went forth from Beer-sheba. First, the hours of the day were shortened,
and the sun went down before its time, because the Word desired to speak
with him; secondly, the four stones, which Jacob had set for his pillow,
he found in the morning had coagulated into one stone; thirdly, the
stone which, when all the flocks were assembled, the shepherds rolled
from the mouth of the well, he rolled away with one of his arms;
fourthly, the well overflowed, and the water continued to flow all the
days he was in Haran. The fifth sign—the country was shortened before
him, so that in one day he went forth and came to Haran.[380]
And he prayed in the place where he rested, and took four stones of that
place, and set them for a pillow, and went asleep. Of these stones this
is the history. They were twelve in number, and Adam had set them up as
an altar. On them Abel had offered his sacrifice. The Deluge had thrown
them down, but Noah reared them once more. They had been again
overthrown, but Abraham set them in their places, and of them built the
altar on which to sacrifice Isaac. These twelve stones Jacob now found,
and he placed them under his head as a pillow. But a great wonder was
wrought, and in the morning the twelve stones had melted together into
one stone.[381]
Finally, this stone, so ancient and with such a history, was carried to
Scotland, by whom I do not know, where it was placed at Scone, and was
used for the consecration of the Scottish kings. Edward I. of England
brought it to London, and it was set beneath the chair of the Confessor,
as the following lines, inscribed on a tablet, announced:—
“Si quid habent veri, vel chronica cana, fidesve,
Clauditur hac cathedra nobilis, ecce, lapis.
Ad caput eximius Jacob quondam patriarcha
Quem posuit cernens numina mira poli.
Quem tulit ex Scottis, spolians quasi victor honoris,
Edwardus primus, Mars velut omnipotens.
Scottorum domitor, noster validissimus Hector,
Anglorum decus, et gloria militiæ.”[382]
The stone may now be seen in Westminster Abbey.
When Jacob—to return to our narrative—slept with his head on the pillow
of stones, he dreamed, and beheld a ladder fixed in the earth, and the
summit of it reached to the height of heaven. And, behold! the angels
who had accompanied him from the house of his father, ascended to make
known to the angels on high, saying, “Come, see Jacob the pious, whose
likeness is in the throne of glory, and whom you have been desirous to
see!” These were the two angels who had been sent to Sodom to destroy
it, and who had been forbidden to rise up to the throne of God again,
because, say some, they had revealed the secrets of the Lord of the
whole earth, or because, say others, they had threatened in their own
name to destroy the cities of the plain.
Then the rest of the angels of God came down, at the call of these
twain, to look upon Jacob.
And the Glory of the Lord stood above him, and He said to him, “I am the
Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which
thou art lying I will give to thee and thy sons. And thy sons shall be
many as the dust of the earth, and shall become strong in the west and
in the east, and in the north and in the south; and all the kindreds of
the earth shall be blessed through thy righteousness and the
righteousness of thy sons.”
When Jacob arrived at Haran, he saw a well in a field, and three flocks
lying near it—because from that well they watered the flocks—and a great
stone was laid upon the mouth of the well.
And Jacob said to the shepherds, “My brethren, whence are ye?”
They said, “From Haran are we.”
And he said, “Know you Laban, son of Nahor?” They answered, “We know
him.”
And he said, “Hath he peace?”
They said, “Peace; and behold, Rachel, his daughter, cometh with the
sheep.”
And he said, “Behold, the time of the day is great; it is not time to
gather home the cattle; water the sheep.”
But they said, “We cannot, until all the shepherds be gathered, and then
we can altogether roll away the stone.”
While they were speaking with him, Rachel came with her father’s sheep;
for she was a shepherdess at that time, because there had been a plague
among the sheep of Laban, and but few of them were left; and he had
dismissed his shepherds, and had put the remaining flock before Rachel,
his daughter.
