A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. that these matrons very probably were not ignorant that I reduced, when expelled from his father's house, to the the mother contributes nothing, of herself, towards the formation of the foetus, and much less to its inspiration with life, but merely the bearing it in the womb; and hence they might infer, that the bearing it in the womb was not sufficient of itself to confer a right to the fruit of it, which came thither they knew not how, which they had no hand in the fashioning of, and which they were no more able to quicken, than they were to enliven a dead body. It being, therefore, no strange thing, in these days, for one man to raise up seed for another, or to propagate by another, by parity of reason they might conclude, that one woman might as well do the same for another, or bear in her stead, under such and such circunstances, by the union and co-operation of their wills, and strong attraction of the imagination in two consociating into one. And this was the consideration which moved them to press this matter so very earnestly as they did: when finding that, after they had spiritually conceived of their husbands, by taking them into an ideal image for elaboration, there was wanting strength in them to bear, and to work out what they had received, they could afterwards have no greater pleasure than to appoint one who should faithfully supply that part, wherein they themselves were defective, and thereby be able, not only to remedy the reproach of their barren-night to take up his lodging in the open air, and with ness, but to establish a stronger interest in the family for themselves, and for all that they could call their

necessity of turning Admetus's shepherd. The fable of the Bethleans, which Eusebius takes out of Philo Biblius, came undoubtedly from the altar of Bethel ; and, to name no more, the whole business of Jacob's arrival at Shechem upon his return from Mesopotamia, of his daughter Dinah's rape by the prince of the country, and of the terrible revenge which her brothers took for that indignity, is related by Alexander Polyhistor, as he is quoted by the same father, much in the same order, and with the very same circumstances, that we find it recorded in the works of Moses.

own.

The bearing upon the knees,' therefore, as the expression is in Moses, must certainly denote something more than that Rachel designed to make herself a nurse to her maid, or set a child upon her knees, as her own, in which she had no part or portion; but that her servant should conceive, and become with child through her, as in her presence, and as it were upon her knees,' to the end that her mistress might be made a mother, by her instrumentality, and might have children, whom she could call her own, though not born of her body. And accordingly we may observe, that Rachel herself had this notion of the matter; for upon the birth of her first son, born to her by her substitute, she expressly declares that God had given her a son, and, as the custom for mothers then was, herself imposed on him a name, as a mark of her thinking him really to be hers.

Thus have we endeavoured to silence some of those ravils, which may be made against particular passages in the Mosaic history, during this period of time; and for the farther confirmation of its truth and authority, we might produce the testimony of several heathen writers, 2 such as Sanchoniatho, Berosus, Hecatæus, Eupolemus, and others, as they are quoted by Eusebius in his Præparatio Evangelica. The fiction of Jupiter's chain in Homer, reaching from heaven to earth, as it relates to the divine providence, had its original from Jacob's ladder. The memory of his wrestling with an angel has been preserved, ever since, by a whole nation's abstaining from a particular part of the thigh, which, without that supposition, cannot be accounted for. Jacob's living with his uncle Laban in the capacity of a servant, gave rise to the story of Apollo's being

'Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1; Occasional Annotations 33. See Grot, de Verit. b. 1.

CHAP. III.-Of Jacob's Ladder and Pillar.

To judge of the occasion of Jacob's vision, wherein this emblematical ladder was represented to him, we must imagine that we saw the heir of a powerful family taking his leave of his aged parents, and for fear of an angry brother departing from his father's house; beginning a journey of 450 miles, into a strange country, all alone, on foot, and without any servant to attend him; travelling all the day with a pensive heart, and forced at

nothing better than an hard stone to be his pillow: if we suppose Jacob in this condition, I say, we shall soon perceive the reason why God thought it convenient, at this time, to give him comfort and consolation in the way of a dream.

