thence according to promise. When it became free from bondage and entered Canaan there entered with it, as the Talmud frequently reiterates, two niJllN*, the ark of the ever-living One and the coffin of the dead Joseph. The latter was now standing ready for conveyance, and Jacob, the father of twelve tribes, was already buried in the Promised Land. The impulse of faith was in those days towards Canaan. Canaan was then the present form of the blessing of salvation. Itself of an earthly nature, it acquired as the promised gift of grace, a spiritual and to a certain extent a heavenly character. Buried there, the patriarchs believed that they rested in the love of God. Marching thither, Israel hoped to enter into the peace and glory of God.
' See J. H. Bondi, Dem hehrdisch-pMnizischen Sprachzweige angeh&rigi Lehnworter in hieroglyphischen und hkratischen Texten (1886), pp. 120-128.
408 GENESIS L. 22-26.
The primitive history began with the formation of the heavens and the earth from the original chaos, the patriarchal history with the bringing forth of Abraham from the chaos of the heathen world. The primitive history ended in the Semites as well as the Japhethites and Hamites being sunk in heathenism ; the patriarchal history ends in the deliverer and preserver of the house of Jacob being placed in his coffin. This " coffin in Egypt " is the coffin of all the spiritual joy of Israel in Egypt. The deep silence of history settles like a dark night upon the succeeding centuries. During these Israel has no redemptive, but only a secular history, until at last the hour of deliverance strikes, and the dumb tongue of history again begins to speak.
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'Stands out among the cxegetical litentttire not only of the eighteenth century, but of all centuries, for its masterly terseness and precision, and for its combination of spiritual insight with the best scholarship of his time.'— FrofessoT W. Sanday, D.D., Oxford.
Gnomon of the Newr Testament. By John Albert Bengel. Translated into English. With Original Notes, Explana- tory and Illustrative. Edited by the Rev. Andrew R. Fausset, M.A. The Original Translation was in Five Large Volumes, demy 8vo, averaging more than 550 pp. each, and the very great demand for this Edition has induced the Publishers to issue the Five Volumes bound in TJiree, at the Subscription Price of 24s. net. They trust by this still further to increase its usefulness.
*,* The Five Volume Edition may still be liad at the original Subscription
Price, £1, lis. 6d. net. The Bishop of Gloucester and Beistol says of Bengal: — ' There is one expositor so uniquely eminent in drawing from Holy Scripture its deeper spiritual meaning, that it may be well for the student always to have at hand, for the New Testament, the Gnomon of Bengel, and to acquire through the help of this most introspective expositor the aptitude of drawing from the Holy Word its full message to the soul.'
STIER'S WORDS OF THE LORD JESUS.
The Words of the Lord Jesus. By Dr. Rudolph Stier. Eight Vols. 8vo (or the Eight Vols, bound in Four), £2, 2s. net.
The Words of the Risen Saviour, 8vo, 10s. 6d. ; and The Words of the Apostles, 8vo, 10s. 6d. (Or the Ten
Volumes for £2, 12s. 6d. net.) ' The whole work is a treasury of thoughtful exposition. Its measure of practical and spiritual application, with exegetical criticism, commends it to the use of those whose duty it is to preach as well as to understand the Gospel of Christ.' — Guardian.
LANGE'S LIFE OF CHRIST.
The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ: A Complete Critical
Examination of the Origin, Contents, and Connection of the
Gospels. Translated from the German of J. P. Lange, D.D.,
Professor of Divinity in the University of Bonn. Edited, with
additional Notes, by Marcus Dods, D.D, Cheap Edition, in Four
Volumes, demy 8vo, price 28s. net.
' Stands in the front rank of lives of Christ ; it first presents the life of Christ as given in the four Gospels together, and then as given by each Gospel separately from its peculiar standpoint.' — Principal A. Cave, D.D.
PROFESSOR E A DIE'S COMMENTARIES.
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. By thi; late Professor J. Eauie, D.D. The Three Volumes are supplied at the price of 18s. net, or in separate Volumes, at 10s. 6d. each. They have been carefully edited by the Rev. William Young, M.A., Glasgow.
