quick temper, which, however violent, did not long harbor anger, she resolved to send Jacob away to her

brother Laban, for "a few days," as she fondly imagined, after which she would "send and fetch" him "from

thence." But kindness towards her husband prompted her to keep from him Esau's murderous plan, and to

plead as a reason for Jacob's temporary departure that which, no doubt, was also a strong motive in her own

mind, that Jacob should marry one of her kindred. For, as she said, "If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of

Heth, such as these of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life be to me?" Petulant as was her

language, her reasoning was just, and Isaac knew it from painful experience of Esau's wives. And now Isaac

expressly sent Jacob to Laban, to seek him a wife; and in so doing, this time consciously and wittingly,

renewed the blessing which formerly had been fraudulently obtained from him. Now also the patriarch

speaks clearly and unmistakably, not only reiterating the very terms of the covenant-blessing in all their

fullness, but especially adding these words: "God Almighty . . . . give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee,

and to thy seed with thee." Thus Isaac's dimness of spiritual sight had at last wholly passed away. But the

darkness around Esau seems to only have grown deeper and deeper. Upon learning what charge Isaac had

given his son, and apparently for the first time awakening to the fact that "the daughters of Canaan pleased

not Isaac 40 his father," he took "Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael" as a third wife - as if he had mended

matters by forming an alliance with him whom Abraham had, by God's command, "cast out!" Thus the

spiritual incapacity and unfitness of Esau appeared at every step, even where he tried to act kindly and

To conclude, by altering and adapting the language of a German writer: After this event Isaac lived other

forty-three years. But he no more appears in this history. Its thread is now taken up by Jacob, on whom the

promise has devolved. Scripture o nly records that Isaac was gathered to his fathers when one hundred and

eighty years old, and full of days, and that he was buried in the cave of Machpelah by Esau and Jacob,

whom he had the joy of seeing by his death-bed as reconciled brothers. When Jacob left, his father dwelt at

Beersheba. The desire to be nearer to his father's burying-place may have been the ground of his later

settlement in Mamre, where he died. (Genesis 35:27-29) Rebekah, who at parting had so confidently

promised to let Jacob know whenever Esau's anger was appeased, may have died even before her favorite

son returned to Canaan. At any rate the promised message was never delivered, nor is her name mentioned

on Jacob's return.