That dreams, or nocturnal visions, were a common way of God's revealing himself to mankind of old, is evident from instances almost innumerable; and the reason of his making choice of this method might be, either to convince them of his omnipresence, that he was about their bed, and about their paths, and spied out all their ways;' or to convince them of his constant care, and that he was not unmindful of them, even when they little thought of him, and were most absent from themselves; or to convince them of his unlimited power over their souls, when even sleep itself could not hinder his access to them; or because that the mind, in the dead and silence of the night, was fitter to receive divine impressions, when nature was hush, and the passions asleep, and no variety of thoughts to distract its attention.

But whatever God's reasons might be for conveying things by dreams, it is certain that the vision of the ladder, and the comfortable words which he spoke from the top of it, made such a lively impression upon Jacob, that he proceeded in his journey with cheerfulness and alacrity: Behold I am with thee, and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.' These are the verbal assurances which God gives Jacob; and therefore we may presume that the representation of the ladder had something analogous in it.

This ladder, according to the sense of the best

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interpreters, is an emblem of the divine providence, | our Saviour himself may be thought to allude, when he which governs all things. Its being set upon the earth' denotes the steadiness of providence, which nothing is able to unsettle; its reaching up to heaven' signifies its universality, or that it extends to all things; the several steps of the ladder' are the motions and actions of providence; the angels going up and down' show, that they are the great ministers of providence, never idle, but always employed in the preservation of the just; their ascending' means their going up to receive the divine orders and commands; and their descending,' their coming down upon earth to put them in execution. So that, in this hieroglyphic, God signified to Jacob, now full of care and uneasy apprehensions, that the man who was under the custody and protection of divine providence wanted not company in a wilderness; wanted not security in the midst of dangers; wanted not direction in the most difficult undertakings; since there were so many ministering spirits holding correspondence between earth and heaven, and daily and hourly sent forth' from God's presence to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation.'

16

2

Other interpretations there are in great numbers, but too a full of fancies and conceits to be here taken notice of. One, however, seems a little more solid, and may not undeserve our observation. The promise, we may remember, which God is introduced as making to Jacob from the top of the ladder, does chiefly relate to his covenant with Abraham, which was principally founded in Christ, that chosen seed, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed' and the analogy of the thing may induce us to believe that this ladder was designed for a type and emblem of the covenant of grace, which was in force from the time of man's first apostasy, but began to be put in execution at the incarnation of our Saviour Christ, that only Mediator, who opened an intercourse between earth and heaven; by whose intercession, plenty of all spiritual blessings descend to us, and by whose merits and doctrines our natures are sanctified, and so become meet to be 'partakers with the saints in light,' or to ascend into heaven. And to this mystical meaning of the ladder

1 Heb. i. 14.

'Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 2. Essay 16. a The rabbins, having given us long chimerical descriptions of this ladder, will have it represent almost every thing that comes into their fancies. Some pretend that the ascending angels were those who had the care of Jacob in his going; the descending, those whose business it was to secure him in his returning from Mesopotamia. Another (Jarchi on Gen. xxviii. 12.) is of opinion, that God designed hereby to point out the place where he would have the temple built one day; and to reconcile this opinion to geography, he affirms that God at this time transported to Luz the hill of Sion, upon which the temple at Jerusalem was afterwards built. Philo, who certainly believed a metempsychosis, tells us, that the angels which Jacob saw are emblems of souls, whereof some descend to animate bodies, whilst others ascend, having quitted the bodies which they once animated. St Austin will have this ladder to represent the cross of Christ; and some of the mystical divines, making it an emblem of a contemplative life, do maintain, that the angels ascending the ladder are those believers whom they call perfect, as having the faculty of causing their affections to soar up to the highest heavens, and that the descending represented those mean and abject souls whose centre is the earth, and whose delight consists in fleshly things.—Saurin's Dissertations.

