And when Jacob awoke out of his sleep, he said, 'Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.' And trembling, again he said, 'How

terrible is this
place! This is
none other than
the house of God
and the gate of
heaven.' And
Jacob, arising in
the morning,
took the stone.
which he had
laid under his
head, and pour-
ing oil
upon the

top of it, he
called the name
of the place Be-
thel. And he
made a vow, say-
ing, 'If God will
be with me, and
will keep me in
the way by which
I walk, and will
give me bread to
eat and raiment
to put on, and if
I return prosper-
ously to my fa-

ther's house, the Lord shall be my God; and this stone which I have set up for a memorial shall be called the house of God; and of all things that the Lord shall give me I will offer tithes.'

Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the east country; and he saw a well in a field, and three flocks of sheep lying by it; for the flocks were watered out of it; and the mouth thereof was closed with a great stone. And the custom was, when all the sheep were gathered together, to roll away the stone; and after the sheep were watered, to put it on the mouth of the well again. And he said to the shepherds, 'Brethren, whence are you? They answered, 'Of Haran.' And he asked them, saying, Know you Laban, the son of Nachor? They said, 'We know him.' He said, 'Is he in health?" 'He is in health,' said they; and behold, Rachel his daughter is coming with his flock.' And Jacob said, 'There is yet much of the day remaining, neither is it time to bring the flocks into the fold. Give the sheep to drink, and lead them back to feed.' They answered, 'We cannot till all the flocks be gathered toge

ther; for then we remove the stone from the well's mouth that we may water the flocks.' As they were speaking, Rachel came with her father's flock, of which she had the care. And when Jacob saw her, and knew her to be his cousin, and that the sheep were those of Laban his uncle, he removed the stone wherewith the well was closed. And having watered the flock, he kissed her, and lifting up his voice, wept, and told her that he was the son of Rebecca, her father's sister. Rachel ran in haste to tell her father, who, when he heard that Jacob his sister's son was come, ran forth to meet him; and embracing him, and heartily kissing him, he brought him into his house. And when he heard the cause of his journey, he said, 'Thou art my bone and my flesh.' Jacob was now established in the house of Laban, and kept his flocks; and after a month was expired, Laban said to him, 'Because thou art my brother, shalt thou serve me without wages? Tell me what wages thou wilt have.' Jacob, who already loved his cousin Rachel, replied, 'I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy youngest daughter.' Laban consented. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed but a few days, for the greatness of his love.

The stone which Jacob here set up is a figure of the sanctuaries of the Catholic Church, in which Jesus Christ is present in the sacred tabernacle, and in which our prayers go up to heaven and the grace of God descends upon us.

§ 17. Jacob returns to Palestine. He is pursued by Laban. His meeting and reconciliation with Esau. God renews His promises to Jacob.

Years had passed on, and God had prospered Jacob. He had become enriched in substance, so that Laban's sons began to grow jealous of him. Jacob, perceiving this, called Rachel and Lia his wives to him; and telling them that the minds of their father Laban and of his sons were turned against them, he said also, 'The Lord hath appeared to me, saying, Return into the land of thy father and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee.' It was therefore agreed that they should at once depart. So when Laban was gone to shear his sheep, they departed in haste. On the third day it was told to Laban that Jacob was fled; whereupon he pursued hotly after him for seven days, and overtook him in the Mount of Galaad. But God appeared in a dream to Laban, saying, 'Speak not anything harshly against Jacob.' Laban then came to Jacob, and complaining that he had run away privately without cause, said that God had nevertheless warned him to do no harm, but that Jacob had done very wrong to steal and carry off his gods. Jacob, not knowing that Rachel had stolen and carried off her father's idols, said, 'Search; and if thou find any of the things with me, carry them away.' Now Rachel had hid carefully the idols; and when Laban's search turned out in vain, Jacob, being angry, said to Laban, 'For what fault of mine, and for what offence on my part, hast thou so hotly pursued after me, and searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all the substance of thy house? Lay it here before my brethren and thy brethren, and let them judge be

tween me and thee. Have I therefore been with thee twenty years, and kept thy flocks? Of that which was torn by beasts I made good all the damage; and whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it of me. By day I was consumed with heat, and by night with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes; and in this manner I served thee for twenty years, and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father Abraham and the fear of Isaac had stood by me, perhaps now thou hadst sent me away naked; but God beheld my affliction, and rebuked thee yesterday.' Laban was satisfied, kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them, and returned to his place; and Jacob called the name of the place Galaad.

