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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/bool<ofgenesisnotOOdrivuoft / / / ESTMINSTER COMMENTARIES C> ^ w ««' Edited by Walter Lock D.D. IBELAIID PROrSSSOB. OF THE! BXBOSSI8 or HOLT SOKIPTUKS THE BOOK OF GENESIS , xHE BOOK OF GENESIS WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY S. R. DRIVER, D.D. RBOITJS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD. HON. D.LITT. DUBLIN, HON. D.D. GLASGOW, aXAMININO CHAPLAIN TO THE LATE BISHOP OF SOUTHWBIJ.. FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMT. FOURTH EDITION .m nd (C - '•'/> METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. t LONDON 3 ■ ^ y BS 1233 {'^05 First Published . . January igo4 Second Edition . . March 1904 Third Edition . . October 1904 Fourth Edition . . ^PS \ \ \ I PEEFATORY NOTE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. THE primary object of these Commentaries is to be exe- getical, to interpret the meaning of each book of the Bible in the light of modern knowledge to English readers. The Editors will not deal, except subordinately, with questions of textual criticism or philology ; but taking the English text in the Revised Version as their basis, they will aim at com- bining a hearty acceptance of critical principles with loyalty to the Catholic Faith. The series will be less elementary than the Cambridge Bible for Schools, less critical than the International Critical Com- mentary, less didactic than the Expositor's Bible ; and it is hoped that it may be of use both to theological students and to the clergy, as well as to the growing number of educated laymen and laywomen who wish to read the Bible intelligently and reverently. Each commentary will therefore have (i) An Introduction stating the bearing of modern criticism and research upon the historical character of the book, and drawing out the contribution which the book, as a whole, makes to the body of religious truth. (ii) A careful paraphrase of the text with notes on the more difficult passages and, if need be, excursuses on any points of special importance either for doctrine, or ecclesiastical or- ganization, or spiritual life. But the books of the Bible are so varied in character that considerable latitude is needed, as to the proportion which the VI NOTE various parts should hold to each other. The General Editor will therefore only endeavour to secure a general uniformity in scope and character : but the exact method adopted in each case and the final responsibility for the statements made will rest with the individual contributors. By permission of the Delegates of the Oxford University Press and of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press the Text used in this Series of Commentaries is the Revised Version of the Holy Scriptures. THIS Commentary will be found to differ in some respects from the previous volumes of the series, but the differences are of a kind which arise necessarily from the subject-matter of the book. Greater attention is paid to matters of archaeology, ancient history, and modern science, especially in estimating the histo- rical and scientific value of the earlier chapters of the book ; and more notice has been taken of literary criticism and of the analysis of the sources out of which the book has been composed. Both of these points have been found necessary; for the Book of Genesis touches science, archaeology, and history at more points than any other book of the Old Testament, and it is essential that in a Commentary for educated readers these points should be freely illustrated and discussed. Much study has also been bestowed during recent years on the literary analysis of the book, and many conclusions have been reached which have commended themselves to a large number of scholars, and these it would be unfair to withhold from the general reader. There is too another reason why a fuller treatment of such subjects has been found necessary in the present volume than, for instance, in the Commentary on Job. That book also touches many points of science, but they are there presented in a form obviously poetical ; here the form is apparently that of sober NOTE VII history, and the book has often been treated as though it were a manual of scientific fact and of exact history. But, as such, it must be submitted to the ordinary tests which apply to scientific and historical knowledge. That must be the first step in the interests of truth and in the reverent attempt to define Inspiration, whatever considerations we may feel have afterwards to be added to supplement it. The scientific student is therefore free to say, or rather bound to say, at times, in the light of modern knowledge, " This is not science, its value must be found elsewhere " ; and the historical student is free to say, or rather is bound to say, "This is pre-historic ; this has not adequate contemporary support ; if I found it in another litera- ture, I should not venture to build upon this as ascertained fact ; the value of the book must be found elsewhere." Such a frank discussion will be found in this Commentary. There will also be found a very strong insistence on the evidence which the moral and spiritual tone of the book ofibrs of its Inspiration. These are the two surest starting-points. There are other points that lie beyond. Thus, while the editor of this Com- mentary has urged various historical arguments (pp. xliii. fl\, Ivii.) in support of the general trustworthiness of the patriarchal narratives, many readers may feel that one or all of the following considerations strengthen his position. (1) The extra- ordinary truthfulness to human nature and to Oriental life creates an impression in favour of such trustworthiness ; (2) the consistency of this book with the subsequent history and re- ligious thought of later Judaism helps to confirm this impression ; (3) the fact of Inspiration, once admitted on the higher level of moral and spiritual tone, may well carry its influence over into details of fact, and turn the balance, when otherwise uncertain, on the side of trustworthiness. For the truest historian is not the accumulator of the largest number of ascertained facts, but the best interpreter of the spirit of the age which he describes, he who is best able to pick out the thread of purpose in the tangle of details. In other words, the ultimate decision on the value of the book has to be based on its context, and on its connexion with the whole of Holy Scripture. VIII NOTE These, however, are considerations which will appeal differ- ently to different minds : the first steps necessary are a careful test of the book by the ordinary canons of scientific and historical investigation, and a tracing of the clear marks of a higher spirit in its religious tendency. It is because both of these steps are taken so steadily and securely here, that I feel that tliis Commentary will meet a very real need of the present day. WALTER LOCK. PREFACE. THE present Commentary is an expansion of lectures which I have given for some years past to students reading for the School of Theology at Oxford. Its aim is firstly to explain the text of Genesis, and secondly to acquaint readers with the position which, in accordance with our present knowledge, the Book holds, from both a historical and a religious point of view. The most recent English Commentary upon Genesis, of any considerable size, appeared in 1882; and since then many dis- coveries have been made which have a bearing upon the Book, much fresh light has been thrown upon it, and new points of view have been gained, from which, if its contents and the place taken by it in the history of revelation are to be rightly under- stood, it must be judged. It has been my endeavour, while eschewing theories and speculations, which, however brilliant, seem to rest upon no sufficient foundation, to place the reader, as far as was practicable, in possession of such facts as really throw light upon Genesis, and in cases where, from the nature of the question to be solved, certainty was unattainable, to enable him to form an estimate of the probabilities for himself. In the explanation of the text, while I have not been able entirely to avoid the use of Hebrew words, and of technical expressions belonging to Hebrew grammar, I have endeavoured so to express myself that the reader who is unacquainted with Hebrew may nevertheless be able to follow the reasoning, and to understand, for instance, why one rendering or reading is preferable to another. The margins of the Revised Version — X PREFACE where they do not merely repeat the discarded renderings of the Authorized Version — very frequently contain renderings (or readings) superior to those adopted in the text: hence they always deserve careful attention on the part of the reader ; and though the instances in which this is the case are not so numerous in Genesis as in some of the poetical and prophetical books of the Old Testament, I have made a point, where they occur, of indicating them in the notes. Hebraists are, moreover, well aware that, superior as the Revised Version is to the Authorized Version in both clearness and accuracy, it does not always, either in the text or on the margin, express the sense of the original as exactly as is desirable ; and I have naturally, in such cases, given the more correct renderings in the notes. The field of knowledge with which, at one point or another, the Book of Genesis comes in contact is large ; archoeology, ancient history and geography, modern travel and exploration, for instance, all in their turn supply something more or less substantial to its elucidation. Naturally, where the subjects are so varied and wide, and the period concerned so remote from that at which we at present live, points of interest or difficulty occur, which I should have been glad to explain or discuss more fully than my limits of space permitted me to do, and on which therefore I have been obliged to content myself with brief statements of fact or probability, as the case might be^ ; I have, however, in such cases nearly always added references to some standard work in which the reader will find further information or discussion. I have found Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, and the Encyclopcedia Bihlica particularly useful for this purpose ; but naturally other works have often been referred to as well. I have in some cases multiplied references in the hope that readers who might not have access to one book that was mentioned might be able, if they desired it, to refer to another. 1 See, for instance, many of the notes on ch. x. PREFACE XI The critical and historical view of the Book of Genesis — which extended to Scripture generally, appears to me to be the only basis upon which the progressive revelation contained in the Bible can be properly apprehended \ and the spiritual authority of the Bible ultimately maintained — has been assumed through- out : but a minute discussion of critical questions has not seemed to me to be necessary ; and I have confined myself as a rule to brief statements of the general or principal grounds upon which the more important of the conclusions adopted rest. There are of course some points, on which — the data them- selves being ambiguous, or slight — divergent conclusions may be, and have been, drawn : in such cases I can only say that I have endeavoured to decide as well as my knowledge and judgement permitted me. The Commentaries in the present series are not intended to be homiletic or devotional ; but I have always endeavoured, as occasion ofifered, to point out the main religious lessons which the Book of Genesis contains, and the position taken by it in the history of revelation. There are parts of the Book in which, judged by the canons of historical method, it must be evident that we are treading upon uncertain ground : but that in no degree detracts from the spiritual value of its contents ; and the presence in the writers of the purifying and illuminating Spirit of God must be manifest throughout. In view of the many problems which, to modern readers, the Book of Genesis suggests, it will be a satisfaction to me if I may have succeeded in making my volume a contribution, however slight, to that adjustment of theology to the new knowledge of the past, which has been called a * crying need ' of the times \ Among the Commentaries upon Genesis which I have con- sulted, I feel bound to record my special indebtedness to that 1 Compare the paper read by the Bishop of Winchester at the Bristol Church Congress, 1903 {Guardian^ Oct. 21, 1903, p. 1590). 2 The Guardian, Dec. 19, 1900, p. 1784. XII PREFACE of August Dillmann, an admirable scholar, whose writings were j always distinguished by learning, ability, and judgement. It has been translated into English; but it can hardly be said to be well adapted to the ordinary English reader, as it contains much technical matter, which, though interesting and valuable to special students, is superfluous for the general reader, while, on the other hand, it does not always contain the kind of information which an English reader would expect to find in a Commentary. I have only, in conclusion, to acknowledge my obligations to the Warden of Keble College, the editor of the series, who has taken much trouble in reading all the sheets, and who has on many occasions given me the benefit of his judgement, and ofifered suggestions to which I have very grate- fully given effect. S. R. D. Christ Church, Oxford, October 6, 1903. CONTENTS. PAOB Addenda XV Principal abbreviations employed XVIII Note on the Chronology XXI Chronological Table XXII j Introduction § 1. Structure of the Book of Genesis, and Characteristics of its component parts . . i § 2. The Chronology of Genesis xxy § 3. The Historical Value of the Book of Genesis : a. The prehistoric period (chaps, l — xl) . . . xxxi &. The patriarchal period (chaps, xii. — l.) , . xliii § 4. The Religious Value of the Book of Genesis . . . Ixi /Text and Commentary 1—401 Additional Notes The Cosmogony of Genesis 19 The Sabbath 34 On the narrative ir. 4*> — iil 24 61 The site of Paradise 67 The Cherubim 60 On chap, iv ... 71 On Enoch 78 On the figures in chap, v 79 On the Names in chaps, iv. and v., and their possible Babylonian origin 80 The Historical Character of the Deluge 99 Noah's judgement on his three sons Ill Nimrod and Babylon 122 The Tower of Babel 136 \i \ XIV CONTENTS PAGE Ur and the Hebrews 142 On Melchizedek 1G7 The Vale of Siddim and the Dead Sea. The probable site of the Cities of the Kikkar 168 The Historical Character of the narrative contained in Gen. xrv. 171 The Angel of Jehovah 184 Circumcision 189 The destruction of the Cities of the Kikkar .... 202 Lot .205 The Sacrifice of Isaac 221 The Cave of Machpelah 228 The 'Hittites' in Hebron 228 The Ishmaelite Tribes 243 Stone-worship 267 Gilead and Laban 290 Jacob's struggle at Penuel 296 On the sites of Mizpah, Mahanaim, Penuel, and Succoth . 300 The narrative of Jacob's dealings at Shechem (chap, xxxiv.) . 306 Famines in Egypt. The date of Joseph 347 Land-tenure in Egypt 374 The Character of Joseph 400 Excursus L The Names of God in Genesis . . . .402 Excursus II. On Gen. xlix. 10 ('Until Shiloh come') . 4io Index 4i6 ADDENDA, Pp. xlii. n. 2, 24 n. 2 (second paragraph). I rejoice to see substantially the same criticisms made independently by the Rev. G. S. Streatfeild on pp. 15—17 of his pamphlet cited below (p. Ixviii). P. 3, on i. 1. With a language as largely unknown in England as Hebrew is, it is possible for an amateur or theorist to perform extraordinary feats. Thus Mr Fenton, in a work called The Bible in Modern English, translates the first verse of Genesis in this way, ' By Periods God created that which pro- duced the Solar Systems; then that which produced the earth.' To say nothing about the rest of this rendering, what, we may ask, would be thought of a Latin scholar who, having before him the words In principio, gravely informed his readers that principium was a plural word, and meant ' periods ' ? Yet this would be an exact parallel to what Mr Fenton has done. Other parts of the Old Testament are translated in the same fashion : thus Dt. xxxiii. 20, 'Let the horseman (!), Gad, be blest ! ' and Daniel becomes (Daniel iv. 9) ' Chief of the Engineers ' I P. 34 n. 2. Of. R. D. Wilson in the Princeton Theol Review, Apr. 1903, p. 246, where statistics will be found supporting this statement. P. 34 n. 3. In a recently discovered lexical tablet, the name is given to the 15th day of the month, i.e. the day of the full moon (Zimmem, ZDMG. 1904, p. 199 ff.). P. 51 ff. See further, on Gen. iii., the very full discussion in Tennant, The Sources of the Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin, 1903 (including the history of these doctrines in later Jewish and Christian hands). P. 52 n. 4. But see R. C, Thompson, as cited in the Bxp. Times, Nov. 1903, p. 50 f., who contends that no sacred garden is here referred to at all. P. 72. With the views respecting Cain here referred to, comp. Foakes- Jackson, The Biblical History of the Hebrews (1903), pp. 7, 363 f. P. 131, note on x. 29, 1. 8. This identification, which was originally Lassen's, is suggested by the fact that * algum,' and the Heb. words for ivorg, apes^ and peacocks, are apparently Indian : see Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, first series, ed. 1864, p. 208 ff. (who accepts it). It is objected (Keane, The Gold ofOphir, 46 f.) that Abhira is not the name of a people, but means simply a region where the Abhirs, a widespread caste of ' cowherds,' were settled. Still Ptolemy mentions a district Aheria in precisely the same locality : and Josephus {Ant. viii. 6. 4) identified 2(o(f)eipa [lxx. for * Ophir ' has in 1 K. ix. 28 Sta^j^pa] with Chryse (i.e. Malacca), * which belongs to India.' P. 131 n. 4, on x. 29, Ophir. It should have been stated that Prof. Keane, though he identifies Ophir with Dhofar on the S. coast of Arabia, considers that the *gold of Ophir' was found in Mashonalaud, and only brought to 'Ophir 'as an emporium. Dr Carl Peters discusses the question of Ophir at great length in his Eldorado of the Ancients (1902), pp. 289 — 369. Peters, however, distinguishes between the Ophir of Gen. x. 29 and the Ophir of Solomon, whence the gold came : for the Ophir of Gen. x. 29 he follows (p. 293) the view adopted by Glaser (below, p. 131 n. 4), upon grounds developed XVI ADDENDA with much learning, but not cogent, that it was on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf; the Ophir of Solomon he finds (p. 341 f.) in Mashonaland between the Zambesi and the Sabi. There certainly were anciently very extensive gold-workings in Mashonaland, as Bent {The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, 1892), and especially Hall and Neal {The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia^ 1902), have abundantly shewn. It is contended by Peters that the ruins of the great Zimbabwe (= 'House of Stone') and other places in Rhodesia are of a character shewing that they were constructed by Phoenicians and Sabaeans (p. 353 flF., 364 ; cf. Keane, The Gold of Ophir, p. 160 ff., where the same view is maintained). Keane places even the Havilah of Gen. ii. 11 in Rhodesia, the Pishon being, seemingly, the Zambesi (p. 194) ; and identifies the Tarshish of 1 K. X. 22 with Sofala (20° S.). The grounds on which all these positions rest require to be carefully tested : but as it is not affirmed by either of these writers that the Ophir of Genesis was in Mashonaland, a con- sideration of their arguments lies beyond the scope of the present com- mentary. The hypothesis of two Ophirs should clearly be only a last resort. In view of the connexion in which Ophir stands in Gen. x., * the burden of proof,' as Mr Twisleton said long ago (Ophir, in Smith, DB. ii., 1863, p. 640), 'lies on anyone who denies Ophir to have been in Arabia' : at the same time difficulties undoubtedly arise, partly from the apparently Indian origin of the Heb. words referred to above, partly from the fact that Arabia does not seem to have been a country capable of producing gold in such quantities as Solomon (even allowing for some hyberbole) appears to have obtained from it (1 K ix. 28; cf. x. 14 ffi). Hence the view that Ophir, though in Arabia, was an emporium for gold brought to it from elsewhere; though even so, as Palestine was a comparatively poor country, it is difficult to think what commodities Solomon would have had to ofl'er in exchange for the gold obtained by him, and the inference has accordingly been drawn that the Israelites must have mined the gold themselves (Keane, p. 67 f.). This inference, if correct, would seem to imply that it was procured from some country other than Arabia. See further E7icB. a. V. ; Budge, Hist, of Egypt j ii. 132-4 ; Glaser, Zwei Pvllikationen [those of Keane and Peters] iiber Ophir (1902). P. 156 w. 5. See also now the full and instructive discussion of this Code in S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi. P. 157 n. 3. The uncertainty of the reading arises from the * polyphony ' of the cuneiform script, i.e. from the remarkable, but well-established fact that the same character may denote different sounds^. In the three inscriptions referred to, the name which has been supposed to correspond to Chedorla'omer is written in characters which, read phonetically, would give (1) KU-KU-KU-MAL (2) KU-KU-KU-MAL ' (3) KU-KU-KU-KU- The last character in (3) is obliterated. Mr King, having stated these facts, continues, 'The three names are said to be identical, and to be a fanciful way of writing Chedorla'omer. Assuming that (3) is to be restored from (2), which is by no means certain, we get two forms of the name, one 1 See Evetts, New Light on the Bible (1892), pp. 119 ff., 452-4. ADDENDA XVII beginning with KU written three times, the other with it written four times. As the character has also the value dur^ and Kudur is a well-known com- ponent of Elamite names, the second occurrence in each name is probably to be transliterated dur, so that the names can be reduced to Kv^dur-ku-mal, and Ku-dur-ku-ku-mal. In order to get the names more like that of Chedor- la'oraer, it was suggested by Mr Pinches that the character in question had on its third occurrence the value lah or la§, and the names were transliterated by him as Ku-dur-la^-mal and KiL-dur-la^-gitrmal, the former being de- scribed by him as " defectively written." But there is little justification for assigning the new value lah or Idg to the character used ; and, though Ku- dur-ku-ku-mal is styled a king of Elam, there is no reason for supposing him a contemporary of ^ammurabi. He might have occupied the throne at any period before the 4th century b.o. Although however Chedorla'omer's name has not yet been identified in any Babylonian inscription, there is no reason at all why it should not be found in one.' Mr King then proceeds to point out (cf below, p. 157 f.) that Chedorla'omer is in form a purely Elamite name, Kudur- Lag amar, and that a joint expedition, such as that described in Gen. xiv., might have taken place, consistently with what we know of the politics of the age, in the early part of ^ammurabi's reign. Thus ' it would not be surprising if the name Chedorla'omer should be found as that of a king of Elam in an inscription of the Old Babylonian period. Up to the present time, however, no such discovery has been made.' Comp. Johns in the Expositor, Oct., 1903, pp. 282-7, whose conclusion (p. 286) is, *The cuneiform originals suggested for the names in Gen. xiv. are therefore only ingenious conjectures. They may all be right, but as yet not one is proved.' P. 383, 1. 16 f. Kur, to dig, is, however, an uncertain root {Lex. 468''); and it would form not m'kherdh, but m'khordh. M'kherdh must come from kdrar, prob. to turn round ; hence Dillm. suggests a curved knife, or sabre. P. 392, on xlix. 24^ In view of the names by which it has been supported the interpretation of this difficult clause obtained by vocalizing nrh for Hyi ought not perhaps to have been left unmentioned. Adopting this vocalization, Ewald (Hist. 1. 409), Tuch, and Dillm ann render the clause, * From there (where is) the Shepherd of the Stone of Israel,' i.e. from heaven, whence the Shepherd- God [' Shepherd's God' in Ewald, I. c. n. 2, is a mistranslation] (Gen. xlviii. 15, Ps. xxiii. 1, Ixxx. 1), revered at the sacred stone of Bethel (ch. xxviii. 21), stretches out His hands to support Joseph in the battle. The * Shepherd of the Stone of Israel,' if this reading of the passage is correct, will thus be virtually a synonym of the ' God of Bethel ' (xxxi. 13). Gunkel, combining this reading with that of the Peshitta, mentioned on p. 392, renders 'By the name of the Shepherd of Israel's Stone,' understanding the expression to mean the Divine Shepherd, who was regarded, at least originally (cf. pp. 267, 268), as dwelling in the sacred stone of Bethel. Prof. G. F. Moore {EncB. HI. 2977, n. 14) proposes, ' By the arm {or arms) of the Stone of Israel ' (y'">!P or ^?'"itP for ny-l DC'D) : this would form a good parallel to ' hands' in clause c ; but would hardly be possible, unless the ' Stone of Israel ' had come to be a mere title of Yahweh, the figure of the * stone ' being forgotten. i>. h LIST OF PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED. AHT. Fritz Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition (1897). BR. {or Rob.). Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine and the acljacent regions: a Journal of Travels in the years 1838 and 1862 (ed. 2, 1866). CIS. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (Parisiis 1881 flF.). DB. (except when preceded by 'Smith'). A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by J. Hastings, D.D. (4 vols., 1898 — 1902; a fifth, supplementary volume is announced for 1904). Del. Franz Delitzsch, Neuer Commentar vber die Genesis^ 1887 (Engl, tr., in 2 vols., Edinb., 1888-9). Dillm. {or Dl). Aug. Dillmann, Die Genesis erkldrt, ed. 3, 1892 (Engl, tr., in 2 vols., Edinb., 1897). Ed. 1 (1875) appeared as the third edition, for the most part rewritten, of Knobel's Commentary (see below). E. See p. xii. IJHH. A. H. Sayce, The Early History of the Hebrews (1897). EncB. Encycloposdia Biblica, ed. by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., and J. Sutherland Black, M.A., LL.D. (4 vols., 1899—1903). EW. English Versions (used in cases where A.V. and R.V. agree). Exp. Times. Expository Times (a monthly periodical on Biblical and Theological subjects, ed. by J. Hastings, D.D.; T. and T. Clark, Edinb.). G.-K. Gesenius* Hebrew Grammar^ as edited and enlarged by E. Kautzsch, Professor of Theology in the University of Halle. Translated from the 26th German edition by the Rev. G. W. Collins, M.A., and A. B. Cowley, M.A. (Oxford, 1898). Gunk. Hermann Gunkel, Genesis iihersetzt und erkldrt (1901). HG. G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (ed. 4, 1896). Holz. H. Holzinger, Genesis erkldrt (1898). J. See p. xii. KAT.^ Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament. Von Eb. Schrader (ed. 2, 1883). Translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O.T. by Owen C. Whitehouse, 1885, 1888. The references are to the pages of the original, which are given on the margin of the English translation. KAT* Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament. Neu bearbeitet von Dr H. Zimmem und Dr H. Winckler (1903). Not a revised edition of KAT.\ but a completely new work. Contains a very large amount of fresh material, but does not entirely supersede KA T.^ KB. Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (transliterations and translations of Baby- lonian and Assyrian inscriptions, by various scholars, under the editorship of Bb. Schrader). Six volumes have at present [1903] appeared, vols, i — in LIST OF PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS XIX (1889 — 92) containing inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian kings, vol. iv. (1896) contract-tablets, &c., vol. v. (1896) the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, and vol. vi., Part i (1900-1) mythological poems (including the Creation- aud Deluge-epics). Extremely valuable. Knob, (or Kn.). Aug. Knobel, Die Genesis erkldrt (ed. 2, 1860). L. & B. The Land and the Book ; or Biblical illustrations drawn from the manners and customs, the scenes and scenery of the Holy Land, By W. M. Thomson, D.D., forty-five years a missionary in Syria and Palestine. Three large volumes. Southern Palestine and Jerusalem (1881), being referred to 2i& L. & B. i.; Central Palestine and Phoenicia (1883) as L. & B. 11. ; and Lebanon^ Damascus, and Beyond Jordan (1886) as L. & B. ni. There is also an edition in 1 vol. (718 pp. small 8vo., 1898, 1901, &c.), the title-page of which differs from that of the larger edition only in having 'thirty years' instead of 'forty-five years.' This is apparently a reprint of the original edition (in 2 vols.) published in 1859 at New York, Much — perhaps most— of the matter contained in it is incorporated in the 3 vol. edition. Lex. A Hehrevs and English Lexicon of the Old Testament based on the Lexicon of William, Gesenius. By Francis Brown, D.D., with the co-operation of S. R. Driver, D.D., and C. A. Briggs, D.D. (Clarendon Press, Oxford). Not yet complete. Eleven Parts, reaching as far as "ob, at present [Dec. 1903] published. LOT. S. R. Driver, Introduction to the Literature qf the Old Testament^ 1891, ed. 7, 1898. Masp. I. G. Maspero, Th^ Dawn of Civilization. Egypt and Chaldasa (1894, ed. 4, 1901). Masp. IL G. Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations (1896). Masp. III. G. Maspero, The Parsing of the Empires 850 b.c. to 330 b.o. (1900). These three large and brilliantly-written volumes are at present the standard authority on the ancient history of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and neighbouring countries. Mon. A. H. Sayce, The ^HigJier Criticism,' and the Verdict qf the Monu- ments (1894). NHB. H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible, ed. 2, 1868. Onrnri. Onomastica Sacra, ed. by P. de Lagarde, 1870, ed. 2, 1887. Contains Eusebius' Glossary of the names of places mentioned in Scripture, with descriptions of their sites (p. 207 ff.), together with Jerome's translation^ (p. 82 ff.). The references are to the pages of ed. 1, which are repeated on the margin of ed. 2. P. See p. iv. Parad. Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? (1881). Important, not on account of the theory of the site of Paradise advocated in it (which has not been generally accepted by scholars), but on account of the abundant 1 See the Dictionary of Christian Biography, n. 336. 62 XX LIST OF PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS information on the geography of Babylonia and adjacent countries collected in it from the Inscriptions. Pesh. Peshitta (the Syriac Version of the O.T.). PEFM. Palestine Exploration Fund. Memoirs of tfie Survey (i. — iii. Western Palestine; iv. Eastern Palestine). PEFQS. Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statements. PSBA. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. R. Redactor (or compiler). See p. xvi f. Ret Sem. W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites^ 1889, ed. 2, 1894. RVm. Margin of the Revised Version. S. & P. Sinai and Palestine in connexion with their history. By A. P. Stanley, D.D., F.R.S. (ed. 1864). Tuch. Fr. Tuch, Gommentar iiber die Genesis, ed. 2, 1871. TW. Tent Work in Palestine. By C. R. Conder, R.E. (ed. 1887, in 1 vol.). ZA TW. Zeitschrift filr die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (from 1881). ZDP V. Zeitschrift des Deutschen PaloMtina- Vereins. A small 'superior' figure, attached to the title of a book (as KAT?), or author's name, indicates the edition of the work referred to. In citations, the letters * and ^ (or a and 6) denote respectively the first and second parts of the verse cited. Where the verses consist of three or four clauses (or lines) the letters «» b, c, d (^^ ^^ j^ ^^ ^) 2xq employed sometimes to denote them similarly. A dagger (f), appended to a list of references, indicates that it includes all instances of the word or phrase referred to, occurring in the Old Testament. It has been found diflBcult to preserve entire consistency in the translitera- tion of foreign names ; but it is hoped that the reader will not be seriously misled in consequence. It has seemed sometimes worth while to distinguish the Hebrew letters which are commonly confused in English (as h and A, t and /) ; but even this has not been done uniformly, and in the case of some very familiar proper names, not at all. Where distinctions have been made, '=N; *=y, p; gh- b^\ h=T\i ^; ch (in Arabic words)=^»-; dh=^ ; ^ = p; ? or |?=Vj ^=tD. NOTE OlSr THE CHRONOLOGY. The Chronological Table on the next page is added for the convenience of readers. Alternative dates are in some cases given, in order that the reader may be aware of the amount of agreement and difference between diflFerent authori- ties. The following are the principal authorities on which the Table is based : — For Babylonia, Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, L ii. (1896), pp. 24, 43; Rogers, Hist, of Bah. and Ass. (New York, 1900), I. 312 ff., 336 f., 349 flfl ; the authorities mentioned below, p. xxxii. w.; Sayce, Early Israel (1899), p. 280 f.; on Hammurabi, Maspero, ii. 27 (2287—2232), Rogers, i. 388 (2342—2288), King, EncB. i. 445 (c. 2285 B.O.), Sayce, I.e. p. 281, Exp. Times, x. (1899), p. 211 (Hommel). For Egypt, Petrie, Hist, of Egypt, I. 233, 252, II. 29, 97, &c., and Lecture reported in the daily papers of Oct. 17, 1903; Sayce, I.e. pp. 158^, 160, 276 f., Egypt of the Hebrews, pp. 89, 101, 308 f., 316; Budge, Hist, of Egypt (1902), i. Ill ff. (where the general subject of Egyptian chronology is discussed), 160 f., ii. 21 ff,, &c. Budge's dates (which are based upon those of Brugsch) are, as he expressly states (i. 161), only approximate; but as far back as the beginning of the 18th dynasty 'no greater error than 50 years is possible.' Where no dates are given in the Egyptian part of the Table, the authorities quoted do not appear to have expressed themselves. The First Dynasty of Babylon ^ LIST OP KINGS CHBONICLE Sumu-abu 15 years 14 years Sumula-ilu 35 M 36 11 Zabum 14 >1 14 )• Apil-Sin 18 11 18 It Sin-muballit 30 M 20 11 Hammurabi 55 »1 43 >» Samsu-iluna 35 11 38 11 Abeshu' 25 11 [?2]8 Ammiditana 25 11 37 11 Ammizaduga 22 ii 10 [unfinished] Samsuditaua 31 » 1 The 669 (i.e. 518 + 151) years assigned here to the Hyksos rule are based upon Erman's reconstruction (Masp. n. 73 n.) of the figures of Manetho as reported by Julius Africanus (Budge, i. 185) : see the paper cited p. 347 n. According to Manetho, as reported by Josephus (c. Ap. i. 14), their rule lasted 511 years, being followed by a ' long and great war ' of ' insurrection.' 2 From King's Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, iii. (1900), p. Lxxf. The first column gives the regnal years of the several kings according to the List of Kings published by Mr Pinches in 1880 (see Records of the Past, second series, vol. I. pp. 3, 13); the second gives their regnal years according to the recently discovered Chronicle of the First Dynasty, which is based upon two contemporary documents dating from the reign of Ammizaduga. The Chronicle itself is trans- lated in extenso in King, op. cit. pp. 213—253. L. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLED First appearance of man Diffusion of mankind over the earth Gradual growth of racial distinctions Formation of principal families of languages Palaeolithic age Earlier part of Neolithic age, and development of civilization to the level reacned when the earliest historical monuments appear in Babylonia and Egypt (cf. p. xU f.) (Not determinable In years B.C.; but < must have extended over many ( milleimia before b.o. 6—5000 Babylonia Estimated date of foun- dation of Temple of Bel at Nippur (Hilprecht) before 6000 Egypt Remains of predynastic civili- zation in Egypt B.O. before 5000 Menes, first king of Petrie Sayce Budse Many vases, inscriptions, &c. in the British Mu- Egypt mentioned seum e. 4500 4777 C.4400 Lugal-zaggisi, king of TJruk (p. xxxii) c. 4000 Fourth dynasty 8998— 3721 C. 8733— 3566 Cheops, builder of the Sargon of Agadd (pp. Great Pyramid 3969- xxxii, 173 n.) 8800 3908 Many kings of Lagash, Ur, and TJruk c. 2800 Twelfth dynasty 2778— 2566 C.2466- 2200 First dynasty of Babylon (Sayce 2478-2174 (Maspero 2416-2082 (Hommel) 2231—1941 Hammurabi (6th king of • First dynasty) (Sayce) 2376-2333 (Johns) 2285-2242 (Hommel) 2130-2087 The Kasshite dynasty (p. Rule of the Hyksos 2098- 22e&- 120) (Sayce) 1786-1211 (Hommel) 1688-1113 1687 1600 —1760 Eighteenth dynasty 1587— 1327 1503- 1600— c. 1700- 1400 c. 1683- Thothmes m. 1503- 1449 1449 1500 Bumaburiash; Tel el- Amenhotep 331. 1414- c. 14.50— Amama correspondence c. 1400 1383 1430 AmenhotepIV. (Khu- 1383- c. 1430- n-aten) 1365 1400 Nazi-murudash (p. 122) c. 1350 Nineteenth dynasty 1327— 1181 C. 1400- 1200 Ramses EC 1275- 1348- C. 1333- 1208 1281 1300 Merenptah (probably the Pharaoh of the Exodus) 1208- 1187 1281- c. 1300- 1270 Twentieth dynasty 1181— 1060 1180- Nebuchadrezzar I <j. 1140 Eamses m. 1230- c. 1233- 1148 1200 Assyria does not come into prominence during the period covered by this Table : the following dates, may, however, be mentioned : — Ishmi-dagan, patesi, or priest-king, of Nineveh c. 1820. Asshur-bel-nisheshu, jfirst king of Assyria at present known . c. 1460. Shalmaneser I., the builder of Calah (Gen. x. 11) c. 1300. For the authorities ujwn which this Table is based, see the preceding page. INTRODUCTION. § 1. The Structure of the Booh of Genesis, and characteristics of its component parts. The Book of Genesis is so called from the title given to it in the Lxx. Version, derived from the Greek rendering of ii. 4* avr-q -q ^i^\o% y ev ear e<jis ovpavov kol y^9. It forms the first book in the Hexateuchy — as the literary whole formed by the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua is now frequently termed^ — the general object of which is to describe in their origin the fundamental institutions of the Israelitish theocracy (i.e. the civil and the ceremonial law), and to trace from the earliest past the course of events which issued ultimately in the establishment of Israel in Canaan. The Book of Genesis comprises the introductory period of this history, embracing the lives of the ancestors of the Hebrews, and ending with the death of Joseph in Egypt. The aim of the book is, however, more than merely to recount the ancestry of Israel itself : its aim is, at the same time, to describe how the earth itself was originally prepared to become the habitation of man, to give an outline of the early history of mankind upon it, and to shoi^v how Israel was related to other nations, and how it emerged gradually into separate and distinct existence beside them. Accordingly the narrative opens with an account of the creation of the world ; the line of Israel's ancestors is traced back beyond Abraham to the first appearance of man upon the earth ; and the relation in which the nations descended from the second father of humanity, Noah, were supposed to stand, both towards one another and towards Israel, is indicated by a genea- logical scheme (ch. x.). The entire book may thus be divided into two parts, of which the first, chs. i. — xi., presents a general view of ^ The Book of Joshua is composed of three well-marked distinct strands ; and the literary affinities of each of these are with corresponding strands running through part or all of the five preceding books. The literary affinities of Joshua with the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings are much less strongly marked. ii INTRODUCTION [§ 1 the Early Histm-y of Mankind, as pictured by the Hebrews, inchiding the Creation (ch. i.), the origin of evil (ch. iii.), the beginnings of civilization (ch. iv.), the Flood (chs. vi. — ix.), the rise of separate nations (ch. x.), and the place taken by the Semites, and particularly by the Hebrews, among them (xi. 10 — 26); while the second, chs. xii. — 1., beginning with the migration of the Terahites, comprehends in par- ticular the History of Israel's immediate ancestors, the Patriarchs, viz. Abraham (xii. 1 — xxv. 18), Isaac (xxv. 19 — xxxvi.), and Jacob (xxxvii. — 1.). The narrative of Genesis is cast into a framework, or scheme, marked by the recurring formula, These are the generations (lit. he- gettings) of\... This phrase is one which belongs properly to a genealogical system: it implies that the person to whose name it is prefixed is of sufficient importance to mark a break in the genealogical series, and that he and his descendants will form the subject of the section which follows, until another name is reached prominent enough to form the commencement of a new section. The formula appears ten times in the Book of Genesis : viz. iL 4* (the generations of heaven and earth), v. 1 (of Adam), vi. 9 (of Noah), x. 1 (of the sons of Noah), xi. 10 (of Shem), xi. 27 (of Terab), xxv. 12 (of Ishmael), xxv. 19 (of Isaac), xxxvi. 1, cf. 9 (of Esau), xxxvii. 2 (of Jacob). In ii. 4* it is applied metaphorically; and as it clearly relates to the contents of ch. i., it is very possible that it stood originally before i. 1 (see p. 19). In the other cases, it introduces each time a longer or shorter genealogical account of the person named and of his descendants, and is followed usually by a more detailed narrative about them. With which of the component parts of Genesis the scheme thus indicated was originally connected will appear subsequently. The entire narrative, as we now possess it, is accommodated to it. The attention of the reader is fixed upon Israel, which is gradually dis- engaged from the nations and tribes related to it : at each stage in the history, a brief general account of the collateral branches having been given, they are dismissed, and the narrative is limited more and more to the immediate line of Israel's ancestors. Thus after ch. x. (the ethnographical Table) all the descendants of Noah disappear, except the line of Shem, xi. 10 fF. ; after xxv. 12 — 18 Ishmael disappears, and Isaac alone remains; after ch. xxxvi. Esau and his descendants dis- appear, and only Jacob and his sons are left. The same method is adopted in the intermediate parts : thus in xix. 30 — 38 the relation 1 Once (v. 1), This u the book of the generations of.... § 1] COMPOSITE STRUCTURE OF GENESIS iii to Israel of the cognate peoples of Moab and Ammon is explained ; in xxii. 20 — 24 (sons of Abraham's brother, Nahor), and xxv. 1 — 4 (sons of Abraham's concubine, Keturah) the relation to Israel of certain Aramaean tribes is explained. The unity of plan thus established for the Book of Genesis, and traceable in many other details, has long been recognized by critics. It is not, however, incompatible with the use by the compiler of pre-existing materials in the composition of his work. And as soon as the book is studied with sufficient attention, phaenomena disclose themselves, which shew that it is composed of distinct documents or sources, which have been welded together by a later compiler (or * redactor ') into a continuous whole. These phaenomena are very numerous ; but they may be reduced in the main to the two following heads: (1) the same event is doubly recorded; (2) the language, and frequently the representation as well, varies in different sections. Thus i. 1 — ii. 4* and ii. 4^ — 25 contain a double narrative of the origin of man upon earth. No doubt, in the abstract, it might be argued that ii. 4^^ if. is intended simply as a more detailed account of what is described summarily in i. 26 — 30; but upon closer examination differences reveal themselves which preclude the supposition that both sections are the work of the same hand: the order of creation is different, the phraseology and literary style are different, and the representation, especially the representation of Deity, is different^ In the narrative of the Deluge, vi. 9 — 13 (the wickedness of the earth) is a duplicate of vi. 5 — 8; vii. 1 — 5 is a duplicate of vi. 18 — 22, — with the difference, however, that whereas in vi. 19 (cf. vii. 15) two animals of every kind, without distinction, are to be taken into the ark, in vii. 2 the number prescribed is two of every unclean animal, but seven of every clean animal: there are also several other duplicates, aU being marked by accompanying differences of representation and phraseology, one group of sections being akin to i. 1 — ii. 4% and displaying through- out the same phraseology, the other exhibiting a different phraseology, and being conceived in the spirit of ii. 4^ — iii. 24*. In xvii. 16 — 19 and xviii. 9 — 15 the promise of a son for Sarah is twice described, — the terms used in xviii. 9 — 15 clearly shewing that the writer did not picture any previous promise of the same kind as having been given to Abraham, — with an accompanying double explanation of the origin of the name Isaac. The section xxvii. 46 — xxviii. 9 differs appreciably in style from xxvii. 1 — 45, and at the same time represents Rebekah * See particulars on p. 85 f. ^ ggg jjje notes, p. 86 ff. iv INTRODUCTION [§ 1 as influenced by a different motive from that mentioned in xxvii. 42 — 45 in suggesting Jacob's departure from Canaan*. Further, in xxviii. 19 and xxxv. 15 we find two explanations of the origin of the name Bethel \ in xxxii. 28 and xxxv. 10, two of Israel j in xxxii. 3 and xxxiii. 16 Esau is described as already resident in Edom, whereas in xxxvi. 6 f. his migration thither is attributed to causes which could not have come into operation until after Jacob's return to Canaan. In short, the Book of Genesis presents two groups of sections, distinguished from each other by differences of phraseology and style, and often also by accompan3dng differences of representation, so marked, so numerous, and so recurrent, that they can only be accounted for by the supposition that the groups in which they occur are not both the work of the same hand. The sections homogeneous in style and character with i. 1 — ii. 4* recur at intervals, not in Genesis only, but in the following books to Joshua inclusive ; and if read consecutively, apart from the rest of the narrative, will be found to form a nearly complete whole, containing a systematic account of the origines of Israel, treating with particular fulness the various ceremonial institutions of the Hebrews (Sabbath, Circumcision, Passover, Tabernacle, Sacrifices, Feasts, &c.), and dis- pla3ring a consistent regard for chronological and other statistical data, which entitles it to be considered as the framework of our present Hexateuch. The source, or document, thus constituted, has received different names, suggested by one or other of the various characteristics attaching to it. From its preference, till Ex. vi. 3, for the absolute use of the name God Q Elohim ') rather than Jehovah (* Yahweh '), it has been termed the Elohistic narrative, and its author has been called the Mohist; but these names are not now so much used as they were formerly ; by more recent writers, on account of the predominance in it of priestly interests, and of the priestly point of view, it is commonly called the priestly narrative, and denoted, for brevity, by the letter P (which is also used to denote its author). The following are the parts of Genesis which belong to P: — ^ i. 1 — ^ii. 4» (creation of heaven and earth, and God's subsequent rest upcm * ' ' the sabbath); v. 1 — 28, 30 — 32 (the line of Adam's descendants through Seth to Noah); vi. 9—22, vii. 6, 11, 13—16% 17% 18—21, 24, viii. 1—2% 3^—5, 13% 14—19, ix. 1—17, 28—29 (the story of the Flood); x. 1—7, 20, 22—23, 31—32 (list of nations descended from Japhet, Ham, and Shem) ; xi. 10 — 26 (hne of Shem's descendants to Terab); xi. 27, 31 — 32 (Abraham's family); xii. 4^ — 5, ^ See p. 262. § 1] THE PRIESTLY NARRATIVE (P) v xiii. 6, 11^ — 12* (his migration into Canaan, and separation from Lot); xvi. 1» 3, 16 — 16 (birth of Ishmael); xvii. (institution of circumcision); xix. 29 (destruction of the cities of the Kikkar); xxi. 1^ 2^—5 (birth of Isaac); xxiii. (purchase of the family burial-place in Machpelah); xxv. 7—11* (death and burial of Abraham); xxv. 12—17 (hst of 12 tribes descended from Ishmael) ; xxv. 19—20, 26^ (Isaac's marriage with Rebekah) ; xxvi. 34—36 (Esau's Hittite wives) ; xxviL 46— xxviii. 9 (Jacob's journey to Paddan-aram) ; xxix. 24, 28^ 29, xxx. 22* (perhaps), xxxi. 18^ xxxiii. 18* (Jacob's marriage with Rachel, and return to Canaan); xxxiv. 1—2*, 4, 6, 8—10, 13—18, 20—24, 25 (partly), 27—29 (refusal of his sons to sanction intermarriage with the Shecbemites) ; xxxv. 9—13, 15 (change of name to Israel at Bethel); xxxv. 22^—29 (death and burial of Isaac); xxxvi. in the main (Esau's migration into Edom; the tribes and tribal chiefs of Edom and Seir); xxxvii. 1—2*, xli. 46 (Joseph's elevation in Egypt); xlvi. 6—27, xlvii. 6—6% 7—11, 27^ 28 (migration of Jacob and his family to Egypt, and their settlement in the Mand of Rameses'); xlviii. 3—6, 7 (Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh); xlix. 1*, 28^ — 33, 1. 12 — 13 (Jacob's final instructions to his sons, and his burial by them in the cave of Machpelah). For convenience of reference, and also in order to enable the reader to judge of the character of the source as a whole, a synopsis of the parts of Ex. — Josh, belonging to it is here added : — Exodus i. 1—5, 7, 13—14. ii. 23^—25. vi. 2— vii. 13. vii. 19— 20*, 21^— 22. viii. 5—7, 15^—19. ix. 8-12. xi. 9—10. xii. 1—20, 28, 37*, 40—41, 43—51. xiii. 1—2, 20. xiv. 1—4, 8—9, 16—18, 21*, 2P— 23, 26—27*, 28*, 29. xvi. 1—3, 6—24, 31—36. xvii. \\ xix. 1—2*. xxiv. 15—18*. xxv. 1— xxxi. 18*. xxxiv. 29 — 36. xxxv. — xl. Leviticus i. — xvi. xvii. — xxvi. (these ten chapters embodying considerable excerpts from an older source, now generally called, from its leading principle, the * Law of Holiness ')^ xxvii. Numbers i. 1— x. 28. xiii. 1—17*, 21, 25—26* (to Paran), 32*. xiv. 1—22, 5—7, 10, 26—30, 34—382. xv. xvi 1*, 2^—7% (7^—11)', (16—17)3, 18—24, 27% 32^ 35, (36—40)3, 41—50. xvii. xviii. xix. xx. 1* (to month\ 2, 3^—4, 6—13, 22—29. xxi. 4* (to Hor\ 10—11. xxii. 1. xxv. 6—18. xxvi.— xxxi. xxxii. 18 — 19, 28 — 32*. xxxiii. xxxiv. — xxxvi. Deuteronomy i. 3. xxxii. 48 — 52. xxxiv. 1**, 5'', 7 — 9. Joshua iv. 13, 19. v. 10—12. vii. 1. ix. 15^ 17—21. xiii. 15—32. xiv. 1—5. XV. 1—13, 20-^4, (45—47)3, 48—62. xvi. 4—8. xvii. 1*, 3—4, 7, 9% 9°— 10*. xviii. 1, 11—28. xix. 1—46, 48, 51. xx. 1—3 (except *[and] unawares'), 6* {U) judgement), 7 — 9^ xxi. 1 — 42. (xxii. 9—34)'. ^ The groundwork of P's narrative in Genesis is *a series of inter- 1 See the writer's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, p. 43 ff. (ed. 6 or 7, p. 47 ff.). 2 In the main. ' The parentheses indicate later additions to P (there are probably others as well; but it is not necessary to indicate them in the present synopsis). * With traces in xxxii. 1—17, 20—27. ^ See LOT. 106 (112). Ti INTRODUCTION [§ i connected genealogies — viz. Adam (v. 1 — 28, 30 — 32), Noah (vi. 9 — 10), Noah's sons (x. 1—7, 20, 22—23, 31—32), Shem (xi. 10—26), Terah (xi. 27, 31—32), Ishmael (xxv. 12—17), Isaac (xxv. 19—20, 26^), Esau (xxxvi.), Jacob (xxxv. 22^ — 26, xxxvii. 2). These are constructed upon a uniform plan : each bears the title, "This is the genealogy of..." ; each often begins with a brief recapitulation connecting it with the preceding table (see on vi. 10) ; the method is the same throughout. The genealogies are made the basis of a systematic chronology; and short historical notices are appended to them, as in the case of Abraham and Lot, xii. 4^—5, xiii. 6, 11^—12% xvi. 1*, 3, 15—16, xix. 29' (Moore, EncB. n. 1670 f.). The narrative is rarely more detailed, except in the case of important occurrences, as the Creation, the Deluge, the Covenants with Noah (ix. 1 — 17) and Abraham (ch. xvii.), or the purchase of the family sepulchre at Hebron (ch. xxiii.). Nevertheless, meagre as it is, it contains an outline of the antecedents and patriarchal history of Israel, sufficient as an introduction to the systematic view of the theocratic institutions which is to follow in Ex. — Nu., and which it is the main object of the author of this source to exhibit. In the earlier part of the book the narrative appears to be tolerably complete ; but elsewhere there are evidently omissions (e.g. of the birth of Esau and Jacob, and of the events of Jacob's life in Paddan-aram, pre- supposed by xxxi. 18). But these may be naturally attributed to the compiler who combined P with the other narrative used by him, and who in so doing not unfrequently gave a preference to the fuller and more picturesque descriptions contained in the latter. If the parts assigned to P be read attentively, even in a translation, and compared with the rest of the narrative, the peculiarities of its style will be apparent. Its language is that of a jurist, accustomed to legal particu- larity, rather than that of a historian, writing with variety and freedom ; it is circumstantial, formal, and precise. The narrative, both as a whole and in its several parts, is articulated systematically^; a formal superscription and subscription regularly mark the beginning and close of an enumeration^ Particular words and expressions recur with great frequency. Sentences are also cast with great regularity into the same mould: as Mr Carpenter has remarked, 'when once the proper form of words has been selected, it is unfailingly reproduced on the 1 E.g. i. 5b, 8^, 13, 19, 23, 31"; v. 6—8, 9—11, 12—14 &c.; xi. 10—11, 12—13 &c. 2 'These are the generations of...' (above, p. ii.); i. 5^ 8^ 13 &c. ; x. 6 [see the note], 20, 31, 32, xxv. 13», 16, xxxvi. 29*, 30*', 40", 43»» &c. (see below, p. x., No. 26) : cf. also vi. 22 (see p. ix., No. 12), comp. with Ex. vii. 6 &c. § 1] LITERARY STYLE OF P vii next occasion'.' In descriptions, emphasis^ and completeness^ are studied; hence a statement, or command, is often developed at some length, and in part even repeated in slightly different words*. There is a tendency to describe an object in full each time that it is mentioned**; a direction is followed, as a rule, by an account of its execution, usually in nearly the same words*. It will now, moreover, be apparent that the scheme into which (p. ii.) the Book of Genesis is cast, is the work of the same author, — the formula by which its salient divisions are marked constituting an essential feature in the sections assigned to P. Here is a select list of words and expressions characteristic of P, — most, it will be observed, occurring nowhere else in the entire OT., though a few are met with in Ezekiel, the priestly prophet (who has moreover other affinities with P), and a few occur also in other late OT. writings. Only words and expressions occurring in Genesis are cited; the list would be considerably extended, if those characteristic of the parts of Ex. — Josh, belonging to P were included as well'. The dagger (f), both here and elsewhere, indicates that all passages of the Old Testament, in which the word or phrase quoted occurs, are cited or referred to ; and the asterisk (*) indicates that all passages of the Hexateuch, in which the word or phrase quoted occurs, are cited or referred to. 1. God^ not Jehovahy Gen. 1. 1, and uniformly, except xvii. 1, xxi. 1^, until Ex. vi. 2, 3. It is the theory of P, expressed distinctly in Ex. vi. 3, that the name 'Jehovah' was not in use before the Mosaic age : accordingly until Ex. vi. 2 — 3, he consistently confines himself to God. J, on the other liand, uses Jehovah regularly from the beginning (Gen. ii. 4^ 6, 7 &c.). In the OT. generally, 1 Oxf. Hex. I. 125 (ed. 2, p. 235). Mr Carpenter instances the use of the migration formula, Gen. xii. 5, xxxi. 18, xxxvi. 8, xlvi. 6, and the description of Machpelah, xxiii. 19, xxv. 9, xlix. 30, 1. 13 : cf. also xii. 4'', xvi, 16, xvii. 24, 25, xxi. 5, xxv. 26^ xii. 46»; Ex. vii. 7. 2 Comp. Gen. i. 29, vi. 17, ix. 3. ' Notice the precision of description and definition in Gen. i. 24, 25, 26^ 28^, vi. 18, 20, vii. 13—14, 21, viii. 17, 18—19; x. 5, 20, 31, 32, xxxvi. 40; xxiii. 17; xxxvi. 8, xlvi. 6 — 7 ; Ex. vii. 19 &c. *■ Gen. ii. 2—3, ix. 9—11, 12—17, xvii. 10—14, 23—27, xxiii. 17—20, xlix. 29— 30, 32 ; Ex. xii. 18 — 20 &c. In this connexion, there may be noticed particularly an otherwise uncommon mode of expression, producing a peculiar rhythm, by which a statement is first made in general terms, and then partly repeated, for the purpose of receiving closer limitation or definition: see, for instance, Gen. i. 27 ' and God created man in his own image ; in the image of God created he him : male and female created he them,' vi. 14 (Heb.), ix. 5, xxiii. 11 'the field give I thee &c. ; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee,' xlix. 29'' — 30 ; Ex. xii. 4, 8, xvi. 16, 35, xxv. 2, 11, 18, 19, xxvi. 1 ; Lev. xxv. 22 ; Nu. ii. 2, xviii. 18, xxxvi. 11— 12 (Heb.), &G. '^ Comp. Gen. i. 7 beside v. 6, v. 12 beside v. 11, viii. 18 f. beside viii. 16 f. « See Gen. i. 6—7; 11-12; 24—25; vi. 18—20 and vii. 13—16; viii. 16—17 and 18—19 ; Ex. viii. 16—17; ix. 8—10 &c. 7 See LOT. pp. 126—8 (ed. 6 or 7, pp. 133—5). viii INTRODUCTION [§ 1 Jehovah is much more common than God ; and to this fact is due no doubt its having been accidentally substituted for an original God in the two passages, Gen. ivii. 1, xxi. 1^ The statement in Ex. vi. 3 that God appeared to the patriarchs as El Shxiddai is in agreement with the use of this title in xvii. 1, xiviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xlviii. 3. The following words, ' but by my name Jehovah I was not known unto them,' are additional proof, — if such be needed, — that Gen. xv. 7, xxviii. 13, as also the numerous passages in Gen. in which the patriarchs make use of this name, cannot have been written by the same author. 2. Kind (pD): Gen. i. 11, 12 Us, 21 Us, 24 Us, 25 ter, vi. 20 ter, 7, 14 quater ; Lev. xi. 14, 15, 16, 19 [hence Deut. xiv. 13, 14, 16, 18], 22 quater, 29 ; Ez. xlvii. lOf. 3. To swarm (pK^): Gen. i. 20, 21, vii. 21, viii. 17; Ex. vii. 28 [hence Ps. cv. 30] ; Lev. xi. 29, 41, 42, 43, 46 [see p. 12 n.] ; Ez. xlvii. 9. Fig. of men : Gen. ix. 7 ; Ex. i. 7 (EW. increased abundantly) f. 4. Swarming things (^t!^) : Gen. i. 20, vii. 21 ; Lev. v. 2, xi. 10, 20 [hence Deut xiv. 19], 21, 23, 29, 31, 41, 42, 43, 44, xxii. 5 [see p. 12 n.]f. 5. To hefruifful and multiply (nmi HIS): Gen. i. 22, 28, viii. 17, ix. 1, 7, xvii. 20 (cf. vv. 2, 6), xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xlvii. 27, xiviii. 4; Ex. i. 7; Lev. xxvi. 9 : also Jer. xxiii. 3; and (inverted) iii. 16, Ez. xxxvi. llf- 6. To creep (l^C>n) : Gen. i. 21 (EVV. moveth), 26, 28, 30, vii. 8, 14, 21, viii. 17, 19, ix. 2; Lev. xi. 44, 46 (EVV. moveth), xx. 25. Also Deut. iv. 18* 7. Creeping things, reptiles (5^??): Gen. i. 24, 25, 26, vi. 7, 20, vii. 14, 23, viii. 17, 19, ix. 3 (used here more generally : EVV. moveth)*. 8. For food {rh:ivh): Gen. i. 29, 30, vi. 21, ix. 3; Ex. xvi. 15; Lev. xi 39, XXV. 6 ; Ez. XV. 4, 6, xxi. 37, xxiii. 37, xxix. 6, xxxiv. 5, 8, 10, 12, xxxix. 4t. (In Jer. xii. 9 rh:iVi^ is an infin.) 9. Generations (nnbiri} lit. hegettings) : (a) in the phrase Tliese are the generations of...: Gen. ii. 4% v. 1 {This is the hook of the generations of..), vi. 9, x. 1, xi. 10, 27, xxv. 12 [hence 1 Ch. i. 29], 19, xxxvi. 1, 9, xxxvii. 2; Nu. iii. 1; Ruth iv. ISf- (&) in the phrase their generations, by their families: Nu. i. 20, 22, 24 &c. (12 times in this chapter) f. (c) in the phrase according to (^) their generations { = their parentage, or tlieir ages): Gen. x. 32, xxv. 13; Ex. vi. 16, 19, xxviii. 10 (d); 1 Ch. v. 7, vii. 2, 4, 9, viii. 28, ix. 9, 31, xxvi. 31. 10. To expire (yia): Gen. vi. 17, vii. 21, xxv. 8, 17, xxxv. 29, xlix. 33; Nu. xvii. 12, 13, xx. 3 bis, 29 ; Josh. xxii. 20 f. (Only besides in poetry: Zech. xiii. 8 ; Ps. Ixxxviii. 16, civ. 29 ; Lam. i. 19 ; and 8 times in Job.) 11. With thee (him &c.) appended to an enumeration : Gen. vi. 18, vii. 7, 13, viii. 16, 18, ix. 8, xxviii. 4, xlvi. 6, 7; Ex. xxviii. 1, 41, xxix. 21 bis; Lev. viii 2, 30, X. 9, 14, 15, xxv. 41, 54; Nu. xviii 1, 2, 7, 11, 19 bis*. Similarly after you {thee &c.) appended to seed: Gen. ix. 9, xvii 7 bis, 8, 9, 10, 19, xxxv. 12, xiviii. 4 ; Ex. xxviii 43 ; Nu. xxv. 13. § 1] LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF P ix 12. And Noah did (so); according to &c.: Geu. vi. 22 : exactly the same form of sentence, Ex. vii. 6, xii. 28, 50, xxxix. 32^ xl. 16; Nu. i. 54, ii. 34, viii. 20, xvii. 11 (Heb. 26) : cf. Ex. xxxix. 43 ; Nu. v. 4, ix. 6. 13. This selfsame day (ntn DVH DVy): Gen. vii. 13, xvii. 23, 26 ; Ex. xii. 17, 41, 61 ; Lev. xxiii. 14, 21, 2S, 29, 30 ; Dt. xxxii. 48 ; Jos. v. 11, x. 27 (not P : probably the compiler) ; Ez. ii. 3, xxiv. 2 bis, xl. 1 f. 14. 4fter their families (DH^-, DninaK'D'?): Gen. viii. 19, x. 5, 20, 31, xxxvL 40 ; Ex. vi. 17, 25, xii 21 ; Nu. I (13 times), ii. 34, iii.— iv. (15 times), xxvi. (16 times), xxix. 12, xxxiii. 54; Jos. xiii. 15, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31 ; xv. 1, 12, 20, xvi. 5, 8, xvii. 2 bis, xviii. 11, 20, 21, 28, xix. (12 times), xxi. 7, 33, 40 (Heb. 38) ; 1 Ch. V. 7, vi. 62, 63 (Heb. 47, 48 : from Josh. xxi. 33, 40). Once in J, Nu. xi. 10 ; and once also in one of the earlier historical books, 1 S. x. 21 f. 15. An everlasting covenant: Gen. ix. 16, xvii. 7, 13, 19; Ex. xxxi 16; Lev. xxiv. 8; cf. Nu. xviii. 19, xxv. 13*. 16. Exceedingly (nxD n«»3 [not the usual phrase]): Gen. xviL 2, 6, 20; Ex. i 7; Ez. ix. 9, xvi. 13t. 17. Substance, goods (tJ'IDl): Gen. xii. 6, xiii. 6% xxxl 18^ xxxvi. 7, xlvi. 6; Nu. xvi. 32 end, xxxv. 3. Elsewhere (not P) : Gen. xiv. 11, 12, 16 bis, 21, xv. 14 ; and in Chr. (8 times), Ezr. (4 times), Dan. xi. (3 times) f. 18. To amass, gather (fi5^D"i — cognate with 'substance'): Gen. xlL 6, xxxi. 18 biSf xxxvi 6, xlvi. 6 (RV. had gotten) f. 19. Soul (&J>Q3) in the sense of person: Gen. xii. 6, xxxvi. 6, xlvi. 15, 18, 22, 25, 26, 27; Ex. i. 5, xii. 4, 16 (RV. man), 19, xvi. 16 (RY . persons) ; Lev. ii. 1 (RV. any one), iv. 2, 27, v. 1, 2 ; and often in the legal parts of Lev. Num. (as Lev. xvii. 12, xxii. 11, xxvii. 2); Nu. xxxi. 28, 35, 40, 46; Josh. xx. 3, 9 (from Nu. xxxv. 11, 15). See also below, No. 24 a. A usage not confined to P, but much more frequent in P than elsewhere. 20. Throughout your {their) generations {nynUP, Dnih^) : Gen. xvii. 7, 9, 12 ; Ex. xii 14, 17, 42, xvi. 32, 33, xxvii. 21, xxix. 42, xxx. 8, 10, 21, 31, xxxi. 13, 16, xl. 15; Lev. iii. 17, vi. 11, vii. 36, x. 9, xvii. 7, xxi 17, xxii. 3, xxiii. 14, 21, 31, 41, xxiv. 3, xxv. 30 (his) ; Nu. ix. 10, x. 8, xv. 14, 15, 21, 23, 38, xviii. 23, xxxv. 29 f. 21. Sqjournings (DniSD): with land. Gen. xvii 8, xxviii. 4, xxxvi. 7, xxxvii 1 ; Ex. vi 4 ; Ez. xx. 38 ; with days, Gen. xlvii. 9 bis. Only besides Ps. cxix. 54 : and rather differently, Iv. 15 (sing.) ; Job xviii. 19 f. 22. Possession (HjnX): Gen. xvii 8, xxiii. 4, 9, 20, xxxvi 43, xlvii 11 xlviii. 4, xlix. 30, L 13 ; Lev. xiv. 34, xxv. 10—46 (13 times), xxvii. 16, 21, 22 24, 28 ; Nu. xxvii 4, 7, xxxii 5, 22, 29, 32, xxxv. 2, 8, 28 ; Dt. xxxii 49 ; Josh xxi. 12, 41, xxii 4 (Deuteronomic), 9, 19 bis. Elsewhere only in Ezekiel (xliv. 28 bis, xiv. 5, 6, 7 bis, 8, xlvi 16, 18 te7% xlviii 20, 21, 22 bis); Ps. ii 8 1 Ch. vii 28, ix. 2 ( = Neh. xi 3), 2 Ch. xi. 14, xxxi If. 23. The cognate verb to get possessions (TPIi^J), rather a peculiar word Gen. xxxiv. 10, xlvii 27 ; Nu. xxxii 30, Josh. xxii. 9, 19 f. X INTRODUCTION [§ 1 24. Father's kin (D''ttV), — a peculiar usage (see on Gen. xvii. 14): (a) that soul (or that man) shall he cut off from his father's kin: Gen. xvii. 14; Ex. xxx. 33, 38, xxxi. 14; Lev. vii. 20, 21, 25, 27, xvii. 9, xix. 8, xxiii. 29 ; Nu. ix. ISf. (6) to he gathered to on^s father^ s kin: Gen. xxv. 8, 17, xxxv. 29, xlix. 33 (of. on V. 29) ; Nu. xx. 24, xxvii. 13, xxxi. 2 ; Dt. xxxii. 50 his\. (c) Lev. xix. 16, xxi. 1, 4, 14, 15; Ez. xviii. 18 : perhaps Jud. v. 14; Hos. X. 14. 25. Sojourner (BVV.), better settler (3K^in): Gen. xxiii. 4 (hence fig. Ps. xxxix. 13, 1 Ch. xxix. 15); Ex. xii. 45; Lev. xxii. 10, xxv. 6, 23 (fig.), 35, 40, 45, 47 his-, Nu. xxxv. 15 ; 1 K. xvii. 1 (but read rather as RVm.)t. 26. The methodical form of subscription and superscription : Gen. x. [5,] 20, 31, 32, xxv. 13% 16, xxxvi. 29% 30% 40% 43% xlvi. 8, 15, 18, 22, 25 ; Ex. i. 1, vi. 14, 16, 19, 25, 26 ; Nu. i. 44, iv. 28, 33, 37, 41, 45, vii. 17, 23, 29 &c., 84, xxxiii. 1 ; Josh. xiii. 23, 28, 32, xiv. 1, xv. 12, 20, xvi. 8, xviii. 20, 28, xix. 8, 16, 23, 31, 39, 48, 51 [cf. Gen. x. 31, 32], xxi. 19, 26, 33, 40, 41—42. (Not a complete enumeration.)^ 27. As those acquainted with Hebrew will be aware, there are in Heb. two forms of the pron. of the 1st pers. sing, 'am and ^anbki, which are not by all writers used indiscriminately : P now uses 'am nearly 130 times (^dnokl only once. Gen. xxiii. 4: comp. in Ezekiel 'dm 138 times, 'dnoki once, xxxvi. 28). In the rest of the Hexateuch 'dnokl is preferred to 'dnl, and in the discourses of Deut. it is used almost exclusively. 28. For hundred P uses a peculiar grammatical form {m'^ath in the constr. state, in cases where ordinarily mSdh would be said) : Gen. v. .3, 6, 18, 25, 28, vii. 24, viii. 3, xi. 10, 25, xxi. 5, xxv. 7, 17, xxxv. 28, xlvii. 9, 28; Ex. vi. 16, 18, 20, xxxviii. 25, 27 ter-, Nu. ii. 9, 16, 24, 31, xxxiii. 39. So besides only Neh. v. 11 (probably corrupt : see Ryle ad loc), 2 Ch. xxv. 9 Qr^, Est. i. 4. P uses miSdh in such cases only twice. Gen. xvii. 17, xxiii. 1. 29. For to heget P uses regularly Ti^in, Gen. v. 3—32 (28 times), vi. 10, xi. 10 — 27 (27 times), xvii. 20, xxv. 19, xlviii. 6 ; not 1^% which is used by J, Gen. iv. 18 ter, x. 8, 13, 15, 24 his, 26, xxii. 23, xxv. 3. 30. For the idea of making a covenant, P says always D^jpn (estahlish), Gen. vi 18, ix. 9, 11, 17, xvii. 7, 19, 21, Ex. vi. 4 (so Ez. xvi. 60, 62) f; not n!l3 (lit. cut, EVV. make: see on xv. 18), as in Gen. xv. 18, xxi. 27, 32, xxvi. 28, xxxi. 44, and generally in the OT. 31. To express the idea of Jehovah's being in the midst of His people, P says always "jini (13 times: Ex. xxv. 8 &c.), JE 21p2 (13 times: Ex. iii. 20 &c.). 32. Hebron is denoted in P (except Josh. xxi. 13) by J^iriath-arha^ (said in Josh. xiv. 15 = Jud. i. 10 [J] to have been its old name): Gen. xxiii. 2, xxxv. 27 ; Josh. xv. 13, 54, xx. 7, xxi. 11. So Neh. xi. 25 f. 1 The subscriptions in J are much briefer : ix. 19, x. 29, xxii. 23, xxv. 4. § 1] LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF P xi The following geographical terms are found only in P : 33. Machpelah: Gen. xxiii. 9, 17, 19, xxv. 9, xlix. 30, L ISf. 34. Paddanaram : Gen. xxv. 20, xxviii. 2, 6, 6, 7, xxxi. 18, xxxiii. 18^, XXXV. 9, 26, xlvi. 15 ; cf. xlviii. 7 {Paddan alone). J says Aram-naharaim, Gen. xxiv. 10 : so Dt. xxiii. 4, Jud. iil 8, Ps. Ix. title\. Some other expressions might be noted; but these are the most distinctive. If the reader will be at the pains of underlining them in all their occurrences, he will see that they do not occur in the Hexateuch indiscriminately, but that they are aggregated in particular passages, to which they impart a character of their own, different from that of the rest of the narrative \ The literary style of P is very strongly marked : in point of fact, it stands apart not only from that of every other part of the Hexateuch, but also from that of every part of Judges, Samuel, and Kings ^ — whether the strictly narrative parts, or those which have been added by the Deuteronomic compiler ; and has sub- stantial resemblances only with that of Ezekiel. The parts of Genesis which remain after the separation of P have next to be considered. These also shew indications of not being homogeneous in structure. Especially from ch. xx. onwards the narrative exhibits marks of compilation; and the component parts, though not differing from one another in diction and style so widely as either differs from P, and being so welded together that the lines of demarcation between ^them frequently cannot be fixed with certainty, appear nevertheless to be plainly discernible. Thus in xx. 1 — 17 the consistent use of the term God is remarkable, whereas in ch. xviii. — xix. (except xix. 29 P), and in the similar narrative xii. 10 — 20, the term Jehovah is uniformly employed. The term God recurs similarly in xxi. 6 — 31, xxii. 1 — 13, and elsewhere, particularly in chs. xL — ^xlii., xlv. For such a variation in similar and consecutive chapters no plausible explanation can be assigned except diversity of authorship'. At the same time, the fact that Elohim is not here accompanied by the other criteria of P's style, forbids our assigning the sections thus 1 After Ex. vi. 2 Elohim for Jehovah disappears; but a number of even more distinctive expressions appear in its place. It is a serious mistake to suppose, as appears to be sometimes done, that the use of Elohim for Jehovah is the only criterion distinctive of P. 2 For points of contact in isolated passages, viz. parts of Jud. xx. — xxi., 1 S. ii. 22^, IK. viii. 1, 6, see LOT. p. 136 (ed. 7, p. 143 f.). ^ It is true that Elohim and Yahweh represent the Divine Nature under different aspects, viz. as the God of nature and the God of revelation respectively; but it is only in a comparatively small number of instances that this distinction can be applied, except with great artificiality, to explain the variation between the two names in the Pentateuch. - L xii INTRODUCTION [§ 1 characterized to that source. Other phraseological criteria are slight ; there are, however, not unfrequently differences of representation, which point decidedly in the same direction (e.g. the remarkable ones in ch. xxxvii.). It seems thus that the parts of Genesis which remain after the separation of P are formed by the combination of tvjo narratives, originally independent, though covering largely the same ground, which have been united by a subsequent editor, who also contributed inconsiderable additions of his own, into a single, con- tinuous narrative. One of these sources, from its use of the name Jahweh^ is now generally denoted by the letter J ; the other, in which the name Elohim is preferred, is denoted similarly by E ; and the work formed by the combination of the two is referred to by the double letters JE. The method of the compiler who combined J and E together, was sometimes, it seems, to extract an entire narrative from one or other of these sources (as xx. 1 — 17, xxi. 6 — 31 from E; ch. xxiv. from J); sometimes, while taking a narrative as a whole from one source, to incorporate with it notices derived from the other (as frequently in chaps, xl. — xlv.); and sometimes to construct his narrative of materials derived from each source in nearly equal pro- portions (as chaps, xxviii., xxix.). The passages assigned to B in the present volume are : xv. 1 — 2, 5, xx., xxi. 6—21, 22—32% xxii. 1—14, 19, xxviii, 11—12, 17—18, 20—22, xxix. 1, 15—23, 25—28* 30, xxx. 1—3, 6, 17— 20''», 21—23, xxxi. 2, 4—18% 19—45, 51—55, xxxii. 1, xxxiii. 18^—20, xxxv. 1—8, xxxvii. 5—11, 19—20, 22—25% 28*-", 29—30, 36, xl. — xlii. (except a few isolated passages), xlv. (with similar exceptions), xlvi. 1—5, xlviii. 1—2, 8—22, 1. 15—26. It may suflSce to indicate the principal longer passages referred to J : ii. 4^— iii., iv. ; the parts of vi. — x. not referred above to P ; xi. 1 — 9 ; and (except here and there a verse or two, — rarely, a few verses more, — belonging to E or P) xii., xiii., xv., xvi., xviii.— xix., xxiv., xxv. 21 — 34, xxvi., xxvii. 1 — 45, xxix. 2 — 14, xxix. 31 — xxx. 24 (the main narrative), xxx. 25 — 43, xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv. (partly), xxxvii. (partly), xxxviii., xxxix., xliii., xliti, xlvi. 28 — 34, xlvii., xlix., L 1— 11, 14. 1^ The criteria|flistinguishing J from E are fewer and less clearly marked than those distinguishing P from JE as a whole; and there is consequently sometimes uncertainty in the analysis, and critics, interpreting the evidence differently, sometimes differ accordingly in their conclusions. Nevertheless the indications that the narrative is composite are of a nature which it is not easy to gainsay; and the difficulty which sometimes presents itself of disengaging the two sources is but a natural consequence of the greater similarity of style § 1] CRITERIA DISTINGUISHING J AND E xiii subsisting between them, than between JE, as a whole, and P*. At the same time the present writer is ready to allow that by some critics the separation of J from E is carried further than seems to him to be probable or necessary: no doubt, the criteria which are relied upon exist; the question which seems to him to be doubtful, is whether in the cases which he has in view they are sufficient evidence of different authorship. But the general conclusion that the narrative here called * JE ' is composite does not appear to him to be disputable : and the longer and more clearly defined passages which may reasonably be referred to J and E respectively, have been indicated by him accord- ingly throughout the present volume. In important cases, also, the grounds upon which the distinction rests have generally been pointed out in the notes. 4 The following are^some examples of words or expressions characteristic of E, as distinguished from J. E prefers God (though not exclusively) and angel of God where J ^^retem Jehovah and angel of Jehovah) E uses Amorite as the general name of the pre-Israelitish inhabitants of Palestine, while J uses Canaanite ; B uses Horeh^ J Sinai ; in E the name of Moses' father-in-law is Jethro, in J it is Hohah\ for hondwoman E prefers dmdh, J prefers shiph/idh; B speaks of God's coming in a dream (xx. 3, xxxi. 24; Nu. xxii. 9, 20), — an expression not found at all elsewhere ; B also uses sometimes unusual words, as D^Jb times Gen. xxxi. 7, 41 f, kesifah (a piece of money) xxxiii. 19, Jos. xxiv. 32 (only besides Job xlii. ll)t, mn to rejoice Ex. xviii. 9 (otherwise rare and poet.), nrn to see, V. 21 (very uncommon in prose), n^)hn weakness xxxii. 18, DH^Dpl nVDti''? for a whispering among them that rose up against them (poet.) V. 25, n'3 in a local sense ('here,' not, as usually, *thus'); and he has peculiar forms of the inf., Gen. xxxi. 28, xlvi 3, xlviii. 11, 1. 20. Of expressions characteristic of J, we can only notice here Behold^ noWy Gen. xii. 11, xvi. 2, xviii. 27, 31, xix. 2, 8, 19, xxvii. 2'; to call with the name of Jehovah, iv. 26, xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33, xxvi. 25^; he (was) the father of..., iv. 20, 21, xix. 37, 38^ (cf. ix. 18, X. 21, xi. 29, xiii. 21^; observe also (NIH) Kin D3 in the same contexts, iv. 22, 26, x. 21, tix. 38, xxii. 20, 24) ; to find favour in the eyes of (14 times in Gen.); forasm,uch as (p"7y"''D, a peculiar expression), xviii. 5, xix. 8, xxxiii 10, xxxviii. 26, Nu. x. 31, xiv. 43^; the land of Goshen (see on xlv. 10); a preference for Israel (as the personal name of Jacob) after XXXV. 22 (cf. p. 353 ; B prefers Jacob throughout) ; nnnOi< (peculiar word for sack, 15 times in xlii. 27 — xii v. 12 ; not elsewhere). ^ In a harmony of the four Gospels, the parts belonging to the Fourth Gospel would, as a rule, be separable from the rest without difficulty: but those belonging to the First and Second, it would often be scarcely possible to distinguish. J and E differ from P in having stylistica|ly a considerable general resemblance (though there are differences: see, for instanq^, LOT. p. 174 f., ed. 6 or 7, p. 184 f.) to the narratives (apart from the •Deutei-onomie' additions) of Judges, Samuel, and the earlier parts of Kings. * Not elsewhere in the Hexateuch. # c2' xiv INTRODUCTION [§ l For longer lists of characteristic expressions, reference must be mad© to the Oxf. Hex. i. 186 — 192 (in the reprint of vol. i., p. 384 flf.). The expressions quoted there are not indeed all of equal value ; and some may occur in short passages assigned to J or E (as the case may be) upon slight grounds ; but when all deductions have been made on these accounts, the reader who will be at the pains of examining the two lists attentively will find that J and B shew each a decided preference for particular expressions, which, though not so strongly marked as the preferences shewn by P, nevertheless exists, and is a reality. It is also to be borne in mind that words and expressions, which may be insignificant in themselves, nevertheless, when they recur repeatedly^ may be evidence of the line of thought along which a given writer moves most familiarly, or of the subjects in which he is chiefly interested. Of all the Hebrew historians whose writings have been preserved to us, J is the most gifted and the most brilliant. He excels in the power of delineating life and character. His touch is singularly light : with a few strokes he paints a scene, which impresses itself indelibly upon his reader's memory. In ease and grace his narratives are un- surpassed: everything is told with precisely the amount of detail that is required ; the narrative never lingers, and the reader's interest is sustained to the end. He writes without effort, and without conscious art. * That some of his narratives are intentionally didactic can hardly be questioned: the first man, the woman, the serpent, and Yahweh, all play their part in the Eden drama with a profound purpose under- lymg it: yet the simplicity of the story and the clearness of the characterization are un marred. But there are others, like the account of the mission of Abraham's steward in Gen. xxiv., which have i^' such specific aim, and are unsurpassed in felicitous presentation, because they are unconsciously pervaded by fine ideas. The dialogues especially are fall of dignity and human feeling; the transitions in the scenes between Abraham and his visitors in ch. xviii., or between Joseph and his brethren, are instinctively artistic; for delicacy and pathos, what can surpass the intercession of Judah (xliv. 18 ff.), or the self-disclosure of Joseph (xlv. Iff.)? The vivid touches that call up a whole picture, the time-references from daybreak through the heat to evening cool and night, the incidents that circle round the desert wells, the constant sense of the place of cattle alike in the land- scape and in life, the tender consideration for the flock and herd, — all these belong to a time when the pastoral habit has not ceased, and the tales that belong to it are told from mouth to mouth. The breath of poetry sweeps through them; and though they are set in §1] . LITERARY STYLE OF J AND E xv a historic frame that distinctly implies a reflective effort to conceive the course of human things as a whole, they have not passed into the stage of learned arrangement; they still possess the freshness of the elder time\' ' E in general character does not differ widely from J. But he does not as a writer exhibit the same rare literary power, he does not display the same command of language, the same delicacy of touch, the same unequalled felicity of representation and expression. His descriptions are less poetical; and his narratives do not generally leave the same vivid impression. As compared with P, both J and E exhibit far greater freshness and brightness of style; their diction is more varied; they are not bound to the same stereotyped forms of thought and expression; their narratives are more dramatic, more life- like, more instinct with feeling and character. The question of the dates of the sources of which the Book of Genesis is composed, cannot be properly answered from a consideration of this book alone, as many of the most important criteria upon which the answer depends are afforded by the subsequent parts of the Pentateuch. There are indeed passages in Genesis which cannot reasonably be supposed to have been vnritten until after Israel had been settled in Canaan, as xii. 6, xiii. 7; xiv. 14 ('Dan'); xxi. 32, 34 and xxvi. 1 (the Philistines, if what is stated on x. 14 is correct, were not in Palestine till the age of Bamses III., considerably after the Exodus); xxxvi. 31 (a verse which obviously presupposes the existence of the monarchy in Israel); xl. 15 (Canaan called the 'land of the Hebrews'); and ch. xlix., — at least if the considerations advanced on p. 380 are accepted: but these are isolated passages, the inferences naturally authorized by which might not impossibly be neutralized by the supposition that they were later additions to the original narrative, and did not consequently determine by themselves the date of the book as a whole. The question of the date of the Book of Genesis is really part of a wider question, viz. that of the date of the Pentateuch, — or rather Hexateuch, — as a whole; and a full considera- tion of this wider subject obviously does not belong to the present context. It must suffice, therefore, here to say generally, that when the different parts of the Hexateuch, especially the Laws, are com- pared together, and also compared with the other historical books of the Old Testament, and the prophets, it appears clearly that they 1 Carpenter, The Oxfvrd Hexateuch, i. 102 f. (ed. 2, p. 185 f.). xvi INTRODUCTION [§ l cannot all be the work of a single man, or the product of a single age : the different strata of narrative and law into which, when closely examined, the Hexateuch is seen to fall, reveal differences of such a kind that they can only be adequately accounted for by the supposition that they reflect the ideas, and embody the institutions, which were character- istic of widely different periods of Israelitish history. The general con- clusions to which a consideration of all the facts thus briefly indicated has led critics, and which are adopted in the present volume, are that the two sources, J and E, date from the early centuries of the monarchy, J belonging probably to the ninth, and E to the early part of the eighth cent. B.c. {before Amos or Hosea); and that P, — at least in its main stock (for it seems, as a whole, to have been the work of a school of writers rather than of an individual, and particular sections, espe- cially in Exodus and Numbers, appear to be of later origin), — belongs to the age of Ezekiel and the Exiled Chap. xiv. is clearly not part of either J, E, or P, but belongs to a special source. There is, how- ever, no sufficient foundation for the idea that it is of foreign origin, — whether translated from a cuneiform original, or based upon an ancient Canaanitish source; for the narrative is genuinely Hebraic in style and colouring. Its date is uncertain: but it has some points of contact with P; and, as Prof. G. F. Moore remarks {EncB. n. 1677), the impression which the contents and style of the chapter make as a whole is of aflinity with the later rather than with the earlier Heb. historical writing. It will scarcely be earlier than the age of the Exile. The Book of Genesis assumed its present form, it is probable, by two main stages. First, the two independent, but parallel, narratives of the patriarchal age, J and E, were combined into a whole by a com- piler, who sometimes incorporated long sections of each intact (or nearly so), and at other times combined elements from each into a single narrative, introducing occasionally in the process short ad- ditions of his own (e.g. in xxvi. 1 — 5, xxxix. 1, xl. 1, 3, 5). The whole thus formed (JE) was afterwards combined with the narrative P by a second compiler, who, adopting P as his framework, accommodated JE to it, omitting in either what was necessary to avoid needless 1 On the general question of the date of the Hexateuch, and for a fuller statement of the grounds on which these conclusions rest, see F. H. "Woods' art. Hexateuch in DB. (cf . also the art. Law in OT.) ; the present writer's Introduction to the Lit. of the OT. pp. 115—150 (ed. 6 or 7, pp. 122—169) ; or the very compre- hensive discussion of the subject by J. E. Carpenter in the Oxford Hexateuch, vol. i. passim (ed. 2, under the title The Composition of the Hexateuch^ 1902). § 1] DATE OF GENESIS xvu repetition, and making such slight redactional adjustments as the luiity of his work required. One chapter (xiv.), the literary style of which distinguishes it from both JE and P, he incorporated from a special source. The Book of Genesis is not a conglomerate of dis- connected fragments; the three main sources, or documents, of which it consists, once formed independent wholes, and the portions selected from each have been combined together in accordance with a de- linite plan. It remains to consider the other leading characteristics of the several sources. Here also, as in their literary features, J and E have many similarities, though there are at the same time differences; while P displays marked contrasts to both. J and E may be regarded as having reduced to writing the traditions respecting the antecedents and beginnings of their nation, which were current in the early centuries of the monarchy. In view of the principles and interests which predominate in both these narratives, and in contradistinction to those which determine the form and contents of the priestly narra- tive (p. iv.), JE, treated as a whole, may be termed the prophetical narrative of the Hexateuch : the ideas and points of view which are so conspicuous afterwards in a more developed form in the writings of the great prophets appearing in it in germ, and the general religious spirit being very similar. Among the characteristics of J, one that is very prominent is his tendency to trace back to their beginnings, even in the primitive history of mankind, many existing customs, institutions, or facts of life and society. Thus in ii. 4^ — iii. he explains the origin of the distinction of the sexes, the institution of marriage, the presence of sin and toil in the world, the custom of wearing clothing, the gait and habits of the serpent, the subject condition of woman, and the pain of child-bearing. As, however, is pointed out on p. 36, the explanations offered of these facts are not historical or scientific explanations, but explanations prompted by religious reflection upon the facts of life. In ch. iv. he describes, in accordance with the beliefs current among the Hebrews, the origin of pastoral life and agriculture, of city-life, polygamy, music, metallurgy, and the public worship of Yahweh ; in ix. 20 — 26 that of the culture of the vine ; and in x., xi. 1 — 9 that of the division of mankind into different nations, and of diversities of language. He explains the origin of a common proverb or sa)dng in X. 9 and xxii. 14, of a remarkable pinnacle of salt overlooking the Dead Sea in xix. 26, of the custom of not eating a particular part of xviii INTRODUCTION [§ 1 an animal in xxxii. 32, of the Egyptian system of land-tenure in xlvii. 26, and of a great many names of persons^ and places^ at least according to the etymologies current at the time. Explanations of the last-named kind are also found in E ; but much less frequently than in J^ J explains also, in accordance with contemporary beliefs, the origin of various nations and tribes, especially of those which were more or less closely related to Israel, as x. 8 — 12, 13 — 19, 24 — 30; xix. 37f. (Moab and Ammon), xxii. 20 — 24 (the Nahoridae), xxv. 1 — 4 (the Keturaean tribes), xxv. 21 — 26* (Edom). By prophetic words attributed, in most cases, to their respective ancestors, he accounts for the character and political position of many of the peoples of his own day, ix. 25 — 27 (Canaan), xvi. 12 (Ishmael), xxv. 23, xxvii. 28 f., 39, 40 (Edom and Israel), ch. xlix. (the twelve tribes) : cf. in E xlviii. 14, 19 (Manasseh and Ephraim), 22 (Shechem). In other respects also J loves to point to the character of nations or tribes as fore- shadowed in their beginnings (ix. 22 — 24, xvi. 12, xxv. 25 f., 33 ; and perhaps xix. 30 — 38, xxxv. 22 [see the notes] : cf. also xlix. 3 — 4, 5 — 7). In J the knowledge and worship of Jehovah go back to primitive times : Cain and Abel already make their ' presents * to Him (iv. 3), which may be either of the fruits of the ground or of the firstlings of the flock. Under Sheth (Gen. iv. 24) men begin, — it may be supposed, in some more formal and public manner, — to *caU with the name of Jehovah.' A distinction between * clean' and 'unclean' animals is recognized under Noah (vii. 2), who also builds an altar, and offers * clean' animals as burnt offerings to Jehovah (viii. 20). The same usages prevailed during the whole patriarchal period : the patriarchs are repeatedly spoken of as building altars, and ' calling with the name of Jehovah ' (see pp. xix, xx)*. 1 Eve (iii. 20), Cain (iv. 1), Seth (iv. 25), Noah (v. 29), Peleg (x. 25), Ishmael (xvi. 11), Isaac (xviii. 12 — 15, but not explicitly), Moab and Ammon (xix. 37, 38), Esau, Jacob, and Edom (xxv. 25, 26, 30), most of the names of Jacob's sons in xxix. 31 — XXX. 24, Israel (xxxii. 28), Ben-oni and Benjamin (xxxv. 18), Perez and Zerah (xxxviii. 29, 30) ; cf. ii. 7 (' man '), 23 ('woman '), xli. 45 (Zaphenath-Pa'neah). ' Enoch (iv. 17), Babylon (xi. 9), Beer-lahai-roi (xvi. 14), Zo'ar (xix. 22), Yahweh- yir'eh (xxii. 14), the wells 'Esek, Sitnah, andKehoboth (xxvi. 20, 21, 22), Beer-sheba' (xxvi. 33), Bethel (xxviii. 19), Gilead and Mizpah (xxxi. 48, 49), Penuel (xxxii. 30), Succoth (xxxiii. 17), Abel-mizraim (1. 11), Ma'rah (Ex. xv. 23) : cf. also the allusions to Seir xxv. 25, Mahanaim xxxii. 7, 10, Jabbok xxxii. 24, and Penuel xxxiii. 10. 3 Isaac (xxi. 6),* Dan (xxx. 6), Issachar (xxx. 18), Zebulun (xxx. 20*''=), Joseph (XXX. 23), Manasseh and Ephraim (xli. 51 f.); Beer-sheba' (xxi. 31), Bethel (xxviii. 17, 22), Mahanaim (xxxii. 2), and Allon-bachuth (xxxv. 8): cf. also xxxiii. 20, xxxv. 7. The meaning of 'Ishmael' is alluded to in xxi. 17. * This is J's representation : but it can scarcely be doubted that in his use of the name Jehovah (Yahweh) he in reality merely transfers, without conscious reflection, the usage of his own age to primitive, if not also to patriarchal times. The total § 1] CHARACTERISTICS OP J AKD E xix ♦— E, however, seems to describe a threefold stage of religious develop- ment. What picture, indeed, he had formed of the primitive history of mankind we do not know : though Gen. xx. 13, Josh. xxiv. 2 appear to shew that he carried back the story of Abraham to his ancestral connexions in Haran, the first traces of his narrative which remain are to be found in ch. xv. But Israel's ancestors, he declares, * beyond the River' (i.e. in Haran), were idolaters (Josh. xxiv. 2, 14, 15); Jacob's wives accordingly bring their * foreign gods ' into Canaan with them (Gen. xxxv. 2 — 4) ; and Rachel in particular steals her father's teraphim (xxxi. 19). By what means Abraham learnt the higher truth, the existing narrative does not state. But he appears as a consistent monotheist (xx. 11, 17, &c.) ; and Jacob, though his mono- theism, at least in xxviii. 20 — 22, is of an immature and rudimentary t)rpe, still calls upon his family and household to bury their * foreign gods ' under the terebinth at Shechem (xxxv. 4). The name Yahweh is in this source first expressly revealed in Ex. iii. 14 f. In the Book of Genesis, both narratives deal largely with the antiquities of the sacred sites of Palestine. Thus an altar is built by Abraham, as soon as he enters the country, at Shechem, close to tha * Directing Terebinth ' (xii. 7), another between Bethel and Ai (xii. 8 cf. xiii. 4), a third at Hebron, by the terebinths of Mamre (xiii. 18), and a fourth on (apparently) the site of the later Temple (xxii. 9) : other altars are built by Isaac at Beer-sheba (xxvi. 25) and by Jacob at Shechem (xxxiii. 20 ; but perhaps ' pillar ' should be read here : see the note), and at Bethel (xxxv. 1, 3, 7) : Jacob also sacrifices at Beer- sheba on his way to Egypt (xlvi. 1). A sacred standing-stone, or * pillar,' is set up and anointed by Jacob at Bethel on his journey from Canaan in E (xxviii. 18, 22 : cf. xxxi. 13), and on his return to Canaan in J (xxxv. 14) ; perhaps also he sets one up at Shechem (xxxiii. 20 : see the note) : by another pillar he marks Rachel's grave (xxxv. 20) ; a pillar, also, marking a boundary, is erected by Jacob and Laban in Gilead (xxxi. 45, 51, 52) ; on the last-mentioned occasion, moreover, Jacob offers sacrifice, and a sacred meal, accompanying the sacrifice, is absence of proper names compounded with Yahweh in the patriarchal period makes it probable that, though not absolutely new in Moses' time (cf. p. xlvii), it was still current previously only in a limited circle, — possibly, as has been suggested, in the family of Moses (Ewald, ii. 158; Wellh. Hist. 433; Konig, Hauptprobleme, 27), or among the Kenites (Stade, Gesch. i. 130; Budde, The Religion of Israel to the Exile, 1899, pp. 17—25). Even till the age of Samuel such compounds are rare (Jochebed, Joshua, Joash, Jotham, Jonathan, Jud. xviii. 30); see Gray, Heh. Pr. Names, 257—9 (on Ahijah, 1 Ch. ii. 25, see ibid. p. 36). (The time is hardly ripe yet for drawing inferences from the facts mentioned on p. xlix.) XX INTRODUCTION [§ 1 said to have been partaken of by him and Laban {v. 54). An oracle, perhaps at Beer-sheba, ajjpears to be alluded to in xxv. 22. Sacred trees (mostly terebinths), which, it may be supposed, were pointed to in the narrators' own times, are mentioned at Shechem (xii. 6, xxxv. 4 ; cf. Jos. xxiv. 26), Hebron (xiii. 18, xviii. 1 ; cf. xiv. 13), Beer-sheba (xxi. 33 ; a tamarisk), and near Bethel (xxxv. 8)\ Abraham is further described as 'calling with the name of Jehovah' by the altar near Bethel in xii. 8, xiii. 4, and by the tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba, xxi. 33 ; and Isaac as doing the same by the altar at Beer-sheba (xxvi. 25). The passages just cited may be taken to give a picture of the forms of worship which, as tradition told, the patriarchs had been accustomed to use'. In several cases, also, like many of those cited in footnotes " and * on p. xviii, they seem to embody traditional explanations of the origin of the places, or objects, held sacred at the time when the narratives in question were written, though in a later age, when religion became more spiritualized, they fell into disrepute : they were con- secrated by theophanies, or they commemorated other incidents in the lives of the patriarchs. It is characteristic of J that his representations of the Deity are highly anthropomorphic. He represents Jehovah not only (as the prophets generally, even the latest, do) as expressing human resolutions and swayed by human emotions (e.g. being pained, or repenting, vi. 6 f , swearing, xxiv. 7, &c.), but as performing sensible acts. Thus in ii. 4^ — iii. Jehovah moulds man out of the clods of the ground, breathes into his nostrils the breath of Hfe, plants, places, takes, sets, brings, builds, closes up, walks in the garden in the cool of the day, makes coats of skin ; elsewhere He shuts Noah into the ark (vii. 16), smells the savour of a sacrifice (viii. 21 : cf. 1 S. xxvi. 19), cojnes down for various purposes — to examine the tower built by men (xi. 5), and again (v. 7) to frustrate their purpose, to investigate on the spot the truth of the report about the sin of Sodom (xviii. 21), or to deliver Israel from its bondage (Ex. iii. 8), — visits Abraham and Lot in a human form, and performs before them the actions of ordinary men (xviii. — xix.), wrestles with Jacob (xxxii. 24 f ), meets Moses at his lodging-place, and seeks to slay him (Ex. iv. 24 f ), and takes off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians (xiv. 25). f Such anthropomorphic representations are not found in E. In E, Elohim does not perform sensible acts, or visit the earth in personal form : He only ' comes ' 1 Cf. Jud. iv. 11, vi. 11, 19, ix. 6, 37, 1 S. x. 3, xxii. 6, xxxi. 13. 3 The iabbath is not mentioned, though J uses the term 'week,' xxix. 27, 28. 5 1] CHARACTERISTICS OF J xxi and 'speaks' in a vision or a dream (xv. 1, xx. 3, 6, xxi. 12 [see the note], xxii. 1 [notice v. 3*], xxxi. 11, 24, xlvi. 2, Nu. xxii. 9 [see w. 8, 13], 20) ; or His angel calls out from heaven (xxi. 17, xxii. 11) : even in Jacob's dream at Bethel, while in J the patriarch sees Jehovah standing beside him, in E angels ascending and descending are the medium of communication between heaven and earth. I— In J the prophetical element is particularly prominent. His narratives, more than those of any other historical writer of the Old Testament, are the vehicle of moral and religious teaching. He explains the origin of evil in the worid, and expounds the moral significance of human labour and suffering (cL iiL). In his narratives of Eve and Cain, he presents, in a few but effective strokes, two typical examples of the manner in which temptation assails, and too often overcomes, the soul. He depicts the growth of evil which accompanies progress in the arts of life (iv. 17 ff.) ; he calls attention to the ' evil imagination' inherent even in the descendants of righteous Noah (viii. 21) ; and notices the growth of wickedness and arrogance, and the depravation of manners (vi. 5, ix. 22, xi. 4, xiii. 13, xix. 4 ff., 31 ff.). He depicts the patriarchs not indeed as men without fault, but never- theless as, on the whole, maintaining a lofty standard of faith, con- stancy, and uprightness of life, both among the heathen in whose land they dwelt, and also amid examples of worldly self-indulgence, duplicity, and jealousy, afforded sometimes by members of their own family. The shades, — sometimes dark shades, — on the characters of Lot and Laban, Rebekah, Jacob, and Rachel, throw into clearer relief the more noble and unselfish personalities of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. The patriarchs are men, chosen by God (xii. 1, xxiv. 7), and trained and educated under His providence, firstly to live as godlike men themselves, and then to teach their families to follow in their steps, that so in the end a holy people of God may be established on the earth (xviii. 18 f.). The patriarchal history is, in his hands, instinct with the consciousness of a great future : Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are vouchsafed in succession glimpses of the divine plan : their descendants are to be as countless as the sand of the sea, or the stars of heaven ; they are to possess the land which in the patriarchs' own days the * Canaanite and the Perizzite ' occupy (xiii. 7 ; cf xii. 6, xxiv. 3) : the spiritual privileges enjoyed by them are to attract the envy of all the nations of the world (xxii. 18, xxvi. 4), even if their actual extension to them is not contemplated (xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxviii. 14, see the note on xii. 3). Though the actual words are not used, — xxii INTRODUCTION [§ 1 Jehovah is first described as 'choosing' Israel in Deuteronomy (iv. 37a/.), — J has thus a clear consciousness of Israel's 'election' and ' vocation.' He is further ' penetrated by the thought of Jehovah's mercifulness, long-suffering, and faithfulness ' (Gen. vi. 8, viii. 21 f., XV. 6, xviii. 23 ff., xxiv. 7, xxxii. 12; cf. Ex. xxxii. 9 — 14, xxxiii. 12 if.) ; and frequently by his narratives, if not in express words (cf. xxvi. 2, 24), he illustrates the providence with which Jehovah watches over and protects His faithful worshippers. The latter is however a thought which is perhaps more frequently and distinctly expressed in E (comp. XX. 7, xxi. 12, 17 — 20, xxxi. 5, 7 — 9, 11, 24, 42, xxxii. 1, xxxv. 3, xli. 39, xlv. 5, 7, 8, xlvi. 3, xlviii. 15, 21, 1. 20, 24). ,^ P is in method and point of view hardly less different from both •/and E than he is in style. P is not satisfied to cast into a literary form what may be termed the popular conception of the patriarchal and Mosaic ages : his aim is to give a systematic view, from a priestly standpoint, of the origin and chief institutions of the Israelitish theocracy. For this purpose, as was remarked above (p. vi.), an outline of the history is sufficient : the narrative of P becomes detailed only at important epochs, or where the origin of some existing ceremonial institution has to be explained. The length of a period, if not marked by events of any consequence, is indicated by a genealogy (ch. v., xi. 10 — 25). Similarly in the Mosaic age, the commission of Moses, and events connected with the exodus, are narrated with some fulness ^ : but only the description of the Tabernacle and the ceremonial system (Ex. XXV. — xxxi., xxxv. — xl. ; Lev. ; much of Numbers) can be termed comprehensive : even of the incidents in the Wilderness many appear to be introduced chiefly on account of some law or important con- sequence arising out of them. In the arrangement of his material, system and circumstantiality are the guiding principles ; and their influence may be traced both in the plan of his narrative as a whole, and in his treatment of individual sections. From first to last the narrative is constructed with a careful and uniform regard to chronology : the days of Creation, the ages of the patriarchs, both in chaps, v. and xi., and subsequently, at each important event of their lives (p. xxvi f.), the dates of the rise and fall of the waters of the Flood (vii.6, 11, 24, viii.3^ 4, 5, 13% 14), and in the Mosaic age the dates of the principal events of the exodus, are all exactly noted. Moreover, the history advances along a well-defined ^ See the passages in the synopsis on p. v. § 1] CHARACTERISTICS OF P xxiii line, marked by a gradually diminishing length of human life ; by the revelation of God under three distinct names, Elohim, El Shaddai (Gen. xvii. 1), and Jehovah (Ex. vi. 2, 3); by the blessings of Adam and Noah (Gen. i. 28 — 30, ix. 2 — 6), each with its characteristic conditions; and by the covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Israel, each with its special * sign,' the rainbow, the rite of circumcision, and the Sabbath (Gen. ix. 12 f., xvii. 11, Ex. xxxi. 13, 17). In P's picture of the Mosaic age the minute description of the Tabernacle, sacrifices, and other ceremonial institutions, the systematic marshalling of the nation by tribes and families, and the unity of purpose and action which in consequence regulates its movements (Nu. i. — ^iv., x. 11 — 28, &c.), are the most conspicuous features. Wherever possible, P seeks to set . before his readers a concrete picture, with definite figures and pro- portions : observe, for example, his exact account of the dimensions of the ark, of the height to which it rose above the highest mountain- tops (vii. 20) ; and afterwards, the care taken by him to particularize the exact dimensions of the Tabernacle, sacred vessels, and other furniture belonging to it, the exact numbers of the various tribes (Nu. i., xxvi.), and the precise amount of spoil taken from the Midianites (Nu. xxxi.). It is probable that in this systematized picture of antiquity there is a considerable artificial, or ideal, elements The same desire to produce a concrete picture is no doubt a con- tributory cause of the consistent regard to chronology displayed by P, as also to other statistical data : comp. for instance the lists and enumerations in Gen. xlvi. 8 — 27, Ex. vi. 14 — 27, Nu. i. — iv., vii., xiii. 1 — 15, xxvi., xxxiii., xxxiv. P's treatment of the entire period covered by the Book of Genesis is very difterent from that of either J or E. He evinces scarcely any interest in the explanation either of names, or of the facts and in- stitutions of human life and society^ No inventions are attributed by him to the antediluvian patriarchs : they form a mere list of names and ages. He narrates the leading events in the lives of the patriarchs, but, except at a few crucial points, as mere facts : on the conflicts of interest and feeling which led Abraham, for instance, to acquiesce in the expulsion of Ishmael, or Rebekah and Jacob to outwit Isaac, he is 1 Compare Ottley's Bampton Lectures for 1897 (on 'Aspects of the Old Testa- ment'), pp. 120 — 5, where this feature of P's narratives is well described and illustrated. * In Genesis the only names of which the origin is stated or explained by P, are Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (xvii. 5, 15, 19, see v. 17), Israel (xxxv. 10), and Bethel (xxxv. 15): of. the allusion to the meaning of 'Ishmael' in xvii. 20. .^xir INTRODUCTION [§ 1 silent; the dramatic movement, and the ahimdance of incident and colloquy, which are such conspicuous features in the narrative of J and even in that of E, are almost entirely lacking in those of P\ There is also a singular absence of geographical detail. Abraham dwells * in the land of Canaan,* Lot * in the cities of the Klkkdr ' (xiii. 12 ; cf xix. 29) ; but the various places visited by the one, the particular city whjch was the home of the other, are not indicated. The altars, well^^, sacred trees, and stones, the centres of so many picturesque $jlenes in J[ ^,nd E, are unnoticed in P : one place only, Mamre, or Hebron, is nairfed with repeated emphasis on account of the adjacent family sepulchre of Machpelah (p. xi, No. 33) ; Bethel also is referred to once (xxxv. 15). In his religious theory of the patriarchal age, P differs also markedly from both J and E. The name Yahweh is unknown : it is first revealed in the age of Moses (Ex. vi. 2 £). Altars, sacrifices, sacred pillars are equally unknown; the only ceremonial institutions recognized by him as pre-Mosaic are the Sabbath (observed by God at the end of the week of Creation, but first enjoined upon Israel in the Mosaic age), the prohibition to eat blood (ix. 4 f.), and circumcision : no act of worship seems to be thought of till the appropriate place has been constructed, and the right persons appointed, for its performance ; accordingly, the first sacrifice recorded is that of Aaron and his sons in Lev. viii. Primitive humanity is represented by P as subsisting wholly on vegetable food (Gen. i. 29) ; animal food is first permitted after the Flood, coupled however with the restriction against eating the blood ; permission is also given at the same time for capital punishment to be inflicted upon the murderer (ix. 3 — 6). In this view of primitive history, — as in the other instances referred to above (p. xxiii), — there is a large artificial element: it is the embodiment not of a genuine historical tradition, but of an ideal. The promises given to the patriarchs (see on xii. 2 f.), unlike those of J (see ibid.)^ are limited to Israel itself: they do not embrace other nations. The substance of these promises is the future growth and glory (' kings shall come out of thee ') of the Abrahamic clan ; the establishment of a covenant with its members (in J mentioned in Genesis once only, and in very different terms, xv. 18), implying a special relation between them and God (xvii. 2 — 21 (repeatedly), Ex. ii. 24, vi. 4 f ), and the confirmation of the * land of their sojournings ' as their possession. The writer's ideal, 1 And so {<3, the particle of entreaty, I beseech thee, or now (enclitic), so common in colloquy, which occurs 110 times in JE in the Hexateuch, is found but twice in P (Nu. xvi. 8, Josh. xxii. 26). § 2] CHARACTERISTICS OF P ^^^^ however, the theocracy, is not reached in Genesis ; and the culminac promise, declaring the abiding presence of Jehovah with His people^ i^ only found in Ex. xxix. 43 — 46, attached to the directions for the construction of the Taberaacle. P's representations of God are far less anthropomorphic than those of J, or even of E. No visions or dreams are mentioned by him : no angel either calls from heaven, or walks on earth. God is indeed spoken of as * appearing ' to men, and as * going up ' from them (xvii. 1, 22 f, XXXV. 9, 13, xlviii. 3, Ex. vi. 3), at important moments of the history : but no further description of His appearance is given ; nor is He ever represented as assuming a personal form : usuallx.^e jev^lation of God to man takes the form of simple * speaking ' to them (i. 29, vi. 13, viii. 15, ix. 1, 8, Ex. vi. 2, xii. 1 al). So in the account of Creation, in P God is represented simply as ' speaking ' ; the reader cannot localize Him : He acts as a spirit ; and the creative word realizes itself : in J, on the other hand (ii. 4^ ff.), the reader pictures Jehovah as walking upon the earth, and He is represented as per- forming a series of sensible acts (p. xx f.) : in other words, P's j. representation of the Deity is far more * transcendent ' than that of J. K Anthropomorphic expressions are indeed in general either avoided^ by P, or * reduced to these harmless figures without which it is hardly possible to speak of a personal God at all ' ; and anthropopathisms are almost uniformly eschewed by him. § 2. The Chronology of Genesis. Under this head two questions have to be considered : (1) is the chronology of Genesis consistent with itself? and (2) if, and in so far as, it is consistent with itself, is it consistent with such external data as w| possess for fixing the chronology of the period embraced in the Book? (1) The first of these questions need not detain us long. It is shewn, in the notes on xii. 11, xxi. 15, xxiv. 67, xxxv. 8, and pp. 262, 365 n., 368, that there are a number of points in the Book at which the statements made about one or other of the patriarchs in J or E are not consistent with the ages or families ascribed to them in P : in other words, that in several instances J and E pictured the patriarchs as being aged differently from what they must have been, if the ages noted in P are correct, and that consequently the chronology of P is not consistent with that presupposed by J and E. L -xir INTRODUCTIOlSr [§ 2 siler^"^) In the Book of Genesis the only systematic chronology is that ^^>f P. It is true, there are in J and E occasional notes or other indications of time* ; hut they are not sufficient to form a continuous chronology : they authorize no inference as to the length of the ante- diluvian period ; and as to the patriarchal period, though they state that Abraham and Sarah had both reached a great age when Isaac was born, they do not mention what their ages were; and they contain nothing to suggest that the period from the birth of Abraham to the death of Jacob was materially in excess of what it would be if measured by the ordinary standards of human life : in other words, all that they suggest about it is that it embraced some 180 years, instead of ex- tending, as the figures of P give it, to 307 years. And the data contained in J and E include, at least in Genesis, no synchronism with external history : they contain nothing, for instance, enabling us to infer with what Babylonian or Egyptian kings, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob was contemporary. In P however there is a systematic chronology running through the Book from the beginning almost to the end, so carefuUy and methodically constructed, that every important birth, marriage, and death, has its assigned place in it. This chronology may be thus summarized : Heb. text Sam. LXX. From the Creation of man to the Flood (Gen. v., vii. 11) 1656 1307 2262^ From the Flood to the Call of Abraham (Gen. xi. 10—26, xii. 4) 365 1016 1145' From the Creation of man to the Call of Abraham 2021 2322 3407 In the rest of Genesis P has the following notes* : 75 Age of Abraham at call (xii. 4). [85] „ „ „ marriage with Hagar (xvi 3). 86 „ „ „ birth of Ishmael (xvi. 16). 99 „ „ „ promise of Isaac (xvii. 1). [Sarah 89, xvii. 18.] 100 „ „ „ birth of Isaac (xxi. 5). [137] „ „ „ death of Sarah, aged 127 (xxiii. 1). 175 „ „ „ death (xxv. 7). 1 See XV. 13, 16; xxxi. 38, 41; xii. 1, 47, 53, 54, xlv. 6; 1. 22, 26; and such notices as that Isaac, Joseph, and Benjamin were, respectively, born in their fathers' 'old age' (xxi. 2; xxxvii. 3; xliv. 20). 2 See particulars of this period on p. 79. 2 See p. 138. The 'two years' of Gen. xi. 10 are disregarded: see v. 32, vii. 11. * The figures enclosed in brackets are not actually stated, but inferred. § 2] CHROKOLOGY OF GENESIS xxvii 13 Age of Ishmael at circumcision (xvii. 25X 137 „ „ „ death (xxv. 17). 40 Age of Isaac at marriage (xxv. 20). 60 „ I, ), birth of Jacob and Esau (xxv. 26). [75 „ „ „ death of Abraham.] [100] „ „ „ marriage of Esau, aged 40 (xxvi, 34). 180 „ „ „ death (xxxv. 28). [Jacob would be now 120.] 130 Age of Jacob at arrival in Egypt (xlvii. 9). 147 „ „ „ death (xlvii. 28). 17 Age of Joseph when sold (xxxvii. 2). 30 „ „ „ promoted in Egypt (xll. 46). Taking account of those notices only which give the length of the period, we get : From the Call of Abraham to the birth of Isaac 25 yeara Age of Isaac at birth of Jacob and Esau 60 „ Age of Jacob when he went down into Egypt 130 „ The period of the patriarchs' sojourn in Canaan was thus 215 „ We obtain accordingly, for the number of years from the Creation to the Exodus : From the Creation of man to the Call of Abraham The period of the patriarchs' sojourn in Canaan The period of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt according to Ex. xii. 40, 41 (P) From the Creation of man to the Exodus 2666 2752 3837 Now, 1 K. vi. 1 equates the fourth year of Solomon, the year in which the Temple was founded, with the 480th year from the Exodus. Accepting, then, Ussher's date for the reign of Solomon, b.o. 1014 — 975, — it ought probably, the chronology of the kings being corrected from Ass3rrian data, to be really 40 or 50 years later '^j — we get B.c. 1491 for the Exodus, and so we obtain the following Table of the principal earlier Biblical dates, in years B.C. : 1 Sam. and lxx. read in Ex. xii. 40 'The sojourning of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan^ was 430 years,' reducing the period of the sojourn in Egypt to half of that stated in the Hebrew text (cf. Gal. iii. 17; Jos. Ant. II. 15. 2). ' See BB. i. 401; and cf. the writer's Isaiah^ hi$ life and times, p. 13. Heb. Sam. LXX. 2021 2322 3407 215 216 215 430 215^ 2151 xxviii mTRODUCTIOlSr [§ 2 Heb. Sam. LXX. Creation of man* 41572 4243 5328 The Deluge 2501 2936 3066 Call of Abraham 2136 1921 1921 Jacob's migration into Egypt 1921 1706 1706 The Exodus 1491 1491 1491 It follows from what is said on pp. 79, 138, that the higher dates in the LXX. for the Creation of man, and the Deluge, are chiefly a consequence of the fact that in the lists in Gen. v. and xi. 10—26, the age of each patriarch at the birth of his firstborn is in the lxx. in many cases 100 years more than it is in the Hebrew text It is impossible now that these figures, — or, at least, the majority of them, — can be historical. (1) As will be shewn in the following section, it is certain that man existed upon the earth long before either B.C. 4157 or (lxx.) 5328'. (2) The ages to which the several patriarchs, in the two lists of Gen. v. and Gen. xi. 10 — 26, lived, and at which, at least in the majority of cases in Gen. v., their eldest sons are stated to have been born, are incompatible with the constitution of the human body; and could only have been attained if that constitution had differed from what it now is, to an extent which we are entirely unwarranted in assuming to have been the case (cf. p. 75). (3) We possess no independent information as to the date of the local inundation in Babylonia, which, if the assumption made on p. 108 is correct, will have formed the basis of both the Babylonian and the Biblical narratives of the Flood: in the abstract, either 2501, 2936, or 3066 b.c., would be possible for it. (4) The question of the dates of Abraham and the Exodus, and of the interval between them, is a more difficult one, and must be considered at greater length. The date of Ham- murabi, king of Babylon, cannot at present be fixed exactly ; but there 1 Here and elsewhere the expression 'creation of man' has been used designedly in order to leave open the possibility that the 'days' of Gen. i. denote periods. There is however little doubt that the writer really meant ' days ' in a literal sense, and that Pearson was right when he inferred from the chapter that the world was represented as created '6000, or at farthest 7000,' years from the 17th cent. a.d. (cf. pp. 19, 20—22, 26). 2 Ussher's date, as is well known, is B.C. 4004 : but he (1) interpolates, most unnaturally, 60 years in Gen. xi. 26 (see the footnote, p. 142) ; and (2) he adopts in Ex. xii. 40 the computation implied in the reading of Sam. and lxx., which the rendering of AV., forced and artificial though it is, seems to make possible even for the Hebrew (contrast RV.). And 4157 + 60 - 215 = 4002 (the odd 2 years are the two neglected in Gen. xi. 10, p. xxvi, footnote ^). 3 Or, calculating back from the probable actual date of the Exodus, c. 1277 b.c. (see p. xxix), b.o. 3943 or (lxx.) 6114. §2] CHRONOLOGY OF GENESIS xxix is a consensus of Assyriologists (see p. 156) that his reign began between b.c. 2376 (Sayce) and 2130 (Hommel)— say, c. 2250 B.C. : if, therefore, he is the Amraphel of Gen. xiv. 1, and {/*, further, the roU assigned to Abraham in this chapter is, at least substantially, historical, this fixes Abraham's date to c. 2250 b.c. Can, now, the date of the Exodus be determined upon external grounds? (a) The Tel el- Amarna letters shew that, at the time when they were written, — which, from the names of the kings mentioned in them, viz. Amen- h6tep III. and IV. of Egypt, and Bumaburiash of Babylon, Egyptologists and Assyriologists agree, must have been c. 1400 B.C., — Palestine was still an Egyptian province, under the rule of Egyptian governors : the entry of the Israelites into Canaan could not, consequently, have taken place till after b.c. 1400. (6) It is stated in Ex. i. 11 that the Israelites built in Egypt for the Pharaoh two store-cities, Pithom and Ra'amses. The excavations of M. Naville have, however, shewn that Ramses II., of the 19th dynasty, was the builder of Pithom ; and the name of the other city, though it is still not certainly identified, is sufficient evidence that he was its founder likewise. Egyptian chrono- logy is unfortunately imperfect; but Sayce's date for Ramses II., B.C. 1348 — 1281, is in substantial accord with that fixed by nearly aU recent authorities \ But if Ramses II. was the Pharaoh of the oppression, the Pharaoh of the Exodus may be naturally assumed (cf Ex. ii. 23) to have been his successor, i.e. Merenptah II. ; and so Prof. Sayce's date for the Exodus is B.c. 1277. Thus, according to the best available authorities, the interval between Abraham and the Exodus wiU be some 900 years, — it may even (Sayce) have been 1000 years. It is however evident that even the shorter of these periods is inconsistent with the Biblical figures, — whether the 645 of the Heb. text, or the 430 of the Sam. and lxx.* (5) There is no That the probable absolute date of the Exodus differs from the Biblical date, B.C. 1491, is not a serious diflaculty: the date 1491 rests essentially upon the 480 (lxx 440) years of 1 K vi. 1, which is open to the suspicion of not being really traditional, but as having been arrived at by computation (e.g. of 12 generations of 40 years each), and is rejected, for instance, even in the Speaker's Commentary. 1 Budge, Hist, of Egypt (1902), v. 120, 127; cf. i. xix, 161, EncB. n. 1241. ^ Hommel's endeavour {Exp. Times, Feb. 1899, p. 210 ff.) to harmonize the Biblical figures with the date now (after many changes) adopted by him for Hammurabi involves the questionable assumption that the entry into Canaan took place while Palestine was still an Egyptian province, besides arbitrary alterations > m the text of Ex. i. 11. d2 XXX INTRODUCTION [§ 2 external evidence enabling us to fix the date of Jacob's migration into Egypt : the personal name of the Pharaoh with whom Joseph and Jacob had to do is not mentioned ; and there is nothing in the Book of Genesis which enables us either to conjecture his identity or even to judge of the dynasty to which he belonged. All that we can say is that, if the Exodus took place under Merenptah, and if further the Israelites were 430 years in Eg3rpt, and Professor Petrie is right in assigning the Hyksos domination to b.c. 2098 — 1587, the Pharaoh of Joseph will have been one of the Hyksos kings. (6) The 430 years of Ex. xii. 40, 41 (Heb. text) are in substantial agreement with the 400 years of Gen. xv. 13. If however (see 4) a period as long as 900 years intervened between Abraham and the Exodus, it is evident that the Israelites must have been in Egypt for much more than the 430 years of the Heb. text, — to say nothing of the 215 years of the Sam. and Lxx. And the * fourth generation' of Gen. xv. 16 cannot even embrace as much as 400 years ; for though (cf. the note, and Ex. vi. 16, 18, 20, vii. 7, in P) it might perhaps have been assumed that a generation in the later patriarchal period equalled 100 years, it is not credible that it should have done so in reality^. The only conclusion which the facts thus summed up justify is that the chronology of the Book of Genesis, — which is, in effect, P's chronology, — in spite of the ostensible precision of its details, has no historical value. The sole value which it possesses is that it sets before us the manner in which the author himself viewed the chronology of the period, and the perspective in which he placed the various person- ages who figure in it. It is an artificial system, which must have been arrived at in some way by computation ; though the data upon which it was calculated have not at present been ascertained*. For the entire period, the only synchronisms with external history which we at present possess, are those of Abraham with Amraphel (supposing the ordinary view of ch. xiv. to be accepted), and of the building of Ra'amses and Pithom with Eamses II. And if, as there seems no sufficient reason for doubting, the dates assigned to these kings are approximately correct, and there is an interval between them approach- 1 It is remarkable that P's genealogies (see on xv. 16) should assign just four generations for the same period (Levi, Kobath, •Amram, Moses; Levi, Kohath, Izhar, Korah; Keuben, Pallu, Eliab, Dathan and Abiram: the somewhat longer one in Nu. kxvi. 28 — 33, xxvii. 1, Jos. xvii. 3, including Gilead, the name of a country^ must be artificial: of. p. liv). It is possible that the 'fourth generation,' though incorrect in fact, had nevertheless, when the actual period had been forgotten, acquired a conventional currency in tradition. ^ For a conjecture as to part of it, see below, p. 80. § 3] CHRONOLOGY OF GENESIS xxxi ing 1000 years, the period between Abraham and Moses must be far greater than is allowed for by the chronology of the Pentateuch^ § 3. The Historical Value of the Booh of Genesis, a. Hie prehistoric period (chs. i. — xi.). On the Biblical narrative of the Creation (Gen. i.) enough has been said on pp. 19^ — 33. It has been there shewn that while the progress of scientific discovery in modern times has left the theological value of this sublimely-conceived narrative unimpaired, it has made it evident tiiat it possesses no claim to contain a scientific account of the origin of the world, or to describe, — even in popular language, — the process by which actually the universe was constituted in its present order, and the earth was gradually adapted to become the home of its wondrous succession of ever-progressing types of life. For our know- ledge of the stages, so far as they can be determined, advancing with slow and measured steps through unnumbered ages, by which in the providence of God these effects were produced, and of the movements, on the one hand of colossal magnitude, on the other of far more than microscopic minuteness, by which the existing fabric of the universe has been marvellously built up, we must go to the mathematical and physical sciences, not to the Bible. It remains now to consider the historical value of the statements of Genesis, so far as they relate to the early history of mankind. And as we have seen, the date fixed by them for the creation of man is equivalent to B.a 4157, or (according to the higher figures of the lxx.) B.C. 5328. It is however certain that man existed upon the earth long before even the earKer of these dates, and that the vicissitudes through which the human race passed have been far more diversified, and must have occupied a far longer period to accomplish, than is allowed for by the Biblical narrative. The great antiquity of man upon the earth is apparent from the following considerations. 1. It is the unanimous opinion of Assyriologists that in Babylonia the beginnings of civilization are to be found long before B.C. 4000. Thus Professor R. W. Rogers, a most cautious and guarded American 1 Cf. Sayce, EHH. 143 — 146, who, after a discusi3ion of the subject, arrives at ttie conclusion that the chronology of the OT. is of no value until we reach the time of David. xxxii INTRODUCTION [§ 3 Assyriologist, writesS * If we call up before us the land of Babylonia, and transport ourselves backward until we reach the period of more than 4000 years before Christ, we shall be able to discern here and there signs of life, society, and government in certain cities. Civiliza- tion has already reached a high point, the arts of life are well advanced, and men are able to write down their thoughts and deeds in intelligible language and in permanent form. All these presuppose a long period of development running back through millenniums of unrecorded time.' And he proceeds to give particulars of some of the kings at this early date, — for instance, of Lugal-zaggisi, who at about B.C. 4000 made Uruk (the Erech of Gen. x. 10) his capital, whose inscriptions engraved on vases have been found among the debris of the temple at Nippur (50 m. SE. of Babylon), and who claims to have been invested with the 'kingdom of the world,' and to have ruled * from the lower sea of the Tigris and the Euphrates to the upper sea ' (the Mediterranean Sea). Sargon of Accad, who (p. 173 n.) conquered the 'land of the Amorites,* lived, according to Nabu-na'id, the last native king of Babylon (b.c. 555 — 538), 3200 years before himself', i.e. at about b.c. 3800. The kings of Lagash — now Telloh, about 80 miles SE. of Nippur — have left monuments of themselves, — sculptured stones, with inscriptions, — belonging substantially to the same age. Mr Boscawen', upon the basis of M. de Morgan's excava- tions, concludes that civilization began in Susa before B.C. 5000 ; and after citing part of an inscription of more than 2000 lines, carved on the four faces of a granite obelisk found at Susa, and containing an account of payments made by a king called Manishtu-irba, in con- nexion with certain estates, remarks upon the striking evidence afforded by it of the antiquity of civilization in these parts : * Here, in an inscription more than 6000 years old, we have a complete system of commerce, land estimated at corn value, and a currency and system of weights based on the sexagesimal scale. This alone is proof of long and continued usage.' It must indeed be evident that, if empires were founded, public buildings constructed, and writing, — even in the difficult cuneiform script, — and other arts familiarly practised, as early 1 Hist, of Bah. and Ass. (New York, 1900), i. 349 f. 2 The correctness of this statement has been questioned ; but it is accepted by most Assyriologists (e.g. Sayce, Exp. Times, x. 25; L. W. King, EncB. i. 437; Maspero, i. 599 n.; cf. Rogers, i. 318 f., 337). 8 Asiatic Quarterly Review, Oct. 1901, pp. 333 f., 350, 352. The inscriptions found by M. de Morgan are published, with translations, in Scheil's Textes JSlamitea- Semitiquee, ii. (1900), § 3] THE ANTIQUITY OF MA:^ xxxiii as B.o. 4000, the beginnings of civilization in Babylonia must have preceded this date by a period which, if impossible to estimate pre- cisely by years, must nevertheless have been very considerable. It is also to be noticed that already at this early date two distinct races, speaking two distinct languages, meet in Babylonia : the old Sumerian population of the country, and the Semitic immigrants, who are gradually superseding them\ The same lesson has been taught by exploration in Eg3^t. Menes, the founder of the first of the 31 dynasties enumerated by Mangtho, is assigned by Petrie to b.c. 4777, and by Brugsch and Budge to c. B.C. 4400 ^ But in 1897 the tomb of Menes was discovered by M. de Morgan at Nak^da, about 30 miles N. of Thebes ; and the objects of art, — incised ivory, vases, statuettes, &c., — and hiero- glyphics, found in it', shew that the civilization of Egypt was already far advanced. The huge and skilfully-constructed pyramids of the fourth dynasty, — beginning b.c. 3928 (Petrie), or B.c. 3733 (Budge)— and the remarkable finish of the sculptures, paintings, and other works of art^, belonging to this dynasty, support the same conclusion. Nor is this all. Between 1894 and 1901 excavations, carried on principally by Petrie, Am^lineau, and de Morgan, in the tombs at Nak^da and Gebel^n (in the same neighbourhood) have brought to light remains of a * pre-dynastic ' period (i.e. of a period preceding Menes), when the Valley of the Nile was inhabited by a race, probably of Libyan origin, difiering both in physical character and in civilization from that commonly known as Egyptian. This race had not developed the arts possessed by the 'Egyptians' who succeeded them; but they were great workers in flint, and possessed a marvellous skill in fashioning this material into weapons, tools, and implements of all kinds ; they were also clever in the manufacture of pottery, although 1 Other authorities give similar dates for the earliest known kings of Babylonia, as Hommel, BB. i. 224 (before b.c. 4000), King, EticB. i. 442; Pinches, OT. in the light, etc. p. 124 (cf. 150). In the galleries of the British Museum, many objects and inscriptions are marked with a date 4500 b.c. See also the very instructive shilling Guide to the Bab. and Ass. Antiquities of the Brit. Museum (1900), pp. xi, 3, 80, 124. 2 On the difficulties attaching to Egyptian chronology, see Budge, Hist, of Egypt, I. xiv.— XX, 111 ff., 158—161. 3 See Masp. i. ed. 4 (1901), pp. 232 b, 233; Budge, Hist, of Eg. i. 171, 177—192. * See in Masp. i. 359 — 379 illustrations of the pyramids, and contemporary diorite statues, of the kings of this dynasty. xxxiv INTRODUCTION [§ 3 the potter's wheel was unknown to them'. The flint implements be- long to the * neolithic' stage of civilization (of which more will be said presently) : it is even possible that implements belonging to the earlier * palaeolithic ' age have been found in Egyptl Sir John Evans, the leading authority in England upon archaic stone implements, after a review of the evidence, concludes that the * neolithic* age came to its close in Egypt at about b.o. 5000, * fully a thousand years before the date which many of us in our childhood were taught to assign for the Creation of the Universe*.* And the perfection of work- manship, shewn by the flaked and fluted flint knives, would seem to indicate that this age must have begun in Egypt long previously*. 2. The evidence afibrded by the differences of language and race points to the same conclusion, and shews indeed that the antiquity of man upon earth must extend far beyond even the dimmest beginnings of either Babylonian or Egyptian civilization. As is shewn on p. 133 f., the narrative of the,. Tower of Babel cannot give an historically true account of the origin of .different languages : for (l) we possess in- scriptions of a date greatly earlier than that at which the confusion of tongues is placed, — in fact as early, at least, as B.C. 4000, — written in #Ar^g entirely distinct languages, the pre-Semitic Sumerian, the Semitic Babylonian, and the Egyptian ; (2) to take but one of these languages, the Babylonian : as Prof. J. F. McCurdy points out'', it has already at this date assumed the form which it exhibits 3000 years later ; i.e. it exhibits signs of 'advanced phonetic degeneration,* and differs from Hebrew, Aramaic and the other Semitic languages almost exactly as it does afterwards : how many thousands of years must we con- sequently go back beyond b.c. 4000, before we reach the time when the common ancestors of all the Semitic peoples lived together, and spoke a common language ! (3) radical differences of language, — i.e. not such differences as have developed by gradual differentiation from a com- mon parent-tongue, but differences distinguishing languages entirely unrelated to each other (as, for instance, Latin and Chinese), are 1 Budge, I. 49 fE., 84 ff., 92 ff., 101 f. (with illustrations): comp. p. 102 ff. (the contents of their graves). The flint implements (with other objects) are found interred with the dead, — no doubt with the idea, widely prevalent among peoples of primitive culture, that they would be of use in a future life. a Budge, i. 87 f., Ill f. ' The Antiquity of Man, with especial reference to the Stone Age in Egypt (an Address delivered in the Town Hall, Birmingham, Oct. 25, 1899, before the Birmingham and Midland Institute), pp. 13, 14. * Ibid. pp. 10. 11. » DB. V. 88. § 3] THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN xxxv dependent upon diifferences of race, which are not accounted for by the Biblical narrative. Something like 100 families of language are known, all entirely unrelated to each other, i.e. all so diflfering from each other that none could have arisen out of any of the others by either development or decay, and each comprising mostly a variety of individual languages or groups of languages ^ Languages belonging to diflferent families, now, differ from each other not only radically in vocabulary and grammar, but also, very frequently, in a manner which it is more difficult for those, like ourselves, familiar with only one type of language, to realize, viz. * morphologically,' or in the manner in which ideas are built up into a sentence. Different races do not think in the same way; and con- sequently the forms taken by the sentence in the languages spoken by them are not the same. The five main morphological types of language are the ' inflectional ' (W. Asia and Europe), the * agglutinative ' (Turkey, Central Asia, Pacific Islands, many parts of Africa), the * incorporating ' (Basque), the 'isolating' (E. Asia), and the *polysynthetic' (America)'. These morphological types are characteristic of particular races: thus the different families of language spoken in America, though utterly unrelated to each other, are nevertheless all * polysynthetic* It will follow, also, from what has been said respecting the nature of * families' of language, that they must either have arisen independently, in virtue of the faculty of creating language possessed by man (below, p. 55), at different centres of human life^, or more probably, perhaps, have been developed gradually, at the same time that races were developed, out of some very primitive, inorganic type of speech*. Comparative philology thus teaches that radical differences of language depend upon, and presuppose, differences of race. Differences of race, however, " are^ not explained by the Biblical narrative; for though Gen. x. is ostensibly an explanation of the origin of different nations, and though Gen. xi. 1 — 9 might conceivably be understood as such, if it could be supposed that at the dispersion there described small groups of men, speaking the different languages which then arose, migrated into different quarters of the earth, and so became the founders of different nationalities, yet (as will appear directly) no adequate explanation is thereby obtained of the racial differences exhibited by mankind, which must, in point of fact, have had their starting-point in an age vastly anterior to that at which either Gen. x. or Gen. xi. is assigned by the Biblical chronology. 3. The consideration of differences of race leads to the same conclusion. It is impossible here to particularize details ; but it may ^ See Sayce, Science of Language (1880), n. 33 — 64. 2 See further particulars in Sayce, op. cit. i. 118—132, 374 ff., ii. 188 ff. ' Sayce, iUd. ii. 322, 323. * Keane, Ethnology (Cambridge, 1901), pp. 159, 195, 197 f., 209—215. xxxvi INTRODUCTION [§3 be mentioned generally that differences of race include many distinct features — the colour of the skin, the physical structure and arrange- ment of the hair, the stature and proportions of the body, the shape of the skull, the contour of the face, the mental capabilities and character. They are also in many cases, as hardly needs to be pointed out, strongly marked : .we are all familiar with the differences between the Chinaman, the Negro, and ourselves ; and there are many other races which, though they may be less familiarly known, are not less markedly distinguished from each other — ^for instance, the chocolate- coloured Australians, the light-brown Maoris, the reddish-brown native tribes of America, the yellow-hued Mongolians of Central Asia and China, the tall Patagonians, and the diminutive Bushmen of South Africa \ With the schemes that have been proposed for classif3dng these and the other races, or sub-races^ of mankind we are not here concerned*: what more concerns us is the great permanence of type which, so far as we can. observe them, these racial varieties mostly exhibit : as depicted on the Egyptian monuments, Egyptian and Negro differed 4000 years ago as they differ now; races transplanted into new climates retain their r former physical characteristics practically un- changed; while conversely physically different races, such as the Negros and Bushmen ill Africa, shew no tendency to approximate to each other, even under the influence of the same climate and the same general physical surroundings. It has, now, been much debated among ethnologists whether man appeared originally upon the globe at one centre or at many centres. The former of these alternatives is preferred by modern scientific authorities. Thus Mr Darwin, after reviewing the arguments on both sides, sums up in its favour — upon the ground, stated generally, that the resemblances, physical and mental, between different races are such that it is extremely improbable that they should have been acquired independently by aboriginally distinct species or races ^. But, which- 1 See Sayce, Races of the OT. 14 — 24; or, in greater detail, Tylor, Anthropology, chap. III., Keane, Ethnology, chaps, viii. ('Physical criteria of race'), and ix. (' Mental criteria of race'). There are reasons for thinking that the colour of the skin in primitive man was yellowish (Keane, p. 237). 2 See Keane, p. 163 £P. 8 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. ch, vii. (pp. 231—233, ed. 1871). The argu- ment of course assumes that Man is the result of an evolutionary process, not of a special creation. The same conclusion is expressed by Lyell, Principles of Geology^^ (1875), II. chap. 43; Huxley, Collected Essays, vii. 249 ff.; Tylor, art. Anthropology in the Encycl. Brit.^, and in his volume Anthropology (1895), p. 6; and Keane, ch. VII. (' The specific unity of man'), who however considers the existing races of mankind to have developed not from a single human pair, but from a single pair of § 3] THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN xxxvii ever of these alternatives be adopted, it must be evident that differences of race are not accounted for in the Biblical narrative : the case of the several primary races originating independently at different centres, is not contemplated in it at all : if, on the other hand, racial differences were gradually developed by thq play of natural selection upon the descendants of a single pair, mi^ating into new climatic and other physical conditions,- then the growth of these differences is neither explained by the Biblical narrative, nor, in fact, reconcileable with it. For, taking account only of the simplest and most obvious division of mankind into the white, the yellow, the reddish-brown, and the black races ^ even Gen. x., with the single exception of Gush (Jer. xiii. 23), — and, possibly, of Magog (if by this are meant the Scythians), — enumerates only tribes and nations belonging to the white race ; while from the observed persistency of racial types, as noticed above, it seems clear that, if tl^e four mentioned races, with the many sub-races included in each, all differing very materially from each other, have been developed from a single original pair, the process must have occupied a greatly longer period of time than is allowed by the Book of Genesis, even though we adopt the view that the Deluge was a merely local inundation, and place the starting-point of the growth of racial distinctions at the Biblical date for the creation of man, B.C. 4157, or (lxx.) B.a 5328^ 4. The high antiquity of man is attested also by evidence, which cannot be gainsaid, from another quarter. During the last half-century or so, relics of human workmanship have been found, chiefly in England, Belgium, and France, but also in other parts of the world, including America, shewing that man, in a rude and primitive stage of develop- ment, ranged through the forests and river- valleys of these continents, in company with mammals now extinct, at an age which cannot indeed be measured precisely in years B.C., but which, upon the most moderate estimate, cannot be less than 20,000 years from the present anthropoid ancestors, standing much further back in the evolutionary pedigree (pp. 223—5, 229, 239 f.; cf. the diagrams, pp. 19, 38, 224). 1 Corresponding in general to the Caucasian, the Mongol, the native American and the Negro races. See in detail Keane, chap. x. {' The main divisions of the Hominidae'), chaps, xi. — xiv. (the survey of each group in particular). 2 Comp. Sir W. H. Flower, Encycl. Brit.^ xv. 445 ( = Flower and Lydekker, Hist, of Mammals, 1891, 741, 742 f.), who speaks of the 'vast antiquity of man,' and of the 'long ante-historic period, during which the Negro, the Mongolian, and the Caucasian races were being gradually fashioned into their respective types ' j and Sayce, Races of the OT, p. 87, who expresses himself similarly. xxxvin INTRODUCTION [§3 day*. Here is an enlarged Table of the * Cainozoic * age, embracing the periods numbered 11 and 12 on p. 21*: 1. Eocene. Orders and families of mammals now living (e.g. ancestral forms of the horse, the deer, and the hyaena) represented, but not living Tertiary -{ genera or species. 2. Meiocena Genera of mammals now living represented, but not species. 3. Pleiocena Living species of mammals begin to appeal-, but are still rare : extinct species abundant. /4. Pleistocene. Living species more abundant. Man appears. Extinct species rarer. Post-Tertiary 6. * Prehistoric' Living species (including Man) abundant, or < Animals domesticated, and fruits culti- Quaternary vated. Only one extinct species of mam- mal (the Irish elk). ,6. Historic. No extinct species. Historical records. In the first four of these periods the geography and climate of Europe both underwent many changes. Thus in the Eocene period the British Isles were probably united with the present Continent of Europe on the one side, and with the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland on the other ; and there was a partially enclosed sea extending from about the coast of Dorsetshire to Denmark. The climate of Britain was then tropical : the sea just spoken of teemed with sharks, rays, sea-snakes, &c., alligators and turtles abounded on the banks of the Thames, and the land was covered with a luxuriant vegetation. In the Pleiocene period the climate becomes colder : the elephant now appears in France, and the first living species of mammal, the common hippopotamus, is found in the same country and in Italy. The Pleistocene period is remarkable on account of the alternations of climate by which it was marked. At first there was severe cold : and thick beds of glaciers covered most of Scotland, Ireland, the NW. parts of England and Wales, as also the greater part of N. and central Europe. Then, as many think, came a submergence, reducing Britain to clusters of glacier-covered islands rising out of the sea, and surrounded by icebergs, till after a while the climate grew warmer and the glaciers disappeared. After this a period 1 The late Sir Joseph Prestwich, a geologist not addicted to rash or extreme opinions, assigned, as a 'rough approximate limit,' a period of from 20,000 to 30,000 years from the present time {Geology, 1888, ii. 534). a The following statements are made on the authority of Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain (1880), pp. 9f., 12, 18 f., 81, 115 £f., 150 ff., 257, <fec.: but statements to the same effect will be found in any recent manual of geology, — e.g. Geikie's Glass-book of Geology (1902), pp. 394 ff., 404 ff. See also Keane's Ethnology, ch. iv. § 3] THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN xxxix of cold supervened : the glaciers and icebergs reappeared ; the British Isles again rose above the sea, — this time, however, no longer united to Greenland, though still forming part of a large N.-Westerly ex- tension of France, Holland and Denmark : finally, the climate again became temperate. Thus there were in Britain two * glacial ' periods, and an intervening warmer 'inter-glacial' period. Similar climatal changes took place in what is now the Continent of Europe : in the N. and central parts there are still numerous marks of the former presence of glaciers. Indubitable traces of man first become abundant in the later Pleistocme period \ On the slopes of river- valleys such as those of the Ouse or the Somme, 50 or 100 ft. above the present river-banks, there are beds of what is called drift-gravel, deposited by the river when it flowed at a much higher level than it does at present; and in this drift-gravel, side by side with the remains of various extinct mammals, have been found numerous rude implements of flint chipped by the hands of men, sometimes into flakes, sometimes into pear- shaped, or pointed, hatchets, or scrapers''. Geology shews that these drifb-gravels were deposited during the middle and later Pleistocene period. The animals with whose remains these implements are found appear to shew that on the Continent of Europe man was pre-glacial and inter-glacial (i.e. that he advanced from the S. northwards in the warmer inter-glacial periods mentioned above), but that in England, at least N. of the Thames, he was only post-glacial (i.e. that he appeared in this country only after the ice had finally left it). And so in this remote age, palaeolithic man, or the * river-drift hunter,' as he has been called, lived a rude hunter's life in the lower valley of the Thames, side by side with vast herds of reindeer, bisons, horses, and uri, the woolly rhinoceros and the elephant, the hippopotamus and the lion, and many other creatures, now entirely unknown in this 1 Some authorities (among whom was Sir J. Prestwich) think that traces of a yet earlier race of men have been found in the 'eoliths,' or flints, very rude in shape, and but slightly chipped, occurring in older gravels and at yet higher levels. Others, however, maintain these to be natural forms. 2 On the question whether these are really implements of human workmanship, see Lord Avebury (Sir J. Lubbock), Prehistoric Times, ed. 6 (1900), p. 328. No geologist doubts that they are. Similar implements are made at the present day by savages such as the native Australians (Tylor, Anthropology, p. 186) and Tasmanians (Keane, p. 293). For further particulars on the subject, see Sir J. Evans, The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain^ (1897), (on their antiquity, pp. 703 — 9). In one of the galleries of the British Museum, there is a large collection of these implements, both of the earlier and later Stone age, arranged as far as possible chronologically : see descriptions, with illustrations, in the shilling Guide to these antiquities (1902). xl INTRODUCTION [§ 3 island \ And there is evidence that he lived under similar conditions in other parts of central and southern England, in France, Belgium, and elsewhere on the Continent. In particular, in a cave in Dordogne, in the valley of the Vez^re, a little E. of Bordeaux, there has been found the drawing of a mammoth — a huge kind of elephant, which has left many remains of itself, but has now been long extinct — incised by human hands upon a piece of its own ivory, which must date from the same period I Marks of the presence of man in the same age have also been found in Africa, Palestine, and India: the diffusion of the same stage of culture over countries so widely separated from each other is an indication that it must have been of long duration'. Whether, however, even palaeolithic man is rightly termed * primitive ' is doubted by Dr Tylor. ' The life which the men of the mammoth-period must have led at Abbeville or Torquay, shews on the face of it reasons against its being man's primitive life. These old stone-age men are more likely to have been tribes whose ancestors while living under a milder climate gained some rude skill in the arts of procuring food and defending themselves, so that afterwards they were able by a hard struggle to hold their own against the harsh weather and fierce beasts of the Quaternary period' {Anthropology ^ p. 33). In the later part of the palaeolithic period, a somewhat higher stage of culture appears, represented by the Cave man^ belonging, it may be, to another race, perhaps (Dawkins) allied to the Eskimos. Relics of the workmanship of the Cave man are found, for instance, in caves in a valley between Derby and Nottingham, in Kent's Hole, near Torquay, and in different parts of Belgium, France, Germany, &c. Improved flint implements, bone needles and awls, harpoon heads of antler, and especially drawings of horses, reindeer, and other animals, testify to the advance in culture of the Cave man, as compared with the river-drift hunter of the earlier part of the palaeolithic age*. The Pleistocene period, says Mr Dawkins, was of ' vast duration ' ; and the river-drift man ' probably lived for countless generations before the arrival of the Cave-men, and the appearance of the higher culture ' (pp. 231, 233). The 'prehistoric' period is marked by the advent of neolithic man, i.e. of man belonging to the newer stone period, in which his stone implements were often polished, and in other respects also 1 Dawkins, pp. 137, 155 f., 172 f. 2 See Dawkins, p. 105 ; Tylor, p. 31 ; Lyell, Antiquity of Man, ed. 4, p. 139. 3 Dawkins, pp. 165—7, 172 f. * On Palaeolithic man, see also Keane, ch. v. (with illustrations). § 3] THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN xH display a higher type of workmanship. In the course of this period, culture considerably advanced : the soil was cultivated, animals were domesticated, wood was cut with stone axes fixed in wooden handles, spears, arrows, &c. were manufactured, and clay was moulded into rude cups and other vessels : the dead began also now to be buried in barrows or cairns. It is to this period that at least the earlier of the famous pile-dwellings, constructed in some of the Swiss lakes, belong : the inhabitants of these lake-villages cultivated many seeds and fruits familiar to ourselves. The neolithic men appear to have belonged to a different race from their predecessors, the Cave men, and entered Europe, it is generally agreed, from the East or South. The duration of the neolithic civilization varied in different countries : it main- tained itself, for instance, in northern and central Europe long after it had yielded to a higher culture in Greece and Italy, and also, it may be added, till long after highly organized empires had been established in Egjrpt and Babylonia \ The neolithic period was followed by the Bronze age, during which iron either was not known, or could not be worked, and when all weapons and cutting instruments were made of bronze, — the only other metal known being gold, which was used for ornaments. Most nations have passed through a Bronze age, though not all at the same time : the Spaniards, for instance, when they conquered Mexico and Peru, found the natives working in bronze with some skiU, but knowing nothing of iron. The Bronze age was succeeded by the Iron age, which began with the first introduction of iron for the manufacture of weapons and cutting instruments, and which has continued, — with of course immense developments in every direction, — to the present day. The general conclusion to which the facts mentioned in the pre- ceding pages point can hardly be better summed up than in the words of Dr Tylor : * It is true that man reaches back comparatively little way into the immense lapse of geological time. Yet his first appear- ance on earth goes back to an age compared with which the ancients, as we call them, are but moderns. The few thousand years of recorded history only take us back to a prehistoric period of untold length, during which took place the primary distribution of mankind over the earth and the development of the great races, the formation of speech and the settlement of the great families of language, and the growth of * On Neolithic man, comp, also Keane, ch. vi. xlii INTRODUCTION [§ J culture up to the levels of the old world nations of the East, the fore- runners and founders of modem civilized life\' In what light, then, in view of this conclusion, are we to view the representation contained in the early chapters of Genesis ? The facts cannot be denied : yet the narrative of Genesis takes no account of them, and, indeed, leaves no room for them. The great antiquity of man, the stages of culture through which he passed (comp. the note on iv. 17 — 24), and the wide distribution of the human species, with strongly marked racial differences, over the surface of the earth are all alike unexplained, and inexplicable, upon the historical system of Gen. i. — ^xi. No doubt. Gen. x. and xi. 1 — 9 explain ostensibly/ the distribution of man * over the face of the whole earth ' ; but after what has been said, it will be evident that they do not do so in reality : the dispersion is placed too late to account for the known facts respecting both the distribution of man and the diversity of races. To say that the Biblical writers spoke only of the nations of whom they knew is of course true: but the admission deprives their statements of all historical or scientific value: * palaeolithic ' and * neolithic' man, and the various distinct races inhabiting Central and Eastern Asia, Australia, America, &c., all existed ; and any explanation, purporting to account for the populations of the earth, and the diversity of languages spoken by them, must take cognizance of them. An ex- planation not taking account of the facts to be explained can be no historically true account either of the diffusion of mankind, or of the origin of different races. We are forced therefore to the conclusion that though, as may be safely assumed, the writers to whom we owe the first eleven chapters of Genesis, report faithfully wJiat was cv/rrently believed among the Hebrews respecting the early history of mankind, at the same time, as is shewn in the notes, making their narratives the vehicle of many moral and spiritual lessons, yet there was much which they did not knowy and could not take cognizance of: these chapters, consequently, we are obliged to conclude, incomparable as they are in other respects, contain no account of the real beginnings either of the earth itself, or of man and human civilization upon it^. 1 Anthropology, p. 34. ' Mr Capron {Gonfiict of Truth, 270 — 85) has deyised an extraordinary method (cf. below, p. 24 n.) for 'reconciling' the great antiquity of man with the statements of Genesis: man, he supposes, may have existed long before as a natural being; Genesis describes only his elevation into a spiritual being by the super-adding of spiritual faculties. But it is surely the intention of Genesis to describe both the beginningt of man, and also his beginnings as a complete being; one can hardly § 3] THE PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVES xliii b. The patriarchal period (chs. xii. — L). It remains to consider the historical character of Gen. xii. — ^1., the naiTatives of the patriarchal period. Here it must at the outset be frankly admitted that these narratives do not satisfy the primary condition which every first-class historical authority must satisfy: they are not contemporary (or nearly so) with the events which they purport to relate : even if Moses were their author, he lived many centuries after Abraham — according to Ussher's chronology 400 years, in reality (p. xxix), — if we adopt for Abraham's date the only fixed datum that we possess, the synchronism with Hammurabi (p. 156), — 900 or 1000 years; and upon the critical view of the date of these narratives, the -interval is of course still greater, — in fact, between Abraham and J, something like 1300 years. The supposition that the writer (or writers) of Genesis may have based his (or their) narratives upon written documents, contemporary with the events described, does not alter the case : there is no evidence, direct or indirect, that such documents were actually used as the basis of the narrative ; and upon a mere hypothesis, for the truth of which no positive grounds can be alleged, and which therefore may or may not be true, it must be apparent that no further conclusions of any value can be built. It is not denied that the patriarchs possessed the art of writing; but the admission of the fact leads practically to no consequences ; for we do not know wliat they wrote, and there is no evidence that they left any written materials whatever behind them. These facts, it is evident, must seriously diminish the confidence which we might otherwise feel as regards the historical character of the patriarchal narratives. A narrative committed to writing for the first time, so far as we know, 1000 years or more after the events related in it occurred, would be regarded under ordinary circumstances as destitute of historical value ; we could have no guarantee that during such a long period of oral transmission it had not in many details become materially modified, — sometimes accidentally, through failure of memory, sometimes, it may be, intentionally, by the addition, for instance, of embellishing traits. Are there however any considerations which might tend to modify this unfavourable conclusion in the case believe one's eyes when one reads (p. 279) that human nature is to be divided into four parts, and that Gen. ii. describes the beginning of two of these (material form and vitality), and Gen. i. the beginning of the other two (inteUectuality and spirituality) ! The explanation of the Fall, proffered on p. 321 f., is not less out of the question. Eeconciliations of the Bible with science which depend upon forced iexegesis can never be sound ones. P. 6 xliv INTRODUCTION [§ 3 i of the patriarchal narratives of Genesis ? "We can never indeed regard | them as historical authorities in the strictest sense of the word : but I that, be it observed, is a claim which they never make themselves ; they nowhere claim, even indirectly, to be the work of eye-witnesses ; and there may be circumstances connected with them which may at least shew the position to be a tenable one that, though they cannot be placed in the same rank with, for example, the history of Thucydides, their contents are nevertheless substantially authentic. 1. In nations possessing no written records, the memory is more exercised, and more tenacious than it is with us ; and popular stories once enshrined in the memory of a nation may have been transmitted substantially unaltered, from father to son, for many generations. The tenacity of the memory, under such circumstances, is greater than we can readily imagine ; and there are many surprising instances on record of its power*. And the memory might be expected to be exceptionally tenacious, in the case of national records, or accounts of ancient worthies whose memories were cherished on the part of a nation, which held itself aloof from its neighbours, and was proud of its ancestry. 2. The critical analysis of Genesis furnishes an argument of some weight in favour of the general trustworthiness of the narrative. Disregarding P (which appears not only to contain in parts artificial elements, but also to be later than the other sources, so that by the side of J and E it can hardly claim to represent an independent tradition), we have two narratives of the patriarchal period, one written, in all probability, in Judah, the otlier in the Northern Kingdom ; and these, though they exhibit discrepancies in detail, still on the whole agree : though they may contain, for instance, divergent representations of the same events, they do not present two entirely contradictory traditions ; in other words, they shew that on the whole the traditions current in the N. and S. Kingdoms agreed with one another. They thus bear witness to the existence in ancient Israel of a * firm nucleus of consistent tradition ' (Kittel). * The value of this nucleus is by no means small, for it supplies the fundamental condition 1 *One of the most noted Bawis [reciters], Hammad by name, is said to have been able to recite 3000 long poems, all of the time before Mohammed' (A. B. Davidson, Bibl. and Literary Essays, 1902, p. 268). See also Grote, Hist, of Greece, i. 526 — 30, 532 n. (ed. 1862), — with reference to the oral preservation of the Homeric poems; and Max Muller, Hibbert Lectures (1878), 153, 156 f., on the oral preservation of the Big- Veda. § 3] THE PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVES xlv of a real history. If the traditions were confusedly intermixed, this would stamp them as arbitrary creations, or the products of popular fancy. Their not being so, though far from proving them positively to bo historical, justifies the presumption that we may perhaps succeed in finding a historic core in the patriarchal narratives'.' 3. The patriarchal narratives are marked by great sobriety of statement and representation. There are no incredible marvels, no liintastic extravagances, no surprising miracles : the miraculous hardly extends beyond manifestations and communications of the Deity to the earlier patriarchs, and in the case of Joseph there are not even these ; the events of his life move on by the orderly sequence of natural cause and effect. There is also great moderation in the claims made on behalf of the patriarchs. Only once, in a narrative taken evidently from a special source (ch. xiv.), is Abraham represented as gaining successes in war ; only once also (ch. xxxiv. ; cf. xlviii. 22) does Jacob come into hostile collision with the native Canaanites : elsewhere, the patriarchs live peaceful, quiet lives, neither claiming nor exercising any superiority over the native princes ; and sometimes even rebuked by them for their moral weakness. There is also another consideration, of considerable weight, urged by Ewald. *Ewald reminds us,' says Kittel, *that whilst all the accounts agree in representing it as the Divine purpose that Abraham and the other patriarchs shall provision- ally take possession of the land of Canaan, they are never represented as actually possessing the whole. They confine themselves to particular small districts in the South (Abraham and Isaac) and centre (Jacob) of Canaan, and these, for the most part, of minor importance. If the patriarchs had never actually lived in Canaan, if their abode there and their very personality had belonged merely to the realm of legend, it might have been confidently expected that the later legend would have provided a firmer and more lasting foundation for the Israelites' claim to the whole land than this mere partial possession by their fathers ^' The moderation of the prophetic outlooks (ch. xii. 2 — 3, &c.) into the future fortunes of Abraham's descendants, at least in J and E, — for only P (see on xvii. 6) speaks of 'kings' to be sprung from him, — might be taken also as an indication that these narrators were keeping themselves within the limits of a tradition which they had received, rather than freely creating ideal pictures of their own. 1 Kittel, Gesch. der Hebrder (1888), i. 152 (Eng. tr. i. 168). 2 Kittel, I. 154 (Eng. tr. i. 170 f.). See Ewald, Hist. i. 305 f. xlvi INTRODUCTION [§ 3 4. Do the patriarchal narratives contain intrinsic historical im- probabilities ? or, in other words, is there anything intrinsically improbable in the lives of the several patriarchs, and the vicissitudes through which they personally pass? In considering this question a distinction must be drawn between the different sources of which these narratives are composed. Though particular details in them may be improbable (e.g. xix. 31 ff.), and though the representation may in parts be coloured by the religious and other associations of the age in which they were written (cf. p. Iviii ff.), it cannot be said that the biographies of the first three patriarchs, as told in J and E, are, speaking generally, historically improbable : the movements, and per- sonal lives, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are, taken on the whole, credible. It is true, the chronology of Genesis cannot, as it stands, be maintained (see p. xxx) ; but the inconsistencies in it arise out of the combination of JE with P ; and the critical conclusion that the narrative of P was originally entirely distinct from that of JE, and that its chronology is artificial and late, leaves the narratives of J and E fi-ee from difficulty upon this score. Chapter xiv. belongs to a special source ; so that, whatever verdict be ultimately passed upon it, our estimate of J and E would remain unaffected. It is true, of course, that in parts of J and E we have what seem to be different versions of the same occurrence ; but this is a fact not in- consistent with the general historical character of the narrative as a whole. Only the Joseph-narratives stand in some respects in a position by themselves. On the one hand, it cannot be denied that improba- bilities attach to some of the details of these narratives, especially (p. Ix) to some of those relating to the famine : but these, again, do not affect the substance of the narratives. It also might be felt by some that the Joseph-narratives contain more dramatic situations than are likely to have happened in real life : both Joseph and his brethren pass through a series of crises and adventures, any one of which might easily have closed the drama, though all, in fact, lead on happily to the final denoument. On the other hand, truth is proverbially stranger than fiction ; and Joseph's biography may not have been more remarkable than many other biographies in history. The changes in Joseph's fortunes are of a kind quite natural in Oriental countries : in the general fact of a foreigner, by a happy stroke of cleverness, winning the favour of an Eastern despot, and rising in consequence to high power, there is nothing unprecedented ; and in the case of Egypt in particular the monuments supply examples of foreigners attaining to positions of § 3] THE PATRIARCHAL NARRATIVES xlvii political distinction (see p. 344). It is also worthy of notice that the biography is in itself entirely free from anything which would tempt a reader to regard it as legendary : no Deus ex machind appears at any point of it; if the hand of God is an overruling power in the back- ground, human motives and human actions are the only overt agencies by which the web of incident is woven. Of course, in view of the fact that the Joseph-narratives are plainly not the work of a contemporary hand, but were, so far as we know, only committed to writing many hundred years afterwards, these considerations afford no guarantee of their being a literal record of the facts ; particular episodes or details may, for instance, have been added during the centuries of oral transmission : but they do supply reasonable grounds for concluding that the narratives are in substance historical. 5. As Wellhausen has observed, it cannot be doubted that to Moses Jehovah was the God of Israel, and Israel the people of Jehovah; and also that this truth, though it assumed in Moses' hands a new national significance, was not promulgated by him for the first time*. 'The religious position of Moses stands before us unsupported and incomprehensible unless we believe the tradition (Ex. iii. 13 E) that he appealed to the God of their fathers. Moses would hardly have made his way amongst the people, if he had come in the name of a strange and hitherto unknown god. But he might reasonably hope for success, if a fresh revelation had been made to him by the God of Abraham, who was still worshipped in some circles and still lived in the memory of the people.' We may also ask, Why, unless there had been positive historical recollections forbidding it to do so, did not Israelite tradition concentrate all the glory of founding the national Church and State upon Moses ? If, in spite of the great deliverance undoubtedly achieved by Moses, Israelitish tradition nevertheless goes back beyond Moses, and finds in the patriarchs the first roots not only of the possession of the land, but also of the people's higher worship of God, this can only be reasonably accounted for by the assumption that memory had retained a hold of the actual course of events'. 1 Wellhausen, Hist, of Isr. 433. * With this paragraph, comp. Kittel, p. 174. The undeveloped character of the patriarchs' religious beliefs — their childlike attitude towards God, for instance, the freedom and familiarity with which they are represented as approaching Him, their absence (till xxxix. 9) of a clear sense of sin, or of the need of penitence, and the fact that such truths as the unity of God, the love of God to man and of man to God, and the holiness of God, though throughout implied, are not exphcitly taught —has also been pointed to (Watson, The Book Genesis a true History, 1892, xlviii INTRODUCTION [§ n These are virtually all the considerations of any weight which (apart from theological grounds) can be alleged in favour of the historical character of the patriarchal narratives. Probabilities of greater or less weight may be adduced : but with our present know- ledge, it is impossible to do more\ The case would of course bo different, if there existed contemporary monumental corroboration of any of the events mentioned in Genesis. But unfortunately no such corroboration has at present been discovered. With the exception of the statement on the stel^ of Merenptah that * Israel is desolated,' — which may indeed be the 'Egyptian version' of the Exodus, but certainly does not 'confirm' the Hebrew account of it, — the first event con- nected with Israel or its ancestors which the inscriptions mention or attest is Shishak's invasion of Judah in the reign of Rehoboam, and the first Israelites whom they specify by name are Omri and his son Ahab^. Upon the history and civilization of Babylonia, Egypt, and to a certain extent of other countries, including Palestine, in the centuries before Moses, the monuments have indeed shed an abundant and most welcome light; but nothing has hitherto been discovered sufficiently specific to establish, even indirectly or inferentially, the historicity of the patriarchs themselves. Thus contemporary inscrip- tions, recently discovered, have shewn that there were Amorite settlers in Babylonia, in, or shortly after, the age of Hammurabi, and that persons bearing Semitic names identical, or nearly so, with those of some of the patriarchs were resident there in the same age : but these facts, interesting as they are in themselves, are obviously no corro- boration of the statements that the particular person called Abraham lived in Ur and migrated thence to Haran and afterwards to Canaan, as narrated in Gen. xi. 28, 31. On the ' Amorite quarter' in Sippar (80 m. NW. of Babylon), in the reipP of Ammi-zaduga, the fourth successor of Bfamraurabi, see the footnote, p. 142; and on the mention of Amorites in Bab. contract-tablets of the same age. Pinches, OT. in the light of the records of Ass. and Bab. (1902), 157, 170. On a contract-tablet of the reign of Abil-Sin, the second predecessor of Hammurabi, p. 105 ff.), as tending to establish the historical character of the patriarchal narratives, at least of J and E. Just as Dr Watson's characterizations are, however, it may be doubted whether his argument proves more than that these narratives reached their present form at the time supposed by critics (p. xvi), which, it will be remembered, was before the age at which the canonical prophets, Amos, Hosea &c., began to emphasize and develope beliefs and truths such as those referred to. 1 Cf. Kittel's Bab. Excavations and Early Bible History (1903), p. 37. * See Hogarth's Autliority and Archaeology, pp. 87 f., 89, 93. § 3] ARCHAEOLOGY AND GENESIS xlix a witness is mentioned bearing a name almost the same as Abram, viz. Abe-ramu, who is described further as the father of Sha-amurri, ' (the man) of the Amorite god^' ; and in other contract- tablets of the same period there occur the names YaUpvib ( = Jacob), and Ya'JcKh-ilu ( = Jacob-el)2, as well as others of Heb. or Canaanite form ; according to Sayce, also, the name Ishmael occurs on a marble slab from Sippar, which is as early as about 4000 B.C. The persons bearing these names appear to possess all the rights and privileges of Babylonian citizens 3. The names are interesting as testifying to the inter- course between Babylonia and the West at this era-ly date, and also as shewing that persons of apparently either Hebrew or Canaanite extraction were settled then in Babylonia, but they obviously prove nothing as to the historical character of Abraham or the other patriarchs. It is remarkable that a proper name — if not three proper names — com- pounded, apparently, with the Divine name, Yahweh, has been found recently, dating from the period of Hammurabi. The writer of a letter now in the British Museum bears the name Ya-u-um-ilu^ the other names are Ya-cH-ve-ilu and Yorve-ilu, — all apparently meaning *Yah is God' ( = *Joel,' at least as usually explained). The names are not Babylonian, and must therefore have belonged to foreigners, — whether Canaanites, or ancestors of the Hebrews. See Sayce, Exp. TimeSj Aug. 1898, p. 522, Relig. of Anc. Eg. and Bab. (1902), 484—7, Delitzsch, Babel und Bibel (1902), 46 f. (Eng. tr. 71, and esp. 133 — 141). The names are at present, however, too isolated for inferences to be drawn from them with any confidence: though they mighty for instance, indicate that the Heb. ' Yahweh ' was already worshipped, they still would not tell us what character or attributes were associated with him. Mr C. H. W. Johns, of Queens' College, Cambridge, permits me to add, ' The reading of the names has been questioned without sufficient ground. The interpretation is open to question, as YaH-ilu or Ya^ve-ilu may mean "God is, or does, something"' (see further his art. in the Expositor^ Oct. 1903, p. 289 ff.; and cf. KA T.^ 468 n.). The monuments, again, as is pointed out on p. 172 f., though they have thrown some light on the kings' names mentioned in Gen. xiv. 1, and have shewn that it would be no impossibility for a Babylonian or Elamite king of the 23rd cent. B.C. to undertake an expedition to the far West, make no mention of the particular expedition recorded in Gen. xiv. : they consequently furnish no independent corroboration of it ; nor do they contribute anything to neutralize the improbabilities which, rightly or wrongly, have been supposed to attach to details of it (p. 171 f ). They thus fall far short of demonstrating its historical ^ Abu-ramu itself { = Abram), 'the father is exalted' (cf. on xvii. 5), is found as the name of the Ass. official who gave his name to the fifth year of Esarhaddon (B.C. 677) : Pinches, p. 148; KAT.^ p. 479 ; KAT.^ p. 482. 2 A name of the same form as Ishmael, * May God hear I ' Jerahmeel, * May God be compassionate!' &c. : cf. pp. 182, 295. ' Pinches, pp. 148, 157, 183, 243; Sayce, Babylonians and Assyrians, pp. 187 — 190. 1 INTRODUCTION character'. And still less do they demonstrate that the role attribul to Abraham in the same chapter is historical. The evidence for both these facts rests at present solely upon the testimony of the Book of Genesis itself. Upon the same testimony we may believe Melchizedek to have been a historical figure, whose memory was handed down by tradition : but no evidence of the fact is afforded by the inscriptions (see p. 167 f ). The case is similar in the later parts of Genesis. The argument which has been advanced, for instance, to shew that the narrative of the purchase of the cave of Machpelah (ch. xxiii.) is the work of a contemporary hand, breaks down completely : the expressions alleged in proof of the assertion are not confined to the age of Hammurabi ; they one and all (see p. 230) occur, in some cases repeatedly, in the period of the kings, and even later : they consequently furnish no evidence that the narrative was written at any earlier date. There is no antecedent reason why Abraham should not have purchased a plot of ground near Hebron from the native inhabitants of the place : but to suppose that this is proven, or even made probable, by archaeology, is completely to misinterpret the evidence which it furnishes. As regards the Joseph-narratives, it is undeniable that they have an Egyptian colouring : they contain many allusions to Egyptian usages and institutions, which can be illustrated from the Eg3^tian monu- ments. Moreover, as Kittel has pointed out, this colouring is common to both J and E: as it is improbable that two writers would have added it independently, it may be inferred that it was inherent in the common tradition which both represent. This is a circumstance tending to shew that in its origin the Egyptian element was consider- ably anterior to either J or E, and increases the probability that it rests ultimately upon a foundation in fact. On the other hand the extent of the Egj^tian colouring of these narratives must not be over- estimated, nor must the conclusions drawn from it be exaggerated. The allusions are not of a kind to prove close and personal cognizance of the facts described : institutions, officials, &c. are described in general terms, not by their specific Egyptian names ^ Egypt, it must be remembered, was not far distant from Canaan; and, as the prophecies of Isaiah, for instance, shew, there was frequent intercourse 1 Mr Grote long ago pointed out the fallacy of arguing that because a given person was historical, therefore a particular action or exploit attributed to him by tradition was historical likewise (Hist, of Greece, Part i., ch. xvii., ed. 1862, vol. i., p. 391 f., with reference to legendary exploits attributed to Charlemagne). =* Contrast the long lists of specific titles in Brugsch's Aegyptologie, pp. 206—232. § 3] ARCHAEOLOGY AND GENESIS U between the two countries during the monarchy : Isaiah, in the single chapter (xix.) which he devotes to Egypt, shews considerable acquaint- ance with the peculiarities of the country. It is a complete illusion to suppose that the Joseph-narratives can be shewn by archaeology to be contemporary with the events recorded \ or (as has been strangely suggested) translated from a hieratic papyrus : the statement^* that the Egj^t which these narratives bring before us is in particular that of the Hyksos age is destitute of foundation*. Among the names of the places in Palestine conquered by Thothmes III. of the 18th dynasty (Petrie and Sayce, b.o. 1503—1449; Budge, c. 1533—1500), which are inscribed on the pylons of the Great Temple at Karnak, there occur 1 Notice in this connexion the absence of particulars in the narrative, which a contemporary would almost naturally mention, such as the personal name of the Pharaoh, and the place in Egypt at which he held his court. The names Potiphar, Poti-phera*, Zaphenath-Pa'neah and Asenath can hardly be genuine ancient names: see the note on xli. 45. The Hebrew of the Joseph-narratives is perfectly idiomatic and pure, and shews no traces whatever of having been translated from a foreign original. It contains (besides proper names) four or five Egyptian words; but they are all words which were naturalized in Hebrew ; they occur in other parts of the Old Testament, and consequently afford no clue as to the date of the narratives in which they are found. They are Pharaoh (see on xii. 15); t/«'or, xli. 1, 2, 3, 17, 18, the common Heb. name for the Nile (Is. vii. 18, and frequently); dhu, 'reed-grass,' xli. 2, 18 (also Job viii. 11) ; shesh, 'fine linen,' xli. 42 (also Ex. xxv. 4, and often in Ex. xxvi. — ^xxviii., XXXV. — xxxix. [all P], Ezek. xvi. 10, 13, xxvii. 