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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr>IV.</abbr> LIFE OF JACOB. <abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 28 through 35">xxviii.–xxxv.</abbr>   B.C. 1760<abbr title="through">–</abbr>1716.</h3> THUS solemnly assured of the Covenant Blessing, Jacob bade farewell to his mother, whom he was never to see again, and set out a solitary traveller for the Eastern uplands of Aram, where in place of a few days he was destined to spend many weary years, and amidst many trials and vicissitudes to find the same measure that he had measured to his brother measured also to himself. As the sun went down on the first evening of his journey, he reached the site of one of Abraham’s encampments, the stony soil37 near the Canaanite town of Luz. Taking of the stones that lay around, he put them for his pillow, and lay down to sleep. As he slept, there appeared to him a vision of the night. A ladder seemed to rise up from the bare ground on which he lay, and the top of it reached even unto heaven, and on it he saw angels ascending and descending. Moreover from above there came the Voice of God assuring the wanderer of His protection, renewing to him the promise of Abraham, and encouraging him with the hope of return from exile. Jacob awoke trembling and afraid, Surely, said he, the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not; how dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Then rising early, he took the stone that had formed his pillow, poured oil upon it, and set it up for a memorial, calling the spot Bethel, the House of God. At the same time he made a solemn vow that, if Jehovah would indeed sustain him in all his ways, and bring him back as He had promised, he would not only dedicate the spot as His House, but would give Him the tenth of all that he possessed (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 28">xxviii.</abbr> 18<abbr title="through">–</abbr>22). Then he continued his journey, and striking in a north-easterly direction, at length reached a well in Padan-Aram, round which were gathered three flocks with shepherds from Haran. As he was conversing with them, Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, approached, and with true courtesy Jacob went near, rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flocks. He then kissed the maiden, and told her he was Rebekah’s son, whereupon she ran and told her father, who welcomed Jacob to the tents of Haran. After a stay of one month, Laban proposed that the wanderer should serve him as a shepherd, to which Jacob assented, and promised to serve him seven years on condition of receiving the hand of Rachel. The seven years passed away, and he who had supplanted his brother twice, now learnt what it was to be supplanted himself. On the evening of his marriage Laban substituted her sister Leah in place of Rachel; nor was the deceit discovered till the following morning, when, in answer to Jacob’s reproaches, he informed him that it was not customary to give the younger before the elder daughter, and that if he would have Rachel he must serve seven more years for her. To these hard conditions Jacob assented, and in the course of time became the father of a numerous family, eleven sons and one daughter. Of these, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and a daughter Dinah, were born to Leah; Dan and Naphtali to Bilhah Rachel’s maid, whom the latter, finding she had no children, gave to Jacob as a secondary wife; Gad and Asher to Zilpah, Leah’s maid; and Joseph to Rachel. Shortly after the birth of this last son, Jacob having completed his time of service, proposed to Laban that he should return into his own country. But the latter, who had found by experience that his son-in-law had brought a blessing to his house, prevailed upon him to continue in his service, on condition of receiving a certain portion of the flocks as his hire. Six years longer, therefore, Jacob staid with his father-in-law, and prospered, and became himself the owner of numerous herds. But on Laban’s side the covenant was not strictly kept. Again and again he changed the wages of his faithful servant, till at length finding any longer stay rendered impossible by the envy and jealousy of his father-in-law and his sons, and encouraged by the Word of Jehovah, Jacob determined to set out for his native land. Accordingly, availing himself of Laban’s absence at a sheep-shearing, he gathered together all his goods, and with his wives and family crossed the river, the great river Euphrates (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 31">xxxi.</abbr> 21), and set his face towards the uplands of Gilead, on the east of Jordan. Three days after his departure, news of his flight reached the ears of Laban, who forthwith pursued after him a seven days’ journey, and overtook him as he was encamped in the range of Gilead. Warned by God in a dream against using any violence towards his son-in-law, Laban contented himself with reproaching him for his secret flight, hypocritically complaining that he had not given him time to send him away with due formality, and accusing him of stealing his household gods, the teraphim or images, which Rachel had taken and concealed in the camel’s furniture. After some altercation it was resolved to come to terms. Stones were gathered together, and set up as a Pillar of Witness, in token of their agreement that neither party to injure the other would cross over what was henceforth to be the boundary between their respective territories; after which Laban returned to his home in the distant East (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 31">xxxi.