his junior. His forgiveness of his brother, nevertheless, for the falsehoods formerly practised on him, appears to have been perfectly sincere. He harboured no resentment in his bosom; and if he remembered the injuries done him, he disdained to take vengeance. His nature was noble and manly; and, notwithstanding the forfeiture of inheritance which his obstinacy had incurred, it is scarcely possible to withhold sympathy from the excellent qualities which mingled with his defects. Instead of injuring Jacob, as the latter had feared, he offered to go before him as a protector; and when this was declined, on account of the slowness with which it was necessary to travel to avoid overdriving the tender flocks and the young children, he proposed to leave as a guard some of the strong and warlike men who had accompanied him from the country of Edom. Jacob, however, in all his intercourse with his brother, seems to have remained under the influence of his early deceitfulness. Having offended, he could not dispel the fear that vengeance would be taken on him, and he therefore suspected evil where none existed. This was a natural consequence of his own fraud and falsehood; and was the working of what has since been termed conscience. He entreated Esau to leave him, that he might pursue his way in peace. So Esau returned that day on his way to Mount Seir.

And Jacob journeyed onward by Succoth, where he tarried some time, and built a house and booths for his cattle, to Shalem, a city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, before which he encamped on parcel of a field which he purchased of the children of Hamor. There he erected an altar to Jehovah, and called it El-elohe-Israel; signifying that it was dedicated to the God of Israel, in acknowledgment of the mercy of the Lord in preserving him and his household from the dangers with which he had been beset.

From Shalem, Israel went, at the command of God, to Beth-el, and thence to Ephrath; where, in giving birth to her youngest child, who was called Benjamin, Rachel, the mother of Joseph and the beloved wife of Jacob, died. Then Jacob went to Isaac his father, at Mamre or Hebron. The old man had reached a hundred and fourscore years. He had long been sick and blind, and seemed only to have awaited the return of his absent son to yield back his spirit into the hands of his Maker. And Isaac was shortly afterwards gathered to his forefathers, and was buried by his two sons, with Abraham and Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah; and Jacob succeeded to the patriarchal power and possessions of the descendants of Abraham, in lieu of Esau his elder brother.

119

JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN.

JACOB now dwelt in the land of Canaan, and was exceedingly rich in flocks and herds, in man-servants and maid-servants; but the dissensions, violence, and dissolute lives of his sons vexed and grieved him sorely; insomuch that his affections were chiefly concentrated in his two younger children, Joseph and Benjamin, whose tender age, if not their better feelings, preserved them from vice and crime.

When Joseph was seventeen years old, his father sent him to the plain to feed the cattle with his brethren, whence he brought an evil report of their deeds; for he loved his father, and made a confidant of him; and he was rewarded with a coat of many colours, as a mark of distinction among his brethren and a token of his father's especial kindness and esteem. There was, henceforth, jealousy among the other sons of Jacob; who, finding that Joseph joined not in their proceedings, but carried home an account of their evil deeds, gradually grew to dislike him, and cared not to conceal, even in their speech, the hatred which they bore him.