24 And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.

25 And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?

26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.

27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.

28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.

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29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

30 And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

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Verse 1. Then Jacob went on his journey,' apy. Niy!! and Jacob lifted up his feet.' The Jewish commentators tell us that when a man journeys with a fixed determination to arrive at a certain place, it is properly expressed by this phrase, which literally signifies 'he carried his feet;' but when he is erring about at random, and without a fixed end to his journey, his feet carry him.' Comp. Isa. xxiii. 7, where the original idea is preserved by the translation: 'Her own feet shall carry her afar.'

3. They rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep,' etc.-There is no real discrepancy between this verse and the general narrative in which it is found. This verse obviously recites what it was customary to do at this well, while the rest of the passage describes only what was done on this particular occasion in conformity with the general usage. The passage, as a whole, is one that strongly illustrates the value of a well of water, and the care that was usually taken of it. Wells are still sometimes covered with a stone, or otherwise, to protect them from being choked up by the drifted sand; and it was probably to prevent the exposure of the well by too frequently removing the stone, that the shepherds did not water their flocks until the whole were assembled together; for it is not to be supposed that they waited because the united strength of all the shepherds was requisite to roll away the stone, when Jacob was able singly to do so. When the well is private property, in a neighbourhood where water is scarce, the well is sometimes kept locked, to prevent the neighbouring shepherds from watering their focks fraudulently from it; and even when left unlocked, some person is frequently so far the proprietor that the well may not be opened unless in the presence of himself or of some one belonging to his household. Chardin, whose manuscripts furnished Harmer with an illustration of this text, conjectures, with great reason, that the present well belonged to Laban's family, and that the shepherds dared not open the well until Laban's daughter came with her father's flocks. Jacob, therefore, is not to be supposed to have broken the standing rule, or to have done anything

VOL. I.

out of the ordinary course; for the Oriental shepherds are not at all persons likely to submit to the interference or dictation of a stranger. He, however, rendered a kind service to Rachel, as the business of watering cattle at a well is very tiresome and laborious.

9. Rachel came with her father's sheep: for she kept them.'-The pastoral poetry of classical antiquity, which has been imitated more or less in all nations, has rendered us familiar with the idea of females of birth and attractions acting as shepherdesses long after the practice itself has been discontinued, and the employment has sunk into contempt. When nations originally pastoral settled in towns, and adopted the refinements of civil life, the care of the sheep ceased to be a principal consideration, and gradually devolved upon servants or slaves, coming to be considered a mean employment, to which the proprietor or his household only gave a general and superintending attention. The respectability of the employment in these patriarchal times is not evinced by our finding the daughter of so considerable a person as Laban engaged in tending the flocks, for in the East all drudgery devolves upon the females; but by our finding the sons of such persons similarly engaged in pastoral duties, which in Homer also appears to have been considered a fitting employment for the sons of kings and powerful chiefs. We are not aware that at present, in the East, the actual care of a flock or herd is considered a dignified employment. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, mentions that, in the Bramin villages of the Concan, women of the first distinction draw the water from wells, and tend the cattle to pasture, like Rebecca and Rachel.' But in this instance it cannot be because such employments have any dignity in them, but because the women are obliged to perform every servile office. So, among the Bedouin Arabs, and other nomade nations, the immediate care of the flocks devolves either upon the women or the servants; but most generally upon the latter, as the women have enough to occupy them in their multifarious domestic duties. However, among some tribes, it is the exclusive business of the young unmarried women to drive the cattle to pasture. Among the Sinai Arabs,'

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