• At Ifoat acoonling to J (30»>-«>). Acconiiiiif to E(31«^ll »n»), Laban artiilnrily and unfairly chan^-cN Jacob's waifra ; but Jaroti'fl ^^li(ls arc not due to his own artiMc4>H, but to Ibe dis- pK-Jitions of Providence (31*18). As tlie two narrativen are thus derived from dlHeront iiourcea, It follows that 31»i>- ' » '«• »«■ '"> do not express, or imply, divine approval of the artifices dcicribed in ,1oa>-<'.
dream. He struggles with his mysterious antag- onist, and, as in his struggles with Esau and Laban, strives to win : he struggles bravely: not can his antagonist overcome iiim, until by a divine toucii He paralyzes his natural strength. Even then Jacob's tenacity of purpose remains un- Imjjaired ; he is conscious that he has a heavenly visitant in his embrace ; and he will not let Him go until he has received from Him a blessin". The moment marks a spiritual change in Jacob s character. His carnal weajjons are lamed and useless, — they fail him in his contest with God ; as the result of his struggle his natural self is left behind, he rises from it an altered man. A new truth is vividly brought home to him, — the value- lessness before God of the weapons in which he has hitherto trusted. The lameness which he carries away with him is, as it were, a palpable memento of the fact. And his new name sym- bolizes his new nature. It is tnie, even before this, he has not been represented as destitute of religious feeling; his prayer in 32'" evinces humility, thankiulness, and a sense of dependence upon God. Indeed this i)rayer may be .said to prepare psychologically for the spiritual .struggle which follows. But it is the result of this struggle that henceforth the better and higher elements in his character assert themselves more strongly than the}' had done before. In his dealings with Esau in eh. 33 he is politic, and makes the best of the situation ; but he cannot be said to treat his brother dishonourably. His rebuke of Simeon and Levi in 34"°, however, shows timidity and weak- ness, and is not prompted by any motive higher than expediency. In his old age domestic trials overtake him : he loses Rachel ; for manj' years he is bereaved of his favourite son ; the dread of losing another son weighs heavily upon him (42'* 43") : his character is mellowed and softened ; and the picture of his closing days is that of a just and God-fearing typical Israelite, strong in faith (48-'), and grateful for the Providence which had ' shepherded ' * him through his long course of anxieties and vicissitudes, and 'redeemed him from all evil ' (48'"-).
There remains the question, how far, and in what sense, the narratn-es relating to Jacob arc historical. In approaching this question there are some important things to be borne in mind. (1) Upon any view of the Book of Genesis, it was not committed to writing for many centuries after the events described in it occurred : we thus possess no guarantee whatever that it contains a literally exact record of the acts and sajings of the patriarchs ; for it does not satisfy the primary canon of sound historical criticism, that onl}' narratives contemporary, or nearly so, with the events narrated, and, moreover, consistent with them.selves, can claim such a character. (2) It is remarkable liow, in Gn, individuals and tribes seem to be placed on the same level, and to be spoken of in the same terms, and how, further, individuals seem frequently to be the inii>crsonation of homonynioua tribe.s. ThusBethuel is mentioned as an individual (22-" 24" nl.), but his brothers Uf and Buz are tribes (22'^"-). I;Ceturali, again, is described a.s an individual (25') ; but her sons and grand.sons are tribes (25^"'). In Gn 10 nations are quite manifestly represented as individuals ; and one of them, Cush, has, conversely, an indixndual for his son (H)"). So elsewhere: Machir, in tin 50^ an individual, in Nu 2(>" 'U-geta' (the country) (Jilead ; in Jg 11' (lilead 'iK'get.s' Jeph- thab.+ .Vgaiii, Canajin, Japhuth, and Shem, in Noah's hlcs-sing (Gn '.i^"), clearly represent three
• AV, RV, entirely losiiiK the metaphor, 'fed.' f Comp. the curious notii-e of ' Kpbraim' in 1 Ch 71^»* (ni * art. nuRiAii).
S34
JACOB
JACOB
groups of nations: Ishmael (16") is in character the personilitation of the desert tribes whose descent is traced to him (ij"-") : Esau 'ia Edom ' (25» 36'- 0- '» ; of. Jer 49'") ), and Edom is tlie name of a people. More tlian this, ' Jacob ' and ' Israel ' are tliemselves national names, the latter a stand- ing one, the former a poetical synonym (Gn 49', even in Jacob's own mouth ; Nu 23-'- ■", Dt 32" 33'-*, Hos 10" 12^ Am V- », and frequently). Heredity is undoubtedly a true principle : children inherit the qualities of their parents ; thej" also often experi- ence, for good or for ill, as the civ.se may be, the ionsequences of their parents' acts ; but it would bo extending the principle altogether unduly to suppose that the character and j)olitical condition of an entire group of peoples were really deter- mined by a father's curse upon their ancestor (Gn 9^), or to imagine that the whole subsequent history of two ot the Israelitish tribes was fixed in reality (49''') by an act of their ancestors, in which, after all, they were merely maintaining, by means consistent with the manners of the age, the honour of a sister. In cases such as these, we can surely have only the explanations deviled either by popular imagination, or by a poet interpreting the mind of his people, for the purpose of accounting for national character, and national conditions, as they existed at a later age.