42nd verse.

43rd verse.

very well be made responsible for their safe custody. He then endeavoured to affix a charge upon Laban, and sanctimoniously asserts, that unless the God of his father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had protected him, Laban would probably have sent him away empty. Laban repels this insinuation with his customary honest frankness; he said, "Your wives, are they not my daughters; and your children and your flocks, do I not view them in the same light as though they were my own? What harm therefore could I possibly do unto my daughters, and to their children, which they have borne? Come, he said, 44th verse. and let us make a covenant, and let it be for a witness between me and thee."

45th verse.

46th verse.

47th & 48th

verses.

49th verse.

And Jacob took a stone, and adopted the customary pagan practice, to set it up for a pillar, and the attendants of Laban and of Jacob took stones and made an heap, and they made a sacred feast upon the heap, and Laban said, "This heap is a witness between thee and me this day. The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent, one from another, for if thou shalt behave ill to my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives besides my daughters, no man is a witness of thy conduct, God alone is witness betwixt me and thee." And Laban further said to Jacob, "Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt thee and me; this heap be one witness, and this pillar be one witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this

50th verse.

51st verse.

52nd verse.

53rd verse.

heap and this pillar unto me for harm. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their fathers, judge betwixt us." The union of the two gods of Abraham, and of Nahor, discovers an intimate resemblance between them. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. And early in the morning, Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them, and Laban departed, and

54th & 55th verses.

returned unto his place.

What a noble contrast is presented in this narrative between the conduct of the deceitful and prevaricating Jacob, and that of the honest and generous Laban! Jacob, on his departure from his home, sought, by a course of obloquy and of false accusation, to prejudice the minds of his wives against their father. The father, on the occasion of his tender leave-taking with his children and his grandchildren, does not indulge in one single recriminatory expression against Jacob, but he trustfully confides his daughters to his conjugal care, and binds him to his duty by a solemn oath, sworn before the God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, and the God of Isaac.

The Meeting

1st verse.

Jacob proceeded on his journey. He between Esau could not disembarrass himself from the and Jacob. duplicity which was natural to his character, and he deemed it prudent, on approaching the territory of Edom, where his offended brother Esau dwelt, to send messengers, in order to sound the tone of his feeling towards

3rd verse.

him.

4th verse.

His messengers were instructed to report to his brother, that he had continued to sojourn with Laban, and that he had acquired oxen, 5th verse. and asses, and flocks, and men-servants and women-servants, of which circumstances he had sent to apprise his brother, in hopes "he might find grace in his sight."

6th verse.

It

His messengers returned with the alarming intelligence, that his brother had set out to meet him, at the head of four hundred men. seems natural that this intelligence should inspire Jacob with the utmost terror and

66

7th verse. distress." From his having sent his messengers empty-handed, he entertained the hope his generous brother would suffer him to pass unmolested. It did not suggest itself to his sordid mind, that a present to his brother by the messengers would be an affectionate testimonial, if not a graceful means of propitiating a return of kind feeling. But upon receipt of the terrifying intelligence of the warlike demeanour of his brother (for Esau does not seem to have vouchsafed to him any verbal reply), he found he had no time to lose, and hastened to divide his company with their pastoral wealth into two herds, or bands, which were to precede

8th verse.

66 each other, so that if Esau smite one company, the other may probably escape." Having made this arrangement, and stimulated by the danger which, to his suspicious mind, appeared to menace him, he, for the first time in the course of his history, proceeded to pray for help from Him, from whom alone help could be obtained. He is touched with self-abasement; for he

9th verse.

10th verse.

prayed thus, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant." Selfexamination proved to him his own unworthiness; but his worldly principles will nevertheless exhibit them

selves, for he continued, "Deliver me, I 11th verse. pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me."

Judging of Esau by his own ungenerous nature, he cannot conceive but that his brother designed to take signal vengeance upon him. He then reminds God of his promise to him, when he said,

12th verse. "I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." It will be remembered that this promise was made to him during his dream in that "dreadful place" Bethel, and it was on this occasion that Jacob, under the influence of fear, vowed a vow, and in his turn made to God a conditional promise, that if he will continue to favour him and give him food and raiment, and cause him to return to his father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be his God.

13th verse.

14th verse.

The imminent approach of his brother prompted him to prepare his reluctant present, and he separated from his flocks "two hundred she-goats, and twenty hegoats, and two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, and thirty milk-camels with their colts, and forty kine, and ten bulls, and twenty sheasses, and ten foals, and he delivered them to his servants." But his wily principles predominate, and in order to produce a more

15th verse.

16th verse.

17th verse.

powerful effect upon his brother, he commanded his servants to pass on their road, and to put a space or interval betwixt drove and drove, so that when Esau should meet the foremost, and should ask him, saying, "Whom do you belong to? and whither are you going? they shall say, These be thy servant Jacob's: it is a present to my lord Esau. And so he commanded the second and the third, and all that followed the droves.

18th verse.

19th verse. 20th verse.

In this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. 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 afterwards I will see his face; peradventure he will accept

21st verse.

of me."

22nd verse.

24th verse.

25th verse.

He sent his wives and his maid-servants and his eleven sons forward on their journey, accompanied by his flocks and herds, and Jacob was left alone for the night. It was on this occasion that a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day, who could not prevail against him, but who touched the hollow of his thigh and caused the tendon to contract. Nevertheless Jacob refused to part with him until such time as the man should give him his blessing, and when at his request, Jacob made him acquainted with 28th verse. his name; the man replied, "Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

26th verse.

27th verse.

Much obscurity attaches to this story, which has acquired an importance not called for, nor merited by