might all be doomed to sufferings for his sake, were bitter amends for his wrong act. The retribution had come, indeed had been in some measure with him, ever since his deed by his father's bed-side. He had been an exile; the deceiver at Beersheba had been deceived at Haran; the triumph over his brother was turned into humiliation now, which was to be completed in the utter prostration of spirit before that brother.

In deep sorrow and dread he made his dispositions for the coming meeting with Esau and his hosts. He divided his own company and possessions into two parts, and said, "If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape." Then he raised his voice to Jehovah in prayer:

"O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst 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 all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude."

On the next morning he prepared a present well adapted to appease Esau; namely,-two hundred and twenty goats, as many sheep, thirty milch-camels and their foals, fifty cattle, twenty she-asses and ten foals; and putting each kind by itself, with an interval between and servants to attend them, he sent them forward to meet his brother. The attendants to each division were to say, in answer to inquiries by Esau, "They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and behold, also he is be

hind us." The object was not only seasonably to make a favorable impression on his brother, but to get also a timely indication of what would be the disposition toward his own party. In those countries when a present is accepted the friendship of the receiver is secured; to reject it is a clear sign of enmity and intended hostility.

The following night Jacob sent his remaining company over the Jabbok by one of its fords,' and he remained behind for solitary prayer. Evidently the crisis of his life had come. He would not have needed to fear the danger so much, if all this large company with him had not been involved in it also; for his whole history shows him to have been a man of affectionate disposition; and now to the thought that wives and children might suffer, was the added reflection that the occasion was of himself. Borne down in heart and spirit, in his solitude by night he wept2 as he prayed. An angel came to his side during the prayer, and then in his earnestness to have an assurance of help where only it could be given, he seized on the heavenly messenger and struggled to detain him until such assurance would be given. Prayers and tears seemed not to have availed, for the angel tried to make him relax his hold, and by a touch withered the strength of the struggling man; but the latter held still, as far as he might.

"Let me go," said the angel, " for the day breaketh." "I will not let thee go except thou bless me."

He prevailed. The deep agony of the prayers and tears and the clinging earnestness shown in the bodily struggle maintained even in pain and weakness, had their reward. The angel said, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,

1 It is evident from what follows that he sent them to the northern side of the river, while he remained on the south bank in the direction of Esau. The river is represented by the traveller Buckingham as ten yards wide, and deep and rapid.

2 Compare Hosea xii. 4.

See Gen. xxxii. 25.

but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed." The angel then blessed him. The humiliations and the fearful agony seem to have been an expiation for the sin of the supplanter, and another name was given him. But, for the sake of distinction, the name Jacob is still continued to him in the Scriptures, while Israel is the term applied to his descendants.

In the morning, as the sun was rising, he crossed the stream back to his companions. He was lame, still halting from the shrinking of a sinew2 touched by the angel in his struggle, but his heart shared fully the brightness of the morning. Such struggle as had been his through the night is often still the experience of mortals in doubts and agonies, from which they come forth with hearts purified and strengthened and a feeling that God's blessing has been secured.

He now divided his household into three companies, putting the "handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost." He himself preceded them. Esau was understood to be near at hand. As soon as he came into view, and while he was approaching, Jacob "bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother, and Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept."

The three companies of his household were now successively brought up, and made to Esau the usual Eastern salutations. He inquired the meaning of the droves which he had met, and was informed that they were intended as a gift, which, on its being pressed upon him, he accepted, and then proposed that they should journey onward together. Jacob, however, urged that the children and his flocks were tender

1 From

Sarah, to contend, to struggle, and ↳ El, God.

2 The Scriptures say that "the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day;" a custom which, the author is informed, they continue to our time.

and must need rest and a slower kind of advance; and then, on his brother's offering to leave some of his men in company, he excused himself also from that. "What needeth it?" he said. "Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord." So Esau and his party left him and returned to Edom.

It was clearly a great relief to Jacob and his party to have them depart.

JACO

CHAPTER XVIII.

JACOB IN CANAAN.

ACOB was now about ninety-seven years of age, his youngest son, Joseph, six; and his father, Isaac, still living, had advanced to the great age of one hundred and fifty-seven years.

The Israelite company, after Esau's departure, moved onward along the banks of the Jabbok, and found attractions sufficient in one of these spots to induce them to erect booths, or temporary houses, whence the place took its name of Succoth. Advancing thence onward, where now that stream took a more southerly course they left it, and crossing the Jordan, made their encampment on the large plain of Shechem, where Abraham, on his way from the Euphrates, had pitched his tent. Here is a well still going by Jacob's name, and which tradition says was dug by him, which is probably correct; for he must have remained here. seven or eight years, as we infer from the ages requisite for his children in the events detailed in Gen. xxxiv. This well, which is assigned to him by all travellers, even the most skeptical respecting localities, is seventy-five feet deep, and about nine in diameter; and is nearly opposite the rich valley of Shechem, here commencing between the

mounts Gerizim and Ebal, and stretching in great beauty and fertility toward the west. He purchased here "a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. and he erected an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel, 'the God of Israel.""

The young prince, Shechem, became enamored of Jacob's daughter, his youngest child,-and his father offered that, if she might be given in marriage, the land should be before them for any occupancy which they might desire. "Dwell ye and trade ye therein," he said, "and get ye possessions therein." It was a liberal offer, for the valley of Shechem has always been considered the garden spot of Palestine.

The son also offered any dowry that they might require. But he had already committed a great crime in the case of the young girl, which Jacob's two oldest sons,—whose full sister she was, felt could only be expiated by blood; and they formed a treacherous plot which, successfully carried out, through the strong love of the young men, enabled them to sate their revenge. They slew Hamor and Shechem and the other men of the city, and plundered the houses, carrying off the women and children, and all possessions in the city and fields as booty. Jacob, when made conscious of this, trembled for the result; for it might lead to a league in all the country against such an apparently bloodthirsty race. The sister of the young men was restored from Shechem's house, to which she had been taken; but she was brought back covered with shame; and all felt themselves disgraced. To Jacob's reproaches on the two sons, they replied boldly and strongly, trying to justify themselves.

Great troubles had thus came into Jacob's own household, and he had reason to search in deep humiliation, and see whether there was not infidelity to God among them all, as well as a spirit of cruelty growing up among his sons. There was need not only for such scrutiny, but probably