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| Chapter X.
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Chapter X.
Israel, therefore,
avoiding the house of his brother, sent forward his company to Salem, a
town of the Shechemites, and there he pitched his tent on a spot which
he had purchased. Emor, a Chorræan prince, was the ruler of that
town. His son Sychem defiled Dinah, the daughter of Jacob by Leah.
Symeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, discovering this, cut off by a
stratagem all those of the male sex in the town, and thus terribly
avenged the injury done to their sister. The town was plundered by the
sons of Jacob, and all the spoil carried off. Jacob is said to have
been much displeased with these proceedings. Soon after being
instructed by God, he went to Bethel, and there erected an altar to
God. Then he fixed his tent in a part of the territory belonging to the
tower266
| 266 “In parte
turris Gadir”: this is a strange rendering of the Hebrew. The LXX
has “beyond the tower Gader”; while the Revised English
Version has “beyond the tower of Eder.” | Gader. Rachel died in childbirth: the boy
she bore was called Benjamin. Israel died at the age of one hundred and
eighty years. Now, Esau was mighty in wealth, and had taken to himself
wives of the nation of the Canaanites. I do not think that, in a work
so concise as the present, I am called upon to mention his descendants,
and, if any one is curious on the subject, he may turn to the original.
After the death of his father, Jacob stayed on in the place where Isaac
had lived. His other sons occasionally left him along with the flocks,
for the sake of pasturage, but Joseph and the little Benjamin remained
at home. Joseph was much beloved by his father, and on that account was
hated by his brethren. There was this further cause for their aversion,
that by frequent dreams of his it seemed to be indicated that he would
be greater than all of them. Accordingly, having been sent by his
father to inspect the flocks and pay a visit to his brothers, there
seemed to them a fitting opportunity for doing him harm. For, on seeing
their brother, they took counsel to slay him. But Reuben, whose mind
shuddered at the contemplation of such a crime, opposing their plan,
Joseph was let down into a well.267
Afterwards,
by the persuasions of Judah, they were brought to milder measures, and
sold him to merchants, who were on their way to Egypt. And by them he
was delivered to Petifra, a governor of Pharaoh.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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