Genesis 25

Genesis 25:2

Well of Lahai-roi. Mentioned xvi. 14. By which it appears that Abraham, after the death of Sarah, returned to live at JBeer-sheba, or thereabouts; for that was nigh this well: and it is probable Abraham and Isaac were not parted. And she bare him.] He was now a hundred and forty years old: but so vigorous as to beget many children. Which need not seem strange, considering the age to which they then lived, (for he lived thirty-five years after this marriage, ver. 7.) and that now, in our time, men have had children after they have been seventy, nay, eighty years of age. To the truth also of this history we have the testimony of pagan writers. For Alexander Polyhistor (mentioned by Josephus, and by Eusebius, lib. ix. Pnepar. Evang. cap. 20.) tells us, that Cleoderaus (called by some Malchas) writing the history of the Jews, reports just as Moses doth, “Or* Ik XtTTOvpag *Aj3paajuqj lyivovro ttcu&q ikclvoi: That Abraham had a good. many children by Keturah: three of which he mentions by name. Zimran.’] This son of his, with all the rest of his brethren, was sent by Abraham into the east country, (as we read ver. 6.) and therefore we must seek for them in those parts; viz. In Arabia, and the countries thereabout, where some footsteps of them have remained for many ages, particularly of Zimran; from whom we may well think the Zamareni were descended, a people mentioned by Pliny, with their towns in Arabia Felix, (lib. vi. cap. 28.) And Jockshan.] Concerning whom I can find nothing but only this: that Theophanes, a chronographer, in the beginning of the ninth century, after he hath treated of the Ishmaelites and Madianites(the latter of which came from one of Keturah’s children),, and the parts of Arabia where Mahomet was born, immediately adds, that there were other people, IvSortpot, more in the bowels of Arabia, descended from Jectan, called Araanitse, that is, Homeritae. Perhaps it should be written Jocshan, not Jectan: for Philostorgius expressly says of the Homerites/Eort St ro Wvog Twv mc XtTTovpag, &c. That they are one of the nations descended from Keturah and Abraham, lib. iii. Hist. Eccles. §. 4. where he relates a famous embassy which Constantius sent to thera to win them to Christianity, and the. good success of it. And there is this strong proof of their descent from some of Abraham’s family, that they retained the rite of circumcision, even when they were idolaters. For he says expressly, 1 that it was a circumcised nation/’ Kara rfjv oySorjv TrtpiTtfivofiivwv rjfxipav, and circumcised also on the eighth day. Which was not the custom of all the Arabians, if we may believe Josephus, (lib. i. Antiq. cap. 23.) and Enstathius in Hexaemeron, &c. who say the Arabians stayed till they were thirteen years old before they were circumcised. Medan.] From whom the country called Madiania, in the southern part of Arabia Felix, it is likely had its name. Midian.] From whom Midianitis, in Arabia Petraca, had its denomination. And Ishbak.] I can find no footsteps of his posterity, unless it be in Bacascami, which Pliny says was one of the towns of the Zamareni, who descended from his eldest brother Zimran. There were a people also hard by, called Bachilitze, as he tells us, lib. vi. Nat. Hist. cap. 28. And Shuah.] Perhaps he had no children, or so few that they were mixed with some of their other brethren,

Genesis 25:3

And Jokshan begat’Sheba. I observed before upon x. 7. that thero are four of this name, or near it, all comprehended by the Greek and lloman writers under the name of Sabeans. One of them, the son of llaamah, had a brother called Dedan, as this Sheba here hath. But they were the fathers of a distinct people, as is evident from the Scripture story, and from other authors. For, besides the Sabcei in the furthermost parts of Arabia, near the Persian and the Red Sea, there were also a people of that name (descended, it is very probable, from this son of Jokshan), in the very entrance of Arabia Felix, as Strabo tells us; who says, that they and the Nabatzei were the very next people to Syria: and were wont to make excursions upon their neighbours. By which we may understand (which otherwise could not be made out), how the Sabeans broke into Jacob’s country, and carried away his cattle. For it is not credible they could come so far as from the Persian or Arabian Sea: but from this country there was an easy passage through the deserts of Arabia, into the land ofUz or Ausitis, which lay upon the borders of Euphrates. (See Bo chart in his Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 9.) And Dedan.] There was one of this name (as I said before), the.son of Rhegma, (Gen.x.7.) who gave name to a city upon the Persian Sea, now called Dadan. But besides that, there was an inland city, called Dedan, in the country of Idumea, mentioned by Jeremiah, (xxv. 23. xlix. 8.) whose inhabitants are called Dedanim, (Isa. xxi. 13.) And this Dedan, here mentioned, may well be thought to be the founder of it, as the same Bochart observes, lib. iv. cap. G. And the sons of Dedan were Ashurim, and Letttshhn, and Leummim.] If these were heads of nations, or families, the memory of them is lost. For it is a mistake of Cleodenius (who mentions the first of these in Euseb. Prsepar. Evang. lib. ix. cap. 20.) to derive the Assyrians from this Ashurim: they having their original from Ashur, one of the sons of Shem, (x. 22.)

