The book of Genesis

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Dods, Marcus, 183A-1909.

The book of Genesis

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HANDBOOKS

FOR

BIBLE CLASSES,

EDITED BY

REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D.,

REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D.

GENESIS.— MARCUS DODS, D.D.

EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET.

PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB,
FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.

LONDON, .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

DUBLIN, .... GEORGE HERBKET.

NEW YORK, .... SCRIBNER AND WELFORD.

MELBOURNE, . . GEORGE ROBERTSON.

THE

BOOK OF GENESIS.

SEttfj Introtruction mti Notes

BY

MARCUS "^DODS, D.D.

EDINBURGH :

T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET.

1882.

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GENESIS.

INTRODUCTION.

T "X ^HEN you go to see a picture, the artist is very careful to set you
^ ^ where the right light may fall upon it ; otherwise its beauties
are blurred, its figures indistinct. And unless we stand in a writer's
point of view, what was perfectly lucid and definite to him is confused
or vague to us. Without understanding a writer's aim, we may
derive much information from his book ; but we shall certainly miss
many of his points, and be at a distinct disadvantage as readers. It
is not without reason, therefore, that among the first questions we
put about a book is this, What is the author's aim ? This question
cannot always be answered from one perusal, sometimes not from
many perusals. And hence it has become the familiar custom of
literary men to introduce their books to the public by means of a
preface, in which they indicate their object in publishing, and put
their readers in an attitude of intelligence towards what is to follow.
From what a world of labour and misapprehension would a few
words of preface have saved us in connection with the book before
us ! How thankful should we be for even a title-page giving a brief
description of the book, and telling us the name of the author, and
the place and date of publication ! We have not so much as a ;fiVe.
So barely does the book come down to us, that in its original Hebrew
it goes by the name of its first word ; and not till it was translated
did it win for itself the well-chosen name by which it has ever since
been known. This namelessness suits its archaic character, and is
a mark of its old-world origin. It comes upon our hands as a
foundling, and it is only from its own lineaments and language we
can learn anything of its origin.

VI THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

One glance is enough to show us that the style of writing we have
here to do with is the narrative style. Perhaps it is not too bold to
say that here we have the beginning of history^ the earliest written
history. For such records as the Chinese annals and the Egyptian
papyri and inscriptions, recording dynasties and deeds, are not
history. You can have history only where you have a connection
and progress ; some inner unity linking together successive periods,
and forming of them one whole. There is no unity like the unity of
God's purpose. It is this which carries on from age to age the real
history of man ; it is this which links Adam with Christ, the origin
with the consummation of things. So that wherever there was any
consciousness of God and His purpose, there history could not fail to
appear.

Again, you can only have very imperfect history in any nation
which does not understand its position in the world, as well as in
time. Even in the histories of Greece and Rome there is a limitation
of view which spoils the history. It is only of their own country's
growth the writers speak ; all other interests are subordinated to
theirs. In Genesis, on the contrary, the race that is the immediate
subject of the history is subordinated to the world at large. It is
"that all nations maybe blessed," that Abraham is called. What
was it that in the earliest dawn, when all other races were but
struggling into self-consciousness, gave to this Hebrew race a con-
sciousness of its connection with all men, and thereby led them to a
history worthy of the name ? It was here again the light brought by
the consciousness of God and His purpose that showed them what
else had been dark.

This book, then, is history ; but it is not a history of the whole
world. The writer from the very first shows his determination
ruthlessly to disappoint curiosity, and to pass by the most inviting
openings. He is like a specialist leading you through a great
museum, who merely throws open a door in passing, and lets you
have a glimpse of exquisite sculpture or paintings before which you
would like to spend hours, or treasures worth a king's ransom, or
inscriptions which once determined the fate of empires ; but none of

INTRODUCTION. Vll

these detain him, he hurries you on to his own proper department.
He is a guide who is never seduced from the highway that leads to
his own goal by the most alluring bypaths and branch roads. He
merely tells you in a word where these roads lead to, and holds on
his own way.

Neither is it a full history of any one people that we have here.
You look in vain for information regarding commerce and literature,
and much else that constitutes the life of a people. The later writers
of this same history dismiss with something like contemptuous
indifference the ordinary details which fill court chronicles and the
annals of kings. " The rest of the acts of so and so, — if any one is
curious enough to inquire about them, — are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah ? " It was a single
thread of the history that they were following. As the historian of a
nation's literature or commerce neglects much which a military
historian includes, and as the writer who undertakes to trace the
growth of our political institutions must select his material, so do
these Biblical historians confine themselves to the exhibition of one
element, though that the ruling element, in the national life. They
seek to exhibit their nation as the theocracy. They trace its growth
and fortunes as the kingdom in which God was pleased to rule and
manifest Himself in a special way. And it is by this ruling aim we
must measure the significance and importance of all they record. It
is when we view the events they relate in connection with the origin,
growth, and fortunes of God's kingdom on earth that we see them in
their true light, and as the author saw them.

This Book of Genesis, then, stands first in the Canon of Scripture,
because it gives an account of the origin of God's kingdom on earth.
It was in the exodus that kingdom was born, at Sinai it received its
legislation, in Canaan it was put in possession of its land. But these
fundamental events of the history of religion could not have been
understood without the Book of Genesis, in which we are led to the
root and source of all, and are shown man's original relation to God,
how that relation was marred by sin, how God restored it, and
especially how the seed of His promise fructifying in the heart of

vm THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

faithful Abraham produced at last a compact people of God, a
kingdom in which God could rule, and from which He could bless
the race. It is a Book of Origins, but specially of the origin of all
that has a bearing upon the kingdom of God upon earth. The
origin of those institutions and customs and laws which the Mosaic
code took up and perpetuated is related— the origin of the Sabbath,
of marriage, of sacrifice, of the prohibition to eat blood, of the
capital punishment of murder, of circumcision, and so forth — all
these origins are carefully related. Much may be omitted that the
archseologist seeks to know, but nothing is omitted that is requisite
to the clear understanding of the origin of that people and kingdom,
whose history is the history of God's revelation of Himself. And
to understand with what a master hand and in what never-fading
colours these origins have been sketched, one has only to look into
his own mind and recognise the ineffaceable, indehble impressions
there existing.

If it be asked. What materials does the author seem to have used
for the fulfilment of this aim ? the answer cannot be perfectly definite.
The idea that he merely sat down and wrote without any consultation
of documents, inquiring research into facts, or recording of traditions,
will not stand examination. But to the careful reader one thing
becomes perfectly clear, and that is, that the author is not engaged
in writing a free and continuous history, as a man may write from
personal observation, but that he is compiling or piecing together
parallel accounts.

Neither has the author been at any pains to conceal this. He
has been at greater pains to collect and preserve all the available
information, than to piece it together into one fluent and smooth-
flowing narrative. He allows you to see the joinings. He does not
fuse the original stories and run them out again in one continuous
stream into an entirely new mould, but bolts them together, for the
most part solid and intact as he finds them. It is to this circumstance
we owe the singular simplicity and everlasting beauty of the Book
of Genesis. The grace and vividness of these stories that we never
weary of reading, and in which each character stands out with a

INTRODUCTION. IX

clearness and individuality which the most brilliant writer of fiction
has never been able to rival — this fascination of the narrative is due
to the circumstance that these stories were moulded by oral tradition
and were handed down from sire to son, told and retold for centuries
before ever they were set down in writing.

But while critics are agreed that material from a variety of sources
has entered into the composition of the book, considerable difference
of opinion prevails regarding the precise number and nature of these
sources. One who is entirely ignorant of the methods of criticism
will certainly smile at the assurance with which an experienced
scholar like Ewald distributes a passage among several contributors.
But some, even of the soberest scholars, see three or four hands in
the work, and their opinion has much to recommend it. They
recognise a central thread of narrative which runs through the whole
book, and lies like a keel or skeleton entire and complete in itself
even when the superimposed portions are removed. This has been
called by German critics the G7'imdschrift j it is the trunk or stock
of the whole. It has also been named by Ewald the Book of Origins^
but is most commonly known as the Elohistic or Elohist narrative.
It is a brief historical summary of the events which connect Israel
with the beginning of things, and which show how the usages and
laws of Israel originated. It is a bare, simple, dignified narrative,
largely made up of genealogical tables, and the briefest records of
outstanding historical events ; concerned more about showing the
links in the chain between the Creation and the Patriarchs, than
about shedding any halo around them. Its author is supposed to
have been a Levite or a Priest.

They recognise, secondly, the hand of a writer whom they designate
the Later Elohist^ and whom they identify as belonging to one of the
central or northern tribes of Israel. To this narrator we owe our
knowledge of much interesting detail regarding the patriarchs, and
of many traditions which explain the origin of sacred associations
with certain places.

The third hand discernible in the work is that of the Jehovist^
whose contribution is thought to identify him as belonging to the

X THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

tribe of Judah, and as viewing things with an eye trained in the schools
of the prophets. The work of this writer covers the whole ground
travelled over by the Elohist, but he sets it in a stronger light. He
uses, say the critics, his profound knowledge of sin and grace, and
of the Divine plan of redemption, for the purpose of bringing out at
each stage how the will of God overcame man's evil and went steadily
forwards towards its goal of salvation. [See Dillmann.] It is from
him we derive our information regarding the revelations made to
the patriarchs, the trials of faith to which they were subjected, the
development of their character, and their increasing ability to respond
to and forward the purpose of God. He makes a didactic use of
the history, and, as a prophet, traces throughout it the will of the
Eternal.

The last hand that is recognisable in the book is that of the
Redactor^ or revising Editor, who selected the writings of the fore-
going narrators and adapted them to his purpose, making such
alterations as might seem to be required.

This may seem to the uninitiated by far too cumbrous a theory of
the composition of a book apparently so simple as Genesis. And
critics are themselves the first to acknowledge that much still remains
obscure regarding its various parts. But it seems beyond dispute
that at least two main threads are discernible in the narrative. No
one can read the book without becoming aware that he is frequently
presented with varying accounts of the same event. Thus we find
two accounts of the Creation of man ; two narratives of the Flood ;
one account of Esau's wives in chap, xxvi., another in chap, xxxvi.
The naming of Bethel is twice related, so also is the altering of
Jacob's name to Israel. In numerous other instances, which will be
found specified in the larger commentaries, the same phenomenon is
to be observed. And this phenomenon gradually but surely conveys
to the mind of the reader the impression, that he has before him
not the free and continuous and single narrative of one author, but
the work of a writer who is endeavouring to combine at least two
narratives.

This impression is deepened into ascertained knowledge, when the

INTRODUCTION. XI

reader advances another step and endeavours to see whether these
duphcate passages are characterized by any common features by
which they may be grouped together. Taking up the first instance
of a twofold account — the double Creation narrative (chap. i. ii.) —
he is at once struck by the circumstance, that throughout the first
of the accounts the Divine Being is designated exclusively by the
title " God," whereas in the second He is as uniformly and exclusively
spoken of as " the Lord God." Passing on to the narrative of the
Flood, and analyzing it with the help of the hint thus obtained, he
discovers that here also two distinct accounts of that event have been
combined, and that the one of these may be detected by its use of the
title " God," while the other is recognisable by its use of the name
"Lord" [Jehovah]. And when this clue is followed up by further
analysis of the book, it is found that the passages characterized by
the exclusive use of the word "God" [Elohim] to designate the
Divine Being, when collected form together a complete and connected
narrative.

But no sooner is this Elohistic narrative sifted out and read by
itself and laid alongside of the Jehovistic narrative, than we perceive
that its abstinence from the use of the name Jehovah is by no means
the only, though it may be the most striking and instructive, of its
characteristics. When read thus by itself, the reader sees that while
the dignity of the book as we have it remains, a great deal of what
may be called the romantic charm is gone. The Elohist has con-
fined himself to a brief historical summary ; an unembellished record
of the events vital to Israel. It is to the Jehovistic part of the book
we owe those stories which have riveted the attention of all readers ;
those lively personal traits which make the patriarchs live before
us ; that mingling of light and shade, of the bright emotions and
dark passions of men, which challenges for the book the highest
place among prose Epics. The Elohist is dry, impersonal, fond of
facts and statistics : the Jehovist brings to his task a mind steeped
in religious ideas and keenly sensitive to everything of human interest,
and every part of his narrative is weighted with moral and religious
significance. Above all, no one who compares the two writers can

XU THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

fail to be struck with the anthropomorphism of the J eh ovist, his
freedom in ascribing to God feehngs and actions which are supposed
to be distinctively human. This is no superficial note of the Jehovist's
narrative, but a characteristic that enters into its essence. Jehovah
is itself a personal name ; and to give to the Infinite, incompre-
hensible God a personal name, as if He could be defined, is itself an
anthropomorphism so pronounced as to lay foundation for a continuous
anthropomorphic history. When we use the term " God " to designate
the Divine Being, we imply that there is but one God, comprehending
in Himself all that is divine, and needing no personal name to
distinguish Him from others. But when we seize upon some one
attribute of the Divine Being, however distinctive and transcendent
that attribute be, we seem to limit His inimitable nature and to bring
Him out of the remoteness and immensity that are proper to Him
within the range of our small faculties and needs. And yet not
only does philosophy teach us that all religion must be anthropo-
morphic ; but the Incarnation itself gives final proof of this, and
by giving us our most perfect knowledge of God justifies all those
anthropomorphic preliminaries that prepared for it. If, therefore,
the Jehovist narrative is on these grounds concluded to be of later
origin than the Elohist, it may on the same grounds and in these
respects be considered an advance upon the earlier narrative.

When we attempt to understand the relation of these two narratives
to one another and to those Assyrian or Babylonian traditions to
which they bear in some features so strong a resemblance, or when
we even try to construct in our minds a theory of the growth and pre-
servation of either of the narratives, we meet with much to baffle us.
Between the time of Abraham and that of Solomon, there would
seem to have occurred no opportunity for intercourse between the
Hebrews and their parent stock in Babylonia. We must suppose,
therefore, that when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, he carried
with him so much of the common tradition as we find traces of in
Genesis. This tradition has been kept remarkably pure from all
taint of Egyptian superstition or cosmogonic ideas. It is quite
possible, of course, that during the respected and inquiring reign of

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

Solomon some Hebrew scholar may have visited Babylonia for the
very purpose of recovering all that could be ascertained regarding
primitive history ; and we know so very little of ancient literary
methods and of the growth of Hebrew books, that it would be
unreasonable to deny that knowledge thus obtained may have found
its way into this Book of Genesis.

As to the incidental marks of age to be found in the book itself, it
is very easy to make too much of them. Much has been made of the
expression in the 36th chapter : " These are the kings that reigned
in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children
of Israel," an expression which plainly implies that when it was
written there were kings reigning over Israel. But there is so little
solidarity in the book, that the ascertainment of the date of one part
of it does not carry with it the discovery of the date of the whole. In
several instances names of places are made use of, which were only
given to these places after the conquest of Canaan by Israel. In
Joshua we are told that the original name of Hebron was Kirjath-
Arba, yet in Genesis xiii. 18 the name Hebron occurs ; and in chap,
xxiii. 2, though the name Kirjath-Arba is used, the explanation is
added, "the same is Hebron." Certainly these expressions compel
us to conclude that, in the days of the kingdom, the book was still
open to revision, though they may not compel us to conclude that the
story was then first committed to writing. In these circumstances,
it is perhaps rash to venture an opinion regarding the date of the
final form of the book ; but it seems probable that the Elohistic
narrative dates from a remote pre-Mosaic age, and was kept by the
patriarchs as a book of annals or a growing tradition might be kept,
receiving additions as history developed. But whether the additions
made by the Jehovist to this original narrative were accompanied by
a final revision, or whether one or more revisions succeeded that of
the Jehovist, and at what date these several hands contributed to the
book, these seem as yet unanswered questions.

It will now be understood in what sense the book can be said to
have an author. It comes to us anonymously. It begins its story
abruptly, without a word of introduction. It is only by inference

XIV THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

from expressions the author uses, or from the testimony of other
parts of Scripture, that we can gather to whom we are indebted
for this inestimable book. Little can be gained from the allusions
to Genesis in other parts of the Bible. The first five books are
called The Books of Moses, but this expression is used loosely,
not implying that strictly speaking they are all and in every part
from the hand of Moses ; but mainly that these books contain the
law of Moses, and can claim his authority. Neither does the fact
that these five books are not separated in the Jewish MSS., but stand
as one book, imply so much as at first sight might appear. They are
one book, and were probably only divided into five separate books
long after they had been divided into chapters and sections ; but
though we know that Moses was the author of some parts of this
whole, we cannot forthwith conclude he wrote every part of it.
Indeed, there are passages here and there in the Pentateuch which
one would not like to think had been penned by Moses. In Exodus
(xi. 3) we find the words, " Moreover, the man Moses was very great
in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the
sight of the people." In Numbers (xii. 3) we read, " Now the man
Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face
of the earth." These are not expressions such as a man would
naturally use in speaking of himself, neither is it possible that a man
would say "of himself what we find the author of Deuteronomy saying
of Moses, " And there arose not a prophet since in Israel Hke unto
Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face." And if any one supposes
that by denying to Moses anything more than having some hand in
the book, we either detract from its authority or do some injury to
Moses, his anxieties will be allayed by considering the words of the
great Leader himself : " Enviest thou for my sake } Would God
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would
put His Spirit upon them."

There is another point which seems to demand notice in any
introduction to the Book of Genesis — the relation of the account it
gives of the origin of things to the account given by science. During
a long period of the world's history the Book of Genesis was the

INTRODUCTION. XV

only source of information regarding the origin of things. Science
was during that period unborn, and the marvellous stores of know-
ledge it has recently disclosed were all unthought of. But now the
indefatigable industry of scientific men is year by year deciphering
some fresh line of the worn record in which nature has written her
autobiography ; and secrets she has hidden from the foundation of
the world are being proclaimed in every ear. The astronomer tells
us under what altered conditions of climate this globe existed 200,000
years ago : the geologist traces on the earth's surface, and in the
rocks that underlie it, the effects of these different climatal conditions,
and produces also the remains of animals adapted to the temperature
and the kind of life they suppose. Back and back through apparently
interminable ages science leads us, and as she goes she shows us with
tolerable accuracy the points at which new kinds of creatures began
to be. She takes us back hito far distant periods when the plants
and animals known to us had as yet no existence, and introduces us
to the strange, rudimentary forms in which life first manifested itself
on the earth. About the first step of all, about the original com-
munication of life to material forms, she has nothing to say ; but
about the development of that life, and about its spread and history
upon earth, she has collected an abundance of facts, and has much
detailed information to give us. She has in short already written in
outline, and will no doubt speedily fill up a history of this globe and
of the introduction of life upon it — a history the main features of
which all educated men will accept.

We have thus two histories covering somewhat the same period,
viz. from the beginning of things down to the comparatively recent
date of some 6000 years ago. We have this brief sketch in the first
chapter of Genesis, which can be read and may have been written in
a few minutes ; and we have the record, which has been slowly
graven on the crust of the earth during many hundreds of thousands
of years. Both are from God — the facts registered by the rocks are as
infallible as anything recorded in Scripture ; they are sacred as God's
own writing, which has come from His hand without the intervention
of any human pen. Either record may be misinterpreted. The man

XVI THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

of science may fail to read aright the facts before his eyes ; he may
omit to see what is actually there, or may group his facts in a
mistaken manner, and deduce conclusions that are unwarranted. The
interpreter of Scripture may misunderstand the record he takes to do
with, and from the infallible Word of God may deduce meanings and
draw inferences which are as fallible as his own ignorance and
prejudice. But in neither case is the record to be blamed. The
greatest mistake of all is made when men seek in the one record for
what can only be found in the other, when they go to the Bible for
science, or rely upon nature for a full knowledge of God's purposes ;
when they either on the one hand refuse to listen to the affirmations
of nature because they seem to disagree with what is found in the
Bible, or when on the other hand they are content with the teaching
of nature, as if nature could tell us all we need to know about
ourselves, about the world, and about God. The proper attitude
towards the two records has been defined by one who has himself
keenly studied both, who is at once a professor of geology and an
eminent Christian apologist. " If the question," he says, " be a ques-
tion in physical science, if the subject be one which is clearly revealed
in nature, then, without hesitation, I would follow the teachings of
Nature, even though some scriptural allusions to natural phenomena
by our traditional interpretation may seem to teach differently. And
I beheve I honour the Author of both books by so doing. But if the
question be a question of moral and spiritual truth, and the teachings
of Scripture are clear and unmistakeable, then I follow the Divine
text-book of moral and spiritual truth in spite of some dim intima-
tions in external nature, and in my own intuitions which seem to
point to a different conclusion. And I think I honour the Author of
both books by so doing" (Leconte, Religion and Science, p. 240).
Or, to use the words of a still abler writer, " There is a principle
frequently insisted on, scarcely denied by any, yet recognised with
sufficient clearness by few of the advocates of revelation, which, if
fully and practically recognised, would have saved themselves much
perplexity and vexation, and the cause they have at heart the
disgrace with which it has been covered by the futile attempts that

INTRODUCTION. XVU

have been made through provisional and shifting interpretations to
reconcile the Mosaic Genesis with the rapidly advancing strides of
physical science. The principle referred to is this : Matters which
are discoverable by human reason, and the means of investigation
which God has put within the reach of man's faculties, are not the
proper subjects of Divine revelation, and matters which do not
concern morals or bear on man's spiritual relations towards God are
not within the province of revealed religion. If, then, a person
writing by the inspiration of God on things pertaining to religion
should have occasion to speak of the phenomena of nature, it might
be expected beforehand that he would speak of them as they are
phenomena — that is, according to the impressions which they make
as appearances, and so according to his own existing conceptions
or the imperfect apprehensions of those for whose use he might have
been more immediately writing" (Quarry on Genesis^ pp. 12, 13).

This principle is illustrated by the first chapter of Genesis. Its
object is not to teach physical science and anticipate the investiga-
tions for which natural human faculty is sufficient : its object is the
higher one of determining the connection of nature with God. We
do not need an inspired narrative to tell us that the sun is set to rule
the day and the moon to rule the night — at no period of the world's
history did men need this information ; but at every period of the
world's history, equally when science was unborn and in our own day
when it is full-grown, do we need to know that which this narrative was
written to assure us of, that it was God who created and appointed
the sun and all natural forces. We do not need this chapter that
we may learn in what order animals and plants appeared upon
earth, but we do need to be assured that whatever was the order of
succession in which they appeared, that order was determined by
the intelligent will of God. It was as needful to know this when
men's notions of the order were mistaken, as it is needful now when
men's notions are being rectified. There is no regard to scientific
accuracy in the statement that God made the world in six days, but
the impression left is strictly true, that it was an easy matter, a mere
week's work with God, to create the world. Science says this planet

XVlll THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

has been about one hundred million of years getting into shape and
reaching its present condition ; and that the events spoken of in
this chapter as occupying six days really occupied periods that must
be reckoned by millions of years. This narrative is not careful to
follow the actual order in which life appeared on the globe : it
affirms, e.g.^ that fruit-trees existed before the sun was made ; science
can tell us of no such vegetation. It tells us that the birds were
created in the fifth day, the reptiles in the sixth ; nature herself tells
a different tale, and assures us that creeping things appeared before
the flying fowl. But the most convincing proof of the regardlessness
of scientific accuracy shown by this writer is found in the fact, that
in the second chapter he gives a different account from that which he
has given in the first, and an account irreconcilable with physical
facts. For in the second chapter he tells us that after God had made
man He saw that it was not good for him to be alone, and said, I
will make him an helpmeet for him. And out of the ground the
Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air,
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. That
is to say, he represents the creation of man as preceding the crea-
tion of the lower animals, an order which both the first chapter and
physical science assure us was not the actual order observed. But
here again, though the statement is not in Hteral accordance with fact,
the impression made upon the mind is true and right. It is merely the
writer's way of saying that man was the important part of the creation,
and that the other animals were made for man — a fact which science
also assures us of in its own strictly literal and demonstrative manner.
It seems to me, therefore, a mistaken and dangerous attempt which
is often made to reconcile the account of physical facts given here
with that given in nature herself. These accounts disagree in the
date or distance from the present time to which the work of creation
is assigned, in the length of time which the preparation of the world
for man is said to have occupied, and in the order in which life is
introduced into the world. No doubt many able men, whose judg-
ment in such matters cannot be lightly set aside, have been satisfied
with one or other of the various schemes of reconciliation which have

INTRODUCTION. XIX

been promulgated. Hugh Miller, e.g.^ considered that the two accounts
were in substantial agreement. And among living professors of
geology there are several who hold the same view. One of the best
known among them says : " The first thing that strikes the scientific
reader is the evidence of divinity ; not merely in the first verse and
in the successive fiats, but in the whole order of creation. There is
so much that the most recent readings of science have for the first
time explained, that the idea of man as the author becomes utterly
incomprehensible. By proving the record true, science pronounces
it divine, for who could have correctly narrated the secrets of eternity
but God Himself?" — Dana, Bib. Sac. 1856. But in every one of
these schemes there are points of more or less importance left out
of account, and in all of them some violence seems to me to be done
to the language of the sacred text. This is especially true of the
interpretation of the word "day," which figures so largely in the
narrative. A few years ago it was almost heresy to say that the
word day means period— now it is almost heresy to hold that when
the writer says " day " he means " day." It is the advance of
scientific knowledge which has brought about this change. It is
perceived that all reconciliation of the narrative with science is hope-
less, if the word day means the time between one sunset and the
next, and not a long period calculated by thousands of years. And
certainly it would be quite unfair to say that nothing can be pleaded
in favour of this interpretation. In point of fact, there is a very great
deal that may plausibly be pleaded. It is said that in the language
of scriptural prophecy a day is used for a period of time, and that
here also it may so be used. Another argument in favour of this
interpretation is to be found in the circumstance, that in other
cosmogonies the word day is so used. In the Indian account of the
origin of things, Brahma lay concealed in the world tg'g for 360 days,
but, as the tradition informs us, Brahma's days are each equal to
12,000,000 years. Again, in the traditions of Persia and Etruria, the
whole of creation is parcelled out into six stages similar to the six
days of Genesis, but each of these stages occupied 1000 years. But
the strongest argument in favour of this acceptation of day, is what is

XX THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

commonly known as the anthropomorphism of the biblical writers.
These writers make no scruple of speaking of God's eye, God's hand,
God's arm ; they freely say, " God looked down from heaven and
saw," " God came down," and so on. In this very chapter the writer
speaks of God as commanding in audible words, and in audible words
pronouncing a benediction. And it is urged that just as little as
we are compelled in these cases to take the words in their literal
acceptation, so little are we under the necessity of understanding by
day a mere twenty-four hours. In the words of the most felicitous
advocate of this view : " When in the cosmogony we read of six
days, we have surely no more right to suppose from this that in
these literal periods God actually created all things, than we have to
suppose that He literally spoke, named, or rested ; but we are to
understand that He created all things in such periods of time as
might to man's finite mind be most fitly represented by six days.
The whole history then is at unity with itself, being all constructed
on the same plan. Did man wish to know how God created .^ — he
had the image in his own command over his immediate servants.
Did he wish to know how God regarded His creation ? — he had the
image in his own satisfied inspection of some finished work. Did
he wish to know how long God took to create ? — he had the image

in one of his own week's labours This is the doctrine of

the cosmogony in regard to twie. No positive information as to
the actual time, such as might satisfy men's curiosity ; no hint as
to whether it were in itself long or short, a million of ages or a
few hours ; but only a vivid picture of the relation in which that
time stood towards the whole time of God's being, such as might
elevate man's conception of his Maker's greatness" (Warington,

72-74).

This explanation of the language used in this chapter will no doubt
seem satisfactory to many — others will feel that it is not likely that
those for whom it was first written would put this meaning upon it,
more likely that they would accept the word day as meaning twenty-
four hours. And in interpreting the Bible or any book, we must
always have regard to what would be understood by those for whom

INTRODUCTION. XXI

it was written. It was written not for scientific and learned men,
but for common people ; and as among ourselves common people,
until quite recently, universally understood that this chapter affirmed
that the world was made in a week, so it seems probable that those
who first heard or read it would understand the same. It seems
fair, therefore, to read the narrative as a child reads it, and accept
the words in their plain and obvious meaning. And if the man of
science objects and says to me that this chapter thus interpreted
gives a false view of creation, I reply that it does not give a false
view of the Creator — that it conveys a perfectly true and accurate
impression regarding those points on which it was meant to convey
instruction. It was not meant to be a revelation of nature, but a
revelation of God, and the ideas regarding God which it conveys are
just and weighty.

Free as this chapter is from all pedantic accuracy, no part of the
Bible bears more evident marks of inspiration. It stands in very
remarkable contrast to all other cosmogonies. It creates a distaste
for the fancies of heathen poets and philosophers. It is singular for
its sobriety and simplicity ; for its exemption from all those grotesque
and fantastic marvels which form the chief part of many other
accounts of creation. If any one will take the trouble to compare
it with the traditions current in the nations which might be supposed
to inherit the same stock of information as the Hebrews, he will be
astonished to find how very marked is the difference between them.
Every one who has studied the subject with care will endorse the
words of one of the most philosophical of our men of science :
" Certain it s, that whatever new views may now be taken of the
origin and authorship of the ist chapter of Genesis, it stands alone
among the traditions of mankind in the wonderful simplicity and
grandeur of its words. Specially remarkable — miraculous it really
seems to be — is that character of reserve which leaves open to reason
all that reason may be able to attain. The meaning of these words
seems always to be a meaning ahead of science ; not because
it anticipates the results of science, but because it is inde-
pendent of them, and runs, as it were, round the outer margin of

XXU THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

all possible discovery " (Argyll's Primeval Man, pp. 36, 37). The
efforts made by unaided human intellect, previous to the dawn of
science, to give an account of the origin of things, are among the
most melancholy evidences we have of the limitations of the human
mind ; and that in ihts account we do not find God placed in any
degrading or ludicrous attitude towards the world, but only in such
a relation to it as exalts our conceptions of Him, is at once matter of
thankfulness and evidence that in this chapter God Himself has had
a hand.

Note. — Some illustrations and references which seemed to interrupt
the consecutiveness of the accompanying commentary, I have put
within brackets. M. D.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

CHAPTER I. i-II. 3.— The Creation.

1 TN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 -*■ And the earth was without form, and void; and dark-

1. In thebeginnhig, at the first, before all known events and as the first act of
God in relation to human history (cp. John i. i). No date is given. God
created. The word for God, Elohim, though plural in form, is followed by a verb
in the singular, neither because it involves a plurality of persons nor because
it is a verbal survival from an extinct polytheism ; it is merely the "plural
of majesty" (cp. the "we" of sovereigns, etc.), or perhaps more correctly
the plural of quantity (cp. heavens^ waters)^ indicating the unlimited great-
ness of God. The name denotes the Being who is feared (cp. Gen. xxxi. 42).
In this and the following chapter four words are used to express God's action
in creation. They may be represented by our words create, make, form,
build. Not even the first of these (which is the word used in this verse) can
be said to express, certainly and invariably, the idea of creation out of
nothing. It originally or etymologically expresses the hewing 2xA cuttingly
which, e.g., a forest is cleared (Josh. xvii. 15, 18); and it is sometimes used
synonymously with make or form (Isa. xlv. 18, xliii. 7). But it is true, as
Moses Stuart says, that " if this word does not mean to create in the highest
sense, then the Hebrews had no word by which they could designate this
idea." And very significantly one part of this verb (the part here employed)
is never used of human action, but is appropriated to Divine agency. It
would seem, however, as if the idea of creation out of nothing were not here
in view. The writer merely desires to refer the origin of the known world,
the heaven ajid the earth, to God ; and he does not consider the question of
the eternity of matter. This verse is in fact a summary statement of the
whole work which in the following verses is described in detail. * God,'
6ays the writer, 'gave to the world its present form, capabilities, and
inhabitants. All that we see and know in natui-e God originated.' The
other view, that this verse expresses an act distinct from and providing the
material for the succeeding acts afterwards related, has many supporters ; see
especially Oehler, O. T. Theology, i. 170.

First Day of Creation, — 2. Without form, and void, or waste and
void, Heb. thohu vabhohu, where the alliteration or assonance aids the

2 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [l. 3-5.

ness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God

3 moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let

4 there be hght : and there was Hght. And God saw the light,
that // was good : and God divided the Hght from the dark-

5 ness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And the evening and the morning were the

expressiveness of the words, Cp. Chaos : rudis indigestaqtie moles ; and
Milton's

" Vast immeasurable abyss,
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild."

This expression of Milton freely renders the next clause, darkness was upon
the face of the deep, "the deep " being here used to denote the undulating,
chaotic, fluid mass which the earth then was. But into this chaotic darkness
an energizing influence from God found its way — the Spirit of God moved upon
(better, hovered over or brooded upon, cp. Deut. xxxii. 11) the face of the
waters. 'Y\vq. Q.x\tx&'i%\on hovered over co\i\A not be used of "a great wind,"
as some wish to translate the word rendered '•^ the Spirit of God." It signifies
the approach of a Divine influence to the helpless, lifeless chaos. Order and
life come from God, not from matter (cp. Ps. civ. 30). This Divine
quickening principle was not an impersonal, unconscious force. It was at
least accompanied by a conscious will, which is expressed in the words
(ver. 3) God said — words which imply not merely the ease with which
omnipotence creates (as in the Hindu cosmogony it is said, " God thought,
I will create, and the worlds were "), but ratlier the determination of a free
will (cp. Ps. xxxiii, 6, 9). Let there be light, a?id there was light (cp. 2 Cor.
iv. 6). The sublimity of the expression has often been remarked upon
{v. Longinus, De Subl. ix. 9). " Light is the first work, being not only the
finest of all elemental forces, but also the condition of all order and of all
life" (Dillmann). God saw the light, that it was good ; the result perfectly
corresponded to the design and will of God. It may therefore be presumed
that the light here spoken of is the same light we now enjoy, and not any
primeval luminous ether, such as possibly may have characterized one phase
of this planet's history. Besides, the writer immediately goes on to say that
the light and darkness had their boundaries fixed, and were called day and
night, that is to say, the division which still continues was then made, and
that which now distinguishes light from darkness was then introduced.
(Any allusion, therefore, to other light than that which the sun supplies is
here quite irrelevant.) In this and other instances in which God is said to
have called things by a certain name, we are of course not to suppose that
the actual Hebrew names were given, but only that the nature of the thing
which the name denotes was then fixed. What we mean by day and night
was introduced when God gave to darkness and light distinct qualities
(2 Cor. vi. 14) and separate spheres (cp. Job xxxviii. 12-20). This intro-
duction of light succeeding darkness made Xh^t first day ; and so the Hebrews
continued to reckon their days by evenings and mornings, putting the dark-
ness first. (So the Arabs, Athenians, Gauls, etc.) Pedantic objections
against this interpretation are urged by Dillmann ; but he is certainly correct
in maintaining that the "day" meant by the writer is a day of twenty-four
hours. Rationalism may twist Scripture into any meanings it pleases if it

I. 6-1 1.] THE CREATION. 3

6 first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the v/aters, and let it divide the waters firom the

7 waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the
waters which were under the firmament firom the waters

8 which were above the firmament : and it was so. And God
called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the

9 morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters
under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and

10 let the dry land appear : and it was so. And God called the
dry land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters

1 1 called he Seas : and God saw that it was good. And God
said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,

may put a geologist's meaning into this word "day." It is defined by
viorning and evening, which can only by unwarranted straining be referred to
a long period. Its meaning is also fixed by ver. 16. But especially does this
interpretation miss the object of the whole narrative, which is to reveal, not
second causes and physical processes, but God creating. Had the writer said,
"Then elapsed 100,000 years, which was the first day," he would have
introduced an incongruous and irrelevant element, suggesting the slow and
long-continued action of second causes when he meant to suggest the immediate
action of God's creative fiat

Second Day — The Creation of Heaven. — The chaotic darkness
having been dealt with, the watery mass is next reduced to order. This is
effected, in the first place, by separating the waters into under and upper
waters by means of a. firmament. Expanse is a more accurate rendering of the
word. But the purpose served by the expanse seems to involve the idea of
solidity conveyed by the word firtnatnent. What the Hebrew idea of the
sky was, is not quite easy to ascertain, partly because, like every other
nation, their ideas gained in accuracy as time passed ; and yet even in later
times poetical expressions, which must not be taken literally, preserved
former popular belief. That the sky was a structure, more or less solid,
capable of upholding the upper -waters, and with windows (sluices) which
could be opened to let these waters through, was probably in primitive times
believed (cp. Gen. vii. 11 ; 2 Kings vii, 2, etc.); but certainly these expres-
sions were still poetically used when physical phenomena were better under-
stood, cp. Job ix. 6 with Job xxvi. 7. [" The early Babylonians considered
that the world .... rested on a vast abyss of chaotic ocean which filled the
space below the world." — Smith's Chaldcean Account, p. 74.]

Third Day— Separation of Land and Water, and Creation of
Plants. — Chaos is reduced to a kosmos by a third separation of the con-
fusedly mixed elements. The waters, which were everywhere covering the
earth, are gathered together unto one place. A poetical description of this
process is given in Ps. civ. 6-9 ; cp. Job xxxviii. 8-11. God saw that
it was good, an expression which apparently precludes the idea of further
changes of importance being made on the earth's surface. The work of
clothing the earth with plants is included in this same day. let the earth
bring forth grass, etc The Avord translated grass means all tender, fresh

4 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [l. 12-20.

and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is

12 in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and
the tree yielding fruit, whose seeda^-atj- in itself, after his kind :

1 3 and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the

14 morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from
the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for

15 days, and years : and let them be for lights in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth : and it was so.

1 6 And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the
day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars

17 also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to

18 give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over
the night, and to divide the light from the darkness : and God

19 saw that // ivas good. And the evening and the morning

20 were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that
may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

green vegetation in general, of which two kinds are specified as being of
importance to man, or as embracing tlie chief products of the soil, the herb
and the fruit tree (cp. vers. 29 and 30). God said, Let the earth bring forth,
conferring on the earth power to reproduce annually the requisite food.
Hence, too, the mention of seed (cp. Lucretius, v. 783 : "In the beginning
the earth brought forth all kinds of herbage and verdant sheen," etc.).

Fourth Day — Creation of Heavenly Bodies as Lights. — There
was already light : these luminaries are created to regulate its distribution on
the earth. Keil's idea that these bodies already existed, and that it is only
their relation to earth that is now described, is subversive of the idea of
creation conveyed in the words ^^ Let there be" (cp. ver. 3, ver. 6). Dillmann
observes that this is the only work the purpose of which is definitely men-
tioned, and suggests that this may be a tacit protest against the superstitious
ideas which the Gentiles cherished regarding the heavenly bodies. The
purpose was threefold : — ist. To divide the day from the night, to mark off
light and darkness in their proper regions and limits. 2d. To be for signs
.... years ; to give men the means of calculating time, and also of naviga-
tion, and meteorological knowledge. There may also be allusion to eclipses
and abnormal appearances in the heavens as indicating disastrous events ;
but probably the chief reference in the Hebrew mind would be to the
calculation of feasts. 3d. They were to be for lights (cp. Lucretius, De Rer.
Nat. V. 1437). The relation between these light-bearers and the light
created on the first day is extremely difficult to grasp.

Fifth Day — Living Creatures introduced in Water and Air. —
Let the zuaters bring forth ; or rather, let the waters swarm with a swarm
of living creatures ; but not by any virtue inherent in the water, but, as the
next verse shows, by virtue of God's creative energy. This, therefore, is quite

I. 21-26.] THE CREATION. 5

2 1 And God created great whales, and every living creature that
moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind : and God saw

22 that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl mul-

23 tiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning Avere

24 the fifth day. And God said. Let the earth bring forth the
living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and

25 beast of the earth after his kind : and it was so. And God
made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after

26 his kind : and God saw that // was good. And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and let

a different idea from that which is found in the Lucretian and other heathen
cosmogonies. Cod created great whales, or rather, sea monsters, a word used
of crocodiles, Isa, xxvii. i ; of serpents, Ex. vii. 9 ; and of other sea-
monsters, Ps. cxlviii. 7. The abundance of animal life in the sea, and the
variety and marked distinction of species, had struck the Hebrew mind ; the
waters brought forth abundantly after their kind. As soon as life appears,
provision is made, by God's blessing, for its continuance : Be fruitful and
multiply. The same power had been conferred on the plants, but this
uttered blessing exhibits God's greater pleasure in the higher forms of animal
life and in creatures which can enjoy conscious happiness.

Sixth Day— Creation of the Land Animals and INIan. — Let the

earth bring forth And God made. The conjunction of the creative

energy of God with the inherent forces of nature, and the absence of all par-
ticulars, save this cosmogony from such grotesque and ludicrous representa-
tions as are found in other cosmogonies, e.g. in that of Lucretius. Even
Milton's picture of "the tawny lion, pawing to get free his hinder parts," etc.,
presents the origin of land animals in a somewhat ludicrous aspect, although
his seventh book is on the whole a commentary worthy of this chapter. And
God said. Let us niake man. The Creator approaches His last and highest
work, but pauses as if it were so important as to require deliberation. Man's
connection with the lower animals is shown by his being created on the same
day : his distinction from them, by the pause. The use of the plural, '''' Ret
us,'^ is variously accounted for. It would seem as if it were a summoning of
the heavenly inhabitants — the sons of God, who shouted for joy at the crea-
tion (Job xxxviii. 7) — to observe the work. Their participation in it (which
Dillmann justly condemns as Babylonish and not biblical) is scarcely implied
in the word, which merely expresses a gracious desire on God's part to take
His children along with Him in this great work. But the point of the ex-
pression lies in its suggestion that man's origin had a more direct connection
with God than that of the lower animals. The phrase, " Let the earth bring
forth," gives place to the majestic, "Let us make man;" and "it is no
longer * after his kind,' on a typical form of his own ; far less is it after the type
of an inferior creature. God said. Let us make man in our image'^ (Laidlaw,
Cun. Lee. p. 33). The phrase, in our likeness, is added merely for the sake

6 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [l. 27-II. I.

them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his ow7i image, in the image of God

28 created he him ; male and female created he them. And
God blessed them, and God said unto them. Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said. Behold, I have given you every herb bearing
seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree,
in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it

30 shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to
every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon
the earth, wherein there is life, / have given every green herb

3 1 for meat : and it was so. And God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, // was very good. And the evening
and the morning w^ere the sixth day.

Chap. ii. i. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and

of emphasis; "it is specially intended to express that the Divine image
which man bears is really one corresponding to the original pattern " (Oehler,
O. T. Theol. i. 211). This image of God which distinguished man from all
other animals would seem to consist "in those faculties and principles of
nature whereby he is capable of moral agency," (The subject is treated in all
its bearings by Dr. Laidlaw, Ctin. Lee.) A note of exultation is heard in the
rhythmical clauses of ver. 27, which enounce the great creative work. The last
clause means that one pair was created ; we should also gather from it, had we
no other information, that man and woman were created simultaneously. In
addition to the blessing pronounced on the other animals (ver. 22), man receives
dominion over . . . the earth, which is not the equivalent of his being made in
the image of God, but its result. The lower animals are not as yet given to
man for food. His food is provided (ver. 29) from the vegetable world, and
this apparently without labour on man's part (cp. Virgil, Georg. i. 125 ;
Tibullus, I. iii. 35; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 395; and Plato, Lazus, p. 782. "In
those days men are said to have lived a sort of Orphic life, having the use of
all lifeless things, but abstaining from all living things "). A Brahmin is said
to have crushed with a stone the microscope that first showed him living
things among the vegetables of his daily food. The lower animals them-
selves (ver. 30) are dealt with as if they were all graminivorous. The painless-
ness, and bloodlessness, and peace of the ideal world (Isa. xi. 6-9) is viewed
as an essential of the primitive world as it came from the hand of God.
Only on such a peaceful condition can God pronounce His (ver. 31) ^^very
good."

Seventh Day — God rests and sanctifies the Seventh Day.— The
work of creation, this particular form of Divine activity, ceased. Everything
had now been brought into being ; the heavens and the earth and all the host

II. 2, 3-] THE CREATION. 7

2 all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his
work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day

3 from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested
from all his work which God created and made.

of them ; these latter words referring to both heaven and earth (as more fully
described in Neh. ix. 6), though commonly used rather of the contents of
heaven, the stars, Isa. xl. 26 ; the angels, Ps. ciii. 21, and Luke ii. 13. Here it
refers not to the angels, but to the sun, moon, stars, everything which has been
mentioned as created in heaven and on earth. God rested on the seventh day,
i.e., from creating ; His activity was continued to uphold and govern (cp. John
V. 17). The writer says nothing of a rest continued beyond the seventh day. He
views the seventh day as interposed between the creative work and the activity
which is manifested throughout succeeding history (cp. Dillmann). Augustine
says [Conf. xiii. 51) "the seventh day hath no evening, nor hath it setting,
because Thou hast sanctified it to an everlasting continuance ; " Delitzsch and
Hugh Miller endorse this, and add that it is not said of this day "the even-
ing and the morning were the seventh day," apparently forgetting that it is not
the evening of the seventh day, but of the eighth, which would bring the
seventh day to a close. The real reason why the usual formula is not here
inserted, is that already (vers. 2, 3) the day has been again and again specified
as the seventh. [Traces of a division of time into weeks and of a weekly day
of rest are found in Accadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian records. Prof. Sayce
{Trans, of Bib I. A7-ch. Soc. iii.) cites the following: "The moon a rest, on the
seventh day, the fourteenth day, the twenty-first day, the twenty-eighth day,
causes." And from the "Babylonian Saint's Calendar" he quotes a similat
passage. Mr. Fox Talbot {ib. vol. iv.) cites a passage from one of the
Creation Tablets, in which the following words occur : " On the seventh day
He appointed a holy day, and to cease from all business He commanded ; " but
this translation is disputed by Mr. Boscawen in the Acadetny, p. 344, 1877.
The late Mr. George Smith [Assyrian Disc. p. 12) writes: "In the year
1869, I discovered, among other things, a curious religious calendar of
the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the
seventh days, or Sabbaths, are marked out as days on which no work
should be undertaken." For further information see Tomkins' Studies,
pp. 16-18 J Proctor's articles in Contemp. Rev. for March 1875, and June
1879.]

Remarks. — i. The six days seem to fall into two sets of three, which cor-
respond to one another, thus : —

1st Day, Light.

2d Day, Air and Waters.

3d Day, Land.

4th Day, Luminaries.

5th Day, Animals of Air and Water.

6th Day, Land Animals.

2. The points taught in this narrative are — 1st, that all things originate
from God ; 2d, that the Creator is a free, intelligent personal Being ; 3d,
that things were created not all at once, but in a regular order ; 4th, that man,
made in God's image, was the crown and guiding object of this order. (Other
points are well handled in Warington's very thoughtful little volume on The
Week of Creation.)

8 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ll. 4-7.

3. Information regarding other cosmogonies will be found in the work just
cited, and also in Kalisch's Comment.

1. Show the relation subsisting between this account of Creation and that

which seems to have been current in Babyloti.

2. Show in zuhat respects this account excels the other atuient cosmogonies

you know.

3. What does Delitzsch mean by calling the 2>th Psalm " a lyric echo " of

this account of man'' s creation ?

4. Find passages in Scripture in which the fact that man was made in

God's image is jnade the ground of prohibition of tnurder and slander.

CHAPTER II. 4-25. — Second Account of the Creation.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made

5 the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before
it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew :
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,

6 and tlwe was not a man to till the ground. But there w^ent
up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the

7 ground. And the Lord God formed man ^the dust of the

4. These are the generations, or, the following is the history. This is the
formula with which the larger sections of Genesis are regularly introduced, cp.
V. I, vi. 9, etc. It occurs eleven times, and always refers to what follows.
It will be observed that each section begins with a reference to, or slight
recapitulation of, the preceding narrative. The Lord God ; in Hebrew,
Jehovah [Yahveh] Elohim. Elohim is the generic term for Deity, and is
regularly i-epresented in our version by the word God. Jehovah is the
personal, incommunicable name of the one living and true God who entered
into covenant with Israel, and is regularly, and somewhat unfortunately,
represented in our version by Lord. The use of the title Lord God character-
ises the second and third chapters of Genesis, and is apparently intended to
indicate that the Creator and the God of Israel are one and the same.

5. Translate, No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of
the field had yet grown, for the Lord God, etc. The barrenness of the earth
is referred to two causes — the absence of rain, and of a man to till the ground.
The supply of these deficiencies is related in vers. 6 and 7.

6. But the7'e ivent tip ; the translators supposed that this mist had existed
during the rainless period, and therefore inserted '' but.'''' Both the grammar
and the sense require its omission. The mist now went up and watered the
ground : clouds appeared, and showers fell, and the earth was fertilized.

7 relates the supply of the second want, a 7na7i to till the ground. The
creation of man is presented in the simplest possible form. A figure of clay is
first moulded, and then life is communicated to it by the breathing of God,
[Cp. the legend of Prometheus; and Horace, Carm. I. xvi. 13; the IMan*

II. 8-1 0.] SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 9

ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and

8 man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden ; and there he put the man whom

9 he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God
to gi'ow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the

10 tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of

dans say that the Great Spirit made two figures of clay, dried them, and
breathed into them, and called the one "first man," and the other "com-
panion." Other similar traditions are given by Lenormant in the first
chapter of his Origines. The Chinese believe that man was made of yellow-
clay. The Egyptians believed that man was made of clay on a potter's
wheel, cp. Isa. Ixiv. 8. To find here anticipations of modern science, which
shows that the human body is composed of some of the elements which form
the earth's soil, is to put a fool's cap on the reconciliation of Scripture and
Science.] And man became a living soul, or, as it is translated in the nineteenth
verse, a living creature. No intimation is given in these words of any
endowment but that which sets man on a level with. the other creatures ; it is
physical life, such as they have, which is communicated to him. But the
statement that he derives this by the immediate agency of God {the Lord God
. . . breathed into his nostrils) hints that his life was in some way more directly
derived from God than that of the other animals was. [Those who are
acquainted with Mr. Wallace's theory of natural selection as applied to man
will remark the coincidence. The manner in which believing evolutionists
conceive of man's creation may be understood from these words of Mr. J. J.
Murphy: "The question, what point in the development either of the
individual or of the race is that where the spiritual nature has come in, cannot
be answered ; but it is not an important one to answer. It is, however, in
accordance with all the analogies of creation, if the Creative Power, which at
the beginning created matter, and afterwards gave it life, finally, when the
action of that life had developed the bodily frame, and the instinctive mental
power of man, completed the work by breathing into man a breath of higher
and spiritual life. "]

Planting of tpie Garden.— 8-14. The Lord God planted a garden, a
park planted with trees ; such as usually surrounded royal residences. These
parks were called in old Persian pairi-daeza, which Xenophon transliterates
into trxpii.hi<ro;, the word which the LXX, here use. It was situated east-
ward, i.e. from the point of view of the narrator, in Eden, a place no longer
recognisable, but called Eden from its pleasantness. [The Vulgate errone-
ously translates garden iii Eden by Paradisum voluptatis. The word seems
cognate with Heden, the abode of rest, where Zoroaster is said to have been
born.] This garden was planted with trees, and among them were two
extraordinary trees — the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Man's body, being " of the earth, earthy," was subject to the waste and decay to
which all matter is liable. He required food to sustain his life. He would
have died had this food been withheld. In this, primitive man resembled
ourselves ; but he had a capacity for immortality of a kind which has apparently
been lost. In Augustine's language he was not among those higher natures
whose attribute it is "non posse mori," but only among those to whom it is

10 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ll. II-14.

Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted,

1 1 and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison :
that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where

1 2 there is gold ; and the gold of that land is good : there is

13 bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second
river is Gihon : the same is it that compasseth the whole land

14 of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel :
that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the

given "posse non mori." In this h-ee of life provision was made for turning
the possibility of not dying into actuality. According to chap. iii. 22, this
tree imparted immortality. But as it vi^as not the quality of the actual fruit
growing on a tree which could open man's eyes and give him wider moral
experience, but rather his entire relation to the prohibited tree ; so in the
case of the tree of life, it was not the perishable fruit actually growing on a
tree which could give man immortality (a mere heathenish fancy), but only
man's abiding in fellowship with God and his becoming mature as God's
child. When man disobeyed, he was shut out from the garden ; that is, he
was banished from that nearness to God in which life was freely communi-
cated to him. The tree was the symbol of immortality, and obedience was
the condition of its enjoyment. The tree of knowledge is explained below,
in ver. 17. The fertility of the garden was maintained by a river which
flowed from Eden through the garden to water it ; and after leaving the
garden it was parted and became into fotir heads, or main streams. These are
named and carefully described as if in the writer's day they could be identified ;
and the third and fourth are still easily identified, being the well-known Tigris
and Euphrates. [Wright considers the word Hiddekel to be the Hebrew trans-
literation (somewhat corrupted) of the Pei-sian hu-tigra. Tigra is understood
by Rawlinson to mean rapid (cp. Horace, Od. iv. 14, 46, "rapidus Tigris ").
Von Bohlen quotes Eustathius, who says that the Tigris was so called from its
being swift as an arrow. The Persian word for arrow is radically the same.
The Tigris is still called Digila in Aramaean.] Regarding the other rivers
great ditference of opinion prevails. The first river is described as compass-
ing the whole land of Havilah, a land which would seem to have been the
boundary eastwards of the territory of the sons of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 18) ;
but this is generally supposed to have been another Havilah, and Rawlinson
tells us that "the learned generally" identify the country named in the text
here with "the Arabian tract known as Khawlan, in the N.w. portion of
the Yemen," The land is further identified by three products, ^ic/t/ (which
appears to have been found in Arabia in ancient times. See Ophir and
Sheba in Smith's Die.), bdellium, and the onyx stone. Bdellium is the
translation of the Hebrew word Bedolach, which most probably signifies
a gum that exudes from trees. The 07tyx is considered to be a correct trans-
lation (see Smith's Die., s.v.), but Lenormant prefers lapis lazuli. The
second river, Gihon, is described (ver. 13) as compassing the whole land
of Cush, The difficulty in this case arises from the scriptural use of this
name for two different territories, one in Africa, the other in Asia. The
Asiatic Cush is referred to in Gen. x. 8-1 1 ; Isa. xliii. 3, xlv. 14; Ezek.
xxxviii. 5 ; in which passages the district lying to the n.e. of the Persian Gulf
would seem to be meant. This still leaves the identity of these rivers

II. 15-18.] SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. II

1 5 fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man,
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep

16 it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of

1 7 every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely

18 die. And the Lord God said. It is not good that the man

obscure. Delitzsch ( Wo lag das Faradies) places Eden in Northern Babylonia,
identifying the Pison and Gihon with the Pallakopas and Shatt-en-Nil canals,
which seem originally to have been river beds. Lenormant finds the Pison
in the Upper Indus and the Gihon in the Oxus {Origincs, ii. 141). [The art.
"Eden" in Smith's Die. should be consulted; also, Kalisch's Covimcnt.
Kalisch's view is that "Eden, as the centre, sends forth four arms to the four
principal parts of the globe, — the Indus to the East, the Nile to the South, the
Tigris to the North, and the Euphrates to the West" — an ideal geography.]

Man placed in the Garden. — 15-17. Man was not intended to be idle:
the Lord God piU him . ... to dress it and to keep it, a certain amount of work
was required to procure his sustenance ; he had to dress the trees that they
might yield their best, and to keep the garden from being ti^odden by the
beasts. The primeval love of tending nature still lingers in the most
advanced races. The qualities of body and of character educed by agri-
culture are among the happiest and most valuable. But man's moral
nature was also to be developed : of every tree .... surely die. The
essential thing here is that man's education as a moral being at once began.
The kuozuledge of good and evil is ripe maturity of moral character. " A little
child has not yet this capacity [of knowing good and evil] (Deut. i. 39); it
appears as a mark of its growth (Isa. vii. 15) ; and its absence is a synonym
for second childhood (2 Sam. xix. 35) ; the Judge requires it as an essential
of his office (i Kings iii. 9) ; and it is possessed in a special degree by the
angels (2 Sam. xiv. 17); and by God Himself (Gen. iii. 22)." — Knobel.
Might we not then have expected that this tree above all others would be open
to man's use ? No ; for had it been freely given with the rest of the trees,
this would have signified what is not true, that man's moral development is
an external gift which he can receive without inward trial. The tree is pro-
hibited, to indicate that it is in presence of what is forbidden, and by self-com-
mand and obedience to law man is to attain his maturity. The prohibition
makes him conscious of the distinction between good and evil. He is put in
a position in which good is not the only thing he can do ; an alternative is
presented, and the choice of good in contradistinction to evil is made possible
to him. Childlike innocence was no longer possible in presence of this tree.
The prohibition made obedience a thing of will, and was a constant education
of conscience. The prohibition rather than the fruit gave its name to the tree.

An Helpmeet found for Man. — 18-25. "The tentative manner in
which God is represented as proceeding to accomplish this purpose is very
remarkable. He does not all at once form a woman, as might have been
expected, but first, as in the formation of the man himself, He produces from the
ground various kinds of beasts and birds, and brings each in succession to the
man, to see what he would call it " (Quarry, p. 98). The natural and only
tenable construction of ver, 19 i. that which understands it as the cairying cut

C

12 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ll. 1 9-24.

should be alone ; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto
Adam to see what he w^ould call them : and whatsoever Adam

20 called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And
Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and
to every beast of the field : but for Adam there was not found

2 1 an helpmeet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam, and he slept : and he took one of his ribs,

22 and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which
the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and

23 brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called

24 Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall

of the purpose expressed in the words of ver. 18 : I luill make him an help-
meet for him. God is represented as arriving at man's true helpmeet by an
exhaustive process, or at least as bringing man to choose his helpmeet by an
exhaustive process. What he thinks of each of the animals, he expresses in
the name he gives it, but he gives to none a name expressive of his complete
satisfaction, ["The giving of names to the animals, at a time when no other
human being existed, though language has its existence only in the exigencies
of our social condition, and the necessity of communication between human
beings, and then the limitation of this process of naming to the animal
creatures, taken in connection with the occasion as represented by the writer,
seem plainly only meant to indicate man's natural perception of the unfitness
of any of these inferior creatures to be his helpmeet." — Quarry, p. 100.] All
this preparatory work intensifies man's sense of loneliness, of separation from
all other creatures, and of the peculiar difficulty of finding an helpmeet for
him. And this prepares the reader for the details of the gradual process by
which this difficult work was accomplished (ver. 21). The Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, because man cannot be the observer of such
processes : and he took one of his ribs, indicating by this second and distinct
creative act that complete humanity is found neither in man nor in woman ; by
the formation of woman out of man, that she is dependent upon him (i Cor.
xi. 8) ; and by her being formed of his rib, that she is neither his servant nor
his idol, but his partner (cp. Tennyson's Princess ; Martensen's Christian
Ethics, Individ, pp. 11-19; Milton, P. Z. iv. 288-311). With this new
creature man is at once thoroughly satisfied: And Adam said, This is nozu bone
of my bones, i.e. This is now, this time or this turn, in contrast to the former,
unsatisfying creations (cp. Milton's "This turn makes amends," P. L. viii.
491) ; she shall be called Woman, etc. Woman is the Anglo-Saxon Wif-man,
the weaving man ; in Matt. xix. 4 the words, "He made them male and
female," are rendered, " He worhte wcspman and wifman ; " weapon-man, the
man that hunted and fought ; and wif-man, the web or woof man. But in
Hebrew the difference between the two words is merely the feminine ter-
mination. [The Talmud and Maimonides countenance the idea that Adam
was created at once male and female, a kind of double creature with a face
looking either way, and that his severance into two is what the text expresses.

IT. 25.] SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. T3

a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto
25 his wife : and they shall be one flesh. And they were both
naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Lenormant {Origines, p. 55) endeavours to show that this is borne out by
Gen. i. 28 and v. 2, This is the theory by which Aristophanes, in Plato's
Sympos. (pp. 189-193), accounts for sexual attraction: "human nature was
originally one, and we were a complete whole ; but since we were split into
two, the one half is continually seeking its other half, that they may become
one again."] The succeeding words (ver. 24) can manifestly only be the
words of the narrator, because as yet man knows nothing of "father and
mother." Therefore, because God made for Adam not a fellow-male, but one
who with him should begin a new generation, and because she was made of
his own flesh, a man shall leave his father and mother, not in them does he
find his complete development ; they by their parental and conjugal love carry
him on to the stage when his further growth and utility require that he cleave
unto his wife, to her who offers a new relationship and richer experience, to
one woman, because God made one, and no more, for Adam ; and they shall be
one flesh, amalgamating as those of different "flesh" (cp. ver. 23) could not
amalgamate. [For the legends regarding Lilith, see Moncure Conway's
Demonology, Part iv. c. ix.] The state of child-like innocence in which the
first man and woman lived is represented in ver. 25. They were as God
Iiad made them ; and could not have any sense of shame, having no sense of
evil. [Augustine says: "Nihil putabant velandum, quia nihil sentiebant
refrenandum." On the naked races and the caprices of modesty, see Peschei's
Races of Man, p. 173. Plato {Polit. 271), speaking of primitive men, says :
"In those days God Himself was their shepherd, .... and the earth gave
them abundance of fruits, which grew on trees and shrubs unbidden. And
they dwelt naked and mostly in the open air."] This verse forms the tran-
sition to the succeeding chapter, in which vers. 7 and 21 distinctly refer back
to it. Perhaps Quarry's statement is scarcely too strong: "While the way
for the statement of the Fall is prepared by the representation of innocence as
evinced in the freedom from shame notwithstanding the want of clothing, so,
on the other hand, according to the artificial peculiarity of the narrative, even
this momentous subject of the Fall seems introduced as if merely to explain
how the want of clothing, at first not felt to be a want, came to be the
occasion of shame, and so was felt to be a want, the supply of which, in accord-
ance with the suppletory character of the narrative, is at once provided."