tells us, that 3 Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man;' which a learned commentator has in this manner paraphrased :-" Ye have heard, no doubt, of those of old, that several things relating to the Messias have been represented by Jacob's ladder; and ye are to know, that they are all now to be accomplished in me, and shall every day be more and more accomplished, until the time of my assumption into heaven. Ye shall know that heaven, which by the sin and corruption of mankind was shut in Adam, shall by my dispensation and doctrine be opened again; and that God, being reconciled to the world by me, shall continue in covenant with them for ever. Ye shall know, that I am that ladder and way to heaven, by which ye may gain admittance to the Father; for I am he that unites heaven and earth together, so that from henceforward the angels shall continually be passing from the one to the other. In short, ye shall know, that I am the Lord, not only of the visible creation, but the Prince likewise of angels and all invisible spirits, even the true God. This, I say, ye shall henceforth more fully know, by my doctrine, my miracles, my death, my glorious resurrection, and triumphant ascension into heaven."

Thus, according to the declaration which God makes from the top of the ladder, it seems reasonable to imagine, that he might have a twofold design in making this representation to Jacob, namely, by a proper type, to prefigure the incarnation of his Son, which, like this ladder, joined heaven and earth, the divine and human natures, together; and by a proper emblem of the angels ascending and descending upon it, to give him an evidence of the watchful providence of God that attended him. The former of these designs might perhaps be a little too abstruse for Jacob's comprehension at present, but the latter he immediately understood; and therefore we find him, as soon as he arose, out of a grateful sense of the divine goodness in sending him a vision so full of consolation, erecting and consecrating a pillar, in order to perpetuate the memory of so momentous an event.

It is the opinion of some commentators, indeed, that to preserve the memory of this heavenly vision, Jacob took the stone whereon his head lay, and wherein they discern nothing extraordinary, and set it up for a monument or pillar upon the top of some other stones, which he had gathered and heaped together: but, besides that the fancy of an heap of stones seems unworthy of the Holy Scriptures, and betrays us into a low and trifling idea of this great affair, there is not the least ground from the text itself, nor from this symbolical way transmitting facts to future generations, to suppose there was any more than one single stone.

of

that

The word matzebah, which our interpreters render a pillar, is by the Septuagint translated Erλn, by the vulgar Latin, titulus; and from hence several, both ancients and moderns, have supposed that there was an inscription upon this pillar. The manner of consecrating this pillar was by pouring oil upon it, which Jacob might have by him, without a miracle, considering how

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common the use of oil was in these hot countries, to refresh the limbs when weary with travelling, and how necessary, upon that account, it was to carry some with him in his journey: nor is there any reason to suppose, that Jacob made use of this form of consecration in compliance with the custom of the country where he then was. It is uncertain whether this custom was established in Jacob's time; but if it was, it is hardly credible that a pious man, as he is represented, would have adopted a superstitious ceremony into the worship of the true God. The much more probable opinion, therefore, is, that as the rites of sacrificing and circumcision were instituted before the promulgation of the law, so this manner of consecrating things, by way of unction or libation, was at first enjoined the patriarchs b Abraham and Isaac by God, and either by precept or tradition from them, came afterwards to be practised by Jacob. Nor is it unlikely but that Jacob's practice in this particular, and the great veneration which was afterwards paid to his monumental pillar, might give occasion to the worshipping such erected stones in future ages, and, upon such abuse, of God's so strictly prohibiting any to be set up: 2 Ye shall not make ye any idols or graven image, neither shall ye rear up any matzebah,' statue or pillar, to bow down unto it, for I am the Lord your God.'

In the religious sense of the word, then, matzebah may properly signify a large consecrated stone, erected pillarwise, before which prostrations and adorations were made, and upon which oblations and libations, but not any bloody sacrifices, were presented: but then the question is, how Jacob could think to secure this monument from being thrown down by the natives or passengers; or how he could impose a new name upon it, and establish that name in future ages, when the place had a name before, and no person was present to bear testimony of what he did. This, indeed, the Scripture gives us no manner of account of; and therefore, if we do it but modestly, we are left at liberty to make our own conjectures.

