the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He was the younger brother of Esau,
and a twin. It was observed, that at his birth he held his brother
Esau’s heel, and for this reason was called Jacob, Gen. xxv, 26, which
signifies “he supplanted.” Jacob was of a meek and peaceable temper, and
loved a quiet pastoral life; whereas Esau was of a fierce and turbulent
nature, and was fond of hunting. Isaac had a particular fondness for
Esau; but Rebekah was more attached to Jacob. The manner in which Jacob
purchased his brother’s birthright for a mess of pottage, and supplanted
him by obtaining Isaac’s blessing, is already referred to in the article
ESAU.
The events of the interesting and chequered life of Jacob are so plainly
and consecutively narrated by Moses, that they are familiar to all; but
upon some of them a few remarks may be useful. As to the purchase of the
birthright, Jacob appears to have been innocent so far as any guile on
his part or real necessity from hunger on the part of Esau is involved
in the question; but his obtaining the ratification of this by the
blessing of Isaac, though agreeable, indeed, to the purpose of God, that
the elder should serve the younger, was blamable as to the means
employed. The remarks of Dr. Hales on this transaction implicate Isaac
also:--Thirty-seven years after, when Jacob was seventy-seven years old,
according to Abulfaragi, and Isaac a hundred and thirty-seven, when he
was old, and his sight had failed, and he expected soon to die, his
partiality for Esau led him to attempt to set aside the oracle, and the
cession of Esau’s birthright to Jacob, by conferring on him the blessing
of Abraham, in reward for bringing him savoury venison to eat, before
his death. In this design, however, he was disappointed by the artifice
of Rebekah, who dressed her favourite Jacob in his brother’s clothes,
and made him personate Esau, and thereby surreptitiously obtained for
him the blessing: “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee:
be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee:
cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth
thee,” Gen. xxvii, 1–29. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the
agitation of Isaac, when “he trembled very exceedingly,” at the
detection of the fraud, he did not attempt to rescind the blessing, nor
transfer it to Esau; but, on the contrary, confirmed it on Jacob: “Yea,
and he shall be blessed.” His wishes were overruled and controlled by
that higher power which he vainly endeavoured to counteract; and that he
spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance, appears from his prediction
respecting Esau’s family: “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt
have the dominion, that thou shalt break thy brother’s yoke from off thy
neck,” Gen. xxvii, 40; which was fulfilled in the days of Jehoram, king
of Judah, when “the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah,
and made themselves a king unto this day,” 2 Chron. xxi, 8–10.
According to this view, all the parties were more or less culpable;
Isaac, for endeavouring to set aside the oracle which had been
pronounced in favour of his younger son; but of which he might have an
obscure conception; Esau, for wishing to deprive his brother of the
blessing which he had himself relinquished; and Rebekah and Jacob, for
securing it by fraudulent means, not trusting wholly in the Lord. That
their principal object, however, was the spiritual part of the blessing,
and not the temporal, was shown by the event. For Jacob afterward
reverenced Esau as his elder brother, and insisted on Esau’s accepting a
present from his band in token of submission, Gen. xxxiii, 3–15. Esau
also appears to have possessed himself of his father’s property during
Jacob’s long exile. But though the intention of Rebekah and Jacob might
have been free from worldly or mercenary motives, they ought not to have
done evil that good might come. And they were both severely punished in
this life for their fraud, which destroyed the peace of the family, and
planted a mortal enmity in the breast of Esau against his brother: “Is
he not rightly named Jacob?” _a supplanter_; “for he hath supplanted me
these two times: he took away my birthright, and lo, now he hath taken
away my blessing. The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then
will I slay my brother Jacob,” Gen. xxvii, 36–41. And there can be
little doubt of his intention of executing his threat, when he came to
meet him on his return, with such an armed force as strongly alarmed
Jacob’s fears, had not God changed the spirit of Esau into mildness, so
that “he ran to meet Jacob, and fell on his neck, and they wept,” Gen.
