[This was first posted September 3, 2012 as “Esau, who is Edom”; it is now updated with three commentaries added to the Sinaite’s perspective which is discussed first, as an introduction.

 

When we first started re-reading the Torah books, we thought it best to read without outside aid, just to test if today’s readers can follow the patriarchal narratives despite lack of knowledge about their cultural and historical context.  

 

Our findings?  Stories are stories, the easiest way to communicate teachings and lessons is to imbed these in the life choices and consequences of protagonists from whom we learn much because their life stories are memorable. We found ourselves emphathizing unexpectedly with figures who have been presented almost as ‘villains’ simply because they were not in the chosen line leading to the chosen people. Such is Esau with whom, if you haven’t noticed yet, we have sympathized with from the very start.

 

To this updated post, we now add commantaries from: Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz, RA/Robert Alter, and EF/Everett Fox whose translation The Five Books of Moses is featured in this website. This translation is downloadable, just google “Shocken Bible”.—Admin1.]

 

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• For one, to establish lines of descendants who would develop into nations that will figure as friend or foe to the Israelites in the 6 millennia long history of this enduring people of the Book.  
• For another, it adds to the evidence proving the veracity of the stories recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

If you were to write a fictitious historical narrative, why bore your readers with one genealogy after another which would discourage them from reading further? But if you were to write a history of the beginnings of nations of the world, genealogies are necessary particularly in tracing back to the forbears of non-Israelites who became part of Israel, just like Caleb, son of Jephunneh the Kennizite. 

 

Like other gentiles who read the Hebrew Scriptures, who worship the God who revealed Himself in those Scriptures, we take interest in the role that gentiles have played in the formation of the chosen people, in their interaction whether as kin, enemy or proselyte, to seek out samples we can emulate.

 

Esau the twin who turns out to be a good brother to Jacob is given a whole chapter for his progeny.  To us he is admirable but not surprisingly, Jewish commentary do not paint a favorable picture because from him descended a people,  the Edomites who became enemies to Jacob’s descendants:

 

• [www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Edomites.html]-

 Traditional enemies of the Israelites, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau who often battled the Jewish nation. Edom was in southeast Palestine, stretched from the Red Sea at Elath to the Dead Sea, and encompassed some of Israel’s most fertile land. The Edomites attacked Israel under Saul’s rulership.King David would later defeat the rogue nation, annexing their land. At the fall of the First Temple, the Edomites attacked Judah and looted the Temple, accelerating its destruction. The Edomites were later forcibly converted into Judaism by John Hyrcanus, and then became an active part of the Jewish people. Famous Edomites include Herod. who built the Second Temple.

• Rabbinic commentary is worse, we include it here only to show why we agree with and are closer to the Karaites in our reading of Scripture: [from ArtScroll notes on the struggle of Jacob with the mysterious “man”]

This confrontation was a cosmic event in Jewish history. The Rabbis explained that this “man” was the guardian angel of Esau (Rashi) in human guise.  The Sages teach that every nation has an angel that guides its destiny as an “intermediary” between it and God.  Two nations, however, are unique:  Israel is God’s own people and just as Esau epitomizes evil, so his angel is the prime spiritual force of evil —Satan himself.  Thus, this battle has the eternal struggle between good and evil, between man’s capacity to perfect himself and Satan’s determination to destroy him spiritually.

 

NSB@S6K

 

 

 

 

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Genesis/Bereshith 36

 

[EF] Esav’s Descendants: The complicated genealogies and dynasties of this chapter close out the first part of the Yaakov cycle, strictly speaking. Fitting in the context of a society which lay great store by kinship and thus by careful remembering of family names, it may also indicate the greatness of Yitzhak’s line, as Chap. 25 had earlier done for Avraham.  Certainly the lists give evidence of a time when the Edomites were more than merely Israel’s neighbors, assuming great importance in historical recollection (Speiser).

[RA]  Chapter 36 offers the last of the major genealogies in Genesis.  These lists of generations (toledot) and of kings obviously exerted an intrinsic fascination for the ancient audience and served as a way of accounting for historical and political configurations, which were conceived through a metaphor of biological propagation.  (in fact, virtually the only evidence we have about the Edomite settlement is the material in this chapter.) As a unit in the literary structure of Genesis, the genealogies here are the marker of the end of a long narrative unit.  What follows is the story of Joseph, a continuous sequence that is the last large literary unit of Genesis.  The role of Esau’s genealogy is clearly analogous to that of Ishmael’s genealogy in chapter 25: before the narrative goes on to pursue the national line of Israel, an account is rendered of the posterity of the patriarch’s son who is not the bearer of the covenantal promise.  But Isaac had given Esau, too, a blessing, however qualified, and these lists demonstrate the implementation of that blessing in Esau’s posterity.

 

The chapter also serves to shore up the narrative geographically, to the east, before turning tis attention to the south. Apart from the brief report in chapter 12 of Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt, which is meant to foreshadow the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, the significant movement beyond the borders of Canaan has all been eastward, across the Jordan to Mesopotamia and back again.  Esau now makes his permanent move from Canaan to Edom—the mountainous region east of Canaan, south of the Dead Sea and stretching down toward the Gulf of Aqabah.  Once this report is finished, our attention will be turned first to Canaan and then to Egypt.

 

[RA] 1-8.  This is the first of six different lists—perhaps drawn from different archival sources by the editor—that make up the chapter.  Though it does record Esau’s sons, the stress is on his wives.  These are both overlap and inconsistency among the different lists.  These need not detain us here.  The best account of these sundry traditions, complete with charts, is the discussion of this chapter in the Hebrew Encyclopedia ‘Olam haTanakh, though Nahum Sarna provides a briefer but helpful exposition of the lists in his commentary.

 

1 And these are the begettings of Esav—that is Edom.

2 Esav took his wives from the women of Canaan:

Ada, daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholivama, daughter 

 

[RA] Anah son of Zibeon. The Masoretic Text has “daughter of,” but Anah is clearly a man (cf. verse 24), and several ancient versions read “son.”

 

3 of Ana (and) granddaughter of Tziv’on the Hivvite,/ and

Ba’semat, daughter of Yishmael and sister of Nevayot. 
4 Ada bore Elifaz to Esav,

Ba’semat bore Re’uel, 
5 Oholivama bore Ye’ush, Ya’lam, and Korah.

These are Esav’s sons, who were born to him in the land of Canaan. 