Genesis 25:4

And the sons of Midian, Ephah. The name of Ephah, the eldest son of Midian, continued a long time; for these two are mentioned by Isaiah as near neighbours, (lx. G.) And not only Josephus, Euscbius, and St. Jerome, but the Nubiensian geographer also, tell us of a city called Madian, in the shore of the Red Sea; near to which was Ephah, in the province of Madian. HB^, Epha, or Hipha, is the same with that place the Greeks call “Ittttoq, and Ptolemy mentions both a mountain and a village of this name on thesame shore, a little below Madiane, which is the Madian here mentioned, as Bochart observes in his H’ierozoic. par. i. lib. ii. cap. 3. And Eplier.’] I can find no remainders of his family, unless it be among the Homerita? bclbrcinentioned, whose metropolis was called Ta^apov; in which Theophilus (sent by Coirstahtius to convert that country) built a church, as Philostorgius relates, (lib. iii. Hist. Ecclcs. §. 4.) Which city is mentioned by many other authors, as Jacobus Gotofredus observes in his Dissertations upon Philostorgius; particularly by Arrianus, in his Periplus of the Red Sea, where he calls the metropolis of the Homcritze expressly by the name of’A^ap, which one cannot well doubt came from this Eplier. And Hanoch.] In that part of Arabia Felix where the Adranitaj were seated, there was a great trading town called Cane, as Ptolemy tells us, and shews its distance from Alexandria; Kavr\ i/x7r6piov KalaKoov, (lib. viii.) Pliny also mentions a country in Arabia, which he calls Regio Canauna; which maybe thought to have taken its name from this person and his posterity. And Abidah.] The relics of this name remain (if the two last syllables, as is usual, be inverted) in the people called A(j3r?vo£, who lived in an island called Atfiov,,or An3ouc> which lay between Arabia and India, and is by authors said to belong sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other. Philostorgius saith, only they bear the name of Indians (in the place beforenamed, where he saith, Theophilus, who was sent to convert the Homerites, was born here). But Pliny, reckoning up the tracts of Arabia, places the isle called Devadse (which I take to be this) over-against the forenamed region called Canauna, (lib. vi. cap. 28.) And Strabo. (as Gothofred observes), Agatharcides, and others, call it Atfiau And Eldaah.] I know not where to find any remains of this name, unless it be in the city Elana (which might easily be formed from Eldaah, by leaving put the daleihy and turning the ain into nun, than which nothing more common), whichwas seated in the Sinus Arabicus, toward the east, called by others AWava (JElana), from whence the Sinus itself was called Elanites, and the people that lived in it Elanitac, as Salmasius shews out of many authors: (Exercit. in Solinum, p. 482.)

Genesis 25:5

Gave all he had to Isaac. As he designed long before, (xxiv. 36.)

Genesis 25:6

Sons of his concubines. Which were Hagar and Keturah, who were wives, but of an inferior sort, according to the manner of those times and countries. Keturah is expressly called his concubine, 1 Chron. i. 32. as she is above (Yer. 1. of this chapter) called his wife. Which R. Bcchai (in Mr. Selden, cap. iii. de Successionibus) thus explains: " She was his concubine, because of a servile condition; but his wife, because married with covenants, to provide for her and her children;” though they w f ere not to heir his estate. The Talmudists, indeed, do not perfectly agree in this matter; for, though they all agree (and prove it evidently) that they were real wives, yet some say they were made so only by solemn espousals, without any marriage settlement in writing, as the principal wives had: others think they had a writing also, but not with such conditions as the principal wives enjoyed. Abarbinel hath an accurate discourse about this, which Buxtorf hath translated into his book De Sponsalibus, n. 17. And see also Mr. Selden, lib. v. de Jure N. ct G. cap. 7. p. 570, &c. and G. Sckickard, de Jure Reg’io, cap. 3. p. 70. Gave gifts.] Some portion of his money, or moveable goods; or, perhaps, of both: which, in all probability, he gave to Ishmacl, as well as to these sons, (though it be not mentioned, Gen. xxi. 14.) because Moses here saith, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines; of which Hagar was one. Into the east country.] Into Arabia and the adjacent countries, as was said before. For the Midianites are called the “children of the east/’ in Judg. vi.3.33. vii.12. viii. 10.

