THE ORIGIN AND DESCENT OF THE HEBREWS.
The tradition of the Hebrews of the early history and fortunes of their
people previous to the settlement in Canaan is contained in the books of
the Pentateuch. After they had settled in that land and had passed
beyond the loose combination of their tribes to the unity of civic life,
after a monarchy had been established, and under it a metropolis and a
centre for the national religion had been founded, the priesthood
engaged in this worship began to collect together ritualistic
observances and customs of law, and to write them down in combination
with anything still living about their early history in the traditions
of their families. The Hebrews had found existing in Canaan that ancient
and many-sided civilisation the nature and extent of which we have
already attempted to describe. Of their own history they could have
preserved nothing but prominent facts and decisive crises. Songs of
praise and victory which celebrated the great events of the Hebrew past,
such as the exodus from Egypt and the victories won over the Canaanites,
of which some were already written down,[568] forms of blessing,
genealogies,[569] isolated fragments of the moral law, or time-honoured
sacrificial custom, or ancient rules of justice,[570] and finally
narration of the wars,[571] constituted fixed points of connection in
this tradition. At the new centre of religious worship the whole stock
of existing ritual and custom had to be brought under review, and from
hence provision made for the use of the true and acceptable kind of
sacrifice, and sentence of law. The consideration of the marvellous lot
which had fallen to the Hebrews, the rise of a feeble shepherd tribe
under the powerful protection of Egypt, the liberation from the dominion
of this great kingdom, the conquest of Canaan, the capture of ancient
and strongly-fortified cities, "of fields which they had not tilled, of
vineyards and olive-gardens which they had not planted, of wells which
they had not dug, of cities which they had not builded," caused the
Hebrews to recognise in the favour which had attended them the direct
guidance of their deity. This grace would remain with them if they
continued to worship the god of their fathers according to his will, in
the way acceptable to him. Thus to the priests, who undertook the task
of writing down the tradition, the nation appeared as a chosen people
from the beginning, to whom their god had early given his blessing. In
return for such grace and beneficence the Hebrews had to obey his law.
This is the "covenant" which Jehovah has made with them.[572] This law,
therefore, must be carefully recorded, in order that it may be obeyed
exactly in every particular by the priests themselves, as by the judges
and all the nation.
On the basis of this tradition, these songs and poems, genealogies and
ancient records, and under the guidance of the views just pointed out,
there arose at Hebron, in the first decade of the reign of David,
within the circle of a priestly family, which apparently claimed to be
sprung from Aaron, the brother of Moses, the Judaean text of the
Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.[573] Composed as annals, this text
deals primarily with the connection and course of the fortunes of
Israel; the central point is the covenant between Jehovah (Elohim) and
Israel, Israel and Jehovah, and the law, which is the body of this
covenant.[574] The unity of religious worship and the centralisation of
it at one place and one only is brought prominently forward, and this
could not have happened till political unity had been obtained, a
metropolis founded, and a seat erected there for the worship of the
whole nation, or at least contemplated, if not erected. The law for the
priests, the minute details of ritual which make up the chief part of
this text, were, in the view of the priests, given at that mighty time
when Moses led the people; though, as a matter of fact, only a few of
the fundamental precepts reached so far back (see below). The
centralisation of the worship also at one place of sacrifice, the
command to have a common place of worship, was thought to have been in
existence as early as the time of Moses, and to have been prescribed
even when the Hebrews were in the desert. And the priests were more
inclined to believe that the ideal sought after for their religion, for
Church and State, belonged to the time of Moses, because in those days
of piety and exaltation the true ordinances must have been in existence,
and certain sacrificial institutions, certain principles of law and
morality, actually came down from that period.
Not long after this first text arose a second, which, however, can
hardly have been composed in priestly circles, and certainly did not
come from Judah. With the author of this second text, it is not the
collection and establishment of the law, and the desire to insist on the
obedience to it, which is the main point. It is rather the personal
fortunes of the fathers of the race, in which the divine guidance is
shown, the manifestations of the deity in their favour, the revelations
made to them by divine messengers, the importance of old customs and old
names, on which he lays especial weight. He also availed himself of
older written sources.[575] The language and style of this second text
are more lively, versatile, and distinct than those of the first; and
the importance which he ascribes to the fortunes of Joseph and the
tribes of Ephraim confirms the assumption that the author belonged to
this tribe. The origin of this second text falls in the second half of
Solomon's reign, or immediately after it--in the decades from 970 to 950
B.C.[576]
About a hundred years later, towards the middle of the ninth century
B.C., both these texts were combined and transformed into one work. The
author of this combined text (the Jahvist) was guided by the feelings
and views of the prophets. He is superior to the authors of the two
texts in versatility, in reflection, and vivid power of imagination. Not
only did he work up the two texts into one and insert into the whole his
own views, but he has added some sections, the materials of which must
have been furnished partly by tradition and partly by written
records.[577] In this shape were the first four books of the Pentateuch,
the beginning and the end of the fifth book, and the book of Joshua, at
the time of the prophets Amos and Hosea. The "Second Law," _i.e._ the
main portion of the fifth book of the Pentateuch,[578] on the other
hand, was not written till the time of king Josiah, about 625 B.C., and
was then added to the rest. The author of this second law also revised
the book of Joshua.[579]
If we compare the Hebrew account of the Creation with the cosmogonies of
Berosus and Philo (pp. 257, 353), and the narrative of Noah's deluge
with the description of the flood on the Assyrian tablets and in Berosus
(p. 240 ff.), we see at the first glance how far asunder the conceptions
lie--with what clearness and vigour the Hebrews have succeeded in
purifying and exalting the rude fancies of the nations so closely akin
to them--the ancient common possession of the Eastern Semitic tribes,
from whom the Hebrews were sprung. This power--the patient labour, the
serious and thoughtful effort to deepen the traditions of the past into
an ethical significance, to sublimate legends into simple moral
teaching, and transplant the myth into the region of moral earnestness
and moral purpose--to pass beyond the rude naturalism of their kinsmen
into the supernatural--from the varied polytheism of Babel and Canaan to
monotheism--this it is which gives to the Hebrews the first place, and
not among Semitic nations only, in the sphere of religious feeling and
development. At a later period the Greeks understood how to breathe
life, beauty and nobility into the gods of the Phenicians, whose rites
came over to Hellas; they could change Ashera-Bilit, the goddess of
prostitution, into the youthful Aphrodite, the goddess of blooming
grace, and the highest charm of love; but the Hebrews practised the
severer, sterner, and loftier task of carrying religious feeling beyond
the life of nature, of conceiving the highest power as morally in
opposition to natural impulses and forces, of publishing the supremacy
of the intellectual and moral over the natural being.
