The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 439

of the best authorities (vide Kurtz, 'History of us has inJurcd the other. This twenty of the Ole1 Covenant,' § 79 ; 'Sacrificial years have I been with thee (vidi irifra, ver. Worship of the Old Testament,'§ 213; Keil in loco; both of ,vl1om quote Bahr's • Sym- 41); thy ewes (1,01, n ewe, whence Rnchol) bolik of the Mosaic Cultus,' ii. 466). Roberts and thy she goats-Ill., n she-goat ; cf. San- mentions that under similar circumstances scrit, adsha, a he-goat ; adsM,, a she-goat ; mth Rachel no one in India goes to the Go_th., gliusa; Anglo-Saxon, g<it; German, fomple or any religious ceremony (' Oriental geui; Greek, ait; Turkish, gieilc (Gesenias, Illustrations,' p. 37)-is upon me. It is just sub voce)-have not oast their young, and possible R.-ichel may have been speaking the the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. exact truth, though the probability is she Roberts says that the people of the East do was guilty of fabrication. And he searched not eat female sheep except when sterile and (everywhere except among the camel's furni- that it would be considered folly and p~odi- ture, partly from fear of defilement, but gality in the extreme to eat that which has chiefly as regarding it impossible that Rachel the power of producing more (vUe 'Oriental in her then state would sit upon his gods), Illustrations,' p. 37). That which was tom but foUlld not the images (teraphim). The of beasts (1"1~1.t;), a coll. fem., from ~11,l,•to three times repeated phrase "ho found not," tear in pieces, meaning that which is torn in emphasises the complet~ness of Laban's de- pieces, hence cattle destroyed by wild beasts) ception. I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of Vers. 86-42.-Alld J'acob was wroth,- it;-1"1~~!)~, literally, I made expiation.for litcrally, and u burned, sc. with indignation it, tho pie! C'f N~Q, signifying to mako (same word as used by Rachel, ver. 85), atonement for a thing by sacrifice (Levit. ix. to Jacob, i. e. ho was infuriated at what he 15), or by compensation, as here ; hence believed to be Laban's unjnstifiable insinua- equivalent to "I bare the Joss of it " (Rashi,' tion abont his lost teraphim-and chode-or Furst), or lyw a,rirlvvvov (LXX.), or, pers contended ; the fundamental signification of haps, " I will bear the loss of it, or pay it the root, :::i~, or :::l ''1, being to seize or tear, back" (Kalisch)-of my hand didst thou e. g. the hair, hence to strive with the hands require it,~otherwise, "of my hand require (Deut. xx:riii. 7), or with words (Ps. ciii 9). it" (Kalisch)-whether stolen by day, or The two verbs, iti:l and :::l~l, give a vivid stolen by night. Without adhering lirerally representation of the exasperation which to the text, the LXX. give the sense of this Jacob felt-with Laban: and Jacob answered and the preceding clause as being, "From my and said to Laba.n.,-in words characterised own I paid back the stolen by day and the by " verbosity and self-glorification" (Ka- stolen by night." Thus I was; (i. e. I was in lisch), or "acute sensibility and elevated this condition that) in the day the drought self-consciousness" (Delitzsch, Keil), accord- consumed me, and the frost by night. M"J~, ing as one inclines to on nnfavourable or ice, so called from its smoothness, hence cold. favourable view of Jacob'a character-What The alternation of heat and cold in many is my trespass 1 what is my sin., that thou eastern countries is very great and severely hast so hotly pursued after met The in- felt by shepherds, travellers, and watchmen, tensity of Ja.cob's feeling imparts to his who require to pass the night in the open air, language a rythmical movement, and leads and who in consequence a.re often obliged to to the selection of poetical forms of expres- wear clothes lined with skins (cf. Ps. cxxi. 6; Jer. xxxvi. 30). "The thermometer at 24° sion, snch as '1.IJ~ i'~"!, .to bum after, in the Fahr. at night, a lump of solid ice in our sense offierccl y persecmting, which occurs again basins in the morning, and then the scorch- only in l Sam. xvii 53 (vule Gesenius and ing heat of the day drawing up the moisture, Furst, sub voce; and cf. Keil, in loco), causing made the neighbourhood, convenient os it was, the reader at times to catch "the dance and ratherafever-trap, and premonitory symptoms mllfiic of actual verse" (Ewald). Whereas warned us to movo" (Tristram, 'Tho Land thou hast searched all my stuff',-literally: of Moab,' p. 217). "The night air at J oniza (sc. What is my sin) that tlwu hast felt all was keen and cold; inciecd there was a. sharp my articles (LXX., Kalisch) 1 the clause frost, and ico apr,cnred on all the little pools Leing co-ord.i.na te with the preceding ; though about the camp ' ('.l.'homson, ' The Land and by others '.;) is taken as equivalent to ,~~~. the Book,' p. 864). "Does a master reprove quawlo qui,dem, since (A. V., Ainsworth), or his servant for being idle, he will ask, 'Wh11t quando, when (Calvin, Mnrphy)-what hast can I do 1 the heat oats mo np by day, and the thou found of all thy household stuff'1 set it cold eats me up by night'" (Roberts' 'Orient.Ill here before my brethren and thy brethren Illustrations,' p. 37 ; cf. Pa.xton's 'Illustra- (i. e. Laban's kinsmen who accompanied him, tions,' vol. i. p. 30). And my sleep departed who were also of necessity kinsmen to Jacob), from mine eyea. '' Syrinn shepherds were com- that they may judge betwixt us both-wl1ich pelled to watch their flocks often both night OD, XXXI. 22-44.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 383