FOOTNOTES:

But the genealogy of the Hebrews goes far beyond Carrhæ and Ur. After enumerating the ten patriarchs from Adam,i. e.from the man "formed of earth" (adama) to Noah, and giving the age of these patriarchs in hundreds of years (the highest age is 969, and the lowest is the seventh, 365), the first text enumerates another set of ten patriarchs from the sons of Noah down to Abraham, and of these the age gradually dwindles from 600 to 175 years.[583]The head of this series, Shem, the eldest son of Noah, the friend of God, is the immediate progenitor of the Hebrews. That the recollection and feeling of the relationship with the inhabitants of the land of the two streams, and with the population of Aram,i. e.of the upper land between the Tigris and Euphrates, the Euphratesand the Jordan, and with portions of the inhabitants of Arabia and Asia Minor, was alive and present in the minds of the Hebrews, is clear from the fact that these nations, akin in tribe and blood and language, were carried back to Shem. From Arphaxad, the third son of Shem, sprang the fathers of the Hebrews; the two first sons Elam and Asshur, we already know as the progenitors of the Elamites and Assyrians. From Lud and Aram, the fourth and fifth sons of Shem, the Lydians and Aramæeans were derived, a genealogy which certainly belongs to the Ephraimitic, if not to the Judæan text. In Arphaxad, the name of the third son, we cannot mistake the name of a district any more than in the names of the other sons. Arphaxad is a mountain canton of South Armenia, between the lakes of Van and Urumiah,—the Arrapachitis[584]of the Greeks, the Alpak of the Armenians, the modern Albak—and lies more than 6,000 feet high, at the source of the Great Zab, which also flows through it.[585]The son of Arphaxad is Salah,i. e."leaving," "departure," and the son of Salah is Eber, in whom we have the later name of the Israelites, transformed into a patriarch. To Eber two sons are allotted. The name of the elder, Peleg, means division, "because in his time the earth was divided." From this we may draw the conclusion that the division of the descendants of Noah and the separation of the nations was transferred to the fifth generation after him. But another meaning may also be given on linguistic grounds to the name Peleg (Phaleg), and at the juncture of the Chaboras and the Euphrates we find a place of the name of Phalga.[586]Joktan, thesecond son of Eber, we know already as the father of those Arabian tribes who dwell from Mesha to Dshafar, and in Kachtan we have already found his name in Arab tradition (p. 326). The descendants of Peleg, the elder son of Eber, are Reu, and Serug the son of Reu. The name Serug appears to have been retained in the district of Serug, and the modern Serudsh, south-west of Edessa, in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates. Western writers speak of the district of Osrhoene, and give this name to the south-west of Mesopotamia.[587]Serug's son is Nahor,i. e."the river," the Euphrates. Nahor is followed by Terah, who had his home at Ur.

If this series of the first text preserved a genuine historical recollection, a portion of a Semitic tribe, settled in the mountains of South Armenia, or even the whole tribe—the sons of Arphaxad—journeyed to the south, after leaving nothing but their name in the mountain valley. The separation from their kindred was signified by the name Salah,i. e."leaving." At first the sons of Arphaxad pastured their flocks at Serudsh, in the north-west of Mesopotamia, and from thence they passed to Ur on the lower Euphrates, while another branch, the sons of Joktan, turned away from the mouth of the Euphrates in the direction of Arabia. At a later time the sons of Arphaxad settled at Ur must again have marched up the Euphrates to Carrhae. Then followed a second division; one portion, the Nahorites,i. e.the people of the river, remained at Carrhae, while others, the Abrahamites, wandered to Canaan, or rather into the deserts bordering on Canaan. Moreover, since the first text denotes Abraham's eldest son Ishmael, as the progenitor of theIshmaelites,i. e.of a considerable number of tribes of North and Central Arabia, and since the revision derives the Midianites, who wandered on the peninsula of Sinai, and further in the East, and other Arabian tribes, from the sons of Keturah, the younger sons of Abraham (pp.324,393), it follows that on the borders of Canaan a portion of the Abrahamites must again have broken off, and passed on to the peninsula of Arabia.

However this may be, the kinship of the Hebrews with the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Aramæans, the derivation of their tribe from the river-land of the Euphrates and Tigris, is beyond a doubt, and we must regard the districts of Arphaxad and Serug, of Ur and Carrhæ, as the original home of the tribe, which afterwards grew up to be the Hebrews. In any case it is clear from this genealogical table that the Hebrews considered themselves closely allied to the Nahorites of Haran, but more especially to a considerable number of the Arabian tribes, or Ishmaelites,i. e.the Nebajoths, the Kedarites, the Temanites, the Jeturites, and finally the Midianites. This is proved, not only by the derivation of the Ishmaelites from the eldest son of Abraham, but also by the close relationship in which the Edomites, the brothers of the Hebrews, are represented as standing to the Ishmaelites. The names Ishmael and Israel are similarly formed; the first means "God (El) hears," the second, "God strives," or "God rules."

