Genesis xxix, xxxi.
18 And Jacob loved Rachel; and 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.
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 be took Leah his daughter,
and brought her to him.
26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the
younger before the firstborn.
27 We will give thee Rachel also thou shalt serve with me yet seven
other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob
said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto my 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 which I have done thee.
17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
18 And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had
gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan-aram,
for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
19 And Laban went to shear his sheep; and Rachel had stolen the images
that were her father's
20 And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told
him not that he fled;
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 they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
While Laban played his petty deceptions on Jacob, the latter proved
himself in fraud and overreaching fully his match. In being compelled
to labor fourteen years for Rachel instead of seven, as agreed upon, he
amply revenged himself in getting possession of all Laban's best
cattle, availing himself of a physiological law in breeding of which
Laban was profoundly ignorant.
The parting of Jacob and Laban was not amicable, although they did not
come to an open rupture. Rachel's character for theft and deception is
still further illustrated. Having stolen her father's images and hidden
them under the camel's saddles and furniture, and sat thereon, when her
father came to search for the images, which he valued highly, she said
she was too ill to rise, so she calmly kept her seat, while the tent
was searched and nothing found, thus by act as well as word, deceiving
her father.
Jacob and his wives alike seemed to think Laban fair game for fraud
and deception. As Laban knew his images were gone, he was left to
suspect that Jacob knew where they were, so little regard had Rachel
for the reputation of her husband. In making a God after their own
image, who approved of whatever they did, the Jews did not differ much
from ourselves; the men of our day talk too as if they reflected the
opinions of Jehovah on the vital questions of the hour. In our late
civil war both armies carried the Bible in their knapsacks, and both
alike prayed to the same God for victory, as if he could be in favor of
slavery and against it at the same time.
Like the women, too, who are working and praying for woman suffrage,
both in the state legislature and in their closets, and others against
it, to the same God and legislative assembly. One must accept the
conclusion that their acquaintance with the Lord was quite as limited
as our own in this century, and that they were governed by their own
desires and judgment, whether for good or evil, just as we are; their
plans by day and their dreams by night having no deeper significance
than our own. Some writers say that the constant interposition of God
in their behalf was because they needed his special care and attention.
But the irregularity and ignorance of their lives show clearly that
their guiding hand was of human origin. If the Jewish account is true,
then the God of the Hebrews falls far short of the Christian ideal of a
good, true manhood, and the Christian ideal as set forth in the New
Testament falls short of our ideal of the Heavenly Father to-day. We
have no fault to find with the Bible as a mere history of an ignorant,
undeveloped people, but when special inspiration is claimed for the
historian, we must judge of its merits by the moral standard of to-day,
and the refinement of the writer by the questionable language in which
he clothes his descriptions.
We have often wondered that the revising committees that have gone
over these documents so often, should have adhered so closely to such
gross translations. Surely a fact related to us in coarse language, is
not less a fact when repeated in choice, words. We need an expurgated
edition of most of the books called holy before they are fit to place
in the hands of the rising generation.
Some members of the Revising Committee write me that the tone of some
of my comments should be more reverent in criticising the "Word of
God." Does any one at this stage of civilization think the Bible was
written by the finger of God, that the Old and New Testaments emanated
from the highest divine thought in the universe? Do they think that all
the men who wrote the different books were specially inspired, and that
all the various revising committees that have translated, interpolated,
rejected some books and accepted others, who have dug round the roots
of the Greek and Hebrew to find out the true meaning, have one and all
been watched and guided in their literary labors by the great spirit of
the universe, who by immutable law holds the solar system in place,
every planet steadily moving in its own elliptic, worlds upon worlds
revolving in order and harmony?
These great object-lessons in nature and the efforts of the soul to
fathom the incomprehensible, are more inspiring than any written page.
To this "Word of God" I bow with reverence, and I can find no language
too exalted to express my love, my faith, my admiration.
To criticise the peccadilloes of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel does not
shadow the virtues of Deborah, Huldah and Vashti; to condemn the laws
and customs of the Jews as recorded in the book of Genesis, does not
destroy the force of the golden rule and the ten commandments. Parts of
the Bible are so true, so grand, so beautiful, that it is a pity it
should have been bound in the same volume with sentiments and
descriptions so gross and immoral.
E. C. S.