journey, while, if presently such was his of age (Murphy, Alford, Gosman, et alii). intention, he must have been providentially And made booths for his cattle. Porter states led, from some cause not ment10ned, tn alter that ho has frequently seen such booths his determination (Bush, Inglis, Clarke), (Succoth, from saccac, to entwine) occupiecl unless we either think that he really went by the Bedawin of the Jordan valley, and to Seir, though it is not here stated (Pat- describes them as rude hnts of reeds some• rick), or entertain the, in the circumstances, ti~es co~ered with long; grass, and so~etime• almost incredible hypothesis that Jacob prac- with a piece of tent (vide Kitto's 'Cyclop. ,' tised a deception on his generous brother in ut supra). Therefore the name of the place order to get rid of him, by promising what is called (literally, he called the name of the he never meant to fulfil, viz., to visit him at place) Succoth-i. e. booths. Mount Seir (Calvin), or leave it doubtful Yer. 18.-And Jacob (leaving Succoth) whether it is the old Jacob or the new Israel who speaks (Lange). came to Shalem-the word Cl?~, rendered Ver. 15.-And Esau said, Let me now by some expositors as here (LXX., Vulgat~. leave (literally, set, or place) with thee (as Syriac, Luther, Calvin, Poole, Wordsworth 1, an escort or guard) some of the folk-i. e. is ~etter taken as a.n adverb signifying in peace armed followers (vide ver. I)-that are with or ID safety (Onkelos, Saadias, Rashi, Dathius, me. But of even this proposal Jacob appears Rose~miiller, Gesenius, Keil, Kalisch, et alii), to have been apprehensive. And he said, meanmg that Jacob was now sound in hi:i What needeth it 1 (literally, For what, or limb (Jarchi) and safe in his person, being wherefore, this ?) let me find graoe in the no more endangered by Esau (Gerundensis sight of my lord-meaning either, I am satis- in Drusius), or that he had hitherto met fie~, s~ce ~.hou ,11rt gra.cio~ to m~ (Yatabl?s), with no misfortune, though soon to en- -ucavov, or, Evp~v xap,v Evavr,ov O'ov, ,cvpu counter one in the instance of Dinah (Patrick), (LX.X.); hoe uno tantum indigeo, ut inveni- or that the expectations of Jacob expressed am gratiam in conspectu tuo (Yulgate),-or, in eh. xxviii. 21 (to which there is an obvious be gracious to me in this also, and leave none allusion) were now fulfilled (Keil)-a city of of thy followers (Ainsworth, Patrick), though Shechem,-if Shalem be the name of the the two clauses might perhaps be connecteu town, then probably Shechem is the name thus : " Wherefore do I thus find grace in of the person referred to in eh. xxxiv. 2, the eyes of my lord I" (Kalisch). viz., the son of Hamor the Hivite (Drusius, Vers. 16, 17 .-So (literally, and, comply- Poole) ; but if Shalem mean incolumis, then ing with his brother's request) Esau returned the present clause must be rendered "tn the that day on his way unto Seir-from which city of Shechem," the city being already he had come to meet Jacob (vide eh. xxxii. built and named-whioh is in the land of 3). And Jacob journeyed to Succoth. Suc- Canaan,-Bush thinks that Jacob had origin- coth, so cnlled here by anticiP,ation, and after- ally contemplated entering Canaan from tho wards belonging to the tribe of Gad, was south after rounding the Dead Sea, probably situated in the valley of the J ordnn, on the with a view to reach Beersheba, but that, east side of the river, and to the south of the after his interview with Esnu, be suddenly Jabbok (Josh. xiii. 27; Judges viii. 4, 5), and altered his route, and entered Cannan directly consequently is not to bo identified with by crossing the Jord11n nud driving up hi.~ SakO.t, on tho wostcrn side of the Jordun, ten ftocks and herds to Shechem, the first halt- miles north of the Jnbbok, and opposito the ing-place of Abrahnm (vide eh. xii. 6), Wndy Yo.bis (Robinson, vol. iii. p. 175; ,vhich may perhaps lend additional interest Thomson, 'Laud nnd Book,' p. 456); but is to, if they do not explain, the words that to be sought for nt the ford opposite the follow-when. he oe.me from Padan-aram Wndy-el-Fariah, "down which the little (as Abrahnm previously had done); and (he) strenm from Shecheru drains into the Jordan" pitched his tent before the city-because he (Tristram, 'Lund of Isruel,' p. 144 ; Porter did not wish to come in contact with tho in Kitto's ' Cyclop. ,' art. Succoth ; cf. Keil inhabitants (Lyre.), or becauso his flocks ILncl nnd Kalisch in loco). And built him an herds could not find accommodation within house. This was an indication thnt Jacob the city walls (Murphy), or perlrnps simply purposed some considerable stay at Succoth ; for convenience of pasturuge (Patrick). and, indeed, if a period of repose was not now Yer. 19.-And he bought a parcel of a demanded by the state of Jacob's health after fleld,-literally, the portion (from a root his long servitude with Laban, his exhaust- signifying to divide) of the.field-where he ing conflict with the angel, and his exciting had spread hie tent,-and in which ho after- interview with Esau (Lange), an intorval of wards sank e. well (cf. John iv. 6)-at tho some years appears to be imperatively re- hand of the ohildren of Hamor, Shechem's qnired by the exigencies of the ensuing father (after whom tho town was named, nt 1111rrative concerning Dinah, who coulu not 81tp1·a), foT an hundred pieces of money-or at this time have been much oYcr six years kcsitahs, the etymology or which i:. uncc1·- GENE~!S. L• \.l THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [cu. XXXIII. 1-20.
hin (K1tlisch), though connected by some of so great anli<tuity (Rosonmiillor, Words, philologists (Gcseuins, Fii.rst) with k<uat, worth, Alford). to weigh; translated lambs (Onkelos, LXX., Ver. 20.-And he erected there an altar, Yu lga te ), but belie,ed to have been a certain -as Abram his ancestor had done (eh. xii, weight now unl-..io'\TTI (Michaelis, 'Snppl.,' 7)-and called it-not invoked upon it, r- 220i), or II piece of money of a definite invocavi.t super illud (Vulgate), i,rHaA~11aro Yalue, p~rhaps the price of a lamb (Murphy), (LXX.), but named it (Dathe, Rosenmiiller, wlnch, like the shekel, was used for purposes Keil, &c.)-El-elohe-Iarael--i. e. God, th& of commercial exchange by the patriarchs God of Israel; meaning, he called it the (lic8cnius)-probably a coin stamped with altar of God, the God of Israel (Rosenmiil- tl1c figure of a lamb (Bochart, Munter) ; bnt ler), or, reading el a., a preposition, "To the coined money does not appear to have been God of brael" (Quarry, p. 608).