HISTORY OF JOB. [2347-1635 B.C. God reproved the three friends of Job; but he healed Job of his disease, blessed him with greater riches than he had possessed before, and gave him, also, another family of sons and daughters, many servants, and large possessions.

NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS.

ren.

Job—to repent,' 'to praise ;' it is evinced—showed; expressed. generally supposed that this much

trials-sufferings; afflictions. tried yet highly favoured servant of God, lived in the time of Abraham; native of Buz in Arabia.

Elihu— God Jehovah ;' he was a others consider that he lived in the time of Moses.

reflect—to meditate upon; to rememobtained leave—without the Divine

ber his impatience with grief. permission, not even Satan himself can

comprehension—understanding ; grasp inflict injury upon one of God's child- of thought. 1 Cor, x. 13.

reference-pointing to; naming extempt-try or prove; Job's profession pressly. of faith in God and submission to his condition-state and relation of the will was tested by severe afflictions. various elements of the material James v. l] and 1 Peter i. 7.

creation. Sabeans—the descendants of Sheba, universe—the world, and all the beone of Sbem's posterity; their territory ings which inhabit it; the system of lay in the northern part of Arabia, be- worlds above and around us. tween the Red Sea & the Indian Ocean.

insignificance-littleness ; weakness. calamities—troubles; painful bereave- ignorance—want of knowledge. ments.

vile—mean; a creature of earth-as a bowed-fell prostrate; this expressive worm compared with God. mode of showing respect, humility, withholden-kept back; concealed. and grief still prevails in the East. submission—the yielding up of one's token of humiliation, and casting ashes

dust and ashes-sitting, in dust, as a own will unreservedly. Pet. v. 6.

on the head as a symbol of great grief, God's will—made known by those were practices common in the East. painful dispensations which were not The result of Job's folly or wickedness, GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. but which had their origin in the sovereign will of Him who has power it was first settled by the descendants of

Uz-an extensive district in Idumea; to give life or to take it away.

Uz or Huz, one of Shem's posterity. smitten..a sudden personal affliction manifested upon him.

IDUMEA—the country to the south of Eliphaz—*God my strength;'a native Canaan, called also Edom; it extends

into Arabia Petrea and to the borders of Teman, a city of Idumea.

of the Red Sea; it was first inhabited Bildad—a resident of Shuah, a district by a powerful tribe called Horites, east of Arabia Petrea.

and afterwards by the descendants of Zophar—'forward ;' citizen of Esau, who are called Edomites; its Naamah, in Edom.

a

“I WAS NOT IN SAFETY, NEITHER HAD I REST, NEITHER WAS I QUIET; YET

TROUBLE CAME."

Of all my race there breathes not one,

To comfort or deplore me;
Pain wakes a pulse in every bone,

And death is closing o'er me.
Still doth his lifted stroke delay,

Protracted tortures dooming,
I feel ere life has pass'd away,

His very worm consuming.
Night spreads her mantle o'er the sky,

And all around are sleeping,
While I in tears of agony,

My restless couch am steeping.
I sigh for morn—the rising day

Awakes the earth to gladness,
I turn with sickening soul away

It smiles upon my sadness.
A crown of glory grace'd my brow,
While nations be

before me;
Princes and hoary sires would bow,

To flatter and adore me.
To me the widow turn'd for aid,

And ne'er in vain address'd me;
For me the grateful orphan prayed,

The soul of misery bless'd me.
I rais’d the drooping wretch that pine'd

In lonely anguish lying;
Was balm unto the wounded mind,

And solace to the dying;
Till one stern stroke of all my state,

Of all my bliss, bereft me;
And I was worse than desolate,

For God himself had left me.
All hope on earth for ever fled

A higher hope remaineth ;
Ev'n while his wrath is o’er me shed,

I know my Saviour reigneth.
The worm may waste this withering clay,

When flesh and spirit sever;
My soul shall see eternal day,

And dwell with God for ever. Dale.

Esau was a

JACOB OBTAINS ESAU'S BIRTHRIGHT. [2347-1635 B.C. 12. THE HISTORY OF ISAAC. HE BLESSES

HIS SONS.

