GENESIS. found names when trying to call them to him, but only for such as seemed fit for domestication. The rest he would pass by till there was some one to whom to describe them. Thus Eve seems to have known something of the sagacity of the serpent. She, too, as well as Adam, recognised the voice of Jehovah walking in the garden (chap. iii. 8); and the girdles spoken of in verse 7 seem also to indicate, by their elaboration, that the guilty pair remained in Paradise some time after the fall. The indications of time are, however, less numerous and definite after the creation of Eve than before; but certainly Adam was for some considerable period a denizen of Paradise, and probably there was a longer time than is generally supposed spent in innocence by him and his wife, and also some delay between the fall and their expulsion from their happy home. EXCURSUS D: ON THE The most cursory reader must be struck by the manner in which this phrase frequently occurs in the Book of Genesis, and never again till the beginning of St. Matthew's Gospel. After the magnificent and Divine opening of chap. i. 1-ii. 3, the rest of the book is a series of "generations," in each of which there are peculiarities of diction and style, but also plain marks of a master-hand, which has moulded them into a continuous narrative. These generations, or tôldôth, are ten in number, namely: Now, first, modern discoveries have shown that there is no difficulty, as some have supposed, in believing that the patriarchs could read and write. Ur of the Chaldees, whence Terah emigrated, proves to have been a famous seat of learning, and Mr. Sayce (Chald. Gen., p. 24) says that the earliest inscriptions of any importance which we now possess belong to the time of a king of Ur, supposed to have lived three thousand years before the Christian era. These inscriptions, he adds, consist of texts on bricks and on signet cylinders, and some of these latter may be, he thinks, of even greater antiquity. Even the daily transactions of business were in Abram's time perpetuated with the utmost punctuality and decorum by means of those contract, and sale, and even loan tablets of terra cotta which are still existing; and it is now known that in Chaldea among the Accadians, as in Egypt, papyrus was used as a writing material as well as clay, and more rarely, stone (Tomkins, Studies on the Times of Abraham, p. 45). So far from losing, the Book of Genesis gains infinitely in value and importance, if not on its divine, yet on its human side, if we find reason for believing that we may have in it the contents of bricks and cylinders carried by Abraham from Ur to Haran first, and thence to Canaan. Next, the only reverent way of interpreting Holy Scripture is, not to make it bend to human theories, but to make our views bend to what it says of itself. Here, then, it represents the Book of Genesis as composed out of documents already existing. We have no right to assume that these documents were less inspired because pre-Mosaic. Enoch, Noah, Abraham are all represented as men very near unto God. Others, such as Shem, Jacob, Joseph, were scarcely less so; and there are peculiarities in the toldôth of Jacob which suggest that a narrative written by Joseph was at least the basis of that history. Now, had Genesis been the work of one inspired pen, surely it would have proceeded BOOKS OF GENERATIONS. onward with steady purpose, and, as is the invariable rule of Holy Scripture, the writer would have preserved his own style and individuality throughout. As it is, the narrative which begins at chap. ii. 4 is as diverse from the history of creation as it could possibly be; and apparently that history (chap. i. 1-ii. 3), which is not a toldoth, was given in order to guard against the errors which might easily have arisen from misunderstanding the account given in the second narrative. Now, the history of creation must have been directly inspired. We cannot, indeed, tell how the knowledge it contains was communicated, whether by a series of visions in a trance or by ideas impressed upon the writer's mind; but obviously it was intended to represent creation as developed in an orderly progression by the promulgation of Divine laws, following at successive intervals, one upon another, and culminating in the Sabbath of Elohim. In the second narrative creation is but a secondary subject, and is described simply in contrast with the Garden of Eden. But the author of the Book of Genesis-and we know of no one whose claims stand on such strong grounds as those of Moses-also shows his individuality, and arranges his materials on a settled plan. Divinely inspired, as we believe, he would nevertheless make no unnecessary change or alteration in the documents before him; nay, he does not even care for verbal accuracy (witness chap. xxviii. 