Within this circle of kindred nations, the Hebrews occupy the foremost place. The Ishmaelites are descended, it is true, from the eldest son of Abraham; but not from a legitimate or equal marriage; the mother of their tribe is a maid-servant and an Egyptian. Ishmael's wife also came from Egypt, and, in this there may linger a dim recollection of the ancient supremacy of the Hyksos in Egypt.[588]The Midianites, on the other hand, spring from a younger branch than the Hebrews; and they too are not born from the true wife of Abraham, and hence are not his genuine heirs. To the Moabites also, who pastured their flocks to the east of the Dead Sea, and the Ammonites, whose land lay to the north-east of this sea, the Hebrews held themselves akin. These tribes are the descendants of Lot, Abraham's brother's son; and therefore they, like the Hebrews themselves, spring from those who had moved from Carrhae to the West. But Lot had separated from Abraham, and chosen the region of Jordan. And when Jehovah rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, because the sins of their inhabitants were grievous, and overthrew these cities, and the whole land around them, Lot with his two daughters escaped towards the East; but because all the men of Sodom were destroyed, there was no man to dwell with Lot's daughters. Then they gave their father wine to drink, and lay with him, and the elder bore Moab, and the younger Ammon. Thus although the Moabites and Ammonites are closely allied to the Hebrews, and are of the pure stock—they were begotten in incest. A dark stain rests on their origin. Obviously the bitter hostility which afterwards prevailed between the Hebrews, and the Moabites and Ammonites, and the severe wounds which the Hebrews suffered from the attacks of these nations, have had their influence in forming and moulding the story of their origin. The Judæan textnarrated quite simply the separation of Abraham and Lot, the choice of the land of Jordan, the destruction of the cities, and Lot's escape.[589]The broader details and motives given in the narrative are the work of the prophetic revision, to which the account of the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites exclusively belongs.

To the Hebrews, the wanderings and fortunes of their forefathers appeared compressed into the lives of the patriarchs, whose mighty forms are also to them the patterns of morality, piety, and a life pleasing to God, the expression of the genuine national character. The name Abraham means, in the form ab-ram, "high father;" in the form ab-raham, "father of the multitude." Sarah means "princess." Their right to the possessions, which they won in Canaan by the sword, they saw in the command given to their ancestors to go thither, and in the promise that the land should belong to his seed, which is given to Abraham, even in the first text. Moreover, the purchase which Abraham concluded with the Hittites of Hebron of a burying-place for his wife and himself in the cave of Machpelah—this narrative is a part of the Judæan text—and the services rendered by Abraham to Canaan gave to his descendants a claim to the possession of Canaan. Abraham planted the trees at Beersheba, and dug wells; he defended Canaan against Kedor-Laomer, and recovered from the kings of the east the booty taken, without keeping back any for himself. These services of the progenitor also constituted a claim for his descendants.

The accounts in Genesis[590]of campaigns of Elamite rulers towards the west, and the supremacy of a king of Elam, one of the Kudurids, over Syria, are founded on events and circumstances which occurred aboutthe year 2000B.C., as has been already pointed out in detail (p. 251). The connection into which Abraham is brought with them is the work of the Hebrews, and belongs to the Ephraimitic text.[591]The account which puts the Horites, who occupied Mount Seir before the Edomites, among the nations conquered by the Elamites, and beside these certain extinct and mythical tribes—the Rephaites, Susites, and Emites—shows plainly that the events must belong to a very distant past.

When the rights of the Hebrews to Canaan had been proved, when at the same time it was ascertained that the kindred tribes of Moab and Ammon could establish no claim to the land, after the voluntary renunciation of their progenitor, it remained to be shown that the ancient inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites themselves, had been from the first destined to give way to the Hebrews. We found that the Canaanites, like the Hebrews, belonged to the great family of the Semitic nations; but they were distinguished from them in character, in dialect, and religious conceptions. Hence they were not derived from Shem, but from Noah's second son, Ham; and they were also burdened with the curse of Noah—a trait which the prophetic reviser has added to the narrative.[592]After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, and he became drunken, and uncovered himself in his tent; and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, but Shem and Japhet went backwards and covered him. And when Noah heard what Ham had done, he said, "Cursed be Ham; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren."

Abraham passed through the length and breadth of Canaan, the land which his descendants were destined to possess. At Shechem and Hebron, and then in the south, at Kadesh (Barnea) and Shur, he abode longest; at Hebron, and between Bethel and Ai, he built an altar to Jehovah. The presence of the patriarchs consecrated the places where his descendants were to dwell; among the Hittites and the Canaanites Abraham remained true to the God who had led him into Canaan; he rendered a willing obedience even to the harshest command. At the places where Abraham had set up altars, and where he had offered sacrifice, we find at a later period centres of Hebrew worship: by Abraham's sacrifices they were already consecrated. The Judæan text places the abode of Abraham mainly in the south of Canaan, at Hebron; the south belonged mainly to the tribe of Judah, and Hebron was David's royal abode till he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The Ephraimitic text placed Abraham mainly at Shechem, the chief city of the tribe of Ephraim, and gives especial prominence to the sacred place at Bethel. The wandering of Abraham from the south of Canaan to Egypt, where the Pharaoh, warned by plagues from Jehovah, sends him away with valuable presents and in peace, is the work of the reviser. It is an anticipation of the later sojourn of the Hebrews in Egypt, and forms at the same time a contrast to the widely different circumstances of their exodus.

