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case; and when the water was almost spent, she laid the young child, who was ready to expire, under a fir-tree, and went on farther, so that he might die while she was absent; but a divine angel came to her, and told her of a fountain hard by, and bid her take care, and bring up the child, because she should be very happy by the preservation of Ismael. She then took courage upon the prospect of what was promised her, and meeting with some shepherds, by their care she got clear of the distresses she had been in.

When the lad was grown up, he married a wife, by birth an Egyptian; from whence the mother was herself derived originally. Of this wife were born to Ismael twelve sons; Nabioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mabsam, Idumas, Masmaos, Massaos, Chodad, Theman, Jetur, Naphesus, and Kadmas. These inhabited all the country from Euphrates to the Red Sea, and called it Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and name their tribes from these, both because of their own virtue, and because of the dignity of Abraham their father.

CHAP. XIIL

OF ISAAC, ABRAHAM'S LEGITIMATE SON.

Now Abraham greatly loved Isaac, as being his only begotten,* and given to him at the borders of old age, by the favour of God. The child also endeared himself to his parents still more, by the exercise of every virtue, and adhering to his duty to his parents, and being zealous in the worship of God. Abraham placed also his own happiness wholly in this prospect, that when he should die he should leave his son in a safe and secure condition, which accordingly he obtained by the will of God; who, being desirous to make an experiment of Abraham's religious disposition towards himself, appeared to him, and enumerated all the blessings he had bestowed on him; how he made him superior to his enemies; and that his son Isaac, who was the principal part of his present happiness, was derived from him, and he said that he required this son of his as a sacrifice, and a holy oblation. Accordingly he commanded him to carry him to the mountain Moriah,† and to build an altar, and offer him for a burnt-offering upon it; for that this would best manifest his religious disposition towards him, if he preferred what was

* Note that both here and Heb. xi. 17, Isaac is called Abraham's μovoyev, only begotten son, though he at the same time had another son, Israel. The Septuagint express the true meaning by rendering the text by ȧyarnrov, the beloved son.

† Gen. xxii. 2.

Here is a plain error in the copies, which say that king David afterwards built the temple on this mount Moriah, while

pleasing to God before the preservation of his own son.

Now Abraham thought that it was not right to disobey God in any thing, but that he was obliged to serve him in every circumstance of life, since all creatures that live enjoy their life by his providence, and the kindness he bestows on them; accordingly he concealed this command of God, and his own intentions about the slaughter of his son, from his wife, as also from every one of his servants, otherwise he would have been hindered from his obedience to God; and he took Isaac together with two of his servants, and laying what things were necessary for a sacrifice, upon an ass, he went away to the mountain. Now the two servants went along with him two days, but on the third day, as soon as he saw the mountain, he left those servants that were with him till then in the plain; and having his son alone with him, he came to the mountain. It was that mountain upon which king David afterwards built the temple. Now they had brought with them every thing necessary for a sacrifice, excepting the animal that was to be offered. Now Isaac was twenty-five§ years old, and as he was building the altar, he asked his father what he was about to offer, since there was no animal there for an oblation; to which it was answered, that God would provide himself an oblation, he being able to make a plentiful provision for men out of what they have not, and to deprive others of what they already have, when they put too much trust therein; that, therefore, if God pleased to be present and propitious at this sacrifice, he would provide himself with an oblation.

As soon as the altar was prepared, and Abraham had laid on the wood, and all things were entirely ready, he said to his son, "O son! I poured out a vast number of prayers that I might have thee for my son; when thou wast come into the world, there was nothing that could contribute to thy support for which I was not greatly solicitous: nor any thing wherein I thought myself happier than to see thee grown up to man's estate; and that I might leave thee, at my death, the successor to my dominion; but since it was by God's will that I became thy father, and is now his will that I relinquish thee, bear this consecration to God with a generous mind; for I resign thee up to God, who hath thought fit now to require this

it was certainly no other than king Solomon, who built that temple, as indeed Procopius cites it from Josephus; only if we change ispov into Bwuov, temple into altar, we need not correct the name, for it was David and not Solomon, who built the first altar there, as we learn, 2 Sam. xxiv. 18, &c. 1 Chron. xxi. 22, &c. § An. 1922.

|| of the land of Canaan, and be envied by all men. When God had said this, he produced to them a ram,† which did not appear before, for the sacrifice; so Abraham and Isaac receiving each other unexpectedly, and having obtained the promises of such great blessings, embraced one another; and when they had sacrificed, they returned to Sarah, and lived happily together, God affording them his assistance in all things they desired.

