702. Issachar is represented as a quiet and laborious man, and more willing to be subject to tribute than to make the requisite resistance to throw off a foreign power.

703. Dan was to judge his people. And the comparison of this son to a serpent, indicates his prevailing disposition; and his success against his enemies is attributed to cunning rather than to bravery.

704. Gad means a "troop," as Dan means a “judge," and hence these terms are brought into the patriarch's benediction. And it is declared that, though a troop might overcome this son, he would overcome at the last. Though a sudden and unexpected attack might secure against him a temporary triumph, his perseverance would at last prevail. Hence the prominent trait in his character may be here inferred.

705. That Asher would be skilful in cultivating the earth, and make it yield "royal dainties," is all that is here asserted, and all we have a right to infer.

706. Naphtali was active and eloquent. This, and nothing more, is asserted of him.

707. The blessing of Joseph is enlarged upon; but no one can doubt what its meaning is in most of what is said of him. A few expressions only are of doubtful significance. "From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." The nearest antecedent to this clause "from thence," is "Jacob;" and the meaning is, that from him, is the shepherd and the stone of Israel. Who more clearly sustained this relation, or filled this position than Joseph? He was emphatically the Shepherd of Israel; for he fed and nourished his brethren as a shepherd does his flock. He was the stone of Israel, or the rock, whose cool and refreshing shade was so grateful to the sheep as a protection from the scorching rays of the sun.

708. The blessings the patriarch was prepared to announce to Joseph, would far exceed any blessings that had been enjoyed by his progenitors. "Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills," is only an emphatic way of expressing the fullness of these blessings.

709. Benjamin is mentioned last as being the youngest; and the comparison of him to a wolf, may denote some

prominent trait in his character; but his dividing the spoil, indicates a generosity with which the other trait must not be made to conflict.

710. All this is called a "blessing;" but the name is evidently taken from the general character of such announcements, and not from the specific character of what was said to each individual. For some of these announcements would more properly be designated as maledictions than as blessings; others simply describe the persons they relate to; and others contain an expression of the patriarch's wishes.

If

711. If those who regard this passage as a veritable prediction of coming events, shall insist on the expression. that what is related was to take place in the last days, we reply that much of what is stated has no direct reference to the future; and what has such reference, is as applicable to the wishes of the patriarch that such things might occur, as to his prediction that they would occur. there is an appearance of the contrary, that appearance may be referred to the importance that was attached to one's wishes, uttered under such circumstances, by which those who were in a condition to execute them, were held bound, by the most solemn obligations, to do so. Hence I remark, that if we find some of the things here announced, actually carried out, this circumstance is more naturally referable to. this sense of obligation to execute the dying request of the patriarch, than to any inspiration that revealed to him the realities of the future.

712. We venture to affirm, that, aside from some particulars of fulfilment of the kind here alluded to, there is no just reason for regarding the passage as a divine prediction; for though some circumstances may be found in connection with the history of each tribe, that correspond in some measure with what is contained in the passage, yet a similar correspondence could have been searched out, if the announcement had, in each case, been quite different, or even opposite, from what it now is.

1. And Joseph fell upon his fa- | elders of his house, and all the ther's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

713. In addition to the special obligation he had placed Joseph under, to carry him to Canaan, and bury him

The

there, he here brings that matter before all his sons, and makes it his last and dying request. The place is described with the usual exactness and particularity. burial of Abraham in that place, and of Sarah, and of Isaac, and Rebekah, had been mentioned before; but the death and burial of Leah is here, for the first time, referred to; and it becomes evident that she did not go down with Jacob to Egypt, but must have died and been buried before he left that country. The reason why his favorite Rachel, was not placed in the same sacred cave, has been elsewhere suggested. She died too far away from Hebron to admit of this; for in Canaan the art of embalming the dead was not known, as it was in Egypt.

714. There can be no doubt that, "being gathered to his people," has reference to a future state of existence, and that the ancients expected a re-union with their departed friends after leaving this world.

The phrase does not refer to the burial in the cave of Machpelah, with Abraham, Isaac, &c., as some suppose; for Jacob was gathered to his people as soon as he died, while his burial did not take place for several months, and is a separate and distinct event, as the account clearly shows.

715. The practice of embalming the dead was known in Egypt, in the most ancient times, but is now unknown; nor is it important that it be restored, as we know of no practical advantage it could yield. Still, what we now régard as unimportant, and indeed what is now so, may yet be found to have been one of the providential events of ancient times for bringing down to our day the knowledge of many important facts that had otherwise been lost. Forty days were required for this process; or the forty days may be the time allowed after the work of embalming was performed, to test its perfection.

716. The mourning ceremonies lasted seventy days; but whether this includes the forty of embalming, we cannot certainly determine.

Seventy days of mourning were probably the usual term with the Egyptians. The seven days of mourning, after arriving in Canaan, may have been the patriarchal custom. Abel-mizraim means the "mourning of the Egyptians."

A threshing floor was situated on elevated ground; and it was therefore a fit place for the funeral festivities, as the mourning here referred to, may, more appropriately be called.

SECTION XXXIV. — DEAth of Joseph.

CHAP. L.

717. It was quite natural that the brethren of Joseph should entertain apprehensions for their safety, now that respect for the aged and venerable patriarch, would no longer restrain him from avenging their cruelty. "Thy father did command before he died," was the strongest appeal they could make; though the gracious disposition of Joseph, did not need any such appeal. That the father did so command we may presume, as it is reasonable to conclude that it would be a matter of conversation among