7, Prov. xxxi. 22); perhaps also sohar, the name of the prison into which Joseph was cast (see on xxxix. 20), and hartummim, 'magicians' (see on xli. 8); and possibly rabid, 'chain,' xli. 42 and Ezek. xvi. 11 (see on this word the note * in DB. n. 775'*: it is quite uncertain whether it is really Egyptian). 2 Sayce, EHH. p. 90; cf. p. 93. » Egyptian institutions were of great fixity; and there is no allusion in these narratives to any institution or custom known to be characteristic of the Hyksos age, and not to occur in any later age. Gomp. the judgment of Ebers, as cited in EncB. II. 2594. Prof. Sayce, it is to be observed, though he comes forward ostensibly as an enemy of criticism, nevertheless makes admissions which shew that he recognizes many of its conclusions to be true. Thus he not only asserts the compilatory character of the Pentateuch {EHH. 129, 134, 203), but in Genesis he finds (p. 132 f.) two groups of narratives, and 'two Abrahams,' the one 'an Abraham born in one of the centres of Babylonian civilization, who is an ally of Amorite chieftains, and whom the Hittites of Hebron address as a "mighty prince'" [the Abraham of Gen. xiv. and of P], the other 'an Abraham of the Bedawin camp-fire, a nomad whose habits are those of the rude independence of the desert, whose wife kneads the bread while he himself kills the calf with which his guests are enter- tained' [the Abraham of J and E]. The former narrative he considers, though upon very questionable grounds, to have been based upon contemporary documents, the latter to have been ' like the tales of their old heroes recounted by the nomad Arabs in the days before Islam as they sat at night round their camp-fires. The details and spirit of the story have necessarily caught the colour of the medium through which they have passed' (p. 62). All the principal details of the patriarchs' lives are contained in J and E : but if these narratives were handed down for generations by 'nomad reciters' round their camp-fires, what better guarantee of their historical truth do we possess than if their memory had been preserved in the manner supposed above ? lii INTRODUCTIOK [§ 3 (Nos. 78 and 102) the names Y-^-k-b-d-ru and Y-s7i-p-d-ru; aa the Egyptian I stands also for r, these names would represent a Canaanitish or Hebrew Yakob-el, and Yoshep-el; and we learn consequently that places bearing these names 1 existed in Palestine, apparently in the central part 2, in the 16th or 15th cent. b.o. The name Jacob itself is thought by many to be an elliptical form of Jacob-eP; but whether that be correct or not, it is at least remarkable to find a place-name, including the name of the patriarch Jacob, in Palestine at this date. But the information which the name brings us is too scanty to enable us to found further inferences upon it: if Jacob was a historical person, his name may have clung to this place in Palestine; on the other hand, the name may have arisen independently of the patriarch altogether, in which case it would obviously have no bearing on the question whether he was a historical person or not ; there are also other conceivable ways in which the name of the patriarch (whether that of a real person or not) might have been connected with the place. In Yoshep-el, the sibilant does not properly correspond to that in Joseph: so that it is doubtful here whether the names are really the same. However, W. Max Miiller allows the identification to be 'possible'^: if it is correct, it is certainly a singular coincidence to find the names of both patriarchs embodied in place-names in Palestine, though it may be difficult to determine with confidence how the fact is to be explained. In lists of towns in Palestine belonging to the age of Seti I. and his successor, Ramses II. (the Pharaoh of the oppression), mention is made of a 'mountain of User' or 'Aser,' between Tyre and Shechem, and between Kadesh (on the Orontes) and Megiddo, and approximately, therefore, in the position occupied afterwards by the tribe of Asher". W. Max Miiller, Sayce, and Hommel, accordingly, do not doubt that the tribe of Asher, — or at least what was reckoned afterwards as the tribe of Asher, — was settled in Palestine before the other tribes of Israel had even left Egypt. The statement hardly has a bearing on the historical character of Jacob's son Asher; though it ought not to surprise us, if it should ultimately prove that the number of the sons of Jacob (some of whom, as individuals, play no part in the patriarchal narratives, and are really nothing more than mere names) was artificially raised to twelve, because there were in historical times twelve tribes of Israel, and also that the immigration of the entire nation into Canaan was accom- plished in reality a good deal more gradually than is represented as having been the case in Nu. xxxii., Dt. i. — iii., and Joshua i. — xii. i ^ Cf. for the form (compounded with El, 'God') the place-names Jezre^el, Jabne'el, Jos. xv. 11 { = Jabneh, 2 Ch. xxvi. 6), Jiphtah-el, Jos. xix, 14, 27, 'God sows, builds, opens,' respectively; see also Gray, Heb. Pr. Names, 214 f. 2 W. Max Miiller, Asien u. Europa nach Altagypt. Denkmdlern (1893), pp. 159, 161 f. 3 In which case, 'el would be the subject of the verb, and the real meaning of the name would be May God follow (or search out) ! or May God reward ! or May God overreach (sc. our foes)/ — according as the sense of the root in Aramaic, Arabic, or Hebrew be adopted. ■* Op. cit. pp. 159, 162 f. ; and as cited in EncB. 11. 2581—2. » W. Max MuUer, op. cit. 236—9; Sayce, Monuments, 244, Patr. Pal. 219, EHH. 78 f. ; Hommel, AHT. 228, 266. Cf. Authority and Archaeology^ p. 69 f. (with the references) ; and Asher in En^iB. § 3] ARCHAEOLOGY AND GENESIS liii The accuracy of the topography, and the truthfulness of the descriptions to Eastern life even in modern times, have also some- times been appealed to as confirmatory of the historical character of the patriarchal narratives. But the argument, as a little reflection will shew, is inconclusive. The exactness in these respects of the narratives of Genesis is only what would be naturally expected from the circumstances under which they were written. The relative situations of places do not alter from age to age ; and manners and customs in the East remain unchanged from generation to generation. The narratives of Genesis, upon the view taken of them by critics, were \vritten by men, whose own home was Canaan, who were acquainted personally with its inhabitants, and familiar with the customs, for instance, of tent-life and of travel in the desert ; and such men would as a matter of course describe correctly the relative positions and situations of places in Palestine mentioned by them, and represent their characters as adopting the manners and customs which were usual at the time. The narratives of Genesis are wonderful photo- graphs of scenery and life ; but they carry in themselves no proof that the scenery and life are those of the patriarchal age and not those of the age of the narrators'. Prof. G. A. Smith, in his Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament, expresses conclusions substantially identical with those reached in the preceding pages. Thus, after illustrating the nature of the light thrown by archaeology on the ages before Moses, he continues (p. 101), 'But, just as we have seen that in all this archaeological evidence there is nothing to prove the early date of the documents which contain the story of the patriarchs, but on the contrary even a little which strengthens the critical theory of their date, so now we must admit that while archaeology has richly illustrated the possibility of the main outlines of the Book of Genesis from Abraham to Joseph, it has not one whit of proof to offer for the personal existence or characters of the patriarchs themselves.' Formerly, the world in which the patriarchs moved seemed to be almost empty; now we see it filled with embassies, armies, busy cities, and long lines of traders, passing to and fro between one centre of civilization and another : ' But amidst all that crowded life we peer in vain for any trace of the fathers of the Hebrews : we listen in vain for any mention of their names. This is the whole change archaeology has wrought : it has given us an atmosphere and a background for the stories of Genesis ; it is unable to recall or certify their heroes^.' 1 To the same effect, G. A. Smith, HG. 108 ; Modern Criticism <&c. 67—70. ^ 2 The results proved by archaeology have, in their bearing upon Biblical criticism, been greatly exaggerated, especially by Prof. Sayce. See Hogarth's Authority and Archaeology, 143 ff., 149 f.; G. B. Gray, Ex^positor, May 1898, p. 337 ff. ; and G. A. Smith, op. cit. p. 66 ff. liv INTRODUCTION [§ 3 It is remarkable how in Genesis, as also, sometimes, in other parts of the Old Testament, individuals and tribes seem to be placed on the same level, and to be spoken of in the same terms, and how, further, individuals seem frequently to be the impersonation of homonymous tribes. Thus Bethuel is mentioned as an individual (Gen. xxii. 23, xxiv. 15, &c.), but his brothers * Uz and Buz are tribes (see on xxii. 21). Keturah, again, is spoken of as Abraham's second wife (xxv. 1) ; but her sons and grandsons are tribes (xxv. 2 — 4). In Gen. x. nations are quite manifestly represented as individuals : the same chapter also illustrates well the Hebrew custom of representing the tribes dwelling in, or near, a given country, as * sons ' of a corresponding homonymous ancestor (as v. 12 the Ludim, *Anamim, &c. 'begotten' by Mizraim, i.e. Egypt; v. 16 the Jebusite, Amorite, &c. * begotten' by Canaan). So Machir, in Gen. 1. 23 an individual, but in Nu. xxxii. 40 a clan, in Nu. xxvi. 29 ' begets ' (the country) Gilead (cf. the note on 1. 23) ; and in Jud. xi. 1 Gilead (the country) * begets ' Jephthah. Again, Canaan, Japheth, and Shem, in Noah's blessing (Gen. ix. 25—27), represent three groups of nations ; Ishmael (xvi. 12) is in character the personi- fication of the desert tribes whose descent is traced to him ; Esau ' is Edom ' (xxv. 30, xxxvi. 1, 8, 19), and Edom is the name of a people, as 'Esau' also is in Ob. 6, Jer. xlix. 8. Jacob and Israel, also, both names of the patriarch, are likewise national names, the latter a standing one, the former a poetical synonym (Gen. xlix. 7 ; Nu. xxiii. 21, 23 ; Am. vii. 2, 5, and frequently) : Isaac and Joseph are some- times national names as well, — Isaac in Am. vii. 9, 16, and Joseph in Am. V. 15, vi. 6, Ps. Ixxx. 1, Ixxxi. 5, and elsewhere^ TWs peculiarity is, at least largely, a consequence of the fact that in the Semitic languages, the names of nations and tribes are very frequently not, as with ourselves, plurals, but singulars, — Asshur (Is. x. 5 RVm.), Israel, Moab, Edom, Midian, Aram (Gen. x. 22 : see the note), Kedar (xxv. 13), Sheba, Cain or Kain (Nu. xxiv. 22, Jud. iv. 11, RVm. : cf. p. 72), Judah, Simeon, Levi, &c. : all these are names of nations or tribes, but they might be, and in some cases actually also are, the names of individuals'. 1 So in 1 Ch. vii. 20—24 'Ephraim,' though spoken of as if an individual, must be in reality the tribe ; cf . Bebiah in DB. 2 When it is desired to speak of the individual members of a tribe or nation, •sons' ('children') is commonly used, as in 'children of Israel.' Some tribes are also designated by gentilic adjectives, as Hiwwi, the 'Hivite,' 'Emori, the 'Amorite,' Yebusi, the ' Jebusite,' &c. It is in agreement with the usage explained in the text that the singular pronoun (generally concealed in E VV.) is used often of a nation : as Ex. xiv. 25, § 3] TRIBES REPRESENTED AS INDIVIDUALS Iv The question arises, How far this principle of tribes and nations being represented as individuals is to be extended ? Can it be applied in explanation of the patriarchal narratives ? and if so, in what sense ? It is the opinion of many modern scholars that it can be so applied. According to many modern scholars, nearly all the names in the patriarchal narratives, though they seem to be personal names, repre- sent in reality tribes and sub-tribes : a woman, for example, representing! ! a smaller or weaker tribe (or clan) than a man ; a marriage representing' the amalgamation of two tribes, if the wife be a slave or a concubine, I the tribe represented by her being of foreign origin or otherwise \ inferior, the birth of a child representing the origin of a new family or tribal subdivision, the firstborn being the one which acquires supre- macy over the rest, and an early death, or unfruitful marriage, representing the disappearance of a family : the movements, changes of fortune, and mutual relations, of tribes and sub-tribes being thus expressed in a personal and individual form. This was Ewald's view. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent the successive migratory move- ment of Hebrew tribes from the original common home of the Hebrew and Aramaean nationalities in Aram-naharaim across the Euphrates. Jacob's father, Isaac, was already settled in Canaan: his mother was an Aramaean (Gen. xxv. 20) ; he marries two Aramaean wives : after a long contest with his uncle (and father-in-law) Laban, * the Aramaean ' (xxv. 20, xxviii. 5, xxxi. 20, 24), he ultimately comes to terms with him, returns to Canaan with great wealth, and finally gives his name to the people settled there : this means that a new and energetic branch of the Hebrseo- Aramaic race migrated from its home in Aram- naharaim, pushed forward into Canaan, amalgamated there with the Hebrews ('Isaac') already on the spot (becoming thereby Isaac's *son'), and, in virtue of the superior practical abilities displayed by it, acquired ultimately supremacy over all its kin; the contest with Laban ' represents the struggle which continued, probably for centuries, between the crafty Hebrews on the opposite banks of the Euphrates, showing how in the end the southern Hebrews gained the upper hand and the northern were driven oif in derision ' : Edom was a branch (' son ') of the tribe represented by * Isaac ' ; ' Jacob,' becoming fused with this tribe, is Esau's ' brother,' but at the same time his younger *And Egypt said, Let me flee,' Nu. xx. 18, 'And Edom said (sing.) to him (Israel), Thou shalt not pass through me, lest I come forth to meet thee with the sword,' Josh. xvii. 14, Jud. i. 3. So Israel (the nation) and Edom, for instance, are spoken of as each other's * brother,' Am. i. 11, Nu. xx. 14 al. Ivi INTRODUCTION [§ 3 brother, as arriving later in Canaan, though, as he became afterwards the more powerful nation, he is described as having wrested from him his birthright ; similarly Jacob's wives and sons represent the existence of different elements in the original community, and the growth of tribal distinctions within it\ Evvald, however, held at the same time that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were historical characters, prominent leaders of the nation at successive stages of its history'. In the same way, Joseph (who was likewise a real person) was a leader or dis- tinguished member of a portion of the nation consisting of the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (which afterwards separated) : these tribes migrated into Egypt before the rest ; Joseph there rose to power, and conferred great benefits both upon his own people and upon the country, and in the end also attracted the remaining and stronger part of his people to the Eastern frontier of Egypt. Joseph's personality was a remarkable one : and in after ages it was transfigured in the memory of his people ; under the influence of the religion of Israel it became an ideal of filial and fraternal afiection, a high example of good- ness, devotion to duty, sincerity, and love^ The views of Dillmann and Kittel are similar to that of Ewald*. Other recent scholars have however gone further, and denied the presence of any personal element in the patriarchal narratives ^ the narratives represent throughout, — even, it is sometimes said, according to the intention of the narrators, — tribal movements and tribal relations : the patriarchs and most of the other figures in Genesis are the eponymous ancestors of corresponding tribes, created after Israel had become a united nation and was settled in Canaan ; and the bistories about them partly express phases in the early history of Israel and its neighbours, and are partly reflections of the circumstances and relations of the same tribes in the age in which the narratives themselves originated ''. 1 Ewald, Hist. i. 273 f., 287, 309—317, 338, 341—344, 346, 348—350, 3i 371_376, 378—381. 2 Pp. 301, 305 f., 340, 342, 345. 8 Ewald, Hist. i. 363, 382, 405, 407—9, 412—20. * Dillmann, Alttest. Theologie, 77 — 81 (the patriarchs were the leaders of large migratory bodies of Semites, pressing forward from Haran into Canaan, where Moab and Ammon, the Ishmaelites, the Keturaean tribes (Gen. xxv. 1 — 4), and the Edomites branched off from them ; the Hebrews in the narrowest sense of the term, i.e. the Israelites (corresponding to 'Jacob'), being the latest arrival among them), Gomm. on Gen. pp. 218, 219, 316, 403 (Engl. tr. ii. 2—5, 190, 353) ; Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, i. 153, 157, 168 f. (Engl. tr. i. 170, 174 f., 186—8). Cf. Ottley, Hist. of the Hebrews, 49—52; Wade, OT. Hist. 81 f. f^ See further on this view Keuss, L'Hist. Sainte et la Lot (1879), i. 98 flf. ; Stade, Gesch. 28—30, 127 f., 145 ff.; Wellh. Hist. 318 ff.; Gornill, Hist, of Isr. (1899), p. 29 ff.; the commentaries of Holzinger and Gunkel; Guthe, Gesch. des Volkes Israel (1899), pp. 1—6, 25, 41 f., 47—9, 55 f., 161—8; and the articles 1 §3] HISTORICITY OF THE PATRIARCHS Ivii No doubt Ewald's theory rests upon the observation of real facts, | and is also, within limits, true ; but applied upon this very compre- hensive scale, it cannot be deemed probable. An unsubstantial figure, such as Canaan (Gen. ix. 25 — 7), might be an example of a personified group of peoples ; there are also no doubt other cases, especially those occurring in genealogies, in which what seem to be individuals stand for tribes, and there are besides (cf. p. lixf.) particular cases in which the relations or characteristics of a later age appear to have been reflected back upon the patriarchs: but the abundance of personal] incident and detail in the patriarchal narratives as a whole seems to constitute a serious objection to this explanation of their meaning : would the movements of tribes be represented in this veiled manner on such a large scale as would be the case if this explanation were the true one ? Moreover, as the Canaanites actually remained in the land till a much later period than that at which the patriarchs {ex hyp.) lived, it is difficult to understand how large bodies of immigrants, such as Ewald's hypothesis postulates, could have swept across it, or found room to settle in it, without many hostile conflicts with the natives, of which nevertheless the patriarchal narratives, — except in the isolated case of Shechem (ch. xxxiv. ; xlviii. 22), — are silent : individuals, with a relatively small body of retainers, would be more likely than large tribes, to pass unmolested through the land, and find a home in it. It is also much more difficult to think of Joseph as a tribe rising to power in Egypt, than of Joseph as an individual. The explanation i may be adopted reasonably in particular instances (pp. liv, Ix) ; but applied universally, it would seem to create greater difficulties and) improbabilities than it removes. Although, however, as has been shewn (p. xliii f.), the evidence for the historicity of the patriarchs is not such as will satisfy the ordinary canons of historical criticism, it is still, all things considered, difficult to believe that some foundation of actual personal history does not underlie the patriarchal narratives \ And in fact the view which on the whole may be said best to satisfy the circumstances of the case is the view that the patriarchs are historical persons, and that the accounts which we have of them are in outline historically true, but on the names of the Israelitish tribes in EncB. It is criticized by Konig in Neueste Prinzipien der AT. Kritlk (1902), pp. 36—69, and in an art. in the Sunday School Times (Philadelphia), Dec. 14, 1901 (see a summary in the Exp. Times, Mar. 1902, p. 243 f.). There being no tribe corresponding to Abraham, Cornill (pp. 21, 34), and Guthe (pp. 164, 167), regard Abraham as a historical person, with a definitely marked religious character. 1 So also G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism &c., p. 106 f. Iviii INTRODUCTION [§ 3 that their characters are idealized, and their biographies not un- frequently coloured by the feelings and associations of a later age. * J,' says Mr Ottley\ and his remarks are equally true of E, 'describes the age of the patriarchs as in some essential respects so closely similar to later periods, that it can only be regarded as a picture of primitive life and religion drawn in the light of a subsequent age. We have here to do with the earliest form of history — traditional folk-lore about primitive personages and events, worked up according to some pre- conceived design, by a devout literary artist.* The basis of the narratives in Genesis is in fact popular oral tradition : J and E give us pictures of these traditions as they were current in the early centuries of the monarchy ; in P, it can scarcely be doubted, we have a later and more artificial form, by no means so directly and freshly transcribed from the living voice of the people. Popular tradition being, however, what it is, we may naturally expect it to display in Genesis the same characteristics which it does in other cases. It may well include a substantial historical nucleus, even though we may not always be in a position to ascertain precisely how far this extends : for details may readily be due to the involuntary action of popular in- vention or imagination, operating during a long period of time : from a religious point of view the characters and experiences of the patriarchs may have been accommodated to the spirit of a later age ; while in the form, also, something will be due to the narrators who cast the traditions into their present literary shape. How far, in the existing narratives, the original historical nucleus has been modified or added to by the operation of each of these three causes, it is of course impossible to determine exactly : an objective criterion is seldom attainable ; and subjective impressions of what is probable or not are mostly all that we have to guide us. There are however some narratives in which the feeling that we have before us the record not of actual historical fact, but of current popular belief, forces itself strongly upon us. As has already been pointed out (p. xvii fF.), one very conspicuous interest in these narratives is the explanation of existing facts and institutions^ — for instance, many names of persons and places, the sanctity of Bethel and its famous monolith, the origin of the great border-cairn in Gilead, a current proverb or custom, the ethnological or political relations subsisting between Israel and its neighbours, or the characteristics of different 1 Bampton Lectures, p. 209. i §3] IDEAL ELEMENT IN GENESIS lix peoples, the Ishmaelites, Edom, &c. In some of these cases, — notably in xix. 30 — 38, — it is next to impossible that we can be reading accounts of the actual historical origin of the names or facts referred to, and not rather explanations due to popular imagination or suggested by an obvious etymology : other cases it is but consonant with analogy to regard as similar ; in some instances, also, it will be remembered, we find duplicate and inconsistent traditions respecting the same occurrence. Uncertainty on subordinate points of this kind need not however affect our general estimate of the narrative as a whole. Another respect in which the histories of the patriarchs have probably been coloured in the course of oral transmission is by later tribal relations being imported into them : the patriarchs and their descendants, though it is going too far to say that they are mere reflections of the tribes descended, or reputed to have been descended, from them, do nevertheless appear upon occasion invested with the characteristics of these tribes ; and it is even possible that sometimes episodes of tribal life are referred back to them in the form of incidents occurring within the limits of their own families. Ishmael, for instance, in xvi. 12 may be the personal son of Abraham : but if he is this, he is also something more ; he impersonates the Bedawin of the desert. Jacob and Esau, in their struggles for supremacy, are more than the twin sons of Isaac; they impersonate two nations; and the later relations subsisting between these two nations colour parts of the representation, — especially, for instance, the terms of the oracle in :v. 23, and of the blessings in xxvii. 28 f., 39 f Jacob and Laban, when fixing on the mountains of Gilead the border which neither will pass, seem likewise to be types of the later Israelites and Aramaeans who often in the same region contended with one another for mastery. It is extremely difficult not to think that, as a whole, the narratives about Joseph are based upon a personal history : at the same time, it is quite possible that they have been coloured in some of their details by later events, and even that particular episodes may have originated in the desire to account for the circumstances and relations of a later age. The hostility of the brethren to Joseph, the leadership in one narrative (B) of Reuben, in the other (J) of Judah, the power and pre-eminence of Joseph,— like that of the double tribe (especially Ephraim) descended from him,— as ; compared with his brothers, the fact that Benjamin, afterwards the smallest tribe, is the youngest brother, the adoption of Joseph's two sons by Jacob (ie. their elevation to the same rank as his own sons), and the priority so / Ix INTRODUCTION [§ 3 pointedly bestowed by him upon the younger, are, for instance, points at which it is at least possible that popular imagination has been at work, colouring or supplementing the historical elements of the Joseph-tradition by reference to the facts and conditions of later times. The improbabilities which certainly attach to some of the details connected with the famine, and the measures by which it was relieved, may be accounted for in the same way : popular tradition magnifies the achievements of the famous heroes of antiquity, and the Oriental mind loves hyperbole K It is also not impossible that episodes or movements of tribal life, sometimes belonging to the patriarchal period itself, sometimes re- flected back into it from the later history, are occasionally narrated in the form of events in the lives of individuals, as in eh. xxxiv. (Shechem and Dinah : see p. 307 £), xxxviii. (Judah and Tamar : see p. 331 f.), and in different tribal genealogies, as xxii. 20 — 24, xxv. 1 — 4, 12 — 16, ch. xxxvi. (Edom), &c. ; cf. on xi. 29. The biographies of the patriarchs seem, thirdly, to have been idealized from a religious point of view. In the days of the patriarchs, religion must have been in a relatively rudimentary stage ^; there are traces of this in the idea, for instance, of the revelations of deity being confined to particular spots, and in the reverence paid to sacred trees and pillars : but at the same time the patriarchs often express themselves in terms suggesting much riper spiritual capacities and experiences, and in some cases indeed borrowed evidently from the phraseology of a much later age. It is difficult here not to trace the hands of the narrators, who were men penetrated by definite moral and religious ideas, and who, while not stripping the patriarchs of the distinctive features by which they were traditionally invested, never- theless unconsciously coloured their pictures of them by the feelings and beliefs of their own age, and represented them as expressing the thoughts, and using the phrases, with which they were themselves familiar^. To the narrators, also, will be due the literary form of the ^ In Gen. xli. 47 — 9, 54, 56, 57, for instance, there must be some exaggeration; and in xlvii. 14 — 26, though the system of land-tenure described undoubtedly existed in the age of the narrator, yet, as Dillm. remarks, the details, such as the connexion with the seven years of famine, the exhaustion of the Egyptians' money, the sale of their cattle &c., will be due to the naivetS of the tradition. 2 Cf. Wade, OT. History, p. 84 ff. 3 It is thus possible that both the * call,' and the other religious experiences of Abraham may have been less definite and articulate than they are represented as being in the existing narrative; they may have taken, for example, in his con- sciousness, the form of religious dissatisfaction with his surroundings, a sense that God was directing his steps elsewhere, and a presentiment borne in upon him that his adopted country would in time become the home of his descendants. Oomp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 199; Ottley, Bampt. Led. p. 111. §4] IDEAL ELEMENT IN GENESIS Ixi patriarchal narratives — the delicacy of expression and charm of style characteristic of J (especially) and of E, not less than the very differently constructed phrases and periods of P. The narratives of P we shall hardly be wrong in regarding, even in details, as far more the author's own creation than those of J or E. § 4. The Religious Value of tJie Book of Genesis. Our survey of the contents and historical character of the Book of Grenesis is ended. We have analysed it into the main sources of which it is composed, we have considered the leading characteristics of each 9f these sources, and we have done our best to estimate the historical 7alue of the narratives contained in them. We have found that in the first eleven chapters there is little or nothing that can be called historical in our sense of the word : there may be here and there dim recollections of historical occurrences ; but the concurrent testimony of Ideology and astronomy, anthropology, archaeology, and comparative philology, is proof that the account given in these chapters of the creation of heaven and earth, the appearance of living things upon the 3arth, the origin of man, the beginnings of civilization, the destruction Df mankind and of all terrestrial animals (except those preserved in the ark) by a flood, the rise of separate nations, and the formation of different languages, is no historically true record of these events as bhey actually happened. And with regard to the histories contained in chs. xii. — L, we have found that, while there is no sufficient reason for doubting the existence, and general historical character of the biographies, of the patriarchs, nevertheless much uncertainty must be allowed to attach to details of the narrative : we have no guarantee that we possess verbally exact reports of the events narrated; and there are reasons for supposing that the figures and characters of the patriarchs are in different respects idealized. And, let it be observed, not one of the conclusions reached in the preceding pages is arrived at upon arbitrary or a priori grounds : not one of them depends upon any denial, or even doubt, of the supernatural or of the miraculous ; they are, one and all, forced upon us by the facts ; they follow directly from a simple consideration of the facts of physical science and human nature, brought to our knowledge by the various sciences concerned, from a comparison of these facts with the Biblical statements, and from an application of the ordinary canons of historical criticism. Fifty or /2 'ixii INTRODUCTION [§ 4 sixty years ago, a different judgment, at least on some of the points involved, was no doubt possible : but the immense accessions of know- ledge, in the departments both of the natural sciences and of the early history of man, which have resulted from the researches of recent years, make it impossible now : the irreconcil^ability of the early narratives of Genesis with the facts of science and history must be recognized and accepted. To be sure, particular points might probably be found, at which, by the adoption of forced interpretations of the words of Genesis, such as are both unnatural in themselves, and also obviously contrary to the intention of the writer, the conclusion in question could, in appearance, be evaded : but this method is at once unsound in principle and ineffectual : a forced exegesis is never legitimate; passages remain to which the method itself cannot be applied; nor, probably, has anything done more to bring the Bible into discredit than the harmonistic expedients adopted by apologists, which by those whom they are intended to satisfy and convince are seen at once to be impossible'. And to turn for a moment to another consideration, it is realized now, more distinctly than it was by a past generation, that a historical document, if it is to lay claim to credibility, must be contemporary, or virtually so, with the events described in it ; this is a primary principle of modern historical science. But the Book of Genesis, whatever view be taken of its authorship, does not satisfy this condition : none of the documents of which it is composed either claims to be, or has as yet been shewn to be, contemporary with the events narrated in it. It follows that the Bible cannot in every part, especially not in its early parts, be read precisely as it was read by our forefathers. We live in a light which they did not possess, but which it has pleased the Providence of God to shed around us ; and if the Bible is to retain itf authority and influence among us, it must be read in this light, and our beliefs about it must be adjusted and accommodated accordingly. To utilize, as far as we can, the light in which we live, is, it must hi remembered, not a privilege only, but a duty. And to take but u single example of the gain to be derived from so doing : it is certain that an infinitely more adequate conception of the astonishing breadth and scope of creation, and of the marvellously wonderful and compre- hensive plan by which the Creator has willed both to organize an(] develope life upon the earth, and afterwards gradually to civiHze and 1 Comp. the just remarks of Kautzsch in his lecture on Die bleibende Bedeutun^ des ATs. (1902), p. 9 ff. 5 4] RELIGIOUS VALUE OF GENESIS Ixiii jducate human beings upon it, can be obtained from a study of the jciences of astronomy, geology, and antliropology than from the early chapters of Genesis : on the other hand, these chapters of Genesis do eize and give vivid and forcible expression to certain vital and funda- nental truths respecting the relation of the world and man to God ^hich the study of those sciences by themselves could never lead to ; bhe Bible and human science thus supplement one another : but we nust go to human science for the material facts of nature and life, md to the Bible for the spiritual realities by which those facts are lluminated, and (in their ultimate origin) explained. The only science md early history known to the Biblical writers were both imperfect : Dut they made a superb use of them ; they attached to them, and en- shrined in forms of undying freshness and charm, the great spiritual truths which they were inspired to discern. It is impossible, if we 3ompare the early narratives of Genesis with the Babylonian narratives jfrom which in some cases they seem plainly to have been ultimately derived, or with the pictures of prehistoric times to be found in the literatures of many other countries, not to perceive the controlling Dperation of the Spirit ot God, which has taught these Hebrew writers to make a right use of the materials which came to their hands, to 'take the primitive traditions of the human race, to purify them from their grossness and their polytheism, and to make them at once the foundation and the explanation of the long history that is to follow^' Our duty, then, is to recognize this double aspect of these narratives ; and to read them accordingly in such a way as to seize and retain the spiritual truths of which they are the expression, while discarding, at least as an object of intellectual belief, the material fabric which was once necessary to give them substance and support, but which is now seen to have in itself no value or reality ^ The position that the Book of Genesis may contain statements not historically true may appear to some readers surprising and question- ,fable. It must, however, be remembered that the doctrine that the Bible contains nothing but what is historically true is one for which there is no foundation either in the Bible itself, or in the formularies of our Church. This doctrine is intimately connected with, if not directly dependent upon, a particular theory of inspiration. As is 1 Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library of the Old Testament, p. 97. ' On the distinction between the external form, and the inner or spiritual substance, of a narrative, see also the Bishop of Eipon's excellent Introduction to (the Tem:ple Bible, pp. 17, 18, 42—46. Ixiv INTRODUCTION [§ 4 well-known, the Church of England has formulated no definition of inspiration : nevertheless, a theory has hecome prevalent, both within | and without the pale of our own communion, which conceives of in- spiration as operating mechanically, and maintains accordingly the verbal exactitude of every statement contained in Scripture, — on points, for instance, of science, or history, or psychology, not less than on points of spiritual doctrine and duty. The present is not the place to discuss at length the subject of inspiration^ : it must suffice therefore to point out that such a theory is entirely without scriptural authority: we read indeed (2 Tim. iii. 16) that 'every scripture inspired of God* is * profitable* for certain moral and spiritual ends, but nothing is said, either there or elsewhere, of the other conditions to which an ' inspired ' book must conform ; nor is any claim to immunity from error made on its behalf in any part of Scripture. The doctrine of the verbal inspiration and verbal exactitude of Scripture is in fact an a priori theory, framed not upon the basis of any warrant contained in Scripture itself, but upon an antecedent conception of what an * inspired ' book must necessarily be. It is however a complete mistake of principle and method to frame first an a priori theory of inspiration, and then to insist that the Bible must conform to it : the Bible is the only * inspired ' book that we know of; and as no independent definition of inspiration exists, the only sound method is to study the facts presented by the Bible, and to formulate our theory of inspiration accordingly. If, then, in the course of our inquiry we should find in the Bible statements, or representations, which, after an impartial survey of the facts, should prove to be unhistorical, our only legitimate conclusion would be that the existence in it of such statements or representations is not in- compatible with its inspiration, and the cb priori definition, which would exclude them, must be modified accordingly. A consideration which has no doubt been largely responsible for the reluctance of theologians to admit the presence of unhistorical elements in the Bible is apprehension of the consequences to which the admission may lead, especially with regard to the historical character of the Gospel records. It is ^ The writer has dealt with it more fully in the seventh of his Sermons on the Old Testament (p. 143 ff.) ; eomp. also the preceding Sermon (p. 119 ff.) on ' The Voice of God in the Old Testament,' with particular reference to the different kinds of literature represented in the OT. And see besides Sanday's Bavipton Lectures for 1893 (on 'Inspiration'), p. 155 ff., and Lect. viii.; Kirkpatrick's Divine Library of the OT. (1891), Lect. iv.; Farrar, The Bible, its meaning and supremacy, passim; Watson, The Book of Genesis, pp. 256—265; and the Bishop of Bipon's Introd. to the Temple Bible, pp. 83—101. I § 4] INSPIRATION Ixv difficult not to think that such apprehensions are groundless. We must trust, as we do in all other histories, to the application of sound historical methods. It is however certain that the historical character of the Gospel records is far more endangered by their credibility being made to depend upon the axiom of the exact and equal historical truth of every part of Scripture, than by this axiom, as such, being unconditionally abandoned, and the credibility of the Gospel narratives being left to be established by the historical evidence which they themselves afford, interpreted in the light of the indirect testimony supplied by other parts of the New Testament, by the early Church, and by tlie Old Testament, regarded generally (apart from the exact and equal historical value of every part of it) as a preparation for Christ. No competent student of the Old Testament can deny that there are elements in it which, though they may have a high value religiously, are not historical; they describe, for instance, not things as they actually happened, but things as they were viewed, in an idealized form, by writers living long afterwards ; but to rest the truth of Christianity upon an axiom as baseless as the one referred to above, is the height of unwisdom. Nothing therefore is lost that can be of service to Christianity, nothing is given up which forms a real bulwark of the faith, when that axiom is abandoned. It is a responsibility which, if they realized it, few would surely take upon themselves, to weight Christianity with a view of the Old Testament, which has no authority or support either in the Bible itself or in the formularies of the Church, which will not bear examina- tion, but on the contrary, when confronted with the facts, is at once seen to be refuted by them. The nemesis on doctrines of verbal inspiration is not far to seek. Mr Laing, in chap. viii. of his Modern Science and Modern Thought^ lays it down that an inspired book is one * miraculously dictated by an infallible God, and therefore absolutely and for all time true*; and then proceeds to refer to some of the statements contained in the early chapters of Genesis, which are now known to be not historically true : the conclusion follows, — and from the premises respecting the nature of inspiration follows logically and necessarily, — that the Bible is not inspired, and consequently has no claim to contain a revelation to man. But where is it anywhere said in the Bible that the historical state- ments made in it are 'dictated' by God? The whole conception of inspiration implied in the words quoted is a figment, — a figment, no doubt, devised in the first instance for the purpose of supporting and fortifying a good cause, but not the less, as a result of the progress of knowledge, capable of being employed with disastrous effect to ruin and destroy it. But, if we modify our conception of inspiration, and by making proper allowance for the human element cooperating with the Divine, bring it into agToement with the phaenomena to be ex- plained, then all those facts which are fatal to the authority of the Ixvi INTRODUCTION [§ 4 Bible upon the theories referred to above are adequately accounted for, and the Bible becomes a consistent whole, inspired throughout, though not ' dictated,' and with its authority firmly established upon a sound and logical basis. See further, on the same subject, the very pertinent remarks of Prof G. A. Smith, in his Modern Criticism and Preaching oj the Old Testament^ where, after commenting (pp 26 — 28) upon the often disastrous effects of the dogmas of a verbal inspiration and of the equal validity of all parts of Scripture, and of the refusal to accept what is legitimately involved in the truth of a ' progressive Revelation,' he describes what he learnt from a perusal of the correspondence of the late Henry Drummond, who was often consulted upon religious difficulties : his correspondents, he says, ' one and all tell how the dogma that the entire Bible stands, historically and morally, upon the same level — the faith which finds in it nothing erroneous, nothing defective, and (outside of the sacrifices and Temple) nothing temporary— is what has driven them from religion.' In the Book of Genesis we have to do with scientific and historical, more than with moral difficulties. And certainly it can occasion little surprise that, when a man of scientific culture is told, — for this, though not the Church's teaching, and though many individual teachers have of course abandoned it, is nevertheless still the current theological teaching of the day, — that an acceptance of the literal truth of the early chapters of Genesis is an integral part of the Christian faith, he shonld turn with repugnance from a creed which seems to him to be thus associated with a series of beliefs which his own studies prove to him to be impossible. But, as was said before, with a better-grounded theory of inspiration, all these difficulties disappear; and the man of science who gives due weight to the religious instincts of his nature will be ready to recognize the religious truthfulness, — as distinct from the scientific truthfulness, — of these narratives of Genesis \ Nor, upon antecedent grounds, can any valid objection be raised against the view that the Bible may contain elements more or less unhistorical. We are dealing confessedly in Genesis with narratives 1 It ought assuredly to be possible so to teach the historical parts of the OT. to those who have reached the age of 15 or 16 that, when they enter into manhood, they may have nothing to unlearn on the ground of either science or history. Comp. a paper by the present writer on ' The Old Testament in the Light of To-day' in the Expositor, Jan. 1901, p. 45 flf. ; and on the often lamentable conse- quences of failing to do this, Archdeacon Wilson in the Contemp. Rev., March, 1903, p. 303 f . The danger of teaching as practically de fide things which are directly contradicted by what may be learnt from any Encyclopaedia or other work oi secular information has been felt also by thoughtful Koman Catholics in France: see Alb. Houtin, La Question Biblique chez les Catholiques de France au xix^ siecle (1902), pp. 189 f., 2G6 if. Cf. also the Guardian, Oct. 14, 1003, p. 1523". §4] SCOPE OF INSPIRATION Ixvii committed to writing long after the events narrated took place, and in some cases relating to periods so remote that it is certain no genuine historical recollections could have been handed down from them. Why should narratives relating to such a more or less distant past not exhibit among the Hebrews characteristics similar to those which narratives written down under similar circumstances among other nations would unquestionably exhibit? The former do indeed, on their spiritual side, exhibit very diflPerent characteristics ; but these are accounted for by the inspiration of their authors : why, however, should they be different, on their material side ? "We should naturally expect them on their material side to exhibit the work of the imagination, and display an element of legend, filling up a gap in the past with a web of fancy, and presenting the dimly-seen heroes of antiquity as ideal figures. Where nothing is defined as to the nature or limits of the inspiring Spirit's work, have we the right to limit it by arbitrary canons of our own ? Many — perhaps all — forms of the national literature of Israel are represented in the Bible, and made channels through which *in many parts, and in many modes' (Heb. i 1) God manifested Himself to His people : upon what principle, or by what right, is a form of narrative which is common to almost every nation, and which appeals with peculiar force to the comprehension of men in particular stages of national development and intellectual growth, to be excluded ? ^ The imagination, as all must allow, is an instrument of extraordinary efficacy for instruction and edification ; it has exerted in the past, and it exerts still, a powerful influence in education : why, then, should it be deemed incapable of consecration to the service of God ? If the poems of Homer were an educational force in ancient Greece, why should it be deemed incredible that legends of primitive history, and idealized traditions of national heroes, only inspired by a higher and purer religious spirit, and exemplifying not the conflicts and jealousies of gods and goddesses, but the purposes and character of the One God, and His dealings with His children, — especially when moulded as they are into forms of singularly impressive dignity and^grace, — should exert a similar power in Israel, and should be incorporated by the prophets and teachers of the nation as a treasured heirloom in their sacred books? ^ Comp. the late Archbishop Benson, as cited by Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library of the OT. p. 104 ; and Bishop Westcott, who says {Life, 1903, ii. 69), * I never could understand how any one reading the first three chapters of Genesis with open eyes conld believe that they contained a literal history, yet they disclose to us a Gospel. So it is probably elsewhere.' Cf. Westcott's Qosvel of Life, p. 187 f. IxYiii INTRODUCTION [§ 4 See further, in this connexion, in the Bibl Sacra^ Jan. 1901, p. 103 ff., an address by Prof. Ives Curtiss, of Chicago, on /The Book, the Law, and tlic People; or Divine Revelations through ancient Israel,' delivered after a visit of some length to the Holy Land, where it is pointed out that while on the one hand observation of Oriental character makes it impossible to believe that the Bible is a merely natural product of the Oriental mind, on the other hand it warns us that we have no right to theorize ct priori upon the ways in which God could or could not speak through it; a revelation addressed to an Oriental people would naturally be clothed in forms of thought and expression with which they were familiar. ' The Oriental is least of all a scientific historian. He is the prince of story-tellers : narratives, real and imaginative, spring from his lips, which are the truest portraiture of composite rather than individual Oriental life, though narrated under forms of individual experience.* Comp. also a paper by R. Somervell on 'The Historical Character of the OT. narratives' in the Ba^p. Times, Apr. 1902, p. 298 ff. ; and the many admirable words spoken by the Rev. G. S. Streatfeild in A Parish Clergyman's Thoughts about the Higher Criticism (Midland Educational Co., Birmingham; reprinted, with additions, from the Expositor, Dec. 1902), p. 11 ff., on the interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, and on the value of a critical and historical appreciation of the Old Testament, in illuminating many parts of it, and in removing diflBculties. Cf. Westcott, Lessons from. Work, pp. 32 f., 178, 179. If, now, upon the basis of the considerations advanced in the preceding pages, we proceed to the question which after all is of the most immediate interest not only to the theologian in the technical sense of the word, but also to the man of general religious sympathies, we shall find that the religious value of the narratives of Genesis, while it must be placed upon a different basis from that on which it has hitherto been commonly considered to rest, remains in itself essen- tially unchanged. It is true, we often cannot get behind the narratives, — in chaps, i. — xi., as we have seen, the narratives cannot be historical, in our sense of the word, at all, and in chaps, xii. — 1., there are at least many points at which we cannot feel assured that the details are historical : we are obliged consequently to take them as we find them, and read them accordingly. And then we shall find that the narratives of Genesis teach us still the same lessons which they taught our fore- fathers. The drama which begins with the tragedy of Eden and ends with the wonderful biography of Joseph is still enacted before our eyes as vividly as ever. Eve and Cain still stand before us, the immortal types of weakness yielding to temptation, and of an unbridled temper leading its victim he knows not whither ; Noah and Abraham are still the heroes of righteousness and faith ; Lot and Laban, Sarah and Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, in their characters and experiences, are still in diflerent ways tvttoi ly/xwr, and still in one respect or another § 4] IlSrSPIRATION OF GENESIS \x\± exemplify the ways in which God deals with the individual soul, and the manner in which the individual soul ought, — or ought not, — to respond to His leadings. And what, if some of these figures pass before us as on a stage, rather than in real life? Do they on that account lose their vividness, their truthfulness, their force ? On the contrary, not only do they retain all these characteristics unimpaired, but, if it be true that the figures in Genesis, as we have them, are partly, — or even, in some cases, wholly, — the creations of popular imagination, transfigured in the pure, *dry' light which the inspired genius of prophet or priest has shed around them, the Book of Genesis is really more surprising than if it were even throughout a literally true record of events actually occurring. For to create such characters would be more wonderful than to describe them. The Book of Genesis is a marvellous gallery of portraits, from whatever originals they may have been derived. There is no other nation which can shew for its early history anything in the least degree resembling it. There is nothing like it in either Babylonia, or Egypt, or India, or Greece. The mythology of Greece, — especially as it stands before us in the two great epics with which Greek literature opens, and as particular episodes of it are made the vehicles of splendid lessons in the great tragedies of a later age, — is indeed a wonderful creation of the human mind, and an abiding monument of the intellectual genius of the nation which produced it : but the Book of Genesis stands on a different plane altogether; and even though it be not throughout what our fathers understood it to be, a verbally exact record of actual fact, this very difference, which distinguishes it so strikingly from the corresponding literature of any other nation, remains still the strongest proof of the inspiration by its authors : the spirituality of its contents, the spiritual and moral lessons which are continually exemplified by it, and which, though they are often expressed in a simple and even childlike external garb, are nevertheless to all intents and purposes the same as those taught afterwards by the great prophets, constitute a cogent ground for inferring the operation of a spiritual agency differing specifically from that which was present when the mythology of Egypt or Babylonia, of India or Greece, was in process of formation. St Paul does not point his readers to the Old Testament Scriptures for instruction in science or ancient history, but he says that they are profitable 'for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness' (2 Tim. iii. 16); and the Book of Genesis, even though it be understood in parts as Ixx INTRODUCTION [§ 4 rather than as history, is most assuredly * profitable' for all these purposes. Let us endeavour, then, to sum up in outline the religious value of Genesis. On the first eleven chapters little can be added substantially to what has been said in the notes'. From the beginning the history is penetrated with religious ideas. The narrative of the Creation sets forth, in a series of dignified and impressive pictures, the sovereignty of God; His priority to, and separation from, all finite, material nature ; His purpose to constitute an ordered cosmos, and gradually to adapt the earth to become the habitation of living beings ; and His endowment of man with the peculiar, unique possession of self- conscious reason, in virtue of which he becomes capable of intellectual and moral life, and is even able to know and hold communion with his Maker. In chs. ii. ^ — iii. we read, — though again not in a historical, but in a pictorial or S3nnbolical form, — how man was once innocent, how he became, — as man must have become, whether in 'Eden' or elsewhere, at some period of his existence, — conscious of a moral law, but how temptation fell upon him, and he broke it. The Fall of man, the great but terrible truth, which history, not less than individual experience, only too vividly teaches each one of us, is thus impressively set before us. Man, however, though punished by God, is not forsaken by Him, nor left, in his long conflict with evil, without hope of victory. In chap, iv., the increasing power of sin, and the fatal consequences to which, if unchecked, it may lead, is vividly portrayed in the tragic figure of Cain. The spirit of vindictiveness, and of brutal triumph in the power of the sword, is personified in Lamech. In the narrative of the Flood, God's just wrath against sin, and the divine prerogative of mercy, are alike exemplified : Noah is a standing illustration of the truth that * righteousness delivereth from death ' ; and God's dealings with him after the Flood form a striking declaration of the purposes of grace and goodwill, with which He regards mankind. The narrative of the Tower of Babel (xi. 1 — 9) emphasizes Jehovah's supremacy over the world ; and teaches how the self-exaltation of man is checked by God. In passing to chaps, xii. — 1. we may notice first the teaching about God. If in chaps, i. — xi. God appears chiefly as the Creator and Judge of the world, in chaps, xii. — 1. He appears more particularly 1 On these chapters the small but helpful volume by Professor (now Bishop) Ryle, called The Early Narratives of Genesis (which has been several times quoted in the notes), is much recommended to the reader. § 4] RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF GENESIS Ixxi as One who has a care and love for men. Naturally, He hates and punishes sin (xiii. 13, xv. 16, xviii. 20 f., xix., xxxix. 9, xliv. 16; cf. XX. 6, 11, xlii. 21, 28); but these chapters contain principally revelations of His regard for man, not only in the promises disclosing His gracious purposes towards the patriarchs and their seed (see on xii. 2 f ), but also on many other occasions : for instance, in the manner in which righteousness receives His approval and blessing (xxi. 22, xxiv. 1, 27, 35, xxv. 11, xxvi. 28, 29 end, xxxix. 2, 21, 23, and indirectly elsewhere), in the regard shewn by Him to the solitary Hagar in the wilderness (xvi. 9 ff., xxi. 17 ff.), to Lot in Sodom (xix.), to the heathen, but guileless, Abimelech (xx. 6), to Jacob in his soHtude at Bethel (xxviii. 12 ff. : cf. p. 268), or in a foreign land (xxxi. 3, 5, 13, 24, 42, xxxv. 3, xlviii. 15 f.), and to Pharaoh (xli. 25, 32). His mercy is also illustrated by xviii. 23 ff., xix. 16 ; His providence, overruling the events of life for good, by xxiv., xlv. 5, 7, 1. 20, and other passages ; and His justice is appealed to in xvi. 5, xviii. 25, XX. 4, xxxi. 49, 50, 53. In ch. xxii. the meaning of 'pro- bation,' and the nature of the sacrifice which is pleasing in God's sight, are both strikingly exemplified \ In the sphere of human conduct, the drama of an entire life takes in chaps, xii. — 1. the place of the single, isolated episodes characteristic of chaps, i. — xi. ; and principles and motives find accordingly fuller and more vivid expression. The patriarchs vary considerably in character; there is no monotony in the delineation. Nor are they without their faults, especially Jacob, and the subordinate characters (as Lot and Laban) : the women, in particular, are often jealous, imperious, and designing. All have more or less a t3rpical character. Abraham is not only conspicuous for such virtues as courtesy, hospitality, high-mindedness, generosity ; he is also the primary Old Testament example of obedience, and devotion to God ; spirituality of thought and aim, not austere, but attractive and winning, is the leading motive of his life. He is *an historic personage, but he is also a spiritual type : he is the ideal representative of the life of faith and of separation from the idolatries of an evil world : he prefigures the ideal character and aims of the people of God^' Isaac lives a quiet, uneventful life : he is the ideal son : he * impersonates the peaceful, obedient, submissive qualities of an equable trust in God, distinct alike from the more heroic faith of Abraham, and the lower * See also above, p. xxi f. ^ Ottley, Bampton Lectures^ p. 125 f. Ixxii INTRODUCTION [§ 4 type which in Jacob was learned through discipline and purged of self-wiir.' Jacob is a mixed character : he possesses the good qualities of ambition and perseverance, though he employs them at first, with great unscrupulousness, for selfish and worldly ends : after his great spiritual struggle at Penuel, however, his lower self is left behind, and in his old age his character %)pears still further mellowed by the discipline of trial and bereavement. Joseph is an example of a stable, upright character, faithful to his trusts, proof against temptation, led, under God's providence, through many perils and many sorrowful and discouraging experiences, to a situation of exaltation and dignity, in which he employs his talents to promote the welfare of his fellow-men, and in which he displays an even Christian spirit of magnanimity and forgiveness towards those who once had bitterly wronged him. The biographies of the patriarchs present to us spiritual types, — repre- sentative examples of the varied experiences, the hopes and fears, the disappointments and the pleasures, the sorrows and the joys, the domestic trials and successes, which may be the lot of any one of us ; and they exemplify the frame of mind, — the trust, or resignation, or forbearance, or gratitude, — with which, as the case may be, they should be received, and the countless ways in which, under God's hand, the course of events is overruled for good*. There is also another point of view from which we ought not to omit to regard the Book of Genesis. It was a primary function of the Hebrew historians not merely to narrate facts as such, but also to interpret them, and in particular to interpret their religious signi- ficance, and to shew their bearing upon the religious history of Israel as a whole. This aspect of the work of the Hebrew historians is particularly conspicuous in Genesis. Be the details history or legend, or be they, as in some cases it is quite possible that they may be, an intermixture of both, all are subordinated to this point of view. Historically, the narrators may have been on some points imperfectly informed; but nevertheless what they all aim at shewing is how 'throughout the period of obscure beginnings God was forming a people whose destiny it was to give to the world the true religion.' From Gen. iii. 14 onwards a redemptive purpose irradiates the entire narrative, shining forth at certain definite epochs with particular 1 Eyle, DB. s.v. (ii. 484^). 2 The typical religious value of the patriarchal narratives, even with the admission that they contain ideal elements, is well brought out by Mr Ottley, Bampt. Led. p. 126 f. See also Kautzsch, Bihelwissenschaft und Religiontunter- richt (1900), p. 41 f., and Die bleibende Bedeutung des ATs., p. 24 ff. § 4] RELIGIOUS VALUE OF GENESIS Ixxiii brightness, and of course continuing to display itself in subsequent parts of the Old Testament. This is one of the features which gives the narrative its unique character and unique value. The history of the beginnings of the earth and man, and the story of Israel's ancestors, might both have been told very differently. They might have been told from a purely secular point of view. The narratives might have been impregnated with foolish superstitions. The legends respecting the beginnings of other nations are sometimes grotesquely absurd. But in the hands of Israel's inspired teachers the Hebrew legend is from the beginning suffused with pure and ennobling spiritual ideas ; and they trace in it the beginnings of the same Providential purposes which they find also in the Hebrew history into which afterwards it insensibly merges. Nor, finally, in estimating the religious value of the Book of Genesis should we forget the character of the age to which it relates, and the intellectual and spiritual capacities of those to whom in the first instance it was addressed. In the Bible we have the record of a progressive revelation, in each stage of which the measure of truth disclosed is adapted to the mental and spiritual level which has been reached by those who are to be its recipients. The Book of Genesis gives a picture of the infancy and childhood of the world : it was also primarily, at least in its principal and larger part (J and E), addressed to men who, though far from uncivilized, and enjoying the advantages of settled life and organised government, were nevertheless in many respects spiritually immature : the teaching of Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, for example, was still unknown to them. In contents and style alike it is accordingly naturally fitted to the comprehension of those for whose use and instruction it was primarily designed. In an artless but attractive dress, and in forms adapted to impress and delight those who read them, the story of Israel's ancestors is told in it. Without any conscious moral purpose pervading the narrative, elementary lessons about right and wrong, and God and man, are taught through the simple experiences and vicissitudes of four . generations in an Eastern home. In Genesis, more than in any other part of the Bible, God talks with men, as a father with his child. Need we be surprised, therefore, that there should in this book be some accommodation to the habits and modes of thought with which children are familiar ? From tales a child may learn many a lesson, without stopping to ask either himself or his teacher whether every particular tale is true or not. And the tales of Genesis, whether bmv INTRODUCTION [§ 4 history or parable, are in either case inimitable, and full of lessons. Truths and duties, especially those belonging to the ' daily round and common task,* snch as we all need to learn, and continually through our lives have occasion to practise, are illustrated and enforced in it by anecdotes and narratives, which the youngest can understand, from which the oldest can still learn, and which never cease to fascinate and enthral those who have once yielded themselves to their spell. * The power of the Patriarchal narratives on the heart, the imagination, the faith of men can never die : it is immortal with truthfulness to the realities of human nature, and of God's education of mankind \' ^ G-. A. Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the OT. p. 109. Prof. Smith's estimate of the historical character of the narratives of Genesis is sub- stantially the same as that adopted in the preceding pages. Comp. also, on the general question of both the historical and the religious value of the narratives of Genesis, the very useful Introduction to Dr Wade's Book of Genetis (1896), pp. 37 ff., 49 ff., 61 If. THE BOOK OF GENESIS. PART I. THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD. CHAPTERS I.— XL The Book of Genesis begins with an account of the creation of the universe, and of the early history of man upon the earth. It describes, in accordance with the beliefs current among the Hebrews, the process by which the earth assumed its present form, and was adapted to become the habitation of man (cb. i.) ; the situation of man's original dwelling-place, .find the entrance of sin and trouble into the world (ch. ii. — iii.); the beginnings of civilization (ch. iv.); the growth of population (ch. v.) ; the increasing prevalence of wickedness, and destruction of the whole human race, with the exception of a single family, by a flood (ch. vi. — ix.) ; and lastly the re-peopling of the earth, and the rise of separate nations, and of the Hebrews in particular, out of the descendants of this family (ch. x. — xi.).** Though in parts of these chapters there may be dim recollections of historical occurrences, the narrative, as a whole, cannot be regarded as an historical record of actual events. The reasons for this conclusion will appear more fully in the sequel : it must, however, be almost self-evident that trustworthy information respecting periods so remote as those here in question could not have been accessible to the Biblical writers ; and it is also certain that there are statements in these chapters inconsistent with what is known independently of the early history of the earth, and of mankind upon it. The narrative of tliese chapters consists rather of ' a series of infer- ences relating to times which are pre-historic. It represents the explanations, arrived at in ways that it is now impossible to trace, which reflection furnished of the many questions spontaneously occurring to a primitive race respecting themselves and their surroundings V Similar narratives are found in the early literature of many other peoples. The nearest parallels to the Biblical records are aff'orded (as will shortly become apparent) by Babylonia, a country with which the Hebrews were once closely connected ; and recent discoveries have shewn 'that certain common beliefs concerning the beginnings of the earth and of man must have prevailed in the circle of nations to which both Baby- lonians and Hebrews belonged I' The distinguishing characteristics of the Biblical narrative are however the lofty religious spirit by which it is dominated, and the spiritual lessons of which it is the expression : these remain, even though the seemingly historical narratives with which they are associated should prove to be no record of actual events, but to represent merely the course of the past as it was pictured by the Biblical writers. To us, the principal value of the narrative consists in the spiritual teaching thus implicit in it ; and this it will be an object of the following commentary to point out. 1 Wade, Old Test. Hist. (1901), p. 37. 8 jjj^. D. 1 2 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Chapters I. 1— II. 4*. The Creation of the World, The Book of Genesis opens with a sublime and dignified narrative, describ- ing the creation of heaven and earth, and the stages by which, as the narrator pictured it, the latter was gradually fitted to become the habitation of man. Starting with a state of primaeval chaos, in which the earth is represented as enveloped in a huge mass of surrounding waters, shrouded in darkness, yet brooded over by the Spirit of God, the writer describes successively (1) the production of light; (2) the division of this mass of primaeval waters into two parts, an upper and a lower, by means of a 'firmament'; (3) the emergence of the dry land out of the lower waters ; (4) the clothing of the dry land with grass, herbs, and trees ; (5) the creation of sun, moon, and stars ; (6) the pro- duction of fishes and birds ; (7) the appearance of terrestrial animals ; (8) the creation of man ; (9) God's rest after His work of creation. There are thus eight distinct creative works, which, with God's rest at the close, are adjusted with remarkable symmetry to the week of seven days. The six days of creation fall into two sections of three days each ; and the third and the sixth days have each two works assigned to them. The first three days, moreover, are days of preparation, the next three are days of accompHshment. On the first day light is created, and on the fourth day comes the creation of the luminaries which are for the future to be its receptacles ; on the second day the waters * below the firmament,* and (as we should say) the air, appear, and on the fifth day fishes and birds are created to people them ; on the third day the dry land appears, and the earth is clothed with vegetation ; on the sixth day terrestrial animals and man are created, who are to inhabit the dry land, and {vv. 29, SO) to live upon food supplied by its vegetation. In the order in which the different creative works are arranged there is an evident gradation, each work as a rule occupying the place in which it might be naturally regarded as the condition, or suitable forerunner, of the work next following, and in the case of livhig things, there being an obvious ascent from lower to higher, the climax of the whole being formed by man. ^ The narrative belongs to the Priestly source of the Hexateuch (see p. iv), the literary characteristics of which it displays in a marked degree. It will be sufficient to notice here the use throughout of the name God (not Jehovah)^ and the methodical articulation of the narrative into sections, each marked by the recurrence of stereotyped formulae. Thus each creative act is introduced by the words And God said {vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26); and it was so is found six times {vv. 9, 11, 15, 24, 30) ; the mark of Divine approval, and God saw that it was good, is repeated seven times (in lxx. eight times, once after each work), vv. 4, 8 (lxx.), 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 (the last time, with a significant variation) ; and the close of each day's work is marked by the standing formula, and evening came, and morning came,. ..day (vv. 5, 8, 12, 19, 23, 31). On some general questions arising out of the narrative, see p. 19 fl^ I 1. 1,.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 3 I. 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the P earth. 2 And the earth was waste and void ; and darkness was 1. 1. Introduction. The verse (as rendered in EW.) gives a summary of the description which follows, stating the broad general fact of the creation of the universe ; the details of the process then form the subject of the rest of the chapter \ In the beginning. Not absolutely, but relatively : at the begin- ning of the order of things which we see, and in the midst of which human history unfolds itself (Perowne, Expositor , Oct. 1890, p. 248). God. On the Heb. word, see the Excursus at the end of the volume. created. The root signifies to cut (see, in the intensive conjug., Josh. xvii. 15, 18 ; Ez. xxiii. 47) : so probably the proper meaning of N"in is to fashion by cutting, to shape. In the simple conjugation, however, it is used exclusively of God, to denote viz. the production of something fundamentally new, by the exercise of a sovereign originative power, altogether transcending that possessed by man. Although, however, the term thus unquestionably denotes a super- human, miraculous activity, it is doubtful whether it was felt to express definitely the idea of creatio ex nihilo^; and certainly, as Pearson (On the Creed, fol. 52) points out, this doctrine cannot be established from it. The word is very frequent in the Second Isaiah (as xl. 26, 28, xlii. 5, xlv. 7, 12, 18). In Ps. civ. 30 it is used of the ever-recurring renovation of life upon the earth. Its figurative ap- plications are also noticeable : as of the formation of a nation by Jehovah, Is. xliii. 1, 15 ; and of the production of some surprising or striking efi"ect, or of some new condition or circumstances, beyond the power of man to bring about, as Ex. xxxiv. 10 (RVm.); Nu. xvi. 30 (RVm.) ; Jer. xxxi. 22 ; Is. xlv. 8, Ixv. 17. I the Jieamn and the earth. I.e. the universe, as it was known to the Hebrews, in its completed state. 2. The writer now turns at once to the earth, in which, as the future home of man, and the theatre of human activity, he is more particularly interested; and proceeds to describe what its condition was when God 'spake,' as described in v. 3. the earth. As the sequel shews, the term here denotes the earth, not as we know it now, but in its primitive chaotic, unformed state. was without form and void. Heb. toha wd-bohu — an alliterative description of a chaos, in which nothing can be distinguished or defined. Tohu is a word which it is difficult to express consistently in English : but it denotes mostly something unsubstantial , or (fig.) 1 Many modern scholars, however (including Dillmann), construe vv. 1 — 3 in this way : *In the beginning of God's creating the heaven and the earth, — now the earth was without form, &c. [v. 2], — God said. Let there be light,' &c. So already the celebrated Jewish commentator Eashi (a.d. 1040 — 1105), and similarly Ibn Ezra (1092—1167). 2 ^^ ovK ovTuv, 2 Mace. vii. 28. Cf. the Shepherd of Hermas, i. i. 6 with the parallels from Ecclesiastical writers collected in the note in Gebhardt and Harnack's leditiou. On Heb. xi. 3, see Westcott's note. 1—2 4 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i. . unreal^; cf. Is. xlv. 18 (of the earth), *He created it not a tohu, he fashioned it to be inhabited,' v. 19 'I said not, Seek ye me as a tohu (i.e. in vain).' Bohu (only twice besides), as Arabic shews, is rightly rendered empty or void. Comp. the same combination of words to suggest the idea of a return to primaeval chaos in Jer. iv. 23, and Is. xxxiv. 11 ('the line of tohU and the plummet of boku'y. upon the face of the deep. Heb. fhom. Not here what the *deep' would denote to us, i.e. the sea, but the primitive undivided waters, the huge watery mass which the writer conceived as enveloping the chaotic earth. Milton (P. L. vii. 276 ff.) gives an excellent paraphrase : The earth was formed, but, in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature, involved, Appeared not, — over all the face of earth Main ocean flowed. In the Babylonian cosmogony, also, as reported by Berossus (see DB. I. 504^; or KAT.^ (1902), p. 488), all things began in darkness and water; and fhom recalls at once the Bab. Tidmat (see p. 28). the spirit of God &c. In the OT. the 'spirit' of man is the principle of life, viewed especially as the seat of the stronger and more active energies of life; and the 'spirit' of God is analogously the Divine force or agency, to the operation of which are attributed various extraordinary powers and activities of men, as also super- natural spiritual gifts (see e.g. Gen. xli. 38; Ex. xxxi. 3; Num. xi. 17; 1 S. xi. 6, xvi. 13; Mic. iii. 8; Is. xi. 2, xlii. 1, lix. 21, Ixi. 1 ; Ez. xxxvi. 27); in the later books of the OT., it appears also as the power which creates and sustains life (cf. Ez. xxxvii. 14; Is. xliv. 3f. ; Job xxxiii. 4; Ps. civ. 30^). It is in the last-named capacity that it is mentioned here. The chaos of v. 2 was not left in hopeless gloom and death ; already, even before God 'spake' (v. 3), the spirit of God, with its life-giving energy, was ' brooding ' over the waters, like a bird upon its nest, and (so it seems to be implied) fitting them in some way to generate and maintain life, when the DiYine fiat should be pronounced*. 1 The following are its occurrences (besides those noted above) : Is. xxix. 21 'that turn aside the just [from their right] with a thing of nought^' i.e. by baseless allegations, xl. 17 'are counted by him as made of nothing and tohu (RV. vanity),'' 23 (RV. vanity, \\ nothing), xli. 29 (RV. confusion, \\ icind), xliv. 9 {vanity, marg. confusion), xlix. 4 for nought {=in vain), lix. 4 vanity (i.e. moral unreality, falsehood) ; Job xxvi. 7 (RV. empty space) ; 1 S. xii. 21, of idols (RV. vain things) ; Is. xxiv. 10 (RV. confusion). It is also used sometimes poetically of an undefined, untracked, indeterminable expanse, or waste : Dt. xxxii. 10, Job vi. 18 RV., xii. 24 = Ps. cvii. 40. The ancient Versions usually render it by words signifying emptiness, nothingness, vanity (as Kevbv, oiMv, ixo^raiov, inane, vacuum, vanum). 2 Lxx. render here doparos Kai aKaracrKedaa-Tos. Cf. Wisd. xi. 17 (18) 7/ irayrodOvafids ffov X'^'-P '^'^^ KricracTa top KOfffjLov e^ dfibpcpov vXrjs. 3 Comp. in the NT. John vi. 63 ; 1 Cor. xv. 45 ; 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; and in the Nicene Creed to Kvpiov Kal ^uoiroiovp. * Comp. Milton (P. L. vii. 233 ff.) : — ' Darkness profound Cover'd the abyss ; but on the watery calm [see 1. 216] His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, And vital virtue infus'd, and vital warmth, Throughout the fluid mass.' ..-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 6 upon the face of the deep : and the spirit of God ^ moved upon P the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be hght : and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good : and God divided the li^t from the darkness. 5 And ^ Or, was brooding upon moved. Was brooding (PvVm.). The word occurs besides only in Dt. xxxii. 11, where it is used of an eagle (properly, a griffon- vulture) Jiovering over its young. It is used similarly in Syriac. It is possible that its use here may be a survival, or echo, of the old belief, found among the Phoenicians, as well as elsewhere (Euseb. Praep. Ev. i. 10. 1, 2 ; Arist. Aves 693 ff. : Dillm. pp. 4, 7, 20), of a world-egg, out of which, as it split, the earth, sky, and heavenly bodies emerged; the crude, material representation appearing here trans- formed into a beautiful and suggestive figure. 3 — 5. The First Day, and the first work. Light. Light is the first work, because it is the indispensable condition of all order, all distinctness, all life, and all further progress. 3. And God said. So at the beginning of each work of creation, — including the two providential words of vv. 28, 29, ten times in all (hence the later Jewish dictum, 'By ten sayings the world was created,' Ahoth V. 1). As Dillm. has pointed out, in the fact that God creates by a word, there are several important truths implicit. It is an indication not only of the ease with which He accomplished His work, and of His omnipotence, but also of the fact that He works consciously and deliberately. Things do not emanate from Him unconsciously, nor are they produced by a mere act of thought, as in some pantheistic systems, but by an act of will, of which the concrete word is the outward expression. Each stage in His creative work is the realization of a deliberately formed purpose, the 'word' being the mediating principle of creation, the means or agency through which His will takes effect. Cf. Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9; also cvii. 20, cxlvii. 15, 18, in which passages the word is regarded as a messenger between God and His creatures. This usage of the OT. is a preparation for the personal sense of the term ' The Word ' which appears in the NT. (John i. 1), — though doubtless this usage is in part, also, dependent upon Philo. 4. that it was good. The Divine approval is signified seven times in the chapter, after each work, except the second — where, however, the Lxx. have it {v. 8). The formula used marks each work as one corresponding to the Divine intention, perfect, as far as its nature required and permitted, complete, and the object of the Creator's approving regard and satisfaction. and God divided &c. Light and darkness are henceforth to have each its separate sphere, and special time of appearance (v. 5). The And (i. 19 S.) :— ' Thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant.' 6 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [1.5,6 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, p And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 6 And God said, Let there be a ^firmament in the midst of * Heb. expanse. origin of darkness, like that of chaos, is not mentioned : chaos dis- appears by being converted gradually into an ordered cosmos ; darkness, though neither called into being by a creative word, nor described as ' good,' is nevertheless by this act of separation recognized as having equally with light its place in the ordering of the world. In this * separation' of the light from the darkness there seems, however, to be something more involved than their mere alternation, or successive appearance, by day and night. Not only is light created before the luminaries (v. 16), but in Job light and darkness seem to be represented as having each its separate and distinct dwelling-place (xxxviii. 19 'Where is the way to the dwelling of light, And as for darkness, where is the place thereof?' 20 ; xxvi. 10 *He hath circum- scribed a boundary [the horizon] upon the face of the waters, Unto the confines of light and darkness [i.e. the border between them]'). It seems thus that, according to the Hebrew conception, light, though gathered up and concentrated in the heavenly bodies, is not confined to them (Perowne) ; day arises, not solely from the sun, but because the matter of light issues forth from its place and spreads over the earth, at night it withdraws, and darkness comes forth from its place, each in a hidden, mysterious way (Dillm.). An idea such as this may seem strange to us : but the expositor has no right to read into the narrative the ideas of modern science ; his duty is simply to read out of it the ideas which it expresses or presupposes. 5. And God called &c. God designed the distinction to be permanent, and therefore stamped it with a name. An indirect way of saying that a distinction which all men recognize, and express in language, was part of the Divine purpose and a Divine ordinance (similarly w. 8, 10). The alternation is a beneficent one ; and already : the future adaptation of the earth to the needs of men and animals is ' in view (see Ps. civ. 20 — 23). And evening came, and morning came [= iy4v€To, not ^v], one day. The chaotic darkness is antecedent to all reckoning : the creation of light marks the beginning of the first day, so the first full day closes with the following morning. This is indicated by saying, in accordance with the distinction just established between 'Day' and 'Night,' that first evening came, and then morning came. 6 — 8. Second Day, and second work. The division of the primitive chaotic waters into two parts, an upper and a lower, by means of a 'firmament.' 6. a firmament. Nvlg. firmamentum, from the lxx. o-Teptw/Aa, i.e. something made solid. The Heb. is rdkia\ something pressed down firm, and so beaten out (the cogn. verb means to stamp, Ez. vi. 11'; 1 In the Syriac Version of Lk. vi. 38 it stands for Tremeafjiivoy, 'pressed down.* 1.6-8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 7 the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And P God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament applied to metals, to heat out (Nu. xvi. 39 ; Jer. x. 9), fig. of the earth, Is. xlii. 5, xliv. 24 [RV. spread abroad], Ps. cxxxvi. 6), i.e. a firm and solid expanse* capable of supporting the masses of water confined above. The dome or canopy of heaven, which we, of course, know to be nothing but an optical illusion, was supposed by the Hebrews to be a solid vault (cf Job xxxvii. 18 ' Canst thou like him beat out the Bkies, which are strong as a molten mirror V and Prov. viii. 28*), supported far off by pillars resting upon the earth (Job xxvi. 11 ; Amos ix. 6 ; cf. 2 S. xxii. 8)' : above this vault there were vast reservoirs of water, which came down, in time of rain, through opened sluices {v. 7, vii. 11 ; Ps. civ. 3 *who layeth the beams of his upper- chambers in the waters'; 13 *who watereth the mountains from his upper-chambers'; Am. ix. 6 'whobuildeth his upper-chambers in the heaven, and hath founded his vault upon the earth ') ; and above these waters Jehovah sat enthroned. The present verse shews how this was supposed to have been brought about. By the Divine word, a solid * firmament ' was created, which separated the huge mass of primitive waters enveloping the earth into two parts, one being above the firmament, and the other below it. let it divide. More exactly, 'let it be dividing/ the participle denoting that the division is to be permanent. the waters from tlie waters. I.e. the waters below the firmament firom the waters above it. 7. the waters which were above the firmament. Cf. Ps. cxlviii. 4. and it was so. The clause is apparently misplaced. According to the analogy of the other cases in which the words are used {vv. 9, 11, 15, 24, 30), and in which they immediately follow the woras spoken by God, they should stand at the end of v. 6, where the lxx. actually have them. 8. And God called &c. Cf v. 5. LXX. add here (as the Heb. text does at the conclusion of all the other works, w. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, cf V. 31) 'And God saw that it was good.' It is true, the words may have dropped out here accidentally ; on the other hand, it has also been supposed that they were not placed here by the original writer, because the separation of the waters by a firmament was only a preliminary and imperfect stage in what was completed only on the Third Day, viz. the gathering together of the lower waters into seas and the emergence of dry land. ^ EVm. 'expanse ' (alone) suggests a false sense : the word means an expanded or extended tldng. ^ Homer speaks gimilarly of the heaven as of bronze {Od. xv. 329 al.) or iron {II. xvn. 425) 8 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i. s-io Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a j second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it J was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth ; and the j gathering together of the waters called he Seas : and God saw And evening came, and morning came &c. As v. 5. 9 — 13. Third Day; third and fourth works. The emergence of the dry land out of the lower waters; and its being clothed with vegetation. 9, 10. The part of the chaotic waters, which remained below the * firmament,' and for the present still enveloped the earth, is now gathered into ' seas ' — the plural referring probably to the aggregate of waters which the ancients generally (cf the Gk 'OKcavos) pictured as encircling the earth — and the surface of the earth appears. The idea is that, whether by the earth rising, or by room being made around and under it, the waters flowed away from its surface, and the dry ground appeared. It must be remembered that to the Hebrews the earth was not a large globe, revolving through space round the sun, but a relatively small flat surface, in shape approximately round, supported partly, as it seemed, by the encircling sea out of which it rose, but resting more particularly upon a huge abyss of waters underneath, whence hidden channels were supposed to keep springs and rivers supplied, and also the sea (cf Dt. viii. 7 [read deeps for depths] ; Pr. iii. 20^ ' by his knowledge the deeps were cleft open ' — with allusion to the formation of these channels) \ These vast subterranean waters are often alluded to, as vii. 11, xlix. 25 (see the notes) ; Ex. xx. 4 ('the waters under the earth') ; Job xxxviii. 16 ; Pr. viii. 28^ ; Ps. xxxiii. 7^ xxxvi. 6 ; cf Ps. xxiv. 2 'For he hath founded it upon the seas, And he maketh it fast upon the streams') cxxxvi. 6 'To him that spread abroad the earth upon the waters.* There is a graphic poetical description of this part of the Third Day's work in Ps. civ. 6 — 8 : Thou coveredst it with the deep [Le. with the primitive waters] like as with a vesture; The waters stood above the mountains: At thy rebuke they fled, At the voice of thy thunder they sped in alarm — The mountains rose, the valleys sank — Unto the place which thou hadst founded for them. Confining the sea within its barriers is spoken of as a work of Divine omnipotence also in Jer. v. 22, Job xxxviii. 8 — 11. 10. And God called &c. Cf on v. 5. Earth. The word is used here in a somewhat different sense from «. 2 : there it denoted the chaotic earth, enveloped in water, Milton's ^ See the iUustratioa in DB, i. 503. r. 10-14] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 9 lliat it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth put forth P grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth : and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. 14 And God said. Let there be lights in the firmament of the *embryon immature'; here it denotes the land, as we know it, in opposition to the sea. 11, 12. The clothing of the earth with vegetation. Three of the more conspicuous descriptions of vegetable produce are mentioned, which may be regarded as representing the whole. 11. grass. Heb. deshe\ often rendered tender grass (i.e. young, fi-esh grass, such as appears after rain (2 S. xxiii. 4 ; Job xxxviii. 27) ; and so used suitably of the fresh young verdure, which the narrator pictured as first brought forth by the earth. herb. I.e. larger plants, especially such as vegetables and cereals : cf V. 29, iii. 18; Ps. civ. 14. yielding seed. I.e. possessing the means of self-propagation, and also furnishing products often useful for man. fruit tree. The writer thinks more particularly of trees producing food for man. after its kind.^ Rather, after its kinds (the word being collective), i.e. according to its various species : so vv. 12, 24, 25. The addition calls attention to the number and variety of the different species included under each head. The point is one often emphasized in the technical enumerations of 'P' : see the Introduction, p. viii : and cf. vi. 20, vii. 14; Lev. xi. 14—16, 19, 22, 29. wherein is the seed thereof I.e. containing in itself the means of self-propagation. The object of the v. is to shew how all vegetation originated in the command of God, how the earth produces its multitu- dinous species by His appointment, and how further these species contain within themselves the means of continuous reproduction. 14 — 19. Fourth Day, and fifth work. The creation of luminaries in heaven. 14. lights. Heb. nf'droth, places (or instruments) of light, i.e. luminaries. in the firmament of the heaven. I.e. fastened to it (cf. v. 17), and below the ' waters above the firmament ' of v. 7. The Hebrews were unconscious of the immense (and varying) distances by which the heavenly bodies are separated from the earth; and supposed them to have their positions, and courses, in some way assigned to them m the solid 'firmament,' which seems to the spectator to extend, as a huge cupola, above him. 10 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i. 14, 15 heaven to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for p signs, and for seasons, and for days and years : 16 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon The luminaries are described as subserving three purposes : 1. to divide the day from the night — or (v. 18) to divide the light from the darkness, and to rule over the day and over tJie night — i.e. to be the permanent regulators of the distinction laid down in vv. 4, 5 ; the sun serving to distinguish the day from the night, and by the splendour and potency of its rays 'ruling' over it; and the moon, though of course equally visihle by day, being more conspicuous by night, and so, with the stars, serving to distinguish it from the day, and ' ruling ' over it by imparting to it a character of its own. 2. to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years, (a) for sig?is, e.g. as helping to fix what we should call the points of the compass, or by their appearance betokening the future state of the weather, perhaps also, by extraordinary phenomena, as eclipses, portending (as antiquity believed) extraordinary occurrences \ (b) for seasons, i.e. not the four seasons of the year (though these may be included), but fixed times (Heb. mo'adim, from yd'ad, to fix, appoint), whether secular or sacred : as months and weeks, deter- mined Dy the moon (cf Ps. civ. 19 'he made the moon for fixed times'), periods of human occupation, as agriculture and navigation^, or of animal life (cf. Jer. viii. 7 'the stork in the heaven knoweth her fixed time,' viz. for migration), or of the flowering and seed-time of plants, and similarly the fixed periods of the year which we call * seasons ' ; and also sacred seasons — the festivals and other sacred occasions in the Jewish calendar being fixed for definite days in the week, month, or year (see esp. Lev. xxiii.), and the same word mS^ddim being frequently applied to them (see ibid., where ten such mo'ddlm^ are enumerated), (c) for days and years, determining their length, and regular succession. 3. to give light upon the earth (v. 15). A necessary condition of life, and progress ; and essential for the existence and development of the human race. The various functions assigned here to the heavenly bodies have all, it is to be noticed, reference to the earth — and especially to the earth as a habitation for living beings : in Job xxxviii. 33 they are summed up in the expression, * the dominion of the heavens over the earth.' For darkness and night, as having their place in the Divinely-appointed economy of nature, see Ps. civ. 20. ^ Comp. the manner in which the prophets sometimes represent extraordinary i darkeninga of the heavenly bodies as accompanying great political catastrophes j (Am. viii. 9 ; Ez. xxxii. 7 ; Is. xiii, 10) ; see also Joel ii. 31, Luke xxi. 25. How- | ever, an undue regard to such ' signs of heaven ' is condemned in Jer. x. 2. 2 Determined often in ancient times by the heliacal risings and settings of the fixed stars : see Astkonomia in Smith's Diet, of Antiquities. 3 RV. set feasts (RVm. appointed seasons) ; elsewhere also appointed feasts, as Is. i. 14; Hos. ii. 11 (RVm.). (The word rendered 'feast' simply, and meaning properly a. pilgrimage (Ex. xxiii. 14 — 17 al), is quite different.) I. i5-ao] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 11 the earth : and it was so. 16 And God made the two great P lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness : and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. 20 And God said. Let the waters ^ bring forth abundantly the 1 Heb. swarm with swarms of living creatures, 16 — 18. The manner in which God gave effect to His command. The luminaries are first 'made' {v. 16), and then 'set' {y, 17) in the firmament. 16. And God made. 'And,' following the command of i?v. 14, 15, is equivalent virtually to Thus, or 8o. Similarly w. 21, 25. to rule &c. Hence Ps. cxxxvi. 7 — 9. Cf also Jer. xxxi. 35. he made the stars also. The stars hold a subordinate place, because, so far as the earth and life upon it are concerned, they are of less importance than the sun or moon. The Hebrews had no idea that the 'stars' were in reality, at least in many cases, far vaster and more wonderful in their structure than the sun. Even the questions in Job xxxviii. 31, 32, have a far fuller meaning to us than they had to the poet who framed them. 17. set them in the firmament. Cf. on t>. 14 (p. 9). ' This whole description of the creation of the heavenly bodies is written from the ancient geocentric standpoint : and it is vain to attempt to bring it into scientific agreement with the teachings of modern astronomy. But the object of the writer is a religious one ; and for the religious point of view it is sufficient to know that the heavenly bodies are marvels of the creative power of God, and in other respects to consider them according to what they are for us. They subserve human needs, in accordance with God's ordinance, in the manifold ways indicated in the narrative ; and they are thus a means of filling our minds with a profound sense of the wonderful harmony of the universe, and of the might and wisdom of the Creator (cf Pss. viii., xix., civ.) ' (Dillm.). There is at the same time a tacit opposition to the wide-spread belief of the ancients that the heavenly bodies were themselves divine, and to be treated as objects of worship (Dt. iv. 19 &c.; Job xxxi. 26 ; Wisd. xiii. 2). 20—23. Fifth Day and sixth work. The water and air peopled with living beings. 20. Let the waters swarm with swarming things, (even) living souls. ^ The RV. here, unfortunately, fails entirely to give the reader a clear idea of what is intended ; and even EVm. only partially supplies 12 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i..o,2i moving creature that hath life, and let fowl fly above the earth P Mn the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind : and God saw that it was good. 1 Heb. on the face of the expanse of the heaven. the deficiency. * Swarming things' (Heb. sherez) is a technical ex- pression, and is applied to creatures that appear in swarms — whether (as here) those that teem in the waters (both fishes and other small aquatic creatures) \ or those which swarm on the ground or in the air (i.e. creeping and flying insects, small reptiles, and small quadrupeds, as the weasel and the mouse: see Lev. xi. 20 — 23, 29 — 31)^ (even) living souls, A ' soul ' (nephesk) in the psychology of the Hebrews is not peculiar to man ; it is the principle of life and sensibility in any animal organism, and is then transferred to the sentient organism itself. The rendering * creature ' obliterates a distinctive characteristic of Hebrew thought. Here the term denotes all kinds of aquatic organisms, including even the lowliest. Comp. Ez. xlvii. 9 ' all soul that swarmetk,' of fish ; and of other sentient things, ch. i. 21, 24, ix. 10, 12, 15, 16 ; Lev. xi. 10, 46, &c. (RV. each time, 'creature'), xxiv. 18 (Heb. 'he that smiteth the soul of a beast,' and then *soul for soul'), fowl. Or, flying things. As Lev. xi. 20, 21, 23 (Heb.) shews, the^ term may include insects. in front of the firmament of heaven. I.e. in the air, in front ^the firmament, as a spectator standing upon the earth looks up towards it. The RV. is incorrect, the Hebrew words not admitting of the renderinff| given ; and the firmament, moreover, according to Hebrew ideas, noit| being anything of which ' open ' could be predicated. The Lxx. adds^ at the end of this verse * And it was so' (as vv. 9, 11, 15, 24, 30). 21. The creatures thus produced specified somewhat more par- ticularly. sea-monsters. Heb. tannin, a long reptile, applied sometimes toi land-reptiles (Ex. vii. 9 [see RVm.], 10, 12; Dt. xxxii. 33 [EVV.; dragon\ ; Ps. xci. 13 [RV. serpent ; PBV. dragon]) ; but usually denoting the crocodile (Is. xxvii. 1, li. 9 ; Ez. xxix. 3, xxxii. *2 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 13 [EW. in all, dragon]), or other aquatic monster (Jer. li. 34; Ps. cxlviii. 7 [see RVm.] ; Job vii. 12 [RV. sea-monster]). Here, it means sea- (and river-) monsters generally. and every living soul {v. 20) that creepeth [or glideth], where- j 1 So Lev. xi. 10 (read 'swarm' for 'move') ; Ez. xlvii. 9. a So vii. 21 (see EVm.), Lev. v. 2 (EV., unhappily [see on vv. 21, 24], 'creeping things'). See especially Lev. xi. 20—23, 29—31, 41—44, 46: the reader who desires to understand properly the distinctions referred to in this chapter should mark on the margin of his Revised Version 'swarm,' 'swarmeth,' 'swarming' against 'creep,' 'creepeth,' 'creeping' each time in these verses (as also against 'move' in v. 10), and 'creepeth' against 'moveth' in vv. 44, 46. 1.22-24] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 13 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and P fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24 And God said. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of with the waters swarm {v. 20). I.e. fishes, as well as other aquatic creatures, which either glide through the water, or creep along its bed. The word rendered 'creep' is used mostly of land-creatures (see on V. 24) : it is used of aquatic creatures, as here, in Lev. xi. 46 ; Ps. Ixix. 34 (read 'creepeth,' or 'glideth,' for RV. moveth)\ cf. the corresponding subst. in Ps. civ. 25 ('wherein are things creeping innumerable '). 22. As animate beings, the creatures just produced receive, not only the customary mark of Divine approval {v. 21 end), but a blessing, the terms of which shew that it is part of the Divine plan that they should increase and multiply in the earth. The purpose was similar in the creation of plants {v. 11) ; but no such permission is addressed to them, their growth and movement being spontaneous, and not controlled by a conscious will, as is the case, in a greater or less degree, with animate beings. Be fruitful, and multiply. A combination characteristic of P : cf. V. 28, viii. 17, ix. 1, 7, xvii. 20 al. (see the Introd. p. viii, No. 5). 24 — 31. The Sixth Day ; the seventh and the eighth works. The creation of land-animals, and of man. 24. bring forth the living creature. Bring forth living soul (collectively) : see on v. 20. hind (twice). Kinds : so u 25. In this, and the next verse, three prominent classes of terrestrial animals are specified, as representing the whole (cf. -y. 11). cattle. Heb. ¥hemdh (lit., as Eth. shews, that which is dumb), i.e. large quadrupeds, sometimes (esp. when opposed to ' man ') including wild animals (as vi. 7, 20, vii. 23) ; but often, as here, referring more particularly to domestic animals (cf. xxxiv. 23, xlvii. 18). creeping thing. Heb. remes, i.e. things which 'move along the ground either without feet, or with imperceptible feet' (Dillm.), i.e. reptiles (lizards, snakes, &c.), a class of animal very abundant in the East, and small creatures with more than four feet. So vv. 25, 26, vi. 7, 20, vii. 14, 23, viii. 17, 19 ; 1 K. iv. 33 ; Hos. ii. 18 al. ; cf. the cognate verb. Lev. xi. 44 (read 'creepeth' for RV. movethy, xx. 25 (RVm.). beast of the earth. Lit. ' living things (= C^ja) of the earth,' i.e. which roam on the wide earth, = wild ajiimals : so vv. 25, [26], 30, ix. 2, 10; 1 S. xvii. 46 ; Ps. Ixxix. 2 al. In ii. 19, 20, iii. 1, 14, the expression used is 'beast (living thing) oi th.G field.' 1 But RV. 'creep' in Lev. xi. should throughout be 'swarm': see the footnote on p. 12 ; and cf. Creeping things in DB, 14 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i. .4-^6 the earth after its kind : and it was so. 25 And God made the P beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattJe after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind : and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and let them have 25. How God gave effect to His coramand. The verse is related to V. 24, as V. 21 to v. 20, vv. 16 — 18 to vv. 14, 15, and v. 7 to v. 6. 26, 27. The creation of man. The creation of man is introduced with solemnity : it is the result of a special deliberation on the part of God, and man is a special expression of the Divine nature. Let us make man. The plural in God's mouth (which occurs other- wise in the entire OT. only xi. 7 ; Is. vi. 8 — for ch. iii. 22 is evidently different) is remarkable and has been variously explained. (1) The general Jewish interpretation, and also that of some Christians (notably Delitzsch), is that God is represented as including with Himself His celestial court (1 K. xxii. 19 f ; Is. vi. 8 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 5, 6, &c.), and consulting with them, before creating the highest of His works, man\ The words of the text seem however clearly to imply that those who are included in the 1st pers. pi. are invited to take part in the creation of man, which, if they are angels, is not probable : Delitzsch's argument that it is not their co-operation, but only their sympathy, which is invited, implies a strained limitation of the expression used. (2) Others, especially the Fathers, have regarded the plural as ex- pressing a plurality of persons in the Godhead, and so as suggesting, at least by implication, the doctrine of the Trinity. But this is to anticipate a much later stage in the history of revelation. (3) Hebrew possesses what is called a 'plural of majesty' : the words for 'lord,' 'master,' even when applied to a single person, are often, for instance, plural (see e.g. xxxix. 20 ; Ex. xxi. 29, 34 ; Is. xix. 4), for the purpose of conveying the ideas of dignity and greatness ; the usual Hebrew word for ' God ' ('EloMm) is similarly, as a rule, plural (indicative, no doubt, of the fulness of attributes and powers conceived as united in the Godhead) : hence (Dillm., Perowne) it might well be that, on a solemn occasion like this, when God is represented as about to create a being in His own 'image,' and to impart to him a share in that fulness of sovereign prerogatives possessed by Himself, He should adopt this unusual and significant mode of expression. in our image, after our likeness. Of the two words used, ' image ' (1 S. vi. 5 ; Dan. iii. 1, &c. ; but not used elsewhere in the sense of 'resemblance,' except in the parallels, v. 27, v. 3, ix. 6) suggests, perhaps, more particularly the idea of material resemblance, ' likeness ' (Ez. i. 5, 10, 13, 16, &c. ; and ch. v. 1, 3), that of an immaterial 1 Cf. Pesikta 34* (ed. Buber), 'God took counsel with the ministering angels, and said unto them, Let us make,' &c. : similarly in the Targ. Ps.-Jon. on this verse. Comp. the later Jewish saying (Edersheim, Life and Times, n. 749), 'God never does anything, without first consulting the family above.' I. ,6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 15 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, P and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every resemblance : but the distinction cannot be pressed^ : both words refer here evidently to spiritual resemblance alone ; and the duplication of Bynon3ans is intended simply to emphasize the idea of resemblance (cf. the duplications in x. 5, 20, 31, 32, xxv. 16). What however is meant by the * image of God,' which man is thus said to bear ? It is (1) something which evidently forms the ground and basis of his entire preeminence above animals ; (2) it is something which is transmitted to his descendants (v. 1, 3, ix. 6), and belongs therefore to man in general, and not solely to man in a state of primitive innocence ; (3) it relates, from the nature of the case, to man's immaterial nature. It can be nothing but the gift of self- conscious reason^ which is possessed by man, but by no other animal. In all that is implied by this, — in the various intellectual faculties possessed by him ; in his creative and originative power, enabhng him to develop and make progress in arts, in sciences, and in civilization generally ; in the power of rising superior to the impulses of sense, of subduing and transforming them, of mounting to the apprehension of general principles, and of conceiving intellectual and moral ideals ; in the ability to pass beyond ourselves, and enter into relations of love and S3niipathy with our fellow-men ; in the possession of a moral sense, or the faculty of distinguishiDg right and wrong ; in the capacity for knowing God, and holding spiritual communion with Him, — man is distinguished fundamentally from other animals ^ and is allied to the Divine nature ; so that, wide as is the interval separating him from the Creator, he may nevertheless, so far as his mental endowments are concerned, be said to be an ' image,' or adumbration, of Him. From the same truth of human nature, there follows also the possibility of God being revealed in man (John i. 1 — 14). Comp. in the NT. 1 Cor. xi. 7, Jas. iii. 9 ; and the application of the same figure to the spiritual formation of the 'new man,* Col. iii. 10 (cf Eph. iv. 24). See also Ecclus. xvii. 3 ff. ; Wisd. ii. 23. and let them have dominion &c. In virtue of the powers implied in their being formed in God's * image,' all living beings upon the earth are given into their hand. Cf Ps. viii. 5 if., * For thou hast made him lack but Httle of (being) God [viz. by the powers conferred upon him], and thou crownest him with glory and state : Thou makest him to rule over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet.' and over all the earth. Pesh. * and over aU the beasts of the earth ' ^ Notice in v. 27, ix. 6 'image' alone, and in v. 1 'likeness' alone, lxx., inserting koL, accentuate the distinction unduly, and led some of the Fathers to endeavour fruitlessly to distinguish ekwv from 6fioi(v<ns. Cf. Oehler, Theol. of OT. § 68. 2 It is true, some of the faculties mentioned are possessed, in a limited degree, by animals : but in none of them are they coupled with self-conscious reason j and jhence they do not form a foundation for the same distinctive character. 16 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [1.26-30 creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 And God 1 created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them : and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that ^moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said. Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat: 30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is ^life, 1 Or, creepeth * Heb. a living soul. (v. 25). The word (n'^n) has probably dropped out accidentally (Del., m\m.al)\ 28. The Blessing on man. The blessing is analogous to the one in V. 22 (see also ix. 1 — 7), but ampler in its terms : man may not^ooly - 'be fruitful and multiply/ but, in accordance with the Creator's purpose (v. 26), 'subdue^ the earth, and subject to himself its living inhabitants. replenish. Fill, — which indeed was the meaning of * replenish ' in Old English, and is what is intended here. In the Heb. the word is exactly the same as the one rendered 'fill ' in v. 22. So ix. 1. subdue. The word (kdbash, — properly t^^ead down) is used of the subjugation of a conquered territory, Nu. xxxii. 22 ; Josh, xviii. 1. 29, 30. Provision made for the food of men (v. 29), and other terrestrial animals and birds (v. 30) : men are to have as food the seed 3i>nd fruit of plants; terrestrial animals and birds are to have the leaves. The food of men and animals is thus part of a Divine order. The details are however given in only the broadest outline ; nothing for instance is said respecting the food of aquatic animals, or of milk and honey ; the aim of the verse is simply to define, with reference to V. 11 f., how the different kinds of plants there mentioned may be utihzed for food. 29. for meat. For food. 'Meat' in Old English was not re- stricted, as it is with us, to the flesh of animals ; it meant food in general. The archaism has been sometimes elsewhere retained in KV., as 1 K. xix. 8 ; Ps. Ixix. 21 ; Is. Ixii. 8 ; Joel i. 16. 30. life. A living soul. See on v. 20. 1 Ovid's description of the creation of man {Met. i. 76 ff.) is worth quoting : — ♦Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in caetera posset..,. Finxit in effigiem moderantum cuncta deorum. Pronaque quum spectent aniraalia caetera terram, Os homini sublime dedit ; caelumque videre lussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.' 1. 30, 31— n. I, ^] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 17 I have given every green herb for meat : and it was so. 31 And P God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. II. 1 And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his every green herb for meat. Rather, all the green of herbs (i.e. *'0 leaves) /or food. The condition of things presupposed in v. 30 is inconsistent with i iie evidence of palaeontology, which makes it certain that carnivorous animals existed upon the earth long before the appearance of man, and that these * preyed upon one another, precisely as the same species or tlieir successors do now.' The truth is, the writer portrays an ideal. 'Animal food can only be had at the cost of animal life, and the taking of animal life seemed to him to be a breach of the Divine order, which from the beginning provides only for the continuance and main- tenance of life' (Perowne, Expositor^ Feb. 1891, p. 129). Hence he represents both men and animals as subsisting at first only on vegetable food (animal food, according to the same writer, is first permitted to man in ix. 2)^ 31. The closing verdict on the entire work of creation. The work of each particular day is good : the combination of works, each dis- charging rightly its own function, and at the same time harmonizing as it should do with the rest, is characterized as wry good. As has been remarked, a note of Divine satisfaction runs through the whole narrative, and it reaches its climax here ; but the severe simplicity and self-control of the writer does not allow it to find any stronger ex- pression than this. Contrast the more exuberant tone of Ps. civ. 31. &. 1 Tim. iv. 4 (' for every creature of God is good,' &c.). II. 1—3. The Seventh Day. The rest of God. 1. host. The word means an army (xxi. 22 &c.) ; and the ex- pression 'host of heaven' occurs frequently, denoting sometimes the stars (Dt. iv. 19), sometimes the angels (1 K. xxii. 19), both being conceived as forming an organized and disciplined body. The term is used here, exceptionally, with reference to the earth, by a species of attraction. The * host ' of heaven and earth means all the component items of which they consist, — whether mentioned expressly or not in eh. i., — conceived as constituting an organized whole. 2. finished. The 'finishing ' is regarded as a separate, substantive act, and assigned accordingly to a separate day : God formally brought His work to its close by not continuing it on the seventh day, as He had done on each of the preceding days. 1 The idea that in the 'Golden Age' the first men lived only on vegetable food is found also in classical writers: see e.g. Plato, Legg. vi. 782 o; Ovid, MeU 1. 103 — 6, 3tv. 96—103, Fasti iv. 895 fif. i 18 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ii. 2, 3 work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh dayi from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it : because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. his worh which he had made [twice]. Better, his business which he had done, — i.e. the work of creation which He had set Himself. M^ldcMh means work appointed, or imposed (e.g. Nu. iv. 3) ; it is the word used regularly of the *work' or 'business' forbidden on the sabbath (Ex. xx. 9, 10, xxxv. 2 ; Jer. xvii. 22, 24, al). rested. Better, desisted. Bhahath means (see viii. 22 ; Is. xiv. 4 to desist, cease (c£ Arab, sabata, to cut off, interrvpt) : so that what the verse predicates of God is not the positive 'rest' of relaxation (Heb. nuah) but the negative 'cessation' from activity \ The former idea is however found elsewhere in the same connexion, as in the Decalogue (Ex. xx. 11), 'and rested on the seventh day,' and Ex. xxxi. 17 (P), 'and on the seventh day he desisted and was refreshed [lit. took breathy In the verb used (shahath) there is an evident allusion to the 'sabbath' (properly shabbdth). 3. blessed... and hallowed it. Distinguished it from ordinary days (Sir. xxxiii. 7 — 9), by attaching special blessings to its observance, and by setting it apart for holy uses. Cf Ex. xx. 8, 11^; Jer. xvii. 22, 24, 27 ; Is. Iviii. 13. The remark is made in view of the later institution of the sabbath (Ex. xx, 8 — 11 &c.) as a day sacred to Jehovah ; for there is no indication or hint of its being observed as such in pre-Mosaic times. because that in it he desisted from all his business, in doing which God had created, i.e. which he had creatively done. The ex- pression characterizes God's work as a creative work. The formula which marks the close of each of the first six days is absent in the case of the seventh day ; and hence it has been sometimes supposed that the 'rest' of the seventh day was to be regarded as ex- tending indefinitely through the whole of history. It is doubtful however whether this view is correct. The ' day,' to which in v. 2 the ' rest ' is distinctly assigned, will be understood naturally in the same sense as , in the case of the six preceding ' days,' and the work from which God | is represented as 'resting' or 'desisting' is not work in general, but ! only creative work. The idea of the writer seems to have been that | God's sabbath intervened between the close of His work of creation | and the commencement of what, in modern phraseology, is usually j termed His sustaining providence. The sabbath by which God is said j to have closed His work of creation is thus a type of the weekly | recurring sabbath of the later Israelites. The truth that God's sustaining providence is operative on the sabbath, not less than on 1 Cf. Ex. xxiii. 12 (E) 'On the seventh day thou shalt desist, that thy ox and thy ass may rest, and the son of thy bondwoman, and thy sojourner [resident foreigner], 1 may be refreshed [lit. may take breath] ' ; xxxiv. 21 (both times ♦ desist '). i 1. 4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 19 4 These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth p (vlicn they were created, )tlier days (Jn. v. 17), is of course tacitly presupposed by the writer, )ut he does not explicitly refer to it. — See further on the Sabbath ). 34 f 4*. These are.. .created. The subscription to the preceding nar- ative, — supposed by many critics to have originally stood, perhaps vithout * when they were created,' as the superscription to i. 1, and to lave been transferred here by the compiler of the book\ See further liG Introd. pp. ii, vi, viii (No. 9). generations. Lit. begettings (quite a different word from the one ised in xvii. 7, 9, &c.) ; hence (successive) generations^ especially as inanged in a genealogy (v. 1, x. 1, xi. 10), also, somewhat more ';Qi\QXd^\[Y J particulars about a man and Ms descendants (vi. 9, xi. 27, :xv. 19). Here the word is applied metaphorically to 'heaven and iaith ' ; and it will denote, by analogy, particulars respecting heaven md earth and the things which might be regarded metaphorically as rroceeding from them^ — i.e. just the contents of ch. i. The student should examine, and compare with the preceding narrative, >ther passages of Scripture containing thoughts or lessons suggested by the eligious contemplation of nature : for instance, Am. iv. 13, v. 8, ix. 6 ; Jer. ;xxii. 17 ; II Isaiah xl. 12—14, 21—2, 26, 28, xlii. 5, xlv. 7, 12, 18 ; Jer. x. 12 f.; ^8. viii., xix. 1 — 6, xxxiii. 6 — 9, cii. 25, civ. (the * Poem of Creation *), cxxxvi. >— 9, cxlviii. ; Pr. iii. 19 f., viii. 22—31 ; Job ix. 8 f., xxvi. 5 — 13, and especially he two magnificent chapters, xxxviii. — xxxix. ; Wisd. xiii. 3 — 6 ; Jn. i 1 — 5 ; lorn. i. 20; Col. i. 16 ; Heb. 1. 2, 3, xi. 3 ; Rev. iv. 11. The Cosmogony of Genesis^. It remains to consider some important questions to which the cosmogony fhich we have just been studying gives rise. "We have to ask, namely, I) Does the picture which it afi'ords of the past history of the world agree dth that which is disclosed by science 1 (ii) What is the origin of the osmogony? and (iii) What is its true value and import to us? (i) Those who have read Pearson On the Creed may remember how at the nd of his exposition of Art. i. (fol. 68) he says that heaven and earth were created most certainly within not more than six, or at farthest seven, thousand years,' rom the age in which he was writing. That was the 17th century. But since *earson's time geology has become a science, and has disclosed, by testimony ^ ♦ These ' may point indifferently forwards (as x. 1) or backwards (as x. 32) ; ut the corresponding formula stands everywhere else as the superscription to the ection which follows (see v. 1, vi. 9, x. 1, xi. 10, 27, &c.). 2 The following pages are adapted in the main, with some abridgment, from an (Tticle contributed by the present writer to the Expositor, Jan. 1886, pp. 23 — 45. 2—2 20 THE BOOK OF GENESIS which cannot bo gainsaid, the immense antiquity of the earth. The earth, as we now know, reached its present state, and acquired its rich and wondrous adornment of vegetable and animal life, by a gradual process, extending over countless centuries, and embracing unnumbered generations of living forms. Those white cliflfs which rise out of the sea on our southern coasts, when examined by the microscope, are seen to consist mostly of the minute shells of marine organisms, deposited at the rate of a few inches a century at the bottom of the ocean, and afterwards, by some great upheaval of the earth's crust, lifted high above the waves ^ Our coal measures are the remains of mighty forests, which have slowly come and gone upon certain parts of the earth's surface, and have stored up the energy, poured forth during long ages from the sun, for our consumption and enjoyment 2. These and other formations contain moreover numerous fossil remains ; and so geologists have been able to determine the order in which, during the slowly passing ages of their growth, higher and higher types of vegetable and animal life were ever appearing upon the globe. Nor is this all. Astronomers, by the study and comparison of the heavenly bodies, have risen to the conception of a theory explaining, by the aid of known mechanical and physical principles, the formation of the earth itself. The solar system — i.e. the sun, earth, and other planets with their satellites — existed once as a diffused gaseous mass, or nebula, of immense dimensions, which gradually condensed, and became a rotating sphere ; and from this in succession the different planets were flung off, while the remainder was more and more concentrated till it became what we call the sun. One of these planets, the earth, in process of time, by reduction of temperature and other changes, developed the conditions adequate for the support of life 3. The time occupied by all these processes cannot of course be estimated with any precision ; but it will in any case have embraced millions of years : a recent work on astronomy places the time at which the moon was thus flung off from the then liquid earth, at about 57,000,000 years ago*. Is now the teaching of geology and astronomy on the subjects referred to in the preceding paragraph consistent with what we read in Gen. i. ? Obviously it is not consistent with it, if by 'day' is meant a period of 24 hours. It is, however, conceivable that the writer, in spite of his regular mention of 'evening' and 'morning,' may have used the word in a figurative sense, as representing a period, aware indeed that the work of the Creator could not be measured by human standards, but at the same time desirous of artificially accommodating it to the period of the week. Let us, now, at least provisionally, grant this metaphorical use of the term 'day': the following questions will then arise. Do the 'days' of Genesis correspond with well- defined geological periods ? and does the order in which the different living things and the heavenly bodies are stated to have been created agree with the ^ See Huxley's striking lecture 'On a Piece of Chalk' in his Lay Sermons (re- printed in his Collected Essays, vol. viii.). 2 Comp. two fine passages on the * Slowness of the Creative Process ' in Pritchard's Analogies in the Progress of Nature and Grace, 1868 (the Hulsean Lectures for 1867), pp. 11 ff., 19 ff.j also Bonney's Old Truths in Modern Lights, p. 89 ff. « See Sir B. S. Ball's The Earth's Beginnings (1901), esp. p. 246 flf. * Prof. H. H. Turner, Modern Astronomy (1901), p. 277. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 21 facts of geology and astronomy ? To both these questions candour compels the answer, No. Here is a table of the succession of life upon the globe, taken (with some modification of form) from Sir J. W. Dawson's Chain of Life in Geological Time^ : — Eozoic Palaeozoic ' 1. Laurentian. 2. Huronian. 3. Cambrian. 4. Silurian. 5. Devonian. 6. Carboniferous, Mesozoie Cainozoio ^ 7. Permian. 8. Triassic. 9. Jurassic. 10. Cretaceous. I'll. Tertiary. 12. Post-Tertiary. ANIMAL LirB. Eozoon Canadense^. Age of Protozoa (low- liest marine animals). Invertebrata : Age of mollusks, corals, and crustaceans. In 4 fishes begin. Fishes abundant (but no modern species). Earliest insects*. Amphibians begin (spe- cies allied to frogs, newts, and water - lizards, some of the last large crocodile- like creatures). Insects (spiders, beetles, cockroaches, &c.). Earliest true reptiles. Earliest marsupial mammals. Age of monster reptiles and of birds. Age of extinct mam- mals. First living invertebrates. Age of modern mam- mals and man. VEGETABLE LIFE. Doubtful^. Indications of plants not determinable. Marine plants (sea- weeds, &c.). Earhest land plants. Coal plants ; chiefly tree-ferns and large mosses (flowerless plants), pines, and cycads. Earliest modern trees. Age of palms and dicoty- ledonous vin^fiosjjerms. The earliest organic forms appear in the remains belonging to the period first named, marked, as its name implies, by the * dawn of life.' In Genesis the order is : — Third Day. Gi-ass, herbs (i.e. vegetation more generally), trees. (Fourth Day. — Luminaries.) Fifth Day. — Aquatic animals, both small (yi^, 'swarming things') and great (D^i^jn, 'sea-monsters'), and winged creatures (birds; also probably such insects as usually appear on the wing). Sixth Day.— Land animals, both domesticable and wild, and creeping things (small reptiles; perhaps also creeping insects). Man. The two series are evidently at variance. (1) The geological record con- tains no evidence of clearly defined periods, such as {ex hyp.) are represented 1 Ed. 3 (1888). See the Table opposite to p. 1 ; and (on No. 6) pp. 142- Cf. the same writer's Relics of Primaeval Life (1897), p. 2. -157. ^ If this be of organic origin, a question on which geologists still differ. Comp. Geikie's Text Book of Geology (1893), p. 694 f.; Bonney, Qeol. Mag. 1895, p. 292. 3 Perhaps to be assumed from the large quantity of graphite (carbon) present in ^■,,-these rocks : see Geikie, p. 696, with note 1 ; Prestwich, Geology (1888), ii. 21 f. nik * E.g. a kind of May-fly, as well as other forms {Chain of Life ^ p. 139 ff.). B 22 THE BOOK OF GENESIS by the * days ' of Genesis. Tliis, however, may perhaps be considered a minor discrepancy. (2) In Genesis vegetation is complete two 'days,'— i.e. two periods,— before animal life appears: geology shews that they appear simultaneously— even if animal life does not appear first. The two are found side by side in humble forms; and they continue side by side, advancing gradually till the higher and more complete types are reached : one does not appear long before the other. (3) In Genesis fishes and birds appear together (Fifth Day), and precede all land-animals (Sixth Day); according to the evidence of geology, birds appear long after fishes, and they are preceded by numerous species of land-animals (including in particular ' creeping things '). The second and third of these discrepancies are formidable. To remove them, harmonists have had recourse to different expedients, of which the following are the principal. (1) It has been supposed that the main description in Genesis does not relate to the geological periods at all, that room is left for these periods between v. 1 and r. 2, that the life which then flourished upon the earth was brought to an end by a catastrophe the results of which are alluded to in v. 2, and that what follows is the description of a second creation, immediately preceding the appearance of man. This, implying as it does a destruction and subsequent restoration, is called the ' restitution-hypothesis.' It labours under most serious difficulties. The assumption of an interval between v. I and v. 2, wide enough to embrace the whole of geological time, though in the abstract exegetically admissible, is contrary to the general tenor of the opening verses of the narrative ; the existence of the earth, together with the whole flora and fauna of the geological periods, prior to the creation of light and formation of the sun is scientifically incredible ; and the existing species of plants and animals are so closely related to those which immediately preceded man, that the assumption of an intervening period of chaos and ruin is in the last degree improbable. Arbitrary in itself, and banned by science, the restitution-hypothesis, though advocated in the last century by Kurtz and Dr Chalmers, has otherwise been seldom adopted by modern apologists. (2) The vision-theory. Upon this view the narrative is not meant to describe the actual succession of events, but is the description of a series of visions^ presented prophetically to the narrator's mental eye, and representing not the first appearance of each species of life upon the globe, but its maximum development. The ' drama of creation,' it is said, is described not as it was enacted historically, but optically, as it would present itself to a spectator, in a series of pictures, or tableaux, embodying the most character- istic and conspicuous feature of each period, and, as it were, summarizing in miniature its results. The Third Day is identified with the Carboniferous period (No. 6 in the Table), the marme life of the preceding periods, copious though it was, being suj^posed to be not visible in the tableaux, and con- sequently disregarded. This theory was attractively expounded in Hugh Millei-'s Testimony of the Rocks (1857), a work which was for many years extremely popular in this country. The objections to it are enumerated by Delitzschi. The revelation of the unknown past to a historian, or even to 1 Comm. iiber die Genesis, ed. 4 (1872), p. 18 f. I THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 23 a prophet, by means of a vision, is unexampled in the OT., and out of analogy with the character and objects of prophecy ; the narrative contains no indica- tion of its being the relation of a vision (which in other cases is regularly noted, e.g. Am. vii. — ix.; Is. vi.; Ez. i. &c.); it purports to describe not appearances (°And I saw, and behold...'), but facts {'Let the earth... And it was so'), and to substitute one for the other is consequently illegitimate ; the resemblances between Gen. i. and other cosmogonies — especially the Babylonian — shew that the writer has before him * not a vision, but a tradition.' There is also the material difficulty that, while marine animals, small as well as great, were not hidden from view in the tableau of the Fifth Day, the fishes so characteristic of the Devonian period (which precedes the Carboniferous period) are not described : in accordance with the hypothesis itself, these should have been noticed before the vegetation of the Third Day. Indeed this last difficulty may be stated more generally: if the past was expressly revealed in the form of a vision, is it likely that the picture as a whole would be so widely diflFerent from the reality as it unquestionably is ? (3) Sir J. W. Dawson 1, a distinguished Canadian geologist of the last century, rejecting (p. 193) the hypothesis of Hugh Miller, as Hugh Miller before him had rejected that of Kurtz, adopted another method of reconcilia- tion, assigning nearly the whole of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods (Nos. 4 to 9 in the Table) to the Fifth Day, and supposing Nos. 2 and 3 to contain such relics as survive of the work of the Third Day. The objections to this scheme are : (a) it brings together fishes and birds, which nevertheless are in reality widely separated (Nos. 4 and 9 in the Table) ; (&) Genesis places the appear- ance of * creeping things ' on the Sixth Day, while in fact they appear in what Sir J. W. Dawson assigns to the Fifth Day (Nos. 6 and 7)^; (c) in Genesis vegetation, including trees, is complete on the Third Day, whereas prior to the Silurian period (No. 4) nothing but the humblest forms of marine vegetation is observable. Sir J. W. Dawson is conscious of the last difficulty ; and he allows that the existence before the Silurian period of vegetation that would satisfy the language of Genesis still awaits proof. He is sanguine himself that in time this proof may be forthcoming; but the fact that vegetable life is admitted to have advanced progressively from lower to higher forms is not favourable to the expectation, and it is certain that no other geologist shares it\ 1 Origin of the World according to Revelation and Science^ (1886), pp. 192 — 5. 2 To escape this difficulty Sir J. W. Dawson {Expositor, Apr. 1886, p. 297) limits remes (see on i. 24) to ' small quadrupeds ' ; but the limitation is arbitrary ; for it is impossible to exclude reptiles from the expression. 8 The harmony represented as existing between Gen. i. and science, in the Table facing p. 1 of Sir J. W. Dawson's Modern Science in Bible Lands^ (1895) is purely illusory: 'vegetation,' for instance, in the Biblical column means entirely land-plants, whereas the ' Protogens in graphite beds ' which correspond ostensibly in the column headed 'Vegetable life' consist entirely of marine plants, to the exclusion of land-plants ; and reptiles actually appear long before birds, not simultaneously with them, as they are represented as doing in the column headed •Animal life.' The Table on p. 353 of the Origin of the World is illusory also upon similar grounds. The reader of Sir J. W. Dawson's works should be aware that his statements on Biblical matters, especially where questions relating to science or criticism are involved, are to be received with much caution and distrust. 24 THE BOOK OF GENESIS (4) Professor Dana*, accepting the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system, begins by seeking to accommodate it to the first five verses of Gen. i. Accordingly, following substantially Prof. Guyot^, he considers that the terms 'earth* and 'waters' in v. 2 do not denote anything which we should call by those names, but matter in that unimaginable condition in which it was not yet endowed with force or the power of molecular action : the creation of Might' {v. 3) was in reality the endowment of this 'inert' matter with these capacities; vv. 6 — 8 (the Second Day) describe the making of the earth, * water' there not denoting what the Hebrews knew as water, but the attenuated 'substance of the universe, while yet diflfused, in a nebulous or vaporous form, tlirough space, and v. 7 describing the separation of the earth from this diffused matter; and when it is said that on the Third Day the earth brought forth grass, herbs, and fruit-trees, the meaning really is, that it brought forth different species of sea-weed, and the lowest, seedless types of land-vegetation (these being all the forms of vegetation which geology recog- nizes before fishes, which are assigned by Genesis to the next day : see Nos. 3, 4 in the Table). Prof. Dana was a most eminent geologist ; but the fact that, in order to harmonize the cosmogony of Genesis with the teachings of science, he was obliged to have recourse to such extraordinary and unnatural interpre- tations of the words of Genesis, is the best proof that the two are in reality irreconcilable 3. So much for the geological difficulties of the cosmogony of Genesis. Let us now consider the astronomical difficulties presented by it. (1) The creation of the sun, moon, and stars, after the earth. The formation of the heavenly bodies after the earth is inconsistent with the entire conception of the solar system — and indeed, if we think also of the stars, with that of the whole 1 In the BihUotheca Sacra, April, 1885, p. 201 ff. * Creation (1884), p. 36: 'The Heb. word maim does not necessarily mean waters, but applies as well to a gaseous atmosphere' (!). And * earth ' is similarly explained as denoting (pp. 35, 38) a formless sphere of gas — the * primordial cosmic material,' out of which the universe was ultimately formed. The solution of the discrepancies proposed recently by Mr Capron {The Conflict of Truth, 1901, pp. 170 fif., 194), viz. that the text speaks only of the order in which the creative words were uttered, not of that in which the resulting effects were produced, yields a sense which is contrary to the obvious intention of the writer. Mr Capron argues also (p. 205 ff.) that by 'earth' and 'water' in Gen. i. 1, 2 is denoted gaseous matter; but the sense which he supposes to be expressed by these two verses (pp. 136 ff., 213) is not credible {v. 2 ' And matter was then in a gaseous condition; for it was formless, homogeneous, and invisible, and the Spirit of the Almighty agitated with molecular vibrations the fluid mass '). ' When therefore Prof, Dana's authority is quoted for the opinion that Gen i. is in harmony with science, it must be carefully remembered hoio this harmony was obtained by him, viz. by imposing upon the words of Genesis meanings which it is simply impossible that they can ever have been intended to convey. See further, on Prof. Dana's theory of reconciliation, the critique of the present writer in the Andover (U.S.A.) Review, Dec. 1887, pp. 641 — 9; and President Morton's articles referred to below (p. 33). Comp. also Prof. T. G. Bonney at the Norwich Church Congress {Report of the Norwich Church Congress, p. 311; or in the Guardian, Oct. 16, 1895, p. 1588): 'The story of Creation in Genesis, unless we play fast and loose either with words or with science, cannot be brought into harmony with what we have learnt from geology.' Canon Bonney permits the writer to add that the statements on geological Bubjects contained in the preceding pages are in his opinion correct. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 25 celestial universe— as revealed by science. Both the stars in their far-distant courses, and the planetary system with which this globe is more intimately connected, form a vast and wonderfully constituted order, so marked by con'elation of structure, by identity of component elements (as revealed by the spectroscope), and by unity of design, as to forbid the supposition that a particular body (the earth) was created prior to the whole, of which it is a single and subordinate part (2) The commonly accepted theory (Laplace's) of the formation of the solar system by the gradual condensation of a nebula, does not permit the consolidation of the earth, the appearance upon it of water, and the growth of vegetation, before the sun was 'made,' i.e. while the substance of the sun was still in a diffused gaseous state. At such a period, it is doubtful if the earth itself would not also have been in a gaseous state; certainly, it \vould not have cooled sufficiently for water to exist upon it, and trees to grow*. The solution usually offered of these difficulties is that be in «?. 14 means appear, and made in v. 16 means not formed, but either (Dana) made to appear, or (Dawson) appointed, viz. to their office and work : the luminaries, it is argued, may thus have existed long previously, but it was only on the Fourth Day that they ' appeared ' (the thick vapour around the earth having previously concealed them), and were * appointed' to the functions enumerated in vv, 14 — 18. But this explanation is quite untenable. Hebrew is not such a poverty-stricken language as to have no word expressing the idea of 'appear' (see V. 9) ; and had the writer intended * appear,' it may be safely affirmed that he would have said so. The sense attached to 'made' is also illegitimate : in the very few passages where T\^V means appointed, either this sense is at once apparent from the context 2, or the word is followed by a specification of the office or function intended^ : used absolutely, it can be only a synonym of 'formed*.' Verses 14 — 18 cannot be legitimately interpreted except as implying that, in the conception of the writer, luminaries had not previously existed ; and that they were ' made,' and * set ' in their places in the heavens, after the separation of sea and land, and the appearance of vegetation upon the earth ivv. 6 — 8, 9 — 13). No reconciliation of this representation with the data of science has as yet been found. One discrepancy more, of a different kind, remains still to be noticed. From the injunction in v. 30 it is a legitimate inference that the narrator considered the original condition of animals to be one in which they subsisted solely on vegetable food. This is not merely inconsistent with the physical structure of many animals (which is such as to require animal food), but is 1 Cf. Prof. Pritchard, late Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, Expositor, Jan. 1891, p. 49 f. : 'The existence of water [on the earth] before the concentration of the sun into the form of a sun is inconceivable with a competent knowledge of the facts of nature. So too is the existence of grass and fruit trees, antecedent to the same, or even under the condition of the invisibility of the sun as a sun ' (cf. p. 53). To the same effect, Occasional Notes of an Astronomer, p. 262 f. * As, * He made priests from among all the people ' (1 K. xii. 31) ; 2 S. xv. 1 and 1 K. i. 6 (where 'prepared' is lit. made); 2 K. xx.i. 6 (BVm.). But really in these passages 'made' means more than 'appointed'; it means instituted, organized, i.e. it is merely a metaphorical application of the proper sense of 'made.' * As Ps. civ. 4 ; 1 S. viii. 16. * As V. 26, V. 1 ; Am. v. 8 ; Job ii. 9 ; Ps. cxv. 15, and regularly. THE BOOK OF GENESIS ^ contradicted by the facts of palaeontology, which afford conclusive evidence that animals preyed upon one another long before the date of man's appearance upon the earth. From all that has been said, only one conclusion can be drawn. Rend without prejudice or bias, the narrative of Gen. i. creates an impression at variance with the facts revealed hy science : the efforts at reconciliation which have been reviewed are but different modes of obliterating its character- istic features, and of reading into it a view which it does not express. The harmonistic expedients adopted by Sir J. W. Dawson and Prof. Dana are in reality tantamount to the admission that, understood in the natural sense of the words — and we have no right to impose any other sense upon them — ^it does not accord with the teachings of science. While fully bearing in mind the immediate design of the writer, to describe, viz. in terms intelligible to the non-scientific mind, how the earth was fitted to become the abode of man, it is impossible not to feel that, had he been acquainted with its actual past, he would, while still using language equally simple, equally popular, equally dignified, have expressed himself in diff"erent terms, and presented a different picture of the entire process. It will also, farther, be now apparent that the admission, granted provisionally above (p. 20), that 'day' might be interpreted as representing a period, is of no avail for bringing the narrative into harmony with the teaching of science ; and that consequently there is no occasion to understand the word in any but its ordinary sense. (ii) What then may we suppose to have been the source of the cosmogony of Genesis ? In answering this question, we must bear in mind the position which the Hebrews took among the nations of antiquity. In the possession of aptitudes fitting them in a peculiar measure to become the channel of revela- tion and the exponents of a spiritual religion, the Hebrew nation differed materially from its neighbours ; but it was allied to them in language, it shared with them many of the same institutions, the same ideas and habits of thought. Other nations of antiquity made efforts to fill the void in the past which begins where historical reminiscences cease, and framed theories to account for the beginnings of the earth and man, or to solve the problems which the observation of human society suggested. It is but consonant with analogy to suppose that the Hebrews were conscious of the same needs ; and either formed similar theories for themselves, or borrowed those of their neighbours. Thus many, perhaps most, nations, where they had no knowledge of science to guide them, have given the reins to their imagination, and framed cosmogoniesK These cosmogonies reflect partly the impressions made upon the nation framing it by the physical world, partly the general mental characteristics of the nation, partly the conception of deity current in it. That the physical element in such cosmogonies was usually erroneous, and often grotesque, was a natural conse- quence of the ignorance of physical science possessed by those who constructed them. The theological element varied according as the conceptions of deity current in a particular nation were more or less spiritual : where, for instance, polytheism prevailed, places had to be found in the process for the various divine beings, and the cosmogonies consequently became often thOogonies. 1 See particulars in the art. CosMoaoNY in the Encyel. Britannicaf ed. 9. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 27 The cosmogony of Genesis seems, in its arrangement, to have been deter- ;iied ultimately by the observation that there is a rank and order in natural •ducts, and by the reflexion that one part of nature is in various ways pendent upon, or supported by, another. The more immediate source of the Biblical cosmogony, however, there can bo little doubt, has been brought to light recently from Babylonia. Between 1872 and 1876 that skilful collector and decipherer of cuneiform records, the late Mr George Smith, published, partly from tablets found by him in the British Museum, partly from those which he had discovered himself in Assyria, a number of inscriptions containing, as he quickly perceived, a Babylonian account of Creation. Since that date other tablets have come to light ; and though the series relating to the Creation is still incomplete, enough remains not only to exhibit clearly the general scheme of the Cosmogony, but also to make it evident that the cosmogony of the Bible is dependent upon it. The tablets themselves come from the Library of Asshurbanipal (668—626 b.o.) at Kouyunjik (Nineveh); but Asshurbanipal's Library is known to have included many transcripts of earlier texts ; and Assyriologists entertain no doubt that the contents of the tablets are much more ancient than the 7th cent. B.C., and are probably (Sayce) as old as the 22nd or 23rd cent. B.C. There is no occasion to give here a translation of the whole of the tablets which have been discovered ^ ; but the reader cannot properly estimate their bearing upon the Biblical narrative without having the characteristic parallels placed before him, and being made acquainted with the general outline of their contents. It should only be premised that some particulars of the Babylonian cosmogony were known before these discoveries from extracts which had been preserved from Berossus — a Babylonian priest, who lived about 300 B.O., and compiled a work on Babylonian history — and Damascius (6th cent. A.D.); and the accuracy of these particulars (apart from certain textual corruptions) has been fully established by the inscriptions 2. The inscriptions preserved on these tablets are written in a rhythmical form ; and form in reality a kind of epic poem, the theme of which is the glorification of Marduk (Merodach, Jer. 1. 2), the supreme god of Babylon, declaring how, after a severe conflict, he had overcome the powers of chaos and dai'kness, and had so been enabled to create a world of light and order. The poem is conceived polytheistically ; but this fact does not neutralize the underlying resemblances with Gen. i The first tablet (of which only 1 A translation may be found in Ball's Light from the East (1899), pp. 2 — 18; in KB. VI. 3—39 (by Jensen), with notes, p. 302 ff.; and asp. in L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation (1902), i.;3 ff. [vol. 11. has cuneiform texts only], containing many important new fragments. See also the chapter on the ' Cosmology of the Babylonians' in Jastrow's Religion of Bab. and Ass. (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 407—453; and Zimmern in KAT.^ (1902), p. 491 ff., 584—6. 2 See the Greek text of Damascius in KAT.^ p. 490, or in Jensen's Kosmologie der Bab. p. 270 ; and translations in G. Smith, Chald. Gen. p. 49 f., Lenormant, Origines de Vhistoire^ (1880), i. 493 f., Gunkel's Schopjung und Chaos (1895), p. 17 ; KAT.^ I.e.: cf. also KAT."^ p. 12. It is parallel to the first extract from the Creation epic, cited below. For the Greek text of Berossus, see Miiller, Fragm. Hist. Graec. n. 497 f., KAT.^ 488 — 90 ; King, pp. xlv, liv— lvi; and lor translations, ■G. Smith, op. cit. pp. 40—42, Lenormant, p. 506 f., Gunkel, pp. 17—20, DB. i. 504^ KAT.^ 1.0. : cf. KAT.^ pp. 6—9, 12—14, EncB. art. Creation, § 15. 28 THE BOOK OF GENESIS a fragment is preserved) describes how, before what we call earth or heaven had come into being, there existed a primaeval watery chaos {Tldmat, corre- sponding to tlio Hob. fhonii the 'deep' of Gen. i. 2), out of which the Babylonian gods wore evolved: — When aboye | the heaven was not yet named, And the land beneath | yet bare no name. And the primaeval Apsii (the abyss), | their begetter, And chaos (?), Tiamat, | the mother of them both — 5 Their waters | were mingled together, And no field was formed, | no marsh was to be seen ; When of the gods | still none had been produced. No name had yet been named, | no destiny yet [fixed] ; Then were created | the gods in the midst of [heaven ?] 10 Lachmu and Lachamu | werfe produced, Long ages passed .... Anshar and Kishar | were created, and over them .... Long were the days, then there came forth .... Anu, their son .... 15 Anshar and Anu .... And the god Anu .... Ea, whom his fathers, [his] begetters < i . • Difi'erent Babylonian deities thus gradually came into being. Tiamat, or the deep, represents * a popular attempt to picture the chaotic condition that prevailed before the great gods obtained control, and established the order of heavenly and terrestrial phaenomena ' : in the sequel she is personified as a gigantic monster. The belief that the world originated out of water was a consequence, As.syi-iologists hold, of the climatic conditions of Babylonia. During the long winter, the Babylonian plain, flooded by the heavy rains, looks like a sea (Bab. tiamtu^ tidmat). Then comes the spring, when the clouds and water vanish, and dry land and vegetation appear. So, thought the Babylonian, must it have been in the first spring, at the first New Year, when, after a fight between Marduk and Tiamat, the organized world came into being\ The subsequent parts of the first tablet describe how Apsu, disturbed at finding his domain invaded by the new gods, induced Tiamat to join with him in contesting their supremacy : he was, however, subdued by Ea ; and Tiamat, left to carry on the struggle alone, provides herself witli a brood of strange and hideous allies 2. The second, third, and fourth tablets, describe how the gods, alarmed at Ti&,mat's preparations, having taken counsel together, appointed Marduk as their champion, and how Marduk equips himself with winds and lightnings for the fray. The account of the combat, in the fourth tablet, is told with dramatic force and vividness. Armed with his weapons, Marduk advances; he seizes Tiamat in a husre net, and transfixes her with his scimitar. The 1 Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 411 f., 429 f., 432 f.j Zimmern, Creation (§ 4) in EncB. 2 Alluded to also in the extract from Berossus (see DD. i. 504'' ; and cf. Jastrow, pp. 414, 419). They are a further symbol of the disorder which ruled in chaos, and which had to be overcome before an ordered world could be produced. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 29 carcase of the monster he split into two halves, one of which he fixed on high, to form a firmament supporting the waters above it : — i;n He cleft her like a flat(?) fish | into two parts, The one half of her he set up, | and made a covering for the heaven, Set a bar before it, | stationed a guard, 1 10 Commanded them not | to let its waters issue forth. He marched through the heaven, | surveyed the regions thereof, Stood in front of the abyss, | the abode of the god Ea. Then BeU measured | the structure of the abyss, A great house, a copy of it, | he founded E-sliarra; 5 The great house E-sharra, | which he built as the heaven, He made Anu, Bel, and Ea, | to inhabit as their city. *It is evident that the canopy of heaven is meant. Such is the enormous 7.0 of Tislmat that one-half of her body, flattened out so as to serve as a rtain, is stretched across the heavens to keep the "upper waters" — the waters above the firmament" as the Book of Genesis puts it — from coming down ' ( Jastrow) ^. The * abyss ' was the huge body of waters on which the earth was supposed to rest (cf. on vv. 9, 10). E-sharra (' house of fulness or fertility,' Jensen) is a poetical designation of the earth, which was conceived by the Babylonians as a hollow hemisphere, similar in appearance to the vault of heaven, but placed beneath it (with its convex side upwards), and supported upon the * abyss ' of waters underneath (Jastrow, p. 431). The fifth tablet (still incomplete) describes the formation of the sun and moon, and afterwards the appointment of years and months : — 1 He made the stations | for the great gods. As stars resembling them | he fixed the signs of the zodiac, He ordained the year, | defined divisions, Twelve months with stars, | three each, he appointed. 6 After he had .... the days of the year | . . . . images, He fixed the station of Nibir (Jupiter), | to determine their limits. That none (of the days) might err, | none make a mistake. 8 The station of Bel and Ea, | he fixed by his (Jupiter's) side. 12 He caused the moon-god to shine forth, | entrusted to him the night; Appointed him as a night-body, | to determine the days. The opening lines of tablet VII., where Marduk is hailed as the * Bestower of planting/ and * Creator of grain and plants, who caused the green herb to spring up,' shew that the poem mentioned the creation of vegetation ; and it is probable that this was recorded in the lost parts of tablet V. (King, p. l). The sixth tablet (the opening and closing lines of which have been recovered by Mr King) describes the creation of man : — 1 I.e. Lord, a title of Marduk (cf. Is. xlvi. 1 ; Jer. li. 44). 2 According to Berossus, the other half of the monster's carcase was made into the earth. However, that is not stated in the present tablet. 30 THE BOOK OF GENESIS When Marduk heard the word of the gods, His heart prompted him and he devised [a cunning plan]. He opened his mouth, and unto Ea [he spake], [That which] he had conceived in his heart he imparted [unto him]: 6 *My blood^ will I take, and bone will I [fashion], I will make man, that man may .... I will create man who shall inhabit [the earth 1], That the service of the gods may be established, and that [their] shrines [may be built] 2.' The seventh tablet consists of a hymn, addressed by the gods to Marduk, celebrating his deeds and character, and representing him as all-powerful, beneficent, compassionate, and just^ (cf. King, pp. lxiii fF., lxxxix). The diflferences between the Babylonian epic and the first chapter of Genesis are suflficiently wide : in the one, particularly in the parts not here repeated, we have an exuberant and grotesque polytheism; in the other, a severe and dignified monotheism : in the one, chaos is anterior to Deity, the gods emerge, or are evolved, out of it, and Marduk gains his supremacy only after a long contest ; in the other, the Creator is supreme and absolute from the beginning. But, in spite of these profound theological difi'erences, there are material resemblances between the two representations, which are too marked and too numerous to be explained as chance coincidences. The outline, or general course of events, is the same in the two narratives. There are in both the same abyss of waters at the beginning, denoted by almost the same word, the separation of this abyss afterwards into an upper and a lower ocean, the formation of heavenly bodies and their appointment as measures of time, and the creation of man. In estimating these similarities, it must further be remembered that they do not stand alone; in the narrative of the Deluge (see p. 104 f ) we find traits borrowed unmistakably from a Babylonian source ; so that the antecedent difficulty which might otherwise have been felt in supposing elements in the Creation-narrative to be traceable ultimately to the same quarter is considerably lessened. In fact, no archaeologist questions that the Biblical cosmogony, however altered in form and stripped of its original polytheism, is, in its main outlines, derived from Babylonia. Nor ought such a conclusion to surprise us. The Biblical historians make no claim to have derived their information from a supernatural source : their 1 Cf. Berossus, I.e. The emendation adopted in EncB, i. 946 n. 4 is seen uovr to be unnecessary (King, pp. lvi, lvii). 2 The passage cited in Auth. and Arch. 13 does not belong here (King, 202 f.). * There seem also to have been some points of contact between the Heb. and the Phoenician cosmogony. The Phoenician cosmogony (as reported by Eus. Praep. Ev. I. 10. 1, 2), placed at the beginning of all things an dTj/) ^o^ibSrjs Kal irvev/xardj- 5r)s and a x<^o^ doXepbv ipe^udes, both being direipa; after an indefinite period of time, the TrveO/Aa, acting upon the x<»os, gave rise to Mwr — i.e. perhaps (see Creation in EncB., § 7) rb Mwr= niDhn, the deeps— a watery, muddy mass {IMs), containing the germs of all subsequent existence (^ao-a a-vopd, Krityem), which assumed the form of a huge egg. See further Dillm. ; Lenormant, i. 532 ff. ; EncB, I.e. (also on the Phoen. Baau [=hohu\, said in Eus. § 4 to mean 'night,' and to be the mother of AlCiv (the world?) and II/)wt67oi'os) ; JOB. i. 604^. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 31 Diaterials, it is plain (cf. Luke i. 1 — 4), were obtained by them from the best human sources available; the function of inspiration was to guide them in the disposal and arrangement of these materials, and in the use to which they applied them. And so, in his picture of the beginnings of the world, having nothing better available, the author has utilized elements derived ultimately from a heathen source, and made them the vehicle of profound religious teaching. We have said * derived ultimately ' ; for naturally a direct borrowing from tbe Babylonian narrative is not to be thought of: it is incredible that the monotheistic author of Gen. i., at whatever date he lived, could have borrowed any detail, however slight, from the polytheistic epic of the conflict of Marduk and Tia,mat. The Babylonian legend of Creation must have passed through a long period of naturalization in Israel, and of gradual assimilation to the spirit of Israel's religion, before it could have reached the form in which it is presented to us in the first chapter of Genesis. How, or when, it was first introduced among the Hebrews, must remain matter of conjecture. Its introduction may reach back to the time when the ancestors of the Hebrews lived side by side with the Babylonians in Ur (xi. 28)\ or when they * dwelt beyond the River' (the Euphrates), in Mesopotamia, and 'served other gods' (Jos. xxiv. 2). Since, however, the Tel el-Amarna letters {c. 1400 B.C.) have shewn how strong Babylonian influence must have been in Canaan, even before the Israelitish occupation, this has been thought by many ^ to have been the channel by which Babylonian ideas penetrated into Israel ; they were first, it has been supposed, naturalized among the Canaanites, and afterwards, — as the Israelites came gradually to have intercourse with the Canaanites, — they were transmitted to the Israelites as well. But, whether one of these or some other explanation is the true one, the fact remains that we have in the first chapter of Genesis the Hebrew version of an originally Babylonian legend respecting the beginnings of all things. But in the Biblical narrative, the old Semitic cosmogony appears in a form very diff'erent from that in which we read it in the Babylonian Creation-epic It appears 'in the form which it received at the hands of devout Israelites moved by the Spirit of God, and penetrated with the pure belief in the spiritual Jehovah. The saints and prophets of Israel stripped the old legend of its pagan deformities. Its shape and outline survived. But its spirit was changed, its religious teaching and significance were transformed, in the light of revelation. The popular tradition was not abolished ; it was preserved, purified, hallowed, that it might subserve the Divine purpose of transmitting, as in a figure,' to future generations, ' spiritual teaching upon eternal truths' (Ryle, Early Narratives of Genesis, p. 12 f.)*. (iii) It remains only to indicate in outline the nature of this teaching. ^ Jastrow, Jewish Quart. Rev. 1901, p. 653. 2 E.g. by Sayce, Gunkel, Winckler, Zimmern. 3 That Heb. folk-lore told of a conflict of Jehovah with a dragon is apparent from Job ix. 13, xxvi. 12 {Rahab, 'boisterousness,' though in Is. xxx. 7, Ps. Ixxxvii. 4, a poetical name of Egypt, being here manifestly the name of some monster). The context in Ps. Ixxiv. 13 — 17, Ixxxix. 9 — 12, where there follow allusions to Jehovah's creative work, seems even to shew that the victory over Eahab, as an aboriginal monster symbolizing chaos, was pictured as having preceded the work of creation : 32 THE BOOK OF GENESIS (1) Tho Cosmogony of Genesis shows, in opposition to the conceptic widely prevalent in antiquity^ that the world was not self-orifjinated ; that it was called into existence, and brought gradually into its present state, at the will of a spiritual Being, prior to it, independent of it, and deliberately planning every stage of its progress. The spirituality, not less than the dignity, of the entire representation is indeed in marked contrast to the self- contradictory, grotesque speculations of which the ancient cosmogonies usually consist. * It sets God above the great complex world-process, and yet closely linked with it, as a personal intelligence and will that rules victoriously and without a rival ' (Whitehouse, art. Cosmogony in DB.^ p. 507'*). (2) Dividing artificially the entire period into six days, it notices in order the most prominent cosmical phaenomena; and groups the living creatures upon the earth under the great subdivisions which appeal to the eye. By this means it presents a series of representative pictures, — none, indeed, corre- sponding, in actual fact, to the reality, but all standing for, or rej^resenting it, — of the various stages by which the earth was gradually formed, and peopled with its living inhabitants ; and it insists that each of these stages is no product of chance, or of mere mechanical forces, but is an act of the Divine will, realizes the Divine purpose, and receives the seal of the Divine approval^ It is uniformly silent on the secondary causes through which in particular cases, or even more generally," the effects described may have been produced; it leaves these for the i'nvestigation of science ; it teaches what science as such cannot discover (for it is not its province to do so), the relation in which they stand to God. The slow formation of the earth as taught by geology, the gradual development of species by the persistent accumulation of minute variations, made probable by modern biology, are but the exhibition in detail of those processes which the author of this cosmogony sums up into a single phrase and apparently compresses into a single moment, for the purpose of declaring their dependence upon the Divine will. (3) It insists on the distinctive pre-eminence belonging to man, implied in the remarkable self-deliberation taken in his case by the Creator, and signified expressly by the phrase * the image of God.' By this is meant, as was shewn above, man's possession of self-conscious reason, — an adumbration, we may suppose, however faint, of the supreme reason of God, — enabling him to know, in a sense in which animals do not know, and involving the capacity of apprehending moral and religious truth (see more fully on v. 26). Whether, as a matter of fact, man appeared originally as the result of an independent creative act, or whether, as modern biologists commonly hold, he appeared as the result of a gradual evolution from anthropoid ancestors, does not affect the truth which is here insisted on : however acquired, rational faculties are still his ; and whether this opinion of modern biologists be true or not, there can at least be no theological objection to the supposition that, as God has undoubtedly endowed the organism of the individual with the power of cf. Is. li. 9, where, though the immediate reference is obviously to the overthrow of Egypt at the Eed Sea, the imagery used by the prophet seems to have been borrowed by him from the same legend of the destruction of Eahab. Cf. Zimmern, The Bah. and Heb. Genesis, pp. 8—12 ; KAT.^ 607 ff. ; and art. Bahab in DB. 1 Comp. above on vv. 3, 4. THE COSMOGONY OF GENESIS 33 developing mind out of antecedents in which no sign or trace of mind is discernible, it may also have pleased Him, by the workings of His providence in a far-distant past, to endow certain forms of organized being with the capacity of developing, in His good time, under the action of a suitable ciiA'iroument, the attributes distinctive of man. It is important to have a clear and consistent view of the first chapter of Genesis. It stands upon the threshold of the Bible; and to all who have anything more than a merely superficial knowledge of the great and far- reaching truths which science has brought to light, it presents the greatest (lifiiculties. These difficulties are felt now far more acutely than they used to i 0 : 70 or 80 years ago there was practically no geology ; but the progress of seienco has brought the Cosmogony of Genesis into sharp and undisguised antagonism \\ath the Cosmogony of science. The cfi'orts of the harmonists have been well-intentioned; but they have resulted only in the construction of artificial schemes, which are repugnant to common sense, and, especially in the minds of students and lovers of science, create a prejudice against the entire system mth which the cosmogony is connected. The Cosmogony of Genesis is treated in popular estimation as an integral element of the Christian faith. It cannot be tod earnestly represented that this is not the case. A definition of the process by which, after the elements composing it were created, the world assumed its present condition, forms no article in the Christian creed. The Church feas never pronounced with authority upon the interpretation of the narrative of Genesis. It is consequently open to the Christian teacher to understand it in the sense which science will permit; and it becomes his duty to ascei-tain what that sense is. But, as the Abbe Loisy has justly said, the '.science of the Bible is the science of the age in which it was written; and to expect to find in it supernatural in- formation on points of scientific f{ict, is to mistake its entire purpose. And so the value of the first chapter of Genesis lies not on its scientijlc side, but on its theological side. Upoix the false science of antiquity its author lias grafted a true and dignified representation of the relation of the world to God. It is not its office to forestall scientific discovery; it neither comes into collision with science, nor needs reconciliation with it. It must be read in the light of the age iji which it was written ; and while the spiritual teaching so vividly expressed by it can never lose its freshness or Value, it must on its material side be interpreted in accordance with the ])]ace which it holds in the history of Semitic cosmological speculation ^ 1 See, further, on the subject of the preceding pages, Huxlev, Collected Essays, IV. 64 ff., 139—200; Kiehm, Der Bihlische Schbpfungshericht, Halle, 1881 (a lecture pointing out the theological value, at the present day, of the cosmogony of Genesis) ; C. Pritchard, Occasional Notes of an Astronomer on Nature and Revela- tion, 1889 (a collection of sermons and addresses, often very suggestive), p. 257 ff. {' The Proem of Genesis,' reprinted from the Guardian, Feb. 10, 1886) ; Dr Ladd, What is the Bible ? (New York, 1890), chap. v. (' The Bible and the Sciences of Nature') ; Byle, Early Narratives of Genesis (1892), chaps, i., ii. ; H. Morton, The Cosmogony of Genesis and its Reconcilers, reprinted from the Bibliotheca Sacra, April and July, 1897 (a detailed criticism, by a man of science, who has also theological sympathies, of the schemes of the reconcilers. President Morton's general conclusions are the same as those adopted above. See a note by the 'present writer ^^ the Expositor, June, 1893, pp. 464 — 9); Whitehouse, art. P. ; 3 34 THE BOOK OF GENESIS The Sabbath, The sabbatli, it is not improbable, is an institution ultimately of Babylonian origin. In a lexicographical tablet (ii Rawl. 32, 1. 16), there occurs the equa- tion ilm nHh libbi = shabaUumj or 'day of rest of the heart' (i.e. as parallel occun-ences of the same phrase shew, a day when the gods rested from their anger, a day for the pacification of a deity's anger) = sabbath. Further, in a religious calendar for two of the Assyrian months which we possess^, prescribing duties for the king, the 7th, 14th, 19th'', 21st and 28th days, are entered as 'favourable day, evil day' (i.e. a day with an indeterminate character, which might become either one or the other, according as the directions laid down for its observance were followed or not), while the others are simply ' favourable days.' On the five specified days, certain acts are forbidden : the king is not, for instance, to eat food prepared by fire, not to put on royal dress or of^ev sacrifice, not to ride in his chariot or hold court, &c. ; on the other hand, as soon as the day is over, he may offer a sacrifice which will be accepted. The days, it is evident, are viewed superstitiously; certain things are not to be done on them, in order not to arouse the jealousy or anger of the gods. It is not however known that the term shabattum was applied to these days; nor is there at present [1903] any evidence that a con- tinuous succession of 'weeks,' each ending with a day marked by special observances, was a Babylonian institution 3. Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly a decided similarity between the Babylonian and the Hebrew institution ; and it is more than possible that Schrader, Sayce, and other Assyriologists are right in regarding the sabbath as an institution of Babylonian origin. Many other institutions of the Jewish law (cf. on ch. xvii.) were common to Israel's neighbours, as well as to Israel itself, though the Israelites, in appropriating them, stamped upon them a new character ; so there is no d, priori objection to the same having been the case with the sabbath as well. If this view of its origin be correct, the Hebrews, in adopting it, detached it from its connexion with the moon (fixing it for every seventh day, irrespectively of the days of the calendar month), they extended and generalized the abstinence associated with it, they stripped it of its superstitious and heathen associations, and made it subservient to ethical and religious ends*. Cosmogony in DB.; Zimmern and Cheyne, art. Creation in EncB.; Zimmern, The Bab. and Heb, Genesis (in a series of short, popular brochures, called * The Ancient East'), 1901, pp. 1 — 28; the Abb6 Loisy, Les Mythes Bahyloniens et les premiers chapitres de la Genese (1901), pp. 1 — 102; Jastrow, Jewish Quart. Rev. July, 1901, pp. 620 — 654 ; L. W. King, Bab. Religion and Mythology (popular), pp. 53 — 146. 1 See Jastrow, Religion of Bab. and Ass. 376 fi. 2 Perhaps the 49th (i.e. the 7 x 7th) day from the 1st of the preceding month. This was a dies now, but on the other days mentioned, as the contract-tablets shew, ordinary persons transacted business much as usual. 3 Shabattum is at present known to occur only three or four times altogether in the Inscriptions. The terms in which Prof. Sayce speaks {Monuments, 74 — 77 ; EHII. 193) would lead a reader to suppose that the resemblance between the Babylonian and the Hebrew institution was greater than it Ik. * See further the writer's art. Sabbath in DB. (especially § ii.), with the references : in §§ iii., iv,, also, there will be found some notice of references to tl^e sabbath in the Mishna, and other post-Biblical Jewish writings, in the NT., ami in early Christian writers. See also now iT^ilT.^ 592 £f. ^^ I / \ THE BOOK OF GENESIS 35 Gen. ii. 1 — 3, it will be observed, does not name the sabbath, or lay down my law for its observance by man : all that it says is that God ' desisted ' on ilio seventh day from FTis work, and that Ho 'blessed' and 'hallowed' the day. It is, however, impossible to doubt that the introduction of the seventh day is >iinply part of the writer's representation, and that its sanctity is in reality iiitedated : instead viz. of the seventh day of the week being sacred, because God desisted on it from His six days' work of creation, the work of creation ^vas distributed among six days, followed by a day of rest, because the week, iifled by the sabbath, existed already as an institution, and the writer wished ' adjust artificially the work of creation to it. In other words, the week, cd by the sabbath, determined the * days' of creation, not the 'days' of I cation the week. Chapters II. 4^— III. 24. » The Creation and Fall of Man. ■ With ii. 4> we enter into an atmosphere very different from that of ||P — ii. 4*. That the narrator is a different one is so evident as not to need iiitailed proof: it will be sufficient to notice here some of the more salient points of difference, ii. 4^ ff. differs then firstly from ch. i. in style and form. i?he style of ch. i. is stereotyped, measured, and precise ; that of ii. 4^ ff. is diversified and picturesque ; there are no recurring formulae, such as are so marked in ch. i. ; the expressio.ns characteristic of ch. i. are absent here (e.g. to create) ; and where couimon ground is touched (as in the account of the formation of man), the narrative is told very differently, and without even any allusion to the representation of ch. i. (e.g. to the 'image of God'). Ch. i. displays, moreover, clear marks of study and deliberate systematiza- tion : ii. 4^ff. is fresh, spontanepus, and, at least in a relative sense, primitive : we breathe in it the clear and free mountain air of ancient Israel. The present Qarrative differs secondly from ch. i. in representation. Both the details and the order of the events of creation (in so far as they are mentioned in it — for the narrator deals briefly with everything except what relates directly to man) differ from the statements of ch. i. The earth, instead of emerging from the waters (as in i. 9), is represented as being at first dry (ii. 5), too dry, in fact, to support vegetation : the first step in the process of filHng it with living forms is the creation of man (ii. 7), then follows that of beasts and birds {v. 19), and lastly that of woman {v. 21 f.) ; obviously a different order from that of ch. i.