{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14643/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14643","id":"gutenberg_14643","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14643","summary":null,"tags":["Bible stories -- Old Testament","Bible. Old Testament -- Biography -- Juvenile literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jacob (Biblical patriarch) -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 14643-h.htm or 14643-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/6/4/14643/14643-h/14643-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/6/4/14643/14643-h.zip)\n\n\n\n\n\nAltemus' Children of the Bible Series\n\nTHE FARMER BOY; THE STORY OF JACOB\n\nby\n\nJ. H. WILLARD\n\nIllustrated\n\nPhiladelphia\nHenry Altemus Company\n\n1905\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Frontispiece]\n\n\n\nAltemus' Illustrated Children of the Bible Series\n\n  The Boy who Obeyed:  The Story of Isaac\n  The Farmer Boy:   The Story of Jacob\n  The Favorite Son:  The Story of Joseph\n  The Adopted Son:  The Story of Moses\n  The Boy General:  The Story of Joshua\n  The Boy at School:  The Story of Samuel\n  The Shepherd Boy:  The Story of David\n  The Boy who would be King:  The Story of Absalom\n  The Captive Boy:  The Story of Daniel\n  The Boy Jesus\n\n\n\n[Illustration:  no caption.]\n\n\n\nTHE FARMER BOY\n\nTHE STORY OF JACOB\n\nAbraham, the father of the great Israelitish, or Hebrew, nation, was\nthe chief, or sheikh, as he would be called now, of his family or\ntribe, and with his flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, camels and other\nanimals, servants and followers, moved from place to place, adding to\nhis wealth as time went on and making for himself a respected name\nwherever he went.\n\nGod chose Abraham to be the founder of this mighty nation, and at his\ndeath promised a continuation of His favor to his son Isaac, who had\nmarried Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, who was Abraham's nephew.\nIsaac was an only son and inherited his father's great wealth.\n\n[Illustration:  Abraham, the Founder of a Nation.]\n\nIsaac and Rebekah had twin sons whose names were Esau and Jacob, and\nperhaps no brothers were ever more unlike in their dispositions.  Esau\ngrew up to be a hunter.  Nothing pleased him so much as to take his bow\nand arrows and spend days away from home in the pursuit of deer, from\nwhose flesh he made food which his father liked.\n\nAmong other customs of that time which seem strange to us now was that\nof rich men and their wives and their sons as well preparing food with\ntheir own hands, although it is done in the East to some extent in\nthese days.\n\nAbraham was certainly a rich man with a host of servants at command,\nyet the Bible tells us that Sarah, his wife, prepared with her own\nhands the food for the strangers who visited the patriarch as he sat in\nthe door of his tent by the Oaks of Mamre.  We can understand then that\nthe sons of Isaac, who were even richer than his father, prepared food\nthemselves.\n\nEsau was looked upon as the older son and treated accordingly.  There\nwere certain privileges which by custom were given to oldest sons at\ntheir fathers' deaths, and these things constituted what was called a\nbirthright.  In addition to being treated as the older son Esau was\nalso the favorite son of his father.\n\nBut Rebekah loved Jacob more than she did Esau.  Jacob was of a much\nquieter disposition than his brother, living near his mother and\nprobably spending much of his time with her.  We may think of him as a\nman who liked to live in comfort and peace, hospitable to strangers, as\nwas the custom of the country, yet all the time wishing, as he looked\nout over the flocks and herds, that his was to be an older brother's\nportion when they were divided.\n\nThe word Jacob means \"supplanter,\" or one who takes the place of\nanother, and Jacob acted up to the meaning of his name at the first\nopportunity.  It came about in this way.\n\nJacob was cooking some food one day which smelt and looked very\ntempting to Esau when he came in hungry and tired to the point of\nexhaustion from one of his hunting trips.  He asked his brother to give\nhim some of this food, and Jacob, seeing a chance to acquire what he\ncoveted, told him he would do so if he would give him his birthright in\nexchange for it.  Probably Esau's hunger was more to him at the moment\nthan any privileges he might have later in life, so he consented and\nthe bargain was made.