Remarks. — i. One does not need to be a critic to see that we have in those
first two chapters two distinct narratives of creation, from two different
sources, and brought together by the compiler of the book. The narratives
differ from one another in their object, in their information, and in their style.
The object of the first is to give a general account of the origin of the whole
world of nature known to man; of the second, to give an account of the
creation of man and his immediate surroundings. [It is the "history proper
of the creation of man." — Ewald.] The second narrative agrees with the first
in representing man as the end and crown of creation, but it differs from the
first by representing man's creation as prior in point of time to that of the
animals. The most obvious distinction in style is the constant use of the
name Jehovah ("the Lord," "the Lord God") instead of the title God.
This characteristic marks the whole section from ii. 4-iv. 26. In connection

14 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [REMARKS.

with this suhject, Er. Laidlaw's very guarded statement may he quoted :
" We accept the fact that there are two creation-narratives or paragraphs
contained in these two chapters respectively. We take nothing to do with
theories that posit an Elohist writer for the one and Jahvist for the other.
Leaving the documentary hypothesis to time and criticism, we begin witli this
fairly-accepted result, namely, that the human author of Genesis found to his
hand certain fragments of ancient tradition, either recited from memory or

preserved in writing, which he embodied in this inspired book But

surely a history does not cease to be the veritable product of its author because
it contains documentary or extracted material. Nor does inspiration, as we
understand it, refuse to consist with the recital or insertion of other communi-
cations enshrined in the religious belief of those to whom were committed the
sacred oracles" {Ctinning. Lcct. p. 29).

2. Although the naming of man is not related until ch. v. 2, it may be con-
venient here to observe that Adam is the name both of the race and of the
individual first man. The derivation of the word is disputed. The difficulty
oi ditxWmg'ii hoxa Ada mail, " the ground," is that this would be to derive
the simpler from the more developed form. To evade this difficulty some
have derived both words from the root Adam, " to be red." But, as Dillmann
remarks, such a name could only have been given in contradistinction to
other races, white and black, and could therefore only be of later origin.
A possible root for the word has been suggested in the Sanskrit Adiiiia,
•'the first." In the Assyrian tablets the name of the first man appears as
Admit- or Adamii. It would seem possible, therefore, that the name Adam
existed in some slightly different form in a more ancient language than the
Hebrew, and that it is either radically connected with the word for
"ground" (earth, soil), or that the similarity of the words was utilized by
the Hebrews to represent man's derivation from the earth. The colour oi
the primitive man cannot, at least on evolutionary principles, have been
black. For the new-born negro child is at first reddish nut-brown, which
soon becomes slaty grey, with blue eyes and chestnut hair. Quatrefages
thinks yellow the likeliest colour. Both Darwin and Bastian felt that their
own white skin had a rather sickly and washed-out look alongside of the
South Sea people. (Cp. Mivart's Lessons from Natuj-e, p. 185; Darwin's
Descent of Man, ii. 318; Quatrefages' Human Species, p, 242; Peschcl,
Races, p. 174.)

1. Give derivations of w\2Si, homo, vir, etc.

2. Describe in yoiir oivn words ilie condition of man in Ed.n ; lo/iat tools

Jiad he, what shelter, etc.

3. '■'■Adam is represented to us in Genesis ?iot only as naked, and stih-

seqiiently clothed with leaves, but as unable to resist the most trivial
temptation, and as entei'taining very gross and anthropomorphic
conceptions of the Deity. In fact, in all these characteristics— in
his mode of life, in his moral conceptions, and in his i7itellcctnal
conceptions — Adam was a typical savage." Criticise this state-
ment, and also the follozving : — ^^ An Aristotle tuas but the rubbish
of an Adam, and Athois Init the rudiments of Paradise.""

4. Divide the book of Genesis into sections by the help of the formula,

" These are the generations . . . ."
5 Account for the translation <?/■ Jehovah by Lord, aiid instance passages
in zvhich this translation obscures the sense.

III. 1-6.] THE FIRST SIN. 1 5

CHAPTER III.— The First Sin.

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of

2 the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may

3 cat of the fruit of the trees of the garden : but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die :

5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good

6 and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make ojie wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did

The Temptation and Fall.— 1-7. Through the subtilty of the Serpent
the woman is induced to eat the forbidden fruit ; she gives it also to her
husband, and in consequence they become ashamed of their nakedness.
How long they had dwelt in the garden before this happened we are not
told. The suggestion of disobedience came through //tt' jfr/^?;//, a creature
reckoned by the ancients to be, both for good and evil, more subtle than any
beast of the field. (Cp. Matt. x. i6 ; 2 Cor. xi. 3; John yiii. 44.) The
Egyptians, e.g., employed one species as the emblem of Divine and sacro-
regal sovereignty, while another was looked upon as the representative of
spiritual, and occasionally physical evil, and was called "the destroyer, the
enemy of the gods, and the devourer of the souls of men." (See Cooper's
monograph on the Serpent Myths ofAticient Egypt.) In the sacred writings
of Zoroastrianism the serpent also figures : " I created the first and best of
dwelling-places. I who am Ahuramazda. But against it Angromainyus,
the murderer, created a thing inimical, the serpent out of the river and the
••vinter." Among the Jews the serpent became the symbol of Satan ; but it
is to be observed that in this chapter the animal alone is spoken of. The
serpent addresses the woman "opportune to all attempts" (Milton, P. L.
ix. 481), cp. I Tim. ii. 12-15, and expresses surprise that God had placed
any restiiction on human conduct and enjoyment. Her reply is defensive of
God's kindness : one tree only was forbidden, and that because it was hurtful :
Ye shall not eat of it . . . lest ye die. The serpent then bluntly denies the
affirmation of God (ii. il), ye shall not snrely die: this strong affirmation of
the certainty of death as the result is not true. Not out of loving care has
God's prohibition been laid upon you, but out of a jealous fear lest yon shall
be as gods. The one point of truth is skilfully set by the tempter so as to
give entrance to the falsehood. He insinuates into the woman's mind
distrust of God, a slight suspicion that under the veil of kindness another
spirit might be hid, and gaining this he goes far to gain the day. He offers
an inconceivable enlargement of experience— this was the inducement. And
inhen the woman, saw, etc. " Our great security against sin," says Newman,
"consists in our being shocked at it. Eve gazed and reflected when she

l6 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ill. 7-13.

eat, and gave also unto her husband with her ; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together, and

8 made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day : and
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

9 Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord
God called unto Adam, and said unto him. Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was

11 afraid, because I ivas naked; and I hid myself. And he
said. Who told thee that thou ivast naked ? Hast thou eaten
of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest

12 not eat ? And the man said. The woman whom thou gavest

13 to he with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And

should have fled." In the description of the consequence (ver. 7) there is,
if not irony, at least an allusion to the promise of the serpent : the eyes of both
of tliem were opened, but A\hat they saiv was that they zoere naked. The word
of promise was kept to the ear, but broken to the hope, " They lost Eden,
and they gained a conscience " (Newman, viii. 258). From the state of
childlike innocence in which unquestioning obedience was enough for them, they
pass by one act of disobedience into a state in which choice and self-restraint
had to be exercised. This one act of sin gives a voice and an actuality to
conscience it had not before. This is the birth of conscience. As pain makes
tis conscious of our bodies, guilt makes us conscious of our souls. Feeling
their need of a covering they seived fig-leaves together, ^'^•hich is precisely -what
is still worn by several tribes. Schweinfurth and Baker tell us of African
tribes whose sole article of clothing is a bunch of leaves plucked from the
nearest bush.

God's Examination of the Transgressors. — 8-13. And they heard
. . and hid themselves. In consistency with the anthropomorphism of the
narrative, God is represented as walking, apparently accoi'ding to custom, in
the eool of the day, lit. the wind of the day, when the light breeze of evening
invites Orientals to emerge from the shelter of their dwellings. Adam and
his wife heard the voice, which Kalisch and Dillmann take to mean the
sound of His footfall, referring to Lev. xxvi. 36 ; i Kings xiv. 6. But
instead of going to meet Him as was their wont, they hid the??! selves, con-
scious of guilt (cp. Jer. xxiii. 24; Amos ix. 2, 3 ; Ps. cxxxix. 7-12). But
God desired man's presence still, and therefore called imto Ada??i . . .
Where art thoti ? Adam ascribes his reluctance to appear before God to his
nakedness. [INItesa, king of Uganda, punished with death every man who
appeared in his presence with even an inch of his leg uncovered. — Speke,
Soicrces of Nile, i. 262.] This was not his chief reason, but it betrayed
his transgression. Who told thee that thou wast naked? Who was there
to tell him, but his own conscience? Nast thou eatoi, etc. Is it this
that has opened your eyes, and has made childlike innocence for ever im-
possible to you? The man, feeling how foolish and wicked he has been,
tries to shift the blame to the %vo?nan, and even to God Himself, for thou

III. 14, 15.] THE FIRST SIN. 1 7

the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou
hast done ? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me,

14 and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou aj-t cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou

15 go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life : and I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou

gavest her to be toilh me. The woman in like manner shifts the blame to the
serpent (ver. 13).

Judgment pronounced,— 14-19. The serpent, being the prime offender,
is first judged. The beast is treated as a moral agent, responsible and
culpable. But the sentence pronounced is in terms appropriate only to the
beast: on thy belly shalt thou go, etc., which, if the narrative be taken
literally, plainly implies that before the sin the serpent did not crawl. The
added clause, dust shalt thou eat, expresses not an additional punishment,
but the consequence of crawling ; literally true of worms, but not of serpents,
except in so far as, like other animals, they may swallow soil with their food ;
it brings out more clearly the degraded kind of life to which the serpent was
doomed. [Sometimes the locomotive power of the serpent, propelling itself
in graceful curves, appears to give it superiority both in grace and power,
rather than inferiority. "The serpent can outclimb the monkey, outswim
the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger "
(Richard Owen). But the silent, stealthy motion is naturally repulsive.
"There are myriads lower than this, and more loathsome in the scale of
being . . . but it is the strength of the base element that is so dreadful in
the serpent ; it is the veiy omnipotence of the earth, ... It is a Divine
hieroglyph of the demoniac power of the earth — of the entire earthly nature.
As the bird is the clothed power of the air, so this is the clothed power of
the dust ; as the bird is the symbol of the spirit of life, so this of the grasp and
sting of death." The whole characteristic and magnificent passage should
by all means be read in Ruskin's Queen of the Air, p. 68, etc] And I will
fnt enmity . . . and her seed. The antipathy between man and the serpent
is great. See the passages from the classics in Lange. In some parts of
India the natives will not pass a serpent without killing it. But sharks and
tigers are probably as much hated, though the language here employed
supposes the serpent to be exceptional in this respect, and the narrative
nowhere explains man's position of antagonism to so many others of the
creatures. Enmity between man and any of the creatures is undoubtedly
an important element in a cursed condition. It would appear as if the
mention of enmity were here introduced for the sake of showing that the
tempter, so far from ingratiating himself with the tempted, excites his hatred.
This enmity was to be perpetual, between thy seed and her seed, and it was to
be characterized by features appropriate to the combatants ; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel, which denotes, not that the injury
in the one case was to be fatal, in the other, not ; — for the bite of a serpent
on the heel is quite as likely to be fatal to man as a blow on the head is
fatal to the serpent — but that the strife would be carried on openly and

l8 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ill. l6-20.

1 6 shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt
bring forth children ; and thy desire shall he to thy husband,

1 7 and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying. Thou
shalt not eat of it : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in

1 8 sorrow shalt thou eat of'iX. all the days of thy life; thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the

19 herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast
thou taken : for dust thou art^ and unto dust shalt thou return.

20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the

boldly by the man, stealthily and craftily by the serpent (cp. Gen. xlix. 17).
That the serpent would have the worst of the long conflict results from the
fact of its being cursed. Looking back upon this curse, and turning upon it
the light of the Incarnation, we can read into its symbolical terms a large
meaning which could not have previously been discerned. The woman next
heard her doom. The outstanding evils of woman's life and lot presented
themselves to the Hebrews under the heads here mentioned — the pain in,
yet longing for childbearing, and her inferior position. And these are here
referred to the first sin as their cause. The man is doomed to labour and
death. Already (ii. 15) man was obliged to labour, but it was congenial,
easy, and remunerative. Henceforth it was to be repellent, in son-ozu shait
. . . life; unremunerative, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth ; hard and
toilsome, in the sweat of thy face, etc. ; lifelong, //// then retnrn tinto the
groitnd (Ps. xc. lo). [According to Hesiod {Works and Days, 43, 116), men
in the earliest ages could by one day's labour provide food for a year ; the
ground yielded spontaneously and copiously ; their death was like a falling
asleep ; but afterwards Jove hid far away the means of sustenance, so that
man had to spend his whole time in seeking it. Quarry says, "Dislike to
labour in due moderation is itself a sinful consequence of the fall ; and the
natural reluctance to excessive labour makes the necessity of it, which a state
of society that is partly the result of sin has produced, a real punishment.
The inequality in the amount of labour each has to perform, the differences
in its kind, the discontent that each feels with the irksomeness of his own
work, of which he is sensible, as compared with that of others, which he
does not feel, and therefore does not think as great as that of his own
labour, the difficulty so many find by their utmost labour to maintain their
existence in a selfish and rapacious world — all these and many other effects
of human sin have made the labour that would have been man's happiness in
his innocence, and so often is his happiness now too in many ways, and at
any rate conduces to or is necessary for his welfare, to be at the same time
felt as a punishment, and actually to be so in many instances and in some
respects."]

Adam names his Wife. — 20. He calls her Eve [Cliavah], i.e. Life,
hccatise she was the mother of ciU living^, of course of all living human beings.

III. 21-24.] THE FIRST SIN. I9

21 mother of. all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the

22 l>ord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the
Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to
know good and evil : and now, lest he put forth his hand, and

23 take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: there-
fore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to

2 \ till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out
the man ; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubim, and a flaming sword -svhich turned every way, to
keep the way of the tree of life.

[Singularly enough the Polynesians of Fakaafo have a tradition that the first
man called his wife Ivi, a word which in their language means a ri/>.]
Adam had already (ii. 22) called, her Is/ia, a name suggested by her relation
to himself. Her relation to posterity is suggested by the prospect of their
own death (ver. 19), and by the mention of their children (ver. 16).

God clothes Adam and Eve. — 21. This provision of more sufficient
clothing than fig leaves seems intended to convey the idea that the sense of
shame was proper and would continue, and also that God meant still to care
for man. The act serves as a good illustration of the real covering of man's
shame by God as opposed to men's own attempts to provide fit covering (see
Trench's Sermon on Coats of Skins).

Man banished from the Garden, — 22-24. By an unusually bold
anthropomorphism God is represented as jealous of man's attaining son.e
fuller resemblance to Himself : the man is become as one of ns, that is, he is
l;ecome, like the higher intelligences (see on ch. i. 26), to knoxv good and evil.
Among the heathen God is believed to be thus jealous (see Herodotus,
passim) ; but here the anthropomorphic language may be supposed to
express God's disapprobation of man's attempt to enlarge his experience and
elevate his nature by disobedience. As death had been enounced as the
penalty of disobedience, man is sent forth from the garden of Eden, lest he
should take of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever. And to guard against
his return, to keep the way of the tree of life, God placed Cherubim and a
flaming szuord at the one possible entrance. On the form of the cherubs
and their resemblance to the griffins of Greek and Assyrian mythology, see
Smith's Diet. Lenormant devotes the 3d chapter of his Origines 10 the
cherubs and the sword. He shows that the Assyrians, between the loth
and 5th centuries B.C., used this word cherub {kirtd^) to denote the winged
bulls with human heads which were placed at the gates of palaces as their
guardians. They were clearly and universally understood to denote the
genius of the place, the angels or powers invisible which were appointed to
guard temple or palace or town, and prevent the entrance of those to whom
entrance was foibidden. The rotating sword he believes to be equivalent
to the Indian tchakra and the old Assyrian littn, a disc with sharp edges,
and having a hole in the centre through which the fingers were passed, to
inijiart to the weapon a whirling motion before it was launched. lUit Fox
Talbot translates an account of a "sword which turned four -ways ... a
whirling thunderbolt, with double flames impossible to extinguish."

20 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [REMARKS.

Remarks. — i. The character of this narrative has been very accurately
described by Martensen as "a combination of histoiy and sacred symbolism,
a figurative presentation of an actual event." This is the idea of the narrative
which may be said to have gained greatest favour among believing critics.
Thus Quarry calls it "a true history setting forth under an allegorical form
undoubted facts. " Laidlaw says that ' ' in maintaining the real character of
the narrative, we must be careful not to betray our position by insisting on a
prosaic literalness of interpretation." Man's original innocence ; his tempta-
tion, transgression, and punishment ; the promise of deliverance — these may be
truths and historical facts, although related in language which, by its pictorial
vividness, is better calculated to instruct, and to lodge in the memory, than a
strictly literal account of such transactions and events could have been. The
serpent is throughout spoken of as the mere brute-serpent ; he is compared in
subtilty to the other beasts of the field, the punishment pronounced upon him
is a punishment suitable and possible only to the actual serpent — not a word
is said of any fallen angel or devil, but, throughout, it is the animal that
crawls on the ground and is one of the ordinary brute creation that is referred
to. Yet, without any difficulty, this representation was interpreted of "that
old serpent, the devil and Satan." It was felt to be quite absurd to suppose
that the great conflict of earth was to be between man and one of the lower
animals ; and accordingly, though the narrative speaks explicitly and solely
of the literal serpent, it has always been interpreted as meaning some more
spiritual and formidable enemy of mankind. It was recognised that the im-
portant matter to be gathered from the narrative was not that one of the beasts
spoke and seduced man to sin, but that some evil power instilled into man's
mind thoughts of suspicion and distrust of God and desires after a wider
experience, and that thus man was led to sin. Similarly, it is found to be
impossible to accept the full teaching of the narrative, unless we attach more
than the literal meaning to the two trees of the garden.

It may be felt that there is thus introduced into the interpretation of the
narrative some uncertainty, that every one is left to his own judgment as to
what is literal and what has some deeper meaning. But this is quite as it
should be. Such representations as are here given are fitted to suit all stages
of mental and spiritual growth. Let the child read it, and the picture will
never grow dull in its colours ; and its sharpness of outline will help him to
definite ideas which are radically true, and which expand with his own
growth into some nearer approximation to the full truth. Let the devout man
who has ranged through all science and history come back to this narrative,
and he feels that he has here, better than anywhere else, the essential truth
regarding the beginnings of man's tragical career upon earth.

[" There is nothing uncertain or arbitrary in the explanations which arise
with sufficient readiness from the passage itself. Enough of the historical
facts are patent to suffice for all the moral and religious uses of such a
narrative ; nothing is told merely to gratify curiosity. The details that could
only serve this end are withdrawn behind the veil of a mystical mode of repre-
sentation. Such details of historical circumstance not being within the
sphere of the writer's observation, or of his ordinary means of information,
could only be known by a direct and immediate revelation, while yet, not
being needful for any religious use, they are matters in regard to which
revelation is not to be expected. The alternative of such a revelation of actual
details would be the presenting the events of moral significance under the veil
of a mystical representation, which should contain in itself sufiiciently distinct

REMARKS.] THE FIRST SIN. 21

indications of the symbolical character of that representation, and of which
the import should be sufficiently intelligible for all the moral and religious
uses of the narrative. These conditions are beautifully and strikingly fulfilled
in these chapters." — Quarry, p. 155.]

2. A very striking comparison of this narrative with the myth of Prometheus
will be found in Symond's Greek Pods, 2d series, p. 115, References to other
sources of information are given in Geikie's Hours with the Bible, pp. 126-129.
Geikie has also collected from various mythologies the most striking analogies
to this narrative. The tree with its fruit, the serpent, the tempted man and
woman, appear in the mythological representations of Phoenicia, Scandinavia,
and Assyria. The destroying of the serpent is familiar to Egyptian and
Indian thought. [If possible, there should be shown to a class such pictures
as are reproduced by Geikie, or by Macphail, Momimental Witness to O. T.
History, Plates i., ii., iii.]

3. In tuhat sense was the Fall an advance? "The only thing about that
view Avhich has reason is that self-determination must be a moral movement.
We have above decided that moral indifference or equilibrium is not, according
to Scripture, a thinkable view of man's original state, that a human being
without moral quality is no such being as God could create. Yet, though we
cannot start with moral indifference, though we posit original uprightness, the
Scripture makes it sufficiently plain that there lay before man, in his primitive
state, such a self-determining act or series of acts as would have led him out
of moral childhood or pupilage into moral perfection and holy manhood.
From this state of pupilage he would have emerged by self-denial and
obedience. But it is true that he did emerge from it the wrong way by his
act of self-assertion and transgression of law in the fall. There was a portion
of truth in the tempter's plea, that there should be a gain of knowledge by
disobedience. The idea of moral progress in Adam's case implied a self-
determining act in the matter of the commandment. And the fall was such an
act ; it brought him at once out of the childlike naivete o^ the paradisaic state.
But so far is this from supporting the theory that evil enters as a necessary
factor into human development, that it only rightly states the truth of which
that theory is a perversion." — Laidlaw, 148.

1. Give the N. T. passages in which reference is juade to the symbolism of

Eden.

2. Hoiv do you account for the serpent becoming the syjjibol of the healing

art? and show in detail the fitness of the serpent to be a symbol of sin.

3. Verse 15 is sometimes called the ^^ protevangclium.''^ Explain the word,

and shota in zvhat sejise it is applicable here.

4. Trace through Scripttire the symbol of the Cherub, and explain its tie

in each case.

5. Shozv how the various steps in the Temptation and its im?nediate con-

sequences are reproduced in oj-dinary circuimtanccs.

22 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [iV.

CHAPTER IV. 1-24. — History of Cain and his Line.

1 And Adam knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived, and bare

2 Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And
she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of

3 sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process
of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the

4 ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought
of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the

5 Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering : but unto

The development of evil upon earth is traced in Cain's jealousy and murder
of his brother. The origin of city life and of the arts, as well as of nomadic
life, is traced.

Cain's Murder of his Brother. — 1-8. Cain, i.e. possession, ox
acquisition [Kalisch compares the Greek names Epidetus and Ctesias] ;
explained by Eve in the words "I have gotten a man from the Lord," or,
I have gotten [or, with Gesenius, produced] a male child by the help
of the Lord. Luther and others translate "I have gotten a man, even
Jehovah," as if Eve believed that this was the promised seed, the Incarnate
God ; an interpretation which cannot be tolerated. And she again bare,
but not, as some suppose, at the same time, so that the two sons were
twins. Abel [Hebel], breath, nothingness, vanity (though some consider
it to be connected with the Assyrian hahlu, a son). It is not said that
Eve gave him this name, though it is possible that before his birth she had
experienced so much of the emptiness of life as to prompt it ; but it would
rather seem as if the name were given in recognition of the brief life of Abel
himself. Abel ivas a keeper of sheep, a new occupation ; but for what purposes
did he keep sheep ? For clothing : possibly for food ; hvX if so, this is a great
advance upon the primitive condition. Cain tills the ground. The one brother
chooses the more peaceful and emotional, the other the more active, occupa-
tion. The pastoral life seems always to have been held in higher esteem
than the agricultural among the Hebrews. But the agricultural succeeds the
pastoral in the order of civilisation. And in process of time, lit. at the end
of days, i.e. when some time had expired after they had begun their occupa-
tions. Cain brought . ... an offering, Heb. niinchah, always in the law an
imbloody sacrifice, opposed to zebach ; but here used of Abel's offering also.
The narrative leaves us to suppose that the offerings were spontaneous, the
natural tribute felt to be due to God. In all nations there has sprung up the
habit of offering sacrifices, "which are, in their most general acceptation, gifts
by means of which man tries to make good his imperfect consecration of himself
to God, who is his lawful Lord " ( Archb. Thomson, Atoning Work of Christ,
p. 30). The Lord had respect unto Abel .... How the acceptance of the one
and the rejection of the other was manifested we are not informed. A common
idea has been that fire from heaven fell on the accepted offering (cp. i Kings
xviii. 38). This could scarcely be the ordinary normal sign. Subsequent
prosperity and feelings of peace were enough to suggest to primitive men that
they were in God's favour-. The reason of the rejection of Cain's offering was
that he had not been "doing well," vcr. 7. [" It would be strange if the g:)ds

IV. 6-1 I.] HISTORY OF CAIN AND HIS LINE. 23

Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was

6 very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said
unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance

7 fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and
if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee

8 shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain
talked with Abel his brother : and it came to pass, when they
were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother,

9 and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel
thy brother ? And he said, I know not : am I my brother's

10 keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of

1 1 thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And
now aj't thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her

looked to gifts and sacrifices and not to the soul," Plato, Alcib. ii. 149 E.]
Notice that the offering is secondary : Abel and his qfarhig, Cain and his
offering ; the man and his state of spirit are the important elements. Cai^i
was very 7uroth, angry both with God and his brother. [Those who do not
serve God hate him who does, "because they cannot help wishing that tliey
were like him, yet they have no intention of imitating liim, and this makes
them jealous and envious. Instead of being angry with themselves, they are
angry with him." — Newman, Serni. viii. 143.] God sees the anger of Cain and
whither it tends, and remonstrates with him ; ver. 6, the Lord said nnto Cain
.... ivhy is thy countenance fallen ? If thon doest well^ shalt thon not be
accepted., or rather, is there not lifting up, that is, of thy countenance ; be
not gloomy and angry as if you had a partial God to deal with, but do right
and cherish loving thoughts, and your face will be bright and open. But if
thon doest not well, sin lieth at the door, if you cherish your present feelings
and do not humbly repent, sin lies in wait for you so that you cannot go out
without meeting it — 7into thee, or towards thee is his desire, that is, sin, like
a beast of prey, thirsts for your blood, but thou shouldst rule over him,
thou shouldst resist, mastering your own evil spirit and so defeating sin. But
Cain did not take heed. He talked with Abel, or rather, said it to Abel,
repeated to Abel what God had said to him, which is improbable, unless the
last half of ver. 7 be interpreted of Abel and not of sin. Wright prefers to
insert the words "Let us go into the field," the reading adopted by the
Samaritan MS., the LXX., the Vulgate, etc.

Judgment OF THE Fratricide. — 9-16. The voice of thy brothers blood
crieth. Among the ancient Arabs it was believed that if a man had been
murdered his spirit hovered over the grave in the form of an owl, crying,
" Give me drink," until the murderer's blood was shed. The idea of a sin
or crime crying to heaven is common in Scripture, Gen. xviii. 20, etc. In
Ileb. xii. 24 the blood of Christ is represented as crying more loudly for
mercy than that of Abel had cried for vengeance. Now art thon cursed from
the earth, apparently equivalent to, cursed in this form of banishment from
the place where this crime has been committed ; but with the underlying idea
of the curse proceeding from the earth which had received his brother's
blood. The earth is represented as more humane than Cain and as hiding

24 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [iV. 1 2-1 6.

1 2 mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand ; when
thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
her strength ; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the

13 earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is

14 greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out
this day from the face of the earth ; and from thy face shall
I be hid ; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the
earth ; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth

15 me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him. Therefore
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him
sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any

1 6 finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the
presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the

from men's sight the horrible signs of fratricide. The earth was not only
to refuse her fruit, but even a resting-place to Cain. He was to be driven
about by his sense of guilt. [Nowhere is the murderer's misery so well
delineated as in Hood's Dream of Eugene Aram.] This, Cain felt, was
greater than he could hear. There is not a word of shame or sorrow, only of
complaint such as might induce God to lessen his punishment. His own
criminality prompts him to fear the violence of others ; rueiy one that findeth
me shall slay me. Delitzsch says that the murderer sees himself surrounded
on all hands by avenging spirits, and so Cain's imagination peoples the un-
inhabited earth. Others see evidence here (and elsewhere) of the existence
of a pre- Adamite race. Therefore (said the Lord), because there is justice in
Cain's anxiety, and because interminable blood - revenge is not to be
countenanced, he receives a special protection : whosoever slayeth Cain ....
and the Lord set a mark vpon Cain; oi-, as other translators prefer, gave a
sign to Cain, It is difficult to conceive of any visible mark which should
warn men not to touch Cain, and a mark which should merely identify him
would of course be rather a danger than a benefit. An interesting parallel
occurs in the Laivs of 3fenu, which enjoin branding as a punishment of
certain crimes : —

" Let them wander over the earth ;
Branded with indelible marks,
They shall be abandoned by father and mother,
Treated by none with affection ;
Received by none with respect."

16. Nod means wandering, unsettled, an appropriate name for the land
of the sinner, who has lost his true settlement in his Father's presence and
love. No known land is now called by this name. The Vulgate takes the
word as an adjective, ''dwelt in the land as a wanderer." But our version
is correct.

Remarks. — i. The curse of sin appears as directly inflicted by the sinner
himself. The first death is by the hand of man, by sin. As if to show that
death is from sin rather than from God, the first death is a murder, a trans-
gression of the law of God.

2. Sacrifices were intended to be the embodiment and expression of a

IV. I7-20.] HISTORY OF CAIN AND HIS LINE. 2$

1 7 east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife ; and she conceived,
and bare Enoch : and he builded a city, and called the name

iS of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto
Enoch was born Irad : and Irad begat Mehujael : and Mehu-

19 jael begat Methusael : and Methusael begat Lamech. And
Lamech took unto him two wives : the name of the one was

20 Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare

state of feeling towaixls God, of a submission or offering of men's selves to
God, of a return to that right relation which ought ever to subsist between
creature and Creator. Christ's sacrifice is valid for us when it is that out-
ward thing which best expresses our feeling towards God, and through which
we offer ourselves to God.

1. Name some races or tribes who neither keep sheep nor till the ground.

IIozo do they subsist ?

2. What was Cain's motive in killing Abel?

3. Explain ver. 7 ; and also explain in what sense it is true that the

acceptance of the offering depends on the acceptance of the offerer,

4. Why was Cain not put to death ?

5. What allusions are made to Abel's death in the A^. T. ?

6. Explain the expression: ^^ the blood of sprinklings that speakcth better

things than that of Abel ^

7. What is the derivation ^t/" rival ? why do brothers so often quarrel?

8. Learn and criticise : —

" Oh ! thou dead
And everlasting witness ! whose unsinking
Blood darkens earth and heaven ! what thou now art
I know not : but if thou seest what I am,
I think thou wilt forgive him whom his God
Can ne'er forgive, nor his own soul."

Cain's Descendants.— 17-24, And Cain .... bare Enoch, a name
meaning dedication or initiation, as if Cain saw in his son a new starting-
point for the race. Cut off from the old stock, he will begin afresh (cp.
Napoleon's vowing he would found a family, if not himself of great lineage).
He also builded a city, or, as the LXX. translate, he was building, he
employed himself in building. The city would not be large and magnificent
(as described by Macaulay, Marriage of Tirzah), but a collection of huts
surrounded by a hedge would be the beginning whence all social law and
government were to develop. The inhabitants are suggested in ver. 18.
On the names in this verse see notes on next section. In the seventh from
Adam there is a culmination of the characteristics of Cain's line. Lainech
.... tzi'o zoives, mentioned not with reprobation, possibly as an evidence of
his power, but chiefly to account for what follows. Their names were Adah
and Zillah, meaning Light and Shadow. To find in these names a mytho-
logical suggestion, or evidence of a great advance in the estimate of women,
is to overstrain their significance. The line of Cain terminates in a family
of genius. The arts which perfect and adorn life are ascribed to this line, but
not in order to brand these arts as of evil origin. The same arts may have
been invented in the other line ; but of such invention there was no tradition.

2 6 THE LOOK OF GENESIS. [iV. 2 1-2 5.

Jabal : he was tlie father of such as dwell in tents, and of

2 I such as have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal : he

was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every
artificer in brass and iron : and the sister of Tubal-cain was

23 Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and
Zillah, hear my voice ; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my
speech -. for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young

24 man to my hurt : if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly

25 Lamech seventy and sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife

The two arts, cattle-tending and music, which are associated in Greek
niytliology (cp. Apollo and Pan), are here assigned to brothers, sprung of
one mother : Adah bare "Jabal .... and Jubal. Jabal's employment was an
advance upon Abel's. He kept cattle; not only sheep, but oxen and
jiossibly camels and asses (cp. Ex. ix. 3, Knobel). He was also the fat her
of such as dii'dl hi tents. He was the first to whom it occurred, I can carry
my house with me and regulate its position and movements, and not it mine.
I need not return every night this long Aveary way from the pastures, but
may live -wherever streams run cool and grass is green. He thus learned
to traverse long distances, and initiated migration, commerce, adventure.
Jubal . . . . harp and or^an, lyre and pipe, stringed and wind instruments.
He made material things the organ and instrument of his ideas and feelings.
This idea would be everywhere applied. If the matter of the dumb world
could sino- for men, what might it not be made to do for them? Tttbal-Cain,
brass-smith. "So faithfully is everything perpetuated in the East that the
blacksmith of the village Gubbata-ez-zetun .... called the iron splinters
struck off while working at his forge, tubal" (Delitzsch, Jeiuish Artisan
Life, p. 43), cp. also Ezek. xxvii. 13. Ewald thinks all the three brothers'
names are derived from one root, meaning to produce ; and that they are so
called as the children of the new age ; though he admits that Jabal's name
miy mean increase, and that Jubal's may suggest Jubel or Jobcl, loud crash-
ing music. His reference to the supposed analogy of the Indian castes is
quite out of place. So also is the attempt of others to identify these three
brothers with any of the deities of polytheistic races. It is characteristic of
this Semitic record that it ascribes these inventions not to gods or demigods,
but to human beings. This is the distinctive and instructive feature in the
record. Their sister's name, Naatnah, pleasant, is found in the register
because her influence was felt in the race. Possibly she was the occasion of
her father's deed of blood. The traditions regarding her are given in
Lcnormant's Origines, p. 200. Those who wish to compare this account of
the origin of the arts with that accepted by other nations, will find material
for doing so in Cory's Ancient Fragments, pp. 6-10 ; Lenormant's Origines,
p. 194 ; ^schylus, Prom. Vinct. vers. 447-471.

23. Lamech's rhythmical utterance, probably thrown into this form by an
early and poetical narrator, may be rendered : I have slain a man for
wounding me, a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged
sevenfold, surely Lamech seventy and seven fold. I take vengeance
for mj'self with these good weapons my son has forged for me : lie has
furnished me with means of defence and vengeance many times more effective

V. 1-5-] FROM ADAM TO NOAH IN THE LINE OF SETII. 27

again ; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth : for
God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of
26 Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was
born a son ; and he called his name Enos : then began men
to call upon the name of the Lord.

than God's defence of Cain. [The account given in the Tahiiud is that
Lamech, as he grew old, became blind, and was led out to hunt by Tubal-
Cain, who directed his father's arrow towards what he supposed to be a wild
beast moving in the thicket. Lamech let the arrow fly and killed Cain. On
discovering his mistake, he struck his hands wildly together, and so killed
Tubal-Cain, who was standing close to him. Upbraided by his wives for
these disasters, he utters the words of the text.]

Having concluded his account of Cain's line, the author might have passed
at once to the genealogical table of chap, v.; but there are two points
omitted in that table which, he considers, require insertion. These are —
(i) that instead of Abel, another seed 7vas appointed \.o Eve, who, because thus
set, or appointed, was called Seth, so that the whole race did not forsake
(jod's presence when Cain forsook it. And (2) in the time of Seth's son,
Enos (weak, frail man), men began to call upon the tiatne of Jehovah ; this
was the noteworthy institution which the Sethites originated. As arts began
in the other line, religion, or at least stated social worship, began in the line
of Seth

CILVPTER V. i-VL 8.— From Adam to Noah in the Line

OF Seth.

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day
that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him ;

2 male and female created he them ; and blessed them, and
called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a
son in his own likeness, after his image ; and called his nam 3

4 Seth : and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were

5 eight hundred years : and he begat sons and daughters : and
all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty

Gknealogtcat, Register.— 1-32. Having no great events to record
between the Creation and the Flood, the Elohistic author spans the interval
with this register. The formula with which each patriarch is introduced and
dismissed is as unvarying as if it were a printed schedule. Only twice is the
monotony broken, ver. 24 and ver. 29. Yet no chapter in the Eible is more
difficult to give an intelligible account of Two features of it are especially
noteworthy : (i) the resemblance of this vSethite genealogy to tliat of the
Cainitcs ; and (2) the length of life ascribed to these antediluvians.

D

28 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [v. 6-T4.

6 years : and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five

7 years, and begat Enos : and Seth hved after he begat Enos
eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters :

8 and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years :

9 and he died. And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan :

10 and Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and

1 1 fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters : and all the days
of Enos were nine hundred and five years : and he died.

12 And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel :

13 and Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred

14 and forty years, and begat sons and daughters : and all the
days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he

(i.) Resemblance of the Two Genealogies.— This will most readily
be seen if they are tabulated before the eye thus : — ■

Adam. Adam.

Seth.
Enos.

Cain. Cainan.

Enoch. Mahalaleel.

Irad. Jared.

Mehujael. Enoch.

Methusael. Methuselah.

Lamech. Lamech.

Noah,

Jabal, Jubal, Tubal. Shem, Ham, Japheth.

(a) Here it is plain that the numbers three, seven, and ten play a con-
spicuous part in both genealogies. In the Cainite line there are seven names
in the direct line, and the last of these names branches into three. In the
Sethite line there are ten names, the last of which is succeeded by three
representatives. It is remarkable that the races which trace their history into
the remotest past agree with almost unbroken unanimity in telling of ten
primitive kings, or demigods, or heroes. The Chinese tell of ten semi-
divine emperors preceding historic times. The Indians, the Iranians, the
Armenians, the Assyrians, and others, all cleave to this number ten. The
reason of their doing so is apparently the circumstance that among primitive
peoples ten is the number of completeness. Traditional names were more
easily remembered when they could be counted on the fingers. This idea of
ten survived into days when numbers were skilfully handled. Berosus,
writing the early history of the Chaldosans, names the kings who reigned
before Xisuthrus, in whose days the Flood happened ; and he concludes
with the words : " So the sum total of all the kings is ten ; and the period
which they collectively reigned amounts to 120 sari" — a sarus equals 3600
years (Cory's Ancient FragmcJits, p. 52).

{h) It is further apparent that there is a similarity between the names of
the two lines. What language was spoken before the Flood is not known.
The names in this register are in Hebrew, and from this circumstance
Lenormant concludes that "they are significant appellations combined in
such a manner that each one, by the meaning which it presents, expresses an

V. 15-23.] FROM ADAM TO NOAH IN THE LINE OF SETH. 29

15 died. And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat

16 Jared: and Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hun-

1 7 dred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters : and all
the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five

18 years : and he died. And Jared lived an hundred sixty and

1 9 two years, and he begat Enoch : and Jared lived after he
begat Enoch eight hundred years, and .begat sons and

20 daughters : and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty

2 1 and two years : and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five
2 2 years, and begat Methuselah : and Enoch walked with God

after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat
23 sons and daughters : and all the days of Enoch were three

idea which was intended to be attached to such and such a stage of either
genealogy." But these stages, with such light as we yet have, cannot be
clearly defined. It is plain, however, that the superficial resemblances in
the names of the opposed lines are intended to make the. real difterences
more striking. The similar names are seen to have dissimilar meanings.
Thus Cain's Irad means fugitive, while Seth's Jared has the happier
significance of service or descejit. In the one line Alehujael, Sfuitten of God^
corresponds to the Mahalaleel of the other line, which means /razV^ of God ;
and so on. The contrast between the two Enochs and the two Lamechs is
obvious. In reading these parallel lists of names it should be kept in view
that by the time of Noah the population must have been enormous, and verji
widely scattered. The key to the meaning and connection of these names
will probably be found where Lenormant seeks it, in the cosmical theories, of
the Chaldseans.

(2.) Longevity of the Antediluvians. — " There is a large amount of
consentient tradition to the effect that the life of man was originally far more
prolonged than it is at present, extending to at least several hundreds of
years. The Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese exaggerated these
hundreds into thousands. The Greeks and Romans, with more moderation,
limited human hfe within looo or Schd years. The Hindoos still further
shortened the term. Their books taught that in the first age of the world
man was free from diseases, and lived ordinarily 400 years ; in the second
age the term of life was reduced from 400 to 300 ; in the third it became
200 ; and in the fourth and last it was brought down to 100. [Cp. the
similar decrease frequently alluded to in the Bible.] So certain did the fact
appear to the Chinese, that an emperor who wrote a medical work jDroposed
an inquiry into the reasons why the ancients attained to so much more
advanced an age than the moderns" (Rawlinson, Hist. Jllustr. p. 14).
Josephus {Antiq. I. iii. 9) appeals to a number of these consentient traditions,
and argues for the longevity of the antediluvians on the ground that food was
then more nourishing, and also that God saw they were usefully employed
in astronomical calculations which they could more successfully carry out if
allowed to live 600 years, that being the period in which a great year is com-
pleted. Josephus had no doubt that the writer meant that individuals
actually lived for hundreds of years.

30 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [v. 24-30.

24 hundred sixty and five years : and Enoch walked with God :

25 and he was not; for God took him. And Methuselah lived
an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech :

26 and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred

27 eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters : and all
the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine

28 years : and he died. And Lamech lived an hundred eighty

29 and two years, and begat a son : and he called his name
Noah, saying, This sa?ne shall comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord

30 hath cursed. And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five
hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters :

Physiologists, however, tell us that such longevity is impossible. Accord-
ingly numerous evasions of the obvious meaning of the writer have been
sought. It has been said that not individuals but races or tribes are meant ;
or, that we have here a mere abstract of the complete genealogy ; or, that by
years a much shorter period is meant ; or, that mistakes have crept in — all
which evasions are futile. It is plain that the register assigns enormous
longevity to individuals. To say that such longevity is absolutely impossible
is surely unwarranted ; but rather than believe in a change of the human con-
stitution which might shatter the physiological argument for the unity of the
species, it seems preferable to suppose that under these numbers there lies some
Chaldoean mystery which we can no longer fathom. For, of course, the mere
affirmation that time is necessarily exaggerated among races who possess no
records, and whose monotonous existence is marked by no great events,
affbrds no key to the method by which the years have been distributed among
the persons named in this register. [Lenormant believes this register to be a
reflection of the Chaldsean tradition in which they expressed the phases of the
solar revolution. He endeavours to establish a harmony between the names
contained in it and the cycle of tlie gods of the months ; adding, that in
Genesis, the evolution of nature "passes into the spiritual sphere, and
becomes the occasion of the most exalted teaching. The symbolical dress
remains the same ; but instead of covering, as with the Chaldaeans, naturalistic
myths, it is the figurative covering of truths of the moral order, freed from all
coarse admixture with the physical order. The inspired writers here, as
throughout the opening chapters of Genesis, have set the first example of the
precept formulated by St. Basil ; they have taken the golden vessels of the
Gentiles to make them serve for the worship of the true God."]

Very po-sibly the author of Genesis did not attach the same importance as
we do to the ]"art'cular statements of the genealogical table, but inserted it as
the commonly-received method of bridging the interval between the Creation
and the Flood. It is obvious, that by adding together the ages of these antedi-
luvians at the birth of their respective heirs, we get the whole term of years
elapsing between the Creation and the birth of Shem. Adding one hundred
years, which Shem had lived before the Flood came, we have the length of
time that elapsed between the Creation and the Flood. According to the
Hebrew text and our version this is a period of 1656 years ; but the LXX., by
increasing the number of years which elapsed before the birth of some of the

V. T)l-yi. 2.] FROM ADA^I TO NOAH IN THE LINE OF SETH. 3 1

31 and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and

32 seven years : and he died. And Noah was five hundred years
old : and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Chap. vi. i. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply

on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they

7C'ere fair ; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

heirs (not necessarily the first-born children), make out a total of 2262
(or 2242) years.

Whatever chronology we adopt, these genealogies convey the impression of
an immense antediluvian population stretching back through unrecorded
periods. The very monotony of the formula, "he begat sons and daughters,
and he died," seems to tell of endless cycles of existence stirred by no great
events, measured by no important changes, but generation following genera-
tion like the trees of the primeval forests.

THE EARTH BY UNNATURAL AND MONSTROUS CORRUPTION
BECOiMES RIPE FOR PUNISHMENT (CH. VL 1-8).

The Jehovist paves the way for introducing the story of the Flood by
showing the crying need of Divine mterference. The Elohist accounts for
the same catastrophe in much simpler language, vers. 11-13. With almost
unbroken uniformity, the races which preserve a tradition of the Flood ascribe
it to the anger of the heavenly powers at the wickedness and violence of the
earth's inhabitants. "The connection between the doctrine of successive
catastrophes and repeated deteriorations in the moral character of the
human race is more intimate and natural than might at first be imagined"
{l^yeWs Frin. of Geology, i. 13).

1. When men began to inuUiply, an era not further defined. Men is used in
its most general sense, the race, including both Sethites and Cainiles.
Danghters were horn unto them, i.e. to men of both the great lines. These
daughters of men, born to Sethites and Cainites alike, were seen by the sons of
Cod, a new and distinctive title, used for the sake of contrast to the daughters
of men and to designate sons not born of men ; in other words, angels. This
is the Jehovist's way of accounting for the monstrous wickedness of the
antediluvians. This is his way of teaching his contemporaries that at the
root of this wickedness there was a superhuman, angelic influence. But
expositors have been most unwilling to accept this obvious and natural inter-
pretation. Other interpretations have th'-refore been proposed, as (i) that
l)y the sojis of God, the sons of Seth nrc meant ; and that these men belong-
ing to the godly line were ensnared by the attractions of the line of Cain.
But the words do not yield any such sense. The two expressions, sons of
God and danghters of men, are mutually exclusive and contrasted; and tie
expression, daughters of men, includes all women — women of both lines.
I'esides, the production of mighty men of renown is not accounted for by
marriages between godly and ungodly people. (2) The author of " 71ie
Genesis of Earth and Man " has very ingeniously advocated the opinion that the
sons of God a.xc sons or servants of the gods — that is, idolaters or worshippers
of other gods than Jehovah. These idolaters are supposed to have belonged
ti) some non-Adamjc race, This interpretation is wor^h mentioning only on

32 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [vi. 3-6.

3 And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man,
for that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred and

4 twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days ;
and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the
daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same

5 became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was

6 only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had

account of the stimulating and enlightening arguments with which the author
strives to give it currency. But the mass of modern interpreters — even Kurtz,
Delitzsch, Hofmann, and Baumgarten — admit that the sense given above is
the plain sense of the words. In support of this view, that the term sons of
6*^^ means here, as in Job i. 6, ii. i, etc., the angels, it may be urged (i)
that this is the ordinary meaning of the words (cp. Job xxxviii. 7 ; Ps. xxix. i,
Ixxxix. 7); (2) that the daughters of men mentioned in ver. 2 are the
same as those mentioned in ver. I, and therefore cannot be restricted to
the line of Cain : that they are therefore set in contrast to what is not
human ; (3) that the results of these marriages are described as abnormal ;
(4) that not only Philo {Qiiccst. de Giganf.), Josephus {Antiq. I. iii.), the
Book of E^ioch, and other apocryphal writings expressly affirm this inter-
pretation, but even Jude (vers. 6, 7) evidently understood that angels were
here referred to; {5) that almost every nation has a similar tradition.
They took them wives of all tuhoiii they chose, a promiscuous, unregulated
intercourse.

3. My Spirit shall not akuays strive, that is, the vital principle com-
municated to man by God (ch. ii. 7) shall not animate him for ever, for
he also (like the other creatures) is llesh. The word translated strive has
perhaps the meaning be humbled, and may allude to the degradation of
a divinely-given life when made subservient to fleshly desires and tendencies.
But though man is pot to be immortal, nor to have his life maintained to
extreme longevity, yet his days shall be 120 years. This is sometimes under-
stood as meaning there shall be given time for repentance — a respite of 120
years.

4. There zuere giants, lit. Nephilim, a word of doubtful derivation, trans-
lated by our version and the LXX. hy giants, probably because in Num. xiii. 2)Z
the Nephilim are described as gigantic. These Nephilim existed before
the marriages of the sons of God with the daughters of men. The results of
these marriages the writer now — after this parenthetical notice of the giants —
proceeds to relate: and also, after that, zuhen . . . they bare children to than,
the jrt;/;?^ became mighty men, ivhich zvere of old, men of renoivn ; or, these are
the heroes of antiquity, the renowned : a form of expression which some
consider to be a way of alluding to a tradition the writer does not care
to guarantee, — "These are the men who are popularly called the heroes, and
about whom the well-known stories are told." [Plato's Cratylus, p. 398, may
•be comi^ared: " Do you not know that the heroes are demigods ? . . . All of
them sprang either from the love of a god for a mortal woman, or of a mortal
man for a goddess."] And God, better, Jehovah, or, the luOxAsaw . . . only
evil continnally. And it repented the Lord, . . A strongly anthropomorphic

VI. 7-12.] THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH. 33

made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created
from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the
creeping thing, and the fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me

8 that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord.

expression, characteristic of the Jehovist, cp. chap. ii. and iii. It seems idle
to object to such expressions on the ground that, as God is unknowable, it
degrades Him to speak or think of Him as a magnified man. The alter-
native is a practical one. If, by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic
ideas, and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting in some such
way as men do, we could thereby reach a practically higher conception
of Him — a conception which would dispose us to worship Him more devoutlj',
and serve Him more faithfully, then we might do so ; but if the result of
ridding our minds of such ideas be that we cease to think of Him at all, or
only as a dead impersonal force, then certainly this is to reach not a higher,
but a lower conception of Him.

8. Buf Noah . . Amidst the universal doom one man/ouitd grace. The
favour of the Lord was not wholly undeserved, chap. vii. i (and cp. vi. 9) ;
yet it was grace. Of a purpose to preserve the race nothing is here said.

CLIAPTER VL 9-IX. 29.— The Generations of Noah.

9 These are the generations of Noah : Noah was a just
man and perfect in his generations, a/id Noah walked

10 with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and

11 Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the

12 earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the
earth, and, behold, it was corrupt : for all flesh had corrupted

This section may most conveniently be divided into four chapters : (i) The
preparation for the Flood, chap. vi. 9-vii. 16. (2) The prevalence of the
Flood, chap. vii. 17-viii. 14. (3) Noah's exit from the ark, and God's covenant
with him, chap, viii, 15-ix. 17. (4) The subsequent history of Noah, chap.
ix. 18-29. — The Flood has so large a space allotted to it, not merely because
of the magnitude of the catastrophe, but also because it is a very distinct land-
mark in the history. After the Flood a new state of things is introduced,
characterized by the covenant, and accompanying laws given to Noah, and
which prepai'e the way for the more complete Sinaitic covenant and legisla-
tion. Peter compares it to regeneration (i Pet. iii. 21), as if, the old sinful world
being destroyed, a new and spiritually-born world emerged from the watery
grave.

The various traditions of the Flood are given by Lenormant in the Sth
chapter of his Orpines (or Contemp. Rev. for Nov. 1879); and after a careful
and critical analysis he concludes that the story of the Deluge is "a universal

34 THE LOOK OF GENESIS. [vi. 1 3, 14,

13 his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end
of all flesh is come before me ; for the earth is filled with
violence through them ; and, behold, I will destroy them with

14 the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt

tradition among all branches of the human race with the one e.x'ception of the
black. Now a recollection thus precise and concordant cannot be a myth
voluntarily invented. No religious or cosmogonic myth presents this
character of universality. It must arise from the reminiscence of a real and
terrible event, so powerfully impressing the first ancestors of our race, as never
to have been forgotten by their descendants. This cataclysm must have
occurred near the first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion of the
families from which the principal races were to spring ; for it would be at once
improbable and uncritical to admit that at as many different points of the
globe as we should have to assume in order to explain the wide spread of these
traditions, local phenomena so exactly alike should have occurred, their
memory having assumed an identical form, and presenting circumstances that
need not necessarily have occurred to the mind in such cases. " He means such
particulars as the sending out of the birds, and the exact number of the saved.
The tradition which shows the most striking affinity to the biblical story is
the Chaldcco-Babylonian. Of this there are two forms — that given by Berosus,
which may be read in Cory's Fragments ; and that given in the tablets
recovered by the late George Smith. These tablets are copies from an
original which is believed to date from the 17th or i8th century B.C. (trans-
lations of these are given by Lenormant and in Smith's Chaldcvan Genesis,
and should by all means be read). This Chaldtean tradition and the biblical
narrative are plainly drawn from a common source ; the Chalda:an is, how-
ever, in a corntpted form and probably of considerably later date.

In the biblical narrative itself there is an amalgamation of two separate
accounts. These are so distinct from one another that they can be dissected
out with tolerable precision. The Elohistic narrative will be found printed
by itself in Colenso's Lectures on the Pent.; and both narratives are very
conveniently printed in parallel columns by Colenso's critic. Quarry, Avhose
extremely suggestive book on Genesis is far too little u-ed. The Elohistic
narrative is complete in itself, and may be pieced together from the following
passages: chap. vi. 9-22, vii. 6, 1 1, i3-i6«, 18-22, 24, viii. i, 2a, 3<^-5,
13a, 14-19, ix. 1-17. The remainder consists of parts of the Jehovistic nar-
rative, with a few clauses added by the compiler. The main differences
between these two narratives are : (i) That the Elohist represents God as com-
manding Noah to take into the ark one pair of every kind of creature
(vi. 19) ; whereas the Jehovist (vii. 2) tells us that this only applied to unclean
beasts, while of the clean seven of each sex were to be preserved. (2)
Again, according to the Elohist, the Flood lasted a whole year, the waters
prevail for 150 days, and then only slowly begin to abate. According to the
Jehovist, the waters prevail for forty days, and then abate. It would appear
as if the compiler recognised both traditions as sacred, and sought to preserve
both by composing his own narrative of the two.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE FLOOD (CHAP. VI. 9-VII. 1 6).

Instructions for building the Ark. — 14-16. It was to be an ark;
not a ship (because not sailing power but only abundant storage and steadiness

VI. 15-1S.] THE GENERATIONS OF NO All. 35

thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and witliout

15 with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it
of: The length of the ark shail be three hundred cubits, the
breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits,

iC A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt
thou finish it above ; and the door of the ark shalt thou set
in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third sto?ics shalt

17 thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of
waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life, from under heaven ; a7id every thing that is in

iS the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my cove-
nant ; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons,

in llie water were required), but a floating house or box, made of gopher
(probably cypress) wood, and rendered thoroughly water-tight by being
covered with bitumen witliin and without. It was to be divided into com-
partments {rooms, lit. nests), for the more convenient distribution of the various
animals ; and these rooms were to be in three tiers, one above the other, m
lower, second, and third stories. The entire structure was to be 300 cubiis
long, 50 broad, and 30 high ; or, taking the cubit as equal to 21 inches, 525
feet long, %"] feet 6 inches broad, and 52 feet 6 inches in height. The Great
Eastern is 680 feet long, 83 broad, and 58 deep. Ten buildings the size of
Solomon's temple could have been stowed away in the ark. The proportions
have been tested. Peter Jansen, a Dutchman, had a ship built of the same
proportions, though on a smaller scale, and found it well adapted for freightnge.
The only difficulties regarding the construction are those connected w ith the
ventilation, the lighting, and the sewage. Obviously much is left to natural
skill and necessary contrivance. But regarding the lighting, instruction is
given, but in a form somewhat obscure : a unndozv shalt thou i>iake to the ark,
and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The size, material, and position of
the window are all difficult to understand. In the side of the ark a window
would only have given light to one compartment of one story. It must,
therefore, have either been in the end or in the roof; unless the word signifies
not one windozu, but generally means of lighting, in which case we are left
to suppose any contrivance for lighting we please, such as a double ridge for
the roof with protected openings for light and air under the ridge, and extend-
ing the whole length of the Ark. [The word translated "window" in viii. 6
is a different word, but as it is defined by the clause "which he had made,"
we must suppose it to have been one small section of the entire contrivance
for lighting — a small trap-door which could be opened and shut at pleasure.
The Babylonian account suggests that the roof was to terminate in a narrow
ridge i-5oth of the ark's width.]

Instructions regarding the Use of the Ark. — 17-22. God
announces to Noah His intention to bring a flood of waters upon the earth to
destroy every living thing save those which were to be preserved in the ark.
I'hou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons'
wives with thee ; no mention is made of any children, but this scarcely forbids
our supposing that children had already been born to one or other of the sons,

36 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [vi. I9-VII. 9.

19 and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every
Uving thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring
into the ark, to keep them alive with thee ; they shall be male

20 and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their
kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two

21 of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And
take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt
gather it to thee ; and it shall be for food for thee, and for

22 them. Thus- did Noah; according to all that God com-
manded him, so did he.

Chap. vii. i. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all
thy house into the ark : for thee have I seen righteous before-

2 me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take
to thee by sevens, the male and his female : and of beasts

3 that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls
also of the air by sevens, the male and the female ; to keep

4 seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven
days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days
and forty nights ; and every living substance that I have made

5 will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did

6 according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And
Noah zvas six hundred years old when the flood of waters

7 was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and
his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because

8 of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts
that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that

9 creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah
into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded

or were born in the ark. Besides human beings, a pair of roay living thing
of all flesh, of every so7't, of fowls, and of catllc, and of eveiy creeping thing,
were to be preserved in the Ark. Countless calculations have been made to
ascertain whether the Ark could furnish accommodation to specimens of every
kind of living creature, together with the food required for their sustenance.
This question may now be said to be laid to rest by the discovery of so many
species unknown to the older naturalists, as to prove that the ark could not
possibly contain specimens of all. Of mammals, 1658 species have been
enumerated. Of birds, Prof Mivart says "more than 10,000 different kinds
have now been made known to us." The reptiles are much more numerous
than the beasts ; and all these animals together are exceeded in number
by the insects. To provide accommodation for specimens of all these in a
vessel of the dimensions of the ark is impossible. Besides, no four men
could attend to so many animals ; providing them with food and cleaning
them, and taking care also of the large number of animals that would be,
required to feed the carnivora for a whole year.

VIl. 10-23.] 1'^^^ GENERATIONS OF NOAH. 37

10 Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters

1 1 of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year
of Noah's hfe, in the second month, the seventeenth day of
the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great
deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and
Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three

14 wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every
beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his
kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.

15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all

16 flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in,
went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded

1 7 him : and the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty
days upon the earth ; and the waters increased, and bare up

18 the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters
prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth ; and

19 the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters
prevailed exceedingly upon the earth ; and all the high hills

20 that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen
cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains

2 1 were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creep-

22 ing thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man : all
in whose nostrils zaas the breath of life, of all that tc^as in the

23 dry la/id, died. And every living substance was destroyed
which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle,

PREVALENCE OF THE FLOOD (CHAP. VIL 17-VIIL 1 4).

Extent of the Flood. — The question how large a portion of the earth's
surface was covered by the flood cannot be answered. The idea of its uni-
versality may be said to have been given up. Perhaps the most convincing
proof of the limited extent of the deluge is found in the geographical distribu-
tion of species. Take, as an example, the animals of Australia. In that
island, the indigenous animals are different from those of other parts of the
world, but similar to the species which are found in the fossils of the island
itself, and which inhabited these regions in times long anterior to the Flood.
If, then, the Flood was universal, and destroyed all animal life in Australia,
we are compelled to suppose that the continuity of animal life was preserved
in that island by an order of events which, if not absolutely inconceivable, is
yet grotesque, .and wholly out of harmony with what we know of God's
methods.

38 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [vil. 24-VIII. 12.

and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and
they were destroyed from the earth : and Noah only remained

24 alive^ and they that were\\\\\\ him in the ark. And the waters
prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Chap. viii. i. And God remembered Noah, and every living
thing, and all the cattle that ivas with him in the ark : and
God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters

2 asswaged ; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of
heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained ;

3 and the waters returned from off the earth continually : and
after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters Avere

4 abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month :
in the tenth mouthy on the first day of the month, were the

6 tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end
of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which

7 he had made : and he sent forth a raven, which w^ent forth to
and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were

9 abated from off the face of the ground ; but the dove found
no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him
into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole
earth : then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled

10 her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven

1 1 days ; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark ; and
the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her
mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the

12 waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet
other seven days ; and sent forth the dove ; which returned

Duration of the Flood. — The rain began on the 17th day of the second
month, or about the beginning of November, and Noah left the ark on the
27th of the same month in the following year. The dates of the beginning
and cessation of the rain, and of the subsidence of the waters, are said to
accord with the climatic conditions of Babylonia. The rains begin in
November, and the level of the Euphrates and Tigris at once rises. "The
periodic overflow of the two rivers occurs in the middle of March, and culmi-
nxtes at the end of May, from which time the waters go down. At the end
of June they have left the plains, and from August to November are at their
lowest level" (Lenormant in the Contemp. Rro. Nov. 1879, art. on the
"Deluge : Its Traditions in Ancient Nations ").