Adam begot Seth, so we are told in the first book of the Pentateuch, and
Seth begot Enos, and Enos begot Kenan, and Kenan begot Mahalaleel, and
Mahalaleel begot Jared, and Jared begot Enoch, and Enoch begot
Methuselah, and Methuselah begot Lamech, and Lamech begot Noah, and Noah
begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth was full of evil, but Noah
walked with God. Then God said to Noah: Make for thyself an ark of
gopher-wood, 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits
in height. For I will send a flood upon the earth to destroy under the
heaven all flesh wherein is the breath of life. But with thee I make my
covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou and thy three sons and
thy wife, and the three wives of thy sons with thee. And of all living
creatures thou shalt bring two into the ark, male and female shall they
be. And Noah did as God commanded him. When Noah was 600 years old, in
the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the fountains of
the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and
there was rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and the
waters rose and lifted the ark. And the flood was mighty, and all the
high mountains that are under heaven were covered; the water rose
fifteen cubits above the tops of the mountains. For 150 days the flood
was mighty on the earth. Then God caused a wind to blow, and the waters
sank. And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the
ark rested on the mountains of the land of Ararat; and in the tenth
month, on the first day, the tops of the mountains appeared. It came to
pass after forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark, and sent
out a raven; but it flew to and fro. Then he sent out a dove, to see
whether the water had retired from the earth. But the dove found no
place of rest, and returned to the ark. And Noah remained seven days
more, and again sent out the dove. Then the dove came to him at evening,
and lo! a fresh olive-branch was in her mouth. And he remained yet seven
days, and again sent out the dove, but she returned to him no more. Then
Noah opened the door of the ark and looked out, and lo! the earth was
dry. And in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the
earth was dry. And Noah went out of the ark, and his sons, and his wife,
and the wives of his sons, and he built an altar to Jehovah, and took of
all clean beasts and birds and offered a burnt sacrifice upon the altar.
After the flood sons were born to the sons of Noah. The sons of Shem
were Elam and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud and Aram. Arphaxad begot
Salah, and Salah begot Eber. Eber had two sons, the name of the one was
Peleg, and the name of the other Joktan. Peleg begot Reu, and Reu begot
Serug, and Serug begot Nahor, and Nahor begot Terah.
Terah dwelt in the land of his nativity at Ur in Chaldaea, and his sons
were Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot and Milcah and Iscah,
and died before his father at Ur in Chaldaea. Nahor took Milcah to wife,
and Abraham took Sarah. And Terah went with Abraham his son, and Lot the
son of Haran, from Ur in Chaldaea to Haran and dwelt there. But Jehovah
said to Abraham: "Go from thy land, and thy home, and thy father's
house, to a land which I will show thee." Then Abraham took Sarah his
wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods, and the souls
born to them in Haran, and went forth from Haran. He came unto the land
of Canaan as far as Sichem and to the oak Moreh, and there he built to
Jehovah an altar; and afterwards he went towards the mountain and
pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai, and there he built an altar to
Jehovah, and journeyed towards the south. And when the famine was sore
in the land, Abraham, and Lot with him, went to Egypt, and Pharaoh, for
Sarah's sake, gave Abraham sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants,
and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. But Jehovah smote Pharaoh
with great plagues, so that he let Abraham and Sarah go, and bade men
guide him.
Then Abraham dwelt again at Bethel, and was very rich in flocks, in
silver and gold. Lot also had tents and sheep and oxen, and there was a
strife between the shepherds of Abraham and the shepherds of Lot. Then
Abraham said to Lot: "Let there be no strife between my shepherds and
thine, for we are brethren. If thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go
to the right." Then Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw the land of Jordan,
that it was watered as a garden of the Lord; and he set forth at
morning, and pitched his tents at Sodom. But Jehovah said to Abraham:
"Lift up thine eyes; the whole land which thou seest I will give to thee
and thy seed for ever; rise up and go through the length and breadth of
the land, for I will give it to thee." And Abraham pitched his tents
under the oaks, which are at Kirjath-Arba (Hebron), and there built an
altar to Jehovah.
For twelve years the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Adamah, Zeboiim and
Zoar, had served Kedor-Laomer, king of Elam. Then they rebelled; and in
the fourteenth year Kedor-Laomer, and the kings who were with him,
Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Tidal and Arioch of Elassar, smote the
Rephaims at Ashtaroth-Karnaim, the Zuzims at Ham, and the Emims at
Shaveh-Kiriathaim, and the Horites on their mountain of Seir, and smote
the whole land of the Amalekites and Amorites. The kings of Sodom and
Gomorrah also, of Adamah, Zeboiim and Zoar, who had drawn out against
them in the valley of Siddim, were put to flight, and fled to the
mountains, and all the goods and all the food in Sodom and Gomorrah were
taken, and they also took Lot and his goods. When Abraham heard that his
brother's son was carried away, he set forth with his servants, 318 in
number, and fell upon them by night at Dan, and pursued them as far as
Hobah, which is to the west of Damascus, and brought back all the goods
and Lot and the people that were captured. The king of Sodom came to him
and said: Give me the souls, and take the goods for thyself. But Abraham
said: I lift up my hand to Jehovah that I will take nothing of thee,
save what my servants have eaten.
Abraham dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, but his wife bore him no
son. But he had an Egyptian maid-servant whose name was Hagar. Her Sarah
gave him to wife, and Hagar was with child, and the angel of Jehovah
announced to her that she should bear a son who would be like a wild
ass, and his hand would be against every man and every man's hand
against him, and he would dwell to the east of his brethren. And Hagar
bore Abraham a son, and Abraham named him Ishmael. Then he received the
promise that Sarah also should bear a son, "from whom should arise kings
and nations;" and when he was 100 years old, and in the south between
Kadesh and Sur, Sarah bore him a son. Abraham named him Isaac, and
circumcised him when he was eight days old. The year before he had
circumcised Ishmael, for God had said: This is the covenant which thou
shalt keep between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, that every male
shall be circumcised.
When Isaac grew up and Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian woman, she said
to Abraham: Thrust out this woman and her son; Ishmael shall not be heir
with Isaac. Then Abraham gave Hagar bread and a bottle of water on her
shoulders, and sent her forth with her child. She wandered into the
desert of Beersheba, i.e. the well of the seven, and when the water was
spent, and the child was fainting with thirst, she laid him down under a
bush, and sat down a bow-shot from him, and said: "Let me not see the
death of the child." Then Jehovah heard the voice of the child, and His
angel called to Hagar out of heaven: "Fear not, rise up, and take the
boy in thy hand, Jehovah will make him a great people." And Jehovah
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and filled the bottle, and
gave her child drink. And Jehovah was with him; he grew up in the
desert, and was an archer, and dwelt in the desert of Paran, and his
mother took him a wife out of Egypt, and Ishmael begot Nebajoth, and
Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, and
Hadar, and Tema, and Jetur, and Naphish, and Kedemah, twelve princes.
And Ishmael died 137 years old, and his descendants dwelt to the east of
his brethren from Shur, which lies before Egypt, to Havilah, and towards
Asshur.
Abraham abode a long time in the land of the Philistines. And God
tempted Abraham, and bade him sacrifice his only son Isaac, in the land
of Moriah, as a burnt offering. But when Abraham had built the altar on
the top of the mountain, and laid the wood upon it, and bound Isaac and
laid him on the altar, and taken the knife and stretched forth his hand
to slay his son, the angel of Jehovah called from heaven, saying: Lay
not thine hand on the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God; thou
hast not refused Him thine only son. And Abraham saw a ram caught in the
thicket, and he sacrificed him.
