being at Beersheba*) dies ; and (according to tho same source, P) Jacob and Esau meet once more for the purpose of burying him (v.''* ; cf. 25').
The active period of Jacob's life is now over : the rest of his days is passed in quietude ; and Joseph becomes the moving spirit in the patriarchal family. Joseph was his father's favourite son ; his brethren envied him ; his dreams of future exaltation increased their jealousy ; but his father fondly wondered what these dreams might signify (37'). Jacob is still at Hebron, but his Hocks are at Shechem, t tended by his other sons, and he sends Joseph thither to inquire after his brethren's welfare (37'-''^). Deceived in his old age by his sons, as he had in his youth deceived his own aged father, he receives with inconsolable grief the evidence, as it seems to him, of Joseph's cruel death (37^''''). As the famine grows severe in Canaan, he sends his sons, but witliout Benjamin, who now naturally takes Joseph's place as hia father's favourite, to buy corn in Egypt (42'"'') : upon their inauspicious return, his distress and grief hnd bitter expression in the reproachful words (42^), ' Me have ye bereaved of my children : Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away ; upon me are all the.se things come.' In the end, he is obliged to let Benjamin go back with his brethren into Egypt, but with characteristic prudence he sends with them a present calculated to win the favour of the great man of the land (43"""). The dfnvumcnt soon follows ; and ch. 45 recounts the delight with which he hears that his son is still alive, and receives the message to come and join him in Egypt (vv.^'^). He sets forth from Hebron, journeys to Beersheba, the home of Isaac and of his own former days (27. 23'"), and there, when on the point of lea\'ing for a second time the land of jiroiiiise, and taking up his abode in the land of kgjpt, receives a word of encouragement and promise suitable to the occasion (4G^- '' ; cf. pre- viously, at Bethel, 28"-"). Israel thus ' went down into Egj'pt ' ; and a new and momentous epoch in the history of the nation was inaugurated. The list of Jacob's sons and grandchildren who accompanied him into Egypt is given by P (46'--'').J Jacob meets his son Joseph in Goshen, and the wish of his heart is accomplished (46="). Afterwards he is honourably received by the Pharaoh, and as- signed, with Ills sons, a residence in the pastorij district of Goshen (47'"*-"' [from ' in the land '] J ; 47..*..7-np).§
As the time drew near for Jacob to die, he made Joseph promise not to burj* him in Egypt, but to lay him in the tomb of his fathers in Canaan
• 2Si*> compare<l with 27**^: aooonUng to P{35*' cnmixired with 25'* 20**) eujhty yearn previously, Jacob tieinu now 120 yiar>olrt I (AccordinL' to Jill, Jacob was but 20 yean in Mi 90|>o- lamia, 31" ; cf. p. t/M'')-
t The author of this passage must have pictured Jacob's flocks as nianiini; pretty freely over the country (cf. v.l', l>othan beluK about 15 inilea N. of Shtchem), H he himself was at Hebron. In view of ch. »4, the mention of their tn'itij; at Shechem Is remarkable ; but the writer. It la poasihle, pictured the inhabitants ot the neighlK>urhood aa deUrred by fear (cl. Xi-) Irom inttrlerinK' with Jacob's po.«e»»ion.«.
1 On dillW-vilties connectwi with the enumeration, enp. In vv.'i ^. see the Coninu-iitariea- — An iiiterestini; illustration of Jacob's descent into K^'M't in alTonUil lt\' the n-prvsenution, on a tomb at Benillasaan, ol 37 Asialhs ( .< tn u ), bnnginif a prewnt ot eye i>-iint. and two live ibexes, to fxTtoieu ii.. of the l.ih dynastv, in his 6th year (c. >.c. 2600, I'elrie). The pro, i-si.n la a n-inarkable one : it comprise* men, women, and i-hiMrtn, and two assea : the men wear \ong ridily-coloureii tunica, or in some caat-s coloured loincloths, and one is playinp with a plectrum on a lyre of six striiic^ See Wilkinsim-Hireh. Ane. K'lyp. 1S7S, i. 4!50 ; Maspcro, Ihixcnof Cii-'li^atitm, 4''.s 470; or I'itne, llitt. «,' Kyv}*, I. 172-174; also llonimel, AIITl'ii.
J The sctiuence in w.*- • ia better in the LA.\ ; s<-e tha Comma, or Ll>T pp. 10, 10 <* 11, ID n. The situation ot IJoHlien, fixed approximately by tradition, has been determine deflnitely by the reaearchos ot U. .Vaiille; it waa the dinn.i Ivinif Iwtween the three moilern villawia of BafL Belbela, anrt 'tal cl-Kebir, about 40 uillc* K.H ot t:airu.
532
JACOB
JACOB
147"""). Ch. 48 narrates (1) liow he aJopteii Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ejihraini, iilai injr them on the same level with his own ciiiliiren (vv.'-' 1') ; and (2) how he blessed them, giving at the same time the first plaee to the younger, Ejihraim, in view of the future pre-eminence of the tribe descended Irom him (vv.'"'-'--'" JE). There follows a special promise and gift, made to Joseph (yy ai. -.'J jrj "phe terms of v.- are remarkable, 'And I give thee one shoulder* {.i/u/:/iciii) above thj' brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.' There is manifest!}' here an allusion to Shechem, after- wards an important and central place in the terri- tory of Ephraim (cf. G. A. Smith, IIGIIL 33-2-334), wliere also Joseph was buried (Jos 24'^) ; but noth- ing is said elsewhere of a, conquest of Slieclicni by Jacob : it is evident that there is preserved here a version of Jacobs dealings with Snechem dill'erent from any which we linii elsewhere. t