IT is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this prophet was the son of the Shunamite woman that was at first miraculously given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha (2 Kings iv.), as they say also that the prophet Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, which Elijah raised to life. It is a more probable conjecture of their modern chronologers that he lived and prophesied in the reign of king Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and destruction was hastening on, destruction by the Chaldeans, whom this prophet mentions as the instruments of God's judgments: and Manasseh was himself carried to Babylon, as an earnest of what should come afterwards. In the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of Habakkuk the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an angel to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den: those who give credit to that story take pains to reconcile our prophet's living before the captivity, and foretelling it, with that. Huetius thinks that that was another of the same name, a prophet, this of the tribe of Simeon, that of Levi: others that he lived so long as to the end of that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some have imagined that Habakkuk's feeding Daniel in the den is to be understood mystically, that Daniel then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had said the just should do: he was fed by that word, Hab. ii. 4. The prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet's addresses to God in the people's name and to the people in God's name: for it is the office of the prophet to carry messages both ways. We have in it a lively representation of the intercourse and communion between a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole refers particularly to the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans, which brought spoil upon the people of God, a just punishment of the spoil they had been guilty of among themselves: but it is of general use, especially to help us through that great temptation with which good men have in all ages been exercised, arising from the power and prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous by it.

The Book of Genesis

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Chapter 35



1: And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2: Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away thestrange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

3: And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4: And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

5: And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6: So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

7: And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8: But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

9: And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

10: And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11: And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12: And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will Igive the land.

13: And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

14: And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

15: And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

16: And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.

17: And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

18: And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but hisfather called him Benjamin.

19: And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

20: And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

21: And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

22: And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

23: The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

24: The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

25: And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

26: And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid: Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to himin Padanaram.

27: And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28: And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

29: And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Genesis 36

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