Place where the Ark stranded. — In viii. 4 it is said that the ark
rested upon the mountains of Aj-arat — not of course on the peak (Massis),

VIII. 13-20.] THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH. 39

13 not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the
six hundredth and first year, in the first vionth^ the first
day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the
earth : and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked,

14 and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the
second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month,

15 was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and

1 7 thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living
thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle,
and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ;
that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful,

18 and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his

19 sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him : every beast,
every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth
upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord ; and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offer-

which is 17,000 feet high, and covered with perpetual snow, and on which,
co;i<^equcntly, many of the animals must have perislied with cold, while even
the hardiest must have been killed in the descent, which is practicable only to
skilled mountaineers. It seems probable that Ararat was the name descriptive
of the lofty Armenian tableland which overlooks the plain of the Araxes on
the north and of Mesopotamia on the south (see Smith's Die. s.v.) In
2 Kings xix. 37 and in Isa. xxxvii. 38 it is translated Armenia. The Syrian,
and Eastern interpreters generally, prefer a mountain of Kurdistan in the
Gordycean or Carduchian range. (The whole question is copiously discussed
in Lenormant's Origincs, ii. I.) The Greek tradition relates that the survivors
fnuid terra firma on Parnassus or Athos ; the Indian tradition fixes upon thi
Himalayas ; but the Plebrqw shows no partiality for his own land — another
evidence of the truth of this form of the tradition.

What was the p7-ecise object of the Flood?

To what does the Apostle Peter compare the Flood, and what is the ground

of the comparison ?
Explain in what sense our salvat'.on depends ti[on the wrath of d^d

against sin.
Tell the story of J/asisadra and Deucalion.
What use is made of the suddenness of the I^lood in the N. T. ?

NOAH's exit FROiM THE ARK, AND GOD'S COVENANT WITH HIM

(chap. VIII. 15-IX. 17).

After so serious a break in the continuity of the life and history of the world,
men would naturally ask, On what lines and laws is the new world to move ?

40 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [vill. 2I-IX. 2.

2 1 ings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour ;
and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the
ground any more for man's sake ; for the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I again

2 2 smite any more every living thing, as I have done. While
the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and
heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not
cease.

Chap. ix. i. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto

2 them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And

the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every

beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all

that moveth tiJ)on the earth, and upon all the fishes of the

Is the past to be entirely wiped out, and are we to make quite a new beginning
here ? • What have we to depend upon, what to expect ? A new revelation
was needed to give men assurance.

Noah's Sacrifice AND its Acceptance.— 20-22. And Noah huildcd an
altar, the first altar mentioned, but not necessarily the first altar built. The
idea of using an altar, to raise their gifts off the earth and render them con-
spicuous and distinct, seems natural to men. The offering Noah made was
worthy of the occasion : of roery clean beast .... offered bnrnt-offerings ;
thanksgiving Avas rendered for the rescue, and the new world's life was con-
secrated by the offering up to God of a representative of every clean beast.
How the distinction between clean and unclean was arrived at we are not told.
And the Lord smelled a siveet savour, lit. a savour of rest, or satisfaction, the
usual formula for the acceptance of an offering, which all worshippers one
stage higher than the very rudest understood to be merely an anthropopathic
expression. / zoill not again cnrse .... (comp. the Elohistic narrative
ix. ii). The order of the world shall not again be so completely interrupted ;
for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his yottth, perfect conduct can-
not be expected of him, and if sin is to be visited with immediate destruction,
the world cannot at all go on.

The Covenant with Noah. — IX. 1-17. This section is the continuation
of chap. viii. 17 ; comp. chap. i. 2S, 29. God renews to this second head of the
race the blessings He gave to the first. Befrtiitftd .... This communica-
tion now takes the form of a covenant {8-11). /will establish my covenant
with yon ; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the ivaters of a flood.
1st. Men were not to live as those from whom all security had been taken away,
and who might at any time be overwhelmed by another catastrophe such as
they had recently experienced. Neither were they to live as if kept alive by
chance or by the mere clemency of the elements. In other words, men
learned at this time that God rules by fixed laws. This great departure from
uniformity brought into strong relief the uniformity of nature, and they learned
to see a God who governs not by moods and on impulse, but by law. 2d.
Ampler provision was made («) for the maintenance and {b) for the protection
of human life — for its maintenance, because flesh might now be eaten :

IX. S-'^S-] THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH. 4I

3 sea ; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing
that hveth shall be meat for you ; even as the green herb

4 have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof,

5 wJiich is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely
your blood of your lives will I require ; at the hand of every
beast will I require it, and at the hand of man ; at the hand

6 of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for

7 in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful,
and multiply ; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and mul-

8 tiply therein. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons

9 with him, saying. And I, behold, I establish my covenant

10 with you, and with your seed after you ; and with every living
creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of
every beast of the earth with you ; from all that go out of the

11 ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my
covenant w^ith you ; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more
by the waters of a flood ; neither shall there any more be a

12 flood to destroy the earth. And God said. This is the token
of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations :

1 3 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a

every moving tiling that Hveth shall he vicat for yoti (ix. 3). The Elohistic
narrative knows of no distinction between clean and unclean animals, but is
express in giving man a right to eat every kind. By saving the beasts from
the Flood man seemed to acquire new right over them. But perhaps the
grant of flesh was made chiefly for the sake of clearly indicating the restric-
tion : flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall ye not cat
(ix. 4). No limitation is yet made of eating only the clean beasts. But
men who had probably before this time used animal food are now prohibited
from using the blood. And for this prohibition no better reason can be
assigned than that the blood, representing the life, belongs to God, and may
therefore not be used by man. Regard for all life is thus quickened in man.
For the protection of human life a new regulation was issued : at the hand
of every mail s brother 2uill I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's
blocd, by man shall his blood be shed. The murderer was no longer to be
miklly dealt with as Cain had been, but was to give life for life. Men
learned at this time that wickedness must be suppressed Avith the strong hand,
that violence must not be allowed to grow to such dimensions as should call
for another flood to check it. In other words, civil government and criminal
law began.

Sign of the CoyENANT.— /r/<? set my hozv in the cloud, and it shall he for a
token of a covenant' between me and the earth. As the covenant secured to
Noah what we call "natural" blessings; so the sign of the covenant was a
natural phenomenon. When God chose frcm among other men Abraham and

42 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [iX. I4-17.

14 covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to
pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall

15 be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant,
which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh ; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy

16 all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will look
upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between
God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the

17 earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the
covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh

his seed to stand in a peculiar relation to Him, He appointed that this dis-
tinction should be signified by a mark on their persons ; but now, when He
covenants with man as man, He seals His promise by a sign as universal ns
rain. It might appear from the words of the narrator as if the rainbow now
for the first time appeared. And it is just possible that Noah may have
lived in some region such as Egypt, so little subject to rain that he may never
have seen a rainbow. The fact of its being a natural phenomenon does not
prevent its being a reminder of God's promise, and a pledge of nature's uni-
formity. The bow being produced by the shining of the sun on the dark
storm-cloud, was peculiarly appropriate as a sign of God's grace reappearing
after the storm of wrath had swept the earth. The bow appearing to unite
heaven and earth has always seemed to the intelligent nations to be the mes-
senger of grace from God to men ; and, arching over the whole horizon, it
exhibits the all-embracing universality of the promise.

Remarks. — *' From this preliminary legislation the synagogue has
derived the seven Noachic ordinances, which were held to be binding on all
proselytes (of the gate)." Of these only three are here mentioned — the
abstinence from blood, the prohibition of murder, and the recognition of the
civil authority. The other four are the prohibition of idolatry, of incest, of
theft, and of l)lasphemy.

1. IVhiit is the derivation of the word altar ; and what significant spii it iial

lesson do yon find in this derivation ?

2. IVhere docs the prohibition regarding the eating of blood reappear in the

N'. T., and ivhy is it not now considered binding?
3 /// what respects was the epoch succeeding the Flood in advance of ihal

which wc)it before it ?
4. In what connection is the rainbo'o spoken of in the A^. T. 1

5. " When science from creation's face
Enchantment's veil withdraws,
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws !

"And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams,
Bat words of the Most High,
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky."

E xpMin these verses.

JX. lS-2 2.] THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH. 43

iS that is upon the earth. And the sons of Noah, that went
forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth : and

19 Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of

20 Noah : and of them was the whole earth overspread. And
Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard :

2 1 and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was

22 uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren

THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF NOAH (CHAP. IX. 18-29).

This paragraph is inserted not for the sake of throwing additional light on
the character of Noah, but in order to explain how the human race came to
be divided into three great families, and what it was which to some extent
determined their character. The writer recognises that the distinctions among
men are not accidental.

Sons of Noah. — Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Attempts have been made
to explain these names by referring them to roots meaning respectively, red,
black, and white. But it is generally agreed that the name of the head of
each of the three great races is derived from the language of the race he
represents : vShem meaning in Hebrew ^/^;j; Ham being the equivalent of the
word, by which the Egyptians spoke of their own country, kern, which means
black; and Japheth being the equivalent of Djapatischta, which in the
primitive Aryan language means chief of the race. The Aryan, as well as the
Semitic tradition— and, with a slight modification, the Egyptian also — tells of
three brothers from whom all men are derived. Ham is the father of Canaan.
This is mentioned to explain what follows (vers. 25-27). The chief signifi-
cance for Israel of Ham's history lay in this, that he was the father of Canaan.
From chap. x. 6 it may be concluded that probably Canaan was Ham's
youngest son, from which Delitzsch gathers that this incident occurred some
years after the Flood. Of them was the whole earth overspread ; or, from
these (as from centres) was the entire population of the earth spread
abroad: which is inserted that M-e may keep in view that what is related is of
significance for all men.

Introduction of the Vine, and Noah's Disgrace.— A'm/i began
, . . . a vineyard ; some prefer to translate more literally, Noah, the hus-
bandman, began to plant a vineyard; but our version is grammatically
defensible. The home of the vine was Armenia. [Noah was regarded by the
Hebrews as Osiris by the Eg}'ptians, as not merely the introducer of the vine,
but the father of agriculture (cp. Cicero, De Off. i. 151, "Omnium rerum ex
quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agricultura melius, nihil dulcius, nihil
uberius, nihil homine libero dignius").] And he drank . . . . possibly unaware
of the potency of the liquor he had made : a7id he was uncovered, a not
infrequent accompaniment of drunkenness; cp. Lament, iv. 21, " Thou shalt be
drunken, and shalt make thyself naked ; " and cp. especially Hab. ii, 15, 16.
To be thus exposed was considered among the Hebrews, as among other right-
thinking races, the deepest ignominy (see Isa. iii. 17; Jer. xiii. 22; Ezek.
xvi. 37, etc.). And Ham sazo .... which might have been accitlental and
blameless, but he told his two brethren without, which no right-minded son

E

44

THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [iX. 23-27.

23 without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid
it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered
the nakedness of their father ; and their faces were backward,

24 and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke
from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto

25 him. And he said, Cursed he Canaan ; a servant of servants

26 shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the

27 Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant. God
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ;

could have done. The graceful delicacy of the older brothers has become the
symbol of filial piety, and of that charity that covers a multitude of sins.
But nothing in life is more pathetic than the loving child hiding his
parent's degradation. And Noah awoke . . . . and kneiu — either by some one
informing him, or possibly by some coarse hint from Ham's own lips —
zvhat his younger son had done tmto him. Younger seems to be the right
translation, though many ^x&itx youngest.

Noah's Predictions regarding his Sons,— 25-27. Stirred by Ham's
unfilial and shameless conduct, and touched by the reverent affection of his
other sons, Noah curses the one and blesses the others. But the curse of Ham
is pronounced upon his son Canaan, Cursed be Canaan. This is to be
accounted for not by supposing that Canaan had shared in the sin of Ham ;
nor by the fact that Ham had received from God a blessing (ix. i) which
could not be reversed ; nor yet by the idea that as Ham's sin had been
against his father, its punishment fell upon himself as a father — for though
there is a measure of truth in these reasons, none of them (save the first,
which is a mere supposition) explains why Canaan was singled out from
among Ham's four sons (x. 6), This can be explained only by the fact that
of all Ham's descendants, the Canaanites both appeared to the Hebrews, and
actually were (Lev. xviii,, cp. vers. 23-32), most markedly characterized by
their ancestor's coarse shamelessness (but see Lev. xviii. 3). But to suppose
that the prediction was concocted to give vent to race hatred is inconsistent
with the omission of all mention of Mizraim, who had certainly incurred the
hatred of the Hebrews as fully as Canaan had. Canaan being thus selected,
the fulfilment of the curse must not be looked for in the other descendants of
Ham, and still less in the negro races. The curse took a special form : a
servant of servants shall he be, that is, a servant par excellettce, a servant in
whom every characteristic of servitude appears. [Still, it may not be out of
place to recall Martial's words [Ep, 75) : " Esse sat est servum : jam nolo
vicarius esse."]

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, because from and in Him Shem Avas to
attain his special and highest felicity. Noah and his sons worshipped the
same God, but He is called the Lord God of Shem, because it was through
Israel, Shem's descendant, that He was to be known, and was to bless man-
kind. God shall enlarge Japheth, or, God give enlargement to Japheth, in
reference to the expansive and migratory destiny of the Japhetic peoples.
The part played by the several races in civilisation is excellently described in
Fairbairn's Studies in the Philosophy of Religion. He shall dwell in the tents
of Shem; this clause following upon the promise of enlargement would

IX. 2 8-X. I.] HISTORY OF THE SONS OF NOAH. 45

28 and Canaan shall be his servant. And Noah lived after the

29 flood three hundred and fifty years : and all the days of Noah
were nine hundred and fifty years : and he died.

seem to indicate that Japheth was to encroach upon the territory of Shem.
Certainly it implies that Shem possessed that which Japheth thought it
worth his while to obtain. It is in Shem's tents he finds his blessing — an
announcement which is coloured by the ruling idea of the O. T., that
salvation is of the Jews.

Remarks. — i. Between this narrative and the story of the Athenian
Icarius, to whom the gift of wine was fatal, there is some resemblance.
Possibly both were intended to show how perilous a gift wine has been even
from the first introduction of it.

2. On the difference in manners and religion between the Canaanites and
the other Hamites, Lenormant's Origines^ ii. 2S1-294, may be consulted with
advantage.

1. SJiotv in detail Jioio Noali's zvords have been fulfilled.

2. Co.:n?iif —

"A father's curses, as men say,
Climb with swift wings after their children's souls.
And drag them from the very throne of heaven."
Also —

" Beneath the foulest mother's curse
No child could ever thrive ;
A mother is a mother still,
The holiest thing alive."

3. II hist rale the evils of drunkenness, and of sins like that of Har.i.

CHAPTER X. i-XI. 9.— History of the Sons of Noah.

I Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah ; Shem,
Ham, and Japheth : and unto them were sons born after the

This ethnographical table is not only the most ancient and reliable
description of the various nations and peoples, but it has no parallel in its
attempt to exhibit all the races of earth as related to one another. The
ancients universally considered the various races of men to be divided from
one another by some impassable interval. The idea that all were of one
blood was unfamiliar and unacceptable to them. And it is only in recent
times that science has set itself the task of tracing the relationship which
exists between each race and every other — a task which, with all the aids of
plnlology and anthropology available in modern times, cannot be said to be
yet independent of this ancient record.

It is obvious that, as Augustine says {Dc Civ. Dei, xvii. 3), "nations, not
men," are intended by the names in this register. This has been very well put
by Canon Rawlinson in a book he wrote for the sake of proving the verbal
inspiration of Scripture : "The time is gone by," he says, "when nothing
more was seen in the list of names to be found in this chapter than a set of
personal appellations, the proper names of individuals. No one can read

46 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [x. 2, 3.

2 flood. The sons of Japheth ; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai,

3 and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the

with any attention the following passage, even in its English dress, without
perceiving that the writer is bent rather on considering the connection of
races than the descent of persons : 'And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born,
and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite . . . and afterward were the
families of the Canaaiiitcs spread abroad' (vers. 15-18). The Hebrew
scholar sees the same, long before he comes to this passage ; for he notes
that the forms of the names are in many instances plural (Madai, Kitlim,
Dodanim, Ludim, Anamim, etc.), while in one remarkable instance he
comes upon a dual form, which he at once recognises as that of a country or
people. * Mizraim ' (ver. 6) is the word elsewhere throughout Scripture
uniformly translated 'Egypt.' It signifies, in fact, 'the two Egypts ' —
the upper and the lower." When, therefore, we read Ihat "the sons of
Japheth were Gomer, and Magog, and Madai," etc., we are to understand this
as meaning that the nations known by these names are more closely allied to
one another than to other races. Just as we might say that Australia and
Canada are the children of England. This mode of interpretation is indi-
cated by vers. 5) 20, and 32, and brings the record into significant
accordance with the facts of the geographical distribution of men (cp.
chap, xxxvi. i, where the identification of the individual and the race is
expressed, " these are the generations of Esau, ivhich is Edoiii'").

But while it is true that the time is gone by when these names could all
be referred to individuals, it is still disputed whether this table is ethnological
or geographical — that is to say, whether it exhibits the nations according to
their racial affinities, or according to the relative situation of the territories
occupied by them. Professor Rawlinson fights hard to show that the table is
strictly ethnographical : Professor Sayce maintains it is geographical. The
names registered in this chapter, he says, comprise the whole known world
of the Jews ; and a definite zone is assigned to each. But this is scarcely an
accurate account of the table. So far from being allotted to definite zones,
the sons of Shem and the sons of Ham in some instances overlap one another,
or occupy the same ground. Thus the Cushites are not confined to Egypt
and Ethiopia, but are assigned also to the very centre of the Semitic races,
Babylonia. And in Arabia there seems the same disregard to merely
geographical distinctions, and an attempt to separate tribe from tribe in
accordance with linguistic or wider ethnological distinctions.

The Sons of Japheth. — 6'c'wr;' (cp. Ezck. xxxviii. 6) is identified as
denoting the Cimmerians, who inhabited the plains to the north of the Black
Sea. (Dillmann considers it more probable that the Cappadocians are
meant.) Magog, "over which Gog or Gyges ruled (Ezek. xxxviii. 2), is
probably Mat-Giigii, 'land of Guges,' a synonyme of Lud or Lydia "
(Sayce). Madai unquestionably denotes the Medes, called by the Persians
Mada. jfavan is the usual O. T. name for the Greeks generally, and is not
to be confined to the lonians. The Assyrians called the Greeks Yavnaii.
Tubal and Meshech are coupled in Ezek. xxxviii. 2, etc. ; and are spoken of,
along with Javan, in Ezek. xxvii, 13 as traders. They are known in profane
history as the Tibareni and Moschi, two powerful tribes of Asia Minor,
inhabiting the southern shore of the Black Sea, in a position favourable to
commerce. Tiras is generally understood to mean the Thracians. Of tuo

X. 4-7-J HISTORY OF THE SONS OF NOAH. 47

sons of Gomcr; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmali.

4 And the sons of Javan ; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and

5 Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided
in their lands ; every one after his tongue, after their families,

6 in their nations. And the sons of Ham ; Gush, and Mizraim,

7 and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Gush ; Seba, and

of these sons of Japheth the descendants are further traced. Of Gomer,
three sons are named ; Ashkenaz, a name of which there are traces in the
lake of Asia Minor anciently known as L. Ascania, and belonging to the
province of Phrygia. Ashkenaz is mentioned in Jer. li. 27, along with
Ararat, as one of the Armenian powers — the power, therefore, lying at the
extreme west of Armenia. Riphath (in I Chron. i. 6, by a common error in
Hebrew transcription Diphath) is not identified. The most probable
conjecture is that of Bochart, that the district of Asia INIinor watered by the
river Rebas is intended. Togarmah, another Armenian power, lying to the
south-east of those already mentioned (cp. Ezek. xxvii. 14). Some, indeed,
suppose that in the second half of Tog-armah the root of Armen-ia is found.
Tog meaning people or tribe. Dr. Fr. Delitzsch identifies it with the
Tui-garmi of the Assyrian inscriptions, which was situated at the extreme
east of Cappadocia (Sayce). Lenormant defines the geographical position of
these three sons of Gomer thus : Ashkenaz is the Troad, Southern Bithynia,
and Phiygia ; Riphath, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Northern Cappadocia ;
and Togarmah, Western Armenia. And he considers Gomer to be a title
including the Thraco-Phrygian- Armenian races, and not a separate race — a
view which derives plausibility from the manner in which the sons of Canaan
are so described as together to make up the complete Canaan.

I'Jie sons of Javan were Elishah, which some suppose to be Sicily, and
others the Eolian Greeks. Some think the name represents Hellas, others
Elis, In Ezek. xxvii. 7 the prophet speaks of blue and purple from the isles
of Elishah, which agrees better with the more general Hellas than the
particular isle, Sicily. Tarshish must here, as elsewhere in O. T., mean
Tharsis in Spain (cp. Ezek. xxvii. 12). Kittim (cp. Jer. ii. lo) is Cyprus,
whose ancient capital was called by the Greeks Kition, and the inhabitants
Kitticeans. Subsequently the name was extended to other islands.
Dodanim, or rather, with the margin, Rodanim, the Rhodians or inhabit-
ants of Rhodes, another of the larger Greek islands.

The Sons of Ham. — Cush, a name very frequently recurring in the
O. T., and translated Ethiopia, the word by which the Greeks designated
the country now called Abyssinia. But there was also an Asiatic Cush (cp.
vers. 7-1 1 and Gen. ii. 13), which embraced parts of Arabia, Mesopotamia,
and the region east of it. Mizraim, Egypt, a dual form indicating the union
of upper and lower Egypt (cp. the Lothians, etc.). Phut, Josephus tells us
{Antiq. i. 6), was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites.
In Coptic the name of Libya is Phaiat (cp. Jer. xlvi. 9 ; Ezek. xxvii. 10 ;
Nahum iii. 9). Rawlinson says, " We find a people called by the Eg)'ptiar.s
Pet, whose emblem was the unstrung bow, and who dwelt between Egypt
anl Ethiopia proper, in the region now called Nubia." Canaan, between
the Jordan and the Alediterranean.

7. The sons of Cnsh. Sel>a, according to Josepluis, M'as the ancient

48 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [x. 8-1 1.

Havilali, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha : and the

8 sons of Raamah ; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat

9 Nimrod : he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was
a mighty hunter before the Lord : wherefore it is said, Even

10 as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the
beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad,'

1 1 and Cahieh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went
forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth,

name of the famous Ethiopian city Meroe. In Isa. xlv. 14 the Sabaeans are
spoken, of as men of stature, which agrees with the statement of Herodotus
(iii. 20, 114), that the Ethiopians were the tallest and handsomest men in the
world. Havilah, generally understood to be Khawlan, in the N.W.
portion of the Yemen ; but some find Havilah in the Avalitse of the African
coast. See, however, Smith's Diet. s.v. Havilah. Sablah, probably
Sabbatha or Sabota, the capital of the Hadramaut, on the southern coast of
Arabia. Raamah, with his sons Sheba and Dedan, represent the most
powerful of the Arabian tribes (Isa. xxi. 13 ; Ezek. xxvii. 20-22). Sheba
occurs again in ver. 28 as a son of Joktan, which seems to imply a mingling
of Hamite and Semitic blood in this tribe. The Himyaric inscriptions in
Southern Arabia show that the early inhabitants of that region were not
Shemites ; their language is said to have affinities with that of the Abyssinian
tribes. Sabtechah cannot be said to have been identified, but probably lay
on the Persian Gulf.

Nimrod. — 8-12. Into the formal register of nationalities there is here
inserted a brief account of an individual : dish begat Nimrod, a fact of
importance, because it concerned the Hebrews to know that though their own
ancestors came fi-om the region where Nimrod played so conspicuous a part,
the great kingdom, afterwards known as Babylon, was of Cushite, not of
Semitic origin. This Nimrod begaji to be a mighty one on earth, became a
great man, a conqueror, and ruler. He luas a mighty hnnter, like other
great conquerors, spending in time of peace on the chase the energy spent at
other times in battle ; so mighty was he that his prowess passed into a
proverb : Even as Nimrod . . . before the Lord. This expression is added
for the sake of emphasis, as if God Himself must take note of so striking a
phenomenon. The beginning of his kingdom, in contradistinction to its
subsequent extension, ver. ii, was in Shinar (chap. xi. 2 ; Zech. v. Ii), the
plains watered by Euphrates and Tigris, Southern Babylonia, the Sumir of
the inscriptions. Erech is Warka, 120 miles s.E. of Babylon, which
was and still is the necropolis of the Babylonians. Accad. The Babylonians
were apparently composed of two peoples, Sumirians and Akkadians. The
Accadai (or "Highlanders" in opposition to the dwellers in the wide
alluvial plains) occupied a district north of Babylon. Probably a town as
-well as a district may have been called Accad, although Smith's identifica-
tion of such a town has been discredited by subsequent researches. Calneh,
the Accadian Kul-l:nu, "tlie dwelling of the seed," in Babylonia. Out of
that land . . . rather, From this land he [Nimrod] went out into Assyria,
that is to say, he went northwards, and on the eastern bank of tlie Tigris he
builded Nineveh and the city of Rehoboth (Rehoboth-ir, lit. the broad places

X. 1 2-1 8.] HISTORY OF THE SONS OF NOAH. 49

1 2 and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah : the same

13 is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim,

14 and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim,

15 (out of ^\•hom came PhiHstim,) and Caphtorim. And Canaan

16 begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the

17 Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite,

18 and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the

of the city), and Calah, the Calchu of the inscriptions, now known as
Niniroud (though Kalisch finds Calali in Kalah Shergat, 50 miles south of
Nineveh); and Rcscn, called in the inscriptions Ris-eni, "head of the
fountains," not yet identified. The added words, the same is a great city, can
with difficulty be referred to Resen, and they have therefore been thought to
find fitter application to Nineveh, or Nineveh with the neighbouring suburbs.

Sons of Mizraim. — 13-14. Ludim, found associated with Cush and Phut
(Isa. Ixvi. 19 ; Jer. xlvi. 9 ; Ezek. xxx. 5), and probably the Egyptians
pi'oper or Rudu. Anamim, supposed to be a people of the Delta, but not
identified. Lehabim (or Lubim, 2 Chron. xii. 3 ; Nahum iii. 9) are the
Lcbu of the monuments, the Libyans (Dan. xi. 43) of the classical writers.
Naphtuhim are found in the Na-ptah, the people of the god Ptah, the seat of
whose worship was Memphis ; or perhaps more probably in Napata, the
chief city of the district around the Mareotic Lake. Pathrtisim (Jer. xliv.
I, 15 J Ezek. xxix. 14) is Pathros, or Upper Egypt. Cashthim, an unknown
tribe, out of whom came PhiHstim, the Philistines. According to Deut. ii.
23, Jer. xlvii. 4, Amos ix. 7, the Philistines are said to have come out of
Caphtor ; whence it has been supposed that in this verse Casluhim and
Caphtorim have been interchanged, or that the tribes intermingled. The
Caphtorim seem to have been the inhabitants of the Coptic nome of Egypt,
which adjoined the Theban nome or district of the Pathrusim, and Avas
known in Egypt as Kebt-hor. (See Rawlinson, Origin of Nations, p. 220.)

Sons of Canaan. — 15-19. Sido7t his first-born ■wSiS \h.e oldest Phoenician
state, and Heth, a powerful Syrian tribe, known to the Egyptians as Kheta, and
in the O. T. (chap, xxiii. 10) as the Hittites. They appear (Gen. xxv. 9) in the
ncighl:)Ourhood of Hebron ; but their proper territory was northward. They
have usually been supposed to be Semites, but their proper names preserved
in Egyptian inscriptions (Brugsch's Hist, of Egypt, ii. 5), as well as their
dress and physiognomy, indicate a different origin. The Jibusite, settled
round Jebus (Judg. xix. lo), which afterwards became Jerusalem (2 Sam.
V. 6, etc.) ; the Amorite (meaning high, highlanders ; "the Plittites and the
Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains," Num. xiii. 29), a
powerful tribe extending from the hill country of Judea to the other side of
Jordan, and northwards as far as the Jabbok ; the Girgasite, of whom
nothing is known but the name; the Hivite (meaning ''villagers" or
" townsmen "), to whom Gibeon and Shechem belonged ; the Arkite, who
apparently gave their name to a Phoenician city Arka, the ruins of which
are known as Tell Arqa ; the Sinite, or dwellers in Sini, a city near Arka ;
the Arvadite, inhabiting an island of that name on the Phoenician xoast ; the
Zemarite, belonging to another Phoenician city, Zimira or Simira (cp.
Rawlinson, Origin of Nations, p. 200) ; the Hamathite, also identified with a

50 THE BOOK OF GENESIS, [x. 1 9-25.

Hamathite : and afterward were the families of the Canaanites

19 spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from
Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza ; as thou goest
unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even

20 unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their famiUes,
after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the
brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were childi-en born.

22 The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad,

23 and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram ; Uz, and

24 Hul, and Gether, and Mash. And Arphaxad begat Salah ;

25 and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons :
the name of one ivas Peleg ; for in his days was the earth

city, Hamath, called " Hamath the Great "(Amos vi. 2), now Hamah,
in the valley of the Upper Orontes, north of Movnit Lebanon. More will be
learned of the Hamathite from the numerous inscriptions left by that tribe.
And the border of the Canamiites . . . it is the border between Canaan and
the other Cushites that is given ; that is the southern border, beginning at
the west, at Gerar, and stretching to the Jordan valley, though where
Lasha was, has not been ascertained, unless the Jews were right in supposing
Callirrhoe was meant.

Sons of Shem, — 21-31. Shem was the father of all the children of Eber,
in whose pedigree the Hebreius were naturally interested (see xi. 16) ; he was
also the brother of Japheth the elder, rather the elder brother of Japheth,
though the English version may be defended. Ela/n denotes the people
dwelling east of the lower Tigris, in South Media and Assyria ; Asshnr is
Assyria ; Arphaxad (Heb. Arpakshad), Josephus tells us, gave his name to
the Chaldseans, or Chasdim, whose name will be recognised in the latter
half of Arpakshad, the whole word meaning, according to Professor Sayce,
"frontier of Babylonia;" Lnd, generally supposed to be the Lydians ;
but with much greater probability regarded by Rawlinson as identical with
people known to the Egyptians as Ltiden, and who dwelt north of Palestine.
Aram (meaning "higliland") designates the region watered by the Upper
Euphrates. Aram's children are not easily identified. ^2; (J obi. I ) "founded
Trachonitis and Damascus " (Josephus, Ant. i. 6), which agrees very well
with Professor Davidson's conclusion (CV;«w^;//. on Job, p, 2), that the land of
Uz lay on the east of Palestine and north of Edom, running so far east as
to neighbour with the Chaldrean territory (cp. Gen, xxii. 21, and xxxvi. 28).
Hul Josephus places in Armenia, but some connection with Huleh at the
sources of Jordan seems probable. Gether and Mash are also unknown,
though the conjecture that the latter indicates the inhabitants of Mons
Masius, between Mesopotamia and Armenia, is worthy of notice. (Rawlinson
argues strongly for the reading in Chronicles, Meshech, which he identifies
with the Cappadocians or " White Syrians," as they were called by classical
writers.) Arphaxad's line through Eber is more fully given in chap, xi. Put
here a note is inserted on the name Peleg, giving its etymology, in his days
the earth zaas divided. Some competent orientalists believe that as Peleg

X. 26-32.] HISTORY OF THE SONS OF NOAH. 5I

26 divided ; and his brother's name 7vas Joktan. And Joktan

begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerali,

27, 28 and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, and Obal, and

29 Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab :

30 all these ivere the sons of Joktan. And their dwelhng was
from Mesha, as thou goest, unto Sephar, a mount of the east.

31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their

32 tongues, in their lands, after their nations. These a7x the
famihes of the sons of Noah after their generations, in their
nations : and by these were the nations divided in the earth
after the flood.

means a " water-course," there is commemorated in this name the first
cutting of some of those canals which form a feature of the country between
the Tigris and the Euphrates. The old idea was that the nations were
separated in his days — though in his days there could not be many nations,
and besides, one does not see why he rather than any other person should
have been connected with such an event.

Sons of Joktan. — 26-30. Arab tradition names Joktan or Kachtan as
the progenitor of the pure Arab tribes ; but Sir W. Muir places the Arab
Joktan about the year 8cxd b.C, and declares that " the identification is one of
those extravagant fictions which the followers of Islam, in their zeal to accom-
modate Arab legend to Jewish Scripture, have made in defiance of the most
violent improbability and the grossest anachronisms " {Life of Mahomcty
i. p. cxlix. ). Joktan begat Almodad. It is impossible to say whether this is
the Arabic article al and Modadh, the Jorham chief whose daughter Ishmael
married. If so, it is certainly, as Dillmann observes, the earliest occurrence
of it. Sheleph occurs in Arabian geography as Es-Sulaf, a tribe inhabiting the
Yemen and still extant, Hazarmaveth is merely a transliteration of the Arabic
Iladramaut, which still gives its name to a people and district on the south-east
coast of Arabia. Adjoining Iladramaut to the east is a fortress Yerakh, which
Rawlinson believes to be the representative of Jcrah. Hadoram is usually
identified with the Adramitae, a tribe of southern Arabia. Uzal was the old
name of the capital of Yemen. Diklah may be found in Dakalah, another
place of importance in the same region. Obal and Abi?nael are unascertained.
On Sheba, see ver. 7. On Ophir, the elaborate article in Smith's Diet, should
be read. From the position in which the name here occurs, there can be little
hesitation in placing Ophir in Arabia, and not much in identifying it with
Aphar, the capital of the Sabreans. Prof. Sayce, however, prefers to find it
in Abhira at the mouth of the Indus. On Havilah, see ver. 7. Jobab is
unknown. A7td their dwelling luas from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a
mount of the east. No identification of these places which has yet been offered
seems to commend itself to acceptance.

[In connection with this chapter. Prof. Sayce's contributions to the Queen's
l^r inters' Aids should be studied.]

1. Give some account of the reasons, manners, and order of the great

migrations of human population.

2. Hoio are racial affinities scientifically dttected?
" On the whole, it may be asserted that the doctrine of the unity of man-

52 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xi. I-9.

kind noiv stands on a firmer basis than in previous ages " — to zvhat
evidence does Mr. Tylor in these words refer '^
4. Draw a viap ilhistrative of this chapter.

THE TOWER OF BABEL (CHAP. XL I-9).

The Elohist in the previous chapter has left us to suppose that the nations
were distributed upon earth in obedience to the natural laws which govern
colonization and migration. And as a corollary from this narrative we should
have supposed that the striking variety in human languages was the natural
result of the dispersion of the races. The Jehovist, however, in a paragraph
markedly characteristic, inverts this natural order and gives an account of the
matter which is intended to show that variety in language was the cause, and
not the effect, of the scattering of men upon earth. This scattering is referred
not to the inevitable pressure of increasing population, nor even to war com-
pelling the weaker to retire before the stronger, but to Jehovah's judicial
interference. Men are represented as becoming audacious and vainglorious
in the conscious strength of their combined numbers. Jehovah therefore
decides to disperse them, and the means by which He effects this dispersion
is the confusion of tongues.

Eftbrts have been made to bring into harmony these two accounts of the
origin of differences in language. Philology has as yet nothing very definite
to say as to the possibility of reducing to one the larger families of human
speech. And it is said that these great divisions which have not as yet been
shown to be related, may have been miraculously produced in some sudden
manner such as is here indicated. Others, again, prefer to say that the
suddenness of the divergence is only apparent, and that this appearance of
sudden and miraculous interposition is due to the necessary brevity of the
narrative. " Who does not see," says one acute critic, " that the early days of
the human race are here given with the utmost brevity, and that the annals of
many years are crowded between a few commas? It is more likely that dis-
cord was first sent among men, and that from this cause, leaving the work
unfinished, they scattered into neighbouring regions, and gradually wandered
farther and farther off ; and that their languages gradually changed as they
were thus isolated over the face of the earth." " More likely " it may be, but
the critic might have seen that if this was the view of the sacred writer, he has
told his story not only briefly but badly ; for this is not the view that his
narrative sets before the mind.

The fact is that here, as elsewhere, the Jehovist aims not so much at pre-
senting historical information as at showing the ethical and religious significance
of the leading points in history and the chief changes in man's condition. He
seizes upon diversity of language as one of the most striking and important
features of human society ; and the religious significance of this feature he
finds in these two ideas : (i) That this diversity is not only an inconvenience
and an evil, but a judicial infliction, a punishment ; and (2) that, though a
punishment, it forms a salutary barrier preventing men from combining for
wicked purposes. The story which brings out the wicked ambitions to which
men dedicate their united strength, and the defeat of these ambitions by a
divinely-ordained dispersion, sufficiently serves the purpose he has in view.
He does not design to give an account of the origin of diversity in human
language, but to show the purposes served by the breaking up of men into
dis'Jnct nations.

XT. 1-7.] HISTORY OF THE SONS OF NOAH. 53

Chap. xr. i. And the whole earth was of one language, and of

2 one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the
east, that they found a p ■ .in in the land of Shinar ; and they

3 dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us
make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick

4 for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said. Go
to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose toj^ 7?iav reach
unto heaven : and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered

5 abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower, which the children

6 of men builded. And the Lord said. Behold, the people is
one, and they have all one language ; and this they begin to
do : and now nothing will be restrained from them, which

7 they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one

The whole earth, i.e. the whole population of the earth, ivas of one laiiguage
and of one speech, lit. of one lip and one (kind of) words [" labii unius et ser-
monum eorumdem." — Vulg.], the vocal sounds and the vocables were identical.
If the race is one, plainly the language must originally have been one. Now,
not only are languages different, but the sounds made by one race are
impossible or extremely difficult to others. // came to pass, but ivhen (chap.
X. 25) is defined only by the clause, as they journeyed fro?n the east ; better,
eastwards, in the east, the writer looking to Shinar from the standpoint of
Palestine ; they found a plain ; as Herodotus remarks, Babylon "stands in a
vast plain." Dwelling here, their first resolve (ver. 3, they said one to another)
seems to have been simply that they should make brick (a manufacture after-
wards carried on in that stoneless region to an extent that astonishes every
traveller), or, in other words, should abandon tents and nomad life and build
themselves houses so as to settle permanently in the fertile valley. They had
brick for stojie (which, as Murphy says, indicates that the writer was more
familiar with stone as building material), and slime, asphalt or bitumen yi^r
mortar, as might be inferred from the lumps of it still found adhering to the
bricks found in that district. Their second resolve, when they learned their
powers as builders, was, Z^/ z/j- (^///A/ . . . . whose top may 7-each unto heaven,
which, according to Wright, means merely very high (cp. Deut. i. 28), but
which, though hyperbolical, must yet be taken as indicating that in their
ignorant audacity they judged that heaven itself was not to be reckoned wholly
unattainable by them. " Nil mortalibus arduum est : ccelum ipsum petimus
slultitia." They foresaw (or actually observed the first symptoms) that they
\vo\A(S. he scattered abroad as they increased in numbers; and on these wide
flats tlicrc \\x;> no rallying-point which could serve as a centre. While yet
united, therefore, they would show what their combined strength could do,
and so make a name to themselves. This was a kind of ambition which could
lead only to evil, to tyranny, and godless worldliness. '^o the Lord came down
to see, watchful over all the ways and works of men. And the Lord said ....
This is represented as the result of His consideration of the state of matters on
earth : a dangerous beginning had been made, a powerful combination for

54 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xi. 8, Q.

8 another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from
thence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off to

9 build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel ;
because the Lord did there confound the language of all the
earth : and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth.

evil, which, if allowed to grow, would pass beyond control, and must there-
fore be terminated by scattering the people. [There is here the same bold-
ness of anthropomorphism as in Gen. iii. 22, ascribing to Jehovah something
like jealousy of man.] So the Lord scattered them abroad^ apparently by the
means indicated in ver. 7, confounding their language. Therefore is the name
of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confotmd i^diXaX) the laugtiat^c. . . .
This derivation is defended by Oppert. Babel was commonly supposed to Le
Bab-El or Bab-Il, the Gate (or House) of God. Prof. Sayce says: "The
name Babel signifies 'Gate of God,' and is a Semitic translation of the older
Accadian name of the place Ca-dimirra " (Smith's Babyloiria, p. 53, note).

Remarks. — i. There is some difficulty in identifying the tower here spoken
of. Several of the most eminent Orientalists believe that the ruins known as
Borsippa or Birs Nimrud represent it. According to Oppert, Borsippa (Bar-
zippa) means the Tower of Tongues, and althougii it stands several miles from
the ruins now known as Babil, it may not have been so remote from the
original city, and was probably included within the subsequently-built walls,
which embraced an area of 100 square miles. It is this tower which
Ne'.juchadnezzar repaired, as one of his inscriptions relates : " This most
ancient monument of Borsippa ; a former king built it (they reckon 42 ages),
but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned
it, without order expressing their words. "

2. This breaking up of the race into sections, which were mutually exclusiv.%
suspicious of one another, and unintelligible to one another, was not merely
an important turning-point in the history of the world, but it was the intro-
duction of a new epoch in God's revelation. This is the first step towards
preparing a peculiar people, whose national prejudices and characteristics
might serve as an external bulwark to His communications. He has not ytt
selected this people, nor set them in their place of defence, but we begin to
see the kind offence he means to run round them.

1. To what extent does philology countenance the statement that one

language 7i.'as once spoken by all men ?

2. In rvhat consisted the sin of the Babel-builders ?

3. What benefits are derived from the variety of langtiages ?

4. Are there any indications in Scripture or in reason that jinity of

language zuill ever again be readied?

5. " The associative work of immodest men is all fruitless and astir with

wormy a^nbition ; putridly dissolute and for ever 07i the crawl ; so that
if it come together for a time it can only be by metamorphosis through
flash of volcanic fire 02/t of the vale of Siddwi, vitrifying the clay of it
and fastening the slifne, only to end in wilder scattered n ess ; according
to the fate of those oldest, mightiest, iminodestest of builders, of whom
it is told in scorn, 7hey had brick," etc. Explain the allusions in
ih:sc words of Buskin.

XI. 10-26.] THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM. 55

CHAPTER XL 10-26. — The Generations of Shem.

10 These are the generations of Shem : Shem was an hundred
years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood :

1 1 and Shem Hved after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years,
I 2 and begat sons and daughters. And Arphaxad lived five and
13 thirty years, and begat Salah : and Arphaxad lived after he

begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and
I \ daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber :

15 and Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three

16 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Eber lived four

17 and thirty years, and begat Peleg : and Eber lived after he
begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons

18 and daughters. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu :

19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine

20 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Reu lived two

2 1 and thirty years, and begat Serug : and Reu lived after he
begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons

22 and daughters. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat

23 Nahor : and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred

24 years, and begat sons and daughters. And Nahor lived nine

25 and twenty years, and begat Terah : and Nahor lived after he
begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons

26 and daughters. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat
Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

As the Elohist bridged with a genealogical table the interval between the
Creation and the Flood, so again he similarly deals with the space between the
Flood and the Call of Abraham, the next great milestone of his narrative. In
this table, as in that, there are ten members ; but as the age of the succeeding
generations steadily diminishes, the total number of years which elapsed
between the Flood and the birth of Abraham is only 292 years. This gives
us some unexpected results ; as, e.g., that Shem was alive when Jacob was
born, and that Eber survived Abraham. It is within this period also that
room must be found for the peopling of the earth and for the development of
the high civilisations of Babylonia and Egypt. [In this table, as in that of
chap, v., there is considerable discrepancy between the figures of the Hebrew
text and those of the LXX.]

The names in this table are now names and nothing more. It cannot even
be determined whence the name Eber was derived. The usual derivation of
the word which gives it the signification of "crosser," one who has come
from the other side of the Euphrates (cp. Gen, xiv, 13), seems to imply that
it was first given by the Canaanites, Besides, according to Ewald, the
derivation itself is philologically inaccurate. It has been suggested that the
word may mean "river bank " or " dweller in a land of rivers." From the
position of Eber in the genealogy it will be seen that many peoples besides

56 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xi. 27-32.

those to whom we restrict the name may have called themselves Hebrews.
But the relation between the name of the ancestor and that of the people
descended from him is not apparent. Why did Abraham not take the name
of a licnver ancestor?

CHAPTER XI. 27-32.— The Generations of Terah.

27 Now these are the generations of Terah : Terah begat Abram,

2tS Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died

before his father Terah in tlie land of his nativity, in Ur of

29 the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives : the
name of Abram's wife luas Sarai ; and the name of Nahor's
wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah,

30 and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren ; she Jiad no

3 1 child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of
Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son
Abram's wife ; and they went forth with them from Ur of the
Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan ; and they came

32 unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were
two hundred and five years : and Terah died in Haran.

In this section the immediate parentage and the family connections of
Abraham are given.

Terah had three sons, one of whom, Haran, died before his father, which
does not directly mean that he predeceased him, but that he died while with
Ins father, in his presence. He left a son, Lot. His death took place in the
land of his nativity, where, therefore, his father must have been for some
time settled, in Ur of the Chaldees, Ur Chasdim. The late Mr. G. Smith
had no doubt that this is the Babylonian city of Ur, now Mugheir, situated
on the western bank of the Euphrates, not far from its mouth. There is, he
says {Chald. Genesis, p. 298), not the slightest evidence of a northern Ur,
and a northern land of the Chaldees at this period. [An interesting account
of the city will be found in the first chapter of Tomkins' Abraham.'] Though
recent writers generally accept this site, the alternative one of Urfa (Edessa)
is still adhered to by some competent scholars. Abram and N'ahor took the in
wives; the naine of Abranis wife was Sarai, who according to chap. xx. 12
was his step-sister. Nahor married his cousin Milcah, the daughter of
Haran, whose other daughter was Iscah. Why she is named does not
appear ; certainly not because Iscah was another name of Sarai. The
migration accomplished by Abram was begun by Terah. He took Abram,
Lot, ajid Sarai (leaving Nahor and his family behind, though they followed
after, chap. xxiv. 10), and went forth from Ur, with the intention of going
into the land of Canaan, but he only got as far as Haran (Charran, Acts
vii. 2 : now Harran, a small village in Padan-Aram (chap. xxv. 20), some
miles S.E. from Edessa), and Terah died in Haran, being 205 years old.
How long Abram lived in Charran does not appear, though certainly it was
)ong enough to acquire substance and to enlarge his household, chap, xii, ^.

XII. I-3-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 57

It would seem from chap. xii. i that Abram left Charran -while his father still
lived, but Stephen (Acts vii. 4) tells us it was after his father's death. It
follows that as Abram was 75 years when he left Charran (xii. 4), his father
must have been at least 130 years old v/hen he was born ; but this again is
scarcely consistent with Abram's exclamation, chap. xvii. 17.

CHAPTER XII. i-XXV. lo.— The History of Abraham.

1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,

2 unto a land that I will show thee : and I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ;

3 and thou shalt be a blessing : and I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all

The character of the narrative changes at this point. The attention is now
concentrated on an individual, the founder and root of the Hebrew people.
Nations were forming themselves under the guidance of various natural
impulses — shelter from stronger tribes, need of food, love of adventure and
conquest. At last God selects one man and says, "/will make of thee a
great nation." The origin of this people springing from Abraham is super-
natural. No other account can be given of its origin than that Abraham
believed God. He was himself already the member of a tribe, well off, and
likely to be well off; he has no large family to provide for, but he is
separated from his kindred and led out to be a new beginning, and this solely
because he felt the call of God and responded to it.

The Call of Abram.— 1-9. Now the Lord had said, better, the Lord
said ; the other translation would imply that Abram had not at once obeyed.
How God communicated this call to Abram we do not know. Abram never
doubted it was Divine, and it was sufficiently explicit. Get thee out of thy
country .... All the iteration in this verse is intended to emphasize the
utterness of the abandonment of all natural connections. The point to which
he was to direct his steps was not definitely declared ; tinto a land that I
will shoiu thee. This reservation made obedience in some respects more
difficult (Heb. xi. 8), in other respects easier — as indeed is the case in all
such calls, it is better not to see all the difficulties. Sufficient inducement
was given to Abram. Assure the colonist that he shall have land, and strong
sons to till and hold and leave it to, and he has all the inducement he needs.
To Abram these things are promised ; a land, and a great nation. And I
will bless thee, not to be restricted either to temporal or spiritual things, but
to be left general and comprehensive. But higher than any natural expecta-
tion did the promise go in the words : a7id thou shalt be a blessijig .... and
in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. The latter verb is, strictly,
reflexive, not passive, and some grammarians therefore translate : all families
shall bless themselves in thy name, or, shall use thy name as a type of blessed-
ness. This seems somewhat frigid, and both the LXX. and the Vulgate give

58 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xil. 4-6.

4 families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the
Lord had spoken unto him ; and Lot went with him : and
Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out

5 of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his
brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered,
and the souls that they had gotten in Haran ; and they went
forth to go into the land of Canaan ; and into the land of

6 Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land
unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the

the passive, as our own version does. So Abram departed, "not knowing
whither he went," Heb. xi. 8. And with him he took Lot .... and the souls,
that is, the slaves and hired servants, they had gotten in Haran. The appear-
ance presented by such a household on the march is the subject of a very
siMiited description in Layard's Nineveh, i. 90 ; cp. also Irving's Life of
J\Iaho/7iet, p. 5. One who is intimately acquainted with the East says :
" The Asiatic moves even more easily than the European. He is not afraid
to go far, if he has not to cross the sea, for once uprooted, distance makes
little difference to him. He has no furniture to carry, for, except a carpet
and a few brass pans, he uses none. He has no trouble about meals, for he
is content with parched grain, which his wife can cook anywhere, or dried
dates, or dried flesh, or anything obtainable which will keep. He is, on a
march, careless where he sleeps, provided his family are round him — in a
stable, under a porch, or in the open air. He never changes his clothes at
night, and he is profoundly indifferent to everything that the Western man
understands by 'comfort.' If he has time, he takes his cattle with him; if
not, he abandons them, or sells them for any sum procurable, turns every-
thing possible into money, and with all his possessions on his back or in a
cart, marches on, perfectly secure of the favour of God, to the destination
which, sometimes from a tradition as old as his own family, he has fixed in
his own mind, with a certain stoicism and even nobility of resignation which
it is impossible not to admire." Thus Abram journeyed towards Canaan.
His route is carefully traced and described by Tomkins {Life of Abraham,
p. 63), who is of opinion that he crossed the Euphrates at Carchemish.
Stanley prefers Bir, and Malan thinks Thapsacus (Tiphsakh) the probable
crossing-place. It is impossible to determine. That he passed through or
by Damascus is certified by some interesting traditions, as well as by the
supposition that he may there have fallen in with Eliezer, his servant. At
length he came to the place of Sichem (ver. 6), probably the sacred place at
Shechem (cp. Conder's Handbook, 275) ; perhaps only the town Shechem
(cp. xxxiii. 18). It is doubtful whether this place derived its name from
Shechem, son of Hamor, prince of the Hivites (xxxiv. 2). The probability
is that he was named after the place, and that it received its name from its
situation on the shoulder of Mount Gerizim. Vespasian called the town
Neapolis, represented by the modern Nablus. It is situated in one of the
richest and most beautiful vales of Palestine. "The land of Syria," said
Mohammed, " is beloved by Allah beyond all lands, and the part of Syria
which he loveth most is the district of Jerusalem, and the place which he
loveth most in the district of Jerusalem is the mountain of Nablus " (see
Smith's Diet. s.v. ). The plains of Moreh, rather, the oak of Moreh [supposed

XII. 7, 8.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 59

7 Canaanite li'as then in the land. And the Lord appeared
unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land
and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appearea

8 unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on

by KndlDel to mean *' the Teacher's Oak " or " the Lawgiver's Oak," a tree
at which oracular responses were given by some old sage or prophet (cji.
Deut. xi. 30 and Judg. ix. 37). The religions character of the place 15
apparent from chap. xxxv. 4 and Josh. xxiv. 26], a well-known landmark,
meeting-place, and place of sacrifice, " Here at the foot of Ebal and
Gerizim, in the holy heart of the land, he received from God his earliest
intimation that this was the destined home of his future seed — the land in
search of which he had travelled so far. Under the branches of that sacred
tree, which, after looking down on the cruel and impure rites of many more
generations, was still to stand, a venerable landmark in the eyes of his
conquering descendants, Abram reared his first rude altar to Jehovah on the
soil of Canaan. It was his response to God's word, ' Unto thy seed will I
give this land.' It expressed both confidence and gratitude. It was his
way of taking the country in possession. It was the first step in that long
cleansing of the soil which was ultimately to turn the polluted Canaan into a
holy land for God's redeemed " (Dykes' Abraham, p. 48). How the Lord
appeared unto Abram, it is difficult to say ; easier perhaps to understand how
the impression might be produced that this was the land God gave him. I'he
Canaanite ivas then in the land, that is, when God gave the land to Abram
it had inhabitants already who claimed it as theirs ; a statement by no means
necessarily implying that when it was made the Canaanites had ceased to
dwell in the land. It is generally agreed that the Canaanites came from the
shores of the Persian Gulf. But it has not yet been determined to what
stock they belong. The reasons commonly urged for supposing them to have
been of Semitic blood are, that both Abram and his descendants seem to
have had no difficulty in conversing Avith them ; that the names of places and
of such persons as Melchisedec, Abimelech, etc., are Semitic; and that the
fragmentary relics of the Phoenician language indicate that they spoke a
vSemitic tongue. On the other side it is urged that we are distinctly informed
in Gen. x. that the Canaanites and Phoenicians were of Hamitic descent ;
and moreover, if they were Semitic, all Semitic characteristics had been
ol}literatcd : " Unlike their national kindred, the Phoenicians were energetic,
they were enterprising, they were artistic, they were grossly immoral, they
were freely polytheistic. In short, they were almost everything which the
other Semites Avere not, and scarcely anything that the other Semites were "
(Farrar, Fainilies of Speech, p. 135). So that we have to choose one or other
of these alternatives : either, that being originally Hamitic they had at an
early period come so much in contact with Semites as to adopt their
language ; or, that being originally Semitic they had by unknown influences
lost the Semitic characteristics. Canon Rawlinson very ably advocates the
view that the Phoenicians were not of the Canaanite stock, but possessed
themselves of Canaanite territory, and that the Canaanites themselves were
of Hamitic descent.

8. A mountain on the east of Bethel. "In the little grassy valley on the
south-east of Bethel the patriarch's flocks and herds may have grazed, and
that mountain to which he came may be the little rugged hill opposite, with

F

6o THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xil. 9-T3.

the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the

west, and Hai on the east : and there he builded an altar unto

9 the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram

10 journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a
famine in the land : and Abram went down into Egyj^t to

11 sojourn there ; for the famine ivas grievous in the land. And
it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt,
that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou

12 ai't a fair woman to look upon: therefore it shall come to
pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say,
This is his wife : and they will kill me, but they will save thee

13 alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be
well with me for thy sake ; and my soul shall Uve because of

shapeless cairns on its top, to which we climbed.. — Tel-el-Hajar, 'the hill of
the stones ' " (Tristram, Land of Israel, p.- 166). Robinson {Researches, i. 450)
says the high ground east of Bethel \\\o\n Beitbi] is ' still one of the finest tracts
for pasturage in the whole land.' Hai is the town of Ai destroyed by Joshua
(Ai with the article prefixed becomes Hai), who ' made it an heap [tcl) for ever'
(Josh. viii. 28). Some, therefore, identify it with the Tel of stones alluded
to above; others (Lieut. Kitchener, R.E.) identify it with Khurbet Ilaiy, a
mile east of Michmash (cp. Robinson, i, 574, 575). Lieut, Conder places it
two miles east of Bethel at the ruined town of Haiyan. And Abram journeyed,
his movements being probably determined by the necessities of his flocks.

Aeram expelled by Famine. — 10-13. At length, though how long after
his first entrance is not said, he was compelled to leave the land ; for there was
a famine in the land. Although given to him by God, it was subject to the
calamities of other lands. He went therefore down into Egypt (ver. 10), a
country which is not dependent on the same conditions as Palestine, and is still
resorted to for similar reasons. " In 1870 [when the famine was again grievous
in the land] the Philistine country was almost depopulated, the inhabitantshaving
gone into Egypt for food." Abram did not intend to remain in Egypt, and saw
that there was a danger even in sojourning there (ver. ii). He knew enough
of Egyptian customs to warn him that the beauty of Sarai might endanger him.
And as the event proved, his conception of the situation was perfectly accurate.

Two of the oldest Egyptian papyri that have been translated have a bearing
on this episode. The one tells us that under the 12th dynasty the wife and
children of a foreigner were confiscated as a matter of course and became the
property of the king. The other tells us of a Pharaoh who, acting on the
advice of his princes, sent armed men to fetch a beautiful woman by force,
and then make away with her husband. It was evidently no regular custom
which Abram feared, nor was it even the royal fancy which he suspected
might possibly light on Sarai, but he thought her beauty might attract the
attention of some private person. And he was right. Sarai, indeed, was
65 years old. Her comparatively fair complexion would no doubt favourably
contrast with the dusky faces of the Egyptian women ; but the age is a
difficulty. Abram instructed her how to act (ver. 13), Say, I pray thee, thou
art my sister: instructing her to tell the half-truth which is the more
dangerous lie.

XII. I4-2 0.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 6 1

14 thee. And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into
Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very

15 fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended
her before Pharaoh : and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's

16 house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he
had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and

17 maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. And the Lord
plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of

18 Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said.
What is this that thou hast done unto me ? why didst thou

1 9 not tell me that she was thy wife ? Why saidst thou, She is
my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now

20 therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And
Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him : and they sent
him awa)', and his wife, and all that he had.

Abram in Egypt. — 14-20. And it came to pass . .. . the princes saw ker,
being unveiled, in accordance with the famous Beni-hassan representation of a
Semitic family in which the wife is unveiled. A7id commended her before
Pharaoh. "Just as the Turks say 'the Porte' (gate) for the court of the
Sultan, the Egyptians, instead of speaking of the king, said * the Palace,' the
great dwelling, per-aa'" (Pierret), Similarly in English we speak of "the
Court " instead of the judge (Tomkins, Studies, etc., p. 156). It is scarcely
possible as yet to determine under what Pharaoh Abram visited Egypt. A
very full and able discussion of the subject is appended by Canon Cook to the
first volume of the Speaker's Comme7itary ; the conclusion being that Abram
was contemporary with the earlier part of the 12th dynasty. And he etitj-eatcd
Abram ivell . . . asses and camels. "The coincidence of Scripture with the
evidence of the monuments is to be observed. No horses are mentioned in
Abraham's time, but they were common when Joseph was in office. On the
other hand, asses, given to Abram, were extremely numerous, even when the
pyramids of Gizeh were built " (Tomkins, p. 133). Camels are not mentioned
in Egypt till the 19th dynasty. [The word probably means "the beast of
burden :" see Smith's Diet, s.v.; but camels were also used, as they still are, for
other purposes. Their milk is more nutritious than cod-liver oil.] In
accepting these gifts Abram must have felt shame, but fear kept him from
refusing them. He appears throughout in no very amiable or admirable light:
risking the woman through whom the promised seed was to come, and timidly
sheltering himself under a lie. But he was mercifully saved from the worst
he might fear : for the Lord plagued Pharaoh. . . . The warning sent to
Pharaoh "reached the heathen mind of the monarch," says Dr. Dykes, "in
a way accommodated to his heathen notions. Pharaoh had taken the fair
Syrian to his harem with a view to honourable marriage. The prescribed
term of preparation for the espousals was still running its course, when some
undescribed disease affected the royal household, and probably impeded by
its very nature the consummation of the nuptials. To a devout, superstitious
Egyptian, every physical evil has some specific moral origin : the court priests
had no difficulty in tracing this malady to the presence of the foreign lady.
They reasoned precisely as Jonah's shipmates did on a \ arallel occasion."

62 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xill. I-7.

Chap. xiii. i. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his
wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

2 And Abram 7ms very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el,
unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning,

4 between Beth-el and Hai ; unto the place of the altar, which
he had made there at the first : and there Abram called on

5 the name of the Lord. And Lot also, which went with

6 Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was
not able to bear them, that they might dwell together : for
their substance was great, so that they could not dwell

7 together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of

1. IV hat is the harm of lying?

2. Mention the various aggravations of Abraham'' s lie ; and also what may

be suggested in palliation of his offence.

3. Give other instaiices in tvhich eminent personages in yeivish history

betrayed a readiness to mana:uvre and to lie.

4. Hozu does this featiire in Abraham^ character affect his qnalif cation to

be the depositary of God's revelation ?

5. What did he learn from the event's in Egypt ?

6. JVhat use would a sheep-master like Abraham mahe of camels ?

7. What is the radical i?iea7nngof-p\digwe, andzvhat do yon gather from it?

8. Give a sketch of the leading incidents which occitrred at Shechctn, Bethel,

and Ai ; explaining their sitnation and distance from one another.

9. Who were the Canaanites? Jti what relation did the FJio:niciani

stand to them ? What relics of their la7ignage exist ?

lot's separation from abram (chap. xiii.).

This chapter tells how Lot gave up his claim to Canaan, and left Abram as
sole inheritor of God's promise.

