Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/236

 The Book of Genesis

218 Laban.

On

the other hand, the Bible states that Esau, too,

had become wealthy

home, as if he had had the enjoyment No, the l)irthright was something something which the materialist and sensuat

of his father's property.

other than alist

Esau

this,

To

despised.

these compilers, writing in the pro-

from the standpoint of Israel as God's chosen people, the birthright could have meant nothing other than the mission of Abraham, the right to become God's servant and messenger after Abraham and Isaac. It was this which Esau despised and which Jacob eagerly desired. And of phetic spirit

this

regeneration,

Jacob's

these

made him worthy.

understand,

would have us

compilers

He was

to

be transformed

from Jacob, "the Deceiver", into Israel, ''the Champion of God", in order that he might truly contend with evil gods and with men, and triumph over them in God's name and for God's cause.

All this these compilers sought to teach,

and they adapted the old, loosely connected Jacob traditions and legends to their purpose. How well they succeeded is best evidenced by the dramatic unity, power and conviction of the story

itself.

However, with

and dramatic powers and confronted them which could not be fully overcome. To them Jacob, Esau, and Laban were types, quite as much as Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael. To the prophet Ilosea, Jacob had been less a definite

single,

type of for

its

all

their artistic

purpose, certain

historical, all

sins

or

difficulties

even

traditional,

individual

than

Time and again Hosea denounced under the name Jacob. In the minds of

Israel.

the

Israel

these

compilers, too, Jacob stood for Israel, but not as with Hosea,

only as a deceitful ])eople, faithless to

God, but as the made fit and ready for His service by spiritual regeneration. Laban, too, was the type of the arch-enemy of the northern kingdom, Syria, the Aramaean state. The very name Arami, the Aramaean, ])robably suggested to Israelite minds a connecfuture servant of

the

Lord,

who was

its

to

be