JACOB
Its credibility against all that the enemy ean do. The passage, too," with others recently cited, strongly proves how much the character of the patriarch had improved. In the whole of the latter part of Jacob's life he seems to have gradually parted with many less desirable qual- ities, and to have become at once more truthful, more energetic, more earnest, aflfectionate, and, in the largest sense of the word, religious. Encouraged " in the vi- sions of the night," Jacob goes down to Egypt (B.C. 1874), and ivas affectionately met by Joseph (Gen. xlvi, 29). Joseph proceeded to conduct his father into the presence of the EgjT)tian monarch, when the man of (iod, with that self-consciousness and dignity which religion gives, instead of offering slavish adulation, '• blessed Pharaoh." Struck with the patriarch's vener- able air, the king asked, "How old art thou?" What composure and elevation is there in the reply, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage" (Gen. xlvii, 8-10). Jacob, with his sons, now entered into possession of some of the best land of Egypt, where they carried on their pastoral occupations, and enjoyed a very large share of earthly prosperity. The aged patriarch, after being strangely tossed about on a very rough ocean, found at last a tranquil harbor, where all the best affections of his nature were gently exercised and largely unfolded (Gen. xlviii, sq.). After a lapse of time, Joseph, being informed that his father was sick, went to him, when " Israel strengthened him- self, and sat up in his bed." He acquainted Joseph with the divine promise of the land of Canaan which yet remained to be fulfilled, and took Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, distinguishing them by an adoption equal to that of Keuben and Simeon, the oldest of his own sons (Gen. xlviii, 5). How impressive is his benediction in Joseph's family (Gen. xlviii, 15, 16) : " God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God whii.h fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers ; and let them grow into a multi- tude in the midst of the earth." "And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die ; but God will be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers" (ver. 21). Then, having convened his sons, the venerable patri- arch pronounced on them also a blessing, which is full of tlie loftiest thought, expressed in the most poetical diction, and adorned by the most vividly descriptive and <iii;,i;j,iiii;- imagery (see Stiihelin, A ninUidcersiones in JiKnhi niiii-iiihiiii, Ileidelb. 1827), showing how deep- ly rci;-i(iiis his cliaracter had become, how freshly it retained its fervor to the last, and how greatly it had increased in strength, elevation, and dignity: "Anc. when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he u-ailicnil ii|, his fed into tlic bed [i. e. knelt towards the hr,r,. head IXC l)rlii/,s,li (.11 lleb. xi, 21) rather than b(i\vc(l (i\cr I he lop (jI liis staff, as Stuart, ad loc. (see Stai'I')], and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people" (Gen. xlix, 33), at the ripe age of 147 years (Gen. xlvii, 28). B.C. 1857. His body was em- balmed, carried with great care and pomp into the land of Canaan, and deposited with his fathers, and his wife Leah, in the cave of JIachpclah. The route pursued by this funeral procession is ingeniously supposed by Dr. Kitto {I'ict. Ilitt. of Jews, i, 136) to have been the more circuitous one afterwards taken by the Israelites by the way of Moimt Seir and across the Jordan, the object being apparently in both cases the fear of the Philis- tines, who lay in the direct route. Dr. Thomson ob- jects to this as an unnecessary deviation (Luml and Book, ii, 385), urging that the Bethagla, which Jerome identities with the Arca-Atad or Abel-mizraim (q. v.), as the scene of the mourning ceremonies, laj' near Gaza; but in this case it is certainly difficult to" explain the constant statement that tlie spot in (question was situ-
•32
JACOB
ated " beyond the Jordan," as it clearly implies a cross- ing of the river liy the cavalcade.
In the list of .Jacob's lineal descendants given in Gen. xlvi, 8-27, as being those that accompanied him on his removal to Egypt, there is evidence that the list was rather made up to the time of his decease, or perhaps even somewhat later (see Hengstenberg's Pentateuch, ii, 290 sq.) ; for we find mentioned not only numerous sons (some of whom will appear to be even grandsons) of Benjamin, at the date of that emigration a youth (see xliv, 20, 80-34), but also the children of Pharez, at that time a mere child (comp. xxxviii, 1). See Benjamin. There has, moreover, been experienced considerable dif- ficulty in making out the total of seventy persons there stated, as well as the sum of sixty-six included in it, and likewise the aggregates of the posterity of the sev- eral wives as there computed. This difficulty is further enhanced by the number seventj'-five assigned by Ste- phen (Acts vii, 14) to Jacob's family at the same date. This last statement, however, cannot be disposed of in the manner frequently adopted by including the wives of Jacob and his sons (for it docs not appear that they are at all referred to, and it is probable that they would have swelled the number more largely if added), but is rather to be regarded as a quotation made (without in- dorsing or caring to discuss its accuracy) from the Sept., which gives that total in the passage in Genesis, but inconsistently attributes nine sons to Joseph in place of two. Of all the explanations of the other discrepancies, that of Dr. Hales is perhaps the most plausible (A naly- sis of Chronolofiy, ii, 159), but it has the insuperable ob- jections of including Jacob himself among the number of his own posterity, and of not conforming to the meth- od of enumeration in the text. A comparison of Numb. xxvi, 8, shows that the name of Eliab, the son of Pallu and grandson of Keuben, has been accidentally dropped from the list in question ; this restored, the whole, with its parallel accounts, maj^ be adjusted with entire har- mony, as in the table on the following pages.