Then Jacob went nigh, and rolled the stone which all the shepherds
together could scarce lift, with one of his hands, and the well uprose,
and the waters flowed, and he watered the sheep of Laban, his mother’s
brother; and it uprose for twenty years.
And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.
And Jacob told Rachel that he was come to be with her father, to take
one of his daughters. Then Rachel answered him: “Thou canst not dwell
with him, for he is a man of cunning.”
But Jacob said, “I am more cunning than he.”
And when she knew that he was the son of Rebekah, she ran, and made it
known to her father. And when Laban heard the account of the strength of
Jacob, his sister’s son, and how he had taken the birthright and the
order of blessing from the hand of his brother, and how the Lord had
revealed Himself to him in the way, and how the stone had been removed,
and how the well had upflowed and risen to the brink,—he ran and kissed
him, and led him into his house.
Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of
the younger, Rachel. And the eyes of Leah were moist and running, from
weeping and praying before the Lord, that He would not destine her for
Esau the wicked.
Jacob served Laban seven years, and was given Leah to wife; and he
served seven years more, and he was given Rachel to wife; and he served
six years for cattle that Laban gave him; and then, seeing that Laban’s
face was set against him, he fled away secretly from Laban’s house, and
Rachel stole the image that Laban worshipped. And this image was the
head of a man, a first-born, that Laban had slain, and he had salted it
with salt and balsams, and had written incantations on a plate of gold
for it, and this head spake to him and told him oracles, and Laban bowed
himself down before it.[383]
Jacob drew near to the land of Esau, and he feared that his enmity was
not abated; therefore he sent a message before him to his brother, and
he tarried all night at Mahanaim. And he sent a present before him to
Esau to abate his anger.
The Book of Jasher gives some curious details on the meeting of the
brothers.
Jacob, trusting to the support of the Most High, besought Him to stand
by him, and deliver him from the wrath of his brother. And God sent four
angels to protect him; these angels went before him. The first who met
Esau presented himself at the head of a thousand horsemen, armed at all
points, who fell upon the troop that accompanied Esau, and dispersed it.
As this body of men swept along, they shouted, “We are the servants of
Jacob; who can resist us?”
A second body followed, under the second angel; then a third phalanx,
under the third angel.
Esau, trembling, exclaimed, “I am the brother of Jacob. It is twenty
years since I saw him, and you maltreat me as I am on my way to meet
him!”
One of the angels answered, “If Jacob, the servant of God, had not been
thy brother, we would have destroyed thee and all thy men.”
The fourth body passing, under the command of the fourth angel,
completed the humiliation of Esau.
However, Jacob, who knew not what assistance had been rendered him by
Heaven, prepared for Esau, to appease him, rich presents. He sent him
four hundred and forty sheep, thirty asses, thirty camels, fifty oxen,
in ten troops, each conducted by a faithful servant charged to deliver
his troop as a gift from Jacob to his brother Esau.
This consoled and pleased Esau, who, as soon as he saw Jacob again, was,
by the grace of God, placed in a better mind, and the brethren met, and
parted with fraternal love.[384]
Now let us take another version of the story of this meeting.
It came to pass that Jacob spent one night alone beyond Jabbok, and an
angel contended with him, having taken on him the body and likeness of a
man. This angel was Michael, and the subject of their contention was
this:—The angel said to Jacob, “Hast thou not promised to give the tenth
of all that is thine to the Lord?” And Jacob said, “I have promised.”
Then the angel said, “Behold thou hast ten sons and one daughter;
nevertheless thou hast not tithed them.”
Immediately Jacob set apart the four first-born of the four mothers, and
there remained eight. And he began to number from Simeon, and Levi came
up for the tenth.
Then Michael answered and said, “Lord of the world, this is Thy lot.” So
Levi became the consecrated one to the Lord.
On account of this ready compliance with his oath, Michael was unable to
hurt him, but he remained striving with Jacob, till the first ray of
sunlight rose above the eastern hills.