9, compared with chap. xxxvi. 3). In the Chaldean Genesis we have a document far older than the time of Moses; and in the account of the flood, in the sending out of the raven and dove from the ark, in the sacrifice offered by Noah, and the choice of the rainbow as a sign of reconciliation, there is much that is common to the inspired and uninspired narratives. But the perusal and comparison of the two is most instructive, and leaves the mind impressed with the infinite superiority of the Bible narrative. The writer's plan was this. After giving us an account of creation, in which man appears as God's master work, and then of the Paradise, in which man is shown to be the especial object of Jehovah's love, henceforward his one purpose is man's restoration, and the selection successively of Seth, Shem, Abraham, and Jacob as the persons through whom the promise of a Deliverer was to be fulfilled. He does not actually exclude all such portions of the patriarchal records as had no direct bearing upon his subject, but after a passing notice omits the mention of them for the future. Thus in the second narrative he gives the temptation, the fall, its outcome in Cain's sin, and then a brief history of Cain's family, with particulars of their advance in the arts of civilisation, in refinement, in luxury, and in pride; and then he drops them for ever. We know nothing more about the Cainites, but henceforward the narrative is occupied with Seth and his posterity. GENESIS. The same rule is followed again and again; and thus, while the Book of Genesis is full of most interesting information about the ancient world, we nevertheless feel that its one main purpose was to show that the redemption of mankind by the bestowal of a Saviour was no after-thought, but the very starting point of God's revealed message of love to His fallen creatures. EXCURSUS E: UPON ELAM AND THE CONQUESTS AND ROUTE OF Of Elam we lately knew nothing more than that it was a country called after a son of Shem, and this narrative, containing an account of a conquest of Canaan by Elamites, was a puzzle to thoughtful Bible readers, and a mark for the derision of such critics as imagine that everything of which a clear explanation cannot be given must necessarily be unhistorical. Within the last few years our knowledge has so grown that the narrative fits exactly into its place, although neither the name of Chedorlaomer nor the history itself has been found in the cuneiform texts. The country of Elam itself is a vast highland on the eastern side of the Tigris, with broad plains lying between mountains which sometimes attain an elevation of eight or ten thousand feet. It is easily defensible, rich, and well watered, and its inhabitants were dreaded neighbours of the Babylonians, upon whose fertile plains they constantly poured down in sudden inroads, and returned to their hills laden with booty. It was from Elam that the Accadians descended and conquered Babylonia, and we thus gather that its earlier inhabitants were Turanians, sprung from Japheth. The names of the towns in that part of the country of which Susa is the capital still bear witness to the supremacy there of this race, while the names of the rest of the Elamite towns are said by M. Oppert (Records of the Past, ix. 5) to be Semitic. Elamitic Semites appear also among the Assyrian sculptures, where "their keen and refined features are set off to great advantage by the blunt outline and thick protruding lips, which have been identified with the Kissians, or Cossaeans, of classic authors, the Kassi of the monuments, the sons of Cush of the Bible" (Rawlinson's Anc. Mon., ii. 500). Thus in Elam, as on the Tigris and Euphrates, we find the families of the three sons of Noah distinct in lineament and language, but dwelling near one another, and coming in successive waves of population to struggle for the possession of the land. The first great event recorded concerning Elam is found in the Annals of Assurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria. He asserts that he conquered Elam, and took the city of Susa in B.C. 645, and that he then brought back an image of Nana which Kudur Nakhunté had carried away from Babylonia 1,635 years before; that is, in B.C. 2280. As Nana and Nakhunté seem to be names of the same goddess, while Kudur means "servant," we thus find this Elamite king calling himself, perhaps from this exploit, "the servant of Nakhunté.” La'omar, or Lagomar, is the name of another Elamite god, and thus Chedorlaomer means "servant of Lagomar." Nearer to the time of Abram we find an Elamite king named Kudur-Mabuk, who