xxxiii, 4. Rebekah, also, was deprived of the society of her darling
son, whom “she sent away for one year,” as she fondly imagined, “until
his brother’s fury should turn away,” Genesis xxvii, 42–44; but whom she
saw no more; for she died during his long exile of twenty years, though
Isaac survived, Gen. xxxv, 27. Thus was “she pierced through with many
sorrows.” Jacob, also, had abundant reason to say, “Few and evil have
been the days of the years of my pilgrimage,” Gen. xlvii, 9. Though he
had the consolation of having the blessing of Abraham voluntarily
renewed to him by his father, before he was forced to fly from his
brother’s fury, Gen. xxviii, 1–4, and had the satisfaction of obeying
his parents in going to Padan-aram, or Charran, in quest of a wife of
his own kindred, Gen. xxviii, 7; yet he set out on a long and perilous
journey of six hundred miles and upward, through barren and inhospitable
regions, unattended and unprovided, like a pilgrim, indeed, with only
his staff in his hand, Gen. xxxii, 10. And though he was supported with
the assurance of the divine protection, and the renewal of the blessing
of Abraham by God himself, in his remarkable vision at Bethel, and
solemnly devoted himself to his service, wishing only for food and
raiment, and vowing to profess the worship of God, and pay tithe unto
him should he return back in peace, Gen. xxviii, 10–22; yet he was
forced to engage in a tedious and thankless servitude of seven years, at
first for Rachel, with Laban, who retaliated upon him the imposition he
had practised on his own father; and substituted Leah, whom he hated,
for Rachel, whom he loved; and thereby compelled him to serve seven
years more; and changed his wages several times during the remainder of
his whole servitude of twenty years; in the course of which, as he
pathetically complained, “the drought consumed him by day, and the frost
by night, and the sleep departed from his eyes,” in watching Laban’s
flocks, Gen. xxxi, 40; and at last he was forced to steal away, and was
only protected from Laban’s vengeance, as afterward from Esau’s, by
divine interposition. Add to these his domestic troubles and
misfortunes; the impatience of his favourite wife, “Give me children, or
I die;” her death in bearing her second son, Benjamin; the rape of his
daughter Dinah; the perfidy and cruelty of her brothers, Simeon and
Levi, to the Shechemites; the misbehaviour of Reuben; the supposed death
of Joseph, his favourite and most deserving son:--these were, all
together, sufficient to have brought down his gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave, had he not been divinely supported and encouraged throughout
the whole of his pilgrimage. For the circumstances which led Jacob into
Egypt, see JOSEPH.
When Jacob, at the invitation of Joseph, went down to Egypt, Joseph
introduced his father to his royal master; and the patriarch, in his
priestly character, blessed Pharaoh, and supplicated the divine favour
for the king. The venerable appearance and the pious demeanour of Jacob
led the monarch to inquire his years; to which he replied, “The days of
the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil
have the days of the years of my life been; and I have not attained unto
the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their
pilgrimage.” This answer of the patriarch was not the language of
discontent, but the solemn reflection of a man who had experienced a
large share of trouble, and who knew that the whole of human life is
indeed but “a vain show,” Genesis xlvii, 1–10. Jacob spent the remainder
of his days in tranquillity and prosperity, enjoying the society of his
beloved child seventeen years. The close of his life was a happy calm,
after a stormy voyage. The patriarch, perceiving that his dissolution
was near, sent for Joseph, and bound him by a solemn promise to bury him
with his fathers in Canaan. Shortly after this, Jacob was taken ill, and
it being reported to Joseph, he hastened to the bedside of his father,
taking with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. On hearing that his
son was come, Jacob exerted all his strength, and sat up in his bed to
receive him, and to impart that blessing which, in the spirit of
prophecy, he was commissioned to bequeath. He next blessed the infant
children of Joseph; but, as he placed his hands upon their heads, he
crossed them, putting his right upon Ephraim the younger, and his left
upon Manasseh the elder. Joseph wished to correct the mistake of his
father, but Jacob persisted, being guided by a divine impulse; and he
gave to each of the lads a portion in Israel, at the same time declaring
that the younger should be greater than the elder, Gen. xlviii, 22. When
this interview was ended, Jacob caused all his sons to assemble round
his dying bed, that he might inform them what would befall them in the
last days, Gen. xlix, 1, 2. Of all the predictions which he pronounced
with his expiring breath, the most remarkable and the most interesting
is that relating to Judah: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor
a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall
the gathering of the people be,” Gen. xlix, 10. One grand personage was