And he said, “Let me go, for the column of the morning ascendeth, and
the hour cometh when the angels on high offer praise to the Lord of the
world: and I am one of the angels of praise; but from the day that the
world was created, my time to praise hath not come till now.”
And he said, “I will not let thee go, until thou bless me.”
Now Michael had received commandment not to leave Jacob till the
patriarch suffered him; and as it began to dawn, the hosts of heaven,
who desired to begin their morning hymn, came down to Michael and bade
him rise up to the throne of God and lead the chant; but he said, “I
cannot, unless Jacob suffer me to depart.”[385]
Thus did God prove Jacob, as He had proved Abraham, whether he would
give to Him his son, when He asked him of the patriarch.
But, according to certain Rabbinic authorities, it was not Michael who
wrestled with Jacob, but it was Sammael the Evil One, or Satan. For
Sammael is the angel of Edom, as Michael is the angel of Israel; and
Sammael went before Esau, hoping to destroy Jacob in the night. Sammael,
says the Jalkut Rubeni, met Jacob, who had the stature of the first man,
and strove with him; but he could not do him an injury, for Abraham
stood on his right hand, and Isaac on his left. And when Sammael would
part from him, Jacob would not suffer it, till the Evil One had given
him the blessing which Jacob had purchased from Esau. And from that day
Sammael took from Jacob his great strength, and made him to halt upon
his thigh.[386]
But when Michael appeared before God—we must now suppose the man who
strove with Jacob to have been the angel—God said to him in anger, “Thou
hast injured My priest!”
Michael answered, “I am Thy priest.”
“Yea,” said the Most High, “thou art My priest in heaven, but Jacob is
My priest on earth. Why hast thou lamed him?”
Then Michael answered, “I wrestled with him, and let him overcome me, to
Thy honour, O Lord; that, seeing he had overcome an angel of God, he
might have courage to go boldly to meet Esau.”
But this was no excuse for having lamed him. Therefore Michael said to
Raphael, “Oh, angel of healing! come to my aid.” So Raphael descended to
earth, and touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and it was restored as
before.
But God said to Michael, “For this that thou hast done, thou shalt be
the guardian of Israel as long as the world lasteth.”[387]
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen the
angel of the Lord face to face, and my soul is saved.” And the sun rose
upon him before its time, as, when he went out from Beer-sheba, it had
set before its time.[388]
And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and
with him four hundred men of war. And he divided the children unto Leah,
and to Rachel, and to the two concubines, and placed the concubines and
their sons foremost; for he said, “If Esau come to destroy the children,
and ill-treat the women, he will do it with them, and meanwhile we can
prepare to fight; and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph
after them.”[389] And he himself went over before them, praying and
asking mercy before the Lord, and he bowed upon the earth seven times,
until he met with his brother; but it was not to Esau that he bowed,
though Esau supposed he did, but to the Lord God Most High.[390]
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and
bit him, but by the mercy of God the neck of Jacob became marble, and
Esau broke his teeth upon it; therefore it is said in the Book of
Genesis that he _fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept_.[391]
But the Targumim apparently do not acknowledge that the neck of Jacob
became marble, for the Targum of Palestine explains their weeping thus:
“Esau wept on account of the pain of his teeth, which were shaken; but
Jacob wept because of the pain of his neck;” and the Targum of
Jerusalem, “Esau wept for the crushing of his teeth, and Jacob wept for
the tenderness of his neck.”
“The Lord God prospered Jacob,” and he had one hundred and two times ten
thousand and seven thousand (_i.e._ a thousand times a thousand, seven
thousand and two hundred) sheep, and six hundred thousand dogs; but some
Rabbis say the sheep were quite innumerable, but when Jacob counted his
sheep-dogs he found that he had twelve hundred thousand of them; others,
however, reduce the number one-half. They say, one dog went with each
flock, but those who say that there were twelve hundred thousand dogs,
count two to each flock.[392]
Jacob, says the Rabbi Samuel, could recite the whole of the
Psalter.[393] Of course this must have been in the spirit of prophecy,
as the Psalms were not written, with the exception of Psalm civ., which
had been composed by Adam.
