mer months. This was the constant practice of the late king of Persia, who every year left his capital, with all the nobles, and more than half the inhabitants, to encamp in the plain of Sultanieh. Many of the princes, his sons, did the same in their several provinces; and the practice is an old one in Persia. It is true that tents would seem to be rather cheerless abodes in the winter; but it is to be recollected that the nomades have generally the power of changing the climate with the season. In winter the Bedouins plunge into the heart of the Desert, and others descend, in the same season, from the mountainous and high lands, where they had enjoyed comparative coolness in summer, to the genial winter climate of the low valleys and plains, which in the summer had been too warm.

It is impossible to ascertain with precision the construetion and appearance of the patriarchal tents; but we shall not probably be far from the truth, if we consider the present Arab tent as affording the nearest existing approxi

mations to the ancient model. The common Arab tent is generally of an oblong figure, varying in size according to the wants or rank of the owner, and in its general shape not unaptly compared by Sallust, and after him by Dr. Shaw, to the hull of a ship turned upside down. A length of from 25 to 30 feet, by a depth or breadth not exceeding 10 feet, form the dimensions of a rather large family tent; but there are many larger. The extreme height-that is, the height of the middle poles which are made higher than the others in order to give a slope to throw off the rain from the roof-varies from 7 to 10 feet; but the height of the side parts seldom exceeds 5 or 6 feet. The most usual sized tent has nine poles, three in the middle, and three on each side. The covering of the tent, among the Arabs, is usually black goats'-hair, so compactly woven as to be impervious to the heaviest rain; but the side coverings are often of coarse wool. These tent-coverings are spun and woven at home by the women, unless the tribe has not goats enough to supply its own demand for goats'-hair, when the stuff is brought from those better furnished. The front of the tent is usually kept open, except in winter, and the back and side hangings or coverings are so managed, that the air can be admitted in any direction, or excluded at pleasure. The tents are kept stretched in the usual way by cords, fastened at one end to the poles, and at the other to pins driven into the ground at the distance of three or four paces from the tent. The interior is divided into two apartments, by a curtain hung up against the middle poles of the tent. This partition is usually of white woollen stuff, sometimes interwoven with patterns of flowers. One of the divisions is for the men, and the other for the women. In the former, the ground is usually covered with carpets or mats, and the wheat sacks and camel-bags are heaped up in it, around the middle post, like a pyramid, at the base of which, or towards the back of the tent, are arranged the camels' pack-saddles, against which the men recline as they sit on the ground. The women's apartment is less neat, being encumbered with all the lumber of the tent, the water and butter skins, the culinary utensils, etc. Some tents of great people are square, perhaps 30 feet square, with a proportionate increase in the number of poles, while others are so small as to require but one pole to support the centre. The principal differences are in the slope of the roof, and in the part for entrance. When the tent is oblong, the front is sometimes one of the broad sides, and at other times one of the narrow ends of the tent. We suspect that this difference depends on the season of the year or the character of the locality, but cannot speak with certainty on this point. Some further information concerning tents has been given in previous notes, and other tents and huts will hereafter be noticed. It will be observed, that the tent covering among the Arabs is usually black; but it seems that they are sometimes brown, and occasionally striped white and black. Black tents seem to have prevailed among the Arabs from the earliest times. (See Sol. Song, i., 5.)

30. Edom. This name, denotingRed,' or Red man,' had probably reference as much to the redness of

his personal appearance (see v. 24) as to the red pottage. Here is another instance of a change of name.

