CHAP. XVII. Concerning the Death of Abraham. § 1. A LITTLE while after this Abraham died. He was a man of incomparable virtue, and honoured by God in a manner agreeable to his piety towards him. The whole time of his life was one hundred seventy and five years; and he was buried in Hebron, with his wife Sarah, by their sons Isaac and Ismael. CHAP. XVIII. Concerning the Sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob. Of their Nativity and Education. § 1. Now Isaac's wife proved with child*, after the death of Abraham; and when her belly was greatly burdened, Isaac was very anxious, and inquired of God, who answered, That Rebeka should bear twins; and that two nations should take the names of those sons; and that he who appeared the second, should excel the elder. Accordingly she, in a little time, as God had foretold, bare twins; the elder of whom, from his head to his feet, was very rough and hairy; but the younger took hold of his heel as they were in the birth. Now the father loved the elder, who was called Esau, a name agreeable to his roughness, for the Hebrews call such an hairy roughness (Esau, or) Seir; but Jacob the younger, was best beloved by his mother. 2. When there was a famine in the land, Isaac resolved to go into Egypt, the land there being good; but he went to Gerar, as God commanded him. Here Abimelech the king received him, because Abraham had formerly lived with him, and had been his friend. And as in the beginning he treated him exceeding kindly, so he was hindered from continuing in the same disposition to the end, by his envy at him; for when he saw that God was with Isaac, and took such great care of him, he drove him away from him. But Isaac, when he saw how envy had changed the temper of Abimelech, retired to a place called The Valley, not far from Gerar; and as he was digging a well, the shepherds fell upon him, and began to fight, in order to hinder the work, and because he did not desire to contend, the shepherds seemed to *The birth of Jacob and Esau is here said to be after Abraham's death; it should have been after Sarah's death. The order of the narration in Genesis, not always exactly according to the order of time, seems to have led Josephus into it, as Dr. Bernard observes here. + For Seir in Josephus, the coherence requires that we read Esau or Seir, which signify the same thing. get the better of him, so he still retired, and dug another well; and when certain other shepherds of Abimelech's began to offer him violence, he left that also, and still retired, thus purchasing security to himself by a rational and prudent conduct. At length the king gave him leave to dig a well without disturbance. He named this well Rehoboth, which denotes a large space; but of the former wells, one was called Escon, which denotes strife, the other Sitenna, which name signifies enmity. 3. It was now that Isaac's affairs increased, and his power was in a flourishing condition; and this from his great riches. But Abimelech thinking Isaac throve in opposition to him, while their living together made them suspicious of each other, and Isaac's retiring showing a secret enmity also, he was afraid that his former friendship with Isaac did not secure him, if Isaac should endeavour to revenge the injuries he had formerly offered him; he therefore renewed his friendship with him, and brought with him Philoc, one of his generals. And when he had obtained every thing he desired, by reason of Isaac's good nature, who preferred the earlier friendship Abimelech had showed to himself and his father to his latter wrath against him, he returned home. 4. Now when Esau, one of the sons of Isaac, whom the father principally loved, was now come to the age of forty years, he married Adah, the daughter of Helon and Aholibamah, the daughter of Esebeon; which Helon and Esebeon were great lords among the Canaanites, thereby taking upon himself the authority, and pretending to have dominion over his own marriages, without so much as asking the advice of his father; for had Isaac been the arbitrator, he had not given him leave to marry thus, for he was not pleased with contracting any alliance with the people of that country; but not caring to be uneasy to his son, by commanding him to put away these wives, he resolved to be silent. 5. But when he was old, and could not see at all, he called Esau to him, and told him, that besides his blindness, and the disorder of his eyes, his very old age hindered him from his worship of God [by sacrifice]; he bid him therefore to go out a hunting, and when he had caught as much venison as he could, to prepare him a supper*, that after this he might make supplication to God, to be to him a supporter and an *This supper of savoury meat, as we call it, Gen. xxvii. 4. to be caught by hunting, was intended plainly for a festival or a sacrifice, and upon the prayers that were frequent at sacrifices. Isaac expected, as was then usual in such eminent cases, that a divine impulse would come upon him, in order to the solemn blessing of his son there present, and his fortelling his future behaviour and fortune. Whence it must be, that when Isaac had unwittingly blessed Jacob, and was afterward made sensible of his mistake, yet assister, during the whole time of his life; saying, that it was uncertain when he should die, and that he was desirous, by prayers for him, to procure, beforehand, God to be merciful to him. 6. Accordingly Esau went out a hunting. But Rebeka* thinking it proper to have the supplication made for obtaining the favour of God to Jacob, and that without the consent of Isaac, bid him kill kids of the goats, and prepare a supper. So Jacob obeyed his mother, according to all her instructions. Now when the supper was got ready, he took a goat's skin, and put it about his arm, that by reason of its hairy roughness, he might, by his father, be believed to be Esau; for they being twins, and in all things else alike, differed only in this thing. This was done out of his fear, that before his father had made his supplications, he should be caught in his evil practice, and lest he should, on the contrary, provoke his father to curse him. So he brought in the supper to his father. Isaac perceiving by the peculiarity of his voice, who he was, called his son to him, who gave him his hand, which was covered with the goat's skin. When Isaac felt that, he said, "Thy voice is like the voice of Jacob, yet because of the thickness of thy hair, thou seemest to be Esau." So suspecting no deceit, he eat the supper, and betook himself to his prayers and intercessions with God; and said, "O Lord of all ages, and Creator of all substance; for it was thou that didst propose to my father great plenty of good things, and hast vouchsafed to bestow on me what I have; and hast promised to my posterity to be their kind