Genesis 25:7

These are the days of the years of Abraham, &c. This is spoken by anticipation (to finish the story of Abraham), for Esau and Jacob were born before he died, and were now fifteen years old. For Isaac was but sixty years old when they were born, (ver. 26.) and seventy-five when Abraham died; who was a hundred years old at Isaac’s birth, and lived to the age of one hundred seventy and five.

Genesis 25:8

Abraham gave tip the ghost. Died of no disease, but old age. In a good old age.] Without pain or sickness. Full of years.] The Hebrew hath only the word full; we add years to make up the sense: which sorao think rather to be this, that he was satisfied, and had enough of this world, desiring to live no longer. Like that expression in Seneca, (epist. lxi.) " Vixi, Lucilicharissime, quantum satis est; mortem plenus expecto.” Gathered to his people.] It doth norelate to his body, which was not buried with them; and therefore must relate to his soul, which is supposed by this still to live in that place where his pious forefathers were gone Or else it is a Hebrew idiom, signifying no more, but that he left this world as all his fathers bad done before him.

Genesis 25:9

His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, &e. By this it appears that Isaac and Ishmael were riot strangers one to another. Nay, some of the orientals tell us that Abraham went to see Ishmael at his house, and that Ishmael cameto see him after he was sent away; which is not at all improbable; for no doubt Abraham provided for him suitable to the condition of his birth: and Ishmael could not but be convinced that the inheritance of his father belonged of right to Isaac, who was the son of a free-woman, and he only of a bond-woman.. Nor could he well be ignorant tiiat Isaac was to be heir of Abraham’s estate, by God’s designation. In the field of Ephron, &c] See xxiii. 17. Ver. II. Isaac dwelt by the tvell Lahai-roi.] He continued, after Abraham’s death, his former habitation, which he had when he married, (xxiv. 62.)

Genesis 25:12

Now these are the generations of Ishmael, &c. Having mentioned the blessing of God which went along with Isaac after his father’s death (in the foregoing verse), he takes this occasion to shew, that God was not unmindful of his promise made to Abraham concerning Ishmael also, (xvii. 20.)

Genesis 25:13

Nebaioth. As he was the first-born of Ishmael, so his posterity gave the denomination to the whole country of Arabia Petrsea (in the best part of which, see ver. 3. they inhabited), which Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy, call Nabatcea; and sometimes other authors call Nabathis; as the inhabitants were called Nabatcei; who are mentioned also by Dionysius Pcriegetes, in his description of the world, and by Plutarch, in the Life of Demetrius; who, he saith, was sent to subdue the Arabs called Nabatcei (roue Kakovfxivovg Naj3arcuouc) where he was in great danger to perish, by falling, ug tottovq avvdpovg, into places where there was no water. These are commonly called, in Scripture, Ishmaclitcs, as if they had been the sole heirs of their progenitor; and they dwelt near to the Midianites (their half brethren); for in the story of Joseph, he is said in one place to he sold unto the Ishmaclitcs, in another to the Midianites, (Gen. xxxvii. 27, 28. 30.) they’being neighbours, and co-partners in traffic. The country of Moab also was near to these Nabatcei, as appears from Epiphanius, (Hseres. liii.) where, speaking of the countries that lay beyond the Dead Sea, he mentions this, which he calls N«j3artK?) Xd>pa, the region of Nebaioth, Itnraea, and Moabitis. (See Salmasius, Plin. Exercitat. p. 615.) Kedar.] His posterity, called Kedareni, were algo seated in Arabia Petraea, together with their elder brother: and their name also was so famous, that some authors call the whole country Kedai: For the language of Kedar is the Arabian language; and when David complains that he had dwelt long " in the tents of Kedar,” the Chaldee expounds it, " in the dwelling of the Arabians." But those Arabians called Scenitos were properly the people of Kedar: and yet not all the Scenita; (i. e. all the Arabs who dwelt in tents), but those only who dwelt in Arabia Petrsea. For there were divers kinds of them (all called Sk^vitcu), some near Euphrates, others in Arabia Felix, &c. as Salmasius shews in his Plin. Exercit. p. 484. Some take them to be the same with those whom Ptolemy calls Pharanitas: for what the Psalmist calls dwelling among the " tents of Kedar," is called (1 Sam. xxvi. 1.) " dwelling in the wilderness of Paran." Pliny only says, Pharanitis bordered upon the Arabs (in " ora contermina gentis Arabiae"), and so later writers make Pharan and Arabia Petraea to be near neighbours, as the same Salmasius shews, p. 485. Ver., 14. Dumah.] He seems, by Isaiah xxi. 11. to have been seated near Idumea.