\n\n[Illustration:  Jacob was cooking some food one day.]\n\nAfter this there was a famine in the land where Isaac and his family\nlived, but Isaac did not go to Egypt to escape it as his father had\ndone on a similar occasion.  Instead, he took his family into the land\nof the Philistines and lived for a time at a place called Gerar.\n\nIsaac grew so prosperous in Gerar that the Philistines envied him.\nThey had filled up the wells which his father had dug years before, so\nIsaac, besides reopening them, dug others, about which there were many\ndisputes.  Then after a while Isaac took his family to Beersheba, and\nthere God renewed to him the promises of future greatness which He had\nmade to Abraham.\n\nBoth Isaac and Rebekah disapproved of the marriage Esau made with a\nwoman of a neighboring tribe, but in spite of this Isaac loved him very\ndearly, and when he felt that he should not live much longer he wished\nto bestow a blessing or promise upon him.  So he called Esau and asked\nhim to go once more and get some of the meat he liked and cook it for\nhim, telling him that when he brought it he would bless him.\n\nEsau set out on his errand, but as soon as he had gone, Rebekah, who\nhad overheard what Isaac had said, called Jacob, whom she loved more\nthan she did Esau, and told him that now he had a chance to get the\nblessing instead of his brother, and showed him how it could be done.\n\nJacob was very fond of his mother; he wanted the blessing, but was\nafraid his father would detect the deception and that it would bring a\ncurse instead of a blessing.  But his mother told him she would take\nall the blame and then Jacob consented to do as she told him.\n\nRebekah first sent Jacob to get some meat, which she cooked in the way\nIsaac liked, and then she dressed him in some of Esau's clothes.  Then\nshe put hairy skins on his hands and neck to make him feel like Esau if\nIsaac should put his hands on him.  Then she gave him the meat she had\nprepared and sent him on his dishonest errand.\n\n[Illustration:  The hands are the hands of Esau.]\n\nSo Jacob went where his blind father was sitting and said, \"My father.\"\nAnd Isaac replied, \"Here am I; who art thou, my son?\"  Then Jacob told\nhim that he was his son Esau, and that he had brought the food as he\nhad been asked to do.  Isaac asked him how the meat could have been\nfound and prepared so quickly, and Jacob replied, \"Because the Lord thy\nGod brought it to me.\"\n\nStill Isaac was not satisfied and had him come nearer that he might\nfeel of him, but the disguise was good and Isaac said, \"The voice is\nJacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.\"  But before he ate\nhe made one more appeal.  \"Art thou,\" he asked, \"my very son Esau?\" and\nJacob, forced by the first lie to tell another and then another,\nreplied, \"I am.\"\n\nIsaac ate the food and then blessed Jacob, whom he supposed to be Esau.\nHe promised a great and prosperous future for him.  People and nations\nshould serve him, and his brothers should bow down to him.  Scarcely\nhad Jacob left his father, when Esau came back with the food his father\nhad asked him to bring and claimed the blessing.\n\nWhen Isaac realized that he had been deceived he told Esau that he\ncould not recall the promises he had made to the one who had brought\nhim the food, and then Esau, who had sold his birthright, and now had\nbeen tricked out of the blessing that was rightfully his, cried out\nbitterly, \"Bless me, even me also, O my father.\"\n\nThen Isaac told him that it was his brother Jacob who had robbed him,\nand Esau replied, \"Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath\nsupplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold,\nnow he hath taken away my blessing.  Hast thou not reserved a blessing\nfor me?\"  And then in the bitterness of his heart he wept.\n\nMoved by Esau's distress, Isaac did bless him, but the promises he made\nwere different from those he had given Jacob.  He told Esau that he\nshould live by the sword, that he should serve his brother, but that\nthe time would come when he would break away from his brother's rule.\n\nEsau hated his brother after this and made threats that he would kill\nhim after their father died.  His mother heard of these threats and was\nafraid he would carry them out, so she proposed that Jacob should go to\nher brother Laban and stay with him until Esau's anger had cooled.