must wash their hands in innocency, and so compass God's altar.* Jacob not only commands his household to put away their idols, but endeavours to impress upon them his own sentiments. Let us arise, saith he, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. He is decided for himself, and uses all means to persuade his family to unite with him. His intimating that God had heretofore answered him in the day of his distress, might be designed not only to show them the propriety of what he was about to do, but to excite a hope that God might disperse the cloud which now hung over them on account of the late impure and bloody transaction. Ver. 4. Considering the evils which prevailed in this family, and the bewitching nature of idolatry, it is rather surprising to observe the readiness with which they consent to give it up. But no doubt the hand of the Lord was in it. When Jacob spake as he ought to speak, their hearts were bowed before him. Difficulties which in a languid state of mind seem insurmountable, are easily got over when once we come to act decidedly for God and those whom we expected to oppose the good work, shall frequently be found willing to engage with us in it. They not only gave their gods, but even their ear-rings, which in those times were convertible, and often, if not always, converted to purposes of idolatry. But why did Jacob bury them? We may think they might have been melted down, and converted to a better use but that was expressly forbidden by the Mosaic law, and it seems the patriarchs acted on the same principle. But why did he not utterly destroy them? Perhaps it would have been better if he had. I hope, however, he hid them where they were found no more. Upon the whole, we see at this time a great change for the better in Jacob's family. He should not have been reluctant, or indifferent, to going up to Bethel; for it appears to have been the design of God to make it one of his best removals. It was a season of grace, in which God not only blessed him, but caused even those that dwelt under his shadow to return. I have more hope of Rachel and Leah's having relinquished all for the God of * Psalm xxvi. 6. † Exod. xxxii. 2. Hos. ii. 13. Deut. vii. 25. Israel from this time, than from any thing in the former part of their history. Ver. 5. We now see Jacob and his family on their journey. It would appear to the cities round about that the slaughter of the Shechemites was the cause of this removal. Their not pursuing them being ascribed to the terror of God being upon them, implies, that the public indignation was so excited against them, that, if they had dared, they would have cut them off. The kind care which God exercised on this occasion was no less contrary to the parent's fears, than to the deserts of his ungodly children; and its being extended to them for his sake, must, if they had any sense of things, appal their proud spirits, and repress the insolence with which they had lately treated him. Ver. 6, 7. Arriving at Bethel in safety, Jacob, according to his vow, built there an altar unto Jehovah, and gave it a name which God had graciously given himself; namely, El-bethel, the God of Bethel. This altar, and this name would serve as a perpetual memorial of God's having appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. And as at that time many great and precious promises were made to him, it would be natural for him to associate with the idea of the God of Bethel, that of a God in covenant; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Ver. 8. While Jacob and his family were at Bethel, their enjoyments seem to have been interrupted by the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. Some particulars are here implied, which are not recorded in the history. Deborah did not belong to the family of Jacob, but to that of Isaac. Jacob must therefore have been and visited his father; and finding his mother dead, and her nurse far advanced in years, more fit to be nursed herself than to be of any use to her aged master, he took her home, where she would meet with kind attentions from her younger countrywomen, and probably furnished his father with another more suitable in her place. Nothing is said of her from the time she left Padanaram with her young mistress: but by the honourable mention that is here made of her, she seems to have been a worthy charThe death of an aged servant, when her work was done, acter. would not ordinarily excite much regret. To have afforded her a decent burial was all that in most cases would be thought of: but Jacob's family were so much affected by the event, as not only to weepover her grave, but to call the very tree under the shadow of which she was interred, Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping. It is the more singular too, that the family who wept over her was not that in which she had lived in what we should call her best days; but one that had merely taken her under their care in her old age. It is probable, however, that the sorrow expressed at her interment was on account, not only of her character, but her office, or her having been Rebecca's nurse. The text seems to lay an emphasis upon these words. The sight of the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and even of his sheep, had interested Jacob's heart (Chap. xxix. 10.); much more would the burial of her nurse. In weeping over her grave, he would seem to be weeping over that of his beloved parent, and paying that tribute of affection to her memory, which Providence had denied him at the time of her decease. Ver. 9-15. During the seven years in which Jacob resided at Shechem we do not find a single instance