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acquaint his brother, that after a stay of twenty years in | man that has prevailed with God;' and this occasioned Mesopotamia, and the acquisition of all manner of Jacob to call the place where this transaction happened wealth there, he was now upon his return to his native Peniel, or the face of God, because he concluded that country; but that he could not pass over Jordan, without it was God, or some of his angels, who had had this connotifying his arrival to him, and imploring his favour flict with him. and friendship.

The messengers went, and soon returned again, but with this melancholy news, that his brother was coming to meet him at the head of four hundred men ; which made | him to conclude, that this must be with an hostile intent, and in order to destroy both him and all that belonged to him. In this situation what could he do? To fight he was not able, and to fly, his retinue was too cumbersome. At length he came to this resolution, to divide his company into two bands, that if Esau should fall upon one, he might have a possibility of escaping with the other. And having done this, he addressed himself to God in a very humble and submissive prayer; acknowledging "his great mercies to him, and his own unworthiness of them; imploring his future protection against his brother's sword; and that he would be so gracious as to fulfil all his former promises to him." Jacob had acquainted his brother how God had enriched him: that therefore his first message might not look like an empty piece of formality, he ordered a present of the choice of his flocks and herds to be sent before, in several droves, and charged the drivers, whenever they met his brother, they should tell him, that they were presents sent by Jacob to his lord Esau, in hopes of obtaining his favour and good-will; and after this he sent his wives, and children, and all his substance, over the brook Jabbok, early next morning, before it was day, whilst himself, all alone, tarried behind for some time. And here it was that an angel, in the shape of a man, appeared to him, and began to wrestle with him. The contest was certainly unequal; but so it was, that the angel did not overcome him; but, to show how easily he might have done it, at one touch he put his thigh out of joint. He then told him the symbolical intent of his wrestling with him; and after he had blessed him, gave him e the additional name of Israel, which signifies, a

a

droves which went first were not well accepted by him, those who came later might be at distance enough to hasten back to their master, and give him intelligence of what he was to expect. In the form of address, he ordered them all to make use of the same words; first, that the repetition of them might strike the deeper, and make the stronger impression upon Esau; secondly, that they might not spoil the compliment, or not speak so properly, if left to their own expression; and, thirdly, that Esau might know, by the very turn and elegancy of them, that the words of the message came from Jacob. (Masculus, Ainsworth, Patrick, &c.) The appellation he gives his brother, of being his lord, and himself his servant, we shall take notice of hereafter.

As soon as the angel was gone, Jacob, though lame, made what haste he could to join his company; and it was not long before he saw his brother afar off, coming towards him with a large retinue, which made him betray some fresh tokens of distrust and therefore, to prepare for the worst, he divided his family into three companies, and placed them at equal distances; the two maids, and their sons went first; Leah and her children next; and Rachel and Joseph, who was then about six years old, as farthest from danger, were the last; whilst himself marched in the front of all, and, as he approached his brother, bowed himself to the ground seven times.

Whatever apprehensions Jacob might conceive of Esau's resentments, he had the happiness to meet him in a much better temper than he expected. At first sight he ran to meet him; he embraced him with the greatest tenderness; he wept over him with tears of joy; and seeing his wives and children prostrate themselves before him one after another, and in the same order wherein Jacob had disposed them, he returned their civilities with the same tenderness that he had his brother's. The presents indeed which Jacob had sent him he kindly acknowledged, but desired to be excused from accepting of them, because they were superfluous to him, who had enough of every thing; but Jacob pressed him so earnestly, that at length he prevailed: and therefore to make him a recompense, Esau invited him to Seir, and proffered his services to accompany him thither. Jacob, however, had no design to accept of the invitation, and yet was afraid directly to refuse it; and therefore he represented the tenderness of his children and flocks, and that they could not travel with expedition. He begged that they might not confine him to their slow movements, but that he would return home at his own pace; and promised withal, that they would follow as fast as they could conveniently. Esau then offered to leave him a sufficient number of his men, that might guard and conduct him into his territories; but this compliment likewise Jacob, in an handsome manner, evaded, and so they d parted; Esau went to Seir, and expected his

Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel;' and yet it is certain, that this patriarch was very frequently, nay, in the very next verse but one, is called Jacob; and therefore this seeming contradiction may be amended, by rendering the words, instead of no more, not only; or, not so much Jacob as Israel; because it is certain, that in his posterity at least (who were called Israelites, but never Jacobites) the latter name abolished the former. Israel is certainly derived from the word Sar, which, as St Jerome observes, signifies a prince, with the Jod, which a This is a small river, which is by all agreed to flow from the is the common note of a proper name; but there is some obscuadjacent mountains of Gilead; but some make it run into the searity in our translation, as to the latter part of the verse, of Galilee, others into the river Jordan, below, or south of that sea.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1. c. 1.