in the mind of the patriarch, as it had been in the contemplation of his
predecessors, even the illustrious Deliverer who should arise in after
ages to redeem his people, and bring salvation to the human race. The
promised Seed was the constant object of faithful expectation; and all
the patriarchal ordinances, institutions, and predictions, had an
allusion, positive or incidental, to the Messiah. Hitherto the promise
was confined generally to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that from them the
glorious blessing should arise; but now, under the divine direction, the
dying patriarch foretels in what tribe, and at what period, the great
Restorer shall come. The sovereign authority was to continue in the
possession of Judah, till from that tribe Shiloh should appear, and then
the royalty must cease. This was fulfilled; for the tribe of Judah
possessed legislative power till the time of Christ, and from that
period the Jewish people have neither had dominion nor priesthood. Jesus
Christ, therefore, must either be the true Shiloh, or the prophecy has
failed; for the Jews cannot prove that they have had any thing like
temporal power since his crucifixion. When they were so clamorous for
the execution of Jesus, and Pilate told them to take the law into their
own hands, they shrunk fearfully from the proposal, and acknowledged
their slavish state by saying, “It is not lawful for us to put any man
to death,” John xviii, 31. Here, then, we have a glorious proof of the
veracity of Scripture, and an incontestible evidence of the truth of our
religion.
When Jacob had finished blessing his sons, he charged them to bury him
in the cave of Machpelah, with Abraham and Isaac, and, “gathering his
feet into the bed, he yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his
people,” Gen. xlix, 33. Joseph, having closed the eyes of his father,
and wept over him, commanded the physicians to embalm the body. After a
general mourning of seventy days, he solicited the king’s permission to
go with the remains of Jacob into Canaan, to which Pharaoh consented;
and with Joseph went up all the state officers and principal nobility of
Egypt, so that when they came to the place of interment, the Canaanites
were astonished, and said, “This is a grievous mourning to the
Egyptians,” Gen. l, 1–11.
and a twin. It was observed, that at his birth he held his brother
Esau’s heel, and for this reason was called Jacob, Gen. xxv, 26, which
signifies “he supplanted.” Jacob was of a meek and peaceable temper, and
loved a quiet pastoral life; whereas Esau was of a fierce and turbulent
nature, and was fond of hunting. Isaac had a particular fondness for
Esau; but Rebekah was more attached to Jacob. The manner in which Jacob
purchased his brother’s birthright for a mess of pottage, and supplanted
him by obtaining Isaac’s blessing, is already referred to in the article
ESAU.
The events of the interesting and chequered life of Jacob are so plainly
and consecutively narrated by Moses, that they are familiar to all; but
upon some of them a few remarks may be useful. As to the purchase of the
birthright, Jacob appears to have been innocent so far as any guile on
his part or real necessity from hunger on the part of Esau is involved
in the question; but his obtaining the ratification of this by the
blessing of Isaac, though agreeable, indeed, to the purpose of God, that
the elder should serve the younger, was blamable as to the means
employed. The remarks of Dr. Hales on this transaction implicate Isaac
also:--Thirty-seven years after, when Jacob was seventy-seven years old,
according to Abulfaragi, and Isaac a hundred and thirty-seven, when he
was old, and his sight had failed, and he expected soon to die, his
partiality for Esau led him to attempt to set aside the oracle, and the
cession of Esau’s birthright to Jacob, by conferring on him the blessing
of Abraham, in reward for bringing him savoury venison to eat, before
his death. In this design, however, he was disappointed by the artifice
of Rebekah, who dressed her favourite Jacob in his brother’s clothes,
and made him personate Esau, and thereby surreptitiously obtained for
him the blessing: “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee:
be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee:
cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth
thee,” Gen. xxvii, 1–29. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the
agitation of Isaac, when “he trembled very exceedingly,” at the
detection of the fraud, he did not attempt to rescind the blessing, nor
transfer it to Esau; but, on the contrary, confirmed it on Jacob: “Yea,
and he shall be blessed.” His wishes were overruled and controlled by
that higher power which he vainly endeavoured to counteract; and that he
spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance, appears from his prediction
respecting Esau’s family: “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt
have the dominion, that thou shalt break thy brother’s yoke from off thy
neck,” Gen. xxvii, 40; which was fulfilled in the days of Jehoram, king
of Judah, when “the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah,
and made themselves a king unto this day,” 2 Chron. xxi, 8–10.
