JACOB

the two clans, with the sinister motives that prevailed on either side, would be gradually, perhaps slowly, brought to an issue. There would be time to persuade the Shechemites to consent to be circumcised, and to arrange for the treacherous reprisal. Jacob's part in the proceedings was confined chiefly to a timid reproach of his sons for entangUng his household in peril, to which they replied with the plea that the honour of the family was the first consideration.

The state of feeling aroused by the vengeance executed on Shechem made it desirable for Jacob to continue his journey. He was directed by God to proceed some twenty miles southwards to Bethel. Before starting, due preparations were made for a visit to so sacred a spot. The amulets and images of foreign gods in the possession of his retainers were collected and buried under a terebinth (35*; cf. Jos 24», Jg 9=). The people through whom he passed were smitten with such a panic by the news of what had happened at Shechem as not to interfere with him. Arrived at Bethel, he added an altar (35') to the monolith he had erected on his previous visit, and received in a theophany, for which in mood he was well prepared, a renewal of the promise of regal prosperity. The additional pillar he set up (35") was probably a sepulchral stele to the memory of Deborah (cf. 35™), dedicated with appropriate religious services; unless the verse is out of place in the narrative, and is really J's version of what E relates in 28". From Bethel Jacob led his caravan to Ephrath, a few miles from which place Rachel died in childbirth. This Ephrath was evidently not far f rom^Bethel, and well to the north of Jerusalem (1 S 10''-, Jer 31"); and therefore the gloss ' the same is Bethlehem ' must be due to a contusion with the other Ephrath (Ru 4", Mic 5^), which was south of Jerusalem. The next stopping-place was the tower of Eder (35«!) or 'the fiock' — a generic name for the watch-towers erected to aid in the protection of the fiocks from robbers and wild beasts. Mic 4^ applies a similar term to the fortified southern spur of Zion. But it cannot be proved that the two allusions coalesce; and actually nothing is known of the site of Jacob's encampment, except that it was between Ephrath and Hebron. His journey was ended when he reached the last-named place (352'), the home of his fathers, where he met Esau again, and apparently for the last time, at the funeral of Isaac.

From the time of his return to Hebron, Jacob ceases to be the central figure of the Biblical narrative, which thenceforward revolves round Joseph. Among the leading incidents are Joseph's mission to inquire after his brethren's welfare, the inconsolable sorrow of the old man on the receipt of what seemed conclusive evi-dence of Joseph's death, the despatch of his surviving sons except Benjamin to buy corn in Egypt (cf . Ac V'^ff-), the bitterness of the reproach with which he greeted them on their return, and his belated and despairing consent to another expedition as the only alternative to death from famine. The story turns next to Jacob's delight at the news that Joseph is alive, and to his own journey to Egypt through Beersheba, his early home, where he was encouraged by God in visions of the night (46'-'). In Egypt he was met by Joseph, and, after an interview with the Pharaoh, settled in the pastoral district of Goshen (47^), afterwards known as ' the land of Rameses ' (from Rameses ii. of the nine-teenth dynasty), in the eastern part of the Delta (47"). This migration of Jacob to Egypt was an event of the first magnitude in the history of Israel (Dt 26"-, Ac 7"'), as a stage in the great providential preparation for Redemption. Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years (47"'), at the close of which, feeling death to be nigh, he extracted a pledge from Joseph toburyhiminCanaan, and adopted his two grandsons, placing the younger first in anticipation of the pre-eminence of the tribe that would descend from him (48", He ll^i). To Joseph himself was promised, as a token of special

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affection, the conquered districts of Shechem on the lower slopes of Gerizim (.iS", Jn 4'). Finally, the old man gathered his sons about him, and pronounced upon each in turn a blessing, afterwards wrought up into the elaborate poetical form of 49^-^'. The tribes are re-viewed in order, and the character of each is sketched in a description of that of its founder. The atmosphere of the poem in regard aUke to geography and to history la that of the period of the judges and early kings, when, therefore, the genuine tradition must have taken the form in which it has been preserved. After blessing his sons, Jacob gave them together the directions concern-ing his funeral which he had given previously to Joseph, and died (49^). His body was embalmed, convoyed to Canaan by a great procession according to the Egyptian custom, and buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron (50").

Opinion is divided as to the degree to which Jacob has been ideaUzed in the Biblical story. If it be re-membered that the narrative is based upon popular oral tradition, and did not receive its present form until long after the time to which it relates, and that an interest in national origins is both natural and distinctly manifested in parts of Genesis, some ideaUzation may readily be conceded. It may be sought in three direc-tions — ^in the attempt to find explanations of existing institutions, in the anticipation of religious conceptions and sentiments that belonged to the narrator's times, and in the investment of the reputed ancestor with the characteristics of the tribe descended from him. All the conditions are best met by the view that Jacob was a real person, and that the incidents recorded of him are substantially historical. His character, as depicted, is a mixture of evil and good; and his career shows how, by discipline and grace, the better elements came to prevail, and God was enabled to use a faulty man for a great purpose.

2. Father of Joseph, the husband of Mary (Mt 1'").

R. W. MoSB.

JACOB'S WELL.— See Sychak.

JAOUBUS (1 Es 9") =Neh 8' Akkub.

JADA.— A Jerahmeelite (1 Ch 2^'- «).

JADDUA. — 1. One of those who sealed the covenant (Neh 1021). 2. A high priest (Neh 12"- ^). He is doubtless the Jaddua who is named by Josephus in connexion with Alexander the Great (Jos. Ant. xi. viii. 5, cf. vii. 2, viU. 7).

JADDTTS (AV Addus) . — A priest whose descendants were unable to trace their genealogy at the return under Zerub., and were removed from the priesthood (lEs5''). He is there said to have married Augia, a daughter of Zorzelleus or Barzillai, and to have been called after his name. In Ezr 2" and Neh 7™ he Is called by his adopted name Barzillai,

JADON. — A Meronothite, who took part in rebuild-ing the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 3'). The title ' Merono-thite' occurs again 1 Ch 273», but a place Meronoth is nowhere named. According to Jos. (Ant. viii. viii. 5, ix. 1), Jadon was the name of the man ot'God sent from Judah to Jeroboam (1 K 13).

JAEL.— The wife of Heber, the Kenlte (Jg 4'i- "). The Kenites were on friendly terms both with the Israelites (l'«) and with the Canaanites, to whom Jabin and his general, Sisera, belonged. On his defeat by the IsraeUtes, Sisera fled to the tent of Jael, a spot which was doubly secure to the fugitive,.on account both of intertribal friendship and of the rules of Oriental hospitality. The act of treachery whereby Jael slew Sisera (Jg 42') was therefore of the basest kind, according to the morals of her own time, and also to modern ideas. The praise, therefore, accorded to Jael and her deed in the Song of Deborah (Jg 6"-2') must be accounted for on the questionable moral principle that an evil deed, If productive of advantage,