Eart, in the 15th cent. B.c.1 Uliat connexion, if any, exists etween these names and those of the patriarchs, may never perhaps be ascertained ; but their existence at such a date in Palestine is remarkable. These facts, however, make it not improbable that (as had indeed been supposed even before their discovery^) names of the type ,/aco6, Joseph, Jcphthah, etc, are elliptical forms of a more original Jakob'il, Joseph'et, etc But, however that may be, to the Hebrews, as we know them, the idea which Jacob suggested, and in which it was supposed to have originated, was that of supplanter.
The boys grew up : Esau was a clever hunter, living in the open field ; Jacob was a ' plain man, living in tents,' i.e. a quiet, home-loving man, pursuing the life of a shepherd among his tents
• I.e. shall take different courses (Gn 13U) even from birth.
t Or, 'MavGodhear I'etc. (Gray, 5fudi««inHei*. Proper A'ameM, p. 21s ; Cle'rmont-Ganneau, Rec. Arch, xxviii. (1896), p. 350.
J Baethgen, Beitrdge, 158, who compares the Palmyrene name 3pynV, * 'Ate has rewarded ' (or, as this sense does not appear to be found in Aramaic, '"Ate follows,' or 'searches out'). The same root occurs also in the pr. names 'Akkub (Ezr 242 etc.), an(5 the post-Bibl. ' Alcabiah (Abhoth, iii. 1). ' May God supplant (oul foes I)' would also be a possible explanation (Skipwith, JQR x (1893), p. 667).
§ Hommel. AHT 61, 96, 112.
II See, further, Mever, ZATW, 1SS6, p. HI.; W. M. Muller Atienu. Europa, 162 ff. ; Gray, 214 f. ; Sayce, BCM 337 St.
U Olshausen, Lehrbuch (1861), p. 617.
JACOB
(cf. Gn 4*). An incident soon occurred, which displayed the contrasted characters of the two brothers. Esau returned one day exhausted from the cliase : his brother was cooking pottage, and half fainting he asked to be allowed to swallow (Kj-jo'iJ'n) a little. But Jacob saw his opportunitj' ; and did not scruple to make the most of it. ' Sell me first thy birthright,' he said. Esau, feeling in his exhaustion that his life depended upon it, too readily consented. Jacob, however, is still not fully satislied ; and to make the compact more Bure, obliges Esau to seal his promise with an oath. Thereupon he gives ICsau the bread and pottage which he desired. The liirthright, it need hardly' be remarked, was a highly valued pos.session : it implied both a better po.sition in the family, and also, ultimately, a larger inheritance, than fell to any of the other brothers (cf. 43*' 48"-™, Dt 21"). The narrator comments on the heedlessness with which Esau, thinking only of the moment, sur- rendered what would otherwise have been an inalienable right : the modern reader is more impressed by the avarice and seUishness shown hy Jacob in taking such a mean advantage of his brother's need.
Gn 27'-" relates another characteristic incident in Jacob's life, and tells the story of the artifice by which, instigated by a designing mother, he deceives his aged father, and wrests from his brother his father's blessing^ The narrative, which belongs chielly, if not entirely, to J, is told with the picturesque detail and the psj^chological truth which that gifted narrator habitually displays. ■There is no need to repeat the details here : the vivid descrii)tion of Rebekah's treacherous scheme for defeating her husband's purpose, of Jacob's too willing compliance when, with his usual caution, he has once satisfied himself that he can yield it Bafely, of the ready falsehood with which he allays his father's suspicions, of Isaac's dismay, and Esau's bitter cry of disappointment, when the truth is discovered, will be fresh in the memory of every reader. Only two or three points may he selected for comment. The contrasted blessings of Jacob and Esau express clearly the dillerent geographical and political conditions of the coun- tries owned afterwards by their respective descend- ants. Of Jacob, his father says :
*n> See. the smell o( my son
I« as the smell o( a Held which Jehovah hath bleaaed : « And God (five thee o( the dew of beaveQ,
And of the fatness of the eartht
And plenty of corn and must : • Let peoples serve thee,
And nations how down to the6 ;
Be lord over thy brethren,
And let thy mother's sons how down to thee :
Cursed be everj' one that curseth thee,
And blessed be every one that blessetb the«. In vv.""-^ the poet thinks of the fruitful fields and vineyards of Canaan, watered by copious dews (Dt 3'i^^), and yielding in abundance 'com and must,'— two of the three staple productions of Palestine, often mentioned together as a triad of blessings (Dt 7" \V*iil.; cf. 33^): in v."* he thinks further of the [leoplos of Canaan, subjugated ■nder the Israelites, and of the neighbouring B«tions, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites,— l^^. 'broUiers,' or other near relations of Israel (Gn 19«"),— made tributary by David (2 S 8).
The ' blessing ' of Esau (vv.=»- *») is a very quali- fied one. Playing on the ambiguous sense of a HebreAv preposition, — which would more naturally mean from or of in a partitive sense (as v.^), but miglit also mean nwn;/ from, if .such a sen.se were favoured by the context,— the poet (luts into the patriarch's mouth these words —