Numbers 20: Israel on the Move

Numbers 20: The Death of Miriam / The Waters of Meribah / Passage Through Edom Refused / The Death of Aaron

After some statutes and commandments, we shift into narrative. The story flashes forward some 38 years, to the 40th year of wandering in the wilderness. The generation that did not trust in the Lord has died out. As commanded by God, it is their children that will enter the promised land. What happened during those missing 38 years was probably some more doubting of God, birth, death, and plenty of eating of manna. Don't take my word for it. Use your imagination instead.

The Death of Miriam: Numbers 20.1
A brief formulaic verse informs us that Miriam (Moses' sister) dies and is buried in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. This is in the "first month" and though the year is not given, commentators assume it is the fortieth year of wandering.

The Waters of Meribah: Numbers 20.2-13
Deja vu. This scene has already happened before, in Exodus 17. But the tale here takes a strange twist.

The people complain against Moses and Aaron that they were taken into the wilderness for the sole purpose of dying of thirst along with their livestock. They consider those previous complainers, their parents, lucky: "Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!" (Num. 20.3). Some things never change - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - like father like son - you get the point. The Israelites complain and lose faith in God.

Aaron and Moses approach God, who gives them a plan for procuring water from a rock, an old trick used for the previous generation. Moses takes his staff, addresses the "rebels" strikes the rock twice, and water flows out abundantly. The people and livestock drink.

Here is where it gets weird. The Lord tells Moses and Aaron that they will not lead the assembly into the promised land "because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites" (Num. 20.12). What? The mistrust is never explicated, so exactly how Aaron and Moses doubted the Lord is a mystery. Moses was not punished when he previously consulted the Lord - so why would it be a problem now? Moses is the Lord's intermediary, after all.

This means that the only two people of Moses' generation that will enter the promised land are Caleb and Joshua. This exception makes the Moses mystery all the more confusing. Moses was a reluctant leader, but is never shown as doubting the Lord. Why, then, is he lumped with all the other Israelites? This is a question to keep in mind as we continue to read through Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Passage through Edom Refused: Numbers 20.14-21
Here begins Israel's diplomatic and military struggles as they near the promised land.

Edom has a strange relationship with the Israelites. The nation of Edom is descended from Esau (also called Edom), who of course is the brother of Jacob (later named Israel). The brothers had something of a strained relationship, and Jacob stole his brother's birthright and the blessing of the father. There might be a little residual bitterness a few generations later. Perhaps. But the refusal of the king of Edom is given without explanation, so the real reason for this is unclear. [This section is a terrific example of the bible's at-times-frustratingly laconic nature]

Moses sends messengers to the king of Edom to request passage through his territory. The message begins by bring the king up to date on the history of Israel, recounting the migration to Egypt, oppression, escape from Egypt, and wandering in the wilderness. The message then asks for safe passage, stating that the Israelites will not not pass through (and thereby destroy) fields or vineyards, and that they will not drink the water of Edomite wells; the Israelites will stay on the King's Highway.

The message allows the reader to quickly be brought up to date on the Exodus story, and reveals the intentions of the Israelites to travel through Edom peacefully.

The king does not allow the Israelites to pass. Even when they promise to remain on the highway, their request is denied.

The Death of Aaron: Numbers 20.22-29
The Israelites set out from Kadesh and come to Mount Hor, which stands on the border of Edom. The Lord reminds Moses that he and Aaron will not enter the promised land for "rebelling" at Meribah. The Lord then gives instructions that Aaron and his son Eleazar are to go up to the top of Mount Hor. Aaron must be stripped of his vestments, which will be given to Eleazar. Aaron shall be gathered to his people and will die there.

When the congregation learns that Aaron has died, they mourn thirty days.

Think back to Numbers 19's command that Eleazar is to sacrifice the red heifer. All of a sudden, God's specificity about the sacrificier makes a lot more sense. Since Aaron will not be around to sacrifice the heifer, his son must do it. The bible is interesting in this way - the reasons for seemingly inexplicable actions are sometimes revealed much later.