of God's manifesting himself to him, except that of admonishing him to depart. But now that he is come to Bethel, and has performed his vow, God appeared unto him again, and blessed him. But how is it that this is said to be when he came out of Padan-aram? The design of the phrase, I apprehend, is not to convey the idea of its being at the time of his return from that country, or immediately after it; but to distinguish it from that appearance of God to him in the same place where he now was, in his way thither. He appeared to him at Bethel when he was going to Padan-aram; and now he appeared to him again, at the same place, when he was come out of it. The whole account given in these verses of the appearance, of God to Jacob, and of his conduct in return, describes a solemn and mutual renewal of covenant. There is nothing material in what is here said to him, but what had been said before; and nothing material which he did, but what had been done before ; VOL. V. *So the passage is rendered by Ainsworth. but the whole was now as it were consolidated and confirmed. (1.) God had before told him that his name should no more be called Jacob, but Israel (Chap. xxxii. 28.): this honour is here renewed, and the renewal of it contained an assurance that he should still go on and prevail. (2.) God had before declared that the promises made to Abraham should be fulfilled in him and his posterity: (Chap. xxviii. 13. 14.) this declaration is here renewed and prefaced with an assertion of his own all-sufficiency to fulfil them. (3.) When God had before appeared to him, he set up a pillar of stone, and poured oil upon it, and called the name of the place Bethel (Chap. xxviii. 18, 19.) this process he now renewed, with the addition of a drink-offering, for which on his first journey he probably had not the materials. These renewals of promises and acknowledgments may teach us not to be so anxious after new discoveries as to overlook those which we have already obtained. God may appear to us by the revival of known truths, as well as by the discovery of what was unknown; and we may glorify him as much by doing our first works, as by engaging in something which has not been done before. Old truths, ordinances, and even places, become new to us when we renew communion with God in them. Ver. 16-20. We are not told the reason of Jacob's leaving Bethel. Probably he was directed to do so. However this might be, his removal in the present instance was accompanied with a very painful event; namely, the loss of his beloved Rachel, and that in the prime of life. Journeying from Bethel, and within a little of Ephrath, or Bethlehem, she travailed, and had haru labour. The issue was, the infant was spared, but the mother removed. Thus she that had said, Give me children, or I die, died in childbirth ! Several circumstances which attended this afflictive event are deserving of notice. (1.) The words of the midwife: Fear not : thou shalt have this son also. When Rachel bare her first son, she called him Joseph, that is, Adding; for said she, by a prophetic impulse, the Lord shall add to me another son. It is probably in reference to this that the midwife spake as she did. Her words, if reported to Jacob, with the recollection of the above prophetic hint, would raise his hopes, and render his loss more affecting, by adding to it the pain of disappointment. They appear to have no influence, however, on Rachel. She has the sentence of death in herself, and makes no answer: but turning her eyes towards the child, and calling him Ben-oni, the son of my sorrow, she expires! (2.) The terms by which her death is described-It came to pass, as her soul was in departing. An ordinary historian would have said, as she was dying, or as she was ready to expire : but the scriptures delight in an impressive kind of phraseology, which at the same time shall both instruct the mind and affect the heart. It was by means of such language, on various occasions, that the doctrine of a future state was known and felt from generation to generation among the Israelites, while the heathen around them, with all their learning, were in the dark upon the subject. (3.) The change of the child's name: She called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. The former, though very appropriate at the time, yet, if continued, must tend perpetually to revive the recollection of the death of his mother; and of The name given such a monitor Jacob did not stand in need. 1 him, signified the son of my right hand; that is, a son of the most tender affection and delight, inheriting the place which his mother had formerly possessed in his father's heart. If the love of God be wanting, that of a creature will often be supreme; and where this is the case, the loss of the object is frequently known to leave the party utterly inconsolable; but though the affection of a good man may be very strong, and his sorrow proportionably deep; yet he is taught to consider that every created good is only lent him; and that his generation's work being as yet unfulfilled, it is not for him to feed melancholy, nor to pore over his loss with a sullenness that shall unfit him for duty, but rather to divert his affections from the object that is taken, and direct them to those that are which appears to left. (4.) The stone erected to her memory, have continued for many generations. Burying her in the place where she died, Jacob set a pillar upon her grave; and that was It was the pillar of Rachel's grave when her history was written. near this place, if not upon the very spot, that the tribe of Benjamin afterwards bad its inheritance: and therefore it is that the |