When Jacob went away to go to Haran, Esau called his son Eliphaz, and
secretly spoke unto him, saying: "Now hasten, take thy sword in thy
hand and pursue Jacob, and pass before him in the road, and lurk for
him and slay him with thy sword in one of the mountains, and take all
belonging unto him, and come back." And Eliphaz was dexterous and
expert with the bow, as his father had taught him, and he was a noted
hunter in the field and a valiant man. And Eliphaz did as his father
had commanded him. And Eliphaz was at that time thirteen years old, and
he arose and went and took ten of his mother's brothers with him, and
pursued Jacob. And he followed Jacob closely, and when he overtook him,
he lay in ambush for him on the borders of the land of Canaan, opposite
to the city of Shechem. And Jacob saw Eliphaz and his men pursuing
after him, and Jacob stood in the place in which he was going in order
to know what it was, for he did not understand their purpose. Eliphaz
drew his sword and went on advancing, he and his men, toward Jacob, and
Jacob said unto them, "Wherefore have you come hither, and why do you
pursue with your swords?" Eliphaz came near to Jacob, and answered as
follows, "Thus did my father command me, and now therefore I will not
deviate from the orders which my father gave me." And when Jacob saw
that Esau had impressed his command urgently upon Eliphaz, he
approached and supplicated Eliphaz and his men, saying, "Behold, all
that I have, and that which my father and mother gave unto me, that
take unto thee and go from me, and do not slay me, and may this thing
that thou wilt do with me be accounted unto thee as righteousness." And
the Lord caused Jacob to find favor in the sight of Eliphaz and his
men, and they hearkened to the voice of Jacob, and they did not put him
to death, but took all his belongings, together with the silver and
gold that he had brought with him from Beer-sheba. They left him
nothing. When Eliphaz and his men returned to Esau, and told him all
that had happened to them with Jacob, he was wroth with his son Eliphaz
and with his men, because they had not put Jacob to death. And they
answered, and said unto Esau, "Because Jacob supplicated us in this
matter, not to slay him, our pity was moved toward him, and we took all
belonging to him, and we came back." Esau then took all the silver and
gold which Eliphaz had taken from Jacob, and he put them by in his
house.[124]
Nevertheless Esau did not give up the hope of intercepting Jacob on his
flight and slaying him. He pursued him, and with his men occupied the
road along which he had to journey to Haran. There a great miracle
happened to Jacob. When he observed what Esau's intention was, he
turned off toward the Jordan river, and, with eyes directed to God, he
cleft the waters with his wanderer's staff, and succeeded in crossing
to the other side. But Esau was not to be deterred. He kept up the
pursuit, and reached the hot springs at Baarus before his brother, who
had to pass by there. Jacob, not knowing that Esau was on the watch for
him, decided to bathe in the spring, saying, "I have neither bread nor
other things needful, so I will at least warm my body in the waters of
the well." While he was in the bath, Esau occupied every exit, and
Jacob would surely have perished in the hot water, if the Lord had not
caused a miracle to come to pass. A new opening formed of itself, and
through it Jacob escaped. Thus were fulfilled the words, "When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee; when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt," for Jacob was saved from
the waters of the Jordan and from the fire of the hot spring.
At the same time with Jacob, a rider, leaving his horse and his clothes
on the shore, had stepped into the river to cool off, but he was
overwhelmed by the waves, and he met his death. Jacob put on the dead
man's clothes, mounted his horse, and went off. It was a lucky chance,
for Eliphaz had stripped him of everything, even his clothes, and the
miracle of the river had happened only that he might not be forced to
appear naked among men.[125]
Though Jacob was robbed of all his possessions, his courage did not
fail him. He said: "Should I lose hope in my Creator? I set my eyes
upon the merits of my fathers. For the sake of them the Lord will give
me His aid." And God said: "Jacob, thou puttest thy trust in the merits
of thy fathers, therefore I will not suffer thy foot to be moved; He
that keepeth thee will not slumber. Yea, still more! While a keeper
watcheth only by day as a rule, and sleepeth by night, I will guard
thee day and night, for, behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep. The Lord will keep thee from all evil, from Esau as
well as Laban; He will keep thy soul, that the Angel of Death do thee
no hurt; He will keep thy going out and thy coming in, He will support
thee now thou art leaving Canaan, and when thou returnest to
Canaan."[126]
Jacob was reluctant to leave the Holy Land before he received direct
permission from God. "My parents," he reflected, "bade me go forth and
sojourn outside of the land, but who knows whether it be the will of
God that I do as they say, and beget children outside of the Holy
Land?"[127] Accordingly, he betook himself to Beer-sheba. There, where
the Lord had given permission to Isaac to depart from Canaan and go to
Philistia, he would learn the will of the Lord concerning himself.
He did not follow the example of his father and grandfather and take
refuge with Abimelech, because he feared the king might force also him
into a covenant, and make it impossible for his descendants of many
generations to take possession of the Philistine land. Nor could he
stay at home, because of his fear that Esau might wrest the birthright
and the blessing from him, and to that he would not and could not
agree.[128] He was as little disposed to take up the combat with Esau,
for he knew the truth of the maxim, "He who courts danger will be
overcome by it; he who avoids danger will overcome it." Both Abraham
and Isaac had lived according to this rule. His grandfather had fled
from Nimrod, and his father had gone away from the Philistines.[129]