Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/441



outside the Ḥarām on the NW. The cave below has never been examined in modern times, but is stated by its guardians to be double. There is no reason to doubt that the tradition as to the site has descended from biblical times; and it is quite probable that the name Makpēlāh is derived from the feature just referred to. That the name included the field attached to the cave (v.$19$ 49$30$ 50$13$) is natural; and even its extension to the adjacent district (see on $17$) is perhaps not a decisive objection.—For further particulars, see Robinson, BR, ii. 75 ff.; Baedeker, P. and S.$3$ 141 f.; PEFS, 1882, 197-214; Warren, DB, iii. 197 ff.; Driver, Gen. 228.

Whatever assumption we make as to the origin of this narrative, P's peculiar interest in the transaction is a fact that has to be explained. The motive usually assigned is that the purchase was a pledge of the possession of the land by Abraham's descendants; that view is, indeed, supported by nothing in the passage (see Gu. 241), but it is difficult to imagine any other explanation. It is just conceivable that the elaboration of the narrative was due to a dispute as to the possession of the sacred place between Jews and Edomites in the age of P. It has been held probable on independent grounds that the Edomites had advanced as far north as Hebron during the Exile (see Mey. Entst. 106, 114), and from Neh. 11$25$ we learn that a colony of Jews settled there after the return. We can at least imagine that a contest for the ownership of the holy place (like those which have so largely determined the later history of Palestine) would arise; and that such a situation would account for the emphasis with which the Priestly jurists asserted the legal claim of the Jewish community to the traditional burying-place of its ancestors. So Gu.$1$ 251; Students' OT, 99: otherwise Gu.$2$ 241 f.

—Procuring a Wife for Isaac (J, [E?]).

Abraham on his death-bed (see below) solemnly charges his house-steward with the duty of procuring a wife for Isaac amongst his Mesopotamian relatives ($1-9$). The servant is providentially guided to the house of Nāḥôr, in whose daughter (see on v.$15$) Rebekah he is led to recognise the divinely appointed bride for Isaac ($10-49$). Having obtained the consent of the relatives, and of the maiden herself ($50-61$), he brings her to Canaan, where Isaac marries her ($62-67$).

The chapter is one of the most perfect specimens of descriptive writing that the Book of Gen. contains. It is marked by idyllic grace and simplicity, picturesque elaboration of scenes and incidents, and a certain 'epic' amplitude of treatment, seen in the repetition of the story in the form of a speech (see Dri. 230). These artistic elements so predominate that the primary ethnographic motive is completely submerged. It may be conjectured that the basis of the narrative was a