On Genesis, Part 40: The First Stones

On Genesis, Part 40: The First Stones

When Abraham had received his promises from God, and the accompanying unconditional covenants, Yahweh God had committed the world of his time to the eventual dominance and ultimate possession of Abraham’s seed. But not all of Abraham’s seed would share the same fate. Ishmael, the oldest son, would become a considerable nation, but he would be entirely pushed out of the inheritance in favor of Isaac. Later, the six sons which Abraham had with Keturah would be pushed out in a similar manner. Then of the sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob, the one would despise his inheritance and ultimately lose it to his brother, although he declared that he would seek revenge against him, by which he may have even imagined that he could have it back.

Esau was a worldly man who sought to carve out his own destiny apart from his father and his God. But the other son, Jacob, had committed himself into the hands of his father and his God, and apparently it was for that reason that he had never taken any initiative to plan for his own future. Jacob was the obedient son who worked for his father’s estate, rather than worrying about his own, and who waited patiently for any reward that may come, rather than seeking his own profit or adventure. For his patience, he was rewarded, and he was told that if he fulfilled his father’s wishes then it would be he alone who would inherit the blessings and promises of Abraham. This was all within the plan of God from the beginning, as Yahweh had spoken to Rebekah his mother. Then, in Jacob’s vision of the ladder which is recorded in Genesis chapter 28 where he was on his journey to Padanaram, Yahweh God Himself had confirmed those words of Isaac. Perhaps it is symbolic, that Jacob laid his head on stones to sleep, and in his dream he saw a vision of his own descendants ascending to and descending from heaven. Those descendants had already been destined to be the stones in the Kingdom of God.

But Esau would not go away, and neither would Ishmael or any of the others, even if they seem to have eventually disappeared both historically and biologically. Ishmael was only one man, but both his wife and his mother were Egyptians, and his progeny would eventually mingle themselves with the Edomites, the subsequent children of Esau, and also with all of the other Shemites, Hamites and Canaanites of South Arabia, as well as many other races, especially the black races of Africa. The same would eventually be true of the sons of Keturah. Esau himself would settle in Mount Seir with his Canaanite wives, and his Ishmaelite wife, and then join himself to the Horites, or Hurrians, another branch of the Canaanites, to the extent that the Hurrians of Mount Seir were written directly into the genealogy of Esau which was recorded by Moses in Genesis chapter 36. So in truth, hardly a trace of the original character of either Ishmael or Esau could possibly exist in the genes of their descendants. Having continually mixed with the Canaanites, the seed of the Kenites and the Nephilim is far more prevalent in them than the seed of Abraham, and in that manner the enmity of Genesis 3:15 is carried on in the world to this very day.

But with that, since Esau has been the primary vessel through which it has been carried, the devil has yet another claim to the inheritance of God, and Esau remains a figure in prophecy. Isaac had declared that a time would come when Esau would break the yoke of Jacob, which is recorded in Genesis chapter 27. Then as the people of Judah in Jerusalem were about to mingle themselves with the Edomites who had moved into Judaea after the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations, Yahweh God had declared through the prophet Malachi that “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”. Over four hundred years later, Paul of Tarsus cited that very statement where he himself explained that not all of those in Israel were of Israel, in Romans chapter 9, because a great many of the Judaeans, even a majority of them in his time, were of Esau and not of Jacob. So for that reason he continued a comparison of Jacob and Esau, and explained that the sons of Jacob were vessels of mercy, but those of Esau were vessels of destruction. It is they who had rejected Christ, and it is they who went on to become known as Jews, being the Judaeans who have perpetually hated Christ and Christianity. As Paul had explained in Romans chapter 9, this is the result of the manifestation of the purpose of God acording to His election.

So to this day Esau is the principle agent for the great red dragon, a symbol by which he was represented in the person of Herod in Revelation chapter 12, and for the serpent who would continually make war with the woman and the remnant of her seed who would keep the commandments of Christ. The yoke of Jacob was upon Esau under the ancient kingdom of Israel, under the Greek and Roman empires, and under the kings of Christian Europe until the emancipation of the Jews in the 19th century, which is when Satan was let out of the pit, as it is described in Revelation chapter 20, to make war against the Camp of the Saints. Now that world Jewry has come to dominate the political, social and economic spheres of every nation on the globe, perhaps the words of the obscure apocalypse of Ezra, known as 2 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha, may become manifest where it says in 2 Esdras chapter 6 “For Esau is the end of the world, and Jacob is the beginning of it that followeth.” While that certainly seems to be true, we must be warned that the apocryphal book also merits scrutiny, as there have been additions to it which could not have been original. In any event, world affairs and Jewish attitudes certainly are the manifestation of Esau’s having wanted to kill Jacob, in hopes of possessing the inheritance which he himself had despised.

Now, returning to what was approximately the year 1705 BC, according to our chronology, Jacob is in Padanaram, where, at the end of our last discussion, we had left him at the well where he first laid eyes on Rachel, his future wife, and where he had wept. He must have loved her at first sight just as his father Isaac had loved Rebekah his mother in that same manner. But ostensibly, perhaps he had wept because he found something more valuable than his own humility would permit him to believe that he had deserved. Thus we read, where we had left off in Genesis chapter 29: “10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.” Twenty years later, Jacob would depart from Haran to return to his father, and he would have twelve of his thirteen children with him, as the last child would be born soon after. These are the first stones of the coming Kingdom of God.

Commencing with Genesis chapter 29:

12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son: and she ran and told her father.

The Hebrew word for brother, which is simply אח or ach (# 251), has a wider range of meaning than our more specific English terms, as it could describe a half-brother, an uncle, near cousin, or a nephew, as it does here.

The meaning of the name רחל or Rachel (# 7354) is not quite certain. Strong’s original Concordance defines it as being “from an unused root meaning to journey; a ewe [the females being the predominant element of a flock] (as a good traveller).” This sounds tenuous, but the word is translated as ewe where it appears in the plural on two occasions in Genesis chapters 31 and 32 (31:38, 32:14), and the translations there are appropriate. Gesenius recognizes the use of the word to describe a ewe, but relates the name Rachel as being from “an unused root, perhaps of the same or similar meaning to רחם (racham) to cherish.” [1] Apparently due to the difficulty of identifying the proper root of the name, which is apparent from these entries, the Brown, Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon does not define the name, except for a parenthetical remark which has ewe, citing an article by one W. Robertson Smith, a Scottish theologian of the early 19th century. But thereafter they also connect the word to racham. [2]

[1 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 765; 2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, pp. 932-933.]

13 And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.

As we had explained when we first encountered Laban, when Abraham had sent his servant to Haran in order to ensure that his son Isaac would have A Proper Marriage, the Hebrew name לבן or Laban (# 3837) means white, and it is the same as the word from which the name Lebanon is derived, describing white, or usually snow-topped, mountains. So perhaps it is also fitting that Jacob would attain his wives from White, even with all of Laban’s faults which become manifest later in this account, where he had consistently taken advantage of his son-in-law, and took advantage of him right from the beginning.

14 And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.

These words evoke the words of Adam which defined a suitable helpmate, or wife, after the creation of Eve in Genesis chapter 2. Perhaps they reflect a tradition which was passed down from the ancestors of Laban and Jacob.

And he abode with him the space of a month. 15 And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?

It seems that Laban must have suspected that Jacob had sought a wife, as Abraham had also sent to Haran for a wife for Isaac ninety years earlier, and his servant dealt with this same Laban as a much younger man. As we have discussed already in relation to Genesis chapters 27 and 28, Jacob is seventy years old when he was sent to Haran, and Isaac married Rebekah twenty years before he was born. So now Moses explains:

16 And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured. 18 And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.

The name לאה or Leah (# 3812) means weary, and it is spelled the same as a verb (# 3811) which Strong’s defines as to tire. The word tender here, רך or rak (# 7390) is defined in Strong’s as “tender (literally or figuratively); by implication weak” and coincidentally, it is related to the root of the word רחם or racham (#’s 7355, 7356) to which Gesenius had connected the meaning of the name Rachel. According to Strong’s, the root of רך or rak is the verb רכך or rakak, which is to soften (# 7401).

19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.

Evidently, just as Abraham had desired for his son Isaac, Laban also preferred that his daughters marry men of their own kindred. This may be indicative of a wider custom among the Hebrews, as Abraham had also taken a close female relation as a wife, in the person of Sarah, and his brother Nahor took Milchah his niece as a wife, as it is described in Genesis chapter 11.

20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

We have already mentioned that the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah was A Proper Marriage, hopefully describing what a marriage in the eyes of Yahweh God shoud entail, and how it is that men and women are truly married. First, a proper marriage was declared by Adam, since after he had named every beast of creation and did not find an appropriate helpmate, he declared for Eve to be suitable as she was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, as Laban had stated. As for how men are married, here we are going to see support for our assertions, as Jacob had worked seven years of his life hoping to marry Rachel, after having made an agreement with her father which rather explicitly stated that he would have Rachel for a wife, but after he had actually had sexual intercourse with Leah, he kept her as his wife for that reason alone. 

21 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

The feast is a customary celebration of the forthcoming marriage, which would happen that night. But the feast is not the wedding, which is often confused in modern times. Once again, as it was in the tent of Sarah with Isaac and Rebekah, there is no mention of a town clerk needing to issue a marriage license, and there is no mention of a priest, a pastor, or a justice of the peace in the home of Laban. With Isaac and Rebekah, there is not even any mention of a feast. The Godly marriage, which was customary throughout most of our history, was an agreement between a suitor and a father, and it was consummated in a bed at home, not in a temple. Only pagans were married at altars in a temple, where they were often married repeatedly. Now, after the agreement, after Jacob fulfills what was required of him by the father, and after a customary feast to celebrate the forthcoming event, Jacob is about to get married:

23 And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her.

Evidently Leah was a party to the plot of her father, to give her to Jacob in the place of Rachel. Then, because these things could not have transpired in a vacuum, Rachel must have had some knowledge that something was wrong, but voiced no objection, most likely out of obedience to her father. Of course Jacob, in his excitement, and apparently having lived as a virgin for seventy years, hadn’t bothered to ask any questions or even engage in any trivial conversation once Leah was brought to his room. Then, once he had her, he may not have ever gotten Rachel for a wife unless he accepted her, and of course at this point it is honorable for him to do so, by which it is also manifest that he was more honorable than Laban, and also, that once again he has put himself in the hands of Yahweh his God.

24 And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.

According to Strong’s, the name זלפה or Zilpah (# 2153) is “from an unused root apparently meaning to trickle, as myrrh; fragrant dropping…” This giving of a handmaid to a newly married daughter seems to have been a custom in the ancient world, at least for men of means, although it is not evident as to whether Sarah had any other handmaid before Hagar, or how long Sarah may have had Hagar as a handmaid before she was first mentioned in the account in Genesis. But Rebekah had apparently also received some servants, as she left her father’s house with a nurse and other unspecified “damsels”, all of whom must have been her servants, as we read in the King James Version in Genesis chapter 24 (24:59, 61). Later, when Rachel is married to Jacob, she also receives a handmaid from her father.

Now Jacob discovers the deception of Laban:

25 And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?

Regardless of the fact that he was deceived, at this point Jacob must have recognized and accepted the fact he was married to Leah, since no question is raised as to whether he would keep her, and Laban’s subsequent answer also shows that to be true. Therefore, all other things to the contrary, the act of sexual intercourse alone is the reason why Jacob was now married to Leah, and compelled to keep her as a wife. So it was with Isaac, who had not even made an agreement on his own behalf, when he had intercourse with Rebekah she became his wife. Therefore, in the eyes of God, the act of sexual intercourse is tantamount to a commitment of marriage, even in the absence of any agreement among men. It was Abraham’s servant who had asked for Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, and here Jacob did not even think of having Leah for a wife, but once he engaged in sexual intercourse with her, she would be his wife regardless of his protest to her father.

Now Laban answers his protest:

26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.

Here Laban must have been gaslighting Jacob, or in the first place he should not have agreed with Jacob regarding Rachel rather than Leah. If he were an honest man, he should have told Jacob this at the first, and not after the fact. However it is also evident, that Leah not yet having had a suitor, Laban may have been desperate to be relieved of her, as a father must keep his daughter and support her until a husband is found for her. In any event, all of this must have been the plan of Yahweh God, the Architect who selected the stones with which He would construct His temple.

Now where he continues, Laban concedes and offers Jacob Rachel as a wife, but he must work another seven years to have her.

27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.

This is the first explicit analogy in Scripture of the use of a day to describe a year or some longer period of time, or a week to describe seven years, which also reflects a figurative use of the concept of a day for a year which is frequently employed in the words of the prophets. One notable example is found in the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel chapter 9, which prophesied the four hundred and ninety years, or seventy weeks, which had transpired from the time when the rebuilding of Jerusalem had commenced under Ezra to the time of the end of the earthly ministry of Christ.

28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. 29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

The name בלהה or Bilhah is said by Strong’s to mean timid (# 1090), from a root word בלה or balah (# 1089) which is defined as “to palpitate; hence (causatively) to terrify”. Other words spelled in the same manner mean “to wear out, decay”, “worn out” (#’s 1086, 1087) and “failure” (# 1088). Here it is further apparent, that the servants are indeed gifts to a daughter at the time of her marriage.

30 And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Here Moses is evidently speaking in hindsight, and is not necessarily implying that Jacob had been permitted to marry Rachel before the seven additional years were completed. Since we read in verse 28 that “Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week”, he had already worked the seven years before he had Rachel for a wife. But the conjunction here before the final clause of this verse may have been rendered as when or that, Moses explaining that Jacob loved Rachel more, for which reason he agreed to serve another seven years. So we would translate that clause to read: “… and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, that he served with him yet seven other years.

31 And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.

Here it almost seems unfair that Yahweh would compel Jacob to love Leah at least as much as he did Rachel, however perhaps if Rachel was fertile, Leah would not have had any children at all, so Yahweh is doing this for Jacob’s own good, to ensure that he would have plenty of sons. This also reveals the fact that the primary purpose of marriage is to have children, and perhaps Jacob’s relationship with Leah is a type for that lesson. Although Jacob loved Rachel much more, and although Leah was “tender eyed”, as Moses had described her, Jacob kept sleeping with Leah, and Leah bore him many children, seven altogether, before Rachel had any of her own. In subsequent verses here, the two would compete with one another for Jacob’s attention, and that must have caused him at least as much misery as any pleasure which it may have given him. Furthermore, while Leah was described as “tender eyed” she really could not have been unattractive, or as we may say today, ugly.

In earlier chapters of Genesis, we have noticed that Moses often brought certain accounts to a close which were not necessarily completed by the time of the events he would describe subsequently. For example, the death of Ishmael is recorded even before Isaac is married at the age of forty years. But Ishmael was only 14 when Isaac was born, and he lived for a hundred and thirty seven years, where Isaac must have been about a hundred and twenty three years old when Ishmael had actually died.

So it is here, that it is difficult to imagine that Leah had no children as Jacob worked for seven years to marry Rachel. Jacob was only in Padanaram for six years after he married Rachel. So it may be more plausible that at least some of Leah’s sons were born during the seven-year period when Jacob married Rachel, but that Rachel’s womb was closed until Leah had bore him all seven of her children, and even until the two handmaids had each had their children. However in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 30, it seems that this view is incorrect, because Rachel is upset after Leah had four sons, and she had not yet had any, which implies that they were married for at least some significant period of time before Leah had her fourth son, but not neccesarily before Leah had any sons.

32 And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.

The name ראובן or Reuben is actually a phrase in Hebrew which means “Behold, a son!”, or as Strong’s defined it (# 7205), “see ye a son”. This first son Reuben would later forfeit the things that a firstborn son would expect to inherit, the leadership of the family and the double portion of the inheritance, when he saw his father’s nakedness by lying with the handmaid Bilhah, the mother of Dan and Naphtali, as it is described in Genesis chapter 35.

In the accounts of the birth of Ishmael, Abraham had called his name by the name which Yahweh had instructed Hagar in her encounter with Him in the wilderness after she had fled Sarah, as it is recorded in Genesis chapters 16 and 17. Then, in Genesis chapter 19, the daughters of Lot had named the sons which they had each conceived by their own father. So likewise it is here, that in each instance of the births of Jacob’s children, it was the mother who had named the newborn child. But evidently the father could override the decision, as Jacob had done once, later in the case of Benjamin. In Genesis chapter 35, Rachel is described as naming the child Benoni just before she had passed, but Jacob called him Benjamin, and that is the name by which he was known.

33 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.

Leah must have been an obedient wife who had sought to please her husband even in spite of the fact that she knew that Rachel was favored, as she declares here. The name שמעון or Simaown, as we would transliterate it more precisely, is defined by Strong’s (# 8095) to mean hearing, although Gesenius elaborates and has “hearing with acceptance” [3]. Much later, at the end of his life, when Jacob blesses his sons Simeon is left with practically nothing, as he did not agree with his actions in Shechem after the rape of his sister Dinah. So when the portions of Reuben’s birthright which Jacob had taken from him were distributed to other sons, Simeon was overlooked.

[3 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, p. 837.]

34 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.

The name לוי or Levi means attached, according to Strong’s Concordance (# 3878). Perhaps this is fitting even in his own lifetime, as Levi was apparently in league with Simeon at Shechem, and Jacob had also left him with nothing in his blessings for his sons. Calling them both “instruments of cruelty” he only said that they would be scattered in Israel, and he had nothing else for either of them.

Yet Yahweh used Jacob’s blessing for Levi to His Own advantage, and awarded him with the family priesthood of which Jacob had not made any mention. Then he saved Israel by the hand of Moses, a son of Levi. So by doing that, Levi was blessed by Yahweh, who certainly knew more concerning his motives than his father Jacob could have known. However while the Scripture remains silent on the merits of Simeon’s part in the act, evidently Yahweh upheld Jacob’s words in that regard. This is apparent later, where the inheritance of Simeon was assigned within the borders of Judah, as it is described in Joshua chapter 19, and where Simeon has no other visible reward.

35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

The name יהודה Yehudah (# 3063) is defined by Strong’s as meaing celebrated, from a verb ידה or yadah which means “to use (i.e. hold out) the hand… especially to revere or worship” (# 3034). In the blessings of his father, Judah would later receive the rulership of the family and the related position as lawgiver, which, in the time of David and Solomon, was interpreted as having referred to being the guardian and administrator of the laws of Yahweh.

As we have often discussed, Moses recorded all of these events not as a precise historical narrative, but rather, as a series of accounts organized in a manner so as to convey lessons to his intended readers, and to facilitate the organization of a society in Israel. That phenomenon is evident from the very beginning, where the Creation of Yahweh God is portrayed as having occurred in seven days.

Now we shall commence with Genesis chapter 30, as more children are yet to be born. But the opening verses indicate that by the time Leah had her fourth son, Rachel had already been married to Jacob, and had been barren for some significant period of time:

1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 2 And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

In the ancient world, men did not fully understand the biological process which led to pregnancy, so we cannot expect Rachel to have known what we profess to know today. The later philosophers who had mused over it were often far from the mark, and at least many of the ancient Greeks often saw a woman merely as a field to be sown. However here it seems that Jacob is angry with Rachel because she is blaming him for her want of a child, and putting him in the place of God, rather than understanding that she can only have children by the will of God, which is far beyond Jacob’s control. But we are not informed as to whether Jacob had entreated Yahweh on behalf of Rachel, as Isaac had done for Rebekah when she had been barren for twenty years.

Evidently, Yahweh had also foreseen Rachel’s envy, on account of which Israel would ultimately have twelve tribes, so Rachel replies to Jacob’s anger:

3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. 4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. 5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.

The name דן or Dan (# 1835) is a word which simply means judge, as Rachel had said “God hath judged me”. Jacob would later bless Dan by saying “Dan shall judge his people”. But now, as it was with Ishmael, the son of a handmaid, who was a slave, Dan, and Naphtali after him, would also be considered as having belonged to the owner of the slave, which in this case was Rachel. Perhaps a woman who had slaves in the ancient world would be quite angry with a husband who slept with them behind her back, but here at this time, as Sarah had also done this, it seems common for a woman to offer a slave to a husband in order to have children, at least if she herself was barren.

7 And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.

The name נפתלי or Naphtali (# 5321) is a Hebrew phrase which means “my wrestling”, according to Strong’s Concordance, but Gesenius defines it as “my strife” [4]. The final letter in the name, an י or yodh, serves as a suffix meaning my or “of me”. Here it should be evident in the names of the children of both women, that they were named according to the mother’s experience, and not necessarily according to some prophecy concerning the child, although that is often also apparent in many of their lives. Furthermore, the women who owned the handmaids named their children, and not the handmaids themselves.

Up to this point, there is no evidence that Leah had wrestled with Rachel, but only that Rachel was jealous of Leah, and Leah was disaffected because Rachel was preferred by Jacob, so she had satisfaction in her children. But while Leah had no reason to worry about children, and therefore no substantial reason to offer Jacob her own handmaid, now the contention between the two sisters comes to the surface, where Leah must have had a desire to continue to outdo her sister, and gives her own handmaid to her husband. On the surface men may think that Jacob must have been happy, but in a house full of emulous women, he may have actually been quite miserable.

[4 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, p. 560.]

9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.

The name גד or Gad (# 1410), is literally a fortune, and apparently the translators of the King James Version had interpreted that to mean troop in relation to sons here, as it is actually a boast on the part of Leah, that a fortune of sons were to come, for which reason she had given this son such a name. The Hebrew language itself upholds the association, where the word גדוד or gaduwd (# 1416) is used to describe a troop or company of men. So in his blessing for Gad, Jacob made a play on words where he said of him, as it is recorded in Genesis chapter 49, that “19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.”

12 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

The name אשר or Asher (# 836) is defined as meaning happy, and that is the association here in this verse where he is so named on account of Leah’s having considered herself blessed. The verb, which has the same spelling (# 833) is defined as meaning straight, level or right, and for that reason also happy, or as a noun (# 835), happiness. So what is straight is considered to be happy, where the concept is turned on its head in the modern world of Sodom.

Now the rivalry between Leah and Rachel seems to be magnified:

14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.

At this point in the narrative, Joseph is not yet born, and he is the last son born to Jacob before he departs from Haran. Jacob had spent twenty years in Haran, and spent fourteen of them working for Laban before he could marry Rachel. This supports our conjecture that Leah must have had at least some of her sons before Jacob had married Rachel. Otherwise, since at this point where Rachel has not even conceived Joseph, and where Leah will still give birth to three other children in Haran, if Jacob had no children with Leah before he married Rachel then Reuben could not have been much more than a year or two old, which seems too early for him to have gone out on his own searching for mandrakes during the time of the harvest. It also seems that Reuben knew the value of the mandrakes, which may have been rare, since he took care to bring them to his mother.

15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son’s mandrakes.

Here Leah actually seems haughty, since she must have known that Jacob had only bargained to work seven years for Rachel, and that she herself had only gotten Jacob first because of the dishonesty of her father, in which she herself had participated. But this also indicates that perhaps by this time Jacob would only sleep with her reluctantly, as she had ceased to bear sons, and since he had always loved Rachel rather than her. We may go so far as to imagine Jacob wearing himself out every night trying to impregnate a nagging but barren Rachel, which is a plausible conjecture after the exchange which they had in the opening verses of this chapter.

So Leah, who was evidently desperate for Jacob’s attention, accepted Rachel’s offer of letting her sleep with Jacob in exchange for the mandrakes.

16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

While we do not want to speculate as to the perceived qualities of mandrakes in the ancient world, as I have not yet found a pertinent reference in the Classics or in archaeology, evidently Rachel believed that they would be valuable to her for the purpose of fertility. Mandrakes are mentioned in Scripture only here in this chapter of Genesis, and once in chapter 7 of the Song of Songs, or Canticles.

In any event, Yahweh continued to augment Leah, thereby affirming the actions of Leah and Laban for bringing her to Jacob in the first place. So once again:

17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. 18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

The name יששכר or Issakar (# 3485) is said by Strong’s to be a phrase which means “he will bring a reward”, which agrees with the statement of Leah that “God has given me my hire”, which seems to be a reference to the mandrakes, but to the contrary, Leah herself connected the reward to the fact that she let Jacob have her handmaid, so that he could sire even more sons than she had given him at first.

19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. 20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.

The name זבולון or Zebulun (# 2074) means habitation, from a shorter noun זבול or zebul (# 2073) which is defined by Strong’s as a residence. Leah hoped that she would merit Jacob’s attention simply because she bore him six children, and in the end she also must have been disappointed. So she has one more child, and it is Jacob’s only daughter:

21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

The name דינה or Dinah (# 1783) is a feminine form of the verb which is akin to the word dan, or judge, and therefore it means judgement. While no reason is given for naming the girl in this manner, it is apparent that Leah used it for a similar reason by which she named Dan, as she must have felt as if her plight was vindicated by Yahweh God in the fact that she had given Jacob these seven children, and two more from her handmaid.

But now Rachel would finally have children, so we may imagine Leah’s disappointment:

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: 24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.

The name יוסף or Iowceph (# 3130) is defined by Strong’s as a phrase which means “let him add”, from the verb יסף or Ioceph (# 3254) which means to add, augment or continue. Therefore the name is commensurate with the prayer that “Yahweh shall add to me another son”. Once again, Moses used the name Yahweh in an acachronistic manner in several places in this chapter. Rachel does have another son, but not until after Jacob departs for Beersheba. When she later gives birth to Benjamin near what would ultimately become Bethlehem, and she dies shortly thereafter, so these words are sadly prophetic. The prettiest of women, like the most handsome of men, are not necessarily the strongest.

Here we have likened the sons of Jacob to the first stones in the Kingdom of Yahweh. Later, as it is described in Exodus chapter 39, a precious stone representing each of the twelve tribes which had sprung from the twelve sons of Jacob would be affixed to the garment of the high priest. Speaking of that, we read in chapter 18 of the Wisdom of Solomon: “24 For upon the garment reaching to the feet was the whole Society, and the glory of the fathers carved upon the four rows of stones, and Your majesty upon the diadem of his head.” The whole Society, or world is therefore represented in the twelve stones, and each of those stones signifies one of the twelve sons, or tribes, of the children of Israel.

Later, in chapter 21 of the Revelation, the city of God is described as having twelve foundations of the same character as the precious stones on the breastplate of the high priest, and therefore the City of God is founded upon those same stones, who are the same twelve sons of Jacob. The apostle Peter, writing his first epistle to the sojourners scattered abroad, the children of Israel who are the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God”, had in the second chapter of that epistle described Christ as a “living stone” and as “the stone which the builders disallowed” but which was made “the head of the corner”, or the chief cornerstone of the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 28.

So in that same place, Peter said of his intended readers that “5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Later in that chapter he described them once again and said: “9 But ye are a chosen [race], a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” All of these things pertained to the children of Israel in the Old Testament, and in that same place Peter went on to cite a passage from Hosea which is relevant only to those same children of Israel. So the same City of God in the Revelation has written on its gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, and only they alone are the lively stones which shall ultimately comprise the Kingdom of Yahweh.

In Isaiah chapter 51 Yahweh makes a plea to His children and says: “1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” This is how stones are quarried: by digging them out of pits and cutting them off of much larger rocks. Only the physical, literal, genetic children of Israel could possibly come from out of the quarry of Abraham and Sarah, could possibly be of the same character as the stones which represent each of their fathers, and therefore only they could possibly be stones in the temple of the kingdom of God. The children of Israel truly are the Stone Kingdom, even if presently, and until Babylon falls, they more closely resemble a stoned kingdom.

Where we return to our commentary on Genesis, Jacob departs from Haran to return to Beersheba, a journey which is full of challenges.