Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/289

Rh Jacob and Bsau

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and protection, and thou mayest not desert And after all, without them what would life he them. worth? Hast thou not already betrayed and sacrificed thy family enough, and only suffered thereby? Remember, Esau is thy brother, and even as thou dost still love him, and seek peace with him, so he, too, may still love thee and long to thee for help

Remember, too, that it was thou who didst wrong him, and therefore it must be thou who dost ask

to forgive thee.

pardon; without pardon there can be no peace. And consider that thou hast come hither at God's command, and that

He

has promised to be with thee

thee during these twenty years past. disobey.

And

above

Abraham and

all,

as

still,

And

think that thine

He was

with

thou mayest not the birthright of

is

art charged to mankind. This birthright thou didst But never eagerly desire for thyself, and win at great cost. canst thou be worthy of it, never canst thou become a blessing, if thou dost flee as a coward and shirk thy responsibilities. At the most, thou canst but die, but never

become

of

Isaac,

thy

father;

thou

a blessing unto

canst thou escape or flee from God's

commands".

All through the night the battle raged.

Time and again

conquer; ever and again Jacob was on the point of fleeing. But always something held him back; now it was the memory of father and mother, the tempter

now

seemed almost

to

of wives and children,

realization that

God had

now

of God's promise, and the

truly been with

him these twenty

and had suffered no word of His to go unfulfilled. But with All through the long, dark night the battle raged. "Thy the morning dawn came victory, victory and blessing. name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed". With this earthly nature, to the voice of which men so often hearken, Jacob had striven during these twenty years, and

years,



particularly during this last night,

he had conquered

it.

With

and

it

had not prevailed;

the divine voice within, the voice \n