claims the title of adda Martu, that is, lord of Phoenicia, showing that he too, like Chedorlaomer, had conquered Syria. His son was named Eriaku, and being associated with his father in the government, received Larsa as his capital. The names Eriaku and Larsa are the same as those of Arioch and of Ellasar, and this further suggests the idea that Kudur-lagomar and Kudur-Mabuk may have been the same person. Now the Elamite king, fourteen years before, had subdued the Jordan valley (verse 5), and as this second expedition was prior to Abram's taking Hagar to wife, which happened in the tenth year after his migration to Palestine (see chap. xvi. 3), it follows that Abram and Terah were still at Kharran when Chedorlaomer passed through it, as he must have done, on his march. Himself a Turanian, he would look with ill-will on powerful Semitic chiefs such as were Abraham and Lot, and his visit may have had something to do in urging them on their further route as soon as Terah's death set them free. We see also that, besides the caravan road, there was a war track to Canaan, and thus, with troubles from Elamite invasions at home to urge him on, Abram was but following the great current of population in going to Palestine first, and thence onward to Egypt. So many took this route and remained in Egypt that, under the name of the Hyksos, they took possession, first of the Delta, and then of Egypt generally. And in this stream of human migration there was one whose going and purpose was Divine. For twelve years Chedorlaomer's tribute was regularly paid, but in the thirteenth year the five kings who possessed the wealthiest portion of the Jordan valley rebelled. A twelvemonth is spent in gathering Elam's forces; but in the next spring, attended by three subject monarchs, the king starts on his march to punish the revolters. On his arrival at Damascus, probably by the same route which Abram had followed, we find him taking a wide circuit, so as to sweep the whole country and fall upon the rebels last, and from the side where they least expected an attack. For, moving southwards through Bashan, he smites the Rephaim and other tribes along the plateau on the east of Jordan, until he reaches the wild mountains inhabited by the cave-dwelling Horites, and which extend from the Dead Sea to the gulf of Akaba. The most southerly spot reached by him was El-Paran, the oak-forest of Paran, situated on the edge of the great desert of Et-Tih. Turning hence to the north and north-west, he smites on his way the Amalekites, whose wandering tribes occupied this vast desert, and thus reaches the Dead Sea, along the western shore of which he marches till he reaches HazezonTamar, better known as En-gedi. This ravine is, as Dr. Tristram has shown, of the utmost strategical importance. For it is easy to march along the shore of the lake as far as this point, while inland the route lies across a rough and almost waterless wilderness. But north of En-gedi the shore-line is impracticable even for footmen. We gather that the Amorites held the pass, but were not reinforced by their countrymen, and probably were surprised-for a handful of men could defend the zigzag path which mounts up the side of the precipice to a height of 1,800 feet. At the head of this ravine Chedorlaomer was less than twenty miles. GENESIS. distant from Abram at Mamre, but with a difficult country between; and, moreover, his object was to smite and plunder the rich cities of the plain. As he had now traversed two-thirds of the length of the Dead Sea, it again becomes manifest that Sodom and the other cities were at its northern end. In the vale of Siddim the battle is fought, and the five kings, entangled among the bitumen pits, are defeated with so great slaughter that a remnant only escapes. Fleeing, not to the mountains of Moab, as commentators assume, but to those of Judea, they carry the news to Abram, telling him that, with other captives, Lot and his goods are carried away. He draws out at once 318 men, all trained to arms, and all born in his house, and therefore of sure fidelity, as those bought or lately acquired would not be, and, reinforced by bodies of Amorites under Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, starts in rapid pursuit. Encumbered with goods and prisoners and cattle, Chedor. laomer marched but slowly, and when, after four or five days' pursuit, Abram overtook the Elamites, they would probably be as little prepared for an attack as the Amalekites whom David found, after they had sacked Ziklag, "spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing" (1 Sam. xxx. 16). Still they were numerous, and most of them veteran warriors, and so Abram waits till night, and then, dividing his