When Sarah died at Hebron, Abraham spoke to the Hittites among whom he
dwelt: I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a
burying-place for my people among you, that I may put away my dead from
me. Speak for me with Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he give me the cave
of Machpelah which is his, at the corner of his field; let him give it
to me for a burying-place at its full worth in money. Ephron agreed, and
Abraham weighed the money to Ephron, four hundred shekels of silver,
current money with the merchant. And thus the field of Ephron at
Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, that is Hebron, the field and the cave,
and all the trees on the field and round it, were given to Abraham
before the eyes of the Hittites, and the eyes of all who went into the
gates of the city. And Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of the field of
Machpelah.
Then Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah, and she bore him
Zimram, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. But
Isaac had grown a man, and Abraham said to his servant, the oldest in
his house, Eliezer of Damascus: Lay thy hand under my thigh; I charge
thee that thou take not to my son a wife from the daughters of the
Canaanites, among whom we dwell; to my fatherland and my home thou shalt
go, and there seek a wife for Isaac. Then the servant took ten camels
from the camels of his master, and goods of every kind, and passed over
the Euphrates towards Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor, the brother of
Abraham. To Nahor his wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, had borne
eight sons. The youngest was Bethuel, and Bethuel's son was Laban, and
his daughter Rebekah. Eliezer came to the city of Nahor at evening, and
halted his camels at the well outside the city. Then came a maiden, fair
to behold, with her pitcher on her shoulder, to the well. When she had
filled her pitcher and come up from the well, the servant went to her
and said: Bend down thy pitcher and let me drink a little water. Drink,
my lord, she answered, and quickly took the pitcher in her hand, and
gave him to drink. Then she said: I will draw also for thy camels, and
stepped down again to the well. Eliezer marvelled at her; and when all
the camels had drunk, he took a golden ring, half a shekel in weight,
and two golden bracelets, ten shekels in weight, and put the ring in her
nose, and the bracelets on her arm, and then inquired whose daughter she
was, and whether there was room in her father's house to shelter him and
the camels. And she answered: I am Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the
son of Nahor; straw and fodder is in abundance with us, and room for the
camels. And her brother Laban came to the well, and led Eliezer to the
house, and Laban took the saddles from the camels, spread straw for
them, and gave them fodder and brought water for his guest to wash his
feet, and food. But Eliezer said: I will not eat till I have given my
message. I am the servant of Abraham, and Jehovah has blessed my master,
so that he has become great, and he has given him sheep and oxen, and
silver and gold, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and camels and
asses. And Sarah has borne a son to my master in his old age, and I have
sworn to seek a wife for his son from his home and his own people; and
Jehovah led me in the right path in order to take the granddaughter of
the brother of my master for his son. If ye are willing to plight troth
and love with Abraham, say it. Then said Bethuel, Rebekah's father, and
Laban her brother: Behold, the maiden stands before thee, take her and
go. Then Eliezer brought forth gold and silver ornaments, and garments,
and gave them to Rebekah; to her brother also and her mother he gave
gifts. And when Laban and his mother sent away Rebekah with her nurse
Deborah, and Abraham's servant Eliezer, they blessed Rebekah, and said:
Become a thousand times a thousand, and may thy seed possess the gate of
thy enemies. When Eliezer returned home, he told all that he had done,
and Isaac received Rebekah into the tent of his mother, and she became
his wife, and he loved her. And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac;
but to Ishmael and the sons of Keturah he gave gifts, and sent them away
from his son Isaac into the land to the East. Then Abraham, after he had
lived 175 years, died at a good old age, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah.
These narratives show that the Hebrews derived the origin of their
nation from the land of the Euphrates and Tigris. We remarked above that
the legend of the Deluge could only have arisen in river valleys,
exposed to severe inundations (p. 245). If we set aside the additions
made in the prophetic revision, the narrative of the flood belongs to
the first text; in this text therefore the nations of the earth were
derived from the sons of Noah. The revision adds that the descendants of
Noah, in their journey from the East, found a plain in the land of
Shinar, i.e. Babylonia, and dwelt there, and erected a city and a tower,
intended to reach to heaven. Then Jehovah confounded their language and
scattered them over the earth.[580] But it is the first text which gives
the genealogy of Abraham, according to which the descendant of Noah,
Terah, the father of Abraham, dwells in the land of his nativity, at Ur
in Chaldaea. We found that Ur lay on the lower Euphrates, where the ruins
of Mugheir mark its site, that the oldest buildings in Babylonia belong
to this place, and the oldest sovereigns on the Euphrates called
themselves kings of Ur (p. 259). From Ur Terah, according to the first
text, journeyed with his family to Haran.[581] Haran lies in a wide
plain surrounded by hills on the Skirtos, a tributary of the Belik, at
no great distance from the Euphrates; it is the Carrhae of western
writers. From Haran Abraham turns towards Canaan; but his brother's
tribe remains in Haran. Hence, as the oldest writings of the Hebrews
without any doubt derive the progenitors of the nation from Ur and
Carrhae in the land of the Euphrates, so later authorities maintain, as
an absolute certainty, that "the fathers dwelt beyond the river," _i.e._
the Euphrates. In the "second law" Abraham is called a "wandering
Aramaean," and Ezekiel calls Chaldaea "the birthplace of the
Hebrews."[582] The name "Hebrews" confirms this statement and view.
Heber means "that which is beyond," "those who dwell beyond." The
Hebrews call themselves the sons of Israel; the name of Hebrews they
received from the Canaanites, into whose land they forced a way, though
the Canaanites, no doubt, meant no more by the name than that the sons
of Israel dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, before they set foot in
Canaan.
But the genealogy of the Hebrews goes far beyond Carrhae and Ur. After
enumerating the ten patriarchs from Adam, _i.e._ from the man "formed of
earth" (adama) to Noah, and giving the age of these patriarchs in
hundreds of years (the highest age is 969, and the lowest is the
seventh, 365), the first text enumerates another set of ten patriarchs
from the sons of Noah down to Abraham, and of these the age gradually
dwindles from 600 to 175 years.[583] The head of this series, Shem, the
eldest son of Noah, the friend of God, is the immediate progenitor of
the Hebrews. That the recollection and feeling of the relationship with
the inhabitants of the land of the two streams, and with the population
of Aram, _i.e._ of the upper land between the Tigris and Euphrates, the
Euphrates and the Jordan, and with portions of the inhabitants of
Arabia and Asia Minor, was alive and present in the minds of the
Hebrews, is clear from the fact that these nations, akin in tribe and
blood and language, were carried back to Shem. From Arphaxad, the third
son of Shem, sprang the fathers of the Hebrews; the two first sons Elam
and Asshur, we already know as the progenitors of the Elamites and
Assyrians. From Lud and Aram, the fourth and fifth sons of Shem, the
Lydians and Aramaeeans were derived, a genealogy which certainly belongs
to the Ephraimitic, if not to the Judaean text. In Arphaxad, the name of
the third son, we cannot mistake the name of a district any more than in
the names of the other sons. Arphaxad is a mountain canton of South
Armenia, between the lakes of Van and Urumiah,--the Arrapachitis[584] of
the Greeks, the Alpak of the Armenians, the modern Albak--and lies more
than 6,000 feet high, at the source of the Great Zab, which also flows
through it.[585] The son of Arphaxad is Salah, _i.e._ "leaving,"
"departure," and the son of Salah is Eber, in whom we have the later
name of the Israelites, transformed into a patriarch. To Eber two sons
are allotted. The name of the elder, Peleg, means division, "because in
his time the earth was divided." From this we may draw the conclusion
that the division of the descendants of Noah and the separation of the
nations was transferred to the fifth generation after him. But another
meaning may also be given on linguistic grounds to the name Peleg
(Phaleg), and at the juncture of the Chaboras and the Euphrates we find
a place of the name of Phalga.[586] Joktan, the second son of Eber, we
know already as the father of those Arabian tribes who dwell from Mesha
to Dshafar, and in Kachtan we have already found his name in Arab
tradition (p. 326). The descendants of Peleg, the elder son of Eber, are
Reu, and Serug the son of Reu. The name Serug appears to have been
retained in the district of Serug, and the modern Serudsh, south-west of
Edessa, in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates. Western writers speak of
the district of Osrhoene, and give this name to the south-west of
Mesopotamia.[587] Serug's son is Nahor, _i.e._ "the river," the
Euphrates. Nahor is followed by Terah, who had his home at Ur.