Adam, after his fall, had been given by God six commandments, but Noah
was given a seventh—to this effect, that he was not to eat a limb or
portion of any living animal. Abraham was given an eighth, the
commandment of circumcision; and Jacob was communicated a ninth, through
the mouth of an adder, that he was not to eat the serpent.[394]
If we may trust the Book of Jasher, the affair of Shechem, the son of
Hamor, was as follows:—The men of the city were not all circumcised,
only some of them, so as to blind the eyes of the sons of Jacob, and
throw them off their guard; and Shechem and Hamor had privately
concerted to fall upon Jacob and his sons and butcher them; but Simeon
and Levi were warned of their intention by a servant of Dinah, and took
the initiative.[395] But this is a clumsy attempt to throw the blame off
the shoulders of the ancestors of the Jewish nation upon those of their
Gentile enemies.
Jacob, say the Rabbis, would have had no daughters at all in his family,
but only sons, had he not called himself El-elohe-Israel (Israel is
God).[396] Therefore God was angry with him, for making himself equal
with God, and in punishment he afflicted him with a giddy daughter.[397]
Esau, say the Mussulmans, had no prophets in his family except Job. All
the prophets rose from the family of Jacob; and when Esau saw that the
gift of prophecy was not in his family, he went out of the land, for he
would not live near his brother.[398]
The father of the Israelites, from the land of Canaan which he
inhabited, could smell the clothes of Joseph when he was in Egypt, being
a prophet; and thus he knew that his son was alive. He was asked how it
was that he divined nothing when his beloved son was cast into the pit
by his brothers, and sold to the Ishmaelites. He replied that the
prophetic power is sudden, like a lightning flash, piercing sometimes to
the height of heaven; it is not permanent in its intensity, but leaves
at times those favoured with it in such darkness that they do not know
what is at their feet.[399]
The Arabs say that Jacob, much afflicted with sciatica, was healed by
abstaining from the meat he most loved, and that was the flesh of the
camel. At Jerusalem, say the Arabs, is preserved the stone on which
Jacob laid his head when he slept on his way to Haran.
The custom of saying “God bless you!” when a person sneezes, dates from
Jacob. The Rabbis say that, before the time that Jacob lived, men
sneezed once, and that was the end of them—the shock slew them; but the
patriarch, by his intercession, obtained a relaxation of this law,
subject to the condition that, in all nations, a sneeze should be
consecrated by a sacred aspiration.
Footnote 360:
Maschmia Jeschua, fol. 19, col. 4.
Footnote 361:
Nezach Israel, fol. 25, col. 3.
Footnote 362:
Eisenmenger, ii. pp. 260, 304.
Footnote 363:
Gen. xxv. 22.
Footnote 364:
Jer. i. 5.
Footnote 365:
Bereschith Rabba, fol. 56, col. 2.
Footnote 366:
Eisenmenger, i. 646.
Footnote 367:
Ibid.
Footnote 368:
Ibid., pp. 650-1.
Footnote 369:
Targums. ed. Etheridge, i. p. 240.
Footnote 370:
Ibid., p. 241.
Footnote 371:
Ibid., also R. Bechai’s Comment. on the Five Books of Moses, fol. 35,
col. i.
Footnote 372:
Targum of Palestine and Jerusalem; Etheridge, i. 241, 242. The book
Yaschar says the deed of transfer was written by Jacob on a leaf, and
that he and Esau sealed it, p. 1151.
Footnote 373:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 651.
Footnote 374:
Gen. iii. 21.
Footnote 375:
Yaschar, p. 1150, where is the story of the assassination of Nimrod by
Esau.
Footnote 376:
Ibid.