Though the reason which made the patriarch, after he had forded the river, to try if it was passable for his family, return back again, and not go along with them, be not expressed by Moses, it is very natural to suppose, that he stayed some time behind his family in the place of vision, which he afterwards called Peniel, to recommend himself and them in prayer, as the danger approached nearer and nearer, to the protection of Almighty God.-Musculus, Patrick, and Bibliotheca Biblica.

The words in the text, according to our translation, are,

6 as a

prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed;' which should rather be translated, Thou hast been a prevailer with God, and with men thou shalt also powerfully prevail.' This is the literal version of the words; is consonant to the vulgar Latin, Onkelos, and the Septuagint; and very justly expresses the true sense of the place.-Patrick's Commentary, and Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 7. c. 7.

d After this, Moses gives us no farther account of Esau and his family, only that he was assisting at his father's funeral, and had three wives, whereof it is proper to take notice, that when he barely mentions these wives, (as in Gen. xxvi. 34, and Gen. xxviii. 9.) he

of money, he pitched his tents in the place, and there built an altar to the Lord, whom he called 'El EloheIsrael,' or 'the mighty God of Israel.'

A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. brother to follow him; but his brother turned another way, and, by easy journeys, came to Succoth, which in Hebrew signifies booths, and there, intending to settle for some time, he built a house for his family, and pro- Here Jacob might have lived peaceably and happily, per conveniences for the reception of his cattle. But in being beloved by all the people, had not Dinah's a short time he removed from hence, and a safely arrived curiosity of visiting the women of the city proved at Shechem, where having purchased a piece of ground the cause of much mischief, and obliged her father to of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pieces withdraw. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, who was prince of that country, saw her, fell in love with gives them quite other names than what he does when he comes to speak of the posterity which Esau had by them, Gen. xxxvi.; since, long before this, money was in use, and made the instruwhich may lead an unwary reader to think that he had more ment of traffic, (Gen. xxiii. 16.) which must of course destroy than three, especially when the fathers of the two first are likewise the method of exchanging one commodity for another, it is mucn called by different names. Thus his first wife Judith, the more probable, that it was some sort of coin, though of what daughter of Beeri, is afterwards called Adah, the daughter of value it is uncertain, which had a lamb stamped upon it, and was Elon the Hittite; the second, namely, Bathshema, the daughter called by that name, as we do call an angel, from the stamp it of Elon, is again called Aholi Bamah, the daughter of Ana, the bears of one. (Universal History, b. 1. c. 7. and Patrick's Comdaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and the last, called in one place mentary in locum.)—There is great reason to believe, that the Mahalah, is now called Bathshemah; but what shows these two earliest coins struck, were used both as weights and money; and latter names mean the same person, and that the same thing may indeed this circumstance is in part proved by the very names of be supposed of the other two, is, that in both places she is called certain of the Greek and Roman coins. Thus the Attic mina 'the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Nabajoth.' All the and the Roman libra, equally signify a pound: and the stater of account that can therefore be given of this difference is, that they the Greeks, so called from weighing, is decisive as to this point. had two names, and that it was usual to call them sometimes by The Jewish shekel was also a weight as well as a coin: 3000 one and sometimes by another; in the like manner, as we find shekels, according to Arbuthnot, being equal in weight and value the mother of Abijam, king of Judah, in one place called to one talent. This is the oldest coin of which we any where Maacah, the daughter of Abishalon, (1 Kings xv. 2.) and in read, for it occurs, Gen. xxiii. 16, and exhibits direct evidence another, Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, (2 Chron. against those who date the first coinage of money so low as the xiii. 2.) with many more instances of the like nature. After time of Croesus or Darius, it being there expressly said that having taken this notice of Esau's wives, Moses enumerates his Abraham weighed to Ephron four hundred shekels of silver, children, and some of their descendants, the princes of the tribes current money with the merchant.' With respect to the stamp of the Edomites; the kings that succeeded them, and the chiefs or impression which the first money bore, the primitive race of who governed after the kings; but as to the order of succession, men being shepherds, and their wealth consisting in their cattle, wherein they are to be placed, there is some dispute among the in