Abram went up out of Egypt. The Egyptians, as well as the Hebrews,
always spoke of going up to Palestine or Syria, probably from the more
mountainous character of the country — though many parts of it are really at a
lower level than Egypt. Lot is mentioned as being with him, because the
present paragraph concerns Lot. They went info the south, the Negeb, the
region between the hill country of Judah and the desert. Abram was very
rich [lit. heavy, moving slowly] in cattle, which were highly prized in Egypt ;
in silver atid in gold, which even at that date were finely wrought by the
Egyptians. And he went on his jotirneys, or, by stages, encamping at short
intervals " from verdant stage to stage," according as he found pasture ; his aim
being to reach the place of the altar ivhich he had made at the first. He felt that
in this strange land God was his home and refuge. [A description of the
country he passed through will be found in Drew's Scripture Lands, p. 6.]
And Lot also . ... so that they could not divell together; Lot had been liberally
dealt with by his uncle, who had allowed him a large share of all his own
prosperity. Lot therefore, as well as Abram, now required miles of grazing
groimd ; and the result was that there was a strife between the herdsmen, each

XIII. 8-1 6. J THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 63

Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And tlie

8 Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And
Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee,
between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy

9 herdmen ; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before
thee ? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me : if thou wilt take
the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or if thou depart to

10 the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up
his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well
watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of

11 Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all
the plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east : and they

12 separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelt
in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain,

13 and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom

14 were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And
the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from
him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where
thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and west-

15 ward ; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,

16 and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the

party wisliing for their own master the best pasture and the most convenient
Mells. This strife was not only a pain to Abram, but it was dangerous, for ihe
Canaanite . . dzvelled thm in the land, a circumstance which also diminished
the available room for large encampments. Accordingly, Abram decided
that a separation was advisable ; better for relatives to live amicably apart than
to be quarrelsome partners. Is notthetvhole land . . . as Augustine remarks,
it is for the superior to make the division and for the inferior to choose his share.
And Lot lifted up his eyes ; what he saw is sketched in Stanley's Sinai and
Palestine, 218. That which attracted the eyes of Lot was the plain of Jordan,
lit. the circle of Jordan, the lower part of the valley watered by the Jordan,
which was called the Great Plain, or the Arabah, and now known as the
Ghor, No words could exaggerate the promise of this ^cell-watered plain. It
seemed to Lot as the garden of the Lord, as an ideal region for a flockmaster ;
or, to convey an impression of it by a comparison with the real and known, it
was like the land ofEoypt. The words, as thou comest unto Zoar, are added to
indicate the extreme point southwards to which this fertile region extended.
This inviting land L^ot chose, and gradually journeying east to enter it, at
length pitched his tent toxuards Sodo?n, undismayed and undeterred by the cir-
cumstance that the men of Sodom ivere wicked . . . exceedingly. Abram on his
part found he was not the loser by his magnanimity. Having acted as one
who knew that the Lord would provide — he had learned in Egypt that God
required no immoral.'ty on man's part to forward His purpose — he now finds
that it is "the meek who inherit the earth : " the Lord said unto Abram . . .
renewing to him the assurance that the whole land of Canaan would be his.

64 THE LOOK OF GENESIS. [xlll. I7-XIV. t.

dust of the earth : so that if a man can number the dust of

1 7 the earth, tlien shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk
through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it ;

18 for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent,
and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in
Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

Chap. xiv. i. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king
of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of

This is the third promise (cp. xii. 2, and xii. 7), and embraces the two main
features of the others, the land and the seed. From the central position
occupied by Bethel, the land could be well seen. Abram was directed not
only to view it, but to consider and use it as his own : Arise, zualk through
the land. But, in the meantime, what he does is to remove his /^-/zif southwards
to Hehrojt, to the oahs of Mamre. Constantine erected a basilica on the spot
where these oaks stood, about two miles north of Hebron. " In one corner
of the building," says Canon Tristram, "is an ancient drop-well, carefully
lined with hard limestone, and still containing water ; probably far older than
the church, and perhaps reaching back to the time of Abraham " {Land of
Israel, p. 398). Hebron is now called El-Khulil, the friend, after Abram,
the friend of God.

1. What features of character are displayed in Lofs choice?

2. I J 01U did the faith of Abram manifest itself ?

3. To zvhom and atxvhat times are God's assurances of His favour likely

to come ?

4. Point out on a map Bethel, Hebron, and the plain of Jordan.

5. Write a brief history of Hebron.

ABRAM's rescue of lot from chedorlaomer (chap. XIV.).

The idea that this vivid chapter is an invention for the purpose of exalting
Abram is gratuitous, and is refuted by the evidence borne by the narrative
itself. The names of the kings engaged, their alliance, their route, are all in
agreement with the historical facts recorded in Assyrian inscriptions. It is
possible no doubt that a writer of genius should accurately restore the past,
but it is scarcely credible that he should have run the risk of inserting so many
details as are found in this chapter. Besides, there are marks proving the
narrative to be derived from a foreign, not a Hebrew, source. Of these the
most striking is the title by which Abram is identified (ver. 13), "Abram the
Hebrew." This and other marks indicate that the narrative was preserved
either in an Assyrian document — which is not likely — or by some of the parties
engaged on the side of the cities of the plain.

\. Amraphel, or, as the LXX, gives it, Amarphal, is an Akkadian proper
name ; Lenormant has found the name Amarpal on two cylinders. Ki)ig of
Shinar, i.e. of the southern division of Chaldoea, called by the inhabitants
Sximir. Arioch, probably Eriaku, a name borne by at least one Chaldccan
prince, the son of Kudur-Mabuk, who received, as his capital, the town of
Larsa {Ellasar), on the east side of Euphrates. Chedorlaomer, transliterated
by LXX. into Chodollogomor, which is in appearance but not in pronunciation

XIV. 2-5-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 65

2 Elam, and Tidal king of nations ; that these made war with
Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah,
Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and

3 the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined

4 together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve
years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year

5 they rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came Chedor-
laomer, and the kings that ivei-e with him, and smote the
Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham,

somewhat liker its original Kudur-lagamar. Kudur is a common component
in the names of Assyrian Ivings, and is stated by Rawlinson to mean "son
of; " Lagaviar is known to have been the name of one of their deities, so
that Kudur-lagamar is son of Lagamar.^ He is styled King of Elam. Elam
comprehended the broad and rich plains to the east of the lower course of
the Tigris, together with the mountains (8000 to 10,000 feet high) which
bound them. It is known as Susiana to the Greek geographers. The
Elamites were Semitic, but were invaded by Cushites, called by the Greeks
Kossaeans. In the time of Chedorlaomer, Elam apparently held in subjection
the whole country west to the Jordan and at some points farther. Tidal,
in LXX. Thargal= Tzir-gal, great chief, described as king of natio7is^ a
doubtful title, but possibly meaning that he ruled over the Semitic tribes to
the north of Eabylonia. The same title occurs in an inscription translated in
the Records of the Fast, vii. 4.

3. Vale of Siddim, i.e. the vale of cliffs. " The cliffs of marl along the
shore of the Dead Sea and those formed by the streams running to Jordan,
are called Sidd by the Eedawin. These marl hills are the most remarkable
feature of the lower part of the Ghor " (Conder's Handbook). Which is the
salt sea ; these words have been supposed to imply that the sea lies where the
cities then stood. There is reason to doubt this, " The lake, far fi-om having
been recently formed, is the remains of a yet larger and more ancient sea. It
may further be remarked, that the cities of the plain are described as having
been destroyed by fire, not by water " (Conder, p. 239 ; and full proof in Mr.
Grove's admirable article on the Salt Sea in Smith's Diet.). The position
occupied by these kings, on one of the chief caravan routes, made it necessary
that their subjection or alliance should be secured.

5-7. The tribes here named lay to the east of the Jordan. Chedorlaomer
came from the north, and so crippled these tribes in his passage southwards,
that when he swept round the lower end of the Dead Sea and up the Jordan
valley, he should have nothing to fear, at least on his right flank. The first
to feel his sword were the Rcphaim, rendered by the LXX. giants (cp. Deut.
iii. 11). Their stronghold was Ashteroth ICarnaim, a place not yet identified,
and distinct, in Grove's judgment, from the Ashteroth (also in Bashan) men-
tioned as Og's capital (Deut. i. 4). Some suppose it was named ' of the two
peaks' from the character of its site; others, apparently with more reason,
think it derived its name from the horns of the crescent moon, the symbol of
Astarte. The next tribe subdued was the Zuzim, usually supposed to be
identical with the Zamzummims. Dr. Tristram identifies Ha7n with Hamcitaf,

1 But although George Smith identifies Chedorlaomer with Kudur- Mabuk, it seems still
somewhat doubtful whether this is warranted.

66 THE BOOK. OF GENESIS. [KIV. 6-12.

6 and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim. and the Horites in
their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness.

7 And they returned, and came to En-mish-pat, which is Kadesh,
and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the

8 Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar. And there went out
the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king
of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela,
(the same is Zoar ;) and they joined battle with them in the

9 vale of Siddim ; with Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and
with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and

I o Arioch king of EUasar ; four kings with five. And the vale

of Siddim iv as full ^slime-pits ; and the kings of Sodom and
Gomorrah fled, and fell there ; and they that remained fled to

I I the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and
1 2 Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And

six miles east of the lower part of the Dead Sea. The Emims, "a people
great and many and tall," possessing the land afterwards mhabited by the
Moabites (Deut. ii. lo), held Shaveh- Kiriathaim, a town not yet identified.
The Horites, cave-dwellers, or troglodytes, who excavated the rocks around
Petra, were driven out by the descendants of Esau, who possessed Mount Seir
•' in their stead " (Deut. ii. 12). The terminus of the expedition was El-paran,
xohich is by the zvilderness, or the oak or terebinth wood of Paran. The
wilderness or desert of Paran stretched away south-west through what is now
known as the Desert Et-Tih, into which, unless they meant to go on to Egypt,
nothing could be gained by going.

7. And they returned ; at this point they turned, and as they had in their
southward course swept the country lying to the east of the great commercial
route from the Elanitic Gulf, so in their northward route they smite all the
country of the Amalekites, which lies on the west of that route. They thus
seem to have come round to the lower end of the Dead Sea and gone up its
western shore as far as Hazezon-Tamar (the felling of palms, afterwards
called Engedi, the kid's fountain, now Ain-jidy), where they could advance
no farther, but must have forced the extremely difficult pass to the higher
ground, and have marched within no great distance of Abram's encampment,
until they could again descend to the plain of Siddim. It may be thought
even more probable that they kept the higher ground from Kadesh without
touching the Dead Sea at any point, only detailing a party to make a descent
upon En-gedi in passing. [Tristram describes the route by the Dead Sea,
Land of Moab, p. 25.]

10. Slime-pits, asphalt pits. The Bible Word- Book cites from Plolland's
Pliny: " The very clammy slime bitumen, which at certaine times of the yere,
floteth and swimmeth upon the lake of Sodom, called Asphaltites in Jury."
A good account of these bitumen wells (still called biaret humjnar) is given
by Thomson, Land and Book, p. 223. The abundance of these pits is ex-
pressed in the original by an expression equivalent to '■'•zvells upon zuells." It
is singular that the nature of the ground should have proved fatal, not to the
foreigner, but to those who knew it. The King of Sodom fell there, but this

XIV. I3-2 0.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 67

they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom,

13 and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had
escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew ; for he dwelt in the
plain of Mamre the Amoiite, brother of Eshcol, and brother

14 of i\.ner : and these ze/^r^ confederate with Abram. And when
Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed
his trained servants^ born in his own house, three hundred

15 and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided
himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote
them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left

16 hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and
also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the

1 7 women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went
out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedor-
laomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of

18 Shaveh, which is the king's dale. And Melchisedec king of
Salem brought forth bread and wine : and he ivas the priest

19 of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed
he Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and

20 earth : and blessed he the most high God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

apparently can only refer to his section of the allied army, as he himself
(scarcely his successor) appears to hail Abram's return. [The form of the
Hebrew word would indicate that they fell into the pits, but the translation
of the A. V. can be justified by other instances.]

13. And there cmne ofie that had escaped, rather, those that escaped, and
told Abram the Hebrew , i.e. Abram the immigrant from beyond Euphrates,
{Transeuphratensis in the Vulgate,] the native of the country beyond the
river. Others suppose it is the patronymic from Eber, chap. x. 21.

14. Dan was situated, according to Josephus, near the springs of Lesser
Jordan. The name lingers in that of the stream called Leddan. See Conder's
Handbook. Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, and probably their followers, went
with Abram.

15. Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus, i.e. to the north of
Damascus. Primitive people, when they take their bearings, face the East,
the rising sun, and so have the north on the left hand, the south on the right
(cp. Deccan, right hand land, for the south of Hindostan). " At the distance
of two miles outside the walls [of Damascus] is the village of Hobah, said to
be that to which Abraham pursued the kings." — Stanley, S. and P. p. 414, k.

17, 18. The valley of Shaveh ; it is impossible with certainty to determine
where these localities, Salem and Shaveh, were. It is very commonly
supposed that Salem was the place which afterwards became Jerusalem, and
that the King's dale was that part of the ravine of the Kidron afterwards known
under that name, cp. 2 Sam. xviii. 18. AIelchi-zedck = 'K.inQ of Righteousness,
or Righteous King, brought forth bread and wine to refresh and welcome the
retainers of Abram. He is described as priest of the Most High God, of Zl

68 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xiV. 2I-XV. 1.

2 1 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the per-

2 2 sons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the

king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the

23 most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I
will not ialze from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I
will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I

24 have made Abram rich : save only that which the young men
have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me,
Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre ; let them take their portion.

Chap. xv. i After these things the word of the Lord came unto

Elycn. El, meaning strong, mighty, is the term for God common to the
\Yhole Semitic family. Elyon, meaning high (cp. Supreme, Superi), was
used as a term for God by the Phoenicians and Canaaiuus, as well as by the
Hebrews.

22. / have lift np my hand, which has been from the most remote to the
present time the gesture proper to swearing, cp. Ezek. xx. 5, and Virgil,
JEneid, xii. 195.

" He spoke, and next Latinus prays

With lifted hand and heavenward gaze :

'By land, by sea, by stars, I swear,' " etc.

Remark. — This chapter shows us how Abram's faith in God's promise
cave him balance and dignity, courage and generosity, in dealing with critical
circumstances and important personages. He could afford to be forgiving
and generous to his grand competitor, Lot, precisely because he felt sure God
would deal generously with himself. He could afford to acknowledge Mel-
chisedec as his spiritual superior, and would not take advantage, even when
at the head of his men eager for more fighting, of the peaceful king who came
out to propitiate him, because he knew that God would give him his land
without wronging other people. And he scorned the wages of the King of
Sodom, holding himself to be no mercenary captain, nor indebted to any one
but God.

1. I^y ti'hat naj?ies is the Salt Sea knoxvn {a) in Scripture, {b) in scctdar

authors, and what are its chief pcctdiarities ?

2. Describe the object and roide of the invading army ; and tvhat evidence

regarding the position of the cities of the plain does this route afford?

3. JVhat qualities shozu themselves in Abram, in Lot, and in the King of

Sodom, in this episode? How far was Lot blameworthy in rettirning
to Sodom after his rescue ?

4. Explain Abram^s reasons for refusing the L\ing of Sodoni's offer, and

show liow it testifies to his faith.

5. WJiat reference is made to JMelchisedec in the N. T. ? Ln tuhat points

is the priesthood of Christ illustrated by that of Melchisedec ?

6. Give other instances of priest-kings.

7. Give sojue other names compounded xvith Melech, ajid ivith Zedek.

THE COVENANT MADE WITH ABRAM (CHAP. XV.).

Circumstances eliciting Further Revelations. — 1-7. After these
thinps. The time was suitable for a fresh revelation. Abram felt that he

XV. 2-;.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 69

Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield,

2 and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God,
what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward

3 of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus ? And Abram said,
Behold, to me thou hast given no seed : and, lo, one born in

4 my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying. This shall not be thine heir ; but he
that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine

5 heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now
toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number

6 them : and he said unto him. So shall thy seed be. And he
believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteous-

7 ness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought
thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to

liad made the mightiest earthly powers his enemies, and probably feared that
the next campaigning season would bring down on his encampment an irre-
sistible host ; so the word of encouragement comes, Feai' not, Abram ; I am
thy shield. Besides, he saw that he was exhibited to his followers as a man
who had the enjoyment neither of this world's winnings nor of the promise of
God, for the sake of which he sacrificed the booty offered him by Sodom.
The soreness he felt on this account was removed by the assurance, / am thy
exceeding great retvard, or, as it might rather be rendered, thy reward is
exceeding great. The zuord of the Lord came; this became the usual formula
for expressing the communication of God's will to men. The present com-
munication evokes the prayer (ver. 2). Lord God, lit. Adonai Jehovah,
What ivilt thou give vie, seeing L go childless ? Abram's reply to the promise
of reward ; and as if he said, " ^Vhy increase my possessions, when there is
none to inherit but a stranger?" So long as the one thing a man most prizes
is beyond his reach, all else brings him no contentment. The steivard of my
house, lit. the son of the possessions of my honse, i.e. my heir, is this Eliezer
of Damascus ; the construction of the last words is difficult, but the A. V. is
in all probability substantially correct. Dillmann supposes that Abram may
allude to the probable inheritance of his possessions by the town of Damascus
through Eliezer, who was now, since Lot's succession, his heir. In response,
God assures him of an heir of his own body (ver. 4) ; and in confirmation
(ver. 5) points him to the stars as indicating the number of his seed. Where
did the vision end ? Did Abram actually go out or did he in vision see the
heavens? Tell the stars, i.e. count the stars (cp. Ps. xxii. 17; Milton's line,
" And every shepherd tells his tale ; " tellers in a Parliamentary division ;
and the expression "all told," used of a crew or a regiment all mustered).
The sight of the stars would help Abram's faith by reminding him of the vast
power of God.

6. And he believed . . . righteousness (cp. Rom. iv.). Apart from Paul's
commentary on this verse, it would appear as if nothing more were meant
than that Abram's faith met with God's approval. Pie put himself finally
into God's hand to be blessed in God's way and in God's time, and this
resignation or resolve that he would not force his own way in the world but
would wait upon God, was looked upon as deserving the name of righteous-

70 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XV. 8-1 3.

8 inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know

9 that I shall inherit it ? And he said unto him, 1 ake me an
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

10 pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them
in the midst, and laid each piece one against another : but the

1 1 birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon

1 2 the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun
was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram ; and, lo, an

13 horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto
Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in
a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ; and they shall

ress just as much as his integrity or generosity in his dealings with Lot.
Paul uses the passage to illustrate the difference between accepting God's
favour and winning it. How, he asks, did Abram get righteousness ? Not
by observing ordinances and commands, but by trusting God, by believing
that without any working of his, God already loved him.

Sign of the Covenant. — 8-12. Cordial as Abram's faith was, he felt
that a sign would be helpful ; ver. 8 : Lord God, ivhereby shall I knozv, Cp.
Gideon, Hezekiah, Moses ; and contrast Ahaz and Zechariah.

9-11. Take me, take on my behalf; that I may bind myself by the usual
forms of covenant. Three years old, the age at which the life of these animals
is mature and yet fresh. They were cut in two, lengthwise, and the two parts
of each animal were laid opposite each other, leaving a passage between.
Through this passage the contracting parties walked (ver. 17), thus indicat-
ing that they imprecated on themselves, in case of failure, treatment similar
to that which the animals had undergone ; or possibly that as each part of
the animal was dead without the other, so the contracting parties were to find
their life in union (cp. Jer, xxxiv. 18 ; Pagan illustrations of this form of con-
tract will be found in Rosenmiiller and Doughty). It has been thought that
the three three-year-old animals signified the three generations of bondage ; as
the birds, harpy-like, swooping upon them, have been supposed to symbolize
the agencies which threatened defeat to the covenant ; much more probably
the number three was considered a sacred number and therefore appropriate
here. As the sun went down (ver. 12) there fell on Abram an horror of great
darkness, lit. a terror, a great darkness, probably connected with the dark
future he foresaw for his descendants.

Revelation to Abram of the Migrations of his Posterity.— 13-17.
The reason of the long delay here predicted is given in the words : for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. " Not even to carve out a land for the
seed of the covenant will ' the Judge of all the earth ' do a partial or un-
righteous thing, or curtail by a generation the possible lifetime of a people, or
sacrifice prematurely the children of Canaan for the children of Abram "
(Dykes). To Abram himself this prediction must have had the effect of
materially modifying his view of the future. The promise to himself and
his seed was not to make everything easy to them. On the contrary, their
path to the attainment of the promised land was to lie through long years ol

XV. 14-2 1.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 7 1

14 afflict them four hundred years ; and also that nation, whom
they shall serve, will I judge : and afterward shall they come

15 out with great substance. And thou shaltgo to thy fathers in

16 peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the
fourth generation they shall come hither again : for the iniquity

17 of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that,
when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking
furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18 In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, say-
ing, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of

19 Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates : the Kenites,

20 and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittite?,

21 and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and
the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

sorrow and disappointment. To tlie people while in Egypt, this prediction
must have been their one anchor of hope. Four hundred years expresses in
roimd numbers the 430 years actually spent in Egypt (Ex. xii. 40). The
keynote of the Exodus (Ex. vi. 6-8) seems to be given in these words : —
That nation, ivhoin they shall sei-z'c, will I judge ; and the remaining part of
the prediction was also verified in the strange loans made by Israel (cp. Ex.
xii. 35, 36). The land was to be regained after four centuries and in the fourth
gcne7-ation ; according to Ex. vi. 16-20, the generations in the line of Lev/
were — Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses ; but Kohath was born before the children
of Israel entered Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 11), and it is impossible that before the
birth of his grandson nearly four centuries should have elapsed. Even
reckoning the four hundred and thirty years from Abram's call, the difficulty
is not removed. Isaac was born twenty-five years after Abram's entrance into
Canaan, Jacob was born sixty years after Isaac, and entered Egypt Avhen one
hundred and thirty years old. This leaves only two hundred and fifteen years
to be accounted for by the residence in Egypt. But even this is too long a
term to be spanned by three generations. The probability seems to be that
in the registers given some generations are omitted.

To this revelation was attached a further sign (ver. 17), a smoking furnace
and a btirtiing lamp. " For the first time the glory of the Lord (the
Shechinah) appears in a symbol similar to that which was afterwards seen by
Moses in the burning bush," etc. But as the bush burning unconsumed was
the symbol of Israel, so here it may be questioned whether the smoking
furnace is not also a symbol of Israel under affliction ; while the flaming light
that accompanies them is the symbol of the Divine presence.

The Promised Laxd defined.— 18-21. From the river of Egypt unto
. . . Euphrates. "The boundaries of the country never extended from the
Euphrates to the Nile. But then it is not and cannot be the object of this
prophetic promise to furnish data meant to be geographically exact " (Kurtz).
Israel was to be the great independent power between the East and West,
Assyria and Egypt. The ten tribes then occupying the land are named ;
ten as usual denoting universality or completeness. On the positions, etc.
of the tribes, sec the Appendix to .S". -'^. Teacher s Bible or the Bible Diet.

72 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVI. I -3.

Chap. xvi. i Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children : and
she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose ni:r: was Hagar.

2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath
restrained me from bearing : I pray thee, go in unto my maid ;
it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram

3 hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife,

Remarks. — The covenant of Abraham. **That on any terms a mightier
than the mightiest mortal potentate may link his resources to the fortunes of
a single feeble man, so as to guarantee to him the friendship and assistance of
Heaven, is the most inspiring, and has in a thousand instances shown itself
to be the most sustaining, of beliefs. . . . Gracious as this restored friendship
is in its substance, it is no less gracious in its form. . . . For this Promiser, to
ratify His word by a sign or token, to exchange with men reciprocal
guarantees, or to bind Himself under the sanction of an oath, means that
He acts just as suspected human promisers are required to act. It means
that He stoops to tie himself in those melancholy bonds by which men seek
to reduce the risks of falsehood." — Dykes' Abraham, pp. 126-128.

1. Give instances of the ^^ divers manners'''' in ivhich Cod has sjwken to

man.

2. What is the meaning of T\i.Q.o-^\\'xxcj'i <^ Shechinah ? On what occa-

sions did fire symbolize God's presence, and what is its fitness as stick
a symbol?

3. Why is the revelatio)i of God in Christ considered final 1

4. What did God's covejiant with Abram secure to. him ?

5. Compare this covenant with that made at Sinai.

6. Mention anyfonns of covenanting you are acquainted with.

7. What does Paul mean when he says that ' ' all the promises of God are

in Christ yea, and in Him Amen'" ?

8. IVhat conclusion docs Paul gather from ver. 6 ?

Sarah's device for procuring an heir (chap. xvi.). — the

BIRTH, character, AND FRUITFULNESS OF ISHMAEL ARE

predicted.

Sarah's Contrivance and its Results. — 1-6. She had,^ as her own
rather than Abram's, an handmaid . . . Hagar. "If this name be
Shemitic [from a verb meaning io fiee fro7?i\, it could have been given to
Hagar only after flight from Abraham's house. As she is stated to have
been an Egyptian, it is more probably an Egyptian name." — Wright.

Sarah had not yet been named as the mother of the promised seed (cp.
xvii. 16) ; and she might naturally suppose that by giving Hagar to Abram,
in accordance with a custom still common in the East, she was dutifully
fulfilling the promise of God to give Abram an heir of his own body. She
might indeed have gathered from the jealousy with which she had been pro-
tected in Egypt that she herself was to be the mother, but that seemed now
to be out of the question. [Cp. Mai. ii. 15 ; and a modern instance ot the
custom in Lady Duff Gordon's Letters, pp. 2S4-2S6.]

XVI. 4-1 !•] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 73

took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt
ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband

4 Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she
conceived : and when she saw that she had conceived, her

5 mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto
Abram, My wrong he upon thee : I have given my maid into
thy bosom ; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was
despised in her eyes : the Lord judge between me and thee.

6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand ;
do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly

7 with her, she fled from her face. And the angel of the Lord
found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the

8 fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's
maid, whence earnest thou ? and whither wilt thou go ? And

9 she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the
angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and

10 submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord
said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it

1 1 shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the
Lord said unto her. Behold, thou art with child, and shalt
bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the

This proposal of Sarah's was made (ver. 3) after Ah ran l had dzvclt icii years,
etc., and Avas therefore eighty-five years old. Its result was the domestic
discomfort depicted in vers. 4-6. All were in fault. The empty-headed
Egyptian girl filled with haughty fancies and maliciously crowing over Sarah,
towards whom she should have shown an especial tenderness, and ungratefully
using against Sarah the position Sarah herself had given her. Sarah, again,
is soured and irritated by the success of her own scheme, and in the blindness
of anger blames her husband and abuses her maid. She had, like many other
persons, sufficient generosity to sacrifice her rights to another, but not
magnanimity enough to prolong the sacrifice and feel no jealousy in presence
of the other's enjoyment. Abram himself is much to blame for allowing the
woman he had used for his wife to be so maltreated as to be driven from
home and shelter. If the peace of his household required her banishment,
he should have sent her in safety and honour to anotlier home.

Hagar's Flight and Return, — 7-16, Hagar naturally made for her
native land, Egypt. Shur lay on the route between Hebron and Egypt, and
not far from the latter country (chap. xx. i, xxv. 18; I Sam. xv. 7, etc).
The Israelites came into the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea
(Ex, XV. 22). "The word Shur in Hebrew signifies 'a wall;' and as we
stand at Ayun IMusa and glance over the desert at the Jcbels er Rahah and
et Tih which border the gleaming plain, we at once appreciate the fact that
these long wall-like escarpments are the chief if not the only prominent
characteristics of this portion of the wilderness, and we need not wonder that
the Israelites should have named this memorable spot, after its most salient

74 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVI. 1 2-1 6.

12 Lord hath hearJ thy affliction. And he will be a wild man ;
his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand
against him ; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his

13 brethren. And she called the name of the Lord that spake
unto her, Thou God seest me : for she said. Have I also here

14 looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was
called Beer-lahai-roi j behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

1 5 And Hagar bare Abram a son : and Abram called his son's

16 name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram ivas four-
score and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

feature, the wilderness of Shur or the wall." — Palmer, Desert of the Exodus^
p. 38.

12. And he ivill be a luild man, lit. a wild ass among men, or, a wild ass
of a man, untameable, free, not submitting to the yoke (cp. Job xi, 12,
xxiv. 5, etc.). Their fleetness is described in Layard's Nineveh, i. 324. He
shall dtvellin the presence of all his brethren, lit. in the face, in front, an
expression which sometimes means to the east, as in speaking of directions
primitive people face the rising sun, the east. But a geographical definition
seems somewhat out of place in this prediction, and it seems rather to mean
that Ishmael's seed M'ill have an independent standing, and though descended
from a slave will not be slaves. " They have roved like the moving sands of
their deserts ; but their race has been rooted while the individual wandered.
That race has neither been dissipated by conquest, nor lost by migration, nor
confounded with the blood of other countries. They have continued to dwell
in the presence of all their brethren, a distinct nation, wearing upon the
whole the same features and aspects which prophecy first inipressed upon
them." — Davison, Discourses on Prophecy, p. 493.

13, 14. Thoii God seest me. . . . seeth me'i rather, Thou art a God of
seeing \i.e. a God who revealest Thyself] : for she said, Do I also still see after
seeing ? What struck Hagar, the Egyptian, brought up to believe in gods
that hid themselves in impenetrable secrecy and whom it was death for any
mortal to behold, was that she should see God and live. And so she called
tie well Beer-lahai-7-oi, i.e. the well of living of seeing, the well where
Lfe had been preserved after God had been seen. It should, however, be
said that Delitzsch prefers to translate Thou art a God of seeing, i.e. the
All- Seeing, from whose eye even the forsaken woman in the desert is not
hidden. For she said. Have I not even here looked after Him who saw me?
The name of the well he interprets as the well of the Living One who sees
me. [Cp. the story of Semele.] Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered,
probably at the place discovered by Rowlands, called by the Arabs Moilahi
J/agar, on the road from Beer-sheba to Shur.

Remarks. — i. In this unpretending, domestic chapter we have laid bare
to us the origin of one of the most striking facts in the history of religion —
viz., that from the one person of Abraham have sprung Christianity and that
religion which has been and still is its most formidable rival, Mohammedan-
ism. To Ishmael, Abraham's first-born, all the Arab tribes are proud to
trace their pedigree ; and in INIohammcd they see the fulfilment of the promi.sc
given to the great patriarch.

5tVII. 1-5.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 75

Chap. xvii. i And when Abram was ninety years old and nine,
the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the

2 Almighty God ; w^alk before me, and be thou perfect. And I
will make my covenant between me and thee, and will mul-

3 tiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face : and God

4 talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is

5 with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither
shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall
be Abraham ; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

2. Hagar is a symbol of the expedients we make use of to win for ourselves
what God seems unwilling to bestow — expedients not always glaringly sinful,
but though customary yet not the best possible. God always working out His
purposes in consistency with all that is most honourable and righteous in
human conduct, requires of no one to swerve a hair's -breadth from the
highest ideal of what a human life should be. And this episode warns us
that from a Hagar can at best spring an Ishmael, and that to obtain our Isaac
we must betake ourselves to God's barren-looking means.

1. In what degree luas Sarah culpable for pro^tosing that Abram should

take Hagar ?

2. Haiu did Sarah happen to have an Egyptian maid?

3. What great historical epoch takes its name from the saj?te root as

Hagar, meaning flight 1

4. In ivhat respects "were Abraha?}i, Sarah, and Hagar respectively at

fault in this episode ?

5. Describe the mode of life of IshmacPs descendants, and where they are

noiv chiefly to befotmd.

THE COVENANT RENEWED BY CIRCUMCISION ; AND SARAH NAMED
AS THE MOTHER OF THE PROMISED SEED (CHAP. XVII.).

The Covenant renewed, and Abram's Name changed, — 1-8, And
when Abram xvas ninety years old and nine, i.e. thirteen years after the birth
of Ishmael, during which time Abram had been becoming increasingly
attached to the boy, and finding in him enough to deaden his longing for an
heir. He is reawakened to the full import of the promise by the Lord's
words : I am the Almighty God [El Shaddai, cp. Ex, vi. 2, 3 ; Num. xxiv. 4];
walk before me, and he tho2i perfect. There is no need of paring down the
promise till it square with human probabihties ; no need of being content
with an Ishmael when an Isaac is promised ; for I, the Mighty God, can
accomplish the brightest ideal my words ever set before you. Keep yourself
in my presence, and your hope will live. And I will make my covenant, lit.
will give my covenant ; as a favour bestowed by a superior, not a bargain
between equals ; but the word is almost equivalent to establish, constitute.
To help Abram to realize and remember this grace, God further says. Neither
shall thy navie, etc., ver. 5, Abram, a name found in Assyrian inscriptions,
possibly meant exalted father ; Abraham, father of a multitude. The
observation of Delitzsch, that the change in the names of Abram and Sarai
was effected by the introduction of the fundamental letter in the name of

G

76 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVII. 6-1 4.

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make

7 nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I
will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to

8 be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting

9 possession ; and I will be their God. And God said unto
Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and

10 thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my cove-
nant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed
after thee ; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised.

1 1 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin ; and it

1 2 shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And
he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you,
every man-child in your generations, he that is born in the
house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of

13 thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought
with thy money, must needs be circumcised : and my cove-

14 nant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And
the uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskin is
not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he

Jehovah (the letter H) ^s attractive, but probably not to be made much of.
It is more important to observe that the change is sacramental. "The sacra-
mental character of a name . . . consists in its Divine appointment to repre-
sent, and commemorate, and testify some special grace and blessing, and so
to be a permanent pledge of its bestowal " (Wilkinson, Personal Names in
the Bible, p. 313). And I will establish my covenant . . . to be a God unto
thee (cp. ver. 8, I will be their God), a comprehensive pledge that the whole
resources of the Almighty would be used for the defence and blessing of the
covenanting people.

Circumcision appointed as the Sign and Seal of the Covenant.
— 9-14. Every one who desired to share in the blessing of Abraham must
bear on his person this sign ; and the uncircumcised man-child shall be cnt off
frojji his ^people, shall be -liable to the penalty of death — at all events the
expression was so interpreted afterwards. It is probable, though not abso-
lutely certain, that circumcision independently originated in many countries.
It is practised by some tribes on the Amazons, by three distinct races in the
South Seas, by the Papuans, Australians, and many Kaffir tribes. In some
tribes it may be practised for the reason assigned by Herodotus, or for the
prevention of disease ; in others it may have been " an economical recogni-
tion of the Divine ownership of humaTi life ; " as enjoined upon Abraham and
his descendants, it implied that nature was impure and could not produce the
promised seed. It is a sign at once of the unfitness of nature to generate its
own Saviour, and of God's intention to give this saving and blessing seed.

XVII. 15-22.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 77

15 hath broken my covenant. And God said unto Abraham, As
for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but

16 Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee
a son also of her : yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a

1 7 mother of nations ; kings of people shall be of her. Then
Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his
heart. Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years

18 old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And
Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before

19 thee ! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son
indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac : and I will establish
my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with

20 his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee :
Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and
will multiply him exceedingly ; twelve princes shall he beget,

21 and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I
establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this

22 set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him,

Nature must be cut off, renounced, if God's gift is to be received. As a seal
of the old covenant it was handed down from father to son, and so kept the
whole series and each individual in an unbroken connection with the original
establishment of the covenant, so that each might feel, It is to me God's
promise is made.

Sarai's Name changed. — 15-22. Sarah is definitely named as the
mother of the promised heir, and her name is accordingly changed from
Sarai to Sarah, queen, mother of kings. [Kalisch thinks that the name
^araz means "she Avho contends," and that this name was now relinquished
because she had no longer to contend with her barrenness.] When the
announcement was made to Abraham he fell upon liis face, outwardly wor-
shipping, but in his heart lie lazi^Jicd, and said. Shall a child, etc. His feel-
ings were mixed ; he desired to {relieve, yet his mind at once turned to the
great natural improbability, and even drollery, of the event predicted. These
natural feelings found a muffled expression in the spoken words : OJi that
Ishmael might live before thee! Would that Ishmael might serve Thy turn !
Why call me off again from this actual attainment, this veritable lad of flesh
and blood, so full of life and brilliance, to the vague shadowy heir of promise,
who surely can never have the brightness of eye and litheness of limb and
lordly ways of this young Ishmael? This slightly unbelieving petition is
rebuked only in so far as the repetition of the promise can be called a rebuke.
Sarah thy wife shall hear thee a son indeed ; and thoit shalt call his name Isaac
[Yitschaq, he shall latigh, or, as in ver. 17, he lan§hed\ a name which would
at all times remind Abraham of the even ludicrously unlikely means by which
this child was brought into the world. At the same time his prayer for
Ishmael was heard, though not precisely as he expected : twelve princes shall
he beget (cp. chap. xxv. 12-16), ajid I will make him a great nation, a promise
which has received abundant fulfilment in the extraordinary career of the
Arab conquerors of the seventh and following centuries.

7^ THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVII. 23-XVin. ^.

23 and God went up from Abraham. And Abraham took
Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all
that were bought with his money, every male among the men
of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their fore-

24 skin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And
Abraham ivas ninety years old and nine when he was circum-

25 cised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son ivas
thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his

26 foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and

27 Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the
house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circum-
cised with him.

Chap, xviii. i And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains

of Mamre : and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the

2 day : and he hft up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men

Abraham obeys the Requirement of God, and formally enters

WITH HIS WHOLE HOUSEHOLD INTO COVENANT WITH GOD. — 23-27. Ishmael
ivas thirteen years ohi zuhen he zvas circumcised, and accordingly many who
have adopted the Ishmaelite religion adhere to this age as the proper time for
circmncision, while the Jews circumcise the child at eight days from its birth,
an incidental evidence of the literal accuracy of the narrative of the primal
institution of the rite. [Full information regarding circumcision and its mean-
ing among different races, will be found in Cheyne's article in the Eiicyc.
Brit.; in Kalisch's Commentary (on this chapter) ; in Hardwick's Christ and
other Masters (2d ed.), ii. 320 and 202 ; Buxtorf's Synagoga Jtidaica. Lane,
in his Notes to the Arabian Nights, i. 277, speaking of Muslims generally,
says : " Circumcision is most approved if performed on the seventh day ; but
the observance of this rite is generally delayed until the child has attained the
age of five or six years, and sometimes several years later."]

1. Mention some other names which may be called sacramental, names

given as the pledge of so)7te fttture blessing.

2. Explain in what sense circnmcision was a seal of the covenant.

3. What is meant by the circtimcisioit of the heart? and by the expression,

* ' He is not a jfeiu who is one outwardly " /*

4. Give instances in which God adopted as sacred signs, ohjccts or rites

with %vhich people had been previously familiar.

5. Explain the allusions vi this verse : —

" Like sacrificial wine

Pour'd on a victim's head,
Are those few precious drops of Thine
Now first to offering led."

Abraham's intercession for sodojm (chap, xviii.).

Abraham entertains the Angels.— 1-8. And the Lord appeared. It
would seem that Abraham did not at once recognise the supernatural character

XVIII. ^-S.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 79

Stood by him : and, when he saw f/iem, he ran to meet them
from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

3 and said. My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight,

4 pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : let a httle
water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest

5 yourselves under the tree : and I will fetch a morsel of bread,
and comfort ye your hearts ; after that ye shall pass on : for
therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do

6 as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto
Sarah, and said. Make ready quickly three measures of fine

7 meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and

8 gave // unto a young man ; and he hasted to dress it. And
he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed,
and set U before them ; and he stood by them under the

of his visitors (cp. "unawares," Heb. xiii. 2). He treated them as hospi-
tality required him to treat any wayfarers ; although something in the appear-
ance of these guests might suggest a greater deference than usual. Delitzsch
thinks all the three persons were a manifestation of Jehovah, as the God of
Grace, Compassion, and Judgment, His present purpose being to promise, to
punish, and to rescue. But a distinction seems to be made in ver. 22 between
the two who went on to Sodom (chap. xix. i) and the Lord who remained
behind, and before whom Abraham stood. That Abraham recognised the
superior dignity of one of his visitors is also apparent from the third verse,
where he addresses one of the three as Afy Lord. They appeared standing
near Abraham's tent, waiting to be welcomed ; and they came in the heat of
the day, when Abraham was sure to be found sitting in his tent door, under
the shade of the oak of Manire. The patriarch receives the strangers with
the customary language and hospitality of the East. "The account of
Abraham's entertaining the three angels, related in the Bible, presents a
perfect picture of the manner in which a modern Bedawee sheykh receives
travellers arriving at his encampment. He immediately orders his wife or
woman to make bread ; slaughters a sheep or some other animal, and dresses
it in haste ; and bringing milk and any other provisions that he may have
ready at hand, with the bread and the meat which he has dressed, sets them
before his guests. If these be persons of high rank, he stands by them while
they eat; as Abraham did in the case above alluded to." — Lane, Mod. Egypt.
i. 364, So, too, Lady Duff Gordon {Last Letters, p. 47) says: "Remember
that to do 'menial offices' for a guest is an honour and pleasure, and not at
all derogatoiy here. The ladies cook for you." (Interesting details illustrat-
ing this* narrative will be found in Robinson's Researches and Thomson's
Land and Book. Cp, also the first fifty lines of Odyssey, iv.).

If it is asked why God adopted this exceptional method of manifesting
Himself to Abraham, not as on other occasions in vision or by word, but
eating with him as his guest, the only apparent reason is that He meant this
also to be the test applied to Sodom. There, too, His angels were to appear
as wayfarers dependent on the hospitality of the town, and by the people's

So THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVIII. f)-lS.

9 tree, and they did eat. And they said unto him, Where is

10 Sarah thy wife ? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he
said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of
hfe ; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah

11 heard // in the tent door, which was behind him. Now
Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age ; ajid
it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am
waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh,

14 saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is
any thing too hard for the Lord ? At the time appointed I
will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah

15 shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not;
for she was afraid. And he said, Nay ; but thou didst laugh.

16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom :
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

17 And the Lord said. Shall I hide from Abraham that thing

18 which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great
and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be

treatment of the unknown visitors their own moral state was detected and
judged. The contrast between the peaceful afternoon with Abraham and
the diabohc night in Sodom is full of significance.

Sarah's Incredulity rebuked. — 9-15, Behold, in the tent. The men
were outside ; Sarah was within the tent behind them, unseen, but within
hearing distance, so that when the announcement was made that she would
bear a son, she heard, and laughed luithin herself, that is, in a half-conscious
and inaudible way. This may be some excuse for her denial (ver. 15) that
she had laughed ; she was scarcely conscious of the incredulous smile, though
she must have been conscious that in her superior woman's wisdom she had
thought slightingly of the simplicity that could imagine that a woman of her
years could have a child. When the promise threatened no longer to hover
over her household as a mere sublime and exalting idea, which served its
purpose if it kept them in mind that God had spoken to them, but to take
place among the actualities of daily occurrence, she hails this announcement
with entire incredulity. But before the rebuke of the Omniscient and
Almighty God her unbelief passed away.

The Lord discloses His Purpose regarding Sodom. — 16-22. And
the men . . . Sodom ; intimating that the announcement made to Abraham
was not the sole purpose of their appearance : and Abraham ivent unth them,
showing the reluctance of a kindly host to part with his guests, and his will-
ingness to put them well on the road to their next stage. Tradition says he
went as far as Caphar-barucha, from which the cities of the plain could almost
be descried through the ravine. As they walk, the purpose of the visit to
Sodom is divulged to Abraham. The ground on which this is done is not
that he had a relative in the doomed city, but that all the nations of the earth

XVIII. 19-27.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 81

19 blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his
children and his household after him, and they shall keep the
way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord
may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah

21 is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go
down now, and see whether they have done altogether ac-
cording to the cry of it, which is come unto me ; and if not,

22 I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence,
and went toward Sodom : but Abraham stood yet before the

23 Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also

24 destroy the righteous with the wicked ? Perad venture there be
fifty righteous within the city : wilt thou also destroy and not

25 spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein ? That
be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous
with the wicked : and that the righteous should be as the
wicked, that be far from thee : Shall not the Judge of all the

26 earth do right ? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty
righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for

27 their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now,

were to be blessed in him ; in other words, he was necessarily interested in
all that concerned God's dealings with nations ; or, to put it strongly, account
must be given to Abraham (as the depositary of tlie blessing) of any nation
that is summarily put beyond the reach of God's blessing. And if it is true
of all nations that they are given to him to bless and cannot be taken from
him without explanation, it is especially true of these cities which he himself
had rescued from Chedorlaomer. A further reason is added : For I know . . .
i/ie Lord, or rather, For I have known [i.e. elected ; cp. Amos iii. 2] hiin,
that he may command his children, and his hoiiseliold after him, to keep
the way of the Lord. It was by obedience and righteousness that Abraham
and his children were to enter the inheritance promised to them by God ; it
was fit, therefore, that they should be made acquainted with the results of
breaking God's law. And the prediction of the catastrophe prevented them
from referring it to merely natural causes. Acting on these reasons, t/ie Lord
[announced His purpose and] said. Because the cry . . . I will know. "Men
thought very humanly of the Deity when God needed to speak thus in accom-
modation to their simple conceptions " (Dykes). The cry of Sodom was the
fama clamosa, the loud and persistent report of its wickedness that had been
brought before the Supreme Court in heaven, and that demanded judgment.
God comes down to make direct and final investigation (cp. Ex. iii, 7 and 8).

Abraham intercedes for Sodom.— 23-33. In this remarkable inter-
cession the unselfishness and earnestness of Abraham strike the reader; but
still more so the boldness of his faith, especially as it is seen to be
accompanied by a profound humility, which at each renewed petition
dictates some expression deprecating God's intolerance of his importunity.

82 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XVIII. 28-33.

I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but

28 dust and ashes : peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty
righteous : wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five ?
And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy

29 it. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradven-
ture there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not

30 do it for forty's sake. And he said nnto him, Oh let not the
Lord be angry, and I will speak ! Peradventure there shall
thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do // if I find

31 thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon
me to speak unto the Lord : Peradventure there shall be
twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for

32 twenty's sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry,
and I will speak yet but this once ! Peradventure ten shall be
found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

33 And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left commun-
ing with Abraham : and Abraham returned unto his place.

/ have taken upon me to speak nnto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.
— Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. It is also remarkable that
it is only for justice Abraham pleads, and for justice of a limited and
imperfect kind. He proceeds on the assumption that either the whole
population must be saved or the whole destroyed, and he feels justified in
asking that for the sake of ten righteous men the whole population might be
saved. He does not feel that even one righteous person might at least claim
exemption from punishment, if not the rescue of his wicked fellow-citizens.
The element in the prayer that jars upon the reader is the bargaining temper
that strives always to get the best possible terms. But the good side of this
feature of the prayer is the confidence it shows in God's willingness to go as
far as justice will allow. Still it was a lesson, if not a rebuke, to Abraham,
that after he had striven to beat down a reluctant God from fifty to ten, God
introduces a principle of deliverance which never seems to have occurred to
Abraham as possible. Throughout the whole intercession it never seems to
have occurred to him that God would make distinctions between the righteous
and wicked, and save four persons out of as many cities. [Cp. on this
paragraph Ezek. xxii. 30 ; INIatt. xiii. 29 ; Acts xxvii. 24 ; Judg. vi. 39.]

Remarks. — The LXX. read ver. 17 : " Shall I hide from Abraham, my
child, that thing which I do?" In Philo's time the reading seems to have
been "Abraham, my friend," by which designation the patriarch is uni-
versally known among Mohammedans, and which is also perpetuated in the
name by which Hebron is still known — Beit-el-Khulil (House of the Friend),
or simply El Khulil. (Cp. 2 Chron. xx. 7 ; Isa. xli. 8 ; Jas. ii. 23 ; and
especially John xv. 15 ; and Amos iii. 7.)

1. To what account is Abraham^s entertainment of the angels turned in

theN. T.?

2. Why is hospitality more conspicuous among primitive and nomadic

races than amontr the settled and civilised'^ IIozo ouirlU zee to show

XIX. 1-3-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 83

Chap. xix. i And there came two angels to Sodom at even ; and
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom : and Lot seeing them rose up
to meet them ; and he bowed himself with his face toward the

2 ground ; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray
you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash
your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways.
And they said. Nay ; but w^e will abide in the street all night.

3 And he pressed upon them greatly ; and they turned in unto
him, and entered into his house ; and he made them a feast,

Jiospitality ? JVho founded the first hospital ? Explain the zuords
Hotel, Hospice, Hospitaller. \_Read LotvcWs short poem, Yussouf.]

3. What use is made in the N. T, of the title given by Sarah to her husband

in ver. 12?

4. What do yon learn about the conditions of the covenant from ver. 19 ?

5. Give other instances of iinportnnate prayer.

6. Give instances in which the presence of a rightcotis person brought

blessing on those with whom he was associated.

7. Compare Lofs entertainment of the angels tvith Abraham'' s ; and Lot's

prayer with Abraham's.

DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND THE OTHER CITIES OF THE
PLAIN (chap. xix. 1-28).

Lot entertains the Angels. — 1-11. And there cametxvo angels, rather,
the two angels ; at even. " Itis not improbable the evening was serene and
beautiful. We can imagine the setting sun for the last time throwing a mild
and softened radiance on the cities and across the plain ; and numbers of the
people gaily sporting in so gentle a light and air ; and no warning by
ominous signs and elemental disorder. Nature keeps the secret of her great
Governor. If conscience will not alarm the sinners, nothing else shall"
(John Foster, Lecture on Sodom and Gomorrah). And Lot sat in the gate of
Sodom, in the usual place of rendezvous, the forum, or market-place of the
East. "Just outside the w^all is a sort of market-place for the Bedouin
camel-drivers, a short street of shops and coffeehouses, and an open'space
under the walls, where the camels lie ruminating or munching wisps of
coarse hay, while their masters are smoking, gossiping, or chaffering with the
hucksters, who sit cross-legged by the wayside, each with a tray or basket of
wares, like Alnaschar in the Arabian Nights. To the left is the spacious
courtyard in which all Jeddah assembles for prayer on the great annual
feast " (Robertson Smith). "The governor's palace was a magnified mud
hut, with a frieze of baked bricks round the top, and an imposing doorway.
In this doorway, according to immemorial usage, the great man gives
audience " (Edwards, Thousand Miles up the Nile, ii. 13).

Lot presses them to accept his hospitality lest evil should befall them.
To sleep in the street was no great hardship ; — in Cairo " in the hot weather
most people sleep in the open air " (Curzon's I\lonasteries, p. 36) ; but in
Sodom strangers might not sleep unmolested (cp. Job xxxi. 32). For the
credit of the town, as well as for the comfort of the strangers, Lot presses them

84 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xiX. 4-T2,

4 and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But, before
they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom,
compassed the house round, both old and young, all the

5 people from every quarter : and they called unto Lot, and
said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this
night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door

7 after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known
man ; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do
ye to them as is good in your eyes : only unto these men do
nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my

9 roof. And they said. Stand back. And they said again,
This one felloiv came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a
judge : now will w^e deal worse with thee than with them.
And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came

TO near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand,
and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

1 1 And they smote the men that ivere at the door of the house
with blindness, both small and great ; so that they wearied

12 themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot,
Hast thou here any besides ? son-in-law, and thy sons, and

to go with him. The presence of the strangers, in fact, proves quite a
sufilicient test both of Lot and of Sodom. In Lot their presence evokes the
best side of his character, his sense of responsibihty as a leading citizen, his
desire to veil from the eye of strangers the coarseness and cruelty of his
townsmen, his independent strength of character and courage to assert his
own view of what was right. His hospitality is shown in the extreme form
(ver. 8) not without analogy in Eastern customs (cp. Wood's Oxus, p. 20i ;
Lane's Alod. Egypt, i. 365). His independent adherence to righteousness
appeal's from the fact that his townsmen, with whom he had bought and sold
and feasted, had nothing worse to say of him than that his conduct judged
their own (ver. 9). His courage is visible in his going out and facing the
mob, wild with passion, and infuriated by opposition. His going out and
shutting the door behind him was an act of true courage. The presence of
the strangers elicits an equally decisive exhibition of the character of the
Sodomites. They do nothing worse than their habitual conduct led them to
do. They dealt with these strangers as they had often dealt with others.
The unanimity of the people (ver. 4, both old and yoting, all the people from
every qtiarter), their shamelessness, their fury at being opposed (ver. 9, came
near to break the door), all shows that the sin was habitual. No further inves-
tigation into their moral state was needed. Indeed it passed into a proverb :
" they declare their sin as Sodom."

Rescue of Lot. — 12-29. Hast thou here . . . daughters. That Lot
had any sons can scarcely be concluded from this allusion. That two of his

XIX. I3-20.] THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM. 85

thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring

13 them out of this place : for we will destroy this place, because
the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord \

14 and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out,
and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters,
and said, Up, get you out of this place ; for the Lord will
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto

15 his sons-in-law. And when the morning arose, then the
angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two
daughters, which are here ; lest thou be consumed in the

16 iniquity of the city. And, while he lingered, the men laid
hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon
the hand of his two daughters ; the Lord being merciful unto
him : and they brought him forth, and set him without the

1 7 city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth
abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind
thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the moun-

18 tain,' lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, Oh !

19 not so, my Lord : behold now, thy servant hath found grace
in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou
hast showed unto me in saving my life ; and I cannot escape

20 to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die : behold
now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one : Oh,
let me escape thither, {is it not a little one ?) and my soul

daughters escaped, to their own undoing and infamy, is distinctly stated ;
but whether these were ah'eady married, or only betrothed to the men spoken
of as sons-i?i-laiu, or whether Lot had several daughters, two or more married
in Sodom, and two unmarried is uncertain. But the probability is that the
men spoken of as Lot's sons-in-law had already married his daughters, and
that the two daughters mentioned in ver. 15 were other younger daughters.
— The command, look not behind thee, does not seem to have been given
arbitrarily, but from the necessity of the case. So close on their heels would
the destroying storm press, that the delay involved in turning would be
dangerous. It must be confessed, however, that this view is not supported
by vers. 22-24. And Lot said, N'ot so, viy Lord . . . viy soul shall live.
It is here that the uglier side of Lot's character begins to show. In the very
heat of a great public catastrophe, he makes arrangements for his private
comfort. While the men out of whom he had made money, with whom he
had lived familiarly for years, to whom he had married his daughters, are in
the throes of their death-agony, he is at leisure to weigh the comparative
advantages of town and country life. [Cp. the bargaining of the two
Taugwalders with Mr. Whymper, on their way down the Matterhorn, after
the fatal accident.] It is the same cold, unfeeling selfishness whicli has
distinguished him throughout his life. At every turn he has quickly fixed
upon that which would be profitable to himself. He pleads for Zoar solely
to serve his own ends. His plea. Is it not a little one? seems to mean, Its

86 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xiX. 21-28.

21 shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee
concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city,

2 2 for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither ;
for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. There-

23 fore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun was risen

24 upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire

25 from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew all those
cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities,

26 and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked

27 back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And
Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he

28 stood before the Lord : and he looked toward Sodom and
Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld,
and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a

sins cannot be so crying that it must be destroyed. Therefore the name of
the city (formerly called Bela, ch. xiv. 2) -,uas called Zoar, i.e. Little. The
devout and charitable prayer of Abraham was not heard, except in so far as
the r<?scue of Lot was an answer to it, but the selfish prayer of Lot was
heard : See, I have accepted thee, lit. I have lifted up thy face, "It was
the custom in the East to make supplication with the face to the ground ;
when the prayer was granted, the face was said to be raised " {Speaker's
Comment.).

24. Then the Lord rained . . . brimstone and fire ; it seems impossible
as yet to ascertain more accurately the nature of the destroying agency.
Lightning, meteoric stones, etc., have been suggested as sufficient to
produce a conflagration in a region the soil of which was charged Avith
bitumen. The miraculous nature of the occurrence is proved by the
announcement of it to Abraham and Lot. " A special providence differs
from a miracle in its evidence, not in its nature. ... If a marvel is com-
manded or announced . . . and it takes place immediately, the coincidence
is too remarkable to be accounted for in any other way than design. The
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the dividing of the Red Sea, and other
miracles which were Avrought by the medium of natural agency, were miracles
for this reason " (Mozley, On Miracles, p. 9). But his wife looked back . . .
salt. Kitto cites a similar case, in which, during an earthquake in Austria,
saline exhalations of such strength were disengaged from the earth, that about
fifty peasants and their cattle were killed, and turned into statues of salt.
From the use our Lord makes of the example of Lot's wife (Luke xvii. 32),
it would appear that whatever other motives were at work in her mind,
reluctance to abandon her household stuff was the chief cause of her turning.
She was a wife after I-ot's own heart, who in the midst of danger had an eye
to her possessions, and could not think but with a pang and some indignation
of all her household stuff going up in a blaze.

I. Explain how the mere presence of the angelic commission of intjury
elicited (evidence of the moral state of Lot and of Sodom,

XiX. 29-35.] I'H^ HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. S7

29 furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities
of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot
out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the

30 cities in the which Lot dwelt. And Lot went up out of Zoar,
and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him ;
for he feared to dwell in Zoar : and he dwelt in a cave, he

31 and his two daughters. And the first-born said unto the
younger. Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth

3 3 to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come,
let us make our father drink wine, and v/e will lie with him,

33 that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made
their father drink wine that night : and the first-born went in,
and lay with her father ; and he perceived not when she lay

34 down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the
morrow, that the first-born said unto the younger, Behold, I
lay yesternight with my father : let us make him drink wine
this night also ; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may

35 preserve seed of our father. And they made their father
drink wine that night also : and the younger arose, and lay
with him ; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when

2. What inference would y oil, draiv regarding God^s ordinary method of
pidgment ?

3. Describe the character of Lot, substantiating the description by reference

to the facts recorded of him.

4. What seems to have been his wife's weakness ? And what use does our

Lo7'd make of her example ?

5. What agencies were probably used in accomplishing the destruction of

the cities, and hozu did it differ from the earthquake at Lisbon, or the
destruction of Pompeii ?
C. What is the meaning of Zoar, Moab, Amnion, and what was their
geographical positio7i ?

[The exquisitely told story of Philemon and Baucis in Ovid's
Mctamorph. vii. 620, is well worth reading in this connection.']^

ORIGIN OF MOAB AND AMMON (CHAP. XIX. 29-38).

It is obvious that ver. 29 is not a continuation of the narrative which closes
in ver, 28, but has originally stood in some other connection. It would
appear to have formed a part of some narrative in which the overthrow of the
cities of the plain was not related at length — possibly it had for some time pre-
vious to its insertion in this place served as an introduction to the story told in
the succeeding verses. These verses contain an episode in the life of Lot which
reminds the reader of the analogous story of Noah (ix, 20). Much use has
been made for homiletical purposes of the disgraceful close of Lot's career,
but it is difficult to reconcile the character depicted in this incident with that
which is disclosed in the preceding events, and alluded to with approbation

88 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xiX. 36-XX. 7.

36 she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child

37 by their father. And the first-born bare a son, and called his
name Moab : the same is the father of the Moabites unto

38 this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called
his name Ben-ammi : the same z>the father of the children of
Amnion unto this da3^

Chap. xx. i And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the
south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and

2 sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife,
She is my sister : and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took

3 Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night,
and said to him, Behold, thou ai't but a dead man, for the

4 woman which thou hast taken ; for she is a man's wife. But
Abimelech had not come near her : and he said, Lord, wilt

5 thou slay also a righteous nation ? Said he not unto me, She
is my sister ? and she, even she herself said. He is my brother :
in the integrity of my heart, and innocency of my hands, have

6 I done this. And God said unto him in a dream. Yea, I
know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart ; for
I also withheld thee from sinning against me : therefore suf-

7 fered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the
man /lis wife ; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee,
and thou shalt live : and if thou restore her not, know thou

in the New Testament (2 Pet. ii. 7). The narrative contains so much that
is improbable that it cannot be wondered at that some have supposed that
the stoiy originated in the Jewish hatred of Moab and Amnion. At all
events, it is certain that these peoples would have a different account to give
of the origin of their names.

ABRAHAM IN GERAR (CHAP. XX.).

Abraham journeyed from thence, i.e. from Mamre — a removal probably
necessitated by some pastoral necessity — and sojourned in Gerar, a district
lying about three hours s.s.E. of Gaza, and still abounding in fine pasturage.
Here Abraham foresaw the same difficulty as he had experienced in Egypt,
and therefore says of Sarah his loife, She is my sister. On the morality of
this device, see chap. xii. Its repetition aggravates his guilt ; but twenty
years had elapsed since the former offence, and in a life full of events twenty
years blot out or blur the vividness of the past. Abimelech, king of Gerar
(called "king of the Philistines," chap. xxvi. I ; cp. chap. xxi. 32 and
xxvi. 14), took Sarah, though she was now ninety years old (xvii. 17), and feeling
some of the infirmities of age (xviii. 11). But while Abraham thus rashly
exposed the predicted mother of the promised seed (xvii. 19), God came to
Abimelech and warned him not to touch her. Restore the man his ivife ; for
he is a prophet : the fact that he was invested with a sacred dignity and stood

XX. 8-1 8.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. B()

8 that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. There-
fore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his
servants, and told all these things in their ears : and the men

9 were sore afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said
unto him, What hast thou done unto us ? and what have I
offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my king-
dom a great sin ? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought

10 not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What

1 1 sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing ? And Abraham
said. Because I thought. Surely the fear of God zs not in this

12 place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. And yet
indeed s/ie is my sister ; she is the daughter of my father, but
not the daughter of my mother ; and she became my wife.

13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from
my father's house, that I said unto her. This is thy kindness
which thou shalt show unto me; at everyplace whither we

14 shall come, say of me. He is my brother. And Abimelech
took sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and women-servants,
and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his

15 wife. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee :

1 6 dwell where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said, Behold,
I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver : behold,
he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that ai-e with

1 7 thee, and with all other : thus she was reproved. So Abraham
prayed unto God : and God healed Abimelech, and his wife,

18 and his maid-servants ; and they bare children. For the Lord
had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech,
because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

in a special relation to God, moved Abimelech and his men with a feeling
akin to religious horror or awe. They honour as a prophet one whom they
would have been inclined to despise as a man (cp. Ps. cv. 14, 15). For
Abimelech's rebuke (ver. 9) is just : thoti hast done deeds unto me that ought not
to be done ; while Abraham's defence, vers. 11-13, exhibits his character in a
disagreeable light, and is one of the many instances given in the Bible of the
incapacity of the Oriental to apprehend the guilt of lying and prevarication
(with ver. 13 cp. xii. 2). Whether Abimelech was satisfied with Abraham's
explanation or not, he fully compensates for his own offence, ver. 14. And
unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given . . . reproved. Translate, Behold,
I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, this (the
thousand pieces) is a satisfaction to thee for all that has befallen thee and
all (thy family) ; and justice herewith has been done to thee. (So Wright j
but others translate the last words as in the English Version.)

