8 Heb. lip. 9 Chap. 12. 3, and 18, 18. Ecclus. 44. 22. Acts 3. 25. Galat. 3. 8. 10 Called, Rom. 9. 10. Rebecca. Verse 2. "Land of Moriah."-Moriah is the name of the mountain on which the temple of Jerusalem was afterwards built (2 Chron. iii. 1), and it is generally thought that this is the spot indicated in the present text. The Samaritan version reads Moreh here, and the people to whom it belonged were satisfied that was the Moreh near Sechem, where Abraham had formerly resided (chap. xii. 6); and that the mountain was Mount Gerizim, on which their temple was built. There are difficulties in the first supposition, and the last would have good probability if the Samaritans were

not to be suspected of having altered the text, in order to bring the spot within their own territory. The distance from Beersheba is rather in favour of the Samaritans, as the distance between Beersheba and Moreh is a good three days' journey; whilst that between Beersheba and Jerusalem is too short, unless some detaining circumstance occurred on the road. The Mohammedaus contend that the site of the transaction is the spot on which their famous temple at Mecca (the Kaaba) was afterwards built. But in this, as well as in other circumstances, they substitute Ishmael for Isaac. It seems singular that the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Mohammedans should all wish to fix this event to the site of their respective temples.

8. "A Lamb" (se, Heb.).-The Arabic renders it by hemel, which is applied to the young of any kind of cattle; and so we find in the Hebrew, that se is indifferently used in speaking either of the sheep or the goat.

9. -"bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood."-Josephus says that Isaac was at this time twentyfive years of age. He was certainly a grown-up man, and it is not to be supposed that his aged father did or could use any coercion on this occasion. Though Abraham evaded an explanation in the first instance, he probably explained the divine command, at the last moment, to Isaac, who acquiesced in the necessity of obedience. We shall have occasion hereafter to remark on the custom of parents offering their children in sacrifice, and shall only here observe, that many commentators have thought that the usage arose from this act of Abraham ill understood and applied. We incline, however, to the opinion of those who think that the practice already prevailed in Canaan, and that Abraham had become so familiarized to it as to lessen the surprise which a command of this nature must have inspired. This view also tends to exalt the faith of Abraham, as it must have lessened any expectation he might else have entertained that the demand would not be actually enforced. From the tone of the whole narrative it is evident that Abraham was prepared to the fullest extent of obedience; and from the account which St. Paul gives of the transaction (Heb. xi. 17-19), it appears, that while thus prepared to obey the divine command, he reconciled its apparent discrepancy with the promise of a numerous posterity through Isaac, by believing "that God was able to raise him up even from the dead."

13. "A ram" (ail)—in Arabic kebsh, a ram; and by analogy a prince or chief, since the ram is the leader of the flock. If we might suppose that the ram in this instance had four horns, like some examples occasionally seen among the Asiatic races, as well as in a breed common in the north of Europe, his liability to be caught by the horns in a thick-grown, tangled underwood must have been very great. It is easy to see, by a contemplation of the figure, that a bunch of horns so variously twisted and "crankled" would have involved the animal in fresh difficulties whichever way he turned in attempting to extricate himself. Mohammedan writers say, that the horns of the ram in question were fixed upon the Kaaba or temple of Mecca by the early Arabians; and that, to remove occasion of idolatry, they were taken down by Mohammed.

17. "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed." This form of expression frequently occurs in our translation, and is a literal Hebrew idiom. It renders the sense intense by repeating the expressions in which it is conveyed. Here it imports, "I will exceedingly bless-I will exceedingly multiply."

CHAPTER XXIII.

1 The age and death of Sarah. 2 The purchase of Machpelah, 19 where Sarah was buried.

AND Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.

2 And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

3¶ And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,

4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

6 Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

1 Heb. a prince of God.

8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,

9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a burying-place amongst you.

10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,

11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.

12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.

13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me : I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him,

15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land Heb. full money. 3 Heb. ears.

is worth four hundred shekels of silver; | all the borders round about, were made sure what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.

16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron: and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in

18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.

19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.

20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the sons of Heth.

Verse 2. "Abraham came to mourn for Sarah.”—Harmer thinks that this means that, according to a custom among the Syrians and Greeks of mourning at the door within which a dead body lay, Abraham came from his own tent to sit mourning on the ground at the door of Sarah's. But from the particular manner in which the place of her death is mentioned, and in which it is there said that Abraham came to mourn, we should rather infer that the patriarch was absent from Hebron at the time of her death, but hastened thither to perform the last duties when he received the intelligence. A tradition, of little weight, states that she died while Abraham was absent to sacrifice Isaac, and that her death was caused by hearing that the sacrifice had been actually consummated. But she must have lived many years after the transaction in the last chapter.

