of Isaac, of whom it was said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called"
(Gen. xxi. 12). God had yet a crowning trial to make of the pa-
triarch's faith and obedience. When Isaac, the son of his old age,
was about twenty-five years old, God said to Abraham, "Take
now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get theo
into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt-offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." According-
ly Abraham "rose up early in the morning, and saddling his ass,
took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and wood
for the burnt-offering, and went unto the place of which God had
told him." On the third day of his journey, he saw afar off the
spot appointed for this awful sacrifice. "Abide ye here with the
ass," he said to his young men, " while I and the lad go yonder and
worship." Then laying the wood for the burnt-offering upon
Isaac his son, and taking with him fire and a knife, they went for-
ward together. "My father," said Isaac, "behold the fire and
the wood : but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering ?" " My son,"
said Abraham, " God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offer-
ing." At length they reached the place which God had told him
of; and then, no doubt, the patriarch explained to his son that
he was himself the destined victim. The altar was built and the
wood laid in order upon it ; Abraham then bound Isaac his son, and
laid him on the altar upon the wood, and stretching forth his hand,
he took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord caller k
unto him out of heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham, 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
eon, thine only son, from me." Abraham, on lifting up his eyes, bo-
held " a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and he took the rarn
and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son."
4s a reward for his obejienct, God once more renewed his cove-



88 SCRIPTUKE HISTORY. CHAP. II.

nant with his posterity, and for the first time confirmed it with an
oath. "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, 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 upon the sea-shore. And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice." Abraham then returned with Isaac
jnto his young men, and went back to his dwelling-place at Beer-
jheba (Gen. xxii. 1-19).

After this twelve years passed away, during which Abraham
must have removed from Beer-sheba to his old home at Hebron.
There Sarah died, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven.
After mourning for her, the patriarch bought for four hundred shek-
els of silver, of Ephron, one of the sons of Heth, the cave of Mach-
jielah (or the Double Cave) as a burying-place, close to the oak
of Mamre, with the field in which it stood" (Gen. xxiii. 16-20).
Here he buried Sarah ; here he was himself buried by his sons
Isaac and Ishmael; here they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife,
Jacob and his wife Leah, and it formed, perhaps, the final resting-
place of the bones of Joseph. The sepulchre still exists under the
mosque of Hebron, and was first permitted to be seen by Europe-
ans, since the Crusades, when it was visited by the Prince of Wales
in 1862.

After the burial of Sarah, Abraham returned to Beer-sheba.
His last care was for the marriage of his son Isaac to a wife of his
own kindred, and not to one of the daughters of the Canaanites.
Calling to him "the oldest servant of his house," he made him
"swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth," not to take a
wife for his son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom he
dwelt, but to go unto his own country and kindred, and take a wife
unto his son Isaac. The servant set forth on his journey to Haran,
in Mesopotamia, where Abraham sixty-five years before had dwelt
with his father Terah, and where his brother Nahor had settled.
It was towards evening when he reached the place of his destina-
tion. "O Lord God of my master Abraham," he prayed, "send
me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master."
And he asked the Lord to point out by a certain sign the person
he sought. He was yet speaking when Rebekah, the daughter of
Bethuel, son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out to draw water
from the well. She had filled her pitcher and was returning, when
Abraham's servant met her, and said, "Let me, I pray thee, drink
a little water of thy pitcher." "Drink, my lord," she said. She
afterwards gave his camels water. The servant then gave her a
golden ear-ring and two bracelets of gold, asking her at the same
time whose daughter she was. When he found that she was the



B.C. 2348-1822. DEATH OF ABRAHAM. 39

7ery person that he had come to seek, the man bowed down hig
head and worshipped the Lord. "Blessed be the Lord God of my
master Abraham," he said, "who hath led me to the house of my
master's brethren." Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who
went out to the well to meet the man, and asked him to his house.
There the servant quickly told his errand. As, there were evident
traces of God's guidance in the matter, Bethuel soon consented to
let his daughter go, and the next morning they sent away Rebekah
and her nurse mounted on camels, with Abraham's sen-ant and his
men, blessing her and saying to her, "Be thou the mother of thou-
sands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which
hate them." It was even-tide when they drew near to the tent of
Isaac, who dwelt by the well of Lahai-roi, in the extreme south of
Palestine. He had gone forth into the field to meditate ; on lift-
ing up his eyes he saw the camels coming, and went at once to
meet them. When Rebekah saw Isaac, she dismounted from her
camel and covered herself with a veil. On learning from the serv-
ant all the things that he had done, Isaac " took her to his mother's
tent, and she became his wife. And he loved her, and was com-
forted after his mother's death " (Gen. xxiv. 1-67)