According to the ancient versions of the word, we may suppose that there was upon this stone some legible and intelligible title or inscription; nor is it improbable that the title should be, what the patriarch in a sort of ecstasy called it, Bethel,' or the house of God.' How Jacob might be provided with an iron pen, or style, for the purpose of engraving this title, can be no difficult thing to imagine, if we do but consider that the style was the common instrument of writing in those days, which every scholar used to carry about with him, and which Jacob, having led a studious and contemplative

a From Jacob's pouring oil upon the stone of Bethel did arise the superstition of the ancients for their betuli, which were stones anointed and consecrated to the memory of great men after their death. Sanchoniatho, or rather Porphyry, the author of the fragment which Eusebius has preserved under the name of Sanchoniatho, attributes the invention of these betuli to Saturn; but the best account that can be given of this absurd practice is from hence, and a sufficient demonstration it is how the best and noblest acts of piety may be perverted, and degenerate into mere stupidity, by a fond, superstitious imitation.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Bethel; and Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1.: Occasional Annotations, 30.

life under his father and grandfather, and, as some suppose, under Melchizedek likewise, was not unqualified to make use of; and that the very ancient, if not universal custom of erecting, anointing, and consecrating such like stones, with an inscription, either literal or hieroglyphical, and sometimes both, could hardly have any other foundation than this practice of his.

But besides the bare inscription of the name and title of the stone, there might probably be yet something more to attract the eyes of the traveller, and to raise a veneration for the place. And, therefore, admitting the stone to be square, we find that there were two oaths, as it were, taken upon it, by the covenanting parties, that is, the oath of God to Jacob, repeating the substance of what he had sworn to his fathers, and limiting it to him and his seed; and the oath of Jacob to God, obliging himself and his posterity to such a constant homage as is therein specified; and hereupon we may infer, that for the better preservation of the memory of this great league, there might be written, on one side, the obligation of God, exactly in the terms of the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses; and on the opposite, the obligation of Jacob, as expressed by him in the three last verses of the 28th chapter of Genesis. And, because it was necessary that the name of the person who erected and consecrated the stone should be preserved, we may further suppose, that as God's signing this covenant on his part might be in this form, ANI JEHOVAH, ELOHE ABRAHAM, ELOHE ISAAC, I the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac; by parity of reason, Jacob's signing might run thus, ANI JACOB, BEN ISAAC, BEN ABRAHAM, I Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

On the vacant sides of the stone, we may suppose again, that the other awful sentences which Jacob upon this occasion pronounced, 3 How dreadful is this place! This is the gate of heaven, and verily the Lord is in this place!' were engraven. And because a very early custom of crowning such public pillars with garlands might very likely take its rise from Jacob's practice at this time, we may therefore be allowed to make one conjecture more, namely, that as Luz, near which this transaction happened, had its name from a grove of almond-trees, not far distant from it; so Jacob might think it very decent, in memory of the divine favours there received, to crown and adorn the top of this titular stone, with a garland of almond branches taken from thence. All this, we allow, is no more than supposition and conjecture; but, without some such contrivance as this, how could this stone have been an instrument to perpetuate the memory of an event? Jacob's imposing a new name upon a place that was entirely in the possession of others? Well might the natives or proprietors ask, by what authority this was

Gen. xxviii. 16, 17.

How a means of

genius, is not only a general tradition of the Jews, but supported likewise by some lines in the character which the pen of Moses gives us of him. He had certainly great advantages under his father and grandfather, who justly deserved a name among the eldest oriental philosophers; and therefore he is described, in the eastern style, as 'a man dwelling in tents,' as much as to say, one who leads a philosophical and contemplative life, or a minister or student of the house of learning, as the Targums truly interpret the phrase.-Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1.; Icca

¿ That Jacob was a man of learning, and of an extraordinary | sional Annotations, 35.

