left her unrestricted freedom (ver. 57). And lest there should remain the least uncertainty, it is later expressly added, that Isaac loved Rebekah, and that he was through her consoled for the grief caused by the death of his mother (ver. 67). Thus, our tale may, at the same time, be intended to teach the lesson, that a special providence of God watches over the holy bond of matrimony, and that He always unites those destined by Him to form "one flesh," however separated they may be from one another, and however accidental the ways may appear by which they are brought into connection.

It is customary, that before the conclusion of a marriage-contract, a price should be stipulated, which the young man is required to pay to the father of the bride. But as the whole transaction of the servant's mission has a perfectly spiritual character, such stipulation would have been inappropriate; for it would have made the success dependent on an external agreement, while it was to be decided by the Divine will alone. The marriage price, therefore, is, in this case, very aptly represented by the voluntary gifts which the messenger offers to the bride and her parents, and which, though no doubt valuable and generous, were a present rather than an exacted price. Whether this circumstance also has a practical tendency; whether it hints at the propriety of abandoning the frigid and undignified custom of a

63. And Isaac went

marriage-price; and whether it intends to divest it at least of the mercenary sordidness into which it is apt to degenerate: this we can rather feel than prove from the words, although it is in full harmony both with the pure spirit of this narrative, and with the enthusiastic admiration with which elsewhere a virtuous wife is praised as priceless (Prov.xxxi. 10; see on xxix. 13—20).

Incited to a speedy return by the rapidity with which God had made him succeed in his mission (ver. 56), the faithful steward, unwilling to indulge in inactive enjoyment, longed to announce his triumph to his master. But as it was usual to allow a certain period to elapse between the bethrothal and the marriage, as a matter of propriety as well as of prudence, the bride was consulted, and her decision was regarded as final: and when Rebekah, revering the Divine oracle, declared her readiness to follow the messenger without delay, she was dismissed by her relations with a fervent blessing, implying a numerous, powerful, and ever-victorious progeny; and she departed, as it behoves the daughter of a wealthy house, accompanied by her nurse and her maids.

62–67. Isaac was the worthy offspring of the chosen patriarch. He ever displayed imperturbable harmony of the soul, unmoved by the greatest and dearest sacrifices; his mind was, by nature, calm and placid; modest and reserved; he was susceptible of that happiness which

flows from sentiment; his heart was warm and sensitive; his piety internal and unostentatious; he inclined to reflection and prayer; his affections were strong without impetuosity; his impressions profound without exuberance. His destinies corresponded with his character. They form the exact medium between the history of Abraham and that of Jacob. He spent his life without the deeds of the one and the sufferings of the other; he was not, like either, compelled to distant wanderings; after the grand trial of his youth, the course of his life was, on the whole, calm and even. Without labour or care, he inherited a large fortune, while both his father and his son acquired property but gradually, and the latter not without laborious exertion; he obtained a pious and beautiful wife without the least personal effort, by the care of a provident father and a faithful servant, whereas, Jacob had, for the same purpose, not only to undertake a perilous journey, but to submit to a long and toilsome servitude; and though we shall soon have occasion to show many parallels in the destinies of Isaac and Abraham, the history of the former exhibits a certain pause in the progress of the narrative; it contains few new elements, and advances but little the Hebrew theocracy; its tendency is rather to secure the old ideas, than to introduce new ones; and its chief interest consists in proving how the enlightenment of Abraham had, by habit and temperament, become with Isaac an impulsive feeling; and how the acquirements of the mind had become the property of the heart.

With this character of Isaac alone the last part of this section harmonises. His thoughts were, no doubt, engaged with the messenger's journey; after the death

of his mother, his heart felt a void which he longed to fill up by a sentiment equally holy and absorbing; his pensive nature indulged in meditation on this momentous point; but his happy disposition shielded him against agitating anxiety, and his piety taught him to hope. It is not impossible, that Isaac, like the messenger, had proposed to himself a certain oracle; that this is expressed in the rather obscure phrase: "he went out to meditate in the field"; and that the arrival of the caravan just at that moment was to him the fulfilment of the sign. It is evidently necessary to include Isaac in the same circle of religious resignation which embraces all the other persons connected with this mission, from Abraham to Laban; Isaac was personally more deeply concerned in it than all the others; he had before all to believe that the bride brought to him from a foreign land would really sympathise with his own feelings; and that she was selected for him by the immediate interposition of God: a sign was, therefore, naturally expected by him with, at least, the same justice as by the servant of his father.

It is an eastern custom, prevalent in many parts to this day, that women, when riding on the road, and meeting strange men, descend from their animals, as a mark of respect offered to the stronger sex. European travellers have frequently been the objects of such salutations. The conduct of Rebekah is, therefore, in no way extraordinary, if we but translate correctly: "she alighted from the camel." When Rebekah heard from the servant that her future husband was approaching towards them, "she took the veil and covered herself." It is evident, from this context, that her application of

the veil stands in some necessary connection with the presence of Isaac; and we find this connection easily in the well-known eastern custom, that the bride is, on the day of marriage, brought veiled to her bridegroom, a custom which alone explains the possibility of Laban's deception practised on Jacob. Nor must we forget that the class of eastern out-door veils here mentioned does not, like others in common use, merely cover the face, but, like a kind of large wrapper, nearly the whole form, rendering it impossible to recognise the person; while the veils worn in the house, resemble much those of our age and country, forming a part of the head-dress, and usually thrown back. Another sort of veil, common in Egypt and Syria, and represented even on very ancient Asiatic monuments, commences beneath the eyes and falls down over the greater part of the body; but it is uncertain whether the Hebrews applied it. The material of the veils varied from the coarsest to the finest and most exquisite texture; and a suitable veil was among the costliest articles with which brides were necessarily furnished by their parents. It is clear, from our passage, and from many others, that among the Hebrews unmarried ladies appeared publicly without a veil; even married women did not

veil themselves before strangers in their own houses; but, out of doors, the latter probably took the veil as conscientiously as it is at present deemed indispensable by all Eastern ladies of honour and virtuc. It may, however, be inferred from our text (ver. 65), that even married ladies, when travelling, were not always scrupulous in the application of the veil; for it is certain that Rebekah regarded herself as the lawful wife of Isaac from the moment that her parents had expressed their consent. - It appears that Abraham had, in the mean time, changed his abode; he had left Hebron, and pitched his tents more southward, near that celebrated well which had become sacred to him by the Divine appearance here granted to Hagar; this change must have taken place before the departure of the messenger, who, otherwise, would not have come so far southward on his return from Mesopotamia. — When Isaac heard the wonderful history of that journey, his heart, spontaneously inclining to the softer feelings, considered Rebekah as the wife assigned to him by the manifest will of God; he loved her with a double affection; and for the first time, after the death of his mother, after three mournful and solitary years, joy re-entered his bosom, and cheerfulness his dwelling.

1-4. There existed among the Hebrews the tradition that certain tribes of Arabia were connected with them by descent and close relationship. This po pular belief, no doubt based on a genuine historical reminiscence, is embodied in the offspring here attributed to Abraham, and born to him by a subordinate wife, Keturah. Accustomed as we are to the Biblical mode of representing ethnographic relations by means of genealogies, we can find no difficulty in the insertion itself of this list. But a great perplexity arises from the circumstance, that it contains names elsewhere introduced in perfectly different connections. For Sheba and Dedan, here traced to Abraham, and mentioned as the sons of Jokshan, are in the great catalogue of nations (x. 7) enumerated among the Cushites and described as the sons of Raamah. We have on former occasions noticed, and attempted to account for, this seeming discrepancy; nor do we believe this matter hopelessly involved in confusion. The following remarks may assist in arriving at a conclusion:-1. The universal list of nations itself acknowledges that a part of the Sabeans were Shemites; for it includes them among the thirteen tribes descended from Joktan, who is likewise a son of Eber, and is regarded as the ancestor of the chief stock of the population inhabiting the Arabian peninsula (x. 28). How they could be introduced both as Cushites and as Joktanites has been explained in its proper place (see p. 171). 2. These earlier Sabæans, connected with Shem by only four intermediate links,

namely, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, and Joktan (x. 24, 25), were believed to have later received a considerable increase from descendants of Abraham, who, settling in the districts of Sabæa, were gradually also called Sabæans, although their later origin was not forgotten, and is here strikingly represented by the circumstance that Sheba was not the son of Abraham, but connected with him only through Jokshan. In the lists of Genesis, the tribes are sometimes designated according to their local rather than their genealogical relations (see p.194). 3. In a similar manner we may understand the introduction of Dedan among the Abrahamites, though he had before been mentioned as the grandson of Cush (x. 7). The abodes of the Dedanites were, moreover, so comprehensive, and centred round two districts so different in many respects that the supposition of a double population of different descent is both natural and plausible (see p. 172).— Thus we may uphold the agreement between the various genealogical notices; it is unnecessary to regard Jokshan and Joktan as identical, by which assumption the difficulties would not be materially lessened; and we must admit, that the theory on which these lists are based is historically not improbable. This conclusion is confirmed by a remarkable circumstance to which we shall presently have occasion to refer (see p. 314).- We are enabled to ascertain the identity of but very few of the descendants of Keturah.

However, the territory and character of the Midianites are sufficiently known; they

were both commercial and warlike, nomadic and agricultural; lived partly in the peninsula of Mount Sinai and partly in the East of the Jordan, near the land of the Moabites; and as they were early engaged in a very extensive caravan trade between Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, they are sometimes called Ishmaelites, who, being the chief masters of the commerce of the desert gave the name to the Arabian merchants generally (comp. Comm. on Exod. p. 23).

The great age of Abraham has long before been emphatically urged (xxiv. 1); about forty years previous to the period to which this portion seems to refer, he had felt the debility of advancing years approach (xvii.17),and the birth of Isaac was considered a miracle, beyond the natural order of events (xviii. 11), since Abraham, exhausted in strength, seemed to verge to the grave (Hebr. xi. 12). It has, therefore, been deemed incredible, that the patriarch should, after Sarah's death, have become the father of six other children, as it is certainly not the intention of the Hebrew historian to represent the ancestors of the Arabic tribes as born by a Divine miracle. The usual manner of explaining this difficulty is by supposing that, in reality, those children, though born long before, are now only mentioned, because, if inserted in an earlier place, they would have interrupted the continuity of the narrative. But this conjecture would be at variance with the principle of monogamy everywhere rigidly adhered to in the history of the patriarchs; and though Keturah, like Hagar, was only a secondary wife, Abraham

took her (ver. 1); she was not, like the latter, given to him by his lawful wife (xvi. 2, 3). It may, therefore, be supposed that, according to the author, it was only the patriarch's matrimony with Sarah which was not blessed with offspring, and required the direct intervention of God, while he was generally not destitute of the power of generation, as was proved by the birth of Ishmael from Hagar. As God predestines the couples (p. 309), and as children are a gift of His favour (Ps. cxxvii. 3): the want of progeny does not affect the indissolubility of the matrimonial bond (comp. 1 Sam. i. 8).

5, 6. But though Abraham begot more children after Sarah's death, he did not disregard the superior rights of her son Isaac, born by the love and grace of God, his only lawful heir, because intended to propagate truth and faith. And as a mark of the higher dignity of his posterity, and as a symbol that to them belonged the promised land, he received all the wealth of his father, while the other brothers were dismissed with presents into the eastern regions, to seek new abodes, and to found separate communities.

7-11. Though Abraham lived to see the birth of twin grand-children (ver. 26), the text relates his death in this place, in order to prepare the way for the connected narrative of Isaac's life.-Filial affection united once more the two eldest sons of Abraham; the wild and ungovernable Ishmael left for a short time the solitude of his deserts, and joined the gentler Isaac in paying the last debt of love to their father; the duty of conveying the relative safely