Soon after Isaac's marriage, Abraham took another wife, whose
name was Keturah. By her he had six sons, who became the
founders of Arabian tribes. During his lifetime, however, he en-
riched them all with presents, and sent them away, like Ishmacl,
to dwell eastward of Beer-sheba, lest any of them should settle in
the land of Canaan and dispute the destined inheritance of his son
Isaac. To him Abraham gave all his great wealth, and died, ap-
parently at Beer-sheba, "in ft good old age, an old man arid full
of years," his age being one hundred and seventy-five. His sons
Isaac and Ishmael met at his funeral, and buried him in the cave
of Machpelah, by the side of Sarah his wife (Gen. xxv. 1-10).

The events in Abraham's life which rendered this patriarch most
remarkable were, (1) his obedience to the command of God in leav-
ing his native country ; (2) his believing that he should possess the
land of Canaan, and be the father of a great nation ; and (3) his
offering up his son Isaac. Abraham was the father of the faith-
ful: his character was fully displayed in his faith. The Almighty
ieigned to be called the God of Abraham ; and in this designation
our Lord found one of his proofs of the resurrection of the dead.



40



SCRIPTURE HISTORY.



CHAP. 1L



NOTE ON THE DISPERSION OF THE NATIONS.
(Genesis x.)



THE three races descended from the
three sons of Noah were distributed
:u the following mariner :

1. The territories of JAPIIETH lie
chiefly on the coasts of the Mediter-
ranean, in Europe and Asia Minor,
" the isles of the Gentiles ;" but they
also reach across Armenia and along
the north-eastern edge of the Tigris
and Euphrates valley, over Media and
Persia. The race spread westward
and northward over Europe, and at
the other end as far as India, embrac-
ing the great Indo-European family
of languages. This wide diffusion
was prophetically indicated by the
very name, Japheth (enlarged), and
by the blessing of his father Noah
(Gen. ix. 27). Among his children,
Javan is, in its old Hebrew form, the
same word as the Greek Ion; and
of his progeny, Tarshish is probably
identified with the people of southern
Spain, Madai probably represents the
Medes, and Owner the Cimmerians.

2. The race of SHEM occupied the
gonth-western corner of Asia, includ-
ing the peniusula of Arabia. Of his
five sons. Arphaxad is the progenitor
both of the Hebrews and of the Arabs
and other kindred tribes, whose ori-
pu is recorded iu the book of Gene-



sis. North of them were the children
of Aram (which signifies high), in the
highlands of Syria and Mesopotamia.
Asshur evidently represents Assyria-,
and the eastern and western extremi-
ties were occupied by the well-knowi:
nations of the Elymaeans (children of
Elam), on the south-eastern margin
of the valley of the Tigris, and the
Lydians (children of Lud), in Asia
Minor.

3. The race of HAM (the swarthy,
according to the most probable ety-
mology) had their chief seat in Afri-
ca, but they are also found mingled
with the Semitic races on the shores
of Arabia, and on the Tigris and Eu-
phrates; while on the north they
extended into Palestine (the laud of
the Philistines), Asia Minor, and the
larger islands, as Crete and Cyprus.
In Africa, Mizraim is most certainly
identified with Egypt ; Cuh with
Ethiopia, above Egypt ; and Phvi
probably with the inland peoples to
the west. Among the sons of Mizra-
im, the Lubim correspond to Libya;
and those of Cush represent tribes
which crossed the Red Sea and spread
along the southern and eastern shorea
of Arabia, up the Persian Gulf and tha
valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.





The town and rallcy of NiMus, tho ancient Bhechem. The mountain on tho right is EbaJ;
that on tho left Is Gerizim.



CHAPTER III.

