صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

8

VI. But in all spiritual gifts and graces the younger should be greatly superior, and be the happy instrument of conveying the blessing to all nations. "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed:" and hitherto are to be referred in their full force those expressions, "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee;" "Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." The same promise was made to Abraham in the name of God, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee," (Gen. xii. 3:) and it is here repeated to Jacob, and is thus paraphrased in the Jerusalem Targum, He who curseth thee, shall be cursed, as Balaam the son of Beor: and he who blesseth thee, shall be blessed, as Moses the prophet, the lawgiver of Israel.' It appears that Jacob was a man of more religion, and believed the divine promises more than Esau. The posterity of Jacob likewise preserved the true religion and the worship of one God, while the Edomites were sunk in idolatry. And of the seed of Jacob was born at last the Saviour of the world. This was the peculiar privilege and advantage of Jacob, to be the happy instrument of conveying these spiritual blessings to all nations. This was his greatest superiority over Esau: and in this sense St. Paul understands and applies the prophecy, "the elder shall serve the younger," (Rom. ix. 12.) The Christ, the Saviour of the world, was to be born of some one family: and Jacob's was preferred to Esau's out of the good pleasure of almighty God, who is certainly the best judge of fitness and expedience, and hath an undoubted right to dispense his favours as he shall see proper; "for he saith to Moses, (as the apostle proceeds to argue, ver. 15,) I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." And when the Gentiles were converted to Christianity, the prophecy was fulfilled literally, "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee;" and will more amply be fulfilled, when "the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved."

We have traced the accomplishment of the prophecy from the beginning; and we find that the nation of the Edomites hath at several times been conquered by and made tributary to the Jews, but never the nation of the Jews to the Edomites, and the Jews have been the more considerable people, more known in the world, and more famous in history. We know indeed little more of the history of the Edomites, than as it is connected with that of the Jews: and where is the name or the nation now? They were swallowed up and lost, partly among

Quisquis maledixerat tibi Jacob fili mi, erat maledictus, sicut Balaam filius Beor: quisquis autem benedixerit tibi erit benedic

tus, sicut Moses propheta, legislator Israelitarum.' Targ. Hieros.

the Nabathæan Arabs, and partly among the Jews; and the very name was abolished and disused about the end of the first century after Christ. Thus were they rewarded for insulting and oppressing their brethren the Jews, and hereby other prophecies were fulfilled of Jeremiah, (xlix. 7, &c.) of Ezekiel, (xxv. 12, &c.) of Joel, (iii. 19,) Amos, (i. 11, &c.) and Obadiah. And at this day we see the Jews subsisting as a distinct people, while Edom is no more. For agreeably to the words of Obadiah, (ver. 10,) "For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever:" and again, (ver. 18,) "there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it."

IT

IV. JACOB'S PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIS SONS,

PARTICULARLY JUDAH.

2

T is an opinion of great antiquity, that the nearer men approach to their dissolution, their souls grow more divine, and discern more of futurity. We find this opinion as early as Homer,' for he represents the dying Patroclus foretelling the fate of Hector, and the dying Hector denouncing no less certainly the death of Achilles. Socrates, in his Apology to the Athenians, a little before his death asserts the same opinion. 'But now,' saith he, 'I am desirous to prophecy to you who have condemned me, what will happen hereafter. For now I am arrived at that state, in which men prophecy most, when they are about to die.' His scholar 3 Xenophon introduces the dying Cyrus declaring in like manner, that the soul of man at the hour of death appears most divine, and then foresees something of future events.' Diodorus Siculus allegeth great authorities upon this subject; Pythagoras the Samian, and some others of the ancient naturalists, have demonstrated that the

• See Prideaux Connect. part 1, b. 5, anno 129.