Footnote 377:
Eisenmenger, ii. p. 879.
Footnote 378:
Eisenmenger, ii. p. 262.
Footnote 379:
Targums, i. p. 250.
Footnote 380:
Targums, i. p. 252.
Footnote 381:
Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 35.
Footnote 382:
William Sanderson, Vita Mariæ, reg. Scot., et Jacobi, reg. Anglorum;
also Beckmann, Notitiar. dignit. Dissert. 3, c. i. § 7.
Footnote 383:
The whole of the above is from the Targumim.
Footnote 384:
Jalkut Cadasch, fol. 81, col. 1; Yaschar, p. 1161 et seq.
Footnote 385:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 486.
Footnote 386:
Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 61, col. 3.
Footnote 387:
Jalkut Cadasch, fol. 91, col. 4.
Footnote 388:
Targum of Palestine, i. p. 272.
Footnote 389:
Jacob prepared three things against Esau—War, Gifts, and Prayer—as a
token to all men that they must overcome evil by Resistance, by Alms,
and by Supplication. (R. Bechai, Comm. on the Five Books of Moses,
fol. 42, col. 4.)
Footnote 390:
Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 62, col. 2.
Footnote 391:
Bereschith rabba, fol. 71, col. 1 (70th Parascha).
Footnote 392:
Bereschith rabba, fol. 67, col. 1.
Footnote 393:
Jalkut Cadasch, fol. 90, col. 3.
Footnote 394:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 325.
Footnote 395:
Tabari, i. p. 206.
Footnote 396:
Gen. xxxiii. 20.
Footnote 397:
Jalkut Cadasch, fol. 91, col. 3.
Footnote 398:
Yaschar, pp. 1167, 1168.
Footnote 399:
D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, s. v. Ais, i. p. 142.
XXVIII.
JOSEPH.
Joseph’s story is too attractive not to have interested intensely the
Oriental nations in any way connected with him, and therefore to have
become a prey to legend and myth.
Joseph, say the Mussulmans, was from his childhood the best loved son of
his father Jacob; but the old man not only loved him, but yearned after
the sight of him, for he was deprived of the custody of Joseph from an
early age. Joseph had been sent to his aunt, the sister of Isaac, and
she loved the child so dearly, that she could not endure the thought of
parting with him. Therefore she took the family girdle, which she as the
eldest retained as an heirloom, the girdle which Abraham had worn when
he prepared to sacrifice his son, and she strapped it round Joseph’s
waist.
Then she drew him before the judge, and accused him of theft, and
claimed that he should be made over to her as a slave to expiate his
theft. And it was done so. Thus the child Joseph grew up in her house,
and it was not till after her death that he returned to his father
Jacob.
One morning Joseph related to his father a dream that he had dreamt; he
said that he and his brothers had planted twigs in the earth, but all
the twigs of his brothers had withered, whereas his own twig had brought
forth leaves, and flourished.
Jacob was so immersed in thought over the dream, that he allowed a poor
man who came begging to go away unrelieved, because unnoticed.[400] And
this act of forgetfulness brought upon him some trouble, as we shall
see.
One morning Joseph related to him another dream; he saw the sun, the
moon, and the stars bow down before him. Jacob could no longer doubt the
significance of these dreams, which showed him how great Joseph would
be, but he cautioned him on no account to let his brothers know about
them, lest they should envy him.
He was so beautiful that he was called the Moon of Canaan, and he had on
one of his shoulders a luminous point like a star, a token that the
spirit of prophecy rested upon him. The brothers of Joseph, however,
heard of the dreams, and they were greatly enraged, and they said,
“Joseph and Benjamin are more loved of their father than we ten; let us
kill Joseph, or drive him out of the country, and when we have done
this, we will repent at our leisure, and God will forgive us.”[401]
One day the brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. Then
Israel said to Joseph, “Do not thy brethren feed in Shechem? I am afraid
lest the Hivite come upon them and smite them, and repay on me what
Simeon and Levi did to Shechem and Hamor, because of Dinah their sister.