\nIsaac agreed to this and told him also to choose a wife among Laban's\ndaughters.\n\nBefore Jacob's departure Isaac blessed him, once more telling him that\nhe and his descendants should have the land which God had promised to\nAbraham and his family.  So the mother and her favorite son parted.\nTheir deceit had given Jacob the blessing that should have been Esau's,\nbut Rebekah was never to see Jacob again.\n\nJacob started on his journey to his uncle's house, and when night came\nlay down to sleep, making a pillow of stones for his head.  In his\nsleep a wonderful dream or vision came to him.  He saw a ladder with\nits foot resting on the earth and its top reaching to heaven.  Upon\nthis ladder angels went up and down, while at the top stood God\nHimself, who promised Jacob that He would be with him wherever he went,\nand that he and his children should have the land in which he was at\nthat time.\n\n[Illustration:  Upon this ladder angels went up and down.]\n\nWhen Jacob awoke he made a pillar of the stone upon which his head had\nrested, poured oil upon it, and called the name of the place Bethel.\nThen he made a vow that if God would go with him and provide for him he\nwould serve Him and give to Him a tenth part of all he possessed.\n\nAlthough Jacob knew a good deal about God, up to this time he had no\npersonal knowledge of Him, but during, this, his first night from home,\nhe had, in a vision, seen God and heard His voice in the most gracious\nof promises.  His whole life was changed, and from that time he was\nGod's man.\n\nThen Jacob went on his way again and came to a well near Haran, where\nLaban lived.  This well was not like the one where Eliezer, the steward\nof Abraham, had first seen the maiden who became Jacob's mother.  It\nwas more like a cistern or tank with an opening at the top which was\ncovered by a great stone which had to be rolled away to get at the\nwater.\n\nThree flocks of sheep were lying near by and Jacob asked the shepherds\nif they knew Laban and why they did not water their flocks.  The men\ntold him that they knew Laban and that they were waiting for his sheep\nto arrive and then all the flocks would be watered.\n\nJust then Rachel, one of the daughters of Laban, appeared with her\nfather's sheep, and the shepherds told Jacob who she was.  Then Jacob\nwent to the well, rolled the stone away, and watered Laban's sheep.\nThen he told Rachel who he was and she hastened away to tell her father.\n\nWhen Laban heard who had come to visit him he ran to meet Jacob and\nmade him welcome just as he had done years before when his sister\nRebekah had told him of her meeting with her uncle's steward outside\nthe city of Nahor.\n\n[Illustration:  Meeting of Eliezer and the maiden who became Jacob's\nmother.]\n\nJacob staid with Laban for a month, helping him with his flocks and\nbecoming more and more in love with Rachel.  Then Laban asked him if he\nwould like to be his shepherd and if so what wages he would wish.\nJacob told Laban he would serve him seven years for his daughter Rachel\nand so the bargain was made.  We are told that, \"Jacob served seven\nyears for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love\nhe had to her.\"\n\nBut Laban was as crafty as Jacob had been when he obtained his\nbrother's birthright and robbed him of his blessing.  He tricked Jacob\nand made him work seven more years for Rachel.\n\nAfter the second seven years had passed and Jacob had married Rachel,\nhe made another bargain with Laban and this time it was greatly to his\nown advantage.  He lived with Laban for a number of years and then God\nappeared to him, saying, \"I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst\nthe pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee\nout from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.\"\n\nSo, without letting Laban know anything about it, Jacob took his\nfamily, his flocks and herds and all his possessions, and started for\nhis father's home in the land of Canaan.  He had been gone three days\nbefore Laban knew that he had left him.  After seven days he overtook\nJacob camped on Mount Gilead.\n\nWhen they met, Laban accused Jacob of carrying away some of his\npossessions, and searched his tent for them; but after a while, not\nfinding them, they talked over all that had occurred since Jacob first\ncame to Laban's house, and in the end they made a covenant or agreement\nof friendship and set up a heap of stones for a witness to it and\ncalled it \"Mizpah,\" which means, \"The Lord watch between me and thee,\nwhen we are absent one from another.