JACOB'S DAUGHTERS TRYING TO

COMFORT HIM.

WHEN the sons of Jacob exhibited before him the wellknown coat of his favourite child dipped in blood, in order to delude him into the belief of Joseph's death, "Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him." Believing that Joseph had been torn to pieces by some beast of prey, and perhaps feeling that he was in a measure instrumental to his death, as he had sent him to his brethren to see how they and the flocks were going on, Jacob's heart was blighted and he gave himseif up to the agonies of despair. The aged father, inconsolable for the loss of his son, refused the consolation of his family. The artist has represented him seated in his tent clothed in sackcloth, the deepest mourning he could assume, and which in those primitive times it was the custom to put on whenever any one died very near of kin. As Jacob had but one daughter, Dinah, she is seen leaning over his shoulder with anxious affection, endeavouring to soothe him. The others are the wives of his sons, two of whom are offering him their consolations, whilst the third stands apart, overcome with grief at beholding the mental agonies of her father-inlaw. Two of the sons appear at the door of the tent where the whole had assembled in order to see how the bereaved father would receive the condolence of his daughters. Afraid of increasing their parent's grief by their presence, they are supposed to have sent their wives to attempt what they felt themselves unlikely to accomplish; but the patriarch "refused to be comforted."

REBEKAH AT THE WELL.

ABRAHAM being now "well stricken in age," for he had reached the patriarchal term of a hundred and forty years, was anxious to see his son Isaac settled before his death; and being apprehensive lest the "child of promise," through whom "all the families of the earth were to be blessed," should enter into a domestic alliance with the daughters of the heathen, he sent a confidential servant, probably the superintendent of his household, to Bethuel, his brother's son, to propose for his daughter Rebekah on Isaac's behalf. When this faithful delegate approached the abode of the proposed bride, he saw the object of his mission advancing with a pitcher on her shoulder. "And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink."* This is the action represented in the picture. Rebekah is dressed in a light linen robe, with a veil thrown back upon her shoulders, the general costume of her tribe and of her country. The patriarch's envoy wears a short linen tunic, with sandals strapped round the leg, and a staff in his hand, representing his pastoral occupation. Two of the camels which bare "the jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment," sent by Abraham as a portion for the bride, are seen behind him in charge of a menial. Just beneath Rebekah's feet is the well hollowed out of a rock, to which there is a descent by steps. Beyond the principal figures are three palm-trees which indicate the locality, this tree being always found most abundant in a level country like Mesopotamia, Rebekah's native province, situated between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and every year partially inundated by the latter.