The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 24

What can I do for thee? answered Isaac. Lo! I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren I have given him for servants, and I have given him corn and wine. Hast thou but one blessing? said Esau, and wept. Then Isaac said: Thy dwelling shall be without the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven. By thy sword thou shalt live; thou shalt serve thy brother, but his yoke thou shalt break from off thy neck.

Esau was at enmity with Jacob, because he had deceived him in his father's blessing; and Esau said in his heart: The days of mourning for my father will come, for I will slay Jacob. Then Rebekah said to Jacob: Arise and flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran, till the anger of thy brother is turned away. And Rebekah spoke to Isaac, that Jacob should not take a wife from the daughters of the Hitt.i.tes; and Isaac bade Jacob go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, the father of his mother, and there take a wife from the daughters of Laban. Then Jacob went from Beersheba to Haran. And when he abode for the night at the city of Luz, he put a stone under his head, and there rested. Then in a dream he saw a ladder placed upon the earth, the end of which touched heaven, and the angels of G.o.d went up and down upon the ladder. Jehovah stood over it, and said: I am the G.o.d of Abraham thy father and of Isaac; the land whereon thou sleepest I will give to thee and thy seed. And in the morning Jacob arose, and set up the stone which he had placed under his head for a sign, and poured oil on the stone, and called the name of the place Bethel.

In the land of the children of the east Jacob saw a well, round which lay three flocks of sheep. Then Jacob said to the shepherds: Whence are ye, my brethren? They answered, From Haran. Jacob asked again: Know ye Laban, Nahor's son? And they said: We know him; it is well with him, and lo! there is Rachel, his daughter, with the sheep of her father. And Jacob rolled away the great stone, which lay at the mouth of the well, and watered Rachel's sheep; and Laban came, and took his sister's son into his house. Laban had two daughters: Leah the eldest had dim eyes, but Rachel was fair to look upon; and Jacob said to Laban: I will serve seven years for Rachel. And these seven years were as seven days in Jacob's eyes, because he loved Rachel. When the time was past, Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in the dark of the evening he brought Leah instead of Rachel to Jacob, and it was not till the morning that Jacob knew Leah. Why hast thou deceived me? Jacob asked of Laban; have I not served thee seven years for Rachel?

Laban answered, It is not so done in our country, to give the younger daughter before the firstborn. Serve me yet seven years, and thou shalt have Rachel also to wife. So Jacob abode seven years more with Laban, and gained Rachel for his second wife, and he kept Laban's flock for six years more, and the sheep increased under Jacob's hand.

Leah bore Jacob four sons; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. But Rachel was barren and bore not. Then Rachel gave her maid Bilhah to Jacob, and Bilhah bore two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Leah also gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, and she bore Gad and Asher. Then Leah bore Issachar and Zebulon; and Jehovah heard Rachel, and sent her a son, whom she called Joseph. When Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban: For twenty years I have been with thee; thy sheep and thy goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten. Let me depart that I may go to my own land, with my wives and children, and give me my hire. What shall I give thee? asked Laban. Set aside all that are striped and spotted among thy sheep and goats, and whatever is afterwards born striped or spotted among thy sheep and goats, that shall be my hire, said Jacob. And Laban said: Be it according to thy word. Then Jacob set apart the coloured sheep and goats; and when the time of generation came, he took fresh wands of maple and almond-wood, and made white strips in them, by peeling off the bark, and cast them into the wells and runnels, where Laban's sheep and goats were watered; and everything was born spotted, and fell to Jacob's share, so that he became mighty, and gained many sheep and camels, and a.s.ses, and maid-servants, and men-servants. But Laban's countenance was not towards him as heretofore; and Laban's sons were angry and said: He has got his wealth from that which is our father's. Then Jacob arose, when Laban was gone to the shearing, and set forth secretly with his wives and children, and flocks; and Rachel took the images from the house of her father, and carried them with her, and Jacob fled over the river, and set his face towards Mount Gilead. Then Laban hastened after him, and came up with him on Mount Gilead, and said: "Why art thou fleeing secretly before me, so that I cannot accompany thee with drums, and music, and singing? why hast thou not allowed me to kiss my daughters, and why hast thou taken my G.o.ds?" Jacob answered: "I was afraid, for I thought thou wouldest take thy daughters from me." And Jacob set up a stone on Mount Gilead, and they made a heap of stones, and offered sacrifice on the heap, and Laban said: "The G.o.d of Abraham and the G.o.d of Nahor be judge between us, and guardian that thou do not afflict my daughters, or take other wives to them; and this heap be witness that I go not after thee for evil, nor shalt thou come beyond this sign after me for evil." And Jacob swore by him, whom his father feared, and offered sacrifice on the mountain. And the heap of stones was called Galeed (heap of witness), and Mizpah (watch tower), because Laban had said that Jehovah should be guardian if they were separated one from the other.