Genesis xxv. 20-xxviii. Abraham died at the age of one-hundred-and-seventy-five years. ·His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah. Twenty years after Isaac and Rebekah were married they had two sons. The Lord told Rebekah before they were born, that the elder should serve the younger. This was ·fulfilled many years after in their descendants. Esau was the first-born, and Jacob was the younger son. 'cunning hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a «plain man dwelling in tents. Esau came from the field

weary

and faint. He asked Jacob for his red pottage. Jacob would not give it to him except for his birthright. Esau thought his birthright was

. of little use, and sold it to Jacob for his pottage. They were then thirty years

of

age. There was a famine in Canaan, and Isaac went to Gerar. God confirmed to Isaac the promises he had made to Abraham. Isaac told the men of Gerar that Rebekah was his sister. The king afterwards reproved Isaac for his deceit. Isaac's flocks and herds increased very much. The herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's herdsmen about the wells of water. Isaac left Gerar, and dwelt in Beersheba. Some years after, Ishmael died in the presence of his brethren. When Isaac was old his eyes were •dim, and he could not

He called his son, Esau, to bless him. Rebekah wished Jacob to have the blessing, and she and Jacob •deceived Isaac. Isaac gave Jacob the first-born's blessing, saying, “ God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine : let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be every one that blesseth thee.” When Esau came in, Isaac knew that he had been deceived, and he blessed Esau also, saying, “ Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above ; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy PERIOD II.]

JACOB FLEES INTO PADAN-ARAM.

brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” Esau 'hated Jacob for having obtained their father's greatest blessing ; and he said he would slay Jacob. Jacob fled to Laban, his mother's brother, at Padan-aram; on his way he had a vision at Bethel. God promised to protect and bless him in all places, and bring him again into Canaan.

NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS.

course.

a

man

His sons, &c.—though living at a dis- Lord's service, great dignity, and tance from one another, it would seem superiority over brethren. that they maintained a friendly inter

presence—surrounded by his relatives;

probably the children of Abraham and fulfilled—took place as had been fore- Keturah are referred to in the term told.

• brethren.' Esau—'covered with hair;' he was of dim—a film had obscured his power of a daring, hasty spirit; resentful, but sight; as old age advances a gradual forgiving; it does not appear that he decay of the senses takes place. was under the influence of the fear of

deceived—Rebekah being aware that God. He was called Edom, or ‘red,' Jacob was the object of God's special from the circumstance of selling his favor, felt, as was natural, peculiarly birthright for a mess of red pottage. anxious about him; but this feeling Jacob—'heeler,'' supplanter'; he was i was not kept in proper subjection to

of domestic virtues and the law of God, hence she conceived affections; eminent for piety; a man of a plan for deceiving her husband, into faith and prayer. In all his troubles which Jacob unhappily fell. She did he sought for succour from God alone, this to render sure the promise of God whose hand he recognised in all the that the elder should serve the affairs of life.

younger ; but he who promised that cunning-clever in the chase ; skilful Jacob. should have the sovereignty in the pursuit of one's calling.' Exod. over his brother was able to bring it xxxv. 35 ; 1 Kings vii. 14.

to pass, without necessitating any of plain—quiet; prudent; fond of home; injustice. Lesson 13, deceived.

his children to acts of dishonour and not given to daring exploits. tents—are still used in the East.

hated—a feeling of indignation and Esau's life sometimes compelled him to contempt at Jacob's deceit, and dislike take shelter in trees and caves, or to and resentment towards him for hav. lie exposed upon the ground ;'Jacobing obtained that blessing which some preferred the calmer life of dwelling years before he had bartered for a in tents. Lesson 2, 'tents.'

Esau's hatred did mess of pottage.

not however continue to the end of his birthright—the chief blessing belong-life; Lesson 13. “reconciled.' ed to the first-born by right; still it might be forfeited voluntarily, as in

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE. this case, or on account of crime; PADAN-ARAM-a district in the north| Chron. v. i. The chief blessing ern part of Mesopotamia in which some included special consecration to the of Abraham's kindred were settled.

JACOB SERVES LABAN.

[2347-1635 B.C.

PRAYER OF JACOB.

"I AM WITH THEE AND WILL KEEP THEE IN ALL PLACES WHITHER THOU GOEST. »

O God of Bethel ! by whose hand

Thy people still are fed;
Who, through this weary pilgrimage,

Hast all our fathers led!
Our vows, our prayers, we now present

Before thy throne of grace;
God of our fathers, be the God

Of their succeeding race.
Through each perplexing path of life

Our wandering footsteps guide,
Give us .each day, our daily bread,

And raiment fit provide !
O spread thy covering wings around,

Till all our wanderings cease,
And at our Father's love'd abode

Our feet arrive in peace !
Now with the humble voice of prayer

Thy mercy we implore;
Then with the grateful voice of praise

Thy goodness we'll adore.

Logan.

13. JACOB SERVES LABAN. HE RETURNS TO

CANAAN.

Genesis xxix-xxxiv. Jacob came into the land of the people of the east; he inquired for Laban, the son of Nahor, when he came to 'a well at Haran. To this well · Rachel, a daughter of Laban, came to water her father's sheep. Jacob made himself known to Rachel, and Laban received him with much kindness. While Jacob lived at Padan-aram he kept the flocks of Laban, his uncle. He agreed to serve Laban seven years, for his daughter Rachel

. Laban deceived him, and gave him •Leah. He served again other seven years for Rachel. He married both Laban's daughters, and he had many children.