which Abraham is said to have been rich, for greater convelearned. One remark more that we shall make before we part nience, metals were substituted for the commodity itself. It was with Esau, is, that, all things considered, he was not that very natural for the representative sign to bear impressed the object bad man which some would make him. His generous and open which it represented; and thus accordingly the earliest coins temper appears in his affectionate deportment towards his brother, were stamped with the figure of an ox or a sheep. For proof that and his speedy and utter oblivion of the slights and perfidies he they actually did thus impress them, we can again appeal to the had received from him; and, though St Paul calls him a profane high authority of Scripture: for there we are informed that Jacob person, and says that he was hated of God, yet all that he means bought a parcel of a field for an hundred pieces of money. The by the word hatred, is no more than a bare postponing. For the original Hebrew, translated pieces of money,' is kesitoth, which apostle's purpose is to show, that God had all along bestowed the signifies lambs, with the figure of which the metal was doubtless favours which lead to the Messiah on whom he pleased; on Abra-stamped. (Maur. Ind. Antiq. vol. vii. p. 470.) It is certain that in ham, not on Lot; on Jacob, not on Esau; on the Jews, not on the many countries the coin has had its name from the image it bore; Gentiles. And he therefore calls him profane, not because he so, among our ancestors, a coin was called an angel because it bore was more wicked than other men of his age, but because he the image of an angel; hence, also, a Jacobus, à Carolus, a Louis seems not to have been so mindful of the promises made to his (Louis d'or), a Joe, a Napoleon, because certain coins in Engfamily as Jacob was, and consequently was not so fit to be the land, Spain, France, and Portugal, bore on one side the image heir of the mercies peculiar to it.-Universal History, b. 1. c. 4. of the kings of those countries, James, Charles, Louis, Joseph, and Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. c. 7. Napoleon. The Athenians had a coin called Bous, an ox, because it was stamped with the figure of an ox. Hence the saying in Æschylus' Agam. v. 36, “I must be silent concerning other matters; a great ox has come upon my tongue," to signify a person who had received a bribe for secrecy, that is, a sum of money on each piece of which an ox was stamped. The word opes, riches, is a corruption of oves, sheep, because, these animals, in ancient times, constituted the principal riches of their owners; but when other cattle were added, the word pecunia, (from pecus, cattle,) which we translate money, and from which we still have our English term pecuniary, appears to have been substituted for ores, because pecus, pecoris, and pecus, pecudis, were used to signify all kinds of cattle, large and small. Among our British and Saxon ancestors we find coins stamped with the figure of an ox, horse, hog, goat, &c., and this custom arose in all probability, both among them and other nations, from this circumstance, that in primitive times the coin was the ordinary value of the animal whose image it bore.-Clarke's Comment. Gen. xxxiii. 19.—ED. c At what time this misfortune happened to Dinah, the Scripbold exploit of her two brothers to avenge her dishonour, (which implies that they were men grown,) that she could not be less than fifteen or sixteen years of age; and the occasion of her running herself into this premunire, Josephus tells us, was a great festival then held at Shechem, which she, desirous to see the fine sights and fashions of the place, adventured to go to.—Antiqui ties, b. 1. c. 21.

a The words in our translation are, that Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem:' but, besides that there was no such place as Shalem in the confines of Shechem, (which seems itself, at this time, to have been but a small town, without any dependant villages,) since the word Shalem is so frequently taken adjectively, to denote any thing safe and sound, as we call it, and as Onkelos, and some of the best Jewish interpreters have it, it may very properly be rendered so here. And this soundness, as some imagine, may have reference to Jacob's halting, which was perfectly cured before he reached Shechem; as his safety has respect either to his having escaped all danger, at his interview with his brother, or rather to his having met with no evil accident of any sort, since he left Laban: and this observation Moses might the rather be induced to make, because he was just going to relate a sad disaster, that not long after his arrival at Shechem, befell his family. Shechem, by the by, otherwise called Sichar, was a city of Samaria, situate among the mountains belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, ten miles from Shiloh, forty from Jerusalem, and fifty-two from Jericho, near which was Jacob's well or foun-tures gives us no account: it is presumed, however, from the tain, where our blessed Saviour entered into conversation with the Samaritan woman, John iv. 7.-Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentary, Calmet's Dictionary, and Wells' Geography of the

Old Testament.