After long waiting, the true son is at length born to the patriarch from his wife, of the blood of his fathers in Haran.[593]In order to preserve the blood of the Hebrews pure, a wife is not taken from Canaan for this son, Isaac, but the care of the fatherprovides a wife from among his kindred, the tribe of the Nahorites, on the Euphrates. The first text tells us quite briefly, "Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramæan of Mesopotamia, the sister of Laban the Aramæan."[594]The lively description of the journey and the suit of Eliezer is the work of the reviser of the two original texts. After thus providing for the continuance of the pure stock, when the oldest son, the child of Hagar, and the younger sons, the children of Keturah, had been sent away with presents, as the law of the Hebrews afterwards ordained for the sons of concubines, and directed to the East, when he had given everything into the hand of Isaac, Abraham died full of years and blessings.

Isaac was now sixty years old—such is the account given in Genesis—and his wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the sister of Laban, had borne him no son. Then Isaac besought Jehovah for his wife, and Jehovah heard him. Rebekah became with child, and lo! there were twins in her womb, and the children strove in her womb; and Jehovah said to her: Two nations are in thy body, and two people shall separate from thy bosom. The first boy was red in colour, and hairy, and she called him Esau; and afterwards his brother came out, and his hand was upon Esau's heel, and he was called Jacob,i. e."one that holds the heel." And the boys grew; and Esau was a hunter, but Jacob abode in the tents, and his mother loved him. Once Esau returned weary from hunting, as Jacob was making a mess of pottage. And Esau said: Give me to eat. And Jacob replied: Sell me first thy birthright, and pledge it to me. And Esau swore, and sold his birthright, and ate and drank, and went hisway. Thus Esau despised his birthright; and when he was forty years old, he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basmath (Bashemath), the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and afterwards Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Nebajoth's sister.

There was a famine in Canaan, and Isaac went to Gerar in the land of the Philistines, and there dwelt, and sowed in that land, and received a hundredfold, for Jehovah blessed him. He became more and more mighty, and had sheep, and oxen, and many servants. And Isaac dug out the wells which Abraham's servants had made, and which the Philistines had filled up after the death of Abraham. And the shepherds of Gerar strove with the shepherds of Isaac, and Isaac called the name of the wells Esek (contention) and Sitnah (hatred); but to the third, for which the shepherds of Gerar had not striven, he gave the name Rehoboth (room). From thence he went to Beersheba, and there he set up an altar.

When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, he said to Esau: Take thy bow and quiver, hunt venison for me, and make a savoury dish such as I love, that I may eat, and my soul may bless thee before I die. Esau went forth, but Rebekah, who had heard Isaac's speech, said to Jacob: Go to the flock and bring me two kids. I will prepare them for a savoury dish for thy father, that he may bless thee instead of Esau. Jacob obeyed, and Rebekah put on him the clothes of Esau, and placed on his neck and hands the skins of the kids, that his father, if he touched him, might not know Jacob by his smooth skin. Then Jacob went in to his father, and said: I am Esau, thy firstborn; eat of my venison. How hast thou found it so quickly, my son? asked the father. Jehovah, thy God, put it into my hand, he replied. The voice is the voiceof Jacob, the father said, but the hands are the hands of Esau. He ate, and Jacob brought him wine, and he drank. Then Isaac said: Come near, and kiss me, my son. God give thee the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance of corn and wine. Be thou lord over thy brethren, and let the sons of thy mother bow before thee. Cursed be they who curse thee, and blessed be they who bless thee. And when Jacob had gone away from his father with this blessing, Esau came with his venison. Isaac trembled and said: Thy brother has come with subtilty, and taken away thy blessing. Then Esau lifted up his voice and wept, and said: My birthright has he taken from me, and now thy blessing also. Bless me, even me also, O my father. 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 Hittites; 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 forthe 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 God went up and down upon the ladder. Jehovah stood over it, and said: I am the God 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 sevenyears, 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 asses, 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 Jacobarose, 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 gods?" 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 God of Abraham and the God 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-asses, and 10 asses, 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 hehimself 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 God, and with men, and hast overcome," and he blessed him there. And Jacob named the place Peniel (God's visage), and the sun arose as he passed beyond Peniel.