little army into three divisions, he makes his attack, throws them into confusion, and pursuing them almost to the gates of Damascus, recovers all the persons and spoil which they had gathered in their long route downwards and upwards throughout the whole length of Palestine. EXCURSUS F: ON THE ANGEL, [HEB., "MESSENGER OF JEHOVAH"] (Chap. xvi.). It is in chapter xvi. that we first meet with this | term, and as in several places there is an apparent identification of Jehovah's messenger with Jehovah Himself, and even with Elohim, it becomes necessary to say a few words upon the much debated question, whether it was a created angel that was the means of communication between Jehovah and His ancient people; or whether it was an anticipation of the Incarnation of Christ, and even a manifestation in human form of the Second Person of the Divine Trinity. God in His absolute and perfect nature is, as we are clearly taught, beyond the reach of human sense, and even of human reason. "No man hath seen God" (John i. 18, vi. 46), "for He is the King invisible, Who dwells in the unapproachable light" (1 Tim. i. 17, vi. 16); but we are taught with equal clearness that it was the office of Christ to reveal Him to us (John xii. 45, xiv. 9); and that Christ is not merely "the effulgence of His glory, but the very image and impress of His substance" (Heb. i. 3). In his own nature, then, incomprehensible and exalted far above the reach of our mental powers, God is nevertheless made intelligible to man, and brought near to our hearts and minds in Christ, so that we can conceive of Him as a Person, and as such love and worship Him. Yet was this Incarnation of God the Son the most sublime and awful mystery ever displayed upon earth; and to suppose that it was a mystery often repeated, so far from being a help to our faith, would be the reverse. We may well believe that God prepared men's minds for so Divine a fact as the emptying Himself of His glory, that He might be made in the likeness of men "(Phil. ii. 7); but that He became Man except at Bethlehem should have for its proof nothing less than the express warrant of Holy Writ. 66 In three cases there is an apparent identification of the angel with God. Thus of Hagar it is said, "She called the name of Jehovah that speaketh to her El Roi" (a God of seeing); and as a reason for the name she adds, "Do not I see after my seeing?" (chap. xvi. 13). Similarly, after Jacob had wrestled with "a man until the breaking of the day, he "called the name of the place Peni-el (the face of God): for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved (chap. xxxii. 30). Finally, after "the angel of Jehovah" had gone up in the flame from off the altar, Manoah said, "We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim (Judges xiii. 22). In these and any similar cases the utmost that we can venture to affirm is that they had seen God representatively by the appearance to them of His angel; by whom also "Jehovah spake to Hagar." Upon this latter point there is a valuable note of BarHebræus in his Scholia on Acts vii. 30, "He that was visible was an angel: He that spake was God." Nor is there any difficulty in the fact that in verse 10 the angel says to Hagar, "I will multiply thy seed." For it is the rule in Holy Scripture to ascribe to the agent the deeds which he executes by God's commission. Thus Ezekiel speaks of himself destroying Jerusalem (Ezek. xliii. 3), the sense being that rightly put in our margin-that "he prophesied that the city should be destroyed." Sent by Jehovah to execute His will, angel and prophet alike are described as themselves the doers of the task assigned to them. This rule should be remembered in the exposition of chap. xix., where the two angels speak of themselves as destroying Sodom. In the case, however, of the "three men who stood by" Abraham at Mamre, there is a very close identification of one of the angels with Jehovah. In the first verse we read that " Jehovah appeared unto Abraham." This might well be by the mission of the angels, but after a sudden change to the singular number in verse 10, the speaker is both henceforward called Jehovah, and speaks as not only himself the doer and judge, but as if it rested with him to save or destroy at his own will. There is also a marked distinction between him and the two angels who visit Lot, and who describe themselves as sent by Jehovah (chap. xix. 13), though even here, in verses 17-22, there is an approximation to a higher personification. In the case of the angel who visits Gideon there is again an apparent identification between him and Jehovah (Judges vi. 14, 16–23); nevertheless, Gideon still calls him an angel of Jehovah in verse 22, and he is