Palaestina-Vereins_, 1895.)

Like the other tombs in its neighbourhood, the cave of Machpelah has
doubtless been opened and despoiled at an early epoch. We know that
tombs were violated in Egypt long before the days of Abraham, in spite
of the penalties with which such acts of sacrilege were visited, and the
cupidity of the Canaanite was no less great than that of the Egyptian.
The treasures buried with the dead were too potent an attraction, and
the robber of the tomb braved for their sake the terrors of both this
world and the next.

Abraham now sent his servant to Mesopotamia, to seek there for a wife
for his son Isaac from among his kinsfolk at Harran. Rebekah, the sister
of Laban, accordingly, was brought to Canaan and wedded to her cousin.
Isaac was at the time in the southern desert, encamped at the well of
Lahai-roi, near Kadesh. So "Isaac was comforted after his mother's
death."

"Then again," we are told, "Abraham took a wife," whose name was
Keturah, and by whom he was the forefather of a number of Arabian
tribes. They occupied the northern and central parts of the Arabian
peninsula, by the side of the Ishmaelites, and colonized the land of
Midian. It is the last we hear of the great patriarch. He died soon
afterwards "in a good old age," and was buried at Machpelah along with
his wife.

Isaac still dwell at Lahai-roi, and there the twins, Esau and Jacob,
were born to him. There, too, he still was when a famine fell upon the
land, like "the first famine that was in the days of Abraham." The story
of Abraham's dealings with Abimelech of Gerar is repeated in the case of
Isaac. Again we hear of Phichol, the captain of Abimelech's army; again
the wife of the patriarch is described as his sister; and again his
herdsmen strive with those of the king of Gerar over the wells they have
dug, and the well of Beer-sheba is made to derive its name from the
oaths sworn mutually by Isaac and the king. It is hardly conceivable
that history could have so closely repeated itself, that the lives of
the king and commander-in-chief of Gerar could have extended over so
many years, or that the origin of the name of Beer-sheba would have been
so quickly forgotten. Rather we must believe that two narratives have
been mingled together, and that the earlier visit of Abraham to Gerar
has coloured the story of Isaac's sojourn in the territory of Abimelech.
We need not refuse to believe that the servants of Isaac dug wells and
wran