Jacob lifted up his eyes, and lo! Esau came, and with him four hundred men. Then Jacob assigned 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 gods was present in certain stones, which they worshipped in their sanctuaries (pp.329,360). The Hebrews also were acquainted with this worship. The first text tells usthat God appeared to Jacob when he returned out of Mesopotamia, that He blessed him, and said: Henceforth Israel shall be thy name. And God 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 God).[595]In the older mode of conception, the stone was itself the house of God. 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 god of their tribe was a jealous and fearful deity, averse to the life of nature,—a god 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 Godcan 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 god, 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 God. So runs the Ephraimitic text. As Jacob was returning from the Euphrates he came upon a place in Gilead, known as "God'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 God 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 god, when the friendly god 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 god, a struggle from which the former does not let the god 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 God. 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 circumcision also, as it seems, stood with the Hebrews in close connection with the idea that the life of boys must be ransomed by a bloody sacrifice. Jehovah is said to have commanded Abraham to circumcise 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 assume that the Semitic tribes from Arphaxad first went to Serug, and afterwards to Ur in Chaldæa; and that these immigrants, or a branch of them, passed 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 Assyrians, 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 possessedthis 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 Judæan text merely by the fact, that Esau had taken wives from the Hittites. "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 theninth centuryB.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 asacred 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 worship the gods 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 God, 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 withcontempt. Jehovah rewards the industrious servant, the active workman. With his staff in his hand Jacob passed over the Euphrates; but he returned rich in flocks and goods, blessed with wife and child. In his pliancy, his quiet, peaceful trust in God, his wrestling for the blessing of God, Jacob is the genuine warrior of God (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. xxxvi. 1; xlvi. 8 ff.; Exod. vi. 14 ff.; Numb. iii. 17-21; xxvii. 33.[570]Nöldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 64.[571]Numb. xxi. 14.[572]De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 273.[573]De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 316, 317.[574]Dillmann-Knobel, "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.—Nöldeke, "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 brass. Bunsen ("Ægypten," 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; Nöldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 16.[587]Buttmann, "Mythol." 1, 235; Procop. "De Bell. P." 1, 17; Ewald, "Gesch. der V. Israel," 1, 358, 380; Bunsen, "Ægypten," 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-Knobel, "Genesis," p. 313.[595]Gen. xxxv. 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 Horeb out of the midst of the fire." Job i. 16, "The fire of God 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. xxxiii. 3, "I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee in the way." Exod. xxxiii. 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 God 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 God speak with us, lest we die." Judges xiii. 22, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God." 1 Sam. vi. 19, "And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord."[599]Gen. xxxii. 24-32.[600]Exod. iv. 24; xii. 1-18; xiii. 2, 12-14; xxxiv. 19; xxx. 11-16. From the sacrifice of Isaac, the redemption of the firstborn and the Paschal offering, the conclusion may be drawn that in the oldest times human sacrifices were not unknown to the Hebrews. If such took place they were not offered in the same manner as the Moloch-offerings of the Canaanites. If Jehovah appears in fire, the fire is not, to the Hebrews, his essence, but only a form or mode of appearance. Sacrifices like those offered to Moloch were forbidden by the earliest text (Levit. xviii. 22; xx. 2) under pain of death. The narrative of Jephthah's daughter lays especial stress on the sanctity of the vow. Of the other passages which come into consideration only one or two deal with sacrifices; the remainder have reference to executions. In Numbers xxv. 4, we find, "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." Jephthah vowed his daughter and sacrificed her, Judges xi. 30, 34. "And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal," 1 Samuel xv. 33. In 2 Samuel xxi. 6-9, the Gibeonites say, "Give us seven men of his sons that we may hang them before the Lord in Gibeah. And they hanged them up on the mountain before Jehovah."[601]Gen. xiv. 6; Deut. ii. 12, 22.[602]Gen. xxviii. 1-9; Gen. xxxvi. 3, 10, calls the daughter of Ishmael, Basmath; cf.supra, pp. 317, 406.[603]Gen. xlviii. 1. On the places of worship at Beersheba and the "heights of Isaac" in Amos, cf. A. Bernstein, "Ursprung der Sagen," s. 14, 15.

[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. xxxvi. 1; xlvi. 8 ff.; Exod. vi. 14 ff.; Numb. iii. 17-21; xxvii. 33.

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

[571]Numb. xxi. 14.

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

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

[574]Dillmann-Knobel, "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.—Nöldeke, "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 brass. Bunsen ("Ægypten," 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; Nöldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 16.

[587]Buttmann, "Mythol." 1, 235; Procop. "De Bell. P." 1, 17; Ewald, "Gesch. der V. Israel," 1, 358, 380; Bunsen, "Ægypten," 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-Knobel, "Genesis," p. 313.

[595]Gen. xxxv. 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 Horeb out of the midst of the fire." Job i. 16, "The fire of God 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. xxxiii. 3, "I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee in the way." Exod. xxxiii. 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 God 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 God speak with us, lest we die." Judges xiii. 22, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God." 1 Sam. vi. 19, "And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord."

[599]Gen. xxxii. 24-32.