And Jacob sent messengers before him to appease his brother Esau, to Mount Seir, with 200 ewes, and 20 rams, and 200 she-goats, and 20 he-goats, and 30 camels with their colts, and 40 cows, and 10 bulls, and 20 she-a.s.ses, and 10 a.s.ses, as a gift to Esau; and he divided his flocks into two parts, that the one might escape, if Esau came against the other; for he was sore afraid. He rose in the night and took his two wives, and his two maids, and his eleven children, and carried them through the ford of the Jabbok, but he himself remained behind. Then a man wrestled with him till the morning broke, and smote the socket of his hip, and Jacob's hip was out of joint. And he said: "Let me go, for the morning is breaking." But Jacob said: "I will not let thee go, till thou blessest me." Then he said: "Thy name shall be Jacob no longer, but Israel; for thou hast striven with G.o.d, and with men, and hast overcome," and he blessed him there. And Jacob named the place Peniel (G.o.d's visage), and the sun arose as he pa.s.sed beyond Peniel.

Jacob lifted up his eyes, and lo! Esau came, and with him four hundred men. Then Jacob a.s.signed his children to Leah and Rachel and the two maids, and the maids and their children he put in the front, and next Leah and her children, and last of all Rachel with her son. He went before them and bowed himself seven times before his brother. But Esau embraced him, and kissed him, and they wept. The present of cattle Esau would not accept. "I have enough, my brother," he said, "keep what is thine." But Jacob urged him to take them as a proof that he had found grace in his eyes. Then Esau took them and parted in peace from his brother, and on the same day turned back on his way to Mount Seir. But Jacob went to Shechem, and bought the field where he had pitched his tent, and there set up an altar; and from Shechem he went to Bethel, and there also he built an altar; and from Bethel Jacob returned to Hebron to his father Isaac.

As we have seen, the Arabs and Phenicians believed that the power and might of the G.o.ds was present in certain stones, which they wors.h.i.+pped in their sanctuaries (pp. 329, 360). The Hebrews also were acquainted with this wors.h.i.+p. The first text tells us that G.o.d appeared to Jacob when he returned out of Mesopotamia, that He blessed him, and said: Henceforth Israel shall be thy name. And G.o.d went up from the place where he had spoken with him, and Jacob set up a stone as a sign on the place, and poured oil on it, and called the name of the place Bethel (house of G.o.d).[595] In the older mode of conception, the stone was itself the house of G.o.d. The Ephraimitic text represents Jacob as resting on the stone when he went to Mesopotamia, and as seeing in a dream the ladder on which the angels went up and down;[596] the appearance of Jehovah at the top of the ladder, as well as the form of the blessing, belongs to the revision.[597] The change of the name Jacob into Israel is referred by the Ephraimitic text to a definite occasion.