FROM THE DEATH OP ABRAHAM TO THE DEATH OF JOSEPH.
B.C. 1 822-1 G35.

FOR nearly twenty years Rebekah continued barren. At length
through the prayers of Isaac, she became a mother, and brought
forth twin sons, ESAU (hairy), and JACOB (the su/iplanter}. When
the boys grew np, the former became " a cunning hunter, a man of
the field," and a favorite of his father ; while the latter, who was
" a plain and quiet man dwelling in tents," was his mother's favor-
ite. One day Esau, returning from hunting in a famished state,
*M\V Jacob preparing red pottage of lentils, and quickly nskcd for
omc. Jacob seized the occasion to obtain Esau's birthright as tho



42 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. III.

price of the meal. " Never surely was there any meat, except the
forbidden fruit, bought so dearly." Esau consented so readily,
that it is regarded in the sacred narrative as a proof that " he de-
spised his birthright " (Gen. xxv. 34). For this the Apostle (Heb.
xii. 16) calls him "a profane person, who for one morsel of food
sold his birthright." The justice of this judgment will appear if
we consider that Esau was by right of birth not only the head of
his own family, its prophet, priest, and king, but also the head of
the chosen family, thus inheriting the blessing of Abraham, that
"in his seed all families of the earth should be blessed." In de-
spising his birthright he thus put himself out of the sacred family,
and so became a profane person.

Soon after this, Isaac was driven from Lahai-roi by a famine,
and went down to "Abimelech, king of the Philistines, into
Gerar." There the Lord appeared unto him, and said, " Go not
down into Egypt : sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee and
bless thee." At the same time all the promises were renewed to
him that had been made to Abraham. While he was at Gerar, he
practised the same deceit of which his father had been guilty, by
giving out that his wife was his sister. The king, having acci-
dentally discovered that Rebekah was his wife, sent for him, and,
after pointing out the consequences that might have ensued, he
" charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his
wife shall surely be put to death." This is the first instance on
record of a king holding the pbwer of life and death (Gen. xxvi.
1-11).

The tranquil course of Isaac's life, which presents a marked con-
trast to the varied incidents of Abraham's career, was vexed by the
disobedience of his son Esau, who at the age of forty married two
Hittite wives, thus introducing heathen alliances into the chosen
family (Gen. xxvi. 34). When Isaac grew old, and his eyes, dim
with age, warned him of the near approach of death, he was anx-
ious to perform the solemn act by which he was to hand down the
blessing of Abraham to another generation. Calling to him Esau,
his eldest son, he said, "Take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver
and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison ;
and make me savory meat, and bring it to me, that I may eat ;
that my soul may bless thee before I die." While Esau was gone
out to the field to hunt for venison, Rebekah spake unto Jacob her
son, and said, " Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two
good kids of the goats ; and I will make them savory meat for thy
father, such as he loveth : and thou shalt bring it to him, that he
may bless thee before his death." Jacob replied, "Esau my broth-
er is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man : my father will per-



B.C. 1822-1G35. JACOB'S DREAM. 43

Tjaps feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and shall bring
a curse upon me, and not a blessing." His mother answered,
" Upon me be thy curse, my son : only obey my voice, and go and
fetch them." In this way Rebekah came to the aid of her favorite
son, and devised the stratagem by which Jacob supplanted Esau,
and having previously taken away his birthright, he now took away
Esau's blessing also (Gen. xxvii. 1-29).