I will send thee to them to caution them to go elsewhere.”
And he said, “I am ready.” So Joseph arose, and went to Shechem; and
Gabriel, in the likeness of a man, found him wandering in the field. And
he said to him, “Thy brethren have journeyed hence. I heard of them,
when I was in the presence of God, behind the veil, and that, from this
day, the bondage of Egypt begins.”[402]
When Joseph came in sight, the brothers conspired to slay him, but Judah
said, “Slay not Joseph, for to slay is a crime; but cast him into a
well, on the way that the caravans pass, that he may be found by a
caravan, and be drawn out.” Joseph was then aged seventeen.
His brethren fell on him and stripped him, and were about to cast him
into the well which was by the wayside to Jerusalem, when he said, “O my
brothers, wherewith shall I cover my nakedness in this pit?”
They replied, “Bid the sun, the moon, and the stars, which adored thee,
bring thee clothes to cover thy nakedness.”
Having thus mocked him, they let him down into the well. There was much
water in it; and a stone had fallen into it; on this Joseph stood, and
was above the surface of the water.[403] Not so, say the Rabbis, it was
dry, but it was full of scorpions and adders.[404]
Judah, according to the Mussulman account, had not consented to this, he
being absent; and when he had learned what had been done, he took food
and let it down into the well, and told Joseph to be of good cheer, his
brothers’ anger would turn away, and then he would bring him back to
them. But the Jews say that Reuben was absent, as he was fasting on a
mountain, because he had incurred his father’s anger, and was in
disgrace, and he hoped, by restoring Joseph to Israel, to recover his
father’s favour.
The sons of Jacob then slew a lamb and dipped the garment of Joseph in
the blood, and brought it to their father, and said, “We left Joseph in
charge of our clothes, and a wolf has fallen upon him, and has devoured
him.”
But Jacob looked at the garment and said, “I see that it is bloody, but
I see no rents; the wolf was merciful to my son Joseph, for he ate him
and left his garment whole!”[405]
Then Jacob went to commune with God, and the spirit of prophecy came
upon him, and he said, “No wolf, no enemy has slain him, but a bad woman
is against him.”[406]
Now Joseph was three days and three nights in the pit, but it was not
dark, for the angel Gabriel hung in it a precious stone to give him
light.[407]
The brethren of Joseph, seeing that their father mistrusted them, said
to him, “We will go and catch the wolf that slew Joseph.”
He said, “Go, and do so.”
So they went and chased and caught a monstrous wolf, and they brought
him to their father and said, “This is the beast whereof we spoke to
thee, that it had slain Joseph.”
But God opened the mouth of the wolf, and he said, “Son of Isaac,
believe not the words of thy envious sons. I am a wolf out of a foreign
land: I one morning lost my young one when I woke up, and I have been
straying in all directions to find it; is it likely that I, mourning
over the loss of a wild cub, should attack and kill a young prophet?”
Jacob released the wolf out of the hands of his sons, and he dismissed
his sons, for he abhorred the sight of their faces; only Benjamin, the
brother of Joseph, and the youngest child of Rachel, did he retain near
him.[408]
On the third morning, a party of Arabs passed near the well, and were
thirsty. Now the chief of these Arabs was Melek-ben-Dohar; the second,
who accompanied Melek, was an Indian, a freed man of Melek, and his name
was Buschra.
Melek reached the well carrying a bucket and a rope, and let down the
bucket into the well. Then Joseph put his hand on it, and, however much
Melek and Buschra pulled, they could not raise the bucket. Then Melek
looked down into the pit, and exclaimed: “O Buschra, the bucket was
heavy because a young man has hold of it.”
Now the face of Joseph illumined the well like a lamp: Buschra and Melek
tried to raise Joseph, but they could not.