If this series of the first text preserved a genuine historical
recollection, a portion of a Semitic tribe, settled in the mountains of
South Armenia, or even the whole tribe--the sons of Arphaxad--journeyed
to the south, after leaving nothing but their name in the mountain
valley. The separation from their kindred was signified by the name
Salah, _i.e._ "leaving." At first the sons of Arphaxad pastured their
flocks at Serudsh, in the north-west of Mesopotamia, and from thence
they passed to Ur on the lower Euphrates, while another branch, the sons
of Joktan, turned away from the mouth of the Euphrates in the direction
of Arabia. At a later time the sons of Arphaxad settled at Ur must again
have marched up the Euphrates to Carrhae. Then followed a second
division; one portion, the Nahorites, _i.e._ the people of the river,
remained at Carrhae, while others, the Abrahamites, wandered to Canaan,
or rather into the deserts bordering on Canaan. Moreover, since the
first text denotes Abraham's eldest son Ishmael, as the progenitor of
the Ishmaelites, _i.e._ of a considerable number of tribes of North and
Central Arabia, and since the revision derives the Midianites, who
wandered on the peninsula of Sinai, and further in the East, and other
Arabian tribes, from the sons of Keturah, the younger sons of Abraham
(pp. 324, 393), it follows that on the borders of Canaan a portion of
the Abrahamites must again have broken off, and passed on to the
peninsula of Arabia.
However this may be, the kinship of the Hebrews with the Babylonians,
Assyrians, and Aramaeans, the derivation of their tribe from the
river-land of the Euphrates and Tigris, is beyond a doubt, and we must
regard the districts of Arphaxad and Serug, of Ur and Carrhae, as the
original home of the tribe, which afterwards grew up to be the Hebrews.
In any case it is clear from this genealogical table that the Hebrews
considered themselves closely allied to the Nahorites of Haran, but more
especially to a considerable number of the Arabian tribes, or
Ishmaelites, _i.e._ the Nebajoths, the Kedarites, the Temanites, the
Jeturites, and finally the Midianites. This is proved, not only by the
derivation of the Ishmaelites from the eldest son of Abraham, but also
by the close relationship in which the Edomites, the brothers of the
Hebrews, are represented as standing to the Ishmaelites. The names
Ishmael and Israel are similarly formed; the first means "God (El)
hears," the second, "God strives," or "God rules."
Within this circle of kindred nations, the Hebrews occupy the foremost
place. The Ishmaelites are descended, it is true, from the eldest son of
Abraham; but not from a legitimate or equal marriage; the mother of
their tribe is a maid-servant and an Egyptian. Ishmael's wife also came
from Egypt, and, in this there may linger a dim recollection of the
ancient supremacy of the Hyksos in Egypt.[588] The Midianites, on the
other hand, spring from a younger branch than the Hebrews; and they too
are not born from the true wife of Abraham, and hence are not his
genuine heirs. To the Moabites also, who pastured their flocks to the
east of the Dead Sea, and the Ammonites, whose land lay to the
north-east of this sea, the Hebrews held themselves akin. These tribes
are the descendants of Lot, Abraham's brother's son; and therefore they,
like the Hebrews themselves, spring from those who had moved from
Carrhae to the West. But Lot had separated from Abraham, and chosen the
region of Jordan. And when Jehovah rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom
and Gomorrah, because the sins of their inhabitants were grievous, and
overthrew these cities, and the whole land around them, Lot with his two
daughters escaped towards the East; but because all the men of Sodom
were destroyed, there was no man to dwell with Lot's daughters. Then
they gave their father wine to drink, and lay with him, and the elder
bore Moab, and the younger Ammon. Thus although the Moabites and
Ammonites are closely allied to the Hebrews, and are of the pure
stock--they were begotten in incest. A dark stain rests on their origin.
Obviously the bitter hostility which afterwards prevailed between the
Hebrews, and the Moabites and Ammonites, and the severe wounds which the
Hebrews suffered from the attacks of these nations, have had their
influence in forming and moulding the story of their origin. The Judaean
text narrated quite simply the separation of Abraham and Lot, the
choice of the land of Jordan, the destruction of the cities, and Lot's
escape.[589] The broader details and motives given in the narrative are
the work of the prophetic revision, to which the account of the origin
of the Moabites and Ammonites exclusively belongs.
To the Hebrews, the wanderings and fortunes of their forefathers
appeared compressed into the lives of the patriarchs, whose mighty forms
are also to them the patterns of morality, piety, and a life pleasing to
God, the expression of the genuine national character. The name Abraham
means, in the form ab-ram, "high father;" in the form ab-raham, "father
of the multitude." Sarah means "princess." Their right to the
possessions, which they won in Canaan by the sword, they saw in the
command given to their ancestors to go thither, and in the promise that
the land should belong to his seed, which is given to Abraham, even in
the first text. Moreover, the purchase which Abraham concluded with the
Hittites of Hebron of a burying-place for his wife and himself in the
cave of Machpelah--this narrative is a part of the Judaean text--and the
services rendered by Abraham to Canaan gave to his descendants a claim
to the possession of Canaan. Abraham planted the trees at Beersheba, and
dug wells; he defended Canaan against Kedor-Laomer, and recovered from
the kings of the east the booty taken, without keeping back any for
himself. These services of the progenitor also constituted a claim for
his descendants.
The accounts in Genesis[590] of campaigns of Elamite rulers towards the
west, and the supremacy of a king of Elam, one of the Kudurids, over
Syria, are founded on events and circumstances which occurred about the
year 2000 B.C., as has been already pointed out in detail (p. 251). The
connection into which Abraham is brought with them is the work of the
Hebrews, and belongs to the Ephraimitic text.[591] The account which
puts the Horites, who occupied Mount Seir before the Edomites, among the
nations conquered by the Elamites, and beside these certain extinct and
mythical tribes--the Rephaites, Susites, and Emites--shows plainly that
the events must belong to a very distant past.
