(x) v.4,5, so entirely corresponds with xxii. 17,18, that, if one of these passages is due to the Deut. editor, then certainly so is the other.

165. In Deuteronomy, the synonyms 'charge,' ordinance,' 'ordinances,'' statutes,' 'commandments,' 'judgments,' 'testimonies,' occur very frequently, either separately, or combined two, three, or four together, in all possible varieties. Thus, in one single chapter, D.vi, we have commandments, statutes, and judgments,' v.1, commandments, testimonies, and statutes,' v.17, testimonies, statutes, and judgments,' v.20, 'statutes,' v.24, commandments,' v.25; and in the whole Book such expressions are used fifty-five times. Similar formulæ occur twenty-four times only in the rest of the Pentateuch; and then chiefly, as we believe-if not entirely, when synonyms occur three together,-in Deuteronomistic interpolations. But in Deuteronomy only do they occur four together as in the above instance, D.xi.1; and in Deuteronomy they are found three together in the following nine instances:

'testimonies, statutes, judgments,' D.iv.45, vi.20,

'commandments, statutes, judgments,' D.v.31, vi.1, vii.11, xxx.16,
'commandments, testimonies, statutes,' D.vi.17,
'commandments, judgments, statutes,' D.viii.11,

'statutes, commandments, judgments,' D.xxvi.17.

The only other examples of this in the Pentateuch occur in L.xxvi, (which we believe to be due to the Deuteronomist,) viz. 'statutes, judgments, commandments,' v.15, 'statutes, judgments, laws,' v.46.

166. xxvi.6-17, Jehovist.

(i) v.7,7, 'the men of the place,' xxvi.7,7, xxix.22, xxxviii.21.

(ii) v.7, and he said, She is my sister,' as in E, (xx.2);

comp. 'say I pray thee, thou art my sister,' xii.13.

(iii) v.7, 'lest they kill me for Rebekah,' as in E,(xx.11), 'they will kill me for

the matter of my wife'; comp. 'they will kill me,' xii.12.

(iv) v.7, 'goodly of form was she,' comp. 'fair of form art thou,' xii.11 (59.xvi).

*(v) v.8, 'the days were prolonged to him there,' (128.iv);

comp. 'he sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days,' xxi.34.

(vi) v.8, pin, 'look,' as in xviii.16, xix.28.

(vii) v.8, y, behind,' (31.iii).

(viii) v.8, jib, 'window,' as in viii.6.

(ix) v.9, 'and Abimelech called to Isaac and said,'—E,(xx.9);

comp. 'and Pharaoh called to Abram, and said,' xii.18(J).

(x) v.9, 'how saidst thou, She is my sister?'

comp. 'wherefore saidst thou, She is my sister?' xii.19. *(xi) v.10, nxt-, 'what is this,' (161.v).

(xii) v.10, 'what is this thou hast done to us ?'-E2(xx.9); comp. 'what is this thou hast done to me?' xii.18 (4.xiii). (xiii) v.10, ' thou hast brought on us transgression';

comp. 'thou hast brought on me.... a great sin,' xx.9(E2).

(xiv) v.11, y♪♪, ‘touch,' (4.vi)—E,(xx.6).

(xv) v.11, ‘he shall surely be put-to-death,' as in ii.17, iii.4—E,(xx.7).

*(xvi) v.11, n', 'put-to-death,' (97.xl).

(xvii) v.12, n, 'hundred,' (13.v).

*(xviii) v.12, ‘and Jehovah blessed him,' (141.iii).

(xix) v.13, and the man grew,' (162.i).

(xx) v.13, 'going and growing,'-growing continually, (38.v.N.B).

*(xxi) v.13, py, until,' as in xli.49, xlix.10,-only besides in 2S.xxiii.10;

comp. ON(WIN)-TY, xxiv.19,33, xxviii.15.

*(xxii) v.14, cattle of flocks and cattle of herds,' as in xlvii.17, 2Ch.xxxii. 29, Eccles.ii.7.

(xxiii) v.14, flocks, herds, servants (59.xxii).

*(xxiv) v.14, Nap, 'be jealous at,' xxvi. 14, xxx. 1, xxxvii.11.

(xxv) v.15, 'his father's servants,' comp. 'Isaac's servants,' v.19,25,32.

*(xxvi) v. 16, jp ayy, 'be stronger than,' (5.xviii).

(xxvii) v.17, ♬ɔņ, 'encamp,' as in xxxiii. 18.

167. In v.15 we read,—

'and also the wells which his father's servants dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them, and filled them with earth';

and again we read in v.18—

'and Isaac returned and dug the wells of water, which they dug in the days of Abraham his father, and the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham.'

It seems plain that one and the same writer cannot have written these two almost identical passages in such close juxtaposition, as part of the same context. Besides which J in v.15 represents this 'stopping' of the wells as proceeding direct from the envy' of the Philistines towards Isaac, v.14; whereas in v.18 it is mentioned merely as a fact, which had resulted in

consequence of Abraham's death. It seems probable that v.18 belongs to E,, who wrote it originally to follow the E. passage xxv.24-26. Then J has afterwards interpolated the passages, xxv.27-34, preparing for xxvii, and xxvi.1-3,6-17, leading on the story to v.18; and in v.15 he has taken up the words of v.18, expanding the impersonal 'they dug' into his father's servants dug,' and adding the explanation, and filled them with earth,' and has then inserted v.16,17, to make the link of connection between his interpolation and the words of E.

In v.17 we read and he went from thence,' i.e. from the town of Gerar, where he 'dwelt,' v.6, and where also the king lived, v.8-comp. also 'men of the place,' v.7, the window,' v.8, and encamped in the vale of Gerar,' i.e. probably, as DELITZSCH says, p.448

in the well-watered district through which flows the deep and broad stream now called Djurf-el-Gerar.'

168. xxvi.18.

As above observed, this verse could hardly have been written as part of the same context with v.15, where the same phrases are identically repeated. We believe that this was the original notice, and that it is due to E,, who merely wished to express by it the fact, that Isaac took possession again of the famous well at Beersheba, which his father had dug, and which the Philistine king Abimelech had allowed him to keep as his own property, xxi.25-27,32. The writer here speaks, indeed, of wells, which they dug in the days of Abraham.' But hitherto no one has mentioned any 'wells' dug by Abraham. Only E,, in xxi.25, has mentioned a single well-evidently one of great interest and importance in the writer's view-about which Abraham complained to Abimelech, because the king's servants had taken it by force.' It is plain also from xxi.32 that E, wished to imply that Abraham had called this well by the name 'Beersheba,' though he does not expressly mention that fact. And so, in the

verse before us, he does not mention by what names Isaac called these wells. He says merely

'he called their names according to the names which his father had called to them,'

having specially,-if not, indeed, solely--in view in these words, as we suppose, the one particular well at Beersheba.

169. xxvi.18, Second Elohist.

(i) 'the Philistines stopped them after Abraham's death,' i.e. according to the original notice of E,, not out of illwill and envy against Isaac because he had grown so wealthy and powerful, but merely because Abraham was dead, to whom Abimelech had left the peaceable possession of the well, according to this writer, xxi.25-27,32, against the wishes of his 'servants,' v.25. The people, who had acquiesced in the king's decision which secured the well to Abraham during his lifetime, considered that the grant had lapsed at his death, and thus may be supposed to have stopped it; but Isaac reasserted his claim and dug it again.

(ii) after Abraham's death' seems to repeat the words of E in xxv.11a, ‘and it came to pass that, after Abraham's death, Elohim blessed Isaac.'

(iii) and he called to them names as the names which his father called to them,' probably, merely means to say that Isaac redug the 'well' at Beersheba which his father had dug, and which he called 'Beersheba' = well of the oath, by the name given to it of old by Abraham-(as E, suggests, xxi.23–25,32, though he does not expressly assert it)-because of the 'oath' which he took to Abimelech. As we have said, this note by E, seems merely intended to re-establish the right of the Patriarchs to the possession of Beersheba.