^ Another, in some respects, even more vital difference, is that in ii. 4^ ff. the conception of God is much more anthropomorphic than it is in ch. i. : whereas there God accomplishes His work of creation by a series of words, or by per- forming other acts (as creatincf, dividing, making, setting), which (taken in connexion with the objects on which tliey are performed) imply nothing local ^ ^ The separation between the creation of man and woman, if it stood alone^ aaight indeed be reasonably explained by the supposition that ii. 4^ ff. was intended simply as a more detailed account, by the same hand, of what is described summarily in i. 26 — 30 ; but this explanation does not account for the many other differences subsisting between the two narratives. 3—2 36 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [11.4,5 or sensible in the Divine nature, Jehovah here, for instance, moulds, breathes into man the breath of life, plants, places, takes, sets, brings, builds, closes up^ walks in the garden (which is evidently regarded as His accustomed abode), so that even the sound of Ilis footsteps is heard, and makes coats of skin (ii. 7, 8, 15, 19, 21, 22, iii. 8, 21) ; in other words, He performs various sensible acts, and is evidently conceived as locally determined within particular limits in a manner in which the author of ch. i. does not conceive IlimK An interest conspicuously prominent in the entire narrative is the desire to explain the origin of existing facts of\urnan nature, existing customs and institutions, especially those which were regarded as connected with the loss by man of his primaeval innocence. Tlius among the facts explained are, for instance, in ch. ii. the distinction of the sexes, and the institution of marriage, and in ch. iii. the presence of sin in the world, the custom of wearing clothing, the gait and habits of the serpent, the subject condition (in the ancient world) of woman, the pain of child-bearing, and the toilsomeness of agriculture. The explanations offered of these facts are, however, not historical or scientific explanations, they are explanations prompted by religious reflection upon the facts of life. The narrative 'purports to account for the entrance into the world of sin, suffering, and shortened life. In carrying, out this purpose, it is less faithful to historical than to moral and religious truth. The evidence of archaeology, geology, biology, and allied sciences points to the conclusion that man, so far from having begun his ^existence upon the globe in the happy surroundings of an Eden, has slowly emerged from a state of savagery, in which he was, externally at least, kittle removed from the brute creation. His primitive condition was not one of harmony and happiness, but of fierce conflict against opposing forces. Pain and death prevailed upon earth before man made his appearance, and have, it would seem, been prime factors in his evolution. The narrative is valuable, therefore, not as a description of historical events, but as a declaration of certain important ideas^.' See further the remarks, p. 51 ff. II. 4^... in the day that ^the Lord God made earth and heaven. 5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of * Heb. Jehovah, as in other places where Lord is put in capitals. II. 4^ — 7. The formation of man. 4^, 5. In the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven, no shrub (xxi. 15 ; Job xxx. 4, 7 1) o/* the field was yet, &c.^ The words, taken in connexion with the sequel {v. 7), arc intended to describe the 1 The same contrasted conceptions of the Divine nature recur in many subse- quent parts of the same two documents. 2 Wade, Old Test. History (1901), p. 50 f. 3 Dillra. and others, however, render ' In the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven — when no shrub of the field was yet, &c. \yv. 5, 6] — Jehovah God formed,' &c. (cf. the footnote on i. 1). If this construction (here and i. 1 — 3) is correct, it may, as Hommel has remarked, be more than an accidental coincidence that the Bab. account of creation (p. 28) begins also with a long sentence containing a parenthesis. 1 1. 5-7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 37 the field had yet sprung up : for the Lord God had not caused J it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; 6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living condition of the earth at the time when man was created : no shrub or lierb, — and a fortiori, no tree, — had yet appeared upon it, for it was not sufficiently watered to support vegetation. According to i. 11 f., plant- and tree-life was complete three 'days' before the creation of man : obviously the present writer views the order of events differently. in the day. I.e. at the time, — Heb. usage compressing often what may have been actually a period of some length into a ' day/ for the purpose of presenting it vividly and forcibly : see e.g. Jer. xi. 4, xxxiv. 13. Jehovah God. An unusual combination, recurring throughout ii. 4^ — iii. 24, but found elsewhere in the Hex. only Ex. ix. 30, and generally uncommon. It is usually supposed that in ii. 4^^ — iii. 24 the original author wrote simply Jehovah ; and that God was added by the compiler, with the object of identifying expressly the Autlior of life of ii. 4* — 25, with the Creator of ch. i. On the name ' Jehovah ' (properly * Yahweh '), see the Excursus at the end of the volume. 5. and there ivas not a nmn to till the ground,— audi, it is to be understood, to supply the deficiency of rain by artificial irrigation. 6. hut a mist used to go up..., and water &c., — and so at least prepared the soil for the subsequent growth of vegetation. a mist. The word (^ed) occurs again only in Job xxxvi. 27. In Ass. edu means the overflow of a river, esp. of the Euphrates, such as annually irrigated the plains of lower Babylonia; and some recent scholars are of opinion that we ought to render here * but a flood used to come up,' &c. (cf EncB. i. 949). 7. formed. The fig. is that of a potter (lxx. l-rrXaa-Ev), moulding the plastic material in his hands. The w^ord is often used of the Divine operation, with reference, not only to material objects (as here, Ps. xciv. 9, xcv. 5, civ. 26), but also more generally, as of a nation, Is. xxvii. 11, xliii. 1, and even of shaping, or pre-ordaining, events of history. Is. xxii. 11, xxxvii. 26, xlvi. 11. man of the dust of the ground. The words contain a point not reproducible in English; for in Heb. 'ground' (^dddmdh) is in form the fem. of ' man ' i^dddm) : thus to the Hebrews man by his very name seemed to be connected with the 'ground,' and to find his natural occupation in working it (v. 5, iii. 19, 23). — Cf xviii. 27 ; Ps. ciii. 14 ; Job iv. 19, viii. 19, xxxiii. 6 ; Wisd. vii. 1 ; 1 Cor. xv. 47. See also p. 53 n. 2. breath of life. Cf. (of animals generally) vii. 22 (see note); also spirit of life in vi. 17, vii. 15 (both P). Breath is evidently, in the -great majority of animals ordinarily known, the physical accompaniment 38 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ii. soul. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward, Eden ; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that and condition of life ; and so the meaning of the clause is, endowed him with the faculty of life : cf Is. xlii. 5 ; Job xxvii. 3 (where ' life ' = * breath' here : Heb. n^shdmah), xxxiii. 4^ xxxiv. 14. a living soul. As explained on i. 20, a ' soul ' is in Heb. psychology common to both animals and men ; hence no pre-eminence of man is declared in these words: they simply state that he became a living being. Man's pre-eminence, according to this writer, is implied in the use of the special term breathed, which is not used of the other animals (v, 19), and which suggests that in his case the ' breath of life ' stands in a special relation to the Creator, and may be the vehicle of higher faculties than those possessed by animals generally. Cf Ez. xxxvii. 9 ; and, in a spiritual sense, Jn. xx. 22. Note also the contrast with the 'life-giving spirit' (p. 4 n.) of the 'last Adam ' in 1 Cor. xv. 45 (RV.). 8 — 17. God does not leave man to himself: He places him in a garden specially prepared for him, and assigns to him specific duties. 8. a garden. Rather what we should call a j!?arA;. lxx. (both here and elsewhere) irapaBeiaos (= Paradise : a Pers. word signifying properly an enclosure, and then in particular a park), which hence became the usual name in the Christian Church for the ' garden ' planted in Eden. eastward. The original home of man is placed in the far- distant East, in a region in or near Babylonia, the seat of the most ancient and influential civilization known to the Hebrews. ''Eden. As a Heb. word, 'eden would mean pleasure, delight (see cognate words in Is. xlvii. 8 ; Neh. ix. 25), and thi« sense was no doubt suggested by it to the Hebrews (cf lxx., in iii. 23, 24, and generally, 6 TrapaSeto-os 7175 rpv<j>rj^) -, if it be the true original meaning of the word, we must suppose 'Eden' to be an abbreviation for 'land of Eden.' But * Eden ' is the name, not of the garden itself, but of the region in which it lay, so that there is no particular appropriateness in such a meaning ; and it is possible that it is the Sumerian edinu, a word explained in Ass. word-lists as meaning ' plain, prairie, desert,' in which case it will denote simply the great alluvial plain watered by the Tigi'is and the Euphrates \ Elsewhere the 'garden of Jehovah' (or * of God '), or the ' garden of Eden,' is alluded to as the type of a fertile, well- watered place, abounding in noble trees : see ch. xiii. 10 ; Ez. xxviii. 13, xxxi. 8 f , 16, 18, xxxvi. 35; Is. H. 3; Joel ii. 3. 9. Emphasis is laid on the trees with which the garden was stocked (cf Ez. xxxi. 8 f , 16, 18), partly on account of the two which are singled out for special mention, but partly also, it would seem, because, according to the conception of the writer, man was originally intended 1 Cf. Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? 79 f.; KAT.^ 2C f. ; Sayce, Monuments, 95; Zimmeru, KAT.^ 529; Pinches, The OT. m the light of the hiu. records of Ass. and Bab. (1902), 70 — 72; and see Muss-Arnolt, Ass. Lex. p. 21. I 11.9-1^] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 39 is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; the tree of life also J in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon : that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold ; 12 and the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium and the ^onyx stone. 1 Or, beryl to subsist on the fruit of trees (cf. v. 16) ; he is not condemned to live on herbs till iii. 18. the tree of life. Cf. on iii. 24. The expression occurs also, in a fig. use, in Pro v. iii. 18, xi. 30, xiii. 12, xv. 4. 10 — 14, Provision made for the irrigation of the garden. The reference is implicitly to a system of canals, such as existed in Babylonia, from at least the time of Hammurabi (c. 2300 B.C.) onwards ^ conveying the water from a main stream to different parts of the land. The river arose in Eden, outside the garden ; it passed through the garden, providing water for its irrigation ; and from thence, i.e. as it issued from the garden, it was divided, and became four heads, i.e. (cf. Ez. xvi. 25, xxi. 19; and the use of the expression 'heads of rivers' in Arabic of the parting-point of two streams, cited by Del.) the heads of four streams, each taking its separate course, as described in vv. 11 — 14. The representation gives an idea of the magnitude of the river flowing through the garden : even after leaving it, it could still supply four large streams ^ 11. Pishon, Not elsewhere mentioned. See p. 58 ff*. Hdmldh. Most probably (see on x. 29) a region in the NE. of Arabia, on the W. coast of the Persian Gulf The gold of Arabia was famed in antiquity. 12. bdellium. Heb. b^dolah, mentioned also Nu. xi. 7, where the manna is compared to it, so that it must have been a well-known substance. Most probably it was what the Greeks called jS^iWa or iSSeXXiov, a transparent, wax-like gum, valued for its fragrance, and soothing medicinal properties (Diosc. i. 80; Pliny, H^. xii. ix. ; Plaut. Cure. 101, in a list of perfumes). The best came from Arabia (Diosc), or Bactria (Pliny) ; but it was found also in Gedrosia (Beloochistan), India, and other places. See further the art. in EncB. onyx. Heb. shoJiam, the name of a precious stone, much esteemed by the Hebrews (Job xxviii. 16 ; cf Ex. xxviii. 9, 20), though there is 1 See Maspero, ii. 43 f.; and cf. below, p. 156 n. 5. ' This is the obvious and generally accepted interpretation of the verse : there is however another view according to which it describes, not four streams diverging from one, but four streams converging into one (see below, p. 58 f.). But the narrator is manifestly following in his description the downward course of the stream; it is most unnatural to suppose that by the words 'from thence it was parted ' he means to describe its u;pward course, above the garden. 40 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ii. 13- 15 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon : tlie same is it .> that compasseth the whole land of Gush. 14 And the name of the third river is ^Iliddekel : that is it which goeth ^in front of I Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15 And the Lord | God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress ^ That is, Tigris. * Or, toward the east of some uncertainty what it was, philology throwing no light upon the word, and the ancient versions varying much in their renderings (lxx. onyx, beryl, sardius, emerald, &c. ; Pesh. and Targ. heryl) Vulg. usually onyx). Either beryl or onyx seems most probable (see Beryl in EncB., and Onyx in DB.). According to Pliny {HN. xxxvn. § 86 fF.) the onyx was obtained specially from India and Arabia. In Ass. there is a gem sdmtu, often mentioned ; but it is at present unfortunately quite uncertain what it is : ' turquoise ' (Sayce), and 'pearr (Haupt), are both conjectural renderings. 13. Gihon. Not mentioned elsewhere in the OT.^: see p. 58 ff. CusJi. The usual Heb. name of Ethiopia : see on x. 6. 14. Hiddekel (also Dan. x. 4). The Tigris : Ass. Idiglat, Aram. Deklath, Arab. Dijlat^. in front of. The expression might mean in front of (from the standpoint of the narrator), i.e. in reality, west of: 'in front of,' however, means commonly in Heb. (cf. iv. 16, xii. 8 ; 1 S. xiii. 5 Heb.) east of\ but this rendering is open to the objection that Assyria extended far to the East of the Tigris : hence, if it is adopted, it must either be supposed that the description is a vague and inexact one (cf. Is. vii. 20) ; or (Sayce) Asshur must be taken to be the 'city of Asshur,' now KaVat Sherkdt, on the W. bank of the Tigris, about 60 miles S. of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, until superseded by Calah and Nineveh, and a city repeatedly mentioned by the Assyrian kings in their inscriptions (e.g. KB. I. 29, 33, 39, 125, 127, 133, &c.). But the fact of this city being not elsewhere referred to in the OT. makes it somewhat unlikely that it should be named here as a land-mark. Euphrates. Heb. P^rdth] Ass. Purdtu (the Gk form Euphrates is based upon the Old Persian Ufrdtu). 15. Continuation of v. 9^, after the digression, m. 10 — 14. Man is not made simply to enjoy life ; he is to labour and work. Even such a garden as the one described in v. 9 gives scope for man's activity : he is to till it, to develop its capacities, and adapt it to his own ends, and to keep (Is. xxvii. 3) or guard it, against the natural tendency of a neglected garden to run wild, and against damage from wild animals or other possible harm. 1 For of course the ♦ Gihon ' of 1 K. i. 33 al. cannot be intended. As a Heb. word Gihon would mean a 'gushing forth : see the cognate verb in Job xl, 23''. 3 Tigris, Old Pers. Tigrd, means the arroic-Uke, i.e. the swift (cf. Strabo, xi. 14. 8), from Old Pers. tighra, sharp, tighri, arrow. 11. 15-19] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 41 it and to keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, J 'iiiying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : 1 7 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18 And the Lord God said. It is not good that the man should be alone ; I will make him an help ^meet for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, 1 Or, answering to 16, 17. 'But man is not designed solely to till and keep the garden. There are dormant in him capacities of moral and religious attainment, wliich must be exercised, developed, and tested. A command is therefore laid upon him, adapted to draw out liis character, and to form a standard by which it may be tested. It is a short and simple command, unaccompanied even by a reason ; but it is sufficient for the purpose : man's full knowledge of what he must do or not do can be attained only as the result of a long moral and spiritual development, it cannot exist at the beginning. And the command relates to something to be avoided: the acknowledgment and observance of a limitation, imposed upon his creaturely freedom by his Creator and Lord, must be for man the starting-point of everything else ' (Dillm.). 17. The knowledge of good and evil, — implying the power of distinguishing them, and estimating each at its proper worth, — is a capacity not possessed by little children (Dt. i. 39), but gradually acquired by them (Is. vii. 15, 16), and accordingly deficient In second childhood (2 S. xix. 35); it is specially necessary for a judge (1 K. iii. 9), and is possessed in a pre-eminent degree by divine beings (ch. iii. 5, 22), and angels (2 S. xlv. 17^). 18 — 25. The formation of animals and of woman. 18. It is not enough to place man in the garden : further provision is yet required for the proper development of his nature, and satisfaction of its needs : a help, who may in various ways assist him, and who may at the same time prove a companion, able to interchange thought with him, and be in other respects his intellectual equal, is still needed. an help meet for him. Better, corresponding to him, i.e. adequate to him, intellectually his equal, and capable of satisfying his needs and instincts^ Cf. Ecclus. xxxvi. 24. 19. First of all beasts and birds are formed, also from the ground, and brought to the man to see how they would Impress him, and ^ AV., EV. had : but the Heb. is the same ; and in fact the expression includes what is beneficial and injurious, as well as what is morally good and evil. 2 'Meet' is of course an archaism, meaning adapted, suitable (cf. Ex. viii. 26; Mt. iii. 8 [AV.], xv. 2G). To speak of woman (as is sometimes done) as man's 'help- ; meet ' (absolutely) is an error implying strange ignorance of the English language. 42 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ii. and every fowl of the air ; and brought them unto the man see what he would call them : and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for ^man there was not found an help meet for him. 21 And the Loud God caused a deep sleep 1 Or, Adam \ whether they would satisfy the required need. Fishes are not mentioned ; the possibility of their proving a ' help ' to man being out of the question. In ch. i. animals are all created before man : so that it is again apparent that the writer of cb. ii. 4^ fF. follows a different conception of the order of creation. (The rend. ' had formed' is against idiom.) what he would call them. The name being (primarily) the expression of what a man thinks, this is tantamount to saying, what impression they would make upon him, and how he would regard them m relation to himself. living creature. Living soul (exactly as in v. 7) : see on i. 20. 20. gave names &c. Distinguished, it is implied, their different characters, or appearances, and gave them corresponding names. A hint is here given of one of the earliest uses to which man would put his faculty of language (cf. p. 55) : animals, by their variety, their often remarkable forms and habits, their life and activity, in many features so singularly resembling his own, would impress him vividly, and quickly give him occasion to put this faculty, possessed by him, to practical use. But amongst all the animals thus surveyed by him, there was found no 'help, corresponding to' himself. Many animals are serviceable to man, and so a ' help ' ; some may even become his companions : but none are on an equality with him ; there are none with whom he can converse intelligently, or whom he can treat as his intellectual or social equal. ' The dignity of human nature could not, in few words, be more beautifully expressed' (Dillm.) : compare the parallel in i. 26. for man. The Massorites have here and iii. 17, 21 pointed D*iS7 without the article, treating it as a proper name ; but, inasmuch as, where the article is part of the consonantal text, it appears consistently till iv. 25 (see e.g. ii. 21, iii. 22, 24, iv. 1), it is better to point accordingly here (Id'c'iddm, not l"dddm), and to render /or the man. 21, 22. The need thus awakened in the man God now proceeds to satisfy by creating woman. 21. a deep sleep. In order that the secret of God's operation might remain concealed from him. Tlie word, as ch. xv. 12, 1 S. xxvi. 12. We have here a wonderfully conceived allegory, designed, by a most significant figure, to set forth the moral and social relation IT. ,1-25] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 43 to fall upon the man, and he slept ; and he took one of his ribs, J and closed up the flesh instead thereof : 22 and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, ^made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called -Woman, because she was taken out of ^Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 1 Heb. biiilded he into. ^ Heb. Isshah. ^ Heb. IsTi. of the sexes to each other, the dependence of woman upon man, her close relationship to him, and the foundation existing in nature for the attachment springing up between them, and for the feelings with which each should naturally regard the other. The woman is formed out of the man's side: hence it is the wife's natural duty to be at hand, ready at all times to be a * help ' to her husband, it is the husband's natural duty ever to cherish and defend his wife, as part of his own self. 23. The man at once recognizes in the woman one intimately related to himself, and fitted to be his intellectual and moral consort. This is now &c. I.e. noiv at last, in contrast to the animals which had before been brought to him. The exclamation, which has almost a poetical rhythm, gives expression to the joyfal surprise with which he beholds her. hone of my hones &c. Cf., though the expression is not so strong, xxix. 14 ; Jud. ix. 2 ; 2 S. v. 1. Woman. The assonance of the Heb. (see RVm.) is in this case fairly reproducible in English. Symmachus for the same purpose uses avSpt?, Luther Mdnnin. 24. The narrator's comment, explanatory of the later existing custom (cf. X. 9, xxii. 14^, xxxii. 32) \ Therefore, — viz. because man and woman were originally one, and hence essentially belong together, — doth a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife ; and they become one flesh : the attachment between them becoming greater, and the union closer, even than that between parent and child. Marriage, — and moreover monogamic marriage, — is thus explained as the direct consequence of a relation established by the Creator. Cf. Mt. xix. 4—6 (ii Mk. x. 6—8); 1 Cor. vi. 16, xi. 8—12 ; Eph. v. 28—33 ; 1 Tim. ii. 12—14. they. LXX. the twain, whence Mt. xix. 5, Mk. x. 8, 1 Cor. vi. 16. 25. The narrative closes with a picture of their child-like innocence. The particular direction in which their innocence is represented as displaying itself, is due probably to the narrator's intention of explaining afterwards (iii. 7, cf. 21) the origin of clothing. 1 Tlie teiiBes used have a frequentative force: see G.-K. §§ 107^ 112'". 44 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [iii. i Chapter III. The Fall and its Conseqitences. The chapter describes how man was seduced into disobedience : and how, after a judicial inquiry held by God, sentence was passed successively upon the seducer, upon the woman, and upon the man. The sinful desire, though it has its real seat within the soul, is excited by an outward object, appealing to the senses ; and here it is stimulated into activity, and directed towards its object (the forbidden fruit), by the serpent. The serpent is introduced in the first instance simply as one of the animals which had passed before the man : it appears soon, however, that it is more, at any rate, than an ordinary animal : it possesses the faculty of speech, which it exercises with supreme intelligence and skill. The serpent is a creature which among primitive and semi-primitive peoples nearly always attracts attention: its peculiar form and habits, so differ- ent from those of other animals, suggest that there is something mysterious and supernatural about it ; the Arabs, for instance, say that in every serpent there lurks a jinn (or spirit). The serpent had moreover in antiquity the reputation of wisdom (Mt. x. 16), especially in a bad sense : it was insidious, malevolent, ' subtil.' And so it appears here as the representative of the power of temptation; it puts forth with great artfulness suggestions, which, when embraced, and carried into action, give rise to sinful desires and sinful acts. The serpent is not, however, in the narrative identified with the Evil One. The OT. does not mention the being whom we call ' Satan ' till the period of the exile; and even then he is not the 'tempter' of the NT.^: it was only later, when it had become usual to connect the power of evil with a person, that those who looked back upon this narrative saw in the serpent the Evil One. The identification appears first in Wisd. ii. 24 ('by envy of the devil death entered into the world'); cf. Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2. III. 1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of J the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of ^any tree of the * Or, all the trees III. 1. The serpent begins by addressing the woman, the weaker vessel, who moreover had not herself actually heard the prohibition (ii. 16 f.). It first distorts the prohibition, and then affects surprise at it when thus distorted ; thus it artfully sows doubts and suspicions in the heart of the unsuspecting woman, and at the same time ^ See A. B. Davidson's note on Job i. 6 in the Cambridge Bible for Schools, 111. 1-6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 45 garden ? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit J of the trees of the garden we may eat : 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die : 5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as ^God, knowing good and evil. G And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was ^to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did 1 Or, gods "^ Or, desirable to look upon insinuates that it is itself qualified to judge of the propriety of such a prohibition. subtil. Or, wil^ (Jos. ix. 4), crafti/ (Job v. 12) ; used also in a good sense (= callidus), Pr. xii. 16, 23 al. 2, 3. The woman corrects the serpent; and, to shew how fully aware she is of the strictness of the prohibition, adds (what is not contained in ii. 16 f.) that they are not even to touch the fruit of the tree. 4. 5. The serpent now goes on to deny flatly the truth of the threat, to suggest an unworthy motive for it, and to hold out the hope of a great boon to be secured by disobedience. The immediate reward, adroitly though fallaciously put forward, thus sets out of sight the remoter penalty. 5. for God doth know &c. It is not on your account, to save you from death, but on His account, to prevent your becoming like Him, that He has forbidden you to eat this fruit. The serpent attributes the prohibition to envy, the quality so often ascribed to the gods by the Greeks (e.g. Hdt. i. 32, iii. 40, vii. 10, 48). as God. Or, as gods (RVm. = AV.). The Heb. is ambiguous (the Heb. for 'God' being plural in form) ; so that the marg. is quite possible (cf V. 22 ; 2 S. xiv. 17). The distinction between God and divine beings was not so clearly drawn by the Hebrews as it is by us (cf. 1 S. xxviii. 13; perhaps, also, Ps. Ixxxii. 1, 6, xcvii. 7, cxxxviii. 1) : angels are called sometimes the ' sons of God ' (or ' of the gods ' ; cf. on v. 22, and p. 82 n.). 6. The woman does not repel the suggested doubt as to God's truth and love, but yields to it : the prospect of the tree in front of her, and the thought of the boon to be so speedily and easily acquired, overpower her : she both eats of the fruit herself, and also offers it to her husband, who naturally follows the example which she has set. to make one wise. Better, though the general sense remains the same, for becoming wise (Ps. ii. 10, xciv. 8). To look upon (lxx., 46 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [iii. eat ; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves ^aprons. 8 And they heard the ^ voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the ^cool of the day : and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou? 1 Or, girdles ^ Or, sound * Heb. wind. Pesh., Vulg., Ges., RVm.) is a meaning of Msl'd which is not otherwise known. (It occurs in Aramaic, and post-Biblical Hebrew, but only in the reflexive conjug., properly to shew oneself attentive.) 7. They had eaten of the tree of knowledge ; and. so, the idea is, they had passed in a moment — as we all pass, though only in the course of years — from the innocence of childhood into the knowledge which (see on ii. 17) belongs to adult age. Their sense of guilt betrays itself unconsciously, before long, in their behaviour as described in v. 8. For the present, however, the narrator notices only their acquisition of another sense, in which adult age differs from childhood, and the absence of which had been noted in ii. 24 as a mark of innocence. the eyes of them both were opened. The expression is used of any sudden, or miraculous, enlightenment, xxi. 19, 2 K. vi. 17. The serpent's words {v. 5) were thus fulfilled : but the knowledge gained was very different from that which they had been led to anticipate. jig leaves. Why in particular ^p^-leaves ? Probably because among the leaves of Palestinian trees those of the fig-tree were the largest. The mention of the fig is an indication that the narrative, if Babylonian in origin, must have been domesticated in Palestine : for the fig-tree is indigenous in Syria and Palestine, and (Hdt. i. 193) there were 'no fig- trees ' in Babylonia. aprons. Girdles, such as used to be worn round the loins, — in later times, outside the dress. See the same word in 1 K. ii. 5, Is. iii. 24. 8 — 13. God's judicial inquiry. 8. voice. Bather, sound. The garden was one in which, it is implied, God and man were wont to meet and discourse together : but now, when they hear His footsteps, they are afraid — for the voice of conscience tells them that they have incurred His displeasure — and make a vain attempt to hide themselves. toward the cool of the day. I.e. toward evening, when in the East a cooling wind arises (Cant. ii. 17 = iv. 6), and the Oriental can issue forth from his dwelling (contrast ch. xviii. 1). 9. Where art thou'? 'The call which, after every sin, repeats itself to the man who seeks to deceive himself and others concerning his sin' (Dillm.). III. io-h] the book of genesis 47 10 And he said, I heard thy ^ voice in the garden, and I wasJ^ jifraid, because I was naked ; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Wlio told thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done ? And the woman said. The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou ^above all cattle, and ^above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt 1 Or, sound 2 Qr, from among 10. Being no longer able to hide himself, but shrinking still from acknowledging the entire truth, the man at first alleges only his nakedness, as the cause of his concealment. 11, 12. But the Judge presses for a full confession, so the man now owns the deed, but seeks immediately to extenuate it by casting the blame for it upon the woman, and even ultimately upon God ('whom tliou gavest to be with me'). 13. The woman, when questioned, in her turn casts the blame upon the serpent. Cf 2 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Tim. ii. 14. The object of the questions is to elicit from both the man and the woman a full admission of their guilt. No such questions are put to the serpent, because, being not a morally responsible being, the awaken- ment of a sense of guilt in it is not needed, or indeed possible. 14 — 19. The sentences. 14, 15. The sentence on the serpent. The serpent, being an animal, is not morally responsible : but it is punished here as the representative of evil thoughts and suggestions ; man must recognize, in its punishment, how the curse of God rests upon all evil thoughts, such as those of which it has been the instigator. 14. above. Lit. out of, or (RVm.) from among, i.e. selected out of others as cursed, and not implying (as 'above' might suggest) that other animals are cursed likewise. upon thy belly &c. The mark of the serpent's curse consists in its crawling gait, and dusty food (cf Is. Ixv. 25) ; not that it actually lived on dust, but moving as it did with its mouth upon the ground, it might readily be supposed to swallow more dust than other animals (cf Mic. vii. 17). As the serpent, by the stealthiness and rapidity of its attack, and its often deadly bite, was a fit emblem of the destructiveness of the power of evil, so, by its life passed in the dust, it was to remind man of the prostrate condition in which it was God's design and intention that the power of evil should ever be held down. 48 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [in. 14-16 thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 and I will put enmity j between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall ^bruise thy head, and thou shalt ^bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth 1 Or, lie in loait for all the days of thy life. The serpent is obviously identified here with the serpent-r«c^ ; and suitably so, for it represents the ever- reviving, ever newly active, power of evil (cf. 'seed' in v. 15). 15. The serpent is to be not only a grovelling creature; there is to be irreconcilable enmity between it and man. The terms of the sentence are suggested by the relation actually existing between the human race and (speaking generally) the serpent race ; but it is evident that the words used include more than this : the serpent, even more clearly than in v. 14, is the representative of the power of evil. bruise. The word recurs Job ix. 17; Ps. cxxxix. 11 \ 'Bruise,* however, does not properly suit the last clause (where it is used of the serpent) ; hence many moderns render aim at^ make for (cf lxx. Tr)ptjcr€i{<:) ; Onk. watch, observe), supposing shuph to be a cognate form of shaaph, prop, to pant (Jer. xiv. 6), fig. to pant after, be eager for (in a hostile sense), Ps. Ivi. 1, 2, Ivii. 3 al [EV. would swallow me up\ It may, however, be doubted whether this poetic, metaphorical applica- tion (RVm. lie in wait for is too free) is here very suitable either ; and it seems better, on the whole, to retain bruise, supposing it to be used improperly of the serpent in the last clause on account of its use of the woman's seed in the clause before. The passage has been known for long as the Protevangelium ; and no doubt it is that : but we must not read into the words more than they contain. No victory of the woman's seed is promised, but only a perpetual antagonism, in which each side, using the weapons which it is natural to it to employ, will seek to obtain the mastery of the other. Only from the general drift and tenor of the passage can it be inferred that the conflict is one in which the ' seed of the woman ' may hope ultimately to have the victory : as Dillm. remarks, a conflict ordained by God, in which the serpent is viewed evidently as the offender and aggressor, cannot but end in the triumph of its opponent. The passage thus ' strikes at the outset of redemptive history the note of promise and of hope' (Ottley, History of the Hebrews, p. 11). See further ; p. 57. 16. The sentence on the woman : pain, especially the pain attendant upon child-bearing, and evils arising out of her relation to her husband. thy pain and thy conception. I.e., probably, pain (in general), and especially such as is the result of pregnancy. 'Pain' (p^vy, only 1 Here probably corrupt (read prob. '•JSw'l 'screen me'); for 'darkness' cannot be said naturally to 'bruise ' a person. I III. 16, 17] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 61 cljildren ; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shalll rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast Iicarkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying. Thou shalt not eat of it : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in Hoil shalt thou eat of it all ^ Or, soirow besides v. 17, v. 29) includes bodily as well as mental pain ; and is not to be limited to what we should now describe as ' sorrow ' (see v. 29). in pain &c. The Hebrews spoke proverbially of the severe pain (^>n, I not 3VV, as here) of child-bearing (e.g. Is. xxi. 3; Jer. vi. 24; Ps. xlviii. I 6) ; and here it is represented as the penalty for Eve's transgression. thy desire &c. Woman is to be dependent in two respects upon lier husband : (1) she will desire his coliabitation, thereby at the same time increasing her liability to the pain of child-bearing ; (2) he will rule over her, with allusion to the oppressed condition of woman in antiquity, when she was often not more than the slave of her husband, and was liable to be treated by him with great arbitrariness. It is of course evident that the presence of sin in the world has been the cause of immeasurable suffering to woman in precisely many of the ways that are here indicated ; but it is not to be supposed that the physical constitution of the human frame has been so altered by it that a function, which would otherwise have been exercised painlessly, should have become a painful one : in so far, therefore, as the text implies this, we can only conclude that, as in other instances, the writer was guided by moral rather than by historical considerations (cf p. 36). At the same time, even in regard to child-bearing, it is no doubt the case tliat at this critical and anxious moment of a woman's life, the sense of past wrong-doing weighs peculiarly upon her, and also that men's cruelty and women's folly have con- tributed to make the process more painful and perilous for women than it is for animals. 17 — 19. The sentence on the man. Work had been appointed for man before (ii. 15) : the penalty is to consist in its laboriousness, and in the disappointments and vexations which often accompany it. Agriculture is specified in particular, because it was one of the earliest, and has always been one of the most necessary, of human employments ; and a curse is accordingly laid upon the soil and upon its productive |)ower. Human wilfulness and human sin have in innumerable ways embittered toil ; but, as before, we cannot suppose that the sin of Adam affected directly the physical productivity of the earth*. 17. toil. Heb. pl^y, pain, as v. 16*; here oi painfal toil, as v. 29; cf. the use of the cognate n"iy in Pr. x. 22^ xiv. 23", v. 10^ Ps. cxxvii. 2. 1 It may be worth recalling that classical antiquity also supposed that in the Golden Age the earth brought forth spontaneously all that was required for human sneeds, and that the cultivation of the soil was only introduced at a later period (see e.g, Hes. Op. et Dies, 118 f.; Ovid, Met. i. 101 ff.; and cf. Verg. G. i. 121 ff.). i>. 4 ^^ THE BOOK OF GENESIS [m. 17-23 AT the days of thy life; 18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring, forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20 And the man called his wife's name ^Eve ; because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put foi-th his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever : 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 1 Heb. Havvah, that is, Living^ or, Life. 18. the herb of the field. Herbs, it is implied, need to be toil- somely cultivated, to prevent their being choked by weeds, whereas the fruit of trees (ii. 16) matures spontaneously. 19. till &c. Emphasizing the thought of v. 17 end, that the toil is to be life-long. and unto dust &c. Cf. Job x. 9, xxxiv. 15 ; Ps. xc. 3, civ. 29 (of animals), cxlvi. 4 ; Eccl. iii. 20, xii. 7. 20. £Jve. Heb. Ifawwdh, 'life'; the name being explained as implying that all (human) Hfe originated from her. The word must be a very old one in Hebrew ; like Jehovah (* Yahweh'), it is derived from a form (with w for 1/) obsolete in ordinary Hebrew, though preserved in Phoenician, as hdwdh, ' to be,' is preserved in Aramaic. 21. The feeling which prompted the making of girdles of fig-leaves (v. 7) is recognized as a sound one ; only coverings of a more permanent and substantial kind are provided. The origin of clothing is at the same time explained. Skins of animals are mentioned as the simplest and most primitive kind of clothing in practical use. coats. Rather, tunics. 22 — 24. The expulsion from Paradise. Man was created, it is imj)lied, mortal ; though, if he had continued innocent he might have secured immortality by eating of the tree of life. But immortality — or i at least immortality to be so attained — is out of the question for a| sinful being : to prevent him therefore from obtaining it, he is driven j forth to till the ground to which he belongs (ii. 7, iii. 19), under the toilsome conditions imposed in 1?. 17 ff. 22. as one of us. Man has acquired to a certain degree what is a divine prerogative or distinction. It is not however said that he has become like Jehovah, but only that he has become like one of the class of divine beings (cf. on v. b) to which Jehovah also belongs. III. .4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 51 21 So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east of the J iiarden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 24. The Cherubim, and the flaming sword, set to guard the way to the tree of life, are a symboKcal expression of the truth that the carden of innocence and purity and ideal happiness cannot be entered lin by man upon earth. But the garden, with the tree of immortality in its midst, thus lost to man in his earthly existence, came in a later age, when the belief in a future life began more definitely to shape itself, to supply imagery the ideal place of happiness after death. And so we find * the ulcn of Eden' {\ip. iJ) in post-Biblical Jewish writings\ and * Paradise (see on ii. 8) in 2 Esdr. viii. 52, the NT. (Lk. xxiii. 43 ; 2 Cor. xii. 4 ; Kev. ii. 7), and other Cliristian writings, used to denote the future abode of the blessed; comp. the 'tree of life' in Eaoch xxv. 4 f - (2 cent. B.C.) ; 2 Esdr. viii. 52 ; Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2. On the emblematic figures called Cherubim, see further p. 60 f Allusions to the Fall scarcely occur in other parts of the OT. (for IIos. vi. 7, Job xxxi. 33, are both uncertain: see RVm.): they appear, however, in the Apocrypha, as Wisd. ii. 24, x. 1 ; Ecclus. xxv. 24; 2 Esdr. iii. 21, iv. 30, vii. 48 (118); cf. Apoc. of Baruch liv. 15, 19 (see Sanday-Headlam, Romans, p. 137); and in NT. the references to it are frequent; see Horn. v. 12 — 21 j 1 Cor. XV. 21 f.; 2 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Tim. ii. 14; Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2. On the narrative ii. 4^ — iii. 24. In reading these two chapters we must distinguish between the narrative itself, — the scenery and incidents, as such, — and the spiritual teaching which they are intended to convey. Tiie material side of the narrative was derived, there can be little doubt, from the representations and traditions current among the writer's fellow-countrymen, though not entirely of native origin. The narrative contains features which have unmistakable counterparts in the religious traditions of other nations; and some of these, though they have been accommodated to the spirit of Israel's religion, carry indications that they are not native to it. A 'golden age' standing at the beginning of history, in which the earth yielded its products freely, and men lived a life of ideal happiness, unalloyed by care or sin, by toil or trouble, was pictured by many ancient nations, Persians and Indians, for instance, as well as Greeks (e.g. Hes. Op. et Dies, iJO— 92, 109—120) and Romans (Ov. Met. i. 89—112). The idea of a garden upon earth, which is God's own abode, and in which supernatural gifts are conferred by means of the fruits of trees, is akin to (though not identical with) the representations current in India and Persia, according to which the 1 E.g. Ahoth V. 20 (Taylor 29); Targ. of Cant. iv. 12. Cf. Enoch Ix. 8 'the garden where the elect and righteous dwell,' with Charles' note. • Where, however, its truit confers only long life, not immortality. 4—2 62 THE BOOK OF GENESIS dwellings of gods and genii on the sacred mountains contained wonderful trees able to confer many different kinds of blessings, especially (as the Soma plant) immortality. Both these and other elements in the representation, as the Cherubim and the flaming sword, perhaps even the serpent, have in fact a mythical colouring, and suggest the inference that they have been derived ultimately from a mythological source. There are also features tending specifically to connect the narrative with Babylonia. As different represen- tations of the course of creation were current in Israel, so, as we now know, they were also current in Babylonia; and one in which, as in ch. ii., the formation of man precedes that of plants and animals, exists in a very ancient narrative (according to llommel, as old as 3—4000 b.o.) which was published by Mr Pinches in 1890. It is too long to translate verlatim'^; but it describes how when as yet 'no reed had sprung up, no tree had been created' [cf. Gen. ii. 5], no house or city built, Nippur and Erech, with their temples, not yet founded, and when the world was all a sea, Marduk formed the dry land, and made it an abode for the gods ; and after this how he ' created mankind,' made beasts of the field, living things of the field, the Tigris and the Euphrates in their places, the verdure of the field, grass, marshes, reeds, the wild-cow with her young, the young wild-ox, the ewe with her young, the sheep of the fold, parks and forests, and finally houses and cities, and Nippur and Erech with their temples. In view of the antiquity of this narrative, Prof. Sayce^ does not hesitate to see in it 'the earliest starting-point yet known to us of that form of the story of creation, which we find in Gen. il' Two of the rivers mentioned in Gen. ii. are Babylonian; perhaps 'Eden,' and the slioham-aione (ii. 12) are so likewise. The irrigation of a tract of country by a large river (with, it is to be understood, cross-canals) is Babylonian. A sacred palm-tree, with two winged figures, having the heads sometimes of eagles, sometimes of men, standing or kneeling on either side, is often depicted on Assyrian gems^ It is possible that these figures are the prototypes of the Biblical 'cherubim' (see further p. 60 f.). A very ancient inscription may be here cited, describing a sacred garden with a mystic tree, which in its general conception is a counterpart of the Heb. 'garden of God*'— At Eridu^ a palm-stalk grew overshadowing ; in a holy place did it become green ; its root was of bright lapis-lazuli which stretched towards the abyss^; [before] the god Ea was its growth at Eridu, teeming with fertility; its seat was the (central) place of the earth; its foliage (?) was the couch of Buhu, the (primaeval) mother. 1 It may be read in full in Ball's Light from the East, p. 18, or KB. vi. 39—43. See also Jastrow, Rel. of Bab. and Ass. 444 — 450; Zimmern, KAT.^ 498. 2 Monummti, p. 93. « Ball, op. cit. pp. 28, 29—33. 4 Pinches, Trans. Vict. Inst. xxix. (1897), p. 44 ; Pinches, op. cit. (above, p. 38 k. p. 71 (with some differences in the translation) ; Sayce, Monuments, p. 101. ° Eridu was a very ancient sacred city of Babylonia; formerly, when the Persian Gulf extended further inland than it does now, it stood upon its south shore ; now its site (Abu-Shahrein) is on the right bank of the Euphrates, about 50 miles from its mouth (Maspero, i. 561, 563, 614 f., with map). Its sacred tree is mentioned also by Eri-aku [p. 156], who calls himself its guardian {KB. in. i. 97). • The 'waters under the earth.* THE NARRATIVE OF PARADISE 63 Into the heart of its holy house which spread its shade like a forest hath no man entered. In its interior is the sun-god, Tammuz, Between the mouths of the rivers (whicli are) on both sides*. Enough will have been adduced to shew that, though no complete Baby- lonian parallel to the story of Paradise is at present known, there are features in the narrative which point strongly towards Babylonia, and in the liglst of the known fact that other elements in the early chapters of Genesis are derived from Babylonia, authorize the inference that echoes of Babylonian beliefs supplied, at least in part, the framework of the representation 2. In considering the question of the origin and character of this represen- tation, it must not be forgotten that the beginnings of the human race reach b.'ick, it is certain (p. xxxi ff.), to a period far more remote than that from which any trustworthy recollections could have been transmitted to historical times : and hence we are not entitled to suppose that the Hebrews had more trustworthy information respecting the life and condition of the first men than other nations of the ancient world : on the contrary, we have every reason for believing that the pictures which their historians offer of primitive times were derived from the same source as those drawn by other nations, viz. folk-lore^ — whether native or borrowed, cannot, naturally, in every particular detail be precisely determined. And so we may conclude, in view of the facts mentioned above, that a legend respecting the first beginnings of man upon earth, contain- ing elements derived partly from Babylonia, partly, it may be, from elsewhere, but at the same time, in other features, strongly Hebraized, was current in ancient Israel; and that this, stripped of its primitive polytheism, and retaining only faint traces of what was probably its original mythological character, formed the material setting which was adapted by the narrator for the purpose of exhibiting, under a striking and vivid imaginative form, the deep spiritual truths which he was inspired to discern ^ As ch. i. gives no scientific account of 1 There is also a scene depicted on an ancient Bab. cylinder, now in the British Museum (Smith, Chald. Gen. p. 91 ; Ball, p. 25) — two fi^'ures seated on either side of ft fruit-tree, to which they are both stretching out their hands, while behind one of them a serpent is coiling upwards — which recalls forcibly Gen. iii.: but as no inscription accompanies it, its interpretation is uncertain ; and it is hazardous to suppose it to represent the Bab. story of the Temptation. And the passage quoted by Sayce, Monuments, p. 104 (cf. p. 65 n.), Ryle, p. 40, and in DB. i. 839'' (cf. Wade, OT. Hist. p. 49 bottom) from the third tablet of the Creation-epic (11. 132 —138), has certainly no reference to the Fall : it describes the feast held by the 'great gods' before appointing Marduk their champion against Tiamat (above, p. 28) : see the context, and an amended translation, in Ball, p. 7, by Zimmern, in Gunkel, p. 410, or Jensen, KB. vi. 21 : cf. also Jastrow, p. 424. On the myth of Adapa (who, beguiled by Ea, lost immortality), and possible traces of its influence in Gen. iii., see Zimmern, Bab. and Heb. Gen. 31 ff., KAT.^ 520 ff., Jastr. 544 ff. ' Comp. also, with the formation of man from dust, or (Job xxxiii. 6) clay, how in the Gilgamesh-epic (see p. 103), i. 34 (KB. vi. 121; Jastrow, pp. 448, 474; KAT.'^ 430), Aruru creates Eabani out of clay (LD''tD) ; and how also, according to Berossus — Feemingly in tlie Creation-epic — men were formed of earth mingled with the blood of a deity {KAT.^ 489, 497; cf. above, pp. 27 n. 2, 30 n. 1). ' Cf. Dr Bernard in DB. i. 840*: *We believe, then, that we have in this I Biblical record of the Fall a purified form of legendary narrative concerning man's !■ early history, which had wide currency among Semitic peoples..' 64 THE BOOK OF GENESIS the process of creation, so ch. ii. 4^— iii. 24 contains no scientific solution of the problems of anthropology. But the narrative expresses a variety of ethical and theological truths respecting human nature in a figurative or allegorical dress, the details not being true in a literal sense, but being profoundly true in a symbolical sense (cf. p. 32), i.e. as expressing in a symbolical or representative form real facts of human nature, and real stages through which human nature actually passed. And the writer, in constructing his narrative, has shewn a wonderful power of combining deep thoughts upon man and God with an almost child-like simplicity of outward form: he has thus produced, not only a narrative singularly impressive and attractive in itself, but one more- over which can *be understood by the simplest, as it may also be studied with spiritual benefit by the wisest of mankind.' Let us, then, while keeping our eye on the teachings of modern science, consider how we may regard the narrative of Gen. ii. 4^ ff., and what lessons we may derive from it. Of the actual beginnings of man upon this earth we know nothing: science, by a patient collection and examination of facts, may make certain conclusions as to our physical antecedents and ancestry more or less probable ; but that is all. The general trend of modern science is to regard man as having developed gradually out of humbler anthropoid ancestors ; and the possibility of this theory being true must at least be reckoned with by the theologian : as was remarked above (p. 32 f.), there can be at least no h priori objection to it upon dogmatic grounds. But at what moment, or with what feelings, man first awoke to consciousness of himself, we know as little as we know in the case of an infant child. Every individual among us has emerged by gradual steps out of a state of unconsciousness, firstly into a state of sensitive consciousness, in which he could be sensible of pleasures and pains, but could not reason, and after- wards into a state of intellectual and moral consciousness, in which he can use I the powers of reason, can apprehend moral distinctions, and rise to the con- | ception of spiritual realities. In our own cases, the influence of the civilization i around us, and the instruction and example of parents and elders who have ! been educated before us, and are able to help us to rise to their own level, ! facilitate and accelerate the process : in the case of the first men, it must | have been vastly slower and more gradual. But of the stages by which all this } took place neither history nor science tells us anything definite. Nor are the \ early chapters of the Bible intended to supply this deficiency. What they do ! is to seize and express, under forcible concrete images which all can understand, \ certain important moral and theological truths respecting the nature of man. | And in estimating the manner in which they do this, we must bear in mind the stage of knowledge and culture reached by those to whom they were in the first instance addressed. They were addressed to men who were wholly un- acquainted with the teachings of physical science, and who had never made human nature the subject of either archaeological or psychological study. They were addressed to men, by no means destitute of civilization and culture, — their polished literary form is alone sufficient to shew that, — but still to men who were untouched by all the deep and varied influences which (to speak summarily) owe their origin to Greece, and Rome, and modem Europe. They vrere addressed to men whose intellectual aptitudes and modes of thought were THE NARRATIVE OF PARADISE 65 thus, speaking relatively, those of children. And accordingly the truths which they contain are expressed in a form which men such as these would naturally understand. What then are some of the truths which these chapters of Genesis thus bring before us? 1. Man, it is said, was formed out of the 'dust.' This is obviously a pictorial, or symbolical, expression of the ftict that there is a material side to his nature, and that on this side of it he is connected with the earth. But by what process he was thus * formed ' ; through what intermediate forms, if any, the 'dust' passed before it became man, — these are questions which do not come within the range of the author's thought. It may be that, as science teaches, man, like many other species of living beings, arose by gradual differ- entiation and development, under varying conditions of environment, from a pre-existing form (or succession of forms) of life : but, if, and in so far as this theory is true, it simply implies an alteration in the manner in which God is conceived as having acted ; what was supposed to have been accomplished by Ilim, as the result of a single act, some 6000 years ago, was really accom- plished by Him as the result of a long process, extending through unnumbered years: the essential point, which the old Hebrew narrator has here seized, remains unaflfected, that God (mediately, or immediately) ' formed man of the dust of the ground^.' The second part of the same verse, 'and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,' suggests (as pointed out in the note) that there is also another and higher side to man's nature. And so the verse teaches by implication the truth of man's double nature. On the one hand, man has a material body, in virtue of which he is dependent for his support and welfare upon the material world, and has to accommodate himself to the material conditions under which he finds himself; on the other hand, his life is in some special sense a divine gift ; it brings with it intellectual and moral capacities, differing from those possessed by other animals, a sense of the reality and distinctive character of which is strongly impressed upon the narrative. 2. Man was made not to be idle, but to worky to attend to the garden in which he was placed, and to develop its capacities. Man is intended to exercise his faculties ; and so there is declared in iiuce the truth that it is part of the Divine order that man should pi^ogress ; and as years went on, originate and develop all the various arts, employments, and sciences, which are in different ways conducive to the welfare or knowledge of humanity. 3. The narrative hints at one of the earliest uses to which man would put his reason, the creation of language (ii. 19 f.). The power of creating language essentially differentiates man from animals. Animals distinguish : they know (in many cases) one man, or one creature, from another, they know one food from another : but only man fixes such distinctions, by associating them with particular sounds, and thereby creating language. The power of giving names to animals implies the possession of reasoa ^ For a ;uller discussion of the theistic aspects of Evolution, the writer may be permitted to refer to the first of his Sermons on Subjects connected with the Old Testament (1892), pp. 1 — 27. See also the illuminative treatment of the subject in Aubrey Moore's Science and the Faith (1889), pp. 162 — 235, and in Oxford House Papersy No. 21 (1889), 'Evolution and Christianity.' 66 THE BOOK OF GENESIS 4. The account given of the formation of woman is, naturally, not to be understood literally; but under a symbolical form, it teaches (as indicated in the notes on ii. 18 ff.) the deep etliical and social significance, which under- lies the difference between the sexes. 5. The narrative teaches that man possesses a moral nature, which must be exercised, and tested ; and a command is accordingly laid upon him for the purpose (cf. on ii. 16f.). The command is broken; and man falls thereby from his state of innocence, and forfeits the blessiiig of the Divine favour, and the Divine presence, which he had before enjoyed. The command, of which the man became conscious, and which he disobeyed, can be meant only to represent, as in a figure, the moral law, a sense of which, — though we cannot define when, or where, — awoke in primitive man, but almost as soon as it did awake, was contravened. It is the awakening conscience of the human race, the awakening sense of right and wrong, the operation of which is thus figuratively brought before us, 6. The narrator analyses very completely the psychology of temptation, bringing out particularly the insidiousness with which suggestions of evil come upon a man, prompting him often, with fatal effect, to do something which is apparently harmless, or which can plausibly be represented as harmless. 7. The narrative teaches that man possesses freewill: he was created with the capacity to remain innocent, but also vrith the capacity to sin (Ecclus. XV. 11 — 20; Jas. i. 13 f.). Temptation, though it does not proceed from God, is permitted by Him : it tests man's character ; and tends to strengthen and perfect it by giving him the opportunity of manifesting his readiness to prefer God's will to his own, and thereby of establishing a habit of goodness. 8. As regards the condition of man before the Fall, there is a mistake not unfrequently made, which it is important to correct. It is sometimes supposed that the first man was a being of developed intellectual capacity, perfect in the entire range of his faculties, a being so gifted that the greatest and ablest of those who have lived subsequently have been described as the * rags ' or ' ruins ' of Adam. This view of the high intellectual capacities of our first parents has been familiarized to many by the great poem of Milton, who represents Adam and Eve as holding discourse together in words of singular elevation, refinement, and grace. But there is nothing in the representation of Geneiis to justify it ; and it is opposed to everything that we know of the methods of God's providence. All that, as Christian theologians, we are called upon to believe is that a time arrived, when man's faculties were sufficiently developed for him to become conscious of a moral law, and that, having become conscious of it, he broke it : he may have done this, without possessing any of those intellectual perfections with which he has been credited, but the existence of which, at such a stage of history, would be contrary to the whole analogy of providence : progress, gradual advance from lower to higher, from the less perfect to the more perfect, is the law which is stamped upon the ontire range of organic nature, as well as upon the history of the civilization and education of the human race. The fact that this law is the general rule is rot affected by retrogression in civilization in particular cases. But it is si fficient for Christian theology, if we hold that, whatever the actual occasior may have THE NARRATIVE OF PARADISE 57 been, and however immature, in intellect and culture, he may have been at the time, man failed in the trial to which he was exposed, that sin thus entered into the world, and that consequently the subsequent development of the race was not simply what God intended it to be ; it has been attended through its whole course by an element of moral disorder, and thus in different ways it has been marred, perverted, impeded, or thrown back. And what has (joen said remains true, even though it should be the case — though (p. xxxvi) this is not tlie view which commends itself to modern anthropologists — that mankind are not all descended from a single human pair, but arose in- dependently in different centres of the globe : the real unity of the human race consists not in unity of blood, but in identity of mental constitution, r.nd of moral and spiritual capacities^; in this case, therefore, as the facts are sufficient evidence of the presence of sin in all the races of mankind, the natural inference would be that each race independently passed through similar moral experiences, and each similarly underwent a ' fall/ The typical truth of the narrative of Gen, iii. would thus, if anything, be eAhanced rather than diminished, if this supposition were true^. 9. The Protevangelium (iii. 15) lays down a great ethical principle. There is to be a continual spiritual struggle between man and the manifold temptations by which he is beset. Evil promptings and suggestions are ever assailing the sons of men ; and they must be ever exerting themselves to repel them. It is of course true that the great and crowning defeat of man's spiritual adversary was accomplished by Him who was in a special sense the * seed ' of the woman, the representative of humanity, who overcame once and for all the power of the Evil One. But the terms of the verse are perfectly general ; and it must not be interpreted so as to exclude those minor, though in their own sphere not less real, triumphs, by which in all ages individuals have resisted the suggestions of sin and proved themselves superior to the power of evil. It is a prolonged and continuous conflict which the verse contemplates, though one in which the law and aim of humanity is to be to resist, and if possible to slay, the serpent which symbolizes the power of temptation. The site of Paradise, The question of the site of Paradise is one that has exercised many minds : and very extraordinary speculations have sometimes been propounded on the subject. After what has been said in the preceding pages, however, it will be evident that Paradise, as described in the Book of Genesis, is an ideal locality; and hence what we have to consider is not the question of tiie site of Paradise ^ Though, if the doctrine of evolution be true, there would in this case also be a unity of blood, only its starting-point would be further back ; and it would be based, not upon descent from a single human pair, but upon descent from a single group of anthropoid precursors. ^ With the main thought of the preceding paragraph comp. especially a sermon by Canon (now Bishop) Gore in Lux Mundi, App. ii (ed. 10, p, 526 ff.) ; and the same writer's Epistle to the Romaus (1900), ii. 220—2, 228—235; also a lecture reported in the GMrch Times, Feb. 19, 1897, or, more briefly, in the Exp. Times, Apr. 1897; nod Illingworth, Bampt. Lect. vi. pp. 143—7, 154—161. Cf. DB. iv. 528^ 68 THE BOOK OF GENESIS as a real locality, but the question of its site, as it was pictured by the Hebrew narrator. And even this question is not one the answer to which is obvious. A river, branching into four, of which two are the Tigi-is and the Euphrates, corresponds to nothing which is to be found — or, we may safely add, was ever to be found — on the surface of the earth. And when we endeavour to identify the two remaining rivers, the Pishon and the Gihon, by what we know of the countries which they are represented as flowing around, they elude our grasp. Havilah (see on xxv. 18) was probably in N.E. Arabia; Gush is generally Ethiopia, though it might (see on x. 8) denote the Kasshites, a people dwelling in the mountainous region between Babylonia and the Caspian Sea, who figure rather prominently in early Babylonian history, and indeed gave Babylon a dynasty of kings who ruled for 576 years {c. 1786 — 1211 b.o.). None of these identifications however enable us to determine the Pishon and the Gihon consistently with what we know of the geography of the regions in question. The following are the principal proposals, which have been made for fixing the site of Paradise, in accordance with the description in Genesis. 1. The Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the same country, Kurdistan; and hence some older scholars, as Keil, placed Paradise there, the Pishon being either the Phasis or (Keil) the Araxes (which, joining the Kur, runs into the Caspian Sea on the E.), and the Gihon being the Oxus (now the Jihoun). But these rivers do not actually rise together, in fact the Oxus rises far to the East of the Caspian Sea, in Afghanistan ; and there are no grounds for locating !5avilah and Gush in this region. 2. Friedrich Delitzsch, the eminent Assyriologist, son of the well-known commentator, in 1881 propounded the view that Eden was the whole 'plain' (see on ii. 8) of Babylonia; * Paradise' was the region close to Babylon, on the N., where the Tigris and the Euphrates approach each other most closely ; the Pishon was the Pallakopas, a canal running for a long distance (from above Babylon) on the W. and S. of the Euphrates, and debouching finally in the Persian Gulf; the Gihon was the canal, called now the Shatt en-Nil, which runs, on the E. of the Euphrates, from Babylon, till it joins the Euphrates again near the ancient Ur, Gush being a name of Babylonia (derived from the fact, mentioned above, that a Kasshite dynasty ruled in Babylonia for many centuries). Prof. Delitzsch's work is full of most valuable information, collected from the inscriptions, respecting the geography and antiquities of Babylonia and the surrounding countries ; but it is generally felt by scholars that these identifications do not agree sufiiciently with the Biblical descriptions to be probable. 3. Professor Sayce\ adopting the view of ii. 10, mentioned in the footnote on p. 39, considers that the river parted into four heads is the Persian Gulf (which the Assyrians do not seem to have recognized as an arm of the sea, for they called it Ndr Marratum, the 'Bitter River'); the Pishon was the Pallakopas canal ; the Gihon the Khoaspes (now the Kerkha), which, rising 1 Monuments, pp. 95 — 103 ; art. Eden in DB. Similarly (except that the Pishon is identified with the Karun, E. of the Kerkha) Sir J. W. Dawson, Modern Science in Bible Lands, chap. iv. THE SITE OF PARADISE 59 in tliG mountains of the Kasshites (who are meant by * Cush '), flowed formerly into the Persian Gulf ^ ; Eden was the ' plain ' of Babylonia ; Paradise was the sacred garden of Eridu (see p. 52), which stood formerly (ibid.) on the S. shore of the Persian Gulf. This view has the advantage of identifying Paradise with a known sacred garden of the Babylonians; but it seems impossible (p. 39) to accept the interpretation of Gen. ii. 10, upon which it depends. 4. HommeP— following largely Ed. Glaser^, who, by his travels and the numerous inscriptions wliich he has collected, has made many important additions to our knowledge of the geography and ancient history of Arabia — places Paradise at Eridu, and considers Eden to have been the ' plain ' about t : the Pishon, Gihon, and Hiddekel, he identifies with the IVddy Dawdsir, 1 he IVddy Rummd, and the Wddy Sirhdn, three Wadys in N. Arabia, which run down from the neighbourhood of Mecca, Medina, and Damascus, respec- tively, in the direction of the Persian Gulf. These identifications are supported with Hommel's usual cleverness and ingenuity ; but besides being open to the serious objection that the three Wadys mentioned are not * rivers,' but dry valleys, they involve too many purely hypothetical elements to have any claim to be regarded as probable*. 5. Delitzsch and Dillmann identify the Pishon with the Indus (the gold- country being then India), and the Gihon (as was already done by Josephus, Ant. 1. 1. 3) with the Nile^ (Cush being then, as generally in the OT., Ethiopia). These identifications may seem startling, in the light of modern geographical knowledge : but it must be remembered that the ancients, to a much later date than that at which Gen. ii. must have been written, had most inexact ideas of the geography of distant parts : of distant rivers they had only a dim and vague knowledge, not at all realizing their actual coui*ses, or the points at which tiiey ran into the ocean, and being ignorant in particular of the geography of. S. Arabia and of the Red Sca^ There is no reason for supposing that the Hebrews were better informed'^. 6. Paul Haupt, the well-known Assyriologist, in an article on the site of Paradise^, holding similarly that, in our localization of the rivers in Gen. ii., we must not start with the conceptions of modern geography, thinks that the ^ The Kerkha, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, formerly entered the Persian Gulf by separate mouths ; but the head of the Gulf has since ancient times been largely silted up, and the three rivers now converge in the Shatt el-Ardb, about 100 miles above the sea. 2 ART. 314—16 ; more fully (with map at end) Aufsatze und Ahhandlungen, iii. i. (1901), pp. 281—4, 292, 298, 335—9. * Skizze der Gesch. und Geogr. Arabiens von den dltesten Zeiten his zum Propheten Muhammad (1890), ii. 317—357. ■* They are rejected by Prof. Sayce {Exp. Times, 1901, p. 564) : see also the detailed criticism by Konig, Fiinf neue Arab. Landschaftsnamen im AT. p. 66 &. ^ Cf. Jer. ii. 18 lxx. ; Ecclus. xxiv. 27. Jos. identifies the Pishon with the Ganges. ^ Alexander was led, by the crocodiles in the Indus, to think at first that he had reached the sources of the Nile (Arrian, Exp. Alex. vi. 1. 3). ' ' The inspiration of the Biblical writers did not in matters of natural know- ledge raise them above the level of their age : it need therefore cause no surprise if the Biblical representation of Paradise bears marks of the imperfect geographical knowledge of the ancients' (Delitzsch, Neio Comm. on Genesis, 1837, on ii. 13). 8 In Ueber Land und Meer, 1894 — 5, No. 15 (with maps). 60 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Tiew underlying the description is that tliere was on the N. of Mesopotamia a large body of water (perhaps suggested by a dim knowledge of tiie Black Sea), which was the source of the four rivers : the Euphrates and the Tigric, flowing southwards, ended in marshes ^ ; the Pishon (suggested by the Kerkha), starting more to the E., flowed into the Persian Gulf (supposed to be a river), then turning westwards it encircled Havilah (= Arabia), and ended in the Red Sea; there was land beyond the Pishon, and the Gihon (suggested by the Karun), starting still further to the E., flowed first southwards, then, turning westwards, it passed through this land, and encircling Gush (-Ethiopia) ended finally in the Nile. Something of this kind, inconsistent as it is with actual geography, does seem to be what the description in Gen. ii. points to. The general relative positions of the Euphrates and the Tigris were no doubt known; and this must form the starting-point of any attempt to fix the site of Paradise, as pictured by the Hebrews. The cradle of humanity was believed to be some- where to the East of Palestine (Gen. ii. 8), in or near Babylonia ; and there, in a region watered by the supposed common source of the two greatest rivers which they knew, and also of two others, the course of which it is impossible to determine consistently with actual geography, the Hebrews located Paradise. Tlie Cherubim, The cherubim were composite emblematic figures, which are mentioned in the OT. chiefly (1) as bearers of the Deity; (2) as guardians of sacred things. Thus (1) in Ps. xviii. 10, Jehovah rides on the cherub in the thunder- storm ; in the Tabernacle, two small cherubim facing each other are described as rising out of the ends of the mercy-seat on the ark (Ex. xxv. 18 — 20), and in the Temple stood two colossal cherubim which with their wings over- shadowed the ark (1 K. vi. 23 — 8), at once protecting it and also forming a throne on which Jehovah was regarded as being seated (' Thou that sittest upon the cherubim,' Ps. Ixxx. 1 al.Y\ in the visions of Ezek. (i. 5 ff., cf. x. 1 ff.) four cherubim bear the ' firmament ' which supports Jehovah's throne — here it is said that each had four faces, that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, four wings, the hands of a man, and the feet of calves (i. 6 — 10), though whether these reproduced exactly the cherubim of the Temple is uncertain : it is pogsible that they represent elaborations, constructed partly with elements derived directly from Babylonia, of an older and simpler conception. In Gen. iii. the cherubim appear as guardians of God's abode and of the spiritual treasures reserved therein. The passage which ought on all grounds to be 1 Cf. the curious ancient map of Babylonia, in which the country is represented as surrounded by an actual circle, expressly called Nar Marratum (i.e. the Persian Gulf), and the Euphrates does enter, at least partly, apparu or ' marshes ' : see Ball, Light from the East, p. 23, or (more fully) Ezekiel, in Haupt's Polychrome Bible, p. 101. ^ Figures of cherubim were also carved as ornaments, together with palm-trees and open flowers, upon the walls and doors of the Temple (1 K. vi. 29, 32, 35 ; cf. Ez. xli. 18 — 20 [here with two faces, one that of a man, the other that of a lion], 25), and on the bases of the ten lavere (1 K. vii. 29) : cf. also Ex. xxvi. 31. THE CHERUBIM 61 compared is Ez. xxviii. 13 — 17, where the 'prince of Tyre' is represented as a glorious being bedecked with gold and precious stones, who had been placed 'in Eden, the garden of God/ had there 'walked up and down in the midst of stones of fire' (i.e. flashing gems), but had forfeited his high estate by pride, and had been expelled from tlie holy ' mountain of God' by a cherubK Ezek., it is probable, had access to traditions about Paradise more ample than those preserved in Gen., and perhaps in some respects different from them ; and he makes use of them here for the purpose of reiDresenting pictorially the fall of the king of Tyre. The cherubim are to be interpreted as symbolic beings — imaginative symbols of the mystoriousness, the ubiquity, the dread unapproachability of the Deity. The origin of the conception is uncertain. The word has no lleb. etymology. Lenormant's statement {Origines, i. 118; of. Sayce, Monit- merits, 102) that he had read kiruhu ('may the gracious kirubu give protection ') on a talisman in M. de Clercq's fine collection of Assyrian and Babylonian gems, as a synonym for the usual shidu, the name of the huge winged human-headed bulls which guard the entrance of Assyrian palaces and temples^, has not been verified : no such inscription is quoted in the catalogue of the collection which has recently been published'. Ps. xviii. 10 would suggest that the conception arose in a personification of the thunder-cloud (upon, or within, which, as the context of the verse plainly shews, the Hebrews believed Jehovah to be borne along). Composite figures of different kinds were how- ever common in the art of most of Israel's neighbours — Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians — from one or other of whom they also found their way into early Greek art*; and it is quite possible that the idea of the cherub was borrowed from some of these (see further Cherub in EncB.)K It need only be added here that in the OT. the cherubim are the attendants or guardians of Deity upon earth : they are first transferred to heaven in the Book of Enoch, where they appear among the highest angels, as the unsleeping guardians of God's celestial throne (xiv. 11, 18, xx. 7, Ixi. 10 ff., Ixxi. 6f.): cf. the four ^c3a (the name as in Ezek., but with different functions) of Rev. iv. 6—8, v. 6, 11,' 14, vi. 1—7, vii. 11, xiv. 3, xv. 7, xix. 4. ^ The text is in parts obscure and corrupt ; but there is little doubt that this is the real meaning ; see Davidson's Gomm. (in the Cavib. Bible), p. 207. Kead (after Lxx.) in V. 14 *With the cherub I set thee, thou wast in the holy mountain of God,' &c., and in v. 16 end ' and the cherub destroyed thee from the midst,' &c. 2 See Ball, op. cit., Plate opposite p. 28 ; and cf. KAT.^ 529 f. 3 It is now stated that the reading rests upon a mistake {KAT.^ 632 n. 5). * Especially in the form of the gold-guarding ypvires (eagle-headed lions), Aesch. P. V. 803 f. ; Hdt. iii. 116, iv. 13, 27, derived, according to Furtwangler, from Hittite art. See his elaborate article Gryps in Eoscher's Mythol. Lex. * Comp. the * cherubic' figures in Ball, pp. 28, 29, 30, 31 — 33 (winged human figures standing or kneeling before a sacred tree, and one eagle-headed winged human figure) ; but (N.B.) there is no Bab. or Ass. text in which any of these is called a 'cherub.' Dr Tyler has shewn {PSBA. June, 1890, p. 383 ff.; cf. Masp. 1. 555 f., 557) that in many cases these figures are represented as fertilizing the date-palm with the pollen from the male palm-spathe : the date was of great importance in Babylonia as an article of food; and probably some religious significance attached to the act. Observe the cherubim by the side of palm-trees in many of the passages cited p. GO n. 2, especially Ez. xli. 18, 19. 62 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Chapter IV. The Progress of Manldnd in the line of Cain. This chapter deals with three subjects : (1) Cain's murder of his brother Abel, and the banishment which was its punishment, vv. 1 — 16; (2) the origin of early arts in the line of Cain's posterity (which is traced, for seven genera- tions from Adam, as far as Lamech's sons), vv. 17 — 24; (3) the first two links in the parallel line of Seth, vv. 25, 26, this line being given more comi)letely (through ten generations, to Noah) in ch. v. The story of Cain {vv. 1 — 16) supplies a striking example of the manner in which the propensity to sin may be transmitted, in even an aggravated form, from one generation to another : the disobedience of Adam is followed, in the case of his son, by a terrible out- burst of self-will, pride, and jealousy, leading to a total and relentless renuncia- tion of all human ties and affection. The object of vv. 17 — 24 is to sketch in outline the progress of civilization, and the rise of various arts. The period was one to which no historical recollections reached back ; and the narrative furnishes another example (cf. ii. 19 f., 24, iii. 7, 14, 16, 17—19, 21) of the manner in which the Hebrews, like many other nations, sought to fill up the blank, and explain for themselves the origin of the habits and institutions of a later day. Thus in this section of the chapter there are explained the beginnings of city-life, polygamy, music, and metallurgy; in v. 2, also, the origin of pastoral life and of agriculture seems to be referred to Abel and Cain respectively ; and in v. 26 the beginning of the public worship of God is described. These would hardly be all the arts and institutions explained by Hebrew folk-lore : it is probable therefore that the narrator (or compiler) merely selected a few typical examples sufficient to produce a general picture of the moral and material progress of early man, as conceived by the Hebrews. There is no parallel at present known from Babylonian antiquity ; but some- thing similar was told in Phoenicia (see p. 73). It seems to have been a collateral aim of the compiler to shew how the line which made so many advances in material civilization fell yet more under the power of sin, and developed a spirit of vengeance and thirst for blood : the line of Seth {v. 25 f), on the other hand, is characterized by the growth of piety. In parts of the narrative, facts or institutions are presupposed (as the custom of sacrifice, v. 3 f., of blood-revenge, vv. 14, 15, and the increase of population, vv. 14, 15, 17), of the origin of which nothing is said. The first two of these omissions need hardly occasion surprise : the customs referred to might either have been supposed by the narrator to have arisen instinctively, or have been imported by him unreflectingly into his picture of primitive times from the associations of his own age. The third omission constitutes a graver inconsistency, which has led some to infer that the Book of Genesis did not represent the whole human race as descended from Adam and Eve, but recognized the existence of * pre- Adamites/ It is true, man undoubtedly existed upon this globe long before the date which the Book of Genesis J IV. 1-3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 63 assigns for his creation (p. xxxi) ; but the whole tenor of the narrative shews that none of the writers to whom we owe the early chapters of Genesis were conscious of the fact : we may be sure, indeed, that, had they been conscious of it, they would have mentioned it distinctly. The allusions in question must consequently be explained diflFerently. In any case they are inconsistencies of which the author of the Book in its present form seems to be unconscious ; though possibly they are also indications of the fact either that the narratives containing them once formed part of a wider cycle of legend, in which the existence of other branches of mankind was accounted for, or else (cf. p. 72) that at least iv. 1 — 16 related originally to a later stage in the history of mankind than that to which it is now referred. IV. 1 And the man knew Eve his wife ; and she conceived, j and bare Cain, and said, I have ^gotten a man with the help of the Lord. 2 And again she bare his brotlier Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of ^ Heb. kanah, to get. IV. 1—16. The story of Cain and Abel. 1. / have gotten &c. The mother expresses her joy in words which are so framed as to explain at the same time the name of the child. 'Cain' cannot indeed mean gotten (for it cannot be derived from the verb kdndh), any more than *Noah,' for instance, can mean comfort, or ' Moses ' drawn out. What we have in these, as in many similar cases in the OT., are not etymologies, but assoiiances, i.e. the name is explained not by the word from which it is actually derived, but by a word which it resembles in sound. RVm. indicates this by saying, not that 'Cain' means 'gotten,' but that the Heb. for 'to get' is kdndh, a word which, it is obvious, resembles 'Cain.' As a Heb. word, 'Cain' ('Kayin') might be explained (from the Arabic) as meaning metal-worker^ smith (cf. v. 22) : 'Kenite' (xv. 19) is also, at least in appearance, a gentile name derived from it (cf p. 72). 2. Abel Heb. Hebel, which means a breath (Is. Ivii. 13), fig. of something evanescent, Ps. xxxix. 5 (RVm.). This was no doubt the meaning which the name suggested to the Hebrews; but what its original meaning was, is quite uncertain. Possibly, it is the Ass. abluy ' son ' : for other speculations, see EncB. s.v. Abel introduces pastoral life, Cain agricultural life (such as that to which Adam had been condemned, iii. 17), both relatively primitive and simple modes of life^ especially the former, which would naturally be the stage next following that at which men supported themselves on the spontaneous produce of the soil, and by fishing and hunting (p, 68). 3. 4. The two brothers bring offerings to Jehovah, each of the produce of his own toil and care. 1 Not the earliest (above, p. xxxix ff. j cf. Tylor, Anthropology, 206 ff., 219 ff.). 64 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [iv. 3-5 the fruit of the ground an oifering unto the Lord. 4 And Abel, J he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. of the fruit of the ground... ^ of the firstlings of his flock. Both firstfruits and firstlings were ancient and common kinds of offering among other nations as well as among the Hebrews (Ex. xxii. 29, 30, in the ancient * Book of the Covenant ') ; being offered, at least in civilized times, as natural expressions of thankfulness for the fruitful- ness of the soil and of animals (cf Dt. xii. 6, 7). However, no such motive is alluded to here ; nor is it one that is likely to have operated in really primitive times*. an offering. Heb. minhdh, meaning properly a present offered to conciliate, or retain, tJie good will of a superior (e.g. xxxii. 13, 18, xliii. 11 ; 2 S. viii. 2) ; of a 'present' offered to Jehovah, here, 1 S. ii. 17, xxvi. 19, and elsewhere (RV. usually 'offering'), also used specifically, in a narrower sense, of the 'meal-offering' (Lev. ii.)^ 4. fat. Fat pieces (the Heb. word being plural), a highly-prized portion of the animal, and so offered regularly upon the altar (Lev. i. 8, iii. 3 f ; in firstlings, Nu. xviii. 17). The custom of sacrifice is here represented as practised naturally immediately after the introduction of pastoral and agricultural life, and as being in each case an acknowledgment to God for His blessing, and arising out of a spontaneous feeling of gratitude for the gifts of the earth. On the question whether this has really been the predomi- nant motive in determining the institution of sacrifice, see DB, s.v. Sacrifice, pp. 330 — 2, 349* (references). 5. fell. Indicating discontent : cf Job xxix. 24 Heb., Jer. iii. 12. Why were the two offerings regarded thus differently, when each is described in similar language, and each is manifestly intended as an expression of reverence and thankfulness? The ground of the difference is not stated, and it can only therefore be inferred. But it can hardly have lain in anything except the different spirit and temper actuating the two brothers. Cain, it is to be noticed, as soon as he perceives that his gift has not been accepted, becomes angry and discontented — in itself a sufficient indication that his frame of mind was not what it should have been. There must have been in his purpose some secret flaw which vitiated his offering : it may have been envy at his brother's better fortune, it may have been some other thought or feeling inconsistent with ' a sacrifice of righteousness,' i.e. a sacrifice offered with a pure and sincere purpose (Ps. iv. 5). It seems thus to be at least a collateral aim of the narrator to illustrate and emphasize the prophetic teaching that it is not the gift, but the 1 Cf. Jevons, Tntrod. to Hist, of Bel. 223—5; Frazer, Golden Bough?, ii. 459. 2 See more fully, on the usage of this word, DB. s.v. Oi'jter, OrFEBiNO, § 4. I IV. 6-9] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 65 6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth ? and why J is thy countenance fallen ? 7 If thou doest well, ^shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee ^shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 8 And Cain ^told Abel liis brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. 9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother ? And he said, I know not : 1 Or, shall it not be lifted up ? ^ Or, is its desire, but thou shouldest rule ovpr it 3 Heb. said unto. Many ancient authorities have, said unto Abel Ills brother, Let us go into the field, spirit in which the gift is oifered, which determines its value in the sight of God\ ^ Of. Heb. xi. 4 ; 1 Jn. iii. 12 ; also Jude 11. 6. 7. A Divine warning follows, bidding Cain control his temper, and hinting at the consequences if he fails to do so. 7. The margin must be followed. If thou doest well, i.e. hast a right and sincere purpose, it will shew itself in thy countenance, shall there not be lifting up? viz. of thy countenance, it will not be down- cast and sullen, but bright and open : and if thou doest not well, hast sinister, envious thoughts, sin is then near at hand, couching like some wild animal at the door, and unto thee is its desire, it is eager to spring upon and overpower thee : but thou shouldest rule over it, conquer the rising temptation before it is too strong for thee, and subdue it. The text is open to suspicion; but as thus understood, it teaches a profound psychological truth, the danger viz. of harbouring a sullen and unreasoning discontent : it is a temper which is only too likely to lead to fatal consequences, and which, therefore, as soon as it begins to shew itself, should at all costs be checked. and unto thee &c. The words are identical substantially with iii. 16^ ; but they are differently appHed. 8. But Cain, heedless of the warning, gives the rein to his sullen thoughts ; he tempts his brother to go with him into a solitary place (Dt. xxii. 27), and there attacks and slays him. told. The Heb. means, not * told,' but said unto, and the words said ought to follow. Sam., lxx., Vulg., Pesh., and Ps.-Jon. have the clause given on RVm., which has no doubt accidentally dropped out of the Hebrew. 9 — 15. Cain's punishment. 9. Where &c. The question, introducing the judicial inquiry, as in iii. 9 ; but the answer shews how sin has gained in power. Adam and Eve only excuse themselves : but 'Cain says falsely that he does not 1 Another view, however, is that there underlies the story some early struggle ij between two theories of sacrifice, which ended by the triumph of the theory that Jihe right offering to be made consisted in the life of an animal. 66 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [iv. am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, Wliat hast th< done ? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand ; 12 when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength ; a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. 13 And Cain said unto the Lord, ^My punishment is greater ^than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou * Or, Mine iniquity * Or, than can be forgiven know where his brother is, and adds defiantly that he is not his keeper, and consequently is under no obligation to know ' (Knob.). 10 — 12. But the Divine voice refuses to be silenced. It holds before him his crime, and forthwith pronounces sentence upon him. 10. Hark! (Is. xiii. 4, lii. 8) % brother's blood crieth &c. Blood wrongfully shed was regarded as crying to God for vengeance, until it had been atoned for : cf. Job xvi. 18 ; Ez. xxiv. 7 f. 11. from the ground. From must either denote the direction from which the curse is to proceed, or mean pregnantly away from : v. 14* rather supports the latter interpretation. Ground seems here (cf. v. 14) to mean the cultivated soil in contrast to the face of the earth in general. Cain must leave the cultivated soil on which he has hitherto prospered, and become a wanderer in wild and unknown regions. Iier mouth. Cf. for the poetical figure Nu. xvi. 32, and (of Sheol) Is. V. 14. The 'ground,' after having swallowed the gruesome drink which Cain has provided for it, can no longer bear him, but must cast him off as accursed. 12. The particulars of the curse. The ground will no longer respond to his toil : so he will ever have to be seeking a new resting- place, while a guilty conscience will the more increase his restlessness. That the ground will refuse him its strength is in excess of the curse pronounced in iii. 17. strength. I.e. produce (Job xxxi. 39). a fugitive. More exactly, a totterer (cf, the verb in Is. xix. 1), the word denoting the hesitating, uncertain gait of one not knowing where to go, or famting for lack of food, or drunken (Am. iv. 8 ; Ps. cix. 10, cvii. 27 [' stagger '] : the renderings ' be moved,' * wander,' * be vagabond/ are all inadequate). 13. 14. Cain, though not penitent, is humbled and alarmed : so he pleads for a mitigation of the punishment. 13. punishment. Lit. ifiiquiti/, but including here its consequences, i.e. its punishment : cf. 1 S. xxviii. 10. than I can bear. RVm. is legitimate philologically ; but the context (v. 14) speaks only of Cain's punishment. 14. Cain is still pictured as in 'Eden' {v. 16), though not in tha garden : Jehovah's presence is supposed to be confined to the garden [V. 14-16] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 67 last driven me out this day from the face of the ground ; and J from thy face shall I be hid ; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth ; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever andeth me shall slay me. 16 And the I^ord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on iim sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, lest \uy finding him should smite him. 16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and Iwelt in the land of ^Nod, ^on the east of Eden. 1 That is, Wandering. ^ Or, in front of iiid its precincts ; beyond these limits he will be hidden from YLisfacBy xikI deprived of the protection which, according to ancient ideas, proximity to a sanctuary conferred even upon a murderer : he will be a tvanderer over the wide earth ; above all, his guilty imagination brings before him the vision of the blood-avenger, dogging his steps, and 3ausing him daily to tremble for his life'. *Cf. the striking picture af the supposed murderer of Laius in Soph. Oed. Tyr. 463 — 482 ; and that of the restlessness of the evil conscience in Job xv. 20 — 24' (W. L.). It has often been asked, Who could there have been to slay Cain ? According to the existing Book of Genesis, it is plain that there could have been no one. The inconsistency is one of which, however, the narrator (or compiler) is evidently unconscious. Comp. p. 72. 15. A concession is made to Cain's fears ; and he receives a promise of immunity from the blood-avenger. But he is not restored to happi- ness : banished from his relations and from the presence of God, haunted in his wanderings by an uneasy conscience, Cain remains a lesson and a spectacle for all time. Therefore. Viz. because Cain's complaint has some force in it. Cf. the use of the same word in xxx. 15. s&cenfold. By seven of the murderer's family being slain — by Cain's kinsmen, according to ancient ideas — to atone for his death. a sign. Viz. for his protection, which, to have the effect intended, must have been something attaching to his person; though what it was is not stated, and it is idle to speculate. 16. from the presence of Jehovah. Regarded as confined to the garden and its precincts : cf. v. 14 ; also 1 S. xxvi. 19 ; Jon. i. 3. [From the presence of is more lit. from before, as Gen. xli. 46 al.) the land of Nod. I.e. of Wandering (cf. ndd, 'wanderer,' vv. 12, 14), a land not geographically definable, but pictured as being on the East of Eden, in the remoter, vaguer, less-known East even than Eden itself. ^ In early Greece, banishment might be the penalty even for accidental iKMoaicide (as in the case of Patroclus, II. xxiii. 85 ff.) ; cf. the case mentioned by Doughty, Arabia Deserta (1888), ii. 293. 5—2 68 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [iv. 17 The narrative of Cain has a typical significance: it furnishes a typical example of the manner in which sin gains dominion over a man; and the psychological analysis of the process {vv. 7, 8) is very complete. Among the lessons or truths which the narrative teaches may be instanced : the nature of temptation, and the manner in which it should be resisted; the conse- quences to which an unsubdued temper may lead a man ; the gradual steps by which in the end a deadly crime may be committed; the need of sincerity of purpose lest our offering should be rejected ; God's care for the guilty sinner after he has been punished ; the interdependence upon one another of members of the human race ; and the duties and obligations which we all owe to each other. In its general outline the story of Cain and Abel belonged no doubt to the cycle of popular beliefs, current in ancient Israel: the narrator has made it the vehicle of some great moral lessons, designed primarily for the instruction of his own nation and age, but destined ultimately, through God's providence, to become the possession of tlie world at large. Notice how a few strokes suffice to sketch the picture, and yet how complete and effective, aa a whole, it is. 17 And Cain knew his wife ; and she conceived, and bare Enoch : and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, 17 — 24. The growth of civihzation, and the origin of what were taken to be primitive institutions or modes of life, in the line of Cain. No doubt, the narrator reports faithfully what was currently believed by the Hebrews, — and perhaps by the Canaanites before them, — aboul the beginnings of civilization : but the picture, it must be evident, cannot be historical. Archaeology shews that 'cutting instruments, as well as other implements and utensils, were for long made only 0' copper (or bronze), and that the use of iron came in only at a com^ paratively late date: so that it is extremely unlikely that the art 0 smelting and forging both should have been discovered by one man And the 'Bronze age' was preceded by a ' Stone age,' of very consider able duration, during which metals (except gold, for ornaments) wer not in use at all, but for which the narrative of the present chapte leaves no room. Men, moreover, for long before the domestication d animals and agriculture (w. 2, 20) were introduced, lived in a rud state of culture, as hunters, subsisting on game and fish, and wild fruit (Dawkins, Early Man in Britain^ 172, 244, 246 ; c£ above, pp. xxxix- xli), for which likewise there is no room in the narrator's scheme It is also highly improbable that cities were built, or musical instri ments invented, so soon after man's first appearance upon the eart as is here represented to have been the case. 17. Whence did Cain take his wife? and who were there to inhab: the city which he built ? The questions are analogous to the one raisefi by V. 14, and must be answered similarly. Enoch. Heb. HanoM, which recurs in the line of Seth (v. 18j and occurs also (as that of a Midianite tribe) in xxv. 4, and (as that < \ a Eeubenite clan) in xlvi. 9. As a Heb. word, it would mean trainm \ il V. 17-21 ] THE BOOK OF GENESIS ifter the name of his son, Enoch. 18 And unto Enoch was born J I rad : and Irad begat Mehujael : and Mehujael begat Methushael : lind Methushael begat Lamech. 19 And Lamech took unto him vr o wives : the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the |)ther Zillah. 20 And Adah bare Jabal : he vras the father of iiuch as dwell in tents and Tiave cattle. 21 And his brother's )r dedication. Nothing definite can however be inferred, whether from his or from most of the following names, respecting their origin or the deas which they were intended to convey ; in many cases the meaning > uncertain ; for we do not know what was the vocabulary of the ^emitic language from which they were derived, at the time when they vera formed, or how far, for instance, we may rightly explain them by irabic. There is a presumption, from general analogy, that some at east will be of Babylonian origin : but even so we have no guarantee }hat they are in their original fonn ; in the process of naturalization n Israel, they may easily have been Hebraized. 18. Mehuyd'el (as a Heb. word) means apparently * blotted out (vi. 7) }y God.' Lxx. however read ^ for 1 (as the Heb. does in clause h), and localize MatT/X, i.e. MahyVel 'God maketh me alive.' Methushael. This name is Babylonian in form = mutu-sha-ili, 'man 'i.e. liegeman, Cheyne) of God.' 19. Lamech introduces polygamy. 'Adah — also the name of a ' wife ' of Esau (xxxvi. 2) — might mean 'Ass., Arab.) 'the dawn' j and Zillah (Heb.) 'shadow,' — 'a suggestive lescription of a noble chieftainess, whose presence was like a refreshing ind protecting shade. Is. xxxii. 2 ' (Cheyne, EncB. i. 626). 20 — 22. The introduction of three (seemingly) primitive modes of ife, or professions, is referred to Lamech's three sons. The series of -cn-en names ends by branching into three, just as in ch. v. the series )f ten names does (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). By this ' knot ' in the genealogical tree, it is indicated (Ewald) that a new and broader levelopment is about to commence (cf. xi. 26). I 20. Ydbdl. The meaning is obscure. Dillm.'s ' wanderer' is very ' juestionable. The Heb. ydbal (in the causative conj.) is a poet, word '<)r to bear or lead along in state (Is. xviii. 7, Iv. 12, al.); ydbdl is i poet, word for stream (Is. xxx. 25, xliv. 4). The three similarly )unding names may be an indication of the artificial character of the ^^enealogy : Arabic parallels are cited by Lenormant, Origines, i. 192. riie Greeks associated shepherds and musicians : similarly here Yabal Hid Yubal are sons of the same mother. father. In a fig. sense, = originator of the occupations or profes- sions described. ^ such as dwell &c. I.e. of nomads, moving about, like the patriarchs, :mth flocks and herds (cf xiii. 12, 18 ; Jer. xxxv. 7). The nomadic mode of life is referred to Yabal as its originator. 70 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [i v. .1-23 name was Jubal : he was the father of all such as handle the J harp and pipe. 22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, Hhe forger of every cutting instrument of ^ brass and iron : and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 23 And Lamech said unto his wives : 1 Or, an instructor of every artificer * Or, copper and so elsewhere. 21. harp. Heb. Mnnor, perhaps in fact the k/re, a simpler instru- ment, very popular in antiquity. Comp. the writer's Joel and Amos, p. 234f. pipe. Mentioned with the kinnor in Job xxi. 12, xxx. 31 ; also Ps. cl. 4t. 22. Tubal-cain. I.e. (apparently) ' Tubal of (the individual or the tribe ?) Cain.' The form of name is peculiar. Tubal is perhaps the eponymous ancestor of Tubal (x. 2), a people living on the NE. of CiKcia, and famous in the days of Ezckiel (Ez. xxvii. 13) for its 'vessels of copper' (or 'bronze'). So Lenormant, p. 210, and others. the forger. Lit. the sharpener. The marg. on these words (= AV.) may be disregarded. brass. Bronze, or copper— which, indeed, as Dr Aldis TVright, in his Bible Word-Book reminds us, was the meaning of ' brass ' in Old English. It is evident, from his referring the working of these metals to primitive times, that the writer has no knowledge of the long ante- cedent Stone age. Na'amdh. I.e. 'pleasant,' 'gracious.' No doubt mentioned here as a figure well known to Hebrew folk-lore, of whom (as of most of the other personages named in this genealogy) a good deal more was recounted than the narrator has reported. The three professions referred to are perhaps mentioned as characteristic elements of nomad life. At any rate, the smitlis form even now in Arabia a distinct caste (Doughty, 11. 656), as they are said to do also all over Africa (Hoernes, Primitive Man^ in the 'Temple Primers,' p. 67). Those who have visited Florence will recollect the illustrations of these early arts on Giotto's campanile. 23. 24. The 'Song of the Sword.' Lamech, returning, we may suppose, from some deed of blood, and brandishing his weapon in his hand, boasts before his wives — as an Arab chiej it is said, will do still — of what he has done ; and expresses his delight at the means which he now possesses of avenging effectually bodily injuries. The Song is composed in the usual parallelistic form of Heb. poetry. 23 a, b. A formal introduction, inviting the attention of his wives to what he is about to say (cf Is. xxviii. 23, xxxii. 9). c, d. Lamech boasts that he has requited a (mere) wound or bruise (Ex. xxi. 25, where ' stripe ' = ' bruise ' here), inflicted upon him, with death. — The first margin on line c is possible by Heb. idiom : the second marg. (=AV.) may be disregarded. i IV. 33-26] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 71 Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech : For ^I have slain a man ^for wounding me, And a young man for bruising me : 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. 25 And Adam knew his wife again ; and she bare a son, and called his name ^Seth : For, said she, God ^hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel ; for Cain slew him. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son ; and he called his name Enosh : then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. ^ Or, I will slay ^ Or, to my wounding^ and a young man to my hurt « Heb. Sheth. * Heb. shath, 24. seventy and sevenfold. So terrible will be the vengeance which his kinsmen will exact. The words give expression to Lamech's sense of superior security, as compared with Cain (v. lb), on account of the metal weapons provided for him by his son's invention. The readiness to shed blood, which had been first manifested by Cain, appears in an intensified form in Lamech. 25, 26. Two notices from the parallel line of Seth, as given by J ; preserved here (like v. 29) on account of the particulars contained m them. The line, as far as Noah, is given completely (from P) in eh. v. It forms in character a contrast to that of Cain : for Seth is represented as a substitute for the righteous Abel ; and under Enosh the public worship of Jehovah is stated to have been introduced (see also V. 22, 24, vi. 9). 25. hith appointed. The etymology is to be understood upon the same principle as that of ' Cain ' in v. 1. Observe that UVm. does not say that Seth means ' appointed.' seed. Used instead of son, probably because the writer has in view the entire line, of which Seth is the ancestor. 26. ^ Enosh. In Heb. a poet, word for ' man ' ; in Aramaic (in the form ^endsh) the usual word for ' man.' then began &c. The formal and public worship of God is repre- sented as now beginning. to call upon. Properly (as always) to call with, i.e. to use the name in invocations, in the manner of ancient cults, especially at times of sacrifice : cf. xii. 8, xiii. 4, xxi. 33, xxvi. 25. On the narrative of Cain and Abel. In the preceding notes this narrative has been explained in the sense which it most obviously possesses /or us: it is anotlier question, which, though it may be touched upon briefly, it lies beyond the scope of the present commentary to discuss fully, whether in any respects the sense originally attached to it was different. The allusions in vv. 3, 4 to an n THE BOOK OF GENESIS established system of religious observances, and in tm. 14, 15, 17, to an already existing population on tlie earth, have been thought by some recent critics to imply that * Cain ' is a figure which belonged originally to a much later stage in the history of mankind than that at which it is here placed ; it has also been urged that the terms of «?. 16 become far more significant if Cain (like many other of the early figures in Genesis : see on ix. 25 fF., and ch. x.) represented in fact 21. people, in which case v. 15* would be really the boast of a tribe, who, as the Bedawin of the desert do still, held sacred the duty of blood- revenge and (in this case) dechired that for every slain member of their tribe they would exact seven lives of the tribe to which the murderer belonged. The * sign ' which Jehovah sets upon Cain's person for his protection, is con- sidered further to have been the tribal mark or badge \ such as would be at once recognizable by all who saw it, and which marked out its possessor as under the protection of the tribal God. Upon this view, the story, in its original form, was an attempt to explain what, to those who had experienced the enjoyments of a settled agricultural life, seemed so strange, the restlessness of the nomadic life, and the excessive development, among some of those who still adhered to it, of the custom (in itself, of course, a legitimate one, according to Hebrew ideas) of blood-revenge : these two peculiarities implied that some kind of curse rested upon the tribe, the curse in its turn implied guilt ; and the guilt was ' Cain's' murder of his brother (i.e., if ' Cain ' represents a tribe, its destruction of a neighbouring agricultural tribe, which resulted, however, in its own perpetual exile from its former home) I Speculations of this kind must not be ruled out of court in an attempt to throw light upon an ancient narrative, the original sense and connexion of which may well have been lost or obscured : nevertheless, it must be evident that in pursuing them we are moving upon uncertain ground. The name Cain (as was remarked on iv. 1) would be naturally tliat of the eponymous ancestor of the Kenites ; and in fact it occurs (in the Heb.) as the name of this tribe in Nu. xxiv. 22 (see RV.), Jud. iv. 11 (RVm.). Hence it is tempting to think, with Stade, that the Kenites are the tribe referred to : they were neighbours of Israel (cf. on xv. 19), and at least some of them retained their nomadic habits till a late period of the history (Jer. XXXV. 7 : see 1 Ch. ii. 55). The existence of some connexion between 'Cain' (pp) and 'I^cnite' ('•3"'p) must be admitted to be possible: but there do not seem to be any grounds for supposing that the Kenites were con- spicuous among nomad tribes in general for possessing the characteristics attributed specially to 'Cain' in Gen. iv. 14, 15 (cf. Noldeke's criticism of the preceding theory in his art. Amalek, § 7, in the EncB.y. On the names in v.llfL Respecting these names, nothing material can 1 Cf. Cuttings in the Flesh (§§ 5, 6) in the EncB. 2 CI. Eyle, p. 72 (the story may preserve the recollection of some old collision betsveeu the agricultural and pastoral elements in prehistoric man). 3 See further Stade's essay on Cain in the ZATW. 1894, pp. 250—318 (an abstract in Holzinger, p. 50 f.); Gunkel, pp. 41, 42 — 44; Cain in the EncB.-, and on the other side, Dr Worcester, Genesis in the Light of Modern Knowledge (New York, 1901), pp. 260 — 70. That Cain and Abel represent two peoples is however held also by Hommel {Sunday School Times, Dec. 31, 1898), who thinks, from Arabic analogies, that 'Abel' means shepherd (cf. Abel in EncB.), and Sayce (Exp. Times, X., 1899, p. 362). CAIN AND THE CAINITES 73 be added to what has been said in the notes : they are * the names of legendary heroes, to whom the origins of civilization, science and art, were popularly ascribed by the Hebrews' (Ottley, Hist, of the Hebrews, p. 13). There are also (cf. p. 62) grounds for supposing that the particulars here preserved are only excerpts from a wider cycle of tradition current in ancient Israel Some interesting, if not conclusive, speculations respecting the names which are mentioned, may be found in the art. Cainites in the EncB. (cf. also below, p. 81): though no direct Babylonian parallel has as yet been discovered, it is nevertheless probable, in view of the wide influence exerted by Babylonia upon early Israel, that they are in some way ultimately connected with Babylonia (cf. p. 80 f.). On the whole, our judgement upon them may be expressed in the words of Prof, (now Bishop) Ryle : * Perhaps we should not be far wrong in regarding these personages as constituting a group of demigods or heroes, whose names, in the eailiest days of Hebrew tradition, filled up the blank between the creation of man and the age of the Israelite patriarchs. Such a group would be in accordance with the analogy of the primitive legends of other races. The removal of every taint of polytheistic superstition, the presentation of these names as the names of ordinary human beings, would be' partly a result of their naturalization in Israel itself, partly *the work of the Israelite narrator' {Early Narratives of Genesis, p. 81). Phoenician parallels. A few words deserve, however, to be added about the very similar account given by the Phoenicians of the origin of different inventions, preserved by Eusebius {Praep. Ev. i. 10), in extracts from Philo of Byblus, who in his turn quotes from the Phoenician author Sanchoniathon. The extracts are not always perfectly consistent, and seem to be derived from different sources; but into these questions it is not necessary here to enter; the differences do not affect the general character of their contents. They are too long to cite at length : but a few specimens may be given. Among the early descendants of the first pair {Upoiriyovos and Ala>v) were two brothers, Sofuy- fipovfios [= DHJP ^pi^'] o Koi 'Yylrovpavioy, and Ovaaos, of whom 'Yylrovpdvtos founded Tyre, and first made huts out of reeds, i-ushes, and papyrus, while Ovaaos wa« the first to make clothing from the skins of animals, and to venture on the sea upon the trunk of a tree. Many other inventions were ascribed to a race of six pairs of brothers descended from 'Y^ovpai/toy. From 'Aypevs and 'AXteuy^ came hunting and fishing; from the second pair, of whom one was called Xpvaoap (? K^^n 'smith,' which is also Phoenician), the discovery and working of iron, magic and divination, the invention of various kinds of fishing tackle, and navigation; from the third {T€xvlttjs [i cf. ]\\^] and Vr'iuos AvToxOav), the making of bricks and roofs ; from the fourth {'Aypos and ^Aypovrjpos), courts and enclosures to houses, agriculture and hunting^; from the fifth {"Ap-wos and Mdyos), village and pastoral life'; from the sixth (Mto-wp [I'lC^^p 'equity'] and 2vduK [Pl*^* 'righteousness']), the use of ^ Toiis dXeias Kal &ypas evperds, i^ wv KKrjBrivai dypevrcLS Kal a\i.eis. '■^ iK rovTuyv dyporai Kal KwrjyoL (cf. 'the father of in Gen. iv. 20'', 21'*). '■^ ot Kar^dei^av /cto/^aj Kal irolp.va% (cf. Gen. iv. 20''). 74 THE BOOK OF GENESIS salt^ The authors of other inventions are also specified; but these examples will suflico. It is difficult not to think that the Heb. and Phoen. representa- tions spring from a common Caiiuanite cycle of tradition, which in its turn may have derived at least some of its elements from Babylonia. Indications of two cycles of tradition in J's narrative in Gen. 1. — xi. It is the evident intention of iv. 17 — 24 to describe the beginnings of the civiliza- tion which existed in the writer's own day : was a knowledge, then, of the arts, the invention of which is here narrated — and they are probably typical of many other arts not expressly mentioned'^ — preserved by Noah and his house- hold in the ark? or had all these arts to be rediscovered afterwards? The one alternative is as improbable as the other. A consideration of this and other facts presented by the early chapters of Genesis has forced recent critics (cf. Ryle, p. 79) to the conclusion that the narrative of J in Gen. i. — xi. is not really homogeneous, but that it consists of two strata — or embodies two cycles of traditions — one of which either made no mention of a Flood, or, if it did mention it, did not view it as universal, and regarded the arts and civiliza- tion of the writer's own time as having been handed down, without break or interruption, from the remote period indicated in the present chapter. As we go further, we shall meet with other indications pointing to the same conclu- sion'. The passages which may be referred with probabihty to the stratum of narrative here referred to are ii. 4^ — iii. 24, iv. 17—24, vi. 1 — 4, ix. 20 — 27, xi. 1 — 9 ; J's story of the Deluge, if this view be correct, will have been added afterwards, from an independent cycle of tradition. Chapter V. The line of Setli from Adam to Noah, In the form of a genealogy of ten generations, the development of mankind from Adam to Noah is brietly narrated ; and so the transition is made from the Creation to the next event of principal importance, the Flood. The difference in style and manner (except in v. 29) from cli. iv. is strongly marked (notice, for instance, * God,' not * Jehovah' ; the expressions in vv. 1 — 3 the same as in ch. i.; and the stereotyped form in which the accounts of the several patriarchs are cast) ; and shews that the compiler returns here to the 1 Eus. Praep. Ev. (cd. Heinichen) i. 10, §§ 6—11 : the Greek text of Philo is also to be found in Milller's Fragm. Hist. Grace, in. 566 f. There is a translation in Lenormant's Origines de Vhistoire^, i. 536 ff . : cf. also Baudissin, Studien zur Sem. Rel.-gesch. (1876), i. 14 f. It is much to be regretted that the various names have not been preserved in their original Plioenician. 2 The arts of engraving, cutting metals and stones, building, writing, and many others, are known now, by the actual products remaining to the present day, to have been practised, and to have reached even a high degree of perfection, both in Babylonia and in Egypt, at a date long before that assigned in Genesis to the Plood (of. pp. xxxii — xxxiv). 3 See on vi. 4 and xi. 1 — 9. V. 1-3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 75 same source (P) from wliich he drew i. 1 — ii. 4% only v. 29 being taken by him from J. Except in vv. 22, 24, 29, the chapter consists of a bare list of names and numbers, the items stated regularly in each case being the age of the patriarch at the birth of his firstborn and at his death, and the fact that he 'begat sons and daughters.' The aim of the writer is by means of these particulars to give a picture of the increasing population of the earth, as also of the duration of the first period of the history, as conceived by him, and of the longevity which was a current element in the Hebrew conception of primitive times. It need hardly be said that longevity, such as is here described, is physio- logically incompatible with the structure of the human body ; and could only have been attained under conditions altogether diflferent from those at present existing, such as we are not wari'anted in assuming to have existed. The names are not to be understood as those of real persons ; they serve merely, taken in conjimction with the statements connected with them, to bring before the reader a general picture of primitive times as conceived by the narrator. The attempt has sometimes been made to save the names as those of real persons by supposing links omitted ; but this supposition, though it may be legitimately made elsewhere (e.g. in Mt. i.), is excluded here by the terms used, which are not limited to the simple words ' begat/ or * the son of/ but include the age of the father at the birth of his firstborn, and the number of years which he lived. It is *more candid and natural to admit that Israelite tradition, like the traditions of other races, in dealing with personages Uving in prehistoric times, igned to them abnormally protracted lives 1. Hebrew literature does not, in s respect, diiTer from other literatures. It preserves the prehistoric ditions. The study of science precludes the possibility of such figures being terally correct. The comparative study of literature leads us to expect exaggerated statements in any work incorporating the primitive traditions of a people' (llyle, p. 87). V. 1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the P day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he liim ; 2 male and female created he them ; and blessed them, and called their name ^Adam, in the day when they were created. 3 And 1 Or, Man V. 1*. of the genei^ations of Adam. As far, viz., as Noah, who begins a new epoch (cf. vi. 9). 1^ 2. A recapitulation of the substance of i. 27, 28, designed for the purpose of reminding the reader that the multiplication of mankind, and propagation in them of God's image {v. 3 ff.), was in accordance with the Divine purpose, as there declared. 2. and blessed them (i. 27), bidding them at the same time increase and multiply. called their name man. Not mentioned in ch. i. On the sense of the expression see on i. 5. 1 Cf. the references in Jos. Ant. i. 3. 9 j and Hes. Op. et Dies, 129 t 76 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [v. 3-^0 Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his P own likeness, after his image ; and called his name Seth : 4 and the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years : and he begat sons and daughters. 5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years : and he died. 6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enosh : 7 and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters : 8 and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve yeara : and he died. 9 And Enosh lived ninety years, and begat Kenan : 10 and Enosh lived after he begat Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters : 11 and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years : and he died. 12 And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalalel : 13 and Kenan lived after he begat Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters : 14 and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years : and he died. 15 And Mahalalel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16 and Mahalalel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17 and all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety and five years : and he died. 18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and begat Enoch : 19 and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters : 20 and all the 3. Seth being in Adam's image, he is also {v. 1) in God's image. It follows that the image of God is transmitted to Adam's descendants. On Seth and Enosh, comp. (in J) iv. 25 f. 9. Kenan. The name (Ileb. P^"^) is etymologically a derivative of Cain (Heb. TP), and is supposed by some to be a mere variation of it (cf p. 80). It occurs in the Sabaean inscriptions of S. Arabia (of. on X. 28) as the name of a deity (CIS. iv. No. 8). 12. MahalaVel, as a Heb. word, means j^ra/se (Pr. xxvii. 21) of God. 15. Jared ( Yered), as a Heb. word, would mean a descending\ 18. Enoch. Heb. Hdnokh, as iv. 17. 1 But not (as has been suggested) a * descendant' (which would be in Heb. an unidiomatic application of the idea). The ' Book of Jubilees,' — a midrashic para- phrase of Genesis, in which the history is arranged in periods of 50 years, dating (Charles) from c. 120 b.c.,— explains the name (iv. 15; p. 33, ed. Charles, 1902), « because in his days the angels descended on the earth' (Gen. vi. 2) : see also Enoch vi. 6, with Charles' note ; and cf. PEFQS. 1903, p. 233 f. V. .0-29] THE BOOK OF GENESIS ^ days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years : and he P died. 21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methu- selah : 22 and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters : 23 and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years : 24 and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. 25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech : 26 and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters : 27 and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years : and he died. 28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son : 29 and he called his name Noah, saying. This J same shall ^comfort us for our work and for the toil of our hands, ^because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. * Heb. nahem, to comfort. ^ Or, which cometh from the ground 21. MetJmshelah. I.e., as it seems, *man of Shdlah/ — the name, or the corrupted name, of a deity (p. 81). Cf. Methusha'el, iv. 18. 22. walked with God, i.e. in companionship with Him (cf. 1 S. xxv. 15, where the Heb. for 'were conversant' is walked), implying, as its natural condition, that his manner of life was such as God approved : hence lxx. cv-qpia-r-qcri Tw ^cw (whence Heb. xi. 5). The same expres- sion is used of Noah, vi. 9 : cf. (with a qualifying adjunct) Micv vi. 8 ; Mai. ii. 6 (each time -j^n). 23. On the number 365, see p. 78. 24. he was not. The expression is used of sudden, or inexplicable, disappearance (Is. xvii. 14; Ps. ciii. 16; 1 K. xx. 40; ch. xlii. 13, 36). took him, viz. on account of his piety, lxx. fiireOrjKe, whence Heb. xi. 5. Cf. Wisd. iv. 10—14. In Babylonian mythology, Xisutliros, the hero of the Flood, was for the same reason transported, without dying, beyond the waters of death (p. 103). See further, on Enoch, p. 78 f. 28 — 31. Lamech. To judge from v. 29, a character very different from the Lamech of iv. 19, 23 f. Verse 29 is another excerpt, like the one in iv. 25, 26, from the hne of Seth, as given by J; notice the name Jehovah, and the allusions to iii. 17 end. 29. Noah. I.e. rest : the explanation from nahem, to ' comfort,' depends, like that of Cain from kdndh in iv. 1, on an assonance, not an etymology. shall comfort us from our work and from, the toil of our hands, (which cometh) from the ground &c. Noah is regarded as mitigating 78 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [v. 30-33 30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety P and five years, and begat sons and daughters : 31 and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years : and he died. 32 And Noah was five hundred years old : and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. in some way the curse of iii. 17, — viz. (as generally understood) by becoming, in virtue of his piety, the founder of a new epoch, in which the earth is not again to be cursed on man's account (viii. 21). The persons, however, in whose name (' us ') Lamech speaks, all either died before the Flood, or perished in it : hence Budde, Stade, Gunkel, al, suppose that the verse is taken from that stratum of J which (p. 74) took no cognizance of the Flood, and consider that the allusion is to the refreshment after toil afforded by wine (Ps. civ. 15 ; Pr. xxxi, 6 f ), the art of making which is in ix. 20 — 27 referred to Noah as its inventor. On Enoch. A probable explanation of the ideas associated by the Hebrews with Enoch has been found by Zinimern. Enoch was the seventh from Adam; and the seventh of the antediluvian Babylonian kings, according to Berossus (see p. 80), was Edoranchus or Euedorachus, who can hardly be different from Enmeduranki, a legendary king of Sippar, the city sacred to the sun-god Shamash. According to a recently published ritual tablet, the god called Enmeduranki to intercourse with himself, gave him the * table of the gods,' taught him the secrets of heaven and earth, and instructed him in various arts of divination : the knowledge thus derived he passed on to his son, and he thus became the mythical ancestor of a hereditary guild of Babylonian diviners. Enoch may thus be reasonably regarded as a Hebraized Enmeduranki, the converse with his god being divested of all superstitious adjuncts, and interpreted in a purely ethical sense. His life of 365 years, — which is much shorter than that of any of the other patriarchs in the same list, — is the sole survival of his original character : Enmeduranki being in the service of the sun-god, the years of Enoch's life are the same in number as the days of the solar year^. On account partly, it is probable, of the expression 'walked with God' (understood in the sense of actual converse), but partly also (especially if he is rightly identified with Enmeduranki) on the ground of independent tradition about him, handed down orally among the Hebrews, though not included in the Book of Genesis, Enoch was supposed in later ages to have been made the recipient of superhuman knowledge, and in the course of his intercourse with God to have received revelations as to the nature of heaven and earth, and the future destinies of men and angels. And so in the apocryphal ' Book of Enoch ' — which is of composite authorship, but dates mostly from the 2nd and 1st 1 Ziramern, The Bab. and Heb. Genesis, p. 43 ff. ; KAT? 533—5 (with a trans- lation of the ritual tablet referred to), 540 i. THE SETHITES 79 ceiiturios, B.C.— Enoch is represented as recounting the visions of judgement on men and angels which he is supposed to have had, as describijig how he has been shewn by an angel the different places set apart for the righteous and wicked after deuth, and has seen the Almighty seated on His throne, and the Messiah judging the world, as unfolding (in very obscure language) the ' secrets of the heavens ' (i.e. the courses of the heavenly bodies, the principle of the calendar, the causes of lightnings, wind, dew, &c.), and as foretelling, in a veiled, allegorical form, the history of Israel to the 2nd century B.C. It is in accordance with this view of Enoch that he is called in Ecclus. xliv. 16 (Heb. text) an ' example of knou^ledge (Dl^'il Tm) to all generations.' The Book of Enoch (i. 9, v. 4, xxvii. 2 : cf. Ix. 8) is quoted in Jude 14, 15 \ On the figures in eh, v. {\) These figures are certainly all artificial ; though upon what principle they were computed has not as yet been discovered. It deserves to be mentioned, however, that in the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch, and in the lxx., the figures differ in many cases from those given in the Hebrew, the Samaritan in three cases making the father's age at the birth of his firstborn less than it is in the Heb. text, while the lxx. in several cases makes it as much as 100 years higher, the general result of these differences being that the total in the Samaritan is 349 years less than in the Heb., while in the lxx. it is 606 years more. The following table will make the details clear, the first column in each case giving the age of each patriarch at the birth of the next, and the second column giving his age at death : — I Heb, Sam. LXX. 1. Adam 130 930 130 930 230 930 ■ 2. Seth 105 912 105 912 205 912 3. Enosh 90 905 90 905 190 905 4. Cainan 70 910 70 910 170 910 5. Mahalalel 65 895 65 895 165 895 6. Jared (Yered) 162 962 62 847 162 962 7. Enoch 65 365 65 365 165 365 8. Methushelah 187 969 67 720 1872 9G9 9. Lamech 182 777 63 653 188 753 10. Noah 500 [9501 500 [950] 500 [950] (Age at Flood) 100 100 100 Total from the Creation \ of man to the Elood j 1656 1307 2262 Thus, while in the Heb. text the date of the Flood is a.m. 1656, in the Samaritan it is a.m. 1307, and in the lxx. a.m. 2262. IVIethushelah, in both the Heb. and the Samaritan text, dies in the year of the Flood : in the lxx. text he dies six years before it. The figures have evidently, on one side or the other, been arbitrarily altered. The more original figures are generally held to be preserved in the Heb. text ; but Bertheau, Budde, Dillmann, and 1 Cf. Jub. iv. 17; and see further Enoch and Apocalyptic Literature in DB. and EncB.y and Dr Charles' translation of the Book of Enoch (Oxford, 1893). 2 Or, according to many mss., 167. 80 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Holzinger adduce reasons for holding that they have been preserved in the Samaritan. The question is not of sufficient importance to call for further discussion here. (2) In the first ten generations, down to the Flood, the Book of Genesis (Heb. text) reckoiid 165G years, while the Babylonians (see below) reckoned 432,000 years. Now, as the French Assyriologist, Oppert, has ingeniously shewn, 432,000 years = 86,400 'sosses,' while 1656 years=86,400 weeks (1656 = 72x23; and 23 years being 8395 days + 5 intercalary days = 8400 days =1200 weeks) ; and hence Oppert inferred that the two periods rested upon a common basis, the Hebrews reducing the longer period of the Babylonians, by taking as their unit the week instead of the ' soss' of 5 years ^ On the names in chaps, iv. and v., and their possible Babylonian origin. (1) The genealogies of J in iv. 1 — 24, and of P in ch. v., contain many names winch, even when they are not identical, resemble one another remarkably ; and it has in consequence been often supposed that the two lists are really two divergent versions of the same original prehistoric tradition. The resemblances between the two lists will be seen most plainly if they are exhibited in tabular form : — J P Adam Adam Seth Enosh Eain Enoch 'Irad Mehuya'el- Methushael Lamech Jabal Jubal Tubal-Kain 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. " 6. • 7. 8. 9. 10. Adam. Seth. Euosh. Kenan. Mahalal'el. Yered. Enoch. Methushelah. Lamech. Noah. Shem Ham Yepheth It has even been supposed that Seth and Enosh, who now form in J (iv. 25 f.) the head of the second line of Adam's descendants, stood originally at the head of the first line in J (between Adam and Kain) : if this conjecture is correct, the resemblance between the two hsts would be still greater than it is now. However, as we now possess them, the two lists have a different character impressed upon them. (2) In P's list there are ten patriarchs before the Flood ; and according to Berossus, the Babylonians told similarly of ten kings who reigned before the Flood, and who reigned moreover for the portentous period of 120 ' sars,' or 432,000 years. These are their names, with the number of years that each reigned, according to Berossus^: — 1. Alorus (10 'sars') 36,000 6. 2. Alaparus (3)3 10,800 7. 3. Amelon, Alraelon, or Amil- larus(13) 46,800 8. 4. Ammenon (12) 43,200 9. 5. Megalaros, Amegalarus (18) 64,800 10. Daonus or Daos (10) 36,000 Edoranchus or Evedorachus (18) 64,800 Amempsinus (10) 36,000 Otiartes or Ardates (8) ... 28,800 Xisuthros (18) 64,800 1 Of. Marti, EncB. i. 777. See also the Oxford Hexatetich, i. 135, or Oppert'a art. Chbonology in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, iv, (1903), 66 f. 2 Mtiller, Fraqm. Hist. Graec. n. 499 f. ; Masp. i. 546, 564 f. ; KAT.' 531 f. ■' Perhaps, with A for A, the Adapa of p. 53, n. 1 {KAT.^ 531, 538). THE ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS 81 Extraordinary knowledge was supposed to have been possessed in these antediluvian times. According to Berossus, there emerged from the Erythraean Sea (the Persian Gulf), under (probably) Alorus, a strange being, called Oannes (not improbably the god Ea), who taught men all kinds of sciences and arts (writing, city and temple building, legislation, &c.), and introduced civilizing influences: under the fourth {al. the third), sixth, and seventh kings, also, other beings appeared, who explained more fully the teachings of Oannes (Miiller, pp. 496 f., 499 f ; KA T? 535—7). And in Assyrian texts there are allusions to the 'wise men who lived before the Flood' {KAT? 537 f). It is considered, now, by Hommel and Sayce that the names of the Heb. patriarchs are, at least in some cases, translations or equivalents of the corresponding Babylonian names \ Thus — 3. Amelon = Babylonian amilu, 'man,' and 3. Enosh = 'raan' (on iv. 26). 4. AmmSnon = Babylonian ummdnu, 'artifex,' and 4. ^dnan (5ain) = ' smith.' 5. Amegalarus, Hommel suggests, may be a corruption of Amildlarus^ i.e. Amil-Aruru ' man of Arum,' and 5. Mahalal'el may have been originally Amtl-alil, Hebraized afterwards into Mahalal'el, 'praise of EL' 7. Enoch (IJS,nokh) appears upon independent grounds (see p. 78) to correspond to 7. Evedorachus. 8. Ameuipsinus is (Hommel) a corruption of Amihinus, i.e. Amil-Sin, ' the man of Sin (the moon-god),' and 8. Methushelah may be (Sayce) a variation of Mutu-sha-Irkhu, ' man of the moon-god,' or, if the more original form of the name is Methusha'el, ' the man of God,' this may have taken the place of 'the man of the moon-god.' 10. Xisuthros (the patriarch under whom, according to Berossus, the Deluge happened) is the Babylonian Hasis-atra, otherwise called Ut- napishtim\ who, however the difference of name is to be accounted for, unquestionably corresponds to the Heb. Noah (see p. 103 ff.) : the name of his father, Otiartes, can be nothing but a corruption of Opartes (TI for n), i.e. Vbara-tutu, the father of Ut-napishtim, in the Babylonian narrative of the Flood (p. 104). Zimmern {KA T.^ 539 — 43) rejects the suggestions under 6, and does not mention those of Sayce under 8, though he points out that in both lists the eighth name is similarly formed, being a compound of ' man ' with what is to all appearance the name of a deity. On the whole, in spite of the differences which still remain unexplained in the case of several of the names, there are sufficient resemblances between the two lists to make it possible to hold, with Zimmern, that they are at bottom divergent versions of the same original tradition. See further, on Gen. iv., v., the learned and interesting discussion by Lenormant, Les Origines de rhistoire"^, i. 140 — 290. 1 See Hommel, PSBA. 1893, p. 243 ff. ; Sayce, Expos. Times, May, 1899, p. 353. 2 So, states Zimmern {KAT.^ 545), it is now clear that this name must be read. The ideographically written first syllable was read formerly Shamash-, Sit-, or Par-'. D. 8^ THE BOOK OF GENESIS Chapter VL 1—4. The sons of God and the daughters of men. As men began to multiply, a race of giants arose, through unnatural unions between the sons of God and the daughters of men, the unlimited development of which had to be checked by Divine intervention. The narrative is a strange one. It is introduced abruptly, and it ends abruptly. Certainly, it is often supposed that the intention of the writer was to assign a cause for the corruption of mankind described in w. 5—8 : but this is not stated in the text; and what the narrative, understood in its natural sense, seems rather intended to explain is how it happened that mankind at large came to be tyrannized over by a race of giants. Hence Dillraann and other recent commentators are doubtless right in supposing that, though the compiler of Genesis may have intended vv. 1 — 4 as an introduction to vv. 5 — 8, vv. 1 — 4 were written originally without any reference to the Flood; and that the reappearance of the Nephilim in Nu. xiii. 33 is an indication that they belong to the same stratum of tradition, to which iv. 17 — 24 also belongs, and which took no cognizance of a Flood, destroying absolutely all pre-existing civilization. That the section belongs to J appears from its general style and phraseology. It has no connexion with ch. v. (P), — for the expression 'began to multiply' cannot be understood naturally of the close of a period as long and as proUfic as the one there described. Even with J, however, its connexion is imperfect ; though a connexion with the end of J's Cainite line (iv. 17 — 24), or even of J's Sethite line (iv. 25, 26, v. 29), — if, as the remaining fragments seem to indicate, this in its complete form did not shew such high figures, or imply such a wide diffusion of mankind, as the parallel in P (v. 1 — 28, 30 — 32) does, — is not perhaps impossible. The narrative is in fact a * torso ' (Stade, Gunkel), — the original position and full intention of which, — for the close, describing the further history of the giant race referred to, seems missing, not less than a proper connexion at the beginning, — cannot now be recovered. The expression ' sons of God ' (or * of the gods 'y denotes elsewhere (Job i. 6, ii. 1, xxxviii. 7 : cf. Dan. iii. 25 [RV. : comp. v. 28] ; Ps.xxix. 1, Ixxxix. 6, RVm.) semi-divine, supra-mundane beings (cf. on iii. 5, 22), such as, when regarded, as is more usually the case, as agents executing a Divine commission, are called faaVdkhmi or ayyeXoi (i.e. * messengers '). And this, which is also the oldest interpretation of Gen. vi. 2 (lxx. ol ayyikoi rov Beov ; Enoch vi. 2 flf. ; Jub. v. 1 (c£ iv. 15); Jude 6, 2 P. ii. 4 [based on Enoch x. 5, 6, 12, 13]), is the only sense in which the expression can be legitimately understood here. Naturally, how- ever, when understood literally, as a piece of actual history, this explsmation of the passage was felt in many quarters to occasion difficulty ; and other inter- pretations became prevalent. (] ) The Targums, followed by many other Jewish authorities, understood 'elohim, — on the basis of a sense which the word is 1 ' Sons of God ' pointing fig. to their derived, yet spiritual nature ; * sons of gods ' meaning (cf. ' sons of the prophets ' = members of the guild of prophets) members of the class of divine beings, to which (cf. on iii. 5) Jehovah Himself also belongs (so Davidson on Job i. 6; Schultz, OT. Theol. ii. 216 [' sons of God' here is a mistranslation for ' sons of gods '] ; cf. Cheyne on Ps. xxix. 1). VI. 1-3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 83 apparently capable of bearinf? in Ex. xxi. 6, xxii. 8, 9, 1 S. ii. 25, Ps. Ixxxii. 1^, \\z. judges,— 2le signifying, generally, nohles or potentates — so that 'sons of the 'elohlm' would denote youths of the upper classes, while * daughters of men' were taken to mean maidens of lower rank ; (2) many Christian expositors, in both ancient and modern times, have understood by 'sons of God ' godly men of the line of Seth, and by ' daughters of men,' worldly women of the hne of Cain. But for neither of these views is there any support in the text : not only do they rest upon arbitrary interpretations of the words used, but it is incredible that * men ' in ^. 2 can be intended in a narrower sense than in «?. 1 ; nor is it apparent why the intermarriage of two races, each descended from a common ancestor, should have resulted in a race characterized either by gigantic stature or (supposing vv. 5 — 8 to be rightly connected with 'ov. 1 — 4) by abnormal wickedness. Understood in accordance with the only legitimate canons of interpretation, the passage can mean only that semi-divine or angelic beings contracted unions with the daughters of men ; and we must see in it an ancient Hebrew legend,— or (to use Delitzsch's expression) a piece of 'unassimilated mythology,' — the intention of which was to account for the origin of a supposed race of prehistoric giants, of whom, no doubt (for they were ' men of name '), Hebrew folk-lore told much more than the compiler of Genesis has deemed worthy of preservation (cf. Ryle, op. cit. pp. 94, 95). As a rule, the Hebrew narrators stripped off the mythological colouring of the pieces of folk-lore which they record ; but in the present instance, it is still discernible. Many races, it may be recalled, imagined giants as living in the prehistoric past : the Greeks had their Titans ; the Phoenicians knew of a generation of men ' surpassing in size and stature' (Eus. Praep. Ev. i. 10. 6) ; the Arabs told of the ' Adites ' and 'Thamudites,' to whom they attributed both the erection of great buildings, and also deeds of savagery and bloodshed ; and the Israelitish traditions of the con- quest of Palestine spoke of the men of giant stature, who were dwelling at the time in different parts of the country (Dt. ii. 10, 11, 21, iii. 11 ; Jos. xv. 14, al). VI. 1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply j on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair ; and they took them wives of all that they chose. 3 And the Lord said. My spirit shall not ^strive with man for ever, Hoy that he also is flesh : ^yet shall his days be an hundred and ^ Or, rule in Or, according to many ancient versions, ahide in ^ Or, in their going astray they arejiesh ^ Or, therefore VI. 2, of all that &c. Whomsoever they chose. The expression seems to imply that they dealt with them exactly as they pleased. 3. A very difficult and uncertain verse. Only three interpretations need, however, be considered here. (1) RV. The meaning of this is : * My spirit (regarded as an ethical principle) shall not strive with man for ever, inasmuch as he also is flesh (i.e. carnal, sensual) ; yet his days (i.e. his still remaining days, the days of respite before the judgement comes) shall be 120 years.' The objections to this view are —the rend. 6—2 84 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [vi. 3, 4 twenty years. 4 The ^Nephilim were in the eaHh in those days, J and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them : the same were the mighty men which were of old, the men of renown. ^ Or, giants See Num. xiii. 33. inasmuch as (or for that) implies a late Heb. idiom (Eccl. ii. 16), very improbable here ; ' flesh ' in the OT. denotes what is frail, but not what is sensual ; the sense given to ' his days ' is not a natural one. (2) RVm. (implying a slight change of the text) : ' My spirit (regarded as a vital principle : cf. on i. 2) shall not for ever abide [or, be established] in man ; by reason of their going astray, he is flesh (i.e. weak, frail: cf Is. xxxi. 3; Ps. Ixxviii. 39); and (i.e. and so, in RVm. paraphrased by therefore) his days (i.e. the days of his life — the natural sense of the expression) shall be 120 years': the operation of God's life-giving spirit in man is crippled by sin ; and in future the normal limit of his life shall not exceed 120 years. This interpretation, whether right absolutely or not, is certainly open to fewer objections than (1). (3) Ewald, Wellh., Holz., Gunkel : ' My spirit (the divine spirit common to Jehovah with the 'sons of God') shall not for ever abide in man, because he is also flesh (and on this ground alone, there- fore, not intended to live for ever), and his days (i.e. his life) shall be 120 years ' ; the passage, agreeably with its mythological context, being supposed to express the idea that the union of the (semi-)divine 'spirit' with man {v, 3) would result, contrary to Jehovah's intention, in man's immortality ; a limit is accordingly imposed by Him upon the duration of human life. It is wisest to acknowledge the simple truth, which is that both textually and exegetically the verse is very uncertain, and that it is impossible to feel any confidence as to its meaning. 4. The Nephillm. Mentioned also in Nu. xiii. 33 as a giant race inhabiting part of Canaan at the time of the Exodus, in whose eyes the spies were ' as grasshoppers.' The etymology, and true meaning, of the word are unknown ; there have been many conjectures respecting it (see Di.), but none possessing any real probability. The Nephilim, it is said, were in the earth both at the time here spoken of and also afterwards, i.e., no doubt, at the time referred to in Nu. xiii. 33 — if, indeed, the words — which interrupt the connexion (for the following when clearly refers to in those days) — were not originally (Budde, Wellh., Holz., Gunkel) a marginal gloss added by one who recollected that the Nephilim were mentioned also in this passage of Numbers. they were &c. This clause characterizes the Nephilim : they were the ancient men of prowess, renowned in Hebrew folk-lore. Doubtless, deeds of insolence and daring were told of them ; we cannot, unhappily, particularize more precisely. For later allusions to, or developments of, what is narrated in vv. 1 — 4, see Wisd. xiv. 6 ; Ecclus. xvi. 7 ; Baruch iii. 26—28 ; 3 Mace. ii. 4; Enoch vi.— xvi. ; 2 Pet. ii. 4; Jude 6, 7. THE BOOK OF GENESIS 86 VL 5— IX. 17- Tlie history of the Flood. The narrative here becomes more circumstantial than it has been in chaps, iv. and v. ; for the Flood is the first event of crucial importance since the Creation and the beginnings of man upon earth (chaps, i.— iii.), of which Hebrew tradition told. The Flood marks the end of a past age, and the beginning of a new one : it is thus an event in which the purposes of God may be expected to declare themselves with peculiar distinctness ; and it is accordingly treated as the occasion of a great manifestation both of judgement (ch. vi.) and of mercy (viii. 15— ix. 17). The Flood is a judgement upon a degenerate race : Noah, with his family, is delivered from it on account of his righteousness; as humanity starts upon its course afresh, new promises and new blessings are conferred upon it. The narrative is one of which the composite structure, as has been often pointed out\ is particularly evident ; for the compiler, instead of (as in Gen. i., for instance) excerpting the entire account from a single source, has interwoven it out of excerpts taken alternately from J and P, preserving in the process many duplicates, as well as leaving unaltered many striking differences of representation and phraseology. The parts belonging to P are vi. 9 — 22, vii. 6, 11, 13 — 16* (to commanded him), 17* (to upon the earth), 18 — 21, 24, Tiii. 1, 2* (to stopped), 3^ (from and after)— 5, 13* (to off tlie earth), 14—19, ix. 1 — 17 : if these verses are read consecutively, they will be seen to contain an almost complete narrative of the Flood, followed by the account of a blessing and covenant concluded with Noah. The verses which remain (except a few clauses here and there, especially in vii. 7 — 9, which are due, probably, to the compiler) form part of the parallel narrative derived from J, but not preserved so completely as that of P, which the compiler has interwoven with it. In some places the duplicate character of the narrative is plain : thus vi. 9 — 13 is, in substance, identical with vi. 5 — 8; and though the directions for the construction of the ark are naturally given only once, the sequel (vi. 17, 19, 20, 22, P) is similarly repeated in vii. 1 — 5 (other instances are pointed out in the notes). The most characteristic difference between the two accounts is that while in P one pair of all animals alike is taken into the ark (vi. 19, 20, vii. 14, 15), in J a distinction is drawn, and one pair of unclean animals but seven pairs of clean animals are taken in. Another difference relates to the duration of the Flood. In P the waters 'prevail' for 150 days; then they gradually decrease; the entire period of their remaining upon the earth being (vii. 11, comp. with viii. 14) one year and 11 days^: in J they increase for 40 days and 40 nights ; then after three times seven days (viii. 8 3, 10, 12) they disappear, ^ See, for instance, as long ago as 186B, the art. Pentateuch by J. J. S. Perowne (the late Bishop of Worcester), in Smith's BB. ii. 776. 2 I.e., as a lunar year is here probably presupposed, 354 + 11 = 365 days, or one solar year. The lxx., by the reading 27 for 17 in vii. 11, viii. 4, intend no ; doubt to express one solar year more directly. ' Seven days being implied here by the 'yet other' of viii. 10 : see the note on viii. 10. 86 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [vi. 5-9 the entire duration of the Flood in J being thus 61 days. It is a minor diflference that J attributes the Flood to rain only (vii. 7, 12, viii. 2^), whereas P speaks also of the subterranean waters bursting forth (vii. 11, viii. 2»). Among the literary characteristics of the parts belonging to P may be noticed the careful specification of all details (such as the measurements of the ark, the animals, and members of Noah's family, to be taken into it, vi. 18, 20, vii. 13, 14, and brought out again, viii. 16, 17, 18, 19), the dates (vii. 6, 11, viii. 4, 5, 13, 14), and the recurring expressions, God (not, as in the other narrative, Jehovah), all flesh (13 times), destroy (vi. 13, 17, ix. 11, 15 : in J wipe or Hot out, vi. 7, vii. 4, 23), expire (vi. 17, vii. 21), kind (as in i. 11, 12, 21, 24, 25), vi. 20, vii. 14, swarm (as in i. 20, 21), vii. 21, viii. 17, ix. 7. In J, also, conip. shut in (vii. 16), and smelled (viii. 21), with the expressions noted on p. 36 as character- istic of ii. 4''ff. For some further questions connected with the present narrative, see p. 99 ff. 5 And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great J in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will Mestroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground ; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and fowl of the air ; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous f 1 Heb. blot out. 5 — 8. J's introduction to his narrative of the Flood. Mankind was utterly corrupt : Jehovah saw His purposes with regard to it frustrated, and determined accordingly to blot it out from the face of the earth. 5. every imagination &c. The corruption had seized their whole mind and purpose : it was complete (' only evil,' i-e. nothing but evil), and continuous. 6. it repented Jehovah &c. Because, viz.. His gracious purposes for the progress and happiness of humanity seemed ruined by human sin. and he was pained to his heart. A strong and expressive anthropomorphism. Cf. the same verb (in the transitive conjug.) in Is. Ixiii. 10. 7. destroy. Blot out, as also vii. 4, 23. The word, as remarked above, is characteristic of the narrative of J. 9 — 12. P's introduction to his narrative of the Flood. The passage is parallel to vv. 5 — 8 in J. 9. These are &c. The formula regularly used by P at the commencement of a new section of his narrative : see p. ii. a righteous man &c. Cf. v. 8 in J. See also Ezek. xiv. 14, 20. VI. 9-15] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 87 man, and ^perfect in his generations : Noah walked with God. P 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt ; for aU flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me ; for the earth is -filled with violence through them ; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood ; ^ rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15 And this is ^ Or, blameless ^ Heb. nests. perfect. I.e. without moral flaw, blameless, guileless : cf., of Job, Job i. 1 ; also ch. xvii. 1, Ps. xviii. 23, 25, cxix. 1 (RV.), al, and perfectness (EW. usually integrity), Ps. vii. 8, xxvi. 1, 11, al. in his generations. I.e. among his contemporaries. A different word in the Heb. from the one rendered generations JMst before (which is lit. begettings). walked with God. See on v. 22. 10. Repeated, in P's manner, at the beginning of a new section, from V. 32^ ; cf xi. 27 (see v. 26), xxv. 12^ (xvi. 15), 19^ (xxi. 3). 12. all flesh. An expression occurring 13 times in the narrative of the Flood (all P), and denoting sometimes (as here and v. 13) men alone, sometimes animals alone (vi. 19, vii. 15, 16, viii. 17), sometimes both (as vi. 17, vii. 21, ix. 11 : so Lev. xvii. 14 ; Nu. xviii. 15, al.), 13 — 17 (P). Noah commanded to construct an ark. 13. Cf m 6, 7, in J. is come in before me. I.e. before my mind ; it is resolved upon by me. 14. an ark. Heb. tebdh^ a word of Egyptian origin ; used only (here and in the sequel) of the 'ark' of Noah, and of the 'ark' in which Moses was laid, Ex. ii. 3, 5. gopher. Only found here. Probably some kind of resinous tree, either pine or cypress. rooms &c. More exactly : (all) cells (lit. nests) shalt thou make the ark : it was to consist internally of rows of cells, to contain the different animals. pitch. Bitumen ; Heb. kopher (found only here). Ass. kupru^ used repeatedly by Nebuchadnezzar in his descriptions of buildings, and also occurring in the Babylonian account of the Flood (1. &Q\ see p. 104). Elsewhere in the OT. 'bitumen' is expressed by hemdr (xi. 3, xiv. 10 ; Ex. ii. 3) ; it is possible therefore that kopher came into Heb., with the story, from Babylonia. ' In the second volume of the History of the Euphrates Expedition, p. 637, Col. Chesney gives a very interesting account of the simple and rapid manner in which the people about Tekrit and in the marshes of Lemlum construct large barges and make them water-tight with bitumen' (Huxley, Collected Essays, iv. 262). See also EncB. s.v. Bitumen; and cf on xi. 3. 88 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [vi. 15-^0 liow thou slialt make it : the length of the ark three hundred P cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16 A ^light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it ^upward ; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 17 And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven ; every thing that is in the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with thee ; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee ; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the fowl after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of 1 Or, roof 2 Or, from above 15. The cubit measured probably about 18 inches : so that the ark, as here described, would be about 450 ft. long, 75 ft. broad, and 45 ft. high. 16. a light. To be pictured, apparently, as a kind of casement running round the sides of the ark (except where interrupted by the beams supporting the roof), a little below the roof. The word occurs only here (though in the dual it is the usual Heb. for noon- day). The marg. roof is doubtful : it is based upon the meaning of the corre- sponding word in Arabic, hack. and to a cubit shalt thou finish it above (or from above). The words are obscure ; but are generally understood to mean either that the casement above (i.e. close under the roof) was to be a cubit in height, or that there was to be the space of a cuhitfrom above (i.e. from the roof) to the top of the casement. 17. the flood. Heb. mabbul, used only of the Deluge of Noah, Gen. vi. — ix. (12 times), x. 1, 32, xi. 10, and Ps. xxix. 10. The word (though not itself found in Ass.) may be derived from the Ass. nabdlu^ to destroy : it has no apparent Heb. etymology. breath. Better, spirit (Heb. ruah) ; not as ii. 7. So vii. 15 ; of. Is. xlii. 5 ; Zech. xii. 1. die. Expire : so vii. 21. An unusual word, and (except in P [12 times]) entirely poetical [12 times, 8 being in Job]. Of. on xxv. 8. 18 — 22. The command to enter the ark, according to P. With Noah and his descendants it is God's purpose to establish a new relationship (designated here by the term covenant) ; and in trustful reliance upon the promise thus given, Noah is to enter the ark, taking with him one pair of every land animal. For the fulfdment of the promise, see ix. 8 — 17. 20. kind (twice). ^ Kinds : see on i. 12. Cattle (not as iv. 20), 9,nd creeping thing^ as i. 24 (where see the note), 25, 26. VI.20-VII.4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 89 every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every p sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 2fl And take thou imto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee ; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 22 Thus did JSToah ; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. VII. 1 And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all J thy house into the ark ; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female ; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female ; 3 of the fowl also of the air, seven and seven[, male and female] : to R keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights ; and every living thing that I have made will I 22. And Noah did (so) ; according &c. The form of sentence is characteristic of P; cf. Ex. vii. 6, xii. 28, 50 (Heb.), xl. 16 (Heb.); Nu. i. 54 (Heb.), al. (see p. ix, No. 12). VII. 1 — 5. The command to enter the ark, according to J. Noah is to enter the ark, taking with him seven pairs of every clean animal, and o?ie pair of every unclean animal. In the parallel in P (vi. 19 f.), one pair of every kind is to be taken, and nothing is said of the distinction between clean and unclean animals. 1. righteous &c. Cf. in P vi. 9. 2. the male and his female (twice). Each a7id his mate : the Heb. (though no English reader would suspect the fact) is entirely different from that rendered 'male and female' in vi. 19, vii. 3, 9, 16. On the distinction of * clean ' and * unclean ' animals see Lev. xi. (P ; || Dt. xiv.) : more of the former than of the latter are to be brought in, perhaps because, in the view of the writer, only 'clean' animals would be available for Noah and his family for food, and (viii. 20) for sacrifice, perhaps, also (Knob.), in order that the creatures most useful to man might increase more rapidly after the Flood. It is to be noticed that J assumes for the patriarchal age the Levitical distinction of 'clean' and 'unclean' animals, as he also speaks of sacrifices offered, and altars built, during the same period (iv. 3, 4, viii. 20, xii. 9, &c.). P, on the contrary, never attributes Levitical institutions and distinctions to the pre-Mosaic age ; he regards all such as creations of the Sinaitic legislation. 3. seven and seven. Viz., as the context and viii. 20 shew, of * clean ' species : the raven (viii. 7) shews that J thought of ' unclean ' species also (see Lev. xi. 15) as included. Perhaps, indeed, we should read with Lxx., 'of fowl also of the air that are clean^ seven and seven, male and female, and of fowl that are not cleuUy tivo and two^^ &c. 4. every subsisting thing. The word, winch is peculiar, is found 90 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [vii. 4-n ^destroy from off the face of the ground. 5 And Noah did J according unto all that the Lord commanded him. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of P waters was upon the earth. | 7 And Noah went in, and his .7 sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the ground, 9 there went in [two and two] unto 11 Noah into the ark, [male and female,] as God commanded Noah, r 10 And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. | 11 In the six hundredth P year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were 1 Heb. hlot out. only here, v. 23, and Dt. xi. 6. It is entirely different from the ordinary one rendered ^living thing' in vi. 19, viii. 1, 17, 21. destroT/. Blot out, as vi. 7. 6. Noah's age, at the time of the Flood, according to P. 7 — 9. Entry into the ark according to J (cf. vv. 2, 3). The text, though clearly in the main that of J, seems to have been glossed in parts by the compiler so as to harmonize with the representation of P (especially in ' two and two ' : see vi. 19, 20). 9. God. Sam., Targ., Vulg. Jehovah; no doubt, rightly. VII. 10 — VIII. 14. The course of the Flood : its beginning, con- tinuance, and end. 10. The beginning of the Flood according to J, viz. seven days after Noah entered the ark. the seven days. Those mentioned in v. 4. 11. The beginning of the Flood according to P. the second month. Prob. the month following Tisri (so Jos. Ant. 1. 3. 3 ; Targ. Ps.-Jon. ; Ew., Di., Del., &c.), called by the later Hebrews (from the Babylonian) Marcheshvan^ our November, the month in which in Palestine the rainy season sets in. The old Heb. year began in autumn, with the month called in later times Tisri. the great deep. As Am. vii. 4, Ps. xxxvi. 6, Is. li. 10, the subterranean waters, the ' deep that coucheth beneath ' of xlix. 25, the source, as the Hebrews supposed, of springs and seas (see on i. 9) : the ' fountains,' leading from these to laud and sea, which at ordinary times flowed only moderately, ivere cleft asunder (implying some terrestrial convulsion), so that the waters from underneath burst forth and inun- dated the^ earth. Not only this, however, but the windows of heaven (cf. Is. xxiv. IS) were also opened, so that the waters stored up 'above the firmament ' (see on i. 6) poured down upon the earth as well. VII. ii-ao] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 91 opened. | 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and j forty nights. | 13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, p and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark ; 14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind, and every fowl after its kind, every bird of every ^sort. 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him: | and the Lord shut him in. | 17 AndJ"P the flood was forty days upon the earth ; | and the waters J increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. | 18 And the waters prevailed, and increased greatly P upon the earth ; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth ; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. 20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters 1 Heb. wing. 12. The duration of the Flood according to J. And there was heavy rain. The word used (d'J>3) signifies a hurst of rain, heavy rain] and is sometimes used (as Cant. ii. 11) of the heavy rains of the Palestinian winter. Cf. G. A. Smith, HG. 64 ; and the writer's Joel and Amos, on Am. iv. 7. 13— 16^ The entry into the ark according to P (cf. vi. 19, 20). In J this has been narrated already in vv. 7 — 9. 13. In the selfsame day. Connecting closely with v. 11. The expression in the Heb. is one of those characteristic of P (p. ix, No. 13). 14. kind (4 times). Kinds, as vi. 20. of every sort. Heb. wing : cf. Ez. xvii. 23 (EVV. wing), xxxix. 4 (EVV. sort, as here) ; also (in the Heb.) Dt. iv. 17 ; Ps. cxlviii. 10. 15. two and two of all flesh. Cf. vi. 19, 20 (P). breath. Spirit, as vi. 17. ^ 16^ (J), and Jehovah shut him in. The words must have stood originally between v. 9 and 'cv. 10, 12 ; for they evidently form the close of J's account of the entry into the ark. 17»(P). The Hnk connecting (in P) v. 16^ with v. 18. 'Forty days' is probably an addition of the compiler, based upon v. 12 (J). 17^. and the waters increased &c. The progress of the Flood according to J. The words form the sequel to vv. 10, 12. 18—20. The progress of the Flood, told more circumstantially, according to P. 20. upward. I.e. above 'the high mountains' {v. 19). The ark 92 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [vii. 20-viiL 3 prevail ; and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died P that moved upon the earth, both fowl, and cattle, and beast, and every ^creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man : | 22 all in whose nostrils was the breath of the J spirit of life, of all that was in the diy land, died. 23 *And every living thing was ^destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping thing, and fowl of the heaven ; and they were ^destroyed from the earth : and Noah only was left, and they that were with him in the ark. | 24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred andP fifty days. VIII. 1 And God remembered Noah, and every living tiling, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark : and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged ; 2 the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, | and the rain from heaven was restrained ; 3 and J" the waters returned from oflT the earth continually : | and after p 1 Or, swarming thing that swarmeth ^ Or, And he destroyed every living thing ^ Heb. blotted out. was apparently regarded as immersed up to half its height (vi. 15) ; accordingly, when the waters begin to decrease, it can just touch the summit of an exceptionally high range of mountains, viii. 3^ 4 (the tops of ordinary mountains emerge only 73 days afterwards, v. 5). 21. Death of all things, according to P. died. Expired, as vi. 17. everi/ swarming thing that swarmeth &c. See on i. 20. 22, 23. Death of all things, according to J. 22. in whose nostrils was the breath of [the spirit of] life, Cf. ii. 7 (also J). The expression, as it stands, is unexampled, being a combination of the phrase of J (ii. 7) with that of P (vi. 17, vii. 15). The bracketed words — in the Heb. one word — are probably a marginal gloss. of all that. "Whatsoever ; cf. vi. 2. 23. And he blotted out (so in correct editions of the Mass. text: cf. KVm.) evei-y subsisting thing &c. See on vi. 7 and vii. 4. 24. The length of the period during which, according to P, tlie waters * prevailed' {vv. 18 — 20). VIII. 1, 2* (to stopped), 3^ The decrease of the waters, according to P. With the expressions in v. 2% cf. vii. 11. 1. And God remembered. As xix. 29, xxx. 22 ; Ex. ii. 24 (all P). 2^, 3*. The decrease of the waters, according to J. rain. Heavy rain, as vii. 12. VIII. 3-io] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 93 the end of an hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. P 4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month : in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. | 6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, J that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made : 7 and he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. 8 And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground ; 9 but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth : and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark. 10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he 4, 5 (P). The ark lands ; and 73 days afterwards the tops of the mountains appear. 4. Ararat. A land^ named also in Is. xxxvii. 38, Jer. li. 27, the Urartu^ so often mentioned by the Assyrian kings from the 9th cent. B.C. onwards, the rugged, mountainous, and wooded region, forming part of modern Armenia, N. of Lake Van, and embracing the valley of the Araxes'^. The modern Mount Ararat is a particular lofty peak {c. 17,000ft.) among the 'mountains of Ararat,' for 4000 ft. from its summit covered with perpetual snow. The mountain which P had in view, whether it was the peak now called * Mount Ararat ' or not, must in any case have been a lofty one; for, though the waters decreased continually, it was not until 73 days after the ark rested upon it, that the tops of ordinary mountains became visible. 6 — 12 (J). Noah sends forth first a raven, and afterwards a dove, to ascertain whether the waters have abated. 6. And it came to pass at the end of forty days. In the original context of J, the * forty days ' referred, no doubt, as in vii. 4, to the entire period of the Flood, and the clause stood perhaps before V. 2^ * and {or that) the heavy rain from heaven was restrained' : the compiler, in combining P and J, has transposed it, and made it refer to 40 days after the date named in v. 5. 10. yet other seven days. Implying, almost necessarily, that 'seven days' had been mentioned previously: hence it is probable, as most 1 Not a mountain : the .e is no ' Mount Ararat ' in the Old Testament. 2 See the map and description in Maspero, iii. 52 — 60; and cf. EncB. s.v. The valley of the Araxes (now the Aras) which runs from W. to SE., a little N. of Mount Ararat, is nearly 3000 ft. ahove the sea ; the mountains around are 5000 ft. or more ; Lake Van is about 5500 ft. See the fine orographical map of Asia in Philips' Imperial Atlas; and cf. Freshfield, Central Caucasus, p. 155 ff. 94 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [viii. 10-20 sent forth tlie dove out of the ark ; 11 and the dove came in to J^ him at eventide ; and, lo, in her mouth ^an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 12 And he stayed yet other seven days ; and sent forth the dove ; and she returned not again unto him aay more. | 13 And P it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth : | and Noah removed the covering of the ark, J and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dried. I 14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of P the month, was the earth dry. 15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of all flesh, both fowl, and cattle, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitftd, and multiply upon the earth. 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him : 19 every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, whatsoever moveth upon the earth, after their families, went forth out of the ark. | 20 And Noah builded an J altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of * Or, a fresh olive leaf modern scholars have supposed, that ^And he stayed seven days^ (and sent forth, &c.) have dropped out at the beginning of v. 8. 11. pluckt off. Le. freshly-pluckt, or fresh (^Ym.). 13* (P). Continuation of v. 5. The waters are dried up. 13^ (J), 14 (P). The earth itself becomes dry, — according to P, one year and 11 days after the Flood began (vii. 11). 15 — 19 (P). Noah is instructed to leave the ark; and does so accordingly. Both the command and its execution are described circumstantially, in P's manner (cf. vi. 18 — 20, vii. 13 — 16). 17. breed abundantly. Swarm (i. 20) : cf., of men, ix. 7. and be fruitful &c. Cf. i. 22. The words are a renewal of the command, or permission, there given. 19. after their families. A mark of P's hand (p. ix, No. 14). 20 — 22 (J). Noah, in thankfulness for his c-eHverance, offers up a burnt-offering; and Jehovah thereupon expresses His determination not again to smite all living things, or disturb the course of nature, as He has done. Cf. Is. liv. 9. builded an altar &c. Cf. on vii. 2 (second part of note). viii. ao-ix. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 96 every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. J" 21 And the Lord smelled the sweet savour ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's ^sake, for that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. | IX. 1 And God blessed Noah P and his sons, and said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of ^ Or, sake; for the hv/rnt offerings. Or holocausts. Heb. ^oldh^ from ^dldh, to go up^ denoting a sacrifice of which the whole 'went up' (Is. Ix. 7) upon the altar, as opposed to those of which portions were eaten by the worshipper or the priest. 21. the savour of gratification (or composure : lit. of rest- giving). A common expression in the Levitical terminology (Lev. i. 9, 13, 17, ii. 2, 9, 12, &c.), to express the character, or effect, of a sacrifice which is favourably accepted: c£, with smell, 1 S. xxvi. 19. 'Sweet savour' is a paraphrase, based upon the Lxx. rendering, oafx-q evcoSias. said to his heart. I.e. to Himself. (Not in, as xvii. 17 al.) for that. This gives the reason for * curse ' (' I will not again curse the ground, as I might do, because' &c.): the marg. for gives the reason for 'not curse,' — 'I will not again curse the ground, because,' &c.: having regard, viz. to man's now innate propensity to evil, God will not again be moved by men's evil deeds to a judgement such as the Flood had been, but will exhibit forbearance (Rom. iii. 25), and long-suffering. The marg. is preferable. The terms expressive of man's sinful pro- pensity are the same as in vi. 5, but less strongly expressed (without 'every,' 'only,' and ' continually ')\ from his youth. I.e. from the time when the 'knowledge of good and evil' (ii. 17) comes to be acquired, and evil, too often, gains the mastery over good. IX. 1—17 (P). The blessing of Noah {m. 1 — 7) ; and the cov&nant {w. 8 — 17) concluded with him by God. 1 — 7. A blessing given to the new race of men, corresponding to that bestowed upon the first (i. 28), but enlarged, and adapted to man's more developed state, by an extension of his rights over the animal kingdom. At the same time {vv. 4 — 6) two limitations are imposed upon his too absolute authority. 1. Be fruitful,... and fill the earth. As i. 28, which see. 1 On the yezer hd-rd\ or ' evil propensity' { = <pp6vrijxa aapKds), of the later Jewish theology, derived from this passage, see Aboth ii. 15, iv. 2, with Taylor's notes (ed. 2, pp. 37, 64, 129 f., 148 £f.); Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, i. 167; F. C. Porter in Bihl. and Sem. Studies by members. ..of Yale University (New York, 1901), 93 — 156, esp. 108 ff. (with some criticism of Weber, AUsynag. Theologie, p. 221 ff.). 96 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ix. .-5 you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl P of the air ; with all wherewith the ground Heemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you ; as the green herb have I given you all. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require ; at the hand of ^ Or, creepeth 2. Animals had been subject to man from the beginning (i. 26, 28) ; they are now to be in dread of him ; they are * given into ' his * hand,' an expression implying (cf. e.g. Lev. xxvi. 25; Dt. xix. 12) that they are at his disposal, and that he has over them the power of life and death. As v. 3 shews, the view of the writer is that hitherto animals had had nothing to fear from man ; they had not been killed by him for food, and ct fortiori not for other purposes. 3. An extension of the permission granted in i. 29 : animal food is permitted now, just as vegetable food was permitted then. green kerb. Green of herb, as i. 30. 4 — 6. Two limitations upon man's too absolute authority. 4. Only flesh with its soul, (that is,) its blood, ye shall not eat. Men may eat flesh, but only flesh which no longer has blood in it. As the blood flows from a wounded animal, so its life ebbs away ; hence the blood was regarded as the seat of the vital principle, or 'soul' (Heb. nepheshy-, this, however, was too sacred and mysterious to be used as human food; it must be ofi^ered to God before man was at liberty to partake of the flesh, 1 S. xiv. 32, 34 (cf W. R. Smith, Rel Sem. p. 216 f , ed._ 2, p. 234 f ; EncB. 11. 1544). The eating of blood is repeatedly prohibited in Heb. legislation, as Dt. xii. 16, 23 ('for the blood is the soul; and thou shalt not eat the soul with the flesh'), Lev. vii, 26 f, xvii. 10 — 14 {v. 11 'the soul of the flesh is in the blood,' and hence ' the blood atoneth by means of the soul ' ; v. 14 * for as regards the soul of all flesh, its blood is with its soul ' (i.e. it contains its soul), and ' the soul of all flesh is its blood ') ; and abstention from it became ultimately one of the fundamental principles of Judaism : to the present day, strict Jews will eat the flesh of such animals only as have been slaughtered with special precautions for thoroughly draining the carcases of blood. 5. 