How does Jacob’s remembered history frame the call to turn?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Foreign appeals and deceit contrast with ancestral supplication and God’s prophetic preservation.

Chapter breakdown

Ephraim feeds on wind and follows burning heat, multiplying lies and desolation. He has made a covenant with Assyria and carried oil to Egypt. The Lord announces judgment with Juda and visitation upon Jacob according to his ways and devices. Jacob supplanted his brother in the womb, succeeded with an angel through strength, prevailed and was strengthened. He wept and made supplication, found him in Bethel and there he spoke with us: the Lord God of hosts, whose memorial is the Lord. The exhortation is to turn to God, keep mercy and judgment and hope in him always.

A deceitful balance and love of oppression make him like Chanaan. Ephraim boasts of riches and finding an idol, saying his labors will not find the iniquity he committed. The God known from Egypt will again cause dwelling in tabernacles as in feast days. He has spoken through prophets, multiplied visions and used similitudes. If Galaad is an idol, Galgal's bullock sacrifices are vain and its altars like heaps in field furrows. The edition explains Galaad's reduction to nothing by Theglathphalasar and questions how Galgal's idols can help the remaining tribes.

Jacob fled to Syria, served for a wife and was a keeper for a wife. By a prophet God brought Israel from Egypt and preserved him. Ephraim's bitterness has provoked wrath; his blood comes upon him and the Lord repays his reproach. The passage does not name an eastern wind or specify oil as diplomatic tribute, nor does it explain Ephraim's private reasoning about wealth.

The story inside

Oil goes to Egypt alongside an Assyrian covenant. The call joins mercy, judgment and continual hope. The Galaad note questions Galgal’s remaining idols after destruction.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Oil goes to Egypt alongside an Assyrian covenant.
2
The call joins mercy, judgment and continual hope.
3
The Galaad note questions Galgal’s remaining idols after destruction.

Test your recall

What payment or treaty terms does the chapter actually specify?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 99956–99966
12:3. In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with an angel. 12:4. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us. 12:5. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. 12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.
Lines 99968–99979
12:7. He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression. 12:8. And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed. 12:9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast. 12:10. And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
Lines 99981–99988
12:11. If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field. If Galaad be an idol, etc.... That is, if Galaad with all its idols and sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that remain.