[600]Exod. iv. 24; xii. 1-18; xiii. 2, 12-14; xxxiv. 19; xxx. 11-16. From the sacrifice of Isaac, the redemption of the firstborn and the Paschal offering, the conclusion may be drawn that in the oldest times human sacrifices were not unknown to the Hebrews. If such took place they were not offered in the same manner as the Moloch-offerings of the Canaanites. If Jehovah appears in fire, the fire is not, to the Hebrews, his essence, but only a form or mode of appearance. Sacrifices like those offered to Moloch were forbidden by the earliest text (Levit. xviii. 22; xx. 2) under pain of death. The narrative of Jephthah's daughter lays especial stress on the sanctity of the vow. Of the other passages which come into consideration only one or two deal with sacrifices; the remainder have reference to executions. In Numbers xxv. 4, we find, "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." Jephthah vowed his daughter and sacrificed her, Judges xi. 30, 34. "And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal," 1 Samuel xv. 33. In 2 Samuel xxi. 6-9, the Gibeonites say, "Give us seven men of his sons that we may hang them before the Lord in Gibeah. And they hanged them up on the mountain before Jehovah."

[601]Gen. xiv. 6; Deut. ii. 12, 22.

[602]Gen. xxviii. 1-9; Gen. xxxvi. 3, 10, calls the daughter of Ishmael, Basmath; cf.supra, pp. 317, 406.

[603]Gen. xlviii. 1. On the places of worship at Beersheba and the "heights of Isaac" in Amos, cf. A. Bernstein, "Ursprung der Sagen," s. 14, 15.

When the progenitors of the Hebrews had come from the Euphrates to Canaan, and had taken up their abode there at Hebron and Shechem, when Jacob and Esau had parted in peace, and the latter had gone to Mount Seir, Jacob, with all his sons, went to Egypt.

Jacob dwelt at Hebron—so runs the narrative—when he sent Joseph, the son of Rachel, to his elder brethren in Shechem, to see if all was well with them and their flocks. But his brethren hated Joseph, because his father loved him more than them; and when they saw him coming, they said: We will slay him. But the eldest, Reuben, said: Shed no blood, but throw him into the pit yonder. This they did; they took from Joseph the coat which his father had made for him, and thrust him into the pit. Then there came a caravan of Ishmaelites from Gilead; their camels carried spices, balsam, and myrrh to Egypt. And his brethren took Joseph again out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Then they slew a goat, and dipped the coat in the blood, and brought it to their father. Jacob knew the coat, and cried: An evil beast has eaten my son, and torn his garments; and hewould not be comforted, but said: In sorrow will I go down to the grave to my son. But Joseph was carried away to Egypt, and was bought by Potiphar, an Egyptian in the service of the king, and captain of the body-guard, from the Ishmaelites. Joseph found grace in the eyes of his master; and as everything which he undertook prospered, Potiphar set him over his house. Joseph was goodly to look upon, and the wife of his master cast her eyes upon him. But he resisted her, and when she caught him by his garment, he left his garment in her hand, and fled out. Then she kept Joseph's garment by her till Potiphar returned, and said to him: The Hebrew servant, whom thou has brought to us, came to me to mock me; and when I lifted up my voice, he fled away and left his garment. Then Potiphar was angry, and took Joseph and cast him into the house of bondage, where were the prisoners of the king. And it came to pass that the chief butler and the chief baker sinned against the king, and Pharaoh put them in prison. Each of these had a dream in the night, and Joseph interpreted the dreams; and it came to pass, as he foretold, that the chief baker was hanged, but the chief butler was restored by Pharaoh to his office, on his birthday, so that, as before, he gave the cup into his hand. Two years afterwards, the king of Egypt saw in a dream seven fat kine come up out of the Nile, and after them seven lean kine, and the lean kine ate up the fat. As none of the interpreters and wise men of Egypt could interpret this dream, the chief butler bethought him of the young man of the tribe of the Hebrews, who had interpreted his own dream in the prison, and told Pharaoh what had befallen him. Then Pharaoh sent, and Joseph was quickly brought out of prison,and shaved himself, changed his garments, and came before Pharaoh and said: Seven years of abundance will come in the land of Egypt, and after them seven years of famine. Let Pharaoh collect food in the good years, and gather together corn, and keep it against the years of famine, that the land be not destroyed. Then Pharaoh took his ring from his hand and placed it on the hand of Joseph, and clothed him in garments of linen, and placed a golden chain upon his neck, and said: I place thee over the whole land of Egypt, only by my throne will I be above thee. And Pharaoh called Joseph Zaphnath-paaneah, and gave him Asenath, the daughter of the priest at On, to wife, and caused him to ride in his second chariot, and the people cried before him: Bow the knee. When the seven years of abundance came, Joseph collected food, and gathered up corn in the cities, without number, as the sand of the sea. And when the years of famine came, there was no bread in the land, and the people were compelled to buy bread from the granaries of Pharaoh; and when their money failed, they brought their horses, cattle, sheep, and asses to buy food from Joseph, and all the cattle in the land came to the king. And when they had no cattle left to buy corn, they gave their land and fields. Thus Joseph bought the land for Pharaoh, and the country became Pharaoh's, and Joseph said: Here is seed for you; sow your fields, and at the time of harvest, give the fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own for food, for yourselves and your children, and those in your houses. Thus Joseph laid on the land of the Egyptians a tax of the fifth, until this day.

