May i] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.as the Egyptians andHetta do in the almost too famous treatyof
" The SilverPlate."
It will be remembered that in the same narrative(Gen. xxxi,
30-35) Rachel, Jacob's favourite wife,steals her father Laban's
" god " or " teraphim," doubtless because she believed in the effi
cacyof the image as a present protection,andperhapsas an oracle
to be consulted on occasion. The narrator makesno remark on
this use of images, so heterodox fromthe point of view of the later
legalists. In fact, he is not more surprisedby it than the writer of
1 Sam. xix, 1 3 is surprised thatDavid'swife Michal knewwhereto
find " the teraphim " in her husband's household; though in the
latterinstancethe teraphim maypossiblydenotean image of the
Godof Israel. (Cp. Hos.iii, 4.)
Anothercurious instanceof the same kindof consistency in
the representation maybe seen in the fact that at least twoof
Jacob'ssonsare named afterdeities whowerequitedistinctfrom
the God of Israel, thoughoftenassociatedwithhimin worship. In
a passage assigned to the Jahvist, but which in spite of the term
nnDll?perhapsbelongsto the Elohist.* withthe change of a single
Hebrewletterwe may readas follows :—
"When Leahbecameawarethat she had stoppedbearing,she
tookher maid Zilpahandgaveher to Jacob to wife ; and Leah's
maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ' With Gad's help! ' (pointing
132.)cried Leah,and named him Gad. After that,Leah's maid
Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ' With Asherah's help! ' cried
Leah; ' for maidens must needs callme happy! ' so she named
himAsher." (Gen.xxx,9-13.)
As to Gad, thereis no question that the Septuagint is right in
understandingtherebya Semitic deitycorrespondingto the Greek
Tvxiand the Latin ForsFortuna. In Isa. lxv, 2 the renegade Jews
of the Babylonian Exileare expressly reproachedwiththe worship
of this god of good luck. Indifferentto the current hopesof a
returnto Jahvah's "holymountain,"theyare accused of "preparing
a table (of offerings) for the (image of) Gad, and brimming the mixt
wine for the (imageof) Meni " or Destiny. TheSyriaclexico
graphersexplainthe plural gadde('!"\vas equivalent to the Arabic
i^JoLj,the planets Jupiterand Venus,whichin Arabic astrology
* Cp. the different "etymology"of Gad suggested,Gen.xlix,19.
189