6th verse.

of Jacob." So Jacob and his people, and their plunder, reached Bethel.

This is the first enterprise of the shepherd kings, which gave them an indication of their own strength, and whose success stimulated their future career, and eventually led to their conquest of the entire land of Egypt. This subject will be treated of in its proper place. The previous military foray of Abraham had for accomplishment a special object in the recapture of Lot and his people. The attack of Shechem's city by Jacob's sons was accompanied by massacre, by plunder, and by carrying into captivity; and the remembrance of their success is afterwards not lost upon these warlike shepherds.

In Bethel, God, according to the words

10th verse. of the biblical narrative, appeared unto Jacob again, and bestowed on him the name of Israel, a name already conferred on him by the stranger who wrestled with him by night. Therefore as the wrestler had had the power of conferring the name of Israel upon him, and the wrestler was a human being, we may infer that the god, who on this occasion gave him the name of Israel, was an oracular announcement as from God, addressed to him through the instrumentality of a human being, clothed with sacer

11th & 12th verses.

thy loins."

14th verse.

dotal authority. He also blessed him, and amongst the number of his blessings, he promised "that kings shall come out of

Jacob, after God had talked with him, resorted to the accustomed polytheistic practice of setting up a pillar of stone;" and he

M

16th verse.

18th verse.

20th verse.

21st verse.

poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon." He then continued a short journey to Ephrath, or Bethlehem, where Rachel died in giving birth to a son, whom Jacob named Benjamin. Rachel was Jacob's favourite wife, and he marked the place where she was buried by a pillar. He continued to journey onwards, "and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar." It is here that Reuben committed adultery with Bilhah, his father's concubine: and although Israel knew of it, he does not appear to have construed it into an offence, for no punishment or a remonstrance even follows the act. Jacob himself was sufficiently lax in his observances with women; but we cannot expect from a man of his defective morals the demonstration of any high or ennobling qualities.

22nd verse.

At last Jacob arrived at Mamre, the place

27th verse. of Abraham's military fame, where his

father Isaac sojourned. This is the first mention made of any incident relating to his father, since his departure from him as an old man, blind and bedridden, some five and twenty or thirty years previously. It is true, he was not the favourite of his father; but a man, the oracularly selected of heaven, should be supposed to be a man at least distinguished by the social virtues. But we seek in vain for any demonstration of anxious inquiry, or of attempted intercourse by means of a messenger with his aged parents; and if his affection for his father was blunted by his father's indiscreet preference for his brother,

yet his duty to his mother, whose favourite he was, should have prompted his repeated filial inquiry touching her health and welfare.

The biblical narrative makes mention of

28th verse. his father's age, which was an hundred

29th verse.

and fourscore years; but not the slightest allusion is made as to their meeting, nor as to the mental condition in which Jacob found his father. The sacred record summarily and unceremoniously relates, "that 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." But we seek in vain for any expression of sorrow for his death, of respect for his memory, or even of mourning for his loss on the part of his sons. That he died and was buried constitutes the whole of the very concise information which is recorded by the sacred volume, of the departure of the second of the Patriarchs.

The settle

Seir.

verses.

Esau and Jacob were respectively rich, ment of Esau and their riches were more than that in the Mount they might dwell together; and the land 6th & 7th wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle;" that is, these warlike shepherds could not agree in the land which they burdened with their united weight, so that Esau who is Edom, the father of the Edomites, moved off to Mount Seir. The descendants of 9th to 19th Esau, who are styled dukes, are genealogically enumerated, as are also enumerated the genealogies of Seir the Horite, in whose land Esau settled. But as Esau is termed the father of the Edomites, we must

8th verse.

verse.

20th to 30th verse.

take for granted that an amalgamation of these kings and dukes recognized Esau as their head, in accordance with the concluding line of this chapter, which asserts that, "Edom is Esau, the father of the Edomites."

31st to 43rd

verse.

The descendants of Esau, having separated themselves from the branch of Jacob, maintained their dominion in the land of the Horites, and are the celebrated pagans of Edom.

24th verse.

The only interesting fact elicited by this chapter is the discovery of mules in the wilderness of Seir, which would go to establish an incident in natural history, namely, that this hybrid was generated from the natural promptings of the animals of the equine genus.

The history of Joseph. 1st verse.

Previously to entering upon the enumeration of the genealogies of Jacob, the sacred narrative suddenly abandons that section of sacred history and enters rather unexpectedly into the early history of Joseph.

Joseph was seventeeen years of age, 2nd verse. and was employed in tending the flock in company with his brethren, who were the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's concubines. He was the favourite of his father, because, according to the sacred narrative, he was the son of his old age. But this could not be the true reason, because his brother Benjamin was the son of his yet more advanced age, and therefore, if that were Jacob's motive, would entitle him to a

3rd verse.

stronger claim on his father's favour. We may take for granted, therefore, that Joseph had some other qualities which recommended him to his father's preference, and which acted so strongly on his affection as to induce his father to make for him a coat of many colours.

To Joseph was assigned the disagreeable office of being a spy upon his brothers' actions, and he reported to their father their evil conduct," and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report." Jacob had forgotten the disunion which had prevailed in his early life between himself and his brother from a similar demonstration of parental preference. A like consequence now ensued; Joseph is hated by his

4th verse.

5th & 6th

verses.

brethren.

brethren. This hatred was largely added to by two dreams which visited Joseph, the divulging of which was well calculated to increase the irritation of his

In the first dream, he and his brethren 7th verse. were binding sheaves in the field, and his sheaf arose and stood upright, whilst his brother's sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to his sheaf. His brothers rebuked him, and said, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? and they hated him yet more for his dream, and for his words."

8th verse.

9th & 10th verses.

66

In the divulgement of his second dream, he is taken to task, not only by his brothers,

but by his father. The dream consisted in the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, making obeisance to him." Having told it to his father, his