So the children, and afterward the lads, grew up, becoming every day more diverse in character, and, what was most unwise on the part of their superiors, more distinguished in the parental regards.

We can already see trouble darkening in that tent. Esau had the rights of primogeniture; and although these may not have been fully defined at that time, the sentiment which afterward made them fully marked was undoubtedly prevalent at an early date. As we see these rights afterward in Jewish history, they were, 1, honor and authority next to that belonging to parents (Gen. xlix. 3); 2, peculiar consecration to God (Ex. xxii. 29); 3, priority in priestly office (Levit. viii. 2: Num. viii. 17); and 4, a double portion of the father's goods (Deut. xxi. 17).

The sons had advanced beyond boyhood and were beginning to be mature in character, when one day, the older brother coming home from the chase faint and hungry, found the other engaged in the less manly occupation of cooking a mess of lentiles or beans,' the odor of which was most tempting to the keen appetite of the huntsman. He asked immediately for some of the food, and the astuteness of Jacob was awakened. The latter said,

"Sell me this day thy birthright."

Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright be to me," was the characteristic, careless reply of Esau.

"Swear to me this day," said Jacob; and Esau swore; and he sat down and ate and drank, and then rose up and went his way.

1 Robinson says, in his visit to Akabah, not very far from this, "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 must be quite a dainty."

He had sold that on which he placed little value; for even the right of chief inheritance was of slight moment to one who could range freely over the world, and find subsistence everywhere, and to whom the care of flocks and herds would only be an encumbrance; but to the young man at home, calculating in his disposition, already shrewd, and always jealous of his brother's priority, it was a great triumph; one which was doubtless shared also by the watchful mother. The triumph was the greater in Jacob's estimation. because Esau had obtained those birthrights by only a few minutes' precedence in life; and the younger knew that he could turn to good account what his brother esteemed so lightly. Jacob had often fretted over the difference between him and his brother in this matter of priority; and from his mind's dwelling so much on the subject, the rights of primogeniture had taken, in his view, even greater importance than they deserved. He thought now with great joy, that they were all his own!

A drought and famine in this higher region at Lahai-roi, which was particularly subject to the influence of heat, now drove Isaac and his family into the lower country belonging to the Philistines, bordering on the Mediterranean. The divine communication had directed him not to go to Egypt, but to stop in this place; he went to Gerar, where Abimelech-probably not the king in Abraham's time-was then the ruler. Here again, with regard to his wife, was practised the same base deception that we have seen in his father's case with respect to Sarah; and he called Rebekah his sister, "Because she was fair to look upon," and he

1 Miss Martineau, speaking of the Jews whom she saw at Hebron, says, "Here and at Jerusalem, and elsewhere, we saw many Jews with fair complexions, blue eyes and light hair. Such eyes I never saw as both the blue and the brown; soft, noble eyes such as bring tears into one's own, one knows not why. The form of the face was unusually fine, and the complexion clear brown or fair; the hair beautiful."

feared that her beauty might bring him into danger, if the true facts were known. A timely discovery by the king, however, saved both from the effects of this base lying; and Abimelech, with upbraidings which ought to have been keenly felt by them, gave them the royal protection, with threats of severest punishment to any of his subjects who might do them harm. A feeling of awe connected with this Hebrew race seems to have impressed itself on all their neighbors; just as now, all over the world, there is a sentiment akin to this, however in other respects we may regard this people; a feeling tinged with awe, an unacknowledged and perhaps resisted feeling of respect as for a mysterious power connected with them. They are a living, strange enigma in our midst. That same feeling appears to have seized upon their neighbors then,-upon the nobles at Mamre and upon the king of the Philistines. The Hebrews were shrunk from, yet tolerated and treated with tenderness; were respected but not loved; they seem to have given no love to others. Doubtless the often-expected assurances from God that he would give to their posterity all this land, were known with more or less distinctness among their neighbors, for such things could scarcely be kept secret. The assurances had just been repeated to Isaac himself, with the mysterious declaration, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." These things known to their neighbors, a jealousy, a suspicion, a strange fear, and yet with them, a disposition to honor and treat with tenderness, but not with love, a people so honored of heaven and so linked in with promises of future power and glory, must have prevailed among the surrounding nations or tribes.

Isaac remained in the country of the Philistines, and "waxed great, and went forward and grew until he became very great; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him."

The king there finally said, "Go from us; for thou art much. mightier than we."

He went leisurely along eastwardly, digging successive wells for his flocks; but the people of the country had become sensitive in their jealousy of his increasing greatness, and contested the wells with his herdsmen, falsely claiming them as their own on account of previous occupancy. He yielded peaceably, retiring until at last (the drought in this long interval having ceased) he reached the well-remembered spot of his father's residence at Beersheba. He knew it well indeed; for from this place he had been conducted by his father to Moriah for the intended sacrifice, where he was to be the victim; and here his mother had hung around his neck with tears of joy and gratitude when he was restored to her and she heard of the fearful command to slay him on the altar, and how nearly it had been fulfilled. Isaac himself now erected an altar at Beersheba, and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent at that place.

He had a visit here from the Philistine king, Abimelech, accompanied by a friend and by Phicol, the chief captain of his army; and the interview was strikingly characteristic of the feelings on both sides.

"Wherefore come ye to me," he said, "seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?" They replied,

"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; 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."

"And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink." He might well feel himself blessed of the Lord; for as he stood by his tent, his eyes could range over flocks and herds far and wide, and over a tribe of retainers so numerous as to give him importance whether as friend or adver

sary. He knew also that this sentiment of awe and respect and fear as for one strangely favored from on high had taken possession of his neighbors, though mingled with jealousy. Their jealousy was a compliment. Their dislike, grounded as it was on apprehension, he might also feel to be complimentary to his power as the sheikh of a powerful tribe.

But a domestic trouble here broke in upon his complacency and enjoyment. Esau, reckless of the wishes of both father and mother, had taken two wives from the adjoining Hittite tribes, idolaters who would lead off this ever-wayward man from the worship of the true God. He was still the favorite son of the father; for his bold, frank manner, his daring in the chase, his manliness and even his restiveness under restraint making the father's stronger power necessary as a curb, had endeared him to Isaac, who marked the contrast to all this in Jacob's timidity and astuteness, and his gentleness, and partiality for his mother. Esau and Jacob were forty years old and Isaac was an hundred, when this connexion by marriage with the Canaanites took place. The wives were brought to the father's tent and became part of the household, creating still greater discomfort in the family than had existed before. The oldest son, however, was ill adapted by previous habits to settle down into the ways of quiet pastoral life, and his precarious means of living by hunting made it necessary to domesticate his family where there were surer means of subsisting. Rebekah fretted under the intrusion.