distance, and takes up his quarters at Sukkôth (v.i.). The name is derived from the booths, or temporary shelters for cattle, which he erects there.—built himself a house] showing that he contemplated a lengthy sojourn.
Here Esau disappears from the histories of J and E. We have already
remarked on the change of tone in this last episode, as compared with the
earlier Jacob-Esau stories of chs. 25, 27. Esau is no longer the rude
natural man, the easy victim of his brother's cunning, but a noble and
princely character, whose bearing is evidently meant to inspire admiration.
Jacob, too, is presented in a more favourable light: if he is still
shrewd and calculating, and not perfectly truthful, he does not sink to the
knavery of his earlier dealings with Esau and Laban, but exhibits the
typical virtues of the patriarchal ideal. The contrast betrays a difference
of spirit and origin in the two groups of legends. It is conceivable
that the second group came from sanctuaries frequented by Israelites
and Edomites in common (so Ho. 212); but it is also possible that the
two sets reflect the relations of Israel and Edom at different periods of
history. It is quite obvious that chs. 25 and 27 took shape after the
decay of the Edomite empire, when the ascendancy of Israel over the
older people was assured. If there be any ethnological basis to 32. 33,
it must belong to an earlier period. Steuernagel (Einw. 105) suggests
as a parallel Nu. 2014-21, where the Edomites resist the passage of Israel
through their territory. Meyer (3871) is disposed to find a recollection
of a time when Edom had a powerful empire extending far north on
the E of the Jordan, where they may have rendered assistance to Israel
in the Midianite war (ib. 382), though they were unable ultimately to
maintain their position. If there be any truth in either of these speculations
(which must remain extremely doubtful), it is evident that chronologically
32 f. precede 25, 27; and the attempt to interpret the series (as
a whole) ethnographically must be abandoned.
18-20. Jacob at Shechem.—18. The crossing of the
Jordan is not recorded; it is commonly supposed to have
see on 112.—(
Hebrew characters) was E of the Jordan, but nearer to it than Peniel (Jos.
1327, Ju. 84. 5. 8). The site is unknown (see Smith, HG, 585; Buhl, GP,
206, 260; Dri. ET, xiii. 458 a, n. 1). The modern Ain es-Sāḳūṭ (9 m.
S. of Beisan) is excluded on phonetic grounds, and is besides on the
wrong side of the Jordan.
18. (Hebrew characters) [[E] (Hebrew characters)] (Hebrew characters)] The rendering given above is pronounced by
We. to be impossible, no doubt on the ground that (Hebrew characters), meaning properly
'whole' (Dt. 276), is nowhere else used in the sense 'safe and
sound' of a person. Still, in view of (Hebrew characters) (cf. 2821 4327), and (Hebrew characters) in Jb.
94, it may be reasonably supposed that it had that sense. G Jub.
VS take (Hebrew characters) as a nom. pr.; a view which though it derives some plausibility
from the fact that there is still a village Salim about 4 m. E of
Nābulus (Robinson, BR, ii. 275, 279), implies a sense not consonant