When the rights of the Hebrews to Canaan had been proved, when at the
same time it was ascertained that the kindred tribes of Moab and Ammon
could establish no claim to the land, after the voluntary renunciation
of their progenitor, it remained to be shown that the ancient
inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites themselves, had been from the
first destined to give way to the Hebrews. We found that the Canaanites,
like the Hebrews, belonged to the great family of the Semitic nations;
but they were distinguished from them in character, in dialect, and
religious conceptions. Hence they were not derived from Shem, but from
Noah's second son, Ham; and they were also burdened with the curse of
Noah--a trait which the prophetic reviser has added to the
narrative.[592] After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, and he became
drunken, and uncovered himself in his tent; and Ham, the father of
Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, but Shem and Japhet went
backwards and covered him. And when Noah heard what Ham had done, he
said, "Cursed be Ham; a servant of servants shall he be to his
brethren."
Abraham passed through the length and breadth of Canaan, the land which
his descendants were destined to possess. At Shechem and Hebron, and
then in the south, at Kadesh (Barnea) and Shur, he abode longest; at
Hebron, and between Bethel and Ai, he built an altar to Jehovah. The
presence of the patriarchs consecrated the places where his descendants
were to dwell; among the Hittites and the Canaanites Abraham remained
true to the God who had led him into Canaan; he rendered a willing
obedience even to the harshest command. At the places where Abraham had
set up altars, and where he had offered sacrifice, we find at a later
period centres of Hebrew worship: by Abraham's sacrifices they were
already consecrated. The Judaean text places the abode of Abraham mainly
in the south of Canaan, at Hebron; the south belonged mainly to the
tribe of Judah, and Hebron was David's royal abode till he conquered
Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The Ephraimitic text placed Abraham mainly
at Shechem, the chief city of the tribe of Ephraim, and gives especial
prominence to the sacred place at Bethel. The wandering of Abraham from
the south of Canaan to Egypt, where the Pharaoh, warned by plagues from
Jehovah, sends him away with valuable presents and in peace, is the work
of the reviser. It is an anticipation of the later sojourn of the
Hebrews in Egypt, and forms at the same time a contrast to the widely
different circumstances of their exodus.
After long waiting, the true son is at length born to the patriarch from
his wife, of the blood of his fathers in Haran.[593] In order to
preserve the blood of the Hebrews pure, a wife is not taken from Canaan
for this son, Isaac, but the care of the father provides a wife from
among his kindred, the tribe of the Nahorites, on the Euphrates. The
first text tells us quite briefly, "Isaac was forty years old when he
took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramaean of
Mesopotamia, the sister of Laban the Aramaean."[594] The lively
description of the journey and the suit of Eliezer is the work of the
reviser of the two original texts. After thus providing for the
continuance of the pure stock, when the oldest son, the child of Hagar,
and the younger sons, the children of Keturah, had been sent away with
presents, as the law of the Hebrews afterwards ordained for the sons of
concubines, and directed to the East, when he had given everything into
the hand of Isaac, Abraham died full of years and blessings.
Isaac was now sixty years old--such is the account given in Genesis--and
his wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the sister of Laban, had
borne him no son. Then Isaac besought Jehovah for his wife, and Jehovah
heard him. Rebekah became with child, and lo! there were twins in her
womb, and the children strove in her womb; and Jehovah said to her: Two
nations are in thy body, and two people shall separate from thy bosom.
The first boy was red in colour, and hairy, and she called him Esau; and
afterwards his brother came out, and his hand was upon Esau's heel, and
he was called Jacob, _i.e._ "one that holds the heel." And the boys
grew; and Esau was a hunter, but Jacob abode in the tents, and his
mother loved him. Once Esau returned weary from hunting, as Jacob was
making a mess of pottage. And Esau said: Give me to eat. And Jacob
replied: Sell me first thy birthright, and pledge it to me. And Esau
swore, and sold his birthright, and ate and drank, and went his way.
Thus Esau despised his birthright; and when he was forty years old, he
took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basmath
(Bashemath), the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and afterwards Mahalath,
the daughter of Ishmael, Nebajoth's sister.
There was a famine in Canaan, and Isaac went to Gerar in the land of the
Philistines, and there dwelt, and sowed in that land, and received a
hundredfold, for Jehovah blessed him. He became more and more mighty,
and had sheep, and oxen, and many servants. And Isaac dug out the wells
which Abraham's servants had made, and which the Philistines had filled
up after the death of Abraham. And the shepherds of Gerar strove with
the shepherds of Isaac, and Isaac called the name of the wells Esek
(contention) and Sitnah (hatred); but to the third, for which the
shepherds of Gerar had not striven, he gave the name Rehoboth (room).
From thence he went to Beersheba, and there he set up an altar.
When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, he said to Esau: Take thy bow
and quiver, hunt venison for me, and make a savoury dish such as I love,
that I may eat, and my soul may bless thee before I die. Esau went
forth, but Rebekah, who had heard Isaac's speech, said to Jacob: Go to
the flock and bring me two kids. I will prepare them for a savoury dish
for thy father, that he may bless thee instead of Esau. Jacob obeyed,
and Rebekah put on him the clothes of Esau, and placed on his neck and
hands the skins of the kids, that his father, if he touched him, might
not know Jacob by his smooth skin. Then Jacob went in to his father, and
said: I am Esau, thy firstborn; eat of my venison. How hast thou found
it so quickly, my son? asked the father. Jehovah, thy God, put it into
my hand, he replied. The voice is the voice of Jacob, the father said,
but the hands are the hands of Esau. He ate, and Jacob brought him wine,
and he drank. Then Isaac said: Come near, and kiss me, my son. God give
thee the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance
of corn and wine. Be thou lord over thy brethren, and let the sons of
thy mother bow before thee. Cursed be they who curse thee, and blessed
be they who bless thee. And when Jacob had gone away from his father
with this blessing, Esau came with his venison. Isaac trembled and said:
Thy brother has come with subtilty, and taken away thy blessing. Then
Esau lifted up his voice and wept, and said: My birthright has he taken
from me, and now thy blessing also. Bless me, even me also, O my father.
What can I do for thee? answered Isaac. Lo! I have made him thy lord,
and all his brethren I have given him for servants, and I have given him
corn and wine. Hast thou but one blessing? said Esau, and wept. Then
Isaac said: Thy dwelling shall be without the fatness of the earth and
the dew of heaven. By thy sword thou shalt live; thou shalt serve thy
brother, but his yoke thou shalt break from off thy neck.