6 Esav took his wives, his sons and his daughters, and all the persons in his household,

as well as his acquired-livestock, all his animals, and all his acquisitions that he had gained in the land of Canaan,

and went to (another) land, away from Yaakov his brother;

 

[RA] another land.   The translation follows the explanation gloss of the ancient Targums.  The received text has only “a land.” 

away from. Or, “because of.”

 

7 for their property was too much for them to settle together,

the land of their sojourning could not support them, on account of their acquired-livestock. 

 

[EF]  for their property was too much: Again recalling Avraham, in his conflict with Lot (13:6).

[RA]  the land . . . could not support them. The language of the entire passage is reminiscent of the separation between Lot and Abraham in chapter 13.  It is noteworthy that Esau, in keeping with his loss of birthright and blessing, concedes Canaan to his brother and moves his people to the southeast.

 

8 So Esav settled in the hill-country of Se’ir-Esav, that is Edom.

 

[RA] 9-14.  The second unit is a genealogical list focusing on sons rather than wives.

 

9 And these are the begettings of Esav, the tribal-father of Edom, in the hill-country of Se’ir:
10 These are the names of the sons of Esav:

Elifaz son of Ada, Esav’s wife, Re’uel, son of Ba’semat, Esav’s wife. 

11 The sons of Elifaz were Teiman, Omar, Tzefo, Ga’tam, and Kenaz.
12 Now Timna was concubine to Elifaz son of Esav, and she bore Amalek to Elifaz.

These are the sons of Ada, Esav’s wife.

 

 

[RA] Timna . . . a concubine … bore…Amalek.  If Amalek is subtracted, we have a list of twelve tribes, as with Israel and Ishmael.  Perhaps the birth by a concubine is meant to set Amalek apart, in a status of lesser legitimacy.  Amalek becomes the hereditary enemy of Israel, whereas the other Edomites had normal dealings with their neighbors to the west.

 

13 And these are the sons of Re’uel: Nahat and Zerah, Shamma and Mizza.

These were the sons of Ba’semat, Esav’s wife.
14 And these were the sons of Oholivama, daughter of Ana, (and) granddaughter of Tziv’on (and) Esav’s wife:

She bore Ye’ush and Ya’lam and Korah to Esav.

 

[EF] Tzi’von:  The name means “hyena.”  Such animal names have long been popular in the region and occur a number of times in this chapter (Vawter).

[RA] 15-19. The third unit is a list of chieftains descended from Esau.

 

15 These are the families of Esav’s sons:

From the sons of Elifaz, Esav’s firstborn, are: the Family Teiman, the Family Omar, the Family Tzefo, the Family

 

[EF]  families: Others use “chieftains.”

[RA] chieftains.  It has been proposed that the Hebrew aluf means “clan,” but that seems questionable because most of the occurrences of the term elsewhere in the Bible clearly indicate a person, not a group.  The difficulty is obviated if we assume that an ‘aluf is the head of an ‘elef, a clan.  The one problem with this construction, the fact that in verses 40 and 41 ‘aluf is joined with a feminine proper noun, may be resolved by seeing a construct form there (“chieftain of Timna” isntead of “chieftainTimna”).

 

16 Kenaz,/ the Family Korah, the Family Ga’tam, the Family Amalek;

these are the families from Elifaz in the land of Edom, these are the sons of Ada.
17 And these are the Children of Re’uel, Esav’s son: the Family Nahat, the Family Zerah, the
Family Shamma, the Family Mizza;

these are the families from Re’uel in the land of Edom, these the Children of Ba’semat, Esav’s wife.
18 And these are the Children of Oholivama, Esav’s wife: the Family Ye’ush, the Family Ya’lam, the Family Korah;

these are the families from Oholivama, daughter of Ana, Esav’s wife.
19 These are the Children of Esav and these are their families.—

That is Edom.

 

[RA] 20-30.  The fourth unit of the chapter is a list of Horite inhabitants of Edom.  The Horites—evidently the term was used interchangeably with Hittite—were most probably the Hurrians, a people who penetrated into this area from Armenia sometime in the first half of the second millennium B.C.E.  They seem to have largely assimilated into the local population, a process reflected in the fact that, like everyone else in these lists, they have West Semitic names.

 

20 These are the sons of Se’ir the Horite, the settled-folk of the land:

 

[RA] who had settled in the land. “Settlers [or inhabitants’ of the land” is closer to the Hebrew.  That is, the “Horites” were the indigenous population by the time the Edomites invaded from the west, during the thirteenth century B.C.E.

 

21 Lotan and Shoval and Tziv’on and Ana and Dishon and Etzer and Dishan.

These are the Horite families, the Children of Se’ir in the land of Edom.
22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam, and Lotan’s sister was Timna.
23 And these are the sons of Shoval: Alvan and Manahat and Eval, Shefo and Onam.
24 And these are the sons of Tziv’on: Ayya and Ana.

—That is the Ana who found the yemim in
the wilderness, as he was tending the donkeys of Tziv’on his father.

 

[EF] yemim:  Hebrew obscure; some use “hot springs,” “lakes.”

[RA] Aiah. The Masoretic Text reads “and Aiah.”

who found the water in the wilderness.  The object of the verb in the Hebrew, yemim, is an anomalous term, and venerable traditions that render it as “mules” or “hot springs” have no philological basis.  This translation follows E.A. Speiser’s plausible suggestion that a simple transposition of the first and second consonants of the word occurred and that the original reading was mayim, “water.”  Discovery of any water source in the wilderness would be enough to make it noteworthy for posterity.

 

25 And these are the sons of Ana: Dishon-and Oholivama was Ana’s daughter.
26 And these are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban and Yitran and Ceran.

 

[EF] Dishon:  The traditional text uses “Dishan”, but look at I Chron. 1;41.

[RA]  Dishon. The Masoretic Text reads “Dishan,” who is his brother, and whose offspring are recorded two verses later.  There is support for “Dishon” in some of the ancient versions.

 

27 These are the sons of Etzer: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan.
28 These are the sons of Dishan: Utz and Aran.
29 These are the Horite families: the Family Lotan, the Family

30 Shoval, the Family Tziv’on, the Family Ana,/ the Family Dishon, the Family Etzer, the
Family Dishan.

These are the families of the Horites, according to their families in the land of Se’ir.

 

[RA] by their clans. The translation revocalizes the Masoretic ‘alufeyhem  as ‘alfeyhem (the consonants remain identical) to yield “clans.”

31-39.  The fifth unit of the chapter is a list of the kings of Edom.  They do not constitute a dynasty because none of the successors to the throne is a son of his predecessor.