6. The second, more important limitation. Man may slay animals; but the blood of man himself is not to be shed with impunity, either by man or by beast. The life of man is to be inviolably sacred. 5. And surely your blood, according to your souls. I.e. the blood of each individual person, whoever it may be (Del.). Dillra. al. render, less naturally (see Del.), ' (that) of your souls' i.e. of yourselves (cf Jer. xxxvii. 9 E,V.), your own blood, in contrast to that of the animals. 1 Cf. Aen. IX. 349 ' Purpuream vomit ille anivuim.' IX. 5-1 1] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 97 every beast will I require it : and at the hand of man, even at P the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply ; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. 8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you ; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the fowl, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you ; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you ; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the require. Cf. xlii. 22; Ez. xxxiii. 6; Ps. ix. 12. of every beast. Cf. Ex. xxi. 28 (in the 'Book of the covenant'). life. Properly, soul (as v. 4). Heb. has two words for ' life/ one (D>^n) meaning state of life (as in 'the days of his life'), the other (CJ'S:) meaning the principle of life (as in 'to take one's life'). The latter signifies properly soul (cf. on i. 20) ; and it is sometimes conducive to clearness to retain this rendering. 6. It is explained now how blood shed will be ' required,' viz. by the death of the murderer. It is not, however, defined more precisely by what agency the penalty will be exacted — whether, for instance, as in primitive communities, by a relative of the murdered man, or, as in more advanced communities, by the state : the general principle only is affirmed — one of the great and fundamental principles, on which the welfare of every community depends, the sanctity of human Hfe. for &c. The ground upon which the punishment of murder is based. Man bears in himself God's image (v. 3, as well as i. 27) ; he therefore who destroys a man does violence to God's image. In other words, every man is a person, with a rational soul, the image of God's personality (cf on i. 27), which must be treated as sacred. 7. The blessing closes with a repetition of the substance of -y. 1. bring forth abundantly. Swarm (i. 20) : of men, as Ex. i. 7 (P). 8 — 17. God's covenant with Noah, concluded in fulfilment of the promise given in vi. 18, by which he engages no more to destroy all flesh by a flood. This ' covenant ' is the parallel in P to the promise^ viii. 21 f, in J. Like the promise, it is established not with the descendants of Shem only, but with aU mankind, and indeed (vv. 10, 12, &c.) with the whole animal world. 8 — 11. The terms of the covenant. 10. creature. Heb. soul: see on i. 20. So vv. 12, 15, 16. 11. Cf. viii. 21\ 22, in J. all flesh. Including here animals: see on vi. 12. So vv. 15, 16, 17. D. 7 98 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [tx. 11-16 flood ; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the / earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations : 13 ^ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh ; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud ; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 1 Or, I have set 12 — 17. The token of the covenant, the rainbow. A covenant must have an external sign or token, which may remind the parties to it of its terms, and also serve as a guarantee of the undertaking given with it. Cf. xvii. 11, where the * token' is something to be done by man ; here it is something appointed by God. 13. / do set. The Heb. perfect tense is ambiguous; and may express either I have set (so Geneva Version, and RVm.), viz. long ago, from the beginning (cf. vi. 7 ' have created '), or / have just set, I set now (cf. V. 3, i. 29, xli. 41, xlviii. 22), or even (the 'perfect of certitude') / will set (so Coverdale: cf. xxiii. 13 Heb.). The appearance of the rainbow depends, of course, upon the laws of the refraction and reflection of light ; and it is incredible that these laws did not exist, as a fact, till the time of Noah. If therefore the writer means to imply (what seems to be expressed by RV. text = AV.) that the rainbow was then first to be seen, he shews simply that he shares the prevalent ignorance of physical science which was characteristic of the ancient world in general: if, however, his meaning is rightly expressed by RVm., then all that is future is and it shall be for a token, &c., and the writer may have regarded the phaenomenon as occurring before, and have merely represented it as invested now with a new significance as the sign or symbol of mercy (cf Ryle, p. 117 f). 14, 15. when I bring clouds [lit. cloud (with) cloud, the word being a collective : * bring a cloud ' is not strong enough] over the earth, and the bow is seen in the cbud{s), that / will remember, &c. The text gives an incorrect sense ; for the rainbow is not seen every time that God * brings clouds ' over the earth. 16. everlasting covenant. An expression frequent in P (xvii. 7, 13, 19; Ex. xxxi. 16; Lev. xxiv. 8; Nu. xviii. 19; cf. xxv. 13). 16, 17. The thought of w. 13 — 15 dwelt upon, and in part repeated, in P's manner, for emphasis (cf. xvii. 26, 27). IX. 17] THE BOOK OF GEIJ^SIS 99 17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant P which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. A suggestive symbolism is here attached to a beautiful, and — especially for a primitive people — striking natural phaenomenon. As the rainbow appears, when a storm is passing by, and the sun, breaking forth from the opposite direction, casts its gleams over the still clouded sky, it is interpreted as an emblem, to a religious mind, of God's returning friendliness and grace, and made a symbol of the mercy with which He regards all mankind (cf. Is. liv. 9). The marvel of the phaenomenon, to people ignorant of the optical laws by which it was produced, led many ancient nations to seek imaginative or symbolical explanations of it. Thus, with the Indians, it is the war-bow of Indra, which he has laid aside after finishing his contest with the demons: in the Iliad it is a repa^ /nepoTrcBv dvOpairav, portending war and storms {II. XI. 27 f., XVII. 547 — 50), but (personified) it is also the bright and swift messenger of the gods (ii. 786, iii. 121, at.) ; in the Icelandic Edda it is the bridge, built by the gods, connecting heaven and earth. The only other Biblical references to the rainbow are Ez. i. 28 ; Rev. iv. 3, X. 1 {n ipis) ; cf. Ecclus. xliii. 11 f., 1. 7. It is not impossible that the representa- tion found here rests ultimately upon a mythological basis; and that the rainbow was regarded originally by the Hebrews as Jehovah's war-bow (which is elsewhere the meaning of ntJ'p : cf., as poetically attributed to Jehovah, Hab. iii. 9 al.\ laid aside as the sign of pacified anger (Wellh. Hist. 352, Holz., Gunkel) ; but perhaps (Riehm, Dillm.) the rainbow is viewed merely as the emblem of returning favour, and the name is based simply on the similarity of form. The Historical Character of the Deluge. I. Has there been a Universal Deluge? Until comparatively recent times, the belief in a Deluge covering the whole world, and destroying all terrestrial animals and men except those preserved in the ark, was practi- cally universal among Christians. Not only did this seem to be required by the words of the narrative (vi. 17, vii. 4, 21 — 23) ; but the fossil remains of marine animals, found sometimes even on lofty mountains, and the existence of traditions of a Flood among nations living in many different parts of the world, were confidently appealed to as confirmatory of the fact. But the rise, within the last century, of a science of geology has shewn that the occurrence of a universal Deluge, since the appearance of man upon the earth, is beyond the range of physical possibility; while the principles of comparative mythology shew that the traditions of a Flood current in different parts of the world do not necessarily perpetuate the memory of a single historical event. (1) If *all the high hills under the whole heaven' (vii. 19) were covered, there must, by the most elementary principles of hydrostatics, have been Jive 7niles depth of water over the entire globe : whence could this incredible amount of water have come, and whither, when the Flood abated, could it have disappeared ? 7—2 100 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Even, indeed, though the expression in vii. 19 were taken hyperbolically (cf. Gen. xli. 56, 57 ; Dt. ii. 25 ; 1 K. xviii. 10), or limited to the mountains known to the writer, the difficulty would not be materially diminished : it is clear from viii. 4, 5 that the writer (P) pictured an immense depth of water upon the earth : and even if only Palestine^ and the mountains (not the highest) in Armenia were submerged, it must have risen to at least 3000 ft. ; and water standing 3000 ft. above the sea in Palestine or Armenia implies 3000 ft. of water in every other part of the globe — ^an amount incredible in itself, besides involving, quite as fully as five miles of water would do, all the difficulties mentioned below. No doubt there was a time when hills and mountains were submerged, and when the remains of marine animals referred to above were deposited on what was then the bottom of the sea; but, as geology shews, that was in an age long anterior to the appearance of man upon the earth, and the period of submergence must have lasted, not for a single year (P), but for untold centuries (cf. p. 20). (2) Without the assumption of a stupendous miracle (for which there is not the smallest warrant in the words of the text), all species of living terrestrial animals (including many peculiar to distant continents and islands, and others adapted only to subsist in the torrid or frigid zone, respectively) could not have been brought to Noah, or so far tamed as to have refrained from attacking each other, and to have submitted peaceably to Noah. (3) The number of living species of terrestrial animals is so great that it is physically impossible that room could have been found for them in the ark. (4) A universal deluge is inconsistent with the geographical distribution of existing land animals ; for different continents and islands have each many species of animals peculiar to themselves— S. America, for example, has the sloth and the armadillo, Australia has marsupials, New Zealand strange wingless birds ; but if all land animals were destroyed at a date — whether c. B.C. 2501, or (lxx.) c. b.c. 3066 — when these continents and islands were separated from one another sub- stantially as they are now, how could the representatives of all these species have found their way back over many thousand miles of land and sea to their present habitations? (5) If the entire human race, except Noah and his family, were destroyed at the same date, the widely different races, languages, and civilizations of Babylonia, Egypt, India, China, Australia, America — to say nothing of other countries — cannot he accounted for : for the races inhabiting these countries, if they ever lived together in a common home, could not have developed the differences which they exhibit, unless they had started migrating from it centuries, and indeed millennia, before either b.o. 2501 or b.c. 3066 (p. XXXV ff.); moreover, in the case of at least Babylonia aad Egypt, we possess monumental evidence that civilization in these countries existed continuously y without a break, /rom a period long anterior to either of these dates. Upon these grounds — to which others might be added^— the supposition that the Deluge of Noah was a universal one, is, it is evident, out of the question, and has indeed been generally abandoned. 1 In which Jerusalem is 2600 ft. and Hebron 3040 ft. above the Medit. Sea. 2 See the excellent discussion of this question by J. J. S. Perowne in Smith, TtB. art. Noah, pp. 567—71. THE DELUGE 101 Even, however, the attempt which has been often made to regard the Dehige as a * partial ' one, is beset by diflSculties. Certainly (see p. 107 f.) there would be no objection, upon scientific grounds, to the supposition that there was, abotit b.c. 2500, an extensive and destructive local inundation in the lower part of the plain of IBabylonia ; but an inundation such as this does not satisfy the terms of the narrative of Genesis. (1) P, at any rate — for J does not state to what height he pictured them as rising— describes the waters as rising at least as high as the * mountains of Ararat ' (viii. 5), the lowest of which are more than 2500 ft. above the plain of Babylonia. (2) Both P and J speak repeatedly of every living thing which had been created, including in par- ticular all mankind, as having been destroyed (vi. 7, vii. 4, 23, viii. 21 J ; vi. 17, vii. 21, cf. viii. 11, 15, P). But a flood confined to the plain of Babylonia would certainly not have destroyed all animals upon the earth : it is moreover certain — to say nothing of India, China, and other parts — that long before B.C. 2501 mankind had spread as far as Egypt, and had established an important civilization there, which obviously could not have been aflfected by a flood, however extensive, in Babylonia^ It is manifest that a flood which would submerge Egypt as well as Babylonia must have risen to at least 2000 ft. (the height of the elevated country between them), and have thus been in fact a universal one (which has been shewn to be impossible) : a flood, on the other hand, which did less than this is not what the Biblical writers describe^ and would not have accomplished what is represented as having been the entire raison d'etre of the Flood, the destruction of all mankind. "We are forced, consequently, to the conclusion that the Flood, as described by the Biblical writers^ is unhistorical. II. Flood-stories in other nations. It is a remarkable fact that stories of a flood, which sometimes covers the whole earth, while at other times it embraces only the country in which the story is current, and from which but few escaped, are told in many different parts of the world. Naturally the same or similar features often recur in these stories; but in other respects the details (which are often grotesque) vary considerably ; and we have no space to repeat them here 2. The principal countries in which these Flood-stories are found are Greece (Deucalion's deluge), Lithuania, Australia, Hawaii and other Polynesian islands, Cashmir, Thibet, Kamchatka, diflferent parts of India, ar.d America (where such stories are particularly numerous) : they are not found (according to Andree) in northern and central Asia; they are also absent in Egypt, China, and Japan, and almost absent in other parts of Africa (except 1 Further argument on this point is hardly necessary ; but it may be pointed out that (as an orographical map of Asia will at once shew) the great alluvial plain of the Euphrates and the Tigris (which slopes down gradually from an elevation of 500—600 ft. at its N. end, a httle E. of Aleppo, to the head of the Persian Gulf, some 700 miles to the SE.) is hemmed in on all sides, except towards the Persian Gulf, by elevated ground, and in particular that the whole of Syria and Arabia, from Aleppo in the N. to Aden in the S., has an elevation of more than 2000 ft. ; so that, even though the volume of water were such that, being driven up the slope by winds, it covered the entire plain of these two rivers, it could not by any possibility submerge the neighbouring countries. 2 See specimens in the Encycl. Brit. ed. 9, art. Deluge ; DB. s.v. Flood ; Worcester, Genesis in the Light of Modern Knowledge, pp. 418 ff., 527 — 551 ; and esp. the full collection in Andree, Die Flutsagen, ethnograjphisch betrachlet, 1891. 102 THE BOOK OF GENESIS where they are due to Christian influence). It was once supposed that all these stories arose from the recollection of a common physical catastrophe; but this can readily be shewn to be untenable. (1) As was shewn above, upon independent grounds, there cannot have been any really universal Flood, of which these stories might have preserved the recollection. (2) Even supposing, per impossibile, that there had been a universal Flood, it is a well-known fact that savage nations, such as many of those among whom Flood-stories are current, do not remember anything very long, and certainly have no ancient history : if then they possess no knowledge of events that occuri'cd 100 years ago, it is in the last degree improbable that they should have preserved the memory of an event that happened (ex hyp.) more than 4000 years ago. (3) If the Deluge of Noah were merely a local inundation, confined to the plain of Babylonia, though the memory of it might have been retained by some of the immediate neighbours of the Babylonians, it would be most unlikely for a knowledge of it to have travelled to nations settled in such distant continents or islands as Australia, Polynesia, and America (which must, as was pointed out on p. 100, have been already peopled long before B.C. 2501). It does not fall within the province of the present work to consider the question of the origin of these Flood-stories; so it must suffice to remark briefly that they are due probably to the operation of diflferent causes. Most frequently, says Mr Woods, the Flood-story is the highly-coloured tradition of some historical event, or extraordinary natural phaenomenon — for instance, among island and coastland peoples, of the early settlement of their ancestors who came in boats across the ocean, of the appearance or disappearance of an island by a volcanic eruption, or of a tidal wave resulting from an earthquake ; among inland peoples, of the overflow of a river, the formation or disappearance of a lake, or the melting of the winter snows. In other cases Flood-stories appear to have originated in an attempt to account for some otherwise unexplained fact, as the dispersion of peoples and differences of language, the red colour of some of the N. American tribes, or the existence of fossil remains on dry land, and even on hills. Account must also be taken of the tendency of the human mind, well known to students of anthropology, to construct, under similar local and mental conditions, similar mythological creations. And those stories, which in particular details resemble strongly the Biblical narrative, are open to the suspicion of having had these features introduced into them from Christian sources, in quite modern times. It was maintained by the late Professor Prestwich, on the ground of certain geological indications (especially the so-called * Rubble Drift '), that long after the appearance of palaeolithic man, there was a submergence of the crust of the earth, chiefly in W. Europe, but also in NW. Africa, though extending doubt- fully as far E. as Palestine, causing a great inundation of the sea, which, though of short duration, destroyed a vast amount of animal and some human life, so that some species of animals (e.g. the hippopotamus in Sicily) became extinct in regions which they formerly inhabited ; and he suggests that this inundation may have accounted for the above-mentioned traditions. As Mr Woods {DB. II. 23), however, points out, without at all questioning the geological inference! drawn by Professor Prestwich, had this explanation of the Flood-stories been correct, it is remarkable that in Europe itself Flood-stories should be com- THE DELUGE 103 paratively scarce, while they are most frequent in countries such as N. and Central America, which are far removed from the region supposed to have been submerged. Even Babylonia, where the most important and graphic Flood-story originates, is not within the area over which Professor Prestwich supposes the submergence to have extended ; and it is evident that the inun- dation postulated by him is something completely different from the Flood of Noahi. III. The Babylonian narrative of the Flood. There can be no doubt that the true origin of the Biblical narrative is to be found in the Babylonian story of the Flood, which was discovered in 1872 by G. Smith in the Library of Asshurbanipal at Kouyunjik. That the Babylonians possessed a legend of a Flood was known before from the outline preserved by Berossus, who states that Kronos warned Xisuthros, the tenth ante-diluvian king (see p. 80), that mankind would be destroyed by a flood, and bade him build a huge ship in which he, with his family and friends, might be savedl The substantial accuracy of Berossus' account is confirmed by the cuneiform narrative, though, naturally, it is at the same time superseded by it. The story forms an episode in the great Babylonian epic, which narrates the exploits of Gilgamesh, the hero of Uruk (the Erech of Gen. x. 10), and occupies the eleventh of the twelve cantos into which the epic is divided. Gilgamesh's ancestor, Ut-napishtim, it was said, had received the gift of immortality ; and Gilgamesh, anxious to learn the secret by which he had obtained this boon, resolves to visit him. After many adventures he reaches the Waters of Death (which are identified with the ocean encircling the world), and having succeeded in crossing them he sees Ut-napishtim, his figure unchanged by age, standing upon the further shore. In answer to his inquiries, Ut-napishtira describes how in consequence of his piety he had been preserved from destruction at the time of the great Flood, and had afterwards been made immortal by Bel. Ut-napishtim's story occupies more than 200 lines ; and only extracts can be given here^. He begins (11. 8—31) by narrating how the gods, Ann, Bel, 1 Sir J. W. Dawson, in his Meeting Fiace of Geology and History (1894), extending, as it seems, this theory of Professor Prestwich, speaks very confidently (pp. 88 f., 130, 148 f., 154 f., 204, 205) of a great submergence, and accompanying 'diluvial catastrophe,' which took place shortly after the close of the glacial period, and destroyed palaeolithic man, and which is identified by him (pp. 155, 205) with the Deluge of Noah. An eminent English geologist, Canon T. G. Bonney, Emeritus Professor of Geology at University College, London, and an ex-President of the Geological Society, who has examined Sir J. W. Dawson's arguments, permits me however to say that he considers this identification to be altogether untenable: he is aware of no evidence shewing that ' a vast region' of either Europe or Asia was submerged at the age spoken of ; and even supposing that it were so submerged, the flood thus produced would be many thousand years before the time at which, according to the Biblical chronology, the Deluge will have taken place. He adds that he is acquainted with no geological indications favouring the suppo- sition that a submergence, embracing certainly Asia, and including in particular Armenia (the * mountains of Ararat'), and causing great destruction of animal life, took place at c. b.c. 2500 or 3000. Cf. his art., Expositor, June, 1903, p. 456 ff. 2 See Muller, Fragm. Hist. Graec. ii. 501 f.; or the translations in Lenormant, Origines, i. 387—90, Zimmern, Bab. and Heb. Genesis, p. 48 f., or KAT.^ 543 f. * The text may be read in full in Ball's Light from the East, p. 35 ff. and in KB. VI. 229 ff., with notes, p. 480 ff. See also the extracts, with valuable discussion, in Jastrow's Bel. of Bab. and Ass., pp. 493—517 ; and KAT.^ 545 ff. 104 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Ninib, and Ennugi, had determined to destroy Shurippak, a city described as * lying on the Euphrates,' by a flood {dbvbu), and how Ea, 'lord of wisdom/ had warned him to escape by building a great ship : — 23 0 man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu : Frame a house, build a ship; 25 Forsake (thy) possessions, seek (to save) life ; Abandon (thy) goods, and cause (thy) soul to live: Bring up into the midst of the ship the seed of life of every sort As for the ship, which thou shalt build, Let its form be long; 30 And its breadth and its height shall be of the same measure. Upon the deep then launch it. There follows (11. 32 ff.) the excuse which he is to make, if asked by the men of his place what he is doing, Ut-napishtim then proceeds to relate how he carried out these instructions : — 67 On the fifth day I began to construct the frame of the ship. In its hull its sides were 120 cubits high. And its deck was likewise 120 cubits in breadth: 60 I built on the bow, and fastened all firmly together. Then I built six decks in it, So that it was divided into seven storeys. The interior (of each storey) I divided into nine compartments; I drove in plugs (to fill up crevices). 65 I looked out a mast, and added all that was needful Six sars of bitumen {kupru) I spread over it for caulking: Three sars of naphtha [I took] on board. When he had finished it, he entered it with all his belongings :— 81 With all that I possessed, I laded it: With all the silver that I possessed, I laded it; With all the gold that I possessed, I laded it; With the seed of life of every kind that I possessed, I laded it 85 I took on board all my family and my servants; Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, craftsmen also, all of them, did I take on board. Shamash (the sun-god) had appointed the time, (saying,) * When the lord of the whirlwind seudeth at even a destructive rain, Enter into thy ship, and close thy door.' The arrival of the fated day filled Ut-napishtim with alarm : — 93 I feared to look upon the earth : I entered within the ship, and closed my door. The storm which began next morning is finely described (11. 97—132). Ramm^n ('Rimmon,' — the storm-god) thundered in heaven; the Anunnaki brought lightnings ; the waters rose : even the gods were in consternation ; they took refuge in heaven, * cowering like dogs ' ; and Ishtar, the lady of the gods, * cried like a woman in travail ' ; — \ THE DELUGE 105 128 Six days and nights Raged wind, deluge (ahuhu), and storm upon the earth. 130 When the seventh day arrived, the storm and dehige ceased, Which had fought like a host of men ; The sea was calm, hurricane and deluge ceased. I beheld the land, and cried aloud: For the whole of mankind were turned to clay (fi?w=to'»D); 135 Hedged fields had become marshes. I opened a window, and the light fell upon my face. The ship grounded on Nisir — a mountain east of the Tigris, across the Little Zab (KA T? 63)— and remained there for six days : — 146 When the seventh day arrived, I brought forth a dom^ and let it go : The dove went to and fro; As there was no resting-place, it turned back. 150 I brought forth a swallow, and let it go: The swallow went to and fro; As there was no resting-place, it turned back. I brought forth a raven, and let it go : The raven went, and saw the decrease of the waters ; 165 It ate, it waded, it croaked (0, it turned not back. After this Ut-napishtim leaves the ark, and, like Noah, oflFers sacrifice : — 156 Then I sent forth (everything) towards the four winds (of heaven): I offered sacrifice: I prepared an offering on the summit of the mountain. . I set Adagur- vases, seven by seven, Underneath them I cast down reeds, cedar-wood, and incensa 160 The gods smelt the savour, The gods smelt the goodly savour; The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer. Ishtar hereupon reproaches Bel, because, when the goda had intended only to destroy a single place, Shurippak, he had brought about the destruction of all mankind (II. 163 — 170). Bel, on the other hand, is incensed with Ea, because, by enabling Ut-napishtim to escape, he had frustrated his plan; but is pacified by Ea's representations (11. 182 ff.)i that, though the sinner may rightly suffer, it is inconsiderate to destroy all without discrimination. In the end Bel accepts Ut-napishtim favourably, and takes him and his wife away to immortality : — 201 He turned to us, he stepped between us, and blessed us, (saying) : * Hitherto Ut-napishtim has been a (mortal) man, but Henceforth Ut-napishtim and his wife shall be like unto the gods, even unto us, and 1 In 1. 196 Ut-napishtim is called Atra-hasis ( = 'very clever'), which, inverted {Hasis-atra), is the origin of Berossus' ' Xisuthros.' 106 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Ut-napishtim shall dwell far away at the mouth of the rivers.* Then they took me, and far away at the mouth of the rivers they made me to dwell. It should be added that fragments of two different versions of what is manifestly the same story have been found : one (12 lines) ^ containing Ea's instructions to Atra-basis about entering the ship ; the other (37 fragmentary lines) ^, which is of extreme antiquity (the tablet on which it is written being dated in the reign of Ammi-zaduga, the 4th successor of Hammurabi, B.C. 2245 — 2223), representing some god as calling upon Rammlbn to bring a flood upon the earth, and Ea as interposing to save Atra-ljasis. Though there are differences in detail, the resemblances with the Biblical narrative are too numerous and too marked to be due to accident. Thus the Babylonian narrative agrees with P in that the hero of the Flood is (according to Berossus) the tenth of the ante-diluvian kings, just as Noah is the tenth from Adam ; in the fact that instructions are given for making the ark of particular dimensions and with storeys (though the dimensions are not the same, and in P the number of storeys is three, not seven), and that it was made water-tight by bitumen, that the vessel grounds upon a mountain (but Ni§ir, not Ararat) 3, and that Bel 'blesses' Ut-napishtim (1. 201), as God *blesses' Noah (Gen. ix. 1)*: it agrees with J in that the flood is attributed to rain only ; in its shorter duration (but seven days, not 40), as compared with P (one year), in a prefer- ence for the number seven (11. 62, 130, 146, 158 ; cf. in J, Gen. vii. 2, 3, 4, 10, viii. 10, 12), in the episode of the dove and the raven (though in the reverse order, and with a swallow as well), in the sacrifice offered by Ut-napishtim after leaving the ark, and in the gods * smelling the goodly savour' : it agrees with P and J alike in that Ut-napishtim is warned, like Noah, to take refuge from the coming flood in a shij), in the fact that all perish except the few who are saved on account of Ut-napishtim's piety, and that, after the flood is over, Bel, like Jehovah, promises (implicitly) not again to destroy mankind thus indiscriminately, and receives Ut-napishtim favourably. The resemblances with J are on the whole the more striking. Of the differences, the most con- spicuous is the polytheistic colouring of the Babylonian narrative, as compared with the monotheism of the two Biblical writers ^ It is another noteworthy feature that in Genesis it is Enoch, not Noah, who is translated without dying. The Hebrew and the Babylonian narratives have evidently a common 1 See KB. vi. 254—7 ; Sayce, Monuments, 108 f. ; cf. KAT.^ 651. 2 Exp. Times, May, 1898, p. 377 f.; KB. vi. 289—91; cf. KAT.^ 552—4. 8 Why in P the • mountains of Ararat ' appear in place of Nisir must remain matter of conjecture: possibly, because they were the loftiest known to the Hebrews; for another conjecture, see EncB. i. 289. * Whether the rainbow is alluded to (Sayce, pp. 112 [1. 148], 114) in the Bab. poem (in KB., 1. 164) is very uncertain : see DB. iv. l^^^n., and KAT.^ 550 n. 2. •^ Prof. Sayce (EHH. 126) also calls attention to points in which the story has assumed a Palestinian colouring : the ship has become an *ark,' as was natural in a country in which there were no great rivers or a Persian Gulf; the period of the rainfall has been transferred from Sebat ( = Jan. — Feb.), when the winter rains fall in Babylonia, to the 'second month' ( = Nov.), the time of the autumn or 'former' rains in Palestine ; and the dove brings back in its mouth a leaf of the olive, a tree much more characteristic of Palestine than of Babylonia. THE DELUGE 107 origin. And the Hebrew narrative must be derived from the Babylonian : for not only is the Babylonian story of the Flood much older than (upon any view of its origin) the Book of Genesis (for, as was shewn above, we have a version of it dating from c. 2200 B.C.), but, as Zimmern has remarked, the very essence of the Biblical narrative presupposes a country liable, like Babylonia, to inundations ; so that it cannot be doubted that the story was ' indigenous in Babylonia, and transplanted to Palestine^.' Of course, the Biblical account was not, any more than the Biblical account of the Creation, transcribed directly from a Babylonian source : but by some channel or other — we can but specu- late by what (cf. p. 31)— the Babylonian story found its way into Israel; for many generations it was transmitted orally, so that details were naturally forgotten or modified ; it assumed, of course, a Hebrew complexion, and was accommodated to the spirit of Hebrew monotheism ; but its main outline remained the same : J and P, at different times, cast it into a written form, each impressing upon it features characteristic of his own point of view and hterary method ; and from the combination of the two texts thus formed, the present narrative of»Genesis has arisen. In its Hebrew form, the story of the Flood has thus a new character stamped upon it ; and it becomes a symbolical embodiment of ethical and religious truth. It marks an epoch in the early history of mankind. A judicial motive is assigned for it : it becomes a judgement upon corrupt and degenerate mankind 2. It thus exemplifies a great principle by which God deals with both nations and individuals (cf. the application in Mt. xxiv. 37 — 9). Noah, on the other hand, is the type of a righteous man (cf. Heb. xi. 7 ; 1 Pet. iii. 20 ; 2 Pet. ii. 5), an example of blamelessness and obedience in the midst of a heedless and perverse generation, a man worthy of the seal of God's approval. His probity saves, not himself only, but his family. Rescued from the flood of waters, he becomes the second father of humanity, and inaugurates for it a new era. A new and gracious declaration of God's purposes towards man marks the significance of the occasion : the promise in J (viii. 21 f.), the blessing and the covenant in P (ix. 1 — 17), are tokens of His good will towards mankind ; a new principle, the sanctity of human life, is established for the maintenance and welfare of society. And so humanity starts afresh, with the sense of God's favour resting upon it, if it will but fulfil faithfully the duties devolving upon it. It remains only to consider the possible basis of the Babylonian story. Delitzsch, Dillmann, Huxley^, Haupt, and Jastrow, following the geologist Siiss, of Vienna, consider that it is based upon dim recollections of an actual extraordinary inundation of the lower Euphrates over the plain of Babylonia. Both the Tigris and the Euphrates, when the snows in the upper basins of the two rivers melt in spring, regularly overflow their banks, and transform a large part of the alluvial plain into a vast inland sea : the region is also liable to earthquakes ; and if, at the height of an inundation, when the waters were 1 Similarly Sayce, EIIH. 125. ' This may be indirectly implied in the Babylonian narrative in 1. 184 f., but it certainly is not stated distinctly; and in 1. 13 f. the destruction of Shurippak seems attributed simply to the caprice of the gods. 3 Collected Essays, iv. 221, 242 ff. ('Hasisadra's Adventure'). 108 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ix. 18, 19 further swollen by heavy rains, *a hurricane from the SB. swept up the Persian Gulf, driving its shallow waters upon the delta, and damming back the outflow, a catastrophe not unlike 5asisadra's might have been produced,' and a vessel might have been driven up stream, over a continuously flooded country, till it grounded — not indeed on the summit of Nisir, or on Ararat, but — ' on one of the low hills between which both the lower and the upj)er Zab enter the Assyrian plain' (Huxley, pp. 247 f., cf. 263, 279). If this view bo correct— and it certainly appears a reasonable one — we must suppose that there was once an actual extraordinary overflow of the Euphrates, which resulted among other things in the destruction of Shurippak, that there was a tradition, or legend, current in Babylonia, that some succeeded in effecting their escape in a great ship, that in the popular imagination the disaster was magnified into a destruction of all mankind except those who escaped, and also myth ©logically embellished, that the story further found its way to Palestine, and ultimately, in the manner indicated above, was incorporated in the Book of Genesis. Upon this view of the origin of the Biblical narrative, it will be evident that it is no * fiction ' of the narrators ; it is a current popular helief, of long standing in Israel, which they report ; and instead of being shocked or startled at the fact, we should rather marvel at the 'divinely-guided religious feeling and insight, by which an ancient legend has been made the vehicle of religious and spiritual truths' 18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were J Shem, and Ham, and Japheth : and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah : and of these was the whole earth overspread. 18, 19 (J). A short connecting passage, forming («. 18*) the close to J's narrative of the Flood, and {v. 19) the introduction to J's Table of Nations, preserved in parts of en. x. Verse 18^ is probably an addition due to the compiler, and intended as an introduction to vv. 20 — 27. 19. of these &c. Better, from, these the whole earth (i.e. the whole population of the earth, as xi. 1) was spread abroad (x. 18). 20 — 27 (J). Noah, the vine-grower, and his three sons. Noah appears here under a new aspect. As in iv. 17 — 24 we learned how Hebrew tradition accounted for the origin of diff'erent inventions and institutions, so we learn here, vv. 20, 21, how it attributed to Noah the introduction of what we may suppose to have been a more artificial type of husbandry, as compared with that implied in iv. 2, and also in particular of the culture of the vine. The vine and its fruit were highly prized in Palestine (cf. xlix. 11 f., and on xxvii. 28) ; and the first discovery of the uses to which its juice might be put, must have been a notable one in the history of inventions. Here it is ascribed to Noah, who is connected (viii. 4) with Armenia ; and Armenia and the E. part of Pontus are just the region in which the plant appears to have been 1 Woods in DB. ii. 23. Holzinger (p. 88), and Gunkel (p. 66) also remark upon the immeasurably higher spiritual feeling displayed by the Biblical narrative, and on the contrast between the sublime moral dignity of the God of Noah, and the ' genuinely heathen ' character and motives displayed by the Babylonian deities. ix.ao-a5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 109 indigenous, and from which it spread gradually to other countries. But, with a keen perception of its liability to abuse, the narrator paints a vivid picture of the disgrace and misfortune which the enjoyment of the fermented juice of the vine entailed upon its first cultivator. The scene is a typical one ; and it stands as a warning of the consequences of excessive indulgence, and of the need of watchfulness and self-control, even in the use of what is good and innocent in itself. 20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a j vineyard : 21 and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father ; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his ^youngest son had done unto him. 25 And he said, ^ Or, younger 20. And Noah, the husbandman, began, and planted,^ &c. 'The title, "the husbandman," here applied to Noah is surprising, and can only be understood as pointing to a cycle of tradition respect- ing Noah, in which he figured in that capacity' (Dillm.). 21. Noah, it is implied, was the first to plant a vineyard, and manufacture mne: hence he was unacquainted with the effects of wine, and was not responsible for the state into which it brought him. 22. 23. Ham, in what he did, shewed no modesty, or filial respect; his two brothers, on the contrary, displayed delicacy of feeling, and respect for their father. The ' garment ' {simldh) is the large square mantle^ ot plaid, often used for sleeping in (Ex. xxii. 26 f ). 24. youngest. From the order in both J {v. 18) and P (v. 32, vi. 10, vii. 13, X. 1), it would naturally be inferred that Japheth was the youngest son of Noah. The writer of vv. 20 — 27 must have followed a different tradition — either one which gave Noah's sons in the order Shem, Japheth, and Ham, or (see below) one which made them to be Shem, Japheth, and Canaan. (RVm. is not legitimate.) 25. Deeply moved by what had occurred, and discerning from it the characters of his sons, Noah in an elevated, impassioned strain, pronounces upon them a curse and blessing. It was an ancient belief that a father's curse or blessing was not merely the expression of an earnestly felt hope or wish, but that it exerted a real power in determin- ing a child's future ; and hence the existing later condition of a tribe or people is often in the OT. referred to the words supposed to have been pronounced by a patriarchal ancestor upon its progenitor. Cf. xxvii. 28 f , 39 f , xlviii. 13 — 20; and on ch. xlix. no THE BOOK OF GENESIS [ix. 25-27 Cursed be Canaan ; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem ; And let Canaan be ^his servant. 57 God enlarge Japheth, And ^let him dwell in the tents of Shem ; And let Canaan be ^his servant. 1 Or, their « Or, he shall servant of servants. I.e. the very lowest of servants. Canaan is here not an individual, but the representative of the Canaanites, the native races of Canaan, who, if not destroyed, were ultimately sub- jugated by the Israelites (cf. Jud. i. 28 IF. ; 1 K. ix. 20 f.) : and the intention of the passage is in reality to account for the enslaved condition of these races, as the Hebrews knew them. How the subjection to Japheth (* his brethren ' : and v. 27°) is to be explained is less clear : perhaps it is introduced only as a secondary feature in the curse; perhaps, however, cases were known to the author of the blessing in which the Phoenicians, for instance, whether commercially or politically, had been unable to hold their own by the side of Japhethic rivals (x. 2 — 4). On the question why Canaan is cursed, when Ham was the offender, see below. 26, 27. In strong contrast to the curse on Canaan are the blessings on Shem and Japheth. 26. The knowledge of the true God possessed by the Hebrews forms the basis of the blessing pronounced upon their ancestor (see x. 21 ; xi. 10 fF.), Shem; and the form in which the blessing is cast, — not * Blessed be Shem,' but * Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem,' — evinces a warm and lively sense of the privileges which this knowledge conferred upon those who shared it: it is the happiness of Shem and his descendants that they *have Jehovah for their God.' his. Better, their (RVm.), referring to ' his brethren,* v. 25. 27*. The blessing begins this time with a wish suggested by the name, there being in the Heb. for enlarge an obvious play upon Japheth (cf xlix. 8, 16, 19). May God fulfil the omen of Japheth's name and grant him width, expansiveness ! The large extent of territory inhabited by the nations represented by the sons of Japheth (x. 2 — 5), their material development, and mental energy, are what is here alluded to. God. Not Jehovah (who is reserved for Shem), there being no knowledge of the God of revelation in Japheth. 27^ Unlike Canaan, with whom Israel is to have no dealings (Ex. xxiii. 32), may Japheth have free intercourse with the descendants of Shem, and dwell unhindered in their tents ! The words are a reflection of the more friendly regard with which reHgiously-minded IX. .8, .9] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 111 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty P years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died. Israelites viewed the Japhethites, as compared with the Canaanites. They may also include perhaps in germ the thought (which is developed afterwards more fully by the great prophets, e.g. Is. ii. 2—4) of the ultimate inclusion of the peoples referred to Japheth as their ancestor in the spiritual privileges enjoyed by the descendants of Shem. 28, 29. The close of P's account of Noah. The verses resemble closely in form v. 7 f , 10 f , 13 f , &c. We may call the words addressed by Noah to his three sons a prophetical interpretation of history. Canaan, Shem, and Japheth are not individuals : they are personifications, representing the nationalities of which they were the reputed ancestors, and reflecting their respective characters. * The curse of Canaan is the curse pronounced against Israel's greatest foe and con- stant source of moral temptation; the shamelessness of Ham reflects the impression produced by the sensuality of the Canaanite upon the minds of the worshippers of Jehovah ' (Ryle, p. 122 : see e.g. Lev. xviii. 3, 24—30; 1 K. xiv. 24). And the curse takes the form of political subjection, which is the natural penalty of long-continued moral degradation, and of the physical enervation which inevitably accompanies it. The purer religion possessed by the Hebrews is the thought determining the blessing of Shem. The width of territory and expansiveness characteristic of the Japhethites explains the terms used of Japheth. Thus, taken as a whole, the blessing defines in outline the position and historical significance of the three great ethnical groups, which were referred to Noah as their ancestor. It contrasts their diflfering characters ; and holds out to each correspondingly different prospects for the future. It thus interprets the history * prophetically,' i.e. not predictively, but eliciting from it the providential purposes of which it is the expression. There remains the question why Canaan was cursed, when Ham was the offender. No doubt, the simplest supposition is that Canaan is cursed, because among all the ' sons ' of Ham (x. 6) the Canaanites were the most intimately known to the Hebrews, and in intercourse with them displayed in a preeminent degree the evil traits which had characterized Ham. By recent critics^, however, this explanation has been regarded as unsatisfactory, and the opinion has gained ground that the narrative is no longer in its original form : originally, these critics suppose, the author of the misdeed was Canaan^ who may even, in the oldest form of the tradition, have been treated not as the grandson of Noah, but as the youngest (cf. v. 24) of his sons (as indeed the connexion in vv. 24—27, where he stands by the side of Shem and Japheth, seems still to imply) ; the compiler, in appending this narrative to the story of the Flood, harmonized it with the genealogy of Noah's sons which had then gained currency, by inserting in V. 18 the explanatory gloss 'and Ham is the father of Canaan,' and in v. 22 the words * Ham the father of ' before * Canaan.* Verses 20—27, in their original form, will upon this view represent a difi"erent stratum of Israelitish tradition, 1 Wellh., Budde, Holz., Gunkel, aJ.; cf. Ryle, 119—121. 112 THE BOOK OF GENESIS in which Canaan figured as a son of Noah. And as we are dealing not with individuals as such, but with individuals as representing nationalities, there is at least no difficulty (cf. on x. 7 Sheba and Dedan, xxii. 21) in supposing that they may have been differently grouped, and the relations between them differently defined, by different writers or at different times. Chapter X. The Table of Nations, I The object of this Table is partly to shew how the Hebrews supposed the principal nations known to them to be related to each other, partly to assign Israel, in particular, its place among them. The chapter falls into the plan of the compiler of Genesis. The compiler's ultimate goal is the history of the chosen family ; but at the point when he was about to enter upon this, he was sensible (in Gunkel's words) 'of the scientific necessity of saying something about the rise of other nations, of the aesthetic necessity of bringing clearly to a close the history of primitive undivided mankind, and last, but not least, of the religious necessity of exhibiting clearly the selection of Israel out of the mass of nations.' And so, after this chapter, he is able to limit himself exclusively to the line of Shem (xi. 10 ff.), and shortly afterwards to a particular branch of the family of Terah (xi. 27 ff.), viz. the family of Abraham. In relating the nations to each other, each is represented as summed up in a corresponding eponymous ancestor, these being related to one another as father, son, brother, &c. The names are in no case to be taken as those of real individuals ; they just represent peoples. This is clear in many cases from the names themselves, which are dual (Mizraim), or plural (Ludim, Anamim, &c.) in form, or names of places (as Tarshish, Zidon, Ophir, &c.), or gentile names (as the Jebusite, the Amorite, &c,) ; in other cases, from its being contrary to all analogy for the names of nations to be derived from those of known individual ancestors. Moreover, the real origin of the nations enumerated here, belonging in many cases to entirely different racial types, — Semites, Aryans, 'Hittites,' Egyptians, — must have reached back into a remote prehistoric age, — far earlier than b.c. 2500, — from which, we may be sure, not even the dimmest recollections could have been preserved at the time when the chapter was written. The nations and tribes existed: and imaginary ancestors were afterwards postulated for the purpose of exhibiting pictorially the relationship in which they were supposed to stand towards one another. An exactly parallel instance, thougli not so fully worked out, is afforded by the ancient Greeks. The general name of the Greeks was Hellenes, the principal subdivisions were the Dorians, the Aeolians, the lonians, and the Achaeans ; and accordingly the Greeks traced their descent from a supposed eponymous ancestor Hellen, who had three sons Dorus and Aeolus, the suppo. ed ancestors of the Dorians and Aeolians, and Xuthus, from whose two sons, Ion and Achaeus, the lonians and Achaeans were respectively supposed to be descended. And so here, the principal nations known to the Hebrews are represented, through their corresponding ancestors, as the members of a great family more or less closely related to each other, as the case may be. The great ethnical groups, THE BOOK OF GENESIS 113 most strongly distinguished from one another in physical type and character, are represented as the sons of Noah. The primary divisions (i.e. nations), into which each of these groups falls, appear as the ' sons ' of its representative ancestor (as Javan, i.e. the Greeks [lonians], the son of Japheth) : subordinate divisions (i.e. tribes or local settlements) appear as * grandsons' (as Zidon, *8on* of Canaan, and ' grandson ' of Ham). The Table does not include all nations known to the Hebrews. Some, which were more closely connected with the Hebrews than any here mentioned, as Moab and Ammon, the descendants of Nahor, and of K:eturah, the Ishmaelite tribes, and Edom, are intentionally excluded : they find their place at later stages of the narrative i. Others, as the Rephaim, the *Anakim, the Zuzim, are, perhaps, not mentioned, as not being of sufficient importance : for the omission of others, it is less easy to suggest satisfactory reasons. Others, again, as the pre-Semitic Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia, the negro-races of Africa, many nations of Europe, the Indian races, the Chinese, and the peoples of Australia, America, the Pacific Isles, &c., are not mentioned, simply because the knowledge of the Hebrews did not embrace them. The area included in the Table extends, speaking broadly, from Annenia on the N. to Ethiopia and S. Arabia on the S., and from Elam (E. of Babylonia) on the E. to Greece and the dimly known Tarshish in the W. The knowledge of the more distant peoples mentioned came probably to the Hebrews in many cases through trade or war. It is remarkable how many of these, particularly when they belong to P, agree with those mentioned by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and in general bow largely the horizon of the Table agrees with the horizon of these prophets : see the notes on Gomer, Magog, Javan, Tubal, Meshech {v. 1), Ashkenaz, Togarmah (». 2), Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim {v, 3), Cush, Put {v. 6), Ka'mah, Sheba, Dedan {v. 7), Ludim («?. 13), Arvad (tJ. 18), Elam {v. 22); and compare especially Ez. xxvii., and xxxviii. 2 — 6, 13, xxxix. 1^. Upon wliat principle are the nations included in the Table arranged? No doubt, the two writers, whose joint work the Table in its present form is, both conceived their arrangement to be ethnological, i.e. they supposed the nations to be really related by blood as they represented them to be ; but though this was doubtless the case in some instances, in others it is not probable ; and sometimes linguistic and other facts known to us shew it to be altogether out of the question : the Canaanites, for instance, had certainly no direct racial connexion with Egypt, nor the Hittites with 'Canaan,' or with the Amorites, nor Elam with Shem. Where a blood-relationship cannot be presupposed, the principle of arrangement, it seems evident, was chiefly geographical, though sometimes it was historical or political Thus, the three main divisions, Japheth, Ham, and Shem, occupy, respectively, on the whole, a northern, middle, and southern zone. Then, further, the peoples or tribes living in or near a particular country, whether connected together racially or not, are often described as descendants of the ancestor representing the country (as the 'sons' of Gomer, v. 3, of Mizraim, v. 13 f., and of Canaan, vv. 15 — 18 : see also 1 xix. 30 £f., xxii. 20 £f., xxv. 1 ff., 13 ff., xxxvi. ' On the gradual growth of geographical knowledge among the Hebrews see further the luminous art. Geography (Biblical) in the EncB, D. 8 114 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. i, 2 on ch. xxxvi.). In other instances political or commercial relations have led probably to peoples being connected genealogically, where no blood-relationship existed ; as in the cases of Tarshish and Javan (v. 4), and Canaan and Ham {v. 7). Naturally, our knowledge is often not sufficient to enable us to say, in a given case, by which of these principles the classification has been determined. But, after what has been said, it will occasion no surprise to find the same people classed difibrently, in different genealogies, compiled by diflferent writers or at different times (cf. on vv. 7, 23, xxii 21, xxv. 3). It will thus be evident that the Table of Nations contains no scientific classification of the races of mankind. Not only this, however ; it also offers no historically true account of the origin of the races of mankind. It represents as starting from a single centre, at about B.C. 2500, or (lxx.) 3066, varieties (Semitic, Aryan, 'Hittite' or Mongolian, and Egyptian) which (in Prof. Sayce's words) * the ethnologist is not at present able to trace back to a single original type' {Monuments, 120 f.), and which, if (as modern anthropologists also believe) they ultimately had a common origin, must beyond question have begun the process of separation and differentiation a great many centuries before either b.c. 2500, or B.C. 3066. The Table thus offers no sufficient explanation of the racial differences even of the nations included in it. And there remain the numerous native races of Africa, E. Asia, Australia, America, &c., refeiTed to above, which certainly must have been in existence millennia before even B.O. 3066 (for otherwise the strongly-marked differences of racial character and language which they exhibit, could not have had time to develop), the origin of which is not accounted for at all. Cf. the Introduction, p. xxxiv ff. As regards the composition of the chapter, vv. 1 — 7, 20, 22 — 24, 31, 32 belong to P, the rest belongs to J (with probably a later insertion in vv. 16 — 18*). X. 1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, i Shem Ham and Japheth : and unto them were sons born after the flood. 2 The sons of Japheth ; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. 3 And the sons of X. 2—5. The ' sons ' of Japheth. 2. Gomer. Mentioned in Ez. xxxviii. 6, by the side of Togarmah (v. 3, here), among the allies of Gog, of the land of Magog, in the * uttermost parts of the north,' who is pictured by the prophet as the leader of an ideal assault of nations against the restored Israel. LXX.TajLtep (in Ez.roju.cp), the Gimiri^ai, whom Esarhaddon (b.c. 681 — 668) speaks of having defeated, and who, Asshurbanipal (668 — 625) tells us (KB. II. 129, 173—7), invaded Lydia in the days of Gugu (i.e. Gyges, the famous king of Lydia, B.c. 687 — 653, Hdt. i. 8—14). Their territory at this time corresponded generally to the later Cappadocia (which is called in Armenian Gamir). There is little doubt that they are the same as the Cimmerians (Kt/x/xcpiot, Od. xi. 14, &c.); and if so, their original home was the country N. of the Euxine, from which they were expelled by the Scythians (Hdt. 1. 15, 103, rv. 11 f ). X. a] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 115 Magog. In Ez. xxxviii. 2 (with the article), xxxix. 6, a land and people in the * uttermost parts of the north,' whose ruler Gog is prince of 'Rosh, Meshech, and Tuhal,^ and has among his allies Gomer and Togarmah. The expedition imagined by the prophet in Ez. xxxviii. — ix. is no doubt modelled upon the great irruption of the Scythians into Asia (Hdt. I. 104 — 6), which took place c. 630 B.C., and which is in all probability alluded to in Jer. iv. 3 — vi. 30 (see especially v. 15 — 17, vi. 22 f.; cf. LOT, 237 f.). And in fact, since Josephus, 'Magog' has been commonly understood of the Scythians, though the origin of the name, if this view be correct, is not apparent \ Mddai. The Medes, often mentioned in the OT. from the 8th century B.C. (2 K. xvii. 6, xviii. 11, Is. xxi. 2, xiii. 17 f., al.)\ and in the Assyrian Inscriptions from the time of Ramm^n-nirari (812 — 783 B.C.) onwards, perhaps also (Schrader, Tiele, Sayce) identical with the Amadai of Shalmaneser II. (b.c. 860 — 825). The home of the Medes was in the mountainous country E. of Assyria, and SW. of the Caspian Sea. Their capital city was Egbatana (now Hamaddn). Ydvdn. The Greeks, or, more exactly, the lonians (in Horn. *IaFov€s), i.e. in particular, the Asiatic lonians, who were settled along the coasts of Lydia and Caria, and whose cities throve commercially some two centuries earlier than those of the Peloponnesus. Yd'vdn being thus the name under which the Hebrews first became acquainted with the Greeks (probably through the Phoenicians), it remained the name by which they were always known. They are mentioned by Sargon {KAT.^ 81). In the OT. they are named besides, Ez. xxvii. 13 (by the side of Tubal and Meshech, as bringing slaves and copper into the Tyrian market), 19 (?), Is. Ixvi. 19, Joel iii. 6; and (the Macedonian Greeks) Zech. ix. 13, Dan. viii. 21, x. 20. Tubal and Meshech (lxx. Moo-ox). Named similarly together in Ez. xxvii. 13 (by the side of Yavan, as just noted), xxxii. 26 (in Sheol, with Egypt, Elam, &c.), xxxviii. 2 and xxxix. 1 (as ruled over by Gog), and probably (see lxx.) in Is. Ixvi. 19 (beside Yavan, as distant nations). They are the Tabali and Mushku of the Inscriptions, Tabali being first mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I. (c. 1100 B.C.), and Mushku by Shalmaneser II. (860 — 825), and both also being mentioned often subsequently (see KAT? ad loc.) ; and the Moaxot and Tt^apryvot, whom Hdt. (ill. 94, VII. 78) also names together as belonging to the 19th satrapy of Darius. The notices of them in the Assyrian period shew that their home was then NE. of Cilicia (Hilakku) and E. of Cappadocia (GimirraiY; but by the time of Herodotus they had retired further to the N., to the mountainous region SE. of the Black Sea. Tiras. Perhaps the Tvp(r-r}voC, a people dwelling anciently on the N. shores and islands of the Aegean Sea, and much dreaded by the Greeks as pirates (Hdt. i. 57, Thuc. iv. 109). 1 Mat is the common Assyrian word for 'land'j and hence 'Magog' has been supposed to be a contraction for Mat-Gog, *the land of Gog' (Sayce, Monuments, 125 f.), or {Z.fiir Ass, 1901, p. 321) for Mat-Gagaia, *the land of Gagaia,' a people mentioned on the Tel el-Amarna tablets {KB. v. 6). 2 See the map in KAT.^ (or KAT.^); or the excellent one in EncB. s.v. Assyria. 8—2 116 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 3, 4 Gomer ; Aslikenaz, and ^Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 And the F sons of Javan ; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and ^Dodanim. * In 1 Chr. i. 6, Diphath. » In 1 Chr. i. 7, Rodanim. 3. The * sons * of Gomer. Ashkenaz. Mentioned in Jer. li. 27 by the side of Ararat (see on viii. 4) and Minni (the Mannai of the Assyrian Inscriptions, SE. of Lake Van) ; and hence doubtless a people living in that neighbourhood. Thought by many recent Assyriologists to be the land of Ashguza, whose prince is mentioned by Esarhaddon as an ally of the Mannai {KB. II. 129, 147), and whose people may even be identical with the ^KvQa.i (see Masp. iii. 343 ; EncB. s.v.). Riphath (in 1 Ch. i. 6 Diphath). Quite uncertain : understood by Josephus to denote the Paphlagonians. Togarmah. Mentioned in Ez. xxxviii. 6, by the side of Gomer, as forming part of the hosts of Gog ; and in Ez. xxvii. 14, after Yavan, Tubal, and Meshech, as supplying horses and mules to the Tyrian merchants. According to ancient Greek authorities (see Dillm.), the Armenians. For reasons unknown to us, Ashkenaz, Riphath and i Togarmah must have been regarded as offshoots of the Gimirrai. 4. The * sons ' of Javan. Elishah. Of. Ez. xxvii. 7, where it is said that purple-stuffs were brought to Tyre from the * isles {or coasts) of Elishah.' The mussel from which the purple-dye was obtained by the ancients abounded on the coasts of the Peloponnese, especially Laconia (Hor. Od. ii. 18. 7, al.) ; but it is difficult to find a locality there both suitable in itself, and also one the name of which would be likely to be represented in Ileb. by Elishah : 'EAXa?, *HXt5, and the AioXcts, which have been suggested, are all, for one reason or another, unsuitable. Syncellus has a gloss 'EXto-o-a c^ ov tiK^XoL ; hence Dillm. thinks of lower Italy and Sicily. W. Max Miillcr and Jastrow {DB. v. 80^) identify with the Alashia of the Tel el-Amarna letters (25 — 33), i.e., probably, Cyprus. Tarshish. The place called by the Greeks Tartessus (Hdt. i. 163, iv. 152), in Spain, beyond the straits of Gibraltar, near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, connected commercially with the Phoenicians from an early date, and known to the Hebrews from the time of Solomon (1 K. X. 22, &c.). Mentioned in Ez. xxvii. 12 as trading with Tyre in silver (cf. Jer. x. 9), iron, tin, and lead (cf. Diod. Sic. v. 35, 38) j and in Is. Ixvi. 19, Ps. Ixxii. 10, as a typical distant country. Kittim. I.e. the Kitians, the people of Kit, or Kiti, as it is termed in Phoenician inscriptions, the Kition of the Greeks, an important city in Cyprus, no\Y Larnaka. Cf. Is. xxiii. 1 ; Jer. ii. 10 ; Ez. xxvii. 6. Kition itself, and indeed C3^rus generally, as amongst other things inscriptions shew, was colonized largely by Phoenicians; but Greeks were also numerous in the island, which accounts for the Kitians being ranked here among the * sons ' of Javan. Dodanim. Sam., lxx., and 1 Ch. i. 7, read, no doubt correctly, Bodanim, i.e. the Rhodians. Rhodes was already known to Homer X.5, 6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 117 o Of these were the ^isles of the nations divided in their lands, P every one after his tongue ; after their families, in their nations. 6 And the sons of Ham ; Gush, and Mizraim, and Put, and ^ Or, coastlands (II. II. 654 ff.). The Phoenicians came there at an early date; it lay on their direct route towards Greece and the West. 5. 0/ these were the isles of the nations divided [. These are the sons ofJapheth,] in their lands &c. It is almost certain that the words enclosed in brackets have accidentally dropped out of the text. The expression 'isles' (or 'coasts') cannot be naturally understood of the localities inhabited by the peoples mentioned in vv. 2, 3, whereas it is used frequently of the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean Sea (Is. xi. 11; Ez. xxvi. 18, xxvii. 3, 6, 7). The words, 'Of these... divided/ thus refer solely to v. 4, and state that other islands and coasts towards the West, besides those mentioned in that verse, were also peopled by 'sons' of Javan. The restored text has at the same time the advantage of giving a subscription to the enumeration of the sons of Japhetli, similar to those in vv. 20, 31. isles. Or, coastlands. Tlie word includes both. Arabic seems to shew that it means properly a deversorium or station ; so that it would be a term applied naturally to the many harbours, or resting-places, afforded by the promontories and islands of the Mediterranean Sea. 6—20. The ' sons ' of Ham. In late Psalms (Ixxviii. 51, cv. 23, 27, cvi. 22) ' Ham ' is a poetical (collective) designation of the Egyptians. The name is very probably the Egyptian Kam-t, Demotic Kemi, Coptic KHME or XHMI, the native name of Egypt, from Jcam, 'black,' with allusion to its dark-coloured soil (/xeXayyatov, Hdt. ii. 12 ; Wiedemann, Ag. Gesch. 22), as opposed to the bright, yellow sand of the desert. Here, however, 'Ham' appears as the eponymous ancestor, not of the Egyptians only, but also of a number of other peoples connected, or supposed to have been connected, with them. 6. Gush. Egypt. Kash, Kesh, the name of a reddish-brown people (cf Jer. xiii. 23), often mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions, dwelling on the S. of Egypt, their N. border being 24° N. at the First Cataract (Maspero, i. 488 ff.). Often mentioned in the OT. ; and frequently in EVV. represented (as already in lxx.) by ' Ethiopians,' ' Ethiopia.' Mizraim. The standing Heb. name for Egypt, — meaning properly * the two Mizrs* with reference probably to Upper and Lower Egypt, the two districts into which the country naturally feU, and which are frequently so distinguished in the Inscriptions'. In Lower Egypt (which corresponded generally to what we call the Delta), the principal seat of government was Memphis (12 miles S. of Cairo) ; the capital of Upper Egypt (consisting of the valley of the Nile, S. of the 1 See Eawl. Hist, of Eg. i. 102 n.; EncB. ii. 1233; Erman, Anc. Eg. 60 (illustration of the curious double crown symbolizing the double country). This is the general view ; but see W. Max Miiller's objection, EncB. lu. 3161 n. 118 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 6 Delta) was Thebes (280 miles S. of Memphis), the brilliant seat of (in particular) the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties. The Assyrian name of Eg)rpt was Mizri, Mizivj Muzur, or Muzru ; and the singular Mazor occurs in Is. xix. 6, xxxvii. 25 [=2 K. xix. 24]; Mic. vii. 12. Put. Named elsewhere, by the side of Gush and either the Lubim or Lud, as a people supplying contingents to the armies of Egypt (Nah. iii. 9; Jer. xlvi. 9; Ez. xxx. 5), Tyre (Ez. xxvii. 10), or Gog (Ez. xxxviii. 5). Probably the Libyans : Lxx. in Jeremiah and Ezekiel have At)8ucs; and the western part of Lower Egypt (the so-called Libya Aegypti) is called in Coptic Phaiat. Canaan. The eponymous ancestor of * Canaan,' i.e. of the country inhabited by those (see w. 15 — 19) whom we should now distinguish as Phoenicians and Canaanites. Greek writers, quoting from Phoenician sources (see Dillm.), state that Xi/a was the older name of *otVt^ or ^OLVLKT} ; and the Laodicea N. of Lebanon is called on coins |V3:3i k^k, 'Laodicea that is in Canaan \' The name Canaan occurs in Egyptian Inscriptions, and (in the form Kinahhi) in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. It appears to have denoted originally the low coast- land of what was afterwards known as Phoenicia and Palestine,— though both * Canaan ' and * Canaanite ' acquired afterwards a more extended signification. See further the writer's Commentary on Deut.^ p. 12 f. ; and Canaan in the EncB. The Phoenicians (and Canaanites) were beyond all question a Semitic people, and spoke a language closely allied to Hebrew : why therefore are they classed here among the descendants of Ham? Different answers have been returned to this question. (1) Religious antagonism, and a sense of moral and political superiority to a race whom they felt that they had superseded (see on ix. 25) may have led the Hebrews to assign the Canaanites to a different stock from themselves. (2) There was much intercourse in ancient times between Phoenicia and Egypt (cf Is. xxiii. 3, 5); and the marks of Egyptian influence are strongly impressed upon Phoenician art^: a racial con- nexion may consequently have been supposed to subsist between the two peoples. (3) Dillm. points out that there was an ancient tradition (Hdt. I. 1, VII. 89) that the Phoenicians were immigrants from the parts about the Red Sea ; and supposes that the genealogy ' reflects a consciousness that the ancestry of the Canaanites was not that of the Israelites.' Upon the whole, it is most probable that the origin here assigned to the Phoenicians and Canaanites is due to the joint operation of (1) and W. 1 For instances in the OT. in which Canaan or Canaanite means in particular Phoenicia or Phoenician, see Is. xxiii. 11 ; Hos. xii. 7 (EVm.) ; Ob. 20. 2 See Perrot and Chipiez, Art in Phoenicia, i. 73, 77, 80, 125, 126 ff., 183—9, 211, 246, 382—4, ii. 5, 6, 10 f., 12, 864, 449*' (Index) ; Phoenicia in EncB., § 8. 3 If (as has been supposed by Hal6vy, Sayce, and Hommel) it were due to a recollection of the political dependence of Canaan upon Egypt during the 15th cent. B.C., as attested by the Tel el-Amarna letters, we should, as Dillm. remarks, have expected Canaan to be represented, not as a brother of Mizraim (implying equality) but as his son. x.6-8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 119 Canaan. 7 And the sons of Cush ; Seba, and Havilah, and P Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabteca : and the sons of Raamah ; Sheba, and Dedan. | 8 And Cush begat Nimrod : he began to J 7. The * sons ' of Cush. Several of these are Arabian tribes ; and that there was intercourse between the opposite sides of the Red Sea is attested, at least for a period later than that here referred to, by the evidence of language : the (post-Christian) Ge'ez, or ' Ethiopic/ being obviously a sister language to the languages spoken by the Sabaeans and Minaeans in the S. of Arabia. Sebd. Mentioned in Ps. Ixxii. 10 (beside Sheba), and in Is. xliii. 3, xlv. 14 (beside Egypt and Cush) ; and since Josephus {Ant, ii. 10. 2) commonly identified with Meroe (about 100 m. N. of the modern Khartoum). There is however no evidence that Meroe was ever called Seba; and it is better (with Di.) to understand by Seba a branch of the Cushites settled on the W. coast of the Ked Sea : Strabo (XVI. 4. 8, 10) speaks of a Xt^a-^v 2a^a, and a SajSal ttoXis cvfieyedrjsy on the Adulitic Gulf, about 15° 45' N. in Spruner's Atlas. Havildh. This tribe has perhaps left traces of its name in the koXtto^ AvaXtTT/s, and the 'A/JaAtrat, on the African coast, a little S. of the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb. The name will appear again among the Joktanidae {v. 29; cf ii. 11, xxv. 18), seemingly as that of a tribe in NE. Arabia: unless, therefore, the two names are entirely uncon- nected, we must suppose probably that this was a large tribe, part of which migrated to the E. coast of Africa, carrying its name with it. Sabtah. Unknown, — unless, indeed, we may think of ^dpara (Strabo xvi. 4. 2), or Sabota, in Sabaean nuc^, capital of the Chatra- motitae (see on v. 26), which * had 60 temples, and was an emporium of the trade in frankincense ' (Pliny, ^iV'. vi. § 155, xii. § 63). Ba'mah. Mentioned with Sh6ba, in Ez. xxvii. 22, as a trading people, who brought spices, precious stones, and gold, to Tyre. Very probably the Sabaean Ra^mah^ the 'Pa/^/Aavtrat of Strabo xvi. 4. 24, N. of the Chatramotitae (on v. 26), in Spruner c. 65° E., 17°30'N. Sabtechah. Not identified. Shebd. Most probably a northern offshoot, or colony, of the S. Arabian Shgba mentioned in v. 28 (where see the note), which on account of its being settled near Dedan (cf Ez. xxxviii. 13), came to be grouped genealogically with it. In xxv. 3 (J), the, same two tribes appear as ' sons ' of Abraham's concubine, Keturah. Bedan. Mentioned (besides xxv. 3), — mostly as near either Edom or T^ma (see on xxv. 15), some 250 miles SE. of Edom, — in Jer. xxv. 23, xlix. 8 ; and, as a trading tribe, in Is. xxi. 13 (note Tema in V. 14), Ez. xxvii. 20, xxxviii. 13. A district Dedan is mentioned several times in the Sabaean and Minaean inscriptions, and a ruined site Daiddn by the Arab, geographer Yakiit (see references in Dillm. ; and add Hommel, AHT. 239 f.), both seemingly somewhere near T^ma. 120 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 8-ro be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter./ before the Lord : wherefore it is said, Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord. 10 And the beginning of his king- dom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the 8—12. A digression. Origin of the empires of Babylon, and Assyria. 8. Gush. It is very strange that Ethiopia (v. 6) should be mentioned as the home of Nimrod, and through him (vv. 10 — 12) of the civilization of Babylonia and Assyria : and so nearly all recent Assyriologists — as Friedr. Delitzsch {Paradies, 53 f.), Schrader (KA T^ 87 f.), Haupt, Hommel, Winckler, Sayce (Monuments^ 128) — suppose that 'Cush' in v. 8 denotes really not the African Cush, but the Babylonian Kasshu, the Koo-oratot of the classical writers (Strabo xi. 13. 6, &c.), a predatory and warlike tribe, dwelling in the wild mountains of the Zagros in or near Elam, and often mentioned in the inscriptions, who were so influential in early times that they even provided Babylon with a line of kings which continued in power for 576 years (b.c. 1786 — 1210, according to Prof. Sayce); and that the identification of this *Cush' — or, as it would be better pronounced, 'Cash' — with the 'Cush* of vv. 6, 7 is due to a misunderstanding on the part of the compiler of the chapter. Nimrod. Mentioned only once again, Mic. v. 6 (the 'land of Nimrod ' ; I| * Assyria '). See further p. 122 f. a mighty one. To be understood, apparently, in connexion with V. 10 : Nimrod's ' might ' shewed itself in his power of governing men and organizing a kingdom. 9. A parenthesis, describing how Nimrod was also, in particular, 'mighty' as a hunter, and explaining a proverb which had reference to this. before Jehovah. I.e. as He looked upon him, and (it is implied) had some regard for him. Cf. vii. 1, 2 K. v. 1; also Jon. iii. 3. Like Nimrod. This is the proverb : the words following are the narrator's explanation of its meaning. When the Hebrews wished to describe a man as being a great hunter, they spoke of him as 'like Nimrod.' 10. Babel. The Heb. form of the name which, following the Greeks, we call Babylon. The origin of Babylon is shrouded in obscurity ; but it must have been a place of great antiquity. The date of the earliest king of Babylon known to us, Sumu-abi, the founder of the first dynasty (p. 156 n. 1), was c. 2400 B.C. {EncB. i. 444 : 2478 B.O., Sayce) ; but there is little doubt that the city itself was older. Erech. lxx. Op^x) the Babylonian Uruk, now the ruined site called Warka^ on the left bank of the Euphrates, about 100 miles SE. of Babylon ; the ruins, which shew remains of large and decorated buildings, and are some 6 miles in circumference, shew that it must have been an important place. It was a place of greater antiquity than even X. 10, ii] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 121 land of Shinar. 11 Out of that land ^he went forth into J' Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, 1 Or, went forth Asshur Babylon is (at present) known to have been : Hilprecht has discovered recently contemporary inscriptions shewing that Lugalzaggisi made Erech the capital of Babylonia at (probably) about 4000 b.c.^ Accad. This has for long been well known as the name of a district, ' the land of Akkad ' in the standing title of the Assyrian kings ('king of Shumer and Akkad') denoting northern Babylonia; but a decree of Nebuchadnezzar I. (c. 1150 B.C.) has recently been found, in which it is mentioned also as the name of a city, though its site is uncertain, and nothing further is at present known about it. Calneh. Uncertain : though Delitzsch and Tiele think that it may be the place usually called Zirlaba or Zarilaby mentioned by Hammurabi (c. B.C. 2300), and also several times by Sargon (e.g. KB. II. 53), the characters of which admit, however, of being read ideographically as Kalunu. From the connexion in which Sargon mentions Zirlaba, it seems to have been somewhere near Babylon. Shin'dr, A Hebrew name for Babylonia, recurring xi. 2, xiv. 1, 9, Jos. vii. 21, Is. xi. 11, Zech. v. 11, Dan. i. 2. The explanation of the name is uncertain, as nothing exactly corresponding has been found hitherto in the inscriptions. Some Ass3Tiologists regard it as a dialectic variation of the Shumer, quoted above : Prof Sayce connects with Sangar, a district a little W. of Nineveh. 11, 12. How Assyria was founded, or, as we might say, colonized, from Babylonia. Nineveh. The great capital of Assyria, beautified and made famous by (especially) Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Asshurbanipal, on the left bank of the Tigris, about 250 miles NW. of Babylon. The site of the ruins is now called Kouyunjik. Nineveh, however, was not the most ancient capital of Ass3T:ia. The original capital of Ass3rria was the * city of Asshur ' (cf on ii. 14), about 60 miles S. of Nineveh : Shalmaneser I. (b.c. 1300) transferred the royal residence from Asshur to Calah ; but Nineveh is not known to have been made a royal residence till B.C. 1100, and it was not the permanent capital till the time of Sennacherib. The earliest ruler of Assyria known to us, it may be added, is i\iQ patesi, or 'priest-king,' Ishmi-dagan, c. 1850 B.C. Rehohoth-^Ir, To all appearance, simply two Heb. words meaning ' broad places [see on xix. 2J of a city ' : perhaps (Delitzsch, Paradies, 260 f; Hommel, Gesch. 280) the *r§bit Nina,' or suburbs of Nineveh on the N. side, which Esarhaddon states that he entered on his return from one of his expeditions {KB. ii. 127, 1. 54; cf. p. 47, 1. 44). Calah. Shewn by inscriptions found on the spot to have lain in the fork between the Tigris on the W. and the Upper Zab on the E., about 18 miles S. of Nineveh, under the mounds now bearing the name of Nimrud. Calah was built, as Asshurnasirpal (b.c. 885 — 860) tells 1 Rogers, But. of Bah. and Ass. (1900), i. 354 f.; cf. EncB. i. 442 f. (§ 47J. 122 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. n 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the J great city). us {KB. I. 117), by Shalmaneser I. (c. 1300 B.C. V Palaces were erected here by Asshurnasirpal and many subsequent kings, from the ruins of which numerous sculptures, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, &c., have been recovered. Calah, even when it was not actually the capital, was, after Nineveh, the ' second city of the empire.' The famous Black Obelisk, which stands now in a conspicuous position in the British Museum, and mentions the tribute of Jehu, was found at Calah, having been erected there by Shalmaneser XL (860 — 825). Cf. Maspero, in. 44 — 50 (with illustrations). 12. Besen. Stated to have been 'between Nineveh and Calah' ; and this is virtually all that is known about it : the ruins of Selamiyeh, about 3 miles N. of Nimrtld, would suit the description ; but there is no monumental evidence that this was the site. The Bi-ish-i-ni, suggested by Prof. Sayce {Monuments, 152), does not seem to be in a suitable position ; for, to judge from the terms in which it is mentioned by Sennacherib {KB. ii. 117), it would seem to have been on the north of Nineveh, and not, therefore, ' between ' Nineveh and Calah. that (i.e. the four places just mentioned) is the great city. Mounds, marking the sites of ancient buildings, and other signs of a once abundant population, are numerous about Nineveh ; and it seems that the four places here named, although in reality some miles apart, were so connected with one another that they were reckoned, at least by foreigners, as forming a single great city. As the preceding notes will have shewn, the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments illustrate, though not completely, the geographical data contained in these five verses, but they throw very little light on the historical &i9iiQmQi\i% contained in them, and indeed in details conflict with them seriously. The two broad facts which the verses express, — viz. that Babylonia was the oldest seat of civilization in the great plain of the two rivers, and that Nineveh was (so to say) colonized from it, are indeed in harmony with what we learn from the monuments : politically as well as in its whole civilization, writing, and rehgion, Assyria in early times was dependent upon Babylonia. But these verses of Genesis connect the foundation of Babylonian civilization and its extension to Nineveh with a single man, Nimrod; and on Nimrod, the monuments at present are silent. They do not even associate together, as the text of Genesis does, the four Babylonian cities on the one hand, and the four Assyrian cities on the other, or lead us to infer that all were built approximately at the same time. Nimrod must have been to the Hebrews (cf. Mic. V. 6) a figure — whether mythical or historical, we cannot say — with whom were associated dim recollections of the foundation and extension of political power in the East, and who, for some reason unknown to us, was viewed as the representative of old Babylonian power. As regards the question, who Nimrod was, two theories may be mentioned. According to Haupt and Sayce, he is Nazi-muruda^h, one of the later Kasshite kings (c. 1350 B.C.), who, it is conjectured, may have 'planted his X. 13] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 123 power so firmly in Palestine as to be remembered in the proverbial lore of the country.' This is possible only under the condition that the verses embody a very confused and inaccurate recollection of the facts. For Nimrod is placed at the beginning of Babylonian and Assyrian civilization ; but Nazi-murudash lived long afterwards: Babylon and Nineveh had both been built centuries before him, — the Kasshite dynasty alone had been established in Babylon for some 300 years. The other theory (which was first propounded by the late Mr George Smith) is that Nimrod corresponded, not, of course, in name, but in personality and character, to Gilgamesh\ the champion of Erech, and hero of the famous mythological epic, of which the Deluge-story occupies the 11 th canto. In this epic Gilgamesh is depicted as a mighty hunter who, besides engaging in successful combat with lions, leopards, and other monsters, delivers Babylonia by his prowess from the yoke of Elam, and saves Erech 2. And Erech is just one of the cities of Nimrod's kingdom. Gilgamesh is not known at present to have borne any name resembling Nimrod ; and so the last-mentioned theory remains for the present a conjecture ; but it is an attractive and probable one. It remains a difiiculty that Nimrod should be connected with the Kasshu ; for both Babylon and Nineveh had been founded long before the Kasshite dynasty was established in Babylon. Perhaps the name Nimrod may have first reached Palestine at a time when the long-continued Kasshite supremacy, as attested by the Tel el-Amarna letters, caused the Kasshu to be regarded as synonymous with the Babylonians^ 13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, J 13, 14. The tribes 'begotten' by Mizraim, Ham's second 'son.' The verses form evidently the sequel to v. 7. Ludim. Elsewhere mostly in the sing. Lud, mentioned as archers in the Egyptian or Tyrian army (Jer. xlvi. 9 ; Ez. xxvii. 10, xxx. 5), usually by the side of Gush and Put {v. 6), and as a distant people (Is. Ixvi. 19). Not identified; but doubtless a tribe bordering upon Egypt on the West, and known to the Hebrews as mercenaries*. 'Anamim. Unidentified. W. Max Miiller {Orient. Litt.-zeit. 1902, p. 471 if.) conjectures Kenamim, the inhabitants of the S. and largest Oasis of Knmt (now el-Khargehy about 120 m. W. of Luxor). Lehahim. No doubt the same as the Luhim of Nah. iii. 9 ; 2 Ch. xii. 3, xvi. 8 ; Dan. xi. 43 ; and in all probability the Libyans, properly so called, whose home would be to the W. of the Put of v. 6. Naphtuhim. Uncertain. Erman {ZATW. 1890, p. 118 f.) con- jectures a scribal error for Pathmuhim, the inhabitants of the ' north- land ' (temhi), or the Delta : W. Max Miiller would read Pathnuhim, the inhabitants of the Oasis of To-ehe, now Farafra, 1 The ideographically written name was read formerly as Izdubar or Gisdubar. 2 See Maspero, i. 573—591. * See further an art. by the writer in the Guardian, May 20, 1896. ^ Sayce {Monuments ^ 134 f.) supposes the Ludim to be the Lydians (of Asia Minor), who {KB. ii. 177) sent mercenaries to assist Psammetichus (c. 658 b.c). But it does not appear that these were of sufficient importance to lead to the sup- position that the Lydians were 'begotten' by Egypt (cf. Maspero, iii. 424 f., 492). 124 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 13-16 and Naphtuhim, 14 and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (whence J" went forth ^the Philistines), and Caphtorim. 15 And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and Heth; 16 [and R 1 Heb. Pelishtim. 14. Pathrusim. The inhabitants of Pathros (Is. xi. 1 1 ; Jer. xliv. 1, 15; Ez. xxix. 14, xxx. 14), Egypt. Pa-to-ris, 'the south-land' (^pa being the Bgyp^. art., to meaning 'land/ and ris 'south'), i.e. what we call upper Egypt. Casluhim. Unidentified : see doubtful conjectures in Dillm. Lxx. Xa<TfioivL£Lfi, whence Miiller would read Nasamonim (Hdt. iv. 172). {whence went forth the Philistines). This clause is in all probability misplaced; and ought to be transposed so as to follow Caphtorim: see Am. ix. 7 ; Dt. ii. 23 ; Jer. xlvii. 4. the Philistines. Mentioned often in the historical books, their five principal cities being Ekron, Gath, Ashdod, Asbkelon, and Gaza, in the plain bordering on the Medit. Sea, W. of Judah. They are very probably (W. M. Miiller, 887—390; Maspero, 11. 462 — 4; Sayce, Monuments, 183, 387, and elsewhere) the Purasati of the Egyptian inscriptions — to judge from the terms in which they are there spoken of, a plundering people who, coming from the SW. of Asia Minor, and the islands of the Aegean Sea, in the reign of Kamses III. (c. 1200 B.C.), swept down upon the SW. of Palestine, and secured a footing there. The Hebrews, as appears from Am. ix. 7, Dt. ii. 23, Jer. xlvii. 4 — if not (see above) from the present passage as well — regarded them specifi- cally as immigrants from ' Caphtor.' See further EncB. s.v. Caphtorim. The inhabitants of Caphtor (Jer. xlvii. 4), mentioned also Am. ix. 7 ; Dt. ii. 23. Caphtor is usually identified with Crete ; notice how in 1 S. xxx. 14, Zeph. ii. 5, Ez. xxv. 16 the Philistines are either parallel to, or mentioned beside, Krethim (i.e., as it would seem, 'Cretans'). W. Max Miiller, however {Asimi u. Ewropa, 344 — 53), argues strongly in favour of identifying Caphtor with the Egypt. Kefto, which appears to have been the name of a people inhabiting Cilicia and Cyprus (cf. Caphtor in the EncB., where another explanation of Krethim is also proposed). Whatever place ' Caphtor ' may have been, political relations, subsisting anciently between it and Eg3rpt, no doubt determined the statement that Mizraim ' begat ' Caphtor. 15 — 19. The places, or peoples, 'begotten' by Canaan, the eponymous ancestor (p. 118), both of the Phoenicians, and of the Canaanites (in the sense in which this term is commonly understood). 15. Zidon. The oldest Phoen. city; hence called here Canaan's 'firstborn.' It was afterwards eclipsed by Tyre ; but the Phoenicians generally, as if in recollection of its old pre-eminence, continued still to be often spoken of as 'Zidonians' (1 Ki. v. 6, xvi. 31). Tyre, however, is mentioned, as well as Zidon, in the Tel el-Amarna letters (B.C. 1400). See further the interesting art. Phoenicia in EncB. Heth. The great nation of the Hittites, whose home was in the region N. of Phoenicia, and of the 'land of the Amorites' (see on v. 16), X. i6, 17] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 125 the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite ; 17 and the R two of whose principal cities were Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Kadesh on the Orontes, and who left traces of their presence, in sculptures and inscriptions carved upon the rocks, in many parts of Asia Minor, as far W. as the Karaoel pass, a little E. of Smyrna. The Hittites are mentioned repeatedly in the Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions; and their power and importance may be inferred from the terms of the treaty — the oldest treaty in existence — concluded with them by Ramses IL, after his expedition into Syria (see Masp. 11. 401 f.). The Hittite power lasted from c. 1600 to c. 700 B.C., when they were absorbed into the empire of Assyria. The Hittites, as depicted on their monuments, have a striking physiognomy and dress : a retreating forehead and chin, full lips, large nose, high cheek-bones, and the hair plaited behind in three pig-tails, the type being that of the Mongol, very unlike either the Semitic or the Aryan type^ The Hittite inscriptions (still undeciphered) are also pecuHar in appearance, and entirely different from those of either Assyria or Egypt. These Hittites on the N". of Palestine are alluded to in 1 K. x. 29, xi. 1, 2 K. vii. 6 ; and offshoots of them appear to have had settlements in the extreme N. of Canaan (Jud. i. 26, iii. 3 [read Hittite for Hivite]; Josh. xi. 3 mterchange, with lxx., Hittite and Hivite]; and probably 2 S. xxiv. 6 see Comm., or the Variorum Bible]) : there are also allusions to them, which occasion difficulty, as settled in the S. of Canaan (see on ch. xxiii.). We cannot be sure whether the reference here is to the great nation in the N., or to the offshoots in the N. of Canaan — the sub- ordination of * Heth ' to * Canaan ' might favour the latter alternative. 16, 17*. Four nations of Canaan. 16. the Jebusite. The name of the tribe which occupied Jerusalem, and maintained itself there till expelled by David (Josh. xv. 8, 63; 2 S. V. 6—9). the Amorite. The name (under the forms Amctr, Amurru) occurs in both the Egypt, and the Ass. inscriptions. In the Tel el-Amama letters (b.c. 1400), the * land of Amurri ' is mentioned by the side of various Phoen. and Syrian towns in such a manner as to shew that it is simply the name of a canton or district, N. of Canaan, behind Phoenicia. It was at this time (like the rest of Phoen. and Palestine) under Egyptian rule ; and its governor Aziri addresses many letters to Amenophis''. Afterwards, the Amorites appear to have extended them- selves southwards ; and in the OT. the term is used in two connexions : (1) Nu. xxi. 13, and often, of the people ruled by Sihon, on the E. of Jordan; (2) as a general designation of the pre-Israelitish population of the country W. of Jordan (so esp. in E and Dt. ; but occasionally also besides: see e.g. ch. xiv. 7, xv. 16, xlviii. 22; Dt. i. 7; Jos. x. 5; 1 S. vii. 14 ; Am. ii. 9, 10 ; and cf. the writer's Deuteronomy, p. 11 f.). So 1 See, for fuller particulars, Wright's Empire of the Hittites (with numerous illustrations) ; Maspero, ii. 351 — 9 ; Ball, 95 — 98 ; and Hittites in EncB. and I)B. 2 See Petrie, Syria and Egypt from the Tell el Amarna letters (1898), pp. 136 f., 140 f. ; and cf. Canaanixi: (§§ 7—11) in the EncB. 126 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 17, 18 Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite ; 18 and the Arvadite, R and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite :] and afterward were the J far as we can judge, this population consisted in the main (for there were no doubt smaller local tribes as well) partly of 'Amorites,' and partly of ' Canaanites ' (see on v. 18) ; and some writers used the one, and some the other (cf on xii. 6), as a general designation of the pre-Israelitish inhabitants of Palestine ^ the Girgashite. A tribe mentioned also five times (ch. xv. 21; Dt. vii. 1 ; Josh. iii. 10, xxiv. 11 ; Neh. ix. 8) in the lists of the peoples dispossessed by the Israelites (see on xv. 19 — 21); but without any indication of the locality in which it dwelt. 17^. the Hivite. A petty people mentioned likewise often in the same lists (Ex. iii. 8, 17, &c.); but also appearing in particular in Shechem (ch. xxxiv. 2) and Gibeon (Josh. ix. 7, 2d. 19), and hence probably settled in central Palestine. 17**, 18. The inhabitants of five cities — four in northern Phoenicia, and one (ffimath) N. of that. 17^ the Arkite. "ApKyj, now Tel Arka, about 80 miles N. of Zidon, at the foot of Lebanon, still an important city in the Roman period, the birthplace of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222 — 235). Both Arka, and the following Sin and Zemar, are mentioned together by Tiglath-pileser III. {KB. II. 29, 1. 46) as cities on the sea-coast. the Sinite. 'Jerome (Quaest. in Gen.^ ad loc.) states that Sin, as the name of a once prosperous city, still attached to a site near Arka ; and Breydenbach, in 1483, found a village of Syn about 2 miles from Nahr Arka ' (Dillm.). Ass. Siannu {KB. I.e.). 18*. the Arvadite. Arvad (now Buad), about 25 miles N. of Arka, was the most northerly of the great Phoen. towns ; it was built on an island (' in the midst of the sea,' KB. i. 1 09), and was always famous as a maritime state : Tiglath-pileser 1. {c. 1100 B.C.), for instance, embarked on ships of Arvad upon the Great Sea ; see also Ez. xxvii. 8, 11 ; Hdt. VII. 98, and Strabo xvi. 2. 12—14. It is mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna letters; and also frequently by the Ass. kings. See further EncB. s.v. ; and a plan, shewing the island, in Masp. 11. 170. the Zemarite. The city or fortress of ^t/xvpa, St/x^pos (Strabo xvi. 2. 12, &c.), 6 miles S. of Arvad; the name is still preserved in a village Sumra (Bad. Pal.^ 442). This place is mentioned very frequently in the Tel el-Amarna letters; see Petrie, 157, 183, s.v. Tsumura, Tsumur. the Hamathite. Hdmdth, on the Orontes, 50 miles ENE. of Arvad, the later Epiphaneia, now Hamd^ often mentioned both in the OT., and also in the Egypt, and Ass. inscriptions: in ancient times, the capital of an independent kingdom (cf Is. xxxvii. 13; its 'kings' are also mentioned in the Ass. inscriptions), and still a large place of 1 It may be noticed that ' Amorite ' is a racial name (i.e. it denotes a race or people so called), while *Canaanite' is a geographical name (i.e. it denotes the people inhabiting the country called 'Canaan'). X. i8-2i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 127 families of the Canaanite spread abroad. 19 And the border of J' the Canaanite was from Zidon, as thou goest toward Gerar, unto Gaza ; as thou goest toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, unto Lasha. | 20 These are the sons of Ham, after P their families, after their tongues, in their lands, in their nations. 21 And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, J 30,000 inhabitants. The * entering-in of Hamath ' is often mentioned (e.g. Am. vi. 14) as the ideal N. limit of Isr. territory, though the exact place denoted by the expression is uncertain {DB. iv. 269 f )\ 18^. The families of the ' Canaanite' — here and v. 19 used evidently in its narrower and more usual sense, exclusive of the Phoenicians — increased, and gradually extended themselves over what is now generally known as ' Canaan ' ; and -y. 19 defines their S. limits. 19. The two limits of the Canaanites in the S. are Gaza in the SW., in the direction of Gerar, and Lesha'" in the SE., in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim. Gerar was some distance SE. of Gaza : on its probable actual site, see on xx. 1. Lesha' is not mentioned elsewhere : according to the Targ. Ps.-Jon. and Jerome, it was the later Callirrhoe, a celebrated bathing resort, with hot springs (Jos. BJ. I. 33. 5), on the E. side of the Dead Sea, near the mouth of the Wady Zerka Ma'in. Sodom and Gomorrah were in all proba- bility at the S. end of the Dead Sea (see p. 170 f.). Admah and Zeboiim, destroyed at the same time as Sodom and Gomorrah, are mentioned also in ch. xiv. 2, 8, Dt. xxix. 23, Hos. xi. 8. 21—31. The sons of Shem. The double introduction {vv. 21, 22) is a clear indication of the double origin of this section of the chapter : V. 22 is the introduction to the list of the sons of Shem, exactly analogous in form to vv. 2, 6; and v. 21 is out of place before it. Verses 22, 23 belong to P; v. 21 (analogous in form to iv. 26) belongs to J. 21. all the children of ^Eber. The expression includes, of course, all the Arabian tribes mentioned vv. 25 — 30, as well as (see xi. 16 — 26) the descendants of Abraham, i.e. the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites (xxv. 2), and Edomites; but no doubt the writer has his own nation chiefly in view, and the words are intended to bring out the significance of Shem as the ancestor of the ^ebrews,' the people who possessed the knowledge of the true God. 'Eber is simply the supposed eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews, the first letter in the original being the same in both words : see further on xi. 14. 1 It is probable that vv. 16 — 18^ (to Hamathite) are an addition to the original text of J, inserted by one who thought the list of names imperfect : notice (1) that V. 16 anticipates v. IS*'; (2) that the five peoples named in vv. 17^ — 18* dwelt North of Sidon, and are consequently not included in the terms of v. 19; and (3) that and afterward in v. 18 connects better with v. 15 end than with vv. 16 — 18*. 2 Lasha* is the * pausal ' form : the name itself would be L^sha', 128 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 21, « Hhe elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children bom. J I 22 The sons of Shem ; Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and P 1 Or, ihe brother of Japheth the elder the elder brother of Japheth, The words are added in order to preclude the idea that, because named last, Shem was therefore the youngest. 22. Elam. A land and people E. of Babylonia, and NE. of the Persian Gulf, of which the capital was Susa (Heb. Shushan), on the Eulaeus : in Ass. Mama, Mamma, or (with the fern, term.) Elamtu. This people early developed a flourishing and many-sided civihzation ; in about the 23rd cent. B.C. it exercised for many years (see p. 156f ) a suzerainty over Babylonia ; and in later times it is mentioned repeatedly both in the Ass. inscriptions and in the OT. (ch. xiv. 1; Is. xi._ 11, xxi. 2, xxii. 6 ; Ez. xxxu. 24, al). Racially, the Elamites were entirely distinct from the Semites, their language, for instance, being aggluti- native and belonging to a different family : their geographical proximity to Assyria is in all probability the reason why they are here included among the ' sons ' of Shem. It is true, inscriptions recently discovered seem to have shewn that in very early times Elam was peopled by Semites, who were dependent upon Babylonia, and governed by Babylonian patesi's; and that the non-Semitic Elamites spoken of above only acquired mastery over it at a period approaching B.c. 2300 ^ but the fact is not one which the writer of the verse is very hkely to have known. Asshur. The great nation of the Assyrians (in Heb. Asshur) : see on V. 11. The Assyrians were a Semitic people, their language belong- ing obviously to the same family as Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic. Arpachshad. A name still not satisfactorily explained. It is very commonly understood of 'AppaTraxtrts (Ptol. vi. 1. 2), a mountainous district on the Upper Zab, N. of Nineveh (about 37° 30' N.), in the " y \), now Albdk; but explanation leaves the -shad unexplained. It is, on the whole, more Ass. inscriptions AiTapha {Paradies, 124 f ), now Albdk', but this probable that the name is intended as that of the supposed ancestor of the Kasdim (EVV. * Chaldaeans '), the people who, living originally in the * sea-land,' on the lower course of the Euphrates, spread afterwards inland, and in the 7 — 6 cent. B.C. became the ruling caste in Babylonia (see more fully on xi. 31). Prof Sayce {Exp. Times, Nov. 1901, p. 65 f ) interprets the word as meaning ' the wall'^ of Chesed,' supposing it to denote properly the fortified district within which the Kasdim dwelt (cf on xxii. 22). See further v. 24, and xi. 10 — 13. 1 See Scheil, Textes Elamites-Semitiques (1900), pp. ix. — xii. ; or the account of M. de Morgan's excavations in 1897 — 1899, by St Chad Boscawen, in the Asiatic Quarterly Review, Oct. 1901, p. 330 ff., esp. p. 338; and cf. Sayce, Exp. Time$t Jan. 1901, p. 155 f. 2 Eth. arfat is a 'wall'; and the Ass. kar, 'wall,' is in a recently published lexicographical tablet explained by arpu. X. «, .3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 129 Lud, and Aram. 23 And the sons of Aram ; Uz, and Hiil, and P Lud must, it seems, be the Lydians of Asia Minor, of whom Herodotus (i. 6 — 94) has much to say, and who first emerge into history c. 740 B.C. (Maspero, in. 336 — 341); though why they should be mentioned between Arpachshad and Aram, or, indeed, reckoned to Shem at all, is by no means apparent. Hdt., however (i. 7), mentions a legend connecting the ancestors of the Mermnadae with ' Ninus, son of Belus ' ; and it is possible that the civilization of Lydia may, in ways not at present capable of being more precisely determined, have been related to that of Ass)rria ; and that this fact may be the explanation of the appearance of the name here\ Aram. The great Aramaean, or Syrian ^ people, spread widely over the region NE. of Palestine, as far as Mesopotamia — special branches being designated by special names, as 'Aram of the Two Rivers,' 'Aram of Damascus,' 'Aram of Zobah' (ch. xxiv. 10; 2 S. viii. 5, X. 6). The most important and powerful of the Aramaean (Syrian) kingdoms in OT. times was that of Damascus, of which we read so often during the period of the Kings. From the 8th cent. b.c., if not from an eariier date, Aramaean influence extended itself considerably in different directions : weights with their value stamped upon them in Aramaic shew that it was used as the language of commerce in Nineveh; Is. xxxvi. 11 shews that in B.C. 701 it was also the language of diplomacy: inscriptions, in different Aramaic dialects, found at Zinjirli, near Aleppo (of the age of Isaiah), in Egypt (c. 480 B.C., and later), and of somewhat later dates at Palmyra, Tema (see on xxv. 15), and El- 'Ola (the Nabataean inscriptions of NW. Arabia) testify to the wide diffusion of Aramaic around Palestine; after the Exile, the Jews gradually acquired the use of Aramaic from their neighbours, so that parts of Ezra and Daniel are actually written in an Aramaic dialect, while other books belonging to the same period (as Jonah, Chronicles, Esther, the Pleb. parts of Daniel, Ecclesiastes, and late Psalms) shew the clearest indications of its influence. 23. Four branches of Aram are here specified, which were, pre- sumably, of some note at the time when the genealogy was drawn up, though now three out of the four are virtually unknown. * Uz. Best known as the people of Job's fatherland (Job i. 1) ; as may be inferred from Lam. iv. 21, also, settled not very far from Edom. Jer. xxv. 20 (MT.) mentions kings of the land of 'Uz: see also Gen. xxii. 21, xxxvi. 28. Hul and Gether are both unknown. Mash is perhaps connected with the Mons Masius, ro MaVtov 6po<s (Strabo xi. 14. 2), N. of Nisibis, a range which separates Armenia from Mesopotamia (Paradies, 259). In Ass. mat Mash, the ' land of Mash,' is the name of the great Syro-Arabian desert, ' a land of thirst and faintness, where 1 Sayce {Mon. 146, cf. 95, 105) would read Nod (cf. iv. 16) for Lud, supposing •Nod' to represent the Manda, or nomad tribes (cf. on xiv. 1), of the Inscriptions ; The identification of Nod with Manda is, however, itself anything but probable. 2 Syria, Syrian^ in the OT. is in the Heb. always 'Aram, 'Arammi (Aramaean). D. 9 130 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. .3-^9 Getlier, and Mash. | 24 And Arpachahad ^ begat Shelah ; and P Shelah begat Eber. 25 And unto Eber were born two sons : the name of the one was ^Peleg ; for in his days was the earth divided ; and his brother's name was Joktan. 26 And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah ; 27 and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah ; 28 and ^Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba ; 29 and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab : ^ The Sept. reads, hegat Cainan, and Gainan begat Shelah. * That is, Division. s In 1 Chr. i. 22, Ebal. no beast of the field is, and no bird builds its nest,' as Asshurbanipal describes it {ibid. 242 ; KB. ii. 221); but it is hazardous, with Sayce {Exp. Times, Mar. 1897, p. 258), to derive the name of a people from this. 24 — 30. The compiler here resumes his excerpts from J. 24. With RVm. of. Luke iii. SQ. 25. divided. The word is susceptible of different interpretations; but it seems most likely that 'earth' is meant in the sense of population of the earth {d. xi. 1); and that the 'division' referred to is the dispersion of ix. 19, x. 32, xi. 9. Cf. the same Heb. word in Ps. Iv. 9> Palgu is however in Ass. a 'canal' (cf. peleg, 'water-course,' in Ps. i. 3); and hence Sayce {I.e.) supposes the reference to be to the * division' of Babylonia into canals under Hammurabi (p. 156 w.). 26 — 30. Thirteen tribes descended from Yoktan. Several of these cannot be identified, at least with any certainty ; l3ut it is clear that in general tribes dwelling in different parts of Arabia are meant. 26. Almodad. Uncertain : see DB. Sheleph. Perhaps one of the many places of the name Salf which (according to Glaser, p. 425) still exist in the S. of Arabia between Yemen and Hadramaut\ Hazarmaveth. Mentioned in the Sabaean inscriptions, now Hadra- maut, a district in S. Arabia, a little E. of Aden : the Xarpa^awTtrat of Strabo (xvi. 4. 2), one of the four chief tribes which, according to the Greek geographer, inhabited S. Arabia. Yerah, and {v. 27) Hadoram and Diklah, are all unidentified. 27. tizal. According to Arab tradition (see CIS. iv. i. p. 2), the old name of San'^ (as it has been called, since its occupation by the Abyssinians in the 6th cent. a.d.), the capital of Yemen. Ez. xxvii. 19 (RVm.) speaks of iron being brought from Uzal; and the steel of San'^ is said to be still in high repute {DB. i. 135). 28. ^Ohal. ^Abil is said to be at the present day the name of a district and of several locahties in Yemen. Abimael, Not identified: the name is however one of genuine Sabaean type. Shebd. This is seemingly the main body, a colony or offshoot of which in the N. is named in v. 7. Sheba is often mentioned in the 1 SaXttTT^Poi in Ptol. vi. 7. 23 seems to be a textual error for KaXaTr^jj/oi. X. 29, 3o] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 131 all these were the sons of Joktan. 30 And their dwelling was J from Mesha, as thou goest toward Sephar, the ^mountain of the 1 Or, Mil country OT. as a distant and wealthy people, famed for its gold, precious stones, and perfumes, esp. frankincense (see on v. 30), which were exported to Palestine, Phoenicia, and other countries (1 K. x. 1, 2, 10 ; Jer. vi. 20^; Ez. xxvii. 22, xxxviii. 13; Is. Ix. 6; Ps. Ixxii. 10; cf. Job vi. 19, and the description in Strabo xvi. 4. 19). The ancient geographers state that the Sabaeans dwelt in the SW. of Arabia, and that their capital was Mariaba or Saba (about 200 miles N. of the modern Aden). Sabaean inscriptions have been discovered recently in great numbers ; and they shew that the Sabaeans were a settled and civilized nation, possessing an organized government, with cities, temples, public buildings, &c. {see pB. i. 133 f., and s.v. Sheba). 29. Ophir, A land from which, in Solomon's time, the fleet of Hiram and Solomon brought once in three years gold, precious stones, sandal-wood (probably), silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks (1 K. ix. 28, X. 11, 22^; cf. xxii. 48), and the gold of which is in the OT. proverbial for its fineness (Ps. xlv. 9 ; Is. xiii. 12, al.). Much has been written upon Ophir, and many attempts have been made to identify it (see DB. or EncB. s.v.) : but nothing more definite can be stated about it than that it was perhaps Ahhira at the mouth of the Indus, perhaps some sea-port on the E. or SE. coast of Arabia, which served as an emporium for the products of India ^ but of which the name has now dis- appeared ^ Havildh. In all probability, different from the Havilah of v. 7, but the same as the Havilah of ii. 11, and xxv. 18, the terms of which imply that it was in the opposite direction to Shur ' in front of Egypt,' i.e. in NE. Arabia. Di. compares the XavXaratot of Strabo (xvi. 4. 2), and a place Huwaila in Bahrein, on the Persian Gulf. 30. The limits, from N. to S., of the country occupied by the Joktanidae. Mesha. Very probably (Di.), with only a change of points, to be read as Massa (xxv. 14), the name of a N. Arabian tribe, about halfway between the Gulf of 'Akaba and the Persian Gulf 1 Comp. Aen. i. 416 ceutumque Sahaeo Ture calent arae; G. ii. 117 Solis est turea virga Sabaeis (both already quoted by Jerome). 2 1 K. ix. 28, X. 11 make it probable that Ophir, though not actually named, was the destination of the *navy of Tarshish,' — i.e. (cf. our 'East Indiaman') a fleet of large merchant-vessels, fit for long voyages, — mentioned in this verse. 3 The Heb. words for ' apes ' and ' peacocks ' are not Semitic, but Indian. * Ophir might, in the abstract, be either the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, or Dhofar (see p. 132, on v. 30) ; but the positive arguments adduced by Glaser {Skizze der Gesch. u. Geogr. Arab, ii., 1890, pp. 353 f., 357 f., 368—73, 377 f., 380 — 3) in favour of the former view, and by Prof. A. H. Keane {The Gold of Ophir, 1901, pp. 75 ff., 194 — 6) in favour of the latter view, are anything but conclusive. On Carl Peters' identification with the region between the Zambesi and the Sabi (in which there were anciently extensive gold-workings), see the Addenda. 9—2 132 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [x. 30-3^ east. I 31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after J their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. 32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations : and of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. Sephdr. Probably (though the sibilant does not correspond as it ought to do) Daphdr (or Dhofdr), a town and plain on the S. coast of Arabia (54° E.)', situated beneath a lofty mountain, and well adapted to form a landmark (DB. s.v.). unto the mountain (or hill country) of the east. Probably the great frankincense mountains, which extend some distance beyond Daphar towards the East^ Cf. EncB. iv. 4370, 5148. 31, 32. Subscriptions, in P's manner, to vv. 22 — 30 (cf. vv. 5, 20), and to the whole chapter, respectively. Chapter XL 1—9. The Tower of Babel, As in previous sections of J, the origin of various existing customs and institutions is explained, so here the explanation is given of the diversity of languages, and of the distribution of mankind into peoples speaking different languages and inhabiting different parts of the earth. Almost as soon as men began to reflect, differences of language must have impressed them as something caUing for explanation : not only were they remarkable in themselves, but they also formed a great barrier to free intercourse, and accentuated national interests and antagonisms (cf the dread and aversion expressed for men speaking an unintelligible language, in Is. xxviii. 11, xxxiii. 19; Dt. xxviii. 49; Jer. V. 15; Ps. cxiv. 1)^. 'The story of the Tower of Babel supplied to such primitive questionings an answer suited to the comprehension of a primitive time... Just as Greek fable told of the giants who strove to scale Olympus, so Semitic legend told of the impious act by which the sons of men sought to raise themselves to the dwelling-place of God, and erect an enduring symbol of human unity to be seen from every side' (Ryle, pp. 128, 131), and how Jehovah interposed to frustrate their purpose, and brought upon them the very dispersal which they had sought to avoid. From a critical point of view the narrative presents difficulties : for, though it belongs manifestly to J, it is not easy to harmonize with other representations 1 The SaTT^apa of Ptol., and Sapphar of Pliny (see Spruner's Atlas). 2 Bent, Southern Arabia (1900), pp. 89, 91, 234 f., 241 f., 245, 252—4, 270 f. 3 And contrast the pictures drawn by the prophets, of the future harmony of nations, in the fear and worship of the One God, Is. ii. 2—4, xix. 18, 23 — 25, Zeph. iii. 9; and the thought of the universality of Christianity, as expressed symbolically in Acts ii. 5 — 11. THE BOOK OF GENESIS 133 of the same source. It seems to be out of connexion with the parts of J in ch. x.^ : for there the dispersion of mankind appears as the result of a natural process of migration, here it is the penalty for misdirected ambition; and Babel (Babylon), the building of which is here interrupted, is in x. 10 represented as already built. It connects also very imperfectly with the close of J's narrative of the Flood ; for though the incident which it describes is placed shortly after the Flood, the men who gather together and build the city seem to be considerably more numerous (cf. the terms of v. 1) than the members of the single family of Noah. In all probability (Dillm.) the story originally grew up without reference to the Flood, or the derivation of mankind from the three sons of Noah, and it has been imperfectly accommodated to the narratives in chs. ix. and x. : perhaps, indeed, Wellh. and others are right in conjecturing that originally it belonged to the same cycle of tradition as iv. 17 — 24, in which (see p. 74) the continuity of human history seems not to have been interrupted by a Flood, and that it formed part of the sequel to iv. 24. That the narrative can contain no scientific or historically true account of the origin of different languages, is apparent from many indications. In the first place, if it is in its right position, it can be demonstrated to rest upon unhistorical assumptions: for the Biblical date of the Flood (see the Introd. § 2) is B.C. 2501, or (lxx.) b.c. 3066 ; and, so far from the whole earth being at either B.O. 2501 or B.C. 3066 ' of one language and of one (set of) words,' numerous inscriptions are in existence dating considerably earlier even than B.C. 3066, written in three distinct languages, the pre-Semitic Sumerian (or ' Accadian '), the Semitic Babylonian, and Egyptian. But even if Wellh.'s supposition that the narrative relates really to an earlier stage of the history of mankind, be accepted, it would be not less difficult to regard it as historical. For (1) the narrative, while explaining ostensibly the diversity of languages, offers no explanation of the diversity of races. And yet diversity of language, — meaning here by the expression not the relatively subordinate differences which are always characteristic of languages developed from a common parent-tongue, but those more radical differences relating alike to grammar, structure, and roots, which shew that the languages exhibiting them cannot be referred to a common origin, — is dependent upon diversity of race. It is of course true that cases occur in which a people brought into contact with a people of another race have adopted their language ; but, speaking generally, radically different languages are characteristic of different races, or (if this word be used in its widest sense) of subdivisions of races, or sub-races, which, in virtue of the faculty of creating language distinctive of man, have created them for purposes of intercommunication and to satisfy their social in- stincts^. Differences of race, in other words, are more primary in man than 1 In the parts of oh. x. ■which belong to P, distinct languages, as well as distinct nations, are already spoken of {vv. 5, 20, 31). No doubt their existence is also implied in J ; but it is not expressly affirmed. 2 'The idioms of mankind have had many independent starting-points' (Sayce, Introd. to the Science of Lang., 1880, ii. 328). The number of separate families of speech, now existing in the world, which cannot be connected with one another, approaches 100 : see ibid. ii. 32 — 64. 134 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xi. h ^ differences of language\ and have first to be accounted for. (2) Not only, however, are differences of race left entirely unexplained in the Biblical narrative; but (comp. above, p. 114) the great races into which mankind is divided must have migrated into their present homes, and had their existing character stamped upon them, at an age vastly earlier than that which the chronology of Genesis permits, — even upon Wellh.'s view of the original place of xi. 1 — 9, — for the dispersion of mankind. The antiquity of man^ and the wide distribution of man, with strongly marked racial differ ences^^xe two great outstanding facts, which the Biblical narrative, — whether here or elsewhere in Genesis, — not only fails to account for, but does not even leave room for 2. The narrative thus contains simply the answer which Hebrew folk-lore gave to the question which differences of language directly suggested. In reality differences of language are the result, not the cause, of the diffusion of mankind over the globe. At the same time, the explanation is so worded as to convey, like the other early narratives of Genesis, spiritual lessons. Though the conception of Deity is naive, and even, perhaps {v. 7), imperfectly disengaged from polytheism, the narrative nevertheless emphasizes Jehovah's supremacy over the world ; it teaches how the self-exaltation of man is checked by God ; and it shews how the distribution of mankind into nations, and diversity of language, are elements in His providential plan for the development and progress of humanity. The Fathers and many subsequent scholars, including some even in the last century, believed Hebrew to be the primitive language of mankind. The rise of a science of comparative philology has shewn this to be completely out of the question 3, if only because, when compared with the other Semitic languages, Hebrew exhibits elements of decay, and Arabic is, in many respects, an older and more primitive language. But, unless all analogy is deceptive, the language of the primitive men must have been of a far more simple, undeveloped form than any of the existing Semitic languages*. As need hardly be remarked, what the primitive language of mankind was, is unknown. XI. 1 And the whole earth was of one ^language and J of one ^speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed 1 Heb. Up. 2 Heb. words. XI. 1. was of one language, and of one (set of) words. I.e. had one language (viewed as a whole), and used the same individual expressions. For the idiom, use of lip (KVm.), of. w. 6, 7 (twice), 9, Is. xix. 18, xxxiii. 19 (Heb.). On the statement itself, see above. 2. The writer pictures these early men as moving nomadically (cf. the note on xii. 9) from spot to spot, till at last they found a plain on which they settled. 1 Cf. Sayce, Races of the OT. p. 37 f.: 'Diversity of race is older than diversity of language.' 2 See further the Introduction, pp. xxxi — xUi. 3 Comp. Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Lang., 1st series, Lect. iv. (ed. 1864, p. 132 ff.). 4 Comp. A. H. Keane, Ethnology (1901), pp. 197, 198, 206 f. XL 2-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 135 ^east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar ; and they J dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and bum them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and ^ slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said. Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach imto heaven, and let us make us a name ; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lokd 1 Or, in the east ^ That is, bitumen. eastwards (xiii. 11), or (RVm.) in the east. _ Viz. of Palestine (cf. ii. 8). The expression is a vague one ; and it is idle to speculate, especially in view of the uncertainty, mentioned above, as to the original context of the narrative, whence the writer may have sup- posed mankind to have started. a plain. The /^eya TreSCov, in which, according to Hdt. (i. 178), Babylon lay. Shin'dr. I.e. Babylonia; see on x. 10. 3. In Palestine stone was abundant, and used for all buildings of any pretensions; in Babylonia it was unknown, and brick (as the excavations abundantly shew) was the regular building-material, burnt bricks, cemented together by bitumen, being generally used for the outer parts of a building, and sun-dried bricks, laid in coarse clay, for the interior. See more fully Rawlinson, Anc. Monarchies^, i. 71 — 74 ; and, for an illustration of an ancient brick house at Ur, Maspero, I. 746 \ The verse was evidently written by one to whom great build- ings constructed with brick and bitumen were unfamiliar. slime. Bitumen (lxx. dcr(/)aXTos) ; Heb. hemdr (xiv. 10 ; Ex. ii. 3t), apparently the genuine native word for the foreign kopher in vi. 14. 4. a tower (with) its top in heaven. The expression is probably meant here, not hyperbolically (Dt. i. 28), but literally, 'heaven' (cf on i. 6) being regarded as an actual vault, which might be reached (cf Is. xiv. 13 f), at least by a bold effort. The coincidence may be accidental ; but it may be worth mentioning that the Bab. and Ass. kings pride themselves upon the height of their temples, and boast of having made their tops as high as heaven (Jastrow, Religion of Bah. and Ass. p. 613, citing KB. i. 43, 1. 102 f , iii. 2, p. 5, 1. 38 of Col. I.: cf EncB.i. 4.11, n. 3). make us a iiame. Make ourselves famous, and secure our names against oblivion. The expression, as Is. Ixiii. 12, 14; Jer. xxxii. 20, a/, j for the motive, comp. 2 S. xviii. 18 ; Is. Ivi. 5. lest &c. The city, and its famous tower, were to form a centre and rallying-point, which would hold mankind together. 1 The bitumen was obtained anciently from the springs at Hit, on the Euphrates, about 150 miles above Babylon, where it is still abundant (Hdt. i. 179, with Rawl.'s note: Layard, Nineveh and its remains^ ii. 46 f., describes also the springs near Kal'at Sherkat [above, on ii. 14], on the Tigris). Cf. on vi. 14. 136 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xi. 5-9 came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of «7 men builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language ; and this is what they begin to do : and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel ; because the Lord did there ^confound the language of all the earth : and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. ^ Heb. balal, to confound. 5. came down. Gf. v. 7 ; Ex. iii. 8. to see &c. For the anthropomorphism, cf. xviii. 21 ; also v. 7, below. 6, 7. It seems probable, from the terms of u 7 (* let us ^o down '), that words after v. 5 have been omitted; and that the narrative originally told how Jehovah returned to His lofty abode, and addressed the words which now follow as vv. 6, 7 to the inferior divine beings there, His heavenly counsellors or associates. 6. If this great work is the beginning of their ambition, what will be the end of it ? nothing soon will be beyond their reach. The thought, tacitly underlying the verse, is that they may in some way make them- selves the rivals of the Deity, and even become too powerful for Him ; a danger such as this must be averted betimes (cf. iii. 22). The narrative, it must be remembered, embodies a rudimentary, child-like conception of Deity. 7. let us go down. The plural — unless, indeed, it is here the survival of an originally polytheistic representation (cf. the last note but one) — is to be explained as in iii. 5, 22. The use in i. 26, Is. vi. 8 is different. 9. Babel. I.e. Babylon (see on x. 10). The etymology given here is, however, known now to be incorrect ; for the name is written in the inscriptions in a manner which shews clearly that it signifies * gate of God ' (Bdb-E), and that it cannot be derived from the Heb. bdlal, to mix, confuse. It is simply a popular etymology, which lent itself conveniently to the purpose which the narrator had in hand. No Babylonian parallel to the preceding narrative has as yet been dis- covered ^ Indeed, though it evidently presupposes a knowledge of Babylon, 1 There are no sufficient grounds for the supposition that the confusion of tongues is referred to in the fragmentary inscription translated by G. Smith, Chald. Gen. p. 160 ff., and mentioned by Sayce, Mon. p. 153 ; for the meanings of the two crucial words, rendered 'strong place' and 'speech,' are both extremely doubtful. See the note in DB. iv. 793» ; and add King, Tablets of Creation, pp. 219, 220. THE BOOK OF GENESIS 137 it does not seem itself to be of Babylonian origin : if any Babylonian legend lies at the basis of it, it must have been strongly Hebraized. As Gunkel has remarked, the narrative reflects the impression which Babylon would make upon a foreigner, rather than that which it would make upon a native : the unfavourable light in which the foundation of Babel (i.e. Babylon) is repre- sented, the idea that the erection of what {ex hyp.) can hardly have been anything but a Babylonian zikkurat (or pyramidal temple-tower) ^ was inter- rupted by {ex hyp.) a Babylonian deity, the mention, as of something unusual, of brick and bitumen as building-materials, and the false etymology of the name ' Babel,' are all features not likely to have originated in Babylonia. It does however seem a not improbable conjecture (Ewald, Schrader, Dillm.) that some gigantic tower-like building in Babylon, which had either been left unfinished, or fallen into disrepair, gave rise to the story. The tower in question has been supposed by some to be the celebrated zikkurat of E-zida, the great temple of Nebo, in Borsippa (a city almost contiguous to Babylon on the SW.), the ruined remains of which form the huge pyramidal mound now called Birs Nimroud. This zikkurat, remarkably enough, Nebuchadnezzar states had been built partially by a former king, but not completed : its ' head,' or top, had not been set up; it had also fallen into disrepair; and Neb. restored it*. Others regard it as an objection to this identification that ll-zida was not actually in Babylon; and prefer to think of the zikkurat of E-sagil, the famous and ancient temple of Marduk in Babylon itself, the site of which is generally considered to be hidden under the massive oblong mound called Babil, about 10 miles N. of Birs Nimroud^ Schrader does not decide between lE-zida and ifi-sagil : Dillm. thinks ]&-sagil the more likely, but leaves it open whether, after all, the Heb. legend may not have referred to some half-ruined ancient building in Babylon, not otherwise known to us. The high antiquity of Babylon, the fact that it was the chief centre of a region in which the Hebrews placed the cradle of the human race, and the further fact that it was always a great meeting-place for men of many nations (cf. Is. xiii. 14, xlvii. 15), would lead it not unnaturally to be regarded as the point from which mankind dispersed over the earth, XL 10—26. The genealogy of the Shemites, from Shem to Terah. A section derived from P, as is evident from the stereotyped style, which closely resembles that of ch. v. Like that chapter, it bridges over an interval, about which there was nothing special to record, by a genealogy, the design of 1 A zikkurat (from zukkuru, to elevate) is a massive pyramidal tower, ascending in stage-like terraces, with a temple at the top. See Jastrow, Hel. of Bab. and Ass. pp. 615—622 ; and cf. Hdt. i. 181. 2 The inscription is translated in KAT.^ p. 124 f.; KB. ra. 2, pp. 53, 55. Of course, however, the present narrative dates from an age some centuries earlier than the time of Nebuchadnezzar. ' See the plan of Babylon and its environs in Smith's DB. s.v. ; or in the EncB. B.v. Views of the two mounds referred to may be seen in Smith, DB. s.v. Babel, and Babel, Toweb of; or in Ball's Light from the East, pp. 220, 221. 138 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xi. lo-ic which is to convey an idea of the length and general character of the period. In the ages assigned to the several patriarchs, it will be noticed that those in vv. 18 — 26 are lower than those in vv. 10 — 17, while all are considerably lower than those of the patriarchs (except Enoch) mentioned in ch. v. : it is thus the theory of the author that the normal years of human life gradually diminished during these two prehistoric periods. The number of years embraced in the entire period from the Flood to the birth of Abraham is 290, or, according to the Lxx., 1070 (the ages of six at the birth of their firstborn being 100 years more than in the Heb., and there being besides 50 extra years for Nahor, and the 130 of Cainan). The Sam. text gives 940 years for the* entire period. In tliis case (cf. p. 79) it is generally allowed that the Heb. preserves the original figures. They are less extravagant than the figures in ch. v. ; and though the entire lifetimes assigned to the various patriarchs are out of the question, the age of each at the birth of the next might, in itself, be historical. Whence the names are derived, must remain undetermined. Some of them seem to be personal names abstracted from the names of tribes or places ^ ; and the same may be the case with the rest. Verses 12 — 17 (Shelah, 'Eber, Peleg) are parallel to X. 24, 25 in J, just as v. 3—8 (P) are parallel to iv. 25, 26 (J). 10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was an hundred 1 years old, and begat Arpachshad two years after the flood: 11 and Shem lived after he begat Arpachshad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12 And Arpachshad lived five and thirty years, and begat Shelah : 13 and Arpachshad lived after he begat Shelah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and begat Eber : 15 and 10. Arpachshad. See on x. 22. 'Its position here at the head of the genealogy shews that this land was a primitive seat of those mentioned afterwards, and consequently of the Terahites ' (Dillm.). 12, 13. Shelah. The LXX. read Kainan for Shelah in m. 12, 13; and then insert two verses stating that Kainan lived 130 years and begat Shelah, and lived afterwards 330 years. Cf. x. 24 RVm. 14. ''Eber. The eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews. The word ^eber signifies the otJier side, acivss; and so the name Hebrew (^'^??^, — in form a gentile name, denoting the inhabitant of a country, or the member of a tribe) is usually explained as denoting those who have come from ^eber ha-ndhdr (see Jos. xxiv. 2, 3, 14, 15), or 'the other side of the River' (the Euphrates), i.e. from Haran (v. 31) in Aram-naharaim, the home of Nahor (xxiv. 10) and Abraham (xxiv. 4, 7, comp. with 10). It is however possible that Stade, Wellh., Kautzsch, and others are right in explaining it as signifying those who have come from 'the other side' of the Jordan, supposing it to have been first given to ^ As happens sometimes in the case of Arabian genealogies {EncB. ii. 1660). XI. i5-^i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 139 Shelah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, P and begat sons and daughters. 16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg : 17 and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu : 19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug : 21 and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. Israel by the Canaanites, after they had entered Palestine'. It is a peculiarity of the name Hebrew that (like that of the * Greeks,' for instance) it is not the normal native name, but is, all but exclusively, either placed in the mouth of foreigners (as xxxix. 14), or used by Israelites for the purpose of distinguishing pointedly Abraham or his descendants from foreigners (as xiv. 13, xl. 15, xliii. 32; Jon. i. 9 : cf Ex. i. 15, 16, ii. 6, 7, v. 3, xxi. 2)'. 16. Peleg. Cf on x. 25. 20. Serug. Certainly connected with Seruj^ a district and city, mentioned already, in the form Sarugi, in the * Assyrian Domesday Book,' or description of holdings about Haran in the 7th cent. B.C., published by C H. W. Johns (1901), pp. 29, 43, 48, 68 (33, 45, 50); and well known to Arabic and Syriac writers of the middle ages ; in Mesopotamia ('Aram-Naharaim,' xxiv. 10), about 38 miles W. of Haran (v. 31), and 30 miles SW. of Urhoi (Edessa). See Sachau, Eeise in Syr. u. Mesop. 1883, pp. 181 — 3, and the 2nd Map at the end. ^ Why 'Eber is not the immediate, but the sixth ancestor of Abraham, and why many other tribes besides the Hebrews are reckoned as his descendants (see on X. 21), must remain matter of conjecture : no doubt the Heb. genealogists were guided partly by facts, partly by theories, respecting the movements and mutual relations of the tribes mentioned by them, with which we are unacquainted. It may be (cf. Konig, Lehrgeb. i. 19, 21) that, though the Israelites were /car' i^oxw 'Hebrews,' it was remembered that the land 'across ' the Euphrates had been for a long time the resting-place of Abraham's ancestors, and that many other tribes (Peleg, Rei), &g. as well as the Yoktanidae, x. 26 ff.) had migrated from it. ^ The theory of Hommel {Anc. Heb. Trad. 324 — 7, and elsewhere : see also EncB. Eber, and DB. ii. 326) that Ebir ndri (=the Bibl. 'eber ha-ndhdr) was the name originally given by the Babylonians to the region about Ur (see on v. 31) on the other (i.e. the western) side of the Euphrates, that accordingly Abraham and his forefathers were known to the Babylonians as 'Hebrews' (in the sense of 'inhabi- tants of this ebir nari^), that Abraham and his descendants carried this foreign name about with them for many centuries, till finally it reappeared in the OT. in the applications explained above, is in itself most improbable, besides resting, from the first stage to the last, upon a basis of pure hypothesis. 140 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xi. ..-sr 22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor : 23 and p Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah : 25 and Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. 26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 22. Nahor, ' Once the name of a people of considerable import- ance ' (Dillm.) : cf on 'o. 29. The name is perhaps preserved in Til-Nahirii a place near Sarugi (Johns, op. cit. p. 71). XI. 27—32. The family history of Terah, A short account of the history of Terah, stating what was necessary as an introduction to the history of his son, Abraham, chaps, xii. — xxv. 10. Verses 27, 31, 32 belong to P, vv. 28—30 to J. 27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat p Abram, Nahor, and Haran ; and Haran begat Lot. | 28 And J Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives : the name of Abram's wife was Sarai ; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren ; she had no child. | 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot P the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife ; and they went forth with them from 28. in the presence of his father. I.e. while his father was yet alive. So Num. iii. 4. in Ur of the Chaldees. See on -y. 31 : the words are here very possibly a harmonistic addition — the land of Haran's and Abram's * nativity ' being in J Aram-Naharaim (see p. 142). 29. Nahor marries Milcah, his niece (cf. xxii. 20—23): comp. Abraham's marriage with his half-sister, xx. 12. Perhaps, liowever, Dillm. is right in supposing that in this case the ' marriage ' signifies really the amalgamation of communities. 31. and they^ went forth with them. Who went with whom ? Read probably, with lxx., Sam., and Vulg., and he brought them forth (Dn'i^ N>'h for Di?^ ^^V.')). XL 31, 32] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 141 Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan ; and they P came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years : and Terah died in Haran. Ur. Now, as inscriptions found on the spot shew, el-Mukayyar'^ (often written incorrectly Mugheir), 6 miles S. of the Euphrates, on its right bank, and 125 miles from its present mouth. Mukayyar consists of a collection of low mounds, forming an oval about 1000 yds. long by 800 yds. broad, which conceal the ruins of the ancient city. Ur (Ass. Uru) was an important city long before Babylon. Two of its early kings, Ur-bau, and his son Dungi (c. 2800 B.C.), have left many monuments of themselves — engraved cylinders and other works of art, besides numerous buildings, not only in Ur itself, but also in the sur- rounding towns. The position of Ur made it important commercially. The Euphrates anciently flowed almost by its gates, and formed a channel of communication with Upper Syria ; while it was connected by caravan-routes with Southern Syria and with Arabia.^ Its tutelary deity was the Moon-god, Sin ; the zikkurat of Sin, built by Ur-bau, Nabu-na'id (B.C. 555 — 538), upon cyUnders found on the spot, tells us that he restored. See farther Maspero, i. 561, 563 (Map), 612—19, 629—31 (zikkuratf with views); Ball, Light from the East, 62—64. of the Chaldees (Heb. Kasdim). This is no Babylonian designation of Ur; and must be an addition of Palestinian origin (Sayce, Monu- ments, 158 f ). Kasdim is the Heb. form of the Bab. and Ass. Kaldw (* Chaldaeans '), a tribe named often in the inscriptions from B.C. 880; their home at that time was in Lower Babylonia (the Persian Gulf is called the * sea of the land of Kaldii ') ; afterwards, as they increased in power, they gradually advanced inland: in 721 Merodach-baladan, *king of the land of Kaldti,' made himself for twelve years king of Babylon; and ultimately, under Nabopolassar (625—605) and Nebu- chadnezzar (604 — 561) the Kaldii became the ruling caste in Babylonia. *Ur Kasdim' is mentioned besides in v. 28, xv. 7, Neh. ix. 7. unto Haran (with the hard H, Lxx. Xappav, quite different from the Hardin, with the soft H, of m 26, 31*). Ass., Syr. and Arab. Ha/rrdn, Gk. Kappat; in ancient times an important place, situated about 550 miles NW. of Ur, on the left bank of the Belikh, a tributary which flows into the Euphrates from the N., at about 60 miles from the confluence, and of course on the ' other side ' of the Euphrates from Palestine (cf on v. 14). At present, nothing remains of the ancient city but a long range of mounds and the ruins of a castle; but it is often mentioned in the Ass. inscriptions, and also by writers of the classical and mediaeval period. Harrdnu is a common Ass. word meaning way; and the place, it has been supposed, received its name on account of the commercial and strategical importance of its position : it lay at the point where the principal route from Nineveh 1 I.e. the Utuminated — so called from the bitumen, with which its walls are cemented (cf. on xi. 3; and see Eawlinson, Anc. Monarchies*, i. 16 f., 76—9). 142 THE BOOK OF GENESIS to Carchemish was met by the road from Damascus (on its trade, cf. Ez. xxvii. 23). Like Ur, Haran was also an ancient and celebrated seat of the worship of the Moon-god, who was known in N. Syria as Baal-Harran, or 'Lord of Harran^'; Nabu-na'id, who restored his temple there, tells us that Sin had had his dwelling at Harran from remote days {KB. m. 2, 97). See further DB. and EncB. s.v.; Mez, Gesch. d&r Stadt Ilarrdn, 1892. 32. Sam. for 205 has 145, making Abram's departure from Haran (xii. b^) take place in the year of Terah's death (xi. 26, and xii. 4^). The same figure appears to be presupposed in Acts vii. 4". •Jwo traditions seem to have been current respecting the original home of the ancestors of the Hebrews. According to xi. 31 (cf. v. 28, xv. 7) their original home was Ur, in South Babylonia. There exists however a group of passages in Gen., which not only connect consistently Abraham's near relations with Haran^ in Aram-Naharaim, far away from S. Babylonia (without any suggestion of their having migrated thither from elsewhere), but imply also that it was Abraham's own native place as well (notice the expressions in xii. 1 and xxiv. 4, 7, where v. 10 shews that Haran is referred to ; cf. also Josh, xxiv. 2, 3). The tradition connecting Abraham with Haran is that which predominates in J ; and if it might be supposed that the words ' in Ur of the Chaldees' in xi. 28, and the verse xv. 7, were additions to the original J, J would follow consistently the same representation. P (xi. 31) harmonizes the two traditions, by representing Abraham's residence in Haran as the result of a migration from Ur. But even in P itself the names in xi. 10 — 27 seem to point to Mesopotamia as the home of Abraham's ancestors. The two traditions cannot therefore be said to be represented consistently, the one by J, and the other by P. What the source of the tradition connecting Abraham with Ur may have been we do not know : of course it will not have been first promulgated by P, but must have been current when he wrote. Its correctness we are not at present in a position, from external evidence, either to affirm or to deny. Contract-tablets, and other contemporary inscrip- tions, recently discovered, bear witness to the fact that in, or even before, the age of Abraham persons bearing Hebrew (or Canaanitish) names resided in Babylonia, and shew that intercourse between Babylonia and the West was more active than was once supposed to be the case^; but notliing sufficiently direct has at present [June, 1903] been discovered to prove definitely that the ancestors of the Hebrews had once their home in Ur. 1 The title occurs in an inscription from Zinjirli, near Aleppo [above, p. 129] : see G. A. Cooke, Text-hook of North- Semitic Inscriptions (1903), p. 182.^ 2 Ussher, in order to harmonize the Heb. text with Acts vii. 4, interpolates 60 years in v. 26 (see the note in editions of the AV. with marg. references), giving the verse the impossible meaning, 'And Terah lived 70 years; and [60 years afterwards] begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.' ' At Sippar, about 80 miles NNW. of Babylon, there seems indeed to have been an *Amorite quarter,' which (though of course Abraham was no Amorite) testifies to communication between Babylonia and the West (see Saycc, Babylonians and Assyrians, 1900, p. 187 ff.; Pinches, The OT. in the light of the records of Ass. and Bab.y p. 169 f.). THE BOOK OF GENESIS 143 PART 11. THE HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS. CHAPTERS XIL— L. With ch. xii. the second part of the Book of Genesis begins, the history of the patriarchs. Hebrew tradition told how the ancestors of the nation had, under Divine guidance, migrated from the distant East into Canaan, had sojourned in different parts of the land, had entered into various relations, friendly or unfriendly, as the case might be, with the native inhabitant'^, and had in the end, in the persons of Jacob and his 12 sons, gone down into Egypt ; and the narration of all these events occupies the second part of the Book. The places which the patriarchs principally visit — Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Beer-sheba, Beer-lahai-roi — are those which in later times were regarded as sanctuaries ; and the origin of their sanctity is here explained : it is deduced from incidents in the lives of the patriarchs. It is a plausible conjecture that stories of the patriarchs were attached to the sanctuaries which it was believed that they had visited ; and that these were written down and arranged by the different writers, especially the two earlier ones, J and E, whose narratives, excerpted and adjusted by a later compiler, form the bulk of the existing Book of Genesis. The substance of the narrative is, no doubt, historical; though the characters and experiences seem to be idealized (cf. p. Iviii ff.). We cannot, for instance, suppose that we have, so to say, a photographic record of all that was said or done : however difficult it may be to estimate the strength of memory and of oral tradition in these patriarchal times, when the conditions were so different from our own, it is scarcely possible that the recollection of such minutiae as are here often recorded should have been transmitted unaltered during the many centuries that intervened between the time at which the patriarchs lived, and that at which their biographies were ultimately committed to writing. The idea (which nevertheless has been seriously suggested) that the patriarchs carried about with them libraries of burnt bricks, upon which, in Babylonian fashion, they recorded their experiences, is an ingenious one ; but it has absolutely nothing to support it, and cannot therefore be made the basis of an argument for establishing the autobiographical character of the patriai-chal narratives. The outline of these narratives, we may confidently hold, was supplied by tradition; but in the details something at any rate will be due to the historical imagination of the narrators, who filled in what tradition handed down to them with picturesque circumstance and colloquy, and at the same time breathed into the whole the same deep and warm religious spirit by which they were inspired themselves. 144 . THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xii. 1-3 Chapter XII. Abram's migration into Canaan. The first of the promises. Sarah's adventure in Egypt. Since Noah, the line of Shorn (xi. 10 ff.) has been that in which the know- ledge of the true God has been perpetuated; and now, in the person of Abram, this knowledge reaches a higher stage: Abram is the recipient of fuller and more distinct revelations of God ; and though not uniformly fault- less, becomes nevertheless an example of faith and obedience iu the midst of heathen neighbours (cf. Dean Church, The Discipline of the Christian Character^ chap. i.). Verses 1—4% 6—20, belong to J j w. 4^ 5 to P. XII. 1 Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of J" thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will shew thee : 2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and be thou a blessing : 3 and I will bless them that bless thee, XII. 1. And Jehovah said &c. The words state the sequel of xi. 31^ the country which Abram is commanded to leave being not Ur, but Haran. 'God's voice is to be thought of not as something external, but as heard within Abram's inmost soul' (Del.). thy country .. .thy kindred &c. 'The expressions are accumulated in order to shew that God made no small demand of him when He required him to sever his family ties and wander forth into an unknown land'CDillm.). CfHeb. xi. 8f. 2 f. The promise. The promises (and blessings) contained in Gen. form two series (J and P). The series in J (or occasionally E) consists of iii. 15 (the ' Protevangelium ') ; viii. 21 f (Noah); xii. 2 f., 7, xiii. 14 — 17, XV. 5, 18 — 21, xviii. 18, xxii. 15 — 18 (all addressed to Abraham); xxvi. 2 — 5, 24 (Isaac); xxv. 23, xxvii. 27 — 9, xxviii. 13 — 15, xlvi. 3f. (Jacob); xlix. 10 (Judah): that in P consists of i. 28 — 30 (Adam); ix. 1—17 (Noah); xvii. 2, 6—8 (Abraham), cf 20 (Ishmael); xxviii. 3 f , XXXV. 11 f , cf xlviii. 3 f. (Jacob). These two series deserve to be carefully studied and compared : each (esp. in the promises ad- dressed to the patriarchs) will then be found to have features peculiar to itself, and distinguishing it from the other (cf on xvii. 2, 6 — 8). 2. a blessing. I.e., according to a Hebrew idiom (cf. Ps. ex. 3 RVm.) the impersonation of blessing, most blessed. Comp. Ps. xxi. 6 (see RVm.); Is. xix. 24 (see v. 25); Zech. viii. 13. 3. and I will bless &c. Cf xxvii. 29 ; Nu. xxiv. 9. Abram will become indirectly a source of blessedness to others: so favoured by God will he be that those who are friendly towards him will be blessed with prosperity, while those who are unfriendly will be visited with misfortune. XII. 3-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 145 and him that curseth thee will I curse : and in thee shall all the J families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him ; and Lot went with him : | and Abram was P seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran ; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan ; and into the land of Canaan they came. | and through thee shall... he blessed. If this rend, is correct, the passage will express an early phase of the great doctrine developed afterwards more fully by the prophets (e.g. Is. ii. 2 f , xix. 23 — 5), and point to the ultimate extension of the religious privileges enjoyed by Abraham and his descendants to the Gentiles. The expression in the Heb. is the same in xviii. 18, xxviii. 14; in all these passages the conjugation of the Heb. verb being the Niphal, which may have either a reflexive or a passive sense (G.-K. § Sl*^''*^). There are, however, two other passages, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, in which, though otherwise similar, the conj. is the Hithpael, the sense of which is undoubtedly reflexive ('bless themselves ') ; and most modern scholars (including Ges., Del., Dillm., and Riehm, Mess. Proph. Edinb. 1891, p. 97 f ) consider that the two passages of which the sense is clear should determine the interpretation of the three in which the sense is ambiguous, and render therefore (here, xviii. 18, and xxviii. 14, as well as xxii. 18, xxvi. 4) * bless themselves by thee,' i.e. in blessing themselves will use thy name as a type of happiness (see, in illustration of this usage, the notes on xxii. 18 and xlviii. 20), wish for themselves the blessings (including the religious privileges), recognized as the special possession of Abraham (or, in xxviii. 14, of his descendants): cf Is. Ixi. 9^ Ixv. 23 \ Thus upon the first interpretation the words declare that the blessings of which Israel is to become the organ and channel are to be communi- cated ultimately to the world ; upon the second, they imply that these same blessings will 'attract the regard of all peoples, and awaken in them the longing to participate in them ' (cf Is. ii. 3 ; xlii. 4^ ; Zech. viii. 23): in either case, therefore, the thought remains, in the wider sense of the term, a Messianic one. Cf Gal. iii. 8 (though the quotation here is taken more directly from ch. xviii. 18). 4^ (from and Abram), 6 (P). More detailed particulars, in P's manner, of Abram's migration from Haran into Canaan. The most 1 Dillm. asks, Why should less be said of the seed of Abraham (which, ex hyp., is the direct medium of the transmission of the blessings to the Gentiles) than of Abraham himself, as would be the case if, in xii. 3, xviii. 18, the verb were rendered be blessed, while in xxii. 18, xxvi. 4 it is rendered bless themselves ? On the other hand, it might be urged (cf. the writer's Sermons on the OT. p. 54) that the difference of conjugation created a presumption of a difference of meaning : we are not, however, sure that the writer is in all five cases the same, and the difference of conjugation may be due to a difference of author. (The Niph. of "jll occurs only in the three passages in question.) D. 10 146 THE BOOK OF GE]ST:SIS [xn. 6 6 And Abram passed through the land rnito the place of J^ Shechem, unto the ^oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was 1 Or, terebinth probable route for a traveHer journeying from Haran to Canaan would be to cross the Euphrates by the great ford at Carchemish' (60 miles W. of Haran), then to turn S. past Hamath and Damascus; and after this, either, crossing one of the S. spurs of Hermon, in the neighbour- hood of the modem BsbuySs, to enter Canaan from the N. on the W. side of the waters of Merom, or striking down into the Jordan- valley, to travel along it, on the E. side of the stream, until he reached the ford of ed-Damiyeh (25 miles N. of the Dead Sea), crossing which, as Jacob did afterwards, and turning up to the NW., he would soon reach Shechem, in the centre of the land. tauU. I.e. persons (p. ix, No. 19), here denoting slaves (cf xxxvi. 6). 6. place. The word means here very probably sacred place : cf. xxviii. 16 ; Dt. xii. 2, 3 ; 1 S. vii. 16 Lxx. ; Jer. vii. 12. The correspond- ing Arabic word makdm is used similarly (cf. Conder, TW. 304 f ). Shechem. Afterwards an important town in the hill-country of Ephraim, lying in a fertile, well-watered vale, between Ebal and Gerizim (see a view in Smith, DB. s.v.), just 30 miles N. of Jerusalem, and 5 nules SE. of Samaria. After its destruction in the wars of Vespasian, Shechem was rebuilt under the name of Flavia Neapolis, whence its modem name of Ndhlus. For notices of Shechem in later books, illustrating both its religious and political importance, see Jos. XX. 7, xxiv. 1, 25, 26, 32 (Gen. xxxiii. 18—20); Jud. ix., xxi. 19; 1 K xii. 1, 25 j Ps. Ix. 6 : comp. also Gen. xxxv. 4, and on xlviii. 22. unto the directing terebinth (or, terebinth of (the) director). An oracular tree. Moreh is the ptcp. of hdrah, the word used regularly of the authoritative direction given by priests (e.g. Dt. xxxiii. 10; Mic. iiL 11: RV. usu. teach), and the verb from which tordh, 'law' (prop, direction), is derived (see DB. rn. 64 f.). No doubt the reference is to a sacred tree, supposed by the ancient Canaanites to give oracles, and attended by priests, who interpreted its answers to those who came to consult it. * Oracles and omens from trees, and at tree- sanctuaries, are of the commonest among all races, and are derived in very various ways, either from observation of phaenomena connected with ^<& trees themselves (such as the rustlings of their leaves), or from ordinary processes of divination peiforaQed in the presence of the sacred object*/ The terebinth ('elon) must have been one of those mentioned 1 Maspero, n. 145. « W. B. Smith, Bel. of the SemiteSy p. 178 (ed. 2, p. 195). Tree-worship was often practised by the heathen Semites (t5. p. 169 ff., ed. 2, p. 185 ff.). Even to this day Palestine abonnds in trees, especially oaks, supposed to be ' inhabited,' or hiwmfa^ by spirits {jirm) ; and the sopersUtions peasants suspend rags upon them as tokens of hcnnage (Thomson, L. and B. n. 101, 171 f., 222, 474). F<w trees uliidi, to jndge from the connexion in which they are mentioned, were pcobabty i^arided as sacred, s/ee Gen. xiii. 18 (xviii. 1), xxi. 33, xxxv. 4, 8 ; XII. 6-8] THE BOOK OF GEIST^SIS 147 then in the land. 7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and J said, Unto thy seed will I give this land : and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. 8 And he also in Dt. xi. 30 (if, indeed, we should not read there, with Sam., lxx., the sing. * terebinth ') ; very probably, too, it is the same as the one called in Jud. ix. 37 the * Soothsayers' terebinth ' (d*j:j?d pt'K), if not also (though this is less certain) the same as the 'elah of Gen. xxxv. 4, and the 'allah of Jos. xxiv. 26 ' in Jehovah's sanctuary ' at Shechem. terebintli. There are five similar Heb. words — V/ [only in the pL V^w], 'elah, 'elun^ 'allah (only Jos. xxiv. 26), and 'allon — the difference between which depends m part only upon the punctuation, and the special sense of each of which is not perfectly certain : Gesenius, after a careful survey of the data, arrived at the conclusion, which has been largely accepted by subsequent scholars, that V/, 'eldh, *eldn denoted properly the terebinth, and *alldh, 'allon the oak\ The terebinth (or turpentine- tree) in general appearance resembles the oak (though it grows usually alone, not in clumps or forests) ; and both trees are still common in Palestine*. And the Canaanite &c. The remark is made in view of r. 7 : the land promised there to Abram's seed was not at the time ownerless ; it was, in fact, in the possession of those very Canaanites, who were afterwards to be dispossessed by Abram's descendants. The term * Canaanite ' is used by J, like * Amorite ' by E, as a general designation of the pre-IsraeKtish inhabitants of the country (see on x. 15, p. 125 f.; and cf xiii. 7, xxiv. 3, 1. 11). 7. The promise of the laud is here for the first time given ex- plicitly : in vv. 1 — 3 it is at most implied- Comp. afterwards xiiL 15, 17, XV. 18, xxvi. 3, xxviii. 13; and in P xvii. 8, xxxv. 12 (xlviii 4). huilded he an altar. The building of an altar is the standing rehgious obser^^ance of patriarchal times, not only on a special occasion, as viii. 20 (Noah), xxii. 9, or after a theophany, as here, xxvi. 25, and xxxv. 1, 7, but also independently, v. 8, xiii. 18, xxxiii. 20 (but see the note) ; cf Ex. xvii. 15. The place thus marked by the theophany, and the altar, is very probably identical with the * sanctuary,' or sacred place, at Shechem, mentioned in Josh. xxiv. 26, the original conse- cration of which is here referred to Abram. 8. Abram next moved southwards to a spot between Bethel and *Ai, where in like manner he 'built an altar,' and also invoked solemnly Jehovah's name (see on iv. 26). On Bethel, the modem Jos. xxiv. 26 ; Jud. vi 11, 19 (cf. 24), ix. 6, 37 ; IS. xxii. 6, xytj 13. Comp. also the frequent allusions to idolatrous rites celebrated beside trees (e.g. Dt xii 2 ; Is. i. 29, Ivii. 5 ; Hos. iv. 13). See further NifTUBs Wobship, ^ 2, 3, in EncB. ; and R. B. Taylor on ' Traces of Tree-Worship in the OT.,* in the Exp. Times, June 1903, p. 407 ff. The Heb. words for 'terebinth' are quite possibly derived from *eZ, ' God.* ^ Hence RY. has always for 'eldh and ^elOn, and for 'eUm in Is. i. 29, 'tezebin^* either in the margin or (Is. vi. 13 ; Hos. iv. 13) in the text. •* Tristram, NHB. pp. 367—371, 400 f. 10—2 148 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xii. 8, 9 removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, J and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east : and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the ^ South. 1 Heb. Negeh, the southern tract of Judah. Beitin, 10 miles N. of Jerusalem, see more fully on xxviii. 12. *Ai is very probably the present Haiydn, a ruined site 2|- miles ESE. of Beitin, with a deep ravine on the N. (Jos. viii. 11), and with a hill between it and Beitin, from which (c£ xiii. 10) the Jordan-valley and N. end of the Dead Sea are plainly visible (Rob. BR. 11. 575; PEFM. II. 373, III. 31—35; cf. Conder, Tent Work, 253 f., and Ai in EncB. and DB.). the mountain. See on xiii. 10. the west. Lit. the sea. The ' sea ' (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) is in Heb. the regular expression for the West. Its use in the Pent, is an indication that this was written by men who had lived long enough in Palestine for the ' sea ' to have come to be used in this sense. Cf W. K Smith, OT. in the Jewish Church, 323 ('326).^ 9. journeyed, viz. by stages, as is customary in the East. The word used means properly to pluck up (sc. the pegs of the tent), i.e. to move tent or camp : it thus becomes the standing word for to journey (xiii. 11, XX. 1 ; Ex. xii. 37, &c.). toward the South. Or, the Negeh, — the word (meaning properly the dry land^) being used in a technical geographical sense (as is indicated by BVm.) of a particular district of Judah, intermediate in elevation, and also in character {DB. or EncB. s.v. Negeb; HG. 278—286), between the *hill country' (Jos. xv. 48) around Hebron, &c., and the wilderness et-Tih, N. of the Sinaitic peninsula. The Negeb began on the N. a little S. of Dhaheriyeh (prob. the ancient Debir), 10 miles NNE. of Beer-sheba, and it seems to have extended as far S. as Kadesh (xiv. 7). The cities situated in the Negeb are enumerated in Jos. xv. 21 — 32. When used in the technical sense here explained, 'south' is in RV. regularly printed with a capital S (e.g. Dt. i. 7; Jer. xiii. 19). 10—20. This narrative represents Abram in a new light. Anxious lest his personal safety should be indirectly endangered by his wife's beauty, he manifests a want of candour which, when discovered, not only brings him into difficulties which might easily have proved more serious than, happily, they actually were, but also subjects him to a humiliating rebuke on the part of the Pharaoh. Untruthfulness and dissimulation are extremely common faults in the East ; and it would be manifestly unjust to measure Abram by a Christian standard : nevertheless, the narrator is clearly conscious that he fell below the standard which he might have been expected to attain, and contrasts him unfavourably with the upright and straightforward heathen king. Cf. the similar narratives, xx., xxvi, 6 — 11. 1 The root is not in use in Heb., but it is common in Aramaic. XII. IO-I3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 149 10 And there was a famine in the land : and Abram went J down into Egypt to sojourn there ; for the famine was sore in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife. Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon : 12 and it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say. This is his wife : and they will kiU me, but they will save thee alive. 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister : that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because 10. There being no artificial irrigation in Palestine, and the country being largely dependent for its fertility upon the annual rainfall, a famine was no unfrequent occurrence in it (cf Am. iv. 6, 7, and elsewhere) : on the other hand, the yearly rise of the Nile, which secured the fertility of Egypt, rarely failed; so that Egypt was the country to which, when there was a famine in Canaan, the inhabitants would naturally turn (cf xxvi. 1, xlii. 1 f ). went down. Viz. from the high ground of Canaan — the expression regularly used of one journeying from Canaan into Egypt (e.g. xliv. 21) ; as conversely ' come (or go) up ' is said as regularly of a journey in the opposite direction (e.g. xiii. 1, xliv. 17, 24). to sojourn there. I.e. to stay there temporarily — the regular mean- ing of the word (Is. lii. 4 ; cf on ch. xv. 13). 11. From xii. 4, compared with xvii. 17, it appears that Sarai was at this time at least 65 years of age; and it has often been wondered why Abram should have been in alarm on the ground stated, and why the Pharaoh should have been attracted by her beauty. The solution of the difficulty is to be found in the fact that the statements about Sarai's age belong to a different document (P) from the one (J) which narrates the visit to Egypt : the author of the latter evidently pictured Sarai as still a comparatively young woman. There are other chrono- logical discrepancies in Gen., which are to be similarly explained (cf on xxi. 15, xxiv. 67, xxxv. 8, and pp. 262, 365 w., 368, 398). 13. my sister. The statement was true, but not the whole truth (see XX. 12): so that it was a prevarication on Abram's part; a fact of vital importance on the question at issue was purposely concealed, and a false impression was thereby created. that it may he well with me for thy sake. That I may be treated with friendliness, for the sake of my fair sister. my soul. The ' soul,' in Heb. psychology, is the seat of feeling and emotion; hence in poetry, or choice prose, 'my (thy, his, &c.) soul' becomes a pathetic periphrasis for the personal pron., — often, indeed, in poetry interchanging with it in the parallel clause. See xxvii. 4, 19, 25, 31 (by the side of the pron. in m 7, 10); Nu. xxiii. 10 (RVm.); Jud. xvi. 30 Heb.; Is. i. 14, xlii. 1, Iv. 3, Ixi. 10, Ixvi. 3, &c. 150 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xii. 13-17 of thee. 14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come J into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 15 And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake : and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and menservants, and maid- servants, and she-asses, and camels. 17 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai 15. Pharaoh. The official, not the personal, designation of the Eg)rptian king. The word is the hieroglyphic Pr-'o, which means properly the Great House, and in inscriptions of the ' Old Kingdom ' (1 — 11 dynasties) denotes simply the royal house or estate, but after- wards— something in the manner of the * Subhme Porte ' — became gradually a title of the monarch himself^ and finally (in the 22nd and following djmasties) was prefixed to the king's personal name (as in ' Pharaoh Necho '). See the lucid exposition of the history of the term by Mr F. LI. Griffith, in the DB. s.v. Pharaoh. There is nothing in the present narrative to indicate what 'Pharaoh' is here meant; but if, on account of xiv. 1 (p. 156), Abram is assigned rightly to c. 2300 B.C. it will have been one of the rulers of the 12th (Brugsch, Budge, Hist, of Eg. III., ch. i.), or 13th (Petrie, Hist, of Eg. i. 206) dynasty. ^ was taken into Pharaoh's house — or palace', in accordance with the custom of Eastern princes of arbitrarily selecting beautiful women to be added to their harems. Polygamy was not the rule in Egypt ; but wealthy Egyptians, and especially the Pharaohs, often had two or more wives: see Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, 74 — 6, 142, 151 — 3. 16. entreated. Le. treated : an archaism. So Ex. v. 22, al. and he had. I.e. and he came to have, received. The presents are given for the sake of his supposed sister: Abram, by accepting tliem, thus places himself in a false position. The animals mentioned appear elsewhere also, along with slaves, as forming the chief wealth of the nomadic patriarchs: cf. xxiv. 35, xxxii. 14 f.; also Jobi. 3, xlii. 12. The mention of camels has been supposed to be an anachronism ; for the camel was not used or bred in ancient Egypt, nor does it appear *in any inscription or painting before the Greek period' (Erman, p. 493 : cf. W. Max Miiller, EncB. 634 ; Sayce, EHH. 169): they would how- ever be a very natural gift for a nomad sheikh, and they miglit have been readily procured for the purpose from trader? (cf. xxxvii. 25). menservants and maidservants. I.e. male and female slaves. See Jer. xxxiv. 9, 10, 11 his (Heb. as vv. 9, 10): cf. ch. xx. 14, xxiv. 35. 17. A mysterious sickness fell upon Pharaoh and his house, whicli, it must be assumed, aroused suspicions, and so led to inquiries which resulted in the discovery of the truth. 1 See examples of its use, similar to those in Gen., in the 'Tale of the Two Brothers' (see on ch. xxxix., p. 336) in Petrie's Egyp. Tales, ii. 53 — 64. XII. I7-XIII. 6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 151 Abram's wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, Wliat J is this that thou hast done unto me ? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so that I took her to be my wife : now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. 20 And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him : and they brought him on the way, and his wife, and all that he had. Chapter XIII. Abram^s return into Canaan; and Lot's separation from him. XIII. 1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his J wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South. 2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the South even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Ai ; 4 unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first : and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. | 6 And the land was not able to bear P plagued... with plagues (TrXrjyaC). Properly struck... with strokes (Dt. xvii. 8), — of severe sickness, as 1 K. viii. 37, Ps. xxxviii. 11. 18, 19. Pharaoh, displeased, rebukes Abram for his prevarication; and bids him, with some peremptoriness, take his wife with him and depart. 20. gave men charge concerning him. Or, appointed men over him ; i.e. assigned him an escort, to accompany him to the frontier. brought him on the way. Lit. sent him on: cf. xviii. 16; and Trpo- TTc/xTTciv Acts XV. 3, xxi. 5. XIII. 1 — 5. Abram returns to the place where he had built the altar near Bethel (xii. 8). 1. the South. See on xii. 9. 2. The narrator draws a picture of the wealth and importance of Abram. Cf xxiv. 35. 3. on his journeys. Rather, by his stages (lit. plucMngs up: cf on xii. 9 ; and see Ex. xvii. 1 ; Nu. xxxiii. 1, 2, RVm.). But the word 'journey ' (Fr. journee) seems in these passages to be used in its old etymological sense of ' a days travel.' 6 — 13. Lot separates himself from Abram. 6._ P's account of the cause of the separation: there was not sufficient pasture for their united flocks. Cf xxxvi. 7 (also P), 152 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiii. 6-ro them, that they might dwell together : for their substance was P great, so that they could not dwell together. | 7 And there was J a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle : and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we are brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before thee ? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me : if tliou wilt tahe the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left. 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the ^ Plain of Jordan, that ^ Or, Circle where a similar reason is assigned for the separation of Esau from Jacob. The verse was in its original context followed immediately by V. ll^ l2^ 7. J's account of the cause of the separation of Abram and Lot : dis- putes arising between their respective herdmen (cf. xxi. 25, xxvi. 20 ff.). Perizzite, So, together with * Canaanite,' xxxiv. 30, Jud. i. 4, 5 ; alone, Josh. xvii. 15; and in the lists of nations dispossessed by Israel, ch. XV. 20, Ex. iii. 8, 17, Dt. vii. 1, al. To judge from the first-named passages, the Perizzites were a people of central Palestine ; but more is not definitely known about them. It is thought by some (Sayce, Races of the OT. 120; Moore, Judges, p. 17) that the word is not the name of a tribe at all, but that it is connected with perdzl, ' country-folk, peasantry' (Dt. iii. 5; 1 S. vi. 18), and denoted the village population of Canaan, t\iefellaki?i, or labourers on the soil. 8, 9. Such disputes between relations are unseemly; so Abram proposes a separation, and though he is the elder, generously offers his nephew the first choice. 8. brethren. I.e. near relatives : cf. xiv. 14, 16, xxiv. 27, xxix. 12. 10. There is a 'conspicuous hill,' a little E. of Bethel (cf. on xii. 8), commanding a wide prospect, upon or near which the narrator may have pictured Lot and Abram as standing. ' To the East there rises in the foreground the jagged range of the hills above Jericho ; in the distance the dark wall of Moab ; between them lies the wide valley of the Jordan, its course marked b^ the track of tropical forest growth [the 'pride of Jordan' of Jer. xii. 5, xlix. 19 = 1. 44, Zech. xi. 3], in which its rushing stream is enveloped ' ; while on the S. and W. appear the bleak hills of Judah (Stanley, ;S^. and P. 218). the Oval of Jordan (Heb. Kikkdr, a 'round'). The Kikkdr was the specific name of the basin consisting of the lower and broader part of the Jordan-valley (beginning about 25 miles N. of the Dead Sea), and including apparently (see p. 170 f.) the Dead Sea itself, and the 1 See however the following footnote. MIL 10-14] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 153 ifc was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed J" Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. 11 So Lot chose him all the Plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east : | and they P separated themselves the one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the Plain, | and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the J men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly. 14 And the Lord said unto Abram, after that small plain at its S. end {v. 12, xix. 17, 25, 28, 29; Dt. xxxiv. 3; 2 S. xviii. 23) ; the ^Kikkdr of the Jordan' (here, ij. 11, and 1 K. vii. 46) being in particular the part including the lower course of the Jordan (see further DB. s.v. Plain, 4). The Jordan-valley, once (see p. 168) a sea-bottom, contains large patches of salt and barren soil; but in some parts, esp. about Jericho (where anciently there were beautiful palm-groves), and along the banks of the river (cf. the last note), it is extremely fertile, and produces exuberant vegetation (see IIG. 483 f , 487, 489); and the writer, it seems, pictured it as having been still more fertile than it was in his own day, before Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed (xix. 24 — 28). well watered. Especially about Jericho, and across the Jordan, where numerous streams, descending into the Kikkar^ form lines of verdure along the mountain sides. Ezek. (xvi. 48 f ) attributes the sin of Sodom to its ease of living and material prosperity. like the garden of Jehovah (Is. li. 3). I.e. the garden of Eden, — well-irrigated, and a type of fertility (cf on ii. 8). like the land of Egypt. Also irrigated by a river, and celebrated for the fertility of its soil. as thou goest unto Zo^ar^ near the SE. corner of the Dead Sea (see p. 170). The words connect with well watered every where, and define the S. limit of the area once, as the writer supposes, thus well-watered and fertile'. But possibly Zo'an (Pesh.) should be read, the name of the well-known city (Tanis) in the NE. of the Delta. 11. Such a fair prospect was more than Lot was able to resist : so heedless of the prior claim possessed by his uncle, and heedless also of the character of those whom he would thereby have living around him {v. 13), he chose for himself the Kikkdr of Jordan. 13. The verse is intended partly to shew Lot's indifference, partly to prepare for ch. xix., and partly also to illustrate the providence which preserved Abram from association with such men. 14 — 17. The reward of Abram's unselfishness. Being now left alone in the land, he receives a new and emphatic repetition of the 1 This verse, and v. 12^ (cf. xiv. 3), read, it must be admitted, as if the writer, though he did not (p. 170) think of the cities of the Kikkdr as submerged, neverthe- less pictured the Dead Sea as non-existent at this time. Cf. Gunkel, p. 159 f. 164 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiii. 14-18 Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look J from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward : 15 for all the land which thou sccst, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. 16 And I wiU make thy seed as the dust of the earth : so that if a man can number tlie dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it ; for unto thee will I give it. 18 And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the ^oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. 1 Or, terebintlis promises previously given (xii. 2, 7), and is encouraged (v. 17) to move about freely in the country destined to become ultimately the possession of his descendants. In Gal. iii. 16 this passage, — or the similar one, xvii. 8, — is referred to by St Paul as shewing that the promises given to Abram (the ' land ' being interpreted in a spiritual sense) were fulfilled in Christ. On the argument of the apostle (in which ' seeds ' is shewn by post-Bibl. Jewish usage to signify not contemporary, but successive generations), see the present writer's note in the Expositor, Jan. 1889, p. 18 ff. 16. as the dust of the earth. So xxviii. 14. Cf. the comparison to the stars, xv. 5, xxii. 17, xxvi. 4, and to the sand, xxii. 17, xxxii. 12. 18. Abram now moves southwards, as far as Hebron, on the high- ground (or *hill country') of Judah (Jos. xv. 48 — 60, — Hebron is 3040 ft. above the Medit. Sea), 19 miles SSW. of Jerusalem. the terebinths (xii. 6) of Mamre. So xviii. 1 (J) ; and xiv. 13 (where, as in xiv. 24, Mamre appears as the name of a local sheikh or chief, the owner of the terebinths): 'Mamre' also occurs (in P) in descriptions of the cave of Machpelah, which is said to be * in front of Mamre,' xxiii. 17, 19 (where Mamre is identified with Hebron), xxv. 9, xlix. 30, 1. 13. The site has not been identified; though if the present mosque (p. 228) is really built over the cave of Machpelah, and if ' in front of has its usual topographical sense of 'East of,' it will have been not far W. of the present mosque. From Josephus' time (see BJ. IV. 9. 7) to the present day, terebinths or oaks, called by the name of Abraham, have been shewn at different spots near Hebron (see a view of the present ' Oak of Abraham ' in L. and B. i. 283) ; but none has any real claim to mark the authentic site of the ancient * Mamre ' (see further particulars in the writer's art. Mamre in DB.y. 1 Sozomen [HE. ii. 4), in speaking of the 'Abraham's Oak' of Constantine's time (two miles N. of Hebron), adds that it was regarded as 8ac:-ed, sacrifices being offered beside it, and libations and other offerings being cast i ito a well close by, until these observances were suppressed by Constantino as sup. 3rstitious. Cf. Eus. Vita Const, ni. 63. THE BOOK OF GENESIS 155 in Heh^on. Afterwards an important city of Judah : according to Jos. XV. 13 f. taken by Caleb; and for 7 J years the seat of David's kingdom (2 S. ii. 1 — 4, v. 1 — 5): 2 S. xv. 7, 12, also, shew that it was the seat of a sanctuary. It is now a ' long stone town,' stretching from NW. to SE. 'on the W. slope of a bare terraced hill.' Its modern name is el-Halil, 'the friend,' abbreviated from 'the town of the friend of God,' the name (see Is. xli. 8 ; 2 Ch. xx. 7 ; Jas. ii. 23) by which Abraham is known among Mohammedans (Kor. iv. 124). Cf. on xxiii. 2. *By thus separating from Abram, and voluntarily quitting Canaan, Lot resigns his claim to it, and the later territorial relations of Moab and Amnion (xix. 30 — 38), and Israel, are prefigured. At the same time, by the departure of Lot, Abram becomes the central figure of the following narrative. The incident is, further, narrated in such a way as to aflford a fresh illustration of Abram's spiritual greatness, in his self-denying and peace-loving disposition, and at the same time of God's providential care for him ' (Dillm.). Chapter XIV. Expedition of CJiedorla'omer and his allies against the cities of the Kihkar, Abram's rescue of Lot, The episode of Melchizedeh. Abram appears here in a new character, not merely as a patriarch having peaceful dealings with the natives of Palestine, but as a warrior, defeating with a handful of followers a combination of powerful kings from the East. The aim of the narrative is evidently to magnify Abram : he ' defeats kings, he is blessed by a king, he will not take from a king even as much as a shoe-latchet^' : he is, moreover, disinterested, independent, and highminded. The style and phraseology of the chapter shew that it does not belong to either J, E, or P, but that it is taken from some independent source (hence «S'aS'= special source) : it has some affinities with P, but they are not sufficiently marked to justify its being attributed to him: the general style and literary character of the narrative suggest, however, that it is not of earlier date than the age of Ezekiel and the exile (cf. p. xvi). The archaeological learning, implied in vv. (>, 7, if not also in vv. 1 — 3, 8, 9, recalls the antiquarian notices in Dt. ii. 10—12, 20 — 23, iii. 9, 11, 13^, 14. The peculiarities of the narrative, its contrast with the representations of J and E, and certain improbabilities which have been supposed to attach to it, have led many to treat it as unhistorical : this question will be better considered, after the chapter has been studied in detail, and the bearing of recent archaeological discovery upon it has been estimated. The following is, in briefs, the light which has been thrown by recent dis- coveries upon the names of the four kings from the East, mentioned in v. 1. ^ Contrast the very different spirit and motives, with which he receives presents in xii. 16. 