11. "The field give I thee," &c.-In after-times we find that the Hittites were not at all a popular people with the Israelites. This Ephron is the first of that nation who comes under our notice; and his tone and manner on this occasion do no great credit to his tribe. We are not surprised that Ephron's respectful and seemingly liberal conduct has been beheld favourably in Europe, for only one who has been in the East can properly appreciate the rich orientalism it exhibits. We will therefore state the transaction as illustrated by what we have ourselves seen in Persia. Abraham wishes to purchase of Ephron a certain field containing a cave: Ephron, feeling the value of the opportunity of laying, or seeming to lay, under obligation so great a person as Abraham, makes a parade of his readiness to give it:-" The field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee." This is exquisitely oriental, as will be seen by the following extract from Mr. Frazer's Journey into Khorasan: "The least a Persian says when he receives you is, that he is your slave; that his house, and all it contains-nay, the town and country-are all yours; to dispose of at your pleasure. Every thing you accidentally notice—his calleeons (water smoking-pipes), his horse, equipage, clothes--are all Peshcush-e-Sahib-presents for your acceptance." This mode of address, as Francklin observes, is not confined to the great; but the meanest artisan will not hesitate to offer the city of Shiraz, with all its appurtenances, as a present to a stranger on his arrival. All this is understood to mean no more than "Your obedient, humble servant," at the end of our letters. But it often happens, that if the stranger be a person of wealth or influence, the man is really anxious to force upon his acceptance any article he happens to admire, or expresses a wish to purchase. But if the stranger is inconsiderate enough to accept it, it will not be long before he discovers that by this act he is considered to have given the person a claim either upon his good offices and favour, or for a present of much more than equal value in return. If. like Abraham, he understands these matters, and is not disposed to receive such obligation, his best course is either "not to admire” at all, or to insist on at once paying the value of that which attracts his admiration. In the latter case, the man will name the price, like Ephron, in a slight way, as a thing of no consequence: "It is worth so much; what is that betwixt me and thee?" But when the money is produced, he counts it carefully, and transfers it to the pocket or bosom of his vest in a business-like manner, without any indication that shekels of silver are undervalued by him.

15. "Me and thee."-We all know what a proof of arrogance or ignorance it is considered for a person to name himself before another, even though that other should be an inferior; and what odium Cardinal Wolsey incurred by writing himself before the king,-" Ego et rex meus." Yet here Ephron mentions himself before Abraham, to whom he nevertheless speaks with great respect: and David, while he continues to treat Saul as his sovereign, and appears before him in a most submissive attitude, uses the same expression, "me and thee" (1 Sam. xxv. 12). This was not therefore considered disrespectful even in an inferior; nor is it now in the East-at least not in Persia-where the strict and minutely regulated etiquette of society does not regard this practice as improper.

17, 18. "The field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre," &c.-We need not refer to the East for an illustration of this most remarkable document. Our own title-deeds, conveyances, and other law forms, with their minute specification of details, seem to be most faithfully constructed on the model which it offers.

19. "The cave of the field of Machpelah."-This chapter affords the earliest notice of the practice, which was formerly very prevalent in the East, of depositing the dead in natural or artificial caves, great numbers of which are still to be found in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Persia. In the mountainous country of southern Palestine there are abundance of natural caves in the rocks, which might easily be formed into commodious sepulchral vaults; and where such natural caves were wanting, sepulchres were hewn in the rock for such families as were able to incur the necessary expense; for this was the mode of sepulchre decidedly preferred by those who could obtain it. The arrangement and extent of these caves varied with circumstances. Those in the declivity of a mountain were often cut in horizontally; but to others there was usually a descent by steps from the surface. The roofs of the vaults are commonly arched; and sometimes, in the more spacious vaults, supported by colonnades. These rocky chambers are generally spacious, being obviously family vaults, intended to receive several dead bodies. Niches, about six or seven feet deep, are usually cut in the sides of the vault, each adapted to receive a single corpse; but in some vaults small rooms are cut in the same manner; and in others, stone slabs of the same length are fixed horizontally against the walls, or cut out of the rock, one above another, serving as shelves on which the corpses were deposited: in others, however, floor itself is excavated for the reception of the dead, in compartments of various depths, and in the shape of a coffin. Some of the bodies were placed in stone coffins, provided with sculptured lids; but such sarcophagi were by no means in general use; the bodies, when wound up in the grave-clothes, being usually deposited without any sort of coffin or