 

31 Now these are the kings who served as king in the land of Edom, before any king of the Children of Israel served as king:

 

[RA] before any king reigned over the Israelites.  The phrase refers to the establishment of the monarchy beginning with Saul and not, as some have proposed, to the imposition of Israelite suzerainty over Edom by David, because of the particle I^{e _{(“to,” “for,” “over”), rather than mi (“from”) prefixed to the Hebrew for “Israelites.”  This is one of those brief moments when the later perspective in time of the writer pushes to the surface in the Patriarchal narrative.}}

 

32 In Edom, Bela son of Be’or was king; the name of his city was Dinhava.
33 When Bela died, Yovav son of Zerah of Botzra became king in his stead.
34 When Yovav died, Husham from the land of the Teimanites became king in his stead.
35 When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad became king in his stead-who struck Midyan in the territory of Mo’av, and the name of his city was Avit.
36 When Hadad died, Samla of Masreka became king in his stead.
37 When Samla died, Sha’ul of Rehovot-by-the-river became king in his stead.

 

[RA] Rehoboth-on-the-River. Rehoboth means “broad places”: in urban contexts, in the singular, it designates the city square; here it might mean something like “meadows.”  Rehoboth-on-the-River is probably meant to distinguish this palce from some other Rehoboth, differently situated.

 

38 When Sha’ul died, Baal-hanan son of Akhbor became king in his stead.
39 When Baal-Hanan son of Akhbor died, Hadar became king in his stead; the name of his city was Pa’u, and the name of his wife, Mehetavel daughter of Matred, daughter of Mei-zahav.

 

[RA] Hadad.  The Masoretic Text has “Hadar,” but this is almost certainly a mistake for the well-attested name Hadad, as Chronicles, and some ancient versions and manuscripts, read.  In Hebrew, there is only a small difference between the graphemes for r and for d.

40-43.  The sixth and concluding list of the collection is another record of the chieftains descended from Esau.  Most of the names are different, and the list may reflect a collation of archival materials stemming from disparate sources.  This sort of stitching together of different testimonies would be in keeping with ancient editorial practices.

 

40 Now these are the names of the families from Esav, according to their clans, according to their local-places, by their names:
41 The Family Timna, the Family Alvan, the Family Yetet,/ the Family Oholivama, the Family Ela, the Family
42 Pinon,/ the Family Kenaz, the Family Teiman, the Family
43 Mivtzar,/ the Family Magdiel, the Family Iram.

These are the families of Edom according to their settlements in the land of their holdings.

That is Esav, the tribal-father of Edom.

[This is another ‘revisit” of a Genesis chapter posted in 2012.  We’ve added to the Sinaite perspective the commentaries from our three sources: unbracketed commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; other two are indicated by the initials RA/Robert Alter, and EF/Everett Fox whose translation The Five Books of Moses we’ve chosen for this website.—Admin1.]

 

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 “El” means “god”, any god.  Anytime we see the last 2 letters “el” as a suffix in any name, that is usually a phrase in Hebrew with “god” in it, not simply a name.  Samples:

•  Jo-el,  Hebrew name יוֹאֵל (Yo’el) meaning “YAHWEH is God”)
• Micha-el, Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Mikha’el) meaning “who is like God?”. 
•  Samu-el, Hebrew name שְׁמוּאֵל (Shemu’el) which could mean either “name of God” or “God has heard”.
• Ishma-el Hebrew name יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishma’el) meaning “God will hear”. 
• Isra-el Hebrew name יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el) meaning “God contended.”

 

This place formerly known as Luz is renamed “Beth-el” and becomes significant to Jacob because—

• this is where he has a dream about the ladder,
• this is where he wrestles with an “other”
• and where he receives his new name Isra-el;
• the place is called “Beth-el” or “House of El” or “house of God;”  
• “house” in the sense of God’s Presence there at some point or many points in the patriarchs lives, a place of encounter with the same God for three generations of Israel’s patriarchs;
• Jacob keeps memorializing the place with an “altar;”
• Geographical location and trivia, according to this link:

 http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/bethel.html:  

• Bethel (Luz, Beth-aven): Benin. Bethel “house of God” was a town about 10 miles N of Jerusalem, originally Luz (Gen 28:19).
• It was here that Abraham encamped (12:8; 13:3) in this beautiful pastureland.
•  It received the name of Bethel, “house of God,” because of Jacob’s dream (28:10-22). 
• Bethel was assigned to the Benjamites, but they did not possess it, and we find it taken by the children of Joseph (Judg 1:22-26). 
• Apparently the Ark of the Covenant was brought here (Judg 20:26-28). 
• It was one of the three places that Samuel chose in which to settle legal matters (1 Sam 7:16), 
• and Jeroboam chose Bethel as one of the two places in which he set up golden calves (1 Kings 12:28-33). 
• King Josiah removed all traces of idolatry and restored the true worship of Jehovah (2 Kings 23:15-20). 
• Bethel was occupied by Jews returning from Babylon (Ezra 2:28 with Neh 11:31).
• Around 1235 BC the city was destroyed in a great fire that left debris five feet thick in places. It is believed to be attributed to the Israelite conquest of Judges 1:22-25.
• The later Israelite level of occupation has construction strikingly inferior to Canaanite levels, but the period of David and Solomon shows noticeable recovery. No sanctuary dating to the days when Jeroboam I instituted calf worship there has yet been recovered.
• Although Bethel was only a small village during Nehemiah’s day (5th cent BC), it became an important place during the Hellenistic period and grew even larger in Roman and Byzantine days.
• Remains in the area show that the city continued to exist throughout the Byzantine era but apparently disappeared when the Muslims took over Palestine. 
• Bethel is identified with the modern Benin or Beitin. It stands upon the point of a low rocky ridge, between two shallow wadis which unite, the water then falls into the Wadi Suweinit toward the SE. Archaeologists have determined that although there was a village at Beitin as early as 3200 BC, continuous occupation of the site apparently began around BC During the sixteenth century the settlement was enlarged and surrounded with an 11 foot thick stone wall and possessed some of the best-laid masonry of that period yet discovered in Palestine. 

 

Gen. 12:8; 28:19; Josh. 18:13; Judg. 1:22ff.; 1 Sam. 7:16; 1 Kgs. 12:29; Amos 3:14; 2 Kgs. 23:15; its people, Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32.

 

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Abraham was called out of the idolatrous culture of Ur and Haran.  He passes on not just  monotheism or faith in one god, what he passes on is faith in the God Who has made Himself known to him, his son Isaac and to Jacob.

All three patriarchs experience this God Who Speaks to them of wondrous promises, none of which they live long enough to see, experience, or enjoy.  