</abbr> 43<abbr title="through">–</abbr>55). Thus relieved from pressing danger, Jacob continued his journey westward. The twenty years of exile was over, and he was bound for his native land. As if to welcome him thither, and to remind him of the fulfilment of God’s Promise, the angels, whom he had seen twenty years before in vision at Bethel, now met him in two hosts, to commemorate which event he named the spot Mahanaim (two hosts). He was now on the brink of the river which divided him from his father’s home, and the remembrance of his brother Esau and the uncertainty of the reception he might meet with from him caused the deepest anxiety. Sending messengers into the land of Seir, he informed his lord Esau of his return from the land of exile, and of the success that had attended him. The messengers went, and returned with the alarming intelligence that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob’s distress was extreme, and he poured forth his whole soul in fervent prayer to God for protection. Then selecting a valuable present from his flocks and herds, he sent them to meet and propitiate his approaching brother, and at midnight dispatched his wives and sons, and all that he had, across the ford Jabbok, but staid himself behind to renew his earnest supplications for the Divine protection. Through the night, even to the breaking of the day, there wrestled with him One (<abbr title="Hosea">Hos.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 3, 4), whom he knew not, and whose Name he could not prevail upon Him to reveal, but who left upon him a palpable mark of their mysterious conflict, for He touched the hollow of his thigh so that it was out of joint. But in memory of this same crisis in his life another sign was given him. His name was changed. No more was he to be called Jacob, the Supplanter. During the long years of his weary exile old things had passed away, and all things were becoming new. Henceforth he was to be known as Israel, the Prince of God, for as a Prince had he power with God and with man, and had prevailed (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 32">xxxii.</abbr> 28). The site of this memorable conflict Jacob named Peniel (the face of God). When the day broke he looked up, and saw Esau approaching with his retinue. Thereupon in long procession he went forth to meet him; first advanced the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah with their children, then followed Leah and her children, last of all Rachel and Joseph. Jacob himself led the way, bowing to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother, who ran to meet him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him. The reconciliation was complete. After mutual converse, Esau agreed to leave to Jacob the land of his inheritance, and retired himself to the rugged mountains of Seir38, whence he and his descendants expelled the aboriginal tribes, and dwelt in their stead in the land henceforth known as Edom or Idumæa, a race of hunters living by the sword. Meanwhile Jacob continued his journey towards the valley of the Jordan, and for a while settled at Succoth, where he puts up booths (Succoth) for his cattle, as well as a house for himself. Thence he moved westwards, and crossing the Jordan, advanced into the very heart of Palestine, and pitched his tent before the city of Shechem. Of Hamor its chief he subsequently bought a portion of the rich plain, east of the city, and here he settled down, and, like Abraham before him, erected an altar to Jehovah. During his stay at this place, which appears to have been somewhat protracted, an unfortunate occurrence caused him for a time the greatest anxiety, and eventually drove him from the neighbourhood. One day, on the occasion, it is not improbable, of some local festival, Dinah the daughter of Leah, at this time from thirteen to fifteen years of age, went out to see the daughters of the land, and was dishonoured by Shechem, the Hivite chieftain, in whose territory the patriarch had settled. His father Hamor thereupon proposed that his son should pay a certain sum, by way of reparation, to her father and mother for the injury he had done to the maiden and marry her, and that this should be followed by a general intermarriage between the two peoples. To this proposition the brothers of Dinah assented, but demanded, as the single condition of the treaty, that the people of Shechem should consent to be circumcised. These terms were unwittingly accepted by the Shechemites, and three days afterwards, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s own brothers, at the head of their households, attacked the city, slew the chiefs and all the males in the place, spoiled it of every article of value it contained, and took captive even the women and little children. This bloody and treacherous act excited Jacob’s deepest indignation, and shortly afterwards, fearful lest the neighbouring tribes should gather together and slay him and all his house, in accordance with a Divine warning, he determined to repair to Bethel and dwell there and perform the vow, which till now he seems almost to have forgotten. The journey partook somewhat of a religious pilgrimage, and was preceded by a general purification on the part of the patriarch’s followers, and a collection of the teraphim or strange gods, which had been brought from Mesopotamia, and were now hidden under an oak at Shechem. Arrived once more at the scene of his wondrous Vision, Jacob erected an altar, which he called El-Bethel, and here he was again visited by the Almighty, who renewed to him his name of Israel, and assured him of his share in the blessings of the Covenant (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 35">xxxv.</abbr> 9<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15). During his stay at Bethel his intimacy with his father Isaac, who was still alive, appears to have been renewed; for we are told that Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and was buried under an oak, henceforth known as Allon-Bachuth, the Oak of Tears. But his departure from the same place a day’s journey southwards was saddened by a grievous trial. As he drew near to Ephrath, the Canaanitish name of Bethlehem, Rachel his favourite wife died in giving birth to a son, whom she called Ben-oni, the son of sorrow, but whom his father named Benjamin, the son of my right hand. Over her grave the sorrowing husband erected a pillar, and moving southward pitched his tent beside Edar, or the watch-tower of the flocks, and subsequently beneath the oak of Mamre before Hebron, where Isaac died, in the <abbr title="one hundred eightieth">180th</abbr> year of his age, and was committed to the tomb by Jacob and Esau (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 36">xxxvi.</abbr> 27<abbr title="through">–</abbr>29). <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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