Genesis 29
Leban tricks Jacob. Jacob serves laban 14 years and marries both his daughters. Rachel is barren. Jacob and Leah have four sons.
29:1-11 Jacob comes to Haran, where he finds shepherds gathered around a well. The well is blocked by a stone, which must be moved in order to water the sheep. He asks why they haven't moved the stone, and they say they're waiting for the rest of the sheep to arrive. Queue Rachel, bringing in her father's (Laban) sheep. When Jacob sees her (and the sheep), he moves the stone and kisses her. It very specifically says when he sees her *and the sheep*, which indicates the flock was size-able and that was a motivating factor in his actions.
29:12-20 Jacob explains his relation to Rachel, and she runs to tell her father. Laban asks Jacob to stay and serve his household, asking what compensation he wants. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel, and Jacob loved Rachel, so he promised to stay and serve for seven years in exchange for being allowed to marry Rachel.
29:21-30 At the end of the seven years, Jacob asked Laban for Rachel, as they had agreed upon. Laban held a great feast, but when it was time for him to send Rachel into Jacob's tent, he sent Leah instead. The next morning, when he realized he'd married Leah instead of Rachel, he confronted Laban. Laban explained that in their country the older daughter must be married before the younger one can be, and made Jacob stay another seven years in order to marry Rachel.
29:31-35 Jacob loved Rachel, but he did not love Leah, so God made Rachel barren. Leah had a son named Rueben, thinking Jacob would love her if she bore his children. She had a second son named Simeon, and a third named Levi, and a forth named Judah, but no matter how many sons she gave him, Jacob never loved Leah. This is really sad. She did everything that was expected of her - she married who her father told her to, she had as many children as her husband wanted, all sons (which was very desirable at the time), and still he didn't want her.
Genesis 30
Jealousy among the sisters. Laban tries to cheat Jacob, but finds himself cheated instead.
30:1-8 Rachel is jealous of her sister, Leah, because Leah has lots of children and Rachel has none. She tells Jacob to get her pregnant or she'll die, which makes him angry. She gives him her handmaid to marry, thinking if he gets her pregnant she can have the children that way. Bilhah (the haindmaid, Jacob's third wife) has a son named Dan, and a second son named Naphtali. Rachel finally feels like she's not in competition with Leah any more.
30:9-13 Leah thinks she can't have any more children, so she gave Jacob her maid Zilpah. Zilpah becomes Jacob's forth wife and has a son named Gad and a second son named Asher.
30:14-21 Leah's son Rueben find some mandrakes. Rachel wants some, so she and Leah make a deal that Leah will get Jacob for the night in exchange for some of the mandrakes (apparently Jacob had been spending all his time with Rachel). Leah gets pregnant again and names the son Isachar. Jacob obviously starts spending more time with her, because she has a sixth son and names him Zebulun, then a daughter named Dinah.
30:22-24 God feels bad for making Rachel barren, so he gives her a son named Joseph. Rachel feels like God has removed the curse he put on her, and asks for another child.
30:25-36 Jacob asks Laban if he can leave, saying he's done enough for Laban. Laban doesn't want him to go because he's reaping the benefits of the blessings God is granting Jacob, so he asks him what it will take to make him stay. Jacob says he will cull out of Laban's herds and flocks all the spotted cattle, the brown sheep, and the spotted goats, and keep them for himself, and that the rest will be Laban's. Laban agrees, but immediately after separates his own flocks - he removes all the speckled, brown, and spotted animals and gives them to his sons. This is the second time Laban tries to pull one over on Jacob. It's his own son in law he's screwing over. Greedy bastard.
30:37-43 Jacob carved some branches to be streaked and spotted, and put them in front of the animals when it was time for them to breed. The young were streaked, speckled, and spotted, so Jacob separated them from Laban's flock and kept them for his own. Jacob continued to care for Laban's animals, breeding weak, solid-colored animals for Laban's flock and strong, multi-colored animals for his own flock. The way it's described, he's using the marked branches as a sort of totem to dictate how the offspring will be marked - as thought he branches themselves determine the markings on the calves (kind of like witchcraft). This story seems to have two purposes. The first is to discourage people from having dishonest dealings with their family (apparently stealing your brothers birthright and blessings are fine, and substituting one bride for another is perfectly accepetable, but when it comes to cattle, you're expected to be honest). The second, more subtle story, is to encourage people to practice selective livestock breeding.
Chapter 31
Jacob leaves Leban's house. Rachel is a thief and a liar.
31:1-9 Laban and his sons were angry with Jacob, saying he had taken everything from Laban to make his own glory. Jacob explains to Leah and Rachel that Leban kept changing the agreement, sometimes saying Jacob could have the speckled ones, sometimes the ring-staked, and that God had always thrown the calves in Jacob's favor. Jacob thought God was punishing Laban for trying to trick Jacob out of his share of the herds. This is nonsense - markings on livestock are based on the way they're bred. This isn't God looking after Jacob's interests - this is Jacob looking after his own interests. He was in charge of tending and breeding the herds, therefore, because selective breeding was used (because he built headstocks and started controlling which animals were bred) he is responsible for the outcomes.
31:10-13 Jacob had a vision in a dream where an angel told Jacob all the offspring of the herd would have markings so they would be his. In the same dream, the angel calls himself "the God of Bethel". He tells Jacob to leave Laban and go back to the land of his father.
13:14-23 Rachel and Leah want to know if they have any inheritance left in Laban's holdings, but Laban had spent it all. Jacob packed up his wives and children and all his livestock, and started back to Canaan, where Isaac lived. When Laban went to shear his sheep, he realized Rachel had stolen her father's idols (their household gods) and discovered Jacob had left with his family and his flocks three days before. He gathered up some family members and chased them for a week, finally catching up on mount Gilead.
31:24-35 God came to Laban in a dream and told him to to speak either good or bad to Jacob. The next day, when Laban and Jacob met, he asked Jacob why he had left without allowing him to say goodbye to his daughters or his grandchildren, and why they had stolen Laban's idols. Jacob said he thought Laban would take his daughters back by force. Jacob said they didn't steal anything, but that if Laban found who had stole then idols, they would be killed. He offered to let Laban search the camp, saying anything he found that was his, he could take. Rachel had hidden the idols in her camel's saddle-bag, and claimed she couldn't get off the camel because she was on her period. Is this God protecting Rachel because Jacob loves her? It would seem that because she wasn't discovered, this behavior is being condoned.
31:36-44 Jacob, angry that Laban had accused them of theft yet found nothing that was his, demanded to know why they had been hunted down. Laban had changed the agreement about the striped, brown, and speckled sheep with Jacob ten times, yet Jacob had served faithfully in Leban's household for twenty years. The only reason Jacob didn't walk away with nothing is because God was looking out for him. Laban claimed everything Jacob had was his: his wives were Laban's daughters, his sons were Laban's descendants, the flocks Jacob had were Laban's livestock, but there was nothing he (Leban) could do about it. Assuming because of the dream where God told him not to speak good or bad to Jacob. The way this is written, Leban clearly has the weapons and men to harm him.
31:45-55 Jacob and Leban come to an agreement and build a pile of stones to symbolize the treaty. Jacob agreed not to mistreat Leah or Rebekah and would take no more wives. Both men agreed not to pass the pile of stones - Leban would stay on his side, and Jacob would stay on his side. Leban kissed his daughters and grandchildren good-bye, then went home.
No comments:
Post a Comment