Genesis 25:15

Hadar. Some think the Athritas in Arabia Felix came from him. In which, likewise, there was a city called Tema, from the next son of Ishmael: and Jetur, the next son to him, may well be thought to have been the father of the Iturasi in Coelo-Syria: and Kedemah, the last of his sons, to have dwelt near his brother Kedar. For so Jacobus Capellus expounds those words, (Jer. xlix. 28.) " Go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of Kedem," (which we translate " the men of the east.") And there are some other people in those countries, whose names sound somethinglike the rest of the sons of Ishmael, but not so like as these I have mentioned: which makes me omit all further search after thern, enough having been said to shew the truth of this account which Moses gives us of Ishmael’s posterity. Ver. 1G. Tliese are their names, by their toivris.] Though some of them dwelt in tents (and thence were called Scenitse Arabes), yet they did not live so scatteririgly, but pitched them together, and made a town. And their castles.’] They had even then places of defence; Mhich may make it probable, that they had also walled towns, to which they resorted from their tents in the fields, when they were in any danger, (Isa. xlii. 11.) For it must be here noted, that as there were divers people of this name of Scenitac Arabes; so there was this difference among them (as Salmasius observes in the forenamed place), that some of them were Nomades, who wandered from place to place; others of them were not. Particularly the Sabeah Scenitae, and most of the rest, dwelt in tents, but were fixed in their habitations, and did not remove from one place to another, as those that dwelt in Mesopotamia did, who were both Scenitae, and also Nomades. They, therefore, who were settled in tents, as the sons of Ishmael were, had reason to build fortresses for the security of their slender habitations. i

Genesis 25:17

Gathered unto his people. The same phrase being used here of the death of Ishmael, that was (ver. 8.) of the death of Abraham; it shews the meaning is no more, but that they left the world as others had done before them. We do not read where Ishmael was buried: it is likely in his own country, not in the cave of Machpelah; for that had been to give his posterity a claim to a share in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 25:18

They dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, &c. See Gen. x. 7. Josephus, (lib. i. Antiq. cap. 12.) makes the Ishmaelites to have possessed the whole tract between Euphrates and the Red Sea; which appears by this place not to be true. For between them and Euphrates were the Amalekites and Moabites, who did not reach to Euphrates neither. The Ishmaelites therefore possessed the country, which in that part eastward that was next to the Amalekites, was called the wilderness of Havilah; and in that part next to Egypt was called the wilderness of Shur; and in other places of Scripture is called Kedar, the wilderness of Paran, and the wilderness of sin. All which was comprehended afterward under the name of Arabia. For Stephanus (as Salmasius observes, Plin. Exerc. p. 488.) makes but two Arabias. One which he calls the spicy, between the Persian and the Arabian Sea; the other on one end of it westward, was next to Egypt; on the other end northward, next to Syria. As thou goest towards Assyria.] The wilderness of Shur was over-against Egypt, and touched it in that part by which the way lay from Egypt to Assyria. Or, as some understand the whole verse, " The sons of Ishmael dwelt from Shur, which is towards Egypt, unto Havilah, which is towards Assyria, in the way from Egypt thither." He died (Heb. fell) in the presence of all his brethren.] Of all his relations or kindred, which are called brethren in Scripture. But his death has been spoken of before; and in this verse mention being made only of the situation of his country, some interpret it in this manner, His lot fell, i. e. he had its portion in the presence of all his brethren, according to the promise made to his mother, (xvi. 12.) the children of Kcturah lying on the east of his country, and Isaac’s seed on the west. Or, if we take it to relate to his death, it may have the same sense: H Till death he dwelt in the presence of all his brethren, and was in a flourishing condition."

Genesis 25:19

These are the generations of Isaac. His principal design being to give an account of those descended from Abraham by Isaac; Moses returns to that, after a short account of his other posterity.

Genesis 25:20

The Syrian, of Padan-Aram, &c. Bethuel and Laban aro called Aramites, or Syrians, not because they were of that nation, but becau%3 they lived in the country of Aram, or Syria, that is, in Padan-Aram; as it is here explained, and appears more fully from Rebekah’s discourse with her son Jacob, when she sent him thither, (xxviii. 2. 0.) where he living twenty years with his uncle Laban, was upon that account called a Syrian, though born in Canaan, (Deut xxvi. 5.) Padan-Arain was a part of Mesopotamia. I say a part of it, for Mesopotamia itself was called Aram-Naharaim, that part of Syria (for there were many other Arams) which lay between. the two great rivers of Euphrates and Tigris. Which country had two parts also; one toward the north, from the mountains of Armenia to the river Chaboras, i. e. Araxes, (from whence Balaam seems to have been fetched, Numb, xxiii. 7.) which was exceeding fruitful, and upon that account called Padan, which signifies in Arabic the same that Sede doth in Hebrew, i.e. afield. And therefore what Moses calls going to Padan-Aram, (Gen. xxviii. 2.) the prophet Hosea calls fleeing to Sedo-Aram, into the country or field of Syria, (Hosea xii. 12.) this being a cultivated country, abounding with all plenty. The other part of Mesopotamia was southerly, from the forenamed river unto Babylon; and was very stony and barren. The Syrians lived in the former, and the Arabians in the latter, as Bochart observes, (lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. G.)

Genesis 25:21

Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, &c. The Hebrew word atar doth not signify barely to entreat, or pray, but to beseech with earnestness, vehemence, and irnporturiity. It is most likely he continued these importunate prayers several years; the desire of seeing the Messiah making them very uneasy under barrenness: and some of the Hebrews fancy, that she remaining barren twenty years, Isaac at last carried her with him to Mount Moriah (where he should have been offered), and there made most fervent supplications for a son; as if he would remember God of the promise he had there made him, that he would multiply Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven, (xxii. 17.)

Genesis 25:22

And the children struggled together within her. Some time before her delivery (ver. 24.) she felt as if two were wrestling together in her womb; and put her into pangs, by striving which should get out first. If it be so, why am I thus?] If I cannot be delivered, why did I conceive? And she went.] The struggling and pangs, we must suppose, ceased for some time; so that she was able to go and consult the Divine Majesty about this unusual contest. To inquire of the Lord.] There were somfc places where the Divine Majesty used to appear, which was the settled place of worship. (See iv. 3.) Maimonides will have it, that she went to the school of Sem, or Heber, who were prophets, to desire them to consult the Divine Majesty about her case. (More Nevoch. par. ii. cap. 41.) And it is very probable, that there was some divinely-inspired person attending the Schechinah, wheresoever it was; such as Melchizedec was at Salem. Whom Patricides takes to have been the person to whom Rebekah resorted, for resolution of her doubt.

Genesis 25:23

And the Lord said unto her. By Melchizedec, saith the forenamed Patricides; By an angel, saith Mai-

Genesis 25:24

When her days to be delivered tv ere fulfilled. This demonstrates the time of her delivery was not come when the struggling first began.

Genesis 25:25

Red all over. Some will have it with red hair, not only on his head, but all over his body. Like a hairy garment.] As rough as hair-cloth; just as the poets describe satyrs. He was hirsutus; not only hairy all over, but those hairs as stiff as bristles; arguing great strength of body, and a rough, fierce temper. They called his name Esau.] Which’ signifying made in Hebrew, this is commonly taken for the reason of his name, that he was as full of hairs when he was born, as others are at man’s estate. But I think it may as well denote his active genius, which they thought this presaged.