\"\n\n[Illustration:  Laban searched Jacob's tent.]\n\nSo Jacob and his family kept on their way to the land of Canaan.  He\nhad now eleven sons and one daughter and was a rich man, for God had\nkept His promise and blessed him abundantly.  On the way he heard that\nhis brother Esau was coming to meet him with a band of four hundred\nmen.  Jacob remembered how he had taken advantage of his brother and\nwas afraid the time for Esau's promised revenge had come.\n\nBut Jacob prayed to God to protect him, and after sending his family by\nnight across a little mountain river, he remained alone in the darkness\non the other side.  The Bible tells us that there he met God in the\nshape of a man and wrestled with Him until morning, saying, \"I will not\nlet thee go, except thou bless me.\"  And God did bless him and gave him\na new name--that of \"Israel,\" which means \"a prince of God.\"\n\n[Illustration:  Jacob wrestled with him until morning.]\n\nIn the morning the brothers met, but Esau's anger was all gone and in\nits place was such love for Jacob that he embraced him and kissed him,\nwhile both wept for joy.  Jacob had prepared a present of sheep and\ncattle and camels and other animals for his brother, which at first\nEsau did not wish to take, but he accepted it at last and then the\nbrothers separated, Esau going to the hilly country of Seir, while\nJacob continued his journey.\n\n[Illustration:  Esau's anger was all gone.]\n\nJacob halted for a while at a place called Succoth, where he built a\nhouse for himself and stables for his cattle.  Then he went to Shechem\nand bought some land near the city for \"an hundred pieces of silver.\"\nIn the time of his grandfather Abraham money was weighed, not counted,\nbut now it was in the shape of rude coins with the figures of lambs\nstamped upon them.\n\nAfter a while God told Jacob to go to Bethel, where, on his first night\nfrom home, he had vowed to give Him a tenth part of all his\npossessions, and to build an altar there.  His way to Bethel lay\nthrough a hostile country, but God protected him as He had promised;\nand at last Jacob reached the pillar which he had set up, and there he\nbuilt the altar and worshipped God.\n\nJacob's mother had died during his long absence from home and now her\nold nurse, Deborah, died, so in memory of the great love mother and son\nhad for each other he buried Rebekah's faithful servant under an\noak-tree and called it \"the oak of tears.\"\n\n[Illustration:  The tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem.]\n\nFrom Bethel Jacob now set out for Hebron, but on the way, just before\nthey came to Bethlehem--the little village where Jesus was born many\nyears afterwards--his beloved Rachel died, leaving him his twelfth and\nlast son, whom he called Benjamin.  Rachel was buried where she died\nand a pillar was placed above her grave.  Then Jacob went on to see his\nfather, who was then living at Abraham's favorite dwelling-place at the\n\"Oaks of Mamre,\" and there Isaac died, \"being old and full of days: and\nhis sons Esau and Jacob buried him.\"\n\n[Illustration: Isaac died, being old and full of days.]\n\nAfter their father's death Esau and Jacob parted with the best of\nfeeling because they were so rich in flocks and herds and servants that\nthe land could not sustain two such large tribes.  Jacob continued to\nlive quietly at Hebron as the head of his family, in touch with\neverything that went on, but leaving the actual work to be done by\nothers.  He had a great number of servants and his ten older sons were\nin charge of his vast flocks and herds.\n\nJoseph was his especial favorite among his sons, and Jacob showed his\npreference in ways that were perhaps not wise.  For one thing, he gave\nhim a very handsome coat which distinguished him from his brothers.\nThen he did not send him to tend the flocks and herd the cattle, but\nkept him at home with himself and his little brother Benjamin.\n\nJacob's sons were not slow to notice their father's fondness for Joseph\nand it made them angry.  They were all older than he and had served\ntheir father faithfully for many years, while Joseph was only seventeen\nyears old.  Another thing made them angry.  Joseph used to have dreams\nand tell them to his brothers in what they thought was a boastful way.\nTheir jealousy and anger grew to hatred and they talked over plans for\ngetting rid of him.