Esau was at enmity with Jacob, because he had deceived him in his
father's blessing; and Esau said in his heart: The days of mourning for
my father will come, for I will slay Jacob. Then Rebekah said to Jacob:
Arise and flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran, till the anger of thy
brother is turned away. And Rebekah spoke to Isaac, that Jacob should
not take a wife from the daughters of the Hittites; and Isaac bade Jacob
go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, the father of his mother,
and there take a wife from the daughters of Laban. Then Jacob went from
Beersheba to Haran. And when he abode for the night at the city of Luz,
he put a stone under his head, and there rested. Then in a dream he saw
a ladder placed upon the earth, the end of which touched heaven, and the
angels of God went up and down upon the ladder. Jehovah stood over it,
and said: I am the God of Abraham thy father and of Isaac; the land
whereon thou sleepest I will give to thee and thy seed. And in the
morning Jacob arose, and set up the stone which he had placed under his
head for a sign, and poured oil on the stone, and called the name of the
place Bethel.
In the land of the children of the east Jacob saw a well, round which
lay three flocks of sheep. Then Jacob said to the shepherds: Whence are
ye, my brethren? They answered, From Haran. Jacob asked again: Know ye
Laban, Nahor's son? And they said: We know him; it is well with him, and
lo! there is Rachel, his daughter, with the sheep of her father. And
Jacob rolled away the great stone, which lay at the mouth of the well,
and watered Rachel's sheep; and Laban came, and took his sister's son
into his house. Laban had two daughters: Leah the eldest had dim eyes,
but Rachel was fair to look upon; and Jacob said to Laban: I will serve
seven years for Rachel. And these seven years were as seven days in
Jacob's eyes, because he loved Rachel. When the time was past, Laban
gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in
the dark of the evening he brought Leah instead of Rachel to Jacob, and
it was not till the morning that Jacob knew Leah. Why hast thou deceived
me? Jacob asked of Laban; have I not served thee seven years for Rachel?
Laban answered, It is not so done in our country, to give the younger
daughter before the firstborn. Serve me yet seven years, and thou shalt
have Rachel also to wife. So Jacob abode seven years more with Laban,
and gained Rachel for his second wife, and he kept Laban's flock for six
years more, and the sheep increased under Jacob's hand.
Leah bore Jacob four sons; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. But Rachel
was barren and bore not. Then Rachel gave her maid Bilhah to Jacob, and
Bilhah bore two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Leah also gave her maid Zilpah
to Jacob, and she bore Gad and Asher. Then Leah bore Issachar and
Zebulon; and Jehovah heard Rachel, and sent her a son, whom she called
Joseph. When Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban: For twenty years I
have been with thee; thy sheep and thy goats have not cast their young,
and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten. Let me depart that I may go
to my own land, with my wives and children, and give me my hire. What
shall I give thee? asked Laban. Set aside all that are striped and
spotted among thy sheep and goats, and whatever is afterwards born
striped or spotted among thy sheep and goats, that shall be my hire,
said Jacob. And Laban said: Be it according to thy word. Then Jacob set
apart the coloured sheep and goats; and when the time of generation
came, he took fresh wands of maple and almond-wood, and made white
strips in them, by peeling off the bark, and cast them into the wells
and runnels, where Laban's sheep and goats were watered; and everything
was born spotted, and fell to Jacob's share, so that he became mighty,
and gained many sheep and camels, and asses, and maid-servants, and
men-servants. But Laban's countenance was not towards him as heretofore;
and Laban's sons were angry and said: He has got his wealth from that
which is our father's. Then Jacob arose, when Laban was gone to the
shearing, and set forth secretly with his wives and children, and
flocks; and Rachel took the images from the house of her father, and
carried them with her, and Jacob fled over the river, and set his face
towards Mount Gilead. Then Laban hastened after him, and came up with
him on Mount Gilead, and said: "Why art thou fleeing secretly before me,
so that I cannot accompany thee with drums, and music, and singing? why
hast thou not allowed me to kiss my daughters, and why hast thou taken
my gods?" Jacob answered: "I was afraid, for I thought thou wouldest
take thy daughters from me." And Jacob set up a stone on Mount Gilead,
and they made a heap of stones, and offered sacrifice on the heap, and
Laban said: "The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor be judge between
us, and guardian that thou do not afflict my daughters, or take other
wives to them; and this heap be witness that I go not after thee for
evil, nor shalt thou come beyond this sign after me for evil." And Jacob
swore by him, whom his father feared, and offered sacrifice on the
mountain. And the heap of stones was called Galeed (heap of witness),
and Mizpah (watch tower), because Laban had said that Jehovah should be
guardian if they were separated one from the other.
And Jacob sent messengers before him to appease his brother Esau, to
Mount Seir, with 200 ewes, and 20 rams, and 200 she-goats, and 20
he-goats, and 30 camels with their colts, and 40 cows, and 10 bulls, and
20 she-asses, and 10 asses, as a gift to Esau; and he divided his flocks
into two parts, that the one might escape, if Esau came against the
other; for he was sore afraid. He rose in the night and took his two
wives, and his two maids, and his eleven children, and carried them
through the ford of the Jabbok, but he himself remained behind. Then a
man wrestled with him till the morning broke, and smote the socket of
his hip, and Jacob's hip was out of joint. And he said: "Let me go, for
the morning is breaking." But Jacob said: "I will not let thee go, till
thou blessest me." Then he said: "Thy name shall be Jacob no longer, but
Israel; for thou hast striven with God, and with men, and hast
overcome," and he blessed him there. And Jacob named the place Peniel
(God's visage), and the sun arose as he passed beyond Peniel.
Jacob lifted up his eyes, and lo! Esau came, and with him four hundred
men. Then Jacob assigned his children to Leah and Rachel and the two
maids, and the maids and their children he put in the front, and next
Leah and her children, and last of all Rachel with her son. He went
before them and bowed himself seven times before his brother. But Esau
embraced him, and kissed him, and they wept. The present of cattle Esau
would not accept. "I have enough, my brother," he said, "keep what is
thine." But Jacob urged him to take them as a proof that he had found
grace in his eyes. Then Esau took them and parted in peace from his
brother, and on the same day turned back on his way to Mount Seir. But
Jacob went to Shechem, and bought the field where he had pitched his
tent, and there set up an altar; and from Shechem he went to Bethel, and
there also he built an altar; and from Bethel Jacob returned to Hebron
to his father Isaac.
As we have seen, the Arabs and Phenicians believed that the power and
might of the gods was present in certain stones, which they worshipped
in their sanctuaries (pp. 329, 360). The Hebrews also were acquainted
with this worship. The first text tells us that God appeared to Jacob
when he returned out of Mesopotamia, that He blessed him, and said:
Henceforth Israel shall be thy name. And God went up from the place
where he had spoken with him, and Jacob set up a stone as a sign on the
place, and poured oil on it, and called the name of the place Bethel
(house of God).[595] In the older mode of conception, the stone was
itself the house of God. The Ephraimitic text represents Jacob as
resting on the stone when he went to Mesopotamia, and as seeing in a
dream the ladder on which the angels went up and down;[596] the
appearance of Jehovah at the top of the ladder, as well as the form of
the blessing, belongs to the revision.[597] The change of the name Jacob
into Israel is referred by the Ephraimitic text to a definite occasion.
