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Genesis Chapter Thirty
Preface
In this chapter the lineage of Jacob continues with the birth of the remaining of his children, a total of 13 (12 boys and 1 girl). In the following chapter, the births of his 12 sons were recorded as follows:
The sons born to Leah:
The sons born to Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel:
The sons born to Zilpah, handmaid of Leah:
The sons born to Rachel:
To this number he also had one daughter by his wife Leah. His daughter was named Dinah. This chapter also depicts how Jacob builds his fortune through his crafty dealings with Laban, his father-in-law. Genesis 30:1-24 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” And Jacob's anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. And Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad. And Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher. Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.” But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes.” When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The LORD shall add to me another son.”
The events of this chapter portrays God’s development of His divine plan as promised to Abraham, which mandates the proliferation of Abraham’s ancestry, in this case involving Jacob. It is a record of God blessing Jacob with children and fortune in spite of Jacob’s sin, not because of it. God’s original plan for marriage was one man and one woman, united and in equal partnership one with the other. But due to man’s misuse of his gift of free-choice, an integral aspect of the “image of God,” sin entered into the saga of man’s development, which led to inequality between men and women, multiple relationships and ever-involving and complex problems. To this day, in cultures around the world, men and women participate in multiple marriages, divorce and polygamy—practices that only lead to the spiraling degradation of mankind.
By this time in history a married woman was disgraced unless she had an offspring, and the more children she had, the better was her position. Therefore, Jacob and his two wives reverted to the practice of the day of allowing the involvement of their servants in the birth process. Even Abraham and Sarah previously participated in it. God did not approve of it then, as He does not approve of it now. The Bible gives an accurate account of history in this case, but it does not validate the recorded corrupt behavior. Not only did this aberrant practice of child-bearing cause problems for Abraham, it caused problems for Jacob too.
The continuing conflict that existed between Jacob’s two wives is seen in this passage after the discovery of mandrakes in the wheat field by Leah’s son Reuben.
Mandrake (Heb. “dudaim”). The Heb. name means “loving” and suggests the nature of the mandrake or love apple. “Mandragora officinarum” is a narcotic plant of the potato family that has been esteemed for ages as an aphrodisiac or love philter (cf. Gen 30:14-16). The wide, dark green leaves of the mandrake form a large flat rosette on the ground, with purple flowers at the center (VBW. I.81). The fruit is small and bright red, shaped like a tomato but soft, pulpy, and somewhat poisonous. The plant has an enormous root, brown and rugged, which with some imagination looks like a human body. It has a heavy smell that may have been pleasant and even exhilarating to Orientals (Song 7:13). Many fantastic legends attend the mandrake in addition to its supposed power over love: that it shrieks when pulled from the ground grows only under a gallows, etc. (Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 1975, Philip C. Johnson, Th.D.)
This passage records that Jacob and his first-love but second wife Rachel gives birth to Joseph, a most remarkable person, who later will go down into the land of Egypt. Genesis 30:25-36 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.” And Laban said to him, “Please stay if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.” So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the LORD has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?” So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.” And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
This passage outlines the discussion between Jacob and his uncle Laban when Jacob expressed to Laban his desire to depart the country. Laban urged Jacob to stay, since he had learned by experience that God had blessed him as a result of his relationship with Jacob. He even promised to meet Jacob’s wage-demands if he would agree to stay. Jacob agreed to stay if Laban would give him “all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats.” All other animals in the flock would be Laban’s. Laban agreed.
But then Laban pulled a “fast one” on Jacob. He took most of the animals designated for Jacob and gave them to his sons to shepherd, removing this “speckled and spotted’ herd from his own by a 3-day journey. He did this knowing that these animals when bread with his “pure” stock would most likely breed more “speckled and spotted” ones. Additionally, by removing those that he had agreed to give to Jacob and giving them instead to his sons to shepherd, he was insuring that Jacob would be with him for a very long time. Genesis 30:37-43 Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban's flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
It is not known whether or not Jacob was aware of Laban’s trickery, but a safe assumption may be made that he was since he then took specific and crafty actions to turn the tables on Laban. The taking of the rods from the green poplar, almond and chestnut trees to strip them and place them in the drinking water of Laban’s flock apparently created a genetic gene alteration when the flock tasted this unusual nectar and then reproduced. It wasn’t long after they mated that they produced streaked, speckled and spotted babies. He did this with only the strong, leaving the week and feeble among Laban’s flock. In time, he had separated unto himself a great herd. This along with his many servants, camels and donkeys made Jacob very wealthy. |