Whoever wrote the Book of Genesis, has placed Jehovah in an immoral point of view; as keeping company with unprincipled knaves, and as acting without any regard to the strict rules of justice and mercy; as having a system of favoritism, which does not admit of administering impartial justice. The case of Jacob and Esau is directly opposed to truth and impartiality. Esau was, in a moral point of view, evidently the best of the two; but Jacob was Jehovah’s choice. Esau, according to Bible history, was a hardy, industrious, and generous man. Jacob, on the other hand, was his mother’s pet; and the deception which he and his mother played on old Isaac, who was blind, is in strict accordance with the conduct of all the Lord’s favorites. Jacob, according to Bible history, was, through his whole life, full of deception and trickery. He could lie and take a false oath to deceive his blind father; and by deceit, deprive his brother Esau of his lawful right of inheritance. And yet the Lord was with him, and connived at all his baseness! But Jacob, conscious of his wickedness, and justly deserving his brother’s resentment, fled to his uncle for protection. On his way, the Lord appeared to him in visions; and, notwithstanding his lying and false swearing to his father, promised him divine assistance. Jacob still acted in the same crafty manner, even with the Lord himself; always having his own self-interest in view; for, after the Lord had said, Genesis xxvii., 15, “_And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of_”—even after this promise from the Lord, in verse 20 it is said—“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, *then shall the Lord be my God*.” Well done, Jacob! that is making a good Jew bargain. Jehovah and Jacob both kept their word; for Jacob married his two cousins, the daughters of his uncle Laban, and staid with him until he, by the help of the Lord, contrived to jockey old Laban out of the best of his cattle, and ran away back to his own father’s house, taking with him, by stealth, the gods of Laban his father. Thus did Jacob not only triumph over the heathen gods, by carrying them off captive, but continued to adhere to Jehovah, his own God, who did not desert him in his recreant tricks. It is not to be wondered that the sons of Jacob should be so base in their actions, after the example of their father; and considering what a mixed breed they were, having so many mothers. Their conduct towards their brother Joseph is a sample of their actions; and although Bible history records the good fortune of Joseph, he, among the rest of his brethren, acted the tyrant as soon as power would permit him so to do.