To the Hebrews, in the old time, the G.o.d of their tribe was a jealous and fearful deity, averse to the life of nature,--a G.o.d who exercised dominion above in the highest heaven, who rode on the clouds, and announced himself in thunder and lightning, and earthquakes, who appeared in flames of fire, whom the eye of mortal man could not behold and live.[598] The supernatural G.o.d can in the first instance be conceived and regarded only in contrast to nature, and the life of nature. But inasmuch as the natural life can only come into being and continue to exist by his permission, and with his consent, that life must be redeemed and purchased. Hence according to the primitive conception of the Hebrews, everything that was brought to the birth belonged to their G.o.d, the firstlings of the field, and of beast, the first-born male of the woman. Abraham was ready to sacrifice the firstborn son of his wife, the son of his own heart. But he was not permitted to slay him. He had already offered the sacrifice, inasmuch as he was resolved to sacrifice what was dearest, in obedience to the bidding of G.o.d. So runs the Ephraimitic text. As Jacob was returning from the Euphrates he came upon a place in Gilead, known as "G.o.d's visage." Here, in the dark of the night, a man wrestled with Jacob till the morning broke, and Jacob would not let him go till he had blessed him; "Thou hast striven with G.o.d and men, and overcome; therefore, henceforth thy name shall be Israel."[599] In the myth of the Phenicians, the power of destruction is taken from the hostile G.o.d, when the friendly G.o.d wrestles with him. The Hebrews changed the wrestling between the hostile and friendly deities, into a wrestling between the servant and the master, between the patriarch of the tribe and his G.o.d, a struggle from which the former does not let the G.o.d go till he has obtained a pledge, that he will spare him and his tribe, and send increase and blessing to him and his tribe. The contrast of hostile and friendly deities, and their struggle with each other, the Hebrew conceives as the work, the toil, the struggle of men, _i.e._ strenuous wrestling to win the blessing of G.o.d. Jacob carried away the injury to his thigh, but he won the blessing of Jehovah.

With this conception of the Hebrews, that the First-born belonged to Jehovah, is connected the ordinance that a ransom must be offered for him. Moreover, in every spring the Paschal lamb was offered as a sin-offering for the redemption of the house, along with the firstlings of the field. The use of circ.u.mcision also, as it seems, stood with the Hebrews in close connection with the idea that the life of boys must be ransomed by a b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifice. Jehovah is said to have commanded Abraham to circ.u.mcise his family in token of the covenant which he had made with him and his seed (p. 392). This custom was also in use among the Edomites and certain other Arabian and Syrian tribes.[600]

According to the genealogy of the Hebrews we had to a.s.sume that the Semitic tribes from Arphaxad first went to Serug, and afterwards to Ur in Chaldaea; and that these immigrants, or a branch of them, pa.s.sed from Ur to Haran. While the Nahorites remained behind at Haran, the Abrahamites turned towards the southern border of Canaan, where the Ammonites and Moabites, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, separated, and took possession of the centre of Arabia, the peninsula of Sinai, and the land eastward of the Jordan. From the narrative of Isaac, Esau, and Jacob, it further follows that not only those nations but also the sons of Esau, the Edomites, were descendants of Abraham, and the Hebrews were a branch of the Edomites who had separated from them. Hence the Hebrews were the youngest scion of the stock which once came from the mountains of Arphaxad to Ur, to Mesopotamia, and then into the deserts of Arabia and Syria. If, however, we allow that the genealogies of the Hebrews express the position which they took up or wished to take up towards the kindred Semitic nations, the a.s.syrians, Babylonians, Mesopotamians, the Arabians, Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and did not attempt to place facts of history beyond doubt, yet we must not refuse to recognise a definite historical basis in the relation of the Hebrews to the Edomites. The Edomites possessed Mount Seir, which runs from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the north-east corner of the Red Sea. Before them the Horites possessed this mountain (p. 403).[601]

