Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/227

 The Unity of

209

the Jacob Story

peace.

Ostensibly he had fulfilled his compact with Laban.

Yet he

slinks

when Laban

away

at last

fear and

in

unknown

to

And

Laban.

overtakes him, and chides him

for hav-

Yet

ing stolen away, Jacob can offer only a lame excuse. in the end,

they

make

after

a

Laban had

failed to

covenant and part

in

find his

stolen gods,

friendship,

to

Jacob's

great relief.

Here,

too, the

manifest.

thy gods',

dramatic sense of the compilers

is

readily

Jacob had said, "With whomsoever thou findest he shall not live" (XXXI, 32). Unconsciously he

—

had pronounced the death sentence and upon whom ? here upon his beloved Rachel. When is real tragedy Laban fails to find the stolen gods, the danger seems past. But divine retribution can not be escaped, and the words of

—

again

an oath, such as Jacob had uttered, must, according cient belief, be fulfilled.

And

so the story tells in

its

to

an-

sequel,

that Rachel died in childbirth, shortly before the end of the

journey

(XXXV,

16-20).

Without

this conclusion the story

would be incomplete. Furthermore, just as Laban's earlier relations with Jacob latter's previous relations with Esau, so now

but mirror the

Laban foreshadow the reception his brother. Jacob had deBut if ceived Laban; but Laban had first deceived him. Laban had been so enraged at having been deceived, even though he must have felt that it was not altogether unmerited, how must Esau feel, who had been so innocently and cruelly deceived by Jacob? During the first part of his sojourn with Laban, Jacob had relied upon God's promise that He would be wnth him, and he had been fortunate and happy. But during these last six years increasing prosperity had led him to trust more and more in his own strength and cunning. And materially he had prospered thereby, even though he had

Jacob's later relations wath

which he might expect from