2 See more fully, on some points, the writer's article in the Guardian, March 11, 1896. ise THE BOOK OF GENESIS 1. Amraphel, king of Shin'ar. Shin'ar, we already know (see on x. 10), is a Hebrew name of Babylonia. No name ^Amraphel' has been found as yet in the inscriptions ; but there is a reasonable probability that it is a corrupt representation of Hammurahiy the name of the 6th king of the first dynasty of Babylon, of which we have information^ Hammurabi, according to a nearly contemporary chronological register of part of this dynasty, recently dis- covered 2, reigned for 43 years,— according to Prof. Sayce^, b.c. 2376—2333*: as his own inscriptions testify, he was a powerful and successful ruler, who, by his skill in organizing and consolidating the resources of his country, and his victories over its rival, Elam, laid the foundation of its future greatness'. In one of his inscriptions he is called ^adda ['father,' i.e. ruler] of Martu' or the West Land, an expression commonly denoting Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, and implying, consequently, if it has the same meaning here, that he claimed to rule as far as the Mediterranean Sea (cf Masp. 11. 38 n.). 2. Arioch, king of Ellas ar. In all probability Eriaku (or Riaku), king of Larsa^ now Senkereh, about midway between Babylon and the mouth of the Euphrates, whose name is mentioned in many inscriptions, dating from his own time^, and who was contemporary with Hammurabi. His inscriptions shew that he was ruler not only of Larsa, but also of Nippur, Nisin, Ur (xi. 28), and Eridu (p. 52 n) ; so we must picture him as ruling over a small principality in S. Babylonia. Further, Eriaku is said to be the son of ' Kudurmabuk, add a of YamutbaF.' Kudurmabuk, now, is not a Babylonian, but an Elamitish name, — Elam being (x. 22) the mountainous region across the Tigris, E. of Babylonia; and Yamutbal is shewn by other notices to have been a province in the E. part of S. Babylonia, bordering on Elam, and at this time under Elamite dominion. It thus appears that at the time in question the Elamite power had obtained a footing in S. Babylonia : Kudurmabuk, we may suppose, ruled him- self in Yamutbal, and, supported by him, his son, Eriaku, maintained himself in Larsa and the surrounding parts of S. Babylonia. Eriaku's father, Kudur- 1 The 11 kings of this dynasty, with the lengths of their reigns {in all 311 years) are given on a tablet found in 1880 by Mr Pinches in the British Museum. The list may be seen in KB. 11. 286 ff., Maspero, 11. 27, BB. i. 226 (but the date here given for the dynasty has been since abandoned by Hommel : see note 4, below), or Sayce, Early Israel (1899), p. 281. 2 L. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, iii. (translations), 1900, pp. Ivi. — Ixxi., 212 — 253: cf. Pinches, OT. in the light of the records dc. 211 ff. 3 Early Israel, p. 281. 4 The date b.c. depends in part upon statements made by later kings : as these are not in all cases perfectly consistent, and the correctness of some of the figures is on independent grounds open to question, other scholars arrive at somewhat different dates for Hammurabi, as 2342—2288 (Bogers), 2287—2232 (Maspero), c. 2200 (King), 2130—2087 (Hommel, Exp. Times, x. (1899), 211). See the discussion of the subject in Eogers, Hist, of Bab. and Ass. (1900), i. 313 — 348. ^ See particulars of his reign in Maspero, 11. 39 — 44, or the Introd. to King, op. cit. He constructed among other things a system of canals in Babylonia. Recently also a very interesting code of laws promulgated by him, resembling in some respects the civil and criminal legislation of Ex. xxi. — xxiii., has been discovered: see Johns, The oldest Code of Laws in the world (1903). 6 KB. III. 1, p. 93 ff. The reading of the name has however been disputed, and most Assyriologists prefer to read Rim-Sin (so in KB. : cf. Masp. 11. 29 n.). ^ See the inscription cited by the present writer in Hogarth's Authority and Archaeology, p. 40 (from KB. m. 1, p. 99); Pinches, p. 219. INTR0DUCTI3N TO CHAPTER XIV 167 mabuk, also receives the same title ^ adda of Martu,' which is given to Hammurabi ; he appears therefore to have claimed the same kind of authority over Syria and the West which was claimed by Hammurabi. Eventually, however, the Elamite rule in S. Babylonia was brought to an end, Hammurabi (as another inscription states) defeating both Eriaku and his father Kudurmabuk, and, in his 31st year, adding Yamutbal to his domain ^. It may be conjectured that it was after this victory, which secured Ham- murabi's supremacy over the whole of Babylonia, that he assumed the title of ^adda of Martu,' quoted above. 3. Chedorla^omer, king of Elam. Elam (x. 22) has been long known as an important country, with a very ancient civilization, repeatedly mentioned in the inscriptions ; Chedorla'omer also was clearly a genuine Elamite name, — for Kudur (meaning perhaps ' servant ') was known to occur in other proper names belonging to Elam, and La'omer, or, as it might be pronounced, Lagomer (lxx. Aoyofifiop), is the name of an Elamite deity, mentioned by Asshurbanipal {KB. ii. 205),— but until lately no independent mention of it had been found. In 1892, however, Mr T. G. Pinches ^ discovered in the British Museum three inscribed tablets, containing a name, which, though the pronunciation of the middle part is not certain, has been read conjecturally Kudurlach{'i)gumal, or (Hommel) Kudurdugmal, and so regarded as corresponding to the Heb. ChedorW diner. Other Assyriologists, however, hold that the facts do not justify this identification 3; so that, at best, it must be considered doubtful. The tablets are of very late date {c. 300 B.C.), and are written also in a florid, poetical style, so that they have not the value of contemporary records : at the same time it is not unreasonable to suppose that they are based upon more ancient materials, and preserve the memory of genuine historical facts. The tablets are much mutilated in parts, but their general gist is clear: they describe how Kudurlachgumal invaded Babylonia with his troops, plundering its cities and temples, and exercising sovereignty in Babylon itself. A couple of extracts may be quoted — (1) The gods... in their faithful counsel to Kudurlachgumal, king of Elam, said (?), 'Descend,' and the thing that unto them was good [they performed, and] he exercised sovereignty in Babylon, [and] placed [his throne ?] in Babylon, the city of the king of the gods, Marduk Dur-sir-ilani, the son of Eri-6kua, who [had carried off?] the spoil, sat [on] the throne of dominion. (2) Who is Kudurlachgu[mal], the maker of the evils ? He has assembled also the Umman-manda [see on v. 1, below] ; he has laid in ruins. If J however, Kudurlachgumal is rightly identified with Chedorla'omer, the Eri-^kua mentioned here can hardly be different from the Eriaku, king of Larsa, referred to above. The inscriptions do not explain the relative positions of Kudurlachgumal and Kudurmabuk, Eriaku's father; but it may be con- jectured that Kudurlachgumal (as king of Elam) was over-lord of Kudurmabuk, the adda of Yamutbal, and of his son Eriaku, king of Larsa. Kudurlach- gumal's victories in Babylonia will naturally have preceded Hammurabi's final 1 See King, p. Ixvii., and the ancient chronicle, p. 237, or Pinches, p. 212. 2 Tram. Vict. Inst. xxix. 45 ff. ; OT. in the light &c. 223 £f. ■■* King, Letters of Hammurabi, i. (1898), liv. — lvi. (see an abstract of his argument in the Addenda); Ball, p. 70 j Zimmern, KAT.^ 486. 158 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiv. i, , and successful effort to shake off the Elamite supremacy, and bring to an end the kingdom of Eriaku. The expedition narrated in the present chapter, if historical, must also be assigned to the same period : Kudurlachgumal, it must be assumed, in virtue of the supremacy exercised by him over Babylonia, obliged Hammurabi to take part vk'ith him in his campaign^ 4. Tidied, king of Goiim. A ' Tudchula, son of Gazza/ is mentioned in one of the three inscriptions found by Mr Pinches, as spoiling and plundering ; the mutilated condition of the tablet does not permit anything more definite to bo said of him 2. XIV. 1 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king , of Shinar, Arioch king of EUasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of ^ Goiim, 2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of 1 Or, nations 1 — 4. The five kings of the cities of the Kikkdr (xiii. 10) revolt against Chedorla'omer. 1. On the kings mentioned in this verse, see the Introd. above. Goiim. The ordinary Heb. word for 'nations' (so AV.) ; as this, however, seems to yield no satisfactory sense, RV. understands the word as a proper name. No people Goiim is, however, otherwise known; and hence Sir H. Rawlinson's conjecture has been widely accepted, that Goiim is a corruption of Giitim, the Guti of the inscrip- tions, a people living E. of the Little Zab, corresponding to the E. part of the present Kurdistan. Professor Sayce, however, suggests that Goiim may be retained in its usual sense of * nations,' and understood of the Umman-manda, or ' hordes ' of northern peoples, who are men- tioned from time to time in the inscriptions as invading Assjrria, and who, on one of the tablets quoted above (p. 157), are also said to have been gathered together by Kudurlachgumal. 2. Of the kings named in this verse, nothing is known beyond what is stated in the present chapter. Bera' and Birsha' may be intended by the writer to suggest the meanings with evil (J^l?) and with wickedness (J'^'?.?), respectively. Shin' ah. For the name, Friedr. Delitzsch {Paradies, 294) compares SanihUy the name of an Ammonite king mentioned by Tiglath- pileser III. {KAT.' p. 257). 1 Chedorla'omer is evidently the leader of the expedition in Gen. xiv. {vv. 4, 5). 2 Mr King {I.e. p. liii.), and Mr Ball (p. 70) question also the identifications of Eri-Skua, and Tudchula: in particular, Mr King observes, neither Eri-ekua nor Tudchula is in the inscriptions styled 'king.' See also KAT.^ 367. The mention of Chedorla'omer ('Kudur-luggamar,' 'Kudur-Laghgharaar') quoted by Hommel, AHT. 173—180 (cf. 165, 195), and Sayce, EHH. pp. 12 w., 27, ia admitted to rest upon a false reading of Dr Scheil's (see Sayce, in the Exp. Times, Mar. 1899, p. 267, Ball, p. 68; and more fully King, I.e. p. xxv. ff.): the reading Kudur-Laghghamar, in Sayce, EHH. 26—8, falls through on the same ground. In Hommel's treatment of Gen. xiv. in AHT. p. 147 ff., there is much that is very arbitrary and hypothetical. XIV. .-5] THE BOOK OF GEN7^]SIS 169 Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela SS (the same is Zoar). 3 All these ^joined together in the vale of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, ^ Or, joined themselves together against Admah and Zeboiim are mentioned also in x. 19, and (as destroyed, like Sodom and Gomorrah) Dt. xxix. 23, Hos. xi, 8. Bela'. The name is found only here and v. 8\ The five cities here mentioned are in Wisd. x. 6 called the * Pentapolis ' : they were situated, in all probability, at the extreme S. end of the Dead Sea (see p. 170 f ). 3. All these (the kings mentioned in v. 1) Joined together in. More exactly, joined together (and came) unto, i.e. came as allies unto. the vale of Siddim. Mentioned only in this chapter. It is identi- fied here with the Dead Sea, — a statement which can be correct, only if the reference is to the southern part of the Sea, which is very much shallower than the northern part, and where in Abram's time there ma^/ have been dry land (cf pp. 169, 171). the Salt Sea. One of the Biblical names of what we know as the Dead Sea, so called on account of its excessive saltness, — ordinary sea- water containing about 6 per cent, of salts, whereas the water of the Dead Sea contains more than four times as much (about 24*50 per cent.). Its saltness is due to the character of the soil about it : saline springs flow into it, and at its SW. end there is a ridge of cliffs, some 600 feet high, and five miles long, composed entirely of rock-salt (cf. p. 169). The name recurs Nu. xxxiv. 3, Dt. iii. 17, Jos. iii. 16, al. 4. rebelled. No doubt, by refusing the customary annual tribute. Cf 2 K. xviii. 7, xxiv. 1, 20. 5 — 9. The march of Chedorla'omer and his allies. It may be pre- sumed that, following the usual route from Babylonia to Palestine, they would march up along the Euphrates to Carchemish ; and, crossing the river there (cf on xii. 4), would turn southwards, and, passing Damascus, come down upon the places mentioned on the E. of Jordan. In describing these places the writer uses the names of prehistoric peoples who, according to tradition, had been their original inhabitants. the Eephaim. A giant aboriginal race, reputed to have once in- habited parts of Palestine, from whom certain place-names are derived, and whose descendants — or reputed descendants — are alluded to in historical times. Thus there was a *vale {'emek) of Rephaim ' SW. of 1 Hommel's attempted identification [AHT. 195—8) with a city (?) of uncertain site, mentioned in Ass. under the name Malkd, Margu, &g., has been shewn by Mr Johns {Expositor, Aug. 1898, pp. 158—60) to rest upon a series of misunder- standings. 160 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiv. 5, 6 and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in ^Shaveh-kiriathaim, i. 6 and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by ^ Or, the plain of Kiriathaim Jerusalem (Jos. xv. 8, al); in 2 S. xxi. 16, 18, 20, 22, various doughty warriors of Gath are described as * sons of the Kapha ' (' the Kapha' being meant collectively = 'the Rephaim') ; and in Dt. iii. 11, Og, king of Bashan — ^just the region here referred to (see the next note) — is stated to have been * of the remnant of the Rephaim.' * A shte7'otk-karnaim. Probably Tell ^Ashterd^ a hill, with remains of ancient walls, in the region of the ancient Bashan, about 21 m. E. ot the Sea of GaHlee. See further DB., or EncB.^ s.v. Ashtarotil Zuzim. Probably the same as the Zamzummimy according to the archaeological note Dt. ii. 20, 21, the Ammonite name of a giant people, the original inhabitants of the region NE. of the Dead Sea, afterwards occupied by the Ammonites. See further DB. s.v. in Ham. Not mentioned elsewhere, but conjectured (from the context) to have been the ancient name of the Ammonite capital Rabbath-Ammon (2 S. xii. 26, al.)j 25 m. NE. of the upper end of the Dead Sea. the Emim. According to Dt. ii. 10 f., the Moabite name of a giant people, the original inhabitants of the territory E. of the Dead Sea, afterwards occupied by the Moabites. Shaveh-hiriathaim, or the plain of Kiriathaim. Kiriathaim (Jos. xiii. 19, Jer. xlviii. 1, al.) is probably the modern Kureydt^ 10 m. N. of the Arnon and 10 m. E. of the Dead Sea. 6. the Horites. The original inhabitants of Seir (xxxvi. 8, and frequently), the mountainous country S. of the Dead Sea, and E. of the great gorge now called the Wddy el-Arahahy occupied afterwards by the Edomites. See Dt. ii. 12, 22, and on ch. xxxvi. ^El-paran. I.e. 'El (lxx. the terebinth : cf. on xii. 6) of Paran^ most probably identical with the place elsewhere called (with the fem. term.) 'Elath (AiXaO), or 'Eloth (Dt. ii. 8, 1 K. ix. 26, al.), the later well-known and important harbour at the head of the Gulf of 'Akabah (also, fiom the classical name of Elath, AtAaj/a, called the Aelanitic Gulf)\ The site of Par an (1 K. xi. 18) is unknown : it may be inferred from the present passage that it was somewhere near Elath. The wilderness will be naturally the one bordering on Elath, called else- where the * wilderness of Paran' (ch. xxi. 21, at.), the bare and elevated plateau of limestone, now called et-Tih, bounded on the E. by the N. end of the Gulf of 'Akabah and the *ArS,bah, and stretching out west- wards to the present isthmus of Suez. 1 Elath has always been celebrated for its date-palms (cf. Strabo, xvi. 776) ; and hence perhaps its name (for 'eZ, ^eldh, may in Sem. dialects other than Heb. have denoted, like the Aram. 'iZctn, a large tree generally: cf. Ex. xv. 27). XIV. 6, 7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 161 the wilderness. 7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat SS (the same is Kadesh), and smote all the ^country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Ilazazon-tamar. 1 Ueh. field. 7. returned. Better, turned back, making viz. the sharp angle necessary for one arriving at Elath from the NE. (perhaps down the steep Wddi/ el-Ithm, Rob. i. 174) in order to go on to Kadesh (70 m. W. of N. fi'om Elath). The route from Elath to Kadesh would involve an ascent of 1500 ft. up one of the wadys on the W. of the 'Arabah (Rob. I. 174 f., 186 f.), in order to reach the wilderness of Paran, on which Kadesh lay (Nu. xiii. 26). ^En-Mishpat. I.e. Spring of judgement] a sacred fountain, — its other name, Kadesh, signifies consecrated, sacred, — at which, as at an oracle or sanctuary, contending parties, it may be supposed, sought authoritative settlement of their disputes \ Kadesh. The site, for long entirely lost, was identified by the Rev. J. Rowlands, in 1842, with 'Ain-Kadish, a spring issuing forth in a wady, at the foot of a low range of limestone hills, about 50 m. S. of Beer-sheba, and forming a little oasis of shrubs and flowers in the midst of the arid stone-covered desert of et-Tih. The site was afterwards lost again, till it was re-discovered by Dr Trumbull in 1881 {Kadesh- harnea, 1884, pp. 238 — 75). There is an interesting account of *Ain- Kadish, with photographs and plan, in the Biblical World (Chicago), May, 1901, p. 327 IF. country. lAt. field: cf. xxxii. 3, xxxvi. 35, Jud. v. 4, Ru. i. 1. the * Amalekites. A predatory tribe, whose home was in and about (Nu. xiii. 29, xiv. 25, 43, 45) the desert et-Tih, just referred to, and who in general character very much resembled the modern Bedawin who range over the same region. They are described as opposing the Israelites, upon their attempting to enter the peninsula of Sinai JEx. xvii. 8 — 16) ; and were afterwards severely smitten by Saul ^1 S. XV.), though not exterminated (1 S. xxx.). Cf. on xxxvi. 12. the Amorites. See on x. 16. The term is used here, as in xv. 16, xlviii. 22, Nu. xiii. 29 &c., in its vaguer sense, of the pre-Isr. population of Canaan generally. in Hazazon-tamar. Identified in 2 Ch. xx. 2 with 'En-gedi, which is situated, in an almost inaccessible position, high up on the cliffs at the mouth (N. side) of the deep gorge of tbe Wddy Ghdr (also called the Wddy Kelb), which runs down into the Dead Sea, at about the middle of its W. shore. The roads from Jerusalem and Carmel (S. of Hebron) converge on the rough and desert table-land above this wady, at about a mile from the sea, and 2,000 ft. above it : the path thence * descends by zigzags, often at the steepest angle practicable for horses, 1 On sacred springs among the Semites, see Rel. Sem. 127 f., 151 — 168 (^ 134 f., 166 — 184). Springing, or, as the Hebrews termed it (cf. on xxvi. 19), 'living' water, suggested the presence of a living agent, or spirit. D. 11 162 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiv. s-io 8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king ofi Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar) ; and they set the battle in array against them in the vale of Siddim ; 9 against Cliedor- laomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphcl king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar ; four kings against the five. 10 Now the vale of Siddim was full of ^ slime pits ; ^ That is, bitumen pits, and is carried partly along ledges or shelves on the perpendicular face of the cliff, and then down the almost equally steep debris' (Rob. I. 503). At a point 1,340 ft. down; and 610 ft. above the sea, the 'spring' of *En-gedi bursts out from under a great boulder; and a jungle of canes and other vegetation marks the line along which the stream dashes down to the sea below. There are traces of the ancient village (Euseb. Onom. 254) a little below the spring. At the foot of the descent there is a small, shingly plain, with some scanty shrubs growing on it. There is no passage along the shore northwards, except by clambering or wading round promontories^; there is, however, a rough path to the S., followed by Tristram'^, and forming apparently the route along which the Moabites and Ammonites made an inroad into Judah in the days of Jehoshaphat (2 Oh. xx. 2)'. Knob, and Holz., however, thinking 'En-gedi to be too far to the N., would identify Hazazon-tamar with Thamara (? the Tamar of Ez. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28), a village on the road between Elath and Hebron (Onom. 210, cf 85), — now, perhaps (Rob. ii. 202*), Kv/rnuhy about 20 m. WSW. of the S. end of the Dead Sea. If this identifica- tion be correct, Chedorla'omer would certainly have reached his goal (v. 3) by an easier and more probable route*. 8 — 12. Defeat of the kings of the Pentapolis in the vale of Siddim, and the capture of Lot. 8, 9. The list of names is repeated, in order to impress the reader with the greatness of the occasion : it was a conflict of kings against kings. 10. full o/ bitumen wells. The petroleum" oozed out from holes in the ground, which proved fatal to the retreating army. Such wells are not known now in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea : but the 1 Tristram, Land of Israel, 252, 274, 278 ; Bob. i. 506. 2 Ibid. pp. 296—8, 310—16. * See further HG. 269—72 ; PEFM. ni. 384—6. ^ Though the identification rests upon a doubtful reading: see Lagarde's text of the Onom., and Expos. Times, xii. (1901), 288, 336. «5 'Tamar' however means & palm-tree i and Cheyne {EncB. 1977) asks, Could palms ever have grown at Kurnub? For palms at En-gedi, see Ecclus. xxiv. 14 {EncB. 1293, on the reading), and Jos. Ant. ix. 1. 2. *" Bitumen is petroleum (which arises from the decomposition of vegetable and animal matter under water), hardened by evaporation and oxidissation (Dawson, Egypt and Syria^ p. 117 f.). XIV. IO-I5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 163 and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, SS and they that remained fled to the mountain. 11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. 12 And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. 13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew : now he dwelt by the ^oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner ; and these were con- federate with Abram. 14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan. 15 And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, ^ Or, terebinths strata about it are rich in bituminous matter; the ancients state that masses of bitumen were often found floating upon it (whence it was called by Josephus and others the * Asphaltic Lake ') ; and after earth- quakes similar masses still appear. and they fell there. I.e. the people, not the kings (see v. 17). the mountain. The mountains of Moab, on the E. side of the sea. 13 — 16. Abram's rescue of Lot. 13. the Hebrew. See on xi. 14. the terebinths of Mamre. See xiii. 18. As was remarked in the note there, Mamre, here and «. 24, appears as the name of a person. Eshcol. In Nu. xiii. 23 f , the name of a wady, near Hebron; and said also there to have been so named from the * cluster* of grapes which the spies cut in it. 14. brother. I.e. kinsman : so 'o. 16. Cf. on xiii. 8. led forth. The Heb. word, meaning properly to empty (xiii. 35), is used of drawing out a sword from its sheath (Ex. xv. 9, al.) : so, if the text is sound, the meaning here seems to be drew out rapidly and in full numbers. born in his house. I.e. slaves born and brought up in his household, opp. to those who had been purchased (cf. xvii. 12, 13, 23, 27) ; and as such regarded as specially attached and trustworthy (Dillm.). Dan. In the far N. of Canaan, near the foot of Hermon, now Tell el-Kadi. At the time in question, it would however be called Laish (Josh. xix. 47), or Leshem (.Jud. xviii. 29) : it only received the name of Dan after its capture by a band of Danites, as narrated in Jud. xviii. (more briefly, Josh. xix. 47). 15. divided himself &c. I.e. divided his men into bands, which fell on the enemy by night from diflerent directions, and so surprised them. Cf. the same stratagem, Jud. vii. 16 ff., 1 S. xi. 11. Hobah. Prob. E[oba, a place about 50 m. N. of Damascus, and 11—2 164 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiv. 15-18 which is on the ^left hand of Damascus. 16 And he brought aSJI back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. 17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, at the vale of Shaveh (the same is the King's Vale). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: 1 Or, north consequently some 100 m. from Dan. For * left ' in the sense of North, see Ez. xvi. 46 ; and comp. the ' right-hand ' in the sense of the South, Ps. Ixxxix. 12, and frequently. The Hebrews, in fixing the quarters of the heavens, turned always to the East (cf on xv. 19, xvi. 12). 17. The king of Sodom comes out to welcome Abram back, and to receive the rescued captives. from the slaughter of. Lit. from smiting (as v. 15), — implying a defeat, and, it may be, a severe one (2 Sam. viii. 13), but not neces- sarily the actual ' slaughter ' of the persons named. the King's Vale (Pt?l?). Mentioned in 2 S. xviii. 18 (RV., unfortu- nately, * dale' for the same Heb.), as the place in which the childless Absalom reared a memorial for himself that his name might not be forgotten. Probably some spot near Jerusalem (according to Jos. Ant. VII. 10. 3, two stadia from it), but not identified. 18 — 20. The episode of Melchizedek. 18. Melchizedek. To the Hebrews the name doubtless suggested the meaning 'king of righteousness' (Heb. vii. 2), or *my king is righteousness ' : but Zedek was probably in fact the name of a Phoen. deity (ci. the n. pr. Adoni-zedek, 'my lord is Zedek,' Josh. x. 1 [cf. Adonijah, * my lord is Jah '1 ; and the Phoen. name Zedek-melek [cf. Elimelech], 'Zedek is king'); and it is quite possible that the name originally meant 'my king is Zedek.' Salem. Intended probably (Gunkel) as an archaic name for Jeru- salem, though it is found elsewhere in this sense only Ps. Ixxvi. 2, and though the Tel el-Amama letters shew that Jerusalem was already called Uru-salim, c. 1400 B.C. Melchizedek was no doubt a figure handed down by tradition ; and the intention of the passage seems to be to represent him as the forerunner and prototype of the Isr. monarchy, and Isr. priesthood, both of which had afterwards their principal seat at Jerusalem, and at the same time as a representative of the true religion, to whom Abram, Israel's most illustrious ancestor, already paid tithes. In Josh. x. 1 ff . a king of Jerusalem has the name Adoni-zedek, which is a compound similar in form to Mel- chizedek*. 1 The identification of Salem with Jerusalem is as old as Jos., Ant. i. 10, 2. Jerome's identification with the Salim of John iii. 23, now Salhn, 2 m. W. of the Jordan, and 6 m. S. of Scythopolis (Bethshean), has little to recommend it. XIV. i8-.o] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 166 and he was priest of ^God Most High. 19 And he blessed him, SS and said, Blessed be Abram of ^God Most High, ^ possessor of heaven and earth : 20 and blessed be ^God Most High, which 1 Heb. El Elyon, 2 Qr, maker bread and wine. As refreshment for Abram's men. Bread and water would have been sufficient (Dt. xxiii. 4) ; but Melchizedek wished to honour Abram. Nothing is said about a sacrifice (cf. Westcott, Hebrews^ p. 201 n.), _ _ ^ God Most^ High. Heb. 'El 'Ely on. 'El (' God ') was often distin- guished by different epithets, bringing out different aspects of the Divine nature, as in 'El Shaddai (xvii. 1), *God Everlasting' (xxi. 33), *God of Bethel' (xxxv. 7); and so the Canaanite has here his 'El 'Elydn\ The name may be actually that of an ancient Canaanite deity ^j but it may also have been merely chosen by the narrator as a name which on the one hand would not be unsuitable for a Canaanite to use, and on the other hand was capable of being referred to Jehovah', and so fell in with his evident desire to represent Melchizedek as a worshipper of the true God. To suppose, however, even upon the former alternative, that a knowledge of the true God really existed in the Canaanite city, would be against analogy : rather, in that case, 'El 'Elyon will have been a Canaanite deity, whom his worshippers recognized as the highest^ in opposition to other, inferior deities, and who could conseijuently be the more readily identified with Jehovah. 19, 20. Melchizedek blesses Abram in the name of his God ; and praises his God for Abram's successes. The blessing is semi-poetical in style, and unusual words are employed. 19. possessor. Better, producer, or, as we should probably say, author. The word means properly to acquire, — usually by buying ^ The attachment of special epithets to the names of deities was common in the ancient world: Zeus, Athene, &;c. appear often with local or other epithets; and among Semitic peoples we have, for instance, Baal of Pe'or, Baal of the covenant (Jud. viii. 33), and in inscriptions Baal of Lebanon, Baal of Heaven, &c. 2 Ace. to Philo of Byblus {ap. Euseb. Fraep. Ev. i. 10, §§ 11, 12) there was in the Phoen. theogony a certain 'EXiovv KaXo^i/xevos "T\pL<TTo$, 'father of heaven and earth,' who was slain in an encounter with wild beasts, and afterwards divinized. This euhemeristic legend may at least be taken as evidence that 'Elyon was a divine title among the Phoenicians ; but it does not, unfortunatel v, tell us anything definite about the antiquity of the title. In inscriptions of the Graeco-Koman period, chiefly from parts of Greece, the Bosporus, Asia Minor, Palmyra, and Phoenicia (cf. EncB. i. 70), the title debs (or Ze«>s) vrpiaTos frequently occurs; but Schiirer (who has collected and discussed the passages in an interesting study on •The Jews and the communities of cre^bixevoL debv ij\f/i(rTov in the Bosporus,' in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1897, p. 200 ff. ) has made it probable that these are mostly the expression of a monotheistic tendency prevalent at the time, and due, at least in part, to Jewish influence. It is thus doubtful whether even the Phoen. examples rest upon genuine native usage, though in view of the statement of Philo there is some presumption that this is the case (cf. Schiirer, p. 214 w.). 3 'Ely on is a common poet, title of Jehovah in the OT.; e.g. Nu. xxiv. 16, Ps. xviii. 13. 166 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xiv. .o-h hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him ^.S a tenth of all. 21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. 22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, ^God Most High, ^ possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread nor a shoelatchet nor aught that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich : 24 ^save only that which the young men have eaten, and the 1 Heb. El Elyon. 2 Qr, maker * Or, let there be nothing for me; only that dc. (Gen. XXV. 10, and often), but also in other ways : applied to God, it denotes Him as the author — here and v. 22 of nature, Dt. xxxii. 6 of Israel's national existence, Ps. cxxxix. 13 of the human frame, Pr. viii. 22 of the personified Wisdom [all]. 20. delivered. Found elsewhere only Hos. xi. 8, Pr. iv. 9, and to be restored in Is. Ixiv. 7 (see RVm.). a tenth of all. I.e. of all the booty (cf Heb. vii. 4). The custom of paying tithes to a priesthood or sanctuary was widely diffused in antiquity. The later Heb. law exacted tithe only on the produce of the soil, and on cattle : but among other nations it was exacted on many other sources of revenue ; among the Greeks, for instance, we read of tithe being paid on spoil taken in war, on gains made in trade, on confiscated property, &c., not less than on the annual crops. The temples in Babylonia, at least in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, were largely supported by eshru, or tithe (Sayce, Pair. Pal. 175). In his payment of tithe to the priest, not less than in his receiving the blessing from him, Abram becomes a pattern to the Israelites of a later day (cf on xxviii. 22). 21 — 24. Resumption of the narrative begun in v. 17, but inter- rupted by the episode described in vv. 18 — 20. Abram, as captor, would have a claim to the whole of the booty : the king of Sodom proposes a compromise. But Abram firmly declines to accept anything : he had not made war for his own aggrandisement, and he will lay him- self under no semblance of obligation to the king of Sodom. He only {v. 24) makes a reservation on behalf of his servants and allies. 22. Abram swears by Melchizedek's God, whom the narrator, — or, more probably, perhaps, a later glossator (for * Jehovah * is omitted in Lxx., Pesh.), — identifies here with Jehovah. / lift up (viz. now, at the present moment) mine hand. I.e. / swear. To ' lift up the hand ' is the gesture of a person taking an oath, { impl3dng that he appeals to God as a witness to the truth of his affirma- tion : so (with j^tJ'J for Dnn) Ex. vi. 8, Nu. xiv. 30, Ps. cvi. 26 RV. (from Ez. xx. 23 : misrendered in PBV.), al. (esp. Ez.). 23. shoelatchet. Sandal-thong, fig. of something insignificant. 24. Abram asks only that his servants may be allowed what they XIV. 24] THE BOOK OF GEKESIS 167 portion of the men which went with me ; Aner, Eshcol, and jS3 Mamre, let them take their portion. have eaten of the recovered provisions (w. 11, 16), and that his three allies may have the usual share of the spoil. save &c. Not at all ! (ht. Apart from me^ — deprecating : exactly so xli. 16) (give me) onfy that which &c. — It is mentioned here for the first time that Abram's three allies (v. 13) had accompanied him. On Melchizedek. In Ps. ex. (which is addressed to an Israelitish king) Melchizedek is referred to (' Thou art a priest for ever after the manner^ of Melchizedek,' i.e. priest and king alike) as a type, consecrated by antiquity, to which the ideal king of Israel, ruling upon the same spot, must conform : j Melchizedek was priest as well as king, and the ideal king of Israel must be priest as well as king likewise. In the NT. the writer of the Epistle to the . Hebrews quotes both Gen. xiv. and Ps. ex. in his proof of the priesthood of / Christ. In Heb. v. 6, 10, vi. 20, Ps. ex. 4 is quoted to shew that a priesthood ' such as that of Melchizedek is promised to the ideal king ; vii. 1 — 3 enumerates the points in which Melchizedek is typical of Christ (in his name and title, in bis priesthood being not represented as in any way dependent upon his priestly descent, or as being interrupted by his death) ; vii. 4 — 10 it is shewn (by refer- ence to Gen. xiv.) how Melchizedek was superior to both Abraham and Levi ; vii. 11 — 28 it is shewn (by reference to Ps. ex.) in what respects the priesthood which he typified (i.e. Christ's) was superior to the Levitical priesthood. In his treatment of the narrative in Gen. xiv. it is to be observed, as Bp Westcott * has pointed out {Hebrews^ p. 199 f.), that the writer of the Epistle adopts an,f ideal interpretation : he * interprets the Scriptural picture of Melchizedek, and' does not attempt to realize the historical person of Melchizedek'; he does notl imply that that was true of him literally as a hving man (e.g. ' without father, without mother,' having no * end of hfe ') which is suggested in the ideal inter- pretation which he gives: in other words it is 'the Biblical record of Melchizedek, and not Melchizedek himself,' which is taken by him as a type of Christ. — The bread and wine brought forth by Melchizedek for the refresh- ment of Abram and his men have, from Clem. Alex.^ onwards, been very / commonly regarded in the Christian Church as typical of the spiritual refresh- ' ment afforded by the Eucharist. No mention of Melchizedek has as yet been found in the inscriptions. The I Tel el-Amarna tablets mention Uru-salim (Jerusalem), and they include seven * letters from its governor, Abdi-hiba, to Amendphis IV.^ The general purport of these letters is to ask help from the Egyptian court : Abdi-hiba is beset by foes; he has been traduced to his Egyptian sovereign; and unless help is speedily forthcoming, the province under his rule will be lost to Egypt. In the course of his letters he uses an expression, which has been supposed by Prof. Sayce to illustrate the position assigned to Melchizedek in Gen. xiv., 'Tliey ^ Not • order,' as though an 'order' of priesthood were referred to. * Strom. TV. 25, § 161 eh tvttov evxapiffrlas. 8 Winckler, KB. v. 303—315 (Nos. 179—185); Ball, Light from the East, pp. 89—98 (No. 184 omitted). 168 THE BOOK OF GENESIS slander me before the king, my lord, (saying,) " Abdi-hiba has revolted against the king his lord ! " Behold, as for me, neither my father nor my mother set me in this place : the arm of the mighty king [Winckler, Ball : the mighty arm of the king] established me in [lit. caused me to enter] my father's house ; wherefore then should / do evil to the king my lord^?' This * mighty king,' now, is supposed by Prof. Sayce to be Abdi-hiba's god : and so it is inferred that he was both priest and king, like Melchizedek. But, to say iiotliing of the fact that testimony respecting Abdi-hiba, c. 1400 B.C., is of virtmdly no value respecting Melchizedek, whc (if Amraphel be Hammurabi) must have lived some 8 — 900 years previously, there is no justification whatever for the inference itself: the letters of Abdi-hiba do not afford the smallest ground for the supposition that he was either Spriest' or *king in Jerusalem ; and the context shews (as Jastrow, Ball, and other Assyriologists do not doubt) that the * mighty king' is simply Amendphis IV. himself; Abdi-hiba pleads that, as he owes his position not to his birth, but to the pleasure of the king, he is not likely to have rebelled against him. Another passage of the same letters is supposed by Prof. Sayce to contain the name of a god * Salim,' wlio is declared to be identical with the ' God Most High ' of Gen. xiv. ; but no other Assyriolo- gist recognizes a god Salim in the passage at all 2. The letters of Abdi-hiba are of great interest, as shewing that already in B.C. 1400 Jerusalem was a stronghold and an important place in Canaan : but they contain absolutely nothing which has any bearing on Melchizedek ; and everything which Prof. Sayce has inferred from them on the subject will be found, if examined, to be destitute of solid foundation 3. The Vale ofSiddim and the Dead Sea. The probable site of the Cities of the Kikkdr. It is impossible to discuss the question of the site of the Cities of the Plain without giving some account of the geological character of the Head Sea and of the surrounding strata. The Head Sea is about 46 miles long by 10 broad : it lies at the S. end of the deep trough or depression through which the Jordan flows, its surface being 1,292 ft. below the Mediterranean Sea, and some 3,900 ft. below Jerusalem. This deep trough, called in ancient times the *Ar^bah [Ht. l 1 RVm.], and now el-Ghor [i.e. ' the Hollow '], consists of a great 'fault' or fracture in the earth's crust, formed originally in the Tertiary period, when Palestine was first elevated above the sea: in the fissure a portion of the ocean was imprisoned, and so, in ages long before the appear- ance of man upon the earth, there was a great inland sea extending from Lake Huleh (usually identified with the waters of Merom) to the Head Sea, the deposits from which are still clearly visible in the mounds and ridges of grey marl found in many parts of the Jordan-valley, especially about Jericho, and 1 Monuments, p. 175; Patr. Pal. p. 72 f.; and elsewhere (cf. KHII. 28 f.). See Winckler, No. 179. 6—15, Ball, p. 89. The words 'Neither my father nor my mother' &c., recur also in Nos. 180. 25—28, and 181. 13—15 (Ball, p. 91 his). 2 The words in No. 183. 14, 15, rendered by Professor Sayce {Patr. Pal. 144) •the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the city of the temple of the god Ninip (whose) name (there is) Salim,' are rendered by Zimmern, Winckler, and BaJl (p. 93), *a city of the territory of Jerusalem, whose name is Beth-Ninip.' ^ See further an art. by the writer in the Guardian, Apr. 8, 1896, with the refer- ences. Mr Pinches substantially agrees {OT. in the light &c. 233—6, 239 f.). THE VALE OF SIDDIM AND THE DEAD SEA 169 iu the terraces or beaches of gravel rising one above another on the shores of the Dead Sea. In process of time, however, changes of climate took place ; the rain-fall decreased; and consequently the surface of this great lake fell, till ultimately all that remained of it was the Lake Huleh (7 ft. above the Medit. Sea), and the Lake of Gennesareth (682 ft. below it) in the N., and the Dead Sea in the S., with the Jordan connecting them. The Dead Sea itself consists further of two parts, the N. part (N. of the peninsula on the E., called el- LisdUj or the * Tongue') forming a great bowl, which in its deepest part reaches 1,300 ft. below the surface, but the S. part (S. of el-Lisdn\ being very much shallower, varying in fact from 12 to 3 ft. in depth, and being in places sometimes fordable. This S. part is sometimes for distinctness called the Lagoon. On the E. and W. sides the hills descend pretty steeply, occasionally to the water's edge, though usually there is a piece of shingly beach, of varying width, covered often with boulders, or pieces of drift-wood, and presenting a desolate appearance, except at the few spots where freshwater springs produce patches of grass and allow trees to grow \ Hot saline and sulphur springs discharge themselves into the sea at different points along the coast. At the SW. end there is the remarkable range of salt cliffs, the Jebel Usdum ('mountain of Sodom '), mentioned above (on v. 3) : this is of course a deposit dating from the time when the water was many hundred feet higher than it is at present, and there was the great inland sea spoken of above. At the North end of the Dead Sea there is first a shingly beach, slightly above the level of the water, then others, 30 and 100 feet above it, all of course marking former hmits of the Sea ; then, 300 ft. above the water, ' flat shelves of marl with steep slopes much worn by water action.' These marl beds were deposited originally by the ancient inland sea ; they extend up the Jordan-valley for about 4 miles, the entire soil as far N. as Jericho being a white-crusted salt mud, upon which no vegetation will grow. At the South end of the Sea there is a large flat, called es-Sehkha^ some 6 miles broad and 10 miles long, bounded for the N. half of its W. side by the Jebel Usdum, and consisting of ' fine sandy mud,' brought down by the wadys on the SW. and S., and mingled with drainings from the Jebel Usdum : it is entirely destitute of vegetation, and in its N. part so marshy as to be impassable with safety : there are indications that at times — perhaps annually — the sea over- flows it. At the South-east corner of the Sea, however, beyond the Wady Ghurundel, the character of the soil changes : the ground is higher ; an abundant supply of fresh water is provided by the Wady el-AhsS,, flowing down from the SE. ; and the consequence is that here there is a small oasis, some 6 miles long by 1—3 broad, covered with shrubs and verdure, and cultivable for wheat, &c. From the high and smooth sandstone range, rising up behind it, this oasis is called the Ghdr es-Safiyeh (' the Hollow of the smooth cliff'). There is also a similar wooded area to the N. of the Ghor es-Safiyeh, behind the promontory el-Lisan. The level of the water in the Sea naturally varies according to the season of ^ These are indicated very clearly in the map in Tristram's Land of Israel. ' The word * Sebkha' means salt and watery ground. 170 THE BOOK OF GENESIS I the year : as the lines of drift-wood on the shores shew, it is at times higher by 15 ft. or more than at others. During recent years, also, there appears to have been a general rise in the level of the water {PEFQuSt. 1902, pp. 159, 164, 167). The commonly-accepted site of the cities of the Kikkdr has been at the South end of the Dead Sea ; but Mr (afterwards Sir G.) Grove (in Smith's DB.) and other recent English travellers have adduced arguments tending to shew that they were at its North end. We have no space here to state the argu- ments on each side fully; and must refer for particulars to the art. Zoar in DB. It can hardly be doubted that the ordinary view is the right one. Especially itisnoticeablethatZo'ar, which is mentioned several times in the OT., is always spoken of as a Modbite town (Is. xv. 5, Jer. xlviii. 34), and not claimed as an Israelite, or (Josh. xiii. 15 — 21) Reubenite town, as it naturally would be if it lay at the N. end of the Sea : moreoveij there actually was, in post-Biblical times, at the S. end of the Dead Sea. a well-known place, Zoor or Zoara, which Josephus treats as a matter of course as identical with the Biblical Zo'ar {Ant. 1. 11. 4; BJ. IV. 8. 4), and which is repeatedly mentioned by mediaeval Arabic writers, under the names Zughar\ Zughar &c., as an important station on the caravan-route between Elath and Jericho. Wetzstein (in Delitzsch's Genesis^ 566 — 70) has made it probable that the site of this Zoara or Zughar was in the Ghdr es-Safiyeh, at the SE. comer of the Dead Sea (cf. on xix. 22). And Ezekiel (xvi 46) speaks of Sodom as being on the right (i.e. the South) of Jerusalem (Samaria being on iis> ' left,' or North), which also implies that he did not picture it at the N. end of the Sea (which is due E. of Jerusalem). Where, however, were the other cities of the Kikkdr and the 'Vale of Siddim'? It may be inferred from xix. 20 ff. that the other cities formed a group situated apart from Zo'ar, though at no great distance from it ; and the 'Vale of Siddim,' though it is nowhere either said or implied that the cities were in it, will hardly have been far from them. The old idea that the cities were submerged is of course out of the question : not only does geology shew that the Dead Sea existed many ages before the time of Abraham, but the Bible never alludes to them as submerged : on the contrary it speaks of their site as salt and barren soil (Dt. xxix. 23, Zeph. ii 9), or implies that it was an uninhabited desert region (Is. xiii. 19 f.; Jer. xlix. 18 = 1. 40)^ If, now, the words in v. 3, that is the Salt Sea, are by the writer of the chapter, and are to be taken in their most obvious sense, as implying that the plain on which the two armies met was what was afterwards the Dead Sea, they give an impossible site, and at once stamp the description of the battle as unhistorical; for, as has just been remarked, the Dead Sea existed not only in Abraham's time, but long before it. It is, however, possible (a) that the words quoted are an incorrect gloss by a later hand : in this case it is open to us to find another site for the ' Vale of Siddim,' and it might, for instance, have been the barren plain mentioned above (p. 169) at the N. end of the Dead Sea. Condor^, in support of this view, states that the Arab, sidd (properly barrier, 1 Cf. also Wisd. x. 7, Jos. BJ. iv. 8. 4 {KeKavfiinj irdcra). a Tent Work, p. 208; cf. 210, 219, 267. SITE OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN 171 obstruction^ dam^ from sadda^ to stop or close up [Gen. ii. 21 Saad.]) * is used in a peculiar sense by the Arabs of the Jordan-valley, as meaning " cliflfs " or banks of marl, such as exist along the S. edge of the plains of Jericho ' (above, p. 169). It is, however, precarious to explain a Heb. name of 2,500 or more years ago from a local Arabic usage of the present day; nor can the Vale of Siddim be reasonably supposed to have been separated from Zo'ar (which, as we have seen, there are cogent grounds for placing at the SB. corner of the Dead Sea) by the entire length of the Dead Sea, with practically no passage along either shore. But (6) it is also possible that even though the words, that is the Salt Sea, are from the hand of the author of the chapter, he may have meant them to refer only to the shallow S. part of the Dead Sea (see above). And it seems, in fact, to be at least geologically possible^,— moYQ cannot be said, — that what is now this part of the Dead Sea was, in the time of Abram, dry ground, and the morass es-Sebkha fertile soil (like the present Ghor es-Safiyeh, mentioned above); but that an earthquake took place, which caused a subsidence of the ground, and overthrew all the cities except Zo'ar; the Vale of Siddim was covered by the S. part of the Dead Sea, and the site of the four cities became the present saline morass, es-Sebkha. On the historical character of the narrative. This is a question which has been much debated during recent years. On the one hand, it has been alleged that the improbabilities attaching to the narrative are so great that it is impossible to regard it as historical : on the other hand, it has been main- tained, especially by Prof. Sayce, that * the historical character of Chedorla- 'omer's campaign has been amply vindicated' by the inscriptions^. Let us endeavour, as well as we can, to estimate what is adduced in support of each of these alternatives. The following are the principal improbabilities alleged. (1) If the object of the expedition was, as is stated, the reduction of the rebels in the Pentapolis, why did not the four kings, when they reached, for instance, the neighbourhood of Kerak, descend at once into the Vale of Siddim, — whether by the Wady Kerak (up which Tristram went, in the contrary direction, from the Ghor es-Safiyeh 3), or by one of the easier descents S. of the Wady el-Ahsa*, — instead of taking the circuitous and often difficult route past Edom to *Akabah, then turning back, and climbing up 1,500 ft. on to the * great and terrible wilder- ness,' et-Tih, to Kadesh, after this crossing the rough and mountainous country of southern and central Judah to *En-gedi, and finally, after making the steep and all but impracticable descent here (see on v. 7), turning back southwards, along the shore of the Dead Sea, to reach the Vale of Siddim"? Is this a probable, or indeed a possible route for an army with horses, chariots, and the ^ See Siddim, Vale of, in BB.\ and cf. Blanckenhorn's brochure, Bas Tote Meer, 1898, p. 41 f. 2 Monuments, p. 171 ; and often to the same effect elsewhere. 3 Land of Moah, p. 55 ff. * Wetzstein in Delitzsch, Genesis^ p. 566 top. ^ If the cities were at the N. end of the Sea, the route would be more circuitous, and at least equally difficult, on account of the route from En-gedi, — whether inland, over a succession of steep wadys (Bob. i. 526 — 32), or along the shore, by wading or clambering round promontories (above, p. 162). 172 THE BOOK OF GENESIS usual impedimenta^ which may be reasonably supposed to have formed part of it? (2) The names in v. 13 are suspicious: Harare and Eshcol are elsewhere the names oi places (see the notes). (3) How could 318 men, — and the number is expressly fixed, — attack and rout an entire army, recovering all the spoil they had taken, and pursuing it moreover over one of the S. spurs of Hermon, for some 100 miles, to Hobah? (4) If v. 3 is to be taken in the plain sense of the words, the narrative must be unhistorical ; for the Dead Sea, it is certain, existed ages before Abraham. In these objections we are dealing to a certain extent with unknown magni- tudes. They certainly constitute improbabilities ; whether they are sufficient to stamp the expedition as impossible is more than we can say. As regards (1), the route taken by Chedorla*omer, though not the most obvious one, may have been dictated by motives which are not mentioned : whether it was impossible for an army can hardly be determined by one who has not traversed personally the regions in question : it may, however, be remembered that the Assyrian kings often speak of leading their armies into difficult and impassable moun- tainous countries (e.g. KB. i. 61, 77, 81) ; and Chedorla'omer might have left his chariots at the top of the descent of En-gedi, and taken only his foot- soldiers down into the plaint As regards (3), it must be allowed that the narrative, as it stands, contains elements which are not credible. It is, however, a serious mistake to imagine that we have, either here or else- where in Genesis, the report of an eye-witness : the account, if it rests really upon a basis of fact, will have been handed down by tradition ; and tradition, as is its wont, may have modified the original account, and exaggerated, or distorted, some of its particulars : so that what is now represented as having been a defeat of the four kings by Abram, and a long pursuit, may have been in reality nothing more than a surprise of their rear- guard, with a recovery of the captives and some of the spoil. And of course other details in the narrative as well may have been modified in the course of oral transmission. The case is one in which, in spite of improbabilities attach- ing to details, the outline of the narrative may still be historical. As regards (4), see the note ad loc, and the remarks above, p. 170 f. On the other hand, monumental evidence that the narrative is historical is at present [July, 1903] entirely lacking. The terms in which Prof. Sayce and others have spoken of it are altogether unwarranted by the facts 2. It is not difficult to sum up what the monuments have taught us respecting Gen. xiv. Of the four kings mentioned in v. 1, who were previously but mere names, they have, we may reasonably hold, brought two, Amraphel and Arioch^, into the light of history, and have told us many interesting particulars about tliem. In three late inscriptions (3 cent. B.C.), mention is also made of a king who is perhaps identical with Chedorla'omer, and possibly of Tid'al as well : the ' Eri-ekua' of these inscriptions may also be the * Eriaku of Larsa' of the older inscriptions (i.e. the Arioch of Gen. xiv. 1). The older inscriptions shew that 1 If Hazazon-tamar be Kurnub (on v. 7), the difficulties connected with *En-gedi would disappear; for from Kurnub there would be a direct descent to the S. end of the Dead Sea by the Wady Muhauwat (see G. A. Smith's large map). 2 See the excellent criticism of G. B. *Gray, Expositor, May, 1898, pp. 342 ff. * If at least the name Eriaku is correctly read: see p. 156 n. 6. THE EXPEDITION OF CHEDORLA'OMER 173 Amraphel and Arioch were contemporary, and that they reigned over the countries assigned to them in Gen. xiv.; the three late inscriptions shew also that Kudurlachgumal (if we may so read the name) was king of Elam, and {if Eri-ekua=Eriaku) that he was also a contemporary of Arioch and Amraphel. These facts may be taken as evidence that at least the names * Amraphel' and ' Arioch/ possiUy also * Chedorla'omer/ and * Tid'al,' were derived by the narrator from some trustworthy source, in which, further, they may have been mentioned together. In addition to this, the monuments bear witness to the fact that several rulers of Babylonia, as well as one Elamite ruler (p. 157), claimed authority over the * West land,' and that Sargon of Agad^ {c. 3800 b.c.) actually subjugated 'the land of Amurri' (the Amorites) on the N. of Canaan ^ : they have shewn consequently that an invasion of Palestine and neighbouring countries on the part of a ruler from the far East was, in the abstract, within the military possibilities of the age. They have not shewn more than this. They make no mention of the particular expedition into Canaan, which forms the principal subject of Gen. xiv.; and they name neither Abraham, nor Melchizedek, nor any one of the five Canaanite kings {v. 2) against whom the expedition was directed. Obviously, the monuments cannot * corroborate ' the account of an expedition which they do not mention, or even by implication presuppose. The improbabilities mentioned above may naturally be estimated differently by different minds ; but, whatever their weight, they are not neutralized by the inscriptions at present known 2. The campaign described in Gen. xiv., though particular details are improbable, may in outline be historical : but the evidence that it was so is for the present confined to that which is supplied by the Biblical narrative itself^. Chapters XV.— XXIL The trials of AbrarrCs faith. ' Hitherto Abram has been the recipient of promises and blessings ; and all seems ready for the moment when he may be installed as the head of a new covenant, and receive the promised seed. But now various delays, hindrances, and disappointments intervene, in overcoming which evidence is given both of the strength of his faith, and also of the providence continually watching over ^ 1 'In the year in which Sargon conquered the land of the Amurri' is the date given on 'a contemporary contract-tablet : see Hogarth's Auih. and Arch. p. 40. 2 It ought also not to be forgotten that the site of the Vale of Siddim is only a possible one: we do not know that the S. part of the Dead Sea was dry land in Abraham's time. * The view of those who regard the narrative as a comparatively late *Midrash' (see on this term LOT. 497, ed. 7, 529) is perhaps best exhibited by Gunkel, esp. p. 262 ff. Upon this view (stated briefly), it springs from an age which loved to represent Jews as playing an important part in relation to the empires of the world, and which produced somewhat later the narratives of Esther, Daniel, and Judith : the names of the four kings in v. 1, if not also their expedition into Canaan, and the figure of Melchizedek as well, embody historical reminiscences ; but the narrative as a whole is intended simply as an imaginative picture of Abram's greatness, — his surprising success in a military enterprise, the spirit of independ- ence and high moral feeling by which he was actuated, and the respect which he commanded among the princes of Palestine. 174 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xv. i, 2 him. Thus the following narratives exhibit, under diflFerent aspects, Abram's mural education and probation, until at last the perfect man of God, the hero of faith, who is to serve as a pattern to all coming generations, stands fully portrayed before us. The point about which Abram's trials mainly centre is the attainment and possession of a bodily heir, who should found the covenant- race. The very first section, eh. xv., introduces the theme' (adapted in substance from Dillm.). Chapter XV. The promise of an heir to Ahram, The promises of xii. 2, xiii. 15 f., being in appearance futile, on acount of Abram's childlessness, he here receives two special assurances {vv. 1 — 6, 7 — 21) that he will have a son and heir, and that a seed sprung from him will inherit the promised land. The narrative shews indications of not being homo- geneous ; and though the criteria are (in parts) indecisive, so that no generally- accepted analysis has been effected, it can hardly be doubted that we have here for the first time traces of the source, parallel, and often very similar, to J, called ' E,' which has been discussed in the Introd. p. xi. ff. Verses 6 — 11, 17, 18, it is generally agreed, belong to J. Perhaps, on the whole, the analysis shewn in the text may be adopted : most critics, however, are of opinion that tiv. 12 — 16, 19 — 21 are expansions due to the compiler of JE. XV. 1 After these things the word of the Lord came unto E Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield, ^and thy exceeding great reward. 2 And Abram said, O Lord 1 Or, thy reward shall be exceeding great XV. 1 — 6. The first assurance. 1. After these things. A loose formula of connexion : xxii. 1, 20, xxxix. 7, xl. 1, xlviii. 1. the word of Jehovah came unto. So v. 4, but not elsewhere in the Hex. It is an expression frequently used of a prophetic revelation (e.g. 2 S. vii. 4, and often in Jer., Ezek.) ; and its use here agrees with the representation in xx. 7 (where Abram is called a prophet). in a msion. A common form of prophetic intuition : Nu. xxiv. 4, 16 ; Is. xxi. 2, &c. Cf the writer's Joel and Amos, pp. 126, 200 f JF^ear not. The promise attaches to Abram's presumed state of anxiety with regard to the future. shield. Fig. of defence, as Dt. xxxiii. 29, and often in the Psalms (iii. 3, xviii. 2, 30, xxviii. 7, &c.). thy reward shall be exceeding great. The reward, viz., for obey- ing my call. 2. After such a promise, the thought of Abram's childlessness comes home to him with special force : hence his question here. XV. .-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 175 ^GoD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I ^go childless, and he that E shall be possessor of my house is ^Dammesek Eliezer? | 3 And j- Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4 And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying. This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. | 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and E said. Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to tell them : and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. | ^ Heb. Jehovah, as in other places where God is put in capitals. 2 Or, go hence * The Chaldee and Syriac have, Eliezer the Damascene. Lord Jehovah. So v. 8 : elsewhere in Gen. — Sam. only Dt. iii. 24, ix. 26 ; Josh. vii. 7 ; Jud. vi. 22, xvi. 28 ; 2 S. vii. 18, 19, 20, 28, 29. Extremely common in Ezek., and not unfrequent in the other prophets. go hence (RVm.). To *go' in Heb. sometimes has the force of go away^ 'vanish (Job vii. 9), depart (from life) ; so e.g. Ps. xxxix. 13 (where, as here, the Heb. is simply go). Cf. the corresponding Arab. halaka, to perish. LXX. a^roXvo/xat: cf. Nu. xx. 29; Tob. iii. 6, 13; Luke ii. 29. and he &c. The Heb. is very peculiar : lit. ' and the son of the possession (= the possessor) of my house is Damm^sek (the usu. Heb. for Damascus) of Eliezer,' the meaning (if the text be sound) being that, Damascus being the home of his servant Eliezer, his property, if he died childless, would pass into the possession of that town. This, however, is a thought not very likely to be expressed : the word for ' possession,' also {mesheh, — supposed to be chosen for the sake of the assonance with Dammeseh), occurs only here, and is suspicious. There seems to be some corruption in the text. Targ., Syr. (see RVm.), * Eliezer the Damascene,' is some improvement, but the corruption which it presup- poses {>p^m7\ nTy^!?8<, or \>y^ry^'o nty^N, changed into niy^^x p^^i) is not very probable. 3.^ The verse repeats the substance of v. 2, and reads as though it were introduced from a parallel narrative. one horn in my house. Lit. a son of my house (Ec. ii. 7 Heb.); i.e. a member of my household, a dependent. The Heb. is different from that in xiv. 14. Lot, it will be remembered, has separated him- self from Abram (ch. xiii.). 4. The reply to the complaint of v. 3. he that shall come forth &c. Cf. 2 S. vii. 12, xvi. 11. 5. The starry sky at night is at once a striking evidence of the Divine power (Is. xl. 26, Ps. viii. 3), and an effective example of what is (practically) innumerable (cf. xxii. 17, xxvi. 4). tell (twice). An archaism for count, as 1 K. viii. 5, 2 K. xii. 10, Ps. xxii. 17, xlviii. 12, Ivi. 8, cxlvii. 4. Cf Milton, L Allegro, 'And every shepherd tells his tale,' &c. (see Jer. xxxiii. 13). 176 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xv.6-ii 6 And he believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for J righteousness. 7 And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 8 And he said, O Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said unto him. Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10 And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other : but the birds divided he not. 11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcases, S^ 6. Abram's faith. Against appearances he trusts in God, sur- ^ renders himself to Him. in full confidence that He will fulfil His promise. Cf. Ex. xiv. 31 , Nu. xiv. 11, xx. 12. and he counted it (i.e. his trust) to him for righteousness. For Abram there was no *law': hence nis 'righteousness* was not that which consisted in obe3dng it (Dt. vi. 25, xxiv. 13), but was devotion to, and trust in, God, of a more general kind. For the expression, cf. Ps. cvi. 31 ; and on the passage itself, see esp. Rom. iv. 3, 9, 22 (where it is quoted by S. Paul in his proof that righteousness is dependent not on the works of the law, but on faith). Gal. iii. 6, Jas. ii. 23 : cf. also the quotation in 1 Mace. ii. 52. On quotations of the passage in Philo, and also, more generally, on the importance attached to the faith of Abraham in the Rabbinical Schools, see the Excursus in Lightfoot's Galatians^^, p. 158 fF. ; and Sanday-Headlam, Romans, pp. 101, 104; Thackeray, St Paul and Contemp. Jewish Thought (1900), p. 91 ff. 7 — 19. The second assurance, sealed solemnly by a covenant. That the occasion is distinct from the one narrated in lov. 1 — 6 appears from the fact that that was at night {v. 5), while this was shortly before sunset (v. 17). 7. See xi. 28, xii. 7, xiii. 15. 8. In reply, Abram asks for some sign or proof by which he may know that he mil inherit it. Cf. Jud. vi. 17 ; 2 K. xx. 8. 9—11, 17. The promise is ratified by a covenant, in which the con- ^v tracting parties pass between the divided victims, each thereby symbol- "^r izing that, in case he breaks the terms agreed to, he is willing to be parted asunder in like manner. Cf. the common Heb. expression 'to cut a covenant' (like opKia re/Ai/ctv, and 'foedus icere'), v. 18, al, ; Il'jn. 298—301, and the impressive formula in Liv. i. 24. The ceremony described is not a sacrifice (for there is no altar), but a sacred and solemn act. Nevertheless it is a kind of type of the later sacrificial usage : for the animals prescribed are all such as are allowed in the later Lev. law, the birds not being divided (v. 10) on the analogy of Lev. i. 17. 9. of three years old. Perhaps (Dillm.) because three was a sacred number, usual in solemn affirmations, imprecations, &c. 11. The birds of prej^, threatening to interrupt the conclusion of XV.1I-I6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 177 and Abram drove them away. 12 And when the sun was going j down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram ; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them ; and they shall afflict them four hundred years ; 14 and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge : and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the the covenant, would be an omen of evil, as when (Ewald, Hist. i. 330) the harpies sought to carry off the sacrifices {^Aen. iii. 225 ff.), and might foreshadow the efforts which the Egyptians, for instance, would make with the object of frustrating the Divine plan : but Abram, by driving them away, signified how all such efforts would prove abortive. 12 — 16. A parenthesis, or digression (-v. 17 being the real sequel to w. 9 — 11), containing an interpretation of the evil omen of v. 11. Though the promise will eventually be fulfilled, hindrances will inter- vene which will long postpone its fulfilment; and a presentiment to this effect reaches Abram in a vision. 12. a deep sleep. As ii. 21. Mentioned here, as in Job xxxiii. 15, as a state in which one may become conscious of a vision. an horror, a great darkness. Preparatory to the dark announce- ment of V. 13. 13. a stranger. Cf. Ex. xxii. 21. Sojourner would be a better rendering, a temporary resident being what is intended. The cognate verb is rendered sojourn, xlvii. 4, Dt. xxvi. 5, Is. Hi. 4 (all of Israel in Egypt), and generally. 13, 14. The allusions to the bondage in Egypt, to the plagues by which it was terminated ('will I judge'), and to the Exodus, are obvious. See e.g. Ex. i. 11, 12, xii. 35 f., 38. 13. four hundred years. The figure agrees substantially with that given by P (430 years) in Ex. xii. 40 (RV.), 41, for the sojourn in Egypt. Cf. «. 16 ; and see further the Introd. p. xxix f. 15. But no misfortune will touch Abram himself. go to thy fathers. I.e. join them in Sheol (see on xxxvii. 35 ; and cf. xlvii. 30). a good old age. Ch. xxv. 8 (P) ; Jud. viii. 32 ; 1 Ch. xxix. 28 f. 16. in the fourth generation. This statement agrees with the pas- sages (P) which assign only four generations from Joseph to Moses (Ex. vi. 16 — 20, Nu. xxvi. 5 — 9), or five to Joshua (Jos. vii. 1). If the v. is by the same writer as v. 13, he must, in accordance with the traditional ages of the patriarchs, have reckoned a * generation ' at 100 years. they shall return hither. Viz. to Canaan : the measure of the Amorite's iniquity being not yet full (cf. 1 Th. ii. 16), he cannot for D. 12 178 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xv. 16-18 Amorite is not yet full. 17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces. 18 In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the the present be driven out. * Amorite,' as xiv. 7 (where see the note). On the moral corruption of the pre-Isr. population of Canaan, cf. xiii. 13, xviii. 20 ff., xix. 1 ff., 2 K. xxi. 11 ; and on the belief that it was the ground of their expulsion by Israel, Lev. xviii. 24 f., 28, XX. 22 ff., 1 K. xiv. 24, xxi. 26, 2 K. xvi. 3, xvii. 8, xxi. 2. 17. The sequel to u 11 : the sign by which the covenant is ratified. a smoking furnace (tannur). I.e. a portable earthenware stove, such as is used still in the East for baking bread, about 3 ft. high, of the shape of a truncated cone, and heated by the burning embers being placed in it at the bottom. See EncB. i. col. 605 (c) ; DB. i. 318^ ; Whitehouse, Primer of Heh. Antiquities, p. 73 (with illustration). The stove, with smoke and flames issuing from the top, symbolized Jehovah : by passing between the divided pieces, it signified the ratifi- cation on His part of the terms of the covenant. The ritual is no doubt that by which a solemn covenant was actually ratified in ancient Israel : comp. esp. Jer. xxxiv. 18 f. A covenant is a compact or agreement, concluded under solemn religious sanctions, and implying mutual undertakings and obligations. The covenant most often referred to in the OT. is that concluded between Jehovah and Israel at Sinai (Ex. xxiv.) : Jehovah promises that, if Israel observes its terms, He will bestow certain specified blessings (Ex. xxiii. 22 ff.). In references to the covenant, the stress lies, according to the context and purpose of the writer, either on the Divine promise (e.g. Dt. iv. 31), or the human obligation (e.g. Dt. iv. 23). Here the stress lies upon the former, the promise of the grant of Canaan to Abram's descendants. 18 — 21. The terms of the covenant, on Jehovah's part, i.e. the promise of the land. 18. the river of Egypt. This can he only the Nile, or, at least, the easternmost (Pelusiac) arm of it, which can also, it seems, only be meant by the ' Shihor in front of Egypt,' assigned in Josh. xiii. 3 (cf. 1 Ch. xiii. 5) as the SW. border of Israel's territory. The usual SW. limit is the * Wady (nahal) of Egypt ' (Nu. xxxiv. 5, Jos. xv. 4, 47, 1 K. viii. 65 (= 2 Ch. vi'i. 8), Is. xxvii. 12), called by the Greeks the Rhinokorura, now the Wddy el-^Arish, 'which, with its deep water- course (only filled after heavy rains), starts from about the centre of the Sin. peninsula (near the Jebel et-Tih), and, after running N. and N"W., finally reaches the sea at the Egjrptian fort and town of el-Arish* {EncB. 1249), 45 m. SW. of Gaza. The Pelusiac mouth of the Nile is some 80 m. W. of the mouth of the Wady el-Arish : so (unless nahal should be read for n'^har) the present passage must, like Josh. xiii. 3 (late Deuteronomic), and 1 Ch. xiii. 5 [no || in Sam.], contain a hj^oer- bolical representation of the limits of Isr. territory in this direction. XV. i8-.i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 179 great river, the river Euphrates : 19 the Kenite, and the J Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, 21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. the great river, the river Euphrates. So Dt. i. 7, Jos. i. 4. Cf. on xxxi. 21. The Euphrates, as the E. Hmit of Isr. territory, is an ideal limit, reached actually only once, in the palmy days of Solomon ^1 K. iv. 21 ; cf. Ps. Ixxx. 11), but promised also elsewhere (Ex. xxiii. 31, Dt. i. 7, xi. 24, Jos. i. 4 ; cf. Ps. Ixxxix. 25), and forming the basis of the ideal hopes, or pictures of the future, in Is. xxvii. 12, Zech. ix. 10, Ps. Ixxii. 8. 19 — 21. Such enumerations of Canaanite peoples, to be dispos- sessed by Israel, are very common in JE and Dt. (Ex. iii. 8, 17, xiii. 5, xxiii. 23, xxxiv. 11, Dt. vii. 1, xx. 17, Jos. iii. 10, ix. 1, xi. 3, xii. 8, xxiv. 11), but usually only 5 or 6, or at most 7 (Dt. vii. 1 : see the writer's note on this passage), are enumerated : here there are 10. 19. the Kenite and the Kenizzite, These seem intended to repre- sent the tribes of the Negeb (xii. 9). The Kenites Tin the S. of Judah : 1 S. xxvii. 10, XXX. 29) are associated with the Amalekites (cf. Nu. xxiv. 20, 21 f.), and were probably a branch of them ; but while the Amalekites were hostile to Israel, the Kenites were friendly (1 S. XV. 6). Their absorption in Judah seems to be what is alluded to in the present passage. The Kenizzites were a tribe of which a branch was settled in Edom (ch. xxxvi. 11), and a branch in Judah : for Caleb, a Kenizzite (Jos. xiv. 6, 14 ; cf. Jud. i. 13), is also the eponymous ancestor of an important Judahite clan (1 Ch. ii. 9 [read Caleb for Chelubai], 42 — 49). Like the Kenites, the Kenizzites were thus a tribe originally of foreign origin, but afterwards absorbed in IsraeP. the Kadmonite. Only here. The name means those of the front (or east); and probably, like the ^b'ne kedem* (see on xxtx. 1), denotes the inhabitants of some part of the Syrian desert, E. of Canaan. 20. the Hittite. It is hardly possible to say where the * Hittites * mentioned either here or in the similar lists (Ex. iii. 8, 17, &c.) were pictured by the authors of these lists as located. The reference cannot be to the gi-eat nation whose home was N. of Phoenicia and the Lebanon (see on x. 15) ; for this was never conquered by the Israelites. Tlie reference may have been originally to a branch settled within Isr. terri- tory, in the extreme N. of Canaan (see ibid.); but a belief seems gradually to have grown up, — though how far it corresponded to historical fact it is difficult to say, — that there were once Hittites in the more southerly * hill-country ' of Canaan (see Nu. xiii. 29, — J or E), and even in Hebron (see p. 228 ff.) ; and it is possible that this may be the view expressed in these enumerations. the Perizzite^ and the Rephaim. See on xiii. 7, and xiv. 5. 21. See on x. 16, 19. 1 See further Moore, Judges, pp. 30 f., 34 f.; Noldeke, EncB. s.v. Amalek, § 6, and Eenaz. 12—2 180 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xvi. i, « Chapter XVI. The birth of Ishmael. The narrative contained in this chapter describes the circumstances attending the birth of Ishmael, mentioning various facts connected with it such as would interest the Israelites of a later day. It is chiefly important, partly as marking a stage in Abram's probation, and partly as explaining the national characteristics of a group of tribes (xxv. 12 — 18) well known to the Hebrews, which, while related to them, nevertheless lived in separation from them, and had a strongly marked character of their own. Verses 1% 3, 15, 16, belong to P; the rest of the chapter belongs to J. XVI. 1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children : JP 1 and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. j 2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid ; it may be that I shall ^obtain children by her. And j" Heb. be huilded by her, XVI. 1 — 3. Sarai, being long barren, in accordance with the manners of the age (of. xxx. 3, 9 ; also xxii. 24, xxxvi. 12, Ex. xxi. 7, 8), gives Abram her female slave, Hagar, in the hope that she may obtain children through her, whom she may adopt, and reckon as her own. 1. an handmaid. I.e. a female slave : of. on xii. 16 (where the same word is rendered * maidservant'). Hagar was more particularly Sarai's own possession (of xxix. 24, 29). Comp. Lane, Mod. Egypt.^ I. 233 : ' Some wives have female slaves who are their own property, generally purchased for them, or presented to them, before their marriage. These cannot be the husband's concubines, without their mistress's permission, which is sometimes granted (as it was in the case | of Hagar) ; but very seldom.' an Egyptian. So v. 3 (P), xxi. 9 (E). Ishmael's wife was also an Egyptian (xxi. 21). Some connexion must have been recognized as existing between the Ishmaelite tribes and Egypt. Sir R. F. Burton j remarked upon the Egyptian physiognomy of some of the Bedawi clans of Sinai observable at the present day {DB. ii. 504^ n. §) \ 2. it may he that I shall be built up from her. So xxx. 3 ; the family being represented under the figure of a house (cf. Dt. xxv. 9 ; Ru. i. 11). 1 It is difficult to think that a N. Arabian 'land of Musri' (see EncB. MIzraim, §2&) can be meant {cf. on this subject Budge, Hist, of Egypt, 1902, vi. pp. x — xxx). The name 'Hagar' may stand in some relation to that of the nomadic tribe of Hagarites (or Hagarenes), on the E. of Gilead, 1 Ch, v. 10, xxvii. 31; Ps. Ixxxiii. 6 (of. EneB. Hagab, § 2). In Arabic, it may be added, the corresponding verb signifies tojlee (cf. Hejra, of the era marked by the 'flight' of Mohammed). XVI. .-8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 181 Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. | 3 And Sarai Abram*s J P wife took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. | 4 And he went in unto Hagar, and J she conceived : and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 6 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee : I gave my handmaid into thy bosom ; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes : the Lord judge between me and thee. 6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand ; do to her that which is good in thine eyes. And Sarai dealt hardly with her, and she fled from her face. 7 And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's 3. The verse is parallel in substance to v. 2: the regard to chronology shewn in it is in P's manner (cf. 'c. 16, xvii. 1 &c.). 4—6. The flight of Hagar. 4. And he went in &c. The direct continuation of v. 2 end. despised. Cf 1 S. i. 6f (where 'rival' me&ns fellow-wife). Barren- ness is still viewed with contempt in the East. Cf Lane, I.e. p. 232 : if a man's chief wife be barren, and an inferior (either wife or slave) bear him a child, it commonly results that the latter woman becomes his favourite, and that the chief wife or mistress is * despised in her eyes.' 6. Sarai shews herself both imperious and unreasoning : she had herself persuaded Abram to take Hagar, but because he does not im- mediately interfere to stop Hagar's reproaches, she passionately and unjustly lays the blame for them upon him. Ml/ wrong. I.e. the wrong done to me by Hagar : may the re- sponsibility for it rest upon thee ! judge. And, it is implied, punish thee for tolerating Hagar, and help me to my right. Cf Jud. xi. 27 ; 1 S. xxiv. 12, 15. 6. Abram replies that Hagar is Sarai's slave, not his; and she must deal with her. dealt hardly; viz. by treating her harshly, and imposing heavy work upon her. It is the word commonly rendered afflict (e.g. xv. 13). 7 — 12. Hagar is met by the angel and reassured : ner son will become the ancestor of a great people. The narrative, like xxi. 16 — 19, illustrates beautifully the Divine regard for the forlorn and desolate soul. 7. She fled naturally in the direction of her home. tlis fountain &c. Doubtless some well-known watering-place on the caravan-route leading from Hebron into Eg3rpt. Cf on v. 14. Shur, A name of doubtful origin and meaning (see DB. Shur), 182 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xvi. 8-ia handmaid, whence earnest thou ? and whither goest thou ? And J she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 9 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 10 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will greatly multiply thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 11 And the angel of the Lord said unto her. Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son ; and thou shalt call his name ^Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he shall be as a wild -ass among men: his hand shall he against every man, and every man's hand against him ; and he shall dwell ^in the presence of all 1 That is, God heareth, * Or, over against Or, to the east of but certainly denoting the region bordering upon Egypt on the NE., along what is now the Isthmus of Suez. It is mentioned also ch. xx. 1, XXV. 18 (where it is said to be *in front of Bgypt,' i.e. East of it : so 1 S. XV. 7), Ex. XV. 22 (where the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea enter the * wilderness of Shur '), and 1 S. xxvii. 8. 9 — 12. The angel addresses to her three words : he (1) bids her return to her mistress and * humble herself* under her bauds, v. 9 ; (2) encourages her to take this step, by the promise of a numerous seed, u 10 ; and (3) fixes in anticipation the name and character of her future son, vv. 11, 12. 11. Ishmael. I.e. God heareth, — or better, perhaps (Gray, Heh, Proper Names, p. 218), May God hear! thy affliction. In the Heb., cognate with the verb rendered * dealt hardly ' in v. 6. 12. he shall he a wild-ass of a man. The wild-ass is a wild, untameable animal, whose home is the open plain : see Job xxxix. 5 — 8 ; Hos. viii. 9 (where render, 'being alone for himself,' i.e. going his own way wilfulty). Ishmael (cf on ix. 25 — 7) is the impersonation of the { tribes reputed to be his descendants ; and the writer draws, in a few | touches, a true and characteristic description of the Bedawin, — the men of the hadw, or *open plain,' — as we should now term them, then, as stiU, the free and independent sons of the desert, owning no authority save that of their own chief, reckless of life, treacherous towards strangers, ever ready for war or pillage'. in the face of (or in front of) all his brethren shall he dwell. The expression used means commonly in Heb. on the East of (as 1 K. xi. 7: cf. on xiii. 18, xiv. 15); and it is true that, speaking generally, the home of the Ishmaelite tribes was on the E. of Israel 1 The Ishmaelites must not however be identified with the modern Bedawin: the Ishmaelites (see xxv. 12 — 16) consisted of 12 definite tribes ; and all that what is said above is intended to affirm is a general similarity in mode of life and character. XVI. 12-16] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 183 Ills brethren. 13 And she called the name of the Lord that spake J unto her, ^Thou art ^a God that seeth: for she said, Have I even here looked after him that seeth me? 14 Wherefore the well was called ^Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. | 15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called the name of P his son, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. 16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. 1 Or, Thou God seest me ^ Heb. El roi, that is, Ood of seeing, 3 That is, The well of the living one who seeth me. and Edom (see on xxv. 12 — 18). Dillm. al think, however, that hostility or defiance is intended: cf. the same Heb. in Job i. 11, vi. 28, xxi. 31. 13, 14. Explanation of the name of the place at which this happened. 13. a God of seeing. In accordance with what was said on xiv. 18, Jehovah is here distinguished under a particular attribute, and venerated specially as a God of * seeing,' i.e. as a God who sees all things and manifests His providence accordingly. EVm. (= AV.) is not a possible rendering of the existing (pointed") text. Save I even &c. The words (assuming the text to be correct) can only be explained in this way : Have I Jiere also (in the desert, a place which, in times when the manifestations of Deity were regarded as limited to particular spots, might have been supposed to be beyond the reach of God's providence) seen after him that saw me ? i.e. He saw her ; she did not see Him, but only ' saw after ' Him, saw Him, as He left her (cf. Is. xxxvii. 22 Heb.), and then perceived that the all-seeing God, in the person of His angel, had been present there (so Dillm^^ 14. Beer-lahai-roH. Explained (as usually understood) in KVm. See, however, the footnote. between Kadesh and Bered. For Kadesh, see on xiv. 7. Bered is not mentioned elsewhere, and has not been identified. For Beer-lahai- roi (also xxiv. 62, xxv. 11) a site has been plausibly suggested at ^Ain Muweileh, a station with several wells on the caravan-route from Egypt to Syria (cf. on v. 7), 12 m. WNW. of 'Ain Kadish (xiv. 7), and 50 m. SW. of Beersheba, at the SE. foot of a range of hills, the Jehel Muweileh (Rowlands, in Williams' Holy City, n. 489 fF. ; Trumbull, Kadesh- harnea, 64 ; Palmer, Desert of the Ex. n. 354 — 6 ; EncB. s.v.). 15. 16. Account, from P, of the birth of Ishmael, and of the age of Abram at the time. ^ The sense thus obtained is however not very naturally expressed ; nor does it contain any explanation of 'the living one' in the name of the well, v. 14. A conjectural restoration by Wellh. {Hist. p. 326), obtained by supplying letters supposed to have accidentally dropped out, is therefore worthy of mention: 'Have I even seen [God, and lived] after [my] seeing?' (i.e. D^-I^^^ for Q^n, TiNI inserted before nnX, and ^>{<-) for ij^n), with allusion to the belief (xxxii. 30) that no one could 'see God and live.' If this restoration be accepted, * a God of seeing' must be interpreted in the sense of ' a God who is seen ' ; and the name of the well will mean •He that seeth me liveth.' 184 THE BOOK OF GENESIS The angel of Jehovah, — or, in E (xxi. 17, xxxi. 11), of Gody—is a self- manifestation of Jehovah: he identifies himself with Hira (xxxi. 13, of. 11 ; Ex. iii. 6, cf. 2), speaks and acts with His authority (Gen. xvi. 10, xxi. 19, cf. 17, xviii., xxii. 12, 15 f.), and is spoken of as God or Jehovah by others (Gen. xvi. 13, xlviii. 16 f. ; Jud. vi. 14, cf. 12, xiii. 21 f. ; Hos. xii. 4, 5). On the other hand, he is also distinguished from Jehovah (Gen. xvi. 11, xix. 13, 21, 24 ; Nu. xxii. 31), 'the mere manifestation of Jehovah creating a distinction be- tween the angel and Jehovah, though the identity remains. The form of manifestation is, so to speak, something unreal (Dt. iv. 12, 15), a condescension for the purpose of assuring those to whom it is granted that Jehovah in His fulness is present with them. As the manifestation called the angel of Jehovah occurred chiefly in redemptive history, older theologians regarded it as an adumbration or premonition of the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. This idea was just, in so far as the angel was a manifestation of Jehovah on the earth in a human foiin, and in so far as such temporary manifestations might seem the prelude to a permanent redemptive self- revelation in this form (Mai. iii. 1, 2); but it was to go beyond the OT., or at any rate beyond the understanding of OT. writers, to found on the manifestation distinctions in the Godliead. The only distinction implied is that between Jehovah, and Jehovah in manifestation' (A. B. Davidson, in DB. S.V. Angel, p. 94^). Cf. Ex. xxiii. 20, 21 (where * name '= fulness of revealed nature); la Ixiii. 9 (where the * angel of his presence' means the angel in whom God's face or presence [Dt. iv. 37] is revealed). See further Oehler, OT. Theol. §§ 59, 60 ; Schultz, OT, Theol u. 218—23 (a temporary but full revelation of Jehovah's being). Chapter XVII. The institution of Circumcision, Thirteen years after Ishmael's birth, God appears to Abram, promises him a numerous posterity assures him that he and his seed will inherit the land of Canaan, and declares that He will conclude a covenant with him for all time, according to which He will be his God and the God of his descendants, vv. 1 — 8. Circumcision is instituted as the sign of this covenant, vv. 9 — 14, Abram's name is to be in future Abraham, and Sarai's Sarah. Ishmael will become a great nation ; but Sarah's own son will be the heir of the promises, vv. 15 — 22. Abraham circumcises all the males of his household, vv. 23 — 27. The chapter is derived entirely from P, the phraseology and style of which it displays markedly throughout. It is longer than most of the recent excerpts from P, on account of the importance of the subject-matter, resembling in this respect the accounts, from the same source, of the Creation and the Flood. It marks, in the economy of P, the next important stage to the blessing and covenant of ix. 1 — 17, and introduces a new phase in the development of the Divine plan. The covenant, it may be noticed, is not simply (as in ch. xv.) a solemn promise, but implies the establishment of a reciprocal relationship, in which obligations are undertaken on both sides. XVII. 1-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 186 XVII. 1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, P the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am ^God Almighty ; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations. 6 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham ; for the father of a multitude of nations have 1 Heb., El Shaddai. XVII. 1 — 8. The promise to Abram. 1. God Almighty. Heb. *El SJiaddai, — according to P, the charac- teristic patriarchal name of God, the name 'Jehovah' (Yahweh) not being known till the age of Moses (Gen. xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xlviii. 3 ; and esp. Ex. vi. 3). The same view was perhaps shared by the author of the book of Job, who lays his scene in the patriarchal age, and throughout the dialogue represents his characters as saying Shaddai ('Jehovah' only once, xii. 9)^ The origin and real meaning of Shaddai are both doubtful : see the Excursus at the end of the volume. walk be/ore me, and be perfect, — or blameless (vi. 9). The condition which Abram is called upon to fulfil : not, as in the later Levitical law, ^ obedience to a multitude of particular observances, but simply the 7>» duty of leading generally a righteous and holy life. To * walk before ' any one is to live and move openly before him (1 S. xii. 2) ; esp. in such a way as (a) to deserve, and (b) to enjoy, his approval and favour. Here the thought of (a) predominates, the meaning being to comport oneself in a manner pleasing in God's sight (so xxiv. 40, xlviii. 15 [lxx. evapea-Tclv ivavTLov] ; cf. Is. xxxviii. 3) ; for (6) see 1 S. ii. 30, and (with reference to God) Ps. Ivi. 13, cxvi. 9 [shall, not will]. 2. Upon this condition (v. V) God grants his covenant; and promises, at first quite generally, to multiply greatly his posterity. 3. fell on his face. An expression of respect towards men CRu. ii. 10; 2 S. ix. 6, xiv. 22), and of reverence towards God (v. 17, Nu. xiv. 5, Jud. xiii. 20, and frequently). 4 — 8. The promise stated in greater detail. 5. Abram (contracted from Abiram) means 'the father [a divine title] is exalted'*: Abraham has no meaning in Heb., nor is any meaning apparent from the cognate languages. The name is explained here simply by an assonance (see on iv. 1) : Abraham is supposed to have been suggested by the Heb. hdmon, 'multitude.' Cf. Rom. iv. 16 f., where the second part of the verse is interpreted in a spiritual sense. 1 Elsewhere 'El Shaddai occurs Gen. xliii. 14 (E), xlix. 25 (see the note), Ez. X. 5 ; Shaddai alone is also found, as a poet, name of God, in Nu, xxiv. 4, 16 (in Balaam's prophecies), Ez. i. 24, Is. xiii. 6 = Joel i. 15, Ps. Ixviii. 14, xci. 1; 31 times in the dialogue of Job; and in the semi-poetical sentences, Eu. i. 20, 21. 2 On names compounded with Ab, AM, see EncB. i. 9—11, in. 3287 — 9. 186 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xvii. 5-8 I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and i 1 will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an ever- lasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be their God. 6—8. The promise should be compared with the others in P, viz. xxviii. 3 — 4, xxxv. 11 — 12, xlviii. 3 — 4, Ex. vi. 2 — 8, when the features both in phraseology and in contents which distinguish it from the promises in J (see on xii. 2 f.) will become apparent. 6. make thee... fruitful. Cf. v. 20, xxviii. 3, xlviii. 4. nations. So vv. 4, 5, 16, xxxv. 11 ; cf. 'company of peoples,' xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xlviii. 4; Ishmaelites and Edomites being included. In J the promise is only of a single nation: xii. 2, xviii. 18, xlvi. 3. kings. So v. 16, xxxv. 11. Another feature peculiar to the promises of P. The allusion is to the kings of Israel and Edom (xxxvi. 31). 7. establish my covenant. As vi. 18, ix. 9, 11, 17 (all P). See p. x. and thy seed after thee (twice). So m. 8, 9, 10, 19, and elsewhere in P. See the Introduction, p. viii, No. 11. throughout their generations. So w. 9, 12, Ex. xii. 14, 17, 42, and often in P. See ihid. p. ix, No. 20. everlasting covenant. Cf. vv. 13, 19 j and on ix. 16. to he a God wnto thee &c. This is the central feature in the co- venant: 'El Shaddai will be a God to Abraham and his seed, i.e. He will be on the one hand the object of their worship and veneration, and on the other hand, also, their lord, their leader, their protector, and their benefactor. The promise is found frequently in P and H (Ex. vi. 7, xxix. 45; Lev. xi. 45, xxii. 33, xxv. 38, xxvi. 12, 45; Nu. xv. 41 : elsewhere in the Hexateuch only Dt. xxix. 13, cf. xxvi. 17) : it is also acharacteristic thought of Jer. (vii. 23, xi. 4, xxiv. 7, xxx. 22, xxxi. 1, 33), and Ez. (xi. 20, xiv. 11, xxxi v. 24, xxxvi. 28, xxxvii. 23, 27) ; see also 2 S. yii. 24 (= 1 Ch. xvii. 22), Zech. viii. 8 (not elsewhere). The cor- relative 'and they shaU be to me a people,' i.e. belong to Me as loyal subjects, enjoying My protection, and acting worthily of it, is found in most of the passages quoted from Jer. and Ez., and occasionally besides, but not in P or H, except Lev. xxvi. 12 (cf. Ex. vi. 7). 8. the land of thy sojownings. The land in wnich thou dwellest as a ger, a temporary resident, or 'sojourner' (cf on xv. 13). So xxviii. 4, xxxvi. 7, xxxvii. 1, xlvii. 9 ; Ex. vi. 4 (all V). Cf. p. ix. No. 21. all the land of Oanaan. Promised here in P for the first time. etierlasting possession^ as xlviii. 4, Lev. xxv. 34. The word for * possession ' (ntn.N) is one that is very common in P, and occurs but rarely elsewhere : see p. ix. No. 22. XVII. 9-14] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 187 9 And God said unto Abraham, And as for thee, thou shalt keep p my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee ; every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 And ye shall be circum- cised in the flesh of your foreskin ; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised : and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut ofi" from his people ; he hath broken my covenant. 9—14. The * token' (ix. 12, 13, 17), or external mark, of the covenant : circumcision {v. 10 £), to be performed (v. 12) on the eighth day after birth upon all males, including {v. 13) slaves, whether born in servitude, or purchased from without. 12. eight days old. A regulation, ever afterwards religiously observed by the Jews : cf. xxi. 4; Lev. xii. 3 ; Luke i. 59, ii. 21 ; PhiL iii. 5. horn in the house. See on xiv. 14. bought with money. Verse 13 ; Ex. xii. 44 (where it is laid down that a slave must be circumcised before he can eat the passover). stranger. Foreigner (as Lev. xxii. 25 E,V.), which, indeed, though the fact has now become obscured, is the real meaning of 'stranger' (Lat. extraneus: cf. on * strange,' xxxv. 2l So v. 27; Ex. xii. 43 (RV. alien) ; Ps. xviii. 44, 45 ; Is. Ivi. 3, 6, al. 14. shall be cut off from its father's kin. A formula, with slight variations (as from Israel, from his people, &c.), very common in P^, the penalty defined by it being prescribed usually for neglect of some ceremonial observance, and only occasionally (as Lev. xviii. 29, 1 Two distinct Heb. words, with different meanings, are unfortunately repre- sented in E VV. by * stranger ' : one [ger) signifying sojourner, temporary resident (see on v. 8 and xv. 13), the other {ben nehdry or nokri) signifying foreigner (cf. on xxxi. 15). See Stranger in DB. 2 From {the midst of) his (or its) father's kin. Gen. xvii. 14, Ex. xxx. 33, 38, xxxi. 14, Lev. vii. 20, 21, 25, 27, xvii. 9, xix. 8, xxiii. 29, Nu. ix. 13 ; from the midst of his {their) people, Lev. xvii. 4, xviii. 29, xx. 18, Nu. xv. 30, and with the first pers. I will cut off, Lev. xvii. 10, xx. 3, 5, 6, Ez. xiv. 8 (cf. Lev. xxiii. 30 I will destroy) ; from Israel, Ex. xii. 15, Nu. xix. 13 ; jrom the congregation of Israel, Ex. xii. 19 ; from the midst of the assembly, Nu. xix. 20; from before me, Lev. xxii. 3; be cut off (absolutely). Lev. xvii. 14, Nu. xv. 31, with before the eyes of the children of their people, Lev. xx. 17, 188 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xvii. 15-20 15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou P shalt not call her name Sarai, but ^ Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her : yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations ; kings of peoples shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart. Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old ? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee I 19 And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son ; and thou shalt call his name ^ Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee : behold, I have blessed him, and * That is, Princess, * From the Heb. word meaning to laugh. XX. 3, 5, 6 ; Nu. xv. 30) for some moral offence, or idolatry. It has been questioned whether death or excommunication is intended by the expression: Ex. xxxi. 14 would point to the former; but even if this be the intention of the expression, it is to be understood, probably, as a strong affirmation of Divine disapproval, rather than as prescribing a penalty to be actually enforced. father's kin. The word, though it resembles the ordinary Heb. word for * a people,' is 'plwral : as it is impossible to speak of a man's 'peoples,' the word must, when it is so used, have some different meaning; and this is shewn by Arabic^ to hQ father s kin. For another formula of P's, in which the same expression occurs, see on xxv. 8. 15 — 21. The promise repeated with reference to Sarai. Ishmael will become a great nation ; but the covenant will be established with 15. Sarah means ' princess ' ; the meaning of Sarai is obscure. That given by some older commentators, *my princess,' is philologically impossible. It is thought by some modern scholars (see DB. s.v.) to be an older form of Sarah, formed with the less usual fem. term. -ay. 16. she shall become nations. Cf. on v. 6. 17. a?id laughed, in incredulity. Abraham cannot believe it, and still rests his hopes upon Ishmael, on whose behalf he now (v. 18) proceeds to utter a prayer. 18. before thee. I.e. under thy eye and care : cf. Hos. vi. 2 ; also Jer. XXX. 20; Is. liii. 2. 19. The answer adheres to what was said before (v. 16). The name Isaac ('he laughs') is manifestly suggested by the laughed of V. 17. 20. I have heard thee. With a play on ' Ishmael ' (see xvi. 11). * *.4ni=both jpatntiw and 2)atrueW«. XVII. .o-n] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 189 will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly ; p twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. 24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him. twelve princes. See xxv. 13 — 16. 22 — 27. Abraham circumcises all the males of his household. The account is given with the circumstantial detail and repetition which P loves : notice both the expressions in vo. 23, 24^ 25^ repeated from 'ov. 11% 13 : and vv. 26, 27, repeating the substance of u 23. 22. went up from. Cf. xxxv. 13. 23, 26. in the selfsame day. See on vii. 13. 25. The circumcision of Ishmael at the age of 13 is probably intended as an explanation of the corresponding custom among the Ishmaelite tribes. Circumcision has for long been practised by the * Arabs ' ; but it is commonly performed among them at a much later age than was customary with the Jews : the age varies in different places from 3 — 4 years to 13 — 15 years (see references in Dillm., and DB. II. 504^; and add Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 340 f. [3 years], 391 f.). Circumcision, Circumcision is not, as is sometimes supposed, a rite peculiar to the Jews. It was, and still is, widely practised in different parts of the world. In ancient times we hear of it especially as usual in Egypt (Hdt. ii. 36, 37 ; Philo ii. 210 ; cf. Josh. V. 9, where *the reproach of Egypt' implies that the Egyptians were circumcised), where indeed (Ebers, Aeg. u. die Bb. Mose's, p. 283) the monu- ments afford evidence that it was practised as early as the period of the 4th dynasty (3998 — 3721 B.O., Petrie), and whence Herodotus declares (ii. 104) that the custom spread to the Ethiopians, the Phoenicians, and the ' Syrians of Palestine' (i.e. the Jews). Jer. ix. 26 shews also that it was practised by the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and certain Arab tribes; indeed, from the fact of the Philistines being so pointedly referred to as ' uncircumcised^' 190 THE BOOK OF GENESIS I it may be inferred that most of Israel's neigli hours were circumcised like themselves. The practice was an ancient one among the Arabs; and it is referred to in the ^or'an as an established custom. The Babylonians and Assyrians appear to have been the principal Semitic peoples who did not practise it. It is possible that, as Dillm. and Nowack suppose, the peoples of N. Africa and Asia who practised the rite adopted it from the Egyptians ; but it appears in so many other parts of the world, that it must at any rate in these cases have originated independently ; it is practised, for instance, among the Mandingos, Gallas, Falashas, Bechuanas, and other African tribes, in Madagascar, in many parts of Australia, in the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and the Fiji Islands, and among several of the native tribes of America. Stade, in his Essay on the subject {ZATW. 1886, p. 135 ff.), has quoted particulars shevring that in most of these cases the rite was performed some- times at the age of 7 — 10^ but more often at the approach of puberty, and usually with preliminary rites of separation, the youths to be circumcised being isolated for some time previously from the rest of their tribe in places set apart for the purposed A practice so widely diflfused must rest on some general principle ; and the idea which appears generally to underlie it is that it is a rite of initiation into manhood : by it the grown-up youth is formally admitted among the men of his tribe, receives permission to marry, and is invested with the full civil and religious rights of his tribe. It is a tribal badge, and as such possesses both a civil and a religious significance^. In Israel, the two distinctive characteristics of circumcision are (1) its being performed in infancy ; (2) the religious ideas associated with it. To take (2) first : the idea of membership in the nation is absorbed in that of consecration and dedication to Jehovah : the religious point of view supersedes the civil or political : circumcision becomes the external condition and seal of admission into the religious privileges of the nation (cf. Ex. xii. 44, 48 [P]), the first condition of membership in it, as a religious community. (1) The age was fixed at 8 days. This was probably a consequence of (2) : when the religious point of view superseded the secular or civil, it would be natural for the child to be dedicated as early as possible to the God who was to be his protector through life. At the same time a humanitarian motive may have cooperated : for the operation is much less serious when performed upon an infant than when performed upon one more or less grown up. Thus circumcision, like sacrifice and other institutions of Israel's religion, ^ This was also the age at which it was performed in Egypt, as is clear from the representation in Ebers, I.e. p. 280, or Guthe's Bibelworterbuch (1903), p. 14. 2 See in Spencer and Gillen's Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899), pp. 212 — 386, a detailed account of the very curious and elaborate initiation cere- monies, including as important items circumcision (p. 218 ff.), and 'sub-incision' (p. 251 ff.), which must be undergone by every youth in Central Australia before he can be regarded as a full member of his tribe or be allowed to marry (p. 264). * So in Madagascar a man who is uncircumcised can become neither a soldier nor a citizen ; and in Loango the rite must be completed before a man can obtain a wife. It is remarkable that the Heb. word for father-in-law (hothen) is derived from a root which signifies in Arabic to circumcise : it thus seems to have meant originally circumciser, and to indicate that in primitive times circumcision was among the Hebrews a general preliminary of marriage. Comr). Ex. iv. 25, as explained in EncB. s.v. §§ 2, 6 (col. 830, 832) ; Rel. Sem. 310 (2 328) XVIII. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 191 was a rite common to Israel with other nations, but stamped in Israel with special associations and a special significance^ The national contempt for men uncircumcised is apparent from the manner in which the Philistines are spoken of, 2 S. i. 20 al. The prophets began to spiritualize the idea, and to teach that the external mark should be the concomitant of a corresponding frame of mind; they accordingly enjoined the duty of circumcising the heart (Dt. x. 16, xxx. 6 : of. Rom. ii. 29, also Col. ii. 11), or removing its foreskin (Jer. iv. 4); and they characterized the ear (Jer. vi. 10), or heart (Jer. ix. 26 ; Ez. xliv. 7, 9 ; Lev. xxvi. 41), which was closed in, and so impervious to godly influences and impressions, as 'uncircumcised' (cf. Acts vii. 51). In the early church it became a pressing question of principle whether or not the Jewish ordinance of circumcision should be imposed upon Gentile converts : on the manner in which the Apostles viewed the rite, and upon their attitude towards this question, see Acts xv. 1 — 29, xxi. 21 ; Rom. ii. 25 — iv. 12; 1 Cor. vii. 19; Gal. v. 2—12, vl 12—16; Phil. iii. 3; Col. iii. 11. Chapters XVIIL, XIX. Visit of the angels to Abraham and Lot. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Origin of the nations of Moah and Ammx)n. One of the most graphically and finely written narratives in the OT. Except in xix. 29 (P), the author is throughout J, whose characteristics — ease and picturesqueuess of style, grace and delicacy of expression, and naive anthropomorphisms — it conspicuously displays. Abraham is attractively de- picted : he is dignified, courteous, high-minded, generous, a man whom accordingly God deems worthy of His confidence, visiting him as one friend visits another, bestowing upon him promises, and disclosing to him His purposes : a strong contrast to the weak and timid Lot, and still more so to the profligate inhabitants of the cities of the Kikkdr. The promise in xviii. 10 — 15 is in reality not a subsequent one to that narrated in ch. xvii. (P), but a parallel account of the same promise given by a different hand (J) ; xviii. 10 — 15 is clearly written without reference to xvii. 15 — 19, and the writer is evidently not conscious that an announcement of the same kind has already been given. XVIII. 1 And the Lord appeared unto him by the ^oaks J of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day ; 1 Or, terebinths XVIII. 1 — 15. Visit of the three angels to Abraham, and promise of a son to Sarah. 1. the terebinths of Mamre. The sacred grove at Hebron : see on xiii. 18. 1 Ex. iv. 25 f. , Josh. v. 2 ff. are thought by many to be alternative popular ex- planations of the introduction of the rite into Israel: see EncB. s.v. § 2. 192 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xviii. .-5 2 and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood J over against him : and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, i 3 ^My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : 4 let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree : 5 and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your heart; 1 Or, 0 Lord door. Heb. opening^ i.e. entrance. So v, 10, and regularly in thl^' expression. 2 — 5. Abraham's ready and courteous hospitality. The descrip- tion, says Lane {Mod. Eg.^ i. 364), ' presents a perfect picture of the manner in which a modern Bedawee sheikh receives travellers arriving at his encampment. He immediately orders his wife or women to make bread, slaughters a sheep or other animal and dresses it in haste ; and bringing milk and any other provisions that he may have at hand, with the bread and the meat that he has dressed, sets them before his guests ; if they are persons of high rank he also stands by them while they eat.' 2. bowed himself to the earth. The Eastern mode of respectful salutation: xxxiii. 3, xlii. 6; Ku. ii. 10, al. 3. My lord. This is probably right, the word being a title of courtesy (as xxiii. 6, 11), and one of the strangers, distinguished in. some way from the other two, being addressed. The Massorites, however, point (as w. 27, 30 — 32) Adondi ('Lord': so RVm.), the form used when Jehovah is intended, implying thereby that Abraham recognizes Him from the beginning. But My lord is preferable : Abraham would scarcely have presumed to offer food and drink to one whom he recognized as Jehovah (on Jud. xiii. 15, see v. 16^); and the words in v. 5, * after that ye shall pass on,' shew that he regarded the three men as ordinary travellers. The disclosure who they are is made only gradually, vv. 10, 13, 17—22 (cf. Jud. vi. 12 ff., 22, xiii. 6, 10, 16^ 21^). 4. and wash your feet. An attention paid regularly in the East to one arriving from a journey (xix. 2, xxiv. 32, xliii. 24; cf. Rob. n. 229 f ), and grateful, if not necessary, in a country in which the feet are protected only by sandals. and recline yourselves^ in preparation for the meal. 6. a morsel of bread. A modest description of the sumptuous repast which is coming. comfort. Support'. Exactly so Jud. xix. 5, 8: cf Ps. civ. 15, ' bread that supporteth man's heart.' But ' comfort ' in Old English (as Wright, Bible Word-Book^ s.v., shews) meant to strengthen (late Lat. 1 Heb. nro, whence n^-lVD, in post-Bibl. Heb. a, feast. XVIII. 5-9] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 193 after that ye shall pass on : ^forasmuch as ye are come to your J servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes. 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto the servant ; and he hasted to dress it. 8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them ; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. 9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 1 Or, for therefore confortare', so Vulg. here), and only gradually acquired the modern sense of console^. On the idiom, use of 'for therefore' (RVm.) with the force oi forasmuch as (so xix. 8, xxxiii. 10 al.) see Leiv. p. 475\ 6. three measures. Three sS'ahs (so also, for the colourless * measure,' 1 S. xxv. 18 ; 1 K. xviii. 32 ; 2 K. vii. 1 ; Mt. xiii. 33 [oraVov]), which were equal to one ephah, or about 8 gallons, — a large quantity, perhaps (notice the terms of Mt. I.e.) the usual amount of a daily Daking (cf the * ephah' of Jud. vi. 19). cakes. Rolls, — baked rapidly by being placed upon the 'hot stones' (1 K. xix. 6 RVm.), — i.e. stones heated by a fire having been made upon them, — and covered with the hot ashes, lxx. €yKpv<^tat; Vulg. panes suhcinericii^. 7. Flesh is rarely eaten in the East: the *calf tender and good' is an indication of Abraham's sense of the distinction of his guests (cf. L. and B. ii. 436; in the one vol. ed., 1898 &c., p. 363). 8. butter. Curdled milk, or (as it is now called in Syria and Arabia) lehen, stiU esteemed by the natives as a grateful and refreshing beverage, and just such as would be offered to a traveller or (Jud. v. 25; 2 S. xvii. 29) thirsty fugitive. That * butter' is not meant is appa- rent, if only from the fact that hem' ah was a liquid (Job xx. 17). In an Arab's tent there hangs a semily^ or 'sour-milk skin': the fresh milk is brought in foaming; it is poured into the semily, the portion ad- hering to the inner surface of the skin from a former occasion serves as a ferment; and after a few minutes' shaking the lehen is ready (Doughty, Arabia Deserta, 1888, i. 221, 263, ii. 235, 304, 658; cf. Palmer, Desert of the Exodus^ ii. 488 ; EncB. s.v. Milk). stood by them (Jud. iii. 19). To see that his guests received every attention. The same custom prevails still {L. and B. i. 308 f ). and they did eat. Contrast Jud. xiii. 16 ; also Tob. xii. 19. 1 Wy cliff e (1380) has 'that comforteth me' for t^ ivSwatiovvrl /xe, Phil. iv. 13; and 'comfort' in PBV. of Ps. xxvii. 16, xli. 3, cxix. 28 has the same meaning; see , the writer's Parallel Psalter, p. 468 f. ' Cf. EncB. 604; and Eob. i. 485 * the women in some of the tents [near Engedi] were kneading bread, and baking it in thin cakes in the embers.' D. 13 ; 194 THE BOOK Oi^ GENESIS [xviii. 10-16 10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee when the J season ^cometh round ; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also ? 13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying. Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old ? 14 Is any thing too ^hard for the Lord? At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season ^cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son. 15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not ; for she was afraid. And he said. Nay ; but thou didst laugh. 16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom : and Abraham went with them to bring them on the 1 Heb. liveth, or, reviveth. ^ Or, wonderful 10. when the season cometh round. I.e. a year hence. So v. 14; 2 K. iv. 16, 17. The Heb. is peculiar, lit. at the time living (or re- viving), i.e. when the time revives next year. 11. well stricken in age. I.e. advanced in age (A.S. strican, Mid. Eng. striken, to proceed, advance : see the Bible Word-Book, or Skeat, Etym. Diet.). Heb. entered into days (lxx. TrpoPePrjKOTes 7]fx€p(Sv; cf. Luke i. 7). So xxiv. 1 al. 12. laughed. In incredulity, as Abraham in xvii. 17. The passage gives evidently J's explanation of the name 'Isaac,' as xvii. 17 gives Fs. waxed old. Worn out, worn away, as a garment falling to pieces, Dt. viii. 4 (Heb. *wore not away /r(?m upon thee'); Is. 1. 9, li. 6; Ps. cii. 27. 'Wax old' (both here and elsewhere) is a very in- adequate rend, of the Heb. ! also. This word should be omitted. The Heb. is 'and my lord is old' = my lord being old. 13. old. The Heb. here is the ordinary word for ' old.' 14. hard. The idea of the Heb. is separate from the ordinary, exceptional. What is exceptional may be simply wonderful (Ex. iii. 20; 2 S. i. 20, and frequently); or, from a different point of view, some- thing difficult, whether to unravel (Dt. xvii. 8), to understand (Job xlii. 3), or (as here and Jer. xxxii. 17, 27) to effect. Cf. Lk. i. 37 (a.^vvaTri(T€L, as LXX. here). — With this section generally, comp. Heb. xi. 11 f. 16 — 22. Jehovah communicates to Abraham His purpose of de- stroying Sodom and Gomorrah. This disclosure to Abraham of His secret counsel is a singular mark of Jehovah's regard for him, based {v. 18 f.) upon the unique position which Abraham holds, partly as the XVIII. 16-19] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 195 way. 17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that J which I do ; 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? 19 For I have ^ known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judge- ment ; to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that ^ See Amos iii. 2. depository of a blessing for all nations, partly as having been chosen by God to found a house whose members should all study to follow after righteousness, so that it might well be of importance for the difference between God's treatment of righteousness and unrighteous- ness to be clearly apprehended. The disclosure moreover affords occasion {vxi. 23 — 33) for a signal illustration both of the noble and generous impulses by which Abraham is actuated, and also of the value in God's eyes of righteousness, and of His readiness to pardon (Ez. xxxiii. 11), if only He can do so consistently with justice. 16. looked out toward Sodom. From some spot in the * hill- country' of Judah rJosh. xv. 48 — 60), which afforded the necessary prospect, — perhaps ^Rob. BR. i. 489 — 91) from the elevated village of Beni Na'im, 3 miles E. of Hebron, where the Dead Sea, 18 miles off, can be discerned through gaps in the hills, and the mountains of Moab beyond it are distinctly visible. The situation of Beni Na'im suits Jerome's description (JEp.^ 86 [ed. Vail. 108], § 11) of the height visited by Paula as the traditional site of the spot here in question, Caphar Barucha, or the 'Village of Blessing.' to bring them on the way. Le. to escort them on their departure : cf. xii. 20. 17. saidy viz. in His heart (i.e. to Himself), a frequent use of 'say' in Heb., e.g. xx. 11, 1 S. xx. 26 (EVV. 'thought'), Ex. xiii. 17. Shall I hide &c. Cf , of the prophets, Am. iii. 7. 18. 19. The motives prompting this disclosure to Abraham, viz. his high significance in the reHgious history of mankind (cf the remarks above, on vv. 16 — 22). 18. shall he blessed through him. As xii. 3, where see the note. 19. known. In a practical sense, = noticed, regarded, cared for. So Ps. i. 6, xxxvii. 18 aZ. ; and esp. (of Israel) Am. iii. 2, Hos. xiii. 5. to the end that &c. In order that he may be the founder of a house or family, and ultimately of a people, in which the knowledge of God may be perpetuated, and in which the principles of true religion may be known and obeyed. An important passage, shewing what the aim and purpose of God's revelation to Abraham was. (The rend, of AV. here is altogether incorrect.) to the end that Jehovah &c. Abraham's thus ' commanding his children and household after him' is the condition of Jehovah's fulfill- ing the promises given to him. 13—2 196 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xviii. 19-^55 which he hath spoken of him. 20 And the Lord said, ^Because J the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and ^because their sin is very grievous ; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me ; and if not, I will know. 22 And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom : but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. 23 And Abraham drew near, and said. Wilt thou consume the righteous with the wicked ? 24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city : wilt thou consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked ; that be far from thee : shall not the Judge of all 1 Or, Verily 20. the cry of SodoMj i.e. the cry about Sodom, ascending to heaven (v. 21) and calling for vengeance. On RVm. Verily (Keil, DiUm., Holz. al.), see G.-K. § 148'^; Lex. p. 472^ e. 21. go down. Viz. into the part of the 'Ardbah (see p. 1 68), at the S. end of the Dead Sea (4300 ft. below Hebron), in which the guilty cities were. For the anthropomorphism, cf. xi. 5, 7. which is come unto me. Of. Ex. ii. 23, iii. 9; 1 S. ix. 16; Jas. v. 4. 22. Two of the three 'men' proceed on their way to Sodom (xix. 1); the third is Jehovah. stood... before. The attitude of one interceding (Jer. xv. 1). 23 — 33. Abraham's intercession. The patriarch's keen sense of justice recoils at the thought of the innocent perishing with the guilty, and this by the decree of an all-righteous Judge. The vision of Lot, who, though thoughtless, was not steeped in guilt, rises before him; others, not less righteous (2 Pet. ii. 8), might be there likewise : he is moved to compassion, and takes upon himself to intercede. With the greatest diffidence and humiHty he prefers his petition : emboldened by success, he repeats it, until at length he receives the gracious assurance that the presence of ten righteous men in Sodom shall save the city (ci. Jer. V. 1). And so the truth is established that the God of justice is also a God of mercy (cf. Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7). The passage is a striking witness to the deeply-planted human instinct, which requires justice in God, — an instinct which frequently finds expression in the OT., notably so in Job's passionate protests against His apparent injustica 23. drew near. Cf. Heb. x. 22. consume. Sweep away: so v. 24, xix. 15, 17; Nu. xvi. 26. 25. That be far from thee. Lit. ad profanum (sit) tibi ! a common Heb. formula of deprecation or repudiation : often in EVV. rendered God forbid (e.g. ch, xHv. 7). Lxx. usually ixrjBafxm (cf. Actsx. 14, xi. 8), ^rj yivoiro (Rom. iii. 4 &c.), or rXcojs jnot (cf. Mt. xvi. 22). XVIII 25-xix. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 197 the earth do right ? 26 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom J fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. 27 And Abraham answered and said. Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes : 28 peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous : wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five ? And he said, I will not destroy it, if I find there forty and five. 29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the forty's sake. 30 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak : peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. 31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord : peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake. 32 And he said. Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once : peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten's sake. 33 And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place. XIX. 1 And the two angels came to Sodom at even ; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom : and Lot saw them, and rose up right. The Heb. is more pointed and forcible than the English: 'shall not the judge of all the earth do judgement V — do what the title which He bears implies. ' Judgement,' in the sense of just judge- ment, or ' right ' (in a forensic sense), as frequently. 27. dust and ashes. Cf. Ecclus. x. 9, xvii. 32. 33. communing with. Speaking to, exactly as vv. 27, 29, &c. 'Commune,' wherever it occurs in either OT. or NT., is simply an archaism meaning to converse or confer, and stands for ordinary Heb. and Gk words meaning to speah or talk. Its retention in 22 isolated passages of RV. (as Ex. xxv. 22, xxxi. 18; Luke xxii. 4: in AV. 28 times) is a signal example of what Bp Lightfoot has well described as 'artificial distinctions created' (On a Fresh Revision of the English NT. p. 33 £f.). his place. I.e. Mamre, v. 1 (cf. v. 16). XIX. 1 — 17. Two of the three angels visit Sodom, and convey Lot out of the doomed city. 1. the two angels. See xviii. 22. in the gate. I.e. the gate-way (including the passage under the city wall, with seats arranged on each side), — a common place of meeting in the East, for conversation or business, including even the 198 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xix. i-8 to meet them ; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth ; J 2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, Nay ; but we will abide in the street all night. 3 And he urged them greatly ; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house ; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old, all the people from every quarter ; 5 and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Wliere are the men which came in to thee this night ? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 6 And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. 7 And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. 8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man ; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; ^forasmuch ^ Or, for therefore administration of justice. See e.g. Ru. iv. 1 ff., 11; Dt. xxi. 19, xxv. 7; Job V. 4; Is. xxix. 21; Am. v. 10, 12, 15; Ps. cxxvii. 5; and cf. DB. Gate. rose up &c. To entertain a stranger, esp. a distinguished one, is in Eastern countries accounted an honour; and Lot rises up first in order to secure the privilege for himself. Cf. Job xxxi. 32. 2. Abraham (ch. xviii.) dwells in a *tent'; but Lot, dwelling in a city, has a * house,' with a ' door' and 'roof (vv. 6, 8, &c.). the street. The broad-place, or square, — such as was usual in an Eastern city: see in AV. Jer. v. 1, and in II V. 2 S. xxi. 12 (marg.); \ Is. XV. 3 ; Ezr. x. 9 ; Neli. viii. 1 ; often, unfortunately, misrendered j street, and so confused with something entirely difterent: so, for i instance, here and Jud. xix. 15, 17, 20; Am. v. 16; Jer. ix. 21; Is. lix. 14 al. 3. a feast. He was not, it seems, less liberal in his hospitahty than his uncle (xviii. 6 ff.). unleavened cakes. A kind of biscuit, which could be baked rapidly (Jud. vi. 19—21; 1 S. xxviii. 24; cf. Ex. xii. 39), still the ordinary food of the Bedawin. Cf. L. and B. iii. 219 f. 4^. Emphasis is laid on the fact that all took part in this shame- less attack : none attempted to conceal his purpose (Is. iii. 9). Cf. Jud. xix. 22 ff. 8. forasmuch as &c. As still in Arabia, the guest is inviolable, and must be protected at all hazards, esp. if he has eaten or drunk XIX. 8-15] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 199 as tliey are come under the shadow of my roof. 9 And they J said, Stand back. And they said, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge : now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door. 10 But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great : so that they wearied themselves to find the door. 12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city ; bring them out of the place : 13 for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the Lord ; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which ^married his daughters, and said. Up, get you out of this place ; for the Lord will destroy the city. But he seemed unto his sons in law as one that mocked. 15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here ; lest thou be consumed 1 Or, were to maiTy with his host: though even to touch the tent-ropes, imploring pro- tection, is sufficient. But the duties of a host ought not to be placed above those of a father: and Lot, obKged to act quickly in a trying situation, made this mistake. — For RVm. cf. on xviii. 5. 9. They resent his interference: a mere sojourn&r, they say, will fain make himself judge over them. 11. blindness. Not the usual word, and found otherwise only 2 K. vi. 18; though in what respects the 'blindness' denoted by it differed from ordinary blindness is uncertain. Lxx. (both times) aopaa-ia. 12 — 16. The object of the visit (xviii. 21) has been attained : the guilt of the city is manifest ; and its doom consequently fixed. The angels therefore urge Lot to lose no time in quitting it, taking with him all those belonging to him. 13. hath sent us. The two angels here distinguish themselves clearly from Jehovah. Cf. p. 183 f. 14. which married. The Heb. is the participle ('the takers of), which admits of either interpretation (lxx. tovs €i\ri<l>6Ta<;; Vulg. qui accepturi erant). On the whole, the marg. is the more probable. mocked. Rather, sported or jested; cf. on xxi. 9. 15. which are here. As opposed to the prospective sons-in-law, who {v. 14) were not in Lot's house. 200 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xix. 15-.0 in the iniquity of the city. 16 But he lingered ; and the men j laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters ; the Lord being merciful unto him : and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. 17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said. Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the ^ Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. 18 And Lot said unto them. Oh, not so, ^my lord : 19 behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life ; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest *evil overtake me, and I die : 20 behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one : Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one ?) and my soul shall live. * Or, punishment ' See ch. xiii. 10. ^ Or, 0 Lord * Or, the evil consumed. Swept away (xviii. 23), viz. with the others. So v. 17. iniquity. On the marg. punishment, cf. on iv. 13. 16. Lot is still reluctant to leave his ' house,' and the city which he had made his home: so the angels, tender to his weakness, and aware of Jehovah's *pity' for him, lead him by the hand, and set him outside the city. 17. Directions for his further flight. he said. One of the angels is now spokesman, as in xviii. 10 (cf. the sing. pron. in xix. 19% 21, 22). look not behind thee, — whether to be tempted back, or to watch with curious eye the fate of the city. neither stay thou in all the Kikkar, in spite of its attractiveness : see on xiii. 10. the mountain. Or, mountainous country^ viz. of the later Moab, as xiv. 10. So V. 30. 18 — 22. Lot escapes to Zo'ar. The mountains are too distant for Lot's faith, or strength of purpose : so fearing he will not be able to reach them in time, he asks to be allowed to take refuge in a city nearer at hand, which, being a 'little' one, might contain less wickedness than the other cities, and be more easily spared. The object of this part of the narrative is evidently to explain the origin of the name Zo^ar. 18. ^ my lord. There is the same uncertainty as in xviii. 3. The Massorites understand Jehovah (so RVm.); EVV. recognize only an ordinary title of courtesy. Jehovah is not so distinctly present in either of the two angels in ch. xix. as He is in at least one of the three in ch. xviii. (comp. xix. 1 with xviii. 22, and see xix. 13 end). 19. lest the evil overtake me, i.e. the coming catastrophe: 'evil,' as e.g. Am. iii. 6. 20. my soul. See on xii. 13. XIX. .1-27] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 201 21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning J this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken. 22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called ^Zoar. 23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven ; 25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which gi^ew upon the ground. 26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham gat up early in 1 That is, LiWZe, ver. 20. See ch. xiv. 8. 22. Zo'ar. Mentioned also (besides xiii. 10, xiv. 2, 8) Dt. xxxiv. 3, and (as a Moabite city) Is. xv. 5, Jer. xlviii. 34; and situated in all probability in, or very near, the small oasis called the Ghor es-Sdfiyeh^ at the SE. comer of the Dead Sea (see p. 170, or, more fully, i)B. s.v.). 24 — 28. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 24. brimstone and fire. Most probably in an eruption of petro- leum: see p. 202; and cf Ps. xi. 6; Ez. xxxviii. 22; Job xviii. 15. 25. overthrew. I.e. turned upside down : the verb used regularly of the destruction of these cities, tv. 21, 29; Dt. xxix. 23; Jer. xx. 16; Lam. iv. 6; and so the cognate subst. * overthrow,' v. 29; Am. iv. 11; Dt. xxix. 23; Is. xiii. 19; Jer. xlix. 18 = 1. 40; cf. Is. i. 7 RVm.' 26. a pillar of salt. At the SW. end of the Dead Sea is the singular formation called the Jehel Usdum^ the 'mountain of Sodom,' a range of cliffs 5 m. long, and 600 ft. high, consisting of crystallized rock-salt, — once (see p. 168) part of the bed of the ancient Salt Sea, — 'covered with a capping of chalky limestone and gypsum. It has a strangely dislocated, shattered appearance; and from the face of it great fragments are occasionally detached by the action of the rains, and ap- pear as "pillars of salt" advanced in front of the general mass' (Smith, DB. ni. 1180). Such pillars, or pinnacles, have often been noticed by travellers; and it is probable that one, conspicuous in antiquity, gave rise to the belief expressed in the present verse. Writers of a later age often felt satisfied that they could identify the pillar referred to (cf Wisd. x. 7; Jos. Ant. i. 11. 4; DB. iii. 152); but during the rainy season such pillars are constantly in process of formation and destruction ; so that it is doubtful how far any particular one would be permanent*. The conduct of Lot and of his wife here is in harmony with Lot's own spirit as shewn in ch. xiii. Our Lord, n a memorable passage 1 Where ' strangers ' contains an allusion to the people of these cities, even if ♦Sodom' ought not to be read for it (DID for D"»T). 2 Palmer {Desert of the Ex. ii. 478 — 80) also describes a tall isolated needle of rock, bearing a curious resemblance to an Arab woman with a child on her shoulders (see frontispiece to vol. i.), called 'Lot's wife,' at the edge of a plateau, on the East Bide of the Dead Sea, 1000 ft. above it, just opposite to En-gedi (see Map, p. 471). \ 202 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xix. 28, .9 the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord : j 28 and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a fiirnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of i= the Plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. (Lk. xvii. 32), refers to Lot's wife for the sake of the moral lessons deducible from the narrative about her. Lot's wife is the type of those who, in whatever age, *look back' with regretful longings upon possessions and enjoyments which are inconsistent with the salvation offered to them ; and so our Lord points His disciples to what is re- lated of her, when inculcating indifference to all worldly interests, as the attitude with which the advent of the Son of man should be met. 27. to the place &c. See xviii. 16, 22. 28. smoke (twice). Steam, — cognate with the word denoting incense^ and with the verb! used often (Lev. i. 9, &c.) of a sacrifice, and rendered in EW. *burn,' but meaning really 'turn into sweet smoke (Kviarjy Not the ordinary word for ' smoke.' furnace. Kiln, — as for lime or pottery. So Ex. ix. 8, 10, xix. 18t. Not the portable ' stove' of xv. 17. 29. A summary statement from P (cf. xxv. 19, 20, xli. 46) of what has been described in detail by J in vv. 1 — 28. On the site of the destroyed cities, enough has been already said (p. 170 f.) : they stood most probably on or near the saline morass now known as es-Selkha, at the S. end of the Dead Sea. It is a plausible suggestion^ that the physical cause of their destruction was an eruption of petroleum, occasioned by an earthquake (cf. * overthrow,' ti. 21). Such eruptions arise from the existence of reservoirs of compressed inflammable gases, by the side of the petroleum, at a considerable depth below the surface : if from any cause, such as an earthquake, a fissure is opened through the overlying strata, the gas escapes, carrying the petroleum with it ; the fluid mass readily ignites, whether through lightning or (Blanckenhorn, p. 58) spontaneously; and it then rains down in burning showers, while a dense smoke towers up into the air2. ^u the conditions for 1 Tristram, Land of Israel, 353 f. ; Sir J. W. Dawson, Egypt and Syria (in ♦By-paths of Bible knowledge'), p. 129 f. (cf. HG. 508 f.); Blanckenhorn, ZDFV. 1896, p. 58, 1898, p. 78. * Sir J. W. Dawson (p. 125 f.) mentions how once, in an oil district in Canada, a borehole struck a reservoir of compressed gas, which at once rushed upwards carrying the petroleum with it : it almost immediately ignited ; the dense smoke rose high into the air, throwing down burning bitumen ail around, and a space of 15 acres was speedily enveloped in flame. Cf. also Blanck. p. 58. A volcanic eruption is less probable geologically : Diener, who assumes one {Mitth. der k. k. geogr. Gesellsch, zu Wien, 1897, p. 18 ff.), presses the expression *out of heaven' unnecessarily. See Blanckenhorn 's criticism, ZDPV. 1898, pp. 77—83. DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH 203 such an eruption are present in the region of the Dead Sea. The strata about it, esp. at the SW. end, abound in bituminous matter: after earthquakes, bitumen is often found floating on the water : sulphur springs, and sulphur deposits, are also frequent around the Dead Sea (of. Brimstone in DB.^ and Tristram's description of the Wady Muhauwat, p. 351), so that the mention of brimstone in v. 24 (cf. Dt. xxix. 23) is quite intelligible. To the same earth- quake might also be due the subsidence of the ' Vale of Siddim' (p. l7l). The present writer has adopted, in the preceding notes, the view which seems to him to be the most probable explanation of the narrative in Gen. xix., viz. that the destruction of the four cities was a real event, happening in Abraham's time. At the same time, the truth must be frankly admitted that the naiTative was committed to writing, — for the first time, so far as we know, — 1000 years or more after the events which it purports to describe; and hence the possibility must be faced that it is in fact a legend, intended primarily to account for the desolate and stricken appearance of parts of the shores of the Dead Sea, but at the same time infused with an ethical motive, and told here for the sake of the moral lessons which it conveys. This view is put forward, with ability and moderation, in an article by Professor Cheyne, in the Neio World (Boston, U.S.A.) for June, 1892. In this article. Prof. Cheyne collects examples of legends, current in Arabia and elsewhere, of cities or villages, either submerged or otherwise destroyed, often on account of the inhospitaiity, or other moral shortcoming, of their inhabitants, the particular method of destruction assumed being usually such as was suggested by the natural features of the place in question i. On the other hand it must be remembered that such an incident might also be a real occurrence, and that analogies of the kind quoted, however numerous, are not in themselves sufficient to shew the Biblical narrative to be unhistorical. 30 — 38. Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites, as told by Hebrew folk- lore. Naturally this narrative is not to be understood as a record of actual fact : as little is it, on the other hand, to be regarded as a malicious invention of the narrator; the narrator has simply reported a current T)elief, based partly upon a popular etymology of the two names, partly upon the feelings with which Israel viewed the two nations here in question. There was much rivalry and hostility between Israel and these two peoples (see e.g. Dt. xxiii. 3 f,, Is. xvi. 6, Jer. xlviii. 26, Ez. xxv. 8, 6, Zeph. ii. 8 — 10); it is also (Dillm.) a not improbable inference from the present passage that incestuous marriages, such as were viewed in Israel with abhorrence, were in vogue among them ; and these feelings are reflected in the discreditable story of their origin which the narrator has here preserved. * It was the coarse humour of the people, which thus put into words its aversion to Moab and Amnion ' (Dillm.). 1 • Thus a place on the Lake of Thun is said to have been destroyed because a dwarf was refused hospitality during a storm by all the inhabitants except an aged couple who dwelt in a miserable cottage.' See also Doughty, Arab. Des. i. 95 f. (a legend to account for the desertion of the once important commercial town El-Hijr: its inhabitants, the idolatrous Thamudites, sought to slay the prophet Salih sent to them by God; cf. Kor. vii. 71—6, xv. 80 — 4); Wetzstein's notes in DeL'sVoft, on XV. 28, xxxi. 32; Cheyne in the EncB. iv Philemon and Baucis (Ov. Met. viii. 616 ff.). 204 THE BOOK OF GENESIS . [xix. 30-38 30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, j and his two daughters with him ; for he feared to dwell in Zoar : and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth : 32 come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of oiir father. 33 And they made their father drink wine that night : and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father ; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also ; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35 And they made their father di'ink wine that night also : and the younger arose, and lay with him ; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37 And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab : the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi : the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day. 30. went up. From the plain in which Zo'ar lay, to the mountainous country above it, occupied in later times by the Moabites. he feared &c. Dreading, viz., lest, after all, in spite of the promise, -y. 21, a similar fate should overtake it. in a cave. There is some evidence that the habit of dwelling in caves has prevailed even in modern times in the neighbourhood (Buckingham, Travels in Syria, 1825, pp. 61 — 63, 87). 31. there is not &c. As the sole survivors of an accursed city, all men will shrink from us. 37. Moab. As though this were the same as Me-db, and meant *from a father' (see vv. 32 end, 34 end, 36 [of, by, are both Wt.from'^. 38. Ben-^ammi. I.e. 'son of my people,' — or rather, perhaps (xvii. 14), ' of my father's kinsman,' his father being his mother's near relation \ If it were the case that incestuous marriages were not unusual 1 The occurrence of 'Am, 'paternal uncle,' 'kinsman on one's father's side' (see on xvii. 14), in several proper names, makes it probable that in a connexion like the present 'my father's kinsman' is in reality the name (or title) of a deity (see EncB. s.v. Ammi). XX. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 205 in Moab and Ammon,* the particular form assumed by the legend would be easier to account for\ The only other mention of Lot in the OT. is in the expression ' children of Lot,' Dt. ii. 9, 19, Ps. Ixxxiii. 8. Lot is in character a strong contrast to Abraham. He is selfish, weak, and worldly : he thinks of himself before his uncle, and chooses, for the sake of luxury and ease, to dwell in the midst of temptation. Relatively, indeed, he was ' righteous ' (2 P. ii. 7, 8) ; his personal character was without reproach ; and he was deemed worthy by God of a special deliverance. But, though his ' righteous soul ' was ' vexed (e^aa-aviCfro) from day to day' by the * lawless deeds ' which he saw around him, he had not strength of purpose to quit his evil surroundings, and even betrothed his daughters to natives of the sinful city. When ultimately he left Sodom, it was with manifest reluctance, and only after his daughters had become (if we may follow the representation of the narrator in xix. 31 ff.) depraved by contact with vice. He brought temptations, and also troubles, upon himself, — and the man who once was rich in 'flocks and herds and tents ' (xiii. 5) was, as the result of his own actions, stripped of his possessions, and reduced to living penuriously in a cave. Lot is one of the many tvttoi t/jucSi/ in the OT.; and his history is a lesson of the danger of thinking too exclusively of worldly advantage and present ease. I Chapter XX. SaraWs adventure at the Court of Gerar. This chapter contains the first continuous excerpt (cf. on ch. xv.) from the source * E,' respecting which see the Introd. p. xi f. In general outline the narrative is very similar to that of xii. 10 — 20 (Abram and Sarai in Egypt), -^ and xxvi. 6 — 11 (Isaac and Rebekah at Gerar). The repetition is remarkable, - especially as in each case the excuse is the same, that the wife is a sister. It is difficult to avoid suspecting that the three narratives are variations of the same fundamental theme, a story told popularly of the patriarchs and attributed sometimes (as reported by J and E respectively) to diflferent occasions in the life of Abraham, and once also to an occasion in the life of Isaac. Cf. on xxvi. 6 — 11. XX. 1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the E land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he XX. 1. the South. The Negeb : see on xii. 9. between Kadesh and Shur. See on xiv. 7 and xvi. 7. 1 Palmer, Desert of the Ex. ii. 478, remarks on the rather curious fact that hint, 'daughter,' is in the country occupied formerly by Moab almost invariably used for 'wife.' 206 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xx. i-6 sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 22 She is my sister : and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him. Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman which thou hast taken ; for she is a man's wife. 4 Now Abimelech had not come near her : and he said. Lord, wilt thou slay even a righteous nation ? 6 Said he not himself unto me. She is my sister ? and she, even she herself said. He is my brother : in the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. 6 And God said unto him in the Gerar. Ace. to Euseb. (Onom. 240) 25 Roman miles S. of Eleu- theropolis (Beit-Jibrin), and hence often identified with a ruined site Umm el'Jerdr, on a hill-top {PEFM. m. 389 £), 6 m. S. of Gaza, and 30 m. S. of Beit-Jibrin. It is however doubtful whether this name is anything but a modem one, meaning Place of water-pots, from the : heaps of broken pottery about it (cf. L. and j5. 1. 197 f.) ; and a glance at the map will shew that, unless the clause 'and sojourned in Gerar' im- plies a complete change of locality as compared with ' dwelt between Kadesh and Shur,' Umm el-Jerar is much too far to the N., and could not with the utmost licence of interpretation be described as ' between* Kadesh and Shur. It is very possible, therefore, that Trumbull {Kadesh- Barnea, 62 f ), Guthe, and others, are right in identifying Gerar with the Wddy Jerur, about 13 m. W. and SW. of Kadesh, which leads down through the Wady esh-Sheraif into the Wady el- 'Arlsh (see Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, n. 349 f , 353 f., and Map), and is exactly in the required situation \ 2. Cf. xii. 13, 19. Abimelech. The name means *Melech is father* [or *my father']: cf Abijah, ' Jah is father.' Phoen. proper names shew that there was an old Canaanitish deity called Milk [in Heb. Melech : Molech is also the same word] 'king' ; and AbimilM is the name of the Egyptian governor of Tyre in the Tel el-Amarna letters (b.c. 1400). 3. came... in a d/ream. E, it has been noticed, often speaks of God as 'coming' or speaking in a dream: v. 6, xxxi. 11, 24, xlvi. 2; Nu. xxii. 9, 20 (cf Nu. xii. 6; also the notes on ch. xxi. 12, xxii. 1). 4. 5. Abimelech appeals to Jehovah's righteousness (cf Abra- ham's appeal in xviii. 23 ff.) : he had acted quite unsuspectmgly and innocently. 5. integrity. Lit. perfectness (cf on vi. 9), with the collat. idea of sincerity, Pr. xxviii. 6, 18 [read crooked for perverse\ or unsuspi- ciousness, simplicity (2 S. xv. 11; 1 K. xxii. 34 [see HVm.]). the innocency of my hands. Cf Ps. xxiv. 4 (Heb.), xxvi. 6, Ixxiii. 13. 1 A site nearer Gaza does however suit better ch. x. 19, and 2 Ch. xiv. 13 (cf. V. 10); and it is possible that there were two Gerars {EncB. s.v.). I XX. 6-1 1] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 207 dream, Yea, I know that in the integrity of thy heart thou hast E done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against me : therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7 Now therefore restore the man's wife ; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live : and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. 8 And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears : and the men were sore afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and wherein have I sinned against thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin ? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? 11 And Abraham 6. withheld. By means viz. of some sickness: cf. v. 17. 7. a prophet The title is applied to Abraham, — as it seems (see 1 S. ix. 9), by an anachronism, — here only (cf. Ps. cv. 15, of the patri- archs generally), though in effect he appears invested with the privileges of a prophet in xv. 1, 4, xviii. 17. The term designates nim as one standing in a special relation to Jehovah (Am. iii. 7), and as such, one whose rights may not be infringed with impunity, and whose intercession, also, is likely to be efficacious with God. pray. The Heb. word, both here and generally in the OT., signifies properly to make oneself a med/iator, to intercede-, and this meaning IS often perceptible from the connexion in which it is used : e.g. Num. xi. 2, xxi. 7 ; Dt. ix. 20, 26 ; Job xHi. 8, 10. live. Or recov&r (Is. xxxix. 9) : see on i?. 6. and all that are thine. The doctrine of individual responsibility was only gradually developed; and hence among ancient peoples the family of a guilty person was often punished with him. Cf Nu. xvi. 32 f ; Josh. vii. 24 £ ; Dan. vi. 24; and contrast Dt. xxiv. 16, and the teaching of Ezek. xviii. See further Mozley, Lectures on the OT. p. 87 ff., where it is shewn how this defective sense of justice had its root in a defective sense of individuality, or of the rights of the individual, as such; and Gray, The Divine Discipline of Israel,^ 77 ff. 9. Abimelech rebukes Abraham, as Pharaoh had done (xii. 18 f ), but in stronger terms; and is represented as holding up to the patriarch a higher standard of moral obligation than that which he had himself observed. Comp. Gray, p. 49 f 10. A further point : what reason had Abraham for so acting ? sawest. I.e. hadst in view: what was thy object in making this false statement? 11. He defends, and {v. 12 f) excuses himself. 208 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xx. 11-16 said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this E place ; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. 12 And more- over she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother ; and she became my wife : 13 and it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her. This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me ; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. 14 And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and menservants and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15 And Abimelech said. Behold, my land is before thee : dweU where it pleaseth thee. 16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy the fear of God is not &c. The population is represented as heathen, and as regardless, consequently, of the sanctity of human life. . 12. Marriages with half-sisters (by the same father) were forbidden / by the later law (Lev. xviii. 9, 11, xx. 17; Dt. xxvii. 22; cf Ez. xxii. ' 11), but they occurred among the Canaanites (W. R. Smith, Kinship ' and Marriage in ancient Arabia, 162 f), and other ancient nations; and 2 S. xiii. IS'' implies that they were regarded as permissible in Israel in the age of David. But of course even this excuse does not save Abraham's statement from being an equivocation. , 13. A further excuse: it has been Abraham's general practice to ! speak of Sarah as his sister. caused me to wander. The verb is plural, — perhaps, in conversation with a heathen, from accommodation to a polytheistic point of view (cf. 1 S. iv. 8). 'MoMm, even when used of the true God, is occasion- ally construed with a plural, for reasons which cannot always be definitely assigned : see, with a pi. verb, ch. xxxv. 7 ; Ex. xxii. 9 ; 2 S. vii. 23; with a pi. ptcp. Ps. Iviii. 11; and, with an adj. (here probably the 'plural of majesty': see p. 14), Josh. xxiv. 19; and five times in the expression 'living God,' Dt. v. 26 [Heb. 23]; 1 S. xvii. 26, 36; Jer. X. 10, xxiii. 36. Cf. G.-K. §§ 124^ 145'. (On ch. xxxi. 53, see the note.) 14. Cf. xii. 16, where, however, the gifts are given before the discovery of Abraham's true relation to Sarah: here, they are given as compensation to an injured husband, whose explanation Abimelech accepts, and whose good will, for the reasons mentioned in v. 7, he is anxious to secure. 15. He ofi'ers him now to remain in his land. Contrast xii. 20. 16. Abimelech feels that, however inadvertently, he has done Sarah a wrong, which her friends and attendants may resent: so he \ gives her 'brother' a handsome additional present specially on her behalf, which may shew them that he acknowledges the wrong, and XX. 16-xxi. 3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 209 brother a thousand pieces of silver : behold, ^it is for thee a E covering of the eyes to all that are with thee ; and ^in respect of all thou art righted 17 And Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants ; and they bare children. 18 For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife. ^ Or, he * Or, before all men induce them consequently to overlook it. lxx., Sam, read, more easily, 'for i\iQQ...andfor all,' &c. pieces. It is better to supply shekels, — a princely gift, equivalent to some £135 — 140 (see on xxiii. 14 f.). a covering of the eyes, making them blind to what has occurred. For the figure, cf. (though the expressions are not the same) xxxii. 20 (see note); Ex. xxiii. 8.: 1 S. xii. 3; Job ix. 24. The marg. 'he' may be disregarded: the explanation suggested by ch. xxiv. 65 (cited in reference Bibles) is far-fetched and improbable. and before all (men) thou art righted. This rend, is preferable to that of the text (see Is. xxx. 8 Heb.); but the clause is very probably corrupt. If it is correct, the meaning apparently is that Sarah will be publicly vindicated (Job xiii. 15 Heb.) from any imputa- tions which might have been cast upon her. 17. Abraham now intercedes (y. 7) on Abimelech's behalf. maidservants. I.e. female slaves. The Heb. word (niDS) is the same that is rendered bondwoman in xxi. 10, 12, 13. Chapter XXI. — - The hirtJi of Isaac, and expulsion of IshmaeL The treaty between Abimelech and Abraham; and the origin of the name Beer-sheba, XXI 1 And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, | and J'P the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. | 2 And Sarah J^ conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, | at the set P time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called XXI. 1—7. The birth of Isaac. 1*. See xviii. 10—14 (J). visited, — viz. with favour and blessing (1. 24 ; Ex. iii. 16 ; Ps. bcxx. 14, al.) Luke i. 68); specially as here, 1 S. ii. 21. l^ See xvii. 16, 21 (P). 2^. at the set time &c. See xvii. 21 (P); though the same ex- pression occurs also in xviii. 14 (J). — Cf. Heb. xi. 11 f. D. 14 I 210 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxi. 3-9 the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare / to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an himdred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. | 6 And Sarah said, God hath ^made me to I laugh; every one that heareth will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck ? for I have borne him a son in his old age. 8 And the child grew, and was weaned : and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto ^ Or, prepared laughter for me 3 — 5 (P). The naming and the circumcision, in accordance with xvii. 12, 19 (P); the specification of age, as xvii. 1, 24, and often in P (see the Introd. p. xxvi f.). 6. hath prepared laughter for me. E's explanation of the name 'Isaac' (see xvii. 17 in P; xviii. 12 in J), from the laugh of good-natured surprise with which others will greet the news that Sarah had given birth to a child. with me. On account of me, — not in mockery, but good- naturedly. 7. said. The word (millel) is Aramaic (e.g. Dan. vi. 21); and is found otherwise in Heb. only in poetry (Ps. cvi. 2; Job viii. 2, xxxiii. 3t). 8 — 21. The expulsion of Ishmael. 8. was weaned. "Weaning is still observed in the East as the occasion of a family feast. The child might be at the time as much as three (2 Mace. vii. 27) or four (Russell, Aleppo, 1794, i. 303, cited by Knob.) years old: 1 S. i. 22, 24, 25, ii. 11 (Samuel, when weaned, left alone with EU) seems to imply that he might even be older. 9. mocking. The word used — the intensive form of that from which 'Isaac' is derived — has certainly this sense when followed by the prep, n {at or against), xxxix. 14, 27 ; but it is doubtful whether it has it when used absolutely (see xix. 14, xxvi. 8 ; Ex. xxxii. 6 ; Jud. , xvi. 25); hence the marg. playing or sporting (lxx. iraitfivTa, adding ficTo, loraa/c tov vlov avT^<s ; Vulg. ludentem cum Isaac filio suo), which is preferred by most moderns \ The meaning in the latter case will 1 The later Jews attached strange Haggadahs to this word pnVP. R. Akiba (c. 60—135 A.D.), on account of its nse in xxxix. 14, 27, supposed it to refer to Ishmael's unohastity, E. Ishmael, on account of Ex. xxxii. 6, to his idolatry, other Rabbis, on account of pplB^ in 2 S. ii. 14, Pr. xxvi. 14, to attempts made by him to shoot his brother: there were also other stories current among the later Jews respecting his insolence towards Isaac (see references in DB. n. 503''). St Paul, in Gal. iv. 29 {idiwKev)^ appears to follow some of these Haggadahs (cf. St John Thackeray, The Relation of St Paul to contemporary Jewish thought, 1900, p. 212 f.). XXL 9-14] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 211 Abraham, ^mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, E Cast out this bondwoman and her son : for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. 11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman ; in all that Sarah saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. 14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a ^bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, 1 Or, playing ^ Or, skin be (as already explained in Jubilees xvii. 4) that the sight of Ishmael, 'playing and dancing' (on his age, as pictured by this narrator, see on V. 15), and 'Abraham rejoicing with great joy,' aroused Sarah's maternal jealousy. 10. As in xvi. 5, Sarah appeals to her husband, and with some peremptoriness, demands the expulsion of both Ishmael and his slave- mother. On the use made of this narrative in Gal. iv. 21 — v. 1, see p. 213. 11. Ishmael had evidently won his father's affection, and it is painful to him to part with him. 12. 'But what a woman's jealousy impels Sarah to wish, is for other reasons in accordance with God's will' (Di.); and Abraham, when satisfied of this, sacrifices his fatherly feelings, and resigns him- self to the loss of his son {v. 14). said. As may be inferred from 'rose early' in v. 14, in a dream (of. on XX. 3). for in Isaac shall seed be called to thee (so lxx. and Eom. ix. 7, Heb. xi. 18). I.e. in Isaac's line shall be descended those who will bear thy name, and be called thy genuine seed, and inherit, conse- quently, the promises. Of. in P xvii. 21 : the point is one on which the different sources would naturally agree. The words are quoted in Rom. ix. 7 by St Paul, for the purpose of shewing that the inheritance of the promise was not a necessary privilege of physical descent : there were some among Abraham's offspring who did not inherit it. 13. It is a further encouragement to Abraham that national greatness is in store elsewhere for Ishmael also (cf. xvi. 10 in J; xvii. 20 in P). 14. Abraham obeys at once; and next morning sends Ishmael away with his mother, giving them a modicum of provision to support them on their journey. bottle. Skin (lxx. aiaK6<i). The skin of a goat, or other animal, — here perhaps a kid, — such as is still used generally in the East for 14—2 212 TIIE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxi. 14-20 putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away : jj and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 And the water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot : for she said. Let me not look upon the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the lad ; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not ; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand ; for I will make him a great nation. 19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water ; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. 20 And God was carrying water, and which would contain a good deal more than what we should call a 'bottle' (see Bottle in DB. or EncB.). the wilderness of Beer-sheba. Beer-sheba, 28 m. SW. of Hebron, may be said to be the centre of the Negeb (xii. 9) : it lies itself (see G. A. Smith's large Map) near the top of a broad Wady running down to the Medit. Sea, with high ground both N. and S. of it. On the S. the hills are mostly barren: but as Beer-sheba itself is approached they are more and more covered with grass, and about it there is rich pasturage, though very apt in dry seasons to be parched and desolate (Rob. I. 203 f.; Tristram, 366; Palmer, 11. 387—9; HG. 280, 285). 15. cast. The word clearly implies that Ishmael was being carried by his mother, although according to xvi. 16, xxi. 5, 8, he must have been at least 15 years old. The inconsistency is similar to the one in xii. 11, and must be similarly explained: xvi. 16, xxi. 5, the passages which fix the age of Ishmael, belong to P, whereas the present narrative belongs to E, who took a different view of the chronology, and pictured Ishmael as still an infant (cf the Introd. § 2). under 07ie of the shrubs (ii. 5). Perhaps a rothem, or broom-tree, \ such as Elijah, one day's journey S. of Beer-sheba, lay down under (1 K. xix. 4 f.). The rothem is still abundant in the same parts ; and Bobinson's Arab servants would often ' sit or sleep under a bush of it to protect them from the sun' {BR. 1. 203). 17. heard (twice). The word is evidently chosen with allusion to the name Ishmael : cf. xvi. 1 1 (J\ xvii. 20 (P) ; and the threefold allusion to the meaning of 'Isaac, noted on v. 6. The Divine care for the lonely and the distressed is again exemplified; cf. xvi. 7 ff. out of heaven. As xxii. 11. 18. a great nation. Cf. v. 13; and see on xxv. 12 — 18. 19. opened her eyes. I.e. enabled her to perceive what was hidden from her before. Cf. on iii. 7 ; and Lk. xxi v. 31. XXI. 2o-«] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 213 >vith the lad, and he grew ; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and E 'became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of i'aran : and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. ^ Or, became, as he grew up, an archer 20. was with the lad, Cf. v. 22, xxvi. 3, 24, 28, xxviii. 15, 20, xxxi. 3, 5, XXXV. 3, xxxix. 2, 3, 21, 23, xlviii. 21 ; Ex. iii. 12, al. became an archer. This is probably the sense of what the author originally wrote; though the existing text, as pointed, must be ren- dered as in E,Vm. Several of the Ishmaelite tribes, e.g. Kedar and the Ituraeans (see on xxv. 13, 15), were distinguished as archers; and their ancestor is delineated accordingly, 21. the wilderness of Par an. See on xiv. 6. his mother &c. To procure a wife for a son being an affair of the parents : cf xxiv. 3 f , xxxiv. 4. out of the land of Egypt. I.e. out of his mother's own country («. 9, xvi. 1). The narrative explains how it was that the Ishmaelite tribes came to be separated from the Israelites, and acquired a character of their own (xvi. 12). It at the same time marks a stage in the trials of Abraham's faith. Abraham has to give up a son who is dear to him ; his hopes are in consequence the more centred upon Isaac ; and the reader is better prepared to realize the severity of the trial imposed upon him in ch. xxii. The history of Ishmael and Isaac is in Gal. iv. 21 — v. 1 expounded allegori- cally for the purpose of shewing to those Judaizing Christians, who desired to continue ' under the law,' that even the ' law ' itself did not contemplate the absolute finality of Jewish ordinances. In the history of the patriarchal family, in the rivah-y between Ishmael bom in bondage and Isaac bom in freedom, and in the triumph of the latter, St Paul sees foreshadowed the conflict and the issue in the history of the nascent Church, the defeat of the spirit which clung to carnal ordinances, and the triumph of the spirit of freedom, which had the faith and the insight to perceive that such ordinances must pass away. Naturally the Apostle's allegorical exegesis does not possess the same value for us which it would have for many of those to whom it was originally addressed : the real ground of Christian freedom from the yoke of Jewish ordinances is to be found not in this narrative of Genesis but in the logic of history, declaring (as the prophets also had done before) that it was the purpose of God, not to condition for ever the saving knowledge of Himself by membership in a single nation, or by the ritual of a single local cult. Comp. further Lightfoot on Gal. iv. 21 ff.; and St John Thackeray, op. cit. pp. 196 ff., 214f. 22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God 22 — 34. The treaty with Abimelech, and the origin of the name Beer-sheba. The narrative affords another illustration of the respect 214 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxi. .2-29 is with thee in all that thou doest : 23 now therefore swear £ unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with ^my son, nor with my son's son : but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. 24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of the well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. 26 And Abimelech said, I know not who hath done this thing : neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to-day. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them imto Abimelech ; and they two made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ^ Or, my offspring, nor with my posterity with which Abraham is regarded by the native chiefs ; and also estab- lishes Abraham's right to the possession of Beer-sheba. 22. Even Abimelech, a 'king,' who has a 'captain of his host' (1 S. xiv. 50, &c.), finds it to his advantage to enter into a definite treaty with Abraham, seeing that God is 'with him' in all his un- dertakings, and supports him with His blessing (cf. similarly with Isaac, xxvi. 28 £)• 23. here, with reference to Beer-sheba, the name of which is to be explained. nor with my offspring, nor with my progeny. An alliterative combination (nin and nekhed), found also in Job xviii. 19; Is. xiv. 22; Ecclus. xli. 5, xlvii. 22 (Heb.). according to the kindness &c. See xx. 15. Their relationship was already friendly ; it is now to be formally secured for the future. 24. 25. The peace-loving patriarch is ready to accede to the re- \ quest ; he only wishes first to have an understanding about a disputed well, in order that, after the treaty had been concluded, there might be no pretext for disturbing it. 26. Abimelech protests his entire ignorance of what had been done. The sequel shews that he recognized the weU to be Abraham's, and restored it to him. Disputes about wells are common in a desert country (cf xxvi. 20 f.) ; and a toll is often levied by their owners for the use of them. 27. Abraham gives presents, as was customary when treaties were made (1 K. xv. 19; Is. xxx. 6; Hos. xii. 1), in order that he may con- tinue unmolested in Gerar, and be under Abimelech's protection (Knob.). Abraham thus shews that he thought the treaty would be to his own advantage also. 28. the seven ewe lambs, viz. those intended for the purpose mentioned in v. 30. I XXL .9-34] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 215 ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves ? 30 And he said, E These seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that it may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well 31 Where- fore he called that place Beer-sheba ; because there they sware both of them. 32 So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba : | and Abimelech rose up, and Phicol the captain of his host, and R they returned into the land of the Philistines. | 33 And Abraham j planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and caUed there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. | 34 And Abraham i2 sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days. 30. Abimelech, by accepting the lambs, attests that Abraham is the lawful owner of the well. 31. The stress laid on the number 'seven* in vv. 28 — 30 seems to shew that the writer intends to explain 'Beer-sheba" as meaning 'Well of seven' {sheba' being 'seven' in Heb.); but in v. 31^ it is explained expressly as meaning ' Well of swearing.' Possibly, two narra- tives have here been interwoven : it is also possible, however, that the two explanations resolve themselves into one : for the Heb. word for ' to swear' (nishba\ the reflexive of the unused shdba') seems to mean properly (as it were) ' to seven-oneself,' i.e. to pledge oneself in some way by seven sacred things^ so that, if it might be assumed that the * seven lambs' were used for this pui^ose, only one ceremony would be described in the passage. But it is hardly doubtful that the real meaning of the name is 'Well of seven,' i.e. the 'Seven wells,' with aUusion to the number of wells in the locality; and that the expla- nation given here grew up afterwards, like the parallel one in xxvi. 33. Beer-sheba is 25 m. SE. of Umm el-Jerdr, and 58 m. NE. of the Wddi/ JeruTy the two rival sites for * Gerar' (see on xx. 1). 32^ (from and A bimelech), 34. Nothing has been said before about Abimelech being king of the Philistines, though he appears as such in ch. xxvi (J). It seems as though w. 32^ 34 were added, or modified, by a compiler, who read the narrative here in the light of ch. xxvi., and imported into it the same local conditions. The 'land of the Philistines' must be a proleptic expression: see on xxvi. 1. 33. There must have been a sacred tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba, which tradition said had been planted by Abraham. and called there &c. Cf xii. 8,_xiii^4 ; and see on iv. 26. tlie Everlasting God. Heb. ^El 'Oldm, — a title, as Di. remarks, sufficiently suitable where the context relates to an oath and compact, but nevertheless not impossibly the name of a Canaanite deity, iden- tified by the narrator, (like ^El ^ Ely on in xiv. 18) with Jehovah : cf. the Phoen.'HXos {=El) 6 Kal Kpovos (Euseb. Fraep. Ev. i. 10. 13 ff.), and XpoVos dyrjparo<; (Damasc. Princ. 123, p. 381 f , ed. Kopp). 1 Cf. Hdt. III. 8 (the Arabs, when a solemn oath is being concluded, smear »eoen stones with blood drawn from the hands of the contracting parties). 216 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxii. i Beer-sheba was (practically) the southernmost city of Judah (comp. the expression *from Dan even to Beer-sheba'), some 50 m. SSW. of Jerusalem, and 28 m. SW. of Hebron. It was an ancient sanctuary^, hallowed by associations with the patriarchs (see not only the present passage but also xxii. 19, xxvi. 23 — 25, 31 — 33, xxviii. 10, xlvi. 1 — 5) ; it is mentioned as an important place in 1 S. viii. 2 ; and in the 8th cent. B.C. was a popular resort of pilgrims (though the worship there was discountenanced by the prophets), Am. v. 5, viii. 14. No doubt, situated as it was at the edge of the desert, Beer-sheba owed its importance to its wells, five of which still remain (four being in actual use), and two more are clearly traceable, though at present stopped up^ Chapter XXII. The sacrifice of Isaac, A list of tribes descended from Nahor, Verses 1 — 19 of this chapter describe the supreme trial of Abraham's faith. * The patriarch's only son is now grown into a lad, when he receives the command to oflfer him to God in sacrifice. Obedient and devoted, he makes the necessary preparations, and betakes himself to the appointed place of sacrifice, resolved to satisfy even this extreme demand. His hand is even raised to slay his son when he hears the Divine voice, clear and distinct, saying that God does not desire the completion of the sacrifice, but is satisfied with the proved willingness of the patriarch to surrender even his dearest to Him. The animal which is to be substituted in his son's place stands there ready by Divine Providence, and is off'ered in his stead. The reward for his perfected obedience is a solemn renewal of all the Divine promises hitherto given him. Thus (1) Abraham's faith is triumphantly established in the face of the most severe test of all ; (2) his son is a second time granted to his faith, and reserved to become the foundation of the future people of God ; (3) above all, in contradistinction to Canaanite practice, the knowledge that God does not demand human sacrifices is acquired and secured for all time to come ' (Dillm.). The narrative is told simply, but with singular pathos and dignity. Verses 1 — 13, 19 belong to E (notice *God,' not 'Jehovah') : vv. 14—18 are probably an addition due to the compiler of JE : vv. 20 — 24 belong to J. XXII. 1 And it came to pass after these things, that God L did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham ; and he said, XXII. 1. after these things. Cf. on xv. 1. did 'prove. I.e. put to the test, to ascertain whether, even under this severe trial, Abraham would still obey God. See, in illustration 1 W. R. Smith {Ilel. Sem. 165 f., '-^ 181 f.) adduces examples shewing that among the Semites a special sanctity attached to groups of seven wells. 2 The latest and most complete account of the wells of Beer-sheba (with a map and photographs) will be found in an article by G. L. Eobinson in the Biblical World (Chicago), April, 1901, p. 247 ff. (see an abstract in the writer's Joel cmd Amos, ed. 1901, p. 239 f.). Three of the wells have only been reopened since 1897- hence writers before that date (e.g. Conder, TW. 247) spoke only of two wells as containing water. (There may be more wells than seven at Beer-sheba.) XXII. 1, 2] THE BOOK OF GEISTESIS 217 Here am I. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, e whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of of the meaning of the word, Ex. xvi. 4 ; Dt. viii. 2, xiii. 3 ; Jud. ii. 22, iii. 4. Lxx. €7r€tpa^€v, as Heb. xi. 17 Tretpa^o/Acvos (EVV. * tried ')^ said. As may be inferred from v. 3 (cf. on xxi. 12, and xx. 3), in a dream, or vision of the night. 2. thy son, thine only son &c. *The severity of the demand is indicated by the emphatic accumulation of the three accusatives. Thine only son, who alone remains to Abraham after the dismissal of Ishmael (xxi. 14 ff.), and has the whole of his father's love ' (Di.). the land of Moriah. An otherwise unknown region. It is true the author of v. 14 in all probability placed the sacrifice of Isaac on the Temple-hill, and in 2 Ch. iii. 1 (the only other place where ' Moriah * occurs) the * mountain of Moriah ' denotes evidently the same spot ; but these facts do not determine the meaning of the * land of Moriah ' in the present verse. The * land of Moriah ' is the name of the region into which Abraham is to go ; and he is to offer Isaac on * one of the mountains * in it : it is not even suggested that it was a central or important mountain, from which, for instance, the entire region might have obtained its name. But what the limits of this region are, we do not know. It is remarkable that, though it seems to be spoken of here as if it were some well-known district, it is not mentionea elsewhere in the OT. It is possible that the original text had some different name. Pesh. reads 'of the Amorites,' cf xv. 16, xlviii. 22, al, which Dillm. is inclined to adopt: if this reading be correct, 2 Ch. iii. 1 must have been based upon this passage after the text had become corrupt^. 1 AV. has here tempt, on which, as the passage in this form is still a familiar one, a few words of explanation may not be out of place. 'Tempt' in Old Engl., like the Lat. tentare, was a neutral word, meaning (like the Heb. nissdh) to test or prove a person, to see whether he would act in a particular way, or whether the character which he bore was well established ; in modern English, it has come to mean to entice a person in order to do a particular thing, especially something that is wrong or sinful. God 'tests' or 'proves' man, when He subjects him to a trial to ascertain whether his faith or goodness is real; man is said to 'test' or 'prove' God, when he acts as if doubting whether His word or promise is true. AV., in the former application, uses always prove, except in this passage, which (on account of the change in the meaning of tempt) is rightly in RV. altered to prove: in the latter application, it uses always tempt (Ex. xvii. 2, 7; Nu. xiv. 22; Dt. vi. 16; Is. vii. 12; Mai. iii. 15; Ps. Ixxviii. 18, 41, 56, xcv. 9, cvi. 14), which does not at all express to modern readers the meaning of the Heb., and would have been far better altered in RV. to 'put to the test {or proof).' So temptation{s) in Dt. iv. 34, vii. 19, xxix. 3, Ps. xcv. 8 RVm., means resillj proving {s). In the NT. also there are many passages in which neipdleiv would be rendered far more clearly and intelligibly by prove or try than by tempt; see the note of the American Revisers at the end of RV. of the NT., ' Classes of Passages,' vi. 2 The meaning of 'Moriah' is obscure : but it certainly cannot mean, what it has sometimes been supposed to mean, either 'shewn of Jah' /njN")^) or 'vision of Jah' /njNlD) : neither of these forms could ever pass into nn'lD. See, further, on Moriah (including the renderings of the Anc. Versions), the writer's art. in DB. 218 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxii. 2-9 the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3 And Abraham rose E early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son ; and he clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men. Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder ; and we will worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son ; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife ; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said. My father : and he said. Here am I, my son. And he said. Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, God will ^provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son : so they went both of them together. 9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham ^ Heb. see for himself. 