According to the Hebrew tradition the patriarch of the Edomites was Esau. He "was red in colour and hairy." Though this is not the meaning of the name Esau, the name Edomites does actually mean the "red people,"

and the name of their mountain Seir means, "to be hairy," a name which could very well be given to a mountain covered with briars and brushwood. The Edomites were fond of the chase and of war; their progenitor is a hunter and warrior; and to this, his eldest son, Isaac foretells that his dwelling should be without the fatness of the earth; by his sword should he live. Only a slight advantage in age is allowed to Esau: he is merely the firstborn of twins; and even at birth his brother Jacob held him by the heel. The pre-eminence which Isaac gives to the younger son is explained in the Judaean text merely by the fact, that Esau had taken wives from the Hitt.i.tes. "And when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Mesopotamia in order to take a wife from thence, Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father, and he went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebajoth, to wife to his other wives."[602] All the further details of the relations between the two brothers, the sale of the birthright, the obtaining of the blessing, and the form of the blessing, belong to the revision. This text and this only could make Isaac say to Esau, "Thou shalt serve thy brother, but shalt break his yoke from off thy neck." Saul conquered, and David subjugated the Edomites; it was not till the time of Joram, king of Judah, in the first half of the ninth century B.C., that they recovered their independence.

The description of the journey of Jacob to the Euphrates, his service with Laban, and his flight, come from the Ephraimitic text: the revision has only extended the introduction, and here and there inserted an interpolation. To the same text belongs the peaceful departure from the Nahorites, the setting up of a token on the east of Jordan to fix how far the borders of the Israelites, beyond which the Nahorites were not to go, were to extend in this direction, and finally Jacob's reconciliation with Esau. With the daughters of Canaan whom he took to wife, Esau could only beget an impure race, and even with the daughter of Ishmael his race would not be wholly pure, while Jacob served patiently for fourteen years in order to obtain wives of the genuine blood. By this, and by the blessing of Isaac, the pre-eminence of the younger Israelites is established over the Edomites; but the brothers parted in peace. Esau received rich gifts. Thus they separated on the ford of the Jabbok at the sacred place of Peniel. The one went to Seir, the other to Shechem in Canaan. Hence the Edomites had no reason to cherish resentment against the sons of Jacob.

Isaac and Jacob abode in Canaan at Hebron, Beersheba, and Shechem. Here Isaac again dug out the wells which Abraham's servants had previously made. The quarrel of his servants about the wells with the Philistines of Gerar is based on the severe battles afterwards fought between the Philistines and Israel. As Abraham had set up pillars, so does Isaac build an altar at Beersheba,[603] and Jacob sets up a sacred stone at Bethel. As Abraham, according to the first text, buys the burying-place at Hebron, so Jacob, according to this same text, bought the field at Shechem, where he had pitched his tent. Thus Isaac and Jacob also have acquired possessions in Canaan, and have rendered services to the land; they also have prepared the way for the rule of their descendants in Canaan, and have consecrated the places at which the Hebrews were destined to wors.h.i.+p the G.o.ds of their fathers.

The three patriarchs strictly carry out the commands of Jehovah, from which their descendants swerved often and long. To the Hebrews they are patterns of the purity of their race; their descendants did not always keep themselves free from mixture with the Canaanites. But they are not only patterns of the fear of G.o.d, and piety, of correct faith and right dealing with the Canaanites; they also exhibit to the Hebrews the moral ideal of their conduct. Abraham is distinguished by the virtues of faithfulness, of unselfishness, and friendliness to his brother's family, and, in return, the blessing of Jehovah rests upon him. Other virtues are brought into prominence by the tradition in Jacob, the most immediate ancestor of the Hebrews. If Abraham knew how to raise the sword, and Esau lived a wild hunter's life, Jacob is a peaceable, faithful shepherd, who patiently endures heat and cold, who is ever wide awake, under whose hand the flocks increase, and whose care prevents the sheep and goats from casting their young. When Jacob had served fourteen years for his wives, he still continued to serve six years for hire.

Among the Hebrews the life of a hired servant is not considered a degradation; and continuance in service for the sake of hire is not looked down upon with contempt. Jehovah rewards the industrious servant, the active workman. With his staff in his hand Jacob pa.s.sed over the Euphrates; but he returned rich in flocks and goods, blessed with wife and child. In his pliancy, his quiet, peaceful trust in G.o.d, his wrestling for the blessing of G.o.d, Jacob is the genuine warrior of G.o.d (Israel), who is rescued, and gains the victory. Beside these stand realistic traits peculiar to the East and the Hebrew character. Jacob is a cunning man, who knows how to invent clever devices. With the help of his mother he gains from his brother the blessing of the firstborn. At first Laban outwits him, but in the end Jacob's cunning is victorious.

