While I've managed to stick to my reading schedule, I haven't stuck to my blogging schedule and so this is a double issue (inevitably, life – this time a work trip and family illness – gets in the way). If truth be told, I also found this section (a few passages aside) a bit stodgy.
From Chapter 26 onwards, I felt the growing sense of a chosen people – a theme that has continued to build throughout Genesis – become more apparent, as we move from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. It goes against every fibre of my being, as someone who believes we should all be born with equality of opportunity, but it seems this belief is deeply entrenched in any monotheistic religion.
God's preferences don't just divide communities but also families, as we see with the rivalry between hairy Esau and smooth Jacob (27.11), when Jacob tries to trick his father, whose sight has failed him but sense of touch hasn't. Jacob ends up stealing both his brother's birthright and his father's blessings, so it's no wonder that he and Esau fall out dramatically. As a sign of Jacob's elevated status, he's also visited by God and the angels in the famous Jacob's ladder passage (28.12).
After Jacob escapes his brother who's intent on murdering him, he has a very fertile period with various women, including both Laban's daughters (Leah and Rachel) and their servants, and unsurprisingly Laban is a bit miffed when Jacob steals them all away with cattle. In 32.12, God says to Jacob: "I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude". As we read in 32.22, Jacob has two wives, two concubines and 11 sons in his possession after he escapes to head back home to Canaan, and just ahead of him are all the animals he plans to give as a peace offering to Esau.
There's a very strange section at end of Ch32, when it's unclear who exactly (angel of God? God himself?) wrestles with Jacob, but it becomes clearer why the unnamed person suggests Jacob should change his name to Israel, given the word's etymology means "struggling with God". As for verse 32, about the "sinew which shrank" in Jacob's thigh, I was completely lost. In 35.10, God himself commands Jacob at Beth-el to change his name to Israel.
We read in chapter 34 that Jacob's daughter Dinah is defiled by Shechem, so her brothers Simeon and Levi seek revenge, wiping out all the men in Shechem's community despite earlier efforts at a peace settlement involving them all being circumcised. Later, Rachel dies in childbirth but her new son Benjamin survives, Joseph's only sibling and Jacob's (Israel's) 12th son. At the end of Chapter 35, Jacob and Esau bury their father Isaac aged 180. Chapter 36 focuses entirely on Esau's descendants.
Chapter 37 is one of the highlights, and takes me back to bible studies as a kid, especially 37.3 and the mention of Joseph's "coat of many colours". It is stated that he was the most beloved son of Israel / Jacob (continuing the theme of chosen people), and this time it causes envy among Joseph's 11 brothers, who conspire to get him sold into slavery and pretend to their father he's been mauled to death by a wild animal. Unsurprisingly, Jacob responds with great despondence to Joseph's "death", putting a "sackcloth upon his loins" (37.34) – no doubt the origin of the term "sackcloth and ashes".
Though chapter 38 is very dull by comparison – that said, it was interesting to discover the origin of the word onanism (38.9), in the character of Onan who spills his seed on the ground – it's of biblical historical importance given the lineage to Christ that goes through Israel / Jacob's son Judah.
From Chapter 26 onwards, I felt the growing sense of a chosen people – a theme that has continued to build throughout Genesis – become more apparent, as we move from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. It goes against every fibre of my being, as someone who believes we should all be born with equality of opportunity, but it seems this belief is deeply entrenched in any monotheistic religion.
God's preferences don't just divide communities but also families, as we see with the rivalry between hairy Esau and smooth Jacob (27.11), when Jacob tries to trick his father, whose sight has failed him but sense of touch hasn't. Jacob ends up stealing both his brother's birthright and his father's blessings, so it's no wonder that he and Esau fall out dramatically. As a sign of Jacob's elevated status, he's also visited by God and the angels in the famous Jacob's ladder passage (28.12).
After Jacob escapes his brother who's intent on murdering him, he has a very fertile period with various women, including both Laban's daughters (Leah and Rachel) and their servants, and unsurprisingly Laban is a bit miffed when Jacob steals them all away with cattle. In 32.12, God says to Jacob: "I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude". As we read in 32.22, Jacob has two wives, two concubines and 11 sons in his possession after he escapes to head back home to Canaan, and just ahead of him are all the animals he plans to give as a peace offering to Esau.
There's a very strange section at end of Ch32, when it's unclear who exactly (angel of God? God himself?) wrestles with Jacob, but it becomes clearer why the unnamed person suggests Jacob should change his name to Israel, given the word's etymology means "struggling with God". As for verse 32, about the "sinew which shrank" in Jacob's thigh, I was completely lost. In 35.10, God himself commands Jacob at Beth-el to change his name to Israel.
We read in chapter 34 that Jacob's daughter Dinah is defiled by Shechem, so her brothers Simeon and Levi seek revenge, wiping out all the men in Shechem's community despite earlier efforts at a peace settlement involving them all being circumcised. Later, Rachel dies in childbirth but her new son Benjamin survives, Joseph's only sibling and Jacob's (Israel's) 12th son. At the end of Chapter 35, Jacob and Esau bury their father Isaac aged 180. Chapter 36 focuses entirely on Esau's descendants.
Chapter 37 is one of the highlights, and takes me back to bible studies as a kid, especially 37.3 and the mention of Joseph's "coat of many colours". It is stated that he was the most beloved son of Israel / Jacob (continuing the theme of chosen people), and this time it causes envy among Joseph's 11 brothers, who conspire to get him sold into slavery and pretend to their father he's been mauled to death by a wild animal. Unsurprisingly, Jacob responds with great despondence to Joseph's "death", putting a "sackcloth upon his loins" (37.34) – no doubt the origin of the term "sackcloth and ashes".
Though chapter 38 is very dull by comparison – that said, it was interesting to discover the origin of the word onanism (38.9), in the character of Onan who spills his seed on the ground – it's of biblical historical importance given the lineage to Christ that goes through Israel / Jacob's son Judah.
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