90 rHE BOOIC OF GENESIS. [xXI. t-I2.

Chap. xxi. i And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and

2 the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah
conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set

3 time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called
the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah

4 bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac

5 being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And
Abraham was an hundred years old when his son Isaac was

6 born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to

7 laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said,
Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have
given children suck ? for I have born him a son in his old

8 age. And the child grew, and was weaned : and Abraham
made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had
ID born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto

Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son : for the son
of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with

1 1 Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight

1 2 because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not

BIRTH OF ISAAC, EXPULSION OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL, AND
TREATY WITH ABIMELECH (CHAP. XXI.).

Birth and Weaning of Isaac. — 1-9. On the name, cp. chap. xvii. Sarah
now laughs with pleasure and sense of success, as formerly she had laughed
incredulously. Ishmael was fourteen years old when Isaac was born, and at the
time of his being weaned would probably be sixteen or seventeen ; children
being suckled in Persia and other eastern countries for two or three years.
" The [Mohammedan] mother is enjoined by the law to give suck to her child
two full years, unless she have her husband's consent to shorten the period." —
Lane, Arabian Nights, i. 278, The weaning was celebrated by a feast,
because it was a distinct step towards independent existence. The hopes of
the parents were carried forward to the time when the child would be quite
independent of them. But Sarah saza the son of Hagar mocking. What
went on at the feast was precisely the kind of thing which could easily be
turned to ridicule without any great expenditure of wit by a boy of Ishmael's
age. The too visible pride of the aged mother, the incongruity of maternal
duties with ninety years, the concentration of so much attention and honour
on so small an object, were a temptation to a lad who at no time probably
had too much reverence.

Expulsion of Ishmael. — 10-14. Ishmael's conduct stung Sarah, zvhcrc-
fore she said . . . with Isaac. She had probably been meditating some such
step, and now she is provoked into uttering what was in her mind. Her
child was at a disadvantage alongside of this forward and brilliant boy who
had taken such a hold on Abraham's affections. Unwittingly she advised what
was really for the good of all concerned : God said unto Abraham^ Let it 7Wt

XXI. 1 3-1 9-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 9I

be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of
thy bondwoman ; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee,
hearken unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation,

14 because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the
morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave if
unto Hagar, putting // on her shoulder, and the child, and
sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilder-

15 ness of Beer-sheba. And the water was spent in the bottle,

16 and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she
went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it
were a bowshot : for she said. Let me not see the death of the
child. And she sat over against hi7n, and lift up her voice,

17 and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the
angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto
her, What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not ; for God hath heard

18 the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and
hold him in thine hand ; for I will make him a great nation.

1 9 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water ; and

be griroous , . • for in Isaac shall thy seed he called, Abraham had given
IshniacI a place from which he was unwilling to oust him. He v/as his first-
born. He had qualities which would fit him to rule a pastoral people. Isaac
was as yet but a feeble child. But it was impossible Abraham could remain
divided thus between the one affection and the other ; impossible he should
enjoy the lively talk and adventurous exploits of Ishmael and at the same
time concentrate his hope on Isaac. And it was not a warlike power
Abraham was to found, but a religion. Therefore Ishmael must go. It was
good for Ishmael himself : also of the son of the bondiuoman will I make a
nation. Isaac was the true heir. No jeermg allusions to his late birth or
his appearance could alter that fact. Besides, the free life of the desert was
more congenial to Ishmael than the quiet life of Abraham. His expulsion
evoked all the energy that was in him. To be compelled to face life single-
handed at the age of sixteen is by no means a fate to be pitied ; it was the
making of Ishmael, and is the making of many a lad in every generation. The
provision, however, was scanty and the manner of expulsion harsh : Abraham
. . . to^k bread and a bottle of water, etc. Why could he not have given his
boy some cattle and men and sent him away worthily ? Why not at least
have given him an escort to a place of safety ?

Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness. — 15-21. The word trans-
lated///^ r// /A/ is quite applicable to a lad of Ishmael's age. He is sooner
exhausted than his mother, as she would probably be more inured to labour
and fatigue than he. She sits down apart, because nothing tortures a parent
more than to see, without being able to alleviate, the sufferings of a child.
Her grief and perhaps her resentment had discouraged and blinded her,
for she did not see the neighbouring well till God opened her eyes, and
encourr.ged her by the promise, I will make him a great nation. She was

H

92 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXI. 20-32.

she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad

20 drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt

21 in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in
the wilderness of Paran : and his mother took him a wife out

22 of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass at that time, that
Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake
unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest :

23 now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not
deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son :
hilt according to the kindness that I have done unto thee,
thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast

24, 25 sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear. And
Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water,

26 which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. And
Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing ; neither

27 didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to-day. And
Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abime-

28 lech; and both of them made a covenant. And Abraham

29 set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abime-
lech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs

30 which thou hast set by themselves ? And he said, For these
seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may

31 be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Where-
fore he called that place Beer-sheba ; because there they sware

32 both of them. Thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba :

giving up, as if all the promise given her before Ishmael's birth were for-
gotten, whereas this expulsion was the first step towards its fulfihnent.
When Ishmael turned his back on the familiar tents, he was in truth setting
out to an inheritance far richer, so far as this world goes, than ever fell to
Isaac and his sons.

Treaty between Abraham and Abimelech. — 22-34. Abimelech and
Phichol are supposed to be official titles regularly designating the king of the
district and his vizier. They made an alliance with Abraham, because they
recognised his prosperity, and felt that in allying themselves with him, they
allied themselves with God. Abraham, on his part, took the opportunity of
securing his shepherds from the encroachments of Abimelech's people.
Abimelech accepted the seven ewe lambs as a witness that he would protect
Abraham's claim to the well, called Beer-sheba, or Oath-well, because there
they s%uare both of them. The Hebrew word for swear is deri ved from the same
root as the word for seven, if not from that word itself ; seven being usually as
here the number of things sworn by (cp. Herod, iii. 8). Of the Avells of
Beer-sheba, Tristi-am {Land of Israel, 373) says: "The well at which we
camped was 12\ feet in diameter, 34 feet till we reached the living rock, and
as we were told by the Arabs, twice that depth. , , . The wall above the

XXI. 33-^^"- 2-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 93

then Abiinelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his

host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Bcer-sheba, and called there

on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham

sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
Chap. xxii. i And it came to pass after these things that God

did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham : and he
2 said. Behold, ]iere I am. And he said, Take now thy son,

thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the

rock Avas built with finely-squared stones, hard as marble ; and the ropes of
water-drawers for 4000 years have worn the edges of the hard limestone with
no less than 143 flutings, the shallowest of them 4 inches deep. The ancient
marble troughs were arranged at convenient distances round the mouth in an
irregular circle . . . for the convenience of the cattle. From their style and
material they are probably coeval with the original wall." Cp. Robinson's
Researches, i. 204. But Lieut. Conder {Tent Work in Palestine^ ii, 96) says :
"We made one discovery which was rather disappointing, namely, that the
masonry is not very ancient. Fifteen courses down, on the south side of the
large well, there is a stone with an inscription in Arabic, on a tablet dated,
as well as I could make out, 505 A.H., or in the twelfth century." Until the
inscription is read, however, this is not final. The wells lie twelve hours
s.w. of Hebron. And Abraham pla7ited a grove ^ rather, a tamarisk; "trees
distinguished by longevity were not unfrequently selected as witnesses of
contracts or promises ; " hence probably this planting by Abraham.

Remark. — The chief use Paul makes of this episode is as an allegory, a
kind of picture made up of persons and events, representing the incompati-
bility of a spirit of slavish service with a spirit of sonship. Flagar, he says,
is in this picture the likeness of the law given from Sinai which gendereth to
bondage. Hagar and her son stand for the law and the kind of righteousness
produced by the law ; superficially not a bad kind, on the contrary, a
righteousness with much show and strong manly force about it, but at root
defective, faulty in its origin, springing from the slavish spirit. Carry out
and fully explain this allegorj'.

1. Where tvas Isaac horn, and in ^vh at year of Abrahavi's life?

2. Mention any other outcasts besides Ishinael loho came to gnatness.

3. How many sons had Abrahavi in all^ and how did he provide for

them? (See chap. XXV. 1-6.)

SACRIFICE OF ISAAC (cHAP. XXII. I-I9).

God did tempt Abraham, that is, did test or prove Abraham ; as he tested
Job (cp. Jas. i. 13). The purpose of the temptation was to manifest and
exercise Abraham's faith, and so to confirm it and give it deeper root and
growth to higher reaches. It further served the purpose of marking with
God's reprobation human sacrifices ; and of giving to Isaac by self-abnegation
his fit entrance to the inheritance of faith. No command could have been
more painful to Abraham than this : Take now thy son . . . and offer him there

94 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xXII. 3-7.

land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon

3 one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham
rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took
two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave
the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto

4 the place of which God had told him. Then on the third
day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men. Abide ye here with
the ass ; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and

6 come again to you. And Abraham took the w^ood of the
burnt-offering, and laid // upon Isaac his son ; and he took
the fire in his hand, and a knife ; and they went both of them

7 together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and

for a biLrnt-offeriiJg, The command is justified by the result. God meant to
make it the means of educating Abraham not only to a deeper faith, but to a
truer view of sacrifice. Human sacrifice was common among the tribes with
which Abraham was familiar [among the pre-Hebraic inhabitants of Palestine
\i Kings xvi. 3 ; Ps. cvi. 38) and their Phoenician kindred and Carthaginian
descendants, among the Egyptians and the Moabites (2 Kings iii. 27) and
Ammonites. See Knobel, and especially Laring-Gould's Origin of A't'/igions
Belief i. 375], and no doubt he too believed that as one's best must be given
to God, it might be needful even to sacrifice a son. The problem was to
disentangle in Abraham's mind what was true from what was mistaken : to
maintain in his mind the right impression that all should be given up to God,
and at the same time to explode the idea that the best way to give up a life to
God was to put an end to it. He is by the whole transaction made to see
that it is right to sacrifice his son, but wrong to slay him ; that the human
sacrifice which is pleasing to God is the trusting spirit of perfected obedience^
not the actual blood or deprivation of life.

Moriah, rendered by old versions, the land of vision, the lofty, con-
spicuoiTS land (though Kalisch thinks it means "God is my instructor"), and
generally identified with Mount Moriah in Jerusalem (cp. 2 Chron. iii. i).
"The exact locality of * Jehovah-Jireh,' the spot selected by Abraham for the
sacrifice of Isaac, is generally supposed to be the large elevated rock called
emphatically Es-Sakhrah, ' the Rock,' near the centre of the enclosure,
directly under the dome of the Mosque of Omar " (Barclay, City of the Great
King, p. 109). Some prefer to identify Moriah with Gerizim, which the
Samaritans claim as the true spot, but Tristram {Land of Israel, p. 152) has
shown that this is too far from Beer-sheba to suit the narrative.

Abraham rose up early (ver. 3), his obedience was prompt and unostentatious.

Abraham took the wood .... and laid it tipon Isaac, who was therefore a
grown lad at this time, able to carry a heavy burden up a hill. It was not to
be the sacrifice of an ignorant child or boy, but of a clear-seeing, fully con-
scious youth. And they went both of them together, cp. ver. 8 ; the lad
wondering, but trusting in his father ; the father filled with thoughts about
his son, of which Isaac himself was wholly unaware. They went together,
loving and confiding in one another, but with what a secret bct\^■een them !

XXII. 8-1 5-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 95

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

8 for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering : so they went

9 both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and
laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him

10 on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth

1 1 his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham,

12 Abraham : and he said, Here am I. And he said. Lay not
thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him :
for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not

13 withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns : and Abraham went and
took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the

14 stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place
Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the

15 Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the Lord called unto

Isaac broke the silence, i7/i/y??/-^^r . . . ichercis the lamb for a biinit-oj/criiigl
" I know not whether that woi'd, * My father,' did not strike Abraham as deep
as the knife of Abraham could strike his son " (Hall, Co7itejnplatiojis).
Abraham cannot yet bring himself to announce to Isaac the heart-breaking
prospect with which he himself has been for three days contending. My son,
God 7vill provide, is all he can say.

9-14. The simplicity of the narrative and its detail are to be observed in
vers. 9 and 10. Abraham built an altar, laid the 7vood, bound Isaac, and so
on, step by step, to the final act of obedience, took the knife to slay his son.
There was no need of doing more to show the implicit obedience of Abraham
and the submission of Isaac. Already the sacrifice was completed by both.
'YhcxdoxQ, the angel of the Lord called unto hi7n a7id said, . . . Lay not thine
hand npon the lad , . . in. the stead of his son. Nothing could more distinctly
show the substitutionary character of animal sacrifice, and that the essence of
sacrifice lies in the spirit. Abraham lifting his eyes at the angelic voice sees
behind, i.e. in the background (not behind his back), the sacrifice God bad
provided. He offered ir, and called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh,
i.e. Jehovah provides or will provide ; the word is the same as that used in
his reply to Isaac's question (ver. 8). This seemed to him the suitable name
for the place, because the burden of his thought on his way to it had been
that God would somehow provide for this great emergency ; and the ram, not
led or brought by him, but ready caught at the altar, was the heaven-sent
fulfilment of his own prophecy. The solution of Isaac's difficulty struck not
only Abraham, but every one who heard the story ; it became proverbial, as
it is said, or rather, so that it is said. In the monnt of the Lord provision
shall ho made, i.e. the Lord always meets the true-hcarlcd worshipper with

g6 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXII. 1 6-1 9.

16 Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself
have I sworn, saith the Lord ; for because thou hast done this

1 7 thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son : that in
blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is
upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his

18 enemies ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be

19 blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham
•returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went

together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.

suitable provision. No one conies to His holy hill to seek His face and do
His will without finding that acceptable sacrifice is provided, and that God's
mercy is prepared for him. But to stop short of the Mount of the Lord, of
the actual surrender of all to God, is to miss the provision which is only found
by those who go the whole length of self-sacrifice.

16, By myself have I sivorii (cp. Heb. vi. 13), The promise being con-
firmed unalterably in response to Abraham's absolute confidence.

Remarks. — i. On this passage Newman Smyth's Old Faiths in N'czo Light
and Mozley's Ritli/ig Ideas in Early Ages should be consulted ; and if informa-
tion regarding human sacrifice is desired, a detailed account and history of
the practice will be found in Baring-Gould's Origin of Belief, as well as in
Bollinger's yczu and Gentile. The feelings of a heathen parent before and
after such a sacrifice are described with fine imaginative power in the Epic of
Hades, Tantalus.

2. The submission of Isaac to parental authority may be illustrated by the
following from Sleeman's Rambles and Recollections : "When a woman is
without children, she makes votive offerings to all the gods who can, she
thinks, assist her ; and promises of still greater offerings in case they should
grant what she wants. Smaller promises being found of no avail, she at last
promises her first-born, if a male, to the god of destruction, Mahadeva. If
she gets a son, she conceals from him her vow till he has attained the age of
puberty ; she then communicates it to him, and enjoins him to fulfil it. He
believes it to be his paramount duty to obey his mother's call : and from that
moment considers himself as devoted to the god. Without breathing to nny
living soul a syllable of what she has told him, he puts on the habit of a
pilgrim . . . and at the annual fair on the Mahadeva hills, throws himself
from a perpendicular height of four or five hundred feet, and is dashed to
pieces on the rocks below." — iMonier Williams, J\Iodern India, ]■>. 70.

3. "It so happened that we arrived at Korosko on the eve of the Eed-el-
Kebeer, or the anniversary of the sacrifice of Abraham; when, according to
the Moslem version, Ishmael was the intended victim, and a ram the sub-
stituted offering.'' — Edwards, Thousand Miles up the Nile (chap. xiv.). -

1. Why was this command laid upon Abraham ?

2. Describe the conflict in AbrahanCs mind, and in Isaac's.

3. What did this event teach regarding sacrifice in general!

4. What principles appear in this sacrifice which reappear in the sacrifice of

Christ ?

XXII. 20-XXIII. 4.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 97

20 And it came to pass after these things, that it ^Yas told
Abraham, saying, Behold, INIilcah, she hath also born children

21 unto thy brother Nahor ; Huz his first-born, and Buz his

22 brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, and Chesed, and

23 Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. And Bethuel
begat Rebekah : these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor,

24 Abraham's brother. And his concubine, whose name ivas
Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash,
and Maachah.

Chap, xxiii. i And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty

2 years old ; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And
Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land
of Canaan : and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to

3 weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead,

4 and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and

5. For ivhat else is Mount Moi'iah celebrated?

6. When was fullest significance given to the proverb, ^^In the Mount of the

Lord provision ivill be made" ?

7. Explain Heb, xi. 19.

PEDIGREE OF REBEKAH; AND DEATH AND BURIAL OF SARAH

(chap. xxii. 20-xxiii. 20).

XXII. 20-24. In the sacrifice on Moriah, Isaac attained his majority as
heir of God. From this point Abraham falls into the background. The
history is henceforth carried forward in the person of Isaac. And that it may
be so, he must be furnished with a wife. In this section intimation is given
that a wife might be forthcoming of good Terahite blood. In the following
section the maternal influence hitherto paramount with Isaac is removed. Huz,
the same name as Uz, occurs in ch. x. 23 as the name of a son of Aram. Aram,
which in that chapter designates one of the sons of Shem, is here given to a
grandson of Nahor. Huz and Buz are associated again in Job, that patriarch
himself being of the land of Uz (i. i), while his friend Elihu was a Buzite (Job
xxxii. 2). C//,?j-^^gives his name to the Chasdiin, or Chaldseans. And his
cojicubine ... In Jacob's family the sons of the concubines shared equally
with the sons of the wives. Keumah bare Tebah and Thahash, doubtfully
identified with Thebetha and Atachas, places in North-west Mesopotamia.
Gaham is unknown. Maachah is to be looked for in the same region as his
brothers (cp. i Chron. xix. 6 ; see also Deut. iii. 14 ; 2 Sam. xx. 14).

XXIII. 1. And Sarah ... so that Isaac grew up under the influence of
this woman of strongly-marked character, a circumstance Avhich accounts for
the slight individuality possessed by him. But at last Sarah died in Kirjaih-
Arba, i.e. the city of Arba, as indeed it is rendered in Josh. xxi. 11, "they
gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron." It
was also called Mamre from Abraham's friend of that name ; in the land
of Canaan, as if to remind us of her faithful adhesion to the promise.
Abraham . . . saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner ivith you. He had no

98 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xXIII. 5-15.

a sojourner with you : give me a possession of a burying-place

5 with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And
the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

6 Hear us, my lord : Thou art a mighty prince among us : in
the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead ; none of us shall
withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury

7 thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the

8 people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he
communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should
bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me

9 to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of
Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field ;
for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a

10 possession of a burying-place amongst you. And Ephron
dwelt among the children of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite
answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth,

1 1 even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay,
my lord, hear me : the field give I thee, and the cave that is

■ therein, I give it thee ; in the presence of the sons of my

1 2 people give I it thee : bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed

13 down himself before the people of the land. And he spake
unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, say-
ing, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me : I will give
thee money for the field ; take it of me, and I will bury my

14 dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto

1 5 him, My lord, hearken unto me : the land is worth four hun-

landed property of his own as yet, and was hut a tenant at will. lie had
rented pastures, pitched his tents on waste land, and so forth ; but he had to
move whenever tlie landowners required it. But now he sees he must become
a proprietor, must possess himself of a piece of ground he can never sell and
never abandon. So when the Hittites say : in the choice of our scpidchrcs btay
thy dead, this offer does not suit Abraham ; not from any pride of blood, but
because he sees that this burial of Sarah is but the first of many burials of his
people, and that he is now called to take possession of the land God has
given him. INIeaning to retain it in perpetuity as his and his heirs' possession,
he gets it made over to him with all requisite formalities. He had made up
his mind as to the plot of ground he preferred : entreat for 7iie to Ephron the
son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah. Ephron's offer
(ver. II) is supposed by those best acquainted with Eastern customs to have
been merely the well-understood preliminary to a sale (cp. I Chron. xxi.
22-25, ^'^^ especially Thomson, Land and Booh, p. 578, who perhaps goes
too far in the way of reducing the apparent kindliness of the Hittites to
manner and form). Abraham understands that a sale is intended: if thou
7ui!t give it, I %vill give thee money for tlie field. Accordingly Ephron at once
states his terms, four hundred shekels of silver, and suspecting that this may

XXIII. l6-20.] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. 99

dred shekels of silver ; what is that betwixt me and thee ?

16 bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto
Ephron ; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which
he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four
hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

1 7 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was
before IMamre, the field, and the cave which luas therein, and
all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders

18 round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession
in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went

19 in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried
Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before

20 Mamre : the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And
the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto
Abraham for a possession of aburying-place by the sons of Heth.

appear a long price, adds, what is that bettvixi [wealthy men like] me and thee?
The word shekel means weight ; the first form of money was probably a ring
of silver or gold, the value of wliich was determined not by marks upon it but
by weight. So Abraham in this instance zueighed [yishkol] to Ephivn the silver
. . . Jour hundred shekels of silver current zuith the merchant. From this
two things are evident — 1st, that there was a currency in silver ; pieces, that
is to say, in one form or other, which were accepted as a medium of exchange :
and 2d, that there was as yet no coinage ; in other words, that the value of
these pieces was not determined by any marks stamped upon them, but by
their weight or intrinsic value. There would seem to have been no coined
money in use among the Jews till after the Captivity (see Poole's art. * ' Money "
in Smith's Z?/(rA). And the field of Ephron . . . the gate of his city. The trans-
action was negotiated before competent witnesses ; and the subjects made over
to Abraham are precisely specified with all the exactness of a legal document.

Remarks. — The site of Machpelah is now marked by a jealously-guarded
mosque, into which only exceptionally favoured persons — the Prince of Wales
and the Crown Prince of Prussia — have been admitted ; and even to them no
observation of the actual tombs was allowed. The glimpses that have been
obtained seem to show that the sarcophagi are of white stone, probably marble.

1. Enumerate the ciraimstances which %vottld make Abraham'' s grief

exceptionally so.' ere.

2. Describe a Jewish sepulchre. Read the description of Machpelah in

Thomson's Land and Book ; or Stanley s Sermons in the East ; or
I\obinso7i's Biblical Researches.

3. Name some of the most celebrated tombs of the tvorld.

4. I71 what other na7ncs does the word Kirjath appear in Scripture ?

5. IIo7u %vas Abraham'' s faith displayed by this purchase ? What other

courses might he have adopted at this juncture? Give instances in
which the dead have bee7i carried g7'eat distances for sepulture.

6. What do you suppose Abraha7)i would conclude -ivhe7i hefou7td that he

hadco77ic to the possessio7i of 7iothing but a grave i7i the pivmiscd la7id?

7. Explai7i Ileb. xi. 39; also Ilcb. xi. 13.

100 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXIV. 1-8.

Chap. xxiv. i And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age :

2 and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And
Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled
over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my

3 thigh : and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of
heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a
wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among

4 whom I dwell : but thou shalt go unto my country, and to

5 my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the
servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be
willing to follow me unto this land : must I needs bring thy

6 son again unto the land from v/hence thou earnest? And
Abraham said unto him. Beware thou that thou bring not my

7 son hither again. The Lord God of heaven, which took me
from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and
which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto
thy seed will I give this land ; he shall send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.

8 And if the woman will not be willing to follovv^ thee, then
thou shalt be clear from this my oath : only bring not my son

Isaac's marriage (chap. xxiv.).

Abraham's Instructions regarding Isaac's Marriage. — 1-9.
Abraham was old ; he was 137 at Sarah's death ; Isaac was 40 at the elate
of his marriage (cp. ch. xxv. 20) ; so that Abraham was then 140. The
events of this chapter fell, therefore, in the third year after Sarah's death.
His age warned him that he must fulfil this duty of marrying Isaac. The
Mohammedan law says : "When a son has attained the age of twenty years,
his father, if able, should marry him, and then take his hand and say, ' I
have disciplined thee, and taught thee, and married thee ; I now seek refuge
with God from thy mischief in the present world, and the next' " (Lane's
Arabian Nights, i. 281). Abraham was too old to go himself to INIesopotamia,
so he said unto his eldest servant of his house, lit. his servant, the elder of
his house, in a word, his majordonio, Put, I pray thee, thy hajid zmder my
thigh, and . . . swear; v. art. " Oaths " in Kitto's C;r/^/. There can bene
doubt that the explanation given by Kalisch is correct. That tJioii shalt . . .
take a zuife nnto my son Isaac. He desired that the race should be kept pure
from alien blood. His own experience in connection with Hagar had given
this prominence in his mind. There was great inducement to make alliance
by marriage with the powerful chiefs of the land ; but Abraham was too
loyal to the promise to give way to such temptation. And the servant sa'.d
. . . ■zuhcJice thou earnest ? The difficulty was obvious. It was most
unlikely that a young woman would forsake her own land and preconceived
hopes, and go away with a stranger to a strange land. But Abraham
believes she will be persuaded : The Lord God . . . shall send his angel
be/ore thee. But in any case one thing must be seen to ; that Isaac be on

XXIV. 9-15'] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. lOI

9 thither again. And the, servant put his hand under the thigh
of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that

10 matter. And the servant took ten camels of the caniels of
his master, and departed ; for all the goods of his master
were in his hand : and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia,

11 unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel
down without the city by a well of water at the time of the
evening, even the time that women go out to draw ivater.

12 And he said, O Lord God of my master x^braham, I pray
thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto

13 my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of
water ; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to

14 draw water : and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom
I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may
drink ; and she shall say. Drink, and I will give thy camels
drink also : let the same be she that thou hast appointed for
thy servant Isaac ; and thereby shall I know that thou hast

15 showed kindness unto my master. And it came to pass,
before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came
out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of
Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

no pretext tempted away from the promised land : only bring not my son
thither again.

Discovery of the Bride.— 10-27, The servant took ten camels, not only
because the journey was long, but because he knew he would more easily
persuade the damsel to accompany him if he appeared well equipped, the
representative of a wealthy household. He went to Mesopotamia, lit. Aram-
Naharaim, Aram of the two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris ; unto the
city of Nahor ^ Haran (cp. ch. xxvii. 43). And he made his camels . . , the
time that xvomen go out to draiv. Precisely so Xenophon in the Anabasis
tells how his soldiers came at dusk to a village, and, lying outside the wall,
extracted information from the wonien and girls who came out to draw water
from the fountain. And he said, O Lord God . . . that thou hast shoxved
kindness nnto my master. Why did the steward adopt this indirect mode of
discovering his master's relations, and not go at once to inquire for them ?
Probably because he was a cautious man, and wished to make his own
observations on Rebekah's appearance and conduct before in any way com-
mitting himself. Moreover, he felt that it was for God rather than for him to
choose a bride for Isaac ; so he made an arrangement by which the interposi-
tion of God was provided for. He was going to make his own selection,
guided necessarily by the appearance of the woman ; but having made his
selection, and knowing the deceitfulness of appearances, he wished God to
guide the girl's answer so as to determine him. Having arranged tliis,
behold, Rebekah came out . . . with her pitcher upon her shoulder. "The
Egyptian and the negro cany on the head, the Syrian on the shoulder or the

102 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xXIV. l6-2j.

1 6 And the damsel 7Cfas very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither
had any man known her : and she went down to the well,

17 and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to
meet her, and said. Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water

18 of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord: and she
hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave

19 him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she
said, I will draw luaier for thy camels also, until they have

20 done drinking. And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher
into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water^

2 1 and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her
held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey

22 prosperous or not. And it came to pass, as the camels had
done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a
shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels

23 weight of gold ; and said. Whose daughter art thou ? tell me,
I pray thee : is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge

24 in ? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel

25 the son of Milcah, w^hich she bare unto Nahor. She said
moreover unto him. We have both straw and provender

26 enough, and room to lodge in. And the man bowed down

27 his head, and worshipped the Lord. And he said, Blessed be
the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left

hip" (Thomson's Land and Book, p. 592). And the damsel was very fair.
There is no mawkishness or prudery in the Bible. The beauty of woman
is franhly spoken of as a powerful influence in human affairs. It determined
the steward. There may also have been some family likeness more or less
consciously influencing him. She went dozun to the well. "Nearly all wells
in the East are in wadies, and many of them have steps down to the water.
Eliezer asks water to drink, she hasted and let down her piteher upon her
hxnd. How often have I had this identical act performed for myself when
travelling in this thirsty land ! Rebekah's address to the se7^ant, ' Drink,
my lord,' will be given to you by the first gentle Rebekah you ask water
from. But I have never found any young lady so generous as this fair
daughter of Bethuel. .She drew for all his camels, and for nothing, while I
have often found it difficult to get my horse watered even for money "
(Thomson, id.). This was the second attraction of Rebekah. The steward
saw she was cheerfully and frankly hospitable, generous, and active. He
also recognised the answer to his prayer : the man wondering at her, held
his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his joitrney prosperous or not —
\to wit, is to know. The substantive wit is still in use ; the verb, / wot, /
7(.<ist, to wit, is obsolete, but cp. Ex. ii. 4 ; 2 Cor. viii. i ; INIark ix. 6. ]
He suspected this was the damsel chosen by God, and his presenting her
with a golden earrijig, or ring for the forehead, and bracelets of such value
proves this : he knew it when she declared who she was ; he then boiued
doiun his head and zvorshipped.

XXIV. 2 8-43-] THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. IO3

destitute my master of his mercy and his truth : I betJig in tlie
way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren.

28 And the damsel ran, and told the?n of her mother's house

29 these things. And Rebekah had a brother, and his name 7oas

30 Laban : and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well. And
it came to pass, when he saw the earring and bracelets upon
his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah
his sister, sa)'ing, Thus spake the man unto me, that he came
unto the man ; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the

31 well. And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord;
wherefore standest thou without ? for I have prepared the

32 house, and room for the camels. And the man came into the
house : and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and
provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the

33 men's feet that 7aere\\\ih him. And there was set ;;/^^/ before
him to eat : but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine

34 errand. And he said. Speak on. And he said, I ajn

35 Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master
greatly ; and he is become great : and he hath given him flocks,
and herds, and silver, and gold, and men-servants, and maid-

36 servants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah my master's
wife bare a son to my master when she was old : and unto

37 him hath he given all that he hath. And my master made me
swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the

38 daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell: but thou
shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take

39 a wife unto my son. And I said unto my master, Peradven-

40 ture the woman will not follow me. And he said unto me,
The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee,
and prosper thy way ; and thou shalt take a wife for my son

41 of my kindred, and of my father's house : then shalt thou be
clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred ;
and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my

42 oath. And I came this day unto the well, and said, O Lord
God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my

43 way which I go : behold, I stand by the well of water; audit

The Marriage arranged. — 28-53. Laban, hearing Rebekah's account,
ran out unto the man, and he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, a form
of greeting to a stranger still in common use. There is no reason for saying
that Laban's hospitality "seems to have been no little stimulated by the
tight of the earrings and the bracelets on his sister's hands." The sight of the
earring (for there was but one) seems to be mentioned merely as confirming

I04 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXIV. 44-56.

shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw
water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water

44 of thy pitcher to drink ; and she say to me, Both drink thou,
and I will also draw lor thy camels : let the same be the
woman whom the Lord hath appointed out for my master's

45 son. And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold,
Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder ; and
she went down imto the well, and drew water: and I said

46 unto her. Let me drink, I pray thee. And she made haste,
and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink,
and I will give thy camels drink also : so I drank, and she

47 made the camels drink also. And I asked her, and said,
Whose daughter art thou ? And she said, The daughter of
Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him : and I
put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her

48 hands. And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the
Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham,
which had led me in the right way to take my master's

49 brother's daughter unto his son. And now if you will deal
kindly and truly with my master, tell me : and if not, tell me ;

50 that I may turn to the riglit hand, or to the left. Then
Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth
from the Lord : we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.

5 1 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her
5 2 be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And it

came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words,
53 he worshipped the Lord, bowiiig himself to the earth. And the
servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and
raiment, and gave them to Rebekah : he gave also to her
5 1 brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat
and drink, he and the men that 7<y^r^ with him, and tarried all
night : and they rose up in the morning, and he said, wSend

55 me away unto my master. And her brother and her mother
said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least

56 ten; after that she shall go. And he said unto them, Hinder
me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way ; send me

his sister's account. The father Bethuel is in the background throughout.
Lange truly observes that the steward urges motives hom. kindrea ; I am
Aln-ahani's servant ; then the human intej'ests, Abraham is become great (ver.
35), and finally the religious motive (vers. 37 and 42-48). These various
considerations prevailed (ver. 50).

The Bride brought to her New Home.— 54-67. To Rebekah is left

XXIV. 5 7-*^ 7'] '^I"IE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM. I05

5 7 away that I may go to my master. And they said, We will

58 call the damsel, and enquire' at her mouth. And they called
Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man ?

59 And she said, I will go. And they sent away Rebekah their
sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.

60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her. Thou art our
sister, be thou tlie mother of thousands of millions, and let

6 1 thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. And
Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the
camels, and followed the man : and the servant took Rebekah,

62 and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well

63 Lahai-roi ; for he dwelt in the south country. And Isaac
went out to meditate in the field at the eventide : and he
lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels mere

64 coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw

65 Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she had said unto the
servant. What man is this that walketh in the field to meet
us ? And the servant had said. It is my master : therefore

66 she took a veil, and covered herself. And the servant told

67 Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her
into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she
became his w^ife ; and he loved her : and Isaac was comforted
after his mother's death.

the final decision regarding her immediate departure. Her prompt answer
1 70 ill go is characteristic. She throughout shows herself an active-minded
and capable woman, though she fell into the vice of women of her character,
scheming and management. When she saiu Isaac she lighted off the camel,
as a mark of respect. In Mohammedan countries Christians are obliged to
dismount when they meet Muslims of rank. Thomson says it is common
for women to dismount on the approach of men. She took a veil and covered
herself, which may have been simply the dictate of modesty, or compliance
with some custom of her race, that a bride should not be seen unveiled by
her husband till the marriage was consummated. [Thus Ewald, in his
Antiquities, p. 202, says: "According to the primitive custom of those
countries, the characteristic token of a woman's being married or betrothed
was wearing the veil, by which she became easily and purposely recognisable
everywhere in public ; but even when she met, or suspected the presence of,
the man to whom she was betrothed, etiquette required that she should veil
herself."]

I. /;/ this chapter there are many subjects touched tipon ivhich are of
interest to a class, e.g. the camel ; the ornaments of savages and of
civilised, inivard beauty and outzuard adorning (i Pet. iii. 1-5) ;
differoit ways of arranging man-iage, by purchase, by capture, etc. ;
xvoysby which men have ti-ied to find out God^s will i-egarding special
circumstances, oracles, dreams, divitiing, augury, etc.

Io6 THE BOOK OP GENESIS. [xXV. I-7.

Chap. xxv. i Then again Abraham took a wifj, and her name

2 7cias Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and

3 Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And Jokshan
begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were

4 Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. And the sons of
Midian ; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and

5 Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. And

6 Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons
of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts,
and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived,

7 eastward, unto the east country. And these are the days of
the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred three-

2. Alention some particulars in tuhich the steward showed himself an

exemplary servant.

3. What lesson may youth learn from Isaac'' s quiet "waiting till his Apth

year ?

4. What may be concluded regarding his character from other particulars

mentioned in this chapter ?

5. What may be gathered from this chapter regarding Rebekali s character ?

6. Give samples of the kifid of sign which men may ask of God, and of the

kind they jnay not ask.

7. Stopford Brooke calls Isaac ''the Words-worth of the 0. T."—zvhat

does he mean to indicate by this ?

Abraham's sons by keturah, his death, and Isaac's
SUCCESSION (chap. xxv. i-ii).

Abraham's Sons. — 1-6. I hen again Abraham took a -wife, though called a
wife here, she is called a concubine in i Chron. i. 32, and is evidently included
among the "concubines" mentioned in ver. 6. Her children were not
recognised as standing on the same level as Isaac, but were dismissed with
gifts to prevent them from coming into collision with him, Abraham may,
tlierefore, have taken her while Sarah was alive, although the whole strain of
the previous narrative would lead us to suppose Abraham had no children of
any kind until Hagar bore Ishmael. Against the idea that the children here
mentioned were born after Sarah's death, or even after Isaac's birth, is
the expression used in Rom. iv. 19 and Gen. xvii. 17, Zimran perhaps
represents the Zamereni, a tribe in the interior of Arabia. JMcdan and
Midian were closely related as tribes (cp. chap, xxxvii, 28, 36). The position
of Midian is ascertained from Ex. ii. 15, iii. I. Shuah is the tribe to
which Bildad, Job's friend, belonged, and was therefore probably situated to
the east of the Jordan. Sheba and D:dan are mentioned in chap. x. 7 as the
sons of Raamah, and grandsons of Cush. So that in these tribes occupying
the finest part of Arabia Felix, there was probably a mixture of Cushites and
Shemites. The AssJmriin, Letushim, 7i\\(\. Leummim have not been identified.
Ephah, cp. Isa. Ix. 6.

Abraham's Death and Burial.— 7-10. He lived i^^^ years, consequently

XXV. 8-1 8.] ishmael's descendants. 107

8 score and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost,
and died in a good old age, an old man, and full oj years ;

9 and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and
Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of
Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre ;

10 the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth :

11 there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. And it came
to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son
Isaac : and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi.

at his death Isaac was 75, Jacob and Esau 15 years of age. Isaac and
Ishmael buried Jiini. Ishmael, therefore, still maintained friendly relations
with the family, although more than 70 years had passed since his expulsion.

CHAPTER XXV. 12-18.— Ishmael's Descendants.

1 2 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son,
whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto

13 Abraham: and these are the names of the sons of Ishmael,
by their names, according to their generations : the first-born
of Ishmael, Nebajoth ; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,

14, 15 and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, and Tenia,

16 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah : these are the sons of Ishmael,
and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles ;

17 twelve princes according to their nations. And these «;'^ the
years of the Hfe of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven
years : and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered

18 unto his people. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur,
that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria : a7id he
died in the presence of all his brethren.

In connection vHth this paragraph Kalisch cites the Arabian tradition
which represents the population of Arabia as composed of three layers. The
first inhabitants were the powerful and wealthy tribes of Ad, Thamud, and
others ; the first wave of immigrants were the descendants of Joktan, whose
sons, Yarab and Jorham, became the founders of the principalities of Yemen
and Hejaz, which to this day retain something of their old prestige. Finally
came the sons of Ishmael, who partly intermarried with the original Arabs
and partly settled by themselves. Kalisch supposes that the original popula-
tion is referred to in Gen. x. 7 ; the second layer in Gen. x. 26-29 ; and that
the third layer is represented by the sons of Keturah and the Ishmaelites
mentioned in this chapter.

I03 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXV. 1 9-2 6.

CHAPTER XXV. 19-L. 26. — History of Isaac and his
Descendants.

19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son :

20 Abraham begat Isaac : and Isaac was forty years old when he
took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of

21 Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac
entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren : and
the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife con-

22 ceived. And the children struggled together within her ; and
she said, If it be so, why am I thus ? And she went to enquire

23 of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are
in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated
from thy bowels ; and the one people shall be stronger than

24 the other people ; and the elder shall serve the younger. And
when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there

25 were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all
over like an hairy garment ] and they called his name Esau.

26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold

Birth and Character of Jacob and Esau.— 19-28. Padan-Aram,
the plain, or flat-land, or lowlands of Aram ; cp. chap, xlviii. 7 ; and Hos.
xii. 12. Isaac entreated . . . barren. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel were all
tried in this way. Livingstone {Mission. Travels, 132) tells us it was "heart-
rending to hear the earnest entreaty" of women who had come more than
two hundred miles to him with Rebekah's petition : *' I am getting old," they
would say ; " you see grey hairs here and there on my head, and I have no
child. You know how Bechuana husbands cast their old wives away ; what
can I do ? " etc. The delay in Rebekah's case would cause it to be felt that
God must not only begin but maintain the promised line. To her, as to
many, answer to prayer appeared first in the form of great internal disturb-
ance and perplexity : the children struggled together within her, omen of the
after-history of Edom and Israel. With characteristic impetuosity she
exclaimed : If it be so, why am I thus ? or, as most modern interpreters
translate : If it be so, why then do I live ? just as in chap, xxvii. 46 she
exclaims, with like impatience and exaggeration : "I am weary of my life
because of the daughters of Heth ; if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of
Heth . . . what good shall my life do me ?" This extravagant way of speak-
ing and intolerance of pain were inherited by Esau ; cp. ver. 32. And she
went to enquire of the Lord. By what method cannot be certainly said ; pro-
bably by prayer. The answer is given in poetical form, in two couplets or
antistrophic parallelisms.

When the twins were born the first came out red, i.e. red-haired (cp. i Sam.
xvi, 12), all over like a hairy garment, or furry cloak (such as the prophets
afterwards wore), and they called his name Esau, i.e. hairy ; cp. the Latin
name hirtius from hirtus, shaggy, hairy, and the legend and name of St.
Ursula. The name of the other twin was also determined by his appearance

XXV. 2 7-3 2. J HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. I09

on Esau's heel ; and his name was called Jacob : and Isaac

27 tvas threescore years old when she bare them. And the boys
grew : and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field ;

28 and Jacob tvas a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac
loved Esau, because he did eat of Ins venison : but Rebekah

29 loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage : and Esau came from

30 the field, and he was faint : and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me,
I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I a/n faint : there-

3 1 fore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said. Sell me

32 this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I a?n at the

at birth, for he presented himself holding Esati's heel, therefore his name 7:as
called Jacob, i.e. Yaaqob, he holds the heel, or heelholder, or supplauter
{suh^ planta, the sole of the foot), a name which Esau (chap, xxvii. 36)
i)itterly interprets. The boys greiv, and Esati was a canning hunter, i.e. a
knowing (ken, canny), skilful hunter (cp, Ex. xxvi. i ; i Sam. xvi. 16 ; and
especially i Chron. xxv. 7; and see Trench's Select Glossary, s.v.). Jacob
was a plain man. The word rendered plain means upright, perfect ; a very
unexpected epithet for Jacob, belied as it is by his whole career. It must be
taken in a looser sense, and as indicating a quiet, respectable, decent
person ; dzvelling in tents, not exhibiting the wild tastes of his brother. [The
English Version seems here to have followed the LXX., which translates by
a.-v\os,(frai, unformed, unaccomplished, unsophisticated, plain ; the Vulgate
has simplex, and Luther, pious, frommer.^ Such being their characters,
naturally the quiet father took to the adventurous, robust Esau ; the active,
clever mother found more in the clever, home-keeping Jacob, The reason
given in the 28th verse for Isaac's affection — Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat
of his venison — could scarcely be the whole motive of liis love ; though
Roberts cites the following : " Has a man been supported by another, and is
it asked, Why does Kandan love Muttoo ? the reply is. Because Muttoo's rice
is in his mouth."

Esau sells his Birthright. — 29-34. Jacob sod pottage ; sod is the old
past of the verb to seethe (cp, i Sam. ii, 13, 15. Suds is derived from sod) ;
Esau said. Feed me . . . red ; or, Let me, I pray thee, devour [gulp down]
some of that red, that red. The pottage was of lentiles (cp. ver. 34), which
when ground and cooked have a yellowish-red colour. There is perhaps no
farinaceous food so savoury and so sustaining. The flavour is similar to but
not so strong as that of pease-meal. Therefore was his name called Edom, i.e.
Red. Probably the fact recorded above, that he was born red, had also
something to do with the name. Kalisch remarks that the name of the
country, Edom, may not have been given to it merely because Esau was
called Edom, but from tlie red sandstone which forms its principal geological
formation (cp. Greenland, Blue Mountains, Red Sea, etc. ). If tlie uncon-
trolled appetite of Esau is repulsive, still more so is the watchful cunning of
Jacob, that at once takes advantage of Esau's weakness and names the price
of the pottage. Sell me this day thy birthright. Had Jacob acted a brother's
part and given the ravenous hunter his supper, as doubtless Esau had often
given him a share of his venison, no harm would have come of the incident.

no THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXV. 33-XXVI. I.

point to die ; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto

34 him : and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob
gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles ; and he did eat and
drink, and rose up, and went his way : thus Esau despised his
birthright.

Chap. xxvi. i And there was a famine in the land, besides the
first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac
went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

And Esau said . . . do to me. Three meanings have been put upon these
words : (i) I am dying with hunger ; (2) I am by my hunting life exposed
to constant risk of death ; (3) Man's life is so brief that it is no use striving
for any dignity in it. The first meaning seems by fafir the most in keeping
witli Esau's exaggerating disposition and subordination of everything to pre-
sent appetite. " For a quart d'ecu [fifteen pence] he will sell the fee-simple
of his salvation, the inheritance of it" {AlVs Well that Ends Well, iv. 3).
Esau's argument was : What good will birthright or anything else do me if I
am to starve ? It was a perversion of, What shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul ? Jacob foresaw that when Esau's
appetite was satisfied his mind might change, so he said, Swear to me this
day. It is singular that the great Ishmaelite birthright, the guardianship of
the temple of Mecca, came into the hands of Mohammed's ancestors in a
similar way. The birthright having fallen " into the hands of Abu Gabshan,
a weak and silly man, Cosa circumvented him while in a drunken humour,
and bought of him the keys of the temple, and with them the presidency of it,
for a bottle of wine. But Abu Gabshan, being gotten out of his drunken fit,
sufficiently repented of his foolish bargain ; from whence grew these proverbs
among the Arabs : More vexed with late repentance than Abu Gabshan ;
and. More silly than Abu Gabshan ; which are usually said of those who part
with a thing of great moment for a small matter" (Prideaux, Life of Mahomet ^
p. 3. Cp. also Muir's Mahomet, I. ccii. note).

1. Name Abraham's sons.

2. Hoii) 7vas Arabia peopled 1 Name some of the leading tribes.

3. Explain the names Jacob, Esau, Edom.

4. Describe the characters of Jacob and Esan, and shoiu hozu these cha-

racters ivere perpetuated in their descendants.

5. What bla7ne attaches to Esati and ivhat to Jacob in the sale of the birth-

right ?

6. Explain Heb. xii, 16, 17 ; also Rom. ix. IO-13.

ISAAC IN GERAR AND AT EEER-SHEEA (CHAP. XXVI.).

Renewal of the Promise in Gerar.— 1-6. Isaac's life is, as Delitzsch
remarks, " the echo of the life of Abraham." His character was dwarfed by
growing up under the shadow of his greater father. Sons may follow even a
good example to their own damage ; their own faculties suffer from not being
allowed free exercise. For much of what is recorded here, see chaps, xii. and
XX. The Abimelech here mentioned is probably not the same as Abraham

XXVI. 2-12.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. Ill

2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down
into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

3 sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless
thee ; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these
countries ; and I will perform the oath which I sware unto

4 Abraham thy father ; and I will make thy seed to multiply as
the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these
countries ; and in thy seed shall the nations of the earth be

5 blessed ; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept
my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

6, 7 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar : and the men of the place asked
hwi of his wife ; and he said, She is my sister : for he feared
to say, She is my wife ; lest, said he, the men of the place
should kill me for Rebekah ; because she was fair to look

8 upon. And it came to pass, when he had been there a long
time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at
a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with

9 Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said.
Behold, of a surety she is thy wife ; and how saidst thou. She
is my sister ? And Isaac said unto him. Because I said, Lest

10 I die for her. And Abimelech said. What is this thou hast
done unto us ? one of the people might lightly have lien with
thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying. He that
toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same

had to do with eighty years before. Gerar, probably close to the Wady
Jcrur of Stewart and Palmer (cp. Hanna's Patriarchs, TJie Site of Gerar,
pp. 71-81). Go not dcnim into Egypt; Isaac was apparently on his way to
Egypt, as Abraham had gone there in famine. God encourages him to
remain in Gerar by renewing the proinise to him ; and indeed the prohibition
itself was an encouragement to him to consider himself a permanent resident
in Palestine. Becaiisi that Abraham obeyed . . . viy laivs. The multiplica-
tion of terms in this clause is remarkable, considering that the explicit com-
mands of God to Abraham had been few. But all his life, amidst many
trespasses and omissions, he had in the main lived in the obedience of faith.
On this paragraph Robertson remarks : " True it is, that Isaac was dis-
appointed ; he got no bread, but he did get perseverance. He did want
comforts, but with this want came content, the habit of soul-communion with
God. Which was best, bread or faith ? Which was best, to have abundance
or to have God ? Tell us then, had God broken His promise ? "

Protection of Rebekah in Gerar.— 7-11. Cp. chap. xii. 11-20, and
chap. XX.

Isaac's Prosperity in Gerar. — 12-22. Isaac solved in that land ; no

ir2 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXVI. 1 3-23.

13 year an hundredfold : and the Lord blessed him. And the
man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became

14 very great : for he had possession of flocks, and possession
of herds, and great store of servants : and the Philistines

15 envied him. For all the wells which his father's servants had
digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had

16 stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech
said unto Isaac, Go from us ; for thou art much mightier than

17 we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the

18 valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again
the wells of water which they had digged in the days of
Abraham his father ; for the Philistines had stopped them
after the death of Abraham : and he called their names after

19 the names by which his father had called them. And Isaac's
servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of

20 springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive v»ith
Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours : and he called
the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

2 1 And they digged another well, and strove for that also : and

22 he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from
thence, and digged another well ; and for that they strove
not : and he called the name of it Rehoboth ; and he said,
For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be

23 fruitful in the land. And he went up from thence to Beer-

pvoof that he meant to remain there for many years, but perhaps proof that
he felt the precariousness of depending only on cattle. His prosperity was
displeasing to the Philistines who had stopped his father s wells, a practice
frequently resorted to for the purpose of annoying an enemy and forcing his
removal. Isaac digged again the ivells . . . and he called their names after the
names by which his father called them, which removes the suspicion which has
in some minds attached to the second account (ver. 33 ; cp, chap. xxi. 31) of
the naming of Beer-sheba. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive. In Persia
all waste lands are called "God's lands," and "whoever procures the means
of irrigation becomes the proprietor of the land which he thus renders culti-
vable " (Kitto's Cyclop., s.v. ^Yatcr). " To give a name to a Avell, denoted a
right of property, and to stop or destroy one once dug was a military expe-
dient, a mark of conquest, or an encroachment on territorial right claimed or
existing in its neighbourhood " (Smith's Diet., s.v. Well). Cp. Num. xx
17-19, and the Song of the Well, Num. xxi. 17. The names of the three
wells, Esek, Sitnah, and Rehoboth, mean respectively Strife, Hate, Koom.
[Cp. Bridewell, i.e. St. Bridget's Well; Cierkenwell, the Priest's Well ;
Sadler's Wells, etc.] The word Sitnah is from the same root as Satan.
Rehoboth is identified with the Wady Ruhaibeh,

Isaac settles at Beer-sheba. — 23-33. How long Isaac remained at

XXVI. 24-35-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. II3

24 sheba. And the Lord appeared unto him the same night,
and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father : fear not, for
I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed, for

25 my servant x\braham's sake. And he builded an altar there,
and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent

26 there : and there Isaac's servants digged a well. Then
Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his

27 friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. And
Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye

28 hate me, and have sent me away from you? And they said.
We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee : and we said.
Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and

29 thee, and let us make a covenant with thee ; that thou wilt
do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have
done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in

30 peace : thou art now the blessed of the Lord. And he made

31 them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up
betimes in the morning, and sware one to another : and Isaac

32 sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And
it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and
told him concerning the well v/hich they had digged, and

33 said unto him, We have found water. And he called it
Shebah : therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto

34 this day. And Esau was forty years old when he took to
wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath

35 the daughter of Elon the Hittite : w^hich were a grief of mind
unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

Rehoboth we are not told. The alliance with the Philistines was desired by
them, not by him ; and the circumstances in this and other respects resemble
those in which Abimelech made alliance with Abraham. The well which
I<^aac named in commemoration of the alliance may have been that dug by
his father, or it may have been, as is generally believed, a new well in the
same locality. On Isaac's character, as displayed in this chapter, Kurtz
remarks : *' Elasticity of endurance, which does not resist evil nor contend
against it, but by patience and yielding overcomes it, constitiites the fiinda-
mental type of the character of Isaac, and in this lies his real claim to
greatness."

Esau's Marriages with Canaanitisii Women.— 34, 85. Not only
from strangers did Isaac receive annoyance, but in his own home there
was cause of distress. Esau brought into his tents women who had Jittle
sympathy with the family hopes. On the wives of Esau, cp. chap, xxxvi.

I. What time had elapsed heliveen AbrahajiCs treaty xvith Abimelech and
Isaac" s ?

114 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXVII. I-7.

Chap, xxvii. i And it came to pass, that when Isaac was
old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he
called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him. My son :

2 and he said unto him. Behold, here am I. And he said,
Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death.

3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver
and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some

4 venison ; and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and
bring it to me, that I may eat ; that my soul may bless

5 thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to
Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to \vm\\.for venison,

6 a7id to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son,
saying. Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy

7 brother, saying. Bring me venison, and make me savoury

2. Describe the character of Isaac from the material furnished in this

chapter.

3. What hint is given regarding the character of Esau ?

4. Compare the culpability of Isaac in lying about Rebekah, and of Esati

in marrying Cattaanitish ii'omen.

5. Hoxv do yoic account for Beer-sheba being named after Isaac's oath as

well as after Abraham^ ?

jacob fraudulently obtains isaac's blessing
(chap, xxvii. 1-40).

Isaac proposes to bless Esau. — 1-4, lVhc7i Isaac was old, apparently
137 years old. Joseph was thirty when he stood before Pharaoh (chap. xli.
46), thirty-nine when Jacob came to Egypt (chap. xH. 53 and xlv. 6, which
show that seven years of plenty and two of famine, that is, nine years, had
elapsed between Joseph's advancement and Jacob's migration) ; but at this
time Jacob was 130 (chap, xlvii, 9), so that Joseph must have been born
when Jacob was ninety-one ; but this birth occurred at the termination of the
fourteen years during which Jacob had served for Rachel (chap. xxx. 25),
that is, fourteen years after he had left his home. This calculation makes
Jacob seventy-seven when he left Isaac's tents, and Isaac himself, being sixty
years older than his son, must have been 137, His eyes were dim, the natural
result of old age (cp. Deut. xxxiv. 7), and explaining how the deception was
possible. Ophthalmia is commoner in the East than with us. Travellers
say that in certain parts of Egypt every twentieth person is blind of one or
both eyes. Make me savoury vieat . . . that my soul may bless thee. He
desired not only to have his vital energy stimulated, but also to have his
affection for Esau presently intensified by the food he relished and which
Esau was to provide.

Jacob, at Rebekah's Instigation, anticipates Esau.— 5-17. Re-
bekah no doubt remembered the promise indicating that Jacob should have

XXVII. 8-19-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. I15

meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before

8 my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according

9 to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and
fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats ; and I will
make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth :

10 and thou shalt bring // to thy father, that he may eat, and

1 1 that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to
Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man,

12 and I aui a smooth man : my father peradventure will feel
me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver ; and I shall bring

13 a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said
unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son : only obey my

14 voice, and go fetch me the/n. And he went, and fetched, and
brought them to his mother : and his mother made savoury

15 meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly
raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the

16 house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son : and
she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands,

1 7 and upon the smooth of his neck : and she gave the savoury
meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand

18 of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said,
My father : and he said, Here am I ; who arf thou, my son ?

19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy first-born ; I

the birthright ; she knew also that Esau had sold the birthright, and was
incapable of appreciating its blessing. But in no circumstances is it right to
do evil that good may come, and her scheme of unnatural fraud brought upon
herself and Jacob many years of suffering. Jacob's only objection to practise
the deception on his father arose from fear of discovery : Aly father peradven-
Uire will feel vie . . . and I shall bring a acrse upon vie. In Rebekah there
is no hesitation. Upon vie be thy curse, viy son : only obey viy voice. Her
own future is nothing to her, her son's everything. She will take all the loss
and give him all the profit. [Cp. Nero's mother, Let him kill me, but let
him reign.] She took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau ; his best clothes,
his holiday attire, not his common hunting dress. This rather favours the
idea that the smell of his raiment (ver. 27), which seemed to Isaac as the smell
of a field which the Lord hath blessed, was not the fresh exhalation from the
clothes of one who has just come from the open air, but a perfume inten-
tionally produced by the sprinkling of aromatic essences, or laying the clothes
among herbs. She also put the skins of the kids on the exposed parts of
Jacob's skin, to complete the deception. The hair of the kids would be line,
and not too long.

Isaac unwittingly blesses Jacob.— 18-29. And he came . . . luho art
thou, viy son ? No doubt, after the elaborate dressing up, Jacob also tried to
imitate Esau's voice, but not with perfect success. At the first sound his
father's suspicions were aroused. Jacob had no difficulty in lying : / avi

Il6 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXVII, 20-29.

have done according as thou badest me : arise, I pray thee,
20 sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And

Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found // so

quickly, my son ? And he said, Because the Lord thy God
2T brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I

pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou he my

22 very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his
father ; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice,

23 but the hands are the hands of Esau. x\nd he discerned
him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's

24 hands : so he blessed him. And he said, ^;-/ thou my very

25 son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said. Bring //near
to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that ray soul may
bless thee. And he brought // near to him, and he did eat :

26 and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father
Isaac said unto him. Come near now, and kiss me, my son.

27 And he came near, and kissed him : and he smelled the smell
of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of
my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed :

28 therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness

29 of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine : let people serve
thee, and nations bow down to thee : be lord over thy
brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : cursed
he every one that curseth thee, and blessed he he that blesseth

Esazi iJiy first-horn. It is a straightforward, unhesitating lie. Rebekah knew
she could depend upon him for this. But Isaac is not satisfied. A fresh
doubt arises : Ilotu is it that thoii hast found it so quickly ? Jacob does not
scruple to bring God's name into this bad business, and play upon the piety
of his father : The Lord thy God brought it to me. But the voice, and pei haps
the expression, the Lord thy God, unfamiliar to Esau's lips, still puzzle Isaac.
He calls him near and feels him ; and here perhaps Isaac's weakness is most
apparent, for though he is convinced that the voice is Jacob's voice, lie invites
that voice, which he had no doubt often before detected framing falsehoods,
to say conclusively who the unseen speaker was : Aj-t thou my very son Esau ?
Jacob now practises "on his father's weakness — his known inability to resist
any who take up a determined front ; so, with a bolder effrontery of falsehood
than before, he says, I am " (Hanna's The Patriarchs, p. 89). The kiss,
ver. 26, would seem to have been given in thankfulness, and as a token of
goodwill, and not for the sake of still further testing Jacob. In blessing his
son, Isaac's language becomes poetical, both in the forms of individual words
and in the parallelism of its clauses. It will be observed that the blessing is
confined to worldly prosperity. Isaac supposes he is blessing Esau, and
modifies his blessing accordingly. On the terms of his blessing, cp. Deut.
viii. 7-9, and xxxiii. 28 ; Hosea xiv. 5 ; Micah v. 7 ; Job xxix. 19. The
blessing of xhc first-born is especially indicated in ^^ be lord over thy brethreii.''^
For the fulfilment cp. 2 Sam. viii. 14.

XXVII. 30-38.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. II7

30 thee. And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an
end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out
from the j^resence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother

3 1 came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury
meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father,
Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy

32 soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him. Who
art thou ? And he said, I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau.

33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said. Who ? where
is he that hath taken venison, and brought // me, and I have
eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him ? yea,

34 and he shall be blessed. And vv^hen Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry,
and said unto his father, Bless me, eimi me also, O my father !

35 And he said. Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken

36 away thy blessing. And he said. Is not he rightly named
Jacob ? for he hath supplanted me these two times : he took
away my birthright ; and, behold, now he hath taken away my
blessing. And he said. Hast thou not reserved a blessing for

37 me ? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have
made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him
for servants ; and with corn and wine have I sustained him :

38 and what shall I do now unto thee, my son ? And Esau said
unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father ? bless
me, even me also, O my father ! And Esau lifted up his voice,

The Fraud discovered : the Blessing irreversible. — 30-40. Jacob
'ivas yet scarce gone out ; he had just gone out, when Esau entered with his
game already cooked. He was just too late, though he must have been
unusually speedy in securing the venison. The fraud is at once discovered.
Isaac trembled very exceedingly. The excitement would make an old man
tremble ; but his nervous agitation no doubt mainly arose from his immediate
recognition of God's hand in the matter. He saw that God had prevented
him from alienating the blessing from Jacob, and he therefore became con-
scious both of his guilt in having intended so to alienate it, and of his feeble-
ness in the hand of the Omniscient. Esau had no such spiritual insight ; and
therefore, forgetful of the sale he had made, now that delivery of the property
was required, and quite unconscious of the wrong he was doing to Jacob,
experiences no trembling, but bitterly exclaims : Is not he rightly named
Supplanter? Isaac's stale of mind is illustrated by David's when Shimei
cursed him, 2 Sam, xvi. ii. Recognising God in the matter, he could not
revoke the blessing : Behold, I have niade him thy lord . . , a7id ivhat shall I
do noiv tinto thee, my son? " Our author considers the patriarchs to be men
of God (cp. chap. xv. i, xx. 7), and attaches to their utterances the same
efficacy as the Hebrews ascribed to the divine utterances of the prophets. A
divine utterance is a force which infallibly and undivertibly effects what the

Il8 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXVII. 39-4I.