To the Hebrews, in the old time, the god of their tribe was a jealous
and fearful deity, averse to the life of nature,--a god who exercised
dominion above in the highest heaven, who rode on the clouds, and
announced himself in thunder and lightning, and earthquakes, who
appeared in flames of fire, whom the eye of mortal man could not behold
and live.[598] The supernatural God can in the first instance be
conceived and regarded only in contrast to nature, and the life of
nature. But inasmuch as the natural life can only come into being and
continue to exist by his permission, and with his consent, that life
must be redeemed and purchased. Hence according to the primitive
conception of the Hebrews, everything that was brought to the birth
belonged to their god, the firstlings of the field, and of beast, the
first-born male of the woman. Abraham was ready to sacrifice the
firstborn son of his wife, the son of his own heart. But he was not
permitted to slay him. He had already offered the sacrifice, inasmuch as
he was resolved to sacrifice what was dearest, in obedience to the
bidding of God. So runs the Ephraimitic text. As Jacob was returning
from the Euphrates he came upon a place in Gilead, known as "God's
visage." Here, in the dark of the night, a man wrestled with Jacob till
the morning broke, and Jacob would not let him go till he had blessed
him; "Thou hast striven with God and men, and overcome; therefore,
henceforth thy name shall be Israel."[599] In the myth of the
Phenicians, the power of destruction is taken from the hostile god, when
the friendly god wrestles with him. The Hebrews changed the wrestling
between the hostile and friendly deities, into a wrestling between the
servant and the master, between the patriarch of the tribe and his god,
a struggle from which the former does not let the god go till he has
obtained a pledge, that he will spare him and his tribe, and send
increase and blessing to him and his tribe. The contrast of hostile and
friendly deities, and their struggle with each other, the Hebrew
conceives as the work, the toil, the struggle of men, _i.e._ strenuous
wrestling to win the blessing of God. Jacob carried away the injury to
his thigh, but he won the blessing of Jehovah.
With this conception of the Hebrews, that the First-born belonged to
Jehovah, is connected the ordinance that a ransom must be offered for
him. Moreover, in every spring the Paschal lamb was offered as a
sin-offering for the redemption of the house, along with the firstlings
of the field. The use of circumcision also, as it seems, stood with the
Hebrews in close connection with the idea that the life of boys must be
ransomed by a bloody sacrifice. Jehovah is said to have commanded
Abraham to circumcise his family in token of the covenant which he had
made with him and his seed (p. 392). This custom was also in use among
the Edomites and certain other Arabian and Syrian tribes.[600]
According to the genealogy of the Hebrews we had to assume that the
Semitic tribes from Arphaxad first went to Serug, and afterwards to Ur
in Chaldaea; and that these immigrants, or a branch of them, passed from
Ur to Haran. While the Nahorites remained behind at Haran, the
Abrahamites turned towards the southern border of Canaan, where the
Ammonites and Moabites, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, separated, and
took possession of the centre of Arabia, the peninsula of Sinai, and the
land eastward of the Jordan. From the narrative of Isaac, Esau, and
Jacob, it further follows that not only those nations but also the sons
of Esau, the Edomites, were descendants of Abraham, and the Hebrews were
a branch of the Edomites who had separated from them. Hence the Hebrews
were the youngest scion of the stock which once came from the mountains
of Arphaxad to Ur, to Mesopotamia, and then into the deserts of Arabia
and Syria. If, however, we allow that the genealogies of the Hebrews
express the position which they took up or wished to take up towards the
kindred Semitic nations, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Mesopotamians, the
Arabians, Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and did not attempt to
place facts of history beyond doubt, yet we must not refuse to recognise
a definite historical basis in the relation of the Hebrews to the
Edomites. The Edomites possessed Mount Seir, which runs from the
southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the north-east corner of the Red
Sea. Before them the Horites possessed this mountain (p. 403).[601]
According to the Hebrew tradition the patriarch of the Edomites was
Esau. He "was red in colour and hairy." Though this is not the meaning
of the name Esau, the name Edomites does actually mean the "red people,"
and the name of their mountain Seir means, "to be hairy," a name which
could very well be given to a mountain covered with briars and
brushwood. The Edomites were fond of the chase and of war; their
progenitor is a hunter and warrior; and to this, his eldest son, Isaac
foretells that his dwelling should be without the fatness of the earth;
by his sword should he live. Only a slight advantage in age is allowed
to Esau: he is merely the firstborn of twins; and even at birth his
brother Jacob held him by the heel. The pre-eminence which Isaac gives
to the younger son is explained in the Judaean text merely by the fact,
that Esau had taken wives from the Hittites. "And when Esau saw that
Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Mesopotamia in order to take a
wife from thence, Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his
father, and he went to Ishmael, and took Mahalath, the daughter of
Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of Nebajoth, to wife to his
other wives."[602] All the further details of the relations between the
two brothers, the sale of the birthright, the obtaining of the blessing,
and the form of the blessing, belong to the revision. This text and this
only could make Isaac say to Esau, "Thou shalt serve thy brother, but
shalt break his yoke from off thy neck." Saul conquered, and David
subjugated the Edomites; it was not till the time of Joram, king of
Judah, in the first half of the ninth century B.C., that they recovered
their independence.
The description of the journey of Jacob to the Euphrates, his service
with Laban, and his flight, come from the Ephraimitic text: the revision
has only extended the introduction, and here and there inserted an
interpolation. To the same text belongs the peaceful departure from the
Nahorites, the setting up of a token on the east of Jordan to fix how
far the borders of the Israelites, beyond which the Nahorites were not
to go, were to extend in this direction, and finally Jacob's
reconciliation with Esau. With the daughters of Canaan whom he took to
wife, Esau could only beget an impure race, and even with the daughter
of Ishmael his race would not be wholly pure, while Jacob served
patiently for fourteen years in order to obtain wives of the genuine
blood. By this, and by the blessing of Isaac, the pre-eminence of the
younger Israelites is established over the Edomites; but the brothers
parted in peace. Esau received rich gifts. Thus they separated on the
ford of the Jabbok at the sacred place of Peniel. The one went to Seir,
the other to Shechem in Canaan. Hence the Edomites had no reason to
cherish resentment against the sons of Jacob.
Isaac and Jacob abode in Canaan at Hebron, Beersheba, and Shechem. Here
Isaac again dug out the wells which Abraham's servants had previously
made. The quarrel of his servants about the wells with the Philistines
of Gerar is based on the severe battles afterwards fought between the
Philistines and Israel. As Abraham had set up pillars, so does Isaac
build an altar at Beersheba,[603] and Jacob sets up a sacred stone at
Bethel. As Abraham, according to the first text, buys the burying-place
at Hebron, so Jacob, according to this same text, bought the field at
Shechem, where he had pitched his tent. Thus Isaac and Jacob also have
acquired possessions in Canaan, and have rendered services to the land;
they also have prepared the way for the rule of their descendants in
Canaan, and have consecrated the places at which the Hebrews were
destined to worship the gods of their fathers.