1 Hom. Iliad. xvi. 852, et Iliad. xxii. 358. 2 Τὸ δὲ δὴ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐπιθυμῶ ὑμῖν χρησ σμῳδῆσαι, ὦ καταψηφισάμενοί μου· καὶ γάρ εἰμι ἤδη ἐνταῦθα ἐν ᾧ μάλιστ ̓ ἄνθρωποι χρησ σμῳδοῦσιν, ὅταν μέλλωσιν ἀποθανεῖσθαι. Jam vero, O vos, qui me condemnastis, cupio vobis earum rerum, quæ vobis sunt eventuræ, casus quasi oraculo prædicere: in illum enim temporis statum jam perveni, in quo homines divinandi facultate maxime pollent, quando nimirum mortituri sunt. Platonis Apolog. Socr. § 30, vol. 1, p. 39, Edit. Serran.

3 Ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴ τότε δήπου θειοτάτη καταφαίνεται, καὶ τότε τι τῶν μελλόντων

poopa. ac hominis animus tum scilicet maxime divinus perspicitur, et tum futurorum aliquid prospicit. Xenoph. Cyrop. 1. 8, c. 7, § 21.

4 Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος καὶ τινες ἕτεροι τῶν παλαιῶν φυσικῶν ἀπεφήναντο τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑπάρχειν ἀθανάτους· ἀκολούθως δὲ τῷ δόγματι τούτῳ καὶ προγιγνώσκειν αὐτὰς τὰ μέλλοντα, καθ ̓ ὃν ἂν καιρὸν ἐν τῇ τελευτῇ τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος χωρισμὸν ποιῶνται. Pythagoras Samius, et quidam physicorum veterum ali, immortales esse hominum animas confirmarunt; et quod hujus sententiæ consectarium est, prænoscere futura, cum, imminente vitæ exitu, jamjam a corpore segregantur. Lib. 18, c. 1.

7

5

souls of men are immortal, and in consequence of this opinion that they also foreknow future events, at the same time that they are making their separation from the body in death.' Sextus Empiricus confirms it likewise by the authority of Aristotle; the soul, saith Aristotle, foresees and foretels future events, when it is going to be separated from the body by death.' We might produce more testimonies to this purpose from Cicero, and Eustathius upon Homer, and from other authors, if there was occasion; but these are sufficient to show the great antiquity of this opinion. And it is possible, that old experience may in some cases attain to something like prophecy and divination. In some instances also God may have been pleased to comfort and enlighten departing souls with a prescience of future events. But what I conceive might principally give rise to this opinion, was the tradition of some of the patriarchs being divinely inspired in their last moments to foretel the state and condition of the people descended from them; as Jacob upon his death-bed summoned his sons together that he might inform them of what should befall them in the latter days, or the last days; by which phrase some commentators understand the times of the Messiah, or the last great period of the world; and Mr. Whiston particularly "asserts, that it is generally, if not always, a characteristic and KpThpov of prophecies not to be fulfilled till the coming of the Messiah: and accordingly he supposes that these prophecies of Jacob more properly belong to the second coming of the Messiah, at the restoration of the twelve tribes hereafter. But the phrase of the latter days or last days in the Old Testament signifies any time that is yet to come, though sometimes it may relate to the times of the Messiah in particular, as it comprehends all future time in general: and hence it is used in prophecies that respect different times and periods. "I will advertise thee, (saith Balaam to Balak, Numb. xxiv. 14,) what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days:" but what the Israelites did to the Moabites, was done long before the times of the Messiah. "I know, (saith Moses, Deut. xxxi. 29,) that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves,

[blocks in formation]

and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days:" where the latter days are much the same as the time after the death of Moses. "There is a God in heaven, (saith Daniel, ii. 28,) that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days:" but several particulars are there foretold of the four great monarchies of the earth, which were fulfilled before the coming of the Messiah. And in like manner these prophecies of Jacob were, many or most of them, accomplished under the Mosaic economy, several ages before the birth of our Saviour.