39 and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto
him, Behold, thy dwelHng shall be the fatness of the earth,

40 and of the dew of heaven from above ; and by thy sword
shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come
to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt

41 break his yoke from off thy neck. And Esau hated Jacob

word expresses : God's word cannot be inoperative " (Knobel, hi loc). What
remains therefore in Isaac's power to bestow, is in effect as much a curse as a
blessing : Behold, thy diuelling shall be the fatness of the earth, rather (as both
the connection and the fulfihnent of the words prove), thy dwelling shall he
without, or, apart from, the fatness of the earth ; apart from the fruitful
land of Palestine, thy dwelling shall be among the bare rocks of Mount Seir.
The country inherited by Esau is described by ancient and modern writers as
excessively rocky and unfruitful, without water, a mere stony and desolate
wilderness. By thy sword shalt thoti live; pressed by the unfruitfulness of
his own country, Esau would be driven to war and plunder for his support.
Yet the sword would not avail to maintain his independence : thou shalt serve
thy brother (cp. 2 Sam. viii. 14 ; I Kings xi. 14). This subjection was, how-
ever, not to be permanent : it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the
dominio7i, or rather (as this makes the sentence a tautology), when thou
Bhakest, or, in thy shaking (of the yoke), thou shalt break his yoke from off
thy neck. The words foretell the restlessness of Edom under the yoke, a
restlessness which enabled them once and again to throw it off (cp. 2 Kings
viii. 20-22; 2 Chron. xxviii. 17), until finally through Antipater and Herod
the descendants of Esau reigned over the descendants of Jacob.

Kurtz remarks on this incident : " This is one of the most remarkable com-
plications of life, showing in the clearest manner that a higher hand guides
the threads of history, so that neither sin nor error can ultimately entangle
them. Each one weaves the threads which are committed to him according
to his own views and desires, but at last, when the texture is complete, we
behold in it the pattern which the Master had long before devised, and
towards which each labourer had only contributed one or another feature."

1. State the respective guilt and punishment of the parties in this trans-

action.

2. Criticise the maxim that ^^ the end sanctifies the means.'''' Mention a

celebrated passage in theological and literary history which was
occasioned by the free application of this maxim.

3. Illustrate the fulfilment of Isaac'' s blessing by passages of Scripture

describing the fertility of the land of Israel.

4. Why zvas Isaads blessing confined to agricidhiral and social prosperity ?

5. Where did Esati^s descendants settle, what was their character, and

general relation to Israel ?

6. In whojn respectively did the lines of Jacob and Esau culminate ?

7. Give examples from actual life ofivhaf is meant in the verse:

" We barter life for pottage ; sell true bliss

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ;
Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss,
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown."

XXVII. 42-46.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. II9

because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him :
and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my

42 father are at hand ; then will I slay my brother Jacob. And
these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah :
and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto
him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth com-

43 fort himself, ////;;^^i'//^<^ to kill thee. Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice ; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to

44 Haran ; and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's

45 fury turn away ; until thy brother's anger turn away from
thee, and he forget ///^/ which thou hast done to him : then I
will send and fetch thee from thence : why should I be

46 deprived also of you both in one day ? And Rebekah said
to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of
Heth : if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such
as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good
shall my life do me ?

JACOB FLEES FROM ESAU AND GOES TO PADAN-ARAM

(chap. XXVII. 4i~xxviii. 22).

Esau's Rage and Rebekau's Counsel. — 41-45. Esau said in his hcarf,
but he must also, characteristically, have divulged his purpose, for these ivoj'ds
0/ Esau iverc told to Rebekah. The days of juouriiing . . . tvill I slay viy
brother Jacob. Kalisch and Wright agree in thinking that these v.-ords mean :
Days of grief are at hand for my father, for I will slay my brother Jacob.
But it is much more in keeping with Esau's intense regard for his father (chap,
xxviii. 8) to suppose, with our version, that Esau could not put Isaac to the
pain of hearing that one of his sons had killed the other, and meant therefore
to nurse his revenge till the soon expected death of Isaac should have freed
him from this scruple. As Knobel remarks, he cannot bring himself to put
his father about, but he is quite ready to slay his brother. Rebekah is equal
to the occasion ; she fancies Esau's rage will soon pass away {a few days,
vcr. 44, which may also have been said to induce him to go), and it occurs to
her that this emergency can be utilized for the advancement of Jacob's
prospects by getting him married to one of her nieces ; fee thou to Laban
until thy brother'' s anger turn away and he forget ; observe her knowledge of
Esau's character. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day ?
both, because Esau too would be slain as a murderer, by the law of blood-
revenge.

Isaac sends Jacob to Padan-aram for a Wife. — 46- xxviii. 5. And
Rebekah said to Isaac . . . This verse attaches itself on the one side to
chap, xxvi, 35, and on the other to chap, xxviii. I. In this section no hint is
given of a ([uarrcl between the brothers. Rebekah's scheme is spoken of as if
it had originated soIeLy in her jealousy and hatred of the Hittite wives of Esau,
and her fear that Jacob might by his marriage intensify her annoyance. Isaac

I20 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXVIII. I-II.

Chap, xxviii. i And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and
charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a Avife

2 of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the
house of Bethuel thy mother's father ; and take thee a wife
from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people ;

4 and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy
seed with thee ; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein

5 thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham, And
Isaac sent away Jacob : and he went to Padan-aram unto
Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah,

6 Jacob's and Esau's mother. When Esau saw that Isaac had
blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him
a wife from thence ; and that, as he blessed him, he gave him
a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters

7 of Canaan ; and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother,

8 and was gone to Padan-aram ; and Esau seeing that the

9 daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father ; then went
Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the waves which he had
IMahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister

10 of Nebajoth, to be his wife. And Jacob went out from

1 1 Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon
a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun
was set ; and he took of the -stones of that place, and put
them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

is easily guided. He called Jacob and blessed him and charged him : the
charge being that he should ^t? fo Padan-aram and take aiaife of the daughters
of Laban ; the blessing being that he should inherit the blessing of Abraham,
a numerous offspring and the land of Canaan. Jacob, as an obedient son, -tuefii
to Padan-aram unto Laban. [The fact that Jacob himself was sent, and not
a servant, as in Isaac's case, confirms the foregoing narrative.]

Esau tries to propitiate his Parents by marrying a Daughter of
Ishmael. — 6-9. The narrator, by detailing the reasons which moved Esau,
seems to draw attention to the slow movement of his mind, as well as to his
mixture of filial regard and self-interest ; and perhaps also to the blundering
way in which men who at heart are unspiritual seek to imitate the action of
spiritual men. Esau, wishing to please his parents, married one who was
probably more hostile and alien in spirit, though not quite so alien in blood as
the Hittites [took 7into is of course took in addition to].

Jacob's Dream. — 10-22. And Jacob zoent out . . . Llaran. This verse
makes a fresh beginning. From ver. 5 we should have concluded that Jacob
was already in Haran. And he lighted . . . for his pillows^ he took [one] of
the stones of that place and put it for his piUows, see ver. i8. This would

XXvIIl. 12-17.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS, 121

1 2 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold the angels

13 of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold ! the
Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou

1 4 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 abroad
to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the
south : and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of

15 the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will
keep thee in 2^ places whither thou goest, and will bring thee
again into this land ; for I will not leave thee, until I have

16 done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob
awaked out of his sleep, and he said. Surely the Lord is in

1 7 this place ; and I knew // not. And he was afraid, and said,
How dreadful is this place ! this is none other but the house

be the second or third evenhig of his flight. " He crossed, often looking Lack
to that gleaming little spot, so well marked by the clustering trees, the wide
and rolling tableland of Beer-sheba, all ablaze with the red anemone, and saw
before him at last the dreary hills that form part of the ridge which is the
backbone of Palestine " (Brooke). Dr. Hanna tells us that " in approaching
Bethel, the hillsides presented frequently such an exact resemblance to the
steps of a stair, that it may have been from them that the vision of Jacob's
dream was borrowed." . . . " The Hebrew word translated 'ladder' occurs
but in this single passage, and, so far as we can judge, would be more
correctly rendered 'staircase,' derived as it is from a verb signifying ' to raise
or pile up.' A towering elevation, as of hill piled on hill, consisting of ledges
of rocks, serving as steps by which it might be ascended, would correspond
far better with the meaning of the word than a solitary, narrow, unsupported
ladder, offering no seemly footing for ascending and descending angels" {The
Patriarchs, p. 92). Suggested so far as its form was concerned by the last
impression left on his closing eyes, the vision conveyed to the outcast the
assurance that there was free communication between heaven and earth, that
between the most desolate and forsaken of men and God Himself, gracious
intercourse was maintained. The Lord stood above it and said ; this divine
utterance was the first revelation made to Jacob, it confirms the blessing given
to him by Isaac, and indicates him as now the mediator of this blessing. The
history of God's revelation becomes now the history of Jacol\ The 15th
verse, Behold, I am luith thee ... is an addition to the original promise, and
is made in consideration of Jacob's circumstances.

16. Surely the Lord is in this place, and I kneiv it not. Jacob and his
fathers believed that Jehovah was ' God of heaven and of earth ' (chap. xxiv.
3, xiv. 22), but they also believed that He manifested Himself in certain
places, and was more accessible as the covenant God of grace in these places.
Hence the emphatic assurances of ver. 15, and hence "the wonder of Jacob
and his exclamation. And he was afraid, filled with overwhelming awe,
cp. Isa, \i, 5 ; Judg, vi, 22, 7'he house of God, peculiarly God's dwelling-

122 THE LOOK OF GENESIS. [xXVIII. 1 8-2 2.

1 8 of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up
early in the mornmg, and took the stone that he had -put /or
his pillows, and set it up/or a pillar, and poured oil upon the

19 top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el ; but

20 the name of that city 7c>as called Luz at the first. And Jacob
vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep
me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and

21 raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house

22 in peace, then shall the Lord be my God : and this stone,
which I have set/cr a pillar, shall be God's house : and of all
that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

place, where Jacob had come into more direct contact with God tlian any-
where else, TAe gate of heaven ^ the entrance to the spiritual world ; which
shows that he did not consider God to be confined to the spot where he had
slept, but that somehow at this spot there was a way of access to God. In
the face of the promise of ver. 15, " I am with thee in all places whither thou
goest," it is impossible that Jacob can have thought of God as confined to one
spot. And Jacob rose -up . . . and took the stone . . . and set it tip for a pillar^
a natural and ancient mode of marking spots where significant events had
occurred (cp. chap. xxxi. 45, xxxv. 14; Josh. iv. 9, etc.); and poured oil
■upon the top of it, with the idea of consecrating it, of marking the spot as
sacred. These anointed stones became among heathen nations objects of
religious veneration and worship, a form of worship forbidden by the Mosaic
Law, Lev. xxvi. i ; Dent. xvi. 22. Arnobius \adv. Gentes, i. 39) says :
" Whenever I saw an anointed stone, daubed with olive oil, I used to worship
and address it and beg favours from it, as if some power were present in it."
[A large number of passages to the same effect are collected by Doughty,
Rosenmiiller, and Knobel, in loc] Meteoric stones, which were worshipped
by many races, were called fialrvXai, fieci'rv?.ioc, baetyli, a word supposed to
be a transliteration of Bethel. Some philologists doubt this. [With this
meaning of Bethel, cp. xxxv. 15.]

Jacob's Vow. —20-22. If God will be with me . . . in peace ; then shall the.
Lord be my God ; with this translation Delitzsch and Knobel agree, but Tuch,
Kalisch, and Wright prefer to render : If God will be with me . . . and if the
Lord will be my God, then this stone . . . shall be God's house, which
satisfies the passage much belter, cp. ver. 13. To find anything mercenary
in this vow is to misunderstand it. It is his response to God's promise. God
has promised to be with him, and he replies. This being so, I will do so and
so. / will snrely give the tenth. Giving the tenth was a very early custom,
cp. xiv. 20. The law of tithes is given in Lev. xxvii, 30-33. For the fulfil-
ment of the other part of the vow, see chap. xxxv. 6, 7.

Remarks. — i. "Here were three things to the old patriarch : a way set up
between earth and heaven, making a visible connection between the ground
on which he stood (or slept) and the sky ; the free circulation along that way
of great powers and ministering influences ; and God, the supreme, inspiring,
directing, rewarding, or punishing force, eminent over all. All these were
included in tlie simple vision." — Ilenry Ward Leecher.

XXIX. I-7-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 23

Chap. xxix. i Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into

2 the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and
behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of
sheep lying by it ; for out of that well they watered the flocks :

3 and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And thither
were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the stone from
the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone

4 again upon the well's mouth in his place. And Jacob said
unto them, My brethren, whence be ye ? And they said, Of

5 Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the

6 son of Nahor ? And they said, We know him. And he said
unto them. Is he well ? And they said, He is well : and,

7 behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he
said, Lo, // is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle

2. On Jacob's setting up a memorial stone, F. W. Robertson remarks :
** Herein is the value of forms ; impressions, feelings, will pass away, unless
we have some memorial. If we were merely spiritual beings, then we might
do without forms ; but we are still mixed up with matter, and unless we have
a form, the spirit will die. Resolve, then, like Jacob, to keep religion in
mind by the use of religious rites. Church-going, the keeping of the Sabbath,
are not religion ; but religion hardly lives without them."

1. Why did Jacob go to Padan-aram ?

2. Hoiv was the form of his dream suggested?

3. What was the significaiice of his dream, and ivhat point in the history

is marked by the accovipanyittg revelation ?

4. In what sense did he call the place ' * the house of God'''' ?

5. Mention other scriptural na??ies compounded with Beth.

6. Why did Jacob set up a stone ? What great religious community at

this day zuorships a stone?

7. What use was made of this vision by our Lord?

JACOB'S DOUBLE MARRIAGE IN HARAN (CHAP. XXIX. I-30).

Jacob meets Rachel.— 1-14. Then Jacob rvent on hisjotirney, lit. lift
up his feet, "which in eastern language still signifies to walk quickly, to
reach out, to be in good earnest, not to hesitate" (Kitto) ; "fresh and joyful,
strengthened by the dream of the past night " (Delitzsch), he sets out on his
journey, *'a great and weighty undertaking. Similarly of weighty speech :
he opened his mouth, Matt. v. 2 " (Knobel). He came into the land of the
people of the east, ih^ldindi beyond EujDhrates. The zue II i7i the field v;\].\ch.h.e
saw was not the well close to the city where his father's messenger had met
Rebekah, but probably a little more distant. A great stone zuas upon the
welVs viouth, better, the stone upon the well's mouth was great, which is
mentioned as a tribute to Jacob's strength and gallantry in rolling it away
(ver. 10). ** Cisterns arc very generally covered over with a large slab, having
a round hole in it large enough to let down the leather bucket or earthen jar.
Into this hole a heavy stone is thrust, often such as to require the united

124 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXIX. 8-1 4.

should be gathered together : water ye the sheep, and go a?id

8 feed them. And they said, "We cannot, until all the flocks be
gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's

9 mouth ; then we water the sheep.- And while he yet spake
with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she

10 kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel
the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep
of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and
rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the

11 flock of Laban his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed

1 2 Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told
Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was

13 Rebekah's son : and she ran and told her father. And it
came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his
sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and
kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told

14 Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely thou
art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the

strength of two or three shepherds to remove" (Thomson, Land and Book, p.
589). The stone is apparently not more to keep out dust and heat than to
prevent unauthorized consumption of the water. And these shepherds seem
to have had an understanding that none should help himself before the rest
vi^ere present to see that no undue advantage was taken (ver. 8). When Jacob
said, Lo, it is yet high day . . . he meant to induce the shepherds to go away,
in order that he might more privately disclose himself to Rachel. In this he
was disappointed.

And it came to pass, ivhen Jacob saw Rachel . . . and tvaiered the flock of
Laban ; because had he not interposed, she would probably have had to wait
long. Thomson saw women and girls w^aiting with their flocks, getting no
chance to water them till all the men had watered theirs and gone. (Cp.
Moses' interposition, Ex. ii. 16.) And Jacob kissed Rachel, greeting her as
a cousin; and lifted tip his voice, and wept, moved in much the same way as
Isaac's servant had been when he saw that the Lord had prospered him, chap,
xxiv. 27. In connection with this scene it is interesting to read in Lieutenant
Conder's Tent Work in Palestine, ii. 98, "Marching east, we came on flocks
of sheep, with a few goats among them, driven mostly by girls under twelve
years of age — the age no doubt of Leah [Rachel] when Jacob first came to
Haran. As is still the custom of the Bedouin, the girls over fourteen were no
doubt in Jacob's time withdrawn to the privacy of the women's apartments
in the tents, and this seems to agree with the account of Jacob's kissing his
cousins, for if they were more than children, such a salute would surely have
been quite contrary to Eastern ideas of propriety." And lie told Laban all
these things, probably all that has been narrated of his journey and dream,
and perhaps somewhat of the cause of his coming to Padan-aram, At all
events, Laban saw as he talked a growing likeness to Rebekah, looks and
tones reminding him of long past years, and he says, Surely thon art my bone
and my flesh. All doubt vanished, and he was received as a blood relation.

XXIX. 15-24-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 25

15 space of a month. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because
thou a7-t my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for

16 nought? tell me, what j//^// thy wages be 2 And Laban had
two daughters : the name of the elder was Leah, and the

1 7 name of the younger ivas Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed ;

1 8 but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured. And Jacob
loved Rachel ; and said, I will serve thee seven years for

19 Rachel thy younger daughter. And Laban said, // is better
that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another

20 man : abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for
Rachel ; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the

2 r love he had to her. And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me
my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.

22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and

23 made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening, that he
took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him ; and he

24 went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah

Jacob serves for Rachel, — 15-20. And Lahan said . . . ivhat shall tliy
ivages be? During the month he had seen enough of Jacob to convince him
he was worth attaching to his service ; and under the guise of liberality, he
makes a contract. Jacob had also made his observations during the month.
Of the character of Laban's daughters nothing is said ; but Leah was fcjider-
eyed; she had weak, dull eyes, wanted therefore the chief requisite in Eastern
beauty, and made no impression on Jacob ; hit Rachel was beautiful and well
favoured, in figure and in face equally attractive. Jacob at once said : I will
sei-ve thee seven years for Rachel. This is characteristic. He is not going to
send to his father for money to buy a wife ; nor will he grudge any labour for
Rachel. He is independent and affectionate. Besides, it is to be made plain
that it is God who enriches him (Tuch). "I once met with a young man who
had served eight years for his food only; at the expiration of that period he
obtained in marriage the daughter of his master, for v.'hom he v/ould otherwise
have had to pay seven or eight hundred piastres " (Burckhardt, quoted by
llanna). And Laban said, It is better . . . to another man; among the
Bedouins a man has a prior claim to the hand of his cousin, though not
obliged (as formerly was the case among the Caribs) to marry her (cp. Lane's
Mod, Egyp. i. 199 ; and Burckhardt's Bedouins, p. 64). And Jacob served . . .
for the love he had to her. Cp. Ferdinand in the Tempest: —

" This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead,
And makes my labours pleasures."

Leah substituted for Rachel. — 21-25. This has been called the
Hebrew Comedy of Errors. Reference might rather have been made to the
substitution of Marianna of the Moated Grange for Isabella in Measure for
Measure ; or of Helena for Diana in AlVs Well that Ends Well. The bridal
veil (cp. chap. xxiv. 65), and the darkness, and possibly the foregoing festivi-
ties, favoured the plot. 24. Lahan gave unto his daughter Leali Zilpah his

126 THE BOOK OB^ GENESIS. [XXIX. 25-30.

25 Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. And it came to pass, that
in the morning, behold, it Tirrs Leah : and he said to Laban,
What IS this thou hast done unto me ? did not I serve with
thee for Rachel ? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me ?

26 And Laban said. It must not be so done in our country, to

27 give the younger before the first-born. Fulfil her week, and
we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt

28 serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and
fulfilled her week : and he gave him Rachel his daughter to

29 wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah

30 his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto
Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and

maid for an handmaid. " Some wives have female slaves, who are their own
property, generally purchased for them, or presented to them, before marriage.
These cannot be the husband's concubines without their mistress' permission,
which is sometimes granted, but very seldom " (Lane's Af. E. i. 233). Had
not Rachel been barren, this permission would not, in Jacob's case, have been
either asked or given (cp. chap. xxx. 3). 25. And . . . in the inor7iing, behold,
ittvas Leah : the fruit of seven years' toil was an apple of Sodom, a mere outside
semblance filled with disappointment. But he cannot protest as another man
might, for in this veiled bride he sees the precise retribution of his own disguise,
when, with the hands of Esau, he went in to receive his father's blessing.

Laban's Justification and Rachel's Marriage. — 26-30. Laban's
assertion of a custom which prohibited the marriage of the younger before the
elder daughter, is borne out by the usage of the modern representatives of a
similar state of society (cp. Lane, M. £. i. 201). But this does not justify
his tricking Jacob into marrying Leah, although it might have justified him in
refusing Rachel until Leah should be married. 27. Fulfil her week, live with
her as a bridegroom for a week, the usual duration of the feast, see Judg. xiv.
12 ; and tve ivill give thee this also, that is, at the end of the week, on the
eighth day, Rachel will become your bride ; and after marrying her, and as
her price, thou shalt sej-ve luith vie yet seven other years. So that really Jacob
served fourteen years for Rachel. Jacob must that day, if not before, have
recognised where he himself got his craft from.

Remarks. — In Haran it is the fulfilment of God's promise to Jacob the
narrator wishes us to observe ; how good is brought to him out of every ill.
Even by the twofold marriage the house of Israel is built up. And through-
out Jacob himself is being trained as the athlete of faith ; not "living dully
sluggardized at home, nor wearing out his life in shapeless idleness."

1. What relatiofi %vas Laban to Jacob, and in zvhat city and country did

he live ?

2. What seems to have been Laban'' s character?

3. Why had Jacob to work in order to obtain a wife ?

4. What marriage customs cati yozt learn from this chapterl

5. Why did Jacob not more vehemently protest against the trick played

upon him ?

6. What evidence is there that God blessed this double marriage ?

XXIX. 3I-XXX. 3-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 27

31 served with him yet seven other years. And when the Lord
saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb : but Rachel

32 was barren. And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she
called his name Reuben : for she said, Surely the Lord hath
looked upon my affliction ; now therefore my husband will

33 love me. And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and
said. Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath
therefore given me this sofi also : and she called his name

34 Simeon. And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and
said. Now this time will my husband be joined unto me,
because I have born him three sons : therefore was his

35 name called Levi. And she conceived again, and bare a
son, and she said. Now will I praise the Lord : therefore she
called his name Judah : and left bearing.

Chap. xxx. i And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no
children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob,

2 Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was
kindled against Rachel : and he said, Am I in God's stead,

3 who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ? And
she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her ; and she
shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by

birth of eleven sons to JACOB (chap. XXIX. 31-XXX. 24).

Leah's first Four Sons. — 31-35. The natural result of Laban's trick
was that Leak zuas hated, or, as in ver. 30, less loved than Rachel. 71ie Lord
sazv this and opened her li'omb ; if bigamy was to be, justice must at least be
maintained (cp. Deut. xxi. 15). 32. Leah felt keenly Jacob's neglect, and
had evidently prayed to Jehovah in the bitterness of her spirit, for when she
bare a son, she called his name Reuben [See a son] : for she said, Surely the
Lord hath seen my affliction [Raa Beawnyi]. She concluded also that this
would terminate her sorrow, and that her husband would now love her. The
same strain of feeling is discernible in the names given to the other sons :
Simeon, Hearing ; Levi, Attachment (because her husband would now be
attached to her) ; and jtidah. Praise, Leah's character, as revealed in these
names, shows to advantage alongside of Rachel's as disclosed in the following
verses.

Bii.iiah's Children.— xxx. 1-8. Each wife craved for what she had not :
Leah for her husband's love, Rachel for children. Give me children, cLw I
die (cp. Prov. xxx. 15, 16). She uses the exaggerated language of Rebekali
and Esau (chap, xxvii. 46, xxv. 32). Like many other impetuous persons,
she quite mistook what would really cause her death (chap. xxxv. 18).
Jacob's anger . . . Am I in God's stead? Can I give what the Almighty
withholds ? On the giving of the maid, see chap. xvi. She shall bear n/on
my knees, that is, I will acknowledge her children as mine, that I may also
have children by her, or, be built by her; see Ruth iv. ii. Pilhah's first

128 THE BOOK OP GENESIS. [xXX. 4-16.

4 her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife : and

5 Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare

6 Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and
hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son : there-

7 fore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah, Rachel's maid,

8 conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel
said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister,
and I have prevailed : and she called his name Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah
10 her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, Leah's
T I maid, bare Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh :

1 2 and she called his name Gad. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare

13 Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the
daughters will call me blessed : and she called his name

14 Asher. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and
found mandrake: ni the field, and brought them unto his
mother Leah. 'I hen Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray

1 5 thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is if a
small matter that thou hast taken my husband ? and wouldest
thou take away my son's mandrakes also ? And Rachel said.
Therefore he shall lie v/ith thee to-night for thy son's man-

16 drakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening,
and Leah Avent out to meet him, and said, Thou must come

son is named Dan, Judge, or Vindicator, because in his birth God vindi-
cated Rachel's position as Jacob's wife. The next was called N'aphtali, My
Wrestling, because zvith great zvresUings [wrestlings of God, which may
possibly imply that she knew it was a divine blessing for which she was
wrestling] had Rachel wrestled for children with her sister.

Zilpah's Children.— 9-13. Induced by her own condition (chap. xxix.
35), and by the success which had attended Rachel's bestowal of her maid on
Jacob, Leah also gives Zilpah to Jacob. Two sons are born. The first is
named Gad, a word variously explained, but which most modern interpreters
agree in rendering Good Fortune. (See Knobel, Delitzsch, and Smith's
bid.) At his birth Leah said, A troop cometh, or rather. With fortune;
i.e. Fortunate am I. The second son was named Ashcr, Happy; Leah
saying, Happy am I, for the daughters [my female friends] zvill call me blessed,
happy.

Leah's other Children. — 14-21. Reuben went in the days of ivheat
harvest, a little boy of six years taken to the field by the men (cp. 2 Kings
iv. 18). He found mandrakes, the Hebrew word is Dudaim, which literally
means love-things, love-apples ; and is supposed here to signify the fruit of the
Mandragora (whence our barbarous word mandrakes). This plant grows
abundantly in Palestine still (see Tristram's Land of Israel, 102), having dark-
green leaves and fruit like a small apple, which ripens in May, i.e. in wheat
harvest. It was supposed to excite the passion of love, and also to promote

XXX. 17-24-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 29

in unto me ; for surely I have hired thee with my son's man-

17 drakes. And he lay with her that night. And God hearkened
unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.

1 8 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have
given my maiden to my husband : and she called his name

19 Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the

20 sixth son. And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good
dowry ; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have

2 1 born him six sons : and she called his name Zebulun. And
afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her,

23 and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son ;

24 and said, God hath taken away my reproach : and she called
his name Joseph ; and said. The Lord shall add to me

conception. In Maundrell's time (seventeenth century) the women of Pales-
tine used it confidently. [For the superabundant literature on this subject,
see Kitto's Cyclopadia, s.v. Dudaim ; and Tuch, in loc.\ Rachel, who was
superstitious enough to use Teraphim, may have believed in the efficacy of
this plant, and therefore asked Leah for some of hers. Leah gave them on the
condition mentioned, ver. 15 ; as she says, she hired her husband with them,
so that when her next son was born, she calls him Issachar, There is a hire,
or, he bringeth hire, he payeth me my hire (cp. Ps, cxxvii. 3 ; i Chron.
xxvi. 4, 5). But in ver. 18 no reference is made to the love-apples ; and the
son is considered a hire or reward for Leah's self-denial in giving her maid to
Jacob, In ver. 17, also, the renewed fertility of Leah is referred definitely,
not to love-apples, but to a supernatural source. The narrator has not been
careful to harmonize the two accounts. When Leah's sixth son was born, she
said, ver. 20, God hath endued [endowed, as in English marriage service,
** With all my worldly goods I thee endow ; " cp. Ex. xxii. 16] j}ie with a
good dozvry\ndimt\y, six sons] ; 7ioto will my husband dzoell with vie. The
Hebrew word for '* will dwell with me" is yizheleni, from which Zebulun, a
dwelling, is derived. But in the name there was also a reminiscence of the
dowry, the Hebrew for " endowed me with a dowry " being zebadani zebed,
a sound sufficiently like Zebulun to be recalled by it [L and D are inter-
changed, as in Odysseus, Ulysses]. To the whole of Leah's utterances the
remark of Lane is pertinent : " The estimation in which the wife is held by
her husband, and even by her acquaintance, depends, in a great degree, upon
her fruit fulness . . . and it is regarded as disgraceful in a man to divorce,
without some cogent reason, a wife who has borne him a child " {Mod.
Egypt, i. 68).

Rachel bears Joseph.— 22-24. In the naming of Joseph there was also
a double reference. Rachel first said, God hath taken azvay [asaph] w_y
reproach ; and then, The Lord shall add [yoseph] to me another son.

130 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXX. 25-35.

25 another son. And it came to pass, when Rachel had bom
Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I

26 may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me
my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and
let me go : for thou knowest my service which I have done

27 thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have
found favour in thine eyes, tarry : for I have learned by

28 experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And

29 he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he
said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and

30 how thy cattle was with me. For // was little which thou
hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude ;
and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming : and now

31 when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he
said. What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt
not give me anything. If thou wilt do this thing for me, I

32 will again feed and keep thy flock : I will pass through all
thy flock to-day, removing from thence all the speckled and
spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep,
and the spotted and speckled among the goats : and of such

33 shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer for me
in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before tliy
face : every one that is not speckled and spotted among the
goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted

34 stolen with me. And Laban said. Behold, I would it might

35 be according to thy word. And he removed that day the he-
goats that were ring-straked and spotted, and all the she-goats
that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some

Jacob's new arrangement with laban, his flight, and

FINAL covenant WITH HIM (CHAP. XXX. 25-XXXI. 55).

Jacob's Bargain with Laban.— 25-43. When Rachel had born Joseph,
apparently about the time when Jacob's fourteen years' service expired. • Send
7ne away. Laban's service was not attractive, and besides, Jacob cherished
the hope of establishing himself in Canaan. As soon, therefore, as oppor-
tunity was afforded him, he sought to return. But Laban had lea7'ned by
experience [lit. ascertained by divination, but probably the word had
already acquired its secondary meaning discovered, like our own word
divined\ that for Jacob's sake the Lord had blessed him. This does not make
him grateful, but only greedy. The bargain now entered into promised to be
greatly to Laban's advantage. The sheep in the East are generally white,
rarely brown ; the goats are rarely speckled, but generally black. Jacob
agreed that after the few brown sheep and speckled goats had been removed,
leaving a pure while flock of sheep and an unmixed black flock of goats, he

XXX. 36-XXXI. 2.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. I3I

white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave

36 ihem into the hand of his sons. And he set three days'
journey betwixt himself and Jacob : and Jacob fed the rest

37 of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar,
and of the hazel and chesnut tree ; and pilled white strakes
in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in
the gutters in the watering-troughs when the flocks came to
drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth

40 cattle ring-straked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did
separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks towards
the ring-straked and all the brown in the flock of Laban ;
and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not

41 unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the
stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before
the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive

42 among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put
them not in : so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger

43 Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much
cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels, and
asses.

Chap. xxxi. i And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying,

Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's ; and of that

2 which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. And

Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was

should have as his hire whatever brown lambs and speckled kids were pro-
duced. Had the goats and sheep been left to the operation of natural causes,
the probability was that kids and lambs so coloured would be extremely rare.
But Jacob adopted a device by which he largely increased the number. He
laid peeled wands before the sheep at breeding-time, and the black and white
colours of the wands in the drinking-troughs were impressed through the
ewes upon the lambs. In ver. 37, the word pilled is the old form of peeled,
as in the Meixhant of Venice, i. 3 : "The skilful shepherd pilled me certain
wands." The trees mentioned in the same verse are supposed to be the
storax, the almond, and the plane, rather than the poplar, the hazel, and the
chesmit. After the first lambing season, Jacob did separate the lambs (ver.
40), and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring- streaked, etc. ; that is, he
tried to produce by the sight of the spotted lambs the same effect on the
ewes as he had produced by the peeled wands. Besides, he pnt his owjt
flock by themselves, that there might be no infusion of pure white among the
flock.

Jacob's Flight from Laban.— XXXI. 1-21. When Jacob saw that Laban
was displeased at his prosperity, and that his sons also were combined against

132 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXI. 3-2O.

3 not toward him as before. And the Lord said unto Jacob,
Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred ; and

4 I will be with thee. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and

5 Leah to the field unto his flock, and said unto them, I see
your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before ;

6 but the God of my father hath been with me. And ye know

7 that with all my power I have served your father. And your
father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times ;

S but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, The

speckled shall be thy wages ; then all the cattle bare speckled :

and if he said thus. The ring-straked shall be thy hire ; then

9 bare all the cattle ring-straked. Thus God hath taken away

I o the cattle of your father, and given thej?i to me. And it came

to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up

mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which

leaped upon the cattle 7vere ring-straked, speckled, and

I T grizzled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream,

1 2 sayi?ig, Jacob : and I said. Here ajn I. And he said, Lift up
now thine eyes and see, all the rams which leap upon the
cattle are ring-straked, speckled, and grizzled : for I have

13 seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of
Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, a?td where thou
vowedst a vow unto me : now arise, get thee out from this

14 land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. And Rachel
and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion

15 or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not
counted of him strangers ? for he hath sold us, and hath quite

16 devoured also our money. For all the riches w^hich God hath
taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's : now

1 7 then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do. Then Jacob

1 8 rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels ; and
he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had
gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in
Padan-aram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of

1 9 Canaan. And Laban went to shear his sheep : and Rachel

20 had stolen the images that were her father's. And Jacob stole

him, and when he was persuaded that it was God's will he should return, he
divulged his purpose to his wives and found them quite of his mind. Oppor-
tunity was given for carrying out their purpose of flight by the circumstance
(ver. 19) that Laban went to shear his sheep, a three days' journey from
Jacob's flocks. And Racliel had stolen the i?}iages that tvere her father s, or,
And Eachel stole her father's Teraphim. The Teraphim were images of the
human form (see i Sam. xix. 13) which had a religious significance (Judg.

XXXI. 2I-3T.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 33

away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not

2 1 that he fled. So he fled with all that he had ; and he rose
up, and passed over the river, and set his face toivard the

22 mount Gilead. And it was told Laban on the third day that

23 Jacob was fled. And he took his brethren with him, and
pursued after him seven days' journey ; and they overtook

24 him in the mount Gilead. And God came to Laban the
Syrian in a dream by night, and said uuto him, Take heed

25 that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. Then
Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in
in the mount : and Laban with his brethren pitched in the

26 mount of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, What hast
thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and
carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword ?

27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from
me ; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away

28 with mirth, and vdth songs, with tabret, and with harp? and
hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou

29 hast now done foolishly in so doing. It is in the power of
my hand to do you hurt : but the God of your father spake
unto me yesternight, saying. Take thou heed that thou speak

30 not to Jacob either good or bad. And now, though thou
wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy

31 father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods ? And

xvii. 5). Laban calls them his "gods" (ver. 30; cp, Judg. xviii. 24). The
king of Babylon used them for purposes of divination (see Ezek. xxi. 21), and
it is possible that Laban also may have done so, and that Rachel may have
supposed that in depriving Laban of their aid she was facilitating Jacob's
escape. [The riva; ver. 21, is of course the Euphrates.]

Laban's Pursuit and Covenant with Jacob.— 22-55. // was told
Laban on the third day, in accordance with chap. xxx. 36. And he took his
brethren, i.e. his kindred, men of the same clan, with, no doubt, sufficient
retainers to make resistance on Jacob's part impossible. But the measures
intended by Laban in his anger were prevented, for God came to Laban the
Syrian in a dream by night, as He had come to Abimelech, chap. xx. 6 ;
and said, Take heed that thott speak not to Jacob either good or bad, a phrase of
Laban's own (chap. xxiv. 50), and meaning offer no opposition. Laban,
however, was resolved to make Jacob sensible of his power to offer opposi-
tion, and also to have the pleasure of posturing as a much-wronged individual.
IVhat hast thon done . . . and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee
aioay luith mirth, and luith songs, zvith tabret and with harp ? — one of the
exuberant customs of the East, but one which Laban was the last man to
have indulged in. The one charge of a palpable kind he can bring against
Jacob is : IVhereJorc hast thou stolen my gods ? In his hasty visit to his

134 THE book: of genesis. [xxxi. 32-41.

Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid : for
I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters

32 from me. With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him
not Hve : before our brethren discern thou what is thine with
me, and take tt to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel

33 had stolen them. And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and
into Leah's tent, and into the two maid-servants' tents ; but
he found thejn not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and

34 entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the
images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon
them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found t/ie?n not.

35 And she said to her father. Let it not displease my lord that
I cannot rise up before thee ; for the custom of women is

36 upon me. And he searched, but found not the images. And
Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban : and Jacob answered
and said to Laban, What is my trespass ? what is my sin, that

37 thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou hast
searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy house-
hold stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren,

38 that they may judge betwixt us both. This twenty years /lai'e
I been with thee ; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast
their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.

39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee ; I
bare the loss of it ; of my hand didst thou require it, whether

40 stolen by day, or stolen by night. TJius I was ; in the day
the drought consumed me, and the frost by night ; and my

41 sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty
years in thy house : I served thee fourteen years for thy two
daughters, and six years for thy cattle ; and thou hast changed

home he had missed these ; either they occupied a prominent place in the
house, or he had wished to consult them. Happily Jacob was unaware of
Rachel's act, and could confidently challenge search, ver. 32. The family
gift of ingenious craft did not forsake Rachel. Laban searched^ bitt found
not the images.

Ver. 36. It was now Jacob's turn for righteous indignation, and it was
worth being overtaken to 'have this opportunity of telling Laban plainly what
he thought of his treatment of him. Facit indignatio versum, and Jacob's
indignation makes him eloquent and poetical in his language. He complains
of the hardships he had suffered in his uncle's service : in the day the droiight
consiimed vie, and the frost by night ; "wet with drenching dews, or stiff with
crackling frost." [Cp. Jer. xxxvi. 30, and the celebrated descriptions of the
Libyan shepherd's summer and the Scythian shepherd's winter in the third
Georgic.'X He complains also of the dishonesty of Laban : thou hast changed
my wages ten titnes, an indefinite number of times ; as we would say, a score

XXXI. 42-49-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 135

42 my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God
of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely
thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine
affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee

43 yesternight. And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These
daughters are my daughters, and these children are my
children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou
seest is mine : and what can I do this day unto these my
daughters, or unto their children which they have born ?

44 Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and

45 thou ; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. And

46 Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob
said unto his brethren, Gather stones ; and they took stones,
and made a heap : and they did eat there upon the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha : but Jacob called it

48 Galeed. And Laban said, This heap is a witness between
me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called

49 Galeed j and Mizpah ; for he said, The Lord watch between

cf times. And after all his twenty years of service, Jacob affirms that Laban
would have sent him away empty, and that what he has is due to the pity and
kindness of the God of Abratiam and the Fear of Isaac, i.e. the object of
Isaac's reverential awe. Laban does not deny the truth of Jacob's charges.
But after all, he says, all these persons and cattle are mine. And no doubt
it was true that whatever Jacob had — and he had great wealth in all kinds of
pastoral resources — he had acquired from his connection with Laban.

Ver. 44. A'oto therefore come thou, let ns maJie a covenant, I and thoii ; a
sensible proposal, seeing there were grave faults on both sides. And Jacob
took a stone and set it iip for a pillar, as a memorial of the covenant. Kitto
quotes from Holinshed the covenant or treaty between England and Scot-
land, **that Malcolm shall enjoy that part of Northumberland that lieth
betwixt Tweed, Cumberland, and Stainmore, and do homage to the kinge of
England for the same. In the midst of Stainmore there shall be a crosse set
up, with the king of England's image on the one side, and the king of Scot-
land's on the other, to signify that one is on his march to England, and the
other to Scotland." And Jacob said (ver. 46) . . . and they did cat there npon
the heap, the eating together on the heap being the formal ratification of tlie
covenant, to which the heap would testify. And Laban called it Jegar-saha-
dutha ; but Jacob called it Galeed, each name meaning Heap of witness, or,
Witness-heap, the former being Chaldee, the latter Hebrew. The word Galeed
has the same consonants as Gilead, and differs only in the pointing. It is com-
pounded of Gal, a heap, and 'ed, a witness ; whereas Gilead means /^rt-z-^/, rocky,
a name descriptive of the trans-Jordanic region immediately south of Bashan.
[With the name Galeed inscy be compared the English Staines, so called from
tlie stones which bound the river jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor.] Vers.
48-50 are, as Delitzsch remarks, a very obvious insertion from a different
account. Here the derivation of Mizpah is also given. The heap was called
the Mizpah, the Watch-tower, for, said Laban, The Lord ivatch betiuecu me

136 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXI. 50-XXXII. I.

50 me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If
thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other
wives besides my daughters, no man is with us ; see, God is

51 witness betwixt me and thee. And Laban said to Jacob,
Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast

52 betwixt me and thee; this heap he witness, and this pillar he
witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that
thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for

53 harm. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the
God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by

54 the fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered sacrifice
upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread : and

55 they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. And
early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and
his daughters, and blessed them : and Laban departed, and
returned unto his place.

Chap, xxxii. i And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of

and thee. It has been noticed as remarkable that this play upon Hebrew
words should have been put in the mouth, not of Jacob the HelDrew, but of
Laban, whose Sj'rian speech has just before (ver, 47) been remarked upon.
The place is mentioned in Judg. x. 17, etc., and is probably identical with
Ramath-Mizpeh and the famous Ramoth-Gilead. The covenant was sealed
by an appeal to God, ver. 53 : The God of Abraham . . . judge betivixt us.
The verb is plural, implying that Laban considered these to be different gods.
Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac, by one God, Jehovah ; cp. ver. 42.
Then Jacob offered sacrifice ; satisfied with the termination of the interview,
he made acknowledgment to God and invited his brethren, probably Laban's
company, to eat bread, that is, to a feast.

1. What blame is due to Laban and what to Jacob in their conduct during

the last six yeaj-s of their connection ?

2. What induced Jacob to retui'n to Canaan ?

3. Where did Laban overtake him ? and why did he not compel him to

return ?

4. JVhat 2vas the nature of L^abans religion ?

5. Collect passages in which the use of Teraphini is condemned ; and what

reasons can you suggest for Rachel stealing those of her father ?

6. LIozu many Mizpahs are mentioned in Scripture ?

7. Was the place zuhcre Jacob 7uas overtaken no7-th or south of the Jabbok^

east or ivest of the Jordaiz ?

8. Describe the leave-taking of Laban and his daughters.

JACOB RE-ENTERS CANAAN AND IS RECONCILED TO ESAU

(chap. XXXII. i-xxxiii. 17).

Jacob's ArrangemExNTs to propitiate Esau.— 1-23. Jacob on re-
suming his march to Caanan must have felt as much need of encouragement

XXXII. 2-9 ] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 37

2 God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is
God's host : and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother,

4 unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he com-
manded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord
Esau ; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with

5 Laban, and stayed there until now : and I have oxen, and
asses, flocks, and men-servants, and women-servants : and I
have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to
thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four

7 hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and
distressed : and he divided the people that was with him,
and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands ;

8 and said. If Esau come to the one company, and smite it,

9 then the other company w^hich is left shall escape. And
Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me. Return unto
thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal w^U with

as when he had fled from it twenty yeai'S before. And encouragement of the
same kind is given to him ; the angels of God met him. This vision was
commemorated in the name of the place Mahanaim, Two hosts, or Double-
cam.p [Bicester], aUuding to the guardian host of angels and the defence-
less host in his own tents; cp. 2 Kings vi. 14-17 ; Ps. xxxiv. 7, The word
itself is alluded to in vers. 7 and 10, in the two bands into which Jacob
divided his host, see vSmith's Bible Did., s.v. Mahanaim. A celebrated town
grew up on the spot, but its exact site has not been ascertained, though it is
known to have lain on the frontier of Gad and Manasseh. Tristram (p. 483)
thinks there is roeTy probability that the name is preserved in the modern
INIahneh. Jacob sent messengers . . . to Esatt, evidently with the purpose of
sounding him and coming to an understanding. According to chap, xxxvi. 6,
Esau had not yet severed himself from his father's encampment, but here he
is spoken of as already in the land of Seir, the country of Edom ; and at the
head of 400 men. This must therefore have been a preliminary expedition
to Seir, called for by some dispute with the inhabitants of Seir, and ending
in Esau's settling in their countr3^ If so, then' Edom is an anachronism
according to chap. xxv. 30, The terms of Jacob's message were contrived so
as to let Esau see that it might be worth his while being on good terms with
a man of Jacob's wealth, and at the same time to flatter him and allay his
resentment. The ansv^^er the messengers brought was not encouraging : We
came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four Inindred
men with him, a sufficient indication, if not of a hostile purpose, at all events
of a purpose to make his own terms. Accordingly, Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed: but lost neither his presence of mind nor his trust in God. He
made a disposition of his household fitted to inspire each party with the hope
it might be the one to escape ; vers. 7, 8. And he uttered a prayer which
Luther celebrates as possessing all the characteristics of good prayer ; vers.

138 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXII. 10-20.

10 thee : I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of
all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant ; for
with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am

1 1 become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand
of my brother, from the hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest
he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy
seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for

13 multitude. And he lodged there that same night; and took
of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his

14 brother; two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats, two

15 hundred ewes, and twenty rams, thirty milch camels with
their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she-asses, and

16 ten foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his
servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his
servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove

1 7 and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When
Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying,
AVhose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are

18 these before thee? Then thou shalt say. They be thy servant
Jacob's ; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau : and, behold,

19 also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second,
and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On
this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.

20 And say ye moreover. Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind
us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that
goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; perad-

9-12. It is a simple pleading with God to fulfil the expectations roused by
His own promise and to bless the conduct enjoined by His own command. It
acknowledges God's undeserved goodness : twenty years before he had nothing
but his staff, now he has two camps. That he considered Esau's intention to
\)Q. hostile comes out as clearly in his prayer as in his arrangements : I fear
him, lest he zoill come and smite me, and the mother %vith the children, i.e.
old and young without distinction (cp. the expression "spemque gregemque
simul," which Servius explains by "agnos cum matribus," Virgil, Georg. iii.
473). It should be added that Knobel and Tuch are both of opinion that the
expression (which literally is " the mother over the children ") means that the
mother bending over her children to protect them would excite no pity, but
would be slain along ^^'ith them.

After praying for success, Jacob selects of that which came to his hand
(ver. 13), or, that which had come to his hand, of his iiossessions, a present
for Esau, comprising specimens of his various kinds of wealth. These he
arranges in separate droves so as to make the utmost impression upon Esau,
eacli of the five drovers repeating the same words, till Esau should feel as it
Jacob's possessions and gifis were endless. Cp. the use of a similar contrivance

XXXII. 2 1-26.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 39

21 venture he will accept of me. So went the present over
before him : and himself lodged that night in tlie company.

22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his
two women-servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the

23 ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the

24 brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone;
and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the

25 day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's

26 thigh was out of joint as he wresded with him. And he
said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will

in Coriolamts, ii. 3 : "We are not to stay all together, but to come by him
where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes." This present zvent over
{i.e. over the Jabbok) before him ; and as it must have occupied the best part
of tlie day getting so many animals over, he hi))iself lodged that night in the
company, i.e. in the encampment, the same word as appears in Mahanaim.
l)Ut wishing to show that he trusted Esau, and knowing too that a stream like
the Jabbok was no protection against Esau's men, or possibly only following
the common Eastern custom of travelling during the night to escape the heat,
he rose up that ni^ht . . . and sent over that he had, over the /ord y^abboh, or,
tne ford of Jabbok. The Jabbok, now called the JVady Zerka, derives its
name appai-ently from the turbulent, impetuous course by which it wins its
way through the rocky ravines W'hich form its bed. Its name is derived from
the word used in ver. 24, and translated by wr,i'j//t'^; and the roaring, dashing
stream, winning its difficult way to the Jordan, might suggest to Jacob the
difficulties he had to wrestle with in winning his way to the promised land.

Jacob wrestling at Pen iel.— 24-32. Having seen all his household
and cattle safely across, Jacob ?aas left alone. Just as he was proceeding to
follow, having seen all the camping ground cleared, and his spirits rising to
confidence as he saw all his arrangements successfully carried out, he is
j;ra]ipled by an unrecognised antagonist. But vigorous as the wrestler's grasp
is, Jacob is in no mood to be easily thrown ; and maintains the struggle, how
long it is impossible to say, but at any rate 2uitil the breaking of the day ;
" \Vile bafiied wile, and strength encountered strength, thus long, but un-
prc vailing." Jacob was not the aggressor, it was the man who wrestled with.
him. In fact it was, not as Jacob might first think, an emissaiy of Esau,
but the real Champion of the land who must first be met before Jacob found
entrance into Canaan. Ele had made his arrangements as if Esau alone had
to be propitiated : he finds there are more formidable persons than Esau
concerned in the matter; God always appears as the champion of the wronged
party. But Jacob is confident he is sufficient for all comers and wrestles on,
till at last the wrestler touched the holloiu of his thigh. By a mere touch Jacob
finds himself crippled. This suddenly discloses to him the real nature of his
antagonist. And now his whole attitude changes ; from a self-confidence which
had gjt many heavy falls during his past life, but was still vigorous and hearty,
he passed to def-endence on another. No longer wrestling, no longer Jacob
the sui:)planter, the clever tri[-)per-up in wrestling who depended on his
own skill an I toughness ; he hangs now on his antagonist and cries, I ivill not

L

140 THE EOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXII. 27-XXXIII. I.

27 not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto

28 hmi, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel : for as
a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast

29 prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray
thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it thai thou dost

30 ask after my name ? And he blessed him there. And Jacob
called the name of the place Peniel : for I have seen God

31 face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed
over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his

32 thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew
which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto
this day : because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in
the sinew that shrank.

Chap, xxxiii. i And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and,
behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And

let thee go, except tJiou bless me. From wrestling, he passes to praying, and so
liis self-confidence and his name Jacob pass away together. He is now Israel,
a prince of God, for as a prince hast thou poiver with God and luith vicn, and
hast prevailed. This change of name was already an answer given to Jacob's
entreaty for a blessing (cp. ver. 29). By this authoritative utterance, as well
as by his own quick defeat, Jacob is aroused to the consciousness that it is an
angel or God with whom he has been wrestling, and says, Tell me, I pray
thee, thy name, a question not of mere curiosity, but springing from the desire
to know certainly who it is who authoritatively changes his name. As
Manoah's similar request is refused (Judg. xiii. 18), so here the reply is,
Wherefore is it that thon dost ask after my name ? The name, the individual
personality of this manifestation of God, is of no consequence ; already Jacob
felt it was with Divine power he had to do, as he shows by calling the name of
the place Peniel {ox Pemiel, ver. 31), that is. Face oi CtoA, /or I have seeit God
face to face, and my life is presej'ved ; cp. Hagar's experience, chap, xvi. 13.
" The whole O. T. revelation moves in the paradox that God is invisible and
inaccessible to man, and yet approaches man in unmistakeable self-mani-
festation " (Robertson Smith). The conflict was commemorated not only in
the name given to the place, but in a lameness discernible to his waiting house-
hold as he walked over the rising ground with the sun rising behind him
(ver. 31), as well as in a Jewish custom dating from that night. He halted
upon his thigh, but possibly the lameness was not permanent, though such a
reminder of his broken self-confidence would not have been superfluous in a
character like Jacob's. The sinew zvhich sh-ank is properly the sciatic nerve.
The Jews eat not of it, nor of the blood-vessels and fat about it, so that the
preparation of a hind-quarter for food needs a practised hand (see Delitzsch).

The Meeting with Esau. — XXXIII. 1-17. And Jacob lifted np his eyes
and looked. When Jacob first heard of the approach of Esau and his men, he
"was greatly afraid; " there is now no word of fear, because, meanwhile, he
has wrestled with God " and prevailed." Still he had much to do ; he divided

XXXIII. 2-1 I. I HISTORY OK ISAAC AND HIS DESCF.NDANTS. 141

lie divided the cliildrcn unto I.eah, and unto Ra(Micl, and

2 unto the two handmaids. And he put the liandniaids and
their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and

3 Rachel and J().sei)h hindermost. And he passed over before
them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he

4 came near to his brother. And l<^sau ran to meet him, and
embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him : and

5 they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women
and the children ; and said, Who arc those with thee? And
he said, 'The children which (lod hath j^raciously given thy

6 servant. Then the liandmaidens came near, they and their

7 children, and they bowed themselves; and I.eah also with
her children came near, and bowed themselves : and after
came Josei)h near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

8 And he said, AVhat inawcst thou by all this drove which I
met ? And he said. These are to find grace in the sight of

9 my lord. And li^sau said, I have enough, my brother ; keep

10 that thou hast unto thyself And Jacob said, Nay, I pray
thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my
l)resent at my hand ; for therefore I have seen thy A\ce, as
though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased

1 1 with mc. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to
thee ; because God hath dealt graciously with nie, and
because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took //.

the children . . . and Rachel and Joseph hindermost {c\i. xxxii. 7,8). In all
processions tliat which is most impicssivc is heralded .nnd ushcrcil in by llinL
which is of less conse([uence. I Ic liiniself went iirsl and hoiced himself to the
i^routid seven times, an ol)vious and instinctive expression of acknowledf^cd
inferiority (cp, Herod, i. 134; in Jmuc^h ylra /nan Nights , fntrod., note 14, the
various forms of jirostration arc cx|ilaincd). 'I'liis was not feigned and crafty
.submission to cajole I'^sau, but was minified with some sincere acknowledg-
ment of I'lsau's right to call him to account for his old frnu !. Atid JCsau ran
. . . and hissed him. ** When particular friends salute each other . . .
if after a long absence, they embrace each other ; each falling ujion the otlier's
neck, and kissing him on the right side of the face or neck, and then on the
left" (Lane, Mod. J\i^r/>. i. 252). Up through all estrangement and sinister
thoughts of one another springs the strong feeling of brotherhood. In this
close embrace all wrongs and resentments are forgotten. Jacob i)resses his
present, or as he calls it (ver. 11), his blessing, on ICsau's acce|)tancc, becauic
the acceptance of a gift is in the East ratification of a friendship ; and he
uses language (ver. 10) of extreme adulation : for therefore have I seen thy face,
as thon/h J had seen the face of Cod ; he means that he hail come into Esau's
presence knowing that his fate hung upon Esau's acceptance or rejection of
him ; and his relief on finding Esau gracious is so great that he woukl fain
bestow this handsome acknowledgment of his brother's favour. And he uri;cd
him, and he took it : to have declined it when so urged would have been

142 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXIII. 1 2-1 7.

12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I

13 will go before thee. And he said unto him, My lord knoweth
that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with
young are with me ; and if men should overdrive them one

14 day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass
over before his servant ; and I will lead on softly, according
as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to

15 endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. And Esau
said. Let me now leave with thee soine of the folk that are
with me. And he said. What needeth it? let me find grace

16 in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his

17 way unto Seir. And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built
him an house, and made booths for his cattle : therefore the

ungracious. The acceptance of favours is a great test of delicacy of feeling.
Esau's offer of protection (ver. 12), I will go before thee, is kindly, somewhat
patronizing, and altogether stupid. ITe sees as little now as when he sold his
Vjirthright how widely the spiritual and carnal diverge. " If a man enters on
s )me duty from a mere impulse of his higher mind, while he is in habitual
subjection to the lower, the impulse will pass away, while the habit stands
fast, and the man will find that he has introduced a discord into his life, or
rather that he has composed it in the wrong key '' (Sir Henry Taylor's Notes
from Life), Jacob declines the offer (ver. 13), not because he distrusts Esau,
Imt because being Israel, a prince of God, he does not need to hold his own
by the help of mercenaries or allies ; and also because he feels how incom-
]utible his own tastes are with those of Esau. Very soon would Esau's band
have wearied. It was not a sudden gust of affection that could change 400
brigands into shepherds. 1 7i.nll lead on softly, sviji Jacob, for the flocks and
herds with youJig are with me. " This, by the way, proves that Jacob's flight
was late in the autumn, when alone the flocks are in this condition. The
same is implied in his immediately building booths for their protection during
the winter" (Thomson, Land and Book, 205). So softly did Jacob go that
he never fulfilled his promise to come tinto my lord, unto Seir. The armed
escort which Esau finally offers (ver. 15) Jacob feels to be unnecessary because
he believes he is guarded by the host of God (chap, xxxii. 2) ; (Baumgarten).
This may be looked upon as one of the earliest proposals to establish the
Church by the eclat and force of civil power. Meanwhile Jacob jonrneyed to
Succoth, i.e. Booths, wattled enclosures, sheds. The building an house for
hi -iself as well as sheds for his cattle indicates a desire to abandon a wan-
dering life and settle in the land (cp. ver. 19). The site of Succoth can
scarcely be said to have been indisputably identified, but it probably lay,
where Burckhardt found " the ruins of Sukkot," slightly east of Jordan and
SDuth of the Jabbok. [English Booth is Scotcli Bothie ; and the same word, in
the form by forms the termination of a vast number of towns which have
grown up on the sites of farm-steadings. The common tei-mination ton,
Scotch toun, a farm-stead, has a similar history.]

Remarks. — In the narrative of Jacob's wrestling the writer gives us four
origins— (i) of the name Israel ; (2) of the name Peniel ; (3) of Jacob's lame-

XXXIII. I 8- XXXIV. I.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 1 43

iS name of the place is called Succotli. And Jacob came to
Shalcm a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan,
when he came from Padan-aram ; and pitched his tent before

19 the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had
spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor,

20 Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. And he
erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.

Chap, xxxiv. i And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she
bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

ness ; (4) of tiie Jewish custom of not eating the sciatic nerve. The teacher
of an advanced class will be required to show the difference between these
origins and merely mythical explanations of names. The name Ahenobarbus,
i.e. Brazen or Red-beard, e.g., and the peculiarity itself were accounted for by
the fiction that to an ancestor of the family the Dioscuri had announced the
victory of the Lake Regillus, and to assure him of the truth of the announce-
ment, stroked his black beard, which at once became red.

1. In ivhat state of mind ivas Jacob lohen left alone on the north bank of

thejabbokl

2. Explaifi tJie significance of the wrestling.

3. In what respect ivas it the crisis in Jacob's life ?

4. Can yon trace in his subseqtient history any results of this night's

experience ?

5. Why did Jacob retain his old name ?

0. Confirm from other notices of Succoth the accotmt above given of its site.
Mention another Succoth spoken of in 0. T. Give some other
plural names of places. \_At/iens, Colosscc, Shields.'\

JACOB AT SHECHEM : DINAH's DEFILEMENT, AND HER BROTHERS'
REVENGE (chap. XXXIII. 18-XXXIV. 31).

18. Jacob came to Shalcm, a city of Shechem, but many prefer to render the
words, Jacob came in health [in safety] to a city, Shechem ; though there
is in the neighbourhood of Shechem a village still called Salim. Shechem
seems to have been called after Hamor's son. Cp. note on chap. xii. 6.
Conder {Tent Work in Palestine, i. 33) says : " Its central situation, its
accessibility, its wonderfully fine water-supply, are advantages not enjoyed
by any other city in the land." When he came from Padan-aram, an
expression which was useful when this section stood by itself as a separate
story. He bought a parcel of a field, i.e. a part or piece \fartictila, parcel, is
still used as a law term ; and cp. 3 Ilcnry VI., v. 6]. This was "the
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, "and in which Jacob's
well was (John iv. 5, 6). lie paid for it an hundred pieces of money, lit. an
hundred lambs, or pieces of money made in the form of a lamb, or stamped
^\•ilh the figure of a lamb. And he erected there an altar, which, as well as
his purchase of land, showed his intention to settle there ; and called it
El -doJic- Israel, God is the God of Israel,

XXXIV. 1, And Dinah . . . went out ; Dinah would appear to have been

144 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXIV. 2-1 8.

2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of
the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and

3 defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of
Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the

4 damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying,

5 Get me this damsel to wife. And Jacob heard that he had
defiled Dinah his daughter : now his sons were with his cattle
in the field : and Jacob held his peace until they were come.