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с

a youth of a very promising and extraordinary genius. As a mark of his peculiar love, the fond father gave him And indeed, without some such supposition, why clothes richer than he did the rest, and among others, should this stone, even by different nations, be accounted one coat more especially, which was made of a changesuch a valuable piece of antiquity? Why should the able or party-coloured stuff. This made his other broJews be so fond to have it thought that they had it in the thers envy him not a little; and what gained him no sanctuary of their second temple, and that upon it the good-will among them, was their looking upon him as a ark of the covenant was placed? Since the destruction spy, because he had told his father some things wherein of their temple, why should it be their custom, one day the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah,d with whom he was chiefly in a year, with great lamentation, to go and anoint this conversant, e had grossly misbehaved, which made them stone, in remembrance of their father Jacob, and the covenant made with him? And why should the Maho- prolix in relating the adventures of Joseph than of any other of metans pretend, that they have this stone (though by Jacob's children: both because his life is a bright example of mistake of one patriarch for another, they call it the the means of Joseph that Jacob went down into Egypt: and as piety, chastity, meekness, and prudence; and because it was by stone of Abraham) set up at their temple at Mecca, his going down gave occasion to the wonderful departure of the which they make their common Kibla, or point of wor-children of Israel from thence, so the history of the Jews would ship, and before which the pilgrims pay their solemn

devotions ?

have been sadly imperfect, and indeed altogether unintelligible, without a longer account than ordinary of Joseph's life and transactions there.-Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 2. Essay 20.

was as wise and prudent as a senator.' And this justifies the reason of Jacob's extraordinary love to Joseph, because it is natural for parents, especially for fathers, to admire those children be fond of a child begotten in one's old age, and for no other who show any degree of wisdom above their years; whereas, to reason, is no more than a piece of dotage, which Moses would hardly have thought worth recording.—Universal History, b. 1. c. 7, and Howell's History, b. I.

These, we allow, may be no more than false pretences; Most versions, as well as ours, have made Jacob to love but still they are an evidence, that this pillar was once Joseph, because he was the son of his old age; whereas had this held in high veneration, which it could hardly have been, been the cause of his affection, he must have loved Zebulun, as but must very soon have been buried in oblivion and much more, because he was above fifteen years younger [only much as Joseph, because he was of the same age, and Benjamin rubbish, had it been no more than a large ragged stone, thirteen years, according to Dr Hales' table given before.] It without any thing to distinguish it, that is, without any seems, therefore, as if they had confounded the words Bensculpture or inscription on it. And therefore, notwith- Zekenim, the son of senators, or elders, as he is called here, with Ben-Ziknuh, the son of old age; whereas the former has a signistanding the silence of Scripture, we have sufficient reason fication quite different. According to the Hebrew idiom, it signi to conclude, that this pillar was erected in order to pre-fies the son, or disciple of senators,' that is, one endued with an serve the remembrance of the heavenly vision which God extraordinary wisdom and prudence; accordingly the Samaritan, in this place vouchsafed Jacob; that to this purpose it Arabic, and Persian versions have rendered it, because he was a was engraven with such inscriptions as might give pos- of the idiom, and might more properly be rendered, because he wise and prudent son,' though even this comes short of the energy terity sufficient intelligence upon what occasion it was erected; that by means of such inscriptions, it came to be recognised as Jacob's pillar, and held in great esteem in future generations; that this pillar thus engraved, as it was the first of its kind that we have upon record, gave probably the origin to the invention of stylography, or the ancient manner of writing upon stone, ever after; and that the consecration of this stone, and the imposition of a new name upon the place where it stood, is enough to justify the practice of sanctifying places appointed for religious worship, by some solemn form of separation; of calling them the house of God,' and imputing to them a relative holiness; in Christian countries, of dedicating them to the memory of departed saints and martyrs; and every where, of observing that wholesome and devout advice of the preacher: 1 Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God, for he is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.'

SECT. IV.

CHAP. I.—Of the Life of Joseph,a which includes the rest of Jacob's.

THE HISTORY.