Genesis 34.1-36.43

The Rape of Dinah / Jacob Returns to Bethel / The Birth of Benjamin and the Deaths of Rachel and Isaac / Esau’s Descendants and the Inhabitants of Edom

The Rape of Dinah: Genesis 34.1-31

Dinah is the daughter of Leah, the only daughter of Jacob. One day she goes out to visit the women of the region. But Canaan is a wild place: “When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force. And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly of her.” (Gen. 34.2-3). The prince’s son then asks his father Hamor to get the girl for him to be his wife.

The violent lust of rape evolves into love for Shechem, but the bible gives no indication of Dinah’s own feelings – it rarely reports at all the words or actions of women. The bible is not only laconic, it is also androcentric. All we know is that Jacob does eventually hear of the rape.

When Jacob hears of the rape, he holds his peace until his sons come in from the field. Coincidentally, Jacob’s sons and Hamor arrive at the same time. The sons become understandably angry when they hear their sister has been raped. (Shechem “had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.” [Gen. 34.7] The reference to Israel is an anachronism by editors. The nation of Israel did not exist at this time.)

Hamor tries to defend his son by arguing for Shechem’s longing for Dinah. He proposes intermarriage between the two families and will allow Jacob’s family to live and trade in the area. Perhaps the audience is unimpressed, as he afterwards asks to find favor with them, and invites them to put the marriage gift as high as they like.

Jacob’s crafty sons figure out a way to get back at Hamor and Shechem. They propose painful circumcision (the sign of Abraham’s covenant) for every male member of Hamor’s family so that the two families can intermarry. Hamor and Shechem inform the city of the mass circumcision, which will guarantee the residents of the city will own the livestock and property of Jacob’s family.

Three days after the mass circumcision of all the males of the city, when the men are still in pain, Simeon and Levi take up their swords and kill all the male residents of the city, most importantly Hamor and Shechem. The other sons plunder the city in their anger, taking the livestock, and wealth and women and children. The city’s greed for the possessions of Jacob has been ironically reversed, so that Jacob’s family instead wins the wealth of the city (and they don’t even have to intermarry!)

Jacob is rather angry with Simeon and Levi:

You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.

(Gen. 34.30)

But his sons reply, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” (Gen. 34.31).

This story serves to set up Israel as an underdog in the land of Canaan. It also goes a long way to characterize Jacob’s sons. They can be brutal, but are loving and united together. For them, the honor of the family is an important matter. They are also tricksters, just like their father. 

Jacob Returns to Bethel: Genesis 35.1-15

Think there is only one God? Jacob probably didn’t. In fact, a number of people at the time probably didn’t. Jacob was a monolatrist. Whereas monotheism is the belief that only one god exists, monolatry allows for multiple gods, though there is one specific god that is worshipped. Here is the story of Jacob the monolatrist:

God tells Jacob to settle in Bethel, where God first appeared to him after he fled Esau. Jacob tells his family to pack up:

Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes; then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.

(Gen. 35.2-3)

Jacob buries the foreign gods and ear and nose rings under an oak near Shechem.

So what’s the big deal? The big deal is that up until this point, the worship of God alone was not even exclusive! It is probable that Jacob’s family members were polytheists, worshippers of multiple gods. Perhaps the God of Abraham would be a high god, but these other lesser gods were still worshipped for various reasons. Nowhere in the text does Jacob mention that these are false gods. The text indicates that these are simply gods that Jacob and his family are not to worship. Only one god may be worshipped, but this does not preclude the existence of other gods.

Let’s take a look at belief in the time of Moses. The first of the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20.2-3 and Deuteronomy 5.6-7, reads:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

Note that God is the “Lord your God.” This is the one God that you worship and brought you out of Egypt. The phrasing indicates that other people might worship other gods, and perhaps would not be incorrect in doing so. Furthermore, the phrase “you shall have no other gods before me” does not deny the existence of other gods. Rather, the God of Abraham is the sole god that should be worshipped. This is monolatry, not monotheism.

