1886.J 307 [Lesley. 



boundless prosperity and posterity; that he is in a very especial manner re- 

 garded as the god of generation and increase, and in so striking a form is 

 he thus presented, that his name might without any violation of logic be 

 derived from ShD the female breast or teat. 



Gen. 17 : 1. This is the first appearance of ShDI in the Mosaic books. 

 If El Shaddai meant God the Almighty, his appropriate first appearance 

 ■would be in the stories of the creation. But the word is not used until 

 the story of the Covenant with Abram is reached. 



This covenant is sealed by a change of Abram's name to Abraham. 

 First a son, and then a countless progeny is promised ; nations and kings 

 are to come from him ; Caanan is to be possessed ; circumcision is enjoined ; 

 Sarai's name is changed to Sarah ; Isaak is only promised ; but Ishmael is 

 blessed, and twelve princes are to come from him and a great nation ; and 

 the story winds up with the act of circumcising Ishmael and the rest of the 

 household. 



This remarkable story, of unknown date, opens with the words : 

 'And when Abram was ninety- nine years old, Jehovah appeared to 

 Abram and said to him, 'I am El SheDl, keep walking before me and be 

 faultless.' " After this, Jehovah is not again mentioned, nor is El Shedi 

 repeated, but El recurs eight times. 



It is evident that the story was borrowed by the Hebrews from the Arabs, 

 for Ishmael is its hero, and Isaac is of no account. A great nation, sub- 

 divided into twelve tribes each, with its own princedom is to descend from 

 Ishmael, for whom Abram pleads, and whom El specially blesses. The 

 promise to Abram of a countless posterity is apparently to be realized 

 through Ishmael ; Isaak is not yet born. The Hebrew compiler seems to 

 have imitated the two great features of the Arab story (the change of 

 Abram's name and the blessing of Ishmael) with the only materials left 

 to him, to save the amour propre of the Hebrews, by changing Sarai's 

 name and promising Isaak. 



If the story be one thus borrowed, it is easy to understand why the 

 Hebrew writer glossed the first verse in a Hebrew sense by the insertion 

 of the word Jehovah and the explanation that he, Jehovah, was El Shedi. 

 The original story, as told of their own ancestral beginning by the Children 

 of the Desert, probably began : "When Abram was ninety-nine years old 

 the god Shedi appeared to him and warned him to continue always to be 

 his faultless servant." As to circumcision, it is well known that the 

 Egyptians and Libj r ans practiced it in ages preceding any date assignable 

 to Abram. 



Gen. 28 : 3. The next appearance of El Shedi occurs in an Idumaean 

 legend : Esau is overheard by Rebecca threatening to kill Jacob. She 

 advises Jacob to fly, and pretends to Isaac that she fears Jacob will marry 

 some Hittite girl, that is, some young beduine of the Kadish Barnea 

 country. Isaac therefore sends his son to Mesopotamia for a Chaldean 

 wife, saying: "and El Shedi will bless thee and make thee the fruitful 