CHAP. XIV.

OF THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF SARAH, ABRAHAM'S WIFE.

testimony of honour to himself on account of the favours he hath conferred on me, in being to me a supporter and defender. 'Accordingly thou, my son, wilt now die, not in any common way of going out of the world, but sent to God, the father of all men, beforehand, by thy own father, in the nature of a sacrifice. I suppose he thinks thee worthy to leave this world, neither by disease, by war, nor any other severe way by which death usually comes upon men, but so that he will receive thy soul with prayers and holy offices of religion, and will place thee near to himself, and thou wilt there be to me a succourer and supporter in my old age, on which account I princi- Now Sarah‡ died a little while afterward, having pally brought thee up; and thou wilt thereby pro- lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. They cure me God for my comforter instead of thyself." buried her in Hebron, the Canaanites publicly Now Isaac was of such a generous disposition allowing them a burying-place, which piece of ground as became the son of such a father, and was pleased Abraham bought, for four hundred shekels, of with this discourse, and said that he was not worthy Ephron, an inhabitant of Hebron: and both Abrato be born at first, if he should reject the determina-ham and his descendants built themselves sepulchres tion of God and of his father, and should not resign in that place. himself up readily to both their pleasures; since it would have been unjust if he had not obeyed, even if his father alone had so resolved: so he went immediately to the altar to be sacrificed; and the deed had been done if God had not opposed it, for he called loudly to Abraham by his name, and forbade him to slay his son, and said it was not out of a desire of human blood that he was commanded to slay his son, nor was he willing that he should be taken away from him whom he had made his father, but to try the temper of his mind, whether he would be obedient to such a command: since, therefore, he now was satisfied as to the surprising readiness he showed in his piety, he was delighted in having bestowed such blessings upon him, and that he would not be wanting in all sort of concern about him; and that his son should live to a very great age, that he should live a happy life, and bequeath a large principality to his children, who should be good and legitimate. He foretold also that his family should increase into many nations, and that those patriarchs should leave behind them an ever-chus, who wrote a history of the Jews in agreement lasting name; that they should obtain the possession

*

* It seems, both here and in God's parallel blessing to Jacob, c. 19, that Josephus had yet no notion of the hidden meaning of that most important and most eminent promise, In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed; he saith not of seeds, as of many, but as of one; and to thy seed, which is Christ, Gal. iii. 16. Nor is it any wonder, he being, I think, as yet not a Christian: and had he been a Christian, yet since he was till the latter part of his life no more than an Ebonite Christian, who above all the apostles rejected and despised St. Paul, it would be no great wonder if he did not now follow his interpretation. In the mean time we have in effect St. Paul's exposition in the testament of Reuben in Authent. Rec. part I. page 302, who charges his sons "to worship the seed of Judah,

CHAP. XV

OF THE NATION OF THE TROGLODYTES, WHO WERE DERIVED
FROM ABRAHAM BY KETURAH.

ABRAHAM after this married Keturah, by whom six sons were born to him, men of courage, and of sagacious minds. Zambran, and Jazar, and Madan, and Madian, and Josabak and Sous. Now the sons of Sous were Sabathan and Dadan. The sons of Dadan were Latusim, Assur, and Luom. The sons of Madian were Ephas, Ophren, Anoch, Ebidas, and Eldas. Now Abraham contrived to settle all these sons and grandsons in colonies, and they took possession of Troglodytis, and the country of Arabia the Happy, as far as it reaches to the Red Sea. It is related of Ophren, that he made war against Libya, and took it; and that his grandchildren, when they inhabited it, called it from his name Africa: and indeed Alexander Polyhistor gives his attestation to what I here say when he speaks thus: "Cleodemus, the prophet, who was also called Mal

with the history of Moses, their legislator, relates

who should die for them in visible and invisible wars, and should be among them an eternal king." Nor is that observation of a learned foreigner of my acquaintance to be despised, who takes notice, that as seeds in the plural must signify posterity, so seed in the singular may signify either posterity or a single person; and that in this promise of all nations being happy in the seed of Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, &c. it is always used in the singular; to which I shall add, that it is sometimes, as it were, paraphrazed by the son of Abraham, the son of David, &c. which is capable of no such ambiguity. See Boyle's Lectures, page 247-272.

† Gen. xxii. 13.