170. The brief notice of E, in v.18 has been afterwards enlarged by J in v.19-25 into a rediscovery and renaming of the well Beersheba,' after a solemn covenant and oath' between Abimelech and Isaac.

It is probable also that the account of the successive discovery and naming of different wells,' v.19-22, may have been suggested by the expressions of E, in v. 18,

'Isaac dug again the wells. . . . and called their names &c.'

But obviously this account in v.19-22 can hardly have formed originally part of the same context with v.18.

171. xxvi.19-33, Jehovist.

(i) v.19,25,32, 'Isaac's servants,' comp. 'his father's servants,' v.15. (ii) v.19, 'the vale,' as in v.17.

(iii) v.20, and the shepherds of Gerar strove with the shepherds of Isaac'; comp. and there was a strife between the shepherds of Abram's cattle and the shepherds of Lot's cattle,' xiii.7 ;

'let there not be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds,' xiii.8.

(iv) v.20, ʻand he called the name of the well 'Esek' (p, 'strife'), for they strove (py) with him,'-direct derivation as in (3.xvi).

(v) v.21, and they strove also about that; and he called its name 'Sitnah' (p, enmity')-indirect derivation as in (3.iv).

*(vi) v.22, pлy, 'remove,' as in xii.8-only besides in Job, Ps.vi.7(8), Pr.xxv. 1. *(vii) v.22,25, ‘and he removed from thence . . . and he built there an altar, and called on the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there';

...

comp. 'and he removed from thence . . . and pitched his tent . . . and built there an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah,' xii.8.

*(viii) v.22, ‘and he called its name 'Rehoboth' (nian, ‘room,') and said, For now Jehovah hath made room (n, for us,'-direct derivation, as in (3xvi). (ix) v.22, 'fruitful in the land,' as in xli.52.

(x) v.23, 'and he went-up from thence to Beersheba,' where, according to this writer, Abraham formerly dwelt, xxii. 19, and where also he makes Isaac to be dwelling, xxviii. 10, when he sent Jacob away to Charran.

(xi) v.24, 'Jehovah appeared unto him,' (59.vi).

(xii) v.24, 'in that night,' v.32, 'in that day,' (99.lvi).

*(xiii) v.24, 'I am the Elohim of Abraham thy father,' (47.xii).

(xiv) v.24, 'fear not,' xxvi. 24,xxxv.17,xliii.23, xlvi. 3,119,21,E,(xxi.17),D(xv.1). (xv) v.24, ‘I am with (л) thee,' (163.x).

(xvi) v.24, 'I am with thee and have blessed thee';
comp. 'I will be with thee and will bless thee,' v.3.
(xvii) v.24, 'I have multiplied thy seed,' (63.xxiv).

*(xviii) v.24, Maya, 'for the sake of,' (4.xviii).

(xix) v.24, ‘Abraham My servant,' comp. 'Thy servant Isaac,' xxiv.14, ‘Thy servant,' xxxii.10.

*(xx) v.25, ‘and he built there an altar,' comp. xxii.9, xxxiii.20, (45.ii).

*(xxi) v.25, 'call on the name of Jehovah,' (5.xxx).

*(xxii) v.25, 'pitch tent,' (59.ix).

*(xxiii) v.25, ny?, 'extend,' (59.x).

(xxiv) v.25, 1, ‘dig,' as in 1.5.

N.B. There is something awkward here in the order of events. As the story now stands, Isaac arrives at Beersheba, v.23, spends the night there, v.24, then builds an altar and worships, v.25, and after all this 'pitches his tent,' v.25· comp. the different order of events in xii.8, quoted above in (vii).

(xxv) v.26, ‘Abimelech' and 'Phichol, captain of his host,' as in xxi.22(E). (xxvi) v.26, 'and Abimelech went unto him,' comp. 'and Isaac went unto Abimelech,' v.1.

(xxvii) v.27, 'ye hate me and have put me forth from among you,' refers to v.14, 'the Philistines envied him,' and to v.16, 'Go from us.'