Back to the story. As Jacob and his family journey to Behtel, a “terror from God” falls upon the cities they pass, so no one (who might be angry about the slaughter of Hamor’s city) attacks them (Gen. 35.5). he comes upon a place named Luz/Bethel, and renames it El-bethel (roughly God of the house of God, el-beth-el). Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, dies there and is buried beneath an oak, which is called Allon-bacuth (oak of weeping).

That, above, was the E-source story. Here is the P-source story.

When Jacob arrives in Paddan-aram, God appears to Jacob and blesses him, renaming him Israel in the process. The blessing is the traditional blessing of land and offspring: 

I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.

(Gen. 35.11-12)

Finally this seems possible. Abraham had one son to fulfill the blessing, Isaac had one son to carry on the blessing, but now Jacob/Israel has 11, and it will soon be 12. After so much waiting, perhaps it is finally possible that this blessing will be fulfilled.

Jacob erects another pillar and pours a drink offering and oil on it, calling the place Bethel.

The Birth of Benjamin and the Deaths of Rachel and Isaac: Genesis 35.16-29

After leaving Bethel, Rachel experiences hard labor delivering a son. She dies shortly after childbirth, naming her son Ben-oni (son of my sorrow) as her soul departs. Israel changes the name to Benjamin (Son of the right hand/son of the south). Rachel is buried on the way to Ephrath/Bethlehem, and Jacob erects a pillar at her grave site, “which is there to this day” (Gen. 35.20).

Israel and his family settle down in Eder, where Reuben lays with Bilhah, Israel’s concubine. Israel hears of it, but that episode is not recorded.

The text then gives a recap of the sons of Jacob: 

Leah’s

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun 

Rachel’s

Joseph, Benjamin

Bilhah

Dan, Naphtali

Zilpah

Gad, Asher

Jacob visits his one-hundred-eighty year old father Isaac at Mamre/Kiriath-arba/Hebron. Isaac dies, and Jacob and Esau bury him.

Esau’s Descendants and the Inhabitants of Edom: Genesis 36.1-43

*ahem*

...

What might have been and what has been 

Point to one end, which is always present. 

Footfalls echo in the memory 

Down the passage which we did not take 

Towards the door we never opened 

Into the rose-garden. My words echo 

Thus, in your mind. 

                                But to what purpose 

Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves 

I do not know. 

                        Other echoes 

Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow? 

Quick, said the bird, find them, find them, 

 Round the corner. Through the first gate, 

Into our first world, shall we follow 

The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.

...

                       - T. S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets

So here is the deal. Genealogies are getting way too convoluted to keep track of. It’s like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Different genealogies come from different sources that are sometimes contradictory, so keeping track of them would mean creating diagrams with different paths based on different sources, which ideally would be colored and hyperlinked and made so that branches could disappear if desired. Right now I have neither the time nor software to do this, so I will only summarize the important parts of these genealogies.

Though Esau’s story ends here, his ancestors are named, as well as the various clans in Edom, where Esau lives.

Genesis 32.3-33.20

Jacob Returns Home / Jacob Wrestles at Peniel / Jacob and Esau Meet

Jacob Returns Home: Genesis 32.3-21

When last we left our patriarch, Jacob was heading back to his birth place.

Jacob sends some messengers before him to greet Esau and bring him up to date on what he has been up to. The messengers return, bearing chilling news: Esau is coming to meet Jacob, bringing with him four hundred men. A distressed Jacob divides his people and flocks and herds into two companies so that at least half of his people and possessions will survive an attack. This is the second time Jacob has been pursued in his journey home.

Jacob prays to the God of Abraham and Isaac, who told him to return home. He asks to be delivered from the hand of Esau, who he is afraid will kill him. The prayer serves to reiterate God’s promise of protection to Jacob as well as the patriarchal blessing of land and offspring.

In the morning Jacob prepares an extravagant present for his brother: “two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys” (Gen. 32.14-15). He gives these to his servants, telling them to go ahead of him, probably as a presentation as much as for protection. Hopefully the long line of livestock will appease Esau before he sees his brother. Jacob then spends another night at the camp while the livestock pass on ahead.

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel: Genesis 32.22-32

The same night Jacob takes his two wives, two maids and eleven children across the Jabbok river with all of his possessions. Jacob stays on the other side, along, and a man wrestles with him until daybreak. The man, seeing he cannot win, strikes Jacob’s hip, dislocating it. The man then asks Jacob to let him go, for day is breaking. Jacob refuses unless the man blesses him. The man then renames Jacob Israel (“the one who strives with God” of “God strives”) “for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32.28). The man refuses to give his name when Jacob asks, but does bestow a blessing on Jacob instead.

Realizing he has wrestled God or an angel of God, Jacob names the place Peniel/Penuel (“the face of God”), “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (Gen. 32.30). Jacob limps away as the son rises. The chapter ends on an etiological note: “Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle” (Gen. 32.32).

This is a nice etiological narrative of how the Israelites got their name. But there is also a very disconcerting element of the supernatural to it. Previously pursued by Laban and currently pursued by Esau, Jacob just cannot get a break in his trip homeward. But isn’t it strange that Jacob wrestles at night, when he cannot see the face of the man he wrestles with? Now, no one is allowed to see God’s face, not even Moses, but this could have been anyone. It could have been a false blessing. Allow me to present a Dan Brown conspiracy theory that I have to admit has been put forth by others before me: It was actually Esau that wrestled with Jacob. Not that this should actually be believed; it would falsify the religious belief in the blessing of Jacob and, well,that would be bad. Really this just reads an outsider’s sentiment into the story, creating a conspiracy where there is none. But it is interesting to think about in an Oliver Stone sort of way

Jacob and Esau Meet: Genesis 33.1-20

Having escaped Laban and wrestled with God, Jacob is a little on edge. Seeing Esau coming with four hundred men, he divides his children among his wives and their maids. He again creates a line of defense in greeting Esau: maids with their children in front, Leah and her children next, then Rachel and Joseph. But this time the general goes out to the front, bowing to the ground seven times until he reaches his brother.

Jacob is probably terrified as Esau runs up to meet him, but the birthright-less brother embraces Jacob, kisses him and weeps. Still, Jacob attempts to ingratiate himself as much as possible, referring to himself as a servant and Esau as his lord. When Esau looks up he asks who all those people are. Jacob replies: “The children whom God has graciously given your servant” (Gen. 33.5). They all approach and bow down before Esau. Esau asks what all the livestock was about. Jacob replies, “To find favor with my lord” (Gen. 33.8). Esau responds that he has enough, but the frightened Jacob insists.

Even after Esau agrees to receive the gift, Jacob is still nervous. Esau suggests walking together on their journey, to which Jacob replies that the children are frail and the flocks cannot be over-driven. “Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir” (Gen. 33.14). Esau suggests leaving behind some of his people to accompany Jacob, but Jacob replies, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” (Gen. 33.15). So Esau returns home and Jacob journeys to Succoth (“booths”) where he builds a house for himself and booths for his cattle.

In a brief interjection of E-narrative (the previous narrative was primarily J), Jacob arrives safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and camps out there. He bies a plot of land there and pitches his tent. Jacob then erects an altar that he names El-Elohe-Israel (“God, the god of Israel)”.

Jacob’s response to his brother in Genesis 33.15 sums up very well his uneasiness:

Why should my lord be so kind to me?

Why indeed? Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and blessing, before running off. Esau once wanted to kill him! But now, twenty years later, Jacob has returned and Esau could not be happier. In fact, despite his lukewarm blessing (that seemed more a curse), Esau has done well for himself. He is awfully good-natured for a man from whom all was stolen. Esau, until now, seemed a very one-dimensional character: hot, impulsive, stupid, associated with the masculine elements. Now he forgives his brother and attempts to refuse his present, which Esau surely deserves (and more). Esau, despite all his shortcomings, is a kind person after all, able to forgive the trickster Jacob that robbed him of so much.

Genesis 27.1-28.22

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing / Esau’s Blessing / Marry, Marry, Quite Contrary / Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing: Genesis 27.1-29

When last we left our hero (Jacob), he had traded some lentil stew with his brother for his birthright. The trickery continues here. By this point the Lord has spoken with Jacob, so he knows that the Lord’s blessing of progeny and land applies to him, and not his older brother Esau. From a divine perspective he is heir. However, he now needs his father’s blessing to legitimize his position socially.

Isaac is old and blind. He calls to Esau and tells him to go hunt some game and prepare it for his father to eat, “so that I may bless you before I die” (Gen. 27.4). Rebekah listens to the conversation, and decides that her favorite son deserves the blessing instead (perhaps because of the divine oracle in Genesis 25.23: “the elder shall serve the stronger”). Isaac said nothing about God in his talk with Esau, but when Rebekah relays the story to Jacob, she is sure to say that the blessing will be before the Lord. She then gives Jacob a command of her own: “Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes; and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies” (Gen. 27.9-10). Very crafty, Mrs. Matriarch. Very crafty indeed. You and your son love these tricks.

Just one problem: Isaac is blind but not stupid. What if he realizes the trick and curses Jacob instead? “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me” (Gen. 27.13). These curses and blessings, apparently, are transferable – a precious commodity in these times.

Jacob goes out, gets the kids, gives them to his mother to prepare. Rebekah then dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothing, and puts the skins of the slaughtered kids on his neck and the back of his hands. 

Jacob greets his father and immediately there is a sense that something is up. Whereas Isaac recognizes Esau’s voice in the beginning of the chapter, he now has to ask what son it is that has spoken to him. It is Esau his first born, of course. How did he get the game so quickly? “Because the Lord your God granted me success” (Gen. 27.20). Claiming to be his brother was an outright lie, but this one is actually sort of true. God has granted Jacob success. Isaac still suspects something, and asks to feel his son so he may know whether this man is actually his son. His voice is Jacob’s, but his hands are hairy like Esau’s. Isaac asks for confirmation a second time, and receives it.

Jacob brings his father the food and wine. His father eats and drinks. So far Isaac’s son’s identify is still ambiguous: his voice works against him but his “hairiness” work for him. The taste of the meat does not give him points either way, but it ensures that all four working senses have been tried in order to take advantage of Isaac’s blindness. The final test will be smell. Isaac smells the garments Jacob wears as his son bends over to kiss him. It is the smell of Esau’s garments, of course. This seals it. Jacob receives a poetic blessing:

Ah, the smell of my son 

is like the smell of a field 

that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven, 

and of the fatness of the earth, 

and plenty of grain and wine.

Let peoples serve you, 

and nations bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers, 

and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. 

Cursed be everyone who curses you, 

and blessed be everyone who blesses you!

(Gen. 27.27-29)

The part about “brothers” and “mother’s sons” simply serve as a poetic device, and not to be taken literally. The poetry deserves better analysis than I can give, but here are some brief notes. The smell of his son is of Esau’s domain, and it has been blessed by the Lord. It is Jacob who the land is blessed for however, and Jacob who is blessed himself. There are two promises: one of the bounty of the land and one of service from others. The part about his brother serving him especially rings true in the patriarchal narrative, legitimizing Israel’s dominance of other nations in the future. There is also a blessing and a curse. In fact, it is the blessing and curse of God, given to Abraham in Genesis 12.3: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Esau’s Blessing: Genesis 27.30-45

Drama in play form.

[Exit Jacob, enter Esau.]

Esau: Dinner’s ready!

Isaac: Who are you?

Esau: Your firstborn son, Esau.

Isaac: [trembling] Then who was just here that I have blessed? Blessed he shall be!

Esau: [emits a great and bitter cry]: Bless me too!

Isaac: Your brother has taken your blessing from you.

Esau: Oh, well now his name Jacob (he supplants) makes perfect sense. I should have known when he took my birthright.

Isaac: I made him your lord, gave him all his brothers as servants, promised him that the land will sustain him. What do I have left to give?

Esau: There must be one thing left! How about the vacation place in Miami Beach? Can I have that, please?

Isaac: Over my dead body!

Esau: [groans loudly and begins to weep]

Isaac: Here goes. You will live away from good and blessed land. You will live by the sword and serve your brother. But you will not serve him forever.

[Lights down. Lights up on Esau, alone.]

Esau: As soon as my father dies, I’m going to kill my brother for stealing my blessing.

[Servant overhears, runs to Rebekah. Lights down. Lights up on Rebekah and Isaac]

Rebekah: He’s planning to kill you. You must flee to my brother Laban in Haran and lay low until your brother’s fury cools a bit. I will send for you when it does.

[Lights down.]

All of chapter 27 has a wonderfully dramatic feel to it. It is like a well-written pre-recorded history soap opera. There is something I can do with my degrees in English and Journalism: Israel, the Soap Opera. It would be like DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, with more sex and humor. Or maybe it could even be updated for modern times. Favorite sons, trickery, jealousy, incest. That is quality entertainment.

Marry, Marry, Quite Contrary: Genesis 27.46-28.9

[This P section continues the Esau’s exotic fixation first referenced in Genesis 26.34-35. It also gives Jacob all the more reason to travel to Laban, an idea introduced in the J-source narrative above.

Silence. Blackness. Rebekah’s trembling words come to Isaac from the space between the pillows they once shared before the mattress became a deathbed.

“I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Gen. 27.46).

The next day Jacob blesses Isaac and tells him not to marry a Canaanite woman. Instead he is to go to Paddan-aran to marry one of the daughters of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. That’s a cousin for all those keeping track. But intermarriage was not looked down upon in this type of society. In fact, it could be very beneficial from a familial, patriarchal standpoint. 

Isaac continues to bestow the blessing of Abraham – descendants and the land Isaac now resides in as an alien.

Esau sees that Jacob has been blessed and warned against marrying a Canaanite woman. If Canaanite women are not pleasing to my father, he thinks, I will marry women from another foreign people. He goes to Ishmael and marries Mahalath. This is actually fitting within the narrative; both Esau and Ishmael are firstborns, and both do not carry on the chosen bloodline, even though both have the blood of patriarchs. Note also that in the P narrative, Jacob is not a trickster, receiving a blessing by honest means. There is no monkey business here. Only serious business. Human business, if you will.

Jacob’s Ladder: Genesis 28.10-22

Jacob leaves Beer-sheba for Haran. Stopping for the night, he uses a stone as a pillow and falls asleep.

Jacob dreams of a ladder/staircase/ramp that reaches from earth to heaven. Angels of God are ascending and descending it. The Lord stands beside him/above the ladder and says:

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

(Gen. 28.13-15)

That is a pretty awesome blessing: offspring like the dust of the earth, spanning in all directions, and constant protection, and 24/7 roadside assistance courtesy of OnStar until the deal is fulfilled.

Jacob wakes and marvels at the place that surely contains the Lord. Surely this place is the house of God, the gate of heaven! (Gen. 28.17). In the morning Jacob sets up the stone as a pillar and pours oil on top of it. He calls the place Bethel (house of God), though the name of the city was first Luz. Jacob makes a vow that if God will stay with him, giving him food and clothing so that he returns to his father’s house in peace, the Lord will be his God, and the pillar will be God’s house. In addition, one-tenth of what he receives will be given to the Lord. 

What Jacob seems to be doing here is putting God to the test. God has already promised to act, but Jacob’s reverence is dependant on God acting. Perhaps this skepticism is warranted. After all, land and progeny have been promised since the days of Jacob’s grandfather.

But in order to have progeny, Jacob must first be married…

Genesis 25.19-26.35

The Birth of Esau and Jacob / Esau Sells His Birthright / Sister Act...3? / Well Well / Digression - Esau's Hittite Wives

The Birth of Esau and Jacob: Genesis 25.19-28

Isaac was forty when he married Rebekah.

How simple it seems: Genesis 25.21 reads, "Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The problem of a barren matriarch, which takes up so much space in the Abraham narrative, is resolved in a single verse in the Isaac narrative. Twenty years pass between the time Isaac and Rebekah are married and Rebekah gives birth, but the length of time is de-emphasized to focus instead on Isaac's prayer easily being answered. As I wrote yesterday, Isaac often has it easy.

Rebekah, on the other hand, has two children struggling within her. The distress is so great that she asks the Lord why shed does not simply die. The Lord replies: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25.23). The sons will represent two different nations, one stronger than the other, with the elder serving the elder. Sounds a bit like the Ishmael/Isaac story, no? Again there is a split in lineage, with the good guys going one way and the bad guys going the other.

Esau is born first. He comes out red and hairy, his heel gripped by his brother, who is aptly named Jacob ("He takes by the heel" or "He supplants"). Esau turns out to be a skilled hunter, whereas Jacob is "a quiet man, living in tents" (Gen. 25.27). Isaac loves Esau, but Rebekah loves Jacob. It is the matriarch that favors the greater man.

Esau Sells His Birthright: Genesis 25.29-34

One day Jacob is cooking a stew when his brother comes in. The inarticulate Esau asks for "some of that red stuff, for I am famished!" (Gen. 25.30). Jacob offers it to Esau in exchange for his birthright. "I am about to die;" Esau says, "of what use is a birthright to me?" (Gen. 25.32). Jacob makes him swear. He does, and Jacob gives his brother bread and lentil stew. "Thus Esau despised his birthright" (Gen. 25.34).

Esau is a bit of an exaggerator. Jacob is a bit of a trickster. Esau is identified with masculine themes, Jacob with feminine themes. Jacob cooks a meal, which his brother takes in exchange for a birthright. Come on! That is just ridiculous for both of them. Why would Esau give away his birthright for a meal? Why would Jacob think to demand such a thing? 

Jacob's place as the second son means he must fight for everything, especially the birthright and - later - his father's blessing. If he can gain these, it will be his line that is blessed, rather than his brother's. Still, there is something disconcerting about a nation built on what might be seen by some as ill-gotten gains. The Isaac narrative shows that seemingly intangible things like a birthright and blessing actually have meaning and value.

Sister Act...3?: Genesis 26.1-22

This is a J-source story with remarkable ties to the "matriarch=sister trick" in Genesis 20.1-18 and Genesis 12.10-20.

"Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you'" (Gen. 26.1-2). There are quite a few cross-references. Isaac, like his father, travels due to a famine. But he is warned not to go to Egypt, as his father did. Rather, he must go to Gerar, where Abraham went and also tricked King Abimelech. Clearly this sort of narrative is important in the story of the patriarchs. It has the patriarchs interacting with other people, and though they are afraid of the king of the land, the king always defers to them and the patriarch ends up wealthy.

The Lord tells Isaac to remain in this land, so that the oath with Abraham may be honored. The Lord makes the three-fold promise of land, progeny and blessings, based on Abraham's fulfilling the Lord's commandments.

Isaac settles in Gerar, telling people that Rebekah is his sister, for he fears being killed by Philistine men. After a long time, "King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah" (Gen. 26.8). The Hebrew reads yitschaq metsacheq, meaning "Isaac playing," but there is a definite sexual connotation. Abimelech confronts the would-be incestuous Isaac, learns the truth, rebukes Isaac that he put the Philistines in danger, and warns the Philistines that whoever touches Isaac or Rebekah will be put to death (by Abimelech, not the Lord).

Well Well: Genesis 26.23-33

Isaac sows seed, reaping an astounding hundred fold. With the blessing of the Lord, Isaac becomes rich and prospers. Abimelech tells him to leave; Isaac is too powerful.

During this time the Philistines had filled up the wells that Abraham's servants dug. Isaac has his servants dig them again, quarreling over two of three. He then heads to Beer-Sheba, which he re-founds by digging and adding an altar after receiving a promise of offspring.

Abimelech comes to Gerar with his entourage and tells Isaac, "We see plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord" (Gen. 26.28-29).

Isaac follows in his father's footsteps of digging and naming the well after a covenant with Abimelech. Here, however, Abimelech makes a much grander promise than he does in Genesis 21.

Digression - Esau's Hittite Wives: Genesis 26.34-35

This little digression demonstrates the nature of biblical narrative. This two-verse piece tells us simply that Esau marries Judith and Basemath, both Hittites, and that they make life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah, presumably because they are foreigners. The story seems to lack context, but this piece of information will be important in tomorrow's reading.