30, 34. Red pottage.'-The DT adom, or red pottage, was prepared, we learn from verse 34, by seething lentils (Dadashim) in water; and subsequently, as we may guess from a practice which prevails in many countries, adding a little manteca, or suet, to give them a flavour. The writer of these observations has often partaken of this self-same red-pottage,' served up in the manner just described, and found it better food than a stranger would be apt to imagine. The mess had the redness which gained for it the name of adom; and which, through the singular circumstance of a son selling his birthright to satisfy the cravings of a pressing appetite, it imparted to the posterity of Esau in the people of Edom. The lentil (or Lens esculenta of some writers, and the podded family. The stem is branched, and the leaves conErvum lens of Linnæus) belongs to the leguminous or sist of about eight pairs of smaller leaflets. The flowers are small, and with the upper division of the flower prettily veined. The pods contain about two seeds, which vary from a tawny red to a black. It delights in a dry, warm, sandy soil. Three varieties are cultivated in Francesmall brown,'' yellowish,' and the lentil of Provence.' In the former country they are dressed and eaten during Lent as a haricot; in Syria they are used as food after they have undergone the simple process of being parched in a pan over the fire.

Esau evidently did not know the name of this mess, or what it was made of; but, attracted by its agreeable odour and tempting appearance, he cries, Let me eat, I pray thee, of this red, for I am faint.' That it was so new a thing to Esau, accounts for its seeming so great a delicacy to him, and this, with the colour, may suggest whether this pottage was not made with Egyptian lentiles, which Jacob may have obtained from a caravan passing from that country, and resting perhaps for the day in the neighbourhood of his father's camp. In that case nothing would have been more natural than that he should have seen the passengers preparing for themselves a meal with such Egyptian lentiles, and that, attracted by the novelty, he should have obtained some from them. Egypt was in the most ancient times famous for its lentiles, and for the preparation of them; and the common and favourite kind was of the yellowish-brown colour, which we, in common with the ancients, call 'red.' This we have from Pliny, who speculates whether the Egyptian lentiles did not derive their red colour from that of the soil in which they grew. (Hist. Nat. xviii. 12; also Virg. Georg. i. 228; Mishna, tit.Kilaim,' xviii. 8; Augustin, Comm. in Psalm. xlvi.) This reddish lentile still abounds in Egypt, and forms a large part of the food of the people. (Descript. de l'Egypte, xix. 65; Sonnini, Travels, p. 603.) Dr. Shaw states that it dissolves easily in boiling water, and forms a reddish or chocolate coloured pottage. (Observations, i. 257.) The preparation of lentile pottage is shewn in the ancient mural paintings of that country, which represent it as being made in a pot resting upon a metal stand or tripod. fire is on the ground; and the cook carefully stirs the mess with a stick as it boils.

The

-Pottage of lentiles.'-We learn from Dr. Robinson that on arriving at the fortress of Akabah, at the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, he found that the commissary in the castle had a few stores for sale, at enormous prices. But we bought little, except a supply of lentiles or small beans, which are common in Egypt and Syria, under the name of adas; the same from which the pottage was made for which Esau sold his birthright. We found them very palatable, and could well conceive that, to a weary hunter, faint with hunger, they might be quite a dainty. The name in Hebrew and Arabic is the same.' This, we suppose, is the same thick mess of lentiles and bread, highly seasoned with pepper, on which Irby and Mangles breakfasted at a small Arab encampment near Homs. 33. He sold his birthright.'—This transaction has raised

6

87

much inquiry concerning the nature of those privileges, forming the birthright, which Jacob coveted so highly, and which Esau so lightly bartered away. Taking the question generally, the privilege of the first-born seems to have been that he became the acknowledged chief or head of the tribe or clan, and in that character (but some dispute this) was its authorized priest and sacrificer, and that he had a title to the first consideration in the last blessing of the father, and to a portion of the inheritance twice as large as that which any of the other sons received. So much generally; but in the particular instance, there were other privileges which were then supposed to be annexed to primogeniture, but which did not ultimately prove to be so these were, the promised Divine care and blessing on the chosen race, the inheritance of the land of Canaan, and the instrumentality of bringing a blessing upon all the families of the earth. Now the question is, whether it was the temporal or spiritual heritage, or both, the transfer of which Jacob obtained from his brother, and this is a question beset with considerable difficulties. Upon the whole we are inclined to free Jacob and his mother from the suspicion of mercenary motives, and to consider that they regarded only the spiritual heritage-the heirship of the promises as being intended for Jacob; and that of this only they wished Esau to relinquish any claim which he might be supposed to derive from the priority of his birth. We can easily understand how such a man as Esau might despise' this birthright, and ask contemptuously what good it would do him; but even he was probably not insensible to the benefit of a double share in Isaac's rich possessions. The reasons on which this conclusion is founded cannot be stated in this place, as they in some measure anticipate the historical narrative; but a note at the end of this chapter contains some further observations on the subject.

34. He did eat and drink.'—There is nothing better calculated to impress the mind with a due sense of the true dignity which civilization confers upon the human character, than a little practical acquaintance with uncivilized or savage races. The beast of prey sees no other object in existence than to seek food, to gorge himself with it, if he finds enough for the purpose, and to sleep till that which he has eaten is digested. Thus, also, it is with such people; and it is offensive to the civilized man to have these mere animal ains and ends of existence pressed constantly upon his notice. We hear of the abstemiousness of the Bedouin, for instance; and he may be abstemious from necessity, but he cannot be temperate. While there is anything for him to eat, he will eat for ever; and when all is gone, he can remain longer in a starving condition-in this also like

a beast of prey-than can the civilized man, who is accustomed to a regularly recurring and temperate meal, and who thinks little or nothing of his food except when he actually takes it. But among the people of whom we speak, every one seems to be at all times in a condition to eat voraciously of whatever he can obtain; the safest way to his heart is through his stomach: there is nothing he will not do for those who fill him with good cheer, nothing he will not undertake for the prospect of an indulgence to his appetite before him; and we are well persuaded that there are few who would resist the temptation of sacrificing almost any amount of reversionary benefit for the present enjoyment of a mess of pottage.

We find a passage in Mr. Stephens' Incidents of Travel strikingly confirmatory of these observations, and with reference to the same people (the Bedouins), whom we have had more particularly in view. He says, "Their temperance and frugality are from necessity, not from choice; for in their nature they are gluttonous, and will eat at any time till they are gorged of whatever they can get, and then lie down and sleep like brutes. I have sometimes amused myself with trying the variety of their appetites, and I never knew them refuse anything that could be eaten. Their stomach was literally their god, and the only chance of doing anything with them was by first making it a grateful offering. Instead of scorning luxuries, they would eat sugar as boys do sugar-candy; and I am very sure that if they could have got pound-cake, they would never have eaten their own coarse bread.'

These things are, however, not peculiar to the Bedouins, but belong to all people till they become civilized. Such people live only for the present. Enlarged forethought is exclusively the virtue of civilization; and we are thoroughly persuaded that among the uncivilized people of different countries there would be thousands of voluntary candidates for sacrifice upon the altars, if it were well understood that, as among the ancient Gauls, the victim would, for a whole year previously, be fed on the choicest dainties of the land. It seems to us that not only do these observations bear on and illustrate the conduct of Esau, but that of Isaac himself. He loved Esau because he did eat of his venison,' v. 28; and the whole account of the blessing is rendered painful to us by its being so much mixed up with the history of the savoury meat which he loved,' and through which his whole plan for blessing Esau was marred. But all this would appear wonderfully natural to a Bedouin; and, indeed, the introduction into the sacred narrative of characteristics not in themselves amiable, but so true to nature and circumstances, must bring strong evidence of its verity to every unprejudiced mind.

CHAPTER XXVI.

2 God

1 Isaac because of famine goeth to Gerar. instructeth and blesseth him. 9 He is reproved by Abimelech for denying his wife. 12 He groweth rich. 18 He diggeth Esek, Sitnah, and Rehoboth. 26 Abimelech maketh a covenant with him at Beer-sheba. 34 Esau's wives.

AND there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

2 ¶ And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and

unto thy seed, 'I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

2 Chap. 12 3, and 22. 18

8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and 'received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him :

13 And the man waxed great, and 'went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of 'servants: and the Philistines envied him.

