Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ...a passage could not be interpolated, could not be a fiction inserted by such a man as Moses, could not have been of the character it is, poetic and mysterious, while still predictive, had it been intended to impose upon the reader. The general scope of the prophecy is clear. It points to the land of Canaan, and the distribution of the twelve tribes. It describes their history as tribes, under poetic figures, marking their peculiarities as well as their geographical restrictions. Now look at the fact, that in this dying utterance of the patriarch there was a distribution to the tribes of their future inheritances. May it not be truly said, apart from all particular details of the prophecy, that it was a great venture, a great "undertaking," as Davison well describes it, thus to forecast the future of a whole people? As he well says, "The common calculation of human life would not have necessitated such a promise, at least in any times of the world with which we are acquainted. For if an inheritance were to be apportioned upon the contingency of a second male offspring in a numerous and multiplied distant issue, to twelve sons of a family, I believe it will be allowed to be an event highly improbable that such a disposition of the inheritance should in all its branches take effect. But here the grant was from the Almighty Disposer, and prophecy relied upon intentions not to be defeated." It is remarkable that Jacob should have uttered this prophecy when circumstances seemed to point to a permanent settlement in Egypt, and when the position of Joseph seemed to predict their future great prosperity in that land. And yet it is natural that the prophecy should come from the dying lips of the patriarch, from a death-bed full...
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