3. Abraham forthwith obeys, and makes his preparations accord- ingly. (Cf. Wisd. X. 5.) With the reserve and self-control, charac- teristic generally of the Biblical writers, the narrator leaves the reader to picture for himself the mental agony which such a terrible command must have produced in the patriarch's breast, the rude blow to his natural affections, the dismay at the prospect of losing a son upon ; whom all his hopes and aspirations for the future were centred, and the many anxious questionings to which the conflict of motives must, under such circumstances, have inevitably given rise. On the question why Abraham did not at once revolt at the thought of executing the command, see the remarks on p. 221 f. 5. come again. Come back : see on xxiv. 5 ; and cf xiv. 16. 6. and they went both of tliem together. Abraham, it seems to be implied, walking silently, and full of sorrow. 7. 8. 'The patriarch is beautifully depicted as maintaining his composure, unmoved by the question so innocently put by the un- suspecting boy, his only and dearly loved son. His obedience to God triumphs over the natural feeling of the father. The expressions my father^ my son, bring this out ' (I&iob.). 8. provide himself. Heb. see (i.e. look out) for himself: the idiom, as 1 S. xvi. 1, 17. The words used are ambiguous ; and while not betraying to Isaac what it would be distressing for him to hear, leave room for the silent hope that after all he may be spared. so they went both of them together. The clause is pathetically repeated from v. 6. XXII. 9-15] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 219 built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bounds Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham : and he said. Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from nie. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and ^behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns : and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place ^Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord ^it shall be provided. | 15 And the R ^ Or, according to many ancient authorities, behold a (Heb. one) ram caught 2 That is, The Lord will see, or, provide. * Or, he shall be seen 9. bound. The word Qdkad) is found only here in the OT. : in post-Bibl. Heb. it means specially to bind the bent fore- and hind-legs of an animal for sacrifice. 12. for now I know &c. Abraham has now shewn his willingness even to sacrifice his son : more God does not require : so his hand is now stayed. 13. Tlie text and marg. differ only as between "i and l, two letters, which in all phases of the Heb. alphabet are liable to be confused, and are constantly confused in the ancient versions. The difference in the general sense is inappreciable. The Mass. text, Symm. and Vulg. have behind (nnN) ; many Heb. mss., Sam., lxx., Targg., Pesh., Jubilees xviii. 12, have one (ini<), i.e. a (see 1 K. xix. 4 Heb.). 14. Jehovak-jireh (properly, Yahweh-yir'eh). 'Jehovah seethV i.e. (cf Ex. iii. 7 ; Ps. xxxv. 22, &c. ; and on xvi. 13) sees the needs of His servants, and relieves them accordingly ; but with an allusion, no doubt, at the same time to the sense which the verb has in v. 8, * God will see for himself the lamb for a burnt-offering.' as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah he is seen^ (or, it is provided^). The tense of ' is said ' shews that the reference is to something said habitually (cf. x. 9) ; so that, as the ' mount of Jehovah ' is the Temple-hill (Is. ii. 3, xxx. 29 ; Ps. xxiv. 3), the clause must preserve some proverb that was in general use in connexion with the Temple. The proverb is, however, expressed ambiguously; nor does it correspond, as it might be expected to do, with the name to which it is attached, the verb in the one case being active and in the 1 The tense (as in 'is said') expressing what is habitual. The futures of AV., RV. are misleading, as often (e.g. Is. xxxii. 6, 8 ; Jer. iii. 1, viii. 4, xiii. 12). 220 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxii. 15-18 angel of the Lord called unto Abraham a second time out of iZ heaven, 16 and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son : 17 that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ; 18 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth ^be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my 1 Or, bless themselves other passive. If, however, the text is correctly pointed, there must, it seems, be a play on the double application of the word : Jehovah ' sees ' the needs of those who come to worship Him in Zion, and then ' is seen,' i.e. reveals Himself to them by answering their prayers, and bestowing upon them the blessings of His providence and aid : His 'seeing,' in other words, takes practical effect in a ' being seen\' 15 — 18. Appendix. Abraham's faith having thus been signally confirmed, occasion is taken for a solemn repetition and ratification of previous promises. 16. jBi/ myself have I sworn. So only Is. xlv. 23 ; Jer. xxii. 5, xlix. 13 : cf. Ex. xxxii. 13 ('by thyself &c.,' with allusion to the present passage) ; Heb. vi. 13 f. Comp. the oath, 'As I live' (in Jehovah's mouth), Nu. xiv. 28 (P) ; Jer. xxii. 24, xlvi. 18 ; Zeph. ii. 9 ; Is. xlix. 18 ; and often in Ezek. saith the Lord. ('Tis) Jehovah's whisper ! — a solemn assevera- tive interjection, used constantly by the prophets, but rare in the hist, books : Nu. xiv. 28 (P) ; 1 S. ii. 30 ; 2 K. ix. 26, xix. 33 (= Is. xxxvii. 34), xxii. 19 (= 2 Ch. xxxiv. 27). The root in Arabic signifies to utter a low sound : and hence the Heb. expression probably denoted properly a whispered or muttered utterance, of a revelation heard quietly by the mental ear. 17. I will bless thee &c. Cf. xii. 2. as the stars of the heaven. So xxvi. 4 ; Ex. xxxii. 13 ; Dt. i. 10, X. 22, xxviii. 62 ; cf. ch. xv. 5. as the sand &c. So Josh. xi. 4 ; Jud. vii. 12 ; 1 S. xiii. 5 ; 1 K. iv. 29 ; and nearly so, 2 S. xvii. 11, 1 K. iv. 20 (of Israel). Cf. as the sand of the sea, of Jacob's seed, ch. xxxii. 12 ; of Israel, Hos. i. 10, Is. X. 22 (cf. xlviii. 19) : otherwise ch. xli. 49. shall possess &c. Fig. for, shall conquer and take possession of their cities. 18. and by thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless them- selves. I.e. in wishing blessings for themselves, will use the names of 1 The proverb, if it stood by itself, would be most naturally rendered ' In the mount of Jehovah one appeareth { = men appear),' viz. at the annual pilgrimages and other occasions for worship ('appear,' as Ex. xxiii. 17; Ps. xlii. 2, Ixxxiv. 7) ; but if this be its actual meaning, it cannot be rightly brought into connexion with the name ♦ Jehovah seeth.' See further DB. b.v. Jehovah- jibeh. :xiL i8, 19] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 221 voice. I 19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they R E rose up and went together to Beer-sheba ; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. Abraham's descendants as t3rpes of blessedness (see on xlviii. 20 ; and cf. Ruth iv. 11, 12). So xxvi. 4. Whatever may be the case with the form used in xii. 3 (see the note), xviii. 18, and xxviii. 14, the form used here and xxvi. 4 is certainly reflexive : see Dt. xxix. 19 (where it has the force oi congratulate oneself) ; Jer. iv. 2 (read by for iri) ; Is. Ixv. 16 ; Ps. Ixxii. 17 (RVm., and by for in), lxx. render inexactly by the passive, which is followed in the quotation. Acts iii. 25. obeyed. Hearkened to, — as the same Heb. is often rendered, both more exactly and also more expressively (e.g. Dt. xi. 13). 19 (E). to Beer-sheba. See xxi. 31 (E), 33 (J). The Sacrifice of Isaac, In order to understand rightly the nature and significance of Abraham's act, we must bear in mind the conditions of the age in which he lived. The custom of human sacrifice was widely spread in the ancient world, as it is still among! savage or half-civilized tribes, the idea lying at the bottom of it being that the surrender of something of the highest value, — and so especially of a relative, or a child, — to the deity, would have extraordinary efficacy in averting his anger, or gaining his help. The custom was thus practised among the Phoenicians and other neighbours of Israel (cf. 2 K. iii. 27, xvii. 31) : the Carthaginians, Greek writers tell us, in times of grave national danger or calamity, would sacrifice by the hundred the children of their noblest families. Under the later kings, especially Ahaz and Manasseh, the custom found its way into Judah (comp. 2 K. xvi. 3, xxi. 6, xxiii. 10 ; Jer. vii. 31, xix. 5 ; Ez. xvi. 20, 21, xxiii. 37 ; Is. Ivii. 5), in spite of its being strenuously forbidden by legislators (Dt. xii. 31, xviii. 10 ; Lev. xviii. 21, xx. 25), and condemned by prophets (see especially Mic. vi. 7 f.). In view of this prevalence of the practice among Israel's neighbours it is quite possible that Jehovah's claim to the first-born in Israel (Ex xxii. 29, xiil 12 — 15, al.) stands in some relation to it ; Jehovah took the first-born, but gave it back to its parents upon payment of a redemp- tion-priced The facts which have been mentioned explain how Abraham was able to recognize a command to sacrifice his son, as Divine. We could not so regard such a command : an alleged command of God to sacrifice a child could not be accepted as such; and if it were acted upon, the action would be condemned as a violation of conscience by the whole Christian Church : there had been, it would be said, some hallucination or delusion. The reason is that we live in an age, and under a moral liglit, in which we could not regard as Divine a ^ The word used in Ex. xiii. 12 ' cause to pass over ' is the same as that used in the phrase 'cause to pass through' the fire to Molech, Dt. xviii. 10, Jer. xxxii. 35, al. Bones of infants, which had been presumably sacrificed, buried in jars, have been found recently at Gezer {PEFQS. 1902, p. 361, 1903, p. 33 f., cf. 273). 222 THE BOOK OF GENESIS command to violate not only our sense of what was morally right, but even our natural instincts of love and affection. It was possible for Abraham so to regard it, because he lived under the mental and moral conditions of an age very different from ours. He lived not only in an age when such sacrifices were common, but also in an age in which the rights of the individual were much less clearly recognized than they are now, when it was still a common thing for instance (cf. on xx. 7) for the family of a criminal to be punished with him, and when also a father's power over his son was far more absolute than it is now. The command would not therefore shock the moral standard to which Abraham was accustomed, as it would shock ours. It would not be out of harmony with what he might suppose could be reasonably demanded by God. But, secondly, the sacrifice, though commanded, was not exacted. Abraham's hand was stayed, before the fatal act was completed. This shewed, once for all, clearly and unmistakably, that in contrast to what was imagined of the heathen deities worshipped by Israel's neighbours, the God of Israel did not demand human sacrifices of his worshippers. He demanded in reality only the surrender of Abraham's will. Abraham, by his obedience, demonstrated his readiness to part with what was dearest to him, and with something moreover on which all his hopes for the future depended : thus his character was ' proved,' the sincerity of his religion was established, and his devotion to God confirmed and strengthened. It was the supreme trial of his faith; and it triumphed. And so the narrative teaches two great lessons. On the one hand, it teaches the value set by God upon the surrender of self, and obedience ; on the other, it demonstrates, by a signal example, the moral superiority of Jehovah's religion above the religions of Israel's neighbours^ In the NT. comp. Heb. xi. 17 — 19 (where the offering of Isaac is referred to as the crowning example of Abraham's faith) ; and Jas. ii. 21 f. (where Abraham's act is quoted against the perversion of the doctrine of justification by faith). Notice also that the Christian Church has constantly treated this scene as typical of the Father's willingness to sacrifice the Son (cf. the Good Friday Lesson); and though this application is not explicitly made in the NT., yet v. 8 may be alluded to in John i. 29 (see Westcott's note), and the incident itself in Rom. viii. 32 (cf. e'^eto-© in Gen. xxii. 16 lxx.). The later Jews, it may be added, attributed peculiar merit to the sacrifice, — or, as they called it, the ' binding,' — of Isaac (PHV! ^li?.!?), saying, for instance, that when every morning and evening the lamb was offered in the Temple as a burnt-offering, God 'remembered the binding of Isaac' See, further, DB. s.v. Isaac ; Levy, Neuhehr. Worterb. iii. 683. 20—24. The Nahoridae. Nahor, in xi. 27 the brother of Abraham, appears here as the unit from which were derived by the Hebrew genealogists whose system J here follows, a group of twelve Aramaean tribes resident on the E. or NE. of Canaan, just as other groups of tribes were derived, as we shall see, from Abraham's second wife, l^eturah (xxv. 1 — 4), or from Ishmael (xxv. 12 — 16). Nailer's home was Haran (see p. 233); so this is the centre from which 1 See further, on the subject of the preceding paragraphs, Mozley's Ruling Ideas of Early Ages and their relation to OT. faith. Lectures ii. and in. xxiL 20-24] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 223 these tribes are regarded as having been diflEused. Whether or not Nahor was an historical person, must remain an open question ; his relationship to Abraham, whether real or assumed, served in either case as a measure of the degree of relationship which was held to subsist between the tribes referred to him and the descendants of Abraham. If the name be not that of an individual, it will naturally be that of a lost tribe, resident once about Haran, of which the 'sons' of Nahor were regarded as offshoots, and of which recollections were preserved by the Hebrews (cf. Ewald, Hist i. 268 £, 310 f.). Eight of the twelve tribes are referred to Nahor through a wife, Milcah, and four through a concubine, Re'umah. 20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told J Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor ; 21 Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram ; 22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah : these eight did Milcah bare to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bare Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah. 20. Milcah. According to xi. 27 (P), 29 (J), Nahor's niece. If Nahor be really a tribal name, this marriage with his ' niece ' will represent the amalgamation of two kindred tribes. 21. ^Uz. In X. 23 (P) described as a 'son' of Aram. A tribe settled probably in the S. part of the S3Tian desert, not far NE. of Edom. See Job i. 1 ; Jer. xxv. 20 ; Lam. iv. 21 ; and cf xxxvi. 28. Buz. Also near Edom. Mentioned in Jer. xxv. 23 by the side of Dedan (x. 7) and Tema (xxv. 15). Elihu, Job's fourth friend, was a Buzite (Job xxxii. 2). Buz and Hazo {v. 22) are possibly the countries of Bdzu and Hazu (the former described as full of snakes and scorpions), which Esar-haddon invaded {KB. ii. 131). Kemuel. Otherwise unknown. Aram. In x. 22 (P) Aram, i.e. probably (see the note) the Syrians of Damascus, is a ' son ' of Shem : it is strange to find him here subordinated to the unknown Kemuel. There are, however, many indications (cf on x. 7, 22, 23) that both the Aramaean and Arabian tribes known to the Hebrews were represented in different genealogical systems as differently related to one another. 22. Chesed. Generally supposed to be the eponymous ancestor of the Casdim (see on xi. 31). The change of form would be in agreement with the rules of the Massoretic vocalization; but we hardly expect to find a tribe belonging to the extreme S. of Babylonia grouped with Aramaic tribes centred at Haran. Hazo. See on v. 21. Pildash and Yidlaph are unknown. Bethuel appears in xxiv. 15, &c. as an historical personage. 24. Four tribes referred to Nahor through a 'concubine,' i.e. less directly connected with the main group (cf xxv. 1 — 4). 224 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiii. i, 2 Tebak No doubt the Tebah (so read with Pesh.) of 2 S. viii. 8, and the 'Tibhath (Pesh. Tebah) of the || 1 Ch. xviii. 8, one of the cities of Hadad'ezer, king of Aram-zobah. GaJmm and Tahash are un- known. Ma'acah is the people of this name, dwelling S. of Hermon, and E. of the Sea of Gennesareth, who are often mentioned, Dt. iii. 14 ; Josh. xiii. 11, 13 ; 2 S. X. 6, 8, al Chapter XXIII. The death of Sarah. Ahraham^s purchase of the cave of Machpelah at Hebron. This narrative describes how a permanent possession was acquired by Abraham in Canaan. The people of Hebron shew him the highest respect : they listen to his proposal with the utmost friendliness ; and after the exchange of preliminary courtesies, such as are still usual upon similar occasions in the East, the land tendered is accepted, and paid for by him openly in the presence of all the citizens of Hebron : it is thus publicly certified that Abraham is its lawful owner and possessor. The narrative belongs entirely to P, whose style it exhibits throughout, not only in particular phrases and expressions, but also in the circumstantial description of the transaction, and of the legal formalities accompanying it. The detail with which the narrative is told (cf. ch. xvii.) is on account of the importance attached by the author to this hallowed patriarchal possession in Canaan. XXIII. 1 And the life of Sarah was an hundred and seven t and twenty years : these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan : and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to XXIII. 1, 2. Death of Sarah. 2. Kiriath-arba'. I.e. the ' City of four' (notice the article in XXXV. 27, Neh. xi. 25), or the Tetrapolis, — formed, for instance, by the settlement of four kindred or confederate tribes : in P used regularly for 'Hebron' (xxxv. 27 ; Jos. xv. 13, 54, xx. 7, xxi. 11 : so Neh. xi. 25), and said in Jos. xiv. 15 = Jud. i. 10 (JE) to have been its older name. But the name was misunderstood, as if it signified the ' City of Arba" ; and so *Arba" became (Jos. xv. 13, xxi. 11, cf. xiv. 15) the 'father^' of the 'Anakim, the giants whom, as tradition told, Caleb had driven out of Hebron to mourn. To wail, with loud demonstrations of grief, in the Eastern fashion (see the writer's Joel and Amos, pp. 183, 233 f. ; and cf Lane, 3fod. Egyptians^ 11. 252). This is the meaning of the Heb. word: see esp. Mic. i. 8; and cf. 2 S. i. 12, iii. 31 ; 1 K. xiii. 30; Zech. 1 See, however, lxx. of the three passages quoted {DB. s.v. Kiriath-Arba; Moore, Judges, p. 25). XXIII. 2-7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 225 weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead, P and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you : give me a possession of a burying- place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord : thou art ^a mighty prince among us : in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead ; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people 1 Heb. a prince of Qod. xii. 11, 12 (EW. in all, except Mic. i. 8, inadequately, * mourn'); Jer. iv. 8, xxii. 18 (EW. 'lament'). 3, 4. Abraham's request. 3. rose up. From sitting, or lying, on the ground, the posture of a mourner, 2 S. xii. 16 (cf. v, 20 ^ arose from the earth'), xiii. 31; Is. iii. 26 ; Lam. ii. 10. spahe &c. As appears from v. 10, in the ' gate ' of the city, where legal and other business was often transacted (cf. on xix. 1). the children of Heth. I.e. the Hittites (cf. on x. 15). The ex- pression is one peculiar to P (vv. 5, 7, 10, 16, 18, 20, xxv. 10, xlix. 32, — always of the inhabitants of Hebron: cf. the 'daughters of Heth' in xxvii. 46). On the difficulties arising out of the mention of 'Hittites' in Hebron, see p. 229. 4. stranger. The word {ger) explained on xv. 13. The combi- nation, stranger and sojourner, — or, better, sojourner and settler, — recurs Lev. xxv. 35, 47, Nu. xxxv. 15, and, applied figuratively, to denote one having a precarious tenure and position. Lev. xxv. 23, Ps. XXxix. 12, 1 Ch. xxix. 15, 1 P. ii. 11 (irdpOLKOL koI irapcTrtSiy/AOi, as LXX. here and Ps. xxxix. 12). give me &c. As a temporary settler, Abraham has no landed possession in Canaan: he therefore asks, as a favour, to be allowed a site for a family sepulchre, such as all families of distinction possessed in the East. 5. 6. ' Compliments pass, in oriental style. Abraham is made welcome, as a great man, to choose any of their sepulchres ; a gracious, though perhaps only a formal courtesy*, which Abraham acknowledges (u. 7), like an Arab, by bowing low' (Geikie, Hours with the Bible, i. 365). 6. a mighty prince. Heb. a prince of God, i.e. a prince worthy to belong to God, mighty or noble. Comp. analogous expressions in Ps. xxxvi. 6, Ixviii. 15 (RV.), Ixxx. 10, civ. 16; Nu. xxiv. 6 ; 1 Ch. xii. 22 ('like a camp of God ') : and cf. on x. 9, and xxxv. 5. 7 — 9. Abraham acknowledges the offer courteously, though he will not take advantage of it, and indeed knows that he is not intended ^ It was not usual to allow strangers to be interred in a family burial-place (see the footnote on p. 227). D. 15 226 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiii. 7-13 of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8 And he communed P with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field ; for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a buryingplace. 10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth : and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me : the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee ; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee : bury thy dead 12 And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear to do so. He begs only their good offices with Ephron, the cave in j whose field he desires to buy at its full value. | 8. communed. Spake, — the word being the ordinary Heb. word for ' speak.' Cf. on xviii. 33. 9. the cave. Caves are numerous in Palestine; and were much used as burial-places (cf. John xi. 38). See DB. s.v. Sepulchre. Machpelah. Not the name of the cave, but, as vv. 17, 19 shew, the name of the district in which the field containing the cave was. The common interpretation of Machpelah as meaning the 'double place,' with reference to a supposed 'double cave,' is thus extremely questionable (so already Grove in Smith's BB. s,v.). Machpelah is not otherwise mentioned, except in passages of P referring back to the present occasion, xxv. 9, xlix. 30, 1. 13. 10. 11. Ephron was present, and heard Abraham's request; so he immediately offered him the cave and field as a gift. This again is a mere piece of politeness, not intended to be accepted. Cf. 2 S. xxiv. 22 f.' 10. in the audience. Lit. in the ears; and so always rendered (e.g. 1. 4, 2 K. xxiii. 2), except here, w. 13, 16; Ex. xxiv. 7 ; 1 S. xxv. 24 (A v.); 1 Ch. xxviii. 8; Neh. xiii. 1. that went in &c. Those who 'go in' or (xxxiv. 24) 'go out' at the city gate are the citizens, who have the right of entrance to the com- munal assembly. 12, 13. Abraham declares that he desires to purchase the field. 12. As before, v. 7. 1 'An Arab gives his house, field, horse, to-day, as in Abraham's time, to an intending buyer, and appeals to witnesses that he does so. But it is none the less known that this is only a form to help him to raise the price in the end ' (Geikie, l.c. p. 365. Similarly Lane, Mod. Eg. n. 13 f.). XXIII. I3-I8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 227 me : I will give the price of the field ; take it of me, and I will P bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me : a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron ; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. 17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in aU the border thereof round about, were made sure 18 unto Abraham for a 14, 15. Ephron yields the point: a 'piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee ? what can a sum like that signify between men in our position ? In this way he politely indicates the price. A shekel of silver was worth probably about 2s. dd. (A. R. S. Kennedy, art. Money, in DB. p. 420), so that 400 shekels would equal £55 of our money, though its purchasing power, it must be re- membered, would no doubt be a good deal greater (ibid. § 11). 16 — 18. Abraham pays the price asked in tne presence of the citizens of Hebron as witnesses, and the field is legally assured to him as his property. 16. weighed. Up to at least the time of the return from the Exile, the Hebrews had no coined money; but the precious metals circulated in the form of ingots of known weight, which upon occasion of any commercial transaction were regularly 'weighed' as a security against fraud. Comp. the same word in 1 K. xx. 39 (EVV. pay) ; Jer. xxxii. 9, 10; Is. Iv. 2; Zech. xi. 12; Est. iii. 9. current money with. Lit. passing over to, i.e. fas the Targ. of Ps.- Jon. explains it), * good silver, passing at every (banker's) table, and receivable in all transactions' {DB. l.c.). Cf. 2 K. xii. 4. 17. The situation and contents of the field are here defined more precisely. in front of Mamre. I.e., presumably, on the E. of Mamre: cf. on xiii. 18. and all the trees &c. In the Ass. and Bab. contract-tablets, the number of trees sold with a piece of ground, esp. date-palms, is generally specified, KB. iv. 101 (747 B.C.), 161, 165 (721 B.c.;. Comp. also the specification of the houses, gardens, wells, &c., appertaining to a family sepulchre, in the Nabataean inscription, of the 1st cent. A.D., cited in Hogarth's Authority and Archaeology, p. 135 \ 1 The Nabataean inscriptions illustrate also the jealousy with which family sepulchres were guarded, and the fines and solemn imprecations held out over those who allowed unauthorized persons to be buried in them. 15—2 228 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiii. is-w possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all P that went in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the children of Heth. 18. in tliepreseme of &c. As witnesses: cf. Jer. xxxii. 12; Ruth iv. 9—11. 19. Burial of Sarah in the cave thus acquired. 20. Repetition (in P's style: cf. on xvii. 22 — 27) of the substance of w. 17, 18, in a condensed form. The Cave of Machpelah. The traditional site of this cave, on the NE. edge of the modern El-Haltl (see on xiii. 18), is now surmounted by a mosque, 70 ft. long (from NW. to SE.) and 93 ft. broad, which occupies the SE. part of a court 181 ft. long by 93 ft. broad, called the Haram ('prohibited,' i.e. sacred, 'place'), and enclosed by massive walls 8 ft. thick and 40ft. high. The Haram is most jealously guarded by the Moslems, and has never in modern times been entered by Christians except on rare occasions by distinguished strangers, for instance in 1862 by the (then) Prince of Wales, accompanied by Dean Stanley and other members of his suite, and in 1881 by the Princes Albert Victor and George, Canon Dalton, Sir Charles Wilson, and Capt. [now Col.] Conder. Dean Stanley's account may be read in his Jewish Churchy i. App. 2 : and the report drawn up by Col. Conder after his visit in 1881 is given in PEFM., in. 333—346 : see also, more briefly, DB. s.v. Machpelah (all with plans). The following is all that we have space to mention here. The Haram- enclosure contains six large cenotaphs, equidistantly disposed along the length of the enclosure, and supposed by the Moslems to stand vertically above the actual graves of the three patriarchs and their wives, each enclosed in a separate chapel, guarded by doors inlaid with brass-work, and covered with richly embroidered silk hangings. The cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebekah are in the mosque itself, those of Abraham and Sarah in the porch on the NW. of it, in the middle of the Haram, and those of Jacob and Leah in two separate chambers at the NW. end of the Haram. There is also a cenotaph of Joseph in a building just outside the Haram, on its NW. corner. The cave below has never been entered in modern times : there are in the floor of the mosque three entrances said to lead into it, but they could be reached only by break- ing up the flags of the flooring, a proceeding which the Moslems would regard as sacrilegious. As regards the date of the Haram and its contents, the massive enclosing walls are considered to belong to the time of Herod ; the mosque contains large remains of a Christian Church, belonging probably to the 12th cent. A.D.; the cenotaphs and tlieir decorations are of later Arab workmanship. On the ^Hittites* in Hebron. The term 'Hittite,' as has been explained (on X. 15), is used in the OT. (1) of the great people resident on the N. of THE HITTITES IN HEBROlSr 229 Phoenicia and the Lebanon; (2) of a branch of them settled in the extreme N. of Canaan, under Hermon ; (3) in the lists of nations to be dispossessed by the Israelites, of a branch, perhaps the same as (2), but possibly (see on xv. 20) a branch located, or supposed to have been located, elsewhere in Canaan (see Nu. xiii. 29); (4) in P of the inhabitants of Hebron (see the passages on xxiii. 3), and of two of Esau's wives (Gen. xxvi. 34, xxvii. 46, xxxvi. 2). This mention of Hittites at Hebron, in the South of Canaan, is surprising, and diflScult to explain satisfactorily. («) It is possible, no doubt, in the abstract, that there might have been a colony of the N. Hittites there ; but if so, it is remarkable that there is no hint of its existence elsewhere, e.g. in the accounts of the conquest of Hebron by the Israelites (Josh. xv. 13 f.; (| Jud. i. 10). The alleged proof from archaeology of the existence of Hittites in Hebron ^ breaks down entirely : the fact that * among the prisoners of Ramses II. (b.o. 1275 — 1208, Petrie), represented on the walls of Kamak, are natives of Ashkelon, whose features and mode of wearing the hair are Hittite' proves nothing as to the presence of Hittites in Hebron 1000 years previously 2; while the argument that because Thothmes III. speaks of the 'greater Hittite land* (in the North), therefore there must have been a 'lesser Hittite land' at Hebron in the South, is a very bad piece of reasoning : it is obvious that it may have lain equally well in any other direction. (&) There are grounds for supposing that, after the Hittites had ceased to exist as an independent people (c. b.c. 700), and when they came to be known practically to the Hebrews only by tradition, the term was generalized, and used vaguely with reference to the pre-Israelite population of Canaan generally, much as *Canaanite' and *Amorite' were often employed^: it is possible therefore that P, when he speaks of the natives of Hebron as 'children of Heth,' really means no more than to describe them as ' Canaanites.' In support of this view we may point to Josh. i. 4 (Deuteronomic*), where 'all the land of the Hittites' manifestly embraces the whole of Palestine; to Ez. xvi. 3, 45, where the prophet, reproaching Jerusalem for its innate depravity, says that (morally) its father was an ' Amorite,' and its mother a ' Hittite'; and to Gen. xxvii. 46, xxviii. 1, 6, 8 (all P), where, with reference to Esau's 'Hittite' wives (xxvi. 34), 'daughters of Heth ' and ' daughters of Canaan ' are used interchangeably (cf. xxxvi. 2). In illustration of the vague and general ideas associated with some of these ethnographic terras it may be observed that the inhabitants of Hebron, who are called 'Hittites' by P, are called 'Amorites' by E (Josh. x. 5), and ' Canaanites ' by J (Jud. i. 10). (c) Jastrow {EncB. s.v. Hittites) thinks that, though the Hittites of Hebron were certainly by Hebrew tradition identified with the Hittites of the North, they were in reality a different tribe altogether, who were settled in S. Palestine, and had nothing in common with the 1 Sayce, Monuments, 144; EHH. 55 f., and elsewhere. » Prof. Sayce's date for Bamses 11. is b.c. 1348 — 1281; and for Hammurabi (with whom, if he be the Amraphel of Gen. xiv. 1, Abraham will have been contemporary) b.c. 2376—2333 {Early Israel, 1899, pp. 277, 281). ^ It is remarkable that the term was generalized similarly by the Assyrians: Sennacherib, for instance, in the *land of the Hatti,' includes Phoenicia and Palestine {EncB. ii. 2098). 4 Or perhaps, as the clause is not in the lxi., a gloss by a late hand: but even 80, it remains as evidence of what was believed at the time when it was introduced. 230 THE BOOK OF GENESIS N. Hittites but the name. This seems rather a forced solution of the difficulty. To the present writer, judging as far as he is able on the basis of present knowledge, (&) seems the most probable view. We have no doubt in this chapter a faithful picture of the manner in which purchases were negotiated, and the transfer of land was legally eflfected, in the writer's own time : but evidence that the details of the transaction, as here narrated, belong essentially to the 'early Babylonian period^,' is entirely lacking. Obviously, if the narrative is to be shewn by this argument to be contemporary with the events which it purports to describe, it must contain expressions which occur only in other documents (whether Hebrew or Baby- lonian) of the same age, and do not occur subsequently. As a matter of fact, it contains no such expressions. Of the expressions quoted by Prof. Sayce in support of his statement, 'elders' does not occur in the chapter at all; the transaction doubtless took place at the 'gate' of the city, but this was a common place for such formalities long afterwards (Ru. iv. 1, 10, 11; Is. xxix. 21; cf. Prov. xxxi. 23); 'in the presence oV witnesses, occurs constantly not only in the older Babylonian contract-tablets, but also in those of the age of Sargon, Sennacherib, and later kings^, — to say nothing of Jer. xxxii. 12 as well; the term 'shekel,' and the expression 'to weigh money,' occur repeatedly in Hebrew writings of the seventh cent, and later (see the note on «?. 16); even the unusual term 'current' {v. 16) occurs in 2 K. xii. 4 [Heb. 5]. As we know now from inscriptions more fully than we once did, formalities in legal transactions were usual in the civilized societies of the ancient world, even in remote times : but on the date of those described in Gen. xxiii. the evidence of archaeology is simply neutral ; it does not shew them to be either early or late. Chapter XXIV. How Rehekah becomes Isaac^s wife. The narrative in this chapter is told with singular picturesqueness and grace, and presents an idyllic picture of simple Eastern life. The confidence placed by Abraham in his long-tried servant, the preparations for the journey, the scene by the well outside Haran, the touches of character in Rebekah and Laban, the negotiations ending in her consenting to go with Abraham's servant, and her meeting with Isaac, are all depicted with simple, yet perfect, literary skill, and with the utmost truth to nature and life. Each successive scene, as it is drawn by the narrator, stands out before the reader in clear and vivid outline. At the same time, the writer weaves delicately into his narra- tive a religions motive : he notices, as he goes along, the providence of God, as over-ruling the chief actors in the transaction {vv. 7^ 12, 14, 27, 48, 50, 51, 56); the servant whom Abraham sends finds the right spot, meets with the right damsel, who quickly, though unconsciously, announces herself as his master's niece; and both she and her family at once fall in with the tokens of the Divine will — Verse 36** anticipates xxv. 5 in such a way as to lead Dillm. and others to suppose that in the original narrative of J, xxv. 1 — 6, iV' preceded ch, xxiv. 1 bayce, EHH. p. 61. » gee e.g. KB. iv. 109, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121. XXIV. 1-5] THE BOOK OF GEKESIS 231 XXIV. 1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken injr age : and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said imto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had. Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh : 3 and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell : 4 but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac. 5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to XXIV. 1 — 9. Abraham commissions his principal and confidential servant to find a wife for his son Isaac, and to find her, not from among the Canaanites among whom he was dwelling, but from his own rela- tions in the land of his nativity. As is usual in the East (cf. DB, iii. 270), the betrothal is arranged without Isaac's own personal inter- vention. 1. had blessed &c. Hence his desire to find a wife for his son, in order that Isaac's prospective heir might inherit his good fortune. 2. ths elder of his house^ that ruled over all tkut he had (Ps. cv. 21 ; cf. Gen. xxxix. 4). The servant highest in authority, or, as we might say, his steward. Whether he was identical with Eliezer of xv. 2 (E), is more than we can definitely say. Put, I pray thee &c. So xlvii. 29. Some specially solemn form of attesting an oath is evidently intended, though the reason upon which it rests is uncertain. Sons are elsewhere spoken of as coming out of their father's thigh (xlvi. 26 ; Ex. i. 5 '. EVV. * loins,' but the Heb. is the same as here) ; and hence one view is that it was meant as a sjrmbolical invocation of a man's descendants to maintain the oath, and avenge any infi-action of it. It is remarkable that in Australia there is a similar custom : when natives swear amity to one another, or pledge themselves to aid one another in avenging a death, both seat them- selves on the ground, then one rests himself cross-legged upon the thighs of the other, and places his hands under his thighs ; after remaining thus a minute or two, he withdraws : not a word has been spoken, but an inviolate pledge to avenge the death has by this ceremony passed between the two (Grey, Journals of Expeditions in NW. and W. Australia, 1841, n. 342, cited by SpurreU). 3. the God of heaven &c. Who knows aU that happens in the world, and is powerful to avenge a broken oath. of the Canaanites. Abraham will have no dealings with the Canaanites : tribal feeling, and religious motives (cf Dt. vii. 3 ; Josh, xxiii. 12), combine to induce him to find a bride for his son from his own family. 4. unto my country. I.e. as the sequel shews, Haran (see on xi. 31). 232 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiv. 5-10 follow me unto this land : must I needs bring thy son again J unto the land from whence thou earnest ? 6 And Abraham said imto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. 7 The Lord, the God of heaven, that took me from my father's house, and from the land of my nativity, and that spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land ; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence. 8 And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath ; only thou shalt not bring my son thither again. 9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning this matter. 10 And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed; ^having all goodly things of his master's in his hand : and he arose, and went to ^Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. ^ Or, for all the goods of his master were in his hand ^ Heb. Aram-naharaim, that is, Aram of the two rivers. ^ 5. bring thy son again. We should now say, * fake thy son back' (viz. to Haran) : similarly w. 6, 8 (' take not my son back thither '). ' Again ' is in EW. constantly used (as in Old English generally) where we should now say back (comp. e.g. Nu. xvii. 10, AV. and HV.) ; and the archaism sometimes creates indistinctness and ambiguity. 7. the God of heaven. Lxx. adds, and the God of the earthy as v. 3, — no doubt rightly. ' God of heaven ' (alone) is a late, post-exilic expression (see LOT. p. 519, ed. 7, p. 553). that took me..., and that spake &c. See xii. 1, 7, xiii. 15, xv. 18. and from the land of my nativity. I.e. Haran, which (and not Ur) this narrator pictures as Abraham's native country. jm send his angel &c. Cf. Ex. xxiii. 20, 23, xxxiii. 2, Nu. xx. 16. S 9. concerning this matter. In accordance with — lit. on (th^ basis of) — this word (viz. the instructions just given). 10 — 27. The servant starts on his journey ; and finds all things happen for him providentially, in accordance with Abraham's desire. 10. having &c. Viz. as presents, for the bride and her relations (vv. 22, 53). Mesopotamia. Heb. Aram-Naharaim (so Dt. xxiii. 4 ; Jud. iii. 8 ; Ps. Ix. title), i.e. Aram (or l^yria : see on x. 22) of the two rivers^, the country between the Euphrates, in the upper part of its course (cf. xxxi. 31), and the Habor (2 Ki. xvii. 6 = xviii. 11), the Greek Xa^wpas, now the Khabour. 1 The occurrence in inscriptions of the forms Naharin, Nahrima, has led recent scholars to doubt whether the dual -aim is correct : see EncB. i. 287, and on the other side i. 278 n. (Noldeke). XXIV. II-I8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 233 11 And he made the camels to kneel down without the city by J the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. 12 And he said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, send me, I pray thee, good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I stand by the fountain of water ; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water : 14 and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink ; and she shall say. Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also : let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac ; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. 15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was bom to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. 16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her : and she went down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher. 18 And she said, Drink, my lord : and she the city of Nahor, The city which Nahor^ (xi. 29), after Abraham had migrated to Canaan, still continued to inhabit, i.e. Haran ; cf. xxvii. 43, xxix. 4 f. 11. the well of water. On the plan of Haran in Sachau's Beise in Syrien (1883), p. 223, there is a well of good water (p. 217) marked, some little distance on the N. of the citadel. to draw water. As is stiU the duty of the women in the East. Cf. Ex. ii. 16 ; 1 S. ix. 11 ; Jn. iv. 7 ; and see Thomson, L. and B. I. 260 f (in the shorter, one vol. ed., 1898, &c., p. 592). 12 — 14. Abraham's servant prays for a sign by which he may recognize Isaac's destined bride. 12. said. Viz. ' in his heart ' {v. 45), i.e. mentally (cf. xviii. 17). send me... good speed. Heb. make (it) to meet (i.e. happen rightly) before me. So xxvii. 20. 15 — 20. AU happens accordingly. 15. Bethuel. Son of Nahor and Milcah (xxii. 20, 22, 23), and so Abraham's nephew. upon her shoulder. In the Syrian fashion (Thomson, I.e.) : in Egypt the pitcher is carried on the head. 17 — 20. Thomson (I.e.) remarks that though it is common enough in the East for a girl drawing water to be willing to give some to a traveller, he had never found one as generous as Rebekah : * she drew 234 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiv. 18-27 hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him J drink. 19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. 20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man looked stedfastly on her ; holding his peace, to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. 22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ring of ^half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; 23 and said. Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in ? 24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. 25 She said moreover unto him. We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in. 26 And the man bowed his head, and worshipped the Lord. 27 And he said. Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who hath not forsaken his mercy and his 1 Heb. a beka. See Ex. xxxviii. 26. for all his camels, and for nothing, while I have often found it difficult to get my horse watered, even for money.' 20. the trough. Such as in the East are * always found about wells, and frequently made of stone.' 21. holding his peace. I.e. reflecting silently. 22. The present is intended partly as a return for the services rendered, and partly (being on a liberal scale) for the purpose of securing Rebekah's good- will. The ' ring ' was intended for the nostril {v. 47). 'Jewels for the face, forehead, and arms are still as popular amongst the same class of people as they were in- the days of Abraham.' half a shekel weight &c. The shekel weighed about J oz. ; so that J a shekel would (at the present value of gold) be worth about a sovereign, and 10 shekels about £20. But no doubt in patriarchal times gold was worth more than it is now. The 'bdka*' ('cleaving,' : 'fraction') recurs in Ex. xxxviii. 26, where its value is stated. , 23 — 25. In reply to the servant's question, Rebekah now explains to him who she is, and assures him that in her father's house there is both room for him to lodge, and also provender for his camels. 26, 27. wo7'shipped Jehovah &c. In thankfulness that the object of his errand had been so far accomplished ; the disclosure in v. 24 having satisfied him that he had been led to the right goal. 27. Blessed he Jehovah &c. An exclamation of gratitude : Ex. xviii. 10 ; Ru. iv. 14 ; 1 S. xxv. 32, 39 al mercy. Rather, kindness (as vv. 12, 14). Cf. v. 49, xlvii. 29; XXIV. 27-35] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 236 truth toward my master : as for me, the Lord hath led me in j" the way to the house of my master's brethren. 28 And the damsel ran, and told her mother's house according to these words. 29 And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban : and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the fountain. 30 And it came to pass, when he saw the ring, and the bracelets upon his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me ; that he came unto the man ; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the fountain. 31 And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord ; wherefore standest thou without ? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels. 32 And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels ; and he gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the men's feet that were with him. 33 And there was set meat before him to eat : but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said. Speak on. 34 And he said, I am Abraham's servant. 35 And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great : and he hath given him flocks and Jos. ii. 12, 14 (in all lit. do kindness and truth) ; and see the writer's Parallel Psalter^ p. 447. brethren. I.e. relations^ as xiii. 8. Cf. on v. 48. 28. ran. Hastening, as a girl would do, to relate what had happened and to shew her presents. her mother's house. The women's part of Bethuel's establishment, where, in Eastern fashion, she and her mother would live, secluded from the men. 30. Laban is attracted by the sight of the presents : his character, as it comes out more fully in his dealings with Jacob, already displays itself. 31. thou blessed of Jehovah. A title of high regard (cf. xxvi. 29). 32. The camels were apparently brought into the house : cf. Thomson (p. 261), *I have often slept in the same room with these peaceful animals, in company with their owner and all his family.' 33. meat. Food : see on i. 29. 34 — 48. With * epic particularity,' the narrator lets the reader hear the whole story again, almost in the same words that had been used before, from the servant's lips. 35. The description is intended to impress Laban with a sense of Isaac's prospective wealth and importance (see v. 36^) ; an alliance with such a man would be one worth making. 236 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiv. 35-47 herds, and silver and gold, and menservants and maidservants, J and camels and asses. 36 And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old : and unto him hath he given all that he hath. 37 And my master made me swear, ; saying. Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters j of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell : 38 but thou shalt go imto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son. 39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me. 40 And he said unto me, The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way ; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house : 41 then shalt thou be clear from my oath, when thou comest to my kindred ; and if they give her not to thee, thou shalt be clear from my oath. 42 And I came this day unto the fountain, and said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go : 43 behold, I stand by the fountain of water ; and let it come to pass, that the maiden which cometh forth to draw, to whom I shall say. Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink ; 44 and she shall say to me. Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels : let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master's son. 45 And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder ; and she went down unto the fountain, and drew ; and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee. 46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said. Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also : so I drank, and she made the camels drink also. 47 And I asked her, and said. Whose daughter art thou ? And she said. The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him : and I put the ring upon her nose, and the bracelets upon flocks and herds &c. Cf. xii. 16, xiii. 2. 37—41. Cf. w. 3—8. 42—44. Cf. vv. 12—14. 42. do. The word is emphatic (notice K^* in the Heb.). 45—48. Cf. m. 15—20, 22—27. 47. upon her nose. Cf. Is. iii. 21 ; Ez. xvi. 12. A ring of metal, passed usually through the right nostril, is still often worn as an orna- ment by women in Egypt and Syria (Lane, Mod. EgypV ii. 323). I XXIV. 47-56] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 237 her hands. 48 And I bowed my head, and worshipped thej- Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son. 49 And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me : and if not, tell me ; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. 50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said. The thing proceedeth from the Lord : we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. 52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth unto the Lord. 53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah : he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. 54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night ; and they rose up in the morning, and he said. Send me away unto my master. 55 And her brother and her mother said. Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten ; after that she shall go. 56 And he said unto them. Hinder me 48. brother^ 8 daughter. Kinsman's daughter; 'brother* being used of a nephew, as xiv. 14, 16, xxix. 12. 49. kindly and truly {v. 27). As becomes those who are near relations. that I may turn &c. I.e. proceed somewhere else to find a wife for Isaac. 50. had or good. A proverbial expression meaning anything of any kind, anything at all : cf. xxxi. 24, 29, Nu. xxiv. 13, 2 S. xiii. 22 ; also Zeph. i. 12, Is. xli. 23, Jer. x. 5. 51. hath spoken : viz. by the facts, as just narrated. The betrothal is thus settled. The consent of the damsel is not necessary : as now, * the parents manage the whole affair ; often, however, with the advice of the eldest son and heir, as Laban was in this case ' (Thomson, 262). 52. bowed himself &c., as v. 26, in thankfulness. 53. 'Presents are absolutely essential in betrothals. They are given with much ceremony before witnesses, and are even described in a written document, so that, if the match be broken off, the bridegroom €an recover them.' The jewels, &c. are intended as presents for the bride : the * precious things ' are the moha/r, or purchase-money of the bride, paid to her relations : see on xxxiv. 12. 54. Only now, his business being finished, does Abraham's servant consent to take food. 238 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxiv. 56-64 not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way ; send me away , that I may go to my master. 57 And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth. 68 And they called Rebekah, ^nd said unto her. Wilt thou go with this man ? And she said, I will go. 59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. 61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man : and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. 62 And Isaac came ^from the way of Beer-lahai-roi ; for he dwelt in the land of the South. 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide : and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted 1 The Sept. has, through the wilderness. 57. inquire at her mouth. I.e. consult her. So Josh. ix. 14 ; Is. XXX. 2. 59. their sister. So called, in so far as her brother Laban has throughout taken the lead {vv. 31, 50, 53, 55). her nurse. E gives her name as Deborah (xxxv. 8). 60. The parting blessing upon Rebekah, — cast (like xiv. 19 f., xxvii. 27 — 9) into a rhythmical, semi-poetical form. May she become the mother of countless descendants, and may her seed triumph over all their foes ! he thou the mother of. Lit. * become thou ' (exactly as xvii. 16) ; i.e. mayest thou grow (in thy descendants) into. Cf. Ru. iv. 11 f. let thy seed &c. See xxii. 17^ 61. her damsels. I.e. her attendants : for Rebekah is pictured as a woman holding some position. Cf. 1 S. xxv. 42 ; Ps. xlv. 14. 62. And Isaac came. Now Isaac had come, — viz. before Abraham's servant returned. from the way of. Lit. from coming to, which can hardly be right. Perhaps to the wilderness of (nmo for nud) should be read (on the basis of Lxx., Sam.) : the object of the words will then be to state that it was near Beer-lahai-roi (xvi. 14) that Isaac met Rebekah. for he dwelt in the land of the South — the Negeb (xii. 9), which extended to the neighbourhood of Beer-lahai-roi. 63. to meditate. The word is found otherwise only in poetry, esp. in the Psalms, as cxix. 15, 23, 27, and with the collat. idea of complaint, Iv. 17, Ixxvii. 3 ('complain'), [6 ('commune'); and its correctness here is open to suspicion. Perhaps Pesh. to walk about (iDlsr for nity) has preserved the true reading : cf. v. 65. XXIV. 64-xxv. 2] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 239 up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the cameL j 65 And she said unto the servant. What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us ? And the servant said. It is my master : and she took her veil, and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. ^1 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife ; and he loved her : and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. 64. she lighted off the camel. As a mark of respect, in accordance with Eastern etiquette : cf. Josh. xv. 18 ; 1 S. xxv. 23 ; and Thomson, p. 262, ' It is customary for both men and women, when an emeer or great personage is approaching, to alight some time before he comes up with them.' 65. Hitherto the servant's * master * has been uniformly Abraham : it has hence been supposed that the narrative contained originally (perhaps after v. 62) a notice of the death of Abraham, which the compiler omitted, as he preferred to retain the notice of P, xxv. 7 — 11*. and she took her veil &c. A woman of any position in the East still appears veiled before her betrothed, until the ceremony of marriage is completed (cf Lane, Mod. Egyptians^ i. 201, 218, 225). 67. After hearing what had happened {v. 66) Isaac took Rebekah as his bride. his mother Sarah's tent. "What had been his mother's special tent ; cf. xxxi. 33\ was comforted &c. According to P (xxv. 20, comp. with xvii. 17, d. 5, xxiii. 1) Sarah had been dead 3 or 4 years, when Isaac married, -an unusually long period for mourning in the East. However, there are many indications (see the Introd. § 2) that the chronology of P cannot be adjusted to the narratives of P. Chapter XXV. 1—18. The sons of Abraham by Keturah, Death and burial of Abraham, Tribes descended from Ishmael, XXV. 1 And Abraham took another wife, and her name j was Keturah. 2 And she bare him Zinaran, and Jokshan, and XXV. 1 — 6 (J). Sons of Abraham by Keturah. Diiferent tribes, dwelling (speaking generally) on the E. or SE. of Palestine, ' which the Israelite historians reckoned to their own race, though not of the full 1 But the syntax of IDK n'^Hfi^n is so anomolous that most modern com- imentators consider n")2J^ DDK to be a gloss (reading then simply 'into the tent'). 2 It iiag been suggested, upon independent grounds (cf. on v. 65), that mother's in V. 67'' was originally father's. 240 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxv. 2-5 Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 And Jokshanj begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 4 And the sons of Midian ; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 And Abraham gave blood (Keturah being a second wife, or concubine), and a step further removed than the Ishmaelites ' (Moore, Judges^ p. 177). 2. Six principal tribes, * sons ' of Keturah. Zimran, Perhaps Za^pafi, the capital of an Arabian tribe, W. of Mecca, on the Red Sea (Ptol. vi. 7. 5). Yokskan, Unknown. Meddn. Wetzstein (in Delitzsch's Jesaias, p. 665, ed. 2, p. 701) compares a Wady Meddn (Ylikiit iv. 445) near Dedan (v. 3). Midian. This is a well-known name. The proper home of the tribe appears to have been on the E. of the Gulf of 'Akaba, where there was a place known to the Greeks as MoStava (Ptol. vi. 7. 2), and called by the Arab, geographers (see Di. ; and cf EncB. 3081) Madyan^ about 75 m. S. of Elath\ In Ex. ii. 15, iii. 1 they appear also in the neighbourhood of Sinai. ' The nomad branches of the tribe wandered northward along the margin of the desert, making forays into Edom, Moab ^xxxvi. 35 ; cf Nu. xxii. 4, 7), and Gilead, and even pouring across Gilead into Palestine ' TJud. vi. — viii.). Cf ch. xxxvii. 28, 36. Shuah. The tribe of Job s friend, Bildad the Shuhite (Job ii. 11) ; perhaps (Del. Parad. 297 f, Dillm.) identical with the 'land of Suhu' {KB. I. 33, 99, 101), a little S. of Haran, somewhere near the junction of the Euphrates with the Belih. 3. Tribes regarded as offshoots from Yokshan. Shehd and Dedan. Both have been already mentioned in x. 7 (P) : j see the notes there. The northern Sh6ba is doubtless meant. Different j tribal genealogies must have been current : P has preserved one, and J j the other. Of the * sons ' of Dedan, mentioned in this verse, nothing certain is known : the names_in the Heb. are all plural in form. The Asshurim, if we vocalize Ashurim, may be identical with A^shur, a tribe mentioned by the side of Egjrpt in two Minaean inscriptions from S. Arabia : cf Hommel, AJST. 238 f , 249, 252; JSncB. s.v. 4. Five tribes regarded as offshoots of Midian. 'Ephah. Cf Is. Ix. 6, where the * young camels of 'J^phah and Midian * are pictured by the prophet as bringing gold and frankincense from Sheba to the restored Jerusalem : it must therefore have been a well- known trading tribe. Perhaps (Parad. 304, DiUm.) the ffayapd, a N. Arabian tribe, mentioned by Tiglath-pileser III., and stated by Sargon to have been placed by him in Samaria (KB. n. 21, 43 ; KA T.^ 277). Abida^. It is rather remarkable that in one of the Minaean inscriptions mentioned on v. 3 AM-yada'a (=Ablda') occurs as the name of a king of Ma'4n (in S. Arabia) : Hommel, I.e. 250, 272. 1 See Burton's Gold Mines of Midian. and The Land of Midian revisited. XXV. 5-12] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 241 all that he had unto Isaac. 6 But unto the sons of thej" concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts ; and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. | 7 And these are the days of the years of P Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8 And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years ; and was gathered to his people. 9 And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre ; 10 the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth : there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. 11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son ; | and Isaac dwelt by j Beer-lahai-roi. 12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's P son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare imto 5. Identical verbally with xxiv. 36. 6. the concubines. I.e. Hagar (ch. xvi.), and Ketnrah (xxv. 1). Isaac was treated as the heir : the sons of the concubines were sent away with smaller gifts of servants, cattle, &c. from. Lit. from upon : i.e. so as to relieve Isaac of their presence. unto the east coimtry. A general expression for the country E., or even NE. or SE., of Palestine. Cf. on xxix. 1. 7—11* (P). The death and burial of Abraham. 8. gave up the ghost. The Heb. is a single word, meaning properly, it is probable, to fail (lxx. 8 times cKXctTrw) or sink, in poetry a syn. of to die: cf. on vi. 17. So v. 17, xxxv. 29, xlix. 33 (all P). gathered to his father's kin (see on xvii. 14), viz. in Sheol. The expression is one peculiar to P (see p. x; and cf. v. 17, xxxv. 29, xlix. 33): the more common expression is 'to lie (EVV. 'sleep') with one's fathers' (xlvii. 30; 1 K. i. 21, ii. 10, &c.). 9, 10. See xxiii. 17—20 (also P). 11^ (J), and Isaac dwelt &c. Cf. xvi. 14, xxiv. 62. The v. forms the original sequel of v. 6. 12 — 17 (P). The 'generations' of Ishmael: twelve tribes reputed to have been descended from Ishmael. The compiler, before passing formally (xxv. 19 ff.) to the history of Isaac, introduces here what he deems it necessary to say on the collateral line of Ishmael. It had been promised in xvii. 20 (P) that Ishmael should beget twelve 'princes'; and accordingly, in an excerpt from the same source, he here states their names. The 'princes' are naturally the assumed eponymous ancestors of the twelve tribes of which Ishmael was the reputed ancestor. 12. these are the generations of See on ii. 4*. 242 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxv. ia-i6 Abraham : 13 and these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, i by their names, according to their generations : the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14 and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa ; 15 Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah : 16 these are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encamp- 13. Nebaioth and Kedar were probably the most important of the Ishmaelite tribes. They are mentioned together in Is. Lx. 7 (* all the flocks of Kedar... the rams of Nebaioth'): Nebaioth is mentioned otherwise in the OT. only in Gen. xxviii. 9, xxxvi. 3, as the tribe to which one of Esau's wives belonged. Kedar appears also as a wealthy pastoral tribe in Jer. xlix. 29, as famous for its archers in Is. xxi. 16 f., as dwelling far away in the wilderness in Jer. ii. 10, Is. xlii. 11, and as a symbolical designation of unfriendly neighbours in Ps. cxx. 5. Asshurbanipal (b.c. 668 — 626) describes his invasion and subjugation of the Nahaiti and Kidrai (G. Smith's Assv/rhanipal, 1871, pp. 256 — 298).^ Cf. the Nahaiaei and Cedrei of Plin. NH. v. § 65. The home of Nebaioth was probably somewhere E. of Edom, Kedar being still further to the E., in the desert. Adhe'el. Supposed to be the tribe Idibi'il, mentioned by Tiglath- pileser III. {KB. n. 21, 1. 56). 14. Mishma'. Perhaps (Dillm.) the name is preserved in Jebel Misma\ 160 m. E. of Teima {v. 14), or in another Jebel Misma\ 120 m. NW. of it. Dumah. * Probably the eponym of the oasis of Duma or Dumat el-Jandal, now usually called al-Jof, on the S. border of the Syrian desert' (Noldeke, EncB. 2213),— the AovfiWa of Ptol. v. 19. 7, and the Dumeh of the Arabic geographers, 140 m. N. of Teima. Massa. Probably the Uaa-avol of Ptol. v. 19. 2, NE. of Duma ; a city or tribe Mas'aa is also mentioned by Tiglath-pileser III., im- mediately before Temd (see v. 15), and Hayapa, (= 'Ephah, v. 4), as sending him tribute {Parad. 301, 302; KB. ii. 21). 15. Tema. See Is. xxi. 14; Jer. xxv. 23; Job vi. 19 (a trading- tribe). The city TSma of Tiglath-pileser III., now Teima, in NW. Arabia, about 250 m. SE. of Edom, an important station on the ancient trade-route from Yemen to Syria, where some interesting in- scriptions have recently been found {Studia Biblica, i. 209 — 214). Yetur and Naphish are mentioned in 1 Oh. v. 19 as waging war with the Israelites on the E. of Jordan. Yetur is no doubt the_ same as the later Ituraeans (cf. Lk. iii. 1), a wild and predatory tribe, — Cicero {Phil. n. 44) calls them * omnium gentium maxime barbaros,' — famous as archers (Verg. G. ii. 448), — a troop of whom formed a body- guard to Mark Antony in Rome, — whose home, at least in the first cent. B.C., was in the mountainous S. and SE. parts of Anti-Libanus (see HG. 544 fi".; or DB. s.v.). 16. villages. Cf. Is. xlii. 11 (the * villages' of Kedar). XXV. i6-i8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 243 ments ; twelve princes according to their nations. 17 And these P are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years : and he gave up the ghost and died ; and was gathered unto his people. | 18 And they dwelt from HavilahJ" unto Shur that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria : he ^abode ^in the presence of all his brethren. 1 Or, settled Heb. fell. ^ Or, over against encampments. Or enclosures^ — an unusual word, denoting apparently the circular and temporary encampment of a nomad tribe: cf. Nu. xxxi. 10; Ez. xxv. 4. The Ishmaelite tribes lived partly in fixed villages, partly in movable 'encampments.' twelve princes. Cf. xvii. 20. nations. A very rare word in Heb., though common in Arabic and Aramaic : probably the word specially used of these Ishmaelite tribes; cf. Nu. xxv. 15 (P), of the clans of Midian. 17. unto his father's kin. Cf. v. 8. 18 (J). The general direction in which the Ishmaelite tribes were settled (cf xvi. 12). If Havilah (ii. 11) be in NE. Arabia, and Shur is the part of the Sinaitic Peninsula bordering on Egypt (xvi. 7), the positions, so far as they have been determined above, of the Ishmaelite tribes would fall mostly within the limits assigned. unto Shur that is in front of Egypt. See on xvi. 7; and cf 1 S. XV. 7 (where, however, 'from Havilah' can scarcely be the correct text). as thou goest toward Asshur. 'Ass5rria' can hardly be meant, as it would be in the wrong direction altogether. Either the name is that of some place, or people, otherwise unknown, in the direction of Egjrpt (? the Asshurim of v. 3); or the words ("ilK^K n^xn) are a misplaced variant of 'unto Shur' (-m iy); cf ^s^ 1X12 in 1 S. xv. 7. he (i.e. Ishmael, as represented by his descendants) settled (cf Jud. vii. 12 Heb.) in front of all his brethren. See on xvi. 12. The Hebrews classified their neighbours genealogically according to the degree of relationship in which they were regarded as standing towards them- selves. The Edomites were most closely related to them ; they were accordingly the descendants of Esau, the twin-brother of Jacob. Moab and Ammon were descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew (xix. 30 ff.). To Nahor, Abraham's brother, are traced twelve Aramaean tribes, — eight to a wife, Milcah, and four to a concubine, Re'umah (xxii. 20—24). Six tribes (one being Midian), and several sub-tribes, are the descendants of Abraham by a second wife, ?^eturah (xxv. 1 — 4). And here twelve other tribes, spread over different parts of N. Arabia and the country E. of Israel, are traced to Abraham through a 'handmaid,' Hagar, holding an intermediate position between Sarah and Keturah. Historical recollections, similarities of language or civilization, or other characteristics, the exact nature of which cannot now in every case be determined, must have guided the Hebrew genealogists in thus forming ethnic 16—2 244 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxv. 19, 20 groups, and defining the precise position occupied by each in relation to Israel. Ishmael, it is said, is to be made a 'great nation' (xvii. 20, xxi. 18); so the Ishmaelite tribes must have enjoyed considerable reputation among the Hebrews. At a much later date, Ishmael was connected vaguely with Arabia in general^; Mobammed was supposed to have been descended from him through Kedar^; and his tomb is still shewn in Mecca. In the OT., however, it is to be observed, Ishmael is hardly at all connected with what we call ' Arabia^': the 'Arabian' peninsula is peopled by the Jo^^tanidae (descendants of Joktan, son of Abraham's sixth ancestor, 'Eber, and consequently much less closely connected with Israel), ch. x. 26—30; the Ishmaelites are limited to certain specified tribes, living almost entirely on the N. and NW. of these. XXV. 19— XXXV. 29. The 'generations' of Isaac, i.e. (according to the principle followed by the compiler) the history of Isaac and his descendants, from the time of his father's death to that of his own death, and including consequently much of Jacob's life. XXV. 19—34. Formal introduction to the history of Isaac. The birth and youth of Esau and Jacob. 19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son : P Abraham begat Isaac : 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the ^Syrian of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the ^Syrian, to be his wife. | 1 Heb. Aramean. 19, 20 (P). The birth and marriage of Isaac. Both events have been narrated in detail before (xxi. 1 — 3, xxiv.); but the compiler has preserved here from P the summary statement with which this writer introduced his account of Isaac's 'generations.' 20. the Syrian. The Aramaean : see on x. 23. Cf. xxviii. 5 (P) ; xxxi. 20, 24 (E); and above, xxiv. 10. Paddan-aram. A name used only by P (xxviii. 2, 5, 7, xxxi. 18, | xxxiii. 18, XXXV. 9, 26, xlvi. 15; xlviii. 7 Paddan alone): J says (xxiv. 10) 'Aram of the two Rivers.' Prob. a particular district in this Aram is meant. In Axa,m.dAC paddan means a yoke or span of oxen; padanu, also, is said to be explained in Ass. word-lists as signifying a field 1 Josephus {Ant. i. 12. 2) even calls him KTiarrjs tov ^duovs tQv 'Apd^ojp. 2 And so in mediaeval Jewish writers 'the language of Ishmael,' or ' of Kedar,' means Arabic. 3 'Arab' and 'Arabia' are used in the OT. in a much narrower sense than they are used by us: see DB. i. 135, or EncB. i. 272—5. XXV. ai-25] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 245 21 And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was J barren : and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his Avife conceived. 22 And the children struggled together within her ; and she said, If it be so, ^wherefore do I live? And she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two peoples shall be separated even from thy bowels : And the one people shall be stronger than the other people ; And the elder shall serve the younger. ^ Or, wherefore am I thus f (perhaps, originally, what a span of oxen could plough in a given time): hence the expression may perhaps mean properly *the corn- land of Aram.' Ten miles W. of Haran, there are still two mounds called the N. and the S. Tel Fedddn (Sachau, Beise, p. 222, and Map II.), which may preserve the name (cf. further Noldeke, MncB, I. 278). 21—26* (J). The birth of Jacob and Esau. 21. Like Sarah (xi. 30, xvi. 1), and Rachel (xxix. 31), Rebekah is for long barren: her seed is represented as being a gift of grace, not of nature. was intreated. Rather, let himself be intreated^ i.e. yielded to his entreaty, — which, however, is in reality the meaning here of 'was intreated'; for in Old English *to intreat' meant not, as now, simply to supplicatey but to prevail upon hy entreaty. So elsewhere in EVV., as 2 S. xxi. 14, 15; Is. xix. 22. Cf W. A. Wright, Bible Word-Book, S.V. Entreat, who quotes from an old author, 'I desired him to rest with us that night, but I could not intreat him' (i.e. prevail upon him). 22. Esau and Jacob are the ancestors, respectively, of Edom and Israel ; and the future rivalries between the two nations are pre- figured in them. The rivalries between Edom and Israel being particularly irreconcilable and inveterate (see e.g. Am. i. 11; Ez. XXXV.), the struggles are represented as manifesting themselves even before birth. wherefore do I live ? Lit. wherefore, then, am I ? The rend, of the text is right. On nt (= the enclitic 'then '), see Leaj. p. 261^ to inquire &c. Viz. at a sanctuary, — perhaps that of Beer-sheba. For 'inquire' {^ll) see e.g. 1 S. ix. 9; 1 K. xxii. 5 ; 2 K. i. 2. 23. The answer is cast into a poetical form. The infants represent two nations ; and their struggles prefigure the contest between these two nations for supremacy. In the end the younger will prevail. peoples... people... people. The Heb. word used is poetical (xxvii. 29, and often in the Psalms). from. In a temporal sense (as e.g. Ps. xxii. 10), the meaning being *will pursue divergent, and mutually hostile, courses, from their birth.' the elder shall serve the younger. Edom was subjugated by David, 246 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxv. 24-26 I I 24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came forth ^red, all over like an hairy garment ; and they called his name Esau. 26 And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel ; and his name was called ^ Jacob : | and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. P 1 Or, ruddy ^ That is, One that takes by the heel or supplants. 2 S. viii. 12, 13 [see RVm.], 14 ('became servants to David'"); and remained subject to Judah for some 130 years. See furtner on xxvii. 40. 25. red. Heb. ^admorii, — with allusion, doubtless, to the name 'Edom,' though the origin of this is otherwise explained in v. 30. an hairy mantle. Zech. xiii. 4 (of the shaggy sheepskin cloak worn by the prophets); 2 K. i. 8. In 'hairy' {se'dr; cf. xxvii. 11, 23), there is very probably a play on Se^r, the home afterwards of Esau's descendants (xxxvi. 8). 'Esau. The meaning of the word is not discoverable fi-om Hebrew, though from the connexion we should suppose that it signified hairy. In Arabic 'athiya means to ham thick or matted hair, and 'a*^M is thick-haired ; though this by rule ought to correspond to 'Eshau (not 'Esau) in Heb. It is possible that the Massoretic punctuation is at fault, and that we ought to pronounce 'Eslmu (iK^y for ib^y). 26. had hold on Esauls heel. He would fain hold Esau back, and himself be the first-born, so eager was he, even from the first, to gain the advantage over his brother. Cf the allusion in Hos. xii. 3 * in the , womb he took his brother hy the heeV Jaxiob. The name being explained firom 'dkeh, 'heel,' just before. The verb 'dkah means properly to follow at the heel^, then fig. to assail insidiously, circumvent, overreach : see Jer. ix. 4 ' every brother surely overreacheth^ ; cognate words are rendered deceitful Jer. xvii. 9, subtilty 2 K. x. 19. Jacob, it was declared, had sought to overreach his brother even at his birth ; and tradition loved to tell of the occasions on which afterwards he verified his name, and either * over- reached' his brother (cf xxvii. 36), or outwitted Laban. 26^ A notice, from P, of Isaac's age at the time. How much in these narratives is strictly historical, how much due to popular fancy or embellishment, we cannot say. Israel was a younger nation than Edom (cf. xxxvi. 31), though it eventually acquired supremacy over it; and these relations between the two nations are reflected in the experiences told traditionally of their twin ancestors. Jacob is the younger brother; and evidently one aim of the narrators who recount the national traditions is to explain how, nevertheless, his descendants secured through him the supremacy over Edom: in xxv. 22 — 26 this is stated to have been foreshadowed, and 1 Not to 'supplant,' the figure in which is different (to 'trip up'). XXV. n, ^8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 247 foreordained, at the time of their birth ; in xxv. 29—34 and ch. xxvii. it is stated to have been won actually by Esau's thoughtlessness, and Jacob's craft. But the importance and real significance of the narratives lies in the types of character which they exhibit, and in the moral and spiritual lessons which, whether they are strictly historical or not, may be deduced from them. The patriarchs are rwot rjixav, and in their biographies examples of faith and goodness, — and also, sometimes, of unworthiness and moral failure, — are set vividly and impressively before us. In V. 23 it is important to bear in mind that the reference is really not to two individuals, as such, but to two nations', and the future which the verse holds out in prospect is the future not of Jacob and Esau, but of Israel and Edom. The last clause of the verse is quoted by St Paul (Rom. ix. 12) in his argument to shew that the rejection of Israel is not inconsistent with the Divine promises: God is not pledged to Israel, as such : His action is determined by a principle of selection which is not dependent either upon human merit or upon the conventional claims of human birth; of Rebekah's twin sons. He chose the younger in preference to the elder, and that before either had done anything, whether good or bad, which might have seemed capable of determin- ing His choice (cf. Jer. i. 6; also Gal. i. 15, and fig., of the ideal Israel, Is. xlix. 1, 5). It may be that ». 23 is really the verdict of history, thrown back in a poetical form to the ideal beginning of the two nations; but even so, St Paul's argument does not lose its force : it is an appeal to an emphatic declaration of a far-reaching principle of Divine action (cf. xlviil 19; IS. xvi. 6 — 13). God * chooses ' both individuals and nations, — not, we must suppose, arbitrarily, but because, by His foreknowledge, He sees, as man cannot see, that one has endowments, physical, mental, or spiritual, fitting it better than another to accomplish the work, whatever it may be, that He desires to have done upon earth. See further Sanday-Headlam, Romans, p. 238 flf.j Gore, *The argument of Rom. ix. — xi.,' in Studia Biblica, iil 37 ff. 27 And the boys grew : and Esau was a cunning hunter, a J man of the field ; and Jacob was a ^ plain man, dwelling in tents. 28 Now Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison : ^ Or, quiet Or, harmless Heb. perfect, 27 — 34 (J). The contrasted lives and characters of the two lads. 27. cunning. As in Old English, simply skilful (lit. kenning, know- ing), without any of the modern associations of the word : often used in AV., RV., of technical skill, as Ex. xxxviii. 23; IS. xvi. 16; 2 Ch. ii. 7; Jer. ix. 17. plain. Heb. perfect, — usually (e.g. Job i. 1; Ps. xxxvii. 37) in a moral sense (= blameless), such as would hardly be applicable to the crafty Jacob : here, apparently, with reference to his manner of life, quiet, settled, orderly, opp. to the wild and restless huntsman. dwelling in tents. I.e. living the more peaceful life of a shepherd: cf. iv. 20 ; and see ch. xxxi. 28. See xxvii. 1—45. 248 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxv. 28-3+ and Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 And Jacob sod pottage : and J Esau came in from the field, and he was faint : 30 and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with ^that same red pottage ; for I am faint : therefore was his name called ^Edom. 31 And Jacob said, Sell me ^this day thy birthright. 32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die : and what profit shall the birthright do to me ? 33 And Jacob said. Swear to me ^this day ; and he sware unto him : and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils ; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way : so Esau despised his birthright. 1 Heb. the red pottage, thii red pottage. 2 That is, Red. ' Or, pr%t of all 29 — 34. Esau sells his birthright. The narrative is one which at the same time illustrates vividly the different characters of the two brothers. 30. Feed me... with. Let me sv7allow (or, eat quickly). The word occurs only here, and implies voracity. some of this red, red (food). It is possible, however, that we ought (with T. D. Anderson, Dillm., Cheyne) to read ^Hom for 'ddom^ 1 and render (from the Arab, 'iddm) *this savoury, savoury food.^ I Edom. It is going too far to say (with RVm.) that this means *Red': rather, the name is explained (cf on iv. 1) from its assonance with ^ddom, *red' (or ^edbm, 'savoury food'). The Hebrews saw, in the name of the rival nation, a standing reminder of the impulsive shortsightedness of its ancestor. Sayce (EHH. 66) supposes the name to be really derived from the red hue of its cliffs {S. and P. S7 f ). 31. Jacob takes advantage of his brother's distressed condition to secure for himself the birthright. The birthright was highly valued : it implied both a better position in the family and tribe, and also, ultimately, a larger inheritance, than fell to any of the other brothers (cf. xliii. 33, xlviii. 13—20; Dt. xxi. 11]. this day. First of all, as RVm. rightly paraphrases the idiom : so V. 33. Cf 1 S. ii. 16 RVm., 1 K. i. 51 RVm., xxii. 5 (for * to-day'). 33. Jacob, with characteristic prudence, will not part with the pottage till Esau has sealed his promise with an oath. 34. lentils. Still called by the corresponding name ('adas) in Arabic. Lentils 'are cultivated everywhere in the East. They are usually stewed with onions, rice, and oil, or small bits of meat and fat, and seasoned to the taste' (Post, in DB. s.v.); and are said to form then a palatable and substantial dish. See further Thomson, L. and B. I. 252 — 5 (according to whom there are two principal varieties of lentil, one being pale red, and the other dark brown); Tristram, NHB. 461 1\ and cf 2 S. xvii. 28. and he did eat and drink &c. The words used are graphically descriptive of Esau's hghtheartedness. Cf Heb. xii. 16 f. xxvi. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS ^55 The narrator comments only on the heedlessness with w7^^ than would sake of satisfying an immediate appetite, barters away what \ - individual have been an inalienable right: the modern reader is more imp.;, avarice and selfishness shewn by Jacob in taking such|a mean advai brother's need. But in truth neither Esau nor Jacob can be callea^ character. Esau is frank, straightforward, generous, but without dt*^ character or farsightedness of aim: he is governed by the impulses and dt, of the moment; a * profane' person (Heb. xii. 16), i.e. unspiritual, a m.\h without love or appreciation of worthier possessions, and heedless of what he was throwing away: Jacob is selfish, scheming, and clutches at every advantage; but he looks beyond the immediate moment; he has ambition and perseverance; his character is thus a deeper one (in both a good and a bad sense) than Esau's; it contains sound and genuine elements, which, when purified from purely personal and selfish aims, are capable of consecration to the service of God, and of being made subservient to carrying out His purposes (see further after xxxii. 32). No doubt, if history told us more about the Edomites, we should find their national characteristics reflected in Esau, as those of Israel are reflected in Jacob. Chapter XXVI. Incidents in Isaac^s life at Gerar and Beer-sheha. Esau's ^ Hittite' wives. This chapter contains all that is related of Isaac individually, — apart from incidents in which he is mentioned in connexion either with his parents or with his sons. His life is not that of a wanderer like Abraham's : Hebron, Beer-slieba, Beer-lahai-roi, and Gerar, — all in the S. of Palestine, — ^being the places at which he is almost exclusively found. He lived in fact ' on the border- land of the two peoples (Edom and Israel), who afterwards boasted their descent from him ' (Sayce). The chapter falls naturally into seven paragraphs, the first four {vv. 1 — 5, 6—11, 12 — 17, 18 — 22) relating to Isaac's sojourn in Gerar; the fifth and sixth (»». 23 — 25, 26 — 33) describing incidents which happened after his return to Beer-sheba; and the seventh {vv. 34—5) giving the names of Esau's 'Hittite' wives. It belongs chiefly to J : but there are probably redactional additions in vv. l\ 1\ S**— 5, 15, and perhaps 18; and vv. 34, 35 are clearly from P. XXVI. 1 And there was a famine in the land[, beside the J R first famine that was in the days of Abraham]. And Isaac went J XXVI. 1 — 5. Isaac, on account of a famine, leaves Canaan for Gerar ; and receives there a promise of Jehovah's protecting presence and blessing. 1. beside &c. See xii. 10. 248 TlHE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvi. 1-5 and Rebekah h king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2 And the J Esau came ii-ed unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt ; said to Jrthe land which I shall tell thee of :] 3 sojourn in this R pottage id l win be with thee, and will bless thee[ ; for unto thee, H 31 Aiihto thy seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish Esai'oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father ; 4 and I will ^^ultiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these lands ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth ^be blessed ; 5 because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws], 1 Or, bless themselves king of the Philistines. If what is stated on x. 14 respecting the origin of the Philistines is correct, this expression must be an ana- chronism. So Sayce {EHH. p. 64), * In the age of the patriarchs the SW. corner of Palestine has not as yet been occupied by Philistine immigrants/ The Abimelech mentioned in xx. 2 is called only king of Gerar. Gerar. See on xx. 1. 2. appeared unto him. Cf. xii. 7. Go not down &c. As Abraham had done (xii. 10). dwell in the land &c. The words (notice ' which I shall teU thee \ of) agree badly both with v. 1^ and with 1). 3^ (' sojourn in this land^) : they are perhaps a fragment of E, addressed to Isaac when he was stiU in Beer-sheba. 3. sojourn. I.e. remain temporarily (xii. 10). / will be with thee. Cf on xxi. 20. and will bless thee. In thy different undertakings : cf w. 12, 24, xxiv. 1, 35. 3b — 5^ These verses appear to be an amplification made by a later editor, for the purpose, presumably, of giving Isaac as explicit a promise of the land, as Abraham had had fxv. 18 — 20). The ex- pression * these lands' (of different parts 01 the Isr. territory) is peculiar and late (1 Ch. xiii. 2; 2 Ch. xi. 23); and the language of V. 5 suggests a writer familiar with the phraseology of the 'Law of | Holiness' (Lev. xvii. — xxvi.), and Deuteronomy. As the parallels quoted will shew, vv. 3^ — 5 are dependent in particular upon xxii. 15 — 18. I will give &c. Cf xii. 7, xiii. 15. For the * oath,' see xxii. 16. 4*. See XV. 5, xxii. 17. and loY thy seed shall. MesQ themselves. As xxii. 18 (where see the note). 5. The son being rewarded, on account of the father's piety: cf V. 24. hearkened to mv voice. Cf xxii. IS**. kept my charge 6ic. No such expressions are used elsewhere in connexion with the patriarchs. The obedience of Abraham is described XXVI. 6-14] THE BOOK OF GEIIsTESIS 265 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar : 7 and the men^^^^^*^^^^^^^^ asked him of his wife ; and he said, She is my' he feared to say, My wife ; lest, said he, the men of should kill me for Rebekah : because she was fair to looV 8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, i saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife 9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said. Behold, of a surety she is thy wife : and how saidst thou, She is my sister ? And Isaac said unto him. Because I said. Lest I die for her. 10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us ? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. 11 And Abimelech charged all the people, saying. He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. 13 And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great : 14 and he had possessions of here in terms borrowed from the later Mosaic law : thus, for ' charge/ see Lev. xviii. 30, xxii. 9, Dt. xi. 1 ; for 'commandments' and 'statutes,' Dt. vi. 2, xxviii. 45, xxx. 10; and for 'laws,' Lev. xxvi. 46, Ez. xliv. 25, — though this word, which is properly a technical expression (see Law in DB.), must be used here in a more general sense than it nas in these passages. 6 — 22. Isaac in Gerar. 6 — 11. Isaac gives out that Rebekah is his sister; and is taken to task for his falsehood by Abimelech. Cf. xii. 10 — 20 (Abraham and Sarah in Egypt), ch. xx. (Abraham and Sarah in Gerar). 7. for he feared &c. Cf. xii. 12, xx. 11. 8. sporting. In the Heb., the same word as in xxi. 9 (see RVm.), — ^with a play on the name ' Isaac' 9. 10. Cf. xii. 18 f., XX. 9. 10. lien. An archaism for lain: so Nu. v. 19; Ps. Ixviii. 13 (AV., PBV.), al. Lightly is another archaism for easily. 11. The matter had not gone so far as in xii. 15, xx. 2 : so it is sufficient for Abimelech to give strict directions to ensure the personal safety of Isaac and Rebekah. 12 — 17. Isaac, being blessed (v. 3) by Jehovah, is envied by the Philistines for his prosperity, and withdraws to the Wady of Gerar. 12. an hundredfold. There is no occasion to interpret the ex- pression literally; but at least in the rich lava-soil of Hauran wheat is said to yield on an average 80, and barley 100 fold (Wetzstein, Hauran, p. 30). 248 TCHE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvi. 14-21 and Rebekah :sessions of herds, and a great household : and the J Esau came mvied him. 15 [Now all the wells which his father s R said to Jnad digged in the days of Abraham his father, the poUagenes had stopped them, and filled them with earth.] 31 Anad Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us ; for thou art J Esa\5h mightier than we. 17 And Isaac departed thence, and shficamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac ^digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham : and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of ^springing water. 20 And the herdmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdmen, saying. The water is ours : and he called the name of the well ^Esek ; because they contended with him. 21 And they digged another well, and they strove for that also : 1 Heb. living, ^ That is, Contention. 15. had stopped them. Regarding them as encroachments upon I their own rights, and with the view of preventing Isaac from en- I camping or settling in their land. The verse is a parenthetic pre- I paration for u 18, -y. 16 being the sequel to v. 14. 16. Abimelech shares the envy of his people (cf. v. 27), and bids Isaac betake himself elsewhere. 17.^ Isaac accordingly retires to the Wady (Heb. nahal). The nahal is a watercourse running between hills, which in the winter, or even after a storm, may be filled with a rushing stream, but in summer is usually reduced to a mere brook, or thread of water, or may even be entirely dry (cf 8. and P. App. § 38 ; DB, River). There is no proper English equivalent; but it corresponds to what is now in the East known by the Arabic term, Wddy. The word may denote either the stream itself (1 K. xvii. 4), or the valley through which the stream flowed (as Nu. xxi. 12, and here). In the bed of such Wadys, water may often be found by digging (y. 19). 18—22. The wells reopened {v. 18), or dug afi-esh {vv. 19—22), by Isaac in the Wady of Gerar. In a region so near the desert wells would be prized: hence their prominence in the narrative, and the disputes to which they gave rise. 19. of spriTiging water. And therefore doubly valuable. Heb. living water, — the standing Heb. expression for running or moving water: Lev. xiy. 5, 6, 50, 51, 52, Zech. xiv. 8; and fig. Cant. iv. 15, Jer. ii. 13, xvii. 13 (in these two passages, of Jehovah). Cf. Jn. iv. 10, 11, vii. 38. \ XXVI. .1-28] THE BOOK OF GENESlS\ \ 253 and he called the name of it ^Sitnah. 22 And heA ^ thence, and digged another well ; and for that theyx. ^f^ and he called the name of it ^Rehoboth ; and he said,, ^ ^ ' the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful , . J^ land. 23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. 24 . ^ the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, 1 the God of Abraham thy father : fear not, for I am with thetx and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. 25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there : and there Isaac's servants digged a well 26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host. 27 And Isaac said unto them. Wherefore are ye come imto me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you ? 28 And they said, We saw plainly that the Lord was with thee : and we said. Let there now be an oath betwixt us, even betwixt 1 That is, Enmity. * That is, Broad places, or, Boom. 21. Sitnah. The name (of which the explanation in the text will hardly give the real origin) may be preserved in the Wady Shutnet er-Ruhaibeh, a little E. of Ruhaibeh (Palmer, Desert of the Ex. p. 385, — prob. the Wddy esh-Shutein of Robinson, BB. i. 200). 22. Beltoboth. Usually identified with Buhaiheh, 19 miles SW. of Beer-sheba, where there are still remains of wells (Rob. BB. 1. 196 f., 200 ; Palmer, pp. 383 — 5). See the map in EncB. s.v. Negeb. 23 — 25. Isaac returns to Beer-sheba ; and there, as soon as he re- enters the limits of the promised land, receives a renewal of the promise of an abundant seed, made to Abraham (xii. 2, xiii. 16, xviii. 18). 23. went up. From the Wady er-Ruhaibeh to the high ground on the N. (though it is true there is a descent again into the Wady in which Beer-sheba lies). See the elevations, as shewn in G. A. Smith's large Map of Palestine. 24. fear not &c. Cf xv. 1, xxii. 17 ; and v. 3*. for my servant Abraham! s sake. Cf. 'for the sake of David/ 1 K. xi. 12, 13, 32, 34 ; 2 K. viii. 19 al. 25. And he builded &c. Cf. xii. 8, xiii. 4, 18, xxi. 33. Isaac thus acknowledged publicly the God who had given him these promises ; and at the same time marked out Beer-sheba as a sacred place. 26 — 33. Abimelech's league with Isaac ; and second explanation (see xxi. 28 — 33) of the name Beer-sheba. 26. friend. I.e. confidential adviser : cf. 1 K. iv. 5 ; 1 Ch. xxvii. 33. 27. See m. 14, 16. 28. that Jehovah was with thee. Cf. xxi. 22, where the fact is ma -1 254 j4bE book of genesis [XXVI. .8-35 us and thee, Hnd let us make a covenant) with thee ; 29 that J thou wilt dp/us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peaofe : thou art now the blessed of the Lord. 30 And he made/' them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 31 And they rop« up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another : and l^aac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came^ and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and s? unto him. We have found water. 33 And he called it ^Shibahj therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. 34 And when Esau was forty years old he took to wifeP Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite : 35 and they were ^a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. ^ See ch. xxi. 31. ^ geb. bitterness of spirit. mentioned as a motive for securing a good understanding with Abraham, as here with Isaac. 29. the blessed of JehovaJi (cf. xxiv. 31), — and therefore one with whom it is desirable to be on good terms. 30. The common meal would be a token and seal of amity between the contracting parties (cf. on xxxi. 46). 32. See v. 25 end, 33. Shib'ah (nr?^^) is merely the fem. of 'sheba" (^5^), in Beer- sheba' (as though, ' Well of swearing '). See another explanation of the origin of the name in xxi. 31. 34. 35 (P). Esau's * Hittite ' wives (see p. 229 ; and cf. on xxxvi. 2»3). ' . 35. Because, viz., they were averse to any intermixture with the native races (cf. xxvii. 46 ; also, in J, xxiv. 3). As was remarked on ch. ix., the narratives in xii. 10 — 20, xx., and xxvi. 6 — 11, especially the two last, read like variations of a single fundamental theme: xxvi. 26 — 33 (Isaac's dealings with Abimelech, and naming of Beer-sheba) also can hardly be anything but a duplicate version of xxi. 22 — 34 (Abraham's dealings with an Abimelech, also king of Gerar, and naming of Beer-sheba). As Prof. Sayce writes {EHH. p. 64), * Doubtless, history repeats itself; dis- putes about the possession of wells in a desert-land can frequently recur, and it is possible that two kings of the same name may have followed one another on the throne of Gerar. But what does not seem very possible is that each of these kings should have had a " chief captain of his host " called by the strange non-Semitic name of Phicol (xxi 22; xxvi. 26); that each of them should have taken the wife of the patriarch, believing her to be his sister; or that Beer- sheba should twice have received the same name from the oaths sworn over it' THE BOOK OF GENESIS 256 Of course there are differences in detail^, but these are not greater than would naturally arise from the fluctuation of tradition, and from the individual colouring stamped upon each narrative by the narrator. Chapter XXVIL 1—45. Jacob hy craft secures his father's blessing. A striking and picturesque narrative, full of circumstance and detail, which impart to the descriptions animation and life. Its aim is to shew how Jacob finally secured precedence over the firstborn ; and so obtained the better land, the greater power, and even dominion over his elder brother. The means was his father's blessing, which was held in antiquity (cf. on ix. 25) to exert a determining influence upon a person's future. But the blessing was won by craft and falsehood {vv. 19, 20, 24). Jacob was Rebekah's favourite son, as Esau was Isaac's (xxv. 28); and the narrative tells how, instigated by his ambitious and designing mother, Jacob deceives his aged father, and wrests from his brother his father's blessing. That the action of Rebekah and Jacob was utterly discreditable and indefensible, is of course obvious. The writer (though his sympathies seem to be with Jacob) narrates all without comment,— it may be in accordance with the usual (though, it is true, not quite uniform) custom of the Biblical writers to leave the reader to form his own judgement on the events recorded; but it may be also, because, as Gunkel observes, the moral sense has been educated gradually. There are other indications in the OT. that truthfulness was not observed by the normal Israelite with the strictness demanded by a Christian standard ; and the narrator, — who naturally would tell the story as it was currently told in Israel, with some satisfaction that the ancestor of Edom had been overreached by Jacob, — may accordingly not have viewed the intrigue and treachery which he describes with the aversion which it arouses in a modern reader. But be that as it may, the guilt does not remain unpunished: it brings with it a train of consequences such as might be expected; and the estrangement of Esau, the flight of Jacob, the separation for many years of mother and son, the trials, anxieties, and dis- appointments, through which Jacob afterwards has to pass, are just and natural punishments for their sin 2. The narrative belongs chiefly, if not entirely, toJ3 1 Thus contrast xii. 15 and 19 (Sarah actually Pharaoh's wife), xx. 2 and 4», xxvi. 10 (harm to Eebekah only apprehended) ; xii. 16, xx. 14 — 16 (presents given afterwards, by way of compensation) ; xii. 17, xx. 3, xxvi. 8 (the truth discovered by sickness sent of God, by God appearing in a dream, and by an accident, respectively); xii. 18 f. (no defence of the falsehood attempted), xx. 11 — 13 (excuses), xxvi. 9; xii. 20 and xx. 15. Comp. further Gunkel, p. 203 f. 2 It is sometimes supposed that Isaac acted wrongly in seeking to set aside the I will of God that 'the elder should serve the younger' (xxv. 23), and that Eebekah interfered for the purpose of preventing this frustration of Providence. Nothing of this is, however, at all implied in the narrative. Isaac is there represented as acting simply from the very natural desire to bless his firstborn; and there is nothing to suggest that Eebekah attempted to justify herself even by the worthless • excuse that the end sanctifies the means. ^ Most critics attribute parts to E, but it may be doubted whether upon sufficient grounds. 266 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvii. 1-13 XXVII. 1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see» he called Esau his elder son, and said unto him, My son : and he said unto him, Here am I. 2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death. 3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison ; 4 and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat ; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, j Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, | 7 Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat,| and bless thee before the Lord before my death. 8 Now there- fore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats ; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth : 10 and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, so that he may bless thee before his death. 11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a ^deceiver ; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy ^ Or, mocker 1 — 5. Isaac proposes to bless his firstborn, Esau, before he dies. 3,4. venison...suchas Hove. See xxv. 28. 4. mi/ soul. A pathetic periphrasis for the pers. pron. (which is used in -y. 7) : see on xii. 13. So vv. 19, 25, 31. 6 — 17. ^ Eebekah, having overheard (v. 5) Isaac's words, plans to finistrate his purpose, and secure the blessing for her favourite (xxv. 28), Jacob. 7. ^ before Jehovah. With a solemn sense of His presence, often (as Jud. xi. 11), though not necessarily (cf. 1 S. xxiii. 18), at a sanctuary. 11, 12. Jacob, with his customary prudence, anticipates diffi- culties. 11. hairy. See xxv. 25, with the note. 12. as a mocker (RVm.; see 2 Ch. xxxvi. 16 *scofted'). As one who is making sport of his aged father. 13. 14. Rebekah, sure of her plan, bids her son just do what she tells kim. He obediently complies. XXVII. 13-27] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 257 curse, my son : only obey my voice, and go fetch me tliem. J 14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother : and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. 15 And Rebekah took the goodly raiment of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son : 16 and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck : 17 and she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18 And he came unto his father, and said. My father : and he said. Here am I ; who art thou, my son ? 19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn ; I have done according as thou badest me : arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 20 And Isaac said unto his son. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God sent me good speed. 21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. 22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father ; and he felt him, and said. The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. 23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands : so he blessed him. 24 And he said. Art thou my very son Esau ? And he said, I am. 25 And he said. Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat : and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 And his father Isaac said unto him. Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 27 And he came near, and kissed him : and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, 15. the choicest raiment. I.e., as we should say, his best suit. 18 — 29. Jacob, in disguise, enters his father's presence, and obtains his blessing. 20. sent me good speed. Lit. caused (it) to meet before Tne (cf. xxiv. 1 2). 21 — 23. Isaac's suspicions, aroused by the quickness with which his commission had been carried out, and by the voice of Jacob, are lulled by his touch. 27^—29. The blessing (cf. Heb. xi. 20), couched in an elevated, semi-poetical form (cf. ix. 25 f., xiv. 19 f., xxiv. 60). The smell of the (supposed) hunter's raiment, redolent of the wild and open field (cf. XXV. 27, 'a man of the Jield,' 29), suggests the thought of a field blessed D. 17 258 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvii. 77-29 See, the smell of my son Is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed : 28 And God give thee of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of corn and wine : 29 Let peoples serve thee. And nations bow down to thee : Be lord over thy brethren, by Jehovah with abundant crops : and so the first part of the blessing (v. 28) relates to the land which Jacob is to possess, while the second {v. 29) passes on to describe the lordship which his descendants will exercise over neighbouring nations. 28. May his son have a land in which the dew of heaven, and richness of soil, combine to produce abundant crops ! dew. In Palestine, dew, including in the term (Neil, Palest. Explored^ 1882, p. 134 ff.; EncB. s.v.) 'night-mist,' — moisture brought by the W. winds from the Medit. Sea, and condensed during the cool nights into a heavy mist, — is copious {JIG. 65), as it is also indis- pensable for vegetation, during the hot and rainless summer ; it is thus often mentioned as a condition of fertility : e.g. Dt. xxxiii. 13, 28 ; Hos. xiv. 5 ; Zech. viii. 12. fatness. Kather, fat places. May he have a share in the most fertile places of the earth ! Cf for the figure, Is. v. 1, xxviii. 1. The fertility of the land ' flowing with milk and honey ' is often alluded to : e.g. Dt. viii. 7—9, xi. 11 f. corn and must. Two of the three staple products of Canaan (the third being 'fresh oil'), often mentioned together as a triad of blessings (Dt. vii. 13, xi. 14 ; Hos. ii. 8, 22 ; Joel ii. 19, al). The word rendered ' must ' is tirosh, on which much has been written, — not always wisely. It was a highly-prized beverage (Is. Ixii. 8 ; Zech. ix. 17), prepared from the fruit of the vine (Is. Lxv. 8 ; Mic. vi. 15 [misrendered ' vintage ']) ; and the term, it seems, was a comprehensive one, denoting sometimes (cf Joel ii. 24) the freshly-expressed, unfermented juice of the grape, sometimes (cf Jud. ix. 13 ; Hos. iv. 11) a light kind of wine, such as the ancients were in the habit of making by checking the fermentation of the juice before it had run its fuU course. In E,V. it is rendered sometimes 'new wine,' but, as a rule, unfortunately, 'wine' (so that it is then confused with p>) : ' vintage ' in Nu. xviii. 12, Mic. vi. 15, and the marg. of Neh. x. 37, 39, Is. Ixii. 8, is altogether incorrect. See more fully the writer's note in Joel and Amos, p. 79 f 29. peoples... nations. The reference is partly to the Canaanites, subjugated gradually by the Israelites, as they took possession of the country, partly to the neighbouring nations of Moab, Ammon, &c. subjugated by David (2 S. viii.). Be lord &c., with allusion to David's conquest of Edom, 2 S. viii. 13, 14; 1 Ki. xi. 15 f; Ps. Ix. title. Cf the oracle, xxv. 23^ For I XXVII. 29-37] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 259 And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : , Cursed be every one that curseth thee, And blessed be every one that blesseth thee. 30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 And he also made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father ; and he said unto his father. Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. 32 And Isaac his father said unto him. Who art thou ? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau. 33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said. Who then is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou earnest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding gi-eat and bitter cry, and said unto his father. Bless me, even me also, O my father. 35 And he said, Thy brother came with guile, and hath taken away thy blessing. 36 And he said, Is not he rightly named ^ Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times : he took away my birthright ; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said. Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? 37 And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his 1 See ch. xxv. 26. brethren and mother's sons interchanging in the parallel clauses, cf. Ps. 1. 20. Cursed &c. For this concluding couplet, cf. xii. 3 ; Nu. xxiv. 9*^'^ 30 — 40. Esau now comes in to his father. Upon hearing what has happened, he utters a bitter cry of disappointment ; but nevertheless succeeds in obtaining from Isaac a partial and qualified blessing. 33. The old man is greatly agitated, upon discovering the fraud that has been practised upon him, and finding his purpose {v. 4) frustrated. yea, and he shall he blessed. Isaac sees that it is God's will : what he has done, though he has done it iuvoluntarily, cannot be revoked. 36. Jacob. See on xxv. 26. supplanted. As explained on xxv. 26, the metaphor must not be pressed : a more general word, such as overreached, would be better. ■ my bwthright. See xxv. 29 — 34. 37. Behold &c. After having given Jacob as much as he has (t>. 28 f.), what is there remaining for Esau ? 17—2 260 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvii. 37-40 brethren have I given to him for servants ; and with corn and J wine have I sustained him : and what then shall I do for thee, my son ? 38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, 0 my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him. Behold, ^of the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling. And ^of the dew of heaven from above ; 40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother ; * Or, away from ^ 38. ^ Esau_ admits that the blessing given cannot be recalled ; but thinks it possible that his father may have more than one blessing. and v)ept. Cf. Heb. xii. 17. 39, 40. The blessing of Esau. 39. of. Marg. ' Or, awayfrom.^ The Heb. prep, (which is the same as that used in u 28) is ambiguous : it may have a partitive sense (as V. 28), or it may be privative (see Job xix. 26^ RVm.). The great majority of modern commentators (see e.g. Delitzsch), supposing a contrast with -y. 28 to be intended, take it in the privative sense, aicay from : on the other hand, it would more obviously, in a passage such as the present, have the partitive sense, of\ and it is quite possible (cf. Noldeke, EncB. 1184) that 'of is right ; the contrast between the two blessings would then lie, not in v. 39 as compared with v. 28 (except that corn and must are not mentioned here), but in v. 40 as compared with '0. 29. The country possessed by Edom was the mountainous region between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of *Akaba, on the E. of the Wady el-'Arabah, and the elevated plateau W. of it, as far as Kadesh (Nu. XX. 16). It is true, parts of this region are now barren; but in other parts there are fruitful valleys, and abundant traces of former cultivation. Palmer writes {Desert of the Ex. 430 £), 'The country is extremely fertile, and presents a favourable contrast to the sterile region [the desert et-Tih] on the opposite side of the 'Arabah. Goodly streams flow through the valleys, which are filled with trees and flowers ; while on the uplands to the east rich pasture-lands and corn- fields may everywhere be seen. With a peaceful and industrious population, the country might become ' again thriving and prosperous \ Even, therefore, though the soil of Edom may not have been equally fertile with that of Canaan, it is doubtful whether it could be described as devoid of fertility. fatness. Fat places, as i?. 28. 1 Cf. Nold. I.e.', and for further testimony to the same effect, see Pusey, Minor Prophets, p. 144; Buhl, Gesch. der Edomiten (1893), p. 15 f.; Kob. BR. n. 154. It is the Wady el-'Arabah, and the plateau West of it (cf. on xiv. 6), which are entirely desert and sterile. XXVII. 40-44] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 261 And it shall come to pass when thou shalt break loose, , That thou shalt shake his yoke fi'om off thy neck. 41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand ; then will I slay my brother Jacob. 42 And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah ; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice ; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran ; 44 and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's 40. hy thy sword. I.e. b^ war and plunder, like many of the Bedawi tribes to-day (cf. on xvi. 12). How far this was true to fact of the Edomites, the information at our disposal does not tell us. They were, however, a fierce, undisciplined, and turbulent nation (Jos. BJ. rv. 4. 1 ; cf. IV. 5. 1 </>vcr€t (o/xoVaTot <f>oveviLv ovres ; and Obad. 13°, 14°). shalt serve thy brother. The doom of subjection to Israel (y. 29°' ^) is not revoked ; but it is limited, in the two next lines, in duration. And it shall come to pass when thou becomest restless. That thou shalt break &c. The time will come, when, after repeated efibrts, Edom will recover its freedom. Edom revolted from Judah, under Jehoram, b.c. 849 — 2 (2 K. viii. 20 — 22) : it may be conjectured that circumstances with which we are unacquainted — perhaps a series of abortive efforts before the final success — suggested the terms used. becomest restless. The word (rud) occurs in Heb. only here, Jer. ii. 31^ Ps. Iv. 2\ Hos. xi. 12 (doubtfully), and by a probable emendation (W. R. Smith), Jud. xi. 37 (for 'go down') : its meaning appears from the Arabic, where it signifies to go to and fro^ be restless, unsettled. break. As AV. : the word is the same as that rendered * break off ' in Ex. xxxii. 2. Evidently changed in RV. simply on account of the preceding ^ break loose.' 41 — 45. The results of Jacob's fraud. Esau waits only for an opportunity of taking vengeance on his brother: so Rebekah urges Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban in Haran. 41*'. Esau will wait till his father dies (vv. 4, 7) ; but even within the customary mourning-time — usually seven days (1. 10) — he threatens then to slay his brother, so that the birthright may devolve upon himself. 42. thy brother Esau is comforting himself with regard to thee, purposing to kill thee. I.e. is planning to relieve his feelings by vengeance : cf. the same verb in Ez. v. 13 ; Is. i. 24 ('ease me '). 43. to Laban &c. See xxiv. 29 ; and xi. 31 : and cf. Hos. xii. 12. 262 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxvii. 44, 45 fary turn away ; 45 until thy brother's anger turn away from J thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him : then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be bereaved of you both in one day? 45. both. Because Esau, as the murderer, would take to flight to escape the blood- avenger (2 S. xiv. 7). The preceding narrative involves a serious chronological discrepancy. Isaac is to all appearance, according to the representation of the narrator, upon his death-bed (cf. v. 2) : yet, according to P (xxv. 26, xxvi. 34, xxxv. 28), he survived for eighty years, dying at the age of 180. Ussher, Keil, and others, arguing back from the dates given in xlvii. 9, xlv. 6, xli. 46, xxxi. 41, infer that Jacob's flight to ^aran took place in his 77th year: this reduces the 80 years to 43, though that is hardly less incredible. Even, however, supposing this were credible, and consistent with the representation of the narrator, it does not remove the chronological difficulties of the narrative; for it involves the fresh incongruity of supposing that thirty-seven years elapsed between Esau's marrying his Hittite wives (xxvi. 34 P), and Rebekah's expressing her fear (xxvii. 46, also P) that Jacob, then aged seventy-seven^ should follow his brother's example ! Nor is it natural to picture Jacob seeking a wife in Haran, and tending Laban's sheep, as a man 77 years old. The fact is, we have here another of the many examples, afforded by the book of Genesis, of the impossibility of harmonizing the chronology of P with that of JE (see the Introd. § 2). XXVII. 46— XXVIII. 9. Jacob sent by his parents to obtain a wife from among his relations in Haran. An extract from P, written entirely without reference to xxvii. 1 — 45, and suggesting a completely different motive for Jacob's visit — it is not here spoken of as di. flight — to Laban. The paragraph attaches directly to xxvi. 34 f. (also P), where it is said that Esau, to his parents' great vexation, had taken two 'Hittite' wives: Rebekah here, fearful lest Jacob should do the same, men- tions her apprehensions to Isaac, who thereupon charges Jacob to journey to Paddan-aram, and find there a wife among the daughters of his uncle Laban. Jacob obeys; and departs accordingly with his father's blessing. — It is of course true that, in itself^ his representation is not inconsistent with that in xxvii. 42 — 45 (though the affectionate terms in which Isaac addresses Jacob in xxviii. 1, 3—4, read strangely after what has been told in xxvii. 1 — 45): men often act under the influence of more motives than one; and Rebekah may not have mentioned to Isaac her principal motive for wishing Jacob to leave his home. But presenting, as this paragraph does, all the literary marks of a hand different from that of the author of xxvii. 1 — 45, there can be no question that it forms part of a different representation of the current of events. M XXVII. 46-xxviii. 9] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 263 46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because P of the daughters of Heth : if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? XXVIII. 1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father ; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 3 And ^God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a company of peoples ; 4 and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee ; that thou mayest inherit the land of thy sojoumings, which God gave unto Abraham. 5 And Isaac sent away Jacob : and he went to Paddan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the ^Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. 6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take him a wife from thence ; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying. Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan ; 7 and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan-aram : 8 and Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 and Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife. * Heb. El Shaddai, ^ Heb. Aramean. 46. the daughters of Heth. See xxvi. 34 f. XXVIII. 1. Isaac acts in accordance with E,ebekah*s suggestion. The verse forms the immediate sequel of xxvii. 46. 3. 4. The blessing is expressed in phrases characteristic elsewhere of P : God Almighty, as xvii. 1, xxxv. 11, xlviii. 3 ; make fruitful and multiply, as xvii. 20, xlviii. 4 ; company of peoples, as xxxv. 11, xlviii. 4 ; thy seed with thee, as xvii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 19, xxxv. 12, xlviii. 4, al. ; land of thy sojournings, as xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, xxxvii. 1, Ex. vi. 4. So Paddan-aram, m. 2, 5, 6, 7 (see on xxv. 20). 4. the blessing of Abraham. See xvii. 8 (P). 5. Bethuel the Aramaean. Cf. xxv. 20 (P). 6 — 9. Esau follows the example of his brother; and in order to secure his parents' approval, takes a cousin (see xxv. 13) as his wife, in addition to his two 'Hittite ' wives (xxvi. 34 f.). 264 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxviii. 10-12 XXVIII. 10—22. Jacob's journey to Jlaran, His dream at Bethel Jacob starts from Beer-sheba on his journey to Haran, and passes the night at a ' place ' close by Luz. He has there the dream of a * ladder ' reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it; and receives an assurance that he will be protected by Jehovah's presence throughout his journeyings, and brought back in safety to the land that he is leaving. He names the place ' Bethel ' ; and promises a vow in the event of his safe return. There was afterwards an important sanctuary at Bethel (Jud. xx. 18, 26; 1 S. X. 3): it was accordingly selected by Jeroboam as the shrine for one of his golden calves, 1 K. xii. 29; and it is often alluded to as a popular place of worship, — though one discountenanced by the prophets, — in Amos and Hosea (Am. iii. 14, iv. 4, v. 5, 6, vii. 10, 13; Hos. x. IS^). The present narrative explains how it came to be regarded as a sacred place : tradition said that it had been consecrated by Jacob. — The main narrative is that of E; but vv. 10, 13—16, 19, belong to J. 10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward J Haran. | 11 And he lighted upon ^a certain place, and tarried^ there all night, because the sun was set ; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and ■ behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. | ^ Heb. the place. 10. from Beer-sheba. The last place at which Isaac has been mentioned (xxvi. 23). The v. forms the true sequel to xxvii. 41 — 45. 11. ti^on the place. Perhaps, 'the' (sacred) place (xii. 6), known afterwards as Beth-el; perhaps, according to a Heb. idiom (G.-K. § 126''), *a' place. of the stones of the place. Beitin, the site of the ancient Bethel, is a small village, with ruins of early Christian and Crusaders' buildings, about 10 miles N. of Jerusalem, on a slight elevation (hence the standing expression, to 'go up ' to Bethel : e.g. 1 S. x. 3), a little to the E. of the well-worn track leading from Jerusalem to Shechem and the North. The valley through which the track here winds is ' covered, as with grave-stones, by large sheets of bare rock, some few standing up here and there Hke cromlechs' (S. and F. p. 219); while a hill a little to the SE. rises to its top in terraces of stoned 12. In his dream, the natural features of the locality (v. 11) shape themselves into a 'ladder,' or flight of stone steps, rising up to heaven; 1 Bethel is also meant by 'Beth-aven' in Hos. iv. 15, v. 8, x. 5. 2 In the PEF. Memoirs, ii. 305, there is a view of a large * gilgal,' or circle of stones, near Bethel. Cf. PEFQS. 1902, p. 323 (at Gezer). xxviii. 13-17] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 265 13 And, behold, the Lord stood ^ above it, and said, I am the J Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ; 14 and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt 2 spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south : and in thee and in thy seed shall aU the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever 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. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said. Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not. | 17 And he was afraid, and E said, How dreadful is this place 1 this is none other but the ^ Or, heiide him * Heb. break forth. and he sees angels ascending and descending upon it. The vision is a symbolical expression of the intercourse which, though invisible to the natural eye, is nevertheless ever taking place between heaven and earth. The vision, though in the narrative, and as understood by Jacob, it relates only to Bethel, implies naturally a much wider truth. The expression used in this verse seems evidently to suggest the terms of John i. 51, where it is applied to denote symbolically, to those who could discern it, the constant and hving intercourse ever maintained between Christ and the Father. 13 — 16. Jehovah, as he dreams, appears at his side; and addresses him with words of encouragement and hope. The promise is in u 13 f. a renewal of xii. 3, 7, xiii. 14 — 16 ; in v. 15 it is accommodated to Jacob's present situation. 13. above it. Better (as RVm.), beside him : properly, (bending) over kirn, as he slept. 14. as the dust of the earth. Cf. xiii. 16. spread abroad. Heb. break forth (so xxx. 30 [see RVm.], 43; Ex. - i. 12) : hence Is. liv. 3. through thee and through thi/ seed &c. As xii. 3 (see the note), xviii. 18. 15. bring thee again. Bring thee back : see on xxiv. 5. 16. 17. The impression which this vision of glory made upon Jacob. 16. and I knew it not. Jacob had been accustomed to associate Jehovah's presence with the sacred spots at which his father had dwelt and worshipped; and is surprised to find Him here as well. 17. dreadful. The Heb. is usually rendered terrible (Ht. to be feared, cognate with was afraid here). The English word dreadful has rather deteriorated since 1611. Cf. Dan. ix. 4 (= terrible, Dt. vii. 21); Mai. i. 14 and iv. 5 AV, (in E-V. terrible). 266 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxviil 17-^1 house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob E rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. | 19 And he called the name of that place J ^Beth-el : but the name of the city was Luz at the first. | 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be with me, e and will keep me in this way that I go, and mil give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, ^then shall the Lord be my God, 1 That is, The house of God. ^ Or, and the Lord will be my God, then this stone d;c. the house 0/ God &c. The place which is God's own abode, and where earth and heaven meet. 18. The origin of the sacred monolith, or 'pillar/ such as may be assumed (cf. Hos. x. 1) to have stood beside the altar (Am. iii. 14) at Bethel. a pillar. Or standing-stone (Heb. mazzehdh^). What is meant is a sacred monolith, or 'pillar,' such as is often alluded to in the OT. as the distinguishing mark of a sacred place, or as standing beside an altar, in later times, the 'pillars' of the Canaanites were ordered to be destroyed (Ex. xxiii. 24; cf. 2 K. x. 26), and the erection of 'pillars' by the altar of Jehovah was forbidden (Dt. xvi. 22) on account of their heathen associations. Ex. xxiv. 4; Hos. iii. 4, x. 1, 2. In AV. the word is often mistranslated 'image.' A Phoenician mazzehdh was just an obelisk : see the illustration in DB, iii. 881. poured oil upon it. Thereby consecrating it. See further the remarks at the end of the chapter. 19. Luz. Cf. XXXV. 6, xlviii. 3; Jos. xvi. 2, xviii. 13; Jud. i. 23, 26 1. The 'place' is distinguished from the 'city': the sacred place, 'Bethel,' was outside the ancient city, Luz (cf Jos. xvi. 2), though , afterwards the fame of the sanctuary led to the city being known by 1 the same name. 20 — 22. Jacob's vow. The vow was common in ancient Israel, as among other ancient peoples: it consisted essentially of a solemn j promise to render God some service, in the event of a particular prayer j or wish being granted; and it was resorted to in warfare, or other need, as a motive to influence the Deity accordingly : see e.g. Nu. xxi. 2; Jud. xi. 30 f ; 1 S. i. 11; 2 S. xv. 8; and cf Ps. Ixvi. 13 f 21. The rend, of the marg. cannot be pronounced impossible: but that of the text is much the more natural and obvious: though it cannot be said to suggest a very high idea of the strength of Jacob's faith. At the same time, it may be observed, Jacob's request is a modest one : he asks simply for bread and clothing. The main point in his promise, however, lies undoubtedly in v. 22 : so perhaps Dillm. 1 I.e. something made to stand, or set up ; see the verb in xxxv. 14, 20. XXVIII. a.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 267 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's E house : and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. and others are right in regarding the words 1 n'^rhi6 "h nin^ as a later insertion, and reading as the original text simply, 'then this stone' &c. 22. Jacob promises (1) that the stone (not the place) shall be the 'house,' or abode, of Goa, — clearly a second explanation of the name, 'Bethel,' different from the one in v. 17; and (2) that he will pay tithes to God of all his gains. From Am. iy. 4 we learn that it was customary to pay tithes at Bethel : no doubt these words of Jacob are intended as an explanation of the custom. The belief in a stone being the abode of a deity or spirit was, and still is, one widely diffused among primitive and semi-primitive peoples. The Second Isaiah speaks (Is. Ivii. 6) of libations being offered to sacred stones by the idolatrous Israelites: TroXat fiev o*i'...oi "ApajSes tov \iBov...7rpo(reKvpovvy says Clement of Alexandria^; the classical writers often mention 'anointed and garlanded stones,' on which the passers-by would pour oil, at the same time uttering a prayer 2; and at the present day, in many parts of India, every village has its fetish stone, in which the spirit of a god or deified man is believed to reside, and which is venerated accordingly by the inhabitants 3. The sacred standing-stone, or ' pillar ' {mazzebdh), so often mentioned in the OT., arose in all probability out of the same behef : originally it appears to have corresponded to what we should call a 'menhir' (Celtic for a 'long stone ') : i.e. it was a natural boulder or block of stone, set up perpendicularly, and venerated by the heathen Semites as the abode of a deity*. In process of time artificial obelisks took the place of the natural boulders : Hosea's expression ' made goodly' (x. 1) implies that in his day there was some artistic workman- ship about them. A mazzebdh of this kind, whether more or less shaped artificially, was 'in the pre-Deuteronomic period the never-failing accom- paniment of the Heb. sanctuary or hdmdh (" high-place ")• It was the symbol of the Divine presence or numeric which was considered in some way to reside in or be attached to it' ( Whitehouse in DB. s.v. Pillar). 1 Protrept. iv. § 46. The famous black stone, which forms part of the Ca'ba at Mecca, was originally a heathen idol; and al-Lat, Dhu 'IChalasa, and Dhu 'IShara were all worshipped in the form of large stones (Wellh. Reste Arab. Heidentums^, 29, 45, 49). Doughty saw at Tayif, near Mecca, the three unshapely granite-blocks which represent al-'Uzza, al-Hubbal, and al-L^t {Arab. Deserta, ii. 515 f.). 2 Arnobiua (c. 300 a.d.), before he became a Christian, if he passed an anointed stone, would worship it tamquam inesset vis praesens, and ask for blessings from it {Contra Gentes, i. 39). For other similar allusions to such stones, see Theophr. Charact. 16 {the superstitious man, passing an anointed stone, would pour oil upon it, and pray); Lucian, Alex. 30; Deor. Gone. 12; Clem. Al. Strom, vn. 4. 26, p. 843 Pott. ; Min. Felix, in. 1 ; Pausan. x. 24. 6 (the stone at Delphi anointed daily), with Frazer's note, v. 354 f. ; and cf . Pillab in DB. 3 See further Tylor, Primitive Culture^ u. 160—7 ; Rel Sem.^ 204—212, 232 f. ; Pausan. vii. 22. 4, with Frazer's note, iv. 154 f. ; and G. F. Moore's very full art. Masseba in EncB. *■ Cf. (at Gezer) PEFQS. 1902, p. 323, 1903, pp. 26—30. 268 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxix. i, a Jacob's act (». 18), it is difficult not to think, especially when it is said (v. 22) that the stone itself is to be ' God's house,' must stand in some relation to these beliefs. It may be that originally the sacred monolith of Bethel was conceived as the actual abode of the deity, — Jacob's act appears at least to imply that he attributed his dream to a numen resident in it,— and that traces of this idea remain in v. 22, though the rest of the narrative has been accommodated to the higher level of religious belief, on which the narrator himself stood. For us the religious value of the narrative lies not in what is said about the sacred stone, but in the truths which find expression, — though, it may be, in a form conditioned partly by the needs, and habits of thought, of an immature stage of religious belief,— in vv. 12—17, that heaven and earth are not spiritually parted from one another, that God's protecting presence ac- companies His worshippers, and that He is ever at their side, even when they are away from their accustomed place of worship, or are otherwise tempted by circumstances not to realize the fact^ Chapter XXIX. 1—30. JacoVs arrival at Haran, His seven years' service with Ldban; and marriage with Leah and Rachel. \ XXIX. 1 Then Jacob %ent on his journey, and came to i the land of the children of the east. | 2 And he looked, and j behold a well in the field, and, lo, three flocks of sheep lying 1 Heb. lifted wp hisfeeU XXIX. ^ 1 — 14 (v. 1 E; w. 2 — 14 J). Jacob reaches Haran (xxiv. 10) ; and quickly makes the acquaintance of his uncle and cousins. 1. went on his journey. Heb. lifted up his feetj an expression found only here. the child/ren of the east. A general designation of the tribes E. and NE. of Moab, Ammon, Gilead, &c. (so Jud. vi. 3, 33; Is. xi. 14; Jer. xlix. 28; Ez. xxv. 4, 10, al.: cf. on xv. 19). It is true, Haran was a good deal more N. than E. of Palestine ; but the expression is used broadly ; and in Nu. xxiii. 7 Balaam, whose home was Pethor (the Ass. Pitru), a little W. of Haran, is said to have been brought from the ' mountains of the east.^ 1 The Ass. kings, when, in restoring a temple, they came upon the foundation- stone laid by its founder, anointed it with oil, and poured libations upon it, before reinstating it in its place {KB. i. 45, ii. 113, 151, 261); but the cases seem too | different to be regarded at least as directly parallel to Jacob's act, as they are ^ treated by Lagrange {Mudes sur les Religions Semitiques, 1903, pp. 196 f., 203). [ The BaiT^Xia of the Phoenicians (Eus. Praep. Ev. i. 10. 18; and a curious extract ; from Damascius, preserved by Photius, ap. Migne, Bihl. Patr. vol. oiii. 1292 f.), — i small portable stones, supposed to have the power of automatic movement, as well I as other magical properties, — do not appear to have any connexion with the sacred ; stones referred to above (Bel. Sem.^ p. 210 n.; Lagrange, p. 194). \ XXIX. .-lo] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 269 there by it ; for out of that well they watered the flocks : and J the stone upon the well's mouth was great. 3 And thither were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in its place. 4 And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. 5 And he said unto them. Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. 6 And he said unto them. Is it well with him ? And they said. It is well : and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. 7 And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together : water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. 8 And they said. We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth ; then we water the sheep. 9 While he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep ; for she kept them. 10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's 2, 3. The tenses in the Heb. are here distinguished with particular precision: the flocks were lying (at the time); then -y. 2^ — 3 is parenthetical, describing the practice: used to water ^ used to be gathered, used to roll, &c. (in the Lxx., correctly, partcp. and imper- fects, respectively) : the narrative of v. 2* is resumed in v. 4. the stone &c. Cisterns — and sometimes also (Thomson, L. and B. I. 256) ' wells' — are in the East still generally covered in by a broad and thick flat stone, with a round hole cut in the middle, which in its turn is often covered with a heavy stone, which it requires two or three men to roll away, and which is removed only at particular times (Rob. BR. i. 490; cf. v. 8). 4. Haran. See on xi. 31, and xxiv. 10. 5. son. I.e. descendant, Laban being in reality son of Bethuel (xxviii. 5), and grandson of Nahor (xxii. 22). So in 'Jehu, son of Nimshi,' 2 K. ix. 20 (see v. 14), 'Zechariah, son of Iddo,' Ezr. v. 1 (see Zech. i. 1). 7. he gathered together. In order, viz., to be folded for the night. 8. Wells surrounded with drinking troughs, and flocks waiting beside them to be watered, are still a common sight in the East (Rob. BB. I. 201, 204, II. 22, 26, 35, 226, 378). 9. with her father's sheep. Cf. Ex. ii. 16. The daughter of an Arab sheikh will do the same thing at the present day. 10. Jacob, attracted by Rachel's beauty {v. 17), and pleased also at finding himself so near to his relations (notice the stress on 'his 270 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxix. 10-17 brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the J well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. 11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son : and she ran and told her father. 13 And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him. Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. | 15 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because £ thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? 16 And Laban had two daughters : the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah's eyes were tender ; mother's brother'), hastens to produce a favourable impression upon her by offering her his services. 11. wept. Orientals are more emotional than we are; so that Jacob, overcome with joy at this happy termination of his journey, might quite naturally burst into tears. 12. brother. I.e. relation; here, nephew, as xiv. 14, xxiv. 48. So -y. 15. 13. Jacob being now grown up, it is evident that Laban must have parted with his sister (xxiv. 61) more than 20 years before' : so the delight with which he welcomed her son is quite natural. 14. Laban, satisfied with Jacob's account of himself, greets him as his 'bone' and his 'flesh': cf., for the expression, Jud. ix. 2; 2 S. V. 1, xix. 12, 13. 15 — 30 (E, except w. 24, 29, which belong to P, perhaps also V. 28^). * In this marriage with two sisters, Jacob is no model for Israel (Lev. xviii. 18) : but it was at least not of his own choice : one of the sisters was forced upon him by Laban's craft, so that the marriage has the aspect of a Haran custom rather than of a Hebrew one. While however the double marriage thus finds its excuse in Laban's deceit, the ethical consideration also asserts itself that Jacob's own fraud on Esau and Isaac is avenged by the deception which he himself must now suffer' (Dillm.). 15. Laban's offer is in appearance disinterested: but it is no doubt prompted in reality by the observation that Jacob was a skilful shepherd, whose services it would be worth while to retain. 17. tender. I.e. weah, opp. to the large, black, lustrous eyes, re- sembling those of a gazelle, such as Orientals love. 1 Indeed, according to P (cf. xxvi. 34), more than 40, — or, according to the computations of Ussher and Keil (p. 262), 77, — years before : but see the Introd. § 2. XXIX. 17-26] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 271 but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured. 18 And Jacobs loved Rachel ; and he said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. 19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man : abide with me. 20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel ; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. 21 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23 And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her. | 24 And Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid p unto his daughter Leah for an handmaid. | 25 And it came to e pass in the morning that, behold, it was Leah : and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? 26 And Laban said. It is not so done in our place, to give the beautiful. Heb. fair inform : see the next note. well favoured. I.e. good-looking (Heb. fair in aspect or looks)t handsome: so xxxix. 6, xli. 2, al.; and conversely 'ill favoured,' Gen. xli. 3, 'evilfavouredness,' Dt. xvii. 1. 'Favour' in Old English (see Aldis Wright's Bible Word-Book, s.v.) meant appearance, aspect, look, and even face (e.g. Cymbeline, v. 5. 93, 'His favour is familiar to me'); and in many Eng. dialects 'to favour' is still used in the sense of to seem, appear (Jos. Wright's Engl. Dialect Diet. s.v.). 18. I will serve thee seven years &c. Jacob's service takes the place of the mohar, usually paid to her parents for a bride (see on xxxiv. 12). The custom of serving a term of years for a wife is said to be still common in Syria. Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 297 f.) mentions a case very similar to that of Jacob. 19. It is better &c. On account, viz., of his being a relation. Marriages tending to break down the family connexion, and family influence, were viewed with disfavour. 22. a feast. The marriage-feast was usually, it seems, given by the bridegroom (Jud. xiv. 10): but see 2 Esdr. ix. 47; Tob. viii. 19; Mt. xxii. 2. 23 — 25. Thus Jacob, who had overreached his brother and deceived his father, is now overreached himself. Laban takes advantage of the fact that the bride (see on xxiv. 65) was brought to her husband veiled ; but it is still difficult to understand how the disguise could be carried successfully through. 24. for an handmaid. I.e. as a female slave (xvi. 1). So v. 29, . 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 18 and always (cf. on xii. 16). 26. In Egypt ' a father very often objects to marrying a younger 272 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxix. .6-32 younger before the firstborn. 27 Fulfil the week of this one, M and we will give thee the other also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. 28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week : | and he gave him Rachel his daughter to F wife. 29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her handmaid. | 30 And he went in also unto M Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. daughter before an elder' (Lane, Mod. Eg. i. 201). But of course Laban's excuse is inadequate : he ought, if it really existed, to have explained the custom to Jacob before. 27. Fulfil the week of this one. Do not break the marriage off ; complete the usual round of wedding festivities. For the ' week,' see Jud. xiv. 12; Tob. xi. 19. 28. The seven days being over, and Jacob having agreed to Laban's proposal to serve him another seven years, he receives Rachel as well. XXIX. 31— XXX. 24. The hirth of Jacob* s eleven sonSj and one daugJiter. The narrative (in the main J, with short excerpts from E) is brief, the principal aim of both writers being simply to explain the names. The explana- tions may in one or two cases be correct : but in most cases they rest merely upon assonances (as explained on iv. \Y\ it must also remain an open question whether even so the actual origin of the different names is preserved, and whether the explanations offered are not in reality popular etymologies of the names of the tribes. But the narrative has also an ethical side : it illustrates indirectly the evils of polygamy, and the jealousies and rivalries to which it gives rise. ' The struggle of Rachel and Leah for their husband gives us a strange picture of manners and morals, but, naturally, must not be judged by our standard* (Payne Smith): at the same time, in so far as the temper and attitude of Rachel are concerned, it is fair to remember that Leah was not the wife of Jacob's choice, but had been forced by fraud into what was really Rachel's rightful place in his house. 31 And the Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened .i her womb: but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived, 31 — 35. Leah bears Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. 31. hxited. The word is to be understood in a relative sense -less loved (cf v. 30): similarly Dt. xxi. 15; Mt. vi. 24. 1 It is for this reason that the margins of RV. do not state the meanings of the several names, but (as on iv. 1, 25) mention merely the Heb. words which they resemble in sound. XXIX. 3^-xxx. 2] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 273 and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben : for she said, j Because the Lord ^hath looked upon my affliction ; for now my husband will love me. 33 And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and said, Because the Lord ^hath heard that I am hated, he hath therefore given me this son also : and she called his name ^Simeon. 34 And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and said, Now this time will my husband be ^joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons : therefore was his name called Levi. 35 And she conceived again, and bare a son : and she said. This time will I Upraise the Lord : therefore she called his name ^ Judah ; and she left bearing. XXX. 1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no^ children, Rachel envied her sister; and she said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel : and he said. Am I in God's stead, who * Heb. raah beojiyi. 2 -s.eh. shama. ^ Heb. Shimeon. * From the root lavah. '' From the Heb. hodah. ^ Heb. Jehudah. 32. Reuben. The word signifies, in appearance, Behold (plur.) a son! but it is very doubtful if this is the real meaning of the name. Here, however, the name is stated to have been given simply from its resemblance in sound to rd'dh If'onyl, 'looked upon my affliction' : cf. 1 S. i. 11 (of the childless Hannah), Luke i. 48; and often with the accus. ('see,' 'behold'), as ch. xxxi. 42; Ex. iii. 7; Ps. ix. 13. 33. Simeon. This, as well as most of the following names, is sufficiently explained by the marg. of the RV. It has been supposed (W. R. Smith, Joiirn. of Phil. ix. 80, 96, and others) that 'Simeon' is really an animal name, the word being akin to the Arab. sim% which denotes a cross between a wolf and a hyaena ^ 34. he joined. Heb. yilldveh, from Idvdh, to join. The name is similarly played upon in Num. xviii. 2. For conjectures respecting the actual meaning of the name, see Levi in DB. 35. The same apparent connexion with the Heb. word for to praise [or, better, to acknowledge, thank : Ps. ix. 1, and frequently) forms the starting-point of the blessing in xlix. 8. XXX. 1 — 8. Bilhah, Rachel's female slave (xxix. 29), bears Dan and Naphtali. 1. Rachel, discontented and envious, petulantly reproaches Jacob or her childlessness. 2. in God's stead. Who is the author of life, and is alone able X) grant such a request. The same phrase recurs in 1. 19: cf also K. V. 7. 1 Many Heb. proper names are animal names: e.g. Rachel, *ewe'; Jael, 'mountain-goat'; Jonah, 'dove'; Shaphan, 'rock-rabbit.' See the list in Gray's ^e&. Proper Names (1896), p. 88 ff.; or EncB. Names, § 68. D. 18 274 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxx. .-n hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? 3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; that she may bear upon my knees, and I also may ^obtain children by her. | 4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife : and Jacob went in unto her. 5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. I 6 And Rachel said, God hath ^judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son : therefore called she his name Dan. | 7 And Bilhah RacheFs handmaid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8 And Rachel said, With ^mighty wrestlings have I * wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed : and she called his name Naphtali. 9 AVhen Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. 10 And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bare Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, ^Fortunate 1 and she called his name ^ Heb. be huilded by her. ^ Heb. dan, he judged. * Heb. wrestlings of Ood. 4 Heb. niphtaly he wrestled. ^ Heb. With fortune I Another reading is, Fortune is come. 3. Rachel resorts to the same expedient as Sarah, ch. xvi. 2, 3. that she may hear upon my knees. A fig. expression for, that I may acknowledge her children as my own: cf. 1. 23, and Job iii. 12. An expression, denoting properly, it seems, recognition and acce{)tance by the father, and metaphorically adoption by another: and originating, it is probable, in the custom, once widely diffused over the world, and still, it is stated, common in many parts of Germany, of the mother being actually delivered of her child upon the father's knees,— the latter, by so receiving it, owning it symbolically as his legitimate offspring (see Stade, ZATW. 1886, p. 148, in a discussion of this expression). may be builded up from her. See on xvi. 2. 6. judged me. And (as is implied) given me my due. A common usage : see e.g. Ps. xxvi. 1, xliii. 1. heard my voice. As Ps. xviii. 6, aZ. 8. With mighty wrestlings. The lit. rendering (see marg.) bein^ interpreted in accordance with the principle explained on xxiii. 6. Others, however, explain 'with wrestlings for God,' i.e. *to win l^i': favour and blessing' (Tuch, Del., Dillm., Gunkel). 9 — 13. Zilpah, Leah's female slave (xxix. 24), bears Gad aii. Asher. 11. The Heb. text has ^5? ' With fortune !' (lxx. cV rvxo) = * For- tunate!' The Massorites direct the Heb. letters to be read as thoiiifn they were two words ^^ 5<n 'Fortune is come' (so Targg. and Pesh.) the general sense remaining the same. Gad is the name of an old Semitic god of fortune, mentioned particularly in Aramaic inscriptiomj from Hauran and Palmyra, and also once in the OT. (Is. Ixv. 11 EV.); XXX. II-I6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 275 ^Gad. 12 And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bare Jacob a second son. J 13 And Leah said, ^ Happy am I ! for the daughters will ^call me happy : and she called his name Asher. 14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found ^mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. 15 And she said unto her, Is it a smaU matter that thou hast taken away my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also ? And Rachel said. Therefore he shall lie with thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes. 16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, ^ That is, Fortune. ^ Heb. With my happiness! ' Heb. asher, to call happy. * Or, love-apples the name is also preserved in Baal-gad, the name of a place at the foot of Hermon (Josh. xi. 17, al.\ and Migdal-gad, 'tower of Gad,' in Judah (ib. xv. 37). In S3nriac the word has sunk to be a mere appella- tive, fortune. 13. call me happy. For the word, see Pr. xxxi. 28; Cant. vi. 9 (Heb.); Job xxix. 11 (Heb); Ps. kxii. 17 (RV.). 14—21. Leah bears Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. 14. Reuben. To be pictured here as a child of 7 or 8. mandrakes. The mandrake (Gk. ftavSpayopas) is a plant (d. Tris- tram, NHB. 466—8 ; Thomson, L. and B> ii. 240 f ) of the same family (Solanaceae) as the potato, growing flat on the ground; its Leaves present generally the appearance of a large primrose ; and ' the fruit is of the size of a large plum, quite round, yellow, and full of soffc pulp.' Both the fruit and the roots appear (see Tuch's note) to have stimulating quaHties : Greek writers speak of a decoction from the roots being used as a love philtre; and the fruit is still considered in the East to possess aphrodisiac properties, and to promote con- ception. These facts explain Rachel's anxiety to obtain some of those which the child Reuben had gathered. The Heb. name is akin to the Heb. word for (sexual) 'love' (Ez. xvi. 8); and RVm. is thus a good explanatory comment on the little-known 'mandrake.' The fruit is ripe in May (Tristram, I.e.), which is just the time of 'wheat-harvest' in the East. 15. taken away. In so far, viz., as Jacob was fonder of Rachel :han of Leah. And Rachsl said &c. Rachel was content that her sister should lave a chance of another son, if only she could secure some of the pve-apples for herself. 16. Leah says that she has 'hired' Jacob with the love-apples i^hich she has given Rachel. The words are evidently intended as an fesplanation of the name ' Issachar.' 18—2 276 THE BOOK OF GEOTISIS [xxx. 16-24 and said, Thou must come in unto me ; for I have surely hired J thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. | 17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and J bare Jacob a fifth son. 18 And Leah said, God hath given me my ^hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband : and she called his name Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jacob. 20 And Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry ; ] now will my husband ^ dwell . with me, because I have borne him six sons : | and she called j his name Zebulun. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah. 22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived, and bare a son : and said, God hath taken away my reproach: | 24 and she called his name Joseph, saying. The, Lord ^add to me another son. 1 Heb. sachar. ^ Heb. zahal, he dwelt. ' Heb. Joseph. 18. Leah says here that Issachar is the * hire,' or pa3niient, which she has received in return for having given Jacob her maid, Zilpah, — obviously a second explanation of 'Issachar' (mcMr = ' hire,' v. 32, or * payment,' Jon. i. 3). 20. Two explanations of * Zebulun.* endowed me with a good dowry. Neither the verb nor the (cognate) subst. occurs elsewhere in the OT. (except in proper names, as Jozabad, Zebediah, Zabdi = Zehedee) : the subst. {zebed) occurs in S3n:iac, of the present given to the bride by her father. I dwell. Zdbal occurs only here; but this is the traditional ex- planation of it (Aq., Targ., Jerome: cf Pesh. 'wiU adhere to me')\ It expresses the second etymology of 'Zebulun.' 21. Dinah. The writer offers no explanation of this name, though it might naturally be interpreted as signifying judgement (cf 'Dan'). 22 — 24. Rachel's long-deferred hopes are at length accomplished ; and she bears a son, Joseph. 22. remembered. Cf 1 S. i. 19. 23. 24. Two explanations of 'Joseph,' one (E: notice God) from 'dsaph, to take away ; and the other (J : notice Je/wvah) from ydsaph^ to add. 23. my reproach. Cf. Luke i. 25. 1 Some Assyriologists (but not Mr Ball) have advocated lately the rend. wiU exalt or honour (see Lex.y p. 259*" ; EncB. iv. 5386). It is true, zahal is not known to occur in the other Semitic languages with the meaning dwell: but Heb. has other roots peculiar to itself; the Ass. zabdlu means commonly to carry, bring (e.ft bricks), and the evidence that it means also to lift up, or exalt, seems at present be questionable. .,,5 I XXX. 25-3i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 277 XXX. 25^43. How Laban concludes a new agreement with Jacob, and how Jacob circumvents it. Jacob, having now been in Laban's service for 14 years (xxix. 20, 30), craves permission to return home to his father. Laban, reluctant to part with a ' servant, who, as ho admits {v. 27*"), has served him well, invites him, with a show of liberality, to name the terms on which he will continue in his service. Jacob thereupon proposes an arrangement, by which, ostensibly, he will gain little or nothing, and with which, therefore, Laban immediately closes {vv. 25 — 34), but which, it soon appears, his son-in-law knows how to turn to his own advantage {vv. 35—43). 25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that j Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go : for thou knowest my service wherewith I have served thee. 27 And Laban said unto him. If now I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry : for I have divined that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. 28 And he said. Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. 29 And he said unto him. Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle hath fared with me. 30 For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it hath ^increased unto a multitude ; and the Lord hath blessed thee ^whithersoever I turned : and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? 31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said. Thou shalt not give me aught : if thou wilt do this thing 1 Heb. broken forth. ^ Heb. at my foot. 27. divined. The word found in xliv. 5, 15, and meaning properly to ohs&rve omens : used here, it seems, in the metaph. sense of perceive by careful observation (cf. 1 K. xx. 33, — though there RVm. is prob. preferable). 28. Laban oflfers to give him whatever wages he may demand. 29. 30. Jacob does not deny that he has been useful to Laban, but urges that it is now time for him to look to his own interests. 30. increased abundantly (1 Ch. xxii. 5, 8). Cf. on xxviii. 14. whithersoever I turned. For the Heb. idiom employed (lit. 'accord- ing to my foot,' — i.e. wherever it turned), see Job xviii. 11 (RV. 'at his heels'), Is. xli. 2 (RV. 2nd marg.). 31 — 34. Jacob's offer to Laban: he will serve him for nothing, if he will agree to the following arrangement : Jacob will remove from 278 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxx. 31-36 for me, I will again feed thy flock and keep it. 32 I will pass J through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats : and of such shall be my hire. 33 So shall my righteousness answer for me hereafter, when thou shalt come concerning my hire that is before thee : every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that if found with me shall be counted stolen. 34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. 35 And he removed that day the he-goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she- goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons ; 36 and he set three days' journey the flocks under his charge all the animals of abnormal colour (i.e. the parti-coloured goats, and the black sheep) ; and having done this will take as his wages only the animals so marked, which are bom afterwards of those which remain with him. Laban, supposing that, under the conditions proposed, these will be few or none, at once closes with the offer. 32. every black one among the sheep &c. The sheep being, as a rule, white (Cant. iv. 2, vi. 6), while the goats (cf v. 35) were usually dark-coloured or black (Cant. iv. 1). 33. answer. In a forensic sense = hear witness. So Dt. xix. 1 8 (RV. 'testified'), 1 S. xii. 3 (RV. 'witness'); Ex. xx. 16 (lit. 'Thou shalt not answer against thy neighbour as a false witness'). for me. Against me : i.e. there will be nothing whatever to allege against my honesty. concerning. Better, to mew. lit. upon or over^ i.e. to come (and look) over. every one that is not &c. I.e. all black goats, and all white sheep, bom after this arrangement is concluded, if found in his possession, will ipso facto be proved to have been stolen. 34. Laban, gratified at such apparently advantageous terms, closes with them at once. 35. 36. Laban, for greater security, removes all the animals of abnormal colour (the parti-coloured goats, and the black sheep) from the flocks himself; and, as an additional precaution, places three days' journey between them and the normally coloured animals (black goats and white sheep) left with Jacob. 35. ringstraked. I.e. streaked (as we should now say : so v. 37 streaks for strakes) with rings, — though there is no philological reason for limiting the ' streaks' to such as were ring-shaped. vx. 36-41] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 279 betwixt himself and Jacob : and Jacob fed the rest of Labans J flocks. 37 And Jacob took him rods of fresh ^poplar, and of the almond and of the plane tree; and peeled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38 And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink ; and they conceived when they came to drink. 39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs, [and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked R and all the black in the flock of Laban ;] and he put his own J droves apart, and put them not unto Laban's flock. 41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger of the flock did conceive, 1 Or, storax tree 36. himself. Lxx., Sam. tkenij i.e. his sons. As the text stands, it must be supposed that Laban was with his sons. 37 — 42. The three devices by which Jacob outwits his uncle. (1) 37 — 39. Jacob places parti-coloured rods in front of the ewes at the time when they conceived, so that they bore in con- sequence parti-coloured young\ 37. poplar. Heb. libnehy also Hos. iv. 13. The Arab, luhia, — so called (Ges. Del.) from its exuding the milk-like gum [Arab, leben, milk] called storax, — the storax-tree (so lxx. here), makes RVm. very probable (cf. Poplar in DB.). 33. over against. I.e. opposite to. Better, in front of. in the gutters (Ex. ii. 16 'troughs'). In the Wditer-troughs (xxiv. 20) is in any case in apposition, and perhaps an explanatory gloss. (2) 40. Jacob separates the spotted lambs and kids thus pro- duced from the rest of the flock, but arranges that the latter should nevertheless, while feeding, have them in view, so that when the ewes conceived, there should be a further tendency to bear spotted young. This at least appears to be the meaning of the verse as it stands; but it is indistinctly expressed: and most modern scholars (Del., Dillm., &c.) consider that the words 'and set.. .of Laban' are a gloss, in which case the verse will merely state that the parti-coloured young, produced as described in vv. 37 — 39, were carefully kept apart from those of normal colour, which Jacob was tending, and which would of course be Laban's. (3) 41, 42. Jacob set up the peeled rods only when the stronger ^ The physiological principle involved is well established, and, as Boehart shewed {Hieroz. ii. c. 49: i. p. 619 ff., ed. Eosenm.), was known to the ancients, and was applied, for instance, for the purpose of obtaining particular colours in horses and dogs (Oppian, Kynegetica, i. 327 ff., 353 — 6). According to an authority quoted by Delitzsch, cattle-breeders now, in order to secure white lambs, surround the drinkiug-troughs with white objects. 280 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxx. 41-xxxi. i ^ that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the J" gutters, that they might conceive among the rods ; 42 but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in : so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maidservants and men- servants, and camels and asses. ewes were about to conceive; he thus secured all the strongest animals for himself ^ 43. The result of these ingenious devices was that Jacob's pos- sessions increased (y. 30) immensely. Chapter XXXI. JacoVs return from Haran, Jacob leaves Laban, taking with him his family and cattle, vv. 1 — 21 ; Laban's pursuit of Jacob, vv. 22 — 25 ; the parley between them, and mutual recriminations, tv. 26 — 44 ; the double agreement concluded finally between them, vv. 45 — 54 ; return of Laban to 5aran, v. 55. — In vv. 1 — 44 the main narrative is E, only part of «?. 18 being from P, and vv. 1, 3, with possibly one or two verses besides, from J. Independently of the use of God in vv. 7, 9, 11, 16, 24, 42, and some other styHstic features, it is particularly noticeable that the account given in this chapter of Laban's arrangement with Jacob, and of the manner in which its consequences were evaded by Jacob, diffei's from that given in ch. xxx, : in xxxi. 7 — 12, 41, Jacob says that Laban had been in the habit of arbitrarily changing his wages, as seemed most likely to benefit himself, of which there is nothing in ch. xxx. ; and further, that the effect of the change had each time been fmstrated, not (as in xxx. 37 — 42) by his own ingenious contrivances, but by the dispositions of providence (xxxi. 8, 9) : ch. xxx. gives J's representation of the transactions, ch. xxxi. gives that of E. It follows, from this diflference between the sources of the two narratives, that xxxi. 5^ 7 — 9, 12, 24, 29 does not express, or imply. Divine approval of the artifices described in xxx. 31 — 42. On vv. 45—54, see p. 287. XXXI. 1 And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, j' Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's, and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this ^glory. | 1 Or, wealth XXXI. 1 — -3. The reasons which decided Jacob to leave Laban 1. The unfriendly remarks of Laban's sons (xxx. 35). glory, Le. wealth: cf. Is. x. 3, Ixvi. 12; Nah. ii. 9 ; Ps. xlix. 16. 1 Symm,, for strong o^ndi feeble, has, respectively, irpibl'/xa and o^pifia (whence Vulg. primo tempore and serotina; similarly Onk.); and the paraphrase is very probably a correct one; the stronger ewes lambing in winter, and the weaker in spring (Colum. BR. vii. 3; Varro, BR. ii. 2 § 13 ; Pliny, HN. vin. § 187). xxxi. .-13] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 281 2 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was E not toward him as beforetime. | 3 And the Lord said unto Jacob, j Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred ; and I will be with thee. | 4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel andjsr Leah to the field unto his flock, 5 and said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as beforetime ; but the God of my father hath been with me. 6 And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. 7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times ; but God suffered him not to hurt me. 8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages ; then all the flock bare speckled : and if he said thus. The ringstraked shall be thy wages ; then bare all the flock ringstraked. 9 Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. 10 And it came to pass at the time that the flock conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. 11 And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob : and I said, Here am I. 12 And he said. Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled : for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. 13 I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst 2. The dissatisfaction visible in Laban's face (cf. v. 5). 3. The consciousness that Jehovah sanctions his departure. 4 — 13. Jacob explains his position to his wives. 6. They themselves (the pron. ye is emphatic) can testify that he has served Laban well (cf. xxx. 26^, 29). 7 — 9. Laban's ingratitude. He repeatedly changed Jacob's wages, in the hope of serving his own ends; but each time the flocks bore young just of the kind of which his wages were to be : the increase of his wealth had thus been by God's appointment. The tenses in V. 8 are all frequentative, and describe what happened habitually. The verses, it is evident (cf the remarks above), give a different repre- sentation of the course of events from xxx. 32 — 42. 7. deceived. Lit. mocked ; viz. by taking advantage of me ( Jer. ix. 5). 10 — 12. Jacob had learnt by a dream that the birth of the parti- coloured young was by God's appointment in compensation {v. 12 end) for Laban's treatment of him. 10. grisled. Patched (i.e. black, with patches of white) — perhaps meaning properly hail-marked, spotted as if by hail: so i?. 12; Zech. vi. 3, 6 (of horses). Nearly the same word is used similarly in Syriac. ' Grisled' (now spelt grizzled) means grey (Fr. gris). 282 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxi. 13-10 a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow nnto me: now arise, gc: ; thee out firom this land, and return unto the land of thy nativity. 14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our fiather's house • 16 Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured ^our money. 16 For all the riches which God hath taken away from our fiather, that is ours 9nd our children's : now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, da 17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon the camels; 18 and he carried away all his cattle, | and all P his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, for to go to Isaac his father unto the land of Canaan. | 19 Now Laban was gone to e ^ Or, the pri^ paid for vs 13. (jod identifies Himself with the God whom Jacob had seen at Bethel (xxviii. 18, 20 — 22), and bids him return to Canaan. The verse coheres badly with w. 10, 12; for w. 10, 12 clearly describe some- thing which happened in the past, whereas v, 13 as clearly describes something belonging to the present occasion (cf. v. 3). It may be that originally w. 10, 12 stood in E in a different connexion, anH that v. 13 was l^e immediate sequel to t?. 11 (with *a dream,' — i.e. a recent dream, — for *the dream,' as the Heb. equally permits). 14—16. His wives consent : their fether has behaved towards them unnaturally, and treated them as aliens, 14. Is there yet &c. They have nothing more to expect firom their fether, — ^in addition viz. to what they may have received from him at the time of their marriage. Or the Heb. may be rendered. Have we still cmy portion or inhtritancs in &c. ? in which case the words will be an expression of emphatic repudiation : cf. 2 S. xx. 1 ; 1 K. xii. 16. 15. stramgert. Foreigners, or aliens: cf. on xvii. 12. sM ms. €&& xxix. 20, 27. The word is however used here with some bitterness, implying that Laban no longer owns even the ties of relationship. our money. Or, our price (Ex. xxi. 35 Heb.), i.e. the price received for us, the gains accruing to him firom Jacob's fourteen years' service, some part of which he would, if generous, have naturally allowed his daughters. 16. that is ours &c. There is consequently no reason why we should not go with thee. 17—21. Jacob's flight 18. Notice, in the second part of the verse, the marks of P's style : 'substance' and *gatiiered' (xii. 5, xxxvi 6), * getting' (xxxvi. 6), and * Paddan-aram* (xxv. 20). 19. Sheep-Bearing was an occasion for some festivity (1 S. xxv. CXI. 19-n] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 283 shear his sheep : and Rachel stole the Heraphim that were her B father's. 20 And Jacob ^ stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled. 21 So he fled with all that he had ; and he rose up, and passed over ^the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead. 22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled. 23 And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey ; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. 24 And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream ^ See vv. 30, 34, Judg. xvii. 5, 1 Sam. xix. 13, and Hos. iii. 4. » Heb. stole the heart of Laban the Aramean. * That is, the Euphrates. 2, 8, 11 ; 2 S. xiii. 23), and might naturally, if the flocks were large, last for several days. terapkim. Images, with at least a head resembling that of a man (1 S. xix. 13, 16), which were venerated by the less spiritual Hebrews, apparently as a kind of household god, or Penates Tcf. 1 S. /. c, and the concern of Laban here at their loss), and were likewise consulted for the purpose of obtaining oracles (Zech. x. 2, and esp. Ez. xxi. 21) : the regard in which they were popularly held is apparent also from the narrative of Jud. xvii. 5, xviii. 14 — 20, and jfrom Hos. iii. 4. The etymo- logy of the name is obscure. Rachel, by taking her father's teraphim, hoped, it may be supposed, to carry with her into Canaan the good fortune of her paternal home (Ewald). 20. Jacob duped Lahan: lit. stole LaharCs heart (i.e. his under- standing \ Hos. vii. 11 RVm.; Jer. v. 21 KVm.) : so v. 26, 2 S. xv. 6. Cf. /cA.€7rT€iv voov; and {v. 27) Kkiimiv riva. 21. the River, I.e. the Euphrates, ' the river,' Kar clox^yV, to the Hebrews (cf on xv. 18) ; in RV., when this is the meaning, the word being printed with a capital R (e.g. Jos. xxi v. 2; 1 K. iv. 21, 24; Is. viii. 7, xi. 15 ; Ps. Ixxii. 8). Haran was N. of the Euphrates (on xi. 31\ mountain of Gilead. Orj hill country of Gilead (as Dt. iii. 12). Gilead was the rough and rugged, but finely-wooded and picturesque region on the E. of Jordan, extending from the Yarmuk Ta little S. of the Sea of Gennesareth) on the N., to the vale of Heshbon Ta Httle N. of the Dead Sea) on the S., and divided into two parts, or 'halves' (d. Dt. iii. 12; Jos. xii. 2, 5, xiii. 31), by the deep gorge of the Jabbok (now the Zerkd : see on xxxii. 22). 22 — 25. Laban pursues Jacob, and overtakes him in Gilead. 22. 23. The distance from Haran to Gilead, — some 350 miles, — is much more than a seven-days' march, or even, for a party like Jacob's, travelling with flocks, than a ten-days' march. No doubt the narrator 'underestimated the required time' (Carpenter). 23. brethren. I.e. kinsfolk; so w. 25, 32, 37, 46, 54. Cf xiii. 8. 24. Laban, the night before {v. 42 end) he overtakes Jacob, * as if an evil conscience preyed secretly upon him' (Ewald, Hist. i. 356), is warned in a dream (cf xx. 3) not to do him any harm. 284 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxi. .4-30 of the night, and said unto him, Take heed to thyself that thou E speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 25 And Laban came up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain : and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountain of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters as captives of the sword ? 27 Wherefore didst thou flee secretly, and ^ steal away from me ; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp ; 28 and hast not sufiered me to kiss my sons and my daughters ? now hast thou done foolishly. 29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt : but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying. Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30 And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after ^ Heb. didst steal me. either good or bad. See on xxiv. 50. 25. in the mountain. I.e. (see v. 23) the mountain of Gilead, though the sequel seems to require a different one, the name of which has accidentally fallen out: 'Jacob had pitched in the mountain [of ]; and Laban pitched in the mountain of Gilead.' What name this may have been is, of course, uncertain, though ' Mizpah' (cf. v. 49) has been suggested. It is evident that in this verse, whatever may be the case in v. 21, some special 'mountain' in Gilead is intended. The name Jehel JiVdd attaches at present to a lofty part of the range, about 8 miles S. of the Jabbok, from the summit of which, Jehel ''Oshd, there is a fine view towards both Damascus and the West (Conder, Heth and Moab^ 186 — 8); but this cannot be meant here, for Jacob does not cross the Jabbok till xxxii. 23. In all probability, some locality on the NE. of Jehel ^Ajlun is intended : cf. on v. 49. 26 — 30. Laban, with true Oriental dissimulation (cf. vv. 14, 15]), indignantly reproaches Jacob with having stolen away with his daughters, as though they were captives taken in war, and without having given him an opportunity of dismissing them with a parting feast, and other natural marks of affection: still, under the circum- stances (vv. 29, 30*), he will let this pass; but why has he stolen liis teraphim ? 28. sons. I.e. grandsons: cf. v. 43 Heb. ('children'), xxix. 5. 29. to do you hurt. It may be inferrea therefore that Laban's party was more numerous than Jacob's. of your father. Isaac. Jacob's ancestral God is contrasted im^ plicitly with the god of Laban (cf. v. 42, and esp. v. 53). 30. And now thou art gone^ because thou sore longest &c. Jacob XXXI. 30-37] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 285 thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods ? E 31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid : for I said, Lest thou shouldest take thy daughters from me by force. 32 With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, he shall not live : before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. 33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maidservants; but he found them not. And he went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban felt about all the tent, but found them not. 35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee ; for the manner of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the teraphim. 36 And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban : and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast hotly pursued after me ? 37 Whereas thou hast felt is gone ; and his departure may be excused on account of his anxiety to return home : so Laban, esp. after the Divine warning (v. 29), will say no more about that ; but he cannot pass so lightly over the theft of his gods. 31 — 35. In reply to the first charge, Jacob was afraid, he says, lest, if he told him, he would retain his daughters by force ; in reply to the second, in regard to which he knows himself to be innocent, he boldly challenges Laban to find the teraphim. Thereupon Laban, who had before (xxix. 23) outwitted Jacob, is in his turn outwitted by his own daughter. 34. furnitv/re. Saddle-litter or howdah\ — a crated frame, with cushions and carpets inside, and protected by an awning above, fastened to the camel's saddle, such as is still often used by women traveUing in the East (Burckhardt, Bedouins^ ii. 85 ; Doughty, Arab. Deserta, i. 437, II. 304). 36 — 42. Jacob, emboldened by Laban's failure to establish his charge, now indignantly retorts upon his father-in-law: so far from having misappropriated anything of Laban's belongings, he^ has on the contrary for 20 years spent himself unsparingly in his service ; and yet, had not Providence interposed on his behalf, Laban would have sent him away a beggar. 37. Jacob views the accusation about the teraphim as a pretext for searching his goods. 1 The Arab, kur is explained by this Urdu word in a gloss on Tarafa, 1. 39. 286 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxi. 37-43 about all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us two. 38 This twenty years have I been with thee ; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flocks have I not eaten. 39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee ; I bare the loss of it ; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 Thus I was ; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night ; and my sleep fled from mine eyes. 41 These twenty years have I been in thy house ; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock : and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me away empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight. 43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, 39. / brought not imto thee. As proof, viz., of what had happened, in which case the shepherd was not usually held responsible (cf. Ex. xxii. 13). But Laban had been an exceptionally exacting master. 40. Cf. Jer. xxxvi. 30. In the East the absence of clouds so promotes the radiation of heat from the earth that, even when the days are hot, the nights are sometimes very cold (cf. HG. 71). 41. I served thee &c. Cf. Hos. xii. 12 f. (where the flight and hardships undergone by Jacob are contrasted [read But for And in V. 13*] with the deliverance of his descendants under the honourable guidance of a prophet)'. 42. ths Fear of Isaac. I.e. the object of Isaac's fear : so v. 53. The title is apparently an archaic one; the word 'fear' does not occur elsewhere in this sense (Is. viii. 13, the Heb. word is different). with me. On my side (Ps. cxxiv. 1, 2): Yit.for me (Ps. Ivi. 9). 43. 44. Unable to reply, Laban seeks to close the dispute by pro- posing a treaty of friendship. 43. He feigns solicitude for his daughters' welfare: all Jacob's belongings, he says, are, in a sense, his ; and yet wJiat can I do this day for these my daughters, or for their children t he must part with them, and does not know how they will be treated. ^ The 20 years of this verse are manifestly the same as the 20 years of v. 38. The strange view adopted in the Speaker's Commentary, p. 178, and at the end of Genesis in Bp Ellicott's Commentary, that they are different (so that Jacob's stay in Haran is extended to 40 years) is quite out of the question: nt.