Genesis 25:26

Jacob. He certainly had his name from his taking his brother by the heel at his birth; as if he would supplant him, as he afterwards did. Was threescore years old.] God exercised Isaac’s faith and patience (just as he had done Abraham’s) for the space of twenty years, before he gave him a child; for he was forty years old when he married (ver. 20.) and now sixty.

Genesis 25:27

A cunning hunter. Had great skill in hunting, in which his active genius delighted. A man of the field.] That took pleasure to be abroad, pursued wild beasts, in woods and mountains; where afterwards he had his habitation. A plain man, dwelling in tents.] He loved not violent exercise, but kept at home; or looked after the flocks of sheep, and the breed of cattle.

Genesis 25:28

And Isaac loved Esau, &c. Not only because he was his first-born, and because his love of hunting argued him to be a man of great activity and valour, who. was likely to prove a great person, but because he also took care frequently to entertain his father with venison (which was of divers sorts), and afforded him such variety at his table, as gave his father frequent occasion to commend hiin. But Rebekah loved Jacob.] Being a man of a more meek and quiet temper, suitable to her own disposition, and more at home also with her than Esau was, and designed by God to inherit the promise, (ver. 23.) It is likely Esau made great court (as we speak) to his father, and Jacob to his mother; whereby they won their affection.

Genesis 25:29

He teas faint. “With too violent and long pursuit of his sports.

Genesis 25:30

Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red, kc. It was made of lentiles, as we learn from the last verse of this chapter. And St. Austin upon Psalms xlvi. saith they were Egyptian lentiles; which were hi great esteem, and much commended by Athenseus and A. Gellius: and gave the pottage, it is probable, a red tincture. Some think Esau did not know what it was, and therefore calls it only by its colour; asking for that red, that same red, as it is in the Hebrew. TJierefore teas his name called Edom.] This repeated eager desire of he knew not what, for which he sold his birthright, gave him the name of Edom: which signifies red. Whence the city which he built, and the whole country his posterity inhabited, was called by the same name; and by the Greeks, Idumea; bordering toward the south upon Judea, Arabia, and Egypt.

Genesis 25:31

Sell me this day thy birthright. The eldest son had several privileges belonging to him above the rest: the chief of which was to have a double portion of his father’s estate. As for the right of priesthood, there are many reasons to prove it did not belong thereunto. But whatsoever they were, Jactfb cunningly made an advantage of Esau’s necessity, to purchase them all for a small matter. In which some think he did not amiss: about which I shall not dispute.

Genesis 25:32

Wliat profit shall this birthright do to me?. He speaks very slightly, if not contemptuously of it; preferring the present satisfaction of his appetite, before his future dignity and greatness. For some are of opinion he pretended to be fainter than really he was; out of a vehemeut longing for the pottage; which, perhaps, was a rarity,

Genesis 25:33

Swear to me this day. That I shall peaceably enjoy the prerogative of the birthright. Esau seems to have been very violent in all things; and to have pursued this as eagerly as he did his sports: Jacob, on the contrary, very sedate and crafty to make the best use of the opportunities he met with to promote his ends.

Genesis 25:34

Rose tip and went his way. Well satisfied, and without any trouble for what he had done. Which the apostle censures as a piece of profaneness: parents being wont to give a special blessing to their first-born. Despised his birthright.] He thought, perhaps, he could recover that by force, which he had lost by his brother’s craft.

Her damsels. Who waited upon her; and were given as part of her portion.

To meditate, &c. The cool of the evening and solitude are great friends to meditation.

She lighted off the camel. As they always did who met any person whom they honoured.

Too a veil.* Not only out of modesty, but in token of her subjection to him. Many will have this to have been a peculiar ornament belonging to a bride, called by the Romans flammm, by the Greeks Gipiarpov, as Mr. Selden observes, lib. v. de Jure N. et G. cap. 5. Whence those words of Tertullian, de Veland. Virgin, cap. 2. " Etiam apud Ethnicos velatae (i.e. sponsae) ad virum ducuntur:” Even among heathens brides are brought to their husbands with a veil over their faces.

And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. How she had consented to be his wife.

Brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. That apartment wherein his mother dwelt: which was distinct from that of the husband’s. And Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother.] The love he had to his wife, helped to alleviate the sorrow he had conceived at his mother’s death: which was so great, that now it had continued three years. Such was the pious affection children had for their parents, in ancient days. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, (xxv. 20.) and, if we can believe the Jews (in Seder Olam), she was but fourteen.