Other people recognize the patriarchs’ connection to their God, but obviously, these people have not been influenced to abandon their idolatry.  Certainly not Laban, not even his daughter Rachel who smuggled out her father Laban’s idols in the previous account; and evidently the household of Jacob had to be told to get rid of their “foreign gods.”  Being told by the tribal head to do that does not translate to believing his God.

 

 

As we will understand in later narratives, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are perceived as merely one of many gods in the cultures they live in.  As such, what usually convinces people is demonstration of power or powerlessness of the gods they believe in.  

 

We hear people of faith today testify “God told me” or “God spoke to me”; how seriously do we accept their claim?  It must have been the same in the days of the patriarchs, except that YHWH their God often did something to demonstrate that He was indeed more powerful than the non-gods of the others.  

 

In this chapter, the “El” of Jacob was perceived to be backing him up. Vs. 9 repeats the promise to this third patriarch.  

 

The message is important enough for each patriarch in each generation to hear for himself directly from God rather than have the message simply transmitted from father to son; that way, each patriarch had a personal encounter with the True God, in fact through repeated encounters, not just once.

 

The 11 sons from 4 women are named.  Benjamin the youngest is the only son born in the ‘promised’ land, a second son born of Jacob’s beloved Rachel, a difficult birth which leads to her death.

 

 

Please start noticing how the biblical narrative describes death, particularly the repetition of the idea “being gathered to his people” which is described of Isaac who dies at age 180.  (Would that we be gathered to our people as well, if the phrase is any indication of life beyond the grave.) 

 

Just as the brothers Ishmael and Isaac were present at Abraham’s burial, so were the brothers Esau and Jacob at Isaac’s, significant reconciliations and final tributes of sons to their fathers. It is heartening to know that those who were not in the promised line—Ishmael and Esau—nevertheless stood with their brothers in mourning and paying respects to their father and if that was so as Scripture testifies to, they must have continued their fraternal relationship at least during their lifetime.

 

NSB@S6K, for Sinai 6000

 

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[Commentary by RA/Robert Alter and EF/Everett Fox whose translation The Five Books of Moses, is what we use in this website.—Admin.]

 

[RA]  After Jacob’s disastrous inaction in response to his daughter’s rape in the face of his vengeful sons, the narrative unit demarcated by this chapter is a collection of miscellaneous notices about Jacob and his household:

•  the consecration of the altar at Bethel;
• the death of Rebekah’s nurse;
• a reiteration of Jacob’s name change coupled with a repetition of the covenantal promise delivered to his father and grandfather;
• Rachel’s death in childbirth;
• Reubens’ cohabitation with his father’s concubine’ the death of Isaac.  

This miscellaneous overview of Jacob’s later career—just before his sons preempt the narrative foreground—bears the earmarks of a literary source different from that of the immediately preceding material.  Nevertheless, thematic reverberations from the pivotal catastrophe at Shechem sound through it.

DEATH OF ISAAC

 

Genesis/Bereshith 35

THE RETURN TO BETH-EL

1 Now God said to Yaakov:

Arise,

go up to Bet-el and stay there, and construct a slaughter-site there

to the God/El who was seen by you when you fled from Esav your brother.

 go up to Beth-el. Shechem is situated 1,880 ft. above sea-level, and Beth-el 2,890 ft.  From the former place to the latter is a continuous ascent.

an altar. Alluding to the Patriarch’s vow in XXVIII,22.

[RA] Who appeared to you when you fled from Esau your brother.  This clause, which takes us back to the dream-vision revelation and promise vouchsafed the young Jacob in chapter 28, signals this injunction to build an altar as a ritual completion of that early promise. (See comment on verse 3.)

2 Yaakov said to his household and to all who were with him:

Put away the foreign gods that are in your midst!

Purify yourselves! Change your garments! 

the strange gods.  i.e. god worshipped by foreign tribes.  According to Rashi, the reference is to the images which were included in the spoil of Shechem.

purify yourselves.  By bathing, and astaining from any act that would render them ceremonially unclean; cf. Exod. XIX, 10 ff.

[EF]  Change your garments: Speiser translates this as “Put on new clothes.”

[RA] the alien gods. Although many interpreters associate these icons or figurines with the booty taken from Shechem, Rachel’s attachment to her father’s household gods suggests that others in this large retinue of emigrating relatives and slaves may have brought cultic figurines with them from Mesopotamia.

cleanse yourselves. Nahum Sarna aptly notes, “chapter 34 is dominated by the theme of defilement; this chapter opens with the subject of purification.”

3 Let us arise and go up to Bet-el,

there I will construct a slaughter-site

to the God who answered me on the day of my distress

—he was with me on the way that I went! 

[RA] to the God Who answered me on the day of my distress and was with me.  When Jacob approximately echoes God’s words to him in verse 1, he replaces God’s revelation with God’s answering him in his trouble and being with him, thus confirming that God has truly responded to the terms he stipulated in 28:20, “if the LORD God be with me and guard me on this way that I am going.”

4 So they gave Yaakov all the foreign gods that were in their hand, along with the sacred-rings that were in their ears,

and Yaakov concealed them under the oak/ela that is near Shekhem.

 rings.  In their ears. They were more than ornaments; they were also amulets and charms (Targum Jonathan).

[RA] the rings . . . in their ears.  As archeology has abundantly discovered, earrings were often fashioned as figurines of gods and goddesses.

buried. The verb taman is generally used for placing treasure in a hidden or safe place, and is quite distinct from the term for burial that appears in verses 8, 19, and 29, which is a verb reserved for burying bodies.

5 Then they moved on.

Now a dread from God lay upon the towns that were around them,

so that they did not pursue Yaakov’s sons.

a terror of God.  A fear inspired by God.

[RA] the terror of God. Perhaps, in the view of this writer, which is more insistently theological than that of the immediately preceding narrative, the phrase means literally that God casts fear on the Canaanites in order to protect Jacob and his clan.  But the phrase is deliberately ambiguous: it could also be construed as meaning “an awesome terror,” with ‘elohim serving as an intensifier rather than referring to divinity.  In that case, the shambles to which Simeon and Levi reduced Shechem might be sufficient reason for the terror.

6 So Yaakov came back to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan-that is now Bet-el-he and all the people that were with him.

7 There he built a slaughter-site

and called the place:

Godhead/El of Bet-el!

For there had the Power-of-god been revealed to him, when he fled from his brother. 

El-beth-el. Rashi explains, ‘God who manifested Himself in Beth-el.’

8 Now Devora, Rivka’s nurse, died.

She was buried below Bet-el, beneath the oak; they called

its name: Allon Bakhut/Oak of Weeping.

Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died.  Cf. XXIV,59. She had accompanied Jacob all this while.

[EF]  Rivka’s nurse, died: See note to 24:59.

[RA] Allon-Bacuth. The name means “oak of weeping.”  Beyond the narrative etiology of a place-name, there is not enough evidence to explain what this lonely obituary notice is doing here.

9 God was seen by Yaakov again, when he came back from the country of Aram,

and he gave him blessing:

 

again.  As God had appeared to him on the outward journey, He once more manifested Himself on the return journey, to renew the promises.

Paddan-aram. iSee on XXV,20.

[EF] God was seen . . .: Apparently a different version of the Peniel story of Chap. 32.

[RA] and God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-Aram. The adverb “again,” as Rashi notes, alludes to God’s appearance to Jacob at this same place, Bethel, when he fled to Paddan-Aram.  This second version of the conferring of the name of Israel on Jacob is thus set in the perspective of a large overview of his career of flight and return, with both his eastward and westward trajectory marked by divine revelation and promise at the same spot.  The first story of Jacob’s name change is folkloric and mysterious, and the new name is given him as a token of his past victories in his sundry struggles with human and divine creatures.  Here, the report of the name change is distinctly theological, God’s words invoking both the first creation (“be fruitful and multiply”) and His promsie to Abraham (“kings shall come forth from your loins”).  In this instance, moreover, the new name is a sign of Jacob’s glorious triumphs he has already achieved, and the crucial element of struggle is not intimated.  As elsewhere in biblical narrative, the sequencing of different versions of the same event proposes different, perhaps complementary views of the same elusive subject—here, the central and enigmatic fact of the origins of the theophoric name of the Hebrew nation.

10 God said to him:

Yaakov is your name,

Yaakov shall your name be called no more,

for your name shall be Yisrael!

And he called his name: Yisrael!

God confirms the change of name made by the Angel in the heat of the contest (XXXII,29).

11 God said further to him:

I am God Shaddai. Bear fruit and be many!

Nation, yes, a host of nations shall come from you,

kings shall go out from your loins! 

God Almighty. Heb. ‘El Shaddai’.  For the promise which follows, cf. Isaac’s blessing to Jacob in XXVIII,22.

12 The land

that I gave to Avraham and to Yitzhak,

to you I give it, and to your seed after you I give the land. 

[EF] I am God Shaddai …: See God’s words to Avraham in 17:6.

13 God went up from beside him, at the place where he had spoken with him.

and God went up from him.  The same phrase in XVII,22.

[EF] At the place where he had spoken with him: The phrase occurs three times here and subsequently, probably to emphasize the sanctity of Bet-El.

14 And Yaakov set up a standing-pillar at the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone,

he poured out a poured-offering on it and cast oil upon it.

 poured oil thereon. Cf. on XXVIII,18.

[RA] and Jacob set up a pillar. The cultic or commemorative pillar, matsevah, figures equally in the first episode at Bethel, in chapter 28.  There, too, Jacob consecrates the pillar by pouring oil over it, but here, in keeping with the more pervasively ritualistic character of the story, he also offers a libation, and he builds an altar before setting up the pillar.

in the place where He had spoken with him. This phrase occurs three times in close sequence.  The underlining of “place” recalls the emphasis on that key term in the earlier Bethel episode, where an anonymous “place” was transformed into a “house of God.”  In the present instance, “place” is strongly linked through reiteration with the fact of God’s having spoken to Jacob: before the place is consecrated by human ritual acts, it is consecrated by divine speech. 

15 And Yaakov called the name of the place where God had spoken with him:

Bet-el/House of God!

16 They departed from Bet-el.

But when there was still a stretch of land to come to Efrat,

Rahel began to give birth, and she had a very hard birthing.

some way to come. i.e. a distance of no great length.

Ephrath. A place south of Beth-el.

[RA] some distance. The Hebrew, kirvat ha’arets, occurs only three times in the Bible, and there has been debate over what precisely it indicates. Abraham ibn Ezra, with his extraordinary philological prescience, suggested that the initial ki was the prefix of comparison (kaf hadimyon) and that the noun barat was “the royal measure of distance.”  In fact, modern Semitic philologists have discovered an Akkadian cognate, beru, which is the ancient mile, the equivalent of about four and a half English miles.

17 It was, when her birthing was at its hardest,

that the midwife said to her:

Do not be afraid,

for this one too is a son for you!

also is a son. ‘So the nurse cheers the dying woman by recalling her to prayer at the birth of Joseph, XXX,24’ (Skinner).

[EF] this one too is a son: This seems to be a breach birth, since the midwife already knew that it was a son when “her birthing was at its hardest”—that is, before the child had fully emerged.

[RA] for this one, too, is a son for you. Rachel, in ehr naming-speech for Joseph, had prayed for a second son, just as in her earlier imperious demand to her husband, she had asked him to give her sons, not a son.  The fulfillment of her uncompromising wish entails her death.

18  It was, as her life was slipping away

—for she was dying—

that she called his name Benyoni/Son-of-my-woe.

But his father called him: Binyamin/Son-of-the-right-hand.

Benjamin. The correct translation is, ‘the son of my old age’ (Hoffmann).  

[EF] her life was slipping away: Or, “her life-breath was leaving (her), paralleling a similar expression in Ugaritic.

But his father called him: Binhamin: Given the power of names, it would not have been considered proper for a child to begin life with a name such as the one Rahel gives him. Binyamin: Traditional English “Benjamin.”

[RA] Ben-Oni. T

The name can be construed to mean either “son of my vigor” or, on somewhat more tenuous philological grounds, “son of my sorrow.”  Given the freedom with which biblical characters play with names and their meanings, there is no reason to exclude the possibility that Rachel is punningly invoking both meanings, though the former is more likely: in her death agony, she envisages the continuation of “vigor” after her in the son she has born (the tribe Benjamin will become famous for its martial prowess).

but his father called him Benjamin. In the reports given in biblical narrative, it is more often the mother who does the naming.  This is the sole instance of competing names assigned respectively by the mother and father.  Jacob’s choice of Bin-yamin also presents a possibility of double meaning.  The most likely construal would be “son of the right hand,” that is, favored son, the one to whom is imparted special power or “dexterity.”  But the right hand also designates the south in biblical idiom, so the name could mean “dweller in the south.”  Again, the yamin component might be, as some have propsoed, not the word for right hand but a plural of yom, day or time, yielding the sense “son of old age.”

19 So Rahel died;

she was buried along the way to Efrat-that is now Bet-lehem.

Rachel died.  Nothing is said of Jacob’s grief.  Another instance of the marvellous reserve of the Scriptural narrative.  His grief for her, on whose behalf he rendered patient service for fourteen years, is indicated by a pathetic reference in XVVIII,7.

 

[EF] Bet-Lehem: Traditional English “Bethlehem.”

20 Yaakov set up a standing-pillar over her burial-place,

that is Rahel’s burial pillar of today.

pillar.  The Heb. word is that which was in later use for ‘tombstone’. Rachel’s Tomb is one of the Jewish ‘Holy Places’ in Palestine.

21 Now Yisrael departed and spread his tent beyond Migdal-eder/Herd-tower.

Migdal-eder.  This site has not been identified.

22 And it was when Yisrael was dwelling in that land: Re’uven went and lay with Bilha,his 

father’s concubine.

And Yisrael heard— 

Reuben.  It was the practice among Eastern heirs-apparent to take possession of their father’s wives, as an assertion of their right to the succession; cf. on Lev. XVIII,8.  But whatever the reason, the memory of this repulsive incident lingered in the Patriarch’s mind; it influenced the ‘blessing’ which on his death-bed he imparted to his eldest son (XLIX,4).

and Israel heard of it. ‘Of it’ is not represented in the Hebrew.  The ancient editors of the Hebrew text, the Massoretes, indicated ‘A pause in the middle of a verse’.  This means that the subject is abruptly dropped; it being too distasteful to continue so revolting a theme.

[EF] Re’uven: The following tiny fragment concerning Re’uven’s usurping his father’s concubine, serves to presage his fall as firstborn later on.  Such an act had symbolic value in biblical society; Avshalom (Absalom) sleeps with David’s concubines as a sign of rebellion and a desire to attain the crown (II Samuel 16:21-22).

[RA] Reuben went and lay with Bilhah. The enigmatic notice of Reuben’s violation of his father’s concubine is conveyed with gnomic conciseness.  The Talmud saw in the story an intention on the part of Reuben to defile the slavegirl of his mother’s dead rival, Rachel, and so to make her sexually taboo to Jacob.  More recent commentators have observed the justice that in the biblical world cohabitation with the consort of a ruler is a way of making claim to his authority (as when the usurper Absalom cohabits with his father David’s concubines), and so Reuben would be attempting to seize in his father’s lifetime his firstborn’s right to be head of the clan.

and Israel heard. The same verb is used when the report of the rape of Dinah is brought to Jacob.  In both instances, he remains silent.  The fact that he is referred to in this episode as Israel, not Jacob, may be dictated by the context of sexual outrage, for which the idiom “a scurrilous thing in Israel,” nevalah beYisra’el, is used, as in the story of Dinah.

And the sons of Jacob were twelve. The genealogical list of the sons of Jacob, followed by the list of the sons of Ishmael in the next chapter, marks a major transition in the narrative.  When the story picks up again at the beginning of chapter 37, though old Jacob is very much alive and an important figure in the background of the narrative, it will become the story of Joseph and his brothers—a tale that in all its psychological richness and moral complexity will take up the rest of the Book of Genesis.

Now the sons of Yaakov were twelve:

Graph from ourbighappyfamilyblog.blogspot.c

23 The sons of Lea: Yaakov’s firstborn, Re’uven; Shim’on, Levi and Yehuda, Yissakhar and 

Zevulun.

24 The sons of Rahel: Yosef and Binyamin.

25 The sons of Bilha, Rahel’s maid: Dan and Naftali.

26 The sons of Zilpa, Lea’s maid: Gad and Asher. These (were) Yaakov’s sons, who were born to

him in the country of Aram.

born to him in Paddan-aram.  A generalization, disregarding the one exception, Benjamin, who was born in Canaan.

27  Yaakov came home to Yitzhak his father at Mamre, in the city of Arba-that is now Hevron, 

where Avraham and Yitzhak had sojourned.

Mamre.  see on XIII,18.

Kiriath-arba.  See on XXIII,2.  Since Rebekah is not mentioned here, we may infer that she died before Jacob’s return.

28 And the days of Yitzhak were a hundred years and eighty 

29 years,/ then Yitzhak expired. He died and was gathered to his kinspeople, old and satisfied in 

days. Esav and Yaakov his sons buried him.

expired.  As Rashi points out, the Bible does not follow the chronological order here.  It is only for the sake of convenience that his death is recorded at this point.

was gathered unto his people. See on XXV,8.

Esau and Jacob.  Similarly Isaac and Ishmael had jointly performed the last rites for Abraham (XXV,9).  Isaac is a less active character than either Abraham or Jacob.  ‘Abraham was an epoch-maker; his life, therefore, was an eventful one.  Jacob closes the Patriarchal period, and his life was both rough and eventful.  Not so Isaac.  He inherits the true belief in God; his is merely the task of loyally transmitting it.  No wonder that we hear little of him, and that he repeats some of his father’s experiences’ (Hoffmann).  ‘Isaac, a patient, meditative man, strong in affection and love, typical of the domestic virtues for which his descendants have throughout the ages been remarkable. He stands as a type of the apssive virtues, which have a strength of their own.’ (The Study Bible.)

[EF] then Yitzhak expired:See the commentary on 26:1-6.

[RA] And Isaac breathed his last.  The actual chronological place of this event is obviously considerably earlier in the narrative.  The biblical writers observe no fixed commitment to linear chronology, a phenomenon recognized by the rabbis in the dictum, “there is neither early nor late in the Torah.”

Esau and Jacob his sons buried him. At this end point, they act in unison, and despite the reversal of birthright and blessing, the firstborn is mentioned first.

 [“Becoming Israel’ is a series that feature the Sinaite perspective on this chapter.  It features Chapter 32 without intrusive commentary so you can read straight through without having to read through the three commentaries we feature on the post that usually follow this series.  Translation is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses. –Admin1.]

—————————————

Still called by his supplanter’s name when Yaakov and his uncle Lavan part ways, this is the chapter when Yaakov undergoes a name change. . . finally.

 It happens in connection with his much-feared encounter with the twin to whom he had done much wrong two decades before.  Yaakov comes to terms with all the wrong he had done and thinks of ways to pacify the angry Esau who swore revenge as his mother had warned him when she sent him away for his safety.  That image in Yaakov’s mind when he left is the same image in his mind as he prepares for the confrontation.

The God of the Patriarchs —YHWH— is well aware of Yaakov’s apprehensions and allows him to see the divine messengers usually called “angels.” We had a discussion of what “angels” or God’s “messengers” look like. We’ve gotten used to artists’ imaginary representations of these beings.  Cherubims — babies with wings, or baby-heads with wings; long-haired blond men in white robes with wings, female-fairy-like with wings. Dark angels with black hair and evil features — without wings. What’s with the wings, do they really need wings to fly up and down from heaven?

In Jacob’s dream about the ladder, angels were going up and down through the ladder, not flying up and down.  Where do the wings come from?  Most likely if not surely, it’s from the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant which YHWH Himself designs and orders the craftsmen to make. We are told that the cherubim appear only in two places in the Hebrew scriptures:  first in the garden of Eden where they guard the Tree of Life with flaming swords to make sure the first couple do not partake of its fruit; strange, the prohibition was not there before their failing the test.  The second mention of cherubim is exactly as the figures with wings guarding the Ark where the 10 words etched on the second tablets of stone are kept.  Commentators have connected the Tree of Life with the Torah because of the cherubim. . . but back to ‘angels.’

Image from www3.telus.net

The cherubim on the Mercy Seat

If angels are disembodied spirits like God, Scripture describes them appearing to humans in human form, such as the three men who visited Abraham before they executed the Divine order to get Lot and his family out of Sodom.  If you remember the narrative, it is not the angels who caused the destruction of Sodom, it was YHWH the Consuming Fire who threw brimstone from heaven.

Why are we taking pains to explain the appearance of angel-messengers as humans? Because for one, we have stated earlier that as far as we have investigated, YHWH never has appeared as a “man” in the TNK; and for another, in this chapter Jacob wrestles with a “man.”  

The “man” asks Jacob what is his name and renames him Israel; then Jacob asks the “man” his name and the “man” does not give it and simply blesses Jacob as he had requested before he lets the “man” go.  In Exodus, Moses would ask the God on Sinai His Name and Moses gets an answer.

If this “being” were the same God of Sinai, why would he not identify himself?  Isn’t God eager to make Himself known to the key figures in His plan for Israel?  Here is the third patriarch from whom will spring 12 sons, 12 tribes, a nation . . .is it not the proper occasion to reveal His Name?

Jacob, now Israel, realizes he had a strange encounter with an “other” being.   Jews interpret “the Divine” here as “the angel” (Artscroll note). We concur. 

Chapter 32

1 Lavan started-early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed 

them,

and Lavan went to return to his place. 

2 As Yaakov went on his way,

messengers of God encountered him. 

3 Yaakov said when he saw them:

This is a camp of God!

And he called the name of that place: Mahanayim/Double-camp. 

4 Now Yaakov sent messengers on ahead of him to Esav his brother in the land of Se’ir, in the 

territory of Edom, 

5 and commanded them, saying:

Thus say to my lord, to Esav:

Thus says your servant Yaakov: I 

have sojourned with Lavan and have tarried until now. 

6 Ox and donkey, sheep and servant and maid have become mine.

I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes. 

7 The messengers returned to Yaakov, saying:

We came to your brother, to Esav—

but he is already coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him! 

8 Yaakov became exceedingly afraid and was distressed.

He divided the people that were with him and the sheep and the oxen and the camels into two camps, 

9 saying to himself:

Should Esav come against the one camp and strike it, the camp that is left will escape.

10 Then Yaakov said:

God of my father Avraham,

God of my father Yitzhak,

O YHVH,

who said to me: Return to your land, to your kindred, and I will deal well with you!— 

11 Too small am I for all the faithfulness and trust that you have shown your servant.

For with only my rod did I cross this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 

12 Pray save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav!

For I am in fear of him, 

lest he come and strike me down, mothers and children alike! 

13 But you,

you have said: I will deal well, well with you,

I will make your seed like the sand of the sea, which is too much to count! 

14 Spending the night there that night,

he took a gift from what was at hand, for Esav his brother: 

15 she-goats, two hundred, and kids, twenty,

ewes, two hundred, and rams, twenty, 

16 nursing camels and their young, thirty,

cows, forty, and bulls, ten,

she-asses, twenty, and colts, ten; 

17 he handed them over to his servants, herd by herd separately,

and said to his servants:

Cross on ahead of me, and leave room between herd and herd. 

18 He charged the first group, saying:

When Esav my brother meets you

and asks you, saying: To whom do you belong, where are you going, and to whom do these ahead of you belong? 

19 Then say:

—to your servant, to Yaakov, it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esav,

and here, he himself is also behind us. 

20 Thus he charged the second, and thus the third, and thus all that were walking behind the 

herds, saying:

According to this word shall you speak to Esav when you come upon him: 

21 You shall say: Also-here, your servant Yaakov is behind us.

For he said to himself:

I will wipe (the anger from) his face

with the gift that goes ahead of my face;

afterward, when I see his face, 

perhaps he will lift up my face! 

22 The gift crossed over ahead of his face,

but he spent the night on that night in the camp. 

23 He arose during that night,

took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children

to cross the Yabbok crossing. 

24 He took them and brought them across the river; he brought across what belonged to him. 

25 And Yaakov was left alone—

And a man wrestled with him until the coming up of dawn. 

26 When he saw that he could not prevail against him,

he touched the socket of his thigh;

<addre

ss>the socket of Yaakov’s thigh had been dislocated as he wrestled with him. 

27 Then he said:

Let me go,

for dawn has come up!

But he said: I will not let you go

unless you bless me. 

28 He said to him:

What is your name?

And he said: Yaakov. 

29 Then he said:

Not as Yaakov/Heel-sneak shall your name be henceforth uttered,

but rather as Yisrael/God-fighter,

for you have fought with God and men and have prevailed. 

30 Then Yaakov asked and said:

Pray tell me your name!

But he said: Now why do you ask after my name?

And he gave him farewell-blessing there. 

31 Yaakov called the name of the place: Peniel/Face of God,

for: I have seen God,

face to face, 

and my life has been saved. 

32 The sun rose on him as he crossed by Penuel,

and he was limping on his thigh. 

33 —Therefore the Children of Israel do not eat the sinew that is on the socket of the thigh until 

this day,

for he had touched the socket of Yaakov’s thigh at the sinew

 

 [‘Becoming Israel’ is a series featuring discussions of Sinaites on this portion of Scripture.  It traces the life of third generation patriarch-to-be Yaakov whose character so far has not been admirable, so we’re still waiting for the Name-change reflecting a change in character.  This series also allows for reading the featured chapter without interruption; subsequent post on same chapter features the three commentaries.  We simply provide “food for thought” and points to ponder which we ourselves have noticed, without relying on commentaries to guide us.  Translation is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1.]