called an angel of Elohim in verse 20. In this case, and in that of the angel who appeared to Manoah, they refuse to partake of food, whereas the three angels who appeared to Abraham at Mamre ate of the food prepared for them. They are also called men, and behave in a very human manner, whereas the angels who appeared to Gideon and Manoah both display supernatural powers, and "do wondrously." Nevertheless, nowhere else is there so close an identification between the angel and Jehovah as in this appearance at Mamre, and in the history of the intercession GENESIS. for Sodom both the angel and Abraham speak as if In the case of the revelation to Abraham after the If, however, we turn to other passages of Holy Scripture the explanation seems plain. In the passage of God's ancient people through the wilderness, an angel was especially entrusted with their guidance and 7 protection. He is called "the angel of Elohim," and his symbol was the pillar of fire and of the cloud (Exod. xiv. 19). Once, however, he appears in human form to Joshua, and claims the office of captain of Jehovah's host (Josh. v. 13-15). In the full description of him in Exod. xxiii. 20-25, we read in verse 21 "my Name is in him." Now this angel is called in Isa. lxiii. 9 "the angel of God's presence," literally, of His Face: and in this there is an evident allusion to Exod. xxxiii. 14, 15, where Moses says, "If Thy Face go not, carry us not up hence; " and Jehovah says, My Face shall go, that I may give thee rest." 66 It seems, therefore, that under the Old Covenant, while generally it was created angels who were the medium of communication between God and man, yet that there was one kind of manifestation of Deity so high as that God's Name was in him, and God's Face shown by him. As all revelation was by God the Son (John i. 18) we may fearlessly connect this angel with our blessed Lord, called "the angel of the covenant" in Mal. iii. 1; but it would be rash and presumptuous to attempt to define the exact nature of these appearances. 66 The union of matter and spirit in any way is beyond our powers of understanding; how much more when that Spirit is God! But this we may reverently say, that these personal manifestations were an anticipation in the Old Testament of that which is the cardinal human nature, and appeared in fashion as a man. doctrine in the New-that God has taken upon Him saints of old knew of their Redeemer at first only as The 'the woman's seed:" thought of Him with the name Jehovah; and, finally, they learned next to unite the they knew that Jehovah was also God. So was the broad foundation laid for the prophetic teaching that He was Emmanuel, in one person God and Man; and for the feeling so necessary for all true personal piety that God vouchsafes His presence on earth. He who now walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks visibly to the saints of the Church of old. (Rev. i. 13) from time to time manifested His Face not only was the father of the faithful thus visited, And but even a runaway handmaid was neither disregarded, nor deemed unworthy of heavenly care. lose ourselves in profitless speculations as to the We might manner of events so mysterious, but the practical lesson is plain, that though "the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, yet He deigns to dwell upon earth" (1 Kings viii. 27), and that His presence now vouchsafed by the spiritual indwelling of the Holy Ghost, is as efficacious for guidance, help, and comfort as were these visible manifestations in early times, when there was not as yet that full knowledge of God and of His ways, which has been given us in His Holy Word. years she gave birth herself to a son, and in the interval had given her maid Bilhah to Jacob, who had by her two sons; and as the birth of these was the occasion to Rachel of very unseemly exultation over her sister (xxx. 6, 8), her conduct can only be accounted for by the fact that Leah had already a numerous offspring when Rachel gave Bilhah to her husband. She bears four she gave Zilpah (xxix. 35), and EXCURSUS G: UPON THE CHRONOLOGY OF JACOB'S LIFE (Chap. xxvii.) The elaborate calculations of Lightfoot, and most Jewish and Christian commentators, intended to show that when Jacob set out upon his journey to Haran, he and Esau were each about 77 years of age, and Isaac their father about 137, though based apparently upon the letter of Scripture, are so contrary to its facts that evidently there must be some error in them. Fortunately there are several dates which are open to no doubt, and if we start with these, it may prove not impossible to arrive at more trustworthy conclusions. When, then, Jacob went down into Egypt, he was 130 years of age (chap xlvii. 