-riT would mean one. ..another only in contiguous and contrasted sentences {Lex. p. 260'' lb; for the use here, 261^ 4i). It is an additional improbability that the 20 years of v. 38 are, upon the proposed scheme, interpolated between the 14 and the 6 of v. 41. XXXI. 43-47] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 287 and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, E and all that thou seest is mine : and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have borne ? 44 And now come, let us make a covenant, I and thou ; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. 45—54. The treaty between Laban and Jacob. Two distinct agreements are entered into by Laban and Jacob : (1) vv. 46—50, that Jacob will in no way ill-treat Laban's daughters ; (2) vv. 51—53, that neither Laban nor Jacob will pass the heap of stones thrown up as a landmark, with hostile purpose, towards the other : at the same time, an explanation is given of the names Gilead, and Mizpah. The narrative is clearly composite ; for, if examined closely, it will be seen to be confused, and also to contain doublets. Thus v. 46'' is parallel to V. 54, v. 47" to V. 48^ v. 48* to vv. 51, 52* ; v. 49 comes in abruptly ; the ' heap' and the * pillar' are mentioned very unsymmetrically in vv. 51, 62; Jacob makes both in vv. 45, 46, but in v. 51 Laban says that he has made them. No doubt the incident was narrated by both J and E, with probably slight differences of detail ; extracts from both have been combined by the redactor, but either imperfectly adjusted by him, or (more probably) confused by the introduction of later glosses. Quite apart from the question of the analysis, the narrative would gain greatly in clearness, if it might be supposed (with Dillm.) that Jacoh in v. 45 was an old error for Ldban^ (see v. 51); and that the words bracketed in vv. 51, 62 were glosses. We may then refer vv. 45, 61 — 54 to E, and vv. 46—50 to J. 45 And [Jacob] took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. E I 46 And Jacob said unto his brethren. Gather stones ; and they J took stones, and made an heap : and they did eat there by the heap. 47 And Laban called it ^ Jegar-sahadutha : but Jacob 1 That is, The heap of witness, in Aramaic. 45. Jacob, — or perhaps originally (see v. 51) Lahan^ — sets up a large boulder (cf. xxviii. 18), as a 'standing-stone,' or pillar. 46 — 50. The first agreement (J) ; viz. that Jacob will not ill-treat Laban's daughters. Of this agreement the heap^ constructed by Jacob's men, is the witness. 46. brethren. See on v. 23. eat. As a mark of friendship, — or perhaps even, as in v. 54, as part of a sacrificial meal. To eat bread together is still among the Arabs a mark of friendship, or of the termination of a feud. 47. An explanation of the name Gilead, as though it were derived from the cairn of stones thrown up on the present occasion ^ 1 The original text may have had simply npn ('and he took,' viz. Laban), to which a scribe supplied the wrong subject Dpyv 2 In reality, to judge from Arabic, 'Gilead' will have meant hard, strong, the district being so called on account of the 'hard, impervious Dolomitic limestone, which appears in the rugged grey hills round the Jabbok, and in Jebel 'AjlAn, rising on an average 1500ft. above the sandstone' (Conder, in Smith, DB.^i. 1191*). 288 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxi. 47-51 called it ^Galeed. 48 And Laban said, This heap is witness J between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed : 49 and ^Mizpah, for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are ^absent one from another. 50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, and if thou shalt take wives beside my daughters, no man is with us ; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. | 51 And Laban said to Jacob, E 1 That is, The heap of witness, in Hebrew. ^ That is, The watch-tower, 8 Heb. hidden. Laban is called the 'Syrian' (Heb, the 'Aramaean') in vv. 20, 24: and he and Jacob seem to represent here the later Syrians and Israelites respectively, whose territories met on the NE. border of Gilead, and who spoke two distinct languages. Y^gar occurs in both Targ. and Pesh. ; e.g. for the .same Heb. word gal as here, in Hos. xii. 12 Targ., and Jos. vii. 26 Pesh. For sahadutha, ' witness,' see, for instance, Ex. XX. 16 Targ. and Pesh. 48. This heap is witness. Cf. Jos. xxii. 34 ; also ch. xxi. 30. Even now in the East a heap of stones may be piled up as a witness to a vow (Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, 1902, p. 80). 49. and Mizpah. The name comes in abruptly ; and it has been supposed either that the whole verse is a gloss, introduced by one who wished to connect the Mizpah of Jud. x. 17, xi. 11, 34 with the present incident, or that some words have accidentally fallen out before it. The intention of the notice is manifestly to account for the name of a place called ' Mizpah' (' outlook-point,' ' watch-post,' — not necessarily * watch- tower^). 'Mizpah' was, however, a name borne by many eminences, or places situated on them^; and what Mizpah is intended here, is uncertain. "We seem, however, to desiderate a locality on the NE. border of Gilead; and the terms of the verse point not so much to a town or village, as to some prominent height with a cairn of stones and tall boulder upon it. watch between me and thee. And interpose, it is to be understood, if either, when we are absent from each other, attempts to take any advantage of the other. The passage is often misunderstood; the prayer is not that Jehovah may watch, as between friends separated from one another, but as between persons whose feelings towards each other are such that either might at any moment be tempted to some unfriendly act. 50. afflict. Or, ill-treat (xvi. 6), as Jacob might have done in revenge for their father's behaviour towards him. no man is &c. No man being with us, to see what we do, and bring us to account. The apodosis follows in see, God is witness. 51 — 53. The second agreement (E); viz. that neither Laban nor Jacob will pass the heap of stones, with hostile purpose towards the 1 Jud. X. 17, xi. 11, 34; Hos. v. 1; also 'Mizpeh' Josh. xiii. 26; Jud. xi. 29: but the sites of all these are either uncertain or unsuitable. XXXI. 51-55] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 289 [Behold this heap, and] behold the pillar, which I have set ^ betwixt me and thee. 52 [This heap be witness, and] the pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap [and this pillar] unto me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the ^God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mountain. 55 And early in the [Ch. xxxii. morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and -^ ^° ^®^*^ blessed them : and Laban departed, and returned unto his place. 1 Or, gods other. Of this agreement (if the view taken above of the original text of this verse is correct), the pillar is the witness. 51. set. Thrown (up). ^ The verb (m^) means to throw or cast (Ex. xy. 4j Jos. xviii. 6), and is applicable to a foundation-stone (Job xxxviii. 6 'laid'), but hardly to a 'pillar.' Unless in the original text of the verse it referred somehow to the 'heap,' it seems that we must (with Mr Ball) read set up, as in v. 45 (^riDin for >nn>). 53. In the Heb. the verb 'judge' is plwal. Abraham represents the Hebrews, and his brother Nahor (see xxii. 20 — 24) the Aramaean tribes settled on the NE. of Canaan, among whom Laban and Rebekah hold the most prominent place : the Gods of the two brother-races are thus, it seems, treated as distinct (cf i;. 29 ; and esp. Jos. xxiv. 2 (also E), where it is said that Abraham's relations across the Euphrates 'served other gods^), and appealed to separately. The intention of the words, 'the (jod of their father' (i.e. of Terah, xi. 27), appears to be to identify the two deities: they are not however in the lxx.; and most modern scholars (Del, Dillm., &c.) consider them to be a gloss, added by a later hand for the purpose of softening a pol)i;heistic trait by subsuming the God of Abraham and the God (or gods) of Nahor under a higher unity. 54. The sacrifice seals the compact. The meal is the sacrificial one ; for the sacrifice here meant would be of the nature of the later * peace '-off'ering, an essential part of which was the accompanying meal (Lev. vii. 15 ; Dt. xii. 7, 18, xxvii. 7), in which the worshipper and his friends partook, and which was a symbol partly of amity among themselves, partly of communion with the deity. Here it is a token of fi-iendship between Laban and Jacob. ^ For other cases in which 'eating' (sometimes accompanied by 'drinking') is to be understood in a sacrificial sense, see Ex. xviii. 12, xxiv. 11, xxxii. 6, xxxiv. 15 (in the worship of heathen gods: so Num. xxv. 2; Ps. cvi. 28); 1 S. ix. 13; Ps. xxii. 26, 29. 55. sons. I.e. grandsons, as v. 28. D 19 290 THE BOOK OF GENESIS Gilead was the debatable borderland between Hebrew and Aramaean tribes. The Syrian wars, protracted through the reigns of Ahab, Jehoram, Jehu, and Jehoahaz, and conducted sometimes with great barbarity (cf. 2 K. viii. 12, X. 33 ; Am. i. 3), lasted from c, 880 to c. 800 B.C. ; and at times the Aramaeans of Damascus had complete possession of Gilead (1 K. xxii. 3 flF.)- The present narrative seems to describe something more than a mere agree- ment between two individuals : the representative ancestors of the Israelites and Syrians respectively seem to be regarded in it as fixing the border between the territories occupied afterwards by their descendants, which during the period of the Syrian wars was matter of bloody dispute between them. Though we cannot (cf. on v. 49) determine its site more precisely, there must, it seems, have been on some eminence in the N. *half ' of Gilead, — probably on the NE. edge of the Jehel 'Ajlun, — a cairn of stones, with a single boulder standing up prominently beside it^, *in which later generations saw a memorial of the pact that had been sworn between Jacob and his father-in-law ' (Sayce, EHH. 72). The same height bore the name of Mizpah : it was an * outlook- point,' which commanded the broad plain of Hauran, and from it the Israelite dwellers in Gilead could discern the approach of a foe from the direction of Damascus. It may be remarked that rude stone monuments — dolmens, circles, cairns, &c. — are abundant still in the country B. of Jordan {Heth and Moah, chap. vii.). *The character of Laban is not attractive. His sister and daughters all shew duplicity and acquisitiveness ; and Laban displays an exaggeration of the same qualities. His leading motive is evidently self-interest; and he is not particular in the choice of means for securing his ends. The ruse by which he passes off Leah upon his nephew instead of Rachel, is an unpardonable piece of deceit. In his subsequent dealings with his son-in-law, he does not treat him equitably. It is admitted by him expressly in J (xxx. 27), and by impli- cation in E,— for the statements in xxxi. 38 — 41, cf. v. 6, pass unchallenged, — that Jacob is a good servant ; but Laban seeks to make out of him more than fair profits. In xxx. 29 — 42 he betrays his grasping disposition by closing with an arrangement which, if carried out fairly, could not but have proved an inequitable one for Jacob, and in which, therefore, Laban had no right to be surprised if he found himself circumvented. In the narrative of E (xxxi. 1 — 42) — which, as remarked above (p. 280), differs {vv. 8—12) from that of J in not representing Jacob as taking any unfair advantage of his father-in-law — Laban is charged with defrauding Jacob, and arbitrarily changing the wages that had been agreed upon, to suit his own ends {vv. 7, 41). And his daughters own (xxxi. 14, 15) that he is a hard and unnatural parent' (from the writer's art. Laban in DB.). Laban's treatment of Jacob has naturally a bearing on the estimate that we form of Jacob's behaviour towards Laban. Laban is not only the first to break faith with Jacob, but is throughout the chief offender : and had Laban treated Jacob honestly and generously, there is no reason to suppose that he would have sought (as he does in J) to overreach him. ^ Exactly such a boulder, at Tannur, near Gerasa, called el-Hajar el-Mansub, 'the stone set up,' is represented in a photograph in the Mitth. u. Nachr. des ZDPV. 1900, p. 68. \ XXXII. 1-6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 291 Chapter XXXIL Jacob continues his journey to Canaan, He reaches Mahanaim ; and maJces preparations for meeting Esau, His wrestling with the angel at Penuel, XXXII . 1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of-^ God met hinL 2 And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's host : and he called the name of that place ^Mahanaim. 3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother j unto the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye say unto my lord Esau ; Thus saith thy servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now: 5 and I have oxen, and asses and flocks, and menservants and maidservants : and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. 6 And the messengers 1 That is, Two hosts or companies. XXXII. 1, 2. As Jacob proceeds on his journey, the * angels of God' meet him, — as though to remind him, once again, of the Divine protection accompanying him (cf. xxviii. 15, xxxi. 3), and to welcome him on his return to the land of promise. From this circumstance the name of the place Mahanaim ('double camp'; or perhaps [DB. ni. 213* w.] 'place of camps') is explained. 2. God's host. God's camp, — the proper meaning of mahaneh, and the word by which it is ordinarily rendered (e.g. Jud. vii. i, 8, 9 RV.). Mahanaim was afterwards an important place (2 S. ii. 8, xvii. 24; 1 K. iv. 14): but its situation is not certainly known: it must however have been N. of the Jabbok {v. 22), and within sight of the Jordan (v. 10). A site such as that of Deir 'Alia, on the great route which still passes N. to S. along the Gh6r (or Jordan-valley), and 4 m. N. of the ford mentioned on v. 22, would best suit the conditions of the Biblical narrative (see G. A. Smith's large Map, and cf p. 302). 3 — 21. Jacob's preparations for meeting Esau, whose vengeance (xxvii. 41) he still fears. 3. In the existing text of Genesis, Esau's migration into Edom is not mentioned till xxxvi. 6 — 8 P (see the note): J must have pictured it as taking place earlier ; and perhaps also, in a part of his narrative no longer preserved, narrated it. 4—6. Jacob, being now on the point of re-entering Canaan, and approaching Esau's domain, sends his brother a very humble and con- ciliatory message (notice ' my lord,' ' thy servant,' and v. 5 end)j acquainting him with what he has been doing ; but learns in reply that he is already on the way to meet him with 400 men. 19—2 292 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxiL 6-11 returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and J moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed : and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies ; 8 and he said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the company which is left shall escape. 9 And Jacob said, 0 God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, 0 Lord, which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good : 10 ^ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant ; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan ; and now I am become two companies. 11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, the mother with the children. * Heb. I am less than all dtc. 7, 8. Though greatly alarmed, Jacob's resourcefulness does not desert him : he divides his party into two camps, in the hope that, in the event of a fatal encounter, at least one might escape. companies. ..company. . . company. Camps . . . camp . . . camp (ma- hanek): so v. 10 end. The words are chosen with evident allusion to the place Mahanaim; and are pretty clearly meant as an expla- nation of it, parallel to the one in v. 2, from the other narrator, E. In the sequel no further reference is made to this division of Jacob's party into two. 9 — 12. Jacob, feeling that human precautions alone are insuffi- cient, invokes God's aid in prayer. The titles in v. 9 recall Jehovah's gracious dealings with his forefathers: in the sequel, Jacob first re- minds God that it was He who had bidden him return to his native land; and afterwards pleads before him the blessings which He had already bestowed upon him (v. 10), and the promises which He had given him (v. 12). The prayer breathes a spirit of trustful humility and thankfulness: but it does not, it may be observed, contain any confession of sin, or any note of penitence for the deceit by which Jacob had once grievously wronged his brother. 9. which saidst &c. See xxxi. 3. do thee good. Cf. Nu. x. 29, 32 (Heb.). 10. / am less than all the mercies. I.e. not worthy of so many. The paraphrase *the least of is not justified by the Heb. two companies. Two cam.ps (vv. 7, 8) : so wonderfully had God been with him, and blessed him (xxviii. 15, xxxi. 5, 7, 9, 42). 11. the mother with the children. A proverbial expression (Hos. X. 14), denoting a merciless and cruel slaughter. XXXII. ia-7o] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 293 12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy j seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. 13 And he lodged there that night ; and took of that which he had with him a present for Esau his brother ; 14 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milch camels and their colts, forty kine and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals. 16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself ; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. 17 And he commanded the foremost, saying. When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying. Whose art thou ? and whither goest thou ? and whose are these before thee ? 18 then thou shalt say. They he thy servant Jacob's ; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau : and, behold, he also is behind us. 19 And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying. On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him ; 20 and ye shall say. Moreover, behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; per- 12. And thou saidst &c. Viz. (implicitly) in xxviii. 14, 15, though in phrasing the verse resembles xxii. 17 and xvi. 10*. If Jacob and his party perish by the hand of Esau, God's promise of a numerous posterity must of necessity remain for ever unfulfilled. 13b — 21. Jacob seeks to conciliate Esau by a present. 13*. a present. The word used (minlmh) is the one explained on iv. 3, meaning a present intended to secure or retain the good-will of a superior (cf. 2 K. viii. 9). The present sent by Jacob was a sub- stantial one, comprising no less than 580 head of cattle, and including representatives of all the principal elements of pastoral wealth. 16 — 20. The object of the division into separate droves was to make a favourable impression upon Esau, who as drove after drove came up, would be at once gratified and surprised, when he learnt that each was intended for himself. 20. appease him. Lit. cover his face, i.e. induce him, by means of the present, to overlook the injury done to him. Cf for the figure — though the Heb. word used is a different one— ch. xx. 16. The word used here (kipper) is an interesting one; it is in the Leyitical terminology used of the priest covering sin (i.e., in a fig. sense, hiding it from God) by means of a sacrifice, being then commonly rendered by 'make atonement' (see more fully the writer's art. Propitiation in DB.), 294 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxii. ao-^s adventure he will accept me. 21 So the present passed over J^ before him : and he himself lodged that night in the company. 22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven children, [and passed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 And he took them,] and sent them over the stream, and sent over that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone ; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of accept me. Lit. lift up my face : fig. for receive fawivrably. So xix. 21 and frequently. 0pp. to turn bach the face of a suppliant, 1 K. ii. 16, al. Hence in lxx. and NT. TrpoorwTrov Xa/x^aVetv. 21. in the company. In the camp («. 7), — viz. with his wives and children and the main bulk of his possessions. The division into two ' camps ' of xm. 7, 8 is disregarded. 22 — 32. Jacob's wrestling with the angel at Penuel. The narrative does not attach well to either X). 13^ or v. 21^; the statement that Jacob 'lodged that night' at a given place being hardly followed con- sistently by the statement that he 'rose up that night' and proceeded elsewhere. Very possibly, in the compilation of the book, something has been omitted, containing mention of a 'night,' to which v. 22 refers. It is also hardly possible that the whole of vx). 22, 23 can be by the same hand : for Jacob and his family having crossed the ford in '0. 22, his family is sent across again in x). 23 (the Heb. for sent oxer is properly made to pass over), and v. 24 imphes that he himself re- mained behind alone. The omission of the bracketed words at least renders the narrative much clearer. 22. the Jahhoh. The Jabbok rises a few miles W. of Rabbath- 'Ammon (Philadelphia) : taking at first a NE. course, past the city, it afterwards fetches a wide compass to the NW., till finally it falls into the Jordan, just N. of the ford ed-Ddmiyeh, about 25 m. N. of the Dead Sea. The great gorge through which, for the last 25 or 30 miles of its course, it flows down into the Gh6r forms, as was stated above (on xxxi. 21), the dividing line between the two ' halves' of Gilead. From the ford a little S. of Jerash till it enters the Jordan-valley, the Jabbok flows swiftly through a deep chasm, with steep and lofty sides like a canon, its banks fringed by tall canes and rushes. The water, seen from a dis- tance, is of a grey-blue colour, which gives the river its present name of the Zerka (cf. HG. 583 — 5). The ford here referred to will be most naturally the one about 3 m. E. of the Jordan, by which the route mentioned on v. 2 still crosses the Zerka. 24. wrestled (P?^?.l). The word occurs besides only in v. 25; and appears to be chosen for the sake of the assonance with Yabbok, as though this meant, or suggested the idea of, wrestling. 25. So strong was Jacob (xxix. 10), and so bravely did he wrestle, XXXII. 1S-2S] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 296 Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. 26 And he J said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 And he said unto him. What is thy name ? And he said, Jacob. 28 And he said. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but ^Israel: for Hhou hast ^striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed. ^ That is, He who striveth with God, or, God striveth. 2 The Sept. and Vulgate have, thou hast had power with God, and thou shalt prevail against men. • Or, had power with that his antagonist could not overcome him by the means which a wrestler would ordinarily employ; so, in order to escape before day- light, and at the same time to shew that he was superior to Jacob, he sprained Jacob's thigh. the hollow &c. I.e. the socket of Jacob's thigh-bone. 26. Jacob perceives now that his antagonist is more than mortal : so he seizes the opportunity to win a blessing for himself. 27 f The blessing takes the form of a change of name. Jacob is to receive a name suggestive of his success in the approaching en- counter with Esau : at the same time, as the name was to the Hebrews the symbol or expression of the nature (cf. e.g. Is. i. 26, Ixi. 3), the change of name is significant of a change of character in the patriarch himself: he is to be no longer 'Jacob,' the Crafty one, the Over- reacher, he is to be * Israel,' the Perseverer with God, who is worthy also to prevail. 28. tliou hast persevered &c. * Isra'el,' meaning properly (on the analogy of other names similarly formed, as Ishma'el, J6rahm6'el) *God perseveres' (or, 'Let God persevere!') is interpreted here as suggesting the meaning 'Perseverer with God.' Of course, as in other similar cases (cf on iv. 1), we need not suppose the actual etymology to be given. For the meaning, cf the Arab, shariyaf to persist, or persevere^: the same root is contained in Seraiah^ * Jah persists.' and hast prevailed. Jacob's persevering struggle with God is just ended : among men, he has persevered against both Laban and Esau ; his contest with Laban had ended previously; that with Esau is not ended yet, hxnt^hast prevailed' is a word of good omen for its successful issue. Comp. Hos. xii. 3, 4 (' In the womb he overreached his brother ; and in his strength he persevered with God : yea, he persevered with the angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto him'), where the ambition shewn by Jacob to secure pre-eminence even in the womb, and the persistence with which at Penuel he exerted himself to secure the blessing, are held up as examples for the imitation of bis lax and indifferent descendants. 1 Not to * strive'; this idea is peculiar to conj. iii. in Arabic (which expresses the idea of rivalry), to persist or persevere against another. Had power (BVm.; Lxx. here and in Hos.) has no probability : Hos. xii. 4 [Heb. 5], as pointed, should be rendered, and he ruled as prince (Is. xxxii. 1); but clearly l^W and he persevered jiiiould be read, to agiee with v. 3 [Heb. 4]. 296 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxii. .9-32 29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. J And he said. Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name ? And he blessed him there. 30 And Jacob called the name of the place ^Peniel : for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 31 And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he halted upon his thigh. 32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day : because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip. 1 That is, The face of God. 29. For the refusal of the name, cf. Jud. xiii. 17. 30. Explanation of the name Peniel : Jacob had seen God face to face (Ex. xxxiii. 11; Dt. xxxiv. 10), and (i.e. and yet) his life had hQQn preserved) for it was the current belief that no one could 'see God, and live' (Ex. xxxiii. 20; Jud. vi. 22 f., xiii. 22; cf. Dt. iv. 33, l V. 24, 26). ! Peniel (elsewhere Penuel: cf. G.-K. 90°) means Face of God. There was however in Phoenicia, a Httle S. of Tripolis, a headland called ©eov TTpoo-wTTov (Strab. XVI. 2. 15 f.); so it is possible that in reality Penuel derived its name from some physical feature presented by it. The site is uncertain ; but it must have been near the ford mentioned in V, 22, and a Uttle E. of Jacob's next halting-place (xxxiii. 17), Succoth (cf. Jud. viii. 5, 8). Not improbably it was some projecting ridge or height, near where the Jabbok descends from the upland into the Jordan-valley. A site, S. of the Jabbok, near where the Gh6r route crosses the route from es-Salt to the ford ed-D^miyeh (see G. A. Smith's large Map), though it can only be assigned conjecturally, would satisfy the conditions of the Biblical narrative. 32. ths sinew of the hip. The sciatic muscle, a powerful muscle, passing along the thigh, injury to which occasions limping (see Ges. Thes.). The Israelite custom of not eating the corresponding muscle in animals is deduced from this incident; it was regarded as sacred through the touch of God. The custom is not mentioned elsewhere in the OT., but its observance is enjoined in the Mishna. The struggle at Penuel is the turning-point in Jacob's life. Jacob's character is a mixed one: it includes inconsistent elements. On the one hand, it is marked by trust in self, and exceptional devotion to crooked methods ; on the other, it has a healthy basis of perseverance and ambition, it is not devoid of regard for God, God is represented as watching over him with His providence, and his prayer in xxxii. 9 — 12 shews genuine religious feeling, and a sincere sense of dependence upon Him. The story of his wrestling shews how the higher elements in his nature gained the ascendency j over the lower elements. It is a critical moment in his life. He is on the i point of re-entering the land which he left 20 years before (xxxi. 41) ; he is xxxiii. I, a] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 297 about to meet his brother, whom he had wronged and deceived; memories of the past crowd upon him ; his conscience smites him, and he is * greatly afraid.' But God is his real antagonist, not Esau ; it is God whom his sins have offended, and who here comes to contest His right. These thoughts and fears are, as it were, materialized in his dream. He struggles with his mysterious antagonist; and he struggles with such persistence and effect, that his antagonist cannot overcome him, until by a divine touch he paralyses his natural strength. Even then Jacob's tenacity of purpose remains un- impaired; he is conscious that he has a heavenly visitant in his embrace; and he will not let Him go till he has received from Him a blessing. His perseverance is thus rewarded. But he only gains the blessing after his natural self has been rendered powerless. The moment marks^ great spiritual change in Jacob's character. He feels his carnal weapons become lamed and useless ; they fail him in his contest with God ; as the result of his struggle his natural self is left behind, he rises from it an altered man. A new truth is vividly brought home to him, — the valuelessness before God of the weapons in which he has hitherto trusted. The lameness which he carries away with him is, as it were, a palpable memento of the fact. And his new name, Israel, the * Perseverer with God,' symbolizes his new nature. And so we may notice that from this point in his history we hear no more of him as practising craft and deceit : he is still indeed (ch. xxxiii.) politic and resourceful ; but he becomes more and more, especially after the trials and bereavements of his later years, the type of a just and God-fearing Israelite. On the episode in general, comp. Stanley, Jewish Churchy l 67, who remarks on the manner in which in all ages Jacob's encounter has been taken as an image of the like struggles and wrestlings on the eve of some overhang- ing trial or crisis, and who quotes Charles Wesley's hymn, 'Come, 0 thou Traveller unknown, Whom still I hold, but cannot see ! ' Robertson, Sermons, I. 37 ff. ; Bright, Morality in Doctrine, p. 199 ff. ; A. B. Davidson's Sermon in The Called of God (1902), p. 107 ff., and esp. (as dealing more directly with the relation of the episode to Jacob's character) the one in the Expositor, Mar. 1902, p. 176 ff.: see other references in Exp. Times, x. 661 — 3. Chapter XXXIII. The meeting between Jacob and Esau, Jacob pursues his journey to Su^cothj and Shechem, XXXIII. 1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, j behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. 2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and XXXIII. 1, 2. Jacob's arrangement of his wives and children (as distinct from his people and cattle, xxxii. 7, 8) for the purpose of meeting Esau. 298 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxiil .-lo Joseph hindermost. 3 And he himself passed over before them, , and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with thee? And he said. The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. 6 Then the handmaids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. 7 And Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves : and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. 8 And he said. What meanest thou by all this company which I met? And he said, To find grace in the sight of my lord. 9 And Esau said, I have enough; my brother, let that thou hast be thine. 10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand : ^forasmuch as I have seen ^ Or, for therefore have I seen ^ 2. hindermost. In the position of greatest safety. Jacob, it is evident, prepares for the worst. 3. Jacob himself, going in front of his wives and children, ap- proaches his brother with the profoundest marks of deference and respect. seven times. Cf in the Tel el-Amarna tablets the frequent * seven and seven times fall I down at the feet of the king, my lord.' 4 — 7. Esau shews towards his brother a generous and magnanimous spirit ; and inquires with interest about his family. 8—11. Esau accepts the present of cattle (xxxii. 13^—21*) only at his brother's urgent request. 8. all this camp. I.e. the * present' (v, 10) of xxxii. 13^ 21*. 10. Jacob begs his brother to give a still farther proof of his friend- liness towards him by accepting his gift. forasmuch as &c.^ I.e. inasmuch as thou hast received me favour- ably. As one seeth the face of God is equivalent to * and found it (Esau's , face) favourable' : to see the face being the phrase used of one admitted to the presence-chamber of a monarch, or other ruler (ch. xliii. 3, 5 ; 2 S. xiy. 24, 28; 2 K. xxv. 19; fig. of God, Ps. xi. 7; Job xxxiii, 26)', and, it is implied, viewed by his superior favourably. Jacob, by using this expression, pays Esau a high compliment. The words are no doubt chosen with allusion to the name 'Penuel' (xxxii. 30), even if (Wellh., Dillm.) they are not meant as another explanation of it. ' The thought underlying both forms of the tradition is that at Penuel the unfriendly God was found ultimately to be a friendly one' (Dillm.). 1 On RVm., see on xviii. 5. 2 cf, j^t. sviii. 10. XXXIII. ia-i7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 299 thy face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased j with me. 11 Take, I pray thee, my ^gift that is brought to thee ; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have ^enough. And he urged him, and he took it. 12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. 13 And he said unto him. My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me give suck : and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant : and I will lead on softly, according to the pace of the cattle that is before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. 15 And Esau said. Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said. What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. 16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. 17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle : therefore the name of the place is called ^Succoth. 1 Heb. blessing. a Heb. all. » That is, Booths. 11. gift. Heb. blessing, — the gift being regarded as the expression of good-wishes: cf. 1 S. xxv. 27, xxx. 26; 2 K. v. 15. Jacob diplo- matically presses it upon Esau, no doubt hoping, if he should induce him to accept it, to purchase thereby the continuance of his good- will in the future. 12—16. Esau offers now {v. 12) to accompany Jacob for his pro- tection, or at least (v. 15) to leave him some of his people as an escort : but Jacob declines both these offers; he will lay himself under no obligation to his brother, nor will he run the risk of a rupture in the cordial relations now established between them. 13. tender. Of age, as Pr. iv. 3, 1 Ch. xxii. 5. The youngest (cf. xxxi. 38, 41) would not be more than six or seven. with me give such Giving suck are a care to me (lit. give suck upon me : cf. xlviii. 7 ; and see Lea?, p. 753 b). 14. softli/. Or, gentle/ (2 S. xviii. 5; Job xv. 11; Is. viii. 6). 15. Why P let me find &c. A polite way of declining the offer. 17. Explanation of the name Succoth. The precise position of Succoth is uncertain, all that is known about it being that it was in the territory of Gad on the E. of Jordan (Jos. xiii. 27), in a 'vale' (PPi;), Ps. Ix. 6, and below Penuel, on the W. (Jud. viii. 5, cf. 8). If the site suggested on xxxii. 30 for Penuel be approximately correct, Succoth will have lain on one of the lower terraces of the Jordan- valley (which here sinks from 500 ft. below the Medit. Sea to 1000 ft. below it) a Httle to the W, of it. 300 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxiii. is-ao 18 And Jacob came ^in peace to the city of Shechem, which I is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram ; | and encamped before the city. 19 And he bought the parcel of ^ ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem*s father, for an hundred ^pieces of money. 20 And he erected there an altar, and called it ^El-elohe-Israel. 1 Or, to Shalem, a city ' Heb. Jcesitah. * That is, God, the Ood of Israel. 18 — 20. Jacob's arrival at Shechem (xii. 6); and his purchase there of the plot of ground on which he had pitched his tent. 18. in peace. In the Heb. an adj. = safe and sound. Cf. (for the thought) xxviii. 21. The marg. (which grammatically is equally pos- sible) agrees with the fact that there is still a village Salim on the low hills forming the N. border of the plain E. of Shechem, 4 miles E. of the city, and directly facing it (Rob. n. 275, 279). before the city. I.e. East of it (cf. xvi. 12). In the plain E. of Shechem, at about a mile from the city, there was shewn in later times (John iv. 6, 12), as there is shewn still, Jacob's well. 19. the children of Hamor, The name of the clan settled at Shechem (cf. Jud. ix. 28).' Shechem! s father. Or, the father (i.e. founder: 1 Ch. ii. 21, 23, 42, 45, 49 — 52, al.) of (the city) Sheclmn; cf. Jud. ix. 28 'the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem,' where this is evidently the meaning. pieces of money. Heb. kesUdhs, — elsewhere only Jos. xxiv. 32 (of the same transaction). Job xlii. 11. The meaning of the word is un- known, though it is apparently the name of a coin, or ingot of metal : an old tradition however (lxx., Onljc, Vulg.) gave it the meaning lamb. The purchase of this piece of ground is mentioned on account of the sequel: it was the place in which the bones of Joseph were ultimately buried (Jos. xxiv. 32 ; cf. Acts vii. 16); and it had the same interest and significance for the N. kingdom which the cave of Mach- pelah at Hebron had for the kingdom of Judah. 20. erected. Heb. l^vn made to stand, i.e. set up, used of a * standing-stone,' or piUar (xxxv. 14, 20, al.), but never elsewhere of an altar. Very possibly 'altar' (nnTD) is a correction for an original * standing-stone' (niVD). 'El, the God of Israel. Either (Di.) a contraction for ' the altar [or standing-stone] of 'El, the God of Israel'; or (Gunk.) a survival from a primitive stage of religious belief in which the 'standing-stone' was identified with the deity (cf. on xxviii. 22; and EncB. in. 2977). Doubtless it is the 'pillar' of a sacred place (cf. on xxviii. 18), well known in the narrator's own day, the origin of which is here explained. On the sites of Mizpah, Mahanaim, Penuel, and Succoth. Of none of these places has the name been preserved locally ; and as the data supplied I THE SITES OF MI^PAH, MA5ANAIM, ETC. 301 by the OT. do not suffice to fix their sites with any precision, the identifications that have been proposed are entirely conjectural. The following is a tabular view of the principal identifications : — Merrill Conder^ Dillmann Mizpah Karat er-Raba4» Suf An indeterminable spot on Jebel 'Ajhin Mahanaim Suleikhat el-Bukei'a^ Undetermined Penuel TulW edh-Dhahab* Jebel *0sha5 Undetermined Succoth Deir 'Alia Deir 'Alia S. of the Jabbok, in the Jordan-valley, on the road from es-Salt to the ford ed-D§.miyeh All these places are shewn on G. A. Smith's large Topographical Map of Palestine, with the exception of Suleikhat, which will be in the second Wady N. of the Wady 'Ajlftn, just below the figure ' 600.' It is natural to suppose that Jacob, making for Shechem, would cross the Jordan by the ford ed-D^miyeh, a little S. of the point at which the Jabbok enters the Jordan ; and this is accordingly assumed by all the three authorities quoted : but they bring Jacob to this ford by entirely diflFerent routes. The great objections to the route postulated by Merrill's identifications are : (1) we seem to desiderate for Mizpah (see p. 288) a site more on the NE. of Jebel *Ajlun than Kal'at er-Rabad ; and (2) if Jacob's goal were the ford ed-Damiyeh, it does not seem probable that, having come down the Ghor from Suleikhat, and reached the neighbourhood of Deir 'Alia, he would then have made a detour of 6 miles to the E., up the valley of the Jabbok, to Tulul edh-Dhahab, — crossing the stream (Gen. xxxii. 32), as he returned, and afterwards, of course, re-crossing it, to Deir 'Alia, in order then to resume his journey, and crossing it a third time, to reach the ford ed-D§,miyeh^ According to Gender's route, Jacob, passing through Jerash, will have crossed the Jabbok by the ford ez-Zubliyeh (a little S. of Jerash) ; then he will have climbed from the level of the Jabbok (between 500 and 1000 ft.), 1000 ft. or more, up to el-Bukei'a (2000 ft.) ; after this he will hav^e ascended 1200 — 1600 ft. more, past es-Salt, to Jebel 'Osha (3597 ft.) ; then — though, if his goal were ed-Damiyeh, the shorter and more obvious route would have been for him to go straight down to it from es-Salt — turning to the NW., he will have come down to the Jabbok, and crossed it at about one mile SE. of Deir 'Alia ; 1 Beth and Moab^, pp. 181—6 ; Smith, DB.^ s.v. Gilead, p. 1192. 2 A Saracenic castle standing on a height 10 miles N. of the Jabbok, with a fine view of the Jordan- valley. Suf is 7 miles E. of this, and 3 miles N.W. of Jerash. 3 A depressed plain {BukeVa is the dimin. of nx?p3), on the mountains South of the Jabbok, surrounded by sandstone and limestone ridges {Heth and Moab, 186). ^ 'The' hills of gold,' so called from the yellowish metalliferous sandstone, of which they are composed, — two conical hills, round which the Jabbok winds, — N. of the first, and S. of the second, — about 6 miles E. of Deir 'Alia, up the valley. 5 S. of the Jabbok, 12 m. W. of el-Bukei'a. 8 It is also very doubtful whether the identification of Penuel with TuWl edh-Dhahab suits Jud. viii. 8 If., on account of the banks of the Jabbok above this point being impassable on either side : see the art. cited on p. 302 n. 302 THE BOOK OF GENESIS finally, turning southwards along the Gli6r route, he will have crossed it again, in order to reach the ford ed-D&,miyeh. It is extremely unlikely that Jacob, had he wished to reach the ford ed-D&,miyeh from any part of the Jebel 'Ajl^n, would have adopted a route as circuitous as this, or one which would have led him, with his numerous flocks and herds, up and down so many lofty mountains ^ Mizpah (see p. 288) may be reasonably located somewhere on the N. or NB. of the Jebel 'Ajlun ; and Jacob, wishing to make his way hence to the ford ed-D^miyeh, would naturally descend as soon as possible into the Ghor, and join the track which passes along it from N. to S. : the rest of his route would then be consistent and intelligible, if it might be assumed (as is done in the notes above) that Mahanaim was (say) at Deir 'Alia, 4 miles N. of the ford by which the Gh6r route crosses the Jabbok, Penuel near where the Ghor route crosses the route from es-Salt to ed-Damiyeh, and Succoth on one of the lower terraces of the Jordan-valley, W. of the point just suggested for Penuel, in the position postulated by Dillmannl Chapter XXXIV. Jacob at Shechem. Much seems to have been recounted in ancient Israel respecting the dealings of Jacob with the native inhabitants of Shechem (cf. xlviii. 22, xlix. 5 — 7 : see the notes) ; and in the present chapter two narratives relating to the same subject, agreeing in their main outline, but differing in details, have been combined together. In the one narrative (J), Shechem himself is the spokesman in the negotiations for Dinah's marriage (vv. 11, 12), and his aim is the personal one of securing Dinah as his wife ; in the other narrative (P, — perhaps based upon elements derived from E), his father Hamor is the spokesman, and his aim is a tribal one, to secure viz. an amalgamation between his people and Jacob's (vv. 8 — 10, 21, 23); in J only Shechem is circumcised {v. 19), in P the condition is imposed upon the whole people {vv. 15, 22) ; in J Simeon and Levi slay Hamor and Shechem alone, and rescue Dinah («?. 26), in P all Dinah's brothers fall upon the city, slay all the males, and carry off the whole of the spoil {vv. 26", 27 — 29). Thus in P the entire transaction is on a much larger scale than in J, and what in J is a personal matter becomes in P an affair involving the whole of the two communities of Israel and Shechem. J is sparing in his chronological notices : but if, like E (xxxi. 38, 41), he pictured Jacob as passing 20 years in Haran, he must, — though the narrative does not at all suggest the fact, — have thought of Jacob as spending some 1 Mahanaim and Penuel, also, as identified by Conder, are many miles from both the Jabbok and the Jordan (contrary to Gen. xxxii. 10, and xxxii. 22 — 24, 30). ^ See further the writer's paper on these four sites in the Exp. Times, July, 1902, p. 457 ff. It is to be regretted that in current maps of Palestine most questionable identifications are often inserted without the least note or warning to the reader of the uncertainty. XXXIV. 1-7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 303 years on the return to Canaan, probably at Succoth (xxxiii. 17) : for otherwise Dinah, who was the last but one of the children born to Jacob during his 14 years' service (xxx. 21), would be hardly more than 6 or 7 years of age at the time of the incidents narrated in the present chapter. XXXIV. 1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she p bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her ; | and he took her, and lay with her, and humbled j her. 3 And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake ^ kindly unto the damsel. | 4 And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying. Get me P this damsel to wife. | 5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled j^ Dinah his daughter ; and his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they came. | 6 And Hamor P the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. I 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they J heard it : and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's ^ Heb. to the heart of the damsel. XXXIV. 1. Dinah. See xxx. 21. 2*. the Hivite. See on x. 17. prince. Heb. nasi ; a word of very frequent occurrence in P (xvii. 20, xxiii. 6, xxv. 16; Nu. i. 16, al.\ and Ezek., but rare elsewhere. 2^ humbled. I.e. disbonoured : so Dt. xxi. 14, xxii. 24, 29, al. 3. his soul. Mentioned as the seat of emotion and affection : see on xii. 13; and cf. v. 8, 1 S. xviii. 1. kindly. See marg. The same idiom, 1. 21 ; Hos. ii. 14; Is. xl. 2, al. 4. Get me &c. It was the business of the parents to get their son a wife: cf. Samson's words, Jud. xiv. 2; and Gen. xxi. 21, xxiv., xxxviii. 6. 5. until they came. The opinion of the brothers was of weight in a matter affecting their sister's welfare : cf xxiv. 50, 55, 59. 6. P's continuation of v. 4. to commune. To speak : see on xviii. 33. So vv. 8, 20. 7. J's continuation of v. 5. wrought folly. It is difficult to find a good rendering for n'hdldh : but folly is not strong enough: wrought senselessness would be better. The word, like the corresponding subst. nd^hdl (the ' fool ' of Ps. xiv. 1), expresses an obstinate insensibility to moral and religious relations, and repudiation of the claims which they impose: see the .definition in Is. xxxii. 6 \ The phrase employed here is a standing one 1 See further the writer's Comm. on Dt. xxii. 21, xxxii. 6, 21; or his Parallel Psalter, p. 457. 304 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxiv. 7-14 daughter ; which thing ought not to be done. | 8 And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter : I pray you give her unto him to wife. 9 And make ye marriages with us; give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. 10 And ye shall dwell with us : and the land shall be before you ; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. | 11 And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. 12 Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give ac- cording as ye shall say unto me : but give me the damsel to wife. | 13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with guile, and spake, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, 14 and said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised ; for that were a reproach for grave acts of immorality (Jud. xix, 23, 24, 2 S. xiii. 12, and with 'in Israel,' as here, Dt. xxii. 21, Jud. xx. 6, 10, Jer. xxix. 23), or irreligion (Jos. vii. 15, also with *in Israel'). The addition 'in Israel' betrays here the author's date : he transfers unconsciously the relations of his own time to the patriarchal age. which thing &c. For the moral judgement, cf xx. 9; 2 S. xiii. 12. 8 — 12. In both narratives, Shechem seeks now to make the best reparation in his power for what he had done : he asks to marry Dinah (cf. Ex. xxii. 16). 8 — 10. P's continuation of w. 4, 6. Hamor carries out his son's request. 9, 10. Hamor proposes what is virtually an amalgamation (cf V. !&") of the two peoples, with fuU reciprocal rights of intermarriage, and permission to Jacob's sons to trade and settle in the territory oi' Shechem. 11. 12. Shechem's offer to Dinah's father and brethren. In v. 6 (P), Hamor comes to Jacob on Shechem's behalf: here (J) Shechem appears conducting his own suit. 12. dowry. Heb. mohar^ Arab, mahr, the price paid for the wife; to her parents, according to ancient custom: so Ex. xxii. 16, 17; 1 S.| xviii. 25. Not ' dowry' in our sense of the word. gift. I.e. presents to the bride, which were often a matter of stipu- lation beforehand: cf on xxiv. 53, xxix. 18. 13 — 18. P's continuation of iw. 8 — 10. 13. with guile. Wishing to avenge their sister's honour, they only ostensibly accede to the proposal, and moreover attach a condition which they foresee will, if agreed to, give them the opportunity which they desire. 14. a reproach. Cf Jos. v. 9. XXXIV. 14-35] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 305 unto us : 15 only on this condition will we consent unto you : p if ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised ; 16 then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17 But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised ; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone. 18 And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son. | 19 And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he J had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was honoured above all the house of his father. | 20 And Hamor and Shechem his son P came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, 21 These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein ; for, behold, the land is large enough for them ; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men consent unto us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23 Shall not their cattle and their substance and all their beasts be ours ? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. 24 And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city ; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. 25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that | two of | the sons of Jacob, | Simeon J P J and Levi, Dinah's brethren, | took each man his sword, and P 19 (J). The verse relates to something to be done by Shechem alone, not (as w). 15 — 17) by the whole people; and connects conse- quently with m. 11, 12 (J), not with m. 13 — 18. J's account of the condition imposed upon Shechem has been omitted by the compiler, as unnecessary by the side of vv. 13 — 18. 20 — 24. P's continuation of m. 13 — 18. Hamor and Shechem lay I the matter before the assembly of their people; and pointing out the advantages to be gained by the settlement of the sons of Jacob amongst them, obtain their assent to the proposal. 20. unto the gate. Cf. on xix. 1. 24. that went out of the gate. Cf. xxiii. 10, 18. 25. According to P, this deed of vengeance was the act of Jacob's sons generally : the compiler introduces words from the parallel narra- tive of J, limiting the actors to Simeon and Levi. when they were sore (lit. in pain). When the inflammation, following upon the operation, was at its height. D. 20 306 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxiv. .5-31 came upon the city ^ unawares, and slew all the males. I 26 And they slew Ilamor and Shechem his son with the edge , of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went forth. | 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field; 29 and all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, took they captive and spoiled, even all that was in the house. | 30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites : and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me ; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. 31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? 1 Or, boldly unawares. Lit. (while it was) in confidence or secure (Jud. viii. 11) : G.-K. § 118^. In Rvm. referred less probably to the assailants. 26. The continuation of J's narrative in v. 25, which must have told, when complete, how Simeon and Levi, — Dinah's full brothers, by the same mother, Leah, — entered the city. with the edge of the sword. Lit. accm^ding to the mouth of the swordj i.e. as the sword devours (2 S. xi. 25),= without quarter. 27 — 29. The continuation of P's narrative in v. 25. The ' sons of Jacob,' — i.e. his sons generally, as w. 5, 7, 13, not Simeon and Levi in particular, — having (v. 25^) slain all the males in Shechem, proceed to sack the city. For the details, cf Nu. xxxi. 9, 11 (also P). 30, 31. J's continuation of v. 26. Jacob blames nis two sons for having acted inconsiderately in exposing him to the hatred and vengeance of the people of the land, by slajdng their principal men, Hamor, and his son. 30. troubled. A strong word, lit. made turbid, fig. for, destroyed the happiness of, undone: Jos. vi. 18, vii. 25; Jud. xi. 35; 1 K. xviii. 17. to make me to stink. The same verb (in the Heb.) in Ex. v. 21 ; 1 S. xiii. 4, xxvii. 12; 2 S. x. 6, xvi. 21. Cf. our expression 'bring into bad odour witli.' the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Cf xiii. 7. 31. Simeon and Levi reply that the honour of their family stands above every other consideration: should their sister be treated as though she were a harlot? The narrative is a strange one ; and it is difficult to feel sure what facts really underlie it. It is evident, in the first place, that different traditions were current respecting Jacob's dealings with Shechem. In xlviii. 22 (E) JACOB AT SHECHEM 307 allusion is made to a tradition, according to which Jacob gained possession of Shechem by sword and bow; in xlix. 5—7 (the Blessing) Simeon and Levi are severely censured for the violence displayed by them on what, it seems, is the occasion here narrated; in ch. xxxiv. (J) Simeon and Levi avenge Shechem's violation of their sister, by slaying him and his father, and Jacob {v. 30) blames their action, though the narrator, by giving them the last word (v. 31), seems to approve it; in ch. xxxiv. (P) the sons of Jacob slaughter the whole male population of Shechem, and carry off the women and children and the spoil. Taking the narrative, as the older writers took it, as it stands, and judging it from a Christian standpoint, we can but agree with the old commentator, Adam Clarke, when he says that all parties concerned were to blame : it was * wrong' in Jacob to suffer his daughter, alone and unprotected, to visit the daughters of the land ; it was * excessively wicked' of Shechem to take advantage of her as he did ; it was * diabolical ' in Jacob's sons, having got the Shechemites into their power under the cloak of a religious rite, to slay the whole tribe treacherously for the offence of one man, especially when that one had sought to make all the restitution in his power, by offering to marry Dinah ; and with the Speaker's Commentary, when it says that Jacob, in reproving his sons {v. 30) as having merely brought him into danger, not as having been guilty of treachery and murder, shews weakness and timidity. These judgements will naturally be somewhat modified, if the modern critical standpoint be adopted. In J, Simeon and Levi slay only Shechem and his father; and though this punishment was greater than what Shechem's act deserved (Ex. xxii. 16 f.), it might perhaps be excused on the part of two high- spirited, martial youths, eager to avenge the outrage on their sister, and whose moral standards could not be expected to be in advance of those of the age in which they lived. That Ham or suffered with his son, was not more than what was in accordance with ancient ideas of justice (cf. on xx. 7). In this case, also, Jacob's reproof {v. 30) does not shew the weakness which it does if spoken in view of the savage deeds described in vv. 25", 27 — 29. In the representation of P, the treachery and cruelty are much greater ; and probably, — like the terrible narrative of Nu. xxxi. — it is merely an ideal picture of the manner in which the priestly writer conceived that a people hostile to Israel, and an enemy to the theocracy, ought to be treated. The narrative, it should be added, is one of those, with regard to which it may perhaps be questioned whether we are really dealing with individuals, and whether incidents of tribal life may not be related in it under the form of incidents in the lives of individuals. This is certainly what happens some- times in the OT. ; for instance, in 1 Ch. vii. 21—23 (see Beriah in DB. ; Bennett, Chronicles, 87 ff., in the ' Expositor's Bible ' ; and cf. the Introd. p. liv) ; and it is at least possible that this chapter is an instance of it. Jud. ix. shews how, after the conquest, Israelites and Canaanites dwelt in Shechem side by side; in Gen. xxxiii. 19 (as was remarked in the note) the almost complete identity of expression with Jud. ix. 28 raises a legitimate doubt whether Shechem ' does not signify the place, and whether therefore in chap, xxxiv. the same name is not a personification of the inhabitants of the place : if this fiew be correct, chap, xxxiv. will mean that an Israelite clan (Dinah) had rained a footing in Shechem, and was in danger of being absorbed by the 20—2 308 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxv. i, 2 native Canaanites (the B'nd Iiamor); the tribes of Simeon and Levi inter- posed,— not without treachery, — to prevent this, as tending to contaminate Israel with heathen elements; but their action was not supported by the Israelites in general (* Jacob,' v. 30 ; cf. Gen. xlix. 5, 6) : Gen. xlix. 7, it has even been conjectured, contains an allusion to the result ; the Canaanites retaliated with such eflfect that the two tribes were broken up, and never afterwards recovered from the blow. The incident, though reflected back here, in a personal form, into the patriarchal period, may be supposed upon this view to have actually taken place when the Israelites, after the conquest, first began to establish themselves on the West of Jordan. Chapter XXXV. Jacob moms on to Bethel, The birth of Benjamiriy and death of Rachel, at Ephrath. Jacob rejoins his father at Hebron. Death and burial of Isomc. XXXV. 1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to. Beth-el, and dwell there : and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments : XXXV. 1 — 8 (E). Jacob journeys as far as Beth-el. Death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. 1. go up. The road from Shechem to Jerusalem is a continual ascent ; and Beth-el (2890 ft. above the sea) is more than 1000 ft. higher than Shechem (1880 ft.). an altar. An addition to the vow of xxviii. 22. who appeared &c. Viz. at Beth-el, xxviii. 10 ff. ; cf xxvii. 43. 2 — 4. Jacob's preparations for carrjdng out tins command. With the service of the God, whom he has promised to serve, the worship of foreign gods, and {v. 4) superstitious usages, do not accord. strange. Foreign, — which indeed was the meaning of * strange' in Old English (cf on xvii. 12), and is to be understood by it here and V. 4, as often besides in EVV. (Ex. xxi. 8; 1 K. xi. 1), esp. in the same phrase as here (Dt. xxxii. 12; Jud. x. 16; Ps. Ixxxi. 9; Jer. v. 19, c£ viii. 19). Some of Jacob's people might naturally have brought with them the images of foreign gods from Haran: cf xxxi. 19, 53; Jos. xxiv. 2, 14, 20, 23 [read/ore2^w for strange]. purify yourselves. Viz. by ablutions, and by keeping free from everything which renders ceremonially ' unclean,' as was usual before acts of public worship. Cf Ex. xix. 10, 14 f ; Jos. vii. 13; 1 S. xvi. 5. XXXV. 3-9] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 309 3 and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el ; and I will make there E an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. 4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears ; and Jacob hid them under the ^oak which was by Shechem. 5 And they journeyed ; and 2a great terror was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the same is Beth-el), he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built there an altar, and called the place ^El-beth-el : because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. 8 And Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried below Beth-el under the oak : and the name of it was called *Allon-bacuth. 9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from p 1 Or, terebinth » Heb. a terror of God. » That is, The God of Beth-el. * That is. The oah of weeping. 3. in the day &c. E.g. when needing help against Laban (xxxi. 24, 29, 42). was with me &c. Cf. xxviii. 20, xxxi. 3, xxxii. 1 fF. 4. rings &c. Ear-rings were used anciently not simply as orna- ments, but as amulets. All these idolatrous and superstitious objects were buried by Jacob under the terebinth (xii. 6) by Shechem. 5. a great terror. Heb. a terror of God, i.e. Si, panic, such as ordinary causes did not seem sufficient to explain. Of. 1 S. xiv. 15, xxvi. 12; 2 Ch. xiv. 14; Zech. xiv. 13. The verse presupposes some warlike success at Shechem, — either such as the one recounted in P (or the parts of E underlying P) in ch. xxxiv., or such as the one alluded to by E in xlviii. 22. 6. Luz. See xxviii. 19. 7. El-heth-el I.e. The God of Beth-el: cf. xxxi. 13. 8. The name of Rebekah's * nurse' is mentioned only here: she is said in xxiv. 59 (J) to have accompanied her mistress to Canaan, — according to P (xxv. 20, xxxv. 28), 140 years previously I P's chron- ology does not always harmonize with that of JE (p. xxv): on the other hand, the present notice is perhaps displaced; for the sudden appearance of Rebekah's nurse in Jacob's company at this stage of his history is surprising. 9 — 13, 15. P's account of Jacob's change of name, of the promises given to him by God at Beth-el, and of the origin of the name of Beth-el. The style is throughout that of P; and the passage is evi- dently P's parallel to what in JE is placed at Jacob's first visit to Beth-el, when he was leaving Canaan for Haran (xxviii. 10 — 22). 310 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxv. 9-1 Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him,' Thy name is Jacob : thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name : and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am ^God Almighty : be fruitful and multiply ; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins ; 12 and the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 13 And God went up from him in the place where he spake with him. | 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spake with .. him, a pillar of stone : and he poured out a drink offering thereon, and poured oil thereon. | 15 And Jacob called thej name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. | 16 And ^ they journeyed from Beth-el ; and there was still some way to come to Ephrath : and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. 17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her. Fear not ; for now thou shalt have another son. 18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in 1 Heb. El Shaddai. 9. whe7i he came from Paddan-aram (xxv. 20). Already these words shew that a different narrator is here speaking : had they been by the same writer who has been describing the route from Haran in detail, the part of the route which Jacob had now reached would have been specified (cf., similarly, xix. 29, xxxiii. 18). 10. P's account of Jacob's change of name, which J had placed earher, at Penuel (xxxii. 28). 11. 12. Jacob is here made the heir of the promises given to Abraham in ch. xvii. (also P). For the expressions, cf xvii. 1, 6, 8 ; also xxviii. 3, 4 (Isaac's blessing of Jacob in P). With v.V6 cf. xvii. 22. 14. A parallel to xxviii. 18; and, to all appearance, J's account of the consecration of the sacred standing-stone at Beth-el. On this, and on the libation of oil, see p. 267. The drink-offering, — presumably of wine, — is a frequently-mentioned element of the later cultus, 2 K. xvi. 13; Ex. xxix. 40, &c. : in idolatrous rites, Jer. vii. 18; Is. Ivii. 6 (offered to stones). 15. P's parallel to xxviii. 19 in J. 16— 22* (J). The birth of Benjamin; and death and burial of Rachel. 16. some way. In the Heb., a peculiar expression, found besides only in the parallel xlviii. 7, and 2 K. v. 19 : the distance denoted by it cannot be exactly determined, but it will not have been great. Ephrath. See on v. 19. 17. for this also is a son for thee. Cf the wish, xxx. 24. XXXV. 18-23] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 311 departing (for she died), that she called his name ^Ben-oni : but J his father called him ^Benjamin. 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem). 20 And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave : the same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. 21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine : and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve : 23 the sons of Leah ; P 1 That is, The son of my sorrow. 2 That is, The son of the right hand. 18. Benjamin. His father gave him a name of happier omen (see the marg.) ; the right-hand side being deemed the more auspicious one : cf. Yemen T' right hand ') = Arabia Felix-, and Sextos opvi^. 19. Ephrath is here, as also in xlviii. 7 (cf. Euth iv. 11 ; Mic. v. 2), identified with Bethlehem; and a Knbbet Bdkel, or 'Dome of Rachel,' — i.e. a stone structure, of comparatively modern date, exactly like an ordinary Mushm * Wely,' or tomb of a holy person,— is still shewn at a spot about one mile N. of Bethlehem, and 4 miles S. of Jerusalem. But in 1 S. X. 2 Rachel's tomb is described as being on the ' border of Benjamin' (i.e. the N. border) not far from Beth-el (v. 3), which was 10 miles N. of Jerusalem ; and a site in the same neighbourhood is strongly supported by Jer. xxxi. 15, where Rachel's weeping is repre- sented as being heard at Bamah, 5 miles N. of Jerusalem. It seems, therefore, either that Ephrath, here and xlviii. 7, is really the name of a place, otherwise unknown, near Ramah (in which case the words 'the same is Beth-lehem' will be an incorrect gloss); or that there were two different traditions respecting the site of Rachel's grave, one (1 S. X. 2 ; Jer. xxxi. 15) placing it iV. of Jerusalem, near Ramah, and the other, found here, placing it >S^. of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem. 20. a pillar. I.e., here, a sepulchral monument, — a sense which the word has often in Phoenician (Cooke, North-Sem. Inscrr. p. 60). 21. Israel. From this point onwards, 'Israel' is not unfrequently used as the name of the patriarch, esp. in J : cf on xliii. 6. of Ede/r. Or, of {\h!^ flock. Watch-towers, built for the protection of flocks against robbers, are mentioned, at least in later times (2 K. xvii. 9, xviii. 8 ; 2 Ch. xxvi. 10) : the one referred to here must have been between 'Ephrath' and Hebron. In Mic. iv. 8 the same expression appears to be used symbolically of a tower on 'Ophel' (the fortified S. spur of Zion, the Eastern hilP of Jerusalem, just below the royal palace); but that is not evidence that Jerusalem is intended here. 22^ Cf. xlix. 4, with the note. ^ 22^—26. An enumeration, from P, of the sons of Jacob, introduced suitably after the account of the birth of the last. ^ Not, as marked incorrectly on many maps, the Western hill: see DB. b.v. Zion. 312 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxy. 2^-29 Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun : 24 the sons of Rachel ; Joseph and Benjamin : 25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid ; Dan and Naphtali : 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid ; Gad and Asher : these are the sons of Jacob, which were bom to him in Paddan-aram. 27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, old and fiill of days : and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him. 26. in Paddan-aram (xxv. 20). Benjamin (v. 17 f.) must be tacitly excepted. 27 — 29 (P). Jacob's arrival at Hebron. The death and burial of Isaac. 27. On Mamre, and Kiriath-arba^ see on xiii. 18, and xxiii. 2. 29. gave up the ghost... and was gathered unto his father's kin. See on xxv. 8. and Esau and Jacob &c. As Isaac and Ishmael, according to the same source, P, had buried Abraham (xxv. 8). Chapter XXXVL The generations of Esau, As after the death and burial of Abraham (xxv. 7 — 11'), P proceeded at once to enumerate the descendants of Ishmael (xxv. 12 — 17), before dealing with the line of Isaac, so after the death and burial of Isaac, he introduces an account of the descendants of Esau, before passing on to the ' generations ' of Jacob (xxxvii. 2). The particulars are more numerous in the case of Esau than in that of Ishmael, partly, it is probable, on account of Edom's being more important historically than the tribes descended from Ishmael, and more closely related to Israel, and partly because in the case of Edom tliere were more details worth stating. The chapter contains much interesting information respecting Edom : it is to be regretted that we possess at present no Edomite inscriptions, and very little information from other sources, to supplement or illustrate it. The original inhabitants of the mountain region called Se^ir (cf. on xiv. 6) bore the name of Horites (ibid.) ; but immigrants, closely allied to the Israelites (Esau, or Edom, being Israel's 'brother,' Nu. xx. 14; Dt. xxiii. 7, al), took possession of the country, and in great measure dispossessed them ; it was accordingly said that Jehovah had 'given mount Se'ir unto Esau' (Dt. ii. 5, cf. vv. 12, 22). Exactly, however, as happened in the case of the Canaanites and Israelites, many Horite families and clans maintained them- selves beside the immigrants, and in many cases intermarried with them; xxxvi. 1-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 313 and particulars respecting some of these Horite families are included bv the narrator {vv. 20—30). ^ The chapter, after the title (v. 1), falls into seven paragraphs, as indicated m the notes. The basis of the chapter is evidently supplied by P (notice the form of vv, 1, 6^ 6—8, 9', 40% 43) ; but the discrepancies in the names of Esau's wives (see on vv. 2—5) shew that these cannot have been derived from P ; and it is possible that other parts of the chapter as well (e.g. vv. 31—39) have'been incorporated by the compiler from some other source. The question is not of suflBcient importance for further discussion here. Verses 4—5 11—13 (abridged), 20-24*, 25-28, 31—39, 40-43 are excerpted, with slight textual variations (see RVm.), in 1 Ch. i. 35—37, 38—42, 43— 51», 61*— 54. XXXVI. 1 Now these are the generations of Esau (the P same is Edom). 2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan ; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 and Basemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth. 4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz ; and Basemath bare Reuel ; 5 and * Some ancient authorities have, son. See ver. 24. XXXVI. 1. the same is Edom. So vv. 8, 19. Cf. xxv. 30. 2 — 5. Esau's wives and sons. In v. 2 Hivite is certainly an error for Horite: see 'Zibeon' in v. 20, and cf. on'-y. 2. In xxvi. 34, xxviii. 9 (both P), Esau's wives are- Judith, daughter of Beeri, the Hittite ; Basemath, daughter of EloUy the Hittite ; and Mahalathj daughter of Ishmael, and sister qfNebaioth. Here, and in vv. 9 — 14, they are — *Adah, daughter of Eton, the Hittite ; Oholibamah, daughter of 'Anah, the Horite ; and Basemath f daughter oilshmaely and sister ofNebaioth, The names are strangely interchanged in the two lists. Attempts have been made to explain them by suppositions such as that Esau had five wives, or that they had double names, or had been re-named : but the variations in the two Hsts are not adequately accounted for by any of these hypotheses; and the only reasonable explanation is that they are due to a difference of tradition (or theory). 2. the daughter of Zibeon. So v. 14. Daughter (ni) is prob. an error for son (p), which is read by LXX., Sam., Pesh. : see v. 24. Oholibamah will then be an unnamed daughter of the 'Anah of v. 24, not the 'Oholibamah, daughter of 'Anah' of v. 25 (for the 'Anah of this verse, following the Lotan, Shobal, and Zibeon of w. 22 — 24, is evidently the 'Anah of v. 20, not the 'Anah of v. 24). Another view is that the words are a gloss, added by one who incorrectly identified the 'Anah of v. 25 with the 'Anah of v. 24 : in this case, ' Oholibamah, the daughter of 'Anah,' will be the one mentioned in v. 25. 314 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvi. 5-10 Oholibamah bare Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah : these are 1 the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. 6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan ; and went into a land away from his brother Jacob. 7 For their substance was too great for them to dwell together; and the land of their sojournings could not bear them because of their cattle. 8 And Esau dwelt in mount Seir : Esau is Edom. 9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of ^the Edomites in mount Seir : 10 these are the names of Esau's sons ; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son 1 Heb. Edom. 6 — 8. The migration of Esau into the land of Se*ir, occasioned, it is stated, by Jacob's increasing possessions, — a cause which could only have come into operation after Jacob's return to his father in Canaan (xxxv. 27 — 29). In J, Esau's residence in Edom is already presupposed in xxxii. 3, xxxiii. 14, 16. For the expressions, cf. xii. 5, xiii. 6* (where a similar motive is assigned for Lot's separation from Abraham), xvii. 8,— all P. 6. a land. Read, with Pesh., t/ie land of Seir: ")W has accident- ally dropped out. 8. In the mountain-land of Seir. Cf. on xiv. 6, and xxvii. 39 f. 9 — 14. The tribes or clans of Edom, reckoned as descended from Esau's three wives. The names are not those of individuals, but merely represent tribes or clans (cf. ch. x.). The entire number (ex- cluding the concubine's son, v. 12) is 12 : cf. the same number in the cases of Ishmael (xxv. 12 — 16), and Israel, and the six * sons' of Ke- turah (xxv. 2). There must have been in Edom a distinct consciousness that the different clans were of mixed nationality: the clans reputed to be descended from *Adah, Basemath, and Oholibamah, having an admixture of Canaanite, IshmaeHte, and Horite blood, respectively, in their veins \ 9. the father of Edom. Edom is here (unlike m. 1, 8, 19) the name of the nation (as Nu. xx. 18, 20, 21, al). So v. 43^ 10. Eliphaz. Also an Edomite personal name, Job ii. 11. 1 The following table will make the relationship of the different clans clear : — •Adah Basemath Oholibamah {Hittite or Canaanite line) {IshmaeHte line) {Horite line) Eliphaz 3= Timna* Ke'uel Je'ush Ja'lam Elorah Teman Omar ^epho Ga'tam ^enaz 'Amalek Nahath Zerah Shammah Mizzah XXXVI. IO-I7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 315 of Basemath the wife of Esau. 1 1 And the sons of Eliphaz were p Teman, Omar, ^Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 12 And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son ; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek : these are the sons of Adah Esau's wife. 13 And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah : these were the sons of Basemath Esau's wife. 14 And these were the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife : and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah. 15 These are the Mukes of the sons of Esau : the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau ; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16 duke Korah, duke Gatam, duke Amalek : these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom ; these are the sons of Adah. 17 And these are the sons of Reuel Esau's son ; duke ^ahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah : these are 1 In 1 Chr. i. 36, Ze^U, a Or, cUeft 11. Teman. Elsewhere in the OT. the name of a district in the N. of Edom (Am. i. 12; Jer. xlix. 7, 20; Ez. xxv. 13; Hab. iii. 3; cf. Bar. iii. 22 f.), the home of Job's friend, Eliphaz, Job ii. 11. Eiiseb. (flnom. 260) names also a village 0at/xav, 15 miles from Petra. K^naz. To_ all appearance, a collateral branch of the Kenizzites (the gentile adj. of Kenaz), a tribe in the S. of Canaan, afterwards absorbed into Jiidah (see on xv. 19). 12. 'Amalek. Not counted as a full son of Eliphaz, but treated as descended from a concubine and a Horite (see v. 22), Timna'; i.e. Amalek was a tribe or clan of inferior rank. The reference is probably not to the people of Amalek itself (xiv. 7), but to an oifshoot, or remnant (see 1 Ch. iv. 42, 43), which had found a home in Edom, or was in some way dependent upon it. Cf. EncB. i. 129. 15 — 19. List of clan-chiefs of Edom. The names, with one exception (see V. 16), are identical with those of the corresponding clans mentioned in vv. 9 — 14. The word 'duke' (^-1?^) simply represents the Vulg. dux, which in its turn is based upon the lxx. ifyc/xwv : the Heb. word is really formed from ^^ family or clan, Jud. vi. 15; 1 S. x. 19; Mic. V. 2* (properly, either tJumsand, or association, tribal group). It was apparently the native name for the tribal chiefs of Edom (of Judah, only Zech. ix. 7, xii. 5, 6; otherwise only of Edom, in Gen. xxxvi., the excerpts in 1 Ch. i. 51 — 54, and Ex. xv. 15). The names would be better rendered the chief of Teman, the chief of Omar, &c., the genitive in each case denoting either a clan or a district. 16. the chief of Korah. Introduced by some error from v. 18. 1 In the translation followed in Mt. ii. 6, read as P)pN = i]ye/x(*>j/. 316 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvi. 17-n the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom ; these are / the sons of Basemath Esau's wife. 18 And these are the sons of Oholibamah Esau's wife ; duke Jeush, duke Jalam, duke Korah : these are the dukes that came of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. 19 These are the sons of Esau, and these are their dukes : the same is Edom. 20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land ; Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, 21 and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan : these are the dukes that came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 22 And the children of Lotan were Hori and ^Hemam ; and Lotan's sister was Timna. 23 And these are the children of Shobal ; ^Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, ^Shepho and Onam. 24 And these are the children of Zibeon ; Aiah and Anah : this is Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. 25 And these are the children of Anah ; Dishon and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah. 26 And these are the children of * Dishon ; ^Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran. 27 These are the children of Ezer ; Bilhan and 1 In 1 Chr. i. 39, Homam. = in i chr. i. 40, Alian. ' In 1 Chr. i. 40, Shephi. * Heb. Dishan. '' In 1 Chr. i. 41, Hamran. 20 — 30. The clans, families, and clan-chiefs of the aboriginal Horites. SeHr is elsewhere the name of the land (e.g. xiv. 6 ; Is. xxi. 11); but here the country is personified, and becomes the imaginary ancestor of the tribes iu habiting it. Cf. the similar cases in ch. x. The name Horite perhaps means cave-dwellers, Troglodytes. Edom abounds in caves, which till a much later time were used as dwellings. Cf. the Commentaries on Obad. 3. 20. the inhabitants of the land. I.e. its autochthonous inhabi- tants : opp. to the immigrant Esauites. 22 — 28. The sub-clans, or families, of the native Horites, regarded as subdivisions of the seven larger groups enumerated in v. 20. 22. Hori. The national name appears here as a clan-name. 24. the hot springs. The Heb. word occurs only here, and the rend, is uncertain. If it is correct, the reference will be to hot springs, such as those which Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, 1822, p. 401) found, near where the W. el-Ahs^ (above, p. 169) crosses the Derb el-Haj, or Pilgrim-route to Mecca, some distance NB. of Busaireh (on V. 33). (Hot saline springs are numerous about the Dead Sea.) 25. *Anah. Of course the 'Anah of v. 20, not the 'Anah of v. 24. 27. In 1 Ch. i. 42, ' Ja'akan' stands for 'and 'Akan,' and is ob- viously a transcriptional error for it (|py* for jpvi). Still, the name XXXVI. 27-3^^] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 317 Zaavan and ^Akan. 28 These are the children of Dishan ; Uz p and Aran. 29 These are the dukes that came of the Horites ; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, 30 duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan : these are the dukes that came of the Horites, according to their dukes in the land of Seir. 31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. 32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; and the name of * In 1 Chr. i. 42, Jaakan. may stand in some connexion with the place * (Wells of) the B^n^ Ja'akan,' mentioned in Nu. xxxiii. 31 f. ; Dt. x. 6. 28. 'Uz. A branch of the Aramaean 'Uz (x. 23, xxii. 21) had perhaps attached itself to the Horites. 29. 30. The * dukes ' or clan-chiefs (on v. 15) of the Horites. The names (*the chief of Lotan,' &c.) agree (as in w. 15 — 1*8) with those of the corresponding clans, v. 20 f. 30. according to their dukes. Better (lxx. [iJyc/Aovtais = ' dukeries'], Di.), according to their clans (Dn''S^N»i> for Dn^a^&?^)\ 31—39. A list of eight Edomite kings. ' Verse 31* shews that the writer lived after the beginning of the Isr. monarchy. The last mentioned king will naturally have lived just before the time of Saul. Edom was in advance of Israel, both in the possession of a settled territory, and in attaining monarchical government (cf. Nu. xx. 14) : in this respect, also, Esau was the ' firstborn,' though in the end, Israel won from him his supremacy (2 S. viii. 14). Of the kings named in this list, none is a son of his predecessor : it may be inferred, consequently, that the monarchy in Edom was not hereditary, but elective (cf. Is. xxxiv. 12), or de- pendent upon the ability of a particular chief to acquire supremacy over the rest. 32. Bela^ (ypD) the son of Be'or. The resemblance to ' Bala'am (Dybl) the son of Be*or' is remarkable; but hardly forms a sufficient basis for the speculation that the two persons are the same, and that Isr. and Edomite history had handed down different conceptions of him (cf. Sayce, EHH. 224, 229 n.', Hommel, AHT. 153, 223; EncB. s.v. Bela). 1 Wellhausen has pointed out that several of the Edomite and Horite names here enumerated are the same as, or very similar to, those of families of Judah, especially of the clan of Hezron (Korah, 1 Ch. ii. 43; Teman, iv. 6; Kenaz, iv. 13, 15; Shammah, cf.* Shammai, ii. 28, 44, iv. 17; Shobal, ii. 52, iv. 1; Manahath, cf. ii. 52, 64; Onam, ii. 28; Eshban, cf. Ahban, ii. 29; Ithran, cf. Yether, ii. 32, iv. 17; Aran (jn??.), cf. Oren (jnX), ii. 25; Elah {v. 41), iv. 15; •Iram, cf. 'Iru, iv. 15). The fact inay point to intermarriages having taken place between the neighbouring peoples. The large proportion of animal names (cf. p. 273 n.) is also noticeable ; it is perhaps the survival of a primitive totemism in Edom : cf. Gray, Heh. Prop. Names, pp. 88 ff., 112 £f. 318 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvi. 32-40 his city was Dinhabah. 33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son . of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. 34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead. 35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead : and the name of his city was Avith. 36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. 37 And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his stead. 38 And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. 39 And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and ^Hadar reigned in his stead : and the name of his city was ^Pau ; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Hatred, the daughter of Me-zahab. 40 And these are the names of the dukes ^ In 1 Chr. i. 50, and some ancient authorities, Hadad. ^ Jq i cjir. i. 60, Pai. Dinhabah. Unknown : see conjectures in EncB. 33. Bozrah. An important Edomite town, Am. i. 12, Is. Ixiii. 1, al. : now Busaireh, 20 m. SE. of the Dead Sea, and 35 m. N. of Petra. 34. the land of the Temanites. See on u 11. 35. Hadad. Also the name of an Aramaean deity, — the one heading the lists of gods in the Aramaic inscriptions of Zinjirli (near Aleppo), of the 8th cent. B.c. (Cooke, North-Sem. Inscriptions, 161 ff., 164, cf. 360), and found also in *Ben-hadad' and * Hadad-ezer,' — cor- responding to the Ass. Bammdn (Rimmon), the storm- and thunder-god {KAT.^ 454; KAT.^ 443 f.). The name recurs in v. 39 (where RVm. is no doubt right in following Heb. mss., Sam., and Pesh.), and also (as that of an Edomite who troubled Solomon) in 1 K. xi. 14 ff. *Avith. Burckhardt {Syria, p. 375) mentions a ' chain of low moun- tains, called el-Ghoweithe' on the E. of the upper course of the Arnon. 37. Shaul. The name in the Heb. is the same as * Saul.' * The river' is usually in Heb. (as RV. interprets here: see on xxxi. 21) the Euphrates : if RV. is right, Rehoboth may be Rahaha^ a place on its W. bank, a little S. of the mouth of the Habor (Chaboras); and * Shaul' will have been of foreign origin. 39. Baal-hanan. The name ('Baal is gracious'; cf. Johanan, Elhanan) points to the worship of Baal in Edom : cf. the many Phoen. names formed with ' Baal.' MehetaVel. * God does good or benefits,' a name of Aram, forma- tion (in late Heb., Neh. vi. 10). We have no remains of the language of Edom, except such as are preserved in proper names ; but these are sufiicient to shew (what might also have been inferred froni the re- lationship between the two nations) that in all probability it closely resembled Hebrew, with dialectical differences analogous to those which we know, from the 'Moabite Stone,' were displayed by the language of Moab. XXXVI. 40-43] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 319 that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, p by their names; duke Timna, duke ^Alvah, duke Jetheth; 41 duke Oholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon ; 42 duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar; 43 duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession. Tliis is Esau the father of ^the Edomites. 1 In 1 Chr. i. 61, Alidh. a Heb. Ed(m. 40 — 43. Second list of 'dukes/ or clan-chiefs, of Edom. The relation of this list to the one in tsv. 15 — 19 is not expressly stated: but most probably (cf Ewald, Hist. i. 76; Di. ; Del.) the 'dukes' here enumerated were the heads of the territorial subdivisions of the country (notice ' after their places,' v. 40) adopted for poHtical or administrative purposes, which may not have corresponded to the old tribal divisions (cf. in Israel 1 K. iv. 7 — 19) : perhaps indeed the list may relate to the time when the Edomite monarchy had passed away, and the country had become subject to Israel (2 S. viii. 14). The names in the Hst are partly those of clans (as Kenaz, and Ohohbamah), partly those of places. 40. duke Timna'. The chief of Timna'; and similarly in the mmes following. Timna (in the Heb. exactly as w. 12, 22) is in some editions of RV. spelt by an oversight Timnah. 41. the chief of Elah. In all probability, the sea-port usually called Elath (see on xiv. 6). Pinon. Doubtless the Pwaon of Nu. xxxiii. 42 f , said by Euseb. and Jerome {Onom. 299, 123) to be in their time Phaenon, a village in the desert, between Petra and Zo'ar, where criminals were sent to work in the copper-mines. 42. Mibzar. According to Eus. (Onom. 277) a large village in Gebal (Ps. Ixkxiii. 7), a district in the N. of Edom. Chapters XXXVII— L. We enter now the last division of the Book, which (except in eh. xxxviii.) deals entirely with the history of Joseph. The section is indeed headed Tdledoth Jacob : but this is simply a consequence of the plan followed by the compiler : Isaac is dead ; and Jacob is therefore technically the leading figure ; but in point of fact he takes a subordinate place, and though after the denoHment he comes again to the forefront, and the events of his closing years are told at some length, the chief interest of the narrative centres in Joseph. The story of Joseph, whether we take account or not of the double strand of which it seems (p. 332) to be composed, 'is dramatic in form,— indeed, it combines the elements which Aristotle {Poet xi., xvi.) regarded as essential to a good drama, the Trepmkeia^ or " reversal " (viz, of the intended eflfect of an 320 THE BOOK OF GENESIS action into its djrect opposite)^, and the dvayvropicriSf or "recognition," — and it is told with a touching charm. The theme is a common one, common alike in folk-lore, in the drama, and in history— the younger member of a family kept down by the envy of the elder members, and at last triumphing over them. Every trait in the narrative is in accordance with nature; and the whole forms a vivid portraiture of the true development of human character.' The young boy dreams his dreams of future greatness : almost immediately his hopes are, to all appearance, shattered : he is sold away from his father and brethren into foreign slavery ; there, however, his integrity and loyalty save him ; after many trials and disappointments (xl. 23) 2, he is at length, by a surprising sequence of circumstances, elevated to a high and responsible dignity in Egypt; one day, after many years, he suddenly sees his brethren, forced by necessity, standing before him ; but he uses the advantage which his position gives him, not to crush them or take vengeance on them, but to try them, to discover whether they are loyal to his father and youngest brother, and then, when he has at last assured himself of their altered mind, when he sees them genuinely moved by the sight of their father's grief and the remorse of their own conscience, and knows that they are willing even to go themselves into slavery to spare their father, and save their younger brother, when he is satisfied, in other words, that they are worthy to be forgiven, he discloses himself to them and nobly and magnanimously forgives them^ Though over- ruled by Providence for good (xlv. 5, 7, 8, 1. 20), and though justifying signally in the end the ways of God to men, the events of Joseph's life move forward, it may be noted, entirely within the lines of what is human and natural: Joseph is the recipient of no supernatural warnings or promises, directing his steps. ' No doubt, the story was told again and again by Hebrew rhapsodists at the fireside of Hebrew homes': at length, in two slightly different versions, one, probably, as it was told in Ephraim, and the other as it was told in Judah, it was cast into a written form; and the two versions are interwoven together in our present Genesis. * It would be a most interesting study to compare the character of Ulysses with that of Joseph, and to speculate what effect each hero may have had upon his nation's subsequent history. Each is kept true by the tender memories of home love ; each is god-fearing ; each is shrewd, resourceful, courageous, growing with the experience of life ; but with Ulysses the shrewdness just passes the line, and can scarcely be distinguished from guile and cunning, from which Joseph is quite free, — Ulysses finding his subsequent counterpart in Themistocles, Joseph in Daniel. Most interesting, too, to compare the scene where Joseph's brethren stand cowering, conscious of their guilt, before the brother whom they have wronged, and receive only the winged words of forgiveness, with that other scene in which the suitors of Penelope huddle together at the end of the hall, conscious of their guilt, when Ulysses is 1 The brethren *sell Joseph to be quit of him and his dreams; but the result is that his dreams are fulfilled, and he saves their lives. ' See Lock on the sense of the term TepiTheia in the Class. Rev. ix. (1895), pp. 251 — 3. 2 Cf. Ps. ov. 19 ' Until the time that his word [Gen. xxxvii. 7, 9] came to pass, the saying of Jehovah (the promise implied in Joseph's dreams) tested him (exposed him to the discipline of humiliation and disappointment).' 8 Dr Lock compares Prospero in the Temj^est, xxxvii. I, a] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 321 revealed, and receive the winged arrows of death ; and to think how the young Greek, as he grew up, had always before him the story of triumphant justice, while the young Hebrew was nurtured in the nobler story of triumphant mercy' (from a sermon by Dr Lock, Exp. Times, June, 1903, p. 396). See further below, p. 400 f. Chapter XXXVII. Joseph sold into Egypt. The narrative (except w. 1, 2», which belong to P) is composed of J and E. In the earlier part of the chapter the details of the analysis are somewhat uncertain: but from v. 21 the double strand appears very distinctly; and if the reader will follow the narrative carefully, he will see that there are two divergent accounts of the manner in which Joseph was rescued from his brethren's hands, and sold into Egypt. In J, Judah takes the lead: he dissuades his other brethren from carrying out their purpose, and induces them to sell Joseph to a caravan of Ishmaelites, who happened to be passing by on their way from Gilead into Egypt; and the Ishmaelites, upon their arrival in Egypt, sell him as a slave to an Egyptian of rank (xxxix. 1). In E, Reuben takes the lead, and dissuades the other brethren from carrying out their plan: at his suggestion, they cast Joseph into a pit, and Midianite traders, passing by, draw him up out of the pit, while his brethren are at their meal, and sell him in Egypt to Potiphar, the ' captain of the guard ' {v, 36). The principal grounds upon which this analysis rests are explained in the notes : the diflFerence as regards the position taken by Judah and Reuben will re- appear subsequently. XXXVII. 1 And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's P sojournings, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, | was feeding the J flock with his brethren ; and he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives : and Joseph brought the evil report of them unto their father. XXXVII. 1. And Jacob dwelt &c. In contrast to Esau, who had withdrawn into Se'ir (xxxvi. 6 — 8). of his father's sojournings. Cf. xvii. 8, xxviii. 4 (both also P). 2*. P's introduction to the history of Jacob, so far as it belongs to the period after Isaac's death (xxxv. 29). 2^ Read, ...with his brethren, being (still) a lad, (even) with, &c. the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's 'handmaid'; i.e. Dan and NaphtaH. tlie sons of Zilpah, Leah's 'handmaid'; i.e. Gad and Asher. and Joseph brought &c. The words are intended to explain the subsequent unfriendliness. Jacob is to be pictured as being at Hebron {v. 14; cf. xxxv. 27). What the 'evil report' was, is not stated; per- haps it was some dishonesty in the sale of their father's flocks, which shocked the upright mind of Joseph. D. 21 322 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvii. 3-1* 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because , he was the son of his old age : and he made him ^a coat of many colours. 4 And his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren ; and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. | 5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, . and he told it to his brethren : and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them. Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said. Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream ; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren ; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him. What is this dream that thou hast dreamed ? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind. | 12 And his brethren went to feed, 1 Or, a long garment with sleeves 3, 4. A further cause for the boy's unpopularity with his brethren : he was his father's favourite. For ' Israel/ cf. on xliii. 6. 3. a coat of many colours. A coat, — or, more strictly, a tunic, - 0/ palms and soles, i.e. reaching to the hands and feet (which is what is meant by RVm.); opp. to the ordinary tunic, which had no sleeves, and reached only to the knees. So 2 S. xiii. 18 f. (worn in David's time by royal princesses). 4. 'loved ^m.' Tne pronoun is emphatic in the Hebrew. could Twt. So completely had hatred fettered their tongues. 5 — 11. Two boyish dreams of future greatness, such as naturally increase his brethren's dislike of him. In the eyes of the narrator, they are divinely-sent presentiments of his future greatness. The double dream indicates the certainty of the fulfilment (xli. 32). 10. thy mother. The words, as used by Jacob, obviously imply that Rachel was still alive. J has mentioned her death in xxxv. 19; perhaps E placed her death later. IP. Lxx. SL€T7Jpr]a-€v (there is no *in mind' in the Heb.). Cf. Lk. ii. 19 (crvveTrjpii), 51 (SuTrjpet iv rfj Kaphia avrrjs). XXXVII. i2-2o] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 323 their father's flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said untoj" Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am L 14 And he said to him, Go now, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flock ; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field : and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou ? 16 And he said, I seek my brethren : tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding the flock. 17 And the man said. They are departed hence : for I heard them say. Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. 18 And they saw him afar ofl; and before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. | 19 And they said one to another. Behold, this E ^dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say. An evil 1 Heb. master of dreams. ^K 12 — 17. Joseph sent to enquire after his brethren at Shechem. ^^12. in Shechem. The plain of Mukhna on the E. of Shechem (xii. 6) supplies excellent pasturage. The incidents narrated in eh. xxxiv. seem to have been forgotten. 11 the vale of Hebron. The broad vale, running NW. to SE., in which Hebron lies. 17. Dothan. The name is still preserved in Tell Dothan, a fine green mound, on the top of which the ancient 'city' (2 K. vi. 13 — 15) must have stood, with two wells near its S. foot, 15 m. N. of Shechem, on the S. of a broad plain (c£ Judith iv. 6), where the pasturage is even finer than it is about Shechem (Rob. in. 122; cf EncB. s.v.). 18 — 36. Seeing Joseph approaching in the distance, the brethren plan to Idll him, and so to frustrate Jiis dreams : he is saved, — by Reuben, accor(Hng to E; by Judah, according to J, — and carried down into I Ep^ypt ; his father Ijeing persuaded by his brethren that he has been ' killed by a wild beast. 19. Master (or owner) of (RVm.) is a Heb. idiom for possessing : I so xhx. 23 'archers' is lit. masters of arrows, 2 K. i. 8 'hairy' is lit. owner of hair, Pr. xxix. 22 'wrathful man' is master of wrath, &c. As used here, the expression is intended as a mocking exaggeration. 20. pits. Or, cisterns, for the storage of water, or {L. and B. i. 89, 90, II. 194, III. 458, cf. Jer. xH. 8) grain. Cf Dt. vi. 11; 1 S. xiii. 6; 2 Ch. xxvi. 10 (same word). Such cisterns are still very common in Palestine, and are often dangerous to travellers (cf the law, Ex. xxi. 33 f ) : they are abundant in particular about Dothan, and ' a.s they 21—2 324 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvii. 20-26 beast hath devoured him : and we shall see what will become of his dreams. | 21 And [Reuben] heard it, and delivered him out of their hand ; and said, Let us not take his life. | 22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood ; cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him : that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. 23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colours that was on him ; 24 and they took him, and cast him into the pit : and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat bread : | and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a travelling company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing ^spicery and ^balm and ^myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. 26 And Judah said unto his brethren. What profit is it if we slay our brother and ^ Or, gum tragacanth Or, storax ^ Or, mastic * Or, ladanum are shaped like a bottle with a narrow mouth, any one imprisoned within would be unable to extricate himself without assistance' (Warren, Becovery of Jerus.^ 1871, p. 463). 21 (j). Reuben. Originally, it is generally supposed by critics, Judahy the sequel following in -??. 25 ('and they lifted up,' &c.). With 'Reuben,' v. 21^ and v. 22* are tautologous. 22— 25^ E's sequel to vv. 19—20. 22. wilderness. The Heb. word means a driving-place for cattle, i.e. pasture ground, — uncultivated, but by no means barren: cf. Ps. Ixv. 12. 25^—27. J's sequel to v. 21. 25^. a travelling company. A caravan (Job vi. 18, 19 ; cf. Is. xxi. 13). The terms in which the Ishmaelites, and {v. 28) the Midian- ites are mentioned are hardly in accord with at least the literal sense of the representation in ch. xxi., xxv. 2, according to which both would be Joseph's cousins. from Gilead. The plain N. and W. of Dothan is still crossed by the regular route from Gilead, past Beisan (Beth-shean) and Jezreel, and on through the plain of Sharon, and Lydda, to Egypt (Rob. n. 316, 331 ; and G. A. Smith's Map). spicery. Most probably, gum tragacanth: certainly, nothing so general as ' spicery.' balm. A product of Gilead: Jer. viii. 22, xlvi. 11. myrrh. Ladaniun, — the fragrant gum of the cistus, or rock-rose (NHB. 458 ff. ; EncB. Ladanum). These gums would be used in Eg3rpt, partly medicinally, partly as incense, and partly in embalming. 26, 27. Judah seizes the opportunity: and by appealing to his brothers' cupidity saves Joseph's life. XXXVII. .6-35] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 325 conceal his blood? 27 Come, and let us sell him to thej- Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him ; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brethren hearkened unto him. | 28 And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen ; and they E drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, | and sold Joseph to j the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. | And they brought E Joseph into Egypt. 29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit ; and he rent his clothes. 30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said. The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? | 31 And they took Joseph's J^ coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood ; 32 and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father ; and said, This have we found : know now whether it be thy son's coat or not. 33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat ; an evil beast hath devoured him ; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. 34 And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose 26. and conceal his blood. That its cry for vengeance may not be heard: cf. Ez. xxiv. 7 f. ; Is. xxvi. 21; Job xvi. 18. 28* (E). The absence of the art. in 'Midianites' shews that the reference cannot be to 'the Ishmaelites' mentioned specifically in v. 27, but that V, 28* is parallel to w. 25^ — 27, and the sequel of v. 25* : while the brethren are at their meal, Midianite traders, passing by, kidnap Joseph, and (v. 28°) carry him away into Eg3rpt. This agrees with xl. 15 (also E), where Joseph is — not 'sold,' but — ^stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews.' and they drew (E). I.e. (in the original context of E) the Midianites, who drew Joseph up out of the pit, without his brethren's knowledge (which explains Reuben's surprise in v. 29), while they were at their meal {v. 25*). 28^ (J), and they sold. . .for twenty shekels of silver. The mention of the ' Ishmaelites' shews that this clause is the sequel in J to v. 27. The price (= about 505. [see on xxiii. 15]) was two-thirds of that of an ordinary (adult) slave (Ex. xxi. 32), but no doubt such as would be usual for a youth like Joseph : cf Lev. xxvii. 5. 28° (E). And they brought &c. Viz. the Midianites (v. 28*). 29 f (E). Reuben upon returning, after the meal (v. 25*), to the pit, in the hope, no doubt, of being able now to send Joseph home secretly {v. 22^), finds to his dismay that the pit is empty. 31 — 35. The sequel in J to the middle clause of v. 28. 33. Jacob, upon seeing the blood-stained coat, at once draws the desired conclusion {y. 20). 326 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxvii. 35, 36 up to comfort him ; but he refused to be comforted ; and he J said, For I will go down to ^the grave to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. | 36 And the ^Midianites sold him E into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the ^captain of the guard. ^ Heb. Sheol, the name of the abode of the dead, answering to the Greek Hades, Acts ii. 27. ^ Heb. Medanites, ^ Heb. chief of the executioners, 35. the grave. Heb. Sheol. See RVm. On the Heb. idea of Sheol, 'the meeting-place for all living' (Job xxx. 33), where the spirit, without distinction of good and bad, was supposed to enter upon a shadowy, half-conscious existence, devoid of interest or occupation, and not worthy of the name of * life,' see Kirkpatrick, Psalms, p. Ixxv.ff., and on Ps. vi. 5, and the writer's Sermons on the OT. p. 72 ff. (' The growth of belief in a future state'); and cf Ps. Ixxxviii. 10 — 12; Is. xiv. 9—10, 15, xxxviii. 18; Job x. 21—22; Ez. xxxii. 21 ff. 36. The sequel in E (notice the ' Midianites ') to vv. 28^- ^ 29—30. PotipJiar. The name is Egyptian; and means (see DB. s.v.) 'He whom the Ra (or the sun-god) gave.' Cf. on xli. 45 (' Poti-phera'). officer. Lit. eunuch', though it is possible that the word is used in its generalized sense of court-official : cf. xl. 2, 7, and E,V. of 1 K. xxii. 9; 2 K. viii. 6, xxiv. 12; Est. i. 10. the captain of the guard. Lit. 'captain (or chief) of the slaughter- ers'(of animals [not 'executioners']), a Heb. title, though in usage applied only to foreigners (except of Potiphar, it is used only, with ni for lb', of Nebuchadnezzar's * captain of the guard,' 2 K. xxv. 8, al.^ Dan. ii. 14). The royal butchers must, it seems, have come in some way to form the royal body-guard : cf W. R. Smith, Old Test, in the Jewish Church^, 262 f What native Egyptian official the term denoted is uncertain; possibly (see DB. I.e.) one corresponding to the dpxto-oi- fjLaTO(}>v\ai of the Ptolemaic period. Chapter XXXVIIL Judah and Tamar. This naiTative (J) has a trihal interest; its main object being to explain the origin of the three primary subdivisions of the tribe of Judah, viz. the families, or clans, of Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (see Nu. xxvi. 20). The daughter of Shua' is a Canaanitess, and presumably Tamar is likewise ; the narrative would thus seem to betray a consciousness that there was a considerable admixture of Canaanite blood in the tribe. It is at the same time a secondary purpose of the narrative to impress the duty of marriage with a deceased brother's wife (see on vv. 8 — 10). Here is the pedigree of the principal Judahite families : — xxxviiL 1-6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 327 Shua's daughter =JuDAH =Tamar -— 1 ---, i-, L. Tamar=*Er Onan Shelah Perez Z^-ah (1 Ch. iv. 21— 23) I • j • Hezron Hamul Zimri (4 others) I (Zabdi) 1 Ch. ii. 6 I , 1 1 I Jerahmeel Earn Chelubai Karmi (Caleb) I (1 Ch. ii. 9, (1 Ch. ii. 9, (1 Ch. ii. 9, 'Achan 25—33,34 10—17) 18—20,24, (ICh.ii. 7; —41) 42— 50»i, Josh.vii.l) SO*"— 55) See also 1 Ch. iv. (the text of both 1 Ch. ii. and 1 Ch. iv. is in several places corrupt) ; and of. ch. xlvi. 12, Nu. xxvi. 19—21, 1 Ch. ii. 3—5. Perez (cf. Ru. iv. 12) was regarded as having been, through Hezron, the ancestor of three important families, or clans, in Judah. Ram (see 1 Ch. I.e.) was the reputed ancestor of the royal line of David : many names were con- nected with Jerahmeel; and the Caleb-clan was regarded as the founder of Hebron, and other places in Judah (I.e. vv. 42 — 50*''). 1 S. xxvii. 10, xxx. 14 (cf. XXV. 3, xxx. 29), however, seem to shew that in David's time these two clans were distinct from Judah, and inhabited the Negeb (see on xii. 9) : afterwards, we must suppose, they, — wholly, or in part, — migrated northwards, and were ultimately adopted into the tribe, and then the genealogies in 1 Ch. ii were constructed for the purpose of legitimizing their connexion with it. XXXVIII . 1 And it came to pass at that time, that J" Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain AduUamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua ; and he took her, and went in unto her. 3 And she conceived, and bare a son ; and he called his name Er. 4 And she conceived again, and bare a son ; and she called his name Onan. 5 And she yet again bare a son, and called his name Shelah : and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er XXXVIII. 1—5. The birth of Jadah's three sons, by the daughter of Shua, a Canaanite (called in 1 Ch. ii. 3 Bath-shaa). 1. went down. From the high central ground of Canaan (Hebron ? xxxvii. 14) to 'Adullam (Jos. xv. 35) in the Shephelah, or 'lowland' (Jos. XV. 33 — 44: see DB. in. 893 f.); now probably ^Aid el-md, 17 m. SW. of Jerusalem {HG. 229). 5. Chezib. The Achzib of Jos. xv. 44, also in the ' lowland,' Mic. i. 14. On the 'sons' of Shelah, or the Shelanites, see Nu. xxvi. 20; 1 Ch. iv. 21—23 and ix. 5 (1| Neh. xi. 5) [read 'Shelanite(s)' for 'Shilonite(s)']. 1 To ' Caleb.' Eead then (with lxx.): 'The sons of Hur ' [see v. 19], &c. 2 Verses 50^ — 65 appear to relate to the po«f-exilic period. 328 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxviii. 6-i. his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah's j firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord ; and the Lord slew him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and ^perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his ; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of the Lord : and he slew him also. 11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow in thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown up : for he said, Lest he also die, like his brethren. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. 12 And in process of time * See Deut. xxv. 6. 6, 7. Er marries a wife, Tamar, but dies without issue. 6. took &c. According to the ancient custom : cf. on xxxiv. 4. 7^ I.e. he died early: cf. Prov. x. 27; Job viii. 12 f. 8 — 10. Onan persistently refuses to fulfil the duty which custom laid upon him, of raising up seed to his deceased brother Er. According to a custom widely diffused (though with modifications in detail) in both ancient and modern times, it was, and in many parts of the world still is, the duty of a surviving brother to marry his deceased brother's wife (or wives), and, as the case may be, to make provision for his children, or, if he should have died childless, to perpetuate his family and maintain the integrity of the estate \ With certain limitations in detail, this institution of the ' Levirate-marriage,' as it is called, was introduced afterwards into Heb. law (Dt. xxv. 5 — 10); and Dt. xxv. 9 shews that a man who did not conform to it was regarded as wanting in brotherly feeling, and looked upon with contempt. Onan, while accepting outwardly the obligation which custom thus imposed upon him, knew however that the issue of the marriage would not count as his : so hoping perhaps selfishly to secure the rights of primogeni- ture in his father's family for himself, he found means to evade giving effect to it. 9. when. Whenever: the tenses (which are exactly like those of Nu. xxi. 9, Jud. vi. 3) being frequentative (G.-K. §§ 159^ 112^^). 11. Judah, afraid lest a similar fate should overtake his third son, refuses to give him to Tamar; he however conceals his real purpose, by pretending that Shelah was not yet old enough to take a wife. in thy father' s house. Whither a widow, having no children, retired (Lev. xxii. 13). 12 — 18. Tamar's device to make Judah himself perform the duty of husband's brother. ^ See further particulars in the writer's Comni. on Deut., pp. 281 f., 284 f. XXXVIII. la-ao] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 329 Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and Judah wasj" comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father in law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep. 14 And she put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah ; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; for she had covered her face. 16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee : for he knew not that she was his daughter in law. And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? 17 And he said, I will send thee a kid of the goats from the flock. And she said. Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? 18 And he said. What pledge shall I give thee? And she said. Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. 19 And she arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood 20 And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to 12^ The meaning is, * And when Judah was comforted (viz. after the usual period of mourning was over), he went up/ &c. Timnah. Either the modern Tihneh, 4 m. NE. of 'Aid el-m4, or the Timnah of Jos. xv. 57, in the 'hill-country' of Judah (ibid. v. 48), — to judge from the cities with which it is grouped in v. 55 (Maon, Carmel, &c.), a few miles S. of Hebron. (Not the Timnah of Jud. xiv. 1.) his sheepshearers. Cf. on xxxi. 19. 14. in the entrance to 'Enaim. Prob. the 'Enam of Jos. xv. 34, in the Shephelah. 15. covered her face. So that he did not recognize her. 18. The custom of suspending a signet-ring round the neck by a cord is still common among the Arabs (Rob. i. 36). thy staff. Which must be thought of as ornamented and valuable. The ancient Babylonians carried a signet-ring and a stick, the latter having its top carved into the form of a fruit, flower, bird, &c. (Hdt. L 195). The pledge was evidently of a character calculated afterwards to convict Judah. 'Lange considers that the wickedness of Er had caused him, equally with Onan, to neglect Tamar, and that conse- quently there was no real incest' (Payne Smith). 19—26. The discovery of what Tamar had done. 330 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxviii. 20-26 receive the pledge from the woman's hand : but he fomid her ^ not. 21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the ^harlot, that was at Enaim by the way side ? And they said, There hath been no ^harlot here. 22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I have not found her ; and also the men of the place said, There hath been no ^harlot here. 23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be put to shame : behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. 24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot ; and moreover, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said. Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. 25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying. By the man, whose these are, am I with child : and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and the cords, and the staff. 26 And 1 Heb. kedeshah, that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen -worship. See Deut. xxiii. 17, Hos. iv. 14. 21. harlot. Votary (lit. one sacred or dedicated^ viz. to *Ashtoreth or some other deity). Tamar had dressed herself in the garb, not of an ordinary harlot, but of a votary, or temple-prostitute — the allusion being to the singular and repulsive custom, common in heathen Se- mitic antiquity, esp. in Canaanitish and Phoenician cults, by which persons of both sexes prostituted themselves in the service of a deity. Comp. the law forbidding it to Israelites in Dt. xxiii. 17 f. : and the allusions in Hos. iv. 14, 1 K. xiv. 24, xv. 12, Jer. iii. 2 (where note *by the ways'), 6, 8 f., 13; and (in Babylon) Hammurabi's Code [above, p. 156 n.], § 181, Hdt. I. 199, Ep. of Jeremy 43. 23. Let her take it to Iier, I.e. let her keep it, lest^ if we search further, we become a contempt (Heb. as Prov. xii. 8). 24. let her he hn/rnt. Judah acts with the authority of head of the family: cf. Jacob's words in xxxi. 32. Tamar is treated as virtually betrothed to Shelah {v. 11), and consequently (cf. Dt. xxii. 23 f.) as an adulteress. The later legal punishment for adultery was death (Lev. xx. 10; Dt. xxii. 22, — so in the case of one betrothed vv. 23 f.), by stoning (Ez. xvi. 38 — 40; Jn. viii. 5), only a priest's daughter who prostituted herself being liable to be burnt (Lev. xxi. 10) ^ 26. Judah acknowledges his error. The custom was but a tem- porary one: nevertheless, living in the age in which she did live, 1 Death at the stake is the punishment prescribed in Hammurabi's Code, § 157, for both parties, in the case of incest with a mother: it was also an Egyptian punishment for adulteresses (Petrie, Egyp. Tales, i. 15; Masp. i. 337; cf. Hdt. 11. 111). XXXVIII. 26-io] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 331 Judah acknowledged them, and said, She is more righteous than J I ; forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. 27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. 28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out a hand : and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying. This came out first. 29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out : and she said, ^Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself? therefore his name was called ^Perez. 30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand : and his name was called Zerah. 1 Or, How hast thou made a breach! a breach be upon thee I ' That is, A breach. Tamar had a right that it should be observed towards her; and Judah, in refusing to comply with it, had done her a wrong. is more righteous than I. 'Righteous' is to be understood, natur- ally, in a relative sense: comp. Ez. xvi. 51, 52; Jer. iii. 11. 27—30. The birth of Perez and Zerah. The story in all probabihty has its^ origin in a popular explanation (cf. xix. 36—38) of the name * Perez,' suggested by rivalries between the two clans, and the fact that the Perez-clan, although the younger, became in time more powerful and important than the Zerah-clan (cf. xxv. 25 1). In 1 Ch. ii. the descendants of Perez are certainly far more numerous and widely- spread than those of Zerah (comp. the Table, p. 327). 29. Wherefore &c. I.e. Why hast thou thus violently forced thy- self out? So Del., Di. &c. RVm. is also possible (Ges.), but on tJie whole less probable. 30. Zerah. The emphasis on the 'scarlet thread' suggests that it is intended as an explanation of the name : and in Aram. zehHrlthd means * scarlet' (Pesh. here and v. 28): so perhaps that is alluded to by the narrator (for the metathesis involved, cf 1 Ch. iv. 9 f , where Ya'bez is explained by *dzeb). As a Heb. word, Zerah would mean naturally rising or shining forth (of the sun: Is. Ix. 3). It occurs also as the name of an Edomite clan in ch. xxxvi. 13 (cf v. 33). The narrative is one of those (cf. on ch. xxxiv.) on which the question seems to arise whether we are deahng really with individuals, or with tribes, and divisions of tribes, represented as individuals. The strong tribal interest which the chapter displays lends some countenance to the second alternative. If this view is correct, 'Er and Onan may represent Judahite clans which early disappeared ; while Perez and Zerah may represent clans which rose into pro- minence afterwards, Zerah, though really the more ancient clan, — the name, it has even been conjectured, signifies properly autochthonous (cf. 'ezrah, 332 THE BOOK OF GENESIS 1 'native'), and points to the fact that the clan was of Canaanitish origin,- being outnumbered by Perez, on account of the clans of Caleb and Jerahmeel being reckoned, after their incorporation into Judah (p. 327), as belonging to the latter (Stade, Gesch. i. 158 f.). Cf. G. A. Smith, HG. p. 289; Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the OT. p. 104; DB, ii. 792^ (comp. 121 f., 125 f.). Chapter XXXIX. Joseph cast into prison. The chapter (with the exception of the words indicated in vv. 1, 20) belongs to J; and forms the sequel to J's account of Joseph's being sold to the Ishmaelites in xxxvii. 25^—27, 28 (middle clause), 31—35. It forms, morally, a bright contrast to the discreditable story told in ch. xxxviii. The history of Joseph must have been told at length in J and E alike, in substantially the same form in both, but with occasional variations in details ; and the method mostly followed by the compiler, esp. in chs. xxxix. — xlv., has been to excerpt long passages from J and E alternately, and at the same time to incorporate in each short notices embodying traits derived from the other. The grounds upon which this conclusion rests are the facts — (a) that the re- presentation in different parts of the narrative varies, and (6) that in the course of the narrative there occur short, isolated passages not in entire harmony with the context in which they are embedded, but presupposing different circum- stances, which, conversely, appear in the narrative elsewhere. It may be convenient to place here a synopsis of the principal differences between the two narratives (including those, already noticed, in ch. xxxvii.). According to J, Joseph, when his brethren plot to kill him, is rescued by Judah, and then sold by his brethren to Ishmaelites, who in their turn sell him to an Egyptian of position, whose name is not given (see on xxxix. 1) ; he is made by him his head servant (xxxix. 4) ; after the charge brought against him by his master's wife, he is thrown into a prison bearing the peculiar name of the ' Round (?) House ' (xxxix. 20) ; and the keeper of this makes him overseer of the other prisoners. In the sequel, the brethren tell Joseph about their younger brother only in answer to his inquiry (xliii. 7, xliv. 19) ; nothing is said about Simeon being detained as a hostage in Egypt; the brethren open their sacks and discover the money in them, at the lodging-place by the way ; Judah offers to be surety to his father for Benjamin's return ; and Goshen is named as the district allotted to Jacob and his sons. According to E, Joseph is rescued from his own brethren by Reuben, and thrown into a pit, from which he is drawn up by Midianites without his brothers' knowledge : he is sold by them to Potiphar, captain of the guard, who appoints him (xl. 4) to wait on the prisoners confined in his house : the brethren, when taxed with being spies, volunteer the information about their younger brother (xlii. 13, 32) ; Simeon is left in Egypt as a hostage ; the brethren open their sacks at the end of their journey home ; Reuben offers to be surety for Benjamin's return ; and there is no mention of Goshen^. Thus while both versions bring Joseph into relation 1 This distinction recurs in Exodus, where similarly it is only J who describes the Israelites as living apart in Goshen (viii. 22, ix. 26). 333 XXXIX. 1-5] THE BOOK OF GENESIS with a prison, he is a prisoner himself only in J ; in E he is merely appointed to watt on the prisoners: further, while in J the keeper of the ' Round (?) House' (who is distinct from Joseph's master, xxxix. 20, 21) commits the other prisoners into his charge, in E his own master, the 'captain of the guard' (xxxvii. 36, xl. 3% 4), appoints him to wait upon the prisoners committed to his charge. In the existing (composite) narrative the two versions are harmonized (though imperfectly) by Potiphar being represented as both Joseph's master and also * captain of the guard.* This and the foUowing chapters contain many allusions to Egyptian customs and institutions, which are explained, as fully as space permits, in the notes. For further information, and fuller references to authorities, see DB ii 772-5. XXXIX. 1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and J [Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard,] R an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, which J had brought him down thither. 2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man ; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. 4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he ministered unto him : and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand 5 And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the XXXIX. 1 — 6. How Joseph prospered in his master's house. 1. The V. forms the direct sequel to xxxvii. 28^ (also J). Potiphar, an officer &c. See on xxxvii. SQ\ 2. was with Joseph. Cf. vv. 3, 21, 23; and see on xxi. 20. 4. ^ Finding him to be quick and trustworthy, his master made him first his personal attendant (*he ministered unto him'); and afterwards * appointed him over his house,' i.e. made him superintendent of his establishment, or his major domo, such as was usual in large Egyptian households, the mer-per, or superintendent of the house, being often mentioned in the inscriptions (I)B. ii. 772*). 5 f. As his affairs prospered under Joseph's management, his 1 If the name and description of Joseph's master originally stood here, the addition 'an Egyptian' seems superfluous, and it is strange also that the name should never recur in subsequent parts of the chapter; hence it is generally supposed by critics that the original text of J had here only 'and an Egyptian bought him,' &c., the words referred to E being a harmonizing insertion, made for the purpose of identifying the (unnamed) 'Egyptian' of J with the Potiphar of xxxvii. 36 (E). If this supposition is correct, the difficulty that has been found in a eunuch being married (though, it is true, cases are known to occur, and the word may not have that sense here : see on xxxvii. 36) will of course disappear. 334 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xxxix. 5-14 Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake ; and the blessing of the j Lord was upon all that he had, in the house and in the field 6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand ; and ^he knew not aught that was with him, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was comely, and well favoured. 7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph ; and she said, Lie with me. 8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master ^knoweth not what is with me in the house, and he hath put all that he hath into my hand ; 9 ^ there is none greater in this house than I ; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife : how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ? 10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 11 And it came to pass about this time, that he went into the house to do his work ; and there was none of the men of the house there within. 12 And she caught him by his garment, saying. Lie with me : and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. 13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth, 14 that she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying. See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us 1 Or, icith him he knew not " Or, knoweth not with me what is (&c. * Or, he, is not master entrusted to him more and more, until at last with him he knew not aug/it, save the bread which he did eat, i.e. having him, he troubled himself about nothing, except his food, which, probably on account of religious scruples (cf. xliii. 32), he could not entrust to the care of a foreigner. 6. well favov/red. See on xxix. 17. 7 — 12. His master's wife makes advances to Iiim, which he repels. 8. Read with marg., knoweth iwt with me what is in the house. 9. E,Vm. is the only legitimate rend, of the Heb. : he has given me such authority that he has no greater authority himself. The rend, of the text implies the omission of two letters (pN for iJ3\x). Joseph casts the temptation from him, declaring finely that he will neither (1) betray the trust which his master reposes in him, nor (2) sin against God. 13 — 20. ^ To avenge herself for the last repulse, she brings a false charge against Joseph, firstly before her servants, and afterwards before her husband, with the result that he is cast into prison. XXXIX. 14-23] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 335 to mock us ; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with J a loud voice: 15 and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled, and got him out. 16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his master came home. 17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: 18 and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and fled out 19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto hun, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me ; that his wrath was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison[, the place where the king's R prisoners were bound] : and he was there in the prison. 21 But J the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed kindness unto him, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison ; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. 23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him ; and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. 14. an Hebrew. A man of the unclean, foreign stock (xliii. 32, xlvi. 34).^ She professes to be altogether dissatisfied with Joseph's introduction into the house. to mock us. Insinuating falsely that the other women in the house had been exposed to similar insults. 16. laid up. I.e. deposited. We should now say rather *laid dmn.' Cf. Ex. xvi. 34; Dt. xiv. 28. 20. the prison. The Round House. The Heb. expression is peculiar, and is found only here (vv. 20—23), and xl. 3^ 6^. IFnder- stood as two Hebrew words it might signify -house of roundness,' i.e. a circular tower, such as might be used for a prison; but sohar is perhaps the Hebraized form of an Egypt, word, though no satisfactory original for it has hitherto been suggested. Nor is it known what place is denoted by the expression \ The bracketed words are not improbably an editorial preparation for ch. xl. 21 — 23. Here also, as before {v. 2), Jehovah is 'with him'; and 1 There are no sufficient grounds for identifying it with the ' White Castle ' at Memphis (Hdt. m. 13, 91; Thuc. i. 104); and the suhanu at Thebes, 300 miles up the Nile, — a palace in which State prisoners were honourably confined (Masp. n. 271 n.), — seems too remote from the Delta (in which, as 'Goshen' shews [see on xlvi. 28] the scene of the following narrative is evidently laid), besides being not very likely in itself. 336 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xl. 1-3 he wins the confidence and esteem of the keeper of the prison, so that he made him overseer of the other prisoners, and entrusted them to his care. To the story of Joseph and his master's wife, narrated in this chapter, there is a remarkable parallel (which has been often compared) in the Egyptian romance, commonly called 'The Tale of the Two Brothers,* written for Seti IL, of the 19th dynasty {c, B.C. 1180, Petrie), and preserved in the d'Orbiney Papyrus. The outline of this story is as follows : — Two brothers, Anpu and Bata, lived together in one house ; the elder, Anpu, one day sent Bata back from the fields into the house to fetch some seed ; Anpu's wife there made advances to him, which he repelled ; when Anpu returned home in the evening, his wife accused Bata to him falsely. Anpu, enraged, at first sought to slay his brother, but in the end he was convinced that he was innocent and had been accused falsely, and he thereupon slew his unfaithful wife\ Chapter XL. Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's two officers. The chapter, with the exception of the few short passages referred to R, in which the compiler seems to have introduced traits borrowed from the repre- sentation of J, belongs to E ; and forms the sequel to E's account of Joseph's being taken to Egypt in xxxvii. 28'^' «, 29—30, 36. XL. 1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. 3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard [, into the prison, the place where Joseph XL. 1 — 4. Pharaoh's two officers thrown into prison. 1. butler. The word in Neh. i. 11 rendered cup-bearer: lit. drink- giver. There is a representation of a servant offering wine to a guest in a goblet, in Wilkinson-Birch, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (ed. 1878), i. 430. 2. officers. Properly eunuchs : cf. on xxxix. 1. So v. 7. chief of the bakers. There were very numerous officials at the ancient Egyptian court; and a 'superintendent of the bakery' is mentioned in Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 105, 187, 188. 3^. the prison. The Round House : so v. 5^ See on xxxix. 20". 1 The story is translated in full in Petrie, Egypt. Tales (1895), ii. 36 ff. : abridgments may be seen in Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt^ p. 378 f., and Sayce, Monuments, p. 209 ff. 2 The passages marked in vv. 3^, 5^ appear to be insertions identifying the 'ward' in the house of the captain of the guard, in which, according to E, Pharaoh's j officers were confined, with the 'Bound House' in which, according to J (xxxix. 20 — 23), Joseph was imprisoned. Cf. the Introd. to ch. xxxix. XL. 3-13] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 337 was bound]. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph R e with them, and he ministered unto them : and they continued a season in ward. 5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream[, the butler and the baker of the R king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison]. 6 And Joseph E came in unto them in the morning, and saw them, and, behold, they were sad. 7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in ward in his master's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day? 8 And they said unto him. We have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it. And Joseph said unto them. Do not interpretations belong to God? tell it me, I pray you. 9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him. In my dream, behold, a vine was before me ; 10 and in the vine were three branches : and it was as though it budded, and its blossoms shot forth ; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes : 11 and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand ; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. 12 And Joseph said unto him. This is the interpretation of it : the three branches are three days ; 13 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thine office : and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when 4. charged &c. Appointed Joseph (to be) with them. He is not appointed over them, as in xxxix. 22; but, being Potiphar's slave (xxxvii. 36, xli. 12), he is appointed (as the following words shew) to be their attendant (xxxix. 4; 2 S. xiii. 17), and wait upon them. 5 — 15. Joseph interprets the dream of the chief of the butlers. 7. in ward &c. In the ward of &c. (so strictly also in v. 3). The words do not necessarily imply that Joseph was * in ward' likewise. For 'with them,' cf. v. 4, xli. 12. I 8. none that can interpret it. Dreams were regarded by the lEgyptians, as indeed by most ancient nations, as significant; and great i Importance was attached to their interpretation. Cf. Wiedemann, Bel. jftlie Anc. Eg. 265—7. belong to God. Cf. xli. 16, 38, 39; Dan. ii. 19, 28. 11. pressed &c. In a text found at Edfu, it is said that grapes squeezed into water formed a refreshing beverage, which was drunk oy the king (Ebers, Dmch Gosen zum Sinai (1872), p. 480; cf Smith, DB\ 1796"). 13. lift up thine head. Cf. (of Jehoiachin) 2 K. xxv. 27. 22 338 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xl. 13-20 thou wast his butler. 14 But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house : 15 for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews [ : and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon]. 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head : 17 and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh ; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. 18 And Joseph answered and said. This is the interpretation thereof : the three baskets are three days ; 19 within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree ; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from ofi* thee. 20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants : and he lifted up the head of 14. out of this Ihome. I.e. out of the condition of slavery, in which he is forced by his master (v. 4) to act as gaoler. 15. stolen away, — and so not lawfully in slavery. The representa- tion is in accordance with E's account in xxxvii. 28** "\ the land of the Hebrews. An anachronism for ' the land of Canaan.' 16 — 19. Joseph interprets the dream of the chief of the bakers. 16. on my head. According to Eg3rptian custom : see the illustra- tion of a royal bakery in Wilk.-B. 11. 34, or Erman, p. 191; the man with the tray of rolls upon his head, also, in Maspero, i. 314. 17. bakemeats. I.e. pastry: an archaism. See DB. s.v. ; and cf the note on i. 29 upon 'meat.' 19. shall hang thee &c. To hang the dead body of a malefactor, and expose it so to public view, was regarded by the Hebrews as an aggravation of the punishment (Dt. xxi. 22 f ; Jos. x. 26 ; 2 S. iv. 12) ,: and in Egypt giving it to beasts or birds of prey would be a special indignity, on account of the superstitious ideas entertained by th(f Egyptians respecting the body; its preservation, as a mummy, bein^j considered the condition of a person's immortality. 20, 21. Both interpretations come true. 20. Pharaoh's birthday. The Canopus and Rosetta decrees (b.c 239 and 195) are evidence that, at least in the Ptolemaic period, th< birthday of the Pharaoh was celebrated with a great assembly of priests of all grades, and a granting of amnesties to prisoners. 1 Verse 15^ appears to be an insertion, introducing the situation of xxxix. 20- 23 (J), aocording to which Joseph is himself a prisoner. Cf . p. 333. XL. .o-XLi. 4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 339 the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his E servants. 21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butler- ship again ; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand : 22 but he hanged the chief baker : as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him. Chapter XLI. Joseph's elevation in Egypt, in consequence of Ms successful interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams. How Joseph, after two years, is rescued from servitude in consequence of his interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, and invested with authority over the entire land of Egypt for the pui-pose of making provision against the coming years of famine. The chapter, with the exception, it seems, of a clause in v. 14, and of V, 46 (P), belongs to B, and forms the immediate sequel to chap. xl. XLI. 1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, e that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the ^ river. 2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, well favoured and fatfleshed; and they fed in the reed-grass. 3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed ; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. 4 And the ill favoured and lean- 1 Heb. Yeor, that is, the Nile. XLI. 1 — 7. The Pharaoh's two dreams. the river. The Nile. So vv. 2, 3, 17, 18. The Heb. is ye'or (Egypt. Hotr, contr. 'ioW, watercourse, stream), the standing name for the Nile throughout the OT. (e.g. Is. xix. 6, 7, 8, xxiii. 3, 10), as also in Assyrian. 2. out of the Nile. Egypt is dependent for its fertility upon the Nile, and in particular upon its annual overflow (due ultimately to the spring rains in the Abyssinian highlands, and the melting of the mountain snow); and the cow-headed goddess Hat-hor, and especially ilsis, seem at times to represent the land which the river fertiUzes f I (Masp. I. 99, 132). The cow being sacred to both these goddesses, j-l kine emerging from the Nile would be a natural emblem of fruitful seasons, and might moreover appear naturally in a dream relating to the fertility of the soil. the reed-grass, Heb. 'dhu, Egypt ahu (from aha, to be green), found also in v. 18 and Job viii. 11, and (in the form axct) in the lxx. ^iw. 2, 3, 18, 19, Is. xix. 7, and Ecclus. xl. 16. 22—2 340 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xli. 4-9 fleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. 5 And he slept and dreamed a second time : and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, ^rank and good. 6 And, behold, seven ears, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. 7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven ^rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. 8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled ; and he sent and called for all the ^ magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. 9 Then spake the ^ Heb. fat. ^ Or, sacred scribes 5. upon one stalk. I.e. closely following one another, like the years which they symbolized. 6. the east wind. The ^ivoQoo {horn. \h.Q KtsHo. sherMy eh, 'eastern'), including however winds from the SE., which in Palestine and neigh- bouring countries often spring up suddenly, with great violence, from the desert, darkening the sky with clouds of sand^ 'burning like the mouth of a furnace,' and so parching and withering vegetation that no animal will afterwards touch it (cf Eob. BR. i. 195, 207, n. 123; HG. 67 — 9). This is always what is meant by the ' east wind' in the OT. : cf. Hos. xiii. 15; Ez. xvii. 10, xix. 12; Job xxvii. 21. 8. and he sent &c. The Egypt, hierarchy was highly organized ; and among the priestly classes were two called the ' writers of sacred things' (in the parallel Greek text of the Canopus decree, 1. 4\ TTTepoffiopaL, — depicted on the monuments with a feather (quill) on their heads, and a book in their hand)^ and the 'knowers of things,' or, as we might say, 'wise men' (in the Greek text, tepoypa/x/xaret?, or 'sacred scribes'), whom the Egyptian king would consult in an emer- gency ^ Probably the ^ hartummim' and 'wise men,' mentioned here, corresponded to these two classes. magicians. RVm. sacred scribes. Heb. hartummim, a word of un- certain derivation, but found only in connexion with Egypt («. 24, Ex. vii. 11, 22, viii. 7, 18, 19, ix. 11), and (borrowed from Gen.) in Dan. i. 20, ii. 2, 10, 27, iv. 7, 8, v. 11. LXX. (in Gen.) l^rrynrai, 'interpreters.' 9 — 16. The chief butler remembers Joseph, and mentions him to the Pharaoh, who thereupon summons him before him. 9. Pv,Vm. is correct. 1 See Mahaffy, The Empire of the Ptolemies (1895), p. 229. 2 See Wilk.-B. ii. 324, Nos. 8, 9. 3 In the Tale of the Two Brothers (p. S-l, Petrie), a lock of scented hair, which has been found, is brought to the Pharaoh, who summons ' the scribes and the knowers of things,' to tell him who the owner is. On the learning possessed by these sacred scribes (which included a knowledge of magic and charms), a Brugsch's Aegtjptologie (1891), pp. 77, 85, 149—159. Cf. Clem. Al. Strom, vi. 36. XLi. 9-.r] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 341 chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I Mo remember my faults E this day : 10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the chief baker : 11 and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he ; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. 12 And there was with us there a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard ; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams ; to each man according to his dream he did interpret. 13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was ; ^me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged. 14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph,' [and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon :] and he shaved R e himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. 15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that when thou hearest a dream thou canst interpret it. 16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying. It is not in me : God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. 17 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the brink of the river : 18 and, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured ; and they fed in the reed- grass : 19 and, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness : 20 and the lean and ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine : 21 and when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had ^ Or, will make mention of ^ Or, I was restored... and he was hanged my faults. His offences (lit. sinSy like the corresponding verb in xl. 1) against the Pharaoh are intended. 13. RVm. interprets according to G.-K. § 144*^®: cf. xliii. 34. 14. shaved himself. The Egyptians shaved both their heads and their faces (though they wore on important occasions artificial hair and beards) : on the monuments, only foreigners, and natives of inferior rank, are represented as growing beards, Cf. Erman, p. 225 \ 16. It is not in me. Not at all (or Not I), deprecating (cf. on xiv. 24). As in xl. 8, Joseph refers his skill to God. God will give &c. Joseph, as befitted one addressing his sovereign, assures Pharaoh that the dream will receive a favourable interpretation 17 — 24. The Pharaoh recounts his two dreams to Joseph. 1 The second clause in this verse is referred to R on the same grounds as those stated in the footnote on xl. IS** 342 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xli. ■34 eaten them ; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke. 22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up upon one stalk, full and good : 23 and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them : 24 and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears : and I told it unto the magicians ; but there was none that could declare it to me. 25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one : what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh. 26 The seven good kine are seven years ; and the seven good ears are seven years : the dream is one. 27 And the seven lean and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind ; they shall be seven years of famine. 28 That is the thing which I spake unto Pharaoh : what God is about to do he hath shewed unto Pharaoh. 29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt : 30 and there shall arise after them seven years of famine ; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt ; and the famine shall consume the land ; 31 and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine which foUoweth ; for it shall be very grievous. 32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly! bring it to pass. 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh do thiSj and let him appoint overseers over the land, 25 — 28. Joseph's interpretation of the dreams : they are a fore- boding of what is about to happen in Egypt. Several instances are known from the inscriptions (cf. also Hdt. ii. 141) of the Pharaohij entering upon important undertakings, in consequence of intimation.': conveyed to them in dreams. A vision of the god Ptah, for instance, appearing in a dream, encouraged Merenptah (the Pharaoh, probably of the Exodus) to attack the Libyans by whom Egypt had been invadec: (cf. DB. II. 772^). 29 — 32. The meaning of the dreams explained more particularly, 33 — 36. Joseph ends by suggesting a practical means for making provision for the seven years of famine by storing up in advance a fiftjf of the produce of each of the years of plenty, and by appointing a special official, with local assistants under him, to see that thi was done. xLi. 34-41] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 848 and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven E plenteous years. 35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36 And the food shall be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt ; that the land perish not through the famme. 37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants. Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the spirit of God is? 39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou : 40 thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people ^be ruled : only in the throne will I be greater than thou. 41 And ^ Or, order themselves Or, do homage 35. under the hand. I.e. under the authority and control: cf. Is. iii. 6. in the cities. Where the granaries were, in which the produce of the surrounding districts would naturally be stored (v. 48). There were granaries in all important cities of Egypt, partly for the re- ception of the corn-tax (an important item of the revenue), partly to provide maintenance for soldiers and other public officials: the * superintendent of the granaries' was one of the highest officers of the state, and it was his duty to see that they were properly filled, and to report to the king annually on the harvests; if he reported favourably, the Pharaoh might decorate him with a collar of gold, v, 42 (Erman, p. 108, cf. pp. 81, 86, 89, 94, 95, 433, 434). 37 — 45. The Pharaoh, falling in at once with the suggestion, appoints Joseph himself for the purpose, and decorates him with many honours. 38. Joseph's explanation commended itself: and so, the Pharaoh feels, he must be a man specially gifted by God (cf. v. 39*, xl. 8), and consequently specially fitted to undertake the contemplated work. ^ the spirit of God. Regarded as the source of all extraordinary powers or capacities: cf. Ex. xxxi. 3; Dan. v. 11, 14; and on ch. i. 2. 40. over my house. I.e. over my palace^ — the title, in later times, of an influential minister in the courts of Judah and Israel (1 K. iv. 6, xvi. 9 ; 2 K. X. 5, xv. 5, xviii. 18 ; Is. xxii. 15, al). be ruled. The expression is difficult; but he ruled is quite out of the question. The clause would most naturally be rendered, * and upon thy mouth shall all my people kiss' (as a mark of homage, 1 S. X. 1 ; Ps. li. 12) ; but a kiss on the mouth from the entire people can not be regarded as probable. On the whole, order themselves^ though not entirely satisfactory, is preferable. 344 THE BOOK OF GEOT:SIS [xli. 41-45 Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land S of Egypt. 42 And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of ^fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck ; 43 and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had ; and they cried before him, ^Bow the knee : and he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt. 45 And Pharaoh called Josephs name Zaphenath-paneah ; and he gave him to wife Asenath the 1 Or, cotton ^ Ahrech, probably an Egyptian word, similar in sound to the Hebrew word meaning to kneel. 41. The terms of this verse suggest the important office of T'a-te, or governor: Erman, pp. 69, 87 — 89 ('the second after the king in the court of the palace'), 473. 42, 43. The insignia of office conferred upon Joseph. 42. his signet ring. In many ancient countries a badge of autho- rity (Est. iii. 10, viii. 2; Tob. i. 22; 1 Mac. vi. 15); but notably so in Egypt, where the 'keeper of the seal' was the king's deputy (Ebers in Smith, DB.' 1797). fine linen. Such as was worn in Egypt by men of rank: Erman, p. 448; Petrie, Egyj^tian Tales, i. 125. On E,Vm. see EncB. Linen. a gold chain about his neck. A pecuHarly Egyptian form of de- coration for services rendered to the crown: see Erman, pp. 118 — 120, 208 (with illustrations) ; and cf. Petrie, Hist, of Egypt, ii. 22. 43. in the second chariot which he had. Horses and chariots are first represented on the Egypt, monuments under the 18th dynasty, after the expulsion of the Hyksos, and consequently long after Josepli's time; but they may have been introduced during the Hyksos period (of which few monuments remain) : Erman, p. 490. In earlier times, the king was carried by soldiers on a sedan-chair, ib. p. 65 (an illustr.). Bow the knee. Heb. Abrekh, which resembles closely the Heb. (cf. xxiv. 11) for 'make to kneel down' (Jiabrekh): but the word is prob. the Hebraized form of some Egypt, expression: Brugsch and Renouf suggest dbu-rek 'thy command is our desire' = we are at thy service (see other views in DB. and EncB.\ 45. The monuments supply many illustrations, at least in and after the 18th dynasty, of foreigners (including slaves from Syria) rising to positions of political importance in Egypt, and adopting then a change of name: see Erman, pp. 106, 517 i., 518 n.\ DB. 11. 773^ Zdphenath-pa'neah. Egyptologists (Steindorff, Ebers, Brugsch, Crum, Griffith, Budge) are now generally agreed that this name means ' God (or, the god) spake, and he (the bearer of the name) came into life.' It is, however, remarkable that in the inscriptions names of this type (with the name of a particular deity in place of ' God') appear XLi. 45-49] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 345 daughter of Foti-phera priest of On. And Joseph went out^ over the land of Egypt. | 46 And Joseph was thirty years oldp when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. | 47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth e brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities : the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph laid first at the end of the 20th dynasty (one instance), and become frequent onlyjn the 22nd (the dynasty of Slushak), and subsequent dynasties. Asenath. I.e. * belonging to (the goddess) Neith,'— a type of name similarly becoming frequent only in and after the 21st dynasty. Poti-phera'. The fuller form of * Potiphar' (xxxvii. 36), ' He whom Ra (the sun-god) gave.' There is one example known of names of this type in the 18th dyn., but otherwise they appear first in the 22nd, and are common only in the 26th dyn. (b.c. 664—525). This combination^ of names, otherwise all either rare or unknown at an early period, is remarkable; and the Egyptologists mentioned above agree that they cannot be genuinely ancient names, and did not in fact originate before the 10th or 9th cent. b.c. ^ On. Mentioned also v. 50, xlvi. 20, Ez. xxx. 17, called by the Greeks Hehopohs, 7 miles NE. of the modern Cairo. In ancient times On was the centre of Sun worship in Egypt, and its priests were considered to be the most learned in the country (Hdt. 11. 3). The high priest of the great temple of Ra at On, who was also an astrologer, was a most important dignitary (Erman, 76, 83, 290, 374). 'Cleopatra's Needle' was originally one of the numerous obelisks erected in front of this temple by Thothmes III. (1503 — 1449 B.O., Petrie). On is also meant by * Beth-sliemesh ' in Jer. xliii. 13. 46. A summary statement from P (cf. xix. 29) of Joseph's eleva- tion to office in Egypt. thirty years old. According to P, therefore (see xxxvii. 2), Joseph was in servitude 12 or 13 years. stood before Pharaoh = became his minister (Dt. i. 38; 1 S. xvi. 21 ; 1 K. xii. 6, al). went throughout &c. I.e. made a progress through it. 47 — 49. The seven fruitful years come, according to the dreams; and during them Joseph amasses corn in the granaries of every city. 1 See further on these names BB. i. 665^, ii. 775* (with the references), in. 622», 819^ IV. 23, 963; Budge, Hist, of Eg. v. 126 f., 137. Of the ancients Josephus {Ant. II. 6. 1) explains Zaphenath-pa'neah by Kpinrruiv evper-^s; and Onk., Pesh. and others by ' He to whom hidden things are revealed,' or * the revealer of secrets,' — all thinking of the Heb. zdphan, to hide tip. Jerome (Vulg. ; and Qttaest. in Gen. : see Field, Hexapla, ad loc.) — perhaps on the basis of the form in the lxx., <i^ovdofx<l>ayrjK — explains by Salvator mundi [so Cod. 75 of lxx., auTTjp k6(X[iov] : cf. Jn. iv. 25, 29, 42. 346 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xli. 49-57 up corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering ; S for it was without number. 60 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn ^Manasseh : For, said he, God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. 52 And the name of the second called he ^Ephraim : For God hath made me fruitful in the land of my aflBiiction. 53 And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end. 54 And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said : and there was famine in all lands ; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread : and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph ; what he saith to you, do. 56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth : and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians ; and the famine was sore in the land of Egypt. 57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn ; because the famine was sore in all the earth. ^ That is, Making to forget. ^ From a Hebrew word signifying to be fruitful. 50 — 52. The birth of Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Whether the narrative gives the actual origin of the two names, must, as in the case of Jacob's own sons (xxix. 31 ff., xxxv. 18), b© left an open question^ On ' Ephraim,' cf. the play in xlix. 22. 51. for get... all my father's home. To the Hebrews, a mark of happiness in a new estate : cf. Ps. xlv. 10. 53 — 57. Beginning of the seven years of famine. 54. in all lands. Similarly vv. 56% 57^, For the hyperbole, cf. 1 K. X. 24, xviii. 10. 56. all the storehouses. This is no doubt what is intended : but the Heb. is corrupt, and cannot be so rendered (it is lit. ' all that was in them'). Famines in Egypt, due to the Nile failing to overflow, are not unfrequent ; and they have even been known to last for several years ; there was one, for example, a.d. 1064 — 1071. Two inscriptions have been quoted as illustrating what is here recorded of Joseph. In one of these, the sepulchral inscription of Baba, found at El-Kab in Upper Egypt, the deceased, in an enumeration of his good deeds, is represented as saying, * I collected corn, as a friend of the harvest god, and was watchful at the time of sowing. And when a famine 1 For speculations as to their origin, see EncB. s.vv. It has been supposed that ' Ephraim ' referred originally to the fertile region occupied by the tribe. THE DATE OF JOSEPH 347 arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of famine.' The age of Baba (end of the 17th dynasty) would coincide approxi- mately with that of Joseph ; and it has even been supposed that the famine referred to may have been the same. In the other inscription, Ameni governor of the 'nome of the Gazelle,' under Usertesen II., of the 12th dynasty' states how he made provision for the people : * In my time there was no poor and none were hungry. When the years of famine came, I ploughed all the fields of the nome, I kept the inhabitants ahve, and gave them food, so that not one was hungry.' The extension of the famine to Canaan and other countries {vv. 54, 57, xlii. 1, &c.) is remarkable, and can only be explained by the supposition that there was a simultaneous failure of rain both in Canaan, and in the country about the sources of the Nile (above on v. 2). Certainly seven years of famine in both countries do not seem very probable : but the narrative does not require more than two years in Canaan (xlv. 6 : on xlvii. 13 — 15, see p. 372): and even if it did, the detail is of a kind which we could never be sure had been correctly preserved by tradition. With the data at present at our disposal, it is impossible to determine definitely who the Pharaoh was under whom Joseph thus rose to dignity in Egypt. As in the Book of Exodus, the personal name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned ; and in view of the general fixity of Egyptian institutions, the allusions to Egyptian manners and customs are not sufficiently distinctive to constitute a clue even to the age in which he lived. The Biblical dates, both of the Exodus and of the patriarchal age (which is dependent upon it, Ex. xil 41), are too uncertain to form a secure basis for further chronological calculations (see the Introd. § 2). There are, however, strong reasons for supposing Ramses II., of the 19th dynasty (b.o. 1348—1281, Sayce), to be the Pharaoh of the oppression ; and reckoning back from this datum, it is probable that Joseph's elevation in Egypt is to be placed under one of the later Hyksos kings. The Hyksos (i.e. Hyk-shasu, 'prince of the Shasu,' or spoilers, i.e. desert-hordes) were a race of Asiatic invaders, who, according to Manetho (Jos. c. Ap, 1. 14), held Egypt for 611 years, at first devastating and destroying, but afterwards settling down, and assimilating much of the culture of the conquered Egyptians, till they were finally expelled c. 1600 b.o. (Sayce and Petrie; c. 1750 b.c. Brugsch and Budge). The capital of the Hyksos, as excavations have shewn, was Zo'an (Tanis), in the NE. of the Delta, about 35 miles N. of Goshen; and it is true that the court of the Pharaoh is represented in Genesis as being not far from Goshen. George the Syncellus (pp. 62, 69, 107, ed. Gear) assigns the elevation of Joseph to the 17th year of Aphophis, i.e. Apepa (II.), the last important Hyksos king (Petrie, Hist, of Eg. 1. 242, II. 17 ff.) ; but Erman^, by a comparison of the figures given by Josephus and Africanus, has made it extremely probable that this date does not rest upon an independent tradition, but was arrived at by reckoning back the 430 years of Ex. xii. 41 from the first year of Amosis (=Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos, and founder of the 18th dynasty), under whom the Exodus was supposed (incorrectly) to have taken place (Eus. Pra^ip. Ev. x. 10. 11, 11. 10). ^ 1 ZeitschT. fiir Aeg. Sprache, 1880, pp. 125—7; of. Maspero u. 71. 348 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlii. i-8 Chapter XLII. The first visit of Joseph's brethren to Egypt Jacob sends his sons into Egypt to buy corn. Having, at their interview with their brother, volunteered the information that they have a younger brother at home, Joseph, in order to test their truthfulness, demands to see him. Upon their departure for Canaan, Simeon is left bound in Egypt, as a guarantee that, when they come again, they will bring Benjamin with them. The narrative is still — with exceptions similar to those in chaps, xl., xli. — that of E. XIiII. 1 Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and ^ Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? 2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt : get you down thither, and buy for us from thence ; that we may live, and not die. 3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy com from Egj^pt. 4 But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren ; for he said. Lest peradventure mischief befall him. 5 And the sons of Israel came to buy among those that came : for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 6 And Josef)h was the governor over the land ; he it was that sold to all the people of the land : and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves to him with their faces to the earth. 7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly with them ; and he said unto them. Whence come ye? And they said. From the land of Canaan to buy food. 8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. XLII. 1 — 4. Journey of the brethren into Egypt. 1. look one upon another. In perplexity and helplessness. 2. get you down. Cf. on xii. 10. 4. Benjamin, as the youngest and only-surviving son of Rachel (xxix. 30), was his father's favourite. 5 — 17. lihQix first interview with Joseph. 6. howed down themselves. Thereby fulfilling unconsciously the dreams of xxxvii. 7 — 9. 8. knew not him. Since they saw him last, — according to E (xli. 1, 48, xlv. 6) more than something between nine and eleven years before \ — he has grown from a youth into a man; and his language (v. 23), costume, and bearing are all now those of an Egyptian. 1 If account be taken of the additional dates given by P (xxxvii. 3, xli. 46) more than 20 years before (13 + the 7 or more of xli. 46, xlv. 6) ; but it is doubtful if the chronologies of JE and P ought to be combined : cf. pp. xxx, 149, 262, &c. XLII.9-I8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 349 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of js^ them, and said unto them, Ye are spies ; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. 10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. 11 We are all one man's sons ; we are true men, thy servants are no spies. 12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. 13 And they said. We thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. 14 And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies : 15 hereby ye shall be proved : by the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. 16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be bound, that your words may be proved, whether there be truth in you : or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. 17 And he put them all together into ward three days. 18 And Joseph said unto them the third 9. Te are spies. The charge was a natural one; on its E. side, Egypt was always liable to invasion by Asiatics: under the 12th dynasty fortresses had been erected along the Isthmus of Suez, and under the 19th dynasty we read of officers being stationed there to take the names of all passing in either direction (Erman, p. 538 f ; Hogarth, Auth. and Arch. pp. 57, 60 f.). the nakedness of the land. I.e. its exposed and defenceless parts. 11 — 13. The charge of being spies throws them off their guard; and they seek to disarm his suspicions by volunteering information about their family, of which Joseph at once takes advantage (yo. 14—16). 14 — 16. Like a high official, Joseph insists that he was right; but at the same time uses the opportunity to assure himself about Benjamin, whom he suspects they may have treated as badly as they had treated himself. 15. hy the life of Pharaoh (or, better, As Pharaoh liveth). A form of oath known from Egyptian monuments : in an account of criminal proceedings, belonging to the 20th dynasty, a thief has an oath ad- ministered to him by the king's life, to prevent him^ speaking falsely. The popular Heb. forms of oath were As Jehovah liveth, and As thy soul liveth (e.g. 1 S. xiv. 39, xvii. 55). 17. He treats them arbitrarily, as an Oriental official might do, at the same time (Knob.) 'enabhng them to realize liow a prisoner feels, who (like himself in xxxvii. 24) has the worst to expect.' 18 — 24. Their second interview with Joseph. 350 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlii. is-n day, This do, and live ; for I fear God : 19 if ye be true men, E let one of your brethren be bound in your prison house ; but go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses : 20 and bring your youngest brother unto me ; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. 21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress come upon us. 22 And Reuben answered them, saying. Spake I not unto you, saying. Do not sin against the child ; and ye would not hear ? therefore also, behold, his blood is required. 23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them ; for there was an interpreter between them. 24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept ; and he returned to them, and spake to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes. 25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus was it done unto them. 26 And they laded their asses with their corn, and departed thence. | 27 And as one of them opened his sack to J 18. I fear God. And will not, therefore, do more to you, on a bare suspicion. 19. A more moderate proposal than the one in -y. 16. ^ 21. Their conscience smites them: and they recognize in their misfortunes a nemesis for their treatment of Joseph. the distress of his soul &c. When they cast him into the pit, xxxvii. 23 f (also E). 22. See xxxvii. 22 (cf. 29 f ), also E. required. Cf. ix. 5 i. Keuben assumes that he had in some way lost his life. 23. for the interpreter (usual in such cases) was between tJiem. 24. and wept^ — touched by the spectacle of their sorrow and penitence. Simeon. Not Eeuben, his former defender, but the next eldest of his brethren. 25 — 38. Joseph gives orders for each man's money to be returned to him in his sack. Their alarm at the discovery of it; and the distress of their father upon learning that he will be obliged to part with Benjamin. 27, 28. An insertion from J, according to whom (as is expressly said in xliii. 21) the discovery of the money in all the sacks was made at the lodging-place, and not, as in E (xlii. 35), — according to whom XLii. 27-36] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 351 give his ass provender in the lodging place, he espied hmj money ; and, behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored ; and, lo, it is even in my sack : and their heart failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God hath done unto us? | 29 And they came unto Jacob their father unto E the land of Canaan, and told him all that had befallen them ; saying, 30 The man, the lord of the land, spake roughly with us' and took us for spies of the country. 31 And we said unto him[ We are true men ; we are no spies : 32 we be twelve brethren, sons of our father ; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. 33 And the man, the lord of the land, said unto us. Hereby shall I know that ye are true men ; leave one of your brethren with me, and take corn for the famine of your houses, and go your way: 34 and bring your youngest brother unto me : then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men : so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land. 35 And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack: and when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children : Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take provision for the way was given separately (v. 25), — at the end of their journey \ 28. What is this &c. They wonder what such a surprising oc- currence may portend; and feel again the retributive hand of God. 29—34. Their report to their father of what had befallen them in Egypt. 30. took tis for. The Heb. is peculiar, and probably a word ("iDt;.>^3) recognized in lxx. (iv <f)yXaKyj) has dropped out : render then, 'and put us in ward as men spying the country.' 35. The discovery of the money in their sacks, at the end of their journey, according to E. 36. all these things &c. Upon me have all these things come. The emphasis is upon 'me': it is I, the father, who suffer, not you. ^ The conclusion that vv. 27, 28 are from J, is confirmed by two independent indications: (1) 'one of them' is Ut. 'the one' (implying others to follow: J's full account of what happened at the lodging-place is evidently not given); (2) 'sack' in vv. 27 end, 28, is a peculiar word, 'amtdhathf recurring 13 times in the sequel of J's narrative here (xliii. 12, 18, 21 (twice), 22, 23, xliv. 1 (twice), 2, 8, 11 (twice), 12), but found nowhere else in the OT. 352 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlii. 36-XLiii. 3 Benjamin away : all these things are ^against me. 37 And E Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. | 38 And he said. My son shall not go J down with you ; for his brother is dead, and he only is left : if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to ^tlie grave. 1 Or, upon 2 gejj^ Sheol. See ch. xxxvii. 35. 37. ^ Reuben at once steps forward, and offers his two sons as surety for Benjamin's safe return from Egypt. 38. At this point there begins a long extract from J, which, broken only by one or two insertions from E, extends to the end of ch. xliv.^ Chapter XLIII. The second visit of Joseph's brethren to Egypt, The brethren return to Egypt, bringing Benjamin with them. He is recognized by Joseph ; and the whole party are entertained by their brother at a banquet, at which Benjamin is specially honoured. The narrative (except vv. 14, 23^) is that of J. XLIII. 1 And the famine was sore in the land. 2 And it J came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them. Go again, buy us a little food. 3 And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying. Ye shall not see my face, XLIII. 1 — 14. By their father's direction, the brethren again go down into Egypt to buy corn. Judah prevails upon Jacob to allow Benjamin to accompany them. 3 ff. Observe that here it is Judah who takes the lead (contrast xlii. 37 in E), as before in J (xxxvii. 26 f); cf xliv. 14 fF., xlvi. 28. 3, 5. Ye shall not &c. This must represent J's version of their first interview with Joseph, according to which (cf xliv. 21, 23, 26) Joseph's desire is simply to see Benjamin: in E (xhi. 20, 34) Benjamin is to be brought as proof that they are not spies, and to effect Simeon's release. see my face. I.e. be admitted to my presence. See the passages quoted on xxxiii. 10. ^ For the grounds upon which this verse is referred to J, see the footnote on xliii. 14, and cf. xliv. 31'' (also J). In its original context, the verse is supposed to have been the reply simply to the announcement that the brethren would not be able to see Joseph again without Benjamin. XLiii. 3-11] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 353 except your brother be with you, 4 If thou wilt send our J' brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food : 5 but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down : for the man said unto us. Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. 6 And Israel said. Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? 7 And they said. The man asked straitly concerning ourselves, and con- cerning our kindred, saying. Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words : could we in any wise know that he would say, Bring your brother down? 8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go ; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. 9 I will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou require him : if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then ^let me bear the blame for ever: 10 for except we had lingered, surely we had now returned a second time. 11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it be so now, do this ; take of the choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little ^balm, and a little honey, spicery and myrrh, 1 Heb. I shall have sinned against thee for ever. * See ch. xxxvii. 25. 6. Israel. The predominant (though not exclusive) name of the patriarch in J after xxxv. 21. Cf. v. 8. 7. Another indication (cf. xliv. 19) that J's version of their first interview with Joseph must have differed from that of E : in E (xhi. 13, cf. 32) the information that they had a father and brother living was not given in reply to any question on Joseph's part, but voltmteered by them to meet the charge of being spies. 8 — 10. Judah now makes an offer similar to the one made by Reuben in xlii. 37 (E). 9. For the marg., cf. 1 K. i. 21 (RVm.), Is. xxix. 21 (Heb.). So div. 32. 11. The father yields to the inevitable; but bids them, in true Eastern fashion, take a present to win, if possible, the favour of the preat man of the land. choice fruits. The Heb. word occurs only here, and its meaning is incertain. The corresponding root in Aram, signifies to wonder; ao )erhaps it may mean admirable or estimable things, of which * choice Tuits' is a fair paraphrase. h^nei/. Heb. d'bash,—heTG, probably, as also Ez. xxvii. 17, grape uice, boiled down to a dark golden-brown syrup, intensely sweet, which D. 23 364 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xliii. 11-16 ^nuts, and almonds : 12 and take double money in your hand ; . and the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks carry again in your hand ; peradventure it was an oversight : 13 take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man : | 14 and ^God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release unto you your other brother and Benjamin. And if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. 15 And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin ; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. 16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, 1 That is, pistachio nuts. ^ Heb. El Shaddai. under the name of dibs is much used in Palestine by all classes wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment to their food (Rob. IL 81, cf. III. 381; L. and B. i. 279; DB. n. 32"; EncB. 11. 2015). spic&ry and myrrh. Gum. tragacanth and ladanum. See on xxxvii. 25. pistachio nuts. Still esteemed as a delicacy in the East. 14. From E\ On God Almighty (Heb. El Shaddai\ see on xvii. 1, and p. 404 ff. And if &G. I.e. If I must lose my children, let it be so: an ex- pression of resignation. Cf Esth. iv. 16; 2 K. vii. 4 end. 15 — 17. The brethren appear before Joseph, who, when he sees Benjamin among them, and learns thus that they have spoken the truth, is ready to shew them friendliness, and invites them to a meal in his house. 15. stood before Joseph. Viz. in his place of business, or, as we might say, his 'office.' The * house' spoken of afterwards is his private residence. 16. the steward of his house. Lit. him that was over his home. So V. 19, xliv. 1, 4: cf. on xxxix. 4 and xli. 40 ^ 1 In xlii. 13 — 24, 33 — 37 the detention of Simeon is an essential feature in the narrative; but in xlii. 38— xliii. 10, and again in xliv. 18 — 34, there is entire Bilence respecting him ; his release is not one of the objects for which the brethren, return to Egypt. Had the whole narrative been by one hand, the non-mention of Simeon in the parts of chs. xlii. — xliv. just referred to, would have been hardly possible. It is inferred that the writer of xlii. 38 — xliii. 10, and of xliv. 18—34- (i.e. J), in his account of the first visit of the brethren to Egypt, made no mention of the detention of Simeon; and that the notices of Simeon in xliii. 