\n\n[Illustration:  Joseph used to have dreams and tell them to his\nbrothers.]\n\nAt this time Jacob's flocks of sheep were at quite a distance from\nHebron, cared for by the ten older sons.  Wishing to know how they\nprospered, Jacob sent Joseph to inquire if all was well with them.  So\nJoseph set out on his errand and found his brothers in the\npasture-lands of Dothan.\n\nWhen his brothers saw him coming they decided to get rid of him in some\nway.  Their hearts were full of hatred and they deliberately planned to\nkill their brother.  One thing after another was suggested until at\nlast they decided to leave him in a deep, dry water-cistern to starve\nto death.\n\nReuben, the eldest son, intended to get Joseph out of the cistern later\nand send him home to his father, but he was unable to do this, for in\nhis absence his brothers sold Joseph to some merchants who came along\njust then.\n\n[Illustration:  His brothers sold Joseph to some merchants.]\n\nThese merchants took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, one of\nthe officers of the King's household.  Potiphar was very kind to\nJoseph, and as he grew up made him his steward or overseer.  Joseph had\nvery winning manners and in time rose to be the governor or ruler over\nall the land of Egypt and in high favor with King Pharaoh.\n\n[Illustration:  Ruler over all the land of Egypt.]\n\nMeanwhile Joseph's brothers had told their father that Joseph had been\nkilled by a wild beast, and in proof they showed Jacob his son's\nhandsome coat, which they had taken from him and dipped in blood for\nthis purpose.  Jacob mourned long and bitterly for Joseph, and then he\nand his sons lived on much as they had been doing until there was a\nfamine in the land and no food was to be had.\n\nThen Jacob sent his ten older sons to Egypt to buy corn, for it was\nplentiful there.  He would not let Benjamin go, however, fearing that\nsome harm might come to him.  When Reuben and his brothers reached\nEgypt they were taken to Joseph, the governor, who recognized them at\nonce, but pretended to think they were spies.  They protested in vain\nthat they had been sent by their father to buy food and that this was\ntheir only errand.\n\nJoseph asked them if they had any other brothers, and they told him\nthere was one more, Benjamin, the youngest.  Then Joseph told them to\ngo home and come back again bringing Benjamin with them, and that he\nwould keep Simeon, one of their number, until they did this.\n\nSo back they went with their sacks full of corn which Joseph had\nallowed them to buy, and told their father what the governor had said\nand done.  At first Jacob refused to let them take Benjamin away from\nhim, but when the corn they had brought home was all gone he consented.\n\nOnce more the brothers stood before the governor of Egypt and this time\nBenjamin was with them.  After questioning them once more, letting them\nstart on their home-ward journey, and then bringing them back again,\nJoseph told them who he was and how he had been prospered.  He gave\nthem food and money and clothes and sent them back to Hebron.  He also\ntold them to bring back their father Jacob and gave them wagons in\nwhich to bring his goods.\n\n[Illustration:  Joseph told them who he was.]\n\nPharaoh, the King, also sent an invitation to Jacob, and in time he and\nhis sons and their families went to Egypt and were given the fertile\nland of Goshen for their home.  They were put in charge of all the\nKing's flocks and herds and became very prosperous.\n\nBut before agreeing to this change of home Jacob asked God if he should\ngo to Egypt.  God told him to go, and on the way his long-lost son\nJoseph met him and took him to Pharaoh, who received him very kindly.\n\nJacob and his sons lived peaceably in Egypt for seventeen years, and\nthen Jacob died at the age of a hundred and forty-seven years.  But\nbefore he died he blessed Joseph's two sons and made him promise to\nbury him in the family sepulchre, the cave of Machpelah.\n\nAs the end approached, Jacob blessed all his twelve sons and foretold\nwhat their lives would be, bestowing a peculiar blessing upon his third\nson, Judah, from whose descendants should be born the Saviour of his\npeople.\n\nJacob's body was embalmed and carried to the land of Canaan, attended\nby his twelve sons, and a great company of Pharaoh's household, and\nburied in the cave of Machpelah as he had directed.","title":"The Farmer Boy: The Story of Jacob","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":3970}