9), and as Joseph when he stood before Pharaoh his first years of power were the seven years of plenty, was 30 (chap. xli. 46), and as and there had been already two years of famine when he made himself known to his brethren, he was plainly about 40 years of age when his father joined him. Now he was a lad of 17 when sold into Egypt (xxxvii. 2), and as he was born before the contract to serve Laban for the speckled cattle (xxx. 25), which lasted for six years (xxxi. 41), he was about 7 when Jacob returned to Canaan. It follows, therefore, that Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born. Now the usual calculations allow only twenty years for Jacob's sojourn in Padanaram, of which the first seven were spent in service before Leah and Rachel were given him in marriage. If from the twenty, we subtract these seven years and the seven years of Joseph's age, there remain only six years for the birth of Leah's six sons and the interval of her barrenness; and undeniably the narrative would be guilty of very remarkable exaggeration in its account of Rachel's childlessness, and Rachel herself of excessive impatience, considering that at the end of six 182 The case of Leah is still plainer. sons, after which she "left bearing this barrenness continued so long that as her substitute to Jacob, who bare him two sons, Gad and Asher. Now neither Rachel nor Leah would have resorted to this expedient until they utterly despaired of having children themselves; and Leah herself deZilpah's sons both seem to have been born in this period scribes it as an act of great self-sacrifice (xxx. 18). of Leah's barrenness; for we find that Jacob had entirely discarded Leah, and it was only at Rachel's request place plainly because she had no expectation of having that he visited her again. Zilpah had taken Leah's more offspring, and from chap. xxx. 15 it is evident that Jacob shared in this view, and had long ceased to pay any visits to Leah's tent. Moreover, this interval lasted so long that Reuben was old enough to be allowed to ramble in the field-that is, the uncultivated pasture land where the flocks fed; and he had sufficient selfcontrol to bring the mandrake-berries which he had found home to his mother. According to the usual calculations, he was between three and four years old at this time for it is necessary to arrange for the births of Issachar and Zebulun within the six years. He is therefore described as carried by the reapers to the wheatfield, and somewhere there he finds the man GENESIS. drakes; but the wheat harvest is mentioned only to fix the time, and Reuben had evidently gone a long ramble to places not often visited. For it is plain that the mandrakes were rarities, and that their discovery was unusual; and this would not have been the case had they been found near the tents, nor is it likely that a young child would have been the discoverer. On the other hand, if Reuben were an active young man, nothing was more probable than for him to wander away into distant quarters, looking, perhaps, for game; and the kind heart which made him bring the berries to his mother is in agreement with the brotherly affection which made him determine to save the life even of the hated Joseph (xxxvii. 21, 22, 29, 30). "Unstable" he was, with no great qualities, but not destitute of generosity or of sympathy; and to Leah her sons must have been her one comfort under her many trials, and no doubt she treated them lovingly. Now if we put all these things together—the birth of Leah's four sons; Rachel's jealousy at her sister's fruitfulness, and her gift of Bilhah to her husband; Leah's interval of barrenness, and her gift of Zilpah to take her place; the complete estrangement of Jacob from Leah, upon the supposition that she would never again conceive; and the fact that she had to purchase of Rachel the visit of Jacob to her tent, which was followed by the birth of two more sons,-if we bear all this in mind, few persons could probably be found capable of believing that so much could have taken place in six years. If we add the further consideration that Hebrew women suckled their children for two or more years (note on xxi. 8), the supposition that Leah had four sons in four years becomes very unlikely. The patriarchal women are described as the reverse of fruitful. Even Leah, the one exception, has only seven children; and where any patriarch has a large family, he obtained it by having more than one wife. After the six sons, Dinah was born, for so it is distinctly said in verse 21. But even if we interpolate Dinah among the sons, so far from making the difficulty less, we only land ourselves in an impossibility: for we have now to cram seven births, and a period of barrenness into six years. We must, then, accept what Holy Scripture says as a literal fact-that she was born after Zebulun. Now if we bear in mind that Jacob was seven years unmarried, that Dinah was Leah's seventh child, and that her mother had an interval of barrenness, it is plain that, if Jacob's sojourn at Padan-aram lasted only twenty years, Dinah could not have been more than two or three years old when Jacob returned to Canaan. Now in the ten years which elapsed between Jacob's return, bringing with him Joseph, then seven years old, and the sale of Joseph to the Midianites, at the age of seventeen, Jacob dwelt first at Shechem (xxxiii. 