T. & T. Clark's Publications.
Commentary on the Neiw Testament. With Illustration
and Maps. Edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. Complete in
Four Volumes, imperial 8vo, price 12s. 6d. each.
Contributors : — The Very Rev. Dean Howson ; The Very Rev. Dean Plumptre ; Principal David Brown, D.D. ; J. Rawson Lumby, D.D. ; W. Milligan, D.D. ; W. F. Moulton, D.D. ; Rev. Canon Spence ; Marcus Dods, D.D. ; J. Oswald Dykes, D.D. ; Joseph Angus, D.D. ; Pa ton J. Gloag, D.D. ; S. D. F. Salmond, D.D. ; William B. Pope, D.D. ; Philip Schaff, D.D. ; Matthew B. Riddle, D.D. Maps and Plans — Professor Arnold Guyot. Illustrations — W. M. Thomson, D. D., Author of ' The Land and the Book.'
Volume I. Volume II.
The Synoptical Gospels. St. John's Gospel, and
The Acts of the Apostles. Volume III. Volume IV.
Romans to Philemon. Hebrews to Revelation.
* A useful, valuable, and instructive commentary. The interpretation is set forth with clearness and cogency, and in a manner calculated to commend the volumes to the thoughtful reader. The book is beautifully got up, and reflects great credit on the publishers as well as the writers.' — The Bishop of Glolicester and Bristol.
' I have looked into this volume, and read several of the notes on crucial passages. They seem to me very well done, with great fairness, and with evident knowledge of the controversies concerning them. The illustrations ai'e very good. I cannot doubt that the book will prove very valuable.' — The Bishop of Winchester.
' We have already spoken of this commentai-y with warm praise, aud we can certainly assert that the enterp ise has now been brought to a close with really admirable work.' — English Churchnum.
' We congratulate Dr. Schaff on the completion of this useful work, which we are now able to commend, in its complete form, to English readers of the Scriptures. ... It will be seen that we have a high opinion of this commentary, of the present volume, and also of the whole work. In this last respect it is perhaps of more uniform excellence than any of its rivals, and in beauty of appearance it excels them all.' — Church Bells.
Studies in the Christian Evidences: Eeing Apologetics for the Times. By Rev. Alexander Mair, D.D. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged, crown 8vo, price 6s.
'This book ought to become immensely popidar. . . . That one chapter on "The Unique Personality of Christ" is a masterpiece of eloquent writing, though it is scarcely fair to mention one portion where every part is excellent. The beauties of the volume are everywhere ajjparent, and therefore will again attract the miud that has been once delighted with the literary (easC—The Rock.
Encyclopaedia of Theology. By Professor J. F. Rabigbr, D.D., Breslau. Translated, with additions to the History and Literature, by Rev. J. Macpherson, M.A. 2 Vols. 8vo, price 21s.
' Rabiger's Encyclopsedia is a book desersnng the attentive perusal of every divine. . . , It is at once instructive and suggestive.' — Aihenaum.
System of the Christian Certainty. By Professor Dr. Fr. H. R. Frank, Erlangen. In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d.
'No weightier or more valuable theological work has come to us from Germany since the publication of Dr. Dorner's "Christian Doctrine."' — Literary World.
The Gospel of St. Peter. Synoptical Tables. With Transla- tion and Critical Apparatus. Edited by Prof. H. von Schubert, D.D., Kiel. Authorised Emjlish Translation. Svo, Is. 6d. net.
' The most useful thing that has yet been published on this fragment.' — Expository TiiMS,
T. & T. Clark's Publications.
BY PRINCIPAL A. GIWIE, P.P.
An Introduction to Theology : Its Principles, Its Branches, Its Eesults, and Its Literature. By Alfred Cave, B.A., D.D., Principal of Hackney College, London. Second Edition, largely rewritten, and the Bibliographical Lists carefully revised to date. In demy 8vo, price 12s.
' The best original work on the subject in the English language.'— Philip Schaff. D.D., LL.D.
' Its arrangement is perfect, its learning accurate and extensive, and its practical hints invaluable.' — Christian World.
