Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/444

 it was considered an appeal to the covenant of circumcision (T$J$, Jer. Qu., Ra.; so Tu. Del.). IEz. explains it as a symbol of subjection, (adding that it was still a custom in India); Ew. Di. Ho. al. as invoking posterity (, 46$26$, Ex. 1$5$, Ju. 8$30$) to maintain the sanctity of the oath.

3. God of heaven and of earth] an expression for the divine omnipresence in keeping with the spiritual idea of God's providence which pervades the narrative. The full phrase is not again found (see v.$7$).—thou shalt not take, etc.] The motive is a natural concern for the purity of the stock: see Bertholet, Stellung, 67.—5-8. The servant's fear is not that he may fail to find a bride for Isaac, but that the woman may refuse to be separated so far from her kindred: would the oath bind him in that event to take Isaac back to Ḥarran? The suggestion elicits from the dying patriarch a last utterance of his unclouded faith in God.—7. God of heaven] v.i.—send his Angel] cf. Ex. 23$20. 23$ 33$2$, Nu. 20$16$. The Angel is here an invisible presence, almost a personification of God's providence; contr. the older conception in 16$7ff.$.

10-14. The servant at the well.—On the fidelity of the picture to Eastern life, see Thomson, LB, i. 261.—10. ten camels] to bring home the bride and her attendants ($61$). But "such an expedition would not now be undertaken

3. ] G + (as v.$4$); so v.$7$.—4. ] [E] .—At the end GV add as v.$7$—5. ] always with neg., exc. Is. 1$1$9, Jb. 39$9$ (Sir. 6$33$).—7. ] appears only in late books (Jon. 1$9$, 2 Ch. 36$23$ = Ezr. 1$2$, Neh. 1$4f.$ 2$4. 20$: is frequent in Aram. parts of Ezr. and Dn.). The words are wanting in one Heb. MS (see Kit.), and may be deleted as a gloss. Otherwise we must add with G (cf. $3$).—] probably interpolated by a later hand (Di.); see p. 284 above.—8. ] G + .— (but [E] )] juss. with ; G-K. § 109 d.

10. Unless we admit a duality of sources, it will be necessary to omit the first (with G).—] better  (GVS).—] Dt. 23$5$, Ju. 3$8$, Ps. 60$2$, 1 Ch. 19$6$† . T$O$. The identity of the second element with Eg. Naharin, TA. Naḫrima (79$14$ [rev.], 181$34$, 119$32$) is beyond dispute; but it is perhaps too readily assumed that geographically the expressions correspond. The Eg. Naharin extended from E of the Euphrates to the valley of the Orontes (AE, 249 ff.); all that can be certainly affirmed about the biblical term is that it embraced both sides of the Euphrates (Ḥarran on the E; Pethor on the W [Dt. 23$5$]). Since there is no trace of a dual in the Eg. and Can. forms, it is doubtful if