Genesis 35:21-26

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Genesis 35:21. Tower of Edar.] Probably a watch-tower for the purpose of guarding the flocks. (2 Kings 18:8; 2 Chronicles 26:10; 2 Chronicles 27:4.)

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 35:21

JACOB’S TWELVE SONS

The number, twelve, of the sons of Jacob, in its typical significance. Twelve, the number of a life completed, or expanded to its full limits and development, Thus in the house of Ishmael and of Esau, but in a higher sense in the house of Israel. Hence the twelve sons are the types of the twelve tribes (Genesis 49; Deuteronomy 33), and the twelve tribes of the theocracy types of the twelve apostles of Christ, and these, again, types of the twelve fundamental forms of the New Testament Church. (Revelation 21:12, etc.—(Lange).