'A marvel of industry, and simply invaluable to theologians.' — Clergyman's Magazine.
The Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice and Atonement.
By Alfred Cave, D.D., Principal of Hackney College, London. In demy 8vo, New Edition, revised throughout, price 10s. 6d.
' Every page in this edition has been carefully revised in the light of the latest relative researches. The literary references have also been brought down to date. . . . In the New Testament section there is considerable variation. Upon the Doctrine of the Atonement especially, conclusions upon which affect so materially the presentation of Christian truth, the author's views have been steadily ripening, as he believes, during the thought of years. Consequently more than half of the New Testament portion has been revirLiien.^— Extract from the Preface.
' Let readers judge — is this not now the best systematic study of the Atonement in the English language ? ' — Expository Times.
BY PRINCIPAL P. W. SIMON, P.P.
The Redemption of Man : Discussions Bearing on the Atone- ment. By Principal D. W. Simon, D.D., Bradford. In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d.
Principal Fairbairn, Mansfield College, writes : — ' I wish to say how stimulating and helpful I have found your book. Its criticism is constructive as well as incisive, while its point of view is elevated and commanding. It made me feel quite vividly how superficial most of the recent discussions on the Atonement have been.'
' Its learning, ample although that be, is its least merit : it has the far higher and rarer qualities of freshness of view and deep ethical insight. I hope it will find the general and cordial reception it so well deserves.'— Professor E. Flint, D.D.
The Bible an Outgrowth of Theocratic Life. By Prin- cipal D. W. Simon, D.D., Bradford. In crown Bvo, price 4s. 6d.
' This book will well repay perusal. It contains a great deal of learning as well as ingenuity, and the style is clear.' — Guardian.
' Dr. Simon's little book is worthy of the most careful attention.' — Baptist.
' Dr. John Brown, of Bedford, writes : — ' I feel sure that such of j'our readers as may make acquaintance with it, will be as grateful for its valuable help as I have been myself.'
Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine. By
Robert Rainy, D.D., Principal, and Professor of Divinity and Church History, New College, Edinburgh. Price 10s. 6d.
' We gladly acknowledge the high excellence and the extensive learning which these lectures display. They are able to the last degi'ee, and the author has, in an unusual measure, the power of acute and brilliant generalisation.' — Literary Churchman.
' The subject is treated with a comprehensive grasp, keen logical power, clear analysis and learning, and in devout spirit.' — Evangelical Magazine.
Handbooks for Bible Classes and Private Students.
Edited by Professor Marcus Dods, D.D., and Alexander Whyte, D.D.
■ I name specially the admirable Handbooks for Bible Classes issued by T. & T. Clark of Edin- burgh. They are very cheap, and among them are some books unsurpassed in their kind.'— Dr. W Robertson Nicoll in The British Weekly.
'Sound, intelligible, and sometimes brilliantly-written handbooks, packed with wisdom and knowledge.'— A/et/iod)st Hecorder.
' These volumes are models of the multum in parvo style. We have long desired to meet with a series of this kind— Little Books on Great Subjects.'— Literary World.
COMMENTARIES —
Professor Marcus Dods, D.D. Genesis. 2s. Jajies Macgregor, D.D. Exodus. 2 Vols
2s. each. Principal Douglas, D.D. Joshua. Is. 6d
Judges. Is. 3d. Professor J. G. Murphy, LL.D. Chronicles
Is. 6d. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D. Haggai, Zech
ariah, Malacbi. 2s. Principal Douglas, D.D. Obadiah to Zeph
aniah. is. 6d. Professor T. M. Lindsay, D.D. Mark. 2s. 6d
Professor T. M. Lindsay, D.D. St. Luke. 2
Vols. 3s. 3d. (Vol. I., 2s. ; Vol. II., Is. 3d.). George Reith, D.D. St. Jolin. 2 Vols. 2s.
each. Professor T. M. Lindsay, D.D. Acts. 2 Vols.
Is. 6d. each. Principal Brown, D.D. Romans. 2s. James Macgreoor, D.D. Galatians. Is. 6d. Professor J. S. Candlish, D.D. Ephesians.
l.s. 6d. Profes.sor A. B. Davidson, D.D. Hebrews.
