When he sent messengers to Esau, in order to secure his respect, and impress him with an idea of his state and sway, he bade them tell him not only of his RICHES, but of his GREATNESS; that Jacob had “oxen, and asses, and flocks, and men servants, and maid servants.”  Gen. xxxii. 4, 5.  Yet in the present which he sent, there were no servants; though he seems to have aimed to give it as much variety as possible.  Gen. xxxii. 14, 15; see also Gen. xxxvi. 6, 7; Gen. xxxiv. 23.  As flocks and herds were the staples of wealth, a large number of servants presupposed large possessions of cattle, which would require many herdsmen.  Further.  When servants are spoken of in connection with mere property, the terms used to express the latter do not include the former.

The Hebrew word Mickna is an illustration.  It is a derivative of Kana, to procure, to buy, and its meaning is, a possession, wealth, riches.  It occurs more than forty times in the Old Testament—­and is applied always to mere property—­generally to domestic animals, but never to servants.  In some instances, servants are mentioned in distinction from the Mickna. See Gen. xii. 5. "And Abraham took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother’s son.  And all their SUBSTANCE that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.” Substance gathered and souls gotten!  Many will have it, that these souls were a part of Abraham’s substance (notwithstanding the pains here taken to separate them from it)—­that they were slaves—­probably captives in war, and now, by right of conquest, taken with him in his migration as part of his family effects.  Who but slaveholders, either actually, or in heart, would torture into the principle and practice of slavery, such a harmless phrase as “the souls that they had gotten?” Until the slave trade breathed its haze upon the vision of the church, and smote her with palsy and decay, commentators saw no slavery in, “The souls that they had gotten.”  In the Targum of Onkelos[A] it is thus rendered, “The souls whom they had brought to obey the law in Haran.”  In the Targum of Jonathan, thus:  “The souls whom they had made proselytes in Haran.”  In the Targum of Jerusalem, “The souls proselyted in Haran.”  Jarchi, placed by Jewish Rabbis at the head of their commentators, thus renders it:  “The souls whom they had brought under the Divine wings.”  Jerome, one of the most learned of the Christian fathers:  “The persons whom they had proselyted.”  The Persian version thus gives the whole verse, “And Abraham took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their wealth which they had accumulated, and the souls which they had made.”  The Vulgate version thus translates it, “Universam substantiam quam possederant et animas quas fecerant in Haran.”  “The entire wealth which