6 The word keshitah, which is here rendered a piece of money,' signifies likewise a lamb, from whence the Septuagint, Vulgate, Oleaster, and others, have translated it an hundred lambs:' but

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her, and having gained a secure opportunity, ravished her. But notwithstanding this dishonourable act, his soul was so enamoured with her charms, that he desired nothing more earnestly than to marry her; and to this purpose prevailed with his father, to enter upon a treaty with her friends. Jacob soon heard of the rape committed upon his daughter, but concealed the matter until his sons were come home; and when he had made them acquainted with it, their resentment grew to such an height, that they vowed severely to revenge the dishonour done unto their family. In the mean time, Shechem having prevailed with his father to obtain him the damsel, they both went together to make the proposal to her father; promising to give her as large a dowry, and her relations as costly presents as he should desire; and alleging withal, that if his family were to intermarry with the Shechemites, it would prove the most effectual means to make them both live together in per-resolution to go thither: but before he did that, being fect harmony and friendship. This was a fair offer; but the treacherous sons of Jacob, who meditated nothing but the most bloody revenge, made them this reply: "That it was not lawful for them to contract an affinity with any uncircumcised nation, but that, if he and his people would consent to be circumcised, as they were, they would then come into his proposal."

and carried away all the cattle that they found in the neighbouring places.

Jacob was much concerned at the furious proceedings of his sons, for which he justly reproved them. He was apprehensive indeed, that the inhabitants of the land would unite against him, and destroy his family for this violent outrage; but Simeon and Levi, who were the chief actors in the tragedy, were so warmed with the thoughts of the dishonour done to their sister and family, that they did not think they had carried their resentment in the least too far for so base an injury. Jacob, however, thought it advisable, for his own security, to tarry no longer there, but to shift into some other part of the country. And accordingly, having received particular directions from God to remove to Bethel, and there to build an altar, (whereon to perform the vow which he made when he fled from his brother Esau,) he set his

a

Hamor and Shechem agreed very readily to this condition; and when they returned to the city, and had convened the inhabitants : They commended the Israelites highly for a peaceable and good-natured people, from whom they might reap many great advantages, and in process of time make all their substance (which was very considerable) their own, if they were to intermarry with them; but that this would not be done without a general consent to be circumcised." How averse soever the people might be to such an operation at first, yet the thirst of gain, joined with the powerful interest which Shechem had among them, soon won their consent, insomuch, that on that very day, every male of them was circumcised. But three days after this, when their wounds had made them incapable of making any resistance, Simeon and Levi entered the city, and having put all the men to the sword, made search in Shechem's house, where they found their sister Dinah, and brought ber away. After which they re-entered the town, plundered the houses, took both women and children captives,

a This shows more fully, that the custom of those times was, as we noted before, for men to give money for their wives, and to give it generally to their parents. The money, or presents so given, were by the Greeks called dva; for so we find Vulcan, when he had caught his wife Venus in an act of incontinency, telling her and her paramour, that he would not let them go "until the mother shall have given him back the whole of the bridal gifts presented by him for the impudent damsel." But there was a great reason for a dowry now, and a large one too, that he might make compensation for the wrong he had done. There is to be observed, however, a natural equity in the subsequent law of Moses, (Exod. xxii. 16. and Deut. xxii. 28.) by which a man was bound to make satisfaction to the father, if, either by enticement or violence, he had abused his daughter.-Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentary.

