The Raniban asks with reference to Rashi's saying, that at
that time the idolaters-did not follow whoredoms : Is it not said
ibout the Canaanites : " For all these abominations have the '
lien of the land done"?? The Toldoth Yitzkhac ^replies
;hus : In Jacob's time the idolaters were' pious, because it
ivas not very long after the Deluge, which was brought on in
consequence of whoredom ; but in the. time of Moses, long
after the Deluge; and. the cause of it forgotten, they did follow
whoredoms. SRouldest thou ask : . If the idolaters of the time
ivere pious, why then were Abraham and Isaac so much afraid
that their wives would be taken away from them? The answer
is this : Such beauties as Sarah and Rebekah were not to be
round in all the world, so that kings lusted after them. •

30, 31 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ye have' troubled
me to wake me contemptible among the i7ihahitanis of the land

' Vide Treasures of the Tabu., p. 130, Note, where one of the reasons
'or not fasting on Sundays is D^li'lJil 'JSD, ;.(?. "because Christians make
:heir festival on that day.
. ^ Lev. xvii. 27.
GENESIS XXXIV. z^-XXXy. 5.