15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt

there.

18 ¶ And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of 'springing

water.

20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well 'Esek; because they strove with him.

21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.

22 And he removed from thence, and

3 Heb. found.

4 Heb. weat going.

That is, Room.

digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it 'Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba.

24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.

26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.

27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?

28 And they said, 1°We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

29 That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.

30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.

31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

33 And he called it 'Shebah: therefore the name of the city is 13Beer-sheba unto this day.

34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

7 That is, Contention.

8 That is, Hatred.

5 Or, husbandry.

14 Chap. 27. 46.

6 Heb. living.

Verse 1.Abimelech.'-The name of the king and of the captain of the host, Phichol (v. 26), are the same as in Abraham's time; but the persons are no doubt different, as more than ninety years have intervened between the visit of Abraham and this of Isaac. It is not unlikely that Abimelech' and Phichol' were standing official names for the kings and generals of this little kingdom. There is a surprising similarity between the history of Abraham's sojourn at Gerar, and that of his son.

-Philistines.'-From this it appears that the king of Gerar, mentioned in ch. xx. 2, was king of a colony of Philistines, then already settled in the southern part at least of that territory, which their descendants long after occupied. This nation-called in Hebrew D'Philistim, strangers' or 'sojourners; the uλALOTELμ or 'AXλópuλol, men of another tribe,' of the Septuagint; and the ПaλaioTivol of Josephus-makes a large figure in subsequent history of the Hebrew people. and gave to the land of Canaan the name of Palestine, which it still bears. The country which they inhabited, the original Pelesheth, Philistia, or Palestine, otherwise called the land of the Philistines,' was a narrow tract of land, extending from Ekron to the brook of Egypt, and from the sea to the declivities of the mountains of Judea, along the shores of the Mediterranean, which was from thence called the Sea of the Philistines (Exod. xxiii. 21); and these territories bordered upon those of Judah, Simeon and Dan. they were at this time strangers and recent colonists in the Land of Canaan, is expressly affirmed, and is clear from all the circumstances. Whence they came is another question. According to Deut. ii. 3 (compare Gen. x. 13; Jer. xlvii. 4; Amos ix. 7), the Philistines came from Caphtor, which some take to be the town of Cappadocia, or Caphtora, in Phoenicia, others the province of Cappadocia in Asia

That

Minor. This last is the opinion of Bochart, who places the original abode of the Philistines in that part of Cappadocia which borders upon Colchis. The Arabic renders Caphtor by Diametai, from Diametta in Egypt, probably influenced by the similarity of its name with νόμος Κοπτός, the nome of Coptos. Another opinion more generally entertained, has derived them from Crete; and a notion entertained by such careful enquirers as Calmet, Rosenmüller, Bertheau, and others, is entitled to much respect. Nevertheless, it is our belief, declared long since, that whatever might have been the primary origin of the Philistines, they came to Palestine from Lower Egypt, over which they held dominion for 216 years, as the Hyksos or Shepherd-Kings, till they were expelled by the natives, and then went and established themselves in the south-west of Canaan. This opinion has of late years been greatly strengthened by new arguments, and by the researches in Egyptian chronology and history, which have recently been prosecuted with much vigour. Faber, Movers, and Cory, may be named among the later supporters of this opinion; and even Bertheau, the most recent and ablest advocate of the Cretan theory, can only get over the difficulty which Gen. x. 15 offers-for there an Egyptian origin is ascribed to the Philistines--by supposing that they were described as coming out of Egypt, because Crete belonged to Egypt! We shall state our views on the matter under Deut. ii. 3, and in this place need only further state that the passage which derives them from Mizraim, that is Egypt, is placed in so remarkable a way- out of whom came (the) Philistim'--as to suggest that the import of the clause is, that they came out of the country to which from long residence they were considered as belonging, rather than that they were descendants of the grandson of Ham. That they were of Shemitic descent is implied in the names of their towns and persons, which

8. Window.'-That which is here called a window, jin challon, denotes any kind of aperture in a building, and in the present case was doubtless an aperture in the balustrade around the roof of Abimelech's palace, through which the king could look down upon the houses in the town, and observe, without being himself seen, what took place in the domestic privacy of the inner courts.