The three patriarchs strictly carry out the commands of Jehovah, from
which their descendants swerved often and long. To the Hebrews they are
patterns of the purity of their race; their descendants did not always
keep themselves free from mixture with the Canaanites. But they are not
only patterns of the fear of God, and piety, of correct faith and right
dealing with the Canaanites; they also exhibit to the Hebrews the moral
ideal of their conduct. Abraham is distinguished by the virtues of
faithfulness, of unselfishness, and friendliness to his brother's
family, and, in return, the blessing of Jehovah rests upon him. Other
virtues are brought into prominence by the tradition in Jacob, the most
immediate ancestor of the Hebrews. If Abraham knew how to raise the
sword, and Esau lived a wild hunter's life, Jacob is a peaceable,
faithful shepherd, who patiently endures heat and cold, who is ever wide
awake, under whose hand the flocks increase, and whose care prevents the
sheep and goats from casting their young. When Jacob had served fourteen
years for his wives, he still continued to serve six years for hire.
Among the Hebrews the life of a hired servant is not considered a
degradation; and continuance in service for the sake of hire is not
looked down upon with contempt. Jehovah rewards the industrious
servant, the active workman. With his staff in his hand Jacob passed
over the Euphrates; but he returned rich in flocks and goods, blessed
with wife and child. In his pliancy, his quiet, peaceful trust in God,
his wrestling for the blessing of God, Jacob is the genuine warrior of
God (Israel), who is rescued, and gains the victory. Beside these stand
realistic traits peculiar to the East and the Hebrew character. Jacob is
a cunning man, who knows how to invent clever devices. With the help of
his mother he gains from his brother the blessing of the firstborn. At
first Laban outwits him, but in the end Jacob's cunning is victorious.
He knows how to pacify his brother by subjection. To bow before the
mighty in order to save property and life has not always appeared
dishonourable to the Oriental.
FOOTNOTES:
[568] Numbers xxi. 27; Joshua x. 14; Genesis xlviii. 20, 22. In proof
that Genesis xlix. belongs to the time of the judges, cf. Ewald, "Gesch.
Israel's," 1, 91.
[569] Gen. xxxvi. 1; xlvi. 8 ff.; Exod. vi. 14 ff.; Numb. iii. 17-21;
xxvii. 33.
[570] Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 64.
[571] Numb. xxi. 14.
[572] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 273.
[573] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 316, 317.
[574] Dillmann-Knobel, "Genesis," s. 11.
[575] Gen. x. 14; Exod. xv. 1-11; Numb. xxi. 14-18; cf. De
Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 319.
[576] De Wette-Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 318.
[577] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," 320, 321.
[578] Chap. iv., 44--c. xxviii, 69.
[579] De Wette-Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 303 ff.
[580] Gen. xi. 1-9.
[581] Gen. xi. 10-32.
[582] Ezek. xxiii. 15; Deut. xxvi. 25; Joshua xxiv. 2.
[583] These are the numbers in the Hebrew text; in the Samaritan and
Septuagint they are altered.--Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 112. To the
first text, chap, ii., 4-24 and iii., were added by the reviser; he
inserted another genealogical table below the series of patriarchs in
the original text from Adam to Noah (iv. 17 ff), and this table does not
run like the first: Adam, Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methusalah, Lamech, Noah, but gives the following order: (Enos) Adam,
Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mahajael, Methusael, Lamech. To Lamech this narrator
attached the origin of the shepherds, players on instruments, and
workers in brass. Bunsen ("AEgypten," 5, 2, 62 ff), has drawn from this
the conclusion that the Hebrews had really only seven patriarchs before
the flood.
[584] Ptolemy. 6, 1.
[585] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte der Berl. Akademie," 1859, s. 200.
[586] Stephan. Byz. s. v. from Arrian; Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 16.
[587] Buttmann, "Mythol." 1, 235; Procop. "De Bell. P." 1, 17; Ewald,
"Gesch. der V. Israel," 1, 358, 380; Bunsen, "AEgypten," 4, 450.
[588] The narrative of Hagar (Gen. xvi.) belongs to the first text; the
additions to the revision; the account of the expulsion of Ishmael (Gen.
xxi.) is from the Ephraimitic text.
[589] Gen. xiii. 5, 11, 12; xix. 29.
[590] Gen. xvii.
[591] Gen. xiv. De Wette-Schrader thinks the derivation from a written
source probable ("Einleitung," s. 319).
[592] Gen. ix. 20-27; Schrader, "Studien und Kritiken," s. 166 ff.
[593] Gen. xxv. 19.
[594] Dillmann-Knobel, "Genesis," p. 313.
[595] Gen. xxxv. 9-15.
[596] Gen. xxviii. 11, 12, 17-22.
[597] Gen. xxviii. 13-16.
[598] Exod. xxiv. 17, "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like
devouring fire." Exod. xix. 16, 18, "There were thunders and lightnings,
and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding
loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And mount
Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in
fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the
whole mount quaked greatly." Exod. xl. 38, "For the cloud of the Lord
was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night;" cf.
Numbers ix. 15, 16. Deut. iv. 15, "On the day that the Lord spake unto
you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire." Job i. 16, "The fire of God
is fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants,
and consumed them." Numb. xvi. 35, "And there came out a fire from the
Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."
Lev. x. 2, "And there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them,
and they died before the Lord." Exod. xxxiii. 3, "I will not go up in
the midst of thee lest I consume thee in the way." Exod. xxxiii. 20,
"Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live."
Deut. v. 26, "Who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of
the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and
lived." Lev. xvi. 2, "Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at
all times into the holy place ... that he die not." Exod. xix. 21,
"Charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and
many of them perish." Exod. xx. 19, "Let not God speak with us, lest we
die." Judges xiii. 22, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."
1 Sam. vi. 19, "And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had
looked into the ark of the Lord."
[599] Gen. xxxii. 24-32.
[600] Exod. iv. 24; xii. 1-18; xiii. 2, 12-14; xxxiv. 19; xxx. 11-16.
From the sacrifice of Isaac, the redemption of the firstborn and the
Paschal offering, the conclusion may be drawn that in the oldest times
human sacrifices were not unknown to the Hebrews. If such took place
they were not offered in the same manner as the Moloch-offerings of the
Canaanites. If Jehovah appears in fire, the fire is not, to the Hebrews,
his essence, but only a form or mode of appearance. Sacrifices like
those offered to Moloch were forbidden by the earliest text (Levit.
xviii. 22; xx. 2) under pain of death. The narrative of Jephthah's
daughter lays especial stress on the sanctity of the vow. Of the other
passages which come into consideration only one or two deal with
sacrifices; the remainder have reference to executions. In Numbers xxv.
4, we find, "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before
the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be
turned away from Israel." Jephthah vowed his daughter and sacrificed
her, Judges xi. 30, 34. "And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord
in Gilgal," 1 Samuel xv. 33. In 2 Samuel xxi. 6-9, the Gibeonites say,
"Give us seven men of his sons that we may hang them before the Lord in
Gibeah. And they hanged them up on the mountain before Jehovah."
[601] Gen. xiv. 6; Deut. ii. 12, 22.
[602] Gen. xxviii. 1-9; Gen. xxxvi. 3, 10, calls the daughter of
Ishmael, Basmath; cf. _supra_, pp. 317, 406.
[603] Gen. xlviii. 1. On the places of worship at Beersheba and the
"heights of Isaac" in Amos, cf. A. Bernstein, "Ursprung der Sagen," s.
14, 15.