The famine was sore in all lands, and in the land of Canaan, and when Jacob saw that there was cornin Egypt, he said to his sons: Go down and buy for us there, that we die not. Then the brethren of Joseph went down; but Benjamin, whom Rachel had borne after Joseph, Jacob sent not with them, for he feared that some evil might happen to him. Joseph, who sold corn to the people, knew his brethren when they bowed themselves to the earth before him, and remembered how he once dreamed at Hebron that he was binding sheaves with his brethren in the field, and his sheaf stood upright, and the sheaves of his brethren bowed before it; and that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed before him. The interpreter was between them, and he dealt roughly with his brethren, and said: Ye are spies, who are come to see the weakness of the land. No, my lord, they answered, we are true men, twelve brethren, the sons of one father in the land of Canaan. The youngest has remained with our father, and one is not. Then Joseph took Simeon, and bound him and said: Take corn for the need of your house, and then bring your youngest brother with you, that I may see that ye are not spies; then will I give you back your brother, and ye shall deal in our land.

When Jacob heard this, he said to his sons: Ye make me childless; Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and Benjamin ye would take from me. All these things are against me. But when the corn was eaten which they brought out of Egypt, he sent his sons a second time to buy food; and Benjamin was with them. Judah had promised his father to be surety for him. Joseph caused them to be brought into his house, and gave them water to wash their feet, and food for their asses, and restored Simeon to them, and bade them eat at his table. And food was placed for the brethren by themselves, and for Josephand the Egyptians by themselves. And Joseph caused presents to be given to them, and Benjamin's present was the largest; and they were drunken in his house. Then Joseph caused his steward to fill the sacks of the strangers with corn, and to replace the purchase money in each sack, and in Benjamin's sack to place his own cup of silver. When the morning came, and the brethren went forth from the city with their sacks and their asses, Joseph's steward overtook them not far from the city, and demanded the silver and gold which they had stolen, and found the cup in Benjamin's sack. The brethren rent their garments and turned back, and cast themselves on the earth before Joseph. But he said: With whomsoever the cup was found he shall be my servant; the rest may go in peace. Then Judah came forward and said: When we set forth our father said, If ye take Benjamin also from me, and any evil happen to him, ye will bring my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. If then we go back to our father, thy servant, and the boy is not with us, he will die, for his soul hangs upon him; let me remain here in his place, and be thy servant, that I may not see the sorrow of my father. Then Joseph could no longer restrain himself: he caused the Egyptians to go out from his presence, and lifted up his voice with tears, and said: I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold. Hasten, and go to my father, and tell him of all my glory. Bid him come to me, and you shall dwell here with your possessions. But Jacob did not believe the words of his sons, till he saw the chariots which Pharaoh had sent to carry him to Egypt. And Jacob set out with his sons, their wives and their children, seventy souls, with his flocks, and his goods, to Egypt; and Joseph came to meet him in his chariot, and wept long on the neck of his father,and gave to his kindred food, and a dwelling-place in the land of Goshen. When Jacob's days came to a close, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: Thy two sons, born to thee in the land of Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be to me as Reuben and Simeon. And he laid his right hand on Ephraim, and named Ephraim the younger before Manasseh, and said: In thee shall Israel bless and say: God make thee like Ephraim and Manasseh. And thus Jacob blessed his other sons also, and to Judah he said: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the staff of the ruler from between his feet; he shall bind his ass to the vine, and the colt of his she-ass to the choice vine; he shall wash his garment in wine, and his robe in the blood of the grape; his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. But Joseph is the son of a fruit-tree by a well. The branches ran over the wall; the archers provoke and follow him, but his bow remains firm, and the strength of his hands is supple. So he blessed them, and said to Joseph: Bury me not in Egypt; bury me with my fathers in the cave which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham, and Sarah, and Isaac, and Rebekah are buried, and where I buried Leah. Then Joseph fell on the face of his father and wept, and the Egyptians mourned seventy days for Jacob, and Joseph carried the body with Pharaoh's servants, and the elders of Pharaoh's house and of all Egypt, and with all his brethren, and the whole house of Jacob to Canaan, and buried him in the cave of Machpelah. But Joseph dwelt in Egypt till his death, and he saw the sons of Ephraim till the third generation, and the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on his knees. Joseph died 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and placed himin a sepulchre in Egypt. And all Joseph's brethren died. But their sons were fruitful and increased, and the land was full of them.

Then there arose a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph, and he said: The children of Israel are mighty; we shall be wise to prevent their increase, that they join not with our enemies if a war arise. And the Egyptians put taskmasters over the children of Israel, in order to oppress them with burdens. The children of Israel were compelled to perform heavy tasks in the field, and taskwork in clay and bricks; and they built for Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Ramses, and Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile all the male children born to the Israelites, but to let the daughters live.

