away with her; but upon Jacob's offering all his company to be searched, Laban not being able to find where Rachel had hid them, they grew friends, made a solemn engagement with each other, and then parted. Laban returned home, and Jacob went on towards the place where he had left his father. Jacob was now returning into Canaan in great prosperity; he was a few years before very low in the world, but now he had wives, children, and servants, and a substance abundantly sufficient to maintain them. When he went over Jordan to go to Haran, his staff or walking stick was all his substance; but when he came to repass it, in order to return into Canaan, he found himself master of so large a family, as to make up two bands or companies; and all this increase so justly acquired, that he could with an assured heart look up to GoD, and acknowledge his having truly blessed him, according to the promise which he had made. After Jacob had parted from Laban, he began to think of the danger which might befal him at his return home. The displeasure of his brother Esau came fresh into his mind; and he was sensible he could have no security, if he did not make his peace with him. Esau, when Jacob went to Haran, observing how strictly his father charged him not to marry a Canaanite, began to be dissatisfied with his own marriages; therefore he went to Ishmael and k married one of his daughters, and went and lived in mount Seir, in the land of Edom. Jacob finding by enquiry that he was settled here, thought it necessary to send to him in order to appease him; that he might be secure of living without molestation from him. Some writers have questioned why, or how Jacob should send this message to his brother. Jacob was in Gilead, and Esau in mount Seir, one hundred and twenty miles at least distant from one another. Jacob went down Gilead to the brook Jabbok; from whence his way lay over Jordan into Canaan, without coming any nearer to Esau; why therefore should he send to him? or having lived so long at such a distance, how should he know where he was settled, or what was become of him? These objections have been thought considerable by some very good writers; and Adrichomius conceived it necessary to describe Seir in a different situation from that in which the common maps of Canaan place it. He imagined, that there were two distinct countries called by the name of the land of Edom, and in each of them a mountain called Seir; and that one of them, namely that in which Esau lived at this time, lay near mount Gilead; and Brocard and Torniellus m arc said to have been of the same opinion. They say, the children of Esau removed hence in time into the other Edom or Idumea, when they grew strong enough to expel the Horites out of it; but that they did not live in this Edom, which was the land of the Horites, in Jacob's days. Gen. xxxii. 22. . Deut. ii. 12. m Pool's Syn. in loc. But as there are no accounts of Canaan which can favour this opinion, I cannot see how this situation of Edom can be admitted. They make and invent names and places, known to no writers but themselves; and so create real difficulties in geography, to solve imaginary ones in history. The Horites were indeed the first inhabitants of Seir, and the land of Edom, and were in possession of it in Esau's days; for he married one of their daughters, namely Aholibamah the grand-daughter of Zibeon, and daughter of Anah; and this Zibeon was the son of Seir the Horite, and Anah was Seir's grandson, and both of them were in their turns 'dukes or princes in the land." Esau therefore lived and married in this country; for here only we find the persons, whose daughter he took to wife; and he lived here a sojourner in the kingdoms of other men, until after some generations God gave this country to his children, who destroyed the Horites, and took possession of their country, as Israel did of the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them. As to mount Seir's being very distant from Gilead, where Jacob stopped, and sent messengers to Esau, it is certain it was so; so far distant, that after Jacob and Esau had met, Jacob represented it as too long a journey for bis children to take, or his cattle to be driven, but by easy advances. It is easy to say, how Jacob could tell where Esau lived, and why he thought fit to send to him. It is not to be supposed that Jacob Gen. xxxvi. 2. • Deut. ii. 12. ➤ Ver. 20. Ibid. * Ver. 29. could be so imprudent as to carry his wives, children and substance into Canaan, without knowing whether he might safely venture thither; therefore very probably, when he rested at Gilead, he sent messengers to enquire whether his father was alive; what condition he was in, and what temper the inhabitants of the land shewed him, and whether he might safely come and live near him. And when he found that he should meet with no obstruction, if he could but reconcile Esau to him; he very prudently sent to him also, intending, if he should find Esau averse to him, to bend his course some other way." Thus Jacob's "If we consider what had passed between Esau and Jacob, before Jacob went from home, it will appear very proper that Jacob should send to him, before he ventured to come and sit down with his substance near his father. Esau still expected to be his father's heir; and if Jacob had returned home without Esau's knowledge, it would have laid a foundation for a greater misunderstanding at Isaac's death, than any which had as yet been between them. Esau would have thought, that Jacob had got the greatest part of his substance from his father; and when he came, at Isaac's death, to take away with him into Edom, what his father had to leave him, he would have looked upon Jacob, as having for many years been contriving to get from him all he could. It was therefore Jacob's interest to have Esau fully satisfied in this point; and for this reason, as well as others, he sent to him, to apprize him, that he brought his substance with him frota Haran, aud that he was not going into Canaan, to do him any injury. message to Esau may be best accounted for, by supposing Esau's habitation in the land of Edom, to be according to the common and known geography of that country; and Adrichomius' scheme of two Edoms being a mere fiction, purely to solve a seeming difficulty, ought justly to be rejected. X Jacob was in more than ordinary fear of his brother Esau, and his messengers at their return surprised him still more, by informing him, that Esau was coming after them attended by four hundred men. He concluded now, that his brother had a design to take his full revenge, and destroy him and all that belonged to him. In his distress he cried unto God; and after that applied himself to contrive the most likely expedients for his safety. First of all, he divided his company into two parts; that if Esau should fall upon one part, he might have a possibility to escape with the other. In the next place, he ordered a very extraordinary present of the choice of his flocks and herds, divided into several droves, which he sent before him. After this he sent his wives and children, and all his substance over the brook Jabbok, staying behind them himself alone some time. Here GOD was pleased to put an end to his fears, by giving him an extraordinary sign or token, to assure him that he should get through all the difficulties, which seemed to threaten him. There came an angel in the shape and appearance of a man, and wrestled with him. It was the same divine person, according to Hosea, " who appeared to him at y * Gen. xxxii. 6.. › Ver. 22, 23. Ilosca xii. 4. |