Jacob now greatly feared the meeting between himself and his brother Esau; and he said, 'O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac; O Lord, who saidst unto me, Return unto thy land, and to the place of thy birth, and I will do well for thee;-I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies, and of Thy truth, which Thou hast fulfilled to Thy servant. With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I return with two companies. Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am greatly afraid of him; lest, perhaps, he come and kill the mother with the children. Thou didst say that Thou wouldst do well by me, and multiply my seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'

Jacob arose the following morning, and divided all his cattle into droves; and commanded the servants who drove them, in case they fell in with Esau, to say that they were being sent forward as a present from Jacob to my lord Esau, and that Jacob was coming after them. For he said, 'I will appease him with presents that go before, and after that I will see him; perhaps he will be gracious unto me.' So the presents went on before, but he himself remained in the tents.

And Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming, and with him four hundred men. And he divided his children into different companies, putting Rachel and Joseph last, and went forward, and bowed down with his face to the ground seven times, until his brother came near. Then Esau ran to meet his brother, and embraced him, and clasping him fast about the neck, and kissing him, wept. And lifting up his eyes, he saw the women and their children, and said, 'What mean these? Do they belong to thee?' He answered, "They are the children which God hath given to me thy servant.' Esau was awe-struck at the sight of the multitude which accompanied Jacob, and said, 'Let us go on together, and I will accompany thee on thy journey.' And Jacob said, 'My lord, thou knowest that I have with me tender children, and sheep and kine with young, which if I should cause to be overdriven, in one day all the flocks will die. May it please my lord to go on before his servant, and I will follow softly after him, as I shall see my children able, till I come to my lord in Seir.' So Esau returned that day the way that he came to Seir. Jacob and all his people now dwelt in the land of Isaac his father.

And perceiving the idols that had been brought away from Laban's house, Jacob destroyed them all, and buried them under a tree which is behind the city of Sichem. He then moved forward to Bethel, where he built an altar to the Lord. And God appeared to Jacob and blessed him again, saying, 'Thou shalt not be called any more Jacob, but ISRAEL shall be thy name. I am God Almighty; increase and be multiplied. Nations and people shall be born from thee, and kings shall be thy children. And the land which I gave to Abraham I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee.'

Jacob departed from Bethel and journeyed towards Ephrata. Here Benjamin his youngest son was born. Rachel his mother died in childbirth, and Jacob buried her by the wayside.

Esau having received the blessing, 'Thou shalt live by the sword,' is a figure of the civil ruler or state, of which St. Paul says, 'He beareth not the sword in vain.' The civil state is often awed by the multitude and order of the people of the Church, and then desires to render its good offices and to be the companion of Jacob's way. God intends that the state should be united with the Church, of which union the friendship of Esau with Jacob is the figure.

§ 18. Joseph incurs the hatred of his brethren in his father's house, and is sold into Egypt.

Isaac died in a good old age, and was buried by his sons Jacob and Esau. Jacob remained in the land of Canaan, in which his father Isaac had dwelt; and he had twelve sons, among whom was Joseph, then sixteen years old. Joseph was one day witness of some bad conduct on the part of his brethren, and on his return home he told all that he had seen to his father. For this reason, and because they saw that his father loved him more than all his other sons, his brethren began to hate him, and could never speak a peaceable word to him.

About this time Joseph had a remarkable dream, which he told to his brothers, and which caused them to hate him still more. 'Hear my dream,' said he to them, which I have dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field; and my sheaf arose, as it were, and stood;

6

JOSEPH TELLS HIS DREAMS TO HIS BRETHREN.

and your sheaves standing about bowed down before my sheaf.' His brethren answered, 'Shalt thou be our king, or shall we be subject to thy dominion? And they hated him still more on account of his dream. Soon after this Joseph dreamed another dream, which he told in the