Jacob, as we have seen, received a double blessing, temporal and spiritual, the promise of the land of Canaan, and the promise of the seed in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed; which promises were first made to Abraham, and then repeated to Isaac, and then confirmed to Jacob; and Jacob a little before his death bequeaths the same to his children. The temporal blessing or inheritance of the land of Canaan might be shared and divided among all his sons, but the blessed seed could descend only from one: and Jacob accordingly assigns to each a portion in the promised land, but limits the descent of the blessed seed to the tribe of Judah, and at the same time sketches out the characters and fortunes of all the tribes.

He adopts the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, for his own, but foretels that the younger should be the greater of the two, (Gen. xlviii. 19:) and hath not the prediction been fully justified by the event? The tribe of Ephraim grew to be so numerous and powerful, that it is sometimes put for all the ten tribes of Israel.Of Reuben it is said, (Gen. xlix. 4,) "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel:" and what is recorded great or excellent of the tribe of Reuben? In number (Numb. i.) and power they were inferior to several other tribes. -Of Simeon and Levi it is said, (ver. 7,) "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel:" and was not this eminently fulfilled in the tribe of Levi, who had no portion or inheritance of their own, but were dispersed among the other tribes? Neither had the tribe of Simeon any inheritance properly of their own, but only a portion in the midst of the tribe of Judah, (Josh. xix. 1-9,) from whence several of them afterwards went in quest of new habitations, (1 Chron. iv. 39, &c.) and so were divided from the rest of their brethren. A constant tradition too hath prevailed among the Jews, (which

9 Tradunt quoque Hebræi, scribas, pædotribas, pædagogos, et doctores puerorum fere omnes ex tribu Schimeon fuisse, qui, ut haberent unde viverent, sparsim et oppi

datim pueros informare cogebantur. Cui sententiæ adstipulatur et Thargum Hieros. &c.' Fagius.

is also confirmed by the Jerusalem Targum) that the tribe of Simeon were so straitened in their situation and circumstances, that great numbers were necessitated to seek a subsistence among the other tribes, by teaching and instructing their children. Of Zebulun it is said, (ver. 13,) “He shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and shall be for an haven of ships" and accordingly the tribe of Zebulun extended from the sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean, (Josh. xix. 10, &c.) where they had commodious havens for shipping. And how could Jacob have foretold the situation of any tribe, which was determined 200 years afterwards by casting of lots, unless he had been directed by that divine Spirit, who disposeth of all events? Of Benjamin it is said, (ver. 27,) "He shall ravin as a wolf:" and was not that a fierce and warlike tribe, as appears in several instances, and particularly in the case of the Levite's wife, (Judg. xx.) when they alone waged war against all the other tribes, and overcame them in two battles?

[ocr errors]

In this manner he characterizes these and the other tribes, and foretels their temporal condition, and that of Judah as well as the rest: "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk," (ver. 11, 12:) and not to mention the valley of Eshcol and other fruitful places, the mountains about Jerusalem, by the accounts of the best travellers, were particularly fitted for the cultivation of the vine, and for the feeding of cattle. The blessing,' says Dr. Shaw,' that was given to Judah, was not of the same kind, with the blessing of Asher or of Issachar that "his bread should be fat," or "his land should be pleasant," but that "his eyes should be red with wine, and his teeth should be white with milk." He farther observes that 'the mountains of the country abound with shrubs and a delicate short grass, both which the cattle are more fond of, than of such plants as are common to fallow grounds and meadows. Neither was this method of grazing peculiar to this country; inasmuch as it is still practised all over Mount Libanus, the Castravan mountains, and Barbary; in all which places the higher grounds are set apart for this use, and the plains and valleys for tillage. For besides the good management and economy, there is this farther advantage, that the milk of cattle fed in this manner is far more rich and delicious, as their flesh is more sweet and nourishing.-It may be presumed likewise, that the vine was not neglected, in a soil and exposition so proper for it to thrive in.' He mentions particularly, the many tokens which are to be met with, of the ancient vineyards about Jerusalem and Hebron,' and 'the great 1 Shaw's Travels, p. 366, 367.

« السابقةمتابعة »