14, 23*», aro harmonizing passages, introduced into it from the parallel narrative of E. 2 The town house of a wealthy Egyptian was commonly on a large scale : it had (at least in the 18th dyn.) a great vestibule with an ante-room for the porter; then came the large dining-haU, the principal room in the whole house ; beyond this wai a small court, with the sleeping apartment of the master on one side, and the kitchen and store-room on the other ; and still further beyond came the house foi the women and the garden. The rooms were well furnished with artistically made XLin. i6-h] the book OF GENESIS 355 Bring the men into the house, and slay, and make ready ; for j the men shall dine with me at noon. 17 And the man did aa Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. 18 And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house ; and they said. Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in ; that he may ^seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. 19 And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they spake unto him at the door of the house, 20 and said, Oh my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food : 21 and it came to pass, when we came to the lodging place, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight : and we have brought it again in our hand. 22 And other money have we brought down in our hand tto buy food : we know not who put our money in our sacks. 23 And he said. Peace be to you, fear not : your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks : I had your money. [And he brought Simeon out unto them.]i2 24 Aiid the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave j ^ Heb. roll himself upon us. 18 — 23. Alarmed at this unexpected honour, they describe to Joseph's steward, before entering the house, their discovery of the money in their sacks, and explain that it was returned to them entirely jnthout their knowledge. 18. was returned. More exactly, came back, — *as though some 5hance agency had operated against them' (Kn.). take Its for bondmen. Like detected thieves (Ex. xxii. 3). 21. to the lodging place. In accordance with xlii. 27 f. in full weight (lit. in its weight). Egyptian money consisted of ings of gold, which were weighed by scribes who made this their )usiness (Erman, 464). However, the practice of 'weighing' money vas usual also among the Hebrews, even to quite a late date (see )nxxiii. 16). 23. The steward reassures them. Their money, he says, came i.o me; what they had found must consequently have been other Inoney bestowed upon them by the tutelary deity of their family. And he brought &c. See the footnote, p. 354. 24 f. Their preparations for meeting Joseph. hairs, sofas, rugs &c., and hangings for the walls; and t^er« were numerouB ependents, superintending the different departments of the establishment, bakery, itchen, sideboard (we should say, cellar), &o. (Erman, 153, 177—188). 23—2 356 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xliil ^4-33 them water, and they washed their feet ; and he gave their asses provender. 25 And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon : for they heard that they should eat bread there. 26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed down them- selves to him to the earth. 27 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? 28 And they said. Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive. And they bowed the head, and made obeisance. 29 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother's son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 30 And Joseph made haste ; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep ; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. 31 And he washed his face, and came out; and he refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. 32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves : because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews ; for that is an abomina- tion unto the Egyptians. 33 And they sat before him, the ^ 26—30. The meeting with Joseph. Joseph's emotion at seeing and being again able to converse with Benjamin. 26. howed down themselves. A second time (cf. xlii. 6) fulfilling the omen of the dreams (xxxvii. 7 — 9). 30. made haste. Viz. to close the conversation and retire. did yearn. Cf. 1 K. iii. 26; Hos. xi. 8 (Heb.). 31 — 31 The meal with Joseph. The brethren's surprise to find themselves seated according to their ages; and the honour shewn tc Benjamin. At Egyptian feasts the guests did not sit round a table; as with us : they were anointed and wreathed with flowers by attendants, and sat on rows of chairs facing a sideboard; the viands, interspersed with rich floral decorations, were arranged on this, and carried round to them by servants: musicians, with harps, lutes, or flutes, anc dancing girls, were also regularly in attendance (Erman, pp. 193, 250— 255; W.-B. I. 425 ff.). because &c. On account of the exclusiveness with which th( Egyptians viewed foreigners, especially such as had no regard for theii religious scruples : thus, as Hdt. (11. 41) tells us, they would not us( the knife or cooking utensil of a Greek, because it might have beei employed in preparing food from the flesh of a cow, which was sacrec to Isis. xuii. 33-XLiv. 3J THE BOOK OF GENESIS 357 firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according J^ to his youth : and the men marvelled one with another. 34 And ^he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and ^were merry with him. 1 Or, viesses were taken 2 Heb. drank largely. 34. And messes were taken : constr. as xlviii. 2 (G -K § 144*) messes I.e. honoraiy portions (properly, something taken from the table), sent, as a mark of attention, to guests whom it was desired to honour. Cf. 2 S. xi. 8; also //. vii. 321; Od. iv. 85 f., xiv. 437 were merry. The Heb. word is the one which is regularly rendered to he drvmJcen, and generally (e.g. ch. ix. 21) is so used as certainly to imply that meamng. In itself, however, it may not have denoted more th^n drink largely (RVm.): cf the other two passages in which EVV. render similarly, Cant. v. 1 ('Drink, yea, drink ahundanthfX Hag. 1. 6 ( Ye drmk, but ye are mi filled with drink'): also ix^evaB^tnv mJohnii. 10. Chapter XLIV. Joseph, hy arranging for Benjamin to he suspected wnjvstly of thefty tests still further the sincerity and disinterested- ness of his brethren. The brethren, upon leaving Egypt, have their money again returned to them, Joseph's cup being at the same time placed in Benjamin's sack. They are recalled, and brought before Joseph. Judah, speaking first in the name of the brethren generally, admits that it is a just retribution which has be- fallen them {v. 16) ; and afterwards (v. 18 ff.), speaking in his own name, makes an eloquent intercession on Benjamin's behalf, oflfering to remain himself in servitude in his stead. The narrative is throughout that of J. XLIV. 1 And he commanded the steward of his house, J saying, FiU the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. 2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the morning was light, the XLIV. 1, 2. Joseph's device for still further testing (see xlii. 15 f , 20) the sincerity of his brethren. 2. cup. Better, goblet: in Jer. xxxv. 5 rendered bowl. 3 — 10. Joseph's steward overtakes them, and taxes them with the theft of the cup. Their consciences being clear, they voluntarily offer the offender to justice. 368 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xliv. 3-1 4 men were sent away, they and their asses. 4 And when they » were gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward. Up, follow after the men ; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? 5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby he indeed divineth? ye have done evil in so doing. 6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these words. 7 And they said unto him, "WTierefore speaketh my lord such words as these ? God forbid that thy servants should do such a thing. 8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks* mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan : how then should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold ? 9 With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, let him die, and we also wiU be my lord's bondmen. 10 And he said. Now also let it be according unto your words : he with whom it is found shall be my bondman ; and ye shall be blameless. II Then they hasted, and took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack. 12 And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest : and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. 13 Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city. 14 And 5. whereby he indeed divineth. The allusion is to the method of divination called hydromancy : water was poured into a glass or other vessel, pieces of gold, silver, or precious stones were then thrown in; and from the movements of the water, or the figures which appeared in it afterwards, the unknown was divined. There were also other methods. See lamhlichus, de Myst. m. 14; Strab. xvi. 39 (practised in Persia) ; Aug. Civ. Dei vii. 35. Travellers in modern times have de- scribed similar means of divination as being still resorted to in Egypt \ 10. The steward accepts less than they offer: he asks only for the guilty one to be given up, and that not for death, but only for servitude. 11 — 13. Their dismay and despair, when the cup is found in Benjamin's sack. 1 Norden (quoted by Kn.), whose Travels were published in 1752 — 5, relates that when he and his party sent their firman to a local dignitary in Egypt, they were met with the reply, * The firman of the Porte is nothing to me. I have consulted my cup, and I find you are Franks in disguise, who have come to spy out the land.' And Lane {Mod. Eg. i. 337 ff.) mentions a ' magic mirror ' of ink ; in order to discover the author of a theft, ink was poured by a magician into a boy's palm ; he was directed to look into it stedfastly, and at last declared that he saw in it the image of a person, who proved to be the thief. See also Wade, OT. Hist. p. 81, XLiv. 14-30] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 359 Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house; and he wasJ" yet there : and they fell before him on the ground 15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? know ye not that such a man as I can indeed divine? 16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord's bondmen, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found. 17 And he said, God forbid that I should do so : the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my bondman ; but as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. 18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said. Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger bum against thy servant : for thou art even as Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother ? 20 And we said unto my lord. We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one ; and 14. 15. Joseph, with affected indignation, reproaches them for what they have done. 15. such a man as I &c. Cannot a man such as I am, initiated into the wisdom of Egypt, divine, and so discover the thief? 16. 17. Judah, speaking on behalf of the brethren generally, attempts no excuse, for the facts seem to allow of none : it is a just retribution which has befallen them (cf. xhi. 21 in E) ; they will all remain bondmen in Egypt. But Joseph presses his advantage home; and in order to make them feel their position the more keenly, declares that he will retain Benjamin alone. 17. get you up. Viz. into Canaan: cf. w. 24, 33, 34, and on xii. 10. 18 — 34. Judah now steps forward, and in a speech of singular pathos and beauty, remarkable not less for grace and persuasive eloquence than for frankness and generosity, makes a personal appeal on Benjamin's behalf: explaining how all had happened from the beginning, he entreats Joseph to have compassion on the feehngs of an aged father, and to allow him to remain as bondman himself in his brother's stead. Judah's representation of what had occurred differs in some details from that given by E in xlii. 1—37, and enables us to •reconstruct what must have been J's version of it. 18. for thou art evm as Pharaoh. Justifying the deferential tone of the preceding words : he is aware of the greatness of his request, for Joseph is like the king in authority and dignity. 19 f. My lord asked &c. In agreement with J's representation in xliii. 7 (where see the note). 360 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xliv. ac^s^ his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his J father loveth him. 21 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. 22 And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father : for if he should leave his father, his father would die. 23 And thou saidst unto thy servants. Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. 24 And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said. Go again, buy us a little food. 26 And we said. We cannot go do^vn : if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down : for we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us. 27 And thy servant my father said unto us. Ye know that my wife bare me two sons : 28 and the one went out from me, and I said. Surely he is torn in pieces ; and I have not seen him since : 29 and if ye take this one also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with ^sorrow to ^the grave. 30 Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us ; seeing that ^his life is bound up in the lad's life; 31 it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die : and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to 2 the grave. 32 For thy servant became surety for the lad 1 Heb. evil, * Heb. Sheol. See oh. xxxvii. 35. ' Or, his soul is knit with the lad's soul See 1 Sam. xviii. 1. 20. his brother is dead &c. Cf. xlii. 38 (J). 21. that I may set mine eyes upon him. The expression suggests the idea of noticing favourably, taking under one's protection : cf. Jer. xxxix. 12, xl. 4 Heb. (EVV. 'look well to'). Judah very cleverly interprets Joseph's desire to see Benjamin as indicating a favourable disposition towards him. 22. Not so stated in ch. xlii. (E). 23 — 26. In agreement with xliii. 3 — 5 (J). See on xliii. 3. 27—29. See xxxvii. 33 and xlii. 38 (both J). 29. sorrow. H^h. evil/\.Q. misfortune, troxxble. Not as in xlii. 38. 30. seeing &c. The Heb. nephesh ('soul') may denote either (on i. 20, ix. 4) the principle of life (RV.), or (on xii. 14 : cf. Parallel Psalter, p. 459 f.) the seat of feeling and affection (KVm.) : the latter sense is the more probable here. 31. with sorrow. The same word as in xlii. 38. 32. became surety &c. See xliii. 9. The words give here the XLiv. 3^-XLV. 4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 36i unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then shall j I bear the blame to my father for ever. 33 Now therefore, let thy servant, I pray thee, abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord ; and let the lad go up with his brethren. 34 For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest I see the evil that shall come on my father. reason why Jacob relies upon Benjamin's safe return, and why also Judah makes this appeal on his behalf. hecw the blame. See on xliii. 9. 33 f. Judah's final appeal, to be allowed to remain as a slave in Benjamin s place. Chapter XLV. Joseph maJces himself known to his brethren. Overcome by the force and pathos of Judah's words, and convinced at last of his brethren's altered mind, Joseph discloses himself to them. For a while, they cannot answer him : but he encourages them, and allays their fears : in what they have done, they have been, after all, the unconscious instruments of Providence ; he has been sent before them of God to * preserve life.' And he sends an affectionate message to his father, to come and settle in Egypt, and be supported by him there. The Pharaoh, also, hearing that Joseph's brethren were with him, sends an invitation to the same effect {vv. 17 — 20). The narra- tive, except in a few isolated clauses, returns now to E. XLV. 1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all B them that stood by him ; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethrea 2 And he Vept aloud; and the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph ; doth my father yet live ? And his brethren could not answer him ; for they were troubled at his presence. 4 And Joseph said unto 1 Heb. gave forth his voice in weeping, XLV. 1—3. Joseph makes himself known to his brethren. 1. could not refrain himself. Contrast xliii. 31. 3. doth my father yet live ? The question was no doubt a natural one in the context of E: according to J (xliii. 26 f., xliv. 24—34) Joseph had just been told that his father was living. troubled. Dismayed : Is. xxi. 3 ; Jer. li. 32 (EV V. ' are affrighted '). 4—8. Joseph reassures them. 362 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlv. 4-ia his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came I near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, [whom ye sold J into Egypt.] 5 And now be not grieved, nor angry with your- i selves, [that ye sold me hither :] for God did send me before J you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land : and there are yet five years, in the which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive ^by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God : and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt : come down unto me, tarry not : 10 [and thou shalt dwell in the J land of Goshen,] and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy i children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: 11 and there will I nourish thee; for there are yet five years of famine ; lest thou come to poverty, thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast. 12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my 1 Or, to ie a great company that escape 4*, 5^ Two insertions from the narrative of J, which alone has described the brethren as selling Joseph (xxxvii. 27, 28^). 5. for God &c. They are to recognize a providential purpose in what had been done. Cf. vv. 7, 8, 1. 20: also Fs. cv. 17. 7. to give you a remnant. I.e. to leave you descendants : cf. 2 S. xiv. 7 ('so as not to give my husband name or remnant^)) Jer. xliv. 7 ('to leave you no remnanf). The foil, clause is difficult; but probably the best rend, is, to save you alive for a great escaping : cf. xxxii. 8 (where ' shall escape' is lit. ' shall be /or an escaping^). 8. a father. Fig. for beneficent adviser and administrator : see Is. xxii. 21; and cf. Rest of Esther xiii. 6 [ = the second place in the kingdom, v. 3], xvi. 11; 1 Mace. xi. 32. Ges. compares also Atdbek, 'chief father,' a Turkish title for principal minister or vizier^ lord of all his house. Cf. xli. 40. 9 — 13. Joseph's invitation to his father. 10. the land of Goshen. See on i^lL^^**' 1 On Brugsch's supposition that 'father* and 'lord' {v. 9) are Egyptian titles, see DB. n. 774. 3 The clause is referred to J, because it is presupposed in xlvi. 28* (also J), and because it is only J vrho speaks elsewhere of the Israelites as dwelling apart in Goshen, xlvi. 28^ 29, 34, xlvii. 1, 4, 6, 27, 1. 8 ; Ex. viii. 22, ix. 26 (cf. p. 332). XLV. 12-23] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 363 mouth that speaketh unto you. 13 And ye shall tell my father E of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. 14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept ; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him. 16 And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants. 17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren. This do ye ; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan ; 18 and take your father and your households, and come unto me : and I will give you the. good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. 19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye ; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. 20 Also regard not your stuff ; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. 21 And the sons of Israel did so : and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. 22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment ; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. 23 And to his father he sent after this manner ; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and 14 f. Now that Joseph has made his brethren comprehend the situation, the actual greeting takes place, Benjamin receiving the first and warmest welcome. 16—20. The Pharaoh sends Jacob a similar invitation, and autho- rizes Joseph to send wagons from Egypt for the conveyance of his father and his family. 18. the good. Le. the good things^ as <?. 23; Dt. vi. 11; 2 K. viii. 9. 20. regard not. Lit. let not ymr eye pity (Dt. vii. 16, xiii. 8, al)\ i.e. do not trouble about your household furniture; do not have regrets at leaving it behind. 1 1 r 21—24. Joseph dismisses his brethren, with presents both for themselves and for their father. 22. changes of raiment. Le. superior apparel, to be exchmged for the ordinary dress on festal occasions,— still a common form of present in the East So Jud. xiv. 12 f., 19; 2 K. v. 5, 22 f. pieces. Shekels ; cf. on xxiii. 15. About £42. 23. after this manner. In like manner; i.e. also as presents. 364 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlv. as-XLVi. 3 ten she-asses laden with com and bread and victual for his E father by the way. 24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed : and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. 25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart fainted, for he believed them not. 27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them : and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived : 28 and Israel said, It is enough ; Joseph my son is yet alive : I will go and see him before I die. 24. See that ye fall not out. More exactly, Be not disturbed or angry (Ps. iv. 4 RVm. : lxx. in both opyi'^€o-6'€) ; i.e. do not quarrel, or reproach one another, on account of your past treatment of me (cf. u. 5). 25 — 28. They return home and tell their father. His delight, when he is satisfied that the news they bring him is true. 26. fainted. Lit. became numb, was (fig.) unable to move for astonishment. Chapter XLVL 1—27. The migration of Jacob into Egypt, List of his descendants who OAicompanied him. XL VI. 1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, E and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said. Here am I. 3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father : fear not to go down into Egypt ; for I will there make of thee a great nation : XL VI. 1 — 4 (E). Jacob sets out, — presumably from Hebron (xxxvii. 14), — and journeys as far as Beer-sheba, where, previously to leaving the land of promise and taking up his abode in the land of Egypt, he receives encouragement and assurances suitable to the occasion (cf. before, at Bethel, xxviii. 13 — 15). 1. the God of his father Isaac. Beer-sheba was especially the home of Isaac, and he had built an altar there (cf. xxvi. 25, xxviii. 10). 3. a great nation. Cf., of Abraham, xii. 2, xviii. 18. Here it is added that the increase is to take place there^ in Egypt : cf. Ex. i. 7 . XLVi. 4-8] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 866 4 I will go down with thee into Egypt ; and I will also surely E bring thee up again : and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. 6 And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba : and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and then- wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. | 6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had P gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him : 7 his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt. 8 And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into EgyptQ Jacob and his sons] : Reuben, Jacob's firstborn. 4. bring thee v^ again. Viz. in the persons of thy descendants. 'Bring up/ as Ex. iii. 8, Jud. ii. 1, and frequently. put his hand upon thine eyes. I.e. perform the last offices to the deceased. Cf. B. xi. 453; Od. XL 426, xxiv. 296; Eur. Hec. 430; Aen. IX. 487. 5. Jacob sets out from Beer-sheba. 6. 7. A summary account, from P, of the migration of Jacob and his family into Egypt. For the expressions, cf. xii. 5, xxxi. 18, xxxvL 6; xvii. 7, 9, 10, XXXV. 12 (*his seed with him*). 8—27.^ The list, from P, of the descendants of Jacob who came with him into Egypt. So far as the names of Jacob's grandchildren are concerned, nearly all recur, with slight textual variations (see RVm.), in Nu. xxvi. (P), and some also in different parts of 1 Ch. ii. — viii. The number 70 (u. 27) was traditional (Dt. x. 22); and the present list, it seems, represents an attempt, or combination of attempts, — for it contains indications of two computations, one (w). 26% 27 end)y like Ex. i. 5 (P), ^^cluding Jacob from the 70, and the other (vo. 8, 26 end, 27*) deluding him, — to fill it out with names; the names, as Nu. xxvi. shews, being those of the reputed ancestors of the leading families, or clans, of the several tribes. Perhaps the list was originally one of Jacob's descendants as such, drawn up {vv. 12, 20) without reference to the migration into Egypt, and afterwards not quite con- sistently adjusted to its present placed On the bracketed clauses, see on V. 26 f. 1 There is here a grave chronological discrepancy between P and JE. According to P, Joseph at his elevation had been 13 years in Egypt (xxxvii. 2, xli. 46) ; and according to JE, 9 years further had elapsed, when he sends for Jacob and his family (xli. 47, xlv. 6). But the position of ch. xxxviii. places the events recorded in it after Joseph had been sold into Egypt. Now in that chapter, Judah marries Shua*, and has three children; two grow up, and in succession marry Tamar; then Tamar, after waiting some time {vv. 11, 12, 14), has twin sons, Perez and Zerah, by her father-in-law ; and here the two sons of Perez, Hezron and Hamul, come down with Jacob into Egypt. Thus Judah marries, has three children, and after the third has grown up, becomes a father again, and through the child thus 366 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlvi. 9-17 9 And the sons of Reuben ; Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, P and Carmi. 10 And the sons of Simeon ; Lemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and ^Jachin, and ^Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman. 11 And the sons of Levi; *Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12 And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah : but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and HamuL 13 And the sons of Issachar ; Tola, and ^Puvah, and lob, and Shimron. 14 And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. 15 These are the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Paddan-aram [, with his daughter Dinah] : all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three. 16 And the sons of Gad ; ^Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and ^Ezbon, Eri, and ^Arodi, and Areli. 17 And the sons of Asher ; Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister: and the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel. 1 In Num. xxvi. 12, 1 Chr. iv. 24, Nemuel. » In 1 Chr. iy. 24, Jarib. 3 i^ Num. xxvi. 13, 1 Chr. iv. 24, Zerah. * In 1 Chr. vi. 16, Gershom. « In 1 Chr. vii. 1, Puah, Jashub. See Num. xxvi. 23, 24. * In Num. xxvi. 16, ZepJion. ' In Num. xxvi. 16, Ozni. ^ In Num. xxvi. 17, Arod. 8 — 15. The sons of Leah. 9. Eeuben. Cf. Ex. vi. 14; Nu. xxvi. 5 f.; 1 Ch. v. 3. 10. Simeon. Cf. Ex. vi. 15; Nu. xxvi. 12 f.; 1 Ch. iv. 24. The families of Shaul must have had an admixture of Canaanite blood: cf. on ch. xxxviii. (p. 326). Ohad is not mentioned in Nu., Ch. 11. Levi. Cf. Ex. vi. 16; Nu. xxvi. 57. The Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites are also often mentioned besides, on account of their duties in connexion with the sanctuary, e.g. Nu. iii. 17 ff. 12. Judah. Cf Nu. xxvi. 19 — 21 ; 1 Ch. ii. and iv. ; and on ch. xxxviii. Achan was of the family of the Zerahites (Jos. vii. 1). 13. Issachar. Nu. xxvi. 23 f; 1 Ch. vii. 1. Jashub, in these passages, for lob, is certainly the correct form (so Lxx. here). 14. Zebulun. Nu. xxvi. 26. 15. Paddan-aram. See on xxv. 20. thirty and three. The number must twclude Er and Onan, but ^^clude Dinah, whose name, from the awkwardness of the Heb. (...nxi), it is independently probable, is a later insertion in the list. 16 — 18. The sons of Leah's handmaid, Zilpah. 16. Gad. Nu. xxvi. 15—17. 17. Asher. Nu. xxvi. 44—46 (without Ishvah); 1 Ch. vii. 30 f born becomes a grandfather, all within the space of 22 years 1 Even though the vagueness of *at that time' in xxxviii. 1 might allow this period to be extended by (say) 10 years, the difficulty would not be appreciably diminished. XLvi. i8-a6] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 36; 18 These are the sons of Zilpah, which Laban gave to Leah his P daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls 19 The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife ; Joseph and Benjamin 20 And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were bom Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On bare unto him. 21 And the sons of Benjamin ; Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, ^Ehi, and Rosh ^Muppim, and ^Huppim, and Ard. 22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were bom to Jacob : all the souls were fourteen. 23 And the sons of Dan; *Hushim. 24 And the sons of Naphtali; ^Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and «Shillem. 25 These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob : all the souls were seven. 26 All the ^souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' 1 In Num. xxvi. 38, Ahiram, 2 i^ Num. xxvi. 39, Shephupham in 1 Chr. vii. 12, Shuppim. 3 In Num. xxvi. 39, Hupham. * In Num. xxvi. 42, Shuham. » In 1 Chr. vii. 13, Jahziel. • In 1 Chr. vii. 18, Shallum. 7 Or, toul$ belonging to Jacob that came 19—22. The sons of Rachel. 20. Joseph, See xH. 50. On the sons, or clans, of Manasseh and Ephraim, see Nu. xxvi. 28—37; 1 Ch. v. 24, vii. 14—27 : cf. 1. 23. 21. Benjamin. Cf. Nu. xxvi. 38 — 40, where, however, Benjamin has only five sons, Bela*, Ashbel, Ahiram, Shephupham', and Hupham, Na'aman and Ard being sons of Bela*. In lxx. of this verse, Benjamin has only three sons, Bela*, Becher, and Ashbel, the rest being grand- sons. In 1 Ch. vii. 6, also, he has only three sons, Bela', Becher, and Jediael (= Ashbel); and Shuppim and Huppim (= Shephupham and Hupham in Nu. xxvi.) appear (v. 12) as grandsons of Bela*. There are further differences in 1 Ch. viii. 1 — 5, — partly, at any rate, due clearly to a corrupt text. See further Benjamin in EncB. ; and esp. Marquart in Jew. Quart. Bev. 1902, p. 343 ff. (where the genealogies are restored conjecturally in tabular form). Ehud (Jud. iii. 15), and Shimei (2 S. xvi. 5) belonged to the clan of Gera, and Sheba (2 S. xx. 1) to that of Becher. r 23 — 25. The sons of RacheFs handmaid, BilhaL ^ 23. Dan. Nu. xxvi. 42. 24. Naphtali. Nu. xxvi. 48 f ; 1 Ch. vii. 13. 26, 27. The number of those who thus migrated into Egypt 26. RVm. is correct. The rend. *with' is impossible. 1 From these two names (DQISK^I DI^HN), *Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim' (K^KI) ^K D''BtD) can differ only by way of textual corruption (cf. Gray, Heb. Pr. Names, 35). The names must have been taken here from an already corrupt text. 368 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlvl .6-18 wives, all the souls were [threescore and six ; 27 and the sons of 1 Joseph, which were born to him in Egypt, were two souls : all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were] threescore and ten. 26 f. The bracketed words seem to be an addition to the original text. Ex. i. 5 shews that P reckoned 70 souls without Jacob as having come down into Egypt : and with this computation v. 26* (' came out of his loins '), and the figures in m 15, 18,^ 22, 25 (33 + 16 + 14 + 7 = 70) agree, Er and Onan {y. 12) being inconsistently included. '66* here seems to be a correction made by one who considered that Er and Onan (who died in Canaan) and Joseph and his two sons (who were aheady in Egypt) should be excluded from the list of those who came with Jacob into Egypt, and Dinah {v. 15) added; and who then adjusted this figure to P's 70, by adding to it not only Joseph and his two sons (i). 27), but also (though against v. 26* and Ex. i. 5) Jacob (t?. 8). _ An interesting pictorial illustration of a party of thirty-seven Asiatics {Amu) coming into Egypt with presents for Usertesen II., of the 12th dynasty (c. 2600 B.C., Petrie), may be seen in Wilk. -Birch, i. 480 (coloured), Masp. i. 468 — 70, or (with four figures omitted) Ball, Light from the East, p. 74. In V. 27 Lxx. have * 75' (so Acts vii. 14) for * 70,' adding in v. 20 the names of three grandsons of Joseph, and two great-grandsons (ch. 1. 23 ; Nu. xxvi. 29, 35 f.), obviously with the intention of including here the ancestors of all the families mentioned in Nu. xxvi., whereas P includes those only whom he supposes to have been born at the time of the migration into Egypt. The chronology of P, which is here presupposed, is irreconcilable with that of JE. Benjamin, who has been described just before as a 'little lad' (xliv. 20), could not have been the father of ten sons, — still less (lxx.) a grandfather. The supposition that some of Ben- jamin's sons were bom afterwards in Egypt is contrary to the express terms of the chapter (vv. 8, 26) ; while the supposition that those not yet born were regarded as having come down in lumbis patrum exceeds the limits of credibility. XLVL 28— XLVII. 12. The arrival of Ja^oh and his sons in Egypt Pharaoh assigns them the land of Goshen as a residence. 28 And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to shew the J way before him unto Goshen ; and they came into the land of 28 — 30. Jacob and his sons arrive in Goshen, where they are met by Joseph. The narrative (J) connects with xlvi. 1 — 5, and forms its sequel. P has already narrated Jacob's arrival in Egypt (y. 6 f ). XLVi. 18-34] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 369 Goshen. 29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up J to meet Israel his father, to Goshen ; and he presented hunself unto him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, that thou art yet alive. 31 And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and will say unto him. My brethren, and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me ; 32 and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle ; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have. 33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say. What is your occupation? 34 that ye shall say. Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers : that ye may 28. Goshen. Ancient hieroglyphic lists of the 'nomes/ or ad- ministrative districts, of Egypt mention Kesem as the 20th noma of Lower Egypt, and state that its religious capital was Pa-softy the modern Soft el-Henna^ a village about 40 miles NE. of Cairo, the ancient name of which, from inscriptions found on the spot, M. Naville in 1885 ascertained to be Kes. These facts fix the situation of 'Go- shen' : it must have been the district around Saft, 'within the triangle lying between the villages of Saft, Belbeis, and Tel el-Kebir,' in a part of the Delta which is still considered to have the best pasture-knd in Egypt (Rob. BB. i. 54 f )\ 29. Us chariot. Cf. xli. 43. went up. From the Nile-land to the somewhat more elevated Goshen, lxx., for to Goshen, here and v. 28*, have 'to HeroopoHs' Uaff 'Hp(oo)v TToAti/), now known to have been the Greek name of Pithom Ex. i. 11), situated at the modern Tell el-Mashkuta (see DB. s.v. riTHOM), a little E. of Goshen. 30. Now. I.e. now at last (ii. 23). Jacob will die willingly, now that the dearest wish of his life is fulfilled. 31 — 34. Joseph will go and inform Pharaoh; and by emphasizing the fact that his father and brethren are shepherds, secure permission •or them to remain in Goshen, apart firom the Egyptians generally (cf. ). 332 n.). 31. go up. The writer probably pictured the royal palace as situated m what we should now call an acropolis, like the palaces in Jerusalem )r Samaria. But the Book of Genesis furnishes no hint as to what the 'ity was in which the ' Pharaoh' of Joseph was supposed to have dwelt 1 The same locality is indicated by the rend, of lxx. in xlv. 10, xlvi. 34 Veaen kpa^ias; for 'Arabia' was in Graeco-Eoman times (see Ptol. iv. 5. 53) the name of ne of the nomes in the Delta, with a capital Phakoussa, which is just Kes with the gypt. art. Pa. See further Goshen in DB. 24 370 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlvi. 34-XLVii. 6 dwell in the land of Goshen ; for every shepherd is an abomina- , tion unto the Egyptians. XL VII. 1 Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan ; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. 2 And from among his brethren he took five men, and presented them unto PharaoL 3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers. 4 And they said unto Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we come ; for there is no pasture for thy servants* flocks ; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan : now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. | 5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying. Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee : 6 the land of Egypt is before thee ; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell; | in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any ^able men * Or, men of activity 34. /or every shepherd &c. There is independent evidence that swine-herds (Hdt. 11. 47) and cow-herds were looked down upon by the Egyptians, but not that shepherds were : the cow-herds, in particular, from living with their herds in reed cottages on the marshes, were called *marshmen'; they are represented on the monuments as dirty, unshaven, and poorly-clad, and were regarded as pariahs (Erman, p. 439 f. ; cf. Ebers in Smith, DB."" ii. 1802^—1803'^). XL VII. 1 — 4, 6^ Joseph presents five of his brethren to Pharaoh, who, upon learning that Jacob and his sons are all shepherds, grants them permission to settle in Goshen. 3, 4. They reply as directed in xlvi. 34. 5, 6. Verse 5 is not at all a natural reply to the request in v. 4}". and there can be no question that the arrangement of these verses in the Lxx. is preferable to that of the present Heb. text. After v. 4 the Lxx. continues : * 5* (J) And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Let them dweU in the land of Goshen : and if thou knowest any able men among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. 5^ (P) And Jacob and his sons came into Egypt unto Joseph. And Pharaon King of Egypt heard of it., And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: 6 Behold, the land of Egypt is before thee: in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell. 7 And Joseph brought in' &c. (as in the Heb.). Here the words forming v. 5* in the lxx. are a natural and suitable answer to v. 4. 6. able men. The same expression, implying both moral worth and physical efficiency, as Ex. xviii. 21, 25; 1 K. i. 42, 52 (* a worthy man'). XLVii. 6-ii] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 371 imong them, then make them rulers over my cattle. ] 7 Andjp Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh : md Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, Bow many are the days of the years of thy life ? 9 And Jacob jaid unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my ^pilgrimage are m hundred and thirty years : few and evil have been the days 3f the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the lays of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out Tom the presence of Pharaoh. 11 And Joseph placed his father ind his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of d]gypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as i*haraoh had commanded. | 12 And Joseph nourished his father, j md his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families. 1 Or, sojournings ^ Or, according to the number of their little ones rulers over my cattle. Much attention was paid to cattle-breeding a Eg)^t; and there were many fine breeds, esp. of oxen (Erman, pp. 35 — 444). The Pharaoh possessed large herds; and the mer^ or super- Rtendent, of the royal cattle, is frequently mentioned in the inscriptions Erman, pp. 94, 95, 108, 143, 475). 7 — 11 (lxx. 5^ — 11\ Joseph presents his father to Pharaoh; and fterwards, at Pharaoh s command, assigns him an abode in the * land f Rameses.' That Jacob is presented after his sons is due to the lanner in which the two narratives have been combined. The first ords of v. 5^ (lxx.) may seem tautologous after xlvi. 6 f. ; but the jpetition is in r's manner: cf. v. 1 f.; and on vi. 10. 7. blessed. I.e. saluted with wishes for his welfare: cf. 1 S. xiii. 0; 2 K. iv. 29 ('salute'). 9. sojournings. Of Jacob's wandering life (the same word as in vii. 8, xxviii. 4, xxxvi. 7, xxxvii. 1) : not to be understood in the fig. mse of a * pilgrimage' through life. home not attained &c. According to P, Abraham Hved 175 years, ad Isaac 180 years. 10. blessed. I.e. saluted again at leaving, as 2 S. xix. 39, cf. xiii. 25. 11. tie land of Barneses. So lxx. in xlvi. 28 (seemingly for ' the nd of Goshen'). Probably a name for the E. part of the Delta, m hich Ramses II., of the 19th dyn., the Pharaoh of the oppression, lilt many new cities (cf. Masp. n. 423 f ; Ex. i. 11), and which he Bquently made his residence. Ramses II., however, lived long after e time of Joseph, so that the expression must be used prolepticall^. 12. Cf. xlv. 11.— RVm. is correct. The expression (meaning operly those who take quick, tripping steps) sometimes, however, m- ides women (see 1. 21 ; Ex. xii. 37^ ['children']; Nu. xxxu. 16, 17). 24— a 372 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlvii. 13-16 The inscriptions supply parallels for parties of foreigners receiving per- mission to settle in Egypt. Under Hor-em-heb (18th dyn.) some Mentiu, oi nomads, expelled from their homes, receive permission to settle in a pre- scribed locality {DB. ii. 774^) ; and under Merenptah (19th dyn,), — probably the Pharaoh of the Exodus, — a body of Shasu (or Bedawin) are allowed to pass the border fortress of Theku (perhaps the Succoth of Ex. xii. 37), *in order to obtain a living for themselves and their cattle in the great estate oi Pharaoh' (Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology^ p. 69). XLVIL 13—27. Progress of the years of famine. How the independent land-owners of Egypt hecame tenants of the crown. The Egyptians first spend all their money for corn, v. 14, then they paH with their cattle, vv. 15 — 17, finally, they offer Pharaoh their lands and them- selves, vv. 18 — 22: the result was a permanent change in the Egyptian sys- tem of land-tenure, the previously independent land-owners becoming novt tenants of the king, and paying him, as it were, an annual rent of one-fifth of the produce, w. 23—26. The section is remarkable, as dealing entirely, except in v, 27, with a change in the economical constitution of Egypt. The clauses respecting the 'land of Canaan' in vv. 13 — 15 seem in such a narrative to be out of place, and are not improbably later additions. 13 And there was no bread in all the land ; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. 14 And Joseph gathered uj all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought : and Josepl; brought the money into Pharaoh's house. 15 And when th<; money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land o Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said. Give ui bread . for why should we die in thy presence ? for our mone] faileth. 16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle ; and I will givi 13. Cf. xli. 55—57, xlii. 5, xliii. 1. 14. into Pharaoh's house. According to Ebers ('Smith, DB} ri 1803*), the treasury, called in the inscriptions the 'house of silver. The head treasurer was an important officer of state. There are man: representations of treasuries on the monuments, with clerks weighin, the rings, or ingots, of money (xliii. 21) in scales. Cf. Erman, pp. 85 f 89, 108—113. 15 — 17. The Egyptians part with their cattle. 15. in thy presence. Whilst thou lookest on, and dost nothing t prevent it. Cf. v. 19. XLVii. 16-13] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 373 you for your cattle, if money fail. 17 And they brought their J cattle unto Joseph : and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the ^flocks, and for the herds, and for the asses : and he 4ed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle for that year. 18 And when that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him. We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is all spent ; and the herds of cattle are my lord's ; there is nought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands : 19 wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land ? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh : and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate. 20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them : and the land became Pharaoh's. 21 And as for the people, ^he removed them *to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof. 22 Only the land of the priests bought he not : for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them ; wherefore they sold not their land. 23 Then Joseph said unto the people. Behold, I 1 Heb. cattle of the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds. ^ Heb. led them as a shepherd. '^ According to Samar., Sept. and Vulg., he made bondmen of them, from dtc. * Or, according to their cities 17. fed. The verb, to judge from Arab., means properly to lead to a watering-place (cf. Ps. xxiii. 2 ; Is. xlix. 10), then, more generally, to lead gently, Is. xl. 11, Ex. xv. 13; here, fig., to refresh, support. 18. 19. They offer the Pharaoh their lands and persons. 19. servants. Or, bondmen (v. 21 marg.) : they are ready to forgo their independence, if only they can obtain corn to live on. 20—22. The result was that all the landed property in Egypt, except that of the priests, passed into the hands of the king. 21. The text must mean, to the cities where the granaries were ^xli. 35, 48), to be supported there. But it is decidedly better to follow the first margin, in which case, while v. 20 describes how the land became Pharaoh's, v. 21 will describe how the land-owners became his 'bondmen,' or tenants, in exact accordance with v. 19. 22. The priests had a fixed income in kind from the Pharaoh ; 50 there was no occasion for them to sell their lands. For 'portion' 'n the sense of a fixed allowance of food, see Prov. xxx. 8, xxxi. 15 ; fiz. xvi. 27 (RVm.); also Nu. xviii. 8, 11, 19 ('due'). 23—26. The people become permanently Pharaoh's tenants, paymg 374 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlvii. .3-n have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh : lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. 24 And it shall come to pass at the ingatherings, that ye shall give a fifth unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. 25 And they said. Thou hast saved our lives : let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. 26 And Joseph made it a statute con- cerning the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth ; only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh's. 27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen ; ] and they gat them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. him annually one-fifth of the produce. *In view of the fertility of Egypt,' says Knobel, ' the proportion does not seem excessive. In the time of the Maccabees the Jews, until Demetrius freed them, paid the Syrian government one-third of the seed, and one-half of the fruit (1 Mace. X. 30). Under Turkish rule the proportion is sometimes one- half of the produce, and Arab exactions from the fellahin are similar. In Syria cases occur where it is two-thirds; and about Ispahan, in Persia, the peasants, who receive land and seed from the government, pay even three-fourths of their harvest.' 25. They are content with the arrangement; and hope only to find in Joseph a mild master. 27. The narrative here returns to Israel, v. 27* giving the sequel to m 4, 6^ 12, and v, 27^ (P: cf. p. viii, No. 5, p. xi, No. 23) to v. 11. The system of land-tenure, here described, must have prevailed in Egypt in the writer's time, and have been popularly attributed to Joseph. The inscriptions at present known make no mention of it. It is, however, so far in accordance with the evidence of the monuments, that, whereas in the ' Old Empire' (1st — 12th dynasties), as is related in the sepulchral inscriptions of that period, the nobility and governors of the nomes possessed large landed estates, in the 'New Empire' (the 18th and following dynasties) a change is found to have taken place: 'the old aristocracy has made place for court- officials, and the landed property has passed out of the hands of the old families into the possession of the Crown and the great temples' (Erman, p. 102 ; cf. Ebers, in Smith, DB.* ii. 1803 f.). Erman thinks that this change was brought about by Aahmes (who freed Egypt from the Hyksos, and founded the 18th dynasty) confiscating the property of the old nobiUty. In a later age, Diodorus Siculus says that the land in Egypt belonged to the king, the priests, and the military caste (i. 73 f.; cf. Hdt. ii. 168, where it is stated that every priest and warrior in Egypt possessed twelve apovpai — about nine acres — of land tax-free). Whether in Joseph's time (the Hyksos period : p. 347) XLvn. 28-xLVin. i] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 376 the priests really received fixed revenues from the Pharaohs (ilvii. 22) is perhaps doubtful: the priests seem at all times to have administered, and lived upon, the property of the temples, though the temples often received gifts from the king, especially in the ' New Empire/ when the priests became in consequence immensely wealthy (Erman, 104 f., 292 f., 298—304 [enormous gifts made by Ramses III. to various temples] ; cf. Ebers, l.c.). XLVII. 28— XLVIIL Jacob's last instructions with regard to his Imrial, His adoption, and blessing, of Manasseh and Ephraim. 28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years : P so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were an hundred forty and seven years. | 29 And the time drew near that Israel must J die : and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me ; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt : 30 but when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying- place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. 31 And he said. Swear unto me: and he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. XL VIII. 1 And it came to pass after these things, that one E 28 (P) . Jacob's age at the time of his death. 29 — 31 (J). Jacob exacts a solemn promise from Joseph that he will not bury him in Egypt. Cf. P's parallel, xlix. 29—32. 29. the time (lit. the days) d/rew near &c. Exactly as Dt. xxxi. 14 ; 1 K. ii. 1. put thy hand under my thigh. See on xxiv. 2. 30. in their hv/ryingplace. Viz. in Machpelah. Cf. (in P) xlix. 29, 1. 12 f. 31. Swear unto me. Cf. xxv. 33. bowed himself &c. I.e., apparently, turned himself oyer on his bed, and bent his head down towards its head,— in imitation, as far as possible, of actual prostration. Cf., of David, 1 K. i. 47. Lxx., followed in Heb. xi. 21, have, 'bowed himself (= worshipped) upon the top of his staff' (vocalizing nts^^n for r^'^^^ : so also Pesn.), as though he used it for the purpose of raising himself up m the bed. However, this reading has no advantage over that of the Mass. text: there is no apparent reason why the * staff' should be specially mentioned ; and we should really in this case require ^^m (with the pron ), not n^!3p. XL VIII. Jacob's adoption (P), and blessing (E), of Josephs two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The chapter has a historical sigmlicance : it accounts viz. for the two facts: (1) that the two halves into which 376 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlviil 1-7 said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick : and he took with him 1 his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee : and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. | 3 And Jacob said i unto Joseph, ^God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4 and said unto me. Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples ; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 5 And now thy two sons, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine ; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, shall be mine. 6 And thy issue, which thou ^begettest after them, shall be thine ; they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. 7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died ^by me in the 1 Heb. El Shaddai. ^ Or, hast begotten ' Or, to my sorrow the 'house of Joseph' (Jos. xvii. 14, xviii. 5, Jud, i. 22 f., al.) broke up, took each the same rank in Israel as the other tribes ; and (2) that Manasseh, though in some sense the older, and once the more im- portant of these two tribes, was in process of time overshadowed by the more powerful and brilliant tribe of Ephraim. 1, 2 (E). Introduction to v. 8 ff. 3 — 7 (P). The adoption by Jacob of Ephraim and Manasseh. By this act Jacob raises them to the same level as his own sons; and the position taken afterwards by the two corresponding tribes is thus explained. 3, 4. The references are throughout to xxxv. 11, 12 (also P), not to xxviii. 13 — 15 (JE). Observe P's phraseology : M Shaddai, as xvii. , 1 &c. ; make fruitful and multiply^ as xxviii. 3 ; company of peoples, as xxviii. 3 (cf. xxxv. 11); and will give &c., as xvii. 8. 5. And now. I.e. in view of this future possession of Canaan. Reuben &c. He takes as examples the two eldest of his sons. 6. they shall he called &c. I.e. they will be reckoned as belonging to either Ephraim or Manasseh: they wiU not take an independent position. 7. The verse is based upon parts of xxxv. 9, 16, 19. It has no connexion with w. 3 — 6: in its original context in P it must have been followed by something to which the mention of Rachel's death and burial would naturally lead up, — perhaps (Del., Di.) xlix. 29 ('But I am to be gathered' &c.). Paddan. Only here for Paddan-aram : see on xxv. 20. by me. To my sorrow (BVm.); Ht. upon me, i.e. as a trouble to me. C£ on xxxiii. 13 ; and ' to weep upon ' (vexing), Jud. xiv. 16, 17. I XLViii. 7-15] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 377 land of Canaan in the way, when there was stCl some way to p come unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem). | 8 And Israel beheld Joseph's E sons, and said, Who are these? 9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me here. And he said. Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face : and, lo, God hath let me see thy seed also. 12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees ; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, ^guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which ^ Or, crossing his hands some wm to come unto Ephrath. See on xxxt. 16, 19. 8 — 22 (E). The blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh, particularly Ephraim, were the most powerful and influential of the tribes, and possessed a large and fertile tract of country (cf. xlix. 22—26; Dt. xxxiii. 13 — 17); and during the time of the Judges, and the earlier period of the divided monarchy, Ephraim was the real centre of Israel. The commanding position of these two tribes,^ and the pre-eminence of the younger, Ephraim, are here both explained, in accordance with ancient belief (cf. on ix. 25 ; and ch. xxvii. p. 255), as due to the efficacy of their ancestor's blessing. 8 — 12. Joseph introduces his two sons to Jacob. 12. from between his knees. I.e. Jacob's (see v. 10^). 13, 14. Jacob, against Joseph's intention, places the younger above the elder. 14. The rend, of the text (lit. prudentes fecit mamis suas : so Ges.) is best; that of the marg. is adopted by most moderns, but the philol. justification from the Arabic is questionable. LXX., Vulg., Pesh., * changing,' may be merely a paraphrase. , 15, 16. Observe the threefold title: (1) the God 'before whom his ancestors had 'walked' (see on xvii. 1; and cf xxiv. 40); (2) the God who had shepherded him (Ps. xxiii. 1),— in 'fed' the figure is 378 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlviil 15-21 hath fed me all my life long unto this day, 16 the angel which E hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac ; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the eartL 17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him : and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. 18 And Joseph said unto his father. Not so, my father : for this is the firstborn ; put thy right hand upon his head. 19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it : he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: howbeit his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become ^a multitude of nations. 20 And he blessed them that day, saying, ^In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh : and \ he set Ephraim before Manasseh. 21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die : but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 22 Moreover I have given to thee one ^portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. 1 Heb. fulness. * Or, By * Or, mountain slope Heb. shechem, shoulder. entirely lost, — all his life long; (3) the 'angel/ — interchanging with ' God,' as Ex. iii. 2, 4, al. (see p. 184), — who had delivered him from all evil (cf. xxviii. 20, xxxi. 4, 7, 11, 24, 42, xxxv. 3). 16. be named in them. Let them perpetuate it (cf. xxi. 12). 17 — 19. Jacob refuses to alter what he has done; and declares now explicitly that though Manasseh wiU be great, Ephraim will be greater. 19. shall become the fulness of the nations. I.e. will become populousness itself: a hj^erbolical expression. Comp. Dt. xxxiii. 17^. 20. By thee. I.e. using thy name as a type of happiness. The custom may be illustrated from Ilu. iv. 11, 12 (cf. on xxii. 18, xxvi. 4), as also from the curse of Jer. xxix. 22. 21. 22. In anticipation of the time when his descendants would return to the land of tlieir fathers (xxxi. 3 ; cf. xlvi. 4), Jacob adds a further blessing, addressed to Joseph personally. 21. again. Back. Cf. on xxiv. 5. 22. And I give thee one shoulder (or, perhaps, mountain- slope': Heb. shechem) above thy brethren &c. The allusion is to the place Shechem, on the lower slopes of Gerizim, between this mountain 1 The Byn. Pjn^ 'ghoulder' certainly has this derived sense (Jos. xv. 8, 10, THE BOOK OF GENESIS 379 and Ebal, afterwards an important and central place in the territory of Ephraim (cf. on xii 6) Jacob gives Shechem to Joseph, so that he IS, as it were, a 'shoulder' above his brethren, the other tribes And he gives it to him, because he had himself won it, by his sword and his bow, from the Amorite (E's term for the pre-Isr. inhabitants of the country: see on x. 16). This conquest of Shechem by Jacob personally imphes a version of Jacob's dealings at Shechem different from any which we find elsewhere (cf. p. 307) : in the parts of ch. xxxiv which belong to P,— or originally perhaps to E (cf. xxxv. 5 E),-^ Jacob's sons massacre the inhabitants of Shechem, but it is not said,' or even implied, that they retained the city in their own possession'. Chapter XLIX Jacob* s Blessing; and final instructions respecting his burial. The Blessing of Jacob {vv. 1—28). The title must be understood apotiori: for in the case of several of Jacob's sons, the patriarch utters not a blessing, but a censure {vv. 4, 14 f.), and in the case of two, even {v. 7) a curse. The Blessing is in the form of a poem. Except in so far as the terms of w. 3 f., 6 — 7, are suggested by incidents in the lives of Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, what the author has throughout in view is not Jacob's sons, as such, but the tribes represented by them : as often elsewhere in Genesis (e.g. xvl 12, XXV. 23, xxvii. 28 f.) the tribe is conceived as impersonated in its ancestor, and the ancestor foreshadows the character of the tribe. The poet passes the tribes in review; and singles out in each some striking feature of moral character, political state, or geographical position, for poetical ampUfica- tion. The moral instability of Reuben, the disorganized social condition of Simeon and Levi, the ideal sovereignty and vine-clad territory of Judah, the maritime advantages enjoyed by Zebulun, the ignoble indifference which led Issachar to prefer ease to independence, the quick and eflFective attack of Dan, the warlike bearing of Gad, the richness of Asher's soil, the activity (1) and eloquence (?) of Naphtali, the blessings of populousness, military effici- ency, climate, and fertility, which, in spite of envious assailants, are secured to Joseph, the martial skill and success of Benjamin— these, briefly, are the features which the poet selects, and develops one after another, in varied and effective imagery. The Blessing should be compared with the Song of Deborah (Jud. v.), in which, similarly, judgements are passed upon several of the tribes, and with the * Blessing of Moses' in Dt. xxxiii., in which the tribes generally are passed under review : with each of these it exhibits sometimes verbal parallels, shewing that one must contain reminiscences of the other. As compared with Dt. xxxiii., it may be said to be pitched in a lower key : xviii. 12, 13, 16, 18) ; and the same may have been the case with shechem as well, though it does not occur with this meaning elsewhere. 1 The later Jews had a legend of an attack of seven Amorite kings upon Jacob at Shechem, and of his conquest of them (Jubilees xxxiv. 1—9, with Charies notes). 380 THE BOOK OF GENESIS there is less buoyancy, less enthusiasm, the outlook is less bright, the nation as a whole (except indeed Judah, Dt. xxxiii. 7) seems less prosperous^; in particular, the theocratic position or privileges, whether of Israel at large or of individual tribes, which are celebrated with such warmth of feeling in Dt. xxxiii. {vv. 2—5, 8—10, 12, IQ"- ^ 21"^ •, 26—7, 29), are in Gen. xlix. hardly noticed at all : it is the secular relations of the tribes in which, all but ex- clusively, the poet is interested. It is not to be supposed that the Blessing was actually pronounced by Jacob. Not only in v. 7 are the names ' Jacob' and * Israel' used in the national sense, which obviously they cannot have assumed till long after the death of the patriarch ; but the historical and geographical conditions re- flected in the poem are throughout those of the period of the Judges, Samuel, and David: there are no allusions to the period between Jacob and the Judges, or — except doubtfully (see on v. 23) — to the period after David. This limitation of the allusions in the Blessing to the circumstances of a particular period, form a cogent ground for the conclusion that it originated in that period. The prophets, as the study of their writings sufficiently shows'^, start in their predictions from the circumstances of their own time ; they look out into the future from the standpoint of their own present ; even their more ideal visions of the future are largely conditioned by the relations of their own age; in their temporal predictions it is events of the immediate or proximate future which they foretell : to determine beforehand minute details, geographical or political, about a distant future does not fall within the oflBce of prophecy. The present with which the Blessings contained in Gen. xlix. are connected is not the age of Jacob, but the age of the Judges, or a little later ; and this accordingly is the period in which they must be supposed to have originated. It was in accordance with ancient belief (cf. on ix. 25) that a father's curse or blessing should have a power in determining the destinies of his children : no doubt there was besides an ancient tradition that Jacob had actually blessed his twelve sons : and a poet, living in the age referred to, cast this tradition into a poetical form, utilizing, it may be, in some cases old sayings current about the tribes. There being twelve ancestors to be included, and the occasion being one of great national significance, opportunity was naturally taken to present the blessings with some variety of literary form (contrast the shorter blessings, for instance, in xxvii. 27 — 29, 39 f.) • as the previous blessings in Genesis, and many passages in the prophets (e.g. Is. xiii. — xxiii.), shew, the Hebrews had a keen eye for diflferences of tribal or national character; and so here the salient characteristics of the several tribes are poetically delineated Some had prospered, others had had reverses ; some had done chivalrously, others had shewn slackness ; some had risen to great power and eminence, others had barely maintained their independence : upon each the word of praise or blame, according to its merits, is pronounced by the poet, in the name of their common ancestor, Jacob. 1 Only Judah and Joseph can be said to be warmly eulogized in Gen. xlix.; and Joseph, though powerful and prosperous, has been sorely beset by foes (v. 23). j Contrast also the blessings of Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin in Dt. xxxiii. 2 Cf. Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, p. 355 ; or the present writer's j Isaiah, his Life and TimeSy pp. 86, 126, 186. XLix. 1-3] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 881 The Blessing seems to have formed part of the narrative of J. Not, of course, that J was the author of it, for it dates from a time considerably earlier than that at which J probably wrote : but he incorporated it in his narrative from some earlier source (cf. the poems in Ex. xv., Nu. xxi., Jud. v. &c.). From the terms in which Judah is eulogized, it may be inferred with tolerable certainty that the author was a poet belonging to that tribe^ XlflX. 1 And Jacob called unto his sons, | and said : p j Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. 2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob ; And hearken unto Israel your father. 3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the ^begin- ning of my strength ; 1 Or, firstfruitt XLIX. 1. Jacob summons to him his sons that he may declare to them their future. which shall befall you. Viz. in the persons of your descendants. in the &n.^ of the days. The expression is one which occurs fourteen times in the OT. ; and it always denotes the closing period of the future, so far as it falls within the range of view of the writer using it. The sense expressed by it is thus relative, not absolute, varying with the context. Thus in Nu. xxiv. 14 it is used of the period of Israel's future conquest of Moab and Edom (see w). 17, 18); in Dt. xxxi. 29 and iv. 30, of the periods, respectively, of Israel's future apostasy and return to God; in Dan. x. 14 of the age of Antiochus Epiphaues. Elsewhere it denotes the ideal, or Messianic age, conceived as following at the close of the existing order of things, as Hos. iii. 5 ; Is. ii. 2 (=Mic. iv. 1); Jer. xlviii. 47. Here it is evidently used of the period of Israel's occupation of Canaan, — in particular of the period of the Judges and early years of the monarchy. 2. Introduction, inviting attention (cf. iv. 23). 3, 4. Reuben. Reuben first (v. 3) receives the tribute due to his position, and then {v. 4) he is degraded from it. Eeuben, it seems, must once have been an important tribe; but early lost its pre-eminence. Its home was E. of the Dead Sea, N. of the Amon (Jos. xiii. 13—23); but it maintained its place with difficulty; in Deborah's song (Jud. v. 15 f ) it is reproached for its indifterence in a great national crisis; the Moabites also (from the S. of the Arnon) encroached largely upon its territory, and many of the cities properly belonging to it are mentioned afterwards, both on the Moabite Stone (c. 850 B.C.), and in Is. xv., xvi., as being in their possession. The national insignificance of Reuben, and its (probably) dwindling numbers, 1 The author of the Blessing in Dt. xxxiii. appears, on the contrary, to have been a poet of the Northern Kingdom. 382 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. 3, 4 The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. 4 ^Unstable as water, ^thou shalt not have the excellency; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed : Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. 1 Or, Bubbling over ^ Or, have not thou at the time when the Blessing of Moses was composed (after the division of the kingdom), are sufficiently indicated by the terms of Dt. xxxiii. 6 (RV.). It is rarely mentioned in the history; and became politically a nonentity. This early decadence of the tribe is attributed here to its father's curse, which in its turn is said to have been provoked by the act of immorality of which its ancestor had been guilty (xxxv. 22 ; of. 1 Ch. V. l)^ 3. my might. I.e. the product of my strength (cf iv. 12). the firstfruits of my strength. I.e. of my virile powers; the first- born being regarded as the fullest representative of the father's physical nature. See the same expression in Dt. xxi. 17 ('for he is the firstfruits of his strength'), Ps. Ixxviii. 51, cv. 36. The pre-eminence of dignity and the pre-eminence of power. Pre-eminent in rank (lit. lifting up : Ps. Ixii. 4^ and power alike. 'Excellency' and 'excellent,' in Old Enghsh (from excello, to rise up out of to surpass), had the distinctive meaning, which they have now lost, of pre-eminence, pre-eminent, surpassing : and they are always to be so understood, wherever they occur in PBV. of the Psalms, in AV., and even (except 1 P. ii. 9) in RV.' Their retention in RV., where to the great majority of readers they must inevitably suggest a weak and unsuitable sense, is to be much regretted. 4. Unstable as water, have not thou the pre-eminence ! Reu- ben, 3delding weakly and recklessly to passion, is compared to water which, when its confining dam is removed, dashes impetuously away*. The moral weakness, — if not indeed, the moral laxity, — of the tribe is assigned here as the cause of its losing its pre-eminence^ he went up &c. The change to the 3rd person is expressive of aversion and disgust. 1 Comp. the rather curious parallel quoted hy Knob, from II. iz. 447 — 457. 2 See the synopsis of passages in the writer's Daniel (in the Camb. Bible), p. 33 f. ; and cf. his Parallel Psalter, p. 470 f. As examples may be quoted Dan. ii. 31, iv. 36, v. 12 (read in all 'surpassing'); 1 Cor. ii. 1 (for iirepoxfi) ; Phil. iii. 8 (for TO virepixop) ; Ps. yiii. 1, 9 (read 'glorious'); xlvii. 4 ('glory'); Ex. xv. 7, Dt. xxxiii. 26, 29, Ps. Ixviii. 34 ('majesty'); Job xiii. 11, xxxi. 23 ('loftiness'). ' EVm. on unstable, 'Or, Bubbling over,' has no philological justification. The;, root means in Arab, to be boastful, and in Aram, to be lascivious: the fundamental idea of the word is therefore probably to be uncontained. In the OT., except here, the root occurs only thrice, in a moral sense, reckless, Jud. ix. 4, Zeph. iii. 4, reckless boasting, Jer. xxiii. 32. * It is possible (Stade, G. 1. 151 ; Dillm.) that the old nomadic custom, according to which a man's concubines passed at his death, with the rest of his property, to his heir, which was usual among the Arabs (Strab. xvi. 4. 25; Kor. iv. 26), continued to prevail in Eeuben, after it had been proscribed in Israel generally, and that this custom is alluded to both in xxxv. 22, and in the present verse. XLix. 5-7] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 333 6 Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their ^swords. 6 0 my soul, come not thou into their ^ council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united ; For in their anger they slew '^a man. And in their selfwill they houghed *an ox. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; 1 Or, compacts 2 Or, secret » Or, men * Or, oxen 5—7. Simeon and Levi, Jacob's second and third sons by Leah. They took part in a common deed; they shared a common fate: and so the poet groups them together in his verse. 5. are brethren. Viz. not only by physical descent, but, as the sequel declares, in character and disposition as well. Weapons of violence &c. Alluding^ to their deed of treachery and violence against Hamor and Shechem in xxxiv. 26 (J): there {v. 30 J) they received their father's censure, here they receive his curse. their daggers (?). The word occurs only here; and its real meaning ^even if it be correctly read) is very uncertain. The rend, sword (Rashi, al.) rests ultimately upon the resemblance to fidxatpa (according to an old, — and of course fanciful, — Jewish saying that Jacob ' cursed his sons' sword in Greek'); but that a Greek word should have found its way into Heb. in the 11th cent. b.c. is in the last degree improbable, though, as this rend, suits the context, some modems have sought to place it upon a defensible basis by deriving m'kherdh from ktir, to dig (as though properly a digging or piercing instrument). Other explanations are (with different vowel-points), machinations^ plots (from the Arab, and Eth. makara)] and marriage-compacts (with allusion to xxxiv. 15 f), from the Syr. m^kar, *desponsavit'; but neither of these meanings seems to suit the predicate * weapons/ The versions render no help on the passage. 6. He disowns all partnership or complicity with them: their council, in which treachery and violence are planned, he will not enter. council. The word {sod^ means in particular a council of intimate and confidential friends: cf Job xix. 19 (RVm.); Jer. xxiii. 18, 22; and the writer's note on Am. iii. 7 (in the Cambridge Bible). my glory. A poet, expression for the spirit (as the 'glory,' or noblest part of man) : so Ps. xvi. 9 (|1 heart), xxx. 12, Ivii. 8 (=cviii. 1), and probably vii. 5. in their anger they slew a man. See xxxiv. 26. houghed an ox. Apparently a figurative description of the same act. To 'hough' is to cut the hamstrings or back sinews (AS. hoh, the heel) in the hind-leg of an animal, so as to disable it (cf Jos. xi. 6, 9; ^ S. viii. 4). ^ , 7. The curse. They (i.e. their descendants) are to have no rmanent territorial possession in Israel, but to be dispersed among 384 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix 7, 8 And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel. 8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: the other tribes. Simeon was virtually absorbed in Judah: in Jud. i. 3, 17 it is mentioned side by side with Judah; the cities in the Negeb and the 'Sheph^Iah' (on xxxviii. 1) assigned to it in Jos. xix. 1 — 9 (cf. 1 Ch. iv. 28 — 33) are reckoned as belonging to Judah in Jos. XV. 26 — 32, 42; and in the Blessing of Moses (Dt. xxxiii.) it is omitted altogether. Levi had no tribal territory: the privileges connected with the custody of the ark were limited to particular families; the majority of the tribe, during the earlier period of the history, supported themselves at the different sanctuaries or 'high- places' throughout the land; in the time of the Judges many — for Jud. xvii. — xviii. is no doubt typical — travelled about the country finding employment and support where they could; and even in Dt. the members of the tribe (except those engaged at the principal sanctuary, Dt. xviii. 1 — 8) are represented as in poor circumstances, and are earnestly commended to the Israelite's benevolence (xii. 12, 18, 19, xiv. 27, 29, xvi. 11, 14, xxvi. 11, 12, 13). The blessing reflects the condition of the tribe before the foundation of the Temple, when worship was little centralized, and much disorganization and social disorder prevailed. It must be evident that we cannot have here more than either a representation due to the poet's own imagination, or the poetical expression of a popular belief It is undoubtedly true that children often experience the evil consequences of their parents' actions : but to suppose that the entire history of two tribes was determined in reahty by an act of their ancestors, which, though of course not defensible upon a Christian standard, was nevertheless intended as a defence of their sister's honour, and was of a kind sanctioned by the manners of the age (cf p. 307), would be to extend this principle beyond all reasonable limits \ 8 — 12. Judah, Jacob's fourth son by Leah, and the first whom his father can unreservedly praise. Though Judah seems to have early gained a footing in Canaan, Jud. i. 1^ — 7, 9, 17, 19 (see esp. on this ch. G. F. Moore's Comm.), for some time afterwards little is heard of it; and it owed the great historical importance which it acquired in later times entirely to David. The present Blessing seems to reflect the en- thusiasm and glow of pride kindled in the tribe by the achievements of David. It may be noted that in J its ancestor takes the lead even in the patriarchal period (xxxvii. 26 f , xliii. 3 ff., xliv. 14 ff., xlvi. 28). 1 No doubt there are instances, as the Greeks also, for example, strongly held (Haigh, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, pp. 91 — 94, 171 f.), of the guilt of an ancestor mysteriously blighting, generation after generation, the happiness of a family : but this is something considerably different from what would be implied in the present verse, if understood in the sense referred to above. I XLix. 8-10] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 335 Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies ; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp ; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up : He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness ; who shall rouse him up ? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor Hhe ruler's staff from between his feet, 2 Until Shiloh come; 1 Or, a lawgiver 2 Qr, Till he come to Shiloh, having the obedience of the peoples Or, as read by the Sept., Until that which is his shall come dtc. Another ancient rendering is, Till he come whose it is dc. 8. The hlessing starts from the name ('praise,' xxix. 35): the omen of its name is to be fulfilled. As its foes (PhiHstines, Edomites, Ammonites, &c.) flee before it, its brethren, — i.e. the other tribes,— bow down to it in homage, acknowledging its primacy. The reference can only be to the position given to it by David (cf 2 S. viii). on the neck. Pressing upon them in flight ; cf. Ps. xviii. 40 (Heb.). 9. Its success in war. Judah is pictured as a lion, which coming down from its lair in the mountains (Cant. iv. 8), seizes and consumes its prey, and then goes up to its mountain-home again, where it reposes in triumphant security, and none dare assail it. a lion's whelp. Young and vigorous. Cf. Dt. xxxiii. 22 (of Dan). thou art gone up. Viz. to its mountain territory, after its conflicts in the plains are over, like a lion to its mountain-lair. He stoopeth, he coucheth as a lion &c. Viz. on his mountains. This and the next line agree almost verbatim with Nu. xxiv. 9'^^ in one of Balaam's prophecies ('He stoopeth, he lieth down, as a lion' &c.); cf. also xxiii. 24 (both of Israel as a whole). 10*' ^ Judah pictured either as a sovereign, or as a military com- mander, holding his wand of office, like a standard, between his feet. The word rendered sceptre (Ht. rod) usually denotes the sceptre of a king; but it might also be used of the staff" or wand of a miUtary leader (so Jud. v. 14 'the muster-master's [Ht. the writer's] staff'). The commander's staff, as Nu. xxi. 18 [RV. sce^^tre], Ps. Ix. 7 (* Judah is my commander's staff",' fig. for, my leader in war). The rend. a statute-maker (cf RVm.) is possible, but not here probable. 10°. A very difficult and uncertain clause. If 'Shiloh' be a personal name (AV., RV.), it must be significant; but it cannot mean peaceful ot peace-bringer (which have been sometimes suggested); inor is there any allusion to 'Shiloh' as a title of the Messiah m any other part of the Bible, nor is the word so taken here in any ancient version. The name as a title of the Messiah is first found m a fanciful passage of the Talmud (Sank 98^) where the pupils of different Rabbis each comphment their master by connecting his name with a (supposed) 25 J>. 386 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. io, n And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine ; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes : title of the Messiah, and the pupils of a R. Shelah say that his name is 'Shiloh/ quoting the present passage (see p. 413). The rend. Until Shiloh come is found in no version earlier than those of the 16th cent. (Seb. Miinster, 1534, and, following him, the 'Great Bible,' 1539—41, and other Engl, versions). Nevertheless, the clause, viewed in relation to its context, does seem to contain a Messianic thought : so probably, on the whole, it is best to acquiesce in the reading n'^E^* for nV^^ (i.e. in the older orthography rh^), which is that of the principal ancient versions (lxx., Pesh., Targg, and also Saad. [10 cent. a.d.]), and to render either Until he that is his shall come, or (though this rend, is not free from gramm. objection) Until he come whose (it is). The verse, in either case, will then promise that the sovereignty will not depart from Judah, till it is merged in the higher, more perfect sovereignty to be exercised by its ideal ruler, the Messiah. Such a reference to the Messiah seems however to presuppose the teaching of Isaiah, and other prophets ; and as it has been noticed also that v. 11 f connect better with V. 9 than with v. 10, it must remain an open question whether V. 10 is not a comparatively late addition to the original blessing, added for the purpose of introducing into it the prophetic thought of the future rule of the ideal king (so Wellh., DiUm.). See further the Excursus, p. 410 ff. And unto him &c. Of xxii. 17 end, xxvii. 29*'^; Ps. xviii. 43^' ^ 44; Am. ix. 11 f.; Mic. iv. 13, v. 5, 6. The subjugation, or domination, of foreign nations, whether by Israel or by its ideal king, is a not unfrequent trait in prophetic pictures of the future. Cf F. H. Woods, The Hope of Israel, p. 96 ff. obedience. In the Heb. a rare word, found besides only Pr. xxx. 17. 11, 12. Judah's rich vine-land. The poet draws an idyllic picture. Judah, the warrior and conqueror (m. 8, 9), is now seen riding on his ass, — in pre-Davidic times, the usual atiimal for riding, even for persons of rank (Jud. v. 10, x. 4, xii. 14 ; cf 2 S. xvii. 23), and also (Zech. ix. 9) the beast of peace : so abundant are the vines that, when he dismounts, he fastens his animal to one of them; so productive are they of wine that he can use it even for washing his garments (for the hj^erbole, cf Job xxix. 6; also Am. ix. 13**, Joel iii. 18). Judah was a great vine-growing district; and the hills were formerly terraced with vineyards. the choice vine. Properly, it seems, the red vine, so called (pre- sumably) from the colour of the grapes. So Is. v. 2; Jer. ii. 21. the blood of grapes. So Dt. xxxii. 14; Ecclus. xxxix. 26, 1. 15; I Mace. vi. 34; cf. Is. Ixiii. 2. J XLix. 12-14] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 337 12 His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. ' 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the %aven of the sea : And he shall be for an ^haven of ships ; And his border shall be ^upon Zidon. 14 Issachar is a strong ass, 1 Heb. beach. 2 Qr, by 12. Two Other traits, illustrating the fertility of the territory Judah's eyes are red {dark-red, dull),~m Prov. xxiii. 29 a mark of excess, but not intended here as a reproach,— through the abundance of wine; his teeth are white, dripping from the abundance of milk produced upon its pasture-lands (cf. 1 S. xxv. 2; 2 Ch. xxvi. 10). 13. Zebulun, Jacob's sixth son by Leah. Zebulun plays no pro- minent part in the history; though in Jud. v. 18 (cf. 14) it is warmly commended for its valour in the great struggle against Sisera. The theme of the blessing here is the favourable situation of its territory. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore 0/ the sea: And he (shall be) for a shore of ships (a shore to which ships may come); And his flank (shall be) upon (or_ unto, or by) Zidon. The territory of Zebulun, as described in Jos. xix. 10—16 (P), is entirely inland, being bounded on the S. by Issachar, on the E. and N. by NaphtaH, and on the W. by Asher. But it is probable that the borders of the tribes in many cases fluctuated; and that when the present Blessing was written Zebulun had an approach to the sea (perhaps at or near Carmel)^ and also extended N. -wards to Phoenician territory (which may be what is meant by ' Zidon '). The same fact seems to follow also from Dt. xxxiii. 19, where it is said of Zebulun (and Issachar), 'They shall suck the abundance of the seas. And the hidden treasures of the sand/ with allusion to the gains made by them from their maritime com- merce, and from the glass manufactured from the sand at or near Accho. shall dwell. Though the Heb. word is different {shaken, not zdbal), the signification of 'Zebulun' (xxx. 20) is perhaps hinted at. shore. As Dt. i. 7 ; Jos. ix. 1 ; and esp. (almost the same phrase as here, applied to Asher) Jud. v. 17. 14. 15. Issachar, Jacob's fifth son by Leah. Issachar was an inland tribe, being bounded on the N. by NaphtaH and Zebulun, on the W. and S. by Manasseh, and on the E. by Jordan. It included Gilboa, and the fruitful plain of Esdraelon (Jos. xix. 17—23). Though Issachar took part in the struggle for independence under Deborah (Jud. v. 15), it is taunted here for the ignoble way in which it preferred ease to freedom. . 14. Issachar is a bony, strong-built, ass, which, nevertheless, instead of working, lay down, Couching between the sheepfolds (Jud. V. 16t; cf Ps. Ixviii. 13 [14]t), in the enjoyment of ease and comfort. 1 Where Jos. {Ant. v. 1. 22) says that the territory of Zebulun touched the eea. 25—2 388 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. .4-17 CouchiDg down between the sheepfolds : , 16 And he saw ^a resting place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant ; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork. 16 Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, ^ Or, rest 15. The excellency of its land beguiled it; and it took upon itself too readily the yoke of the foreigner. to bear. The word used suggests a heavy, or obligatory, burden : cf. the cognate substs. in Ex. i. 11; 1 K. xi. 28; Ps. Ixxxi. 6; Is. x. 27. And became a servant under taskwork. Or, more exactly, was for the forced service of a labourer. The word (mas) is used specifically of tlae forced labov/r to which Eastern rulers are in the habit of putting their subjects, and also denotes the body of men doing forced labour: it is rendered levy in 1 K. v. 13 [27], ix. 15, 21 (where it is used of the body of men who did forced labour for Solomon upon his public buildings: their overseer Adoniram, iv. 6, v. 14, was so unpopular that he was stoned, xii. 18). In Jos. xvi. 10 (where the phrase is exactly the same as here), xvii. 13 (= Jud. i. 28), Jud. i. 30, 33, 35 ^ it is used to denote the state to which certain Canaanites were reduced by their Isr. conquerors; here, on the contrary, the case is reversed, and it denotes the state to which Issachar was reduced by the Cana- anites. Jud. i. 27 — 33 shews in how many parts of N. Israel the Canaanites maintained a footing (cf Ewald, Hist. 11. 331); and this verse is evidence that in Issachar they even retained the supremacy. 16. 17. Dan, the first son of Eachel's handmaid, Bilhah. A small tribe, whose territory was NW. of Jerusalem, with Joppa as a sea-port Jos. xix. 40 — 48; Jud. v. 17) : it was much pressed on by the Amoiites Jud. i. 34), so a part migrated N. -wards, and founded a colony at eshem or Laish (Jud. xviii. 7, 27 if. ; Jos. xix. 47, — the Northern Dan, Gen. xiv. 14). The terms of the blessing are suggested by its name (cf XXX. 6). Though small, and perhaps, when the poet wrote, hard pressed by foes, Dan will judge his people, i.e. defend the members of its own tribe, maintain its independence, as successfully as any one of the other tribes of Israel (WeUh., Stade, Gunk., Holz.). Others (Ew., Del., Di.) think his people to be Israel, in which case the meaning will be, Dan will defend successfully the national cause : but a reference to the tribe itself seems more probable. 17. May Dan be &c. The poet wishes Dan success in this con- test. * What he pourtrays is not, as in the case of Judah, an open contest, decided by superior strength, but the insidious efforts of the 1 The rend, tributary depends upon a false etymology; and is incorrect. XI 9 XLix. 17-^0] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 389 An ^ adder in the path, , That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward. 18 I have waited for thy salvation, 0 Lord. 19 Gad, ^a troop ^ shall press upon him: But he shall press upon their heel. 20 *0ut of Asher his bread shall be fat, 1 Or, horned snake * Heb. gedud, a marauding band. ' Heb. gad, to press. * According to some ancient versions, Asher, his bread dtc. weaker against the stronger, which have, however, their results also. Such were the surprise of Laish by the 600 Danites (Jud. xviii. 27l and the stratagems by which Samson overcame the Philistines' (Di.;. Cf. Dt. xxxiii. 22. A homed snake in the path. A small, but very venomous serpent, called the Kepda-rr]^, or 'horned snake,' on account of its having two peculiar horn-like appendages above the eyes : it is of a sandy colour ; and its habit is to he concealed in some small depression on the road- side, whence it darts out upon any passing animal. Tristram {NUB. 274) states that once whilst he was riding in the Sahara his horse suddenly started and reared, in the utmost terror: he could not discover the cause, until he noticed a Cerastes coiled up two or three paces in front, with its eyes intently fixed upon the horse, and ready to spring as the animal passed by. 18. An ejaculation, uttered in the name of the tribes, and de- claring how in their struggles with their foes they were conscious of their dependence upon Jehovah's aid. Salvation naturally has here its primary and material sense of deliverance, as in Ex. xiv. 13 ; Jud. xv. 18 (Heb.); 1 S. xiv. 45, xix. 5; 2 S. xxiii. 10 ; Ps. iii. 2, 8, al. : see the writer's Parallel Psalter ^ Glossary i, s.v. 19. Gad, the first son of Leah's handmaid, Zilpah. Gad was a brave and warlike tribe. In its home E. of Jordan (N. of Reuben), it was exposed to the attacks of the desert-tribes and of the Ammonites (Jud. xi.), but it always maintained its character for bravery (cf 1 Ch. xii. 8 — 15). The blessing, like that of Dan, is suggested by the name. Gad, a troop shall troop tipon him: But he shall troop upon their heel. Marauding bands (see 2 K. v. 2, vi. 23) wiU press upon him; but he will disperse them, and pursue closely at their heels as they retreat. 20. Asher, Zilpah's second son. Asher (Jos. xix. 24 — 31; cf Jud. i. 31 f ) inhabited the strip of land along the sea (cf Jud. v. 17) from Carmel to Phoenicia, a fertile district, rich in wheat and wine and oil (Dt. xxxiii. 24 : see also DB. s.v.). ' Asher' is interpreted in xxx. 13 as = fortunate-, and this meaning seems to be present to the poet in what he says. As for^ Asher, his bread (shall be) fat, And he shall yield royal 1 The )0 (rendered Out of) belongs, there is no reasonable doubt, to the end of the previous verse (read D^p.l!, i.e. 'their heel'): it is at once superfluous here, and desiderated there (RV. 'their' is not in the Heb., as it stands). 390 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. .o, .i And he shall yield royal dainties. J 21 Naphtali is a hind let loose : He giveth goodly words. dainties. His soil will produce delicacies, which will even find their way to kings' tables. The allusion is no doubt to articles of food, exported to the neighbouring Phoenicians (cf. — as illustrating, at least generally, the dependence of Phoenicia upon Israel for its supplies — 1 K. V. 9 end, 11; Ez. xxvii. 17; Acts xii. 20; Jos. Ant. xiv. 10. 6). Oil is still exported largely from this region {BB. s.v.). 21. Naphtali, Bilhah's second son. The territory of Naphtali con- sisted of a long tract of country, stretching along the Lake of Gennesareth as far as Lebanon ; it was fertile and well- watered ; the Plain of Genne- sareth, in particular, is described by Josephus {BJ. ni. 10. 8) almost as if it were a territorial paradise (cf. HG. 446 ; DB. n. 149 ; and the terms of Dt. xxxiii. 23 * 0 Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of Jehovah, possess thou the lake and the south'). In Jud. v. 18 Naphtali is praised for its heroism and self-devotion. The blessing here is however obscure in its terms, and its meaning is not certain. Naphtali is a hind let loose, He who giveth goodly words. The hind is a figure of agility, nimbleness, and freedom (Ps. xviii. 33 ; Hab. iii. 19; Is. xxxv. 6); and the comparison 'beautifully expresses the feelings of exhilaration and life, which are bred by the health, the spaciousness, the high freedom and glorious outlook of upper Galilee' (substantially as HG. 420 : so Del.). The second clause is supposed to refer to the eloquence, the poetical or oratorical gifts of the tribe, though we have no other evidence of these beyond the share in the Song of Deborah, which Jud. v. 1 ascribes to Barak. But as thus explained, the two clauses do not connect well together : and the interpretation cannot be regarded as certain. Many moderns (Bochart, Lowth, Herder, Ew. Hist. ii. 291, Dillm., ah), vocalizing two words differently^ render, Naphtali is a slender (lit. stretched out^) terebinth, he who putteth forth goodly tops^; the allusion then being supposed to be to the long, extended territory of Naphtali, and to the leaders or national heroes sprung from the tribe (cf. Jud. iv. 6, v. 18, vii. 23). 22 — 26. Joseph, Rachel's firstborn, Jacob's favourite son, the most populous and powerful of the tribes, over whom the poet waxes warmer and more eloquent than even over Judah. The term * Joseph,' — as in the expressions, 'House of Joseph' (Jos. xvii. 17, xviii. 5; Jud. i. 22, 23, 35; 2 S. xix. 20; 1 K. xi. 28), and 'Children of Joseph' (Jos. xvi. 1, 4, xvii. 14, 16, al.), — naturally includes the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, though Ephraim, as the more important and influential (see on xlviii. 8 — 22), is probably the one which the poet has chiefly in mind. Dt. xxxiii. 13 — 17, which is in parts evidently modelled upon the present blessing, should be specially compared. 1 n^\S for n^JX, and np^? for npNi. 2 Cf. the cognate verb in Ez. xvii. 6, 7 ('shot forth'), Ps. Ixxx. 11 ('sent out'). 8 Is. xvii. 6 ('uppermost bough'). I XLix. ..-24] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 391 22 Joseph is ^a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain ; His ^branches run over the wall. 23 The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecuted him : 24 But his bow abode in strength. And the arms of his hands were made ^strong, 1 Heb. the son of a fruitful tree. 2 Heb. daughters. » Or, active The poet starts with the thought of the numbers and prosperity of the tribe (the 'ten thousands of Ephraim,' and the 'thousands of Manasseh/ Dt. xxxiu. 17), comparing it to a fruitful, spreading vine, planted in a well-watered spot, and extending its tendrils luxuriantly over the confining walls of the vineyard. 22. Joseph is a young fruit tree (twice). Heb. son of a fruitful (tree), i.e. a young and vigorously growing tree, which the sequel shews must be a vine. There is a play on the name of Ephraim (xli. 52; cf. Hos. xiii. 15), the principal branch of the tribe. by a fountain. And consequently well supplied with moisture for its growth. In a country like Palestine the proximity of water was an important condition, if a tree was to flourish, and is often emphasized : Ps. i. 3; Jer. xvii. 8; Ez. xvii. 5, 8. Its branches. Heb. The daughters^ fig. for shoots^ tendrils. 23. But Joseph's prosperity provoked foes, envious rivals, who bitterly assailed him. For the abrupt dropping of the figure, cf. Is. xviii. 6 (after 5). The reference may be to attacks made upon Ephraim and Manasseh (on both sides of the Jordan) by nomad tribes, like the Midianites, and ' children of the East ' (Jud. vi. 3 ff.), or even by Canaanites (Jos. xvii. 16): our information does not enable us to fix the allusion more definitely. Wellh. {Compos, des Hex. 1889, p. 320 f ), and Stade {Gesch. i. 165), dating the Blessing (or at least this part of it) later, suppose that the reference is to the prolonged attacks of the S3rrians under Ahab and his successors. An allusion to ch. xxxvii. 24, 28, xxxix. 20 (cited in reference Bibles) is not probable; the reference is manifestly to the tribe. ham sorely grieved him. Rather, either embittered (i.e. provoked) Mm, or dealt bitterly with (G.-K. § 117^) him (i.e. shewed bitter enmity against him). Grieved is an archaism, = harassed : see DB. s.v. persecuted him. nd^ is rendered hate in xxvii. 41, 1. 15 : it implies an active, persecuting hatred; cf Job xvi. 9, xxx. 21. 24. But through the strength of his God, he repelled and over- came them. But his bow abode firm, Ajid the arms of his hands (the arms which regulate and control the movements of the hands) were agile, From (of the source, =By) the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. The rend. a^ile (cf. RVm.) is supported by Arab, and Syr. : cf. 2 S. vi. 16 ('leapmg ). 392 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. 24, 75 By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, . (^From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,) 25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee. With blessings of heaven above. Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, ^ Or, From thence, from the shepherd Or, as otherwise read. By the name of tJie shepherd firm. Properly ever-flowing, of a stream (Am. v. 24) ; then fig. of what is imperishable, enduring, unmoved, as Jer. v. 15 (of a nation), Nu. xxiv. 21 and Jer. xlix. 19 (of a dwelling-place). the Mighty One of Jacob. A poetical title of God, recurring Is. i. 24 Qoi Israel'), xlix. 26, Ix. 16; Ps. cxxxii. 2, 5. See further p. 409. {From thence &c.) This clause, however construed, yields such a strained and halting sense, that it is clear there is some corruption in it. RV. (=AV.) is understood to mean, From thence (i.e. from God) comes Joseph, who had been, as it were, the shepherd and support (stone = rock) of his family. But the parenthesis, and the sense thus obtained, are both extremely improbable. RVm. (so Del.) makes the line parallel to clause c : ' From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, From thence [i.e. from heaven], (from) the shepherd (i.e. God, xlviii. 15), the Stone of IsraeV (also treated as a title of God, like the 'Rock of Israel,' Is. xxx. 29). But 'from thence' is very intrusive and superfluous; and although a 'rock' is a natural figure for strength or defence, it is doubtful whether a 'stone' would be; and certainly the term is not elsewhere applied to God^ The 2nd marg. (with D^p for Dt^^p, as Pesh.) yields substantially the same sense: for the use of name, cf. Ps. xx. 1. The line undoubtedly expressed some thought parallel to that of clause c; but what exactly the thought was, it seems impossible now to discover (see further the Addenda). 25. This verse carries on the description of the source of Joseph's strength, in order (clauses b — e) to attach to it the blessing : (Even) from the God of thy father— Tci^y he help thee! And God Almighty — may he bless thee ! With blessings &c. the God of thy father. The same God who has defended thy father so many years. Of xxxi. 5, 42, xlviii. 15; Ex. xv. 2, xviii. 4. And God Almighty (El Shaddai: see on xvii. 1). The Heb. text has And with Shaddai; but hvi) ('And God') must certainly be read, with Lxx. (o Oebs 6 e/Aos : see p. 404), Sam., Pesh., for nt??. of Iteaven above. I.e. dew, rain, and sunshine: so xxvii. 39; also Dt. xxxiii. 13 [read (?y» for h^'o]. of the deep that coucheth beneath (so Dt. xxxiii. 13). I.e. springs and fountains, brooks and rivers, issuing forth from the subterranean 'deep' (see on i. 9), — a characteristic feature of Palestine (Dt. viii. 7). 1 Is. xxviii. 16, Epli, ii. 20, 1 P. ii. 4, cited in the RV. with marginal references, are alien to the passage altogether. I •i-r-r^^^jen'^S!T^Tif;7:^:zri i^?'^ ■-^^•'■»<->i^'r?>"-'V5«r.>iVlZr-^-.'~v-^ ••'-''^^ XLix. 25, 27] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 393 Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. j 26 The blessings of thy father Have prevailed above Hhe blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills : They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him Hhat was separate from his brethren. 27 Benjamin is a wolf that ravineth : 1 According to some ancient authorities, the blessings of the ancient mountains, the desire (or, desirable things) of the everlasting hills. ^ Or, that is prince among ^ of the breasts, and of the womb. Fertility among both men and animals fcf. the contrary in Hos. ix. 14). 26. The margin must be followed: the textual change involved is only mn for ^"nn. The blessings of thy father (the blessings received by Jacob from his ancestors) are mighty beyond (i.e. surpass) the blessings of the perpetual mountains, The desirable things (i.e. the choice pro- ducts) of the everlasting hills. The meaning is that the blessings received by Jacob from his ancestors relate to things higher than the merely material products, however choice, of the fertile hills of Ephraim: they include national and political greatness, as also the high religious privileges implied in the 'promises' (cf. xii. 2, 3, xiii. 16, xviii. 18 f , xxvii. 29, xxviii. 13 — 15). my progenitors. Heb. my conceivers {masc, not fem.), an incredible expression for 'ancestors.' With the emended text {perpetual mov/n- tains II everlasting hills), comp. Hab. iii. 6, Dt. xxxiii. 15. May they be upon &c. Hence (with the one change of come for be) Dt. xxxiii. 16. By passing these blessings on to Joseph, Jacob makes him in a special sense the heir both of himself and of his father (cf xlviii. 16). of him that is the prince among his brethren (so Dt. xxxiii. 16). The word (ndzir) means properly one separated (religiously) : it com- monly means Nazirite, but also sometimes denotes a prince (cf. Lam. iv. 7 RV. * her nobles '), as one separated from the rest of the people by religious sanctions: the cogn. subst. nezer means correspondnigly a crown, whether of a king (2 S. i. 10; 2 K. xi. 12), or of the high priest (Ex. xxix. 6), as a symbol or badge of separation. It is not certain that the passage presupposes the royalty of the tribe of Epliraim : it may merely mean that in prestige and position, the double Joseph- tribe was as a princely tribe amongst the others. ^- , . -u 27. Benjamin, Rachel's younger son. A small, but martial tnbe, famed for its bowmen and slingers (Jud. xx. 16; 1 Ch. viu. 40, xii. 2). Ehud (Jud. iii. 15 f , 27—29), Saul, and Jonathan, were aU warriors ot Benjamin. It is compared to a wolf, a predatory animal, particularly dangerous to sheep: its habit is to secrete itself till dark among the rocks, and then, without arousing the vigilance of the sheep-dogs, to 394 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [xlix. .7-33 In the morning he shall devour the prey, J And at even he shall divide the spoil. 28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel : and this is it that their father spake unto them | and blessed them ; every / one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people : bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace : 31 there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife ; and there I buried Leah : 32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. leap suddenly into the fold, and seize its victim by stealth (Tristram, JSTHB. 153). that ravinetk. That teareth, as the same word is rendered, xxxvii. 33, xliv. 28, Mic. v. 7, al. To ravin (from Lat. rapina, Old Fr. ravine) means to plunder or prey on rapaciously {Cymh. 1. 6. 49); but it is now virtually obsolete. Cf. Ez. xxii. 25, 27; Mt. vii. 15. In the morning... at even. I.e. he is at all times equally ready for fighting, and equally successful in the wars which he undertakes. at even. Cf. the expression ' evening wolves,' Hab. i. 8, Zeph. iii. 3. 28. Clause a (as far as unto them) is the subscription to the Blessing : clause h will have been originally the sequel in P to xlix. 1*. 29 — 33 (P). Jacob's last instructions to his sons to bury him in the family burial-place, in the cave of Machpelah; and his death. Verses 29—32 are P's parallel to xlvii. 29—31 in J. 29. to he gathered &c. See on xxv. 8, though here the expression, as pointed, is sing., and is therefore correctly rendered 'people'.' 29, 30. in the cave &c. See xxiii. 8 f., 16—18. 31. See xxiii. 19, xxv. 9 f., xxxv. 29 (cf. 27). The burials of Rebekah and Leah are not elsewhere recorded in Gen. On the burial- place of Rachel, see xxxv. 19 f., xlviii. 7. 33. yielded up the ghost. See on xxv. 8. and was gathered unto his father's kin. The word is here plural (as in xxv. 8, and usually). 1 In fact, however, we should probably point ""J^y, and render 'my father's kin.' L. 1-4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 396 Chapter L. The burial of Jacob; and the death of Joseph, L. 1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon j him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father : and the physicians em- balmed Israel. 3 And forty days were fulfilled for him ; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming : and the Egyptians wept for him threescore and ten days. 4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found L. I — 3. Jacob's body embalmed. 2. Egypt abounded in physicians (Hdt. n. 84, m. 1, 129; of. Od. IV. 229 £; Jer. xlvi. 11; and see further Wilkinson-Birch, The Anc. Egyptians, 11. 354—358); they formed part of the priesthood, and Egyptian treatises on medicine (containing some remarkable prescrip- tions) have come down to us (Erman, pp. 357 — 364). Embalming, as is well known, was a standing Egyptian custom: it was believed that the soul would in time return to its body after death, and pains were therefore taken to preserve the body from dis- solution in the grave. Numerous mummies have been found during recent years in Egyptian tombs, in a state of preservation which testifies to the skill of the ancient embalmers. On the methods employed, see Hdt. II. 86—88 ; Budge, The Mummy (1893), pp. 160 ff., 177 ff. ; Wilk- Birch, III. 470 ff".^ The embalmers (Tapi;)^€urat) formed, however, a distinct profession: so that the term physicians does not seem to be used quite exactly. Still, it would not be altogether unsuitable: for some knowledge of anatomy, and of the drugs necessary for the preser- vation of bodies, would be required by the embalmers. 3. forty days. Diod. Sic. (i. 91) says that the process lasted more than thirty days; Hdt. (11. 86) speaks of seventy days: in point of fact (Budge, p. 179) the period varied. threescore and ten days. The Egyptians are said to have mourned for a king for seventy-two days (Diod. i. 72\ That they mourned for Jacob so long, will have been out of respect lor Joseph. 4 — 13. Jacob conveyed by his sons to Canaan, and buried in the cave of Machpelah, in Hebron. 4_6. Joseph asks leave of absence of the Pharaoh to bury his father in Canaan. 4. the house of Plmraoh. The request, as it related to himself, was preferred indirectly through members of the royal house, who, it may be presumed, gave it their support 1 Bitumen was largely used : and hence the name ' mummy,' properly an Arabic word, meaning 'bitumenized thing* (Budge, p. 173 f.). 396 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [l. 4-11 grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, J saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die : in my grave which I ^have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. 6 And Pharaoh said. Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. 7 And Joseph went up to bury his father : and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house : only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen : and it was a very great company. 10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation : and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 And 1 Or, bought 5. made me swear. See xlvii. 30. have digged. RVm. bought. The Heb. word is ambiguous, and may have either meaning (xxvi. 25; Dt. ii. 6), though 'digged' is on the whole the more probable (cf. 2 Ch. xvi. 14, where the same verb is badly rendered 'had hewn out'): so Lxx., Vulg., Del., Dillm., &c. go up. See on xii. 10. So ' went up/ vv. 7, 9. come again. Come back (on xxiv. 5). 7 — 9. A considerable funeral procession, such as the Egyptians loved, is described : the terms of v. 1^ imply that it was as splendid as if Joseph had been of royal birth. These processions, — only (Ebers in Smith, DB.^u. 1804) without 'horsemen,' — are often represented on the Egyptian tombs : see Plates Lxvi., lxvil, lxviii. in "Wilk. -Birch (m. 444, 446, 449); Erman, p. 320 f.; or Ball, Light from the East, p. 119. 8. the land of Goshen. See on xlv. 10. 10, 11. Arrival of the procession at Atad. 10. the threshingfloor of Atad (or, of the buckthorn). The name, — ; either this, or that in v. 11, — has not been preserved; and the situation is unknown. and they wailed there with a very great and sore wailing. With loud demonstrations of grief : see on xxiii. 2. seven days. The usual period of mourning among the Hebrews (1 S. xxxi. 13; Judith xvi. 24; Ecclus. xxii. 12). 11. There must have been a place on the E. of Jordan called the 'Meadow (^abeiy of Egypt,' — so named, presumably, from some incident 1 Also found in other pr. names, as Abel-meholah ('of dancing'), Abel-ha-shittim ('of the acacias'), Abel-cheramim ('of vineyards '). I ■■ L. 11-15] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 397 when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the J mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous ^mourning to the Egyptians : wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. | 12 And his sons P did unto him according as he commanded them: 13 for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a buryingplace, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, j and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. | 15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that E their father was dead, they said. It may be that Joseph will hate 1 Heb. ehel. either in one of the early Egyptian invasions of W. Asia, or in the Egyp- tian occupation of Palestine, which we now know from the Tel el-Amama letters existed for some time previously to B.C. 1400 ',— which was explained popularly by the Hebrews, as though it meant the ' Mourn- ing {eheV} of Egypt,' and derived its name from the occurrence here narrated. In accordance with this explanation of the name, it was naturally supposed that the funeral procession made a detou/r round the Dead Sea and the E. of Jordan, instead of following the direct and obvious route from Egypt to Hebron by Beer-sheba. the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites. I.e. the natives on the opposite (W.) side of the Jordan. 12, 13. The account of the actual burial of Jacob is told in an excerpt from P. The verses form evidently the direct sequel to xlix. 29 — 33^: notice (1) Jacob's 'sons' in both, whereas in 1. 4 — 11 Joseph is the prominent figure; and (2) that v. 12 'his sons did unto him' &c. is obviously written mthout reference to w. 7 — 11. 13. Repeated largely verbatim, in P's manner, from xlix. 30. 14 (J). The narrative of w. 7 — 11 is here resumed and concluded, Joseph appearing again as the leading figure. 15 — 21. Their father being dead the brethren fear that Joseph will no longer feel any restraint in exacting retribution for their past treatment of him, and send accordingly to crave his forgiveness. He replies generously that he has no intention of exacting vengeance for actions which, however intended, have been overruled by God's pro- vidence for good, and that he will continue to make provision for their nourishment and welfare. 1 The basaltic monolith, called 'Job's Stone,' at Sheikh Sa'ad, about 22 m. E. of the Lake of Gennesareth, has on it an inscription shewing that it was erected in honour of Eamses II., the Pharaoh of the oppression (JDJ5. i. lee**). See also Hogarth's Auth. and Arch. pp. 68—70, 71. '^ ♦ Command ' here is in the Heb. the same as * charge * there (njV). 398 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [l. 15-.3 us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 1 16 And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17 So shaU ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto theo evil : and now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face ; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 19 And Joseph said unto them. Fear not : for am I in the place of God ? 20 And as for you, ye meant evil against me ; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not : I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake ^kindly unto them. 22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house : and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph 1 Heb. to their heart. 15. fuU^. Rather, surely. 16 f. As motives for him to gi-ant a favourable hearing, they mention that their present request is made in obedience to their father's express command, and remind him incidentally that he and they are all worshippers of the same God. 18. The brethren next appear before Joseph personally ; and offer themselves to him as his slaves (cf. xliv. 16, where the same word is rendered bondmen). 19 — 21. Joseph's magnanimous reply. 19. am I in the place of God ? Viz. to inflict retribution upon you. The same expression as in xxx. 2, but differently applied. 20. The verse brings out the didactic import of the narrative: God often accomplishes his ends through human means, without the knowledge, and even against the wishes, of the agents who actually give them effect. Cf. xlv. 5, 7, 8 (also E). as it is this day^ to save &c. The words seem to imply that the writer pictured the famine as still continuing (cf. also 'nourish' in v. 21 with xlv. 11, xlvii. 12). It is true, according to P, the famine must have long ceased, at the time of Jacob'ti death (see xlvii. 28) ; but we have had several instances in which the chronology of J and E has not been in agreement with that of P. 21. spake kindly unto them. Cf. on xxxiv. 3. 22 — 26. Joseph's old age and death. 22. an hundred and ten years. It is a remarkable coincidence that 110 years appear to have been regarded in Egypt as the ideal B! L. .3, ^4] THE BOOK OF GENESIS 399 saw Ephraim's children of the third generation : the children E also of Machir the son of Manasseh were bom upon Joseph's knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die : but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the lifetime for a man, and the most perfect age to be desired. Thus in the most ancient MS. which we possess, the Papyrus Pris'se, con- taining the celebrated 'precepts of Ptah-hotep',' a life of 110 'years is declared to be the best; and on a granite statue at Vienna there is a prayer to Isis to grant health and happiness for 110 years: according to Ebers (Smith,_ DB? 11. 1804 f ), also, there are many other passages which speak similarly. 23. Joseph survived to see his own great-great-grandchildren. children of the third generation. I.e. Ephraim's great-grandchildren : on the Heb. expression used, see Dillm. the children also of Machir. What ' children' are meant, is not stated: the 'child' (or 'son') of Machir, most frequently mentioned elsewhere is Gilead (the country : see the next note) : others are Peresh and Sheresh (1 Ch. vii. 16), and an unnamed daughter (1 Ch. ii. 21); but the connexion in which these are mentioned makes it probable that they are the names of clans, rather than of individuals. Refer- ence Bibles (including RV.) compare Nu. xxxii. 39 : but the * children of Machir,' who are there said to have gone and conquered Gilead, cannot, upon any view of the chronology, be the same as the infants who are here described as laid upon Joseph's knees. Machir. Mentioned specially on account of his being the epony- mous ancestor of the leading and most warlike (Jos. xvii. 1) of the clans of Manasseh, which was spread over both the W. (Jud. v. 14) and E. (Nu. xxxii. 39) of Jordan. In Nu. xxxii. 40, Dt. iii. 15, the settlement of Machir in Gilead is expressed by its being said that Moses 'gave Gilead to Machir'; in Nu. xxvi. 29, xxvii. 1, Jos. xvii. l^ 3, and else- where, it is expressed in terms of a genealogy, it being said that Machir 'begat' Gilead (or, was the 'father' of Gilead: cf p. 112 f), or that Gilead was the ' son' of Machir ^ were born upon Joseph's knees. I.e. he recognized them as his de- scendants; implying indirectly that he survived their birth. An expression used properly and originally, it seems, of the father: see on XXX. 3; and cf. Od. xix. 401—4; //. ix. 455 f 24, 25. Joseph, before he dies, makes his kinsmen solemnly promise that, when they leave Egypt for Canaan (cf. xlvi. 4, xlviii. 21), they will bring up his bones with them. Cf Heb. xi. 22. . j r 24. brethren. I.e. kinsmen (as xxxi. 23, 46); cf 'children of Israel' in v. 25. visit you &c. See Ex. iii. 16, 17, iv. 31. 1 See Maspero, i. 400 f. . . xl j-« . 2 See further on Machir, and on the remarkable variations in the different genealogies in which he figures, the art. Manasseh in DB. m., esp. p. 231 f. 400 THE BOOK OF GENESIS [l. .4-26 land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. E 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. which he sware &c. As Ex. xiii. 5, Nu. xiv. 16 (JE), and often in Dt. Cf. Gen. xxii. 16, xxvi. 3 f. 25. took an oath &c. Cf. Ex. xiii. 19; and see also Jos. xxiv. 32. 26, in a coffin. I.e. the usual decorated mummy-case, such as are to be seen now in most of the museums of Europe. ' The character of Joseph is one that is singularly amiable and free from faults. He is the true son, the true brother, the true servant. Loyal and faithful, disinterested and sincere, modest and considerate, he wins the confidence and esteem of all right-minded persons with whom he has to do. He is obedient to duty in whatever position he finds himself— whether feeding his father's sheep, or attending to his master's house, or acting for the keeper of the prison, or invested by Pharaoh with authority over Egypt. " Jehovah was with him" is the significant phrase by which the narrator indicates the Divine approval of his conduct (xxxix. 2, 3, 21, 23). In misfortune he is resigned, and does not complain. He resists temptation. In his elevation he neither presumes upon his position nor forgets his humbler relations : in spite of their cruel treatment of him, he bears his brethren no grudge ; even after his father's death he is as generous and magnanimous as before (1. 17 — 21). He has deep and true affection : his younger brother and his father are ever foremost in his thoughts ^ His attitude towards his other brethren, and the humiliation which he imposes on them, are, of course, dictated by the desire to prove them, and bring them to acknowledge their sin ; as soon as they have done this (cf. xiii. 21, 22, xliv. 16), and he is satisfied that they are treating his , father and Benjamin with genuine afi"ection, he discloses himself, excuses them for what they had done (xlv. 5 — 8), and, to assure them of his forgiveness and goodwill, makes provision for their residence near himself in Egypt. He has a lively sense of dependence upon God (xl. 8, xli. 16, 25, 28, 32, 51, 52, xlv. 9, xlviii. 9, 11, 15, 21, 1. 19, 24, 25) and of his duty towards Him (xxxix. 9, xiii. 18). He is conscious that he is in God's hands, who overrules evil that good may come, and eflfects His purposes even though it may be without the knowledge and against the wishes of the actual agents (1. 20, cf. xlv. 5, 7, 8). As a righteous man, persecuted and sold by his brethren, wrongfully accused and humiliated, but afterwards exalted, and using his position for the good of * Gen. xli. 51 end is naturally not to be taken au pied de la lettre. It is an old difficulty, which can be solved only conjecturally, that Joseph did not, immediately after his elevation, take steps to inform his father of his welfare, and relieve him of the anxiety which he must have known he would be feeling. . THE BOOK OF GENESIS 401 others, submissive, forgiving, and tender-hearted, it is not surprising that he should often have been regarded as a type of Christ. Only the measures adopted by Joseph for the relief of the famine might be thought to strike a discordant note in his character. To appropriate the surplus produce of the seven years of plenty, and then to compel the Egyptians to buy hack, even to their own impoverishment, what they had themselves previously given up, does not seem consistent with our ideas of justice and equity. It must, however, be remembered, that, in this respect, Joseph was not, and could not be expected to be, in advance of the public morality of his age. The economic conditions of Egypt are, and always have been, peculiar. The fertility of the soil is dependent upon a system of irrigation, which can only be kept in proper order by the central government; and the cultivator falls into a state of dependency and indebtedness to it at the same time. Moreover, the Egyptian fellah lacks inherently the spirit of independence, and, even to the present day, is content to enrich others by his labour rather than himself. Of course such considerations as these do not justify in the abstract the oppressions to which Egypt has habitually been exposed at the hands of Oriental viceroys and pashas ; but they tend to shew that Joseph did not do more than was consistent with the condition of the country, with the age in which he lived, and with the position in which he found himself placed at the time^' * From the writer's art. Joseph in DB. ii. 770. 26 EXCURSUS I. The Names of God in Genesis. 1. 'iJloMm. This is the ordinary Heb. word for *God' (Gen. i. 1, 2, 3, &c.): it is plural in form, though construed, with very few exceptions, with a sing, verb or adj., the most probable explanation of the plural being that it is a ' plural of majesty/ or honorific plural, being used to express dignity and greatness \ just as the Heb. words for 'lord' and * master,' are not unfrequently plural in form, even though the reference be to a single person'. The sing. 'Moah is rare, being found only in poetry (50 times, 41 being in Job) and late prose (7 times, — once of the true God, Neh. ix. 17, 6 times of heathen gods, 2 Ch. xxxii. 15, Dan. xi. 37, 38 Us, 39, and the K'tih of 2 K. xvii. 31). The same word, with only vocalic differences, is the ordinary word for 'God' in Aramaic (^eldh) and Arabic ('ildky : it is found also in Sabaean (see on x. 28) and the allied dialects of S. Arabia. The idea originally expressed by the word is unknown. In Arabic 'aliha, according to Arabic lexicographers, is an old Bedawi word meaning to wander about, go hither aiid thither in perplexity and fear, and followed by *to,' to betake oneself to a person by reason of fright and fear, seeking protection* : hence, if really derived from this root, 'ildh might denote God as one to whom one resorted for protection, a refuge^. Whether, however, 'ildh is really derived from 'aliha is far from certain : so that this meaning of '«/aA, ^Eloah cannot be regarded as more than con- jecturaP._ 2. 'El. This is the ordinary word for ' God' in Assyrian and Phoe- nician (both as an appellative and in proper names) : it is found also in the S. Arabian dialects, though (except in proper names, in which it is 1 See G.-K. § 1248, and Kautzsch, art. Names in EncB. § 114; and cf. above, p. 14. a See, for instance, the Heb. of Gen. xlii. 30, Is. xix. 4; Ex. xxi. 9, Is. 1. 3 (G.-K. § 124'). In Ethiopic, Amldk, meaning properly * lords,' is the general word for * God' (Dillm. Lex. Aeth. p. 151). Elohim is used also often, as a real plural, of heathen deities. » 'Allah' is Hldh with the art., contracted from al-Hldh. * Lane, Arab. Lex. p. 82. "5 It would hardly, in view of the meaning of the root, denote Him, as has been suggested, as an object of dread. » Cf. Kautzsch, EncJB. art. Names, § 115. THE NAMES OF GOD IN GENESIS 403 very common i) not as frequently as Hldh: in Aram., Arab., and Eth it occurs only mproper names,— often in Aram., rarely in Arab." and Eth. In Heb. 'El appears to have formed no part of the ordinary spoken language, being found only in the following connexions: (1) in poetry, very frequently, e.g. 73 times in the Psalms, 55 times in Job, 21 times m Isaiah (including both parts), and occasionally in the other prophets; (2) in proper names (in which in Heb. 'Sloah is never used), very frequently, as Ishmael, Israel, Bethel, Jezreel, Elkanah, Elijah, Ehsha'; (3) m prose, rarely, and chiefly when some epithet is attached to it, as in 'a jealous God' (N:p ^x), Ex. xx. 5, al, 'the great God,' or *the faithful God' Q>'\^^T\ "jKn, \m:r\ ^sn), Dt. vii. 9, x. 17. The occurrences of 'El in Genesis (excluding proper names) are— jlW ^PN * God most High,' xiv. 18, 19, 20, 22. 'i<:i !?N ' God of seeing,' xvi. 13. n^ b^ 'God Almighty (?),' xvii. 1, xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, xliii. 14, xlviii. 3, and to be read also in xlix. 25 : see further below, p. 404 ff. pbiy ^N * God everlasting,' xxi. 33. h^T\^1 bK(n) *The God of Bethel,' xxxi. 13, xxxv. 7 (here the name of a place). h^-\^^ >n'?N ^N * God, the God of Israel,' xxxiii. 20 (name of an altar). ^"7^ nN"i3n ^xn * The God who appeared unto thee,' xxxv. 1. ^nx n:yn pxn * The God who answered me,' xxxv. 3. n^DN ;n^« b^NH *33N ' I am God, the God of thy father,' xlvi. 3. TnK !?N» *The God of thy father,' xlix. 25 (in Jacob's Blessing). In the other historical books '^roccurs only — (a) with epithets attached, mostly in passages belonging to the more elevated prose style, Ex. vi. 3 ^ElShaddai)', xx. 5 ('a jealous God'-, so xxxiv. 14", Dt iv. 24, v. 9, vl 15, Jos. xxiv. 19), xxxiv. 6 ('a gracious and merciful God'-, hence Neh. ix. 31; of. Dt. iv. 31), Dt. vii. 9 ('the faithful God'), 21 ('a great and terrible God'), x. 17 (*the great, the mighty, and the terrible God'; hence Jer. xxxii. 18, Neh. i. 5, ix. 32, Dan. ix. 4), Jos. iii. 10 ('the living God'), Jud. ix. 46 (^El-b'rith, *the God of the covenant,' cf. ' Baal of the covenant,' v. 4) ; (&) in poetical passages, Ex. XV. 2, 11 (plur.), Nu. xxiii. 8, 19, 22, 23, xxiv. 4, 8, 16, 23, Dt. xxxii. 4, 12, 18, 21, xxxiii. 26, 1 S. ii. 3, 2 S. xxii. 31, 32, 33, 48, xxiii. 5; {c) otherwise, Ex. xxxiv. 14% Nu. xii. 13 (text doubtful), xvi. 22 ('0 God'), Dt. iil 24, Jos. xxii. 22 his {'God of gods'). ^ Comp. Almodad (perhaps, with other vowels, meaning *God loves') and Abima'el (*God is a father '= the Heb. AhVel) in Gen. x. 26, 28: see DB. or EncB. svv. 2 Chiefly in the half-Aramaic, half- Arabic, Nabataean inscriptions of 1 cent. b.o. — 3 cent. A.D. In the time of Mohammed 'El was an unknown word to the Arabs. Comp. the Biblical names from jDlaces E. or SE. of Palestine, the Aramaean Kemu'el, Bethu'el (Gen. xxii. 21, 22), Elyada' (1 K. xi. 23), and Hazael; Ishmael and Adbe'el (Gen. xxv. 13) ; the Midianite Elda'ah (xxv. 4) and Ee'uel (Ex. ii. 18) ; and the Edomite Eliphaz, Re'u'el, Mehetab'el, and Magdi'el (Gen. xxxvi. 4, 39, 43). 26—2 404 EXCURSUS I The etymological meaning of ^El is however as obscure as that of ^Eloah. At first sight, especially to one unacquainted with the Semitic languages, it seems as if two names, each denoting ' God,' and each containing the common element *el,' must be connected with each other: but for Semitic roots of the types ^-IN and ^^ to be connected in meaning is against general analogy*. If ^El stood by itself, the most plausible explanation of it would be to regard it as formed (like ^V. witness^ from n-iy) from ^•'l^^, whether with the meaning to he strong y for which there is some support ^ and which was formerly the generally accepted etymology^, or with the meaning to he in front (in Arab, to precede, he foremost^ preside, rule), which would give for 'El the meaning leader, lord\ a suitable term for a primitive tribal deity ; but the originally short e in ^El (which appears not only in Heb. names such as "^^^f^^ and ^<•1^7^^, but also especially in the Ass. ilu) is a serious objection to this explanation. Other explanations that have been suggested are not less questionable. We must rest content with the knowledge that there were two Semitic words, 'ildh and il{u), both of uncertain etymology, but both undoubtedly denoting ' God,' and both probably existing already side by side before the different Semitic peoples had begun to separate from their common home: in after times, some of the Semitic peoples preferred one of the two synonyms, while others preferred the other; in one or two cases both remained in use, though they were not in practice used quite indiscriminately''. 3. 'El Shaddai (^!i^ ^^\ rendered conventionally by ' God Al- mighty'®; but the real meaning of Shaddai is extremely uncertain, neither tradition nor philology throwing any certain light upon it. (a) The lxx. in Gen. and Ex. use strangely my {thy, their) God for ^ Still, as even Noldeke suggests, ^?^? might conceivably be a very ancient ex- pansion of a biliteral root ^{<. . . * Esp. in the expression '**V ?N? K^"* *it is according to the power of my hand' Gen. xxxi. 29 al. {Lex. 43^); the etym. meaning of ?NI in Ez. xxxi. 11, and of D^^N*. D^^^^?, in Ex. xv. 15, Ez. xvii. 13, xxxi. 14, xxxii. 21, 2 K. xxiv. 15, Job xli. 25 (Heb. 17), is uncertain; it might be either mighty (so RV.) or leader, chief (from the other sense of >1N, mentioned above), cf. Lex. 18*, 42*. El is also rendered laxvphi 19 times by lxx. (e.g. Ps. vii. 11) ; this is likewise the regular rend, of Aquila, and the usual rend, of Symm. and Theod., esp. of Theod. : see e.g. Dt. iii. 24, vi. 15, Ps. xvi. 1, 1. 1 in Field's Hexapla. 3 See e.g. Ges. Thes. pp. 42, 47, 48. * So Noldeke, though not confidently. ^ See further on these two words the Excursus at the end of Spurrell's Notes on the Heb. Text of Genesis, with the references; Bathgen's Beitrdge zur Sem. Bel.-Gesch. 1888, p. 270 ff., 297 ff.; Kautzsch's art. on Divine Names in the EncB. III. 3323—6; and Kittel's art. Elohim in the Prot. Eealencyklopddie, ed. 3, vol. v. p. 316. 8 On the occurrences, see p. 185, with n. 1 ; and add the pr. names (all in P) Zurishaddai, ' Shaddai is my rock,' Nu. i. 6, 'Ammishaddai, ' Shaddai is my father's kinsman,' v. 12, and Shaddai'ur, ' Shaddai is a flame,' if Shede'ur in v. 5 should be so vocalized : cf. Gray, Heb. Pr. Names, p. 196 f. THE NAMES OF GOD IN GENESIS 406 'El Shaddai: elsewhere they represent Shaddai hy ^eos (Nu. xxiv. 16, Is. xiii. 6), Kvpio9 (9 times in Job), TravroKpdTwp (14 times in Job), KV/3t09 TravTOKpaTQip (twice in Job), 6 Ttt TrdvTa Trotrfo-as (Job viii. 3), 6 kirovpdvLo% (Ps. Ixviii. 15), o ^605 rov ovpavov (Ps. xci. l) : Pesh. has 12 times in Job ^ron the strong one (elsewhere it either transliterates, or represents by 'God' or 'the Highest'): the Targums transliterate : Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion^ render by iKavds^ which, however, very probably, merely gives expression to an improbable Rabbinical etymology n-K^ 'he that is sufficient' (so Rashi on Gen. xvii. 1), which may also underlie the Massoretic vocalization Shaddai (already in Ez. x. 5 lxx. SaSSai) : Vulg. has mostly omnipotens. (b) The Heb. verb shddad means to overpower ^ treat with violence, devastate (Jud. v. 27 RVm., of Sisera, Is. xv. 1, xxiii. 1, 14; in EVV. often spoU, as Is. xxxiii. 1, Ps. xvii. 9); and the subst. shod means devastation, destruction, Is. li. 19 (AV., RV., desolation), lix. 7 and Ix. 18 (AY. wasting, RV. desolation): if, however, Shaddai were derived from this, it would, as Prof. Davidson rightly remarks (DB. II. 199^), mean 'not the AJmighty, but "the destroyer," signifying presumably the storm-god, or possibly the scorching sun-god,' or, it might be, * the Waster/ with reference (see e.g. Job xii. 14 — 25) to the destructive aspects of God's providence. It is no doubt conceivable that the term might originally have expressed some such material idea: but if so, it must by long usage have been forgotten: for as used actually in the OT., Shaddai certainly does not suggest the idea of Waster or Destroyer (see e.g. Gen. xvii. 1, Ps. xci. l)^ Others explain Shaddai as signifying the Over-powerer, i.e. either the God who manifests Himself in might, and coerces nature to His will*, or, in a more historical sense, the God who in the patriarchal age was conceived principally as ruling by might ('der naturgewaltige'), but whose ethical and spiritual nature was only more distinctly revealed after\vards^ This meaning of Shaddai is however quite conjectural: for in actual usage the verb shddad always involves the idea of violence : though again it is conceivable that in the age when Shaddai was formed from it, it had not yet acquired this nuance, and meant simply to overpower. 1 See Field, Hexapla, on Ez. x. 5. Dillm. says by an oversight that Theod. now and then renders by laxvpoi '• hut in Gen. xliii. 14, xlviii. 3, Ex. vi. 3, where El Shaddai is represented by iaxvpos Uapos, not only is the rend, not referred to Theod. (it belongs rather to Aq.: see Field, ii. Auctarium,-p. 3, on Gen. xvii. 1), but iffx^P^^ corresponds to El (see p. 404, n. 2), and Uavbi to Shaddai. 2 So LXX. in Eu. i. 20, 21, Job xxi. 15, xxxi. 2, xxxix. 32 (xl. 2), Ez. i. 24 A [the clause is omitted in B]; but, as Field, Hexapla, ad locc, shews, these passages, except at least Eu. i. 20, 21, are really insertions in the lxx. from the text of Theodotion. ' Konig, accepting the same etymology, explains {Lehrgeb. ii. 118) by violenta potentia praeditus ; but neither in actual usage is the idea of violence associated with Shaddai. It is true, we have in Is. xiii. 6 = Joel i. 15 the assonance ' as shod from Shaddai shall it come'; but whether this can be taken as evidence of the real meaning of Shaddai, is very uncertain. 4 Delitzsch; Oehler, Theol. of the OT. § 37; Dillmann, AT. Theol. p. 214 f. ^ Bathgen, Beitrdge znr Sent. Rel.-Gesch. p. 295 f., cf. 192-7. 406 EXCURSUS I (c) In Assyrian shadu is the common word for * mountain*; and Sargon and Asshurbanipal both speak of Bel and Asshur as shadu rabUi 'the great mountain' {KB. ii. 79, 83, 217); there occur also such proper names as Bel-shad^a, Marduk-shadiia, * Bel or Marduk is my mountain/ Sin-shadtini, *Sin (the moon-god) is our mountain*: it has hence been conjectured (Friedrich Delitzsch; Hommel, AHT. p. 110 f.^) that this is the origin of the Heb. Shaddai^ and that it means properly ' my mountain' (cf. *my rock,' Ps. xviii. 2 al.)y or even, — for the Ass. shadu occurs sometimes with this meaning, — 'lord.' There is no apparent reason why the termination -u or -ua should be changed to -ai\ but perhaps the word was originally Hebraized as Shaddl, 'my mountain' (or 'my lord'). Even, however, if this etymology be correct, usage shews that all consciousness of such having been the original meaning of the name had been lost by the Hebrews ^ It must be evident from what has been said that as regards the ' real meaning of Shaddai, we are entirely in the dark : neither Hebrew nor any of the cognate Semitic languages offers any convincing explanation of it. Whatever, however, be the etymology of the name, it is true that the choice of it does seem sometimes to be determined by the thought of the power of God, whether in the way of protection and blessing (Gen. xvii. 1, &c. ; Job xxix. 5 ; Ps. xci. 1), or in the way of authority, punishment, or trial (Job v. 17, vi. 4, viii. 3, xxi. 20, xxvii. 2 ; Ps. Ixviii. 14 ; Is. xiii. 6). We may therefore acquiesce, at least provisionally, in the now familiar rendering 'Almighty,' re- membering however that it is far from certain that this is the real meaning of the word, that the 'All' involved in 'Almighty' is not to be pressed, and that certainly no dogmatic inferences can be legitimately drawn from the term. Pearson (On the Creed, fol. 45) insists strongly upon the idea of omni- potence, in what he terms its ' operative ' aspect, involved in Shaddai : but his argument (fol. 45 w.) is altogether invalid. It of course may be granted that a Being able to destroy utterly, i.e. in the strict, metaphysical sense of the word, to annihilate, must be endued with omnipotent power ; but there is no proof whatever that shddad does mean *to destroy utterly^: it is simply a general term signifying to treat with violence, to spoil or waste, and it is used often (e.g. Ps. xvii. 9, Ez. xxxii. 12: R.V. spoil) with a human subject; so that the same argument would prove man, — and even an animal (Jer. v. 9), — to be omnipotent likewise! ^ It is true that in lxx. iravTOKparap represents HK^ 14 times ; but it ought to be remembered that Kvpios TravTOKpdrcop is used in many parts of the lxx. to represent Jehovah of Hosts ; and that it is this expression, rather than Shaddai, which in course of time came to suggest to the Hebrews the ideas which we express by the term Omnipotent (see the writer's art Lord op Hosts in DB.). 1 Cf. Zimmem, KAT.^ 355, 356, 358 (thinks a connexion with shadu possible). 2 Ball {Light from the East, p. 151) would derive 'El Shaddai from an original Assyrian II shadde, ' God of the mountains.' ^ Pearson's alternative explanation, the {All-)suffi,cient, depends upon the im. probable Babbinical etymology noticed above (p. 405 tcyp). THJE NAMES OF GOD IN GENESIS 407 4. F«^w^^'(n^.in!; apocopated in poetry [49 times, 23 times being in * Hallelujah'] to Yah, and in compound proper names, at the beginning to PAo-, Yd-, and at the end to -yahu, -ydhy . This is the personal name of the God of Israel. It is greatly more common than Elohim in the OT. generally, though it is avoided by particular writers'. In form it is, to all appearance, the third person imperfect of njn, to he, used as a subst., of exactly the same type as Isaac, Jacob, JephtJiah (more exactly Yizhdk, Ya'dkob, Yiphtdk); and in Ex. iii. 14 (E) it is explained, the third person being changed into the first, by ri::r]^ l^t? a'nx, * I am that I am,' or rather, more exactty*, ' I am wont to be that which I am wont to be,' or * I wiU be that which I will be' (A. B. Davidson, W. R. Smith). This explanation (1) implies that Yahweh's nature can be defined only by itself ; and (2) declares that, while He is, as opposed to non-existent heathen deities. He exists, not simply in an abstract sense (lxx. cyw cI/xl 6 wv), but actively, it is His nature ever to express Himself anew, ever to manifest Himself under a fresh aspect to the world (Oehler^ Delitzsch), or (if the future rend, be adopted) that He will be (to His people) what He will be, i.e. will shew Himself to Israel under the manifold 1 The form 'Jehovah' is a philologioally impossible one: it is a hybrid word, fdrmed by combining the consonants of Yahweh with the vowels of Adonai (*Lord'), which is the word that the Massorites intended to be read by their vocalization T\)r\). It has no support from antiquity, being first used, so far as is known, by Petrus Galatinus in 1518. The pronunciation Yahweh is supported both by philology (it is a natural form of the impf . of HI H ; and is also presupposed by the apocopated form -ydhu), and by ancient tradition (Clem. Al. Strom, v. 6. 34 gives the form 'laoue or 'laoval; and Theodoret, Qaaest. 15 in Exod. says that the Samaritans pronounced the sacred name 'la^^). 2 Mentioned also on the Moabite Stone, 1. 18, where Mesha* boasts of having dragged the 'vessels of Yahweh' before Chemosh. 8 P does not use it till Ex. vi. 2, 3 (p. vii) ; E uses Elohim in Genesis almost exclusively; but after Ex. iii. 14 f. only occasionally, as Ex. xiii. 17 — 19, xviii., xx. 1, 19—21. Certain later writers also avoided Yahweh. Thus it does not occur in Ecclesiastes, or in Daniel (except in ch. ix.); the Chronicler, when writing in- dependently (i.e. in passages not excerpted from Sam. or Kings) is apt to shew a preference for Elohim (though he also uses Yahweh), and sometimes changes Yahweh of his source into Elohim (comp. e.g. 2 Ch. xxii. 12, xxiii. 9, xxv. 24, xxxiii. 7 with 2 K. xi. 3, 10, xiv. 14, xxi. 7); and the exceptional preponderance of Elohim over Yahweh in Book II of the Psalms (Ps. xlii. — Ixxii.), and in Ps. Ixxiii.— Ixxxiii., as compared with the rest of the Psalter, shews that here the editor, or collector, must have substituted it for an original Yahweh (cf. also Ps. liii. 2, 4, 5«, 6 with xiv. 2, 4, 6, 7). * The imperfect tense in Hebrew does not denote continued action (which is expressed by the participle), but either reiterated (habitual) or future action. The reiteration expressed by it may belong to either the past (as Gen. ii. 6 'used to go up ') or the present (as Gen. x. 9 'it is wont to be said,' Ex. xviii. 15 ' are wont to come '). In the latter case, it is commonly rendered in EVV. by the present tense (as Ps. i. 2 'doth he meditate,' 3 'bringeth forth," doth not wither,' 'doeth,' 4 'driveth away,' &c.); the Heb., however, in all such cases denotes reiteration, and expresses, more distinctly than is done by the English 'present' tense, what is habitual or customary (see numerous examples in Davidson's Heb. Syntax, § 44, or the writer's Hebrew Tenses, §§ '60 — 36). 6 OT. TJieology, § 39. 408 EXCURSUS I attributes of goodness, mercy, love, &c.', — in either case, the implica- tion being that what He is wont to be, or will be, cannot be adequately expressed in words. Even with the rend. * I am that I am,' the verb is to be understood as implying not simply existence as such, or even self-existence, but active, self-manifesting existence ^ Whatever uncer- tainty, in view of the ambiguity of the Heb. tense employed, may thus rest on the exact shade of meaning expressed by r\'>ni^ t^n* n'>ni<, it can hardly be doubted that the general idea which the writer connected with the name Yakweh was that of a Being who both is, and manifests His being. This is certainly the sense that must have been attached to the name Yahweh by the Israelites from the time when Ex. iii. 14 was written. The possibihty cannot however be excluded that the intention of Ex. iii. 14 is to attach to the name a special theological sense, and that originally it may have had some other meaning. Grammatically Yahweh might be also the impf. of the Hiphil or causative conjugation : this would give the meaning He who makes to he, i.e. either the creator, or the life-giwr (Kuenen, Schrader, Schultz, OT. Theol. ii. 134, though not confidently), or He who hidings to pass (cf. n^n in 1 K. xiii. 32), i.e. the performer of His promises (Le Clerc [1696], Lagarde, Nestle). The more primary meaning of nin^ as Arabic shews (Kor. liii. 1), was to fall (cf. Job xxxvii. 6); and so it has been conjectured that the name may have meant originally He who causes to fall (sc. rain), or He who overthrows (with lightning), and. denoted the god who manifested himself in the storm (as Yahweh, Ps. xviii. 9 ff., and frequently). These explanations are, however, quite hypothetical: it is an objection to the first that the Hiphil of nin^ nsn, to he, is very rare in the Semitic languages, being found only in Syriac, and there in late writers. It cannot be denied that the name Yahweh may have originally had some physical meaning ; but if so, it is quite uncertain what it was. To the Hebrews, it must have meant what it is ex- plained to mean in Ex. iii. 14; and this is the only meaning with which, in dealing with the Old Testament, we have to do. That the name was a very ancient one in Israel is apparent from its form : for hdwdh, the verb from which it is derived, though retained in Aramaic, and (with the meaning to fall, &c.) in Arabic, went out of use in classical Hebrew, and is everywhere (except 6 times ^), even 1 Comp. A. B. Davidson {DB. ii. 199''), ' What He will be is left unexpressed — He will be with them, helper, strengthener, deliverer.' Eashi (on Ex. iii. 14) long ago gave an explanation on the same track, * I will be with them in their affliction what I will he with them in the subjection of their future captivities.' Ewald, in his last work {Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, 1873, ii. 337 f.) explained the passage as signifying 'J will be it,' viz. what I have promised to be {v. 12), I will be the performer of My promises. 2 The verb hdydh 'does not mean '« to be" essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally' (A. B. Davidson, I.e.). Comp. Kittel, p. 534 of the art. cited p. 409 n. 3 Gen. xxvii. 29, Is. xvi. 4, Job xxxvii. 6, Neh. vi. 6, Eccl. ii. 22, xi. 3. In the last three passages its use is no doubt due to Aramaic influence; in Job xxxvii. 6 it may be an Arabism ; its use in Is. xvi. 4 might be explained by the supposition that it was the form used in Moab : why it is used in Gen. xxvii. 29 must remain uncertain. It reappears in the post-Biblical Hebrew of the Mishna, &c., doubtless THE NAMES OF GOD IN GENESIS 409 in the earliest documents that have been preserved to ns, superseded by hdydh. In regard to both YaJiweh, and also 'SloMm, 'El, considered above, it must be remembered that what is really of importance is not the ultimate etymology of the words, but what they came actually to denote : the name Yahweh, for instance, may have originally expressed some physical action, it might even, as Hommel has conjectured \ be the Hebrew transformation of a Babylonian Ai or Ea: these are matters of purely speculative interest; all that is of real theological interest or importance is to know what the words came to mean to the Hebrews, and what are the character and attributes of the Being whom they are used in the Old Testament to denote. The case is exactly parallel to that of ^€05, Dens, and *God': nothing can be learnt respecting the Divine nature from either the etymology or the early history of these words: our knowledge of the Divine nature can be learnt only from the study of the ideas which, whether derived from natural or revealed religion, we associate with the Being whom they are used to denote. With Shaddai the case is no doubt dillerent : this, it is tolerably clear, must denote some particular attribute of the Divine nature, which must have been expressed by the word Skiddai: unfortunately, however, we cannot say with confidence what this attribute is : for philology fails us, and the verdict of usage is not sufficiently distinct". 5. The Mighty One of Jacob (3^ '^^2^?). A poetical title, only in Gen. xlix. 24, and, borrowed thence, in Is. xlix. 26, Ix. 16, and in a late Psalm, Ps. cxxxii. 2, 5 ; also, with Israel for Jacob, in Is. i. 24. 'Abir does not occur except in these passages; hut^abblr is a word occurring 16 times in poetry, and once (1 S. xxi. 7) in prose, meaning strong, mighty, used sometimes of mighty men (as Job xxi v. 22, xxxiv. 20), once fig. of angels (Ps. Ixxviii. 25), but most commonly as a poet, term either for bulls, Ps. 1. 13, Jer. xlvi. 15 BVm. (of Apis), and (fig. of strong or fierce men) Is. x. 13, xxxiv. 7; Ps. xxii. 12, Ixviii. 30; or for war-horses, Jud. v. 22, Jer. viii. 16, xlvi. 15 (RV. text), xlvii. 3, 1. 11. In the expression 'Mighty One of Jacob,' the punctuation "^^^S? (constr. of "^^5^) is probably chosen for the purpose of differenti- ating the word from "^^^K, 6. The Fear of Isaac (POV? "ins): only Gen. xxxi. 42, 53. 7. The stone of Israel (p^i^\ I^X). An uncertain Divine title, found in Gen. xlix, 24, according to the rendering adopted in RVm. : see the note ad loc. ; and cf. also the Addenda. through the inlluence of Aramaic. Hdwdh, to live, preserved in Heb., if the etymology given in Gen. ii. 20 is correct, only in ' Eve ' (Heb. Hawwdh), but used regularly in Phoenician, has been similarly superseded in both Heb. and Aramaic by Imydh. 1 But upon very insufficient grounds {AHT. pp. 113—116, 144 f., 226; Expos. Times, Dec. 1898, p. 144 ; and elsewhere). 2 See further, on the name Yahweh, a paper by the present writer in the Studia Biblica, i. (1885), esp. p. 12 ff., with the references; Kautzsch, art. Names (§§ 109 — 113) in the EncB.; and Kittel, art. Jahve in the Realencyklopddie, ed. 3, vol. VIII. (1900). EXCURSUS 11. On Gen. xlix. 10 ('Until Shiloh come'). Of this difficult and uncertain passage, it seems, unfortunately, impossible to obtain a perfectly satisfactory interpretation. I. The following are the chief objections to the rend, of RV. (=AV.). (1) If the word be a personal name, and a title of the Messiah, it must be significant : but from ' Shiloh ' no meaning suitable for such a purpose can be extracted; it cannot, for instance, mean 'peaceful or peace-bring er : for the form of the word is not that which a derivative of shdldh, to he at ease, would have^; moreover, shdldh itself has not the associations of shdlom *j)eace' (Is. ix. 6\ but often denotes careless, worldly ease (e.g. Job xii. 6, Ez. xvi. 49). (2) No ancient version understood the passage in this sense : 'Shiloh' is everywhere else in the OT. the name of the place (1 S. i. 3, &c.); it appears first as a title of the Messiah in a fanciful passage of the Talmud (see p. 413); and the rend, 'until Shiloh come' is found in no known version of the OT. till that of Seb. Miinster in 1534. Nor is there any allusion to ' Shiloh' as a title of the Messiah in any other part of either the OT. or the NT., or in any patristic writing. (3) To those who take a historical view of the growth of Messianic prophecy, it must be evident that the figure whom we call the 'Messiah' was — as the very name indicates* — originally the ideal Icing of Israel, and presupposes for its formation the existence of the monarchy^, — in fact, though a second David is once, for a moment, looked forward to by Hosea (iii. 5), the character of such a king was for the first time portrayed with any distinctness by Isaiah (ix. 6 f., xi. 1 — 10) : it is thus very much out of harmony with the general analogy of prophecy to find a personal ideal ruler anticipated — and anticipated, moreover, 1 * Shiloh' can only be derived from a root PltJ^ or b*^^. Shilyun (if this were the form), from shdldh, might mean one at ease or in prosperity (but not peace- giver) ; cf. ^elyori, ' high,' from ^dldh, * to go up.' 2 ' The anointed one,' — in post-Biblical Jewish writings the full title is t^n^K'D fc^DpJD ' the anointed king,' — a title based upon the expression ' Jehovah's anointed,' often applied in the OT. to the Israelitish king (1 S. xxiv. 6 &c.). (The term is not used in the OT. in its technical sense: on Dan. ix. 25, 26 see the note in the writer's Commentary on Daniel in the Gavibridge Bible.) » Cf. DB. III. 121 f.; Kiehm, Messianic Prophecy'^ (1891), pp. 102 £E., 121; F. H. Woods, The Hope of Israel, p. 117 ff. ON GENESIS XLIX. 10 411 in such vague and doubtful IsLRgnage— before the great prophets had even conceived the figure of the ideal king. The reading of the passage presupposed generally by the ancient ver- sions is n?^ {shelloh}) for nPK>2 (shiloh), ^ being an alternative, and(mostly) poetical form of the relative pronoun for ^^^% found in certain parts of the OT. This reading may be construed: (1) until there come tlmt which (or he who) is his; (2) until he come to whom (or whose) is..., the sentence in the latter case being without a subject, and requiring either 'it,' or some word expressive of dominion, to be supplied. Of these render- ings, (1) is represented by the Lxx. Until the things reserved for him come (ew9 la.v IkOri ra d-n-oKit/xeva avTw), which is a legitimate, though paraphrastic rendering of the text mentioned above, and is the first alternative reading of RVm. (2)^ is represented in the variant found often in mss. of the lxx., and in patristic citations ^ U7itil he come for whom it is reserved (ews eav €X.6r} w aTroKcirat), which however is open to question as a rendering of 'the Heb., as it interpolates the absent subject (until he come whose [it is]) : this is the second alter- native reading given in RVm., where it is introduced, it may be observed, in terms simply recording the fact of its being an ancient rendering, and implying no judgement on the question whether it is a legitimate translation of the (presumable) Hebrew n?K^ Nl* ^3 ly. The same rend, is found in the Pesh. ; and it is implied in the para- phrases of the Targums, the word traditionally suppHed being 'the Kingdom.' Ez. xxi. 27 (Heb. 32), * until he come whose right it is,' has been supposed to contain an allusion to the passage as thus read and understood. The following are the actual renderings : Pesh. : * The sceptre shall not depai-t from Judah, nor a declarer [of the law] from between his feet, until he shall come whose it is.' The word for *it* is fern., and in the existing text there is nothing to which to refer it. The Pesh. is, however, especially in the Pent., dependent upon traditional Jewish exegesis; and no doubt the pron. refers to 'Jiingdom' understood (see below); the Syriac Father, Aphraates {c. 330—350 A.D.), in his Homilies (p. 320, ed. Wright), actually quotes the verse with the addition of * the kingdom.' On^. : * A ruler {lit. one exercising authority) shall not depart from those of the house of Judah, nor a scribe from his sons' sons for ever, until Messiah comes, whose is the kingdom.' * From between his feet ' is paraphrased by ' from his sons* sons,' as in lxx. by eK rav fiijpcov avToVy on account of Dt. xxviii. 57 (lxx. Sta tcoi* fiT]p<av avTT/s). Targ. Jerus. : ' Kings cease not from those of the house of Judah, nor the 1 With rh for i^, as Jer. xvii. 24 HI for U : cf. p. 412 n. 1. * In the Massoretio text PiVk^; but as the ancient versions abundantly shew see the writer's Notes on Samuel, p. xxxiii f.), the plena scriptio is of late Intro- duction ; and many Heb. mss. have TV?^. 3 E.g. Justin, ApoL i. 32, 54; Iren. iv. 24; Euseb. H. E. i. 6. The rend. ?wj 4d.v ^Xd-g rA diroKeineva adrip is found (e.g.) in Justin, Tryph. 62; Orig. c. Gets. § 53; Eu8. Eel. Proph. i. 8; Athan. de Inc. Verbi § 40. 412 EXCURSUS II learned, teachers of the law, from his sons' sonR, until the time when the King Messiah comes, to whom the kingdom belongeth.' Targ. Ps.-Jon.: 'Kings and rulers cease not from those of the house of Judah, nor scribes, teachers of the law, from his seed, until the time when the King Messiah, the youngest of his sons, shall come.' npK^ is here explained curiously as his youngest child\ being connected fancifully with nnj^SJ' Dt. xxviii. 57, which is rendered by Onlj:. [wrongly] 'the youngest of her sons.' The same interpretation is adopted by several of the mediaeval Jews, notably by David Kimchi (d. 1235), who expressly explains tO^ as meaning 'his son'j and it is very probably embodied in the Massoretic punctuation Tw^. The Vulgate has the isolated rend, donee veniat qui mittendtts est {rh^ read as ^^^). We thus see that anti(][uity, both Jewish and Christian, interpreted the passage in a Messianic sense: but this sense was not bound up with a personal name ' Shiloh,' but partly with an entirely different vocalization and interpretation of the Heb. word in question, and partly with the general promise of ideal sovereignty to Judah, ex- pressed in the verse. The rend, until that which is his shall come is grammatically quite legitimate. The rend, until he shall come, whose [it is] is doubtful, though isolated cases do occur in Heb. of sentences in which the subject is not expressed, but has to be understood from the contexf^; and the case might be similar here. There is, however, another difficulty, which attaches to both these renderings, viz. the form of the relative ^. It is true, this occurs frequently in the OT., but it occurs in it peculiarly, and only in books, or passages, which were either, it seems, written in North Palestine, or are late''. Thus it occurs exclusively in the Song of Songs, 68 times in Ecclesiastes, thrice in Jonah, four times in Lam., 19 times in Ps. cxxii. — cxlvi., once in Ezr., twice in Ch., but in all the historical books from Gen. to 2 K., only Gen. vi. 3 (very doubtfully), Jud. v. 7 (Deborah's Song), vi. 17, vii. 12, viii. 26, 2 K. vi. 11 (if the text is correct), and in none of the other prophets or poetical books, except (doubtfully) in Job xix. 29. Hence it is a form which we do not naturally expect to find in an early and, presumably. Judaic text. Still, we are hardly in a position to say that it could not so occur, or to rule out of court, upon this ground alone, a rendering which implies it. II. Here is the passage of the Talmud (Sanh. 98*'), in which n^^ti^ occurs as a title of the Messiah. The passage, in order to be properly understood, must be cited at length : — 1 The suffix of the 3rd sing. masc. being written with il, as happens occa- sionally: e.g. in nn^i;, nh-1D, in Gen. xlix. 11 {G.-K. § 91"). 2 E.g. Ps. xvi. 8 ' because [he is] on my right hand.' 3 It is the usual form of the relative in the Mishna; and is very common in other post-Bib] ical Hebrew. I ON GENESIS XLIX. 10 413 * Rab said, The world was created only for the sake of David : Samuel said, It was for the sake of Moses : R. Yohanan said, It was only for the sake of the Messiah. What is his name ? Those of the school of R. Shela^ say, Shiloh is his name, as it is said, Until his son (Heb. shiloh) come. Those of the school of R. Yannai say, Yinnon is his name, as it is said (Ps. Ixxii. 17), Let his name be for ever, before the sun let his name he propagated (Heb. yinnon). Those of the school of R. Haninah say, ^aninah is his name, as it is said (Jer. xvi. 13), For I will give you no favour (Heb. haninah). And some say, Menaljem is his name, as it is said (Lam. i. 16), For comforter (Heb. mendhem\ and restorer of my soul, is far from me.' This is a genuine specimen of Rabbinical exegesis; but its value in determining the real meaning of a passage in the OT. is evidently nil', the authority of the pupils of R. Shela is of no greater weight in determining the true sense of Gen. xlix. 10, than that of the pupils of R. Yannai in determining the true sense of Ps. Ixxii. 17. It is, however, in this doubtful company that 'Shiloh' is first cited as a name of the Messiah, though we do not learn what the word was understood to signify I III. OtJier interpretations. The first marg. of RV. * Till he come to Shiloh' is grammatically unexceptionable (see 1 S. iv. 12) : it was proposed first in modern times by W. G. Teller in 1766, was adopted by Herder^ and Ewald*, and also by Delitzsch, Dillmann^ and Strack, in their Commentaries. In favour of this view Del. urges the great philological difficulty alluded to above, as attaching to the popular explanation of the name ' Shiloh,' and observes that elsewhere in the OT. the word denotes regularly the place of that name in the tribe of Ephraim (1 S. i. — iv., &c.) : then, looking at the history, he supposes the reference to be to the assembling of Israel at Shiloh, described in Jos. xviii. 1 [P], 8 — 10 [J], when, the period of wandering and conflict being now over, Judah, it may be supposed, lost the pre-eminence, or tribe-leadership held by it before (Nu. x. 14 [P]; cf. Jud. i. 2, xx. 18): the obedience of the peoples was realized primarily in the victories of David (2 S. viii. ; Ps. xviii. 43), while at the same time it^ would include that ideal relation of Israel to the heathen, of which the prophets speak more distinctly. Upon this view, as no royalty attached to Judah at this early time, ^'^p. in -y. 10* will, of course, 1 A teacher of the 3rd century a.d. (Bacher, Die Agada der Bab. Amor&er, p. 35). 2 It is rendered above ' his son,' as this was the explanation current formerly (p. 412) among the Jews, except by those who read the word n?C^ * whose.' By another Eabbinieal artifice the word was divided into two ()7 ^^), * Until gifts shall come to him' I See further on the history of the exegesis of the passage, esp. in the hands of the mediaeval Jews, the writer's study in the Journal of Fhilology, Yol. XIV. (1885), pp. 4—22. 3 Vom Geist der Ebr. Poesie, n. 6. 4 Hist. II. 283 f. 5 Provisionally; for Dillm. thinks that a really satisfactory explanation is not to be found. 414 EXCURSUS II denote not a sceptre^ but a staff, the symbol of military power, and must be rendered accordingly (see p. 385). This view is set forth in a specially attractive form by Herder. We see Judah, the honoured of his brethren, victorious after battle, marching in triumphal progress to the national sanctuary (1 S. i. — iv.), and there laying down the emblem of authority in order to enjoy the fruits of peace, while the nations round bow submissive to his sway. It is, however, very doubtful whether it can be sustained: and in spite of the names that can be quoted for it, it has not been viewed with favour by recent scholars. Thus it is historically doubtful whether Judah really enjoyed that early pre-eminence in a united Israel, which this interpretation postulates for it^: Judah had no particular connexion with Shiloh (which was in the tribe of Ephraim) ; and it seems natural to think of t^5^ in v. 10 as suggesting savm^eignty, rather than merely tribal or military pre-eminence ^ On the whole, in view of the difficulties and uncertainty attaching to every proposed reading and interpretation of the clause it must be owned that, — as in the case of other passages which occur from time to time in the poetical and prophetical books of the OT., — it is impossible to say with confidence what its real meaning is. The present writer considered formerly that, — apart from the rend. Till he come to Shiloh, — the only rendering consistent with strict grammar was, — with naturally ^?^ for v''^, — Until that which is his shall come. This, however, yields a somewhat poor sense ; and it is perhaps over- strict to rule out of court the other ancient rendering. Until he shall come whose (it is)'. The element of uncertainty occasioned by the use of ^ (see above) of course still remains. If, however, this be the true rendering of the passage, as it will then presuppose an allusion to an ideal figure, having a right to the * sceptre' of Judah, which is extremely unlikely to have been formed before such an emblem of royalty was known in Judah, it will be later in date than the time of David's accession, if not later than the age of Isaiah. As was pointed out on p. 386, 'O. 11 connects very naturally with m. 8 — 9, so that v. 10 might quite possibly be a later addition to the original Blessing, added at a time when the Messianic hope in Israel had become more distinct. The verse is undoubtedly 'Messianic' in the broader sense of the word, i.e. it anticipates an ideal future for Judah, as the prophets often do for either Israel or Judah, without reference to a personal Messiah (see e.g. Hos. xiv., Is. ii. 2 — 4, iv. 2—6, Ix.): whether it is * Messianic' in the narrower sense of the word, depends upon the question whether or not a personal ideal ruler is referred to in clause c. The principal early promises of ideal future blessings to the patriarchs 1 Comp. p. 385 ; Ottley, Hist, of the Hebrews, p. 137. 2 See further Schultz, OT. Theol. ii. 338—40. For other suggestions and con- ectures respecting the clause, see DB. s.v. Shiloh. « So Schult/., I. c. p. 341 ; and Gunkel. ON GENESIS XLIX. 10 415 or Israel, fall into a consistent series, with a gradually narrowing scope : given in Gen. xii. 2 f. to Abraham, they are limited in xxvi. 2 — 5, 24 to Isaac, in xxv. 23, xxvii. 27 — 29 to Jacob; in 2 S. vii. (Nathan s prophecy), xxiii. 5 (David's *Last Words'), Am. ix. 11 — 15 \ they are attached to the Davidic dynasty in general; in Hos. iii. 5, and esp. in Is. ix. 6 f., xi. 1 — 10, xvi. 5, they centre round a particular ideal ruler of David's line. Gen. xlix. 10, if it contain no reference to a personal ideal ruler, will fall between Gen. xxvii. 27 — 29 and 2 S. vii. ; for Judah is a narrower unity than ' Jacob,' but a broader one than the dynasty founded by David: if, on the contrary, it does contain such a reference, it will fall certainly after 2 S. vii., if not after Hos. iii. 5 and Is. ix. 6 f., xi. 1 — 10, xvi. 5, as well. 1 Notice here (v. 12), as also in Ps. xviii. 43, 44, the same anticipation of rule over (surrounding) nations, which is found also in Gen. xxvii. 29, and in the last clause of Gen. xlix. 10. INDEX. Abel-mizraim 396 f. Abimael 130, 403 n. Abraham and Abram (the names) xlix, 185; date of Abraham xxix Accad 121; 'Accadian' 133 Admah and Zeboiim 127 'all flesh' 87 'Almighty' (Shaddai) 185, 404—6 altars in pre-Mosaic times xviii, xix f., xxiv, 89, 147 'Amalek 161, 315 Amorites 125 f. ; in Babylonia xlviii, 142 n. ; * Amorite ' in E 125 f. Amurri, land of 173 angel of Jehovah 184 anachronisms xv, 207, 250, 304, 338, 380 anthropomorphisms in Genesis xx f. (cf. xxv), 35 f. •appease,' to 293 Arab, Arabia 244 n. •Arabah 168 Aram (= Syria) 129, 223 Ararat 93 Archaeology and the narratives of Genesis xlviii— liii, 167 f., 172 f., 229, 230, 374 f. Archaisms explained — again ( = back) 232 bakemeats 338 brass 70 comfort 192 commune 197 cunning 247 dreadful 265 duke 315 entreat 150 excellent, excellency 382 favour, well favoured, ill favoured 271 grisled 281 intreated, to be 245 journey 151 lien 251 lightly 251 meat 16 meet 41 n. ravin 394 replenish 16 strakes, ringstrahed 278 strange, stranger 187, 282, 308 stricken 194 tell 175 tempt 217 n. Arioch 156 Arpachshad 128 Asher lii, 275, 389 f. Ashkenaz 116 Asshur 121, 128, 243 Asshur, city of 40 Atra-hasis 105 n. Babel 120, 136 ; tower of 132 jff. Babylon, antediluvian kings of 80 ; first dynasty of XXI, 120, 156 n. 1 Babylonia, antiquity of civilization in xxxi — xxxiii Babylonian elements in Genesis 27 ff., 52 f., 106, cf. 80 f. Babylonian story of Creation 27 £f. : of the Flood 103 ff. bdellium 39 Bedawin 182 Beer-lahai-roi 183 Beer-sheba 212, 215, 216, 254 'before' (or 'in front of')=East of 154, 182, 227, 300, cf. 164 Benjamin 18, 348 ff., 367, 393 f. Berossus 27 with n. 2, 28 n., 29 n., 30 n., 80, 103 Bethel 147 f., 264 ff. Bethlehem 311 betrothal 237 bitumen 87, 135, 162 f., 202 f., 395 n. ' bless oneself,' to 220 f. Bronze age, the xli, 68 'broad place' 198 « brother '= relation 152, 163, 237, 270, 283, 287, 399 'butter' (i.e. leben) 193 Buz 223 Cain 62, 63 ff., 71, 72; lessons of the story of 68 Cainites 62, 68—71, 72 f., 80 Calah 121 f. Canaan, Canaanites 108—112, 118, 127, 147 ; ' Canaanite ' in J 126, 147 Caphtor 124 Cassites (Kasshu, Kasshites) 59, 120 cattle in Egypt 371 Chaldees (Heb. Kasdim) 141 Chedorla'omer XVI, 157, 158 n., 171-3 cherubim 60 f. Chesed 223 chronology of Genesis xxv ff., xxx f ., 75, 79 f., 138, 149, 212, 262, 365 n., 368 INDEX 417 circumcision 189 ff. civilization, beginnings of 62 ff., 68 ff. ; Phoenician legends of 73 f. 'coat of many colours' 322 'consume,' to 196 'corn and wine (tirosh)' 268 cosmogony of Genesis 19 ff. ; source of 26 ff.; teaching of 6, 32 ff., 54 ff.; Babylonian cosmogony 27 ff. ; Phoe- nician cosmogony 6, 30 n. covenant 176, 178 creation 3 ; two accounts of in Genesis 2 ff., 35 ff. creation-tablets, Babylonian 27 ff. 'creature' (Heb. soul) 12, 13 'creeping thing' 13 Gush 58, 69, 120 customs, institutions, &c., origin of, explained xvii f., xx, Iviii, 1, 36, 43, 49, 50, 62, 108 Dan 274, 388 f. ; the place 163 Dana, Prof. 24 • days' of Gen. i., xxviii n. 20, 21 f., 26 Dead Sea, the 159; geology of 168 ff. Dedan 119, 240 ' deep,' the 4, 392 ; the * great deep ' 90 dew in Palestine 258 dibs 354 Dinah 276, 302 ff., 307, 366 Dothan 323 'dowry' 304 dreams xxi, 206; in Egypt 342 Dumah 242 duplicate narratives iii, iv, 85 ff., 191, 254 f., 309, 310 ♦E,' term explained xi, xii; contents and literary character of xii — xv; probable date of xvi; other charac- teristics of xix— xxi, 206, 321, 332 f. ' east, children of the ' 268 ♦east wind' (sirocco), the 340 ' eat,' to, in sacrificial sense 289 'Eber 127, 138 f. 'Eden 38 'Eder, tower of 311 Edom, name of 246, 248, country 260, people 261, 312 flf., kings 317 f. Egypt, antiquity of civihzation in XTi-iii f. ; length of Israel's sojourn in xxviii — xxx, 177 Egyptian words in Genesis li n. 'El 402 f. 'El 'Elyon (' God Most High ') 16^ 'El Shaddai viii, xxiii, 185, 404 ff. 'Elam 128 Elishah 116 *Elohim xxiii, 14, 402: see God Elohist iv D. embalming in Egypt 395 'En-gedi 161 f., 171, 172 'En-Mishpat 161 Enoch 77, 78 f. book of 76 n., 78 f., 82 'Ephah (tribe) 240 Ephraim and Manasseh, birth of 346; adopted by Jacob 375 f . ; blessing of 317 f., 390 f. Ephrath 311 Erech xxxii, 52, 103, 120 f. Eriaku 156 Eridu 52 'Esau 246, 249; wives of 313 etymologies of OT. 63, 71, 77, 272 n. Euphrates 179 * evil inclination or propensity' (Jewish theological term) 95 evolution 55 Exodus, probable date of xxix 'face,' to 'see the face of 298 faith, Abraham's 176 Fall of man 44 ff., 66, 57; no Bab. version of, at present known 53 n. 1 (add King, Tablets of Creation, p. 221) famines in Egypt 346 f. ' father * = originator 69 ; = founder or eponymous ancestor 300 ; = chief minister 362 * father's kin,' to be cut off from one's X, 187, 188; to be gathered to x, 241 firmament 6 f., 29 Flood, historical character of the 99 ff. folklore, Hebrew 62, 70, 73, 82 f., 108, 184, 203, cf. 246, 331 'folly' 303 f. 'form,' to 37 furnace (1i:n) 178; (jK^lD) 202 ' furniture,' camel's 285 Gad 274 f. (name of a Semitic deity), 389 garden of Eden 38—40, 51 gate (in an Eastern city) 197 genealogies in Genesis v — vi, 69, 76, 112—114, 137 f., 222 f., 243 f., 312 ff., 326 f., 399 'generations' (nn^lfl) ii, viii, 19; (nnn) ix, 87, 186 Genesis, contents of iff.; composite structure of iii ff., xvi f. ; probable date of XV f.; historical value of xxxiff., xlii (chs. i. — xi.), xliiiff. (chs. xii. — 1.); religious value of Ix ff., Ixx ff., cf. 1, 11, 31 ff., 54 ff., 107, and passim; Genesis and modern science xxxvii ff., xlii, Ixi — iii, 6, 8, 11, 17, 19 ff., 99 f., 103 n. Gerar 206, 251 Gtior, the 168 27 418 INDEX Gilead 283, 287, 290, 399 Gilgamesh 102, 123 glacial period xxxviii f. • glory' = spirit (|| 'soul') 383 God, names of in Genesis 402 ff. ; doc- trine of xxi f., xxiv f., Ixx f., 5, 11, 31 — 33 &c. ; the word used of divine beings 45, 50, 82 n.; Elohim con- strued with a plur. pronoun 14, or Terb 208, 289, 402 ; use of word in Genesis iv, vii, xi f., 2 &c.; expres- sions such as • prince of God,' * terror of God' 225, 274, 309 Goiim 158 Gomer 114 good and evil, knowledge of 41, 46 Goshen 332 n., 369 granaries in Egypt 343 ♦ guard, captain of the ' 326 Hadad (Syrian God) 318 Hagar 180 Ham 108—111, 113, 117 Hamath 126 Hammurabi 39, 156 Haran 141 f., 233, 269 Hasisadra (Hasis-atra) 105 n., 107 n. Havilah 39, *119, 131, 243 Hazazon-tamar 161, 162 lieaveia and earth, Heb. idea of 8, 9, 11 •Hebrew,' name 127, 138 f., 335 Hebron 155 ; Hittites in 228-30 'helpmeet' (incorrect expression) 41 n. Heroopolis 369 Heth 124, 225, 263; see Hittites Hittites 124 f., 179, 225, 228—30, 313 Hivites 126 Horites 160, 312, 313, 316 f. horned snake 389 human sacrifices 221 hydromancy 358 Hyksos 347 ideal representations in Genesis xxiii, xxiv, liii ff., Ixvii— Ixx, 17, 143, 307 * image of God' 14 f., 32 f., 76, 97 individual, rights of the 207, 222 inspiration Ixiv ff., 31, 59 n. Isaac, name played on or explained 118, 194, 210; sacrifice of 221 f. Ishmael, name played on or explained 182, 188, 212; character of 182; Jew- ish Haggadahs respecting 210 n. Ishmaelites 182 n. 1, 213, 243 f. ; Ish- maelite tribes 241—8 'isles' 117 Israel 295, 310, 311, 353; meaning of name 295; preferred for * Jacob' by J 311, 353 Issachar 275 f., 387 f. Ituraeans 242 ♦J,' term explained xi, xii; contents and literary character of xii — xv; probable date of xvi; other charac- teristics of xvii — xxii Jabbok 283, 294 Jacob,' name explained or played on 246, 259; character 246 f,, 249, 256, 296 f. ; migration into Egypt 364 f ., 368 ff. ; list of descendants 366 ff. ; blessing 379 ff. ; burial 396 f. ; early occurrence of name in Palestine li f. Japheth 108, 110 f., 113, 114 Javan (Yavan), i.e. the Greeks, ^15 Jehel TJsdum (range of salt-cliffs in SW. corner of Dead Sea) 169, 169, 201 Jehovah (Yahweh), meaning of name 407 ff. ; use of name in Genesis vii, xiii; question of early history of name xviii w. 4, xlix 'Jehovah God,' use of expression 37 Jehovah-jireh 219 f. Jerahmeel (clan in Judah) 327 Jordan-valley, the 153, 168 f. Joseph 276, 319—21, 321 ff., 332 ff.; probable date of xxx, 347; character of 320 f., 400 f.; historical character of xlvi f., cf. lix f. ; early possible oc- currence of name in Palestine lii Jubilees, Book of 76 n., 82, 211, 379 n. Judah 273, 321, 326 ff., 332, 353, 359, 384—7; clans of 326 f., 331 f. justice, ancient ideas of 207, 307 ; Divine justice 196 Kadesh 161 Kedar 242 Kenites 72, 179 Kenizzites 179, 315 Keturah, tribes descended from 239 f. kikkdr of Jordan, the 152 f. 'kind' (I^D) viii, 9 Kiriath-arba' x, 224 ' knees, to bear upon the ' 274, 399 ' know,' to ( = to take knowledge of) 195 Laban 235, 269 ff., 290 land-tenure in Egypt 374 f. languages, origin of different xxsiv f., 133 f. ; origin of, according to the Hebrews 132, 134 ff. ♦latter days,' the 381 lentils 248 Levi 273, 302—8; tribe of 383 f. levirate-marriage 328 'life,' two Heb. words for 97 light, Heb. idea of 6 'living' water 252 I INDEX 419 longevity of patriarchs xxvi, xxx, 75, 138 'Lord Jehovah,' use of expression 175 Lot, character of 205; Lot's wife 201 ♦lowland,' the 327 Ludim 123 Luz 266 Maohir (Manassite clan) 399 Machpelah xi, 226, 228 magicians of Egypt 340 Magog 115 Mahanaim 291, 301 f. Mamre 154 Man, pre-eminence of in Gen. 15, 38, 42; beginnings of 54; before the Fall 56 f. ; antiquity of xxxi — xlii, 63, 68, 134 Manasseh 346, 375 fif., 390 f.; clans of 399 mandrakes 275 marriage 43 'measures' 193 Melchizedek 164, 167 f. Merenptah, mention of Israel by xlviii Mesopotamia 232 Messianic outlooks 48, 144, 145, 386, 410 f., 414 f . Midian 240 Mizpah 288, 301 f. Mizraim (Egypt) 117 Moab and Ammon 203—5 mohar (price of wife) 271, 304 Moriah, land of 217 'Most High' 165 mourning-customs in East 224 f., 396 Nahoridae 222 f. ' name of Jehovah,' to call with (upon) xiii, 71 names explained or played on xviii n., xxiii n. ; 110, 251, 259, 378 f., 384, 388, 389, 391 Naphtali 274, 390 [nature in OT. 19 iNebaioth 242 I, the 148 [neolithic man xl f. Nephilim, the 84 Nile (Heb. Y^'dr) 339 Nimrod 120, 122 f. Nineveh 121 Nod, the land of 07 aose-ring 236 oak (as sacred tree) 147 offering,' 'present' {minhdh) 64, 293 1 345 )hir XV f.. 131 literary character of iv— vii; parts of the Hexateuch belonging to iv, v; words and phrases used by vii — xi; probable date of xvi; other charac- teristics of xxii — ^xxv, 2, 86, 186 «fcc. Faddan-aram xi, 244 f. palaeolithic man xxxix f,_^ Paradise 38, 51 (in NT.), 61; theories of the site of 57 £E. , _., Pathros 124 patriarchs, antediluvian 68 ff., 73, 74 ff., 80 f., 137—40 patriarchs, post-diluvian, historical cha- racter of xUii ff., 143 patriarchal genealogies 68 ff., 74 ff., 138 ff. patriarchal periodian J 147 Peleg 130 Peniel, Penuel 296, 301 f. 'people,' in the phrases *to be cut off from,' and 'be gathered to,' one's people 188: see father's kin Perez 327, 331 f. Perizzites, 152 Pharaoh, meaning of name 150 Philistines 124, 250 pillar {mazzebdh) 266, 267 f., 310 pits 323 f. •plague' 151 » plain' {Kikkdr) of Jordan 152 f.; the cities of the Kikkdr^ site of 170 f. ; destruction of 202 f. Potiphar, name explained 326 Poti-phera 326, 345 pre-Mosaic age in J xviii, 89; in E xix; in P xxiv, 89 priestly element in Genesis iv promises in Genesis 144, 147, 186, 386, 414 f. prophetical teaching of Genesis xvii, xxi f., 64, 111 Protevangelium, the 48, 57 proverb, or proverbial saying, origin of, explained 120, 219 Baces of mankind, remote origin of XXXV, xxxvi—xxxvii, 114; origin of, according to the Hebrews 112 ff. Rachel's grave 311 rainbow, the 98, 99, 106 n. Barneses, the land of 371 Eamses II, xxix, 347, 397 n. Rehoboth 253 ; Eehoboth-'Ir 121 Eephaim 160 rest, to (of God) 18 Reuben 273, 321, 332, 362, 381 f. rings as amulets 309 'River,' the 283 ' river of Egypt,' the 178 .; term explained iv; content* and Sabaeans 119, 130 f. 420 INDEX sabbath 18 f., 34 f. sacred scribes (in Egypt) 340 sacred sites in Pal. xix f., 147, 155, 216, 253, 264, 266, 300 sacrifice, first mention of 64 ♦saith Jehovah' 220 Salem 164 Salt Sea, the 159 ♦ salvation' 389 Sargon of Accad xxxii, 173 n. science of the Bible 33 ♦Bea'=the West 148 sea-monsters 12 Seba 119 'see God,' to 296; cf. 183 n. ♦seeds' (Gal. iii. 16) 154 Se'ir 246, 312, 314, 316 serpent, the 44 f., 47, 48 Serug 139 ♦ set feasts' 10 Sethites 71, 74,ff., 80 Shalem (near Shechem) 300 Sheba 119, 130 f., 240 Shechem (place) 146, 300, 302, 307 ff., 378 f.; (person) 300, 302 f., 306—8 shekel, value of 227 Shem 108, 110 f., 113, 127 Sheol 326 Sbephelah, the 327 shepherds in Egypt 370 ♦Shiloh' (Gen. xlix. 10) 385 f., 410 ff. Shin'ar 121 Shur 181 f., 243 Siadim, vale of 159, 168, 170 f. Simeon 273, 302—8, 354 n., 383 f. Sodom and Gomorrah 127, 170 f., 194 £f., 202 f. 'sojourner' 177, 186, 199, 225; cf. 149 ' sojournings,' land of one's 186; cf. 371 ♦ son '= grandson or descendant 269, 284 ' Song of the Sword,' the 70 f. 'sons of God' 82 f. ♦soul' in Heb., use of and ideas asso ciated with 12 (in animals), 38, 42, 96 (in the blood), 149 (as seat of feeling and emotion), 360 ; = ♦ person ' ix (No. 19), X (No. 24 a), 146 ♦South,' the 148 spirit of God, the 4, 83 f., 343 springs, sacred 161 Stone-age, the xxxix ff., 68 stone-worship 267 ♦ stranger ' = «q;oMrwcT or temporary re- sident ("13) 177, 225 ; = foreigner ("lpr|3 or nD3) 187, 282, 308 Succoth 299, 30i'f. ♦ Sumerian ' xxxiv, 133 'swarm,' to viii, 11 f., 12 to., 94, 97; ♦swarming thing' viii, 12 ♦ sweet savour' 95 ♦Syria' 129 Tarshish 116 'taskwork' (DD) 388 Tel el-Amarna letters xxix, 31, 125, 164, 167 f., 397 TSma 242 Teman 315 temptation, operation and power of 44 ff., 64—8 teraphim 283 terebinth 146, 147 ♦that be far from thee' 196 Tiamat 2, 28 Tid'al 158 Timnah 329 tirosh 258 tithe 166, 267 trees, sacred or oracular 146 t tribes or nations represented as indi- viduals liv ff., 110—112, 112 ff., 138—140, 223-4, 239 f., 241—3, 316 (Se'ir), 399; cf. 72, 307 f., 331 f. ♦ trouble,' to ("I3y) 306 Tubal 115 Tubal-cain 70 Two Brothers, Tale of the 836 unleavened cakes 198 Ur 140, 141, 142 Uru-salim (Jerusalem) 164, 167 Ussher, chronology of xxvii, xxviii n., 142 TO., 262 ♦Uz 129, 223, 317 wddy 252 ♦ walk,' to, with God 77; before God 185 waters above the firmament, the 7 under the earth, the 8, 52 n. ♦wax old,' to 194 weighing money 227, 355 ♦without form' (-inh) 3 f . Xisuthros 77, 103, 105 n. Yahweh 407: see Jehovah Zaphenath-pa'neah 344 Zebulun 276, 387* Zerah 331 f. Zidon 124 zikkurat 137 ' Zion 311, with n. '< Zo^ar 153, 170, 200, 201 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAT, M.A. AT THE UNIVEBSITY PBESS. O *^3ECT. JUL 3 0,985. PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SUPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO UBRARY BS Bible. C.T. Genesis. 1233 Snglish. 1905. D7 The book of Genesis 1905 4th ed. 19