Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/229

XXVII.] sent to Sodom to destroy it, and who had been forbidden to rise up to the throne of God again, because, say some, they had revealed the secrets of the Lord of the whole earth, or because, say others, they had threatened in their own name to destroy the cities of the plain.

Then the rest of the angels of God came down, at the call of these twain, to look upon Jacob.

And the Glory of the Lord stood above him, and He said to him, "I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which thou art lying I will give to thee and thy sons. And thy sons shall be many as the dust of the earth, and shall become strong in the west and in the east, and in the north and in the south; and all the kindreds of the earth shall be blessed through thy righteousness and the righteousness of thy sons."

When Jacob arrived at Haran, he saw a well in a field, and three flocks lying near it—because from that well they watered the flocks—and a great stone was laid upon the mouth of the well. And Jacob said to the shepherds, "My brethren, whence are ye?" They said, "From Haran are we." And he said, "Know you Laban, son of Nahor?" They answered, "We know him." And he said, "Hath he peace?" They said, "Peace; and behold, Rachel, his daughter, cometh with the sheep." And he said, "Behold, the time of the day is great; it is not time to gather home the cattle; water the sheep." But they said, "We cannot, until all the shepherds be gathered, and then we can altogether roll away the stone."

While they were speaking with him, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she was a shepherdess at that time, because there had been a plague among the sheep of Laban, and but few of them were left; and he had dismissed his shepherds, and had put the remaining flock before Rachel, his daughter. Then Jacob went nigh, and rolled the stone which all the shepherds together could scarce lift, with one of his hands, and the well uprose, and the waters flowed, and he watered the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother; and it uprose for twenty years.