He knows how to pacify his brother by subjection. To bow before the mighty in order to save property and life has not always appeared dishonourable to the Oriental.

FOOTNOTES:

[568] Numbers xxi. 27; Joshua x. 14; Genesis xlviii. 20, 22. In proof that Genesis xlix. belongs to the time of the judges, cf. Ewald, "Gesch.

Israel's," 1, 91.

[569] Gen. x.x.xvi. 1; xlvi. 8 ff.; Exod. vi. 14 ff.; Numb. iii. 17-21; xxvii. 33.

[570] Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 64.

[571] Numb. xxi. 14.

[572] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 273.

[573] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 316, 317.

[574] Dillmann-k.n.o.bel, "Genesis," s. 11.

[575] Gen. x. 14; Exod. xv. 1-11; Numb. xxi. 14-18; cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 319.

[576] De Wette-Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 318.

[577] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," 320, 321.

[578] Chap. iv., 44--c. xxviii, 69.

[579] De Wette-Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 303 ff.

[580] Gen. xi. 1-9.

[581] Gen. xi. 10-32.

[582] Ezek. xxiii. 15; Deut. xxvi. 25; Joshua xxiv. 2.

[583] These are the numbers in the Hebrew text; in the Samaritan and Septuagint they are altered.--Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 112. To the first text, chap, ii., 4-24 and iii., were added by the reviser; he inserted another genealogical table below the series of patriarchs in the original text from Adam to Noah (iv. 17 ff), and this table does not run like the first: Adam, Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methusalah, Lamech, Noah, but gives the following order: (Enos) Adam, Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mahajael, Methusael, Lamech. To Lamech this narrator attached the origin of the shepherds, players on instruments, and workers in bra.s.s. Bunsen ("aegypten," 5, 2, 62 ff), has drawn from this the conclusion that the Hebrews had really only seven patriarchs before the flood.

[584] Ptolemy. 6, 1.

[585] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der Berl. Akademie," 1859, s. 200.

[586] Stephan. Byz. s. v. from Arrian; Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 16.

[587] b.u.t.tmann, "Mythol." 1, 235; Procop. "De Bell. P." 1, 17; Ewald, "Gesch. der V. Israel," 1, 358, 380; Bunsen, "aegypten," 4, 450.

[588] The narrative of Hagar (Gen. xvi.) belongs to the first text; the additions to the revision; the account of the expulsion of Ishmael (Gen.

xxi.) is from the Ephraimitic text.

[589] Gen. xiii. 5, 11, 12; xix. 29.

[590] Gen. xvii.

[591] Gen. xiv. De Wette-Schrader thinks the derivation from a written source probable ("Einleitung," s. 319).

[592] Gen. ix. 20-27; Schrader, "Studien und Kritiken," s. 166 ff.

[593] Gen. xxv. 19.

[594] Dillmann-k.n.o.bel, "Genesis," p. 313.

[595] Gen. x.x.xv. 9-15.

[596] Gen. xxviii. 11, 12, 17-22.

[597] Gen. xxviii. 13-16.

[598] Exod. xxiv. 17, "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire." Exod. xix. 16, 18, "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." Exod. xl. 38, "For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night;" cf.

Numbers ix. 15, 16. Deut. iv. 15, "On the day that the Lord spake unto you in h.o.r.eb out of the midst of the fire." Job i. 16, "The fire of G.o.d is fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them." Numb. xvi. 35, "And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."

Lev. x. 2, "And there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." Exod. x.x.xiii. 3, "I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee in the way." Exod. x.x.xiii. 20, "Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live."

Deut. v. 26, "Who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living G.o.d speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived." Lev. xvi. 2, "Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place ... that he die not." Exod. xix. 21, "Charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish." Exod. xx. 19, "Let not G.o.d speak with us, lest we die." Judges xiii. 22, "We shall surely die, because we have seen G.o.d."

1 Sam. vi. 19, "And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord."