A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

In view of our current turmoil in Butler County, here’s a Prophecy for reflection:

And to the others He said in mine hearing, “Go ye after him through the city and smite. Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity.
Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” Then they began with the elder men who were before the house.
And He said unto them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go ye forth.” And they went forth and slew in the city. Ezekiel 9:5-7

Genesis 11

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¹ And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. — the whole earth; that is, all mankind at that time;

— after giving the connection of the various races of the then known world: consisting of Armenia, the regions watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, the Arabian peninsula, the Nile valley, with the districts closely bordering on the Delta, Palestine, the Levant, and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete;

— the whole earth was of one language; this even heathen writers acknowledge; and that language was, probably, the Hebrew; as the Targum of Jonathan says: “in the holy language spake they, that by which the world had been created at the beginning;”

² And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. — “from the east” or “they journeyed east” or another version (AMP) “and as people journeyed eastward”

— Josephus (Antiquities: book I, chapter 4, section 1) explained that God admonished them again to send out colonies; to cultivate a great part of the earth, but they, imagining the prosperity they enjoyed in the cities as before, did not obey him, began to build cities.

³ And they said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. — let us make brick, for in that low and fat soil they had no quarries of stones; the heathen writers agree that Babylon’s walls were made of brick;

⁴ And they said, “Come, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” — whose top may reach unto heaven: not that they imagined such a thing could be literally be done;

— but that it should be raised exceeding high, like the cities in Canaan, said to be walled up to heaven, Deuteronomy 1:28 hyperbolically speaking;

⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built. — and the Lord came down to see the city; this is an expression after the manner of men; he knew it as clearly as men know that which they come upon the place to view;

⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, the people are one and they have all one language, and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be withheld from them which they have imagined to do. — nothing will be withholden from them; they will be baulked with no limits; if they mount up to heaven, their arrogance will soon make them endeavour to rival God.

⁷ Come, let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” — and the Lord said “let Us” not to the angels or to the spirit, but rather the Father to the Son;

⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off building the city. — they brought upon themselves the very thing they feared, and that more speedily and more mischievously to themselves; for now they were not only divided in place, but in language too;

— the Targum of Jonathan says:

And the Word of the Lord was revealed against the city, and with Him seventy angels, having reference to seventy nations, each having its own language, and thence the writing of its own hand:

and He dispersed them from thence upon the face of all the earth into seventy languages. And one knew not what his neighbour would say: but one slew the other; and they ceased from building the city. Jonathan

⁹ Therefore is the name of it called Babel [that is, Confusion], because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. — confound their language; it was a failure in utterance, occasioning a difference in dialect which was intelligible only to those of the same tribe.

¹⁰ These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood; — Shem was one hundred years old, and begat Arphexad two years after the flood; by which it is pretty plain that he was younger than Japheth;

— for Noah was five hundred years old when he began to beget sons, Genesis 5:32 he was six hundred when he went into the ark, Genesis 7:11 two years after the flood Shem begat Arphaxad, when he was one hundred years old, and Noah six hundred and two, Genesis 11:10 so that Shem must be born when Noah was five hundred and two years old;

— these are the generations of Shem; here also, as in Genesis 5, there is a very considerable divergence between the statements of the Hebrew, the Samaritan, and the Septuagint. According to the Hebrew, the total number of years from Shem to the birth of Abram was 390, according to the Samaritan, 1,040, and according to the LXX, 1,270 1,140

— Masoretic: Shem (100 Gen 11:10); Arphaxad (35 Gen 11:12); Salah (30 Gen 11:14); Eber (34 Gen 11:16); Peleg (30 Gen 11:18); Reu (32 Gen 11:20); Serug (30 Gen 11:22); Nahor (29 Gen 11:24); Terah (70 Gen 11:26); Abram = 390

— Septuagint: Shem (100 Gen 11:10); Arphaxad (135 Gen 11:12); Salah (130 Gen 11:14); Eber (134 Gen 11:16); Peleg (130 Gen 11:18); Reu (132 Gen 11:20); Serug (130 Gen 11:22); Nahor (179 Gen 11:24); Terah (70 Gen 11:26); Abram = 1,140

— Samaritan: Shem (100 Gen 11:10); Arphaxad (135 Gen 11:12); Salah (130 Gen 11:14); Eber (134 Gen 11:16); Peleg (130 Gen 11:18); Reu (132 Gen 11:20); Serug (130 Gen 11:22); Nahor (79 Gen 11:24); Terah (70 Gen 11:26); Abram = 1,040

— Targum of Jonathan: Shem (100 Gen 11:10); Arphaxad (35 Gen 11:12); Salah (30 Gen 11:14); Eber (34 Gen 11:16); Peleg (30 Gen 11:18); Reu (32 Gen 11:20); Serug (30 Gen 11:22); Nahor (29 Gen 11:24); Terah (70 Gen 11:26); Abram = 390

— Josephus (Antiquities l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5) his figures go along mostly with the Septuagint and the Samaritan:

I will now treat of the Hebrews. The son of Phaleg, whose father Was Heber, was Ragau; whose son was Serug, to whom was born Nahor; his son was Terah, who was the father of Abraham, who accordingly was the tenth from Noah, and was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after the deluge; for Terah begat Abram in his seventieth year.

Nahor begat Haran when he was one hundred and twenty years old; Nahor was born to Serug in his hundred and thirty-second year; Ragau had Serug at one hundred and thirty; at the same age also Phaleg had Ragau; Heber begat Phaleg in his hundred and thirty-fourth year; he himself being begotten by Sala when he was a hundred and thirty years old, whom Arphaxad had for his son at the hundred and thirty-fifth year of his age. Arphaxad was the son of Shem, and born twelve years after the deluge.

Now Abram had two brethren, Nahor and Haran: of these Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcha his daughters; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city of the Chaldeans, called Ur; and his monument is shown to this day.

These married their nieces. Nabor married Milcha, and Abram married Sarai. Now Terah hating Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Ilaran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, where Terah died, and was buried, when he had lived to be two hundred and five years old; for the life of man was already, by degrees, diminished, and became shorter than before, till the birth of Moses; after whom the term of human life was one hundred and twenty years, God determining it to the length that Moses happened to live.

Now Nahor had eight sons by Milcha; Uz and Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Azau, Pheldas, Jadelph, and Bethuel. These were all the genuine sons of Nahor; for Teba, and Gaam, and Tachas, and Maaca, were born of Reuma his concubine: but Bethuel had a daughter, Rebecca, and a son, Laban. Josephus (Antiquities l. 1. c. 6. sect. 5)

¹¹ and Shem lived after he begot Arphaxad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. — and Shem lived, after he begat Arphaxad, five hundred years; so that his whole age was six hundred years, and therefore must live to the times of Abraham; which only true if the Masoretic Text is considered;

— and even throughout the life of Abraham, or near the end of it; and if he was the same with Melchizedek, as is the general beliefs of the Jews, they would have interrelation with each other; but what if the Samaritan and the Septuagint is true instead? Then Melchizedek won’t live until Abraham’s birth;

¹² And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years and begot Salah;

¹³ and Arphaxad lived after he begot Salah four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁴ And Salah lived thirty years and begot Eber;

¹⁵ and Salah lived after he begot Eber four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁶ And Eber lived four and thirty years and begot Peleg;

¹⁷ and Eber lived after he begot Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁸ And Peleg lived thirty years and begot Reu;

¹⁹ and Peleg lived after he begot Reu two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁰ And Reu lived two and thirty years and begot Serug;

²¹ and Reu lived after he begot Serug two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

²² And Serug lived thirty years and begot Nahor;

²³ and Serug lived after he begot Nahor two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁴ And Nahor lived nine and twenty years and begot Terah;

²⁵ and Nahor lived after he begot Terah one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁶ And Terah lived seventy years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

— Terah was a idol-worshipper:

And Joshua said unto all the people, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods. Joshua 234:2

— and here is an abridged story about Abraham’s righteousness: from Bereshit Rabbah 38

Abraham’s father, Terah was an idol manufacturer and worshipper. He operated a shop selling idols; and while he was away, Abraham was asked to look after the shop, but he took a hammer, smashed the idols and placed the hammer in the hand of the largest idol.

When Terah returned, he asked what happened to all the idols, Abraham told him that the idols fought among themselves and then the largest idol took the hammer and smashed all the others. When his father challenged him, saying, “That’s ridiculous, idols are only statues and cannot move!”

Abraham replied, “Then why do you worship them?”

— Josephus wrote:

“Terah, who was the father of Abraham, who accordingly was the tenth from Noah, and was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after the deluge” (Antiquities: book I, chapter 6, section 5);

— that is, the year 1948 (according to Jewish reckoning).

²⁷ Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. — and Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Nahor or more probably Haran;

— it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the 130th year of his father’s life, for Terah was 205 years old when he died, Genesis 11:32 and Abram was 75 of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, Genesis 12:4 and that was after his father had died and buried there; so that if 75 years are taken out from 205, Terah would be 130, in which year Abram was born, assuming Abram journeyed on soon after Terah’s death;

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. Genesis 11:32 

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Genesis 12:4

— from here, Abram was born when Terah was 130 years, and not 70 as we believe; and secondly from this case, it proves that the names mentioned first in biblical genealogy may not necessarily be the eldest;

— hypothetically, if Abram’s departure from Haran had been delayed by, say, 2 years after his father’s death, then Terah would be 132 when Abram was born;

²⁸ And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldeans. — Haran died in Ur before his father Terah; thus Abram took Lot as an orphan with him when they left Haran to go to Canaan;

— Abram’s brethren were, Nahor, out of whose family both Isaac and Jacob had their wives; and Haran, the father of Lot, who died before his father. Children cannot be sure that they shall outlive their parents. Haran died in Ur, before the happy removal of the family out of that idolatrous country;

²⁹ And Abram and Nahor took for themselves wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

³⁰ But Sarai was barren; she had no child. — Joseph says as Abram has no son of his own, he adopted Lot, his brother Haran’s son, and his wife Sarai’s brother; (Antiquities: book I, chapter 7, section 1)

³¹ And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran and dwelt there.

— Abram and Nabor his brother married their nieces. Nabor married Milcha and Abram married Sarai, both daughters of Haran, who died in Ur;

³² And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

— concerning Abram’s courage, Jewish writings say:

Now Abram had two brethren, Nahor and Haran: of these Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcha his daughters; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, where, he adds, his grave is shown to this day:

the Jews have a fable concerning the death of Haran; they say that Terah was not only an idolater, but a maker and seller of images; and that one day going abroad, he left his son Abraham in the shop to sell them, who, during his father’s absence, broke them all to pieces,

except one; upon which, when Terah returned and found what was done, he had him [Abram] before Nimrod, who ordered him [Abram] to be cast into a burning furnace, and he should see whether the God he worshipped would come and save him; and while he was in it, they asked his brother Haran in whom he believed?

he [Haran] answered, if Abraham overcomes, he would believe in his God, but if not, in Nimrod; wherefore, they cast him [Haran] into the furnace, and he was burnt; and with respect to this it is said, “and Haran died before the face of Terah his father”; but Abraham came out safe before the eyes of them all. Now Terah, hating what he had witnessed, and on account of his mourning for his son, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia. (Bereshit Rabbah 38);

— Joshua 24:2 “even Terah, the father of Abraham, served other gods.”

Genesis 12

¹ Now the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. — Abram was expressly commanded to leave “his kindred and his father’s house,” but Nahor wasn’t asked to, so Nahor didn’t join Abram;

² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. — In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed; henceforward Abram and the nation sprung from him were to be the intermediaries between God and mankind;

³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” — and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed; that is, through his seed;

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. — and Lot, being an orphan, went with him; of his own accord, and he only, besides Adram’s wife Sarai and his servants, for Terah was dead, and Nahor and his family stayed behind;

⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. — into the land of Canaan they came; with all their substance that they had gathered; either in Ur of the Chaldees, or from Haran, or both;

⁶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. — Shechem; this name signifies “shoulder,” and was the name of the ridge uniting Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, the summits of which are about two miles apart;

— and the Canaanites were already then in the land; this simply implies that the land was not open for Abram to enter upon immediate possession without a challenge;

⁷ And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. — Unto thy seed will I give this land; the whole of it inhabited by Canaanites and others; no place or condition can shut us out from God’s gracious gifts;

⁸ And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. — and the life of God’s calling is ever a pilgrim life, and Bethel has soon to be the home instead of Shechem; here, too, Abram keeps outside the city, and pitches his tent;

— and there he builded an altar unto the Lord: as he had done at Shechem; for wherever he went he worshipped God, and offered sacrifice unto him;

⁹ And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. — going on still toward the south; the southern part of the land of Canaan, which lay nearest Egypt, into which he is said to go next;

¹⁰ And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. — there was a famine in the land; this famine must have happened within a few years after Abram reached Canaan;

— for he was seventy-five years of age on leaving Haran, and as Ishmael, his son by an Egyptian slave-woman, was thirteen years old when Abram was ninety-nine, only about eight years are left for the events recorded in Genesis 12-16.

¹¹ And it came to pass, when he had come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, “Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. — though sixty five years of age, being ten years younger than her husband; yet might still be a fair woman, having a good complexion and comely features;

— Sarai’s complexion, coming from a mountainous country, would be fresh and fair compared with the faces of Egyptian women which were of unhealthy pale brown;

¹² Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. — Sarai then was sixty-five years of age and beauty does not vanish with middle age; but that Sarai’s age corresponds with twenty to thirty years in modern times,

¹³ Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee.” — Say thou art my sister; as his niece; for nephews and nieces are in Scripture called brethren and sisters; as Genesis 13:8

¹⁴ And it came to pass, when Abram had come into Egypt, that the Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair. — the Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair; Abram knew that Sarai was fair; but in the eyes of the Egyptians she was very fair; perhaps, they there were none of such fairness in Egypt.

¹⁵ The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. — the woman was taken into the royal palace of Pharaoh; kings have for ages claimed the privilege of taking to their harem any unmarried woman whom they like;

¹⁶ And he treated Abram well for her sake; and he had sheep and oxen and heasses, and menservants and maidservants, and sheasses and camels. — and he entreated Abram well for her sake; Pharaoh was very complaisant to him, showed him great respect,

— and bestowed many favours on him on account of Sarai, whom he took to be his sister, and which were done, that he would consent that she might be his wife; and Abram were given sheep, and oxen, and heasses, and menservants, and maidservants, and sheasses, and camels; 

¹⁷ And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. — not only Pharaoh was plagued, but those of his household also, his courtiers and servants, who were accessary to the bringing of Sarai into his house; for all this was because of Sarai, Abram’s wife;

— Jewish writings and Rashi have a notion, that an angel stood by Sarai with a scourge in his hand, and when Sarai bid the angel to smite Pharaoh, he smote him; signifying not just Pharaoh but his courtiers as well; because she was taken by these courtiers and detained in Pharaoh’s house, and designed Sarai to be made his wife or concubine; and thus for evil intentions was this punishment inflicted to all involved;

— but Josephus says it slightly different:

“but God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government. And when he inquired of the priests how he might be freed from these calamities, they told him that this his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, upon account of his inclinations to abuse the stranger’s wife.

He then, out of fear, asked Sarai who she was, and who it was that she brought along with her. And when he had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as desiring an affinity with him by marrying her, but not as incited by lust to abuse her.

He also made him a large present in money, and gave him leave to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians; from which conversation his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before.” (Antiquities l. 1. c. 8. sect. 1)

¹⁸ And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? — what is this that thou hast done unto me? to impose upon me, and deceive me after this manner, by giving out that Sarai was thy sister;

— when she is thy wife; by which means I have been led to prepare to take her for my wife, and have brought plagues upon myself and family? and thus he resented it as an injury done him, as he well might;

¹⁹ Why saidst thou, ‘She is my sister,’ so I might have taken her to me for a wife? Now therefore behold thy wife; take her and go thy way.” — now therefore, behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way; Sarai it seems was present at this interview, who was delivered to her husband untouched;

²⁰ And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. — and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had;

— they did not drive him out by force, or in any disgraceful manner, but being committed to a guard of men, appointed by the king, he had safe conduct out of the land, with his family, and all that he had; all that he brought with him, and all the increase he had made there, and all the gifts he had received of the king.

~ by Joel on July 16, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses