29.31–35 As a consequence of Jacob’s preference for Rachel over Leah (v. 30), God opens Leah’s womb and not Rachel’s. As with Sarah and Rebekah, the wives’ barrenness is a preexisting condition, motivating God’s intervention. By withholding his grant of fertility to Rachel until 30.22, God causes the unloved wife to bear Jacob’s firstborn son. This is recompense to Leah, the senior wife, who deserves Jacob’s love. Leah’s naming speeches highlight her grief at being unloved, with a moment of divine praise at the birth of her fourth son, Judah, ancestor of the Davidic kings.
GENESIS 30
1When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.” 4So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. 5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son” therefore she named him Dan.a 7Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestledb with my sister, and have prevailed” so she named him Naphtali.
9When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11And Leah said, “Good fortune!” so she named him Gad.c 12Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13And Leah said, “Happy am I! For the women will call me happy” so she named him Asher.d
14In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went 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.” 15But 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?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.” 16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has given me my hiree because I gave my maid to my husband” so she named him Issachar. 19And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honorf me, because I have borne him six sons” so she named him Zebulun. 21Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
22Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. 23She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach” 24and she named him Joseph,g saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!”
Jacob Prospers at Laban’s Expense
25When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. 26Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you; 28name your wages, and I will give it.” 29Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. 30For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it: 32let 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. 33So 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.” 34Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” 35But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons; 36and he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.
37Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. 38He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods, 42but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. 43Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.
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a That is He judged
b Heb niphtal
c That is Fortune
d That is Happy
e Heb sakar
f Heb zabal
g That is He adds
30.1–8 Rachel’s envy of Leah recalls Sarah’s responses to Hagar’s pregnancy and child (16.5; 21.10), in which the husband bears the brunt of the wife’s anger. Unlike Abraham, Jacob angrily rebuffs his wife and points to God’s agency (cf. Joseph’s calmer response to his brothers in 50.19). Rachel adopts Sarah’s strategy of granting her husband her handmaid as a surrogate wife. That she may bear upon my knees, either a legal idiom or an actual ritual signifying that the baby will be Rachel’s legal child. Her naming speeches for Dan (v. 6) and Naphtali (v. 8) express her thanks to God and her rivalry with Leah.
30.14–21 The rivalry between Rachel and Leah erupts into a direct confrontation when Reuben discovers some mandrakes, a plant often thought to have aphrodisiac and fertility properties (see Song 7.13). Rachel strikes a slightly comical bargain—Jacob’s services in exchange for the mandrakes—and pays the price when Leah conceives yet again. God heeded Leah and not the mandrakes. After the births of Issachar and Zebulun, with appropriate naming speeches, Leah bears a daughter, and names her Dinah (v. 21). Dinah, Leah’s seventh and last child, figures prominently in ch. 34. The absence of a naming speech or a motive for her name is curious, perhaps indicating the lesser family status of daughters, which precludes her ancestry of a tribe.
30.22–24 God remembered Rachel, as he had remembered Noah and Abraham previously (8.1; 19.29). God’s act of remembering generally entails salvific actions, so God heeded her and opened her womb, as he had previously done twice for Leah (29.31; 30.17). Rachel’s firstborn son, Joseph, is now Jacob’s youngest son, but he will be Jacob’s favorite (37.3). Joseph receives two naming speeches, one from E (v. 23) and one from J (v. 24), expressing Rachel’s thanks and relief and her prayer for another son, which will be fulfilled, but tragically, since she will die in childbirth (35.16–19).
30.25–43 Jacob gains wealth at Laban’s expense. The conflict between Jacob and Laban takes a new turn as Laban, the trickster in 29.23–27, tries to trick Jacob again, but is himself tricked. Jacob regains his status as the triumphant trickster, this time in wholly justified fashion. Jacob’s acquisition of wealth is due to his own ingenuity and God’s blessing, casting him as the appropriate heir to Abraham and Isaac (see 13.2; 26.12–13). Jacob’s ability to manipulate the multiplication of flocks also shows him to be a master of fertility, as befits the father of twelve tribes. This story is primarily from the J source
, with perhaps v. 40 from the E source; note that the E source in 31.10–12 gives a slightly different account of events.
30.25–28 Send me away. Jacob’s plea indicates that his service to Laban is not yet complete (but see 31.41). Laban’s greed is not sated, since he has learned by divination that the LORD has blessed him because of Jacob (cf. Joseph’s divination in 44.15). He refuses to release Jacob, but relents somewhat by asking Jacob to name his terms.
30.30–36 Jacob desires to provide for his own household also, and so agrees to continue keeping Laban’s flock on the condition that he will receive as wages the sheep and goats that are discolored (speckled, spotted, or striped) and the black lambs (vv. 32, 35). According to this arrangement, Laban (whose name means “white”) retains the white sheep and the black goats (which are their normal colors). But Laban cheats Jacob by removing all the discolored sheep and goats and black lambs to his sons’ care, so that Jacob has no flock and no wages.
30.37–43 Jacob turns the tables on Laban by breeding discolored animals from Laban’s flock using sympathetic magic: the animals that see discolored rods of wood while breeding will bear discolored off-spring. (White streaks, an echo of Laban’s name; see note on 30.30–36.) Moreover, Jacob only does this for the strong animals; the weaker ones he lets breed normally. As a result, the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s (v. 42). Thus Jacob tricks Laban, who had tried once again to trick him, and acquires great wealth.
GENESIS 31
Jacob Flees with Family and Flocks
1Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s; he has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” 2And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him as favorably as he did before. 3Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” 4So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, 5and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me as favorably as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. 6You know that I have served your father with all my strength; 7yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me. 8If 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. 9Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father, and given them to me.
10“During the mating of the flock I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats that leaped upon the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled. 11Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 12And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the goats that leap on the flock are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13I am the God of Bethel,a where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and return to the land of your birth.’” 14Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? 15Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us. 16All the property that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”
17So Jacob arose, and set his children and his wives on camels; 18and he drove away all his livestock, all the property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. 21So he fled with all that he had; starting out he crossed the Euphrates,b and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Overtakes Jacob
22On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. 23So he took his kinsfolk with him and pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, “Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsfolk camped in the hill country of Gilead. 26Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword. 27Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre. 28And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? What you have done is foolish. 29It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ 30Even though you had to go because you longed greatly for your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?” 31Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. 32But anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsfolk, point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.c
33So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and entered Rachel’s. 34Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt all about in the tent, but did not find them. 35And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched, but did not find the household gods.
36Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37Although you have felt about through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsfolk and your kinsfolk, so that they may decide between us two. 38These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39That which was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40It was like this with me: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Feard of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
Laban and Jacob Make a Covenant
43Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about their children whom they have borne? 44Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me.” 45So Jacob took a stone, and set it up as a pillar. 46And Jacob said to his kinsfolk, “Gather stones,” and they took stones, and made a heap; and they ate there by the heap. 47Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha:e but Jacob called it Galeed.f 48Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he called it Galeed, 49and the pillarg Mizpah,h for he said, “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other. 50If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, though no one else is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me.”
51Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and see the pillar, which I have set between you and me. 52This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor”—the God of their father—“judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Feari of his father Isaac, 54and Jacob offered
a sacrifice on the height and called his kinsfolk to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night in the hill country.
55j Early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he departed and returned home.
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a Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Heb the river
c Heb them
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
e In Aramaic The heap of witness
f In Hebrew The heap of witness
g Compare Sam: MT lacks the pillar
h That is Watchpost
i Meaning of Heb uncertain
j Ch 32.1 in Heb
31.1–55 The beginning of Jacob’s journey home completes the Jacob-Laban conflict as Jacob flees from Laban and then is caught, and the two finally reconcile. (Note that the end of the journey, in ch. 33, will complete the Jacob-Esau conflict.) In his flight from Laban, reminiscent of his initial flight from Esau, Jacob is still to some extent a trickster, since he leaves without Laban’s knowledge (v. 20). Rachel becomes a trickster, stealing the household gods (v. 19, 34–35). The conflict, culminating in a covenant of peace between Jacob and Laban, has resonances of the national conflicts between Israel and Aram. This is primarily an E chapter, with interpolated J passages in vv. 3 (cf. v. 13), 17, and portions of 43–55 and a P text in v. 18.
31.1–16 Jacob’s flight is motivated by fear of retribution by Laban and his sons and by God’s instruction to return home (v. 13, similarly v. 3). Most of this section is Jacob’s speech to Rachel and Leah, seeking their approval. Jacob justifies his acquisition of Laban’s wealth on account of his own labor (v. 6), Laban’s deceit (v. 7), and God’s recompense (v. 9). Throughout his speech he credits God, and he finally relates the dream revelation from God to flee. God’s self-revelation that he is the God of Bethel and his reference to Jacob’s vow (v. 13; see 28.20–22) confirm that God has been protecting Jacob, as Jacob had said previously (v. 5), and implies that God will bring him home safely. After this compelling speech, the wives eloquently express their own anger at Laban and give Jacob their assent (v. 16).
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