6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to

7 commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the
field when they heard it : and the men were grieved, and they
were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, in
lying with Jacob's daughter ; which thing ought not to be

8 done. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul
of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter : I pray you

9 give her him to wife. And make ye marriages with us, and
give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto

10 you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be
before you ; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you posses-

1 1 sions therein. And Shechem said unto her father and unto
her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye

12 shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry
and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me :

13 but give me the damsel to wife. And the sons of Jacob
ansv/ered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said,

14 because he had defiled Dinah their sister : and they said unto
them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that

15 is uncircumcised ; for that ivere a reproach unto us: but in
this will we consent unto you : If ye will be as we he, that

16 every male of you be circumcised; then will we give our
daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us,
and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

17 But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then

18 will we take our daughter, and we will be gone. And their

born before Joseph (cp. chap. xxx. 21), and therefore at least six or seven
years before Jacob left Padan-aram. It seems probable that Jacob spent
some years at Succoth and Shechem, so that Dinah would be from twelve
to fifteen years old at this time, and her brothers Simeon and Levi about ten
years older. The story is told not merely for the sake of explaining Jacob's
sudden abandonment of Shechem, but also to illustrate the relations
which the family of Israel meant to sustain towards the uncircumcised.
The condition laid down by the sons of Jacob (vers. 15-17), which must be
observed by those who wished to ally themselves to Israel, was the same as

XXXIV. 19-30-] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. I45

19 words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the
young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had
dehght in Jacob's daughter : and he was more honourable

20 than all the house of his father. And Hamor and Shechem
his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed

2 1 witli the men of their city, saying, These men are peaceable
with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade
therein ; for the land, behold, it is large enough for them ;
let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give

22 them our daughters. Only herein will the men consent unto
us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male

23 among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall
not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs
be ours ? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell

24 with us. And unto Hamor, and unto Shechem his son,
hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city ; and
every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of

25 his city. And it came to pass on the third day, when they
were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi,
Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon

26 the city boldly, and slew all the males. And they slew
Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword,

2 7 and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. The
sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city,

28 because they had defiled their sister. They took their sheep,
and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the

29 city, and that which was in the field; and all their wealth,
and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive,

30 and spoiled even all that was in the house. And Jacob said
to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to
stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaan-
ites and the Perizzites : and I heiiig few in number, they shall
gather themselves together against me, and slay me ; and I

that which was observed throughout the subsequent history. But these same
sons of Jacob, who now professed to be so scrupulous, did themselves take
wives from among the Canaanites, and the story makes it plain that their
principal object at this time in enforcing circumcision was to accomplish
their revenge with ease to themselves and humiliation to the Hivites. It
was the part of the brothers, and especially of those who had the same
mother as Leah, to see that she was righted so far as was now possible. But
Jacob justly denounced their deed, and remembered it against them on his
death-bed (cp. chap. xlix. 5-7). As Coleridge remarks in his Table-talk^
"Jacob is alv\'ays careful not to commit any violence : he shudders at blood-

14^ THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXIV. 3I-XXXV. 5.

31 shall be destroyed, I and my house. And they said, Should
he deal with our sister as with an harlot ?

Chap. xxxv. i And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el,
and dwell there : and make there an altar unto God, that
appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau

2 thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to
all that luere with him, Put away the strange gods that are

3 among you, and be clean, and change your garments : and
let us arise, and go up to Beth-el ; and I will make there an
altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress,

4 and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave
unto Jacob all the strange gods which 7vere in their hand,
and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob

5 hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they
journeyed : and the terror of God was upon the cities that

shed." This incident is the parallel in the third generation to the danger
run by Sarah in Egypt and Rebekah in Gerar.

Jacob's return to bethel, death of deborah and rachel,

COMPLETION OF THE NUMBER OF JACOB's SONS, DEATH AND
BURIAL OF ISAAC (CHAP. XXXV.).

Jacob's Return to Bethel. — 1-7. It was impossible for him to remain
in Shechem, though he liad bought land there— the first intimation that the
seed might prove more difficult to manage than the la}id to acquire. But
where was he to go? God said vnto Jacob, Arise, go up io Bethel ; up,
because it was in the hill country ; and make there an altar . . . Esau, thy
brother. One would have expected Jacob to make for Bethel as soon as he
could. Had he forgotten his vows ? Had the pastures of Shechem which
attracted his grandfather allured him, until nothing but so painful a family
disaster (chap, xxxiv.) could arouse him ? Yet there was promise as well as
rebuke in the command, for the God who had rescued him from Esau could
also rescue him from the Shechemites. Jacob felt that the call was to a closer
walk with God, so he gave the order (ver. 2), Ptit away the strange gods (Isa.
xxvi. 13), the Teraphim Rachel had stolen, and so forth. Jacob could not
connive at idolatry in the presence of the God of Bethel. Jacob's servants,
being born in Padan-aram, would be idolaters. Be clean, and change yonr
garments, as the seemly outward symbol of inward purity (cp. Ex. xix. 10,
Lev. viii. 6, etc.). Jacob describes God in terms of the promise (chap, xxviii.
15). His people gave up their gods and their earrings, the amulets or
charms for protection against evil spirits and disease, worn about the pcr?on,
and often as earrings. These he hid under the oak which 7C'as by Shechem
(see Gen. xii. 6 ; Josh. xxiv. 26). The site of this oak is discussed in Condcr's
Tc7it JVork, i. 69, 70, and is probably commemorated in ti e vilLige Balalay
close to Jacob's well, Balliit meaning " an oak." The terror of God, a super-
natural dread or unaccountable awe, fell on the neighbouring people, and

XXXV. 6-1 6.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. I47

were round about them, and they did not pursue after the

6 sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land
of Canaan, that />, Beth-el, he and all the peojDle that were

7 with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place
El-beth-el ; because there God appeared unto him, when he

S fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebekah's
nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an

9 oak : and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth. And
God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-

10 aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name
is Jacob : thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but
Israel shall be thy name : and he called his name Israel.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful
and multiply ; a nation, and a company of nations, shall be

12 of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land
which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and

13 to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went

14 up from him in the place where he talked with him. And
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him,
even a pillar of stone : and he poured a drink-offering

15 thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the

16 name of the place where God spake with him, Betli-el. And

kept them from pursuing Jacob. All the people (ver. 6) joined in the
consecration of Israel to the God of Bethel, El-bethcL

Death of Deborah. — 8. How did Deborah happen to be in Jacob's
camp ? She was evidently much loved, for the oak under which she was
buried was called The oak of weeping. She was probably the one person in
Jacob's camp who still called him by the name of his childhood, who could
tell him stories of his mother's youth and of his father's early days, and in
whom he would thus find relief from the obsequious deference of a camp to
its Sheykh. [Cp. Charles Lamb"s A Death-bed: " To the last he called me
Jemmy ; I have none to call me Jemmy now."]

Jacob at Bethel. — 9-15. God appeared tinfo Jacob a^ain, the first
appearance probably being that which had been granted at Bethel when he
fled from Esau. And God said (ver. 10), Thy name is Jacob (cp. xxxii. 27, 28) ;
a J Jacob renews his allegiance, God renews and enlarges His promise. And
God said (ver. ii), / am God Almighty, in the Hebrew El-Shaddai (cp.
xvii. i). God's revelations advance as man's need calls for them. No name
of Gocl had been given to Jacob at Jabbok (cp. xxxii. 29). To commemorate
this meeting with God, Jacob set tip a pillar 0/ stone, and he poured a drink-
pfferi>ig thereon, probably of wine ; this is the first mention of drink-offerings,
it is to be observed that in several particulars this section repeats what has
before been related. The origin of the names Israel and Ijcthel has alrealy
been explained ; and the setting up of the stone also resembles the previous
erection of the pillow-stone (chap, xxviii. 18) ; and this repetition is given

148 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXV. 1 7-25.

they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way
to come to Ephrath : and Rachel travailed, and she had

17 hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard
labour, that the midwife said unto her. Fear not ; thou shalt

18 have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in
departing, for she died, that she called his name Ben-oni :

19 but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and
was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.

20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave : that is the pillar of

21 Rachel's grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed, and

22 spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. And it came to
pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and
lay with Bilhah his father's concubine : and Israel heard //.

23 Now the sons of Jacob were twelve : the sons of Leah ;
Reuben, Jacob's first-born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah,

24 and Issachar, and Zebulun : the sons of Rachel ; Joseph and

25 Benjamin : and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan

without any reference to the previous introduction of similar matter. The
mere re-erection of the stone after a lapse of twenty-five years need astonish
no one.

Rachel's Death and Burial.— 16-20. There was hit a little way to
come to Ephrath. The word translated " a little " denotes apparently a fixed
measure of length, but of what extent is unknown, Ephrath: "in Genesis,
and perhaps in Chronicles, it is called Ephrath or Ephrata ; in Ruth,
Bethlehem- Jtidah, but the inhabitants Ephrathites ; in Micah, Beihlehcm-
Ephratah ; in Matthew, Bethlehem in the land of Jiidah " (Smith's Diet.).
Ephrath mQdJ\?> frnit ; and Lehem means bread, both names being derived
from the fertility of the district. In Rachel's travail, the midwife said, Bear
not ; thou shalt have this son also, or, Cheer up, this also is a son to you.
But Rachel called him Ben-oni, Son of my anguish ; but his father called
him Benjamin, Son of the right hand, of good omen, of happiness. And
Rachel 7uas buried in the way to Ephrath ; a tomb of Saracenic construction
now stands on the spot, about a mile north of Bethlehem. (Full accounts
will be found in Thomson's Land and Book, p. 644 ; and in Robinson's
Researches, i. 218, 469, iii. 273. But according to I Sam. x. 2, Rachel's
sepulchre was to the north of Jerusalem. The reference in Jer. xxxi. 15
seems also to point in the same direction. The prisoners taken in Jerusalem
would naturally be led out northwards, en ro2ite for Babylon. — Some think
that the Benjamites may have removed their mother's bones from the spot
near Bethlehem to a tomb farther north within their own territory. )

COMrLETION OF THE NUMBER OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. — 21-23.

Jacob journeyed . . . beyond the totver of Edar, i.e. tower of the flock, as
Jerusalem is called in Micah iv. 8. These towers seem to have been built for
the protection of exposed pastures (cp. 2 Chron. xxvi. lo). Here Jacob
probably dwelt for a time, and as this was in a sense the terminus of his
return, a register of the children he brought back with him from Padau-aram

XXXV. 26-2g.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 149

26 and Naphtali : and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid;
Gad and Asher : these are the sons of Jacob, which were

27 born to him in Padan-aram. And Jacob came unto Isaac
his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is

28 Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the

29 days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And
Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto
his people, being old and full of days : and his sons Esau and
Jacob buried him.

is given. ** In spite of all the disturbances in Jacob's family, the full number
of his sons is completed before Isaac's death. Twelve is 3 X 4, and as 3
is the number of God and 4 the number of the world, or that which is distinct
from God, the number 12 is the number of that community with which God
has united Himself, i.e. the House of Israel, which at Bethel dwells in God's
house, in whose midst God will dwell " (Baumgarten).

Isaac's Death. — 27-29. Jacob came tmto Isaac his father^ and took his
place as heir. Isaac's death is here related by anticipation, and to clear the
lield for the history of Jacob's sons. In point of fact, his death did not
occur till Joseph had been twelve years or so in Egypt. For Jacob, born in
Isaac's 60th year, was 120 when his father died. Joseph at the same date
must have been 29, as he was born in Jacob's 91st year.

Subjects for the Teacher. — ^Jesus the Benoni and Benjamin of the
weeping mothers in Bethlehem — Parted brothers meeting at a father's grave —
Mellowing effect of sorrow upon Jacob's character ; he who gets least of his
own way has often most of God's blessing.

1. I low far was Jacob culpable for not sooner returning to Bethel ?

2. Hoio does God speak to men, and hoiv do they knoiv tJiat the revelation

is from God ? " Thej'e %vas a divine pozuer and efficacy attending all
divine revelations, ascertainijig and infallibly assuring the viiiids of
men of their being from God ;" tluy carried with thejn their oivn
evidence {Ozuen's Reason of Faith, p. 8).

3. Shotu some of the consequences resulting from the fact that Jacob'' s sons

zuere twelve in mimber. Why did the number of his sons rule the
after-history ?

4. Analyze the composition of this chapter, showing to what extent its

composer has 2ised his material as he found it.

5. Explain the allusions in these lines of Milton :

" Tliat fair Syrian shepherdess,
Who after years of barrenness
The highly-favour'd Joseph bore
To him that serv'd for her before ;
And at her next birth, much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity."

And what does he mean when in the same epitaph he says : " Atropos
for Lucina came " ?

150 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXVI. I-IO.

Chap, xxxvi. i Now these are the generations of Esau, who is

2 Edom. Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan ;
Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Ahohbamah the

3 daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite ; and

4 Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth. And

5 Adah bare to Esau EHphaz ; and Bashemath bare Reuel ; and
Ahohbamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah : these a)e
the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of

6 Canaan. And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his
daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle,
and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in
the land of Canaan ; and went into the country from the

7 face of his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than
that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they
were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.

8, 9 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir : Esau is Edom. And these

are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in

10 mount Seir: these are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz

ESAU's DESCENDANTS (CHAP. XXXVI. -XXXVI 1. l).

In accordance with his uniform plan, the historian, before proceeding to
trace the career of the heir of promise, disposes of cognate and related pardes.
Before carrying on the history of Jacob's line, Esau's descendants are briefly
given.

Esau's Wives and Country.— 1-8. In chap. xxvi. 34 the wives of Esau
are also named, but differently. There he is said to have married Judith and
Bashemath, here the names are given as Adah, Ahohbamah, and Bashemath.
The parents of his wives are also differently named. In chap. xxvi. Bash-
emath is called the daughter of Elon ; in this chapter she is called the
daughter of Ishmael, and the name of Elon's daughter is given as Adah.
How these discrepancies originated it is impossible to say. Hivite, ver. 2, is
probably a mistake of the transcriber for Horite, cp. vers. 20, 24. Five sons
were born to him while in Canaan, ver. 5. With these he migiated to Seir,
when his own flocks and those of his brother were too large for the same
district to support (ver. 7). Thus Esau diveli in Mount Seir, sometimes
c:i\\e.d the land of Seir. ^'t'/r means rugged, and is applied as a local name
to the district east of the Arabah, from the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf.
"The view from Aaron's tomb, on Ilor, in the centre of Mount Seir, is
enough to show the appropriateness of the appellation. The sharp and
serrated ridges, the jagged rocks and cliffs, the straggling bushes and stunted
trees, give the whole scene a sternness and ruggedness almost unparalleled."
(Smith's Diet., s.v.) [Ver. 8 seems to find its natural continuation in chap,
xxxvii. I ; so that probably the intervening verses were inserted from other
sources.]

Esau's Descendants. — 9-19. By Adah, his Ililtile wife, Esau became
the father of Eliphaz (cp. Job ii. 2), from whom sprang (ver. ii) Teinan, who

XXXVI, 1 1 -1 8.] HISTORY OF ISAAC AND IIIS DESCENDANTS. 15!

tlic son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashc-

1 1 math the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were

1 2 Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. And Timna
was concubine to EHphaz, Esau's son ; and she bare to
Eliphaz Amalek : these 7uef'e the sons of Adali, Esau's wife.

13 And these c?-e the sons of Reuel: Nahath, and Zerah,
Shammah, and Mizzah : these were the sons of Bashemath,

14 Esau's wife. And these were the sons of Aholibamah the
daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and

15 slie bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. These 7c>ere
dukes of the sons of Esau : the sons of Eliphaz the first-born
soH of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke

16 Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these
a?'e the dukes M^/ ^a?ne of Eliphaz in the land of Edom ;

1 7 these 7C'ere the sons of Adah. And these a^-e the sons of
Reuel, Esau's son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah,
duke Mizzah : these are the dukes //z^/ <ra;/ie of Reuel in the
land of Edom ; these are the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.

iS And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife; duke
Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah : these 7c>ere the dukes t/ia^
came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.

p;ave his name to a district of Edom frequently mentioned by the prophets.
It seems to have lain towards the south of the Edomite territory, and
f pparently, from its reputation for wisdom (Jer. xlix. 7 ; Obad. 8, 9 ; Job
ii. II), occupied a leading position in Edom. Kenaz, a tribe of this name
inhabited Canar.n (chap. xv. 19) ; Caleb is spoken of as a Kenezite (Num.
xxxii. 12), and his younger brother Othniel is called (Judg. i. 13) "the son
of Kenaz ; " which may but need not necessarily imply that there was some
relationship between the Edomite and the Israelite families. The other three
sons of Eliphaz, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, have left no trace. But by his
concubine Timna he became the father of Amalek. This great tribe is
mentioned as already existing in Abraham's time (chap. xiv. 7), and is spoken
of by Balaam (Num. xxiv. 20) as "the iirst of the nations," though possibly
this may allude to power rather than antiquity ; from which it is commonly
inferred that some mingling of Edom with Amalek had taken place shortly
after Esau's time. Of the so7is of Reuel, nothing beyond their names (ver. 13)
is known. The same is true of the sons of Aholibamah (ver. 14). These
loere dukes of the sons of Esau: duke {(\\x\, leader; in Hebrew AllupJi) was
not an awkward rendering when the A. V. was made, for at that time there
happened to be no dukes in England ; and prior to that time none but men
(if royal blood had been dukes. The word means tribal head, or Slieykh.
'J he sons already mentioned are named as dukes, with the addition (ver. 16)
of a duke Korah, a name which occurs again, ver. 18, among the sons of
Aholibamah. It will also be observed that while the two first-mentioned
groups of dukes are Esau's grandsons, the third are his sons (ver. 18). The
\\ ives are named and kept prominently before the reader throughout, that he

152 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXVI, 1 9-3 4.

19 These are the sons of Esau, who is Edoni, and these are

20 then- dukes. These ai'e the sons of Seir the Horite, who
inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and

2 1 Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan : these are the
dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of

22 Edom. And the children of Lotan were Hori and Heman;

23 and Lotan's sister ivas Timna. And the children of Shobal
ivere these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and

24 Onam. And these are the children of Zibeon ; both Ajah,
and Anah : this was that Anah that found the mules in the

25 wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And the
children of Anah were these ; Dishon, and Aholibamah the

26 daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Dishon;

27 Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. The children

28 of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. The

29 children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. These are the
dukes that came of the Horites ; duke Lotan, duke Shobal,

30 duke Zibeon, duke Anah, duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke
Dishan : these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their

31 dukes in the land of Seir. And these are the kings that
reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king

32 over the children of Israel. And Bela the son of Beor
reigned in Edom : and the name of the city 7vas Dinhabah.

33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned

34 in his stead. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of

may keep distinct in his mind the three elements in the Edomite race-—
Canaanite, Horite, and Ishmaelite.

The Horites.— 20-30. These are the sons . . . -rz'ho inhabited the land,
i.e. the aboriginal tribes who inhabited Seir (chap, xiv. 6) prior to tlie
immigration of Esau's sons. They are ti^aced back to Seir, the Horite (or
Troglodyte, from Hor, a hole or cave), so called from the caves or holes in
the sandstone cliffs wliich they inhabited, and which are still to be seen in
great numbers in Edom. Of Seir seven sons and one daughter are mentioned.
These seven become in the next generation nineteen. To the name of one
of these, Anah, a note of identification is appended (ver. 24), which should
be rendered : this was that A7iah that discovered the hot springs in the
wildcj'ness, etc. Of such springs there are known instances in the district.
In ver. 25 AhoUhainah is mentioned as daughter of Anah, but according to
ver. 2 the wife of Esau of this name was the daughter of the Anah mentioned
in ver. 24, the son of Zibeon.

The Kings of Edom.— 31-39. These are the kings . . . before there
reigned any king over the children of Israel — a note of time which betrays a
date subsequent to the introduction of monarchy in Israel. The immediate
object of the comparison with Israel is evidently to bring out Esau's priority

XXXVI. 35-XXXVII. 2.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 153

35 Temani rc'gned in his stead. And Husham died, and Hadad
the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab,
reigned in his stead : and the name of his city was Avith.

36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his

37 stead. And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river

38 reigned in his stead. And Saul died, and Baal-hanan the son

39 of Achbor reigned in his stead. And Baal-hanan the son of
Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead : and the name
of his city 7iias Pau ; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the

40 daughter of Hatred, the daughter of Mezahab. And these
are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to
their families, after their places, by their names ; duke

41 Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, duke Aholibamah, duke

42 Elah, duke Pinon, duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar,

43 duke Magdiel, duke Irani : these be the dukes of Edom,
according to their habitations in the land of their possession :
he is Esau the father of the Edomites.

Chap, xxxvii. i And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father
2 was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the gene-
rations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren ; and the lad was with the
sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's

in obtaining high political importance ; though what the ulterior object was,
may be c^oubtful. Eight kings are mentioned, frequently with the addition
of the name of the city which was the seat of government. It has been
observed that the monarchy was evidently elective, not hereditary.

Dukes of Edom. — 40-43. Acco7'ding to their families, after their places^
by their names, that is to say, the hereditary tribal heads who ruled over the
inhabitants of well-defined districts.

1. Define the geographical boundaries of Edom.

2. Briefly sketch tlie history of the Edoinites.

3. What propJiecies allude to Edom ?

4. Give the meaning of the ivordsY.(}iOm, Seir, Horlte.

HISTORY OF JOSEPH : HIS DREAMS AND HIS TREATMENT BY HIS
BROTHERS (CHAP. XXXVII.).

Causes of the Envy of Joseph's Brethren. — 1-11. The first cause of
the hatred Joseph's brothers conceived for him lay in his superior moral
sensitiveness. When Joseph was seventeen years old he was feeding [or, used
to feed] the flock with his brethren [not, therefore, exempted by his loving
father from sharing with his brothers the same hard life and exposure of
which he himself had borne the brant, chap. xxxi. 40], and the lad was with
[or, while yet a lad in comparison of, or, while yet a lad he was with]
the sons of Bilhah andzvith the sons of Zilpah, his father s xvives [the sons of

154 THE EOOK OF GENESIS. [xXXVII. 3-IO.

wives : and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because
he was the son of his old age : and he made him a coat of

4 jna?iy colours. And when his brethren saw that their father
loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and

5 could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed
a dream, and he told // his brethren : and they hated him yet

6 the more. And he said unto them. Hear, I pray you, this

7 dream which I have dreamed : for, behold, we were binding
sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood
upright ; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and

o made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us ? or shalt thou indeed have
dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his

9 dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another
dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have
dreamed a dream more ; and, behold, the sun, and the moon,
10 and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told //
to his father, and to his brethren : and his father rebuked
him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast
dreamed ? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed

the slave-wives, wlio would naturally be jealous of Rachel's son] ; oul Josef h
brought 7into his Jafhcr their evil report, an evil report concerning them.
Hut this does not necessarily involve Joseph in the guilt of talc-bearing. No
man ever gave more adequate proof that he knew how to hold his tongue.
Lut the unspecified iniquity of these men may have been of a kind requiring
him to speak. And who can tell the torture his pure young soul may have
endured in these remote pastures ? The second cause of envy was that
(ver. 3) Israel loved Joseph [not Benjamin the youngest son] iiioi-e than all his
children, and showed it by making him a coat of niany colours, lit. a coat of
G-itremities, i.e. a coat reaching to the hands and feet (cp. 2 Sam. xiii. 18).
Corselets embroidered with figures of animals were immensely esteemed in
aacient times, cp. Ilerod. ii. 182, iii. 47 ; and how Syloson bought Samos
f r a scarlet cloak, Herod, iii. 139. From these gaily-coloured robes the
i lea of a coat of viany colours arose. The third cause of envy was that Joseph
dreamed and told his brothers how he saw their sheaves making obeisance to
his sheaf, and their stars making obeisance to him. These dreams derived
not only their imagery but their substance from his waking thoughts. Dreams
become significant when they embody in a picturesque form the concen-
trated essence of the general tenor of our thoughts or tendency of our
character. And it was l)ecause the brothers felt that these dreams did so,
and were no mere fanciful whimsicalities, that they hated him yet the viore for
his dreams. The fact that neither the princely dress nor the confident
dreams excited their ridicule, but that both excited theii' hate, shows that they
saw the appropriateness of the dress and already felt in Joseph a superiority
whic'.i lent significance to the dreams. [Note that according to chap. xxxv. 19

XXXVII. 11-22.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 155

1 1 come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth ? And his
brethren envied him ; but his father observed the saying.

1 2 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the
flock in Shechem ? come, and I will send thee unto them.

14 And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I
pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well
witli the flocks ; and bring me word again. So he sent him

15 out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And
a certain man found him, and, behold, he 7uas wandering in
the field : and the man asked him, saying. What seekest thou ?

16 And he said, I seek my brethren : tell me, I pray thee, where

17 they feed their flocks. And the man said. They are departed
hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And
Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near

19 unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And
ihey said one to another. Behold, this dreamer cometh.

2 3 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into
some pit ; and we will say. Some evil beast hath devoured

2 1 him : and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And
Reuben heard //, and he delivered him out of their hands ;

22 and said. Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them,

Rache! was already dead, though the dream (ver. 10) would suggest that she
was yet in life.]

Joseph sold to the Isiimaelites by his Brothers. — 12-28. Ami his
brethren went to . . . Shechem, where Jacob had bought land, and where
perhaps it was now safe for them to go. But it may have been the fear of
the old feud (chap, xxxiv.) reviving wliich moved Jacob to send Joseph to
fee whether it be well tuith thy brethren and well tvith the flocks. Joseph
found them in Dothan, or Dotuain, the two wells. "By noon we reached
Duthan , . . Just north of us was the well called Bir el Hufireh, 'Well of
the Pit,' and east of us a second, with a water-trough, thus accounting for
the name Dothan, ' two wells.' " — Conder, Tent Work, i. 107. And when they
satu him . . . they conspired . . . to slay him ; it was, therefore, probably a
new idea to them that they might kill their offensive rival, but how much
bitterness and hate must have been lying in their hearts ! Reuben alone has
any compunction, perhaps because he felt he had sufficiently grieved his
father already (chap, xxxv, 22), perhaps because being the oldest he felt a
special responsibility, Robertson {Genesis, p, 137) seems to judge Reuben
with undue seventy : "His conduct in this instance was just in accordance
with his character, which seems to have been remarkable for a certain
softness. He did not dare to shed his brother's blood, neither did he dare
manfully to save him. He was not cruel, simply because he was guilty of a
different class of sin." Reuben advised that they should cast him into this fit.

156 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXVII. 23-28.

Shed no blood, hut cast him into this pit that is in the
wilderness, and lay no hand upon him ; that he might rid
him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his
brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of

24 many^ colours that was on him; and they took him, and cast
him into a pit : and the pit was empty, there was no water

25 in it. And they sat down to eat bread : and they lifted up
their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites
came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm

26 and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah
said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother,

27 and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the
Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him ; for he is our
brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.

28 Then there passed by Midianites, merchant-men ; and they
" It could not have been difficult for Joseph's brethren to find an empty cistern,
in which to secure him. Ancient cisterns are very common, even now, along
the roads and elsewhere " (Robinson's Biblical Researches, iii. 122). "These
tanks for storing water, being so narrow at the mouth that a single stone will
cover them and widening below into a large subterranean room, form prisons
from which escape is impossible. A cistern called 'Joseph's Pit' is still
shown " (Robinson, B. R. ii. 419). The pit zms empty (ver. 24), therefore he
was not drowned, but he was left to die the most appalling of deaths, under
the ground, sinking in mire, his flesh creeping at the touch of unseen sHmy
creatures, in darkness, alone. This, then, was what had come of his dreams.
He learns now, like his grandfather Isaac, that the heir of God must die
before he begins to live, that he must let go all self-confidence and natural
hopes and learn to live in God. Undisturbed by Joseph's cries, they sat dozvn
to eat bread, probably to enjoy the very dainties Joseph had brought from his
father's tents (Gen. xlii. 21 ; Amos vi. 6). But behold (ver. 25) a company
[a (trading) caravan] oflshmaelites, called also in this chapter Midianites and
Medanites. Midian and Medan were sons of Keturah, cousins therefore of
Ishmael,_and not very distantly related to Joseph. The names Ishmaelite
and Midianite may have been interchangeable either because the caravan was
composed of men from both tribes, or more probably because the term
Ishmaelite as a geographical or professional name, comprehended that of
Midianite. " The great road from Beisan to Ramleh and Egypt, still leads
through the plain of Dothan" (Robinson's B. R. iii. 122). The caravan vv'as
carrying spicery, balm, and myrrh. The Hebrew words are necoth, tzeri, and
lot ; the first being probably a gum which exudes from the Tragacanth, a
plant found in Palestine and the neighbouring countries ; the second, the gum
of the opobalsam or balsam tree, which abounded in Gilead (cp. Jer, viii. 22) ;
the third, the gum which is gathered from the cistiis creticiis, still used as a
perfume, and formerly as a medicine. Large quantities of these substances
were consumed by the Egyptians in embalming the dead, and for other
purposes. See Herod, iii. 107-112, where some interesting details are given.
Then there passed by Midianites, merchant-men ; and they drezu . . . Some

XXXVII. 29-35-] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 157

drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to
the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver : and they brought

29 Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit;
and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit ; and he rent his

30 clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The

31 child is not; and I, whither shall I go ? And they took
Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the

32 coat in the blood : and they sent the coat of many colours,
and they brought // to their father ; and said, This have we

33 found : know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And
he knew it, and said, // is my son's coat ; an evil beast hath

34 devoured him : Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And .
Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and

35 mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him ; but he refused to be
comforted : and he said, For I will go down into the grave

interpreters refer " they " to the Midianites, and suppose that two discrepant
narratives are here unskilfully combined. Others think the difficulty is
sufficiently solved by referring " they " to Joseph's brethren. But there does
seem a dislocation in the introduction of the clause, Then there passed by ^ etc.
[The Koran (Sura xii.) supposes that Joseph was found by passers-by.
" Wayfarers came and sent their drawer of water, and he let down his bucket.
'Good nev/s,' said he, 'here is a youth.' And they kept him secret to make
merchandise of him. But God knew what they were doing,"] They sold
Joseph. Subsequently the crime of stealing and selling men was punished
with death, Ex. xxi. 16 [cp. the accounts of African travellers] ; for twenty
pieces of silver^ cp. Lev. xxvii, 5 ; Ex. xxi. 32.

Reuben's Disappointment and Jacob's Grief.— 29-36. And Reuben
returned ... He had been absent either on some duty with the sheep or
to evade his brethren till they should move away and give him a chance of
returning to rescue Joseph from the pit. And he returned unto his brethren^
but it does not appear whether they told him wliat they had done in his
absence or left him to imagine that other men had heard his cries and carried
him off. And they took Joseph's coat . . . This was a cruel device. But
possibly it was not intended to put a keener edge on Jacob's grief nor to
mock him, but was done in the thoughtlessness of coarse-minded men. [An
exactly similar device was used to deceive the father of Kamar-ez-Zeman in
the Arabian Nights, vol. ii, 112.] Jacob refused to be comforted ; great grief is
still expressed in the East by saying, "I have grief like that which Jacob
felt for the loss of Joseph " (cp. Arabian Nights, ii. 206, 222). I ivill go down
into the grave, lit. into Sheol, this word being here used for the first time.
It means the under-world ; not the grave where the body lies, but the habita-
tion of the disembodied. Some suppose it means a hollow place, and
compare it to "hole," "hell ; " others think it comes from a word meaning
to ask, as if it were the place that is never filled and satisfied (Prov, xxx. 16) ;
or the place towards which survivors direct inquiries and affectionate calls for

158 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXVII. 36.

unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an
officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

their departed friends. (Cp. the Excursus in Lange's Comment S) Each of
the three patriarchs had to give up his son and receive him as from the dead.
Potiphar, to whom Joseph was sold, is described as an officer of Pharaoli s
and captain of the guard, the latter title being, literally, chief of the execu-
tioners, hence, not as the LXX. render it, 'head cook,' but captain of the
life-guard (Wright), the officer whose charge was the defence of the palace
and person of the king. The word Potiphar is generally supposed to mean
"devoted to Ra," the sun-god of the Egyptians: but, as shown in the
Speaker s Commentaiy, it more probably means "devoted to Thar," i.e. to the
palace.

Remarks. — The migration of Israel into Egypt had become necessary for
three reasons : (i) That they might not excite the hostility of the Canaanites
before they were strong enough to resist it. (2) That they might not
adulterate their race and lose their distinctiveness by intermarriage with the
Canaanites. (3) That they might by contact with a highly-civilised people
receive an education in arts and a discipline by law and government such
as there was little prospect of their receiving in Canaan. Joseph was the
uncunscious pioneer of this great movement.

1. In what sense and in what paj-ticnlars is Joseph a type of Christ?

2. What zuould you gather from this chapter regarding the character of

Joseph ?

3. What was the significance of Josephs dreams ?

4. Try and describe Joseph's feelings in the pit, and the effect this incident

might have on his character.

5. By zijhat other names is Egypt spoken of in Scripture?
6 Mention any effects of envy yon have observed.

7. Commit Reuben's speccJi :

' Say, our sire
Garlands his sprightly Joseph with his love,
Keeps him like honey in the winter stor'd,
To least the scanty comfort of his age:
Old men are full of years and full of pain, —
The world's worn out to them, a garment us'd,
And novelty, the salt of youth, is dead,
Say they can cheat rude sadness with some joy
That lives in fancy and beguiles the mind, —
I-, he not cruel who such comfort lames
Crying, ' Give me, I pr'ythce, thy regard ;
I am right worthy, and I cannot bear
I'o see thy dotage sloven'd on a child.' "

Blirill OF PHAREZ AND ZARAH (CHAP. XXXVIII.).

In after times the tribe of Juuah was composed of three great families -the
Shelanites, Pharzites, and Zarhites (Num. xxvi. 20). In this chapter an
account is given of the origin of these families. At first sight it may seem
somewhat abruptly interpolated into the history of Joseph, but a more
suitable place could not easily be found. It is presented in an elaborate
narrative for the sake of enforcing the saixtity of the Levirate law.

XXXVIII. I-I2.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. I59

CiiAP. XXXVIII. I And it came to pass at that time, that Judah
went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain

2 AduUamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there
a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah ;

3 and he took her, and went in unto her. And she conceived,

4 and bare a son ; and he called his name Er. And she con-
ceived again, and bare a son ; and she called his name Onan.

5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son ; and called his
name Shelah : and he was at Chezib when she bare him.

6 And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, whose name icas

7 Tamar. And Er, Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight

8 of the Lord ; and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto
Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and

9 raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed
should not be his : and it came to pass, when he went in unto
his brother's wife, that he spilled // on the ground, lest that

13 he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he

11 did displeased the Lord : wherefore he slew him also. Then
said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow
at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown : for he
said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And

12 Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in process
of time the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, died ; and Judah

Judah and Shuah.— 1-5. At that time, after the brethren had sold
Joseph, Judah zvent do7un, Adullam being in the low country of Judah, from
his brethren, with whom he had been till now (chap. xxxvii.'26). He turned
in to . . . Hirah ; he seems to have entered into a kind of partnership with
him, cp. ver. 12. There he saiu . . . Shuah, and took her, married her,
though she was a Canaanite. By her he had three sons, Er, Onan, and
Shelah, the last of whom was born at Chezib, probably the same as Chozeba
(i Chron. iv. 22) and Achzib.

Taimar and Judah's Sons.— 6-11. When Er grew up, Judah provided
him with a wife (cp. chap, xxiv.), who, though having a Hebrew name
Tamar, was almost certainly a Canaanitess. Er died because he 7vas wicked,
and as he left no son, Judah gave his widow to Onan that he might raise up
seed to his brother (cp. Deut. xxv. 5, and Matt. xxii. 24). Onan, however,
jealous of his brother (ver. 9), declined the duty, and so displeased the Lord,
who sleru him also. Judah apparently dreaded to give his last son to Tamar,
as if there were something fatal about her. At the same time he cannot
repudiate her claim to his remaining son. He therefore temporizes and bids
her return to her father's house, till Shelah my son be grown. The result
clearly showed Tamar he meant to evade her claim.

Tamar and Judah. — 12-23. And in process of time, long enough for
Tamar to see that she was not to become the wife of Shelah. Judah's 7uifc
died ; during her life Tamar's scheme might not have succeeded. Tor a

l6o THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXVIII. 13-24.

was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to

13 Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And it
was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to

14 Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's gar-
ments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped
herself, and sat in an open place which is by the way to
Timnath : for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not

1 5 given unto him to wife. When Judah saw her, he thought

1 6 her to be an harlot ; because she had covered her face. And
he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray
thee, let me come in unto thee ; (for he knew not that she
7vas his daughter-in-law). And she said, What wilt thou give

1 7 me, that thou mayest come in unto me ? And he said, I will
send thee a kid from the flock. And she said. Wilt thou give

18 7ue a pledge till thou send it? And he said, What pledge
shall I give thee? And she said. Thy signet, and thy
bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it

19 her, and came in unto her; and she conceived by him. And
she arose, and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and

20 put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the
kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his

2 1 pledge from the woman's hand ; but he found her not. Then
he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot,
that 7vas openly by the way-side ? And they said. There was

22 no harlot in this//^^<?. And he returned to Judah, and said,
I cannot find her ; and also the men of the place said, that

23 there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said. Let her
take it to her, lest we be shamed : behold, I sent this kid and

24 thou hast not found her. And it came to pass, about three
months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy

somewhat similar scheme see Shakspeare's All's Well that Ends Well. The
morals of the time are disclosed in the entire absence of any feeling of shame
on Judah's part. He sends his friend with the kid (ver. 20) as if it had been
an ordinary debt he w^as paying. He fears only that he should be thought to
have cheated, and calls Hirah to witness that he has done what he could to
find the woman and pay the debt (ver. 23). The woman on her part was
careful to obtain such pledges as could not fail to identify the person who
had given them : thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff. Herodotus
(i. 195), speaking of the Babylonians, says : "Every one carries a seal and a
w^alking-stick, carved at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an
eagle, or something similar ; for it is not their habit to use a stick without an
ornament."

PiiAREZ AND Zarah.— 24-30. Judah's indignation at Tamar was due to

XXXVIII. 25-XXXIX. T.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. l6r

daughter-in-law hath played the harlot ; and also, behold, she
is with child by whoredom. And Judah said. Bring her forth,

25 and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent
to her father-in-law, saying, By the man ^vhose these are am
I with child : and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose ai-e

26 these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah
acknowledged ihem^ and said, She hath been more righteous
than I ; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And

27 he knew her again no more. And it came to pass, in the time

28 of her travail, that, behold, twins weix in her womb. And it
came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his
hand : and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a

29 scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And it came to
pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother
came out : and she said, How hast thou broken forth ? this
breach he upon thee : therefore his name was called Pharez.

30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet
thread upon his hand : and his name was called Zarah.

Chap, xxxix. i And Joseph was brought down to Egypt ; and
Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an
Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which

the circumstance that she was the legal wife of Shelah, his son. It was not
fornication but adultery she was guilty of. But when she convicted him of
being a party to the sin, he at once saw that the character of the act was
altered. It seemed to him she had only used a fair method of vindicating her
rights (ver. 26). The birth of her twin-sons recalls the birth of Esau and
Jacob. Zarah strove to be first born, but Pharez broke forth, and was called
Breach. From Pharez David was descended. The meaning of Zarah is
doubtful, but probably it is sunrise.

JOSEPH PROMOTED, TEMPTED, IMPRISONED (CHAP. XXXIX.).

Joseph, being purchased by an officer of Pharaoh's, proves himself a trust-
worthy, intelligent, and successful servant ; but, on the false accusation of his
master's wife, is thrown into prison.

Joseph prospers in Egypt. — 1-6. And Joseph was brought do%on into
Egypt: in the time when the Hyksos kings were ruling, as the best historians
of Egypt, Brugsch and Maspero, agree. Another authority says : "As things
now stand, I cannot see anything which will not harmonize with the old
opinion that the life of Joseph in Egypt fell under the rule of the latest
Pharaoh of the seventeenth Hyksos dynasty. If this be true, it appears that
the stern and careworn visage which looks out of the lion's mane of the
sphinxes of San must be the face so familiar to Joseph." Some are of opinion
that the designation of Potiphar as mi Egyptian is additional evidence that
the rulers at this time were not Egyptians. The word rendered an ojficer

l62 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XXXTX. 2-9.

2 had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with
Joseph, and he was a prosperous man ; and he was in the

3 house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that
the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he

4 did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his
sight, and he served him : and he made him overseer over his

5 house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it
came to pass, from the time that he had made him overseer
in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed
the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake ; and the blessing of
the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the

6 field. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand ; and he
knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat.

7 And Joseph was a goodly peison^ and well favoured. And it
came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast

8 her eyes upon Joseph ; and she said. Lie with me. But he
refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master
wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath

9 committed all that he hath to my hand; there is none
greater in this house than I ; neither hath he kept back any

means a eunuch, and it is very doubtful whether this term should not be
understood literally. The fact of his being married _ proves nothing to the
contrary, while the story has a greater verisimilitude if we retain the natural
meaning of the word. And the Lord zoas with Joseph . . . and he was in the
house, not employed in his master's official, but in his domestic, service.
Joseph's administrative faculty, his power of getting men to work and keep-
ing things running smoothly, at once appeared ; his master found his house a
pleasanter habitation than it had previously been, and so he made him over-
seer, and entrusted everything to Joseph, and kneiu not ought he had save the
bread which he did eat ; that is to say, he was absolutely relieved of all care
of his possessions, took no note of them, was satisfied that all was cared for
by Joseph.

Potiphar's Wife tempts Joseph. — 7-16. The incident here related has
a very striking parallel in the story of the Two Brothers found in the Orbiney
Papyrus, and given in Brugsch's History, i. 266. The contrivances of the
woman are enlarged upon in the Persian poet Jami's Salaman and Absal,
and also in Wells' Joseph and his Brethren, a poem worthy of study. The
strength of the temptation probably consisted in the promise it gave to Joseph
of higher advancement than a mere slave could look for, though no doubt the
appeal to youthful passion and vanity was also strong. His fidelity to his
master (ver. 8) and his fear of God (ver. 9) saved him. The rapid change in
her feeling illustrates Milton's keen observation that "lust" dwells "hard by
hate ; " and Juvenal's words :

" Mulier saevissima lunc est
Quum stimulos odio pudor admovet."

XXXIX. T 0-23. J HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 163

thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife : how then

10 can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? And
it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he
hearkened not unto her, to He by her, or to be with her.

1 1 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into
the house to do his business ; and iJiere was none of the men

12 of the house there within. And she caught him by his
garment, saying. Lie with me : and he left his garment in her

13 hand, and fled, and got him out. And it came to pass, when
she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was

14 fled forth, that she called unto the men of her house, and
spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew
unto us to mock us ; he came in unto me to lie with me, and

15 I cried with a loud voice: and it came to pass, when he
heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his

16 garment with me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid

17 up his garment by her until his lord came home. And she
spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew
servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to

18 mock me : and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and

19 cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out. And it
came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife,
which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy

20 servant to me, that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's
master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where
the king's prisoners ivere bound : and he was there in the

21 prison. But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him
mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the

22 prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's
hand all the prisoners that ivcre in the prison ; and what-

23 soever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of

Kiohter in his Levaiia quotes a remark of Ilippel's, "that a man overtaken
in wrong-doing is ashamed and speechless, but that a woman becomes bold
and passionately indignant." Cp. also the Hippolytus of Euripides, and
Lane's Arabian Nights, ii, 141. Kretheis, wife of Akastus, becoming ena-
moured of Peleus, met the same reception and told the same story as
Potiphar's wife ; see Grote's Greece, i. 109.

JosErn Imprisoned. — 17-23. That Poliphar believed his wife's story is
not said, and is not probable. Put to save appearances, if not because he
suspected Joseph, \\q. put him into the prison \_Beth PIassohar\ which Brugsch
?up|DOses may mean the house of the citadel. '1 he Egyptian word for citadel
is Sker, the equivalent of sohar here used. In prison, as in Potiphar's house,
the Lord was with Joseph, and gave him favour.

164 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XL. I-7.

the jDrlson looked not to any thing that was under his hand ;
because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the
Lord made // to prosper.
Chap. xl. i And it came to pass after these things, that the
butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their

2 lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two
^his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the

3 chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house
of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where

4 Joseph ivas bound. And the captain of the guard charged
Joseph with them, and he served them : and they continued
a season in ward.

5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his
dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation
of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt,

6 which weix bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto
them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold,

7 they tuere sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers, that ivere

JOSEPH INTERPRETS THE DREAMS OF HIS FELLOW-PRISONERS
(chap. XL.).

Pharaoh's Officers imprisoned with Joseph. — 1-4. 77^:? butler,
called in the next verse chief of the butters, or cup-bearers, an office which, in
Persia, was, as Herodotus (iii. 34) tells us, "no small honour" (cp. Neh.
i. 11); and the chief of the bakers, or confectioners ; an account of this class
of servants Avill be found in Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, i. 174-177. Tradition
says Pharaoh was wroth with them because they had conspired to poison him.
Apparently pending final examination, they are put in ward in the house, i.e.
io Potiphar's house, which was connected with the state prison. "Places of
confinement were under the immediate superintendence, and within the house,
of the chief of the police, or 'captain of the guard,' who was probably the
captain of the watch, like tlie Zdbut of the modern Egyptian police " (Wilkin-
son, ii. 214) ; cp. Jer. xxxvii. 15. These men being unaccustomed to help
themselves, the captain of the guard charged Joseph, his own slave, with them,
and he served them. Joseph's intercourse with these court officials prepared
him to understand the character of the monarch with whom he was shortly to
be brought in contact.

Their Dreams, and Joseph's Interpretation. — 5-19. It is not sur-
prising that three nights before Pharaoh's birthday their thoughts should have
been busy about the festival in which they had hitherto been the leading
functionaries ; nor is it surprising that they should have looked forward with
anxiety to a day on which it was customary to decide the fate of political and
courtly offenders. Their anxiety did not escape Joseph : he ca??ie in . . . and
looked upon them ; he had a sympathetic nature which had taught him to read
men's looks ; he had also a manly cheerfulness that could bear more than his

XL. 8-15.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 165

with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore

8 look ye so sadly to-day ? And they said unto him, We have
dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And
Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belojig to

9 God ? tell me them, I pray you. And the chief butler told
his dream to Joseph, and said to him. In my dream, behold,

10 a vine luas before me ; and in the vine were three branches :
and it was as though it budded, a7id her blossoms shot forth ;

1 1 and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes : and
Pharaoh's cup was in my hand : and I took the grapes, and
pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into

12 Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, This is the

13 interpretation of it : The three branches are three days: yet
within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore
thee unto thy place : and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup
into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his

14 butler. But think on me when it shall be well with thee,
and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention

1 5 of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house : for
indeed 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.

o\\'n burden. He invites his charge to make him a sharer in their gloom.
Had he sulked in prison, and grown sour and malicious, he might have
remained there till death. The courtiers tell him frankly: zue have dreamed
. . . and Joseph said, Do not interpretations, etc. "With respect to divina-
tion, they [the Egyptians] hold it to be a gift possessed by no mortal, but
only by certain of the gods " [Herod, ii. 83]. The butler appropriately
dreams of a vine. Much has been made of the assertion of Herodotus (ii. 77),
that " they use wine made of barley [beer], because they have no vines in the
country." But in the chapter whence this quotation is taken, Herodotus is
speaking of the Egyptians of the corn-growing districts ; and although there
were no vines in the part of Egypt subject to the overflow of the Nile, there
were vines in other parts, as Herodotus himself implies (cp. ii. 37, with Wil-
kinson's note). Wine was evidently scarce, as the Greeks derided the
Egyptians as beer-drinkers. The various Egyptian wines are fully described
by Wilkinson {Ancient Egypt, i.). In his dream the butler sees himself in
liis office, and performing its function : / took the grapes and pressed them.
This does certainly not imply that unfei-mented wine was in common use
among the Egyptians. This may have been a form seen only in a dream and
never in reality, or it may have been some royal custom of an exceptional
kind not illustrated by extant monuments. There may, however, be some-
thing in the statement of Plutarch [Is. et Osir. vi.), that before Psammetichus
the lungs did not drink wine, liaving assured the butler of reinstatement, he
begs to be remembered, and affirms his innocence, vers. 14, 15. "There are
no invectives against his brethren, or against Potiphar and his wife ; he merely

1 66 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xL. 1 6-23.

16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good,
he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, /

I 7 had three white baskets on my head : and in the uppermost
basket tJie7'e was of all manner of bake-meats for Pharaoh ;
and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.

18 And Joseph answered and said. This is the interpretation

19 thereof: The three baskets are three days : yet within three
days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall
hang thee on a tree ; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from
off thee.

20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's
birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants : and he
lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker

2 1 among his servants. And he restored the chief butler unto
his butlership again ; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's

22 hand: but he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had

23 interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember
Joseph, but forgat him.

states that he M'as innocent, Cahn assertion is generally a proof of inno-
cence " (Robertson). Land of the Hebreivs. This phrase is probably a later
addition. The baker's dream (ver. 16) is also characteristic : I also . . . three
ivhite baskets, or, baskets of wliite bread. Pictures of men carrying on their
heads baskets full of fancy bread are given in Wilkinson (see also Lane's
Arabian Nights, iii. 571). But not Pharaoh, but the birds did eat them ; the
interpretation is : Pharaoh . . . shall hang thee. Hanging was a customary
punishment, and ver. 22 makes it probable that hanging, and not decapita-
tion, is meant. Parricides were burnt alive. Infanticide was not punished
with death, but the dead body of the child was fastened to the neck of the
parent, who had to carry it about publicly for three days. [Cp. the story of
the eagle carrying up the cap of Lucumo.]

Joseph's Interpretation fulfilled. — 20-23. Pharaoh's birthday. The
king's birthday was celebrated with great pomp. Doughty has collected the
passages illustrative of the esteem in which the ancients in general held such
days {Analecta, p. 70). Cp. the story of Xerxes in Herod, ix. 108, and
that of Herod and Herodias. To signalize the day, Pharaoh restored the
chief bntler . . . yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
The courtier restored to all the bustle of the palace was not likely to remember
the slave he had chanced upon in prison. He was not ashamed to speak for
Joseph, but the matter went clean out of his mind. A lively memory, whether
cultivated by painstaking sense of duty or the result of gratitude and native
thoughtfulness, is a mateVial help to conduct. " Of all people," says Diodorus,
"the Egyptians retain the highest sense of a favour conferred upon them,
deeming it the greatest charm of life to make a suitable return for benefits
they have received."

1. Give instances of w:ll-7ised prison life.

2. To retain sympathy and cheerfulness in adverse and unhopeful circum-

XLI. 1-7.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 67

Chap. xli. i And it came to pass at the end of two fall years,
that Pharaoh dreamed : and, behold, he stood by the river.

2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well-
favoured kine and fat-fleshed ; and they fed in a meadow.

3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the
river, ill-favoured and lean-fleshed ; and stood by the other

4 kine upon the brink of the river. And the ill-favoured and
lean-fleshed kine did eat up the seven well-favoured and fat

5 kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the
second time : and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon

6 one stalk, rank and good. And, behold, seven thin ears and

7 blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the
seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And
Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

stances is half the battle of life. " A good conscience is able to bear
very much, and is v^ry cheerful in adversities.'" — Ihonias a Kenipis.

3. Joseph^ s interest in the dreams of other men proves that through all

disappointment he was believing in his own dreams. It is no sign of
a strong spirit to call the hopes of early life " romance.'"

4. /// what sense can Joseph beliveen tzuo malefactors be called a type of

Christ ?

5. Expand the analogy hctiveen Joseph as a dream-interpreter and Jesus

reading for us the riddle of our ozvn vag7ie impressions and yearnings
after immortality and God,

JOSEPH INTERPRETS PHARAOH'S DREAMS (CHAP. XLI. I-36).

Pharaoh's Dreams. — 1-8. For two full years from the release of the
chief butler nothing occurred to remind him of his promise to Joseph. But
at the end of that time Pharaoh dreamed, also characteristically of the source
of his country's prosperity, the river ; i'cor, a word which is radically an
Egyptian word, a2(r, and only applied (in the singular) to the Egyptian river,
the Nile; except in Dan. xii. The sacred name of the Nile was llapee,
the name also of Apis, whose worship had a reference to the inundation
(cp. Smith's Diet, and Duncker's //ist. of Antiq. p. 60). Out of the river
came up seven 'luellfavoujrd kine. The bull Apis was the most sacred animal
among the Egyptians. The cow was the symbol of the cultivation and
fertility of the land. They fed in a meadow : Achu, supposed to be an
Egyptian word ; it means the Nile grass, or sedge at the water's edge. In
his second dream he saw seven ears ttpon one stalk. " The plant dreamt of
was perhaps the Triticum composittan, or compound wheat, the species
usually grown i;i Egypt at the present day. It bears on a stalk not several
cars, but an ear branching into several spikes" (Sharpe's l\xts Explained, p.
15). Wilkinson says the seven-eared variety is only grown in small quantities
in the Delta. By the east wind, probably the south-east wind is meant ; it
is the scorching, withering wind called Chamseen or Khamaseen, which brings
oppressive sultriness and stifling clouds of fine sand. To in'.erpret these

1 68 THE BOOK OP GENESIS. [XLI. 8-1 6.

8 And it came to pass in the morning, that his spirit was
troubled ; and he sent and called for all the magicians of
Egypt, and all the wise men thereof : and Pharaoh told them
his dreams ; but there ivas none that could interpret them unto

9 Pharaoh. Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying,

10 I do remember my faults this day : Pharaoh was wroth with
his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard's

1 1 house, both me and the chief baker : and we dreamed a dream
in one night, I and he ; we dreamed each man according to

1 2 the interpretation of his dream. And the7'e ivas there with us
a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard ;
and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams ; to

13 each man according to his dream he did interpret. iVnd it
came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was ; me he
restored into mine office, and him he hanged.

14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought
him hastily out of the dungeon : and he shaved himself^ and

15 changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. And
Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and
there is none that can interpret it : and I have heard say of
thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.

16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, // is not in me : God

dreams Pharaoh called the magicians and wise men, or sacred scribes and
wise men ; a comparison, however, of the passages in Exodus where these
functionaries are mentioned shows that they dealt in magic properly so called.
The craving to know the future and the unseen is universal, and has created
its own food. Magic, necromancy, astrology, oracles, have both in ancient
and modern times formed a large part of religion. The relation they hold
to revelation is a subject scarcely enough investigated. Btit none could
interpi-et. It is surprising that symbolism which seems so plain, should not
have been at once read. The Talmud gives specimens of interpretations
presented by the magicians. " The seven fat kine are seven queens whom
thou shalt marry," etc.

Joseph interprets the King's Dreams, and advises him how to
ACT. — 9-36. Pharaoh's anxiety reminded the chief butler of his own, and of
Joseph who had relieved it. Accordingly, Pharaoh sent and called Joseph ,
and they brought him hastily. Yet he took time to shave. The Egyptians,
says Herodotus, "only let the hair of their head and beard grow in mourning,
being at all other times shaved," "So particular," says Wilkinson {A. E.
ii. 326), " were they on this point, that to have neglected it was a subject of
reproach and ridicule ; and whenever they intended to convey the idea of a
man of low condition, or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with
a beard." They wore false hair and false beards. Unexcited by the sudden
change from prison to the court, and undated by Pharaoh's praise (ver. 15),
Joseph disclaims any skill of his own: it is not in me: God shall give

XLI. 17-32.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 69

1 7 shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said
unto Joseph. In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank

I S of the river : and, behold, there came up out of the river
seven kine, fat-fleshed and well-favoured ; and they fed in a

19 meadow : and, behold, seven other kine came up after them,
poor and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, such as I never

20 saw in all the land of Egypt for badness : and the lean and

21 the ill-favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine : and
when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that
they had eaten them ; but they were still ill-favoured, as at

22 the beginning. So I awoke. And I saw in my dream, and,

23 behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good : and,
behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east

24 wind, sprung up after them : and the thin ears devoured the
seven good ears. And I told iJiis unto the magicians ; but
there was none that could declare it to me.

25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is

26 one : God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The
seven good kine are seven years ; and the seven good ears

2 7 are seven years : the dream is one. And the seven thin and
ill-favoured kine that came up after them are seven years;
and the seven empty ears, blasted with the east wind, shall be

28 seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken
unto Pharaoh : What God is about to do he showeth unto

29 Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty

30 throughout all the land of Egypt : and there shall arise after
them seven years of famine ; and all the plenty shall be for-
gotten in the land of Egypt ; and the famine shall consume

31 the land ; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by
reason of that famine following ; for it shall he very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice ; it
is because the thing is established by God, and God will

riiaraoh an answer of peace. This is the modesty that springs from true
dependence on God '(cp. Dan. ii. 30). The interpretation was simple ; but
it involved important consequences. The mere guess of a clever dream-
interpreter was insufficient to found a fourteen years' policy on. For this
there was needed the assured solution of a divinely-inspired interpreter.
Observe the difference between speculation and revelation : the one being
authoritative and conscious of its aulhority, the other not. Joseph resists the
temptation to make his fortune by posing as an adept in the science the
magicians professed, and in whicli they seemed bunglers and apprentices
when compared with him. Joseph, not content with interpreting the dream,

TJO THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLI. 33-42.

;^^ shoitly bring it to pass. Now therefore let Pharaoh look out
a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do //lis, and let him appoint officers over the
land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the

35 seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of
those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand

36 of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. And that
food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of
famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt ; that the land
perish not through the famine.

37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the
T^S eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants,

Can we find s//^/i a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of

39 God is 2 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God
hath showed ihee all this, there is none so discreet and wise

40 as thou aj-t : thou shalt be over my house, and according
unto thy word shall all my people be ruled : only in the

41 throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon

proceeds (ver. 33) to advise Pharaoh how to act : Nozu therefore let Pharaoh
look out a man discreet, etc. It is impossible to suppose that it entered
Joseph's head that he might be the man appointed — a Hebrew, a slave, a
]irisoner, cleaned but for the nonce, an untried youth amid all these tried
ministers of state. Joseph had a complete policy devised. Let Pharaoh . . .
and take up the fifth part. This apparently was not bought, but was exacted
from the people as an extraordinary tax. And let them gather . . . and lay
lip corn. The granaries of Egypt are represented on the monuments, as
well as the mode of filling them, and of recording the amount of grain
collected. Egypt itself was the granary of the ancient world.

1. Describe the course of Joseph's thoughts and groioth of his characto-

during the tiiw years' oblivion.

2. Maoic — Derivation of the tuord. Give some ijistances of its exercise.

What is Magism ?

3. Compare Joseph before Pharaoh with Daniel before Nelntchadv.czzar.

4. Give so?7ie account of the Nile, deficiency in annual rise, which causes

famine, etc.

Joseph's Advancement and Marriage. — 37-52. Pharaoh, struck with
t^c promptitude and wisdom of Joseph, appoints him regent (vers. 39, 40").
In token of his delegated authority he gives him //z> rzV/^. The signet-ring
A\ as the symbol of authority. Alexander, when dying, took off his ring and
rave it to Perdiccas. IMasinissa, failing through age, gave his ring to his
s )n Micipsa. The robe and the gold necklace were also symbols of rank.
In I Mace. vi. 14 we read that Antiochus, when near his end, " called for
ri.ilip, one of his friends, whom he made ruler over all his realm, and gave

XLI. 43-47.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 171

Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and

43 put a gold chain about his neck : and he made him to ride
i.i the second chariot which he had ; and they cried before
him, Bow the knee : and he made him ruler over all the land

44 of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh,
and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all

45 the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zaphnath-jDaaneah ; and he gave him to wife Asenath the
daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out
over all the land of Egypt.

46 And Joseph ivas thirty years old when he stood before
Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the
presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of

47 Egypt. And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought

him the crown, and his robe, and his signet, to the end he should bring up
his son Antiochus, and nourish him up for the kingdom." Tertullian says :
" There is a dress proper to every one as well for daily use as for office and
dignity. And so that purple and gold adorning the neck were among the
Egyptians and Babylonians marks of dignity, just as bordered, or striped, or
palm-embroidered togas, and the golden wreaths of provincial priests are
now" {De Idol. c. 18; cp. Doughty's Analeda). Pharaoh further arrayed
him hi vestures of fine linen. "The garments of Byssus belong necessarily
to the naturalizing of Joseph " (Hengstenberg's Egypt and Books of Moses,
]), 31). The people at once accept him, and cry, Boiv the knee ; Abrcch'\%
the word ; it has been understood to be an Egyptian word, meaning " Bow
the head ! " or " Rejoice thou ! " " Hail ! " But Chabas says it is the same
word as is still used when a camel is bid to kneel. As a further mark of his
adoption as an Egyptian, Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah.
This Egyptian name has been variously interpreted " revealer of secrets,"
"saviour of the world," "food of the living," and "governor of the district
of the city of life," a name given to a city near Zoan. [On the Egyptian
words occurring in this chapter, much information is given in the Excursus
on the subject in the Speaker s Co?n?ncnta7y. Miss Edwards compares the
Egyptian names to those given in England under the Commonwealth, e.g.
Renpitnofre, good year; Noiib-en-tekh, worth her weight in gold.] In
l")ro3eculion of the same purpose of knitting him to Egypt and doing him
iionour, Pharaoh •^\'~>o gave him to wife Asenath, Asenath probably meaning
consecrated to Neith, the Hebrew Minerva. This marriage gave Joseph
connection with the highest family in the land, the priests of On taking pre-
cedence of all other Egyptian priests. It has, however, been supposed that
the inherent fondness of the Ephraimites for idolatry is attributable to this
origin. ^\iQ. \v7x& the daughter of Potiphcra, i.e. consecrated to Ra, the sun-
god, whose worship had its centre at On, which was accordingly named in
(J reek Heliopolis, and in Hebrew Bethshemesh, the city or house of the sun.
On was not far from Pla-onar, where Pharaoh, Ra-apepi ii., was at this time
living. There is still extant an obelisk of granite which formed part of the
Temple of the Sun, with a dedication sculptured in Joseph's time — the only

N

172 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLI. 48-57.