It is no longer possible to discover what motives were given in the Judæan text for the settlement of Jacob and his sons in Egypt. In it the land thus apportioned to the Hebrews is not called Goshen, but Ramses. Yet it is clear that even in that account it was Joseph who procured a habitation and possessions for his father and brethren in Egypt.[604]The reasons given for the change in the narrative, as it now stands, are taken from the Ephraimitic text, which describes in the most lively manner, the virtues and glory of the ancestor of this tribe. The prophetic revision only added a few details, and sharpened a few of the traits. The second text represented Joseph as falling into the hands of Midianite merchants, the revision added Ishmaelites. According to the second text, Joseph was a servant in the house of Potiphar, in whose house as captain of the body-guard the butler and baker of Pharaoh were imprisoned, and there Joseph interpreted their dreams. The revisioninserts the temptation of Joseph by Potiphar's wife, and makes him, owing to her false accusation, a fellow-prisoner of the butler and baker.[605]Thus it was able to exalt Joseph, not from servitude only, but from the misery of imprisonment to the steps of the throne.

The ethical traits of the narrative, the national and religious views underlying it, are obvious. The evil of which his brothers are guilty towards Joseph, without any offence on his part, he bears with submission. In the service of the Egyptian he shows himself a faithful slave; he withstands the most enticing temptation. In return for this faithful honesty he is compelled again to suffer innocently. After long endurance he receives the highest exaltation; from prison he is summoned to be ruler of the land, and second only to Pharaoh. As he had been a faithful steward to Potiphar in small things, he is now a faithful servant to Pharaoh in great things; all the events, which he correctly foresaw, he knew how to turn to the advantage of his master. When he has shown his brothers, in order to touch their consciences for the evil they had done to him, how men may innocently fall into suspicion, punishment, and misfortune, he generously pardons them. In this pardon, this rescue of the whole tribe by the man whom they had attempted to destroy, rests the true punishment laid upon the brothers. It is the wonderful guidance of Jehovah which assists the innocent out of misery and distress, which turns the evil, which the brothers had committed against Joseph, in such a direction that in the grievous years of famine the race of Jacob finds a helper and protector near the throne of Egypt, who is able to give food and a habitation to that tribe, and allot to their flocks themagnificent pastures of the land of Goshen. The carrying of the corpse of Jacob to Hebron is intended to signify that Canaan, and not Egypt, was to be the lasting abode of the posterity of Jacob. At the same time the tradition of the Hebrews shows the benefits which a man of their race conferred upon the Egyptians in a time of evil; it marks how Egypt, owing to his foresight, was saved from destruction, in order at the same time to show how little the Egyptians regarded these benefits, and how great is the contrast presented by their subsequent conduct towards the Hebrews.

The description of Egypt corresponds exactly to the circumstances of the land as we have found them before. Both the author of the Ephraimitic text and the reviser were well acquainted with the life and customs of Egypt. We have found captains of the body guard in the retinue of Pharaoh (p. 190), a chief baker is also to be seen on the monuments, and although we cannot point to any butler of the king upon them, we know that in Egypt wine was not wanting at the table of Pharaoh, any more than among his workmen.[606]In the whole of the East, and demonstrably in Egypt, great importance was attached to dreams.[607]By knowing how to explain their meaning more correctly than the wise men and interpreters of Egypt—i. e.than the prophets, and temple-scribes of the Egyptian priesthood[608]—Joseph is liberated from prison, and raised to the position of grand vizier. The robes of byssus, in which Joseph is now clad, we have found to be the prescribed dress of the priests (p. 197), and if Pharaoh puts a goldenchain round his neck, we have already met with an instance of this kind of distinction (p. 131). That the Pharaohs regarded themselves as proprietors of the soil, that they collected a land-tax, and that the fields would require to be measured in order to collect this tax, has been already stated (p. 194). This tax, so surprising to them, the Hebrews explained by assuming that the Egyptians sold their plots to Joseph in the time of the famine, which were then given back to the proprietors in return for a fifth of the yearly produce. Hereby the services of Joseph to the throne are placed in the clearest light. We saw above that it was the first object of Pharaoh and his ministers to provide Egypt with life and sustenance (pp.104,184). Joseph's wisdom and providence put Pharaoh in a position to attain this object, even in the years of the famine. The names also quoted in the Hebrew narrative seem to correspond to the ancient Egyptian. The name Potiphar may be explained by Petphra,i. e."dedicated to Ra," or by Puti-phra,i. e."given by Ra." The name of the daughter of the priest at On (Heliopolis), Asenath, whom Joseph took to wife, can be explained by As-neith, and the Egyptian name of Joseph, Zaphnath-paaneah, by Zpentpouch,i. e."creator of life" (in the time of famine).[609]

