Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
“Yea,” said the Most High, “thou art My priest in heaven, but Jacob is
My priest on earth. Why hast thou lamed him?”
Then Michael answered, “I wrestled with him, and let him overcome me,
to Thy honor, O Lord; that, seeing he had overcome an angel of God, he
might have courage to go boldly to meet Esau.”
But this was no excuse for having lamed him. Therefore Michael said to
Raphael, “Oh, angel of healing! come to my aid.” So Raphael descended
to earth, and touehed the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and it was restored
as before.
But God said to Michael, “For this that thou hast done, thou shalt be
the guardian of Israel as long as the world lasteth.”[387]
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen
the angel of the Lord face to face, and my soul is saved.” And the sun
rose upon him before its time, as, when he went out from Beer-sheba, it
had set before its time.[388]
And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came,
and with him four hundred men of war. And he divided the children
unto Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two concubines, and placed the
concubines and their sons foremost; for he said, “If Esau come to
destroy the children, and ill-treat the women, he will do it with them,
and meanwhile we can prepare to fight; and Leah and her children after,
and Rachel and Joseph after them.”[389] And he himself went over before
them, praying and asking mercy before the Lord; and he bowed upon the
earth seven times, until he met with his brother; but it was not to
Esau that he bowed, though Esau supposed he did, but to the Lord God
Most High.[390]
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck
and bit him, but by the mercy of God the neck of Jacob became marble,
and Esau broke his teeth upon it; therefore it is said in the Book of
Genesis that he _fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept_.[391]
But the Targumim apparently do not acknowledge that the neck of Jacob
became marble, for the Targum of Palestine explains their weeping thus:
“Esau wept on account of the pain of his teeth, which were shaken;
but Jacob wept because of the pain of his neck;” and the Targum of
Jerusalem, “Esau wept for the crushing of his teeth, and Jacob wept for
the tenderness of his neck.”
“The Lord God prospered Jacob,” and he had one hundred and two times
ten thousand and seven thousand (_i. e._, a thousand times a thousand,
seven thousand and two hundred) sheep, and six hundred thousand dogs;
but some Rabbis say the sheep were quite innumerable, but when Jacob
counted his sheep-dogs he found that he had twelve hundred thousand of
them; others, however, reduce the number one-half. They say, one dog
went with each flock, but those who say that there were twelve hundred
thousand dogs, count two to each flock.[392]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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