48 forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the
seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the
food in the cities : the food of the field, which was round

49 about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered
corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left number-

50 ing ; for // w<7j without number. And unto Joseph were born
two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the

51 daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto him. And
Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh : For God,
said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's

52 house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim : For
God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

53 And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land

54 of Egypt were ended. And the seven years of dearth began
to come, according as Joseph had said : and the dearth was in

55 all lands ; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And
when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to
Pharaoh for bread : and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians,

56 Go unto Joseph ; what he saith to you, do. And the famine
was over all the face of the earth. And Joseph opened all
the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians ; and the famine

57 waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came
. into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn ; because that the famine

was so sore in all lands.

relic of the once great city. The success of Pharaoh's purpose to naturalize
Joseph as an Egyptian is seen in the name he gives to his first son —
Manasseh, i.e. making to forget, Joseph's feeling of permanent settlement
in Egypt culminates in the birth of his son. The beginning of a family of his
own mitigated the ever-recurring pain of alienation from his father's house.
Why did he never report his prosperity to Jacob, or give him any hint he
■was alive? His second son he names Ephraim, i.e. double fruitfulness ;
with a reference to his being the second son. These names would not be
understood by the Egyptians. Possibly they received Egyptian names as
well. [Observe that two tribes of Israel were thus of Egyptian extraction.]

Joseph's Administration.— 53-57. On this subject see more fully chap,
xlvii. 13-26. As Joseph had foretold, ihe seven years of plenteousness c^awe,
and were succeeded by seven years of dearth. •

^ Brugsch mentions the tomb of Buba, an Egyptian, which bears the inscrip-
tion : "When a famine broke owi for many years, I gave corn to the city
during each famine." He believes this inscription to date from Joseph's time
and to refer to this dearth. The only instance on record of a seven years'
famine in Egypt since that time is cited in Smith's Diet. s.v. Famine. It
lasted from A. D. 1064-1071. The terrible suffering occasioned in populous
countries by even one year's famine is sadly illustrated by what recently

XLII. 1-7.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 73

Chap. xlii. i Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in
Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon

2 another ? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is
corn in Egypt : get you down thither, and buy for us from

3 thence ; that we may live, and not die. And Joseph's ten

4 brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren : for he
said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.

5 And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that

6 came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And
Joseph tvas the governor over the land, ajid he // was that
sold to all the people of the land : and Joseph's brethren
came, and bowed down themselves before him with their

7 faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he
knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake
roughly unto them ; and he said unto them, Whence come
ye ? And they said. From the land of Canaan to buy food.

occurred in China, wliere the people, after cutting the thatch of their cottages
and the bark of trees, strove to stay the pangs of hunger by chewing red slate-
stones, and in the madness of suffering sold their wives and children or killed
themselves lest they should give way to cannibalism.

1. Cite the passages of the 0. T. in ivhich the Spirit of God is mentioned:

specify the resemblances and differences between the gifts imparted by
Him in 0. T. and in N. T.

2. Mention S07ne other allusions to signet-rings in 0. T.

3. Compare Joseph' s faith during the years (^plenty with Noah's before the

Flood.

4. Give derivation of dearth, and specimen of famine-prices froju Book of

Revelation.

5. Trace the providences in Joseph'' s career up to this point.

FIRST JOURNEY OF JOSEPH'S BROTHERS TO EGYPT (cHAP. XLII.).

Jacob sends his Sons to Egypt.— 1-4. When Jacob saw, etc. Though
now an old man, he retains the vigour and promptitude and resource which
marked him throughout life. To such a man nothing seems more contemptible
than a shiftless "looking one upon another" in mere helplessness. Btit
Benjamin . . . Jacob sent not with his brethren. The only remaining son of
the beloved Rachel received the love and care once spent on Joseph ; and
Jacob could not part with him.

Their Reception by Joseph. — 5-20. By coming into Egypt they
necessarily came into contact with Joseph, for he it was that sold, superintended
the sales. The arrival of foreigners with a proposal to buy would necessarily
be reported to him. The Talmud says that every one entering the land had
to write his name in"a book which was sent to Joseph. When they bowed dozun,
not only this outward homage, but their dependence on him for provision,

74

THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLII. 8-1 8.

8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.

9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of
them, and said unto them, Ye are spies ; to see the naked-

10 ness of the land ye are come. And they said unto him, Nay,

11 my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all
one man's sons : we are true men^ thy servants are no spies.

12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the

13 land ye are come. And they said, Thy servants are twelve
brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and,
behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is

14 not. And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake

15 unto you, saying, Ye are spies: hereby ye shall be proved :
By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except

16 your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you, and
let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison,
that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in

17 you : or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies. And

1 8 he put them all together into ward three days. And Joseph

recalled the dreams of his youth (ver. 8). He recognised them, but spaH
roughly. This intimates that he had already made up his mind to act a part.
His natural feeling prompted him to disclose himself. But he wished in the
first place to see what they now thought of their old crime, and whether they
^vere the same wild, unscrupulous, false men. He therefore proceeds to put
t'.iem to the proof. He could do this, because ihey knew not hivi. Twenty
years, foreign dress and speech, perhaps the large wig or other badge of office,
effectually disguised him. And Joseph (ver. 9) remembered the dreams, etc.,
when he saw them bowing before him, as in his dreams. This was enout^h
to bid him remember God's hand in the v.hole matter and act generously.
He plays the part of an Egyptian governor well in saying : Yeai-e spies. The
Egyptians were notoriously jealous of foreign intrusion [cf. Chinese]. Rule
[Monnm. Records, p. 64) says: "About the same time Apepi (the same
Pharaoh) sent a messenger to the Phaiaoh of the South, who received him
with the like rebuff: * Who sent thee into the land of the South? How art
thou come to spy ? ' " To see the nakedness, (he present bare condition of the
land ; not its defencelessness. Their defence is good : JVe are all one man's
sons. Had they been spies, they would have been selected men from various
tribes or families. Neither would any man have risked so many sons on a
dangerous enterprise. But Joseph insists. That is it: that which I have said
is the truth of the matter. 'But he will prove them (ver. 15). By the life of
Pharaoh, a well-known Egyptian oath, ^^hich may either be part of the
Egyptian di-guise of Joseph, or by his residence in Egypt it may have become
his familiar asseveration (cp. I Sam. i. 26 and xvii. 55 ; also Herodotus, iv.
68, for an interesting inference from the use of such oaths). Send 07ie of yon
and let him fetch your brother. Why did he insist on this, although he knew
the pain it would inflict on Jacob? Probably because he saw this was a good
pretext for keeping a hold of his brothers till he resolved what to do with tliem;
also, because he longed to see Benjamin, his own mother's son ; and fmally,

XLII. 19-27 ] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 75

said unto them the third day, This do, and live ; for I fear

19 God : if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound
in the house of your prison : go ye, carry corn for the famine

20 of your houses : but bring your youngest brother unto me ;
so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And

21 they did so. And they said one to another, We a7'e verily
guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of
his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear;

22 therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben
answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying. Do
not sin against the child ; and ye would not hear ? therefore,

23 behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not that
Joseph understood ihem ; for he spake unto them by an

24 interpreter. And he turned himself about from them, and
wept; and returned to them again, and communed with
them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before
their eyes.

25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and
to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them

26 provision for the way : and thus did he unto them. And
they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence.

27 And as one of them opened his sack, to give his ass pro-

because he might expect to learn from Benjamin what the family at home
thought of his disappearance. But besides, he may have at once suspected
from the absence of Benjamin that Jacob was still a partial father ; and
knowing that his father's partiality for himself had lain at the root of all his
own troubles, he may have resolved to compel his father to relinquish his hold
of Benjamin, and thus achieve the highest trust in God and His providence.
For a fuller account of this interview, see Judah's narrative of it in chap, xliii.
3-7.

Remorse and Return of the Brethren.— 21-38. They said . . . we
are verily guilty . This reference of their present troul^Ie to tlieir long-past
guilt is thoroughly natural. It was strictly true, although I hey did not see how,
that their old sin was now finding them out. And conscience is quick to trace
in the exactness of the retributions of life the fruit of our own past wrong-doing.
Reuben cannot help reminding them how he had expostulated. Sj>ake I not
tinto you (ver. 22). Now for the first time Joseph learns the kind part Reitben
had played, and on this account, probably, does not bind him but the next
oldest. Then Joseph commanded to f II . . . and to restore every man's money
(ver. 25). This was done out of mere kindness. Gold was known before
silver in Egypt ; silver being called " white gold." And before coined money
was used, rings of gold and silver were used in trade, and were iveigJicd, as \\as-
also the case with the Hebrew currency, the word " shekel " meaning what is
weighed (cf. chap, xxiii. 16). And as om of them opened his sack. They had
two sacks each, one for corn, another for feeding their asses, nose-bags or

176 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLII. 28-38.

vender in the inn, he espied his money ; for, behold, it was

28 in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren. My
money is restored ; and, lo, if is even in my sack : and their
heart failed the?n, and they were afraid, saying one to another,

29 What is this that God hath done unto us? And they came
unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told

30 him all that befell unto them ; saying, The man, wJio is the
lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of

31 the country. And we said unto him, We are true mcfi ; we

32 are no spies : we be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one
is not, and the youngest is this day Avith our father in the

33 land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of the country, said
unto us. Hereby shall I know that ye a7'e true me7i ; leave
one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the

34 famine of 3^our households, and be gone; and bring your
youngest brother unto me : then shall I know that ye ai'e no
spies, but that ye are true men ; so will I deliver you your
brother, and ye shall traffic in the land.

35 And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that,
behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack : and
when both they and their father saw the bundles of money,

36 they were afraid. And Jacob their father said unto them.
Me have ye bereaved of my children : Joseph is not, and
Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these

37 things are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father,
saying. Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee : deliver

38 him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. And
he said. My son shall not go down with you ; for his brother
is dead, and he is left alone : if mischief befall him by the
way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my grey
hairs with sorrow to the grave.

something equivalent. They had no need to open the corn sacks, for they had
provision for themselves, but the money was found in the provender or feeding
poke. Two words are used in the Hebrew, but the distinction between them
is precarious. When they saw the money, they said, What is this that God
hath done wito us ? With their sense of guilt, a sense of God's presence entered
their heart. In everything surprising, they are now ready to see the finger of
God. On reaching home they all found their money (ver. 35), and they were
afraid; because they feared a plot, that they might be convicted as thieves if
cleared of the accusation of being spies. Jacob (ver. 36) unreasonably accuses
his sons. He himself by sending Benjamin could release Simeon, but the loss
of Simeon does not touch him so nearly as the risking of Benjamin.
I. Why did Joseph not at once disclose himself^

XLIII. I-II.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 77

Chap, xliii. i, 2 And the famine was sore in the land. And it
came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they
had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go

3 again, buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him,
saying. The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye

4 shall not see my face, except your brother he with you. If
thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and

5 buy thee food : but if thou wilt not send him^ we will not go
down : for the man said unto us. Ye shall not see my face,

6 except your brother he with you. And Israel said. Wherefore
dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet

7 a brother ? And they said. The man asked us straitly of our
state, and of our kindred, saying. Is your father yet alive?
have ye another brother ? and we told him according to the
tenor of these words : could w^e certainly know that he would

8 say, Bring your brother dow^n ? And Judah said unto Israel
his father. Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go ; that
we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our

9 little ones. I will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou
require him : if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before

10 thee, then let me bear the blame for ever : for except we had

1 1 lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. And

2. Why did he not do so, tvhcn he sazu that they acknotvledged that their

cruelty towards him zvas their greatest sin, and were sorry for it ?
What else is needed for complete repentance ?

3. In what circumstances are disguise and acting a part justifiable ?

4. Trace the points in the brethren's condition zvhick suggested to them their

oioti conduct to Joseph, and which conscience seized tipon as brijigingan
exact retribution.

5. Present the two sides of fosepKs conduct, enumerating on the one side

the particula7-s in which he played apart, treating them roughly, and
on the other the signs of his tender love.

Jacob sends his Sons a Second Time to Egypt. — 1-14. Jacob had made
up his mind to send no more to Egypt, but God's providence quietly and
without haste brings God's purpose to pass. He is at last compelled to say :
Go again, buy j(s a little food. But Judah spake, etc. Judah had influence in
the family, and was always ready to speak (cf. chap, xxxvii. 26), But Jacob
was unwilling to listen to reason, and said (ver. 6) : Wherefore dealt ye so ill
with me, etc. This petulant accusation was wrung from Jacob by the bitter
prospect he had of being left without one of his twelve sons by him, and by the
possibility of losing them all. There are few men who would not have
similarly given way in such circumstances. And they said {vtx. 7). Although
in the preceding narrative these questions of Joseph do not appear, Judah
may now be giving in full what was before condensed. We need not suppose
he was inventing in order to excuse himself and the rest. Jacob at length yields

lyS THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLIII. I2-T9.

their father Israel said unto thein, If // must he so now, do
this ; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and
carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little

12 honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds. And take double
money in your hand : and the money that was brought again
in the mouth of your sacks, carry // again in your hand ; per-

T 3 adventure it was an oversight : take also your brother, and

14 arise, go again unto the man: and God Almighty give you
mercy before the man, that he may send away your other
brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I

1 5 am bereaved. And the men took that present, and they took
double money in their hand, and Benjamin ; and rose up, and
went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.

16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the
ruler of his house. Bring these men home, and slay, and make

1 7 ready ; for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the
man did as Joseph bade ; and the man brought the men into

18 Joseph's house. And the men were afraid, because they were
brought into Joseph's house ; and they said. Because of the
money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we
brought in ; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall

19 upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. And they

and resolves to do what he can to propitiate the Egyptian — carry down a
present, little thinking how the fragrance of these fruits would recall to Joseph
the days of his boyhood and the meadows of Canaan. Only the corn crop can
have failed. Balm, spices, myrrh (see on chap, xxxvii. 25); honey, debash,
"a decoction of the juice of the grape, which is still called dibs, and which
forms an article of commerce in the East." Van Lennep says it takes the
place of sugar, and Russell says it is still imported into Egypt from Hebron,
300 camel-loads going down annually. Double, i.e. fresh, additional money.
He sends them away with a prayer (ver. 14), God Almighty give yott. While
the name El Shaddai shows that this prayer was not a mere thoughtless
utterance, it cannot be said to be a very hopeful prayer. Nor can the words
of resignation which follow be well construed as indicating marked faith and
piety. The Talmud expands the prayer and adds a letter which Jacob is
supposed to have sent, bespeaking the favour of the great Egyptian Unknown
for his sons.

Their Second Reception. — 15-c4. And when Joseph sa^o Benjamin . . .
dine with me at noon. In hot countries, the best half of the day's work is tlicn
over. The dinner hour tends to become later when men become luxurious and
dine so as to make work impossible after. But far from being encouraged by
this hospitality, the men were afraid {vtx. 18). On the fear manifested by the
brethren, Robertson remarks : "It is the worst penalty of a deceitful and
crooked disposition that it always dreads being overreached." But it seems
partly to be attributable to Oriental feeling. Roberts {Oriental Illustrations,

XLIII. 20-32.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 79

came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they com-

20 muned with him at the door of the house, and said, O sir,

2 r we came indeed down at the first time to buy food : and it

came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our

sacks, and, behold, evety man's money ivas in the mouth of

his sack, our money in full weight : and we have brought it

2 J again in our hand. And other money have we brought down

in our hands to buy food : we cannot tell wlio put our money

23 in our sacks. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not : your
God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in
your sacks : I had your money. And he brought Simeon

24 out unto them. And the man brought the men into Joseph's
house, and gave thejn water, and they washed their feet ; and

25 he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the
present against Joseph came at noon : for they heard that
they should eat bread there.

26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present
which 7uas in their hand into the house, and bowed them-

27 selves to him to the earth. And he asked them of t/ieir
welfare, and said. Is your father well, the old man of whom

28 ye spake ? is he yet alive ? And they answered, Thy servant
our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed

29 down their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up
his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mothers son,
and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake
unto me ? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.

3D And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his
brother : and he sought where to weep ; and he entered into

3 1 his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and

32 went out, and refrained himself, and said. Set on bread. And
they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves,

p. 49) says : " A more natural picture of the conduct of men from the country,
when taken into the house of a superior, cannot be drawn. When they are
tolJ to go inside, they at once suspect that they are about to be punished or
confined." They protest to the steward that they are innocent (vers. 20-22).
The steward consoles them, and he brought Simeon out. The truest way to
reassure them, as vSimeon would tell them how well he had fared in his deten-
tion. But when face to face with his own brother ]5enjamin, Joseph's feeling i
overcame him : his bo7uels did yearn upon his brolher. We now say "heart,"
referring the emotion to another physical organ (cp. influence of anxiety on
liver, of nervou-.nes.5 on kidneys, of sudden shock on the heart ; and ihj
reactions). And titey set on jor Jiivi by himself (ytx. 32). Herodotus (ii. 41)
s.iys that "no native of Egypt, wlielher man or woman, will give a Greek a
kiss, or use the knife of a Greek, or his spit, or his caldron," etc. Joseph

l8o THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xLIII. 33-XLIV. 8.

and for the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves :
because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews ;

33 for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they
sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright, and
the youngest according to his youth : and the men marvelled

34 one at another. And he took and sent messes unto them
from before him : but Benjamin's mess was five times so
much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with
him.

Chap. xliv. i And he commanded the steward of his house,
saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can

2 carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. And
put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the
youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to

3 the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning
was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

4 And when they were gone out of the city, a7id not yet far off,
Joseph said unto his steward. Up, follow after the men ; and
when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore

5 have ye rewarded evil for good ? Is not this // in which my
lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have

6 done evil in so doing. And he overtook them, and he spake

7 unto them these same words. And they said unto him,
Wherefore saith my lord these words ? God forbid that thy

8 servants should do according to this thing. Behold, the
money which we found in our sacks' mouths we brought

sat apart, owing to his rank. Cp. Shylock in Merchant of Venice, i. 3 : "I
will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so
following, but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you."
And they sat before him (ver. 33). The Egyptians sat at meals, as did the
Greeks in the Homeric times. ' ' With the increase of luxury [in Greece] men
came to lie, resting on their elbows, whereas children and respectable ladies,
if they dined with men at all, were always required to sit, and at separate
tables from the men " (Mahaffy's Old Greek Life, p. 73). They were directed
to their places by Joseph himself, for they marvelled at being arranged accord-
ing to their ages. The custom of giving large portions as a mark of distinction
is largely illustrated in Scripture. [Illustrative passages from classical authors
may be seen in Doughty 's Analecta.l Did he markedly favour Benjamin in
order to see if the rest were jealous as they had been of his coat ?

Dismissal and Arrest of the Brethren. — 1-13. Joseph plots to
retain Benjamin ; and to effect this he secretes his divining cup in his brother's
sack. That Joseph himself practised divination by cup is not a necessary
inference : this may have been merely a part of the disguise he had assumed.
The divination referred to was practised by filling the vessel with water and

XLIV. 9-21.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. iSl

again unto thee out of the land of Canaan : how then should
9 we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold ? With whom-
soever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we
r o also will be my lord's bondmen. And he said. Now also let
it be according unto your words : he with whom it is found

1 1 shall be my servant ; and ye shall be blameless. Then they
speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and

1 2 opened every man his sack. And he searched, and began at
the eldest, and left at the youngest : and the cup was found

13 in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their clothes, and laded

14 every man his ass, and returned to the city. And Judah and
his brethren came to Joseph's house ; for he ivas yet there :

1 5 and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said
unto them, What deed is this that ye have done ? wot ye not

1 6 that such a man as I can certainly divine ? And Judah said.
What shall we say unto my lord ? what shall we speak ? or
how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the
iniquity of thy servants : behold, we are my lord's servants,

1 7 both we, and he also with whom the cup is found. And he
said, God forbid that I should do so : but the man in whose
hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant ; and as for

18 you, get you up in peace unto your father. Then Judah
came near unto him, and said. Oh my lord, let thy servant,
I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine
anger burn against thy servant : for thou art even as Pharaoh.

19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a

20 brother? And we said unto my lord. We have a father, an
old man, and a child of his old age, a little one j and his
brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his

21 father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Brincj

observing how the light shone upon it, and the figures which seemed to
be formed ; or by throwing into it pieces of gold or silver, or carved gems,
and observing them. Sometimes, it seems, an audible voice was expected
to give the oracle. Kitto {D. B. Ilhist.) quotes an answer given by an Arab
chief to the traveller Norden : "I know what sort of people you are. I
have consulted my cup, and have found in it that you are from a people of
whom one of our prophets has said — 'There will come Franks under every
pretence to spy out the land ! ' " Joseph's plot succeeds better than he
expected. He regains all his brethren, for when Benjamin is arrested, they
laded every man his ass, and returned to the city (ver. 13). This deter-
mination to stand by the apparently guilty Benjamin showed they were not
the same men as they had been when they sold Joseph. The test is perfect.

Judah's Defence OF THE Brethren.— 14-34. In this beautiful speech

l82 THE BCOK OF GENESIS. [XLIV. 22-34.

him down unto me, that I may set muie eyes upon him.

22 And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father:

23 for 2/ he should leave his father, his father would die. And
thou saidst unto thy servants. Except your youngest brother

24 come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. And it
came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant my father,

25 we told him the words of my lord. And our father said. Go

26 again, and buy us a litde food. And we said, We cannot go
down : if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go
down : for we may not see the man's face, except our youngest

27 brother be with us. And thy servant my father said unto us,

28 Ye know that my wife bare me two soiis : and the one went
out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces ; and I

29 saw him not since : and if ye take this also from me, and
mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my grey hairs with

30 sorrow to the grave. Now therefore, when I come to thy
servant my father, and the lad be not with us ; seeing that

31 his life is bound up in the lad's Hfe ; it shall come to pass,
when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die :
and thy servants shall bring down the grey hairs of thy

32 servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant
became surety for the lad unto my father, saying. If I bring
him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father

33 for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide
instead of the lad a bondman to my lord ; and let the lad go

34 up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father,
and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil
that shall come on my father.

cf Judah's there seems nothing requiring explanation. No one can fail to be
.noved by its singular pathos.

1. Caste. Give tJic original meaning of (lie 7vord. Shoio hotu a species of

caste exists in hereditary professions, trades, etc. Cp. non-intcr-
marriage of certain tribes, and of some fshing populations. J.'s
religions significance in India.

2, Divination. Natural craving to hnom the future and the Jinseen.

Illustrate the various modes of divining, by birds, by rods, by
cxafnining the entrails of sacrificed animals, etc. Give instances of
the traces borne by our oivn language op these practices : auspices,
inaugurate, etc.

2. IVhat age was Benjamin at this time, and what fami'y had he ?

4. Shota the full signifcance of the refusal of the bretJircn to abandon
Benja7nin, both as satisfying Joseph and as proving the depth of their
repentance ; and further, as proving the prepa^-edness ofI:i'aelfor the
education to be received in Egypt.

XLV. 1-8.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1S3

Chap. xlv. i T!ien Joscpli could not refrain himself before all
them that stood by him ; and he cried, Cause every man to
go out from me. And there stood no man with him while

2 Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud : and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph : doth my
Lither yet live ? And his brethren could not answer him ; for

4 tliey were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto
his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came
near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold

5 into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves that ye sold me hither; for God did send me

6 before you to preserve life. For these two years Jiath the
famine been in the land : and yet there are five years, in the

7 which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth,

8 and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was

5. '''^ Jacob zoas ai last compelled lo yield (0 the force of circuvisla7ices ;
though his heart seemed to break, he tore Benjaviiii from his fond
embrace, and confided him to the care of ftidcih. He finally
conquered himself; he achieved the crowning victory over the
tueakness of his nature. Jacob zuas at length entirely Israel ; his
internal training thus reached the last stage . . . the fourth and
happiest period of his life, undisturbed enjoyment and peace, then
aivaitcd him. " Criticise this passage.

JOSKPH MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO HIS BRETHREN, AND
SENDS FOR HIS FATHER (CHAP. XLV.).

Joseph REVEALS Himself. — 1-lb.— Then Joseph . . . Caicse every man
to go out. "There are some persons who rather love to have witnesses of
iheir various feelings, and feel no sense of shame when they have given
utterance to anything emotional before others. By these means feelings
become vulgarized, weak, and frittered away " (Robertson). And he tvept
ah ud, tears of deep emotion and excitement in which joy was in excess of
every other feeling. Sorrow is by no means the only fountain of tears. At
once Joseph assures his brethren of his forgiveness (ver. ^) '. be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves. The teacher will point out why there was no
danger in relieving these men of the burden of their guilt. What makes it
safe to assure the penitent that God can bring good out of his wrong-doing?
The still more explicit statement of ver. 8 should also be justified. Earing
(ver. 6) is ploughing [cf. Latin a7-are\ ; the earth being that which is
ploughed. [The teacher will explain the origin of the words "field,"
"heaven," "harvest;" and give the other passages in Scripture where
" earing " occurs.] God sent me before you to preserve you {yzx. 7). Observe
the provklence : had Joseph not been sold, thousands of Egyptians would

1 84 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLV. 9-19.

not you that sent me hither, but God : and he hath made me
a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler
9 throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up
to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph,
God hath made me lord of all Egypt : come down unto me,

10 tarry not : and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and
thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy
children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that

1 1 thou hast : and there will I nourish thee ; for yet there are
five years of famine ; lest thou, and thy household, and all

12 that thou hast, come to poverty. And, behold, your eyes see,
and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth

13 that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all
my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen ; and ye shall

14 haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his
brother Benjamin's neck, and wept ; and Benjamin wept upon

15 his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept
upon them : and after that his brethren talked with him.

16 And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying,
Joseph's brethren are come : and it pleased Pharaoh well, and

17 his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy
brethren. This do ye ; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto

18 the land of Canaan; and take your father, and your house-
holds, and come unto me : and I will give you the good of

19 the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Now

have died, and Jacob's house would, humanly speaking, have been exter-
minated. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, ' ' a name given to the
king's supreme councillor, such as the Orientals now call IVezzr, Vizier.
So Haman is called 'second father ' of Artaxerxes (Esth. iii. 13, LXX.)."
— Gesenius, Lex. Joseph desires that they all share his good fortune : Haste
ye . . . land of Goshen. R, S. Poole (Smith's Diet. art. " Goshen ") concludes
" that the land of Goshen lay between the eastern part of the ancient Delta
and the western border of Palestine ; that it was scarcely a part of Egypt
proper, was inhabited by other fugitives besides the Israelites, and was in its
geographical names rather Semitic than Egyptian ; that it was a pasture-land
especially suited to a shepherd people, and sufficient for the Israelites, w^ho
there prospered, and were separate from the main body of the Egyptians."
But it is doubtful whether Joseph meant the settlement to be permanent.
Ver. II indicates that he was content to take one step at a time, and had not
determined that Israel should settle in Egypt, but only that they should
remain till the famine was over.

The Brethren sent for Jacob. — 16-28. It speaks well for the popu-
larity of Joseph that the news regarding his brethren pleased PharaoJi ivell.
Notwithstanding that their country was little able to support any additional

XLV. 20-XLVI. I.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 185

thou art commanded, this do ye ; take you wagons out of the
land of Egypt for your Httle ones, and for your wives, and

20 bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for
the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

2 1 And the children of Israel did so : and Joseph gave them
wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and

22 gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave
each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave
three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner ; ten asses laden
with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with

24 corn and bread and meat for his father by the way. So
he sent his brethren away, and they departed : and he said
unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.

25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of

26 Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph
is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.

27 And Jacob's heart fainted, for he beHeved them not. And
they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said
unto them : and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had
sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived :

28 and Israel said, // is enough ; Joseph my son is yet alive : I
will go and see him before I die.

Chap. xlvi. i And Israel took his journey with all that he had,
population, the Egyptians were well pleased to gratify one to whom they
owed life in these years of dearth. Pharaoh's orders regarding them are
munificent (vers. 17-20). Also regard not your stuff. Whatever it might be
impossible to bring with them : heavy implements, cattle sheds and troughs,
and other fixtures, valuable to a pastoral people. And Joseph gave . . . each
man changes of raimejit, or, as we say, dress suits : such clothes as they
would put on for feasts and great occasions. Was there the slightest
possible allusion to the invidious coat of his own which lay at the root of all
this trouble ? So he sent them azvay . . . see that ye fall not out. As it
stands, this seems slightly satirical, as if even yet they might quarrel ; and as
a last word to them, it would rankle unpleasantly. But the words only
mean, " Do not give way to emotion," and are the last loving appeal of
Joseph that they should not reflect upon themselves nor upbraid themselves
any more ; and so perhaps make themselves afraid to come back again. Or,
as Kalisch suggests, he may have foreseen their fear about confessing to
Jacob their whole crime against father and son ; and he warns them not
to give way to this fear, and try to evade the overwhelming shame of
confession. In the narrative, however, there is no hint of this.

ISRAEL GOES TO EGYPT (CHAP. XLVI. 1-2 7).
The Migration.— 1-7. Atid Israel took his journey , . . and came ti}

l86 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xLVI. 2-1 5.

and came to Beer-sbeba, and offered sacrifices unto the God

2 of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions
of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here a77i

3 I. And he said, I a/;i God, the God of thy father : fear not
to go down into Egypt ; for I will there make for thee a great

4 nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt ; and I will also
surely bring thee up agaiji : and Joseph shall put his hand

5 upon thine eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba : and
the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little
ones, and their wives, in the wagons wliich Pharaoh had sent

6 to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods,
which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into

7 Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him : his sons, and his
sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters,
and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.

8 And these are the names of the children of Israel, which
came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons : Reuben, Jacob's first-

9 born. And the sons of Reuben ; Hanoch, and Phallu, and

10 Hezron, and Carmi. And the sons of Simeon : Jemuel, and
Jamin, and Chad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son

11 of a Canaanitish woman. And the sons of Levi ; Gershon,

12 Kohath, and Merari. And the sons of Judah ; Er, and Onan,
and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah : but Er and Qnan died
in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron

13 and Hamul. And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah,

14 and Job, and Shimron. And the sons of Zebulun ; Sered,

15 and Elon, and Jahleel. These be the sons of Leah, which she
bare unto Jacob in Padan-aram, with his daughter Dinah : all
the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.

Dccr-sheba. Journeying from Hebron to Egypt, he would naturally pass
through Beer-sheba ; and as it lay on the edge of the wilderness, it was the
natural place to commit himself solemnly to God (cf. Gen. xxi. 33, and
xxvi. 23). This new revelation of Himself to Jacob (vers, 2-4) may be
compared with the prediction to Abraham (chap. xv. 13). / zvill go down
unth thee . . . and Joseph shall, etc. As we should say, You Avill die in
Joseph's arnis. Virgil makes it an aggravation of grief to the mother of
Euryalus that she "might not close his glassy eyes, his limbs compose."
[Various ideas of mitigating the pains and gloom of death among various
races: decent burial, etc.] This prediction of Jacob's death is not con-
tradictory of the previous clause, in which he is addressed as representing
the house of Israel.

Register of the Persons who migrated.— 8-27. About this register,
observe (ist) that, in order to make up the number t,t, mentioned in vev. 15,

KLVI. 16-28] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 187

16 And tlie sons of Gad ; Ziphion, and Ha^;]^', Sliuni, and Ezbon,

I 7 Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. And the sons of Asher ; Jimnab,

and Ishiiah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister : and

18 the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel. These are the
sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and

19 these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls. The sons of

20 Rachel, Jacob's wife; Joseph, and Benjamin. And unto Joseph
in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim,
which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare

21 unto him. And the sons of Benjamin ivere Belah, and
Bccher, and Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim,

22 and Huppim, and Ard. These ai-e the sons of Rachel, which

23 were born to Jacob : all the souls were fourteen. And the

24 sons of Dan; Hushim. And the sons of Naphtali ; Jahzeel,

25 and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem. These are the sons of
Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter ; and she

26 bare these unto Jacob : all the souls wei-e seven. All the
souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his
loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore

27 and six; and the sons of Joseph, which were born him in
Egypt, were two souls : all the souls of the house of Jacob,

28 which came unto Egypt, were threescore and ten. And he
sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto

Jacob himself must be counted in ; {2d) that the number given by
Stephen (Acts vii. 14), 75, he derived from the LXX., which enlarges the
list here given to that amount ; (3d) that the mention of Shaul being the
son of a Canaanitish woman indicates that marriage with the Canaanites was
exceptional: whence then the wives of Jacob's sons? (4th) that only two of
the daughters of Jacol) or of his sons are mentioned, which shows that the
register is a select list ; (5ih) that Benjamin, although fourteen years younger
than Joseph, and accordingly only 23 years old at the date of this emigration,
is represented as the father of ten sons, of Avhom apparently two were
grandsons (cp. Num. xxvi, 40), which shows that the list is not literally a
register of the very persons who at that time composed Jacob's household, but
is a record of those who became heads of families in Israel, whether they were
actually born at the time of the migration, or after Kgypt was entered.
["The genealogical lists of the Bible are national and ethnographic rather
than personal "... this one being " the reflex of the actual distribution of
the Hebrew families in the author's time." — Kalisch, who shows that what
these lists thus lose in literal accuracy they gain in historical importance.]

JACOB'S ARRIVAL AND SETTLP:MENT IN EGYPT

(chap. xlvi. 28-XLVii. 12).

Arrival of Israel in ErvpT.— 2S-C4. And he sent Judah, who thus
appears again prominent among the brethren, ^c? direct his face, i.e. to get

l88 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLVI. 29-XLVlI. 3.

29 Goshen ; and they came into the land of Goshen. And
Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel
his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him ; and

30 he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And
Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen

31 thy face, because thou art yet alive. And Joseph said unto
his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and
show Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my
father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come

32 unto me; and the men are shepherds, for their trade hath
been to feed cattle ; and they have brought flocks, and their

33 herds, and all that they have. And it shall come to pass,
when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your

34 occupation? That ye shall say. Thy servants' trade hath
been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we
and also our fathers : that ye may dwell in the land of
Goshen : for every shepherd is an abomination unto the
Egyptians.

Chap, xlvii. i Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said,
My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds,
and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan ;

2 and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took
some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto

3 Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren. What is your
occupation ? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are

instructions from Joseph wliich might enable him to bring Jacob into the
place where he could settle. These instructions are given (vers. 31-34).
Joseph thus instructed his family, in order that they might be as much as
possible secluded, so that during their residence in Egypt they might retain
their distinctive customs and their individuality. Shepherds are represented
on the Egyptian sculptures "lame or deformed, dirty, unshaven, and even of
a ludicrous appearance ; and often clad in dresses made of matting, similar in
quality to the covering thrown over the backs of the oxen they are tending "
(Wilkinson, And. Egypt, ii. 175). "The Egyptians are divided into seven
distinct classes — the priests, the warriors, the cowherds, the swineherds, the
interpreters, and the boatmen " (Herodotus, ii. 164). Duncker {Hist. i. 199)
is of opinion that the shepherds were abominated because of their nomadic
character, which made them less subject to the strict rules of life which the
ancient Egyptians followed. Swineherds were despised because the animal
was reckoned unclean. But it must be owned that no quite satisfactory
explanation has been given of the hatred of shepherds ; probably the
invasion of the shepherd-kings from which Egypt had suffered had something
to do with it.

Tacob's Interview with Pharaoh— 1-10. Pharaoh acted as Joseph

XLVII. 4-12.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 89

4 shepherds, both we, and also our fathers. They said, more-
over, unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come ;
for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks ; for the
famine is sore in the land of Canaan : now therefore, we
pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy

6 brethren are come unto thee : the land of Egypt is before
thee : in the best of the land make thy father and brethren
to dwell ; in the land of Goshen let them dwell : and if thou
knowest a7iy men of activity among them, then make them

7 rulers over my cattle. And Joseph brought in Jacob his
father, and set him before Pharaoh : and Jacob blessed

8 Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou ?

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my
pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years : few and evil
have the days of the years of my life been, and have not
attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers

10 in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh,

1 1 and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed 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 Rameses,

12 as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his
father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with
bread, according to their families.

had anticipated. He was also struck with Jacob's venerable appearance,
and asks him, IIoiu old art tJioti ? Jacob replies, Fczu and evil, etc. Lady
Dufif Gordon says, "Old Jacob's speech to Pharaoh really made me
laugh (don't be shocked), because it is so exactly like what a Fellah says to
a Pasha . . . Jacob being a most prosperous man, but it is manners to say
all that." But a man who had been compelled to flee his country, who had
been cheated out of the wife he loved, who had a master as exacting as Eurys-
theus, who could only by flight and stratagem regain his native land, and had
in his old age again to forsake it, might with strict truth say that his days had
been evil.

1. Israel sechidcd in Cos J ten, an ilhistration of the advantages God's people

may derive from the contejupt or dislike in which they may be held.

2. Trace throngh Scripture the idea of life being a pilgrimage. In tuhat

sense are Christians pilgrims ? {^Btinyan. ] Give derivation ^pilgrim-
a;c, saunterer, crusade. [Jernsalem, Mecca, Canterbury, Paray-la-
Moniale^ Rome^ Mohammedan custom. '[

190 THE BOOK OF GZNESIS. [XLVII. 1 3-2 1.

13 And there was no bread in all the land ; for the famine uas
very sore, so that the land of Egypt, and all the land uf

14 Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph
gathered up all the money that was found in the land of
Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they
bought : and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land
of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said,
Give us bread : for why should we die in thy presence ? for

16 the money faileth. And Joseph said, Give your cattle ; and

17 I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. And they
brought their cattle unto Joseph : and Joseph gave them bread
/// exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle
of the herds, and for the asses ; and he fed them with bread

18 for all their cattle for that year. When that year was ended,
they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We
will not hide // from my lord, how that our money is spent ;
my lord also hath our herds of cattle : there is not ought left
in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands :

19 wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our
land ? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land
will be servants unto Pharaoh ; and give lis seed, that we may

20 live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph
bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; for the Egyptians
sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over

21 them : so the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people,
he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of

josephs adjministratiqn during the famine
(chap, xlvii. 13-26).

Joseph's Administration — 13-26. — And there was no bread . . . and
Joseph gathered tip. He had bought during the years of plenty at unusually
low rates '^'^^ i''ow sold at famine prices, and thereby not only got back ail
the money he had laid out with interest, but a very great deal more. Next,
he gave them corn for their cattle, and then bought all the land. Joseph may
seem to have taken advantage of the people's distress, but it is to be remem-
bered that they were warned of the coming famine, and had as good opportunly
as he to make provision against it. Besides, the result of his administration
wa>, that they became tenants at a fair rental, instead of being proprieto: 5,
■which cannot be said to have been a heavy price to pay for being kept alive.
Evidently the Egyptians themselves did not think it was. The statement of
the text, in so far as it shows that the land now belonged to the king, is con-
firmed by Herodotus (ii. 109). And as for the people, he 7-einoved them . . .
from one end of Egypt to the other end thereof. Cresar tells us that the Germans

XLVII. 22-27.] HISTORY 01=" JOSEPH. T9I

2 2 Egypt even to the otJier end thereof. Only the land cf the
priests bought he not : for the priests had a portion assigned
them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh

23 gave them ; wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph
said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day
and your land for Pharaoh : lo, here is seed for you, and ye

24 shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase,
that ye shall give the fifth /^;-/ unto Pharaoh ; and four parts
shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food,
and for them of your households, and for food for your little

25 ones. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives : let us find
grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this
day, that Pharaoh should have the Mth part ; except the land

27 of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's. And Israel
dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen ; and
they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied
exceedingly.

of his day allowed no man to cultivate the same allotment of lanl two years
running, but compelled him to go elsewhere (cp. Stubb's Cousiitut. li'ist. i.
12). It is possible that Joseph may have transplanted the people in order
that old usages and dangerous fraternities and associations might be broken
up, and the new order of things have a fair field, while the old proprietors
would more easily accept their position as tenants in districts where they were
unknown. But far more probably it means that throughout the whole land
the famishing people were gathered into and around the cities, in which large
stores of corn were laid up. Only the land of the priests botight he not ; for
the priests had a portion. "They consume none of their own property, and
are at no expense for anything ; but every day bread is baked for them of the
sacred corn, and a plentiful supply of beef and of goose's flesh is assigned lo
each, and also a portion of wine made from the grape." — Herodotus (ii. 37).

1. Aristotle (Polit. vii. 10) says: ^^ The expense of religions 7vor-]iip

should be defrayed by the tohole state. Of necessity, tJicrcfore, the land
ought to be divided into two parts, one of luliich should belong to the
community in general, the other to the individuals separately. " Criti-
cise this, [b) What are agrarian latos?

2. IVhat bearing has this account of Joseph^ s administration on the history*

of Israel? IV/iat analogies to our relation to Christ as redeemed
scj-vants are suggested by the narrative ?

3. What 7ms God's piirpose in bringing Israel into Egypt, zo/ien enounced^

and how fulfilled ?

192 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLVII. 28-XLVIIL 4.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years : so
the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die : and lie called
his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace
in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and
deal kindly and truly with me ; bury me not, I pray thee, in

30 Egypt : but I will lie with my fathers ; and thou shalt carry
me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place. And

31 he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear
unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed him-
self upon the bed's head.

Chap, xlviii. i And it came to pass after these things, that one
told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick : and he took with

2 him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And one told
Jacob, and said. Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee :

3 and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. And
Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at

4 Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto

JACOB, FEELING HIS END NEAR, BLESSES JOSEPH AND HIS TWO
SONS (chap. XLVII. 27-XLVin. 22).

Jacob trepares for Death. — 27-31. And the time dretu nigh . . .
bury me not in Egypt. The desire to be buried in one's native place is so
universal, that it is not necessarily due in Jacob's case to the belief that his
seed should inherit Canaan ; but it cannot be doubted that Jacob had this
belief, and that it now had its influence. [Com p. the duty of sons in this matter
among the Chinese and Hindoos. See also the Elcctra of Sophocles, 760,
1 1 34.] Israel bowed . . . bed's head. This is cited in Heb. xi. 21 in another
form. " He worshipped, leaning w^oxv the top of his staff" — a rendering which
was propagated by the LXX., and which has great attractiveness for some
minds, the old man sitting up in bed and steadying himself by the aid of the
staff of his long pilgrimage, now drawing to an end. The rendering of the
A. V. is probably correct, and represents Jacob as leaning back on his elbow
or bowing himself on his pillow to thank God, after having sat up to exact
the oath from Joseph. Lane {Mod. Egyp. i. 90) says that when engaged in
prayer, "the Muslim should station himself a few feet before a wall or the
like, or should place before him a 'sutrah,' which may be a staff stuck up-
right ... or his saddle, or his shoes, in order that no living being, nor any
image, may be the object next before him." He accordingly thinks this should
be rendered "towards the head of the staff" — but why "the head"?

Jacob blesses Joseph and his Two Sons— 1-22. To see his dying
father, Joseph took with liim his two sons, now upwards of twenty years old
(cp. xlvii. 28). And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son, which perhaps
implies that a visit from the busy statesman was rare. And Jacob said, God
Almighty, El Shaddai, appeared to me at Luz, that is, Bethel, and said . . ,

XLVIII. 5-13.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. I93

me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and
I will make of thee a multitude of people ; and will give this
land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.

5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were
born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee
into Egypt, are mine : as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be

6 mine. And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall
be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren

7 in their inheritance. And as for me, when I came from
Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way,
when yet there mas but a little way to come unto Ephrath :
and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath ; the same is

8 Beth-lehem. And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said,

9 Who are these ? And Joseph said unto his father, They are
my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he
said. Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.

10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so thatYvQ could
not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed

1 1 them, and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I
had not thought to see thy face ; and, lo, God hath showed

12 me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from
between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to

13 the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his
right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his
left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near

/ will multiply thee : Abraham and Isaac were more severely tried than Jacob
in connection with this part of the promise. Years and years passed away,
and one tent was still quite sufficient to contain the whole family. And nozcj
thy two sons . . . as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be viine. This does not
mean that Ephraim and Manasseh were to occupy the first places among Jacob's
sons, but merely that they, the grandsons, were to inherit as sons. Joseph
had been as a father bringing new life to his brethren, and his sons are there-
fore put on a level with the immediate sons of Jacob. Joseph thus receives
the first-born's double portion. And thy issue zvhich thou begettest after than.
. . . shall be called (ver. 6), shall not give their names to tribes, as Ephraim
and Manasseh are to do, but shall themselves be included in the tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh. And as for me . . . Rachel died ; the old man's
mind naturally wanders back from the grandchildren to the loved mother of
their father.

And Israel beheld JosepWs sons (ver. 8), beheld them dimly (ver. 10), saw
there were some persons present. But had he seen them distinctly he might
not have known them in their Egyptian dress. Possibly he had not seen them
for years ; indeed, ver. 1 1 might almost be interpreted as meaning that he now
saw them for the first time, though that is unlikely. And Joseph took them
both . . . toward Israel's ri^hi hand, the hand of greater honour. And Israel

194 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLVIII. 14-22.

14 unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid
// upon Ephraim's head, who 7uas the younger, and his left
hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for

15 Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, and
said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did
walk, the God which fed me all my Hfe long unto this day,

16 the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;
and let my name be named on them, and the name of my
fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a

17 multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw
that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him : and he held up his father's hand, to

18 remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And
Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father : for this is the

19 first-born ; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father
refused, and said, I know //, my son, I know //.• he also shall
become a people, and he also shall be great ; but truly his
younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall

20 become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that
day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make
thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh : and he set Ephraim

21 before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I
die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto

22 the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one
portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of
the Amorite with my sworcl and with my bow.

stretched out his j-i^ht hand and laid it upon Epiirainis head, perhaps moved
by the circumstance that both he himself and Joseph were younger sons ;
perhaps by the feeling that the blessing he bequeathed was not to run accord-
ing to natural law. And he blessed Joseph , . . the God which fed me, as a
shepherd his sheep. It was the word familiar to the lips of Jacob as to David's.
The Anget (c\). Gen. xxviii. 12, xxxii. i) luJiicJi redeemed me, acted as Goel.
Jacob refused to yield to Joseph's remonstrance, ver. 17 ; and predicted for
Ephraim greater distinction. This tribe became the more powerful of the two,
and its name was commonly used as equivalent to Israel after the separation
from Judah. To Joseph, Jacob gave one portion above thy brethren. Jacob
gave Shechem to Joseph (John iv. 5), and there Joseph was buried (Josh. xxiv.
32). And as the word here translated portion is Shechem, it is supposed
that we have here one of those plays upon words, or puns, of which the
Hebrews were so fond. The word means a shoulder or ridge of land. Jacob
further describes the portion in the words, tuhich I took . . . tvith my bo7u.
This can scarcely refer to the slaughter of the Shechemites by Simeon and
Levi ; but if not to that, then to what ?

I. Jacob's faith ; he being himself a pensioner, yet by his faith in God
possesses Canaan and all right to bless other men.

XLIX. 1-5.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. I95

Chap. xlix. i And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather
) ourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall

2 befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and
hear, ye sons of Jacob ; and hearken unto Israel your father.

3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning
of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency

4 of power : unstable as water, thou shalt not excel ; because
thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it :

5 he went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren ;

2. Joseph'' s faith ; he brings his sons to receive the blessing of the old

shepherd, although the highest posts in Egypt were open to tliem.

3. Shorv how this treatment of Ephraini and Manasseh familiarized Israel

7oith the idea of adoption.

4. Give instances from Scripture and fi oin life of the crossed hands of

blessing.

5. Joseph, who could teach the Egyptian senators wisdom, standing here at

a loss to comprehend his father, and sngoesting in his ignorance futile
coj-rectiojis, is a picture of the incapacity of natwal affection to rise to
the wisdom of God^s love, and of the finest natural discernment to
anticipate God's purposes.

6. Trace the word Gocl in Scripture, showing how its significance deepened.

See Lev. xxv. 25 ; Ruth iv. 4, 6; Ex. vi. 6; Num. xxxv. 19; Job
xix. 25.

JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS (CIIAP. XLIX.).

The Dying Patriarch summons his Sons.— 1, 2. And Jacob called
.... /;/ the last days, lit. in the sequel of days, in time to come. Jacob's
knowledge of his sons prepares him for being the intelligent prophet by whom
God predicts in outline the future of His Church. In Jacob's case there is a
supernatural foresight ; but the vision of the future always seems appi-opriate
in the dying. Socrates in his Apology (p. 39) says: " I am about to die, and
that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power." The same
idea is expressed in the lines —

" The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decayed.
Lets in new light thrv^ugh thinks that time hath made."

Reuren. — 3, 4. Unstable as boater, lit. bubbling over as water, denoting
a boiling, impulsive nature, all the energy of which evaporates in the hrst
glow and sinks when the fire is withdrawn. Or perhaps rather a nature
wholly without self-control, and whose passions raged ungovernably. The
ominous character of this utterance regarding Reuben is ascribed to the fact
stated in ver. 4 ; cp. for the significance of this action 2 Sam. xvi. 21 ; see
also Iliad, ix. 447. The tribe from an outstanding place gradually sank into
insignificance.

Simeon and Levi. — 5 7. Simeon and lev i are brethien, not more so by
blood than Judah and Issachar, but brethren in disposition and in crime.

196 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [xLIX. 6-12.

6 instruments of cruelty are in their habitations, O my soul,
come not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine
honour, be not thou united ! for in their anger they slew a

7 man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed
be their anger, for it was fierce ; and their wrath, for it was
cruel : I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise : thy
hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies ; thy father's

9 children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's
whelp : from the prey, my son, thou art gone up : he stooped
down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall

10 rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and

1 1 unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his
foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine ;
he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood

1 2 of grapes : his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white

Ijish-iiments of cruelty are in their habitations, a clause variously rendered
by scholars, but probably meaning either, their swords are instruments of
violence, or, their nuptial contract (was with) instruments of violence
(cp. chap, xxxiv.). 0 my soul, come not thou into their secret, or council (op.
xxxiv. 30). In their anger they slew a man, rather, men ; and in their self-
will they digged dozvn a wall, better, houghed oxen. Reuss advocates the
somewhat improbable interpretation, tJiey mutilated the bull, meaning the male
sex. Cursed be their anger .... scatter them in Israel (ver. 7). By the
time of the Conquest of Canaan (Num. xxvi. 14), Simeon had become the
weakest of the tribes ; in the blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii. ) no mention is
made of Simeon ; and when the land was distributed among the tribes, Simeon
received not a territory of their own, but rather a portion of Judah's lot. The
scattering of Levi assumed the complexion of a blessing by their appointment
to minister in sacred things.

Judah. — 8-12. Judah .... ///_;' brethren shall praise: the predomin-
ance of Judah had already begun, cp. chap. xliv. 14-34. In the word praise
there is an allusion to the meaning of his name, chap. xxix. 35. Thy fatJier's
children shall bow down before thee, which seems to invest him with the rights
(;f the first-born, forfeited by his elder brothers. Judah is a lion^s whelp
.... a picturesque description of the boldness and irresistible might of
Judah. The sceptre shall not depart — that is, the tribe of Judah shall enjoy
the kingly dignity or royal power — iuitil Shiloli come ; the word Shiloh means
"peace-making" or " peace-bringer." In the other passages where the
word occurs, it denotes the town where the ark was for some time stationed,
and it can scarcely be supposed that Jacob's sons understood it of a personal
deliverer. It might keep before them the idea that the aim of all ruling is
peace, and that peace would be the result of Judah's rule. The words have
generally been considered Messianic. [The subject is discussed in the Speaker's
Com??ientary,\. 22,2.1 Binding his foal unto the vine . . . . xvhite %vitk milk,

XLIX. 13-22.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. I97

13 with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; and
he shall be for an haven of ships : and his border shall be

14 unto Zidon. Issachar is a strong ass couching down between

1 5 two burdens : and he saw that rest was good, and the land
that it was pleasant ; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and

16 became a servant unto tribute. Dan shall judge his people,

17 as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the
way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so

18 that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy

1 9 salvation, O Lord. Gad, a troop shall overcome him : but

20 he shall overcome at the last. Out of Asher his bread shall

21 be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind

22 let loose: he giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful
bough, eve7i a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run

a poetical description of the fertility of Judah's lot, and of the abundance and
prosperity in which he should live.

Zebulun. — 13. Shall dwell at the haven .... a merely geographical
description.

Issachar. — 14, 15. Issachar is a strong ass; this animal fitly represents
the patient labour of an agricultural population. But see also Judg. v. 15;
I Chron. xii. 32. Ver. 15 describes the deterioration in the manly virtues
which is apt to succeed to a life of plenty and contentment.

Dan. — 16, 17. Ban shall judge, cp. chap. xxx. 6 ; also Judg. xv. 20.
Da/i shall be .... an adder, "a small snake about fourteen inches long and
one inch thick, lurking in the sand and by the wayside, very poisonous and
dangerous." Cp. Judg. xviii.

At this point is interpolated the remarkable exclamation : I have waited for
thy salvation, O Lord. Possibly Jacob having projected his thought forward
to the waidike times he has been speaking of, and seeing the futility even of
such help as Dan's, if God do not help, cries as from the midst of doubtful
battle, " I have waited," etc. Or possibly the mention of the serpent at the
heel of the warrior suggests the earliest promise, and makes the aged, long-
contending Jacob sigh for the end of strife. Or it may be merely the private
ejaculation of the exhausted dying man.

Gad.— 19. A troop shall overcome . ... at the last ; translate, troops shall
troop against him, but he shall troop on their retreat; see i Chron. xii. 8,
v. 18 ; Judg. x. From the position east of Jordan, occupied by the tribe of Gad,
it was exposed to attacks of the shifting predatory tribes of the neighbourhood.

AsHER. — 20. Out of Asher, or, as for Asher, his bread shall he fat, a blessing
of fertility.

Naphtali.— 21. Naphtali is a hind let lo^s-\, an image of a hero, active,
agile, and r.i].id in battle ; cp. Ps. xviii. 33, " He maketh my feet like hinds'
feet ; " also Judg. v. 18. But some scholars prefer the reading of the LXX. :
Naphtali is a graceful terebinth, which putteth forth goodly boughs.

Joseph, —22-26. Joseph is a fruitful bough, referring to the numerous

198 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [XLIX. 23-33.

23 over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot

24 at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob ; (from thence is the shepherd, the

25 stone of Israel :) ei'en by the God of thy father, who shall
help thee ; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth

2 5 under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the
blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of
my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills : they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown
of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall

2 3 devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. All
these are the twelve tribes of Israel : and this is it that their
father spake unto them, and blessed them ; every one

29 according to his blessing he blessed them. And he charged
them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my
people : bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the

33 field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of
Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan,
which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite

31 for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried
Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and

32 Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The purchase
of the field and of the cave that is therein 7iias from the

2,}) children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed,
and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

population of the tribes springing from Joseph. By a well, cp. Ps. i. The
archers .... God of Jacob : referring to the past history of Joseph. The marks
of parenthesis in ver. 24 should be removed, and the words " by the name of"
substituted for "from thence." The passage means that Joseph was " made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob ; by the name of the Shep-
herd, the Rock of Israel ; by the God of thy father." But the text is possibly
corrupt. For the title Shepherd, see chap, xlviii. 15, note. The various
blessings pronounced W'^ow ^o%q.^\\ frcvailcd . . . . uulo the 7itvwst bound of the
everlasting hills ; surpassing what Jacob himself had received, and rising as
high, or lasting as long, as the everlasting hills.

Benjamin. — 27. Shall ravin as a zvolf, referring to the w-arlike character
of the tribe.

Jacob's Will regarding his Burial, and his Death.— 29-33. He
commands his sons to bury him not in Egypt but in Canaan, with Abraham
and Isaac. And when Jacob .... he gathered uj) his feet. This indicates

L. I-IO.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 1 99

Chap. l. i And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon

2 him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants
the jDhysicians to embalm his father : and the physicians

3 embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him ; for
so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed : and
the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake
unto the house of Pharaoh, saying. If now I have found grace
in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, T die : in my grave
which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt
thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and

6 bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said,
Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

7 And Joseph went up to bury his father : and with him went
up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and

8 all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of
Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house : only their
little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the

9 land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots
lo and horsemen : and it was a very great company. And they

tlie regard to decorum and the desire to give as little trouble as possible, often
seen in dying persons. It indicates also the cheerful and composed re. igna-
tiim with which Jacob now withdrew from life and left the future to be evolved
without him.

1. Trace the fulfilment of these blessings in the history of the tribes, citing

passages which most distinctly correspond to Jacob's predictions.

2. Draw out the analogy between the characteristics of the sons of Jacob and

the qualities always found among nun and in the chtirch.

THE MOURNING FOR JACOB ; AND JOSEPH'S END (cHAP. L.).

Mourning for Jacob. — 1-13. And Joseph commanded his sei-vants the
physicians to embalm his father. The Egyptians were so famed for their skill
in medicine, that they were sometimes found attached to foreign courts as
physicians. "Each physician," says Herodotus (ii. 84), "treats a single
disorder, and no more ; thus the country swarms with medical practitioners."
He also tells us (ii. 86^ that " there is a set of men in Egypt who practise the
art of embalming, and make it their proper business." He fully describes
the I rocess. Muclr will be found that illustrates this chapter in Eber's Uaida,
vol. i. When Joseph went up lo Canaan to bury his father, there 7i<e7it up
all the servants of Pharaoh. Such pompous ceremonies were relished by the
Egyptians. Great men were buried in state. The insignia of his order or
office were carried before the body of the dtceased, and if he had held any
military comm.-nd, his war-chariot accompanied the procession. "After this

200 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [l. II-18.

came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan,
and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamenta-
tion : and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

1 1 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw
the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This zV a grievous
mourning to the Egyptians : wherefore the name of it was

1 2 called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. And his sons

1 3 did unto him according as he commanded them : for his sons
carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the
cave of the field of Machi^elah, which Abraham bought with the
field for a possession of a burying-place of Ephron the Hittite,

14 before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and
his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father,

15 after he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will per-
adventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil

16 which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died,

17 saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now,
the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin ; for they did unto
thee evil : and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the
servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when

18 they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell
down before his face ; and they said, Behold, we be thy

came the wailing women, hired for this purpose, according to the custom of
the East, and men with pahii branches, the servants of the deceased, and the
priests ; last of all followed the sarcophagus on a boat, for the soul of the
dead passed like the sun-god on a boat to the under world. The boat was
on rollers, and drawn by oxen " (Duncker, i. 75). They passed with the
remains of Jacob to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, i.e.
to the west of Jordan ; this passage using the terminology which the entrance
to the land from the forty years' wandering made current. And 7vhen . . . the
Canaanites sazv the mourning ; the equipages of the Egyptians astonished the
ruder inhabitants of Canaan, and must have given them a salutary impression
of the importance of Israel. Wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim,
The mourning of the Egyptians ; or, if differently pointed, The meadow qf
the Egyptians.

Joseph befriends his Brethren after Jacob's Death. — 14-21.

When Joseph's brethren sazu . . . the evil which we did unto him. This fear
felt by the brethren shows at least how dominant Jacob's character must have
been ; and shows also how difficult it is for men to believe themselves for-
given. And they sent a messenger . . . "Whether this command of their father's
was real or fictitious we have no means of knowing. Joseph wept when they
spake tuito him, pained, no doubt, to find that after the proofs he had given

L. 19-26.] HISTORY OF JOSEPH. 201

19 servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not ; for am I in

20 the place of God ? But as for you, ye thought evil against
me ; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as // is

2 1 this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye
not : I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he com-

22 forted them, and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt
in Egypt, he and his father's house : and Joseph lived an

23 hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children
of the third generation : the children also of Machir the son

24 of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And
Joseph said unto his brethren, I die : and God will surely
visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which

25 he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph
took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely

26 visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So
Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old ; and they
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

them of his kindness and sincerity he should still be distrusted. To be dis-
trusted seemed to be his fate through life. It is all the more to his credit,
that having so much to sour him, he should think with pity of his trembling
brothers.

Joseph's Dying Charge and Death.— 22-26. JosepJi lived an Jmndred
and ten years. Among the Egyptians this was the ideal length of life. In a
court poem addressed to Seti 11., the writer assures him : " Thou shalt dwell
no years on the earth." Pierret says it is the number of years invariably
adopted when a long and happy existence is sought in prayer. See Tomkins'
Notes on tJie Life of Joseph. And Joseph said tmto his bi-ethj-en, I die . . .
Cp, Heb. xi. 22. Joseph's adherence to the promise is most remarkable,
considering his position in Egypt. It may have become stronger as he
approached the termination of life. Ajid Joseph took an oath . . . ca?')y np
viy bones. He was not ambitious of a pyramid, or sculptured tomb recording
his deeds. " The Egyptians speak of the dwellings of the living as a lodging;
but of the tombs of the dead as eternal habitations, because the dead pass an
endless time in Hades. Hence they bestow less toil upon their houses ; but
their tombs they furnish in a most extraordinary manner " (Diodorus). So
Joseph died . . . and they embalmed him. "No nation has devoted so much
care and labour to the preservation of the corpses, whether of men or of
sacred animals, as the Egyptians. It was almost the first duty of the living
to attend to the dead " (Duncker, i. 74). The corpse was first put in a case
adapted to its shape ; on the breast the beetle of Ptah, or the open eye, the
symbol of Osiris, was figured. This case again was placed in two or more
coffins of costly wood, which were finally deposited, where it could be
afforded, in a granite sarcophagus.

1 . WJiat was the significance of the Egyptian practice of embalming ?_

2. Enumerate tlie various modes of disposing of t/ie decui^ and explain ilie

202 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [QUESTIONS.

ideas they represent. {^Cannibalism as a filial du'y ; Farsi expos ire
to birds : cremation, etc.]
3. Explain the influence ivhic/i Joseph's tmburicd coffin would exercise on
the children of Israel in Egypt.
How %uas the faith of Joseph shoivn at his death ; and hozu zcas his

4.

unselfishness shown 1

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