Jacob's Visions. He celebrates the eighth day of Tabernacles. The Birth of Benjamin and Death of Rachel (xxxii. 16-34)

Jacob's Visions. He celebrates the eighth day of Tabernacles. The Birth of Benjamin and Death of Rachel (xxxii. 16-34; cf. Gen. xxxv.).

16. And on the following night, on the twenty-second day of this month, Jacob resolved to build that place, and to surround the court with a wall, and to sanctify it and make it holy for ever, for himself and his children after him. 17. And the Lord appeared to him by night and blessed him and said unto him: "Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel shall they name thy name." 18. And He said unto him again: "I am the Lord who created the heaven and the earth, and I shall increase thee and multiply thee exceedingly, and kings will come forth from thee, and they will judge everywhere wherever the foot of the sons of men hath trodden. 19. Ana I shall give to thy seed all the earth ² which is under heaven, and they will judge all the nations according to their desires, and after that they will get possession of the whole earth and inherit it for ever." 20. And He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him, and Jacob looked till He had ascended into heaven. ³ 21. And he saw in a vision of the night, and behold an angel descended from heaven with seven tablets ⁴ in his hands, and he gave them to Jacob, and he read them and knew all that was written therein which would befall him and his sons through-

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out all the ages. ¹ 22. And he showed him all that was written on the tablets, and said unto him: "Do not build this place, and do not make it an eternal sanctuary, ² and do not dwell here; for this is not the place. Go to the house of Abraham thy father and dwell with Isaac thy father until the day of the death of thy father. 23. For in Egypt thou wilt die in peace, and in this land thou wilt be buried with honour in the sepulchre of thy fathers, with Abraham and Isaac. 24. Fear not, for as thou hast seen and read it, thus will. it all be; and do thou write down everything as thou hast seen and read." 25. And Jacob said: "Lord, how can I remember all that I have read and seen?" And he said unto him: "I will bring all things to thy remembrance." ³ 26. And he went up from him, and he awoke from his sleep, and he remembered everything which he had read and seen, and he wrote down all the words which he had read and seen. 27. And he celebrated there yet another day, ⁴ and he sacrificed thereon according to all that he sacrificed on the former days, and called its name †"Addition,"† ⁵ for †this day was added,† ⁵ and the former days he called "The Feast." ⁶ 28. And thus it was manifested that it should be, and it is written on the heavenly tables: wherefore it was revealed to him that he should celebrate it, and add it to the seven days of the feast. 29. ⁷ And its name

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was called †"Addition," † †because that† it was recorded amongst the days of the feast days, †according to† the number of the days of the year. 30. And in the night, on the twenty-third of this month, Deborah Rebecca's nurse died, and they buried her beneath the city under the oak of the river, and he called the name of this place, "The river of Deborah," and the oak, "The oak of the mourning of Deborah." ¹ 31. And Rebecca went and returned to her house to his father Isaac, and Jacob sent by her hand rams and sheep and he-goats that she should prepare a meal for his father such as he desired. 32. And he went after his mother till he came to the land of Kabrâtân, ² and he dwelt there. 33. And Rachel bare a son in the night, and called his name "Son of my sorrow"; for she suffered in giving him birth: but his father called his name Benjamin, on the eleventh of the eighth month in the first of the sixth week of this

2143 A.M.

jubilee. 34. And Rachel died there and she was buried in the land ³ of Ephrath, the same is Bethlehem, and Jacob built a pillar on the grave of Rachel, on the road above her grave.

Footnotes

164:2 For 17-18 cf. Gen. xxxv. 10-12. Notice that the whole inhabited earth (not merely Palestine, as in Gen. xxxv. 12) is here promised to Israel.

164:3 Cf. Gen. xxxv. 13.

164:4 Cf. 4 Ezra xiv. 24.

165:1 Cf. xlv. 4.

165:2 The sanctuary at Bethel was not to be the one central shrine, where alone acceptable worship was to be offered.

165:3 In 4 Ezra xiv. 40, Ezra's memory is said to have been miraculously strengthened after he had received the cup of inspiration; cf. also John xiv. 26.

165:4 i. e. the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

165:5 The Hebrew name is ‘asereth (‘asarta), from a root meaning "detain" (‘āṣar). Hence, perhaps, we may emend here "keeping back," for on that day he was kept back (Charles).

165:6 So in Rabbinic the Feast of Tabernacles was called, par excellence, "the Feast."

165:7 29 is very corrupt. Charles suggests that it should be read: "And its name was called 'a keeping back' (i.e. ‘aṣereth) when it was recorded amongst the days of the feast days in the number of the days of the year."

166:1 Cf. Gen. xxxv. 8 (R.V. marg.).

166:2 Due to a misunderstanding of the words rendered "some distance" (kibrath hā’ares) in Gen. xxxv. 16. The LXX also took kibrath to be a proper name (Χιβραθο).

166:3 "On the way to" in the text of Gen. xxxv. 19.