According to this view, all the parties were more or less culpable;
Isaac, for endeavouring to set aside the oracle which had been
pronounced in favour of his younger son; but of which he might have an
obscure conception; Esau, for wishing to deprive his brother of the
blessing which he had himself relinquished; and Rebekah and Jacob, for
securing it by fraudulent means, not trusting wholly in the Lord. That
their principal object, however, was the spiritual part of the blessing,
and not the temporal, was shown by the event. For Jacob afterward
reverenced Esau as his elder brother, and insisted on Esau’s accepting a
present from his band in token of submission, Gen. xxxiii, 3–15. Esau
also appears to have possessed himself of his father’s property during
Jacob’s long exile. But though the intention of Rebekah and Jacob might
have been free from worldly or mercenary motives, they ought not to have
done evil that good might come. And they were both severely punished in
this life for their fraud, which destroyed the peace of the family, and
planted a mortal enmity in the breast of Esau against his brother: “Is
he not rightly named Jacob?” _a supplanter_; “for he hath supplanted me
these two times: he took away my birthright, and lo, now he hath taken
away my blessing. The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then
will I slay my brother Jacob,” Gen. xxvii, 36–41. And there can be
little doubt of his intention of executing his threat, when he came to
meet him on his return, with such an armed force as strongly alarmed
Jacob’s fears, had not God changed the spirit of Esau into mildness, so
that “he ran to meet Jacob, and fell on his neck, and they wept,” Gen.
xxxiii, 4. Rebekah, also, was deprived of the society of her darling
son, whom “she sent away for one year,” as she fondly imagined, “until
his brother’s fury should turn away,” Genesis xxvii, 42–44; but whom she
saw no more; for she died during his long exile of twenty years, though
Isaac survived, Gen. xxxv, 27. Thus was “she pierced through with many
sorrows.” Jacob, also, had abundant reason to say, “Few and evil have
been the days of the years of my pilgrimage,” Gen. xlvii, 9. Though he
had the consolation of having the blessing of Abraham voluntarily
renewed to him by his father, before he was forced to fly from his
brother’s fury, Gen. xxviii, 1–4, and had the satisfaction of obeying
his parents in going to Padan-aram, or Charran, in quest of a wife of
his own kindred, Gen. xxviii, 7; yet he set out on a long and perilous
journey of six hundred miles and upward, through barren and inhospitable
regions, unattended and unprovided, like a pilgrim, indeed, with only
his staff in his hand, Gen. xxxii, 10. And though he was supported with
the assurance of the divine protection, and the renewal of the blessing
of Abraham by God himself, in his remarkable vision at Bethel, and
solemnly devoted himself to his service, wishing only for food and
raiment, and vowing to profess the worship of God, and pay tithe unto
him should he return back in peace, Gen. xxviii, 10–22; yet he was
forced to engage in a tedious and thankless servitude of seven years, at
first for Rachel, with Laban, who retaliated upon him the imposition he
had practised on his own father; and substituted Leah, whom he hated,
for Rachel, whom he loved; and thereby compelled him to serve seven
years more; and changed his wages several times during the remainder of
his whole servitude of twenty years; in the course of which, as he
pathetically complained, “the drought consumed him by day, and the frost
by night, and the sleep departed from his eyes,” in watching Laban’s
flocks, Gen. xxxi, 40; and at last he was forced to steal away, and was
only protected from Laban’s vengeance, as afterward from Esau’s, by
divine interposition. Add to these his domestic troubles and
misfortunes; the impatience of his favourite wife, “Give me children, or
I die;” her death in bearing her second son, Benjamin; the rape of his
daughter Dinah; the perfidy and cruelty of her brothers, Simeon and
Levi, to the Shechemites; the misbehaviour of Reuben; the supposed death
of Joseph, his favourite and most deserving son:--these were, all
together, sufficient to have brought down his gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave, had he not been divinely supported and encouraged throughout
the whole of his pilgrimage. For the circumstances which led Jacob into
Egypt, see JOSEPH.
