Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/233

XXVII.] Michael said to Raphael, "Oh, angel of healing! come to my aid." So Raphael descended to earth, and touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and it was restored as before.

But God said to Michael, "For this that thou hast done, thou shalt be the guardian of Israel as long as the world lasteth."

Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, "I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, and my soul is saved." And the sun rose upon him before its time, as, when he went out from Beer-sheba, it had set before its time.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men of war. And he divided the children unto Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two concubines, and placed the concubines and their sons foremost; for he said, "If Esau come to destroy the children, and ill-treat the women, he will do it with them, and meanwhile we can prepare to fight; and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph after them." And he himself went over before them, praying and asking mercy before the Lord; and he bowed upon the earth seven times, until he met with his brother; but it was not to Esau that he bowed, though Esau supposed he did, but to the Lord God Most High. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and bit him, but by the mercy of God the neck of Jacob became marble, and Esau broke his teeth upon it; therefore it is said in the Book of Genesis that he fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept. But the Targumim apparently do not acknowledge that the neck of Jacob became marble, for the Targum of Palestine explains their weeping thus: "Esau wept on account of the pain of his teeth, which were shaken; but Jacob wept because of the pain of his neck;" and the Targum of Jerusalem, "Esau wept for the crushing of his teeth, and Jacob wept for the tenderness of his neck."

"The Lord God prospered Jacob," and he had one hundred and two times ten thousand and seven thousand (i.e. a thousand