11. Shall surely be put to death.'-It is well to observe that this is the first example in all history of a king holding the power of life and death.

12. Isaac sowed in that land.'-A gentleman who has spent many years in Persia, gave us the following information while conversing about the pastoral tribes (Eelauts), which form a large part of its population. There are some that live in their tents all the year; and others that build huts for the winter, which they abandon in summer, and often return to them in the winter. Then they begin to grow corn in the vicinity, and leave a few old persons to look after it. As the cultivation increases, a greater number of persons stay at the huts in the summer also, until at last nearly all the tribe remains to attend to the cultivation, only sending out a few with the flocks. Thus the wandering tribes gradually change from a pastoral to an agricultural people.' May not this illustrate the situation of our pastoral patriarch when he began to cultivate? And may not the prospect which it involved of Isaac's permanent settlement in Gerar with his powerful clan, account for the visible uneasiness of the king and people of that district, and for the measures which they took to prevent such settlement? We thus also see the process by which a wandering and pastoral people gradually become settled cultivators. Compare the note on xxi. 25.

20. The water is our's.-The particulars given in the note on xxii. 25, will sufficiently illustrate the principle which appears to have been involved in these remarkable transactions. We have here only to add, that the stopping up of wells is still an act of hostility in the East. Roberts says that it is so in India, where one person who hates another will sometimes send his slaves in the night

Mr.

to fill up the well of the latter, or else to pollute it by throwing in the carcases of unclean animals. The Bedouin tribes in the country traversed by the great pilgrim-caravan which goes annually from Damascus to Mecca, receive presents of money and vestments to prevent them from injuring the wells upon the line of march, and which are essential to the very existence of the multitudes who then traverse this desert region. The stopping of Abraham's wells by the Philistines, the re-opening of them by Isaac, and the restoration of their former names-the commemorative names given to the new wells, and the strifes about them between those who had sunk them and the people of the land-are all circumstances highly characteristic of those countries in which the want of rivers and brooks during summer, renders the tribes dependent upon the wells for the very existence of the flocks and herds which form their wealth. It would seem that the Philistines did not again stop the wells while Isaac was in their country. It is probable that the wells successively sunk by Isaac, did not furnish water sufficient for both his own herds and those of Gerar, and thus the question became one of exclusive right. Such questions often lead to bitter and bloody quarrels in the East; and it was probably to avoid the last result of an appeal to arms, that Isaac withdrew out of the more settled country towards the desert, where he might enjoy the use of his wells in peace.

34. Judith.'-This name is the feminine of Judah, from which it appears that the name Judah was found in Canaan before the Hebrew tribe of that name existed, and before even its founder was born.

-Esau took to wife... Judith... and Bashemath.'In ch. xxxvi. 2, the wives of Esau bear names different from those by which they are here designated. Aben Ezra offers a probable solution of the difficulty by explaining that Judith had no male children by Esau, and is not therefore mentioned in the genealogical table of ch. xxxvi. which only speaks of those wives by whom he had sons. That the daughter of Elon the Hittite, who is here called Bashemath, should there bear the name of Adah, he explains by supposing that she had two names, as was not unusual, and was indiscriminately called by the one or the other.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1 Isaac sendeth Esau for venison.

6 Rebekah instructeth Jacob to obtain the blessing. 15 Jacob under the person of Esau obtaineth it. 30 Esau bringeth venison. 33 Isaac trembleth. 34 Esau complaineth, and by importunity obtaineth a blessing. 41 He threateneth Jacob. 42 Rebekah disappointeth it.

AND it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.

2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:

3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and 'take me some venison;

4 And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

6 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,

7 Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.

8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.

9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth:

10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.

11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: