Genesis Session 10, Return to Bethel, Genesis 30:25- 35:29
March, 15, 2020
Chapter 30
Rachel, out of frustration, gives her maid Bilhah to Jacob in a surrogate mother arrangement. Bilhah bears Dan and Naphtali. Gad and Asher are born to another maid, Zilpah. Leah then bears Issachar, Zebulun and Dinah. Rachel bears Joseph. Jacob negotiates a deal with Laban to start building a flock of sheep and goats for himself. Jacob will have the speckled, spotted and brown sheep. Jacob peels braches so they have white streaks in them. The sheep conceive in sight of these branches, and taking their visual cue from the striped branches, produced pied sheep. Jacob puts the branches in front of the stronger sheep rather than the weaker ones, so the pied sheep are the stronger. In this way, Jacob’s flock grows significantly.
Chapter 31
Laban’s sons are resentful that Jacob has all the best sheep. Laban is resentful too. If Laban said, the streaked sheep shall be Jacob’s wages, the sheep were all born streaked; the same if Laban changes his mind and stipulated the streaked or the grey-spotted as Jacob’s wages. The Lord tells Jacob to leave. Rachel and Leah support this course of action. Jacob secretly leaves Laban for Canaan. Unbeknownst to Jacob, Rachel steals Laban’s images. Laban chases Jacob, and does not find the images, despite searching for them. Jacob and Laban make peace covenant, and set up stones at Galeed, which either promise not to cross into the other’s territory.
Chapter 32
Angels of God meet Jacob. Jacob divides up his servants bearing Esau gifts, so that if he attacks one group, the others will escape. Jacob sends off his servants bearing gifts in successive droves. Jacob wrestles with a ‘man’ who dislocates Jacob’s hip. Jacob doesn’t let the man go until he blesses him. The man changes Jacob’s name to Israel (‘strives with God’). To this day, the children of Israel do not eat the meat around the hip socket, out of remembrance to Jacob.
Chapter 33
Jacob and Esau meet and are reconciled. Esau receives Jacob’s gift; Esau returns to Seir; Jacob journeys to Succoth, then Shechem and erects an altar.
Chapter 34
Shechem son of Hamor, a local prince, rapes Dinah, the daughter of Leah. Hamor seeks to negotiate a marriage between Shechem and Hamor with Jacob. Simeon and Levi demand that all the men of Shechem be circumcised. They then kill all the men of Shechem when they are in pain, and plunder the city. Jacob is worried about how to Canaanites will react to the massacre, but Simeon and Levi are unrepentant.
Chapter 35
The Lord commands Jacob to set up an altar at Bethel, and put aside all foreign gods. God reaffirms covenant to Jacob, and changes his name to Israel. Deborah, the maid of Rebekah who has never been mentioned before, dies. Rachel bears Benjamin then dies. She is buried in Bethlehem. Reuben lies with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. Isaac dies at the age of 180.