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is one class of discrepancies in numbers which is of very great importance. 
It may be found in Bishop Kennicott’s book ; but as that book is very rare, 
it may also be found, quoted, in Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentaries. A series 
of difficulties in numbers was drawn up with regard to the age and period of 
Jacob, there being thirteen or fourteen difficulties of chronology , if you take 
it for granted that Jacob only served in the whole twenty years with Laban. 
But Bishop Kennicott pointed out that these difficulties might be removed 
by supposing that Jacob was not twenty but forty years with Laban. That 
removed every difficulty. If you refer to Dr. Kennicott, as quoted by Dr. 
Adam Clarke, you will find that those difficulties were as serious as any 
which have been brought before us to-night. He takes this passage from the 
38th verse of the 31st chapter of Genesis : — 
“ This twenty years have I been with thee : thy ewes and thy she-goats 
have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. 
And it goes on in the 41st verse 
« Thus have I been twenty years in thy house ; I served thee fourteen 
years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle. 
Dr. Kennicott points out that a certain Hebrew pronoun is there used which 
in other parts means reduplication, and he interprets it “ Thus twenty 
years have I served thee and twenty years have I served thee,” and he shows 
how the reduplication is in accordance with the use of that pronoun, and 
that wherever it occurs in the Old Testament it always means double the 
time specified. It may be met by saying that Gesenius says that that is not 
a good interpretation ; but he had a strong bias not to clear up difficulties m 
the Bible, but to increase them. Upon the construction to be placed on the 
Hebrew pronoun, Dr. Kennieott, when we remember what he has done for 
Hebrew literature, may be taken to be quite as good an authority as Gese- 
nius, especially when he gives you facts with regard to which no other ' inter- 
pretation can be borne. There is just one other point I should like to 
mention. A constant taunt has been thrown out for a long time about the 
borrowing by the Israelites from the Egyptians. Dr. Kennicott has settled 
that by showing that the same word which has been translated “ borrowed, 
means also “ prayed for,” “ asked for.” They had gone to a foreign land by 
the invitation of the king of that foreign land, and he had taken them as a 
token of his gratitude for the preservation of the lives of himself and of his 
people, but his successors unjustly punished them and made them slaves, and 
God determined that they should have their full wages for their labour, and 
they were told to ask the Egyptians for their jewels, and the Egyptians were 
willing to give them. Dr. Kennicott asks those who will not accept the 
word “ pray,” instead of “ borrow,” whether they will translate the passage in 
the psalm, “ Borrow for the peace of Jerusalem ? ” (Laughter.) 
The meeting was then adjourned. 
