History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12).

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12).
fallen behind his companions, “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day,” without prevailing against him.  The stranger endeavoured to escape before daybreak, but only succeeded in doing so at the cost of giving Jacob his blessing.  “What is thy name?  And he said, Jacob.  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:  for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”  Jacob called the place Peniel, “for,” said he, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”  The hollow of his thigh was “strained as he wrestled with him,” and he became permanently lame.* Immediately after the struggle he met Esau, and endeavoured to appease him by his humility, building a house for him, and providing booths for his cattle, so as to secure for his descendants the possession of the land.  From this circumstance the place received the name of Succoth—­the “Booths “—­by which appellation it was henceforth known.  Another locality where Jahveh had met Jacob while he was pitching his tents, derived from this fact the designation of the “Two Hosts”—­Mahanaim.** On the other side of the river, at Shechem,*** at Bethel,**** and at Hebron, near to the burial-place of his family, traces of him are everywhere to be found blent with those of Abraham.

* Gen. xxxii. 22-32.  This is the account of the Jehovistic writer.  The Elohist gives a different version of the circumstances which led to the change of name from Jacob to Israel; he places the scene at Bethel, and suggests no precise etymology for the name Israel (Gen. xxxv. 9-15).

     ** Gen. xxxii. 2, 3, where the theophany is indicated
     rather than directly stated.

*** Gen. xxxiii. 18-20.  Here should be placed the episode of Dinah seduced by an Amorite prince, and the consequent massacre of the inhabitants by Simeon and Levi (Gen. xxxiv.).  The almost complete dispersion of the two tribes of Simeon and Levi is attributed to this massacre:  cf. Gen. xlix. 5-7.

     **** Gen. xxxv. 1-15, where is found the Elohistic version
     (9-15) of the circumstances which led to the change of name
     from Jacob to Israel.

By his two wives and their maids he had twelve sons.  Leah was the mother of Keuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zabulon; Gad. and Asher were the children of his slave Zilpah; while Joseph and Benjamin were the only sons of Rachel—­Dan and Naphtali being the offspring of her servant Bilhah.  The preference which his father showed to him caused Joseph to be hated by his brothers; they sold him to a caravan of Midianites on their way to Egypt, and persuaded Jacob that a wild beast had devoured him.  Jahveh was, however, with Joseph, and “made all that he did to prosper in his hand.”  He was bought by Potiphar, a great Egyptian lord and captain of Pharaoh’s guard, who made him his overseer; his master’s wife, however, “cast her eyes

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History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.