6 The third day, as physicians take notice, was the time when fevers generally attend circumcision, occasioned by the inflammation of the wound, which was generally more painful then, as the Hebrews observe, than at any time else; and for this reason, the sons of Jacob took the opportunity of falling upon the Shechemites, when they were least of all in a condition to defend themselves. Howell's History.

willing to carry nothing that might be offensive to God, to so sacred a place, he found it necessary to make a reformation in his family. To this purpose he commanded all that proposed to go along with him, to bring out their idols; which they not only did, but gave up their ear-rings likewise, which they were used to wear as spells or amulets against sickness, and other misfortunes. These he took and buried privately in a deep hole, which he caused to be dug under an oak, near Shechem; and so having purified themselves, even to

d

These, as

c It was a custom in several countries, for the men as well as the women, and for the meaner as well as the better sort, to wear ear-rings, and therefore we find Plautus in his play called Pœnulum, Act v., taking this notice of some Carthaginian slaves,"That their hands should be without fingers, one would think, because they wore their rings in their ears." But, besides the rings designed for ornament, it was a common thing for idolatrous nations to wear others for superstitious uses. some say, were made in form of a semicircle, and reached over the forehead from ear to ear. They had astronomical characters and signatures engraven upon them, and to them they imputed a thousand supernatural virtues. They were always dedicated to some false deity; and therefore St Austin, in several places, exerts himself with a becoming zeal, against such impious fooleries, and tells his countrymen, the Africans, (among whom this custom had got some footing,) that in this execrable superstition, as he calls it, they did not design to dress themselves out to please men, so much as to serve and please devils. And therefore Jacob was highly to be commended for destroying these relics of idolatry, which his haste to be gone, both according to God's command, and his own apprehensions of danger, made him bury under ground, rather than stay to melt them down.-Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentary; Heidegger's Hist. Patriar, vol. 2. Essay 13; and Calmet's Dictionary under the word Rings.

d The manner wherein Jacob required of his domestics to purify themselves, was by washing their whole bodies, and putting on clean and fresh apparel: and that this was a custom among other nations as well as the Jews, when they set about any solemn and religious office, is plain from that passage in Euripides where Alcestis, being to perform some holy rites in behalf of her children, In the waters of the stream she laved their lily skin, and from the cedar-wood halls, bringing beautiful apparel, she gaudily bedecked them,-then, standing before the shrine, she prayed.' But of all other nations, the Egyptians, (as Herodotus tells us, b. 1. c. 37,) and more especially their priests, were most remarkable for this sort of cleanliness. "They shaved their bodies all over every third day; they bathed themselves in cold water twice a day, and twice a night; and wore constantly nothing but linen vestments, and shoes made of papyrus; for this reason I suppose, because they were the most proper to be washed." Not that we are to suppose that God respects a worshipper for his spruce appearance, so long as his conscience is polluted within.

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the washing and changing of their garments, they set forward to Bethel, and arrived there safe, and without any disturbance, because God had struck such a terror into the cities round about them, that, notwithstanding the late provocation in the matter of Shechem, nobody offered to molest or pursue them.

and had just time to name him Benoni, that is, the son of sorrow;' but his father, unwilling to perpetuate the remembrance of so melancholy a subject, called him Benjamin, which signifies the son of my right hand,' or my strength.' She was buried in the way to Ephrab, where her husband built d a monument of stone over her As soon as Jacob came to Bethel, where a Deborah, grave, which the sacred historian tells us was extant in his mother's nurse, happened to die, he erected an altar, his days. But this was not the only misfortune which as God had commanded him, whereupon he performed | attended Jacob in this place: his eldest son Reuben, his vow; and not long after, God appeared to him again, confirming the change of his name, and giving him fresh assurances of his design to multiply his posterity, and to give him the inheritance of the land of Canaan; which induced him to erect a pillar of stone, whereon he poured a drink-offering and oil, as a lasting monument of his gratitude and devotion.

sordidness indeed there is something distasteful, and it is an unseemly thing to appear before a great man in dirty apparel: but the principal design of God's appointing this outward cleanliness, was to be a sign and memorandum to the person approaching his presence, what the inward temper and complexion of his mind should be; and therefore we find the royal Psalmist, in allusion to this very custom, declaring his pious purpose, I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I go to thy altar,' Ps. xxvi, 6.-Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentary.