Esau, we are told, hated Jacob " because of the blessing where-
with his father blessed him," and said in his heart, "The days of
mourning for my father are at hand ; then will I slay my brother
Jacob." When these words of her elder son were reported to
Rebekah, she was greatly alarmed. Having sent for Jacob, she
told him to go and stay for a little while with Laban, her brother,
in Haran, until Esau's fury was over. Concealing her principal
reason for sending him away, she said to Isaac that it would be a
trouble to her if Jacob were to marry one of the daughters of Heth,
as Esau had done. Isaac then called Jacob, and said unto him,
" Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise,
go to Padan-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. And God Almighty bless thee, and multiply
thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed
after thee ; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art ft
stranger, which God gave unto Abraham." And so the heir of the
promises went on his long journey to Mesopotamia, as a solitary
wanderer, with nothing but the staff he carried, along the self-same
road by which Abraham had first entered Canaan after the death of
his father Terah. Proceeding northward on his way to Haran, lie
lighted upon a place near Luz, the site, doubtless, of Abram's second
halting-place in the Holy Land, where he found some stones, one
of which he made his pillow, and then lay down to sleep. Thus
forlorn, he was visited by God ; and in a dream he saw a ladder,
one end of which rested upon the earth, and the other reached to
heaven, " and behold the angels of God ascending and descending
on it.'' And the Lord himself appeared to him, and stood above
ft, and his voico added to the renewal of the covenant made with
A.brabam and with Isaac, a special promise of protection to Jacob:
1 Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither
thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land." When Jacob
awoke out of his sleep, he exclaimed, "How dreadful is this
place! this is none other but the house of God, this is the gate
of heaven." And he called the name of the place BETH-EL (the
house of God). He then dedicated himself to God and the tenth
of all that God should give him (Gen. xxviii. 1-22). This, the



44 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. III.

turning-point in Jacob's religions life, took place in his seventy,
seventh year.

Jacob then went on his journey, and at length arrived at Haran.
There he witnessed a repetition of the pastoral scene which Abra.
ham's servant had seen at the same place about a century before.
Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, comes with her father's
sheep to the well, just as her aunt Rehekah had done, and brings
him to the house. There Jacob tol t Laban what his object was in
coming to him, and at the end of a month it was agreed between
them that Jacob should serve him seven vears in tending his flocks,
and as a recompense Laban agreed to jjive him his younger daugh-
ter Rachel for wife. "And Jacob served seven years for Rachel;
and they seemed unto him but a few diiys, for the lovo he had to
her." At the end of this time he claimed his bride. Laban then,
by a trick rendered easy by the forms of an Eastern wedding, where
the bride is closely veiled, gave him Leah in place of Rachel, and
afterwards excused his deceit by saying, " In our country, we must
not give the younger before the elder," but he gave Jacob Rachel
also, on condition of his serving with him seven more years (Gen.
xxix. 1-30).

Jacob felt very differently towards his two wives: Rachel he
loved deeply, but Leah he disliked (Gen. xxix. 31). She, how-
ever, bore him four sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, while
her sister Rachel was for a long time childless. In grief for her
barrenness, she gave her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob (as Sarah had
given Hagar to Abraham) by whom he had two sons, Dan and
Naphtali. Leah also gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, who bore him
two sons, Gad and Asher. Leah afterwards had her fifth son, Issa-
char, and then a sixth, whom she named Zebulun. Her last child
was a daughter called Dinah (Gen. xxx. 21.) The prayers of Ra-
chel being at length heard, she became the mother of a son, and
said, "God hath taken away my reproach : and she called his name
Joseph " (adding}. During the fourteen years that Jacob served
Laban he had by his two wives and their two handmaids eleven
sons and one daughter. At the end of this time he wished to pro-
Tide for his own house, and to return to his own country (Gen
sxx. 25) ; and he requested his uncle to let him go. Laban, how
ever, begged him to remnin with him, for he said, "I have learned
by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake." Jacob
agreed to do so, on the condition that all the dark sheep, and all
the spotted cattle and goats, hereafter born in the flocks under his
care, should belong to him in payment of his services. Jacob's
artifice to make the most of his bargain (Gen. xxx. 37-42) succeed-
ed so well, that his flocks throve greatly, while Laban's dwindled



B.C. 1822-1635. JACOB'S ESCAPE FROM LABAN. 45

away. His prosperity began to excite the envy of Laban and of
his sons, when " the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of
thy fathers, and of thy kindred ; and I will be with thee " (Gen.
xxxi. 3). After sending for his wives into the field, and laying the
matter before them, he resolved to leave Laban. Setting his sons
and his wives upon camels, and carrying away all that he had gotten
in Padan-aram, he hastily set out for the land of Canaan, after
twenty years spent in Laban's service fourteen for his wives and
six for his cattle.