The

sarcophagus. The vaults are always dark, the only opening being the narrow entrance, which is usually closed by a large stone rolled to its mouth; although some of a superior description are shut by stone doors, hung in the same manner as the doors of houses, by pivots turning in holes in the architrave above and in the threshold below. Some of these vaults consist of several chambers, one within another, connected by passages. The innermost chambers are usually deeper than the exterior, with a descent of several steps. When there is more than one chamber, the outermost seems to have been a sort of ante-room, the walls being seldom occupied with sepulchral niches or shelves. This cave of Machpelah became, after the purchase by Abraham, the family sepulchre of the Hebrew patriarchs; and it is reasonable to conclude that it was of superior size, and contained more than one apartment. Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, visited the place about 650 years ago; and as his account is precise and interesting, we quote it from Purchas his Pilgrimes," 1625. "I came to Hebron, seated in a plaine; for Hebron, the ancient metropolitan citie, stood upon an hill, but it is now desolate. But in the valley there is a field, wherein there is a duplicitie, that is, as it were, two little valleyes, and there the citie is placed; and there is an huge temple there called Saint Abraham, and that place was the synagogue of the Lewes, at what time the country was possessed by the Ismaelites. But the Gentiles, who afterwards obtayned and held the same, built sixe sepulchres in the temple, by the names of Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Rebecca, Iacob, and Lia (Leah). And the inhabitants now tell the pilgrimes that they are the monuments of the patriarkes; and great summes of money are offered there. But surely, to any Iew coming thither, and offering the porters a reward, the cave is shewed, with the iron gate opened, which from antiquitie remayneth yet there. And a man goeth down with a lamp-light into the first cave, where nothing is found, nor also in the second, untill he enter the third, in which there are the sixe monuments, the one right over against the other; and each of them are engraven with characters, and distinguished by the names of every one of them after this manner,-Sepulchrum Abraham patris nostri, super quem pax sit; and so the rest, after the same example. And a lampe perpetually burneth in the cave, day and night; the officers of the temple continually ministering oile for the maintenance thereof. Also, in the self-same cave, there are tuns full of the bones of the ancient Israelites, brought thither by the families of Israel, which even untill this day remayne in the self-same place." This curious account agrees pretty well with the above general description. The word Machpelah means "double," applied rather to the field containing the cave than to the cave itself. Benjamin's mention of the two valleys forming, as Purchas translates, "the field of duplicity," explains the application which has perplexed Calmet and others. Sandys, who was there early in the seventeenth century, and who describes the valley of Hebron as "the most pregnant and pleasant valley that ever eye beheld," mentions the "goodly temple" built by the empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, and afterwards changed into a mosque, as a place of much resort to Moslem pilgrims. John Sanderson was there in the summer of 1601, and the account he gives agrees, as far as it goes, with that of the Spanish Jew; but access to the cave was more restricted than it seems to have been in the time of the latter. He says, "Into this tombe not any are suffered to enter, but at a square hole through a thick wall they may discern a little light of a lamp. The Lewes do their ceremonies of prayer there without. The Moores and Turkes are permitted to have a little more sight, which is at the top, where they let down the oyle for the lampe; the lampe is a very great one, continually burning." For upwards of a century only two or three Europeans have been able, either by daring or bribery, to obtain access to the mosque and cave. Ali Bey, who passed as a Mussulman, has given a description of it; but his account

is so incompatible with all others, and with the reports of the Turks, that it is difficult to admit its accuracy. According to all other statements, the sepulchre is a deep and spacious cavern, cut out of the solid rock; the opening to which is in the centre of the mosque, and is seldom entered even by Moslems: but Ali Bey seems to describe each separate tomb as in a distinct room, on the level of the floor of the mosque. These rooms have their entrances guarded by iron gates, and by wooden doors plated with silver, with bolts and padlocks of the same metal. He says, All the sepulchres of the patriarchs are covered with rich carpets of green silk, magnificently embroidered with gold; those of their wives are red, embroidered in like manner. The sultans of Constantinople furnish these carpets, which are renewed from time to time. I counted nine, one over the other, upon the sepulchre of Abraham. The rooms also which contain the tombs are covered with rich carpets." We can only reconcile this with other statements by supposing that the Turks have put these monuments upon the level of the floor, immediately over the supposed resting-places of the patriarchs in the cave underneath; and that, instead of conducting them into the crypt, these tombs above ground are shown to ordinary visiters.

CHAPTER XXIV.

10 And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for

and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

1 Abraham sweareth his servant. 10 The servant's journey: 12 His prayer: 14 His sign. 15 Re-all the goods of his master were in his hand : bekah meeteth him, 18 fulfilleth his sign, 22 receiveth jewels, 23 sheweth her kindred, 25 and inviteth him home. 26 The servant blesseth God. 29 Laban entertaineth him. 34 The servant sheweth his message. 50 Laban and Bethuel approve it. 58 Rebekah consenteth to go. 62 Isaac meeteth her.

AND Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

2

3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:

4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest?

6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.

7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, "Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.

8 And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath only bring not my son thither again. 9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.

11 Ånd he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that WOmen go out to draw water.

12 And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.

13 Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:

14 And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

15 ¶ And it came to pass before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.

17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.

18 And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.

19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.

20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.

1 Heb. gone into days, 2 Chap. 47. 29. 3 Chap. 12. 7, and 13. 15, and 15. 18, and 26. 24. 4 Or, and.
which draw water go forth.
6 Vers. 43. 7 Heb. good of countenance.

5 Heb. that women