a In Gen. xxiv. 59, we read that Deborah went along with her mistress Rebecca, when Isaac's steward was sent to conduct her out of Mesopotamia; how is it, then, that we find her here in Jacob's retinue so long afterwards, and when he was returning from the same place? The Jewish doctors tell us, that Rebecca, having promised her son at his departure that she would send for him again, as soon as she found him out of danger, did now send Deborah to fetch him back. But, besides that a younger messenger would have been much more proper, we do not find that Jacob was sent for, but that he left the country, by God's appointment, and upon the bad usage of his father-in-law. Some Christian commentators are, therefore, of opinion, that after she had brought her mistress Rebecca to her marriage, and seen her well settled in her family, she went back to Haran again, and there dwelt in Laban's house, till, upon Jacob's returning home, she, having a desire to see her old mistress once more, put herself under his convoy. Others again suppose, that Jacob had been at his father's house before this time; or that, after Rebecca's death, Deborah hearing of his return into Canaan, might be desirous to spend the remainder of her life with his wives, who were her countrywomen. Any of these conjectures may be sufficient to solve the difficulty of her being found in Jacob's family; and the reason why Moses takes notice of her death is, not so much because it was a circumstance of moment enough to be preserved in history, as that it was of use to assign the reason why the oak near which she was buried, | and which perhaps was still standing in his days, came by its But what will in some measure serve, both to vindicate the sacred historian, and to show, at the same time, how much these nurses and women, who had the care and education of persons of birth and quality, were honoured and esteemed in those early days, is this passage, upon the like occasion, in the poet Virgil:"Thou Caieta, nurse of Eneas, hast also conferred eternal renown on our shores; even still the memory of thy tomb exists, and thy name points out thy grave in the great Hesperia!"-Eneid, b. 7.

name.

This place was afterwards called Bethlehem, a city about two leagues distant from Jerusalem, famous for the birth of David, king of Israel, but infinitely more so for the birth of Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world.-Calmet's Dictionary.

having taken a liking to Bilhah, the concubinary wife which Rachel had given him, made no scruple to commit incest with her; which thing grieved his father so, that, though he forbore taking any present notice of it, yet he could not but 'resent it at his dying hour. Soon after this Jacob left this melancholy place, and came at length to Mamre, the place of his father's abode, who was doubtless not a little overjoyed at the return of his son, after so long an absence.

CHAP. II.—Difficulties Obviated, and Objections

Answered.

THE worst accusation against our patriarch is that of his purloining, as some may call it, or appropriating to himself a considerable part of Laban's substance; and shame light on him who pretends to apologize for this, in order to give countenance to any trick or collusion in matters of commerce. The Scripture only relates the fact, without either censure or approbation; and we read it to wrong purpose if, because we find a thing recorded of a patriarch, and yet not censured by the holy penman, we therefore immediately conclude it to be right. Men will be men, full of imperfections, and governed by their passions, so long as they live in this world: nor are the examples propounded in Scripture to beget in us humility and watchfulness, upon every remembrance of human frailty, but the laws contained

c From the different names which the father and mother gave this son of theirs, some have observed, that names are ofttimes strangely adapted to things, and the presages of parents have anciently been observed to be fulfilled: "Alas, the auguries of parents are never unfulfilled!" Which was certainly nowhere more than in the fate of Benjamin's posterity, since no tribe in Israel was more valorous, and yet none more subject to disasters, than his; since it was almost quite extirpated in the time of the Judges, ch. xx., and yet, before the conclusion of that age, became so powerful as to have the first king of Israel chosen out of it.-Patrick's Commentary.

d The learned Bochart is of opinion that this monument of Rachel's, which is the first that we read of in Scripture, was a pyramid, curiously wrought, and raised upon a basis of twelve large stones, whereby Jacob intended to intimate the number of his sons. It was certainly standing in the time when Moses wrote, ver. 20, and just before Saul was anointed king there is some mention made of it, 1 Sam. x. 2. But that the present monument cannot be the same which Jacob erected, is very manifest from its being a modern and Turkish structure. Mr Le Brun, who was at the place, and took a draught of it, says that the tomb is cut into the cavity of a rock, and covered with a dome, supported by four pillars, on fragments of a wall, which open to the sepulchre. The work is rude enough, and without any ornament; but the whole is as entire as if it had been but just made, which makes it hard to imagine that it had subsisted ever since Jacob's time.-Maundrell's Travels, and Calmet's Dictionary.

A. M. 2119. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. therein, which are true and righteous altogether, to be the rule and measure of our conduct. We readily grant, therefore, that this action of Jacob's, considered in itself, according to the rules of strict justice, can hardly be vindicated; but then we are to remember, that there was a much superior agent, even the great Proprietor of the world, and who has an undoubted right to transfer possessions where he pleases, by whose direction it was done.