(i. e., the well) Sheba (i. e., of the oath) and he there founded a city called Beersheba.

And Esau, his eldest son, took to wife two Canaanitish women, who were a grief of

mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca."

And it came to pass that Jacob, instructed by his mother, obtained by subtlety the blessing of primogeniture; and, for this cause, Esau hated him, and purposed to kill him. "And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, he went unto Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath (elsewhere called Bashemath), the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." Esau's spirit was not subject to the fear of God. The Apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, speaks of him as a "profane person, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." The right of primogeniture was, at that early period, attended by many advantages. The eldest son was heir to the lands of his father, and was considered the patriarch of the family. Isaac was, like Abraham, only a sojourner in a strange country; in which he had " no inheritance; no, not so

much as to set his foot on," save the buryingplace which Abraham had bought of the Hittites and it is obvious that Esau lightly esteemed his birthright; and was not influenced by that faith which "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" by which his fathers had believed Jehovah's promise," Unto thy seed will I give this land." And the honour, privilege, and blessing that appertained to the heirship to which Isaac had succeeded, and which Jacob obtained from his brother, was not a merely temporal pre-eminence, it was an inheritance of a spiritual character, comprehended in the gracious covenant-"In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Esau, however, was evidently an object of Divine care, as may be perceived by the command of the Lord, Deut. ii. 4-6 he became externally great and prosperous, his sons were established in a fruitful country, while Jacob's posterity were slaves in Egypt; and they continued the possessors of it, until after the seed of Israel were carried captive by hostile nations.

E

CHAP. XX.-Rebecca, Isaac's wife, seeing that her son Jacob had rendered himself obnoxious to the vengeance of his brother Esau, formed a plan for his escaping beyond the reach of personal injury; and she induced her husband to send away Jacob to seek a wife and a home in Mesopotamia. And Jacob went to Padan-aram, unto his uncle Laban, his mother's brother. And as "Jacob went out from Beersheba toward Haran"-solitary, and doubtless sorrowful-" he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep, and he dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it: and behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed-and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Thus, again, was confirmed the gracious covenant of that unspeak

:

able blessing, which, through the Redeemerthe promised seed-offers salvation to "all the families of the earth." To Jacob, it appears probable, that this divine declaration was involved in mystery: but the sublimity and solemnity of the scene, which in vision he was permitted to behold, impressed his mind with an awful certainty that the Almighty Jehovah had manifested himself unto him and when he awaked, "he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." And Jacob "took the stone which he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on it, and called the name of that place Bethel" (i. e., Beth, the house, or house of, and El, God); the place before had been called Luz. "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall

be God's house." And Jacob went forward to the well of Haran, and there, by the direction of the God of Bethel, he met with Rachel, who afterwards became his wife; and he sojourned with her father Laban twenty years, during which time the Lord blessed him and increased him, until he had a numerous progeny, and large possessions in flocks and herds. Then Jacob returned to his own land; and as he "went on his way, the angels of God met him; and when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim" (i. e., two armies).

CHAP. XXI.-And Jacob sent messengers before him to the country of Esau, to conciliate his brother, who then came to meet him with four hundred men ; at which "Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." And Jacob prayed unto the Lord for deliverance from Esau; and he said, "Oh, God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said'st unto me Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee, I am not worthy of the least of