JACOB had not been long with his father before there befell him another sad disaster. Joseph was his beloved

Eccles. v. 1, 2.

a Two reasons are generally assigned, why Moses is more

the rest of his brothers, is generally thought to signify a garment The coat whereby Jacob distinguished his son Joseph from that was wrought with threads of divers colours, or made up of pieces of silk or stuff, which had much variety in them; but the word passim, which is here made use of, according to some learned annotators, does properly signify a long garment, down to the heels or ankles, with long sleeves down to the wrists, which had a border at the bottom, and a facing, as we call it, at the hands, of a colour different from the garment, which was accounted noble, as well as beautiful, in ancient times.—Patrick's Commentary.

d He chose the sons of his father's concubines, rather than those of his wife Leah, to be his companions, on purpose, perhaps, to avoid the ill consequences of the latter's envy and emulation against him. For it is not unlikely that Leah's sons, considering the excessive love which their father had for him, might be ready to suspect, that he designed to bequeath the right of primogeniture to him, which each of them thinking they had a better title to, might thereupon be tempted to malign and maltreat him: whereas, among the sons descended from concubines, as having not the like ambition, he might find better quarter, of and to their company the rather resort, out of a principle humility and condescension, and to discountenance the haughty behaviour of the sons of Leah towards the sons of the concubines. -Patrick's Commentary, and Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

e The Hebrew and the Alexandrian Septuagint have it, they brought unto their father an evil report,' or grievous complaints against Joseph,' that is, they began their base and barbarous trestment of him with lies and calumnies. However, Aquile, Symmachus, and the Syriac, make Joseph the accuser; but of what crime it was, that he accused them to his father, and whether it consisted in deeds or words only, is a subject that has

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treat him so very surly, that whenever he spake to them, | after them; and no sooner did they see him approaching, they would scarce give him a civil answer. But that but their old malice revived, and immediately they which completed their envy and resentment, or rather resolved to make away with this master-dreamer, as turned them into an irreconcilable hatred, was his inno- they called him, and to persuade their father that some cently telling them some of his dreams, which seemed wild beast had devoured him. to portend his advancement in the world above them. He told them that one night he dreamed, that as he and they were binding sheaves together in the field, his sheaf stood upright, while theirs fell prostrate before it, as if they had been doing obeisance; and that another time, be fancied himself mounted on high, and the sun, moon, and eleven stars, doing him the like homage. This raised the indignation of the rest, as thinking it a disparagement to have a younger brother their superior: which | their father perceiving, in hopes of mitigating their resentment, a thought fit to discountenance him in the interpretation of his dreams, by telling him, that they were vain and chimerical, and what could never come to pass; though, in himself, he could not but think, that there was something extraordinary and ominous in them. His brothers, however, instead of abating their hatred, grew every day more and more exasperated; so that they resolved at last to cut him off, and only waited for a convenient opportunity..

This resolution, barbarous as it was, had certainly been put in execution, d had not Reuben, who was the eldest, interposed, and, dissuading them from imbruing their hands in his blood, advised rather to throw him into the next pit, with a design himself to draw him out privately, and convey him safe home to his father. Reuben's advice was liked; and therefore, as soon as Joseph came up to them, they immediately seized him, pulled off his fine coat, and threw him into a pit, which, at that time, chanced to be dry; whereupon Reuben withdrew, to contrive some means for rescuing his brother, whilst the others, as if they had done some glorious act, sat down to eat, and drink, and regale themselves.

commentators.