Gen. xxiii. 1. 2. An. 1900.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

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that there were many sons born to Abraham by Keturah. He even names three of them. Apher, and Surim, and Japhran: that from Surim was the land of Assyria denominated; and that from the other two, Apher and Japhran, the country of Africa took its name; because these men were auxiliaries to Hercules, when he fought against Libya and Antæus; and that Hercules married Aphra's daughter, and of her begat a son Diodorus; and that Sophon was his son, from whom the barbarous people called Sophacians were denominated."

CHAP. XVI.

OF ISAAC'S MARRIAGE

Now when Abraham, the father of Isaac, had resolved to take Rebeka, who was granddaughter to his brother Nahor, for a wife to his son Isaac, who was then about forty years old, he sent the eldest of his servants to betroth her; after he had obliged him to give him the strongest assurances of his fidelity, after the following manner. They put each other's hands under each other's thighs, and called upon God as the witness of what was to be done. He also sent such presents to those that were there as were in esteem, on account that they either rarely or never were seen in that country. This servant got thither not under a considerable time; for it requires much time to pass through Mesopotamia, in which it is tedious travelling both in winter, for the depth of the clay, and in summer, for want of water; and besides this, for the robberies there committed, which are not to be avoided by travellers, but by the utmost caution. However, the servant came to Haran; and when he was in the suburbs, he met a considerable number of maidens going to the water; he therefore prayed

* An. 1897.

†The present mode of swearing among the Mohammedan Arabs, that live in tents as the patriarchs did, according to de la Roque, (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 152.) is by laying their hands on the Koran. They cause those who swear to wash their hands before they give them the book; they put their left hand underneath, and the right over it. Whether, among the patriarchs one hand was under, and the other upon the thigh, is not certain; possibly Abraham's servant might swear with one hand under his master's thigh, and the other stretched out to Heaven. As the posterity of the patriarchs are described as coming out of the thigh, it has been supposed, this, ceremony had some relation to their believing the promise of God, to bless all the nations of the earth, by means of one that was to descend from Abraham. B. HARMER, vol. iv. p. 477.

Homer mentions the same custom of women's being employed in drawing water among the Phæcians and Læstrygonians. (Od. vii. 20. et x. 105.) Dr. Shaw, speaking of the occupations of the Moorish women in Barbary, says, " to finish the day, at the time of the evening, even at the time that the women go out to draw water, they are still to fit themselves with a pitcher

to God that Rebeka might be found among them, or her whom Abraham sent him as his servant to espouse to his son, in case his will were that this marriage should be consummated; and that she might be made known to him by this sign, that while others denied him water to drink, she might give it him.

With this intention he went to the well, and desired the maidens to give him some water to drink: but while the others refused, on pretence that they wanted it all at home, and could spare none for him, one only of the company rebuked them for their peevish behaviour towards the stranger, and said, "What is there that you will ever communicate to any body, who have not so much as given the man some water?" She then offered him water in an obliging manner, and he began to hope that this grand affair would succeed; but desiring still to know the truth, he commended her for her generosity and good-nature, that she did not scruple to afford a sufficiency of water to those who wanted it, though it cost her some pains to draw it. He then asked her who were her parents, and wished them joy of such a daughter; "and mayest thou be espoused," said he, "to their satisfaction, into the family of an agreeable husband, and bring him legitimate children." Nor did she disdain to satisfy his inquiries, but told him her family. "They call me Rebeka," said she: "my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; and Laban is my brother, and, together with my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, and is my guardian." When the servant heard this, he was very glad at what had happened, and at what was told him, as perceiving that God had thus plainly directed his journey; and producing his bracelets,§ and some other or

or goat-skin, and tying their sucking children behind them, trudge it in this manner two or three miles to fetch water." Travels, p. 421.

The same custom prevailed in ancient Greece. Homer represents Minerva meeting Ulysses as the sun was going down, under the form of a Phæcian virgin carrying a pitcher of water, that being the time when the maidens went out to draw water.

When near the fam'd Phæcian wall he drew,
The beauteous city op'ning to his view,
His step a virgin met, and stood before;
A polish'd urn the seeming virgin bore.

Odyss. b. vh. 23. POPE.

See also Odyss. lib. x. 105. A similar custom prevailed also in Armenia, as may be seen in Xenophon's Anabasis, b. iv. B.

The weight of the ornaments put upon Rebeka appears extraordinary. But Chardin assures us, that even heavier were worn by the women of the East when he was there. He says that the women wear rings and bracelets of as great weight as this, and even heavier, through all Asia. They are rather manacles than bracelets. There are some as large as the finger. The women wear several of them, one above the other, in such

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