When Jacob, at the invitation of Joseph, went down to Egypt, Joseph
introduced his father to his royal master; and the patriarch, in his
priestly character, blessed Pharaoh, and supplicated the divine favour
for the king. The venerable appearance and the pious demeanour of Jacob
led the monarch to inquire his years; to which he replied, “The days of
the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil
have the days of the years of my life been; and I have not attained unto
the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their
pilgrimage.” This answer of the patriarch was not the language of
discontent, but the solemn reflection of a man who had experienced a
large share of trouble, and who knew that the whole of human life is
indeed but “a vain show,” Genesis xlvii, 1–10. Jacob spent the remainder
of his days in tranquillity and prosperity, enjoying the society of his
beloved child seventeen years. The close of his life was a happy calm,
after a stormy voyage. The patriarch, perceiving that his dissolution
was near, sent for Joseph, and bound him by a solemn promise to bury him
with his fathers in Canaan. Shortly after this, Jacob was taken ill, and
it being reported to Joseph, he hastened to the bedside of his father,
taking with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. On hearing that his
son was come, Jacob exerted all his strength, and sat up in his bed to
receive him, and to impart that blessing which, in the spirit of
prophecy, he was commissioned to bequeath. He next blessed the infant
children of Joseph; but, as he placed his hands upon their heads, he
crossed them, putting his right upon Ephraim the younger, and his left
upon Manasseh the elder. Joseph wished to correct the mistake of his
father, but Jacob persisted, being guided by a divine impulse; and he
gave to each of the lads a portion in Israel, at the same time declaring
that the younger should be greater than the elder, Gen. xlviii, 22. When
this interview was ended, Jacob caused all his sons to assemble round
his dying bed, that he might inform them what would befall them in the
last days, Gen. xlix, 1, 2. Of all the predictions which he pronounced
with his expiring breath, the most remarkable and the most interesting
is that relating to Judah: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor
a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall
the gathering of the people be,” Gen. xlix, 10. One grand personage was
in the mind of the patriarch, as it had been in the contemplation of his
predecessors, even the illustrious Deliverer who should arise in after
ages to redeem his people, and bring salvation to the human race. The
promised Seed was the constant object of faithful expectation; and all
the patriarchal ordinances, institutions, and predictions, had an
allusion, positive or incidental, to the Messiah. Hitherto the promise
was confined generally to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that from them the
glorious blessing should arise; but now, under the divine direction, the
dying patriarch foretels in what tribe, and at what period, the great
Restorer shall come. The sovereign authority was to continue in the
possession of Judah, till from that tribe Shiloh should appear, and then
the royalty must cease. This was fulfilled; for the tribe of Judah
possessed legislative power till the time of Christ, and from that
period the Jewish people have neither had dominion nor priesthood. Jesus
Christ, therefore, must either be the true Shiloh, or the prophecy has
failed; for the Jews cannot prove that they have had any thing like
temporal power since his crucifixion. When they were so clamorous for
the execution of Jesus, and Pilate told them to take the law into their
own hands, they shrunk fearfully from the proposal, and acknowledged
their slavish state by saying, “It is not lawful for us to put any man
to death,” John xviii, 31. Here, then, we have a glorious proof of the
veracity of Scripture, and an incontestible evidence of the truth of our
religion.
When Jacob had finished blessing his sons, he charged them to bury him
in the cave of Machpelah, with Abraham and Isaac, and, “gathering his
feet into the bed, he yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his
people,” Gen. xlix, 33. Joseph, having closed the eyes of his father,
and wept over him, commanded the physicians to embalm the body. After a
general mourning of seventy days, he solicited the king’s permission to
go with the remains of Jacob into Canaan, to which Pharaoh consented;
and with Joseph went up all the state officers and principal nobility of
Egypt, so that when they came to the place of interment, the Canaanites
were astonished, and said, “This is a grievous mourning to the
Egyptians,” Gen. l, 1–11.