When Jacob had made these appointments, and night came on, he began to move with his company; and as they were gone over a certain river, called Jabboc, Jacob was left behind; and meeting with an angel, he wrestled with him, the angel beginning the struggle; but he prevailed over the angel, who used a voice, and spake to him in words, exhorting him to be pleased with what had happened to him, and not to suppose that his victory was a trifling one, but that he had overcome a divine angel, and to esteem the victory as a sign of great blessings that should come to him, and that his offspring should never fail, and that no man should be too hard for his power. He also commanded him to be called Israel,* which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that struggled with the divine angel. These promises were made at the prayer of Jacob; for when he perceived him to be the angel of God, he desired he would signify to him what should befal him hereafter, and when the angel had said what is before related, he disappeared. Jacob was pleased with these things, and named the place Phanuel, which signifies the face of God. But when he felt pain by this struggling upon his broad sinews, he abstained from eating that sinew himself afterward, and for his sake it is still not eaten by us.† When Jacob understood that his brother was approaching, he ordered his wives to go before, each by herself, with the handmaids, that they might see the actions of the men as they were fighting, if Esau were so disposed. He then went and bowed down to his brother Esau, who had no evil design upon him, but saluted him,‡ and asked him about the company of the children, and of the women; and desired, when he had understood all he wanted to know about them, that he would go along with him to their father; but Jacob pretending that Perhaps this may be the proper meaning of the word Israel by the present and the old Jerusalem analogy of the Hebrew tongue. But it is certain that the Hellenists of the first century, in Egypt and elsewhere, interpreted Is-ra-el, to be a man seeing God. † Gen. xxxii. 32. When Jacob and Esau met they saluted each other, Esau ran to meet Jacob, embraced him, fell on his neck, and kissed him, Gen. xxxiii. 4. Such persons as are intimately acquainted, or of equal age and dignity, mutually kiss the hand, the head, or the shoulder of each other. Shaw's Trav. p. 237. B. Vol. I. K the cattle were weary, Esau returned to Seir, for there was his place of habitation, which he had named roughness, from his own hairy roughness. CHAP. XXI. OF THE VIOLATION OF DINA'S CHASTITY. AFTER this interview, Jacob came to the place, till this day called Succoth, or Tents, whence he went to Shechem, a city of the Canaanites. Now as the Shechemites were keeping a festival, Dina, who was the only daughter of Jacob, went into the city, to see the women of that country; but when Shechem, the son of Hamor the king, saw her, he defiled her by violence; and being greatly in love with her, he desired his father to procure the damsel for him in marriage. To this request Hamor acceded, and came to Jacob, desiring permission that his son Shechem might according to law, marry Dina; but Jacob, not knowing how to deny the desire of one of such great dignity, and yet not thinking it lawful to marry his daughter to a stranger, intreated leave to have a previous consultation. So the king went away, in hopes that Jacob would approve of this marriage; but Jacob informed his sons of the defilement of their sister, and of the address of Hamor, and desired them to give him their advice, what they should do. Upon this the greatest part said nothing, not knowing what advice to give; but Simeon and Levi, the brethren of the damsel, by the same mother, agreed between themselves upon the action following: it being now the time of a festival, when the Shechemites were employed in ease and feasting, they fell upon the watch when they were asleep, and entering into the city, slew all the males, as also the king and his son with them, but spared the women; and when they had * Why Josephus has omitted the circumcision of these Shechemites, as the occasion of their death; and of Jacob's great grief, as in the testament of Levi, I can not tell. done this, without their father's consent, they brought away their sister. Now, while Jacob was astonished at this daring act, and was severely blaming his sons for it, God stood by him,* and bid him be of good courage, but to purify his tents, and to offer those sacrifices which he had vowed to offer when he went first into Mesopotamia, and saw his vision. As he was therefore purifying his followers, he found the gods of Laban, (for he did not before know they were stolen by Rachel,) and he hid them in the earth, under an oak, in Shechem; and departing thence, he offered sacrifice at Bethel, the place where he saw his vision when he went first into Mesopotamia. When he was gone thence, and was come over against Ephrata, he there buried Rachel,† who died in childbed; she was the only one of Jacob's kindred that had not the honour of burial at Hebron; and when he had mourned for her a great while, he called the son that was born of her Benjamin, because of the sorrow the mother had with him. These are all the children of Jacob, twelve males, and one female; of whom eight were legitimate, viz. six of Leah, and two of Rachel; and four were of the handmaids, two of each, all whose names have been set down already. CHAP. XXII. OF ISAAC'S DEATH AND INTERMENT AT HEBRON. FROM thence Jacob went to Hebron, a city situate among the Canaanites, and the residence of Isaac; and there they lived together for a little while: for as to Rebeka, Jacob did not find * Gen. xxxv. 1. + Gen. xxxv. 19 Since Benoni signifies the son of my sorrow, and Benjamin the son of days, or one born in the father's old age, Gen. xliv. 20, I suspect Josephus's present copies to be here imperfect, and suppose that, in correspondence to other copies, he wrote that Rachel called her son's name Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin, Gen. xxxv. 18. As for Benjamin, as commonly explained, the son of the righthand, it makes no sense at all, and seems to be a gross modern error only. The Samaritan always writes this name truly, Benjamin, which probably is here of the same signification, only with the Chaldee termination in, instead of im, in the Hebrew. her alive. Isaac also died not long after the coming of his son, and was buried, with his wife, in Hebron, where the family had a monument belonging to them from their forefathers. Now Isaac was a man who was beloved of God, and was vouchsafed great instances of providence by God, after Abraham his father, and lived to be exceeding old; for when he had lived virtuously one hundred and eighty-five years, he then died. BOOK II. Containing an Interval of 220 Years. FROM THE DEATH OF ISAAC TO THE Exodus out of EGYPT. CHAP. I. OF THE DIVISION OF HABITATION BY ESAU AND JACOB, BY AFTER the death of Isaac, his sons divided their habitations respectively. Nor did they retain what they had before: but Esau departed from the city of Hebron, and left it to his brother, and dwelt in Seir, and ruled over Idumea. He called the country by that name from himself; for he was named Adom, on the following occasion: He once returned from the toil of hunting, very hungry, when he was a child in age, and met with his brother, when he was getting ready lentile-pottage for his dinner; it was of a very red colour, on which account he the more earnestly longed for it, and desired some of it to eat. But Jacob took advantage of his brother's hunger, and forced him to give up his birth-right; and he being pinched with famine, resigned it up to him, under an oath. Whence it came, that on account of the redness of the pottage, he was, in way of jest by his contemporaries, called Adom; for the Hebrews call what is red, Adom; and this was the name given to this country. But the Greeks gave it a more agreeable pronunciation, and named it Idumea. He became the father of five sons, of whom Jaus, Jolomus, and Coreus were by one wife, whose name was Alibama; but of the rest Aliphaz was born to him by Ada, and Raguel by |