■2s. 6.1.
GENERAL SUBJECTS —
James Stalker, D.D.
The Life of Christ. Is. 6d.
The Life of St. Paul. Is. Od. (Large-type Editions, 3s. Gd. each.) Alexander Wiiyte, D.D.
The Shorter Catechism. 2s. 6d. Professor J. S. Candlish, D.D.
The Christian Sacraments. Is. 6d.
The Christian Doctrine of God. Is. 6d.
The Work of the Holy Spirit. Is. 6d.
The Biblical Doctrine of Sin. Is. 6d. Norman L. Walker, D.D.
Scottish Church History. Is. 6d. Rev. W. D. Thomson, M.A.
The Christian Miracles and the Conclu- sions of Science. 2s. George Smith, LL.D., F.R.6.S., CLE.
History of Christian Missions. 2s. 6d. Archibald Hkndkrron, D.D.
Palestine: Its Historical Geography. With il/f(2)S. 2s. 6d. Professor T. M. fjlND.SAy, D.D.
The Reformation. 2s.
Rev. John Macpherson, M.A.
The Sum of Saving Knowledge. Is. 6d.
The Confession of Faith. 2s.
Presbyterianism. is. Cd. Professor Binnie, D.D.
The Church, is. 6d. Rev. T. B. KiLPATRiCK, B.D.
Butler's Three Sermons on Human Nature, is. 6d. President Hamilton, D.D.
History of the Irish Presbyterian Church. 2s. Rev. W. Scrymgeour, M.A.
Lessons on the Life of Christ. 2s. 6d. A. Taylor Innes, M.A., Advocate.
Church and State. 3s. Rev. J. Feather.
The Last of the Prophets — John the Baptist. 2s. Rev. W. Fairweather, M.A.
From the Exile to the Advent. 2s.
Bible-Class Primers. Edited by Kev. Professor Salmond, D.D.
' a most useful series. With such helps as these, to be an inefficient teacher is to be blame- worthy.'—Rev. 0. H. Spukgeon.
In paper covers, 6d. each ; free by post, 7d. In cloth, 8d. each ; /j-ee by post, 9d.
Christian Character: A Study in New Tostaincnt Morality, by Rev. T. B. Kil- PATRiCK, B.D. —The Free Church of Scotland, by Kev. C. G. M'Ckie, D.D.— The Truth of Christianity, by Professor J. Ivkkacii, D.D.— The Making of Israel, by Rev. 0. A. Scott, B.D.— The Sabbath, by the Editor— Our Christian Passover, by Rev. 0. A. Salmond, M.A. — The Kingdom of God, Three Parts (or one vol . , cloth, Is. 6d.), by F. Herbert Stead, M. A.— The Parables of our Lord, by tlio Editor — Life of St. John, by Baton J. Gloaq, D.D.— The Story of Jerusalem, by Rev. II. Callan, M.A. — Life of Abraham, by Rev. Charles A. Scott, B.D.— Historical Connection between the Old and New Testaments, by Professor John Skinner, M.A. — Life of Christ, by the Editor — The Shorter Catechism, Three Farts {or one vol., cloth, l.s. 6d.), by the Editor —The Period of the Judges, by Professor Patekson, D.D.— Outlines of Protestant Missions, by Rev. J. Robson, D.D. — The Apostle Peter, by the Editor — Outlines of Early Church History, by H. W. Smith, D.D. — David, Isy the late Rev. P. Thomson, M.A. — Moses, by Professor J. Iverach, D.D. — Paul, by Paton J. Gloag, D.D. — Solomon, by R<}v. R. Winterbotham, M.A., LL.D. — Reformation, by Rev. Professor WiTHEROw— Kings of Israel, by Rev. W. Walker, M. A.— Kings of Judab, by Pro- fossor Given, Pli.D.— Joshua arid the Conquest, by Professor Croskkry.
Extra Vols. Bible Words and Phrases, by Rev. Charles Mickik, M.A. Is.— The Seven Churches of Asia, by Miss Deborah Alcock. Is.
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