18), then at Beth-el (xxxv. 1), and finally near Hebron (xxxvii. 14). But not only is Dinah marriageable at Shechem, but her brothers, Simeon and Levi, about whose age there can be no doubt, as they were Leah's second and third sons,—these lads, then, aged one eleven and the other ten, on their arrival at Shechem, are so precociously powerful as to take "each one his sword, and come upon the city, and slay all the males" (xxxiv. 25). Jacob, a peaceful man, is horrified at what they do, but dares only to expostulate with these boys; and they, acting upon the usual law, that where there are several wives, the women look not to the father, but to those of their mother's tent, for protection, give him a fiery answer. Really we find in verse 13 that the sons of Jacob were grown men, who took the management of the matter into their own hands. 66 Moreover, as Joseph was born seven years before Jacob left Padan-aram, and Reuben in the eighth year of his sojourn there, he would be Joseph's senior by only five years. Yet Reuben calls him a child (xxxvii. 30), and all the rest treat him as one far younger than themselves, though really he was of much the same age as Issachar and Zebulon, and Zilpah's two sons, Gad and Asher. Judah, Leah's fourth son, would at most be only four years older than Joseph, yet he seems to have had a flock of his own at Timnath (xxxviii. 12), marries, and has three sons. The first, Er, grows up, and Judah takes for him a wife; but he was wicked, and died a premature death. Tamar is then given in marriage to the second son, and he also dies prematurely; whereupon Judah sends Tamar back to her father's house, with a promise that when Shelah, his third son, is grown up, he shall be given her as a husband. While she is dwelling in her father's house, Judah's wife dies, and there were the days of mourning; and as Tamar had long waited in vain, she has recourse, when Judah was comforted after the loss of his wife, to an abominable artifice, and bears twin sons to her father-in-law. Now there were at most twenty-three years between the sale of Joseph and the going down of Jacob's family into Egypt, and if it was really the case that Judah was only twenty-one at Joseph's sale, all these events could not have happened within so short a period. The phrase "at that time," at the beginning of chap. xxxviii., by no means implies that the marriage of Judah with Shuah's daughter was contemporaneous with the sale of Joseph. It is quite indefinite, and intended to show that the episode about Judah and his family happened about the same general period ; but really it could not have taken place many years previously, for, as we have seen, only ten years elapsed between Jacob's return and the cruel treatment of Joseph by his brethren. Judah's marriage, then, must have happened soon after the return to Canaan, when, nevertheless, according to these calculations, he was a boy only eleven years of age. It is quite plain, therefore, that Jacob's sojourn in Padan-aram lasted more than twenty years. What, then, is the explanation? It was long ago given by Dr. Kennicott, and, as stated in the Speaker's Commentary, Bishop Horsley considered that the reasons he gave for his conclusions were unanswerable. All really depends upon the translation of verses 38 and 41 of chap. xxxi., and in the Authorised Version the two periods of twenty years are made to be identical, the second statement being taken as a mere amplification of the first. But if we turn to the Hebrew, it clearly distinguishes the two periods. In verse 38 it is literally, "This twenty years I was with thee; thy ewes, and thy she goats, did not cast their young," &c.; and in verse 41, "This twenty years was for me in thy house I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy sheep." But in Hebrew the phrase this... this, means the one and the other, or, in our language, this and that. (See Note on chap. xxix. 27.) Thus, then, there were two periods of service, each about twenty years in duration, of which one was for settled wages, and the other for : |