Consequently one need not be astonished to find that the Old Testament nowhere deals--directly, at all events--with the doctrine of Rebirth.
All the same, here and there we come across a few passages that point in this direction. For instance, we read in _Genesis_, chapter 25, regarding the birth of Jacob and Esau:
"And the children (of Rebecca) struggled together within her.
"And the Lord said unto her: Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
"And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were twins in her womb."
This passage has been the occasion of lengthy commentaries on the part of certain Fathers of the Church--more especially of Origen. Indeed, either we must acknowledge divine injustice, creating, without any cause, two hostile brothers, one of whom must submit to the rule of the other, and who begin to strive together even before birth, or we must hark back to the pre-existence of the human soul and to a past Karma which had created inequality in condition.
David begins the ninetieth _Psalm_ with a verse which only a belief in reincarnation can explain:
"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations...."
The dwelling-place of the soul, at death, is in heaven, whence it returns to earth when the hour of rebirth has struck; thus, in all generations, that is, from life to life, "the Lord is our dwelling-place."
In Chapter 8 of the _Book of Wisdom_, Solomon says in more explicit language:
"For I was a witty child, and had a good spirit, yea, rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled."
This clearly points to the pre-existence of the soul and the close relation that exists between the conditions of its rebirth and the merits or demerits of its past.
Verse 5 of the first chapter of _Jeremiah_ is similar to verse 23 of the twenty-fifth chapter of _Genesis_:
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations...."
It is the deeds done in the past lives of Jeremiah that accompany him on his return to earth; God could not, in an arbitrary fashion, have conferred on him the gift of prophecy had he not acquired it by his efforts in a past life; unless, here too, we altogether abandon reason and go back to a capricious or unjust--consequently altogether impossible--God.