Footnote 5: Our English authorized version translates the first clause of this verse thus: "And Leah said, A troop cometh,"--a rendering which cannot be objected to on etymological grounds, and which receives some support from Gen. xlix. 19. The ancient versions, however, are quite unanimous in assigning to the גד in בגד the signification of "fortune," "good luck;" and render it either: "in or for good luck;" "luckily," "happily" (so the LXX. et Vulg.), or, following _Onkelos_ and the Mazorets: "good luck has come."--(Tr.) [Pg 46] THE PROMISE TO THE PATRIARCHS. A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. _Luther_ says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake everything, and then God will give him everything. Gen. xii. 1. "_And the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy hone, and from thy father's house, into a land that I will show thee._ Ver. 2. _And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing._ Ver. 3. _And I will bless them that bless thee, and him who curseth thee I will curse: and in thee all the families of the earth shall be blessed._"