——————–

 

Just how long will it take for Yaakov to change enough in character to merit not only a name change but more so be worthy enough to become the progenitor of Israel-ites?

 

Jewish writings infer that the “Jewish people” existed as early as Abraham but if we will strictly follow the text and consider only ethnicity and bloodlines, this is our view:

 

• Avraham was gentile;
• Yitzak was gentile;
• Yaakov is still a gentile at this point
  • married to 2 gentile daughters of idolatrous Laban,
  •  siring 12 sons and a daughter
  •  from 4 gentile women.
    

    Image from www.christart.com
    “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and king David were all Hebrews. They were never Jews, because the word Jew had not been invented yet.”

There are no “chosen people” as yet; there is only the progression of setting apart a man and a particular line from a specific son Yitzak and grandson Yaakov, a set-apart lineage.  

 

No one is “officially” an “Israelite” yet, just 3 patriarchs, 12 sons and 1 daughter in the 4th generation. God reiterates the promise to Abraham to 2nd generation Isaac and to 3rd generation Jacob. 

 

————————————————-

 

Picking up from the previous article Becoming Israel,  the time had come for Yaakov to return to his homeland and his father.  Not only had he served Lavan for 20 years, his presence there was no longer comfortable for him and his big family as well as for Lavan and his sons. Yet, he doesn’t go on his own initiative until he hears from God.  

 

He has developed a personal relationship with the God of his father and grandfather,

• having met Him that night he slept in a place he named “Bethel” (28:19-20);
• he is conscious of God’s hand of protection upon him through the years Laban had given him a dose of his own medicine (deception) and surprisingly,
• he put up with all of it with unbelievable patience.

Surely he has begun to change in the years he was away from home. 

 

NSB@S6K

 

[A post on Chapter 31 follows this with commentaries from Dr. Hertz, Everett Fox, and Robert Alter.  For now here is uninterrupted rendering of the text:]

 

Chapter 31

1 Now he heard the words of Lavan’s sons, (that they) said:

Yaakov has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s

he has made all this weighty-wealth!

2  And Yaakov saw by Lavan’s face:

he was no longer with him as the day before.

3  And YHVH said to Yaakov:

return to the land of your fathers, to your kindred!  I will be with you!

4 So Yaakov sent and had Rahel and Lea called to the field, to his animals,

5  and said to them:  

I see by your father’s face:

indeed he is no longer toward me as yesterday and the day-before.

But the God of my father has been with me!

6  You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my might,

7  but you father has cheated me and has changed my wages ten times over,

yet God has not allowed him to do me ill.

8  If he said thus: the speckled ones shall be your wages,

all the animals would bear speckled ones,

and if he said thus:  all the streaked ones will be your wages,

all the animals would bear streaked ones.

9 So God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 

10 Now it was at the time of the animals’ being in heat

that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream:

here, the he-goats that mount the animals-streaked, speckled, and spotted!

11 And God’s messenger said to me in the dream: Yaakov!

I said: Here I am.

12 He said:

Pray lift up your eyes and see:

All the he-goats that mount the animals-streaked, speckled, and spotted!

For I have seen all that Lavan is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bet-el,

where you anointed the pillar,

where you vowed a vow to me.

So-now, arise,

get out of this land,

return to the land of your kindred!

14 Rahel and Lea answered him, they said to him:

Do we still have a share, an inheritance in our ather’s house?

15 Is it not as strangers that we are thought of by him?

For he has sold us and eaten up, yes, 

eaten up our purchase-price! 16 Indeed, all the riches that God has snatched away from our father—

they belong to us and to our children.

So now, whatever God has said to you, do!

17 So Yaakov arose, he lifted his children and his wives onto the camels 18 and led away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained,

the acquired-livestock of his own acquiring which he had gained in the country of Aram,

to come home to Yitzhak his father in the land of Canaan.

19 Now Lavan had gone to shear his flock;

Rahel, meanwhile, stole the terafim that belonged to her father.

20 Now Yaakov stole the wits of Lavan the Aramean,

by not telling him that he was about to flee.

21 And flee he did,

he and all that was his;

he arose and crossed the River, setting his face toward the hill-country of Gil’ad. 22 Lavan was told on the third day that Yaakov had fled; 

23 he took his tribal-brothers with him and pursued him, a seven-days’ journey,

and caught up with him in the hill-country of Gil’ad. 24 But God came to Lavan the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him:

Be on your watch

lest you speak to Yaakov, be it good or ill!

25 When Lavan caught up with Yaakov,

–Yaakov had pegged his tent in the mountains, and Lavan along with his brothers had pegged (his tent) in the hill-country of Gil’ad-

26 Lavan said to Yaakov:

What did you mean to do

by stealing my wits and leading my daughters away like captives of the sword?

27  Why did you secretly flee and steal away on me, without even telling me,

–for I would have sent you off with joy and with song, with drum and with lyre-

28 and you did not even allow me to kiss my grandchildren and my daughters?

You have done foolishly now!

29 It lies in my hand’s power to do (all of) you ill!

But yesterday night the God of your father said to me, saying:

Be on your watch from speaking to Yaakov, be it good or ill!

30 Well now, you had to go, yes, go, since you longed, longed for your father’s house—

Why did you steal my gods?

31 Yaakov answered and said to Lavan:

Indeed, I was afraid, for I said to myself: Perhaps you will even rob me of your daughters!

32 With whomever you find your gods-he shall not live;

here in front of our brothers, (see if) you recognize anything of yours with me, and take it!

Yaakov did not know that Rahel had stolen them.

33 Lavan came into Yaakov’s tent and into Lea’s tent and into the tents of the two maids, but he did not find anything.

Then he went out of Lea’s tent and came into Rahel’s tent.

34 Now Rahel had taken the terafim and had put them in the basket-saddle of the camels, and had sat down upon them.

Lavan felt all around the tent, but he did not find anything.

35 She said to her father:

Do not let upset be in my lord’s eyes that I am not able to rise in your presence,

for the manner of women is upon me.

So he searched, but he did not find the terafim.

36  And Yaakov became upset and took up quarrel with Lavan,

Yaakov spoke up, saying to Lavan:

 What is my offense, what is my sin

that you have dashed hotly after me?

37  that you have felt all through my wares?  

What have you found from all your household wares?  

Set it here in front of you brothers and my brothers,

that they may decide between us two!

38  It has been twenty years now that I have been under you:

your ewes and your she-goats have never miscarried,

the rams from your flock I have never eaten.

39 none torn-by-beasts have I ever brought you–

I would make