and day, o.nd · for o. whole month together, if Hezron and He.mul were born in Canaan, and ropo.ir into long plo.ins o.nd deserts with- before the birth of Joseph, i. e. while Judah <nt any eholter ; o.nd when reduced to this was yet in Padan-aram, which is contrary to incessant labour, they wero besides chilled by the narrative (vide eh. xxxviii. 1, 2). For the piercing cold of the morning, o.nd scorched these reasons, though adopted by some excel- 1-y tho succeeding hents of o. flaming sun, lent authorities (Bishop Horsley, Adam tne opposite action of which often swells and Clarke, 'Speaker's Commentary,' Inglis), ths chafes their lips and foce" (P11xton's 'Illus- computation of Dr. Kennicott does not appear trations of Scripture,' vol. i. p. 30). Thus of sufficient weight to set aside the ordinnry r.o.ve I been-literally, this to me (or for my- reckoning, which is followed by interpreters self, vide infra)--twenty years in thy house; of equal credit (Keil, Kalisch, Kurtz, Lange, I served thee fourteen years for thy two Murphy, Wordsworth). And thou hast daughters, and six years for thy cattle. changed my wages ten times (vide ver. 7). The majority of expositors understand the Except (17.~', if not, i. e. unless, introducing twenty years refen·ed to in ver. 38 to be tho same as the twenty spoken of here o.s con- the protasis or lr.e sentence) the God of my sisting of fourteen and six. Dr. Kennicott, father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of regarcling the twenty years of ver. 38 as Ieaac,-i. e. the object of Isaac's fear, not having intervened between the fourteen and "terror" (Oort and Kuenen, vide 'The Bible the six of ver. 41, makes the entire period of for Young People,' vol. i. p. 243), viz. God; Jacob's sojourn in Pad11n-aram to have been ilJ!]) being used metonymically of that ,vhich forty years, In su_Pport of this ho contends inspires reverenco or fear, like aif3czc and -(1) that the particle ii,!, twice repeated (in ai{3aapa. The entire clause is a periphrasis ver. 38 and in ver. 41), may be legitimately for Jehovah ofver.3, which ismmallya.scribed rendered, "This (one) twenty years I was to tho ,Tehovist, while the presont verse be- with thee" (ver. 38), i. e. taking care of thy longs, it is alleged, to the fundamental docu- flocks; nnd "this for myself (another) twenty ment-had been with-or, for (cf. Ps. cxxiv. years in thy house," i. e. serving for thy 1, 2)-me (during the whole period of my daughters and thy cattle (cf. Exod. xiv. 20 ; sojurn in. Padan-aram, but especially during Job xxi. 23, 25 ; Eccles. vi. 5) ; (2) that oil tho last six years), surely (':;), then, com- this hypothesis more time is afforded for the mencing the apodosis) thou hadst sent me bil'th of Jacob's family, viz. twenty-seven away now empty (as by thy stratagem in years instead of seven ; and (3) that it rn- changing my wages thou didst design; but) lievcs the narrative of certo.in grave chrono- God hath seen mine affliction (cf. eh. xxix. logical difficulties in connection with Judah 32 ; Exod. iii. 7) and the labour-especially and his family, which, on the supposition of that which is wearisome, from II root sig- the shorter period, subsequently emerge, such nifying to toil with effort so as to become ns that Judah and his sons must have been fatiguing (cf. Job xxxix. 11)-of my hands, quite children when they married (vide eh. and rebuked-i. e. reproved, sc. thee, os in x=-viii. 1-11). But, on the other hand, in eh. xxi. 26 (LXX., Vulgnte, A. V., Calvin, favour of the accepted chronology it may be Ainsworth, Lange, Kalisch, o.nd others); or urgcd-(1) that the interposition of e. second judged, sc. it, i. e. mine nlB.iction, in tho twenty yeB.1·s in the middlo of the first is un, sense of pronouncing Oil opinion or verdict naturnl ; (2) that, though legitimate, the on it, ns in 1 Chron. xii. 17 (Keil, Murphy); proposed rendering of ill does not at first or proved, sc. it, viz. thnt he hacl seen my nffliction (Dathillll, Poole) ; or decided, sc. eight suggest itself ns thcit which J neob in• betwixt us, ns in ver, 37 (Filrst, Gcscnillll) tended ; (3) th[lt it is not im1.1ossible for thee yesternight. Jacob's family to have beell born rn the short epnce of seven renrs (vide eh. xxvii. 1 ; xxx. Vers. 43, 44.-And Laban answered and 35); (4) that m reality the diffieultios con- said unto Jacob,-noiihor receiving Jacob'9 nected with Judah nud his sons nre not re- torrent of invectiVJ with affected meekness moved by tho hypothesis of a forty years' (Candlish), nor proving himself to bo com- sojourn in I :..:lan-arom any moro than by n pletely reformed by the crngry recriminations sojourn of only twenty years, since Judah must of his "callous nnd hardened" son-in-law hnvo manicd either after the sale of Joseph, (Kalisch) ; but perhaps simply owning the in which cnRe only twenty-two years remain truth of Jncob's wortls, and recognising thnt for the birth ond marriago of Er and Onan, ho had no just ground of complnint (Cnlvin), for Phnrez and Znrnh, Judnh's children by as woll os touchecl io his paternal 11ffectious Tnmnr, to grow to mnnhood, nnd for Pltnrez by the sight of his daughters, from whom ho to hnve two sons, Hezron nml Hnmul, before felt that he wos about to part for evor-Thesa descending to Egypt, unless in<l.eed, ns Kurtz daughters-literally, the daughters (thoro)- eupposes, Jndah's grandchildren wore born in nro my daughters, and these (literally, the) Egypt; or boforo the sale or J osoph--inclcc<l children nre my children, and these (litorally, 884 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [cH. XXXI. 22-44.
th~) cattle are my oattle; and all that thou -i.. e. why should I do nnything unto them I seest is mine. Not e.s reminding Jacob that An ego in viscera mea sreviremf (Calvin)- he had still a legal claim to his (Jacob's) Now therefore-literally, and now, vuv ovv wives and possessions (Candlish), or at least possessions (Kalisch), though prepared to (LXX. )-oome thou,-i'1~7, imper. of ~~: = waive it, but rather as acknowledging that age, go to, come now (cf. eh. xix. 32)-let ua in doing injury to Jacob he would only be make a covenant,-literally, let us cut a proceeding against his own flesl1 and blood covenant, an expression which, nccording to (Calvin, Rosenmiiller, Gerlach, Alford). And pa~~-iti_onists (Tuch, S'Ahclin, Delitzsch, et what can I do this day unto these my daugh- afo), 1s not used by the Elohist until after ters, -literally, and a,sfor (or to) my daugh- Exod. xxiv. 8; and yet by all such authorities ter.•, what can I do to these tMi day f The the present verse is assigned to tho Elohist LXX., connecting " and to my daughters " (cf. Keil's 'Introduction,' part I. § ii., div. "ith what precedes, reads, o:ai ,ruvra o<ra <rv 1. § 27)-1 and thou; and let it be for a wit- op,j,;, iµa i<Trt, o:ai rwv 0,ryar,pwv µ.ov-or ness between me and thee. unto their children which tb.ey have born!