did he not attempt to alter it, how earnestly soever his affection for Esau might incline him to wish it might be altered, because he knew that this blessing came not from himself but from God, and that an alteration was out of his power. A second afflatus then came upon him, and enabled him to fortell Esau's future behaviour and fortune also. *Whether Jacob or his mother Rebeka were most blameable in this imposition upon Isaac in his old age, I cannot determine. However, the blessing being delivered as a prediction of future events, by a divine impulse, and foretelling things to befall to the posterity of Jacob and Esau, in future ages, was for certain providential; and according to what Rebeka knew to be the purpose of God, when he answered her inquiry, " before the children were born." Gen. xxv. 23. " that one people should be stronger than the other people; and the elder, Esau, should serve the younger, Jacob." Whether Isaac knew or remembered this old oracle, delivered in our copies only to Rebeka; or whether, if he knew and remembered it, he did not endeavour to alter the Divine determination, out of his fondness for his elder and worser son Esau, to the damage of his younger and better son Jacob; as Josephus elsewhere supposes, Antiq. b. ii. chap. vii. sect. 3. I cannot certainly say. If so, this might tempt Rebeka to contrive, and Jacob to put this imposition upon him. However, Josephus says here, that it was Isaac, and not Rebeka, who inquired of God at first, and received the forementioned oracle, sect 1. which, if it be the true reading, renders Isaac's procedure more inexcusable. Nor was it probable any thing else that so much encouraged Esau formerly to marry two Canaanitish wives, without his parents' consent, as Isaac's unhappy fondness for him. supporter, and to bestow on them still greater blessings; do thou therefore confirm these thy promises, and do not overlook me, because of my present weak condition, on account of which I most earnestly pray to thee. Be gracious to this my son; and preserve him, and keep him from every thing that is evil. Give him a happy life, and the possession of as many good things as thy power is able to bestow. Make him terrible to his enemies, and honourable and beloved among his friends." 7. Thus did Isaac pray to God, thinking his prayers had been made for Esau. He had but just finished them, when Esau came in from hunting. And when Isaac perceived his mistake, he was silent; but Esau required that he might be made partaker of the like blessing from his father that his brother had partook of; but his father refused it, because all his prayers had been spent upon Jacob: so Esau lamented the mistake. However, his father being grieved at his weeping, said, That "he should excel in hunting, and strength of body; in arms, and all such sorts of work; and should obtain glory for ever on those accounts, he and his posterity after him; but still should serve his brother." 8. Now the mother delivered Jacob, when he was afraid. that his brother would inflict some punishment upon him, because of the mistake about the prayers of Isaac; for she persuaded her husband to take a wife for Jacob out of Mesopotamia, of her own kindred, Esau having married already Basemmath, the daughter of Ismael, without his father's consent, for Isaac did not like the Canaanites, so that he disapproved of Esau's former marriages, which made him take Basemmath to wife, in order to please him; and indeed he had a great affection for her. CHAP. XIX. Concerning Jacob's Flight into Mesopotamia, by Reason of the Fear he was in of his Brother. § 1. Now Jacob was sent by his mother to Mesopotamia in order to marry Laban her brother's daughter (which marriage was permitted by Isaac on account of his obsequiousness to the desires of his wife); and he accordingly journeyed through the land of Canaan; and because he hated the people of that country, he would not lodge with any of them, but took up his lodging in the open air, and laid his head on a heap of stones, that he had gathered together. At which time he saw in his sleep such a vision standing by him; he seemed to see a ladder that reached from the earth unto heaven, and persons descending down the ladder, that seemed more excellent than human; and at last God himself stood above it, and was plainly visible to him, who calling him by his name, spake to him these words: 2. "O Jacob, it is not fit for thee, who art the son of a good father, and grandson of one who had obtained a great reputation for his eminent virtue, to be dejected at thy present circumstances, but to hope for better times, for thou shalt have great abundance of all good things, by my assistance: for I brought Abraham hither, out of Mesopotamia, when he was driven away by his kinsmen; and I made thy father a happy man: nor will I bestow a lesser degree of happiness on thyself. Be of good courage therefore, and under my conduct proceed on this thy journey, for the marriage thou goest so zealously about shall be consummated. And thou shalt have children of good characters, but their multitude shall be innumerable; and they shall leave what they have to a still more numerous posterity, to whom, and to whose posterity, I give the dominion of all the land, and their posterity shall fill the entire earth and sea, so far as the sun beholds them; but do not thou fear any danger, nor be afraid of the many labours thou must undergo, for by my providence I will direct thee what thou art to do in the time present, and still much more in the time to come." 3. Such were the predictions which God made to Jacob. Whereupon he became very joyful at what he had seen and heard, and he poured oil on the stones, because on them the predictions of such great benefits was made. He also vowed a vow, that he would offer sacrifices upon them, if he lived and returned safe; and if he came again in such a condition, he would give the tithe of what he had gotten to God. He also judged the place to be honourable, and gave it the name of Bethel, which, in the Greek, is interpreted, The house of God. 4. So he proceeded on his journey to Mesopotamia, and at length came to Haran; and meeting with shepherds in the suburbs, with boys grown up, and maidens sitting about a certain well, he stayed with them, as wanting water to drink; and beginning to discourse with them, he asked them whether they knew such an one as Laban? and whether he was still alive? Now they all said they knew him, for he was not so inconsiderable a person as to be unknown to any of them; and that his daughter fed her father's flock together with them; and that indeed they wondered that she was not yet come, for by her means thou mightst learn more exactly whatever thou desirest to know about that family. While they were saying this, the damsel came, and the other shep |