Having passed the Euphrates, he struck across the desert by the
great fountain of Palmyra, then traversed the eastern part of the
plain of Damascus, and entered Gilead the range of mountains
east of the Jordan, forming the frontier between Palestine and the
Syrian desert. Jacob must have fled swiftly to have accomplished
in ten days this journey of two hundred and fifty miles from Haran.
But when Laban heard of his flight, he must have pursued him with
even greater haste. Calling his kindred together, he set out after
him, and overtook him in seven days (Gen. xxxi. 23), in Mount
Gilead ; his anger for the loss of his daughters, carried away "like
captives taken with the sword," being increased by the loss of his
household gods (teraphim), which Rachel had secretly stolen. Ja-
cob, ignorant of Rachel's theft, desired Laban to make a strict
search for them, which he did in the different tents, but unsuccess-
fully, as they were craftily concealed by Rachel. Laban, having
been forewarned by God not to injure Jacob, then made a covenant
with his son-in-law. Jacob took a tall stone and set it up for a
pillar, and the rest collected large stones and made a heap, and
" they did eat there upon the heap," which was called Galeed (the
heap of witness). The heap of stones erected by the two tribes of
Jacob and Laban as a boundary between them, "marked that the
natural limit of the range of Gilead should be their actual limit
also." Early in the morning Laban rose up, and, after kissing his
sons and daughters and blessing them, he departed. Jacob also
went on his way, and, to encourage him, his eyes were opened to
see a troop of angels, " the host of God," sent for his protection.

In the land to which Jacob was returning his first danger would
be from the revenge of Esau, who had now become powerful in
Mount Seir, the land cf Edom. Jacob sent messengers, therefore,
before him, to acquaint his brother of his approach, and of the pros-
perity that had attended him during his sojourn in Mesopotamia.
His messengers returned, and told him, "Thy brother Esau cometh
to meet thee with four hundred men." Well might Jacob distrust
his purpose ; for, though such a retinue might be meant to do him
honor, it might also be designed to insure revenge. "Then Jacoh



46 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. III.

was greatly afraid and distressed." Having divided his people and
his herds into two bands, that if the first were smitten the second
might escape, he turned to God in prayer. This is the first prayer
on record ; nor could there be a finer model for a special prayer.
To prayer he adds prudence, and sends forward present after pres-
ent to win his brother's heart "Two hundred she-goats, twenty
he-goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty milch-camels with
their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten foals."
This done, he rested for a while ; but in the night he arose and sent
forward his two wives, his two women-servants, and his eleven sons,
across the Jabbok, while he himself remained alone at Mahanaim t*
prepare his mind for the coming trial. It was then that "a man*
appeared and wrestled with him till break of day. This "man'
was the "angel Jehovah." For a while He prevailed not against
him, but at last the angel touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and
put it out of joint, when the sinew instantly shrank. "Let me go,
he said, for the day breaketh. I will not let thee go, Jacob re-
plied, except thou bless me." "Thy name shall no more be call-
ed Jacob, he said, but ISRAEL (a prince of God), as a sign that thou
hast power with God and with men." Well knowing with whom
he had to do, Jacob called the name of the place Peniei {the face
of God), "for, he said, I have seen God face to face, and my life ia
preserved " (Gen. xxxii. 1-32).

Jacob now proceeded on his way, and overtook his family. Soon
Esau and his men came in sight. Advancing before all his com-
pany, Jacob then went to meet him, bowing himself to the ground
seven times until he came near to his brother. "And Esau ran to
meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him : and they wept."
Jacob then pressed Esau to accept the presents he had sent for-
ward for him, which he reluctantly consented to do. After a cor-
dial interview they separated ; Esau went back to Mount Seir, and
Jacob pursued his journey westward, and halted at Succoth. Soon
afterwards he crossed the Jordan and arrived at Shechem, a city so
called after Shechem, the son of Hatnor, prince of the Amorites.
From them he bought for one hundred lambs the field where he
had pL ched his tent ; and he erected there an altar to God, as the
giver of his new name " God the God of Israel" (El-elohe-Israel)
This piece of ground, with the exception of the cave of Machpelah,
was the first possession of the chosen family in the land of Canaan
(Gen. xxxiii. 1-20). The memory of Jacob's abode there is still
preserved by "Jacob's well," on the margin of which his divine
Son taught the woman of Sychar (Shechem) a better worship than
that of sacred places.