Setting aside these points in the narrative, what historical value can be given to the tradition that the children of Jacob went from the south of Canaan to the east of Egypt, that they remained there 430 years, according to the older text, and in this period increased into a mighty people?[610]The district given to the children of Jacob for their abode lies, as thetradition plainly shows, in the lower country east of the Nile, beyond the Eastern or Tanitic mouth. The name Goshen, given in the Ephraimitic text, appears to correspond to Keshem, the name of a province in Lower Egypt.[611]The chain of mountains running on the east of the Nile, sinks down between the Tanitic arm and the north-west corner of the Arabian Gulf, and on the slopes nearer the river presents a flat extent of pasture land. In Egypt a tribe of shepherds could have no share in the regular system of cultivation, and the fixed order of Egyptian life; a district suitable for the maintenance of their flocks would be allotted to them, and nothing more. On the north of this district, the nearest of the great cities of Egypt was Tanis (Zoan), on the south, Heliopolis (On, Anu), with which we have become acquainted as a great centre of religion, and the seat of the worship of the sun god Ra, and the god of life Bennu-Osiris (pp.44,69). Hence with perfect consistency, the Hebrew tradition narrates that the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis was given to Joseph to wife.

But what could induce the children of Jacob to go to Egypt, or the Egyptians to give them a pasture-land on their north-eastern border? We arrived above at the conclusion that the tribe of Jacob was a branch of the Edomites, whose dwelling-place is fixed by tradition in the mountains between the north-east point of the Arabian Gulf and the Dead Sea, where in fact we find them in historical times. This tribe, therefore, both at the time when in union with the Edomites it passed along the eastern and southern borders of Canaan, and after separating from the Edomites—who may have already taken Mount Seir from the Horites, or have pastured their flocks in thevicinity—was at no great distance from Egypt. When divided from the Edomites, the fear of the stronger part of the tribe from which they had separated, and the desire to find more fruitful pastures in the neighbourhood of the Nile, or want of corn, as the tradition says, might have induced the sons of Jacob to leave the borders of Canaan for the borders of Egypt. The tribes, or families of shepherds, who pastured their flocks in the neighbourhood of Canaan, may have been accustomed to purchase corn when their own cultivation was insufficient, from the corn-growers in Canaan. A blight in Canaan would therefore compel them to turn to the abundance of corn in Egypt. And to a shepherd tribe, which sought her protection, and submitted voluntarily to her rule, Egypt would be the more inclined to give up the pastures beyond the Nile, if this tribe was in unfriendly or hostile relations to the Semitic tribes in the neighbourhood.

If we attempt to fix the date at which the tribe of Jacob may have exchanged the pastures on the border of Canaan for the more fruitful regions on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, it soon becomes clear that the accounts of the Hebrews cannot be maintained. The older text puts 215 years between the time when Abraham entered Canaan and the arrival of the sons of Jacob into Egypt, and exactly twice this amount between their arrival in and exodus from Egypt. The fixed proportion between the two numbers, and the further circumstance that tradition can only mention a few generations of the sons of Jacob,[612]leads to theconclusion that those numbers do not spring from any record or actual remembrance, but have been invented upon reflection. The date of the exodus also is fixed by a round sum; from the exodus to the building of the temple 480 years are said to have elapsed.[613]The Hebrews reckoned 40 years to the generation; hence they put twelve generations between the exodus and the building of the temple, and fixed the interval on this computation; yet their scriptures could only mention by name nine or ten generations in this period.[614]Hence the dates 2140B.C., and 1925B.C., which are deduced from the older text for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan, and of Jacob into Egypt, if the beginning of the building of the temple is fixed according to traditional assumption in the year 1015B.C., must be given up, as well as the year 2115B.C.for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan, and the year 1900B.C.for the settlement of Jacob in Egypt, which results from the fixing the beginning of the building of the temple in the year 990B.C.The only fact in the ancient tradition which admits of an approximate date is the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer of Elam, mentioned in the Ephraimitic text. This campaign we ventured to place about the year 2000B.C.Genesis represents him as defeating the nations on the east and south of Canaan, and the Horites on Mount Seir, while at the separation of Esau and Jacob Mount Seir is no longer the abode of the Horites, but of the tribe of Esau. But we must contest the claim of tradition to bring the history of Abraham into connection with this campaign of the Elamites to the west. On the other hand we may regard it as settledthat the tribe of Jacob did not arrive in Egypt at the time when the valley of the Nile was under the dominion of the Hyksos,i. e.in the period from 2101B.C.to 1591B.C., which we have assumed for this dominion, and that during this time it did not dwell in Egypt. The tradition of the Hebrews was not likely to forget that their ancestors came to the Nile, not as fugitives, but as kinsmen of the ruler of Egypt, or that their race had once shared in the rule over Egypt, and thus they might have dropped the slavery and imprisonment, and the position of Joseph in Pharaoh's service. And if these grounds are not held to be sufficient—if the tribe of Jacob was in Egypt under the dominion of the Hyksos, it must have been involved in their overthrow and expulsion.

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