Recap: (For Genesis chapters 1-18 see Genesis 18 recap). So far in the second section of Genesis, we have looked at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham’s move to the area between Gerar and Beersheba, the birth of Isaac and the driving out of Ishmael, the offering of Isaac, Esau’s attitude to his birthright and Isaac’s deceit in taking the blessing intended for Esau and Isaac’s swift departure to Paddan Aram. Last time we looked at Isaac’s marriage to Leah and Rachel, and the birth of Leah’s children.
Read Genesis 30:1-43
1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?’
3 Then she said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.’
As with Abraham and Sarah, it was common practice that a child born to a servant could be considered as the child of the master (and mistress)
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.’ Because of this she named him Dan. Dan here means ‘he has vindicated’.
7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali. Naphtali means ‘my struggle’.
Sleeping with Bilhah was obviously not a one-off event. We were told (Genesis 29:35) that Leah had stopped having children and now that Rachel’s servant had given Jacob two sons it is likely that he was no longer showing Leah the attention she desired. So:
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, ‘What good fortune!’ So she named him Gad. Gad can mean ‘good fortune’ or ‘a troop’.
12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, ‘How happy I am! The women will call me happy.’ So she named him Asher. Asher means ‘happy’.
All this was taking place over a period of fourteen years. Reuben, Leah’s firstborn son was now probably around ten years old.
14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’
Mandrakes roots (up to 3 to 4 feet long) are sometimes forked and resemble human figures, and they contained narcotic, hallucinogenic and hypnotic substances. Consequently they were superstitiously believed to have mysterious powers, and also to be an aid to fertility.
15 But she said to her, ‘Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?’
‘Very well,’ Rachel said, ‘he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.’
What was the driving force for the women to bear Jacob’s children?
Probably the promise of great blessing given to Abraham, and repeated to Jacob. There was also a certain status to be gained by having many sons.
16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. ‘You must sleep with me,’ she said. ‘I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’ So he slept with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, ‘God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.’ So she named him Issachar. Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for reward.
19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, ‘God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honour, because I have borne him six sons.’ So she named him Zebulun. Zebulun probably means ‘honour’.
21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
It seems that normal marital relations were now resumed between Jacob and Leah (and Rachel). The mention of this one daughter in V21 is important to the chronicler as she will figure later (Genesis 34). There may well have been other daughters but generally these were not considered important enough to be part of family records.
22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.’ 24 She named him Joseph, Joseph means ‘may he add’ and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.’
So we now have the foundation for the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Jacob’s new name – Genesis 32:28)
Years later Rachel’s prayer would be answered in the birth of Benjamin – the twelfth son of Jacob. Joseph (the eleventh) would not become a Tribe, but rather his two sons – Manasseh and Ephraim would have that honour (making thirteen). Later, in the distribution of land, Levi being a tribe of priests had no land allocated as such, but were assigned to towns, with pasture-lands for their flocks and herds (Joshua 14:4) which brings us back to twelve!.
25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me on my way so that I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.’
27 But Laban said to him, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.’ 28 He added, ‘Name your wages, and I will pay them.’
Fourteen years have passed and Jacob is eager to return home. But Laban has benefitted financially from Jacob’s skills as a breeder (livestock – not people!), and is prepared to start paying him for his services in order to keep him.
29 Jacob said to him, ‘You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?’
31 ‘What shall I give you?’ he asked.
It seems that Laban originally had only a small flock simply to provide food and wool for his family. And they were looked after by Rachel, not a commercial operation with hired shepherds. He still probably didn’t understand much about his animals other than the fact that he now had many more and they were now making him money.
Jacob is still keen to go but sees an opportunity to increase his own prosperity first. And Laban wants him to stay - ‘What shall I give you?’
‘Don’t give me anything,’ Jacob replied. ‘But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32 let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-coloured lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-coloured, will be considered stolen.’
What an apparently generous gesture, taking only the blemished animals! But Jacob was by now an experienced breeder and knew what he was doing.
34 ‘Agreed,’ said Laban. ‘Let it be as you have said.’ 35 That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-coloured lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Although Jacob’s sheep had been separated physically from Laban’s, Jacob was still in charge of Laban’s flocks. Jacob now instituted a procedure to explain how he could breed better animals for his own flocks. It seems to have been accepted by the untrained superstitious people.
37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-coloured animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so that they would mate near the branches, 42 but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
The reality behind Jacob’s deception was actually contained in verses 41 and 42. The striped branches were simply a subterfuge - Jacob actually had an advanced breeding program. Normally the rams and the ewes would run together and nature would take its course but here we can assume that Jacob chose the best (coloured) rams to breed with the strongest (coloured) ewes for his own flock!
Laban, though not understanding the reason, was soon aware of the fact that his animals were not as good as Jacob’s. So he changed the rules, claiming either the spotted animals, or the streaked ones (Genesis 31:8). Each time Jacob would then breed the animals appropriately!
43 In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Jacob was now becoming a tribal chief in his own right, and relations with Laban got increasingly strained.
