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Jacob was sent by his parents to Mesopotamia that he might take a wife
there. These were his father's words on sending him: "Thou shall
not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. Arise, fly to
Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and
take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's
brother. And my God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply
thee; and thou shall be an assembly of peoples; and give to thee the
blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee; that thou
mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God gave unto
Abraham." Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is
separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when
it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," by this seed is
meant solely the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's
other seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was to
be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had been uncertain
regarding Isaac's twin-sons whether that blessing belonged to both or
only to one of them; and if to one, which of them it was. This is
now declared when Jacob is prophetically blessed by his father, and it
is said to him, "And thou shalt be an assembly of peoples, and God
give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father."
When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an
oracle, of which it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the
well of the oath, and went to Haran. And he came to a place, and
slept there, for the sun was set; and he took of the stones of the
place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place, and
dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended by
it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the God of
Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac fear not: the land whereon
thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth; and it shall be spread abroad to the
sea, and to Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and all the
tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And,
behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all thy way wherever thou
goest, and I will bring thee back into this land; for I will not
leave thee, until I have, done all which I have spoken to thee of.
And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in
this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How
dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that
he had put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and
poured oil upon the top of it. And Jacob called the name of that
place the house of God." This is prophetic. For Jacob did not
pour oil on the stone in an idolatrous way, as if making it a god;
neither did he adore that stone, or sacrifice to it. But since the
name of Christ comes from the chrism or anointing, something
pertaining to the great mystery was certainly represented in this. And
the Saviour Himself is understood to bring this latter to remembrance
in the gospel, when He says of Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile!" because Israel who saw this vision is
no other than Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of
God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the
divine Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of
them, he came to have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and one
daughter; for he had come to take only one. But when one was falsely
given him in place of the other, he did not send her away after
unwittingly using her in the night, lest he should seem to have put her
to shame; but as at that time, in order to multiply posterity, no law
forbade a plurality of wives, he took her also to whom alone he had
promised marriage. As she was barren, she gave her handmaid to her
husband that she might have children by her; and her elder sister did
the same thing in imitation of her, although she had borne, because
she desired to multiply progeny. We do not read that Jacob sought any
but one, or that he used many, except for the purpose of begetting
offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would not have done this,
had not his wives, who had legitimate power over their own husband's
body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons and one daughter by
four women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son Joseph, who was
sold by his brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there
exalted.
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