It happened, at this time, that Joseph's ten brethren (for Benjamin was as yet too young for any business) were keeping their flocks not far from Shechem, when their father not having heard from them for some time, and being not a little anxious for their welfare, sent Joseph to find them out, and know how they did. As be drew near to Shechem, he was informed by a person whom he met with by accident, that they had removed from thence, and were gone about twenty miles farther north to a place called Dothan. Thither Joseph went occasioned a great variety of conjectures among critics and Some will have it, that Joseph told of their wkindness and asperity to him; others, of their quarrelling and contentious way of living. Some, of their committing sodomy or bestiality; while those who confine it to words only, suppose it to be passionate and undutiful reflections they might make upon their father, for loving Joseph more than themselves. But whatever it was, it may be gathered, from their propense malice to him, that it was no small crime, because that for his telling it, and which he might do with no other intent, but only that his father's rebukes and admonitions might reform them,) they hated him even unto death.—Bibliotheca Biblica and Howell's History. @ St Chrysostom, in his homily upon the place, has given us this farther reason." Besides," says he, he might think it convenient to give this calm check to a spirit so much elated, as this young man must be, by those great and certain expectations which God was pleased, in so extraordinary a manner, to set before him. The foreknowledge of all that greatness and glory, which was one day infallibly to be his portion, might have put him upon a wrong bias of behaviour; might have tempted him to antedate his superiority; and fail, or waver, more or less in his duty to his elder brethren, if not to his father himself; and this seems to be the meaning of Jacob's mentioning his mother, who was dead, and did not so well comport with his dream. But at the same time, that in prudence he was willing to prevent any vain aspiring conceits, or tumours in his son, in faith he was persuaded, that the fact would prove such as it was foretold."

The reason of Jacob's uneasiness, and of sending his son Joseph upon this errand, will be very obvious, if it be remembered, that the sons of Jacob had so incensed the neighbouring places by the massacre of the Shechemites, that Jacob was obliged immediately to quit the country, for fear of a general insurrection upon him, as we read, Gen. xxxiv. 30.

e It was a town about twelve miles to the north of the city of Samaria, as Eusebius informs us.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1.

In the mean time e a caravan of Ishmaelites, who were travelling from Mount Gilead into Egypt with spices and other merchandise, appeared in sight, which put Judah in the thought of taking their brother out of the pit, and selling him to these merchants, which would every whit answer their purpose as well, or better. The proposal was no sooner made, than it was approved : Joseph was taken out of the pit, was sold to the merchants, and the merchants sold him again to Potiphar, one of the king's chief officers, and captain of his guards. Reuben being absent while this was done, came to the pit not long after, in order to rescue his brother; but finding him not there, he began to bewail and lament himself to such a degree, that his brethren, to pacify his

Bethink

d He either thought himself most concerned to save his brother, as being the first-born, and therefore like to be the first in the blame; or he might hope, by thus piously and compassionately preserving the favourite Joseph, to recover that place in his father's aflection, which he had lost by his incest with Bilhah, his concubinary wife. The speech which Josephus introduces him as making upon this occasion, is very moving and very rhetorical. "It were an abominable wickedness," says he, "to take away the life, even of a stranger, but to destroy a kinsman and a brother, and, in that brother, a father and a mother too, with grief for the loss of so good, and so hopeful a son. yourselves, if any thing can be more diabolical. Consider that there is an all-seeing God, who will be the avenger, as well as witness of this horrid murder. Bethink yourselves, I say, and repent of your barbarous purpose. You must never expect to commit this flagitious villany, and the divine vengeance not overtake you; for God's providence is every where, in the wilderness, as well as in the city, and the horrors of a guilty conscience will pursue you wherever you go. But, put the case, your brother had done you some wrong; yet is it not our duty to pass over the slips of our friends? When the simplicity of his youth may justly plead his excuse, his brothers certainly, of all men living, should be his friends and guardians, rather than his murderers; especially when the ground of all your quarrel is this, that God loves your brother, and your brother loves God.”—Josephus, b. 2. c. 3.

e Though we name the Ishmaelites only, yet here seem to be two, if not three sorts of merchants mentioned in this passage, the Ishmaelites, the Midianites, and Medanites, (as they are called in the Hebrew, Gen. xxxvii. 36.) who were a distinct people from the Midianites, as descended from Medan, one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, and brother to Midian, Gen. xxv. 2. But as they and the Midianites lived near together in Arabia, not far from the Ishmaelites, they all joined together in this caravan, as one society of merchants; as it is the custom even to this day, in those eastern countries, for merchants and others to travel through the deserts in large companies, for fear of wild beasts or robbers.—Patrick's Commentary, and Poole's Annota

tions.