Genesis 29-31

Looking for a Wife?  Check Your Local Watering Hole

In chapter 29 the Yahwist provides us with the story of Jacob's arrival in the land of Haran, home to his uncle Laban's household.  Jacob stops at a shepherds' well, and there meets Laban and his daughter Rachel, with whom Jacob is immediately smitten.  So smitten in fact that he performs the heroic deed of rolling back the well's cover stone, which normally required several men to move, to impress her (29:10-12).  This parallels Abraham's servant meeting Rebekah at the well (might it even be the same well?) in chapter 24.  After a month living with and working for Laban, Laban asks Jacob what he should pay him.  Jacob replies by promising to serve Laban seven years in exchange for his daughter Rachel, to which Laban agrees (29:15-19).

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
- Genesis 29:20

Jacob and Rachel at the Well by James Jacques Joseph Tissot - ca. 1896-1902 CE

The Ol' Switcheroo

At the end of his seven years of indentured servitude, Jacob demands his wages - specifically he asks Laban for Rachel so that he may "come into her" (29:21).  I'm trying to imagine how that "asking for your daughter's hand" conversation would go if you phrased it that way today...

"Well, sir, as you know, your daughter and I have been dating for a long time now, and I really do love her, and so I wanted to ask your permission to come into her... I mean, marry her...  uh... then we're gonna do it..."

As I mentioned before, it's really not that strange, as the cultural norms seem to have been that intercourse = wedding ceremony.  But it's still pretty funny to think about.

So anyway, Laban throws a big feast to celebrate the happy couple, then brings Jacob his bride, (who he "comes into").  But when Jacob wakes in the morning he finds not Rachel in his bed, but her older sister Leah instead (29:23-25)!  Laban has turned the tables on Jacob!  The trickster has been tricked!  (I mean, I know it was dark Jacob, but you really couldn't tell the difference?)  When Jacob complains, Laban basically tells him not to hate the player, but to hate the game:

And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”  Laban said, “This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn.  Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.
- Genesis 29:25b-26

Though Jacob may have usurped his elder brother Esau, Laban refuses to allow his firstborn daughter Leah to be passed over for Rachel.  Jacob must serve another seven years before Laban will permit him to marry Rachel (29:28-30).

Jacob's Baby Mamas

Jerusalem Wall Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel by Yael Portugheis - 2013 CE

Now that Jacob has his wives, it's time to get to baby-making.  Seeing that Leah is unloved by Jacob, Yahweh takes pity, blessing her with fertility.  But Rachel, just like Sarah and Rebekah before her, is predictably infertile (29:31).  What is the deal with all of these barren women?  Could it possibly be because of all the inbreeding?  Whatever the reason, Rachel has to suffer silently as she witnesses her older sister give birth to four sons for Jacob:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah - four of the twelve tribes of Israel (29:32-35).  The story of Jacob's sons found in chapters 29 & 30 provides us with an etiological mythology of the founders of the tribal factions which had made up the former Israelite/Judahite polity.  We'll further discuss Jacob's sons and their eponymous tribes later.

Returning to the narrative, chapter 30 begins with the E source expanding Jacob's progeny.  Rachel, quite upset with her predicament, pulls a Sarah and offers her slave girl/handmaid Bilbah to Jacob, so she may have children through her (30:3-4).  Bilbah gives birth to two more sons for Jacob: Dan and Naphtali (30:5-8).  In response Leah, (having hit a dry spell in the child-bearing business) does likewise, having two more children through her servant Zilpah: Gad and Asher (30:9-12).

We then come upon a comical story involving a desperate Rachel and some magical plants.  During the harvest season Reuben, Leah's eldest son, finds some mandrakes, which Rachel attempts to acquire from Leah (30:14).  (Apparently mandrakes were used as an aphrodisiac of sorts as they were thought to increase fertility.)  Leah initially bristles at the idea, but Rachel offers her a deal:  In exchange for the mandrakes, Rachel will allow Leah to copulate with Jacob (30:15).  It's never explained why or how Rachel came to be in charge of who Jacob "goes into" (after all, he now has four wives, two of them being slaves/servants) but in any case Leah takes the deal (30:16).  The plan backfires terribly for Rachel.  Instead of getting pregnant herself with the assistance of the mandrakes, Rachel has to watch as Leah gives birth to three more children: sons Issachar and Zebulun and daughter Dinah (30:17-21).  Poor Rachel.

Finally, after eleven children have been born to Jacob, God remembers Rachel and grants her a son, Joseph.  According to Friedman's The Bible with Sources Revealed Joseph is a given naming speech from both E and J, as J picks up the narrative again to conclude chapter 30.  The Elohist explains the meaning of his name based on the root 'sp, meaning "taken away" while the Yahwist provides an alternative reading based on the similar root ysp, which means "add":

She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”; and she named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add to me another son!”
- Genesis 30:23-24

The 12(ish) Tribes of Israel

So now Jacob has twelve children including eleven males who would become the fathers of the tribes of Israel.  You can be sure that the authors were very deliberate in crafting the naming speeches of the sons and identifying their mothers.  Note that the Yahwist provides the birth story of Leah's descendants: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, and Levi.  These are the tribes which would constitute the southernmost region of the united kingdom, as well as the priests in charge of the temple in Jerusalem. Source criticism has identified J with the southern kingdom of Judah, and Jerusalem in particular.  Likewise, the E source provides the origin stories of the more northern tribes - those that would make up most of the Kingdom of Israel, where the E tradition is understood to have originated.  Joseph, whose story comprises most of the rest of Genesis, is the only son of Jacob's whose birth is detailed by both sources.

Map of the Twelve Tribes of Israel According to the Book of Joshua 

The map above illustrates the tribal boundaries of Israel according to the book of Joshua.  You might notice on the map above that there is no tribe of Joseph.  No tribe of Joseph?  Isn't he the most important son of Jacob?  And aren't there twelve tribes on here already without Levi?  Are there thirteen tribes?  How exactly does all of this make sense?  We'll have to continue to piece this together as we progress through the narrative.

Schemes and Counter-schemes

After the birth of Joseph, Jacob decides he has toiled for Laban long enough, and requests permission to return with his family to Canaan, the place of his birth (30:25-26).  It isn't clear if this is at the end of the second set of seven years, or if Jacob hasn't yet completed the seven years of service for Rachel.  If his work is complete, then it seems odd for him to request permission to leave, though it could simply be a formality - a sign of respect to Laban.  Laban agrees to let him go, and also acknowledges that his household has been blessed by Yahweh through Jacob, so he asks Jacob what other wages he requires (30:27-28).  Apparently forgetting about the birthright he stole from Esau, Jacob laments that he has little in the way of livestock or household wealth of his own (30:29-30) and offers this deal to Laban:

Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it: let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”
- Genesis 30:31b-33

Laban agrees to Jacob's terms, but seizes an opportunity to once more screw Jacob over.  Before Jacob is able to pass through the flock to take his share Laban removes the speckled and spotted animals and sends them off with his sons (30:35-36).  But Jacob isn't about to get played again.  In a bizarre story based on a confused understanding of inheritance, Jacob coaxes the strongest and healthiest of Laban's pure-colored flock to give birth to speckled and spotted young through the use of magic wooden rods (30:37-42).

 Jacob Laying Peeled Rods before the Flocks of Laban by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo - ca. 1665 CE

I'm sure there's logic in there with the multicolored rods making multicolored sheep, but I don't know, it's weird.  Whatever the logic may be, through this magic ritual Jacob amasses great wealth by the end of chapter 30, acquiring slaves, camels, and donkeys in addition to his large flocks (30:43).

Less than the Sum of its Parts?

Knowing that Laban and his sons have grown jealous of his wealth, Jacob calls his wives to him to explain his predicament and their need to leave (31:1-5).  Here the Elohist takes over the narrative to give a slightly different version of the flock story.  Whereas the J version saw Jacob use ritual magic and never mentions Yahweh or God, when Jacob relates these events to his wives in E he attributes the coloring of the flocks to God instead.

You know that I have served your father with all my strength; yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.  If he said, 'The speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, 'The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore striped.  Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
- Genesis 31:6-9

I think this presents an excellent example of how the combination and redaction of multiple sources imparts a totally different understanding of the texts.  J consistently presents Jacob as a scheming trickster.  Granted, in this conflict with Laban Jacob is at least justified in his actions - Laban has already screwed him over twice.  But Yahweh has nothing to do with Jacob's acquisition of his brother's birthright and blessing nor his amassing of wealth at the expense of Laban.  Jacob's achievements are his own, with neither approval nor condemnation provided by Yahweh.  In E however, Jacob is no trickster.  A messenger of God reveals to Jacob in a dream that it was he who was interfering in events to bless Jacob (31:10-13), likely in an effort to fulfill Jacob's vow in chapter 28.  But when these two versions of events are placed right beside each other we get an entirely different understanding of the character of Jacob as well as his god.  If we were to understand the events as part of a single cohesive narrative (as religious traditionalists who desperately reject multiple authorship theory are wont to do) then Jacob is not only a trickster, but also a liar.  But not only is he a liar, he's a liar who blasphemes Yahweh.  The combined story has Jacob use ritual magic and his own wiles to take advantage of Laban then turn around and tell his wives that God did it.  Jacob winds up looking worse in the combined narrative than he did in J alone (he was justified in this scheme at least) and where E originally credits God with increasing Jacob's wealth, when combined with the Yahwistic narrative, E's God becomes a passive observer.

Pack and Get Dressed, Before Your Father Hears Us

So Jacob and his household pack up to flee (31:17-18), but Rachel, understandably upset with her father, takes the opportunity to steal her father's teraphim, or household gods, before they leave (31:19).  Just like her husband, Rachel has stolen the rightful inheritance of her elder brother.  It's never indicated what exactly Rachel wants the household gods for, but perhaps she believes them to have some sort of power.  It is never intimated that Rachel is a Yahwistic monolatrist after all (and neither is Jacob at this point, God has not completely fulfilled Jacob's vow yet).  So with children and slaves and livestock and stolen gods, Jacob's caravan secretly steals away to the west, toward the hills/mountains of Gilead (31:20-21).

Judean female clay figurines - ca. 8th-6th C. BCE

A few days later Laban discovers this treachery and mounts what can only be described as a pseudo-military campaign to track down and overtake Jacob, which he accomplishes after seven days (31:22-25).  Upset that he has stolen away in the night, Laban confronts Jacob and demands that his stolen gods be returned (31:26-29).  Ignorant of the teraphim Rachel stole, Jacob promises that if Laban finds anyone in possession of the gods they will be put to death (31:32).  Rachel is in a bit of a pickle at this point, but she has a few tricks up her sleeve.  What ensues is a comedic scene in which Laban fruitlessly searches Jacob's camp, turning up nothing because Rachel is sitting on the gods, claiming she cannot stand up because she is menstruating (31:33-35).  Clever girl.  At this point Jacob's anger boils over and he rebukes Laban for all of the mistreatment he has experienced at his hands (31:36-42).

Laban Searching for his Stolen Household Gods by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo - 1665 CE

In response Laban offers that the two make a covenant (31:43-44).  They are family, and Jacob's children are his grandchildren after all.  The covenant itself is a bit confusing as it appears to be stitched together from multiple sources, likely J and E, but with heavy-handed glosses from the redactor(s) (31:45-54).  Both a pillar and a pile of stones erected, multiple names given to the site, different stipulations for the treaty, and two shared meals.  As I tried to find the redactional seams here (Friedman assigns the entire covenant story to the E source, which seems wrong, as even the Harper Collins Study Bible notes attribute it to a combination of sources) I found myself a bit lost.  This story seems to be a complete text-critical mess much better illuminated by this article from Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber than I possibly could.  In any case, as chapter 31 wraps up Jacob and Laban have reached an understanding and Jacob is free to finally return home to the land of his fathers (31:55-32:2).

Psalm 21

This psalm of thanksgiving begins with fairly benign exultation on behalf of the king, grateful for help from Yahweh.  But then it takes a dark turn in verse 8, as it details how with a fiery fury Yahweh will incinerate and utterly destroy the kings' enemies and their children, shooting them in the face with his heavenly bow.  Metal.

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Okay I am completely out of control.  It takes me little more than half an hour to forty-five minutes to read a few chapters and take some notes.  Then I spend hours upon hours writing up these blog posts like a lunatic.  I think I need to cut down on the plot summary a bit, but Genesis is basically entirely narrative and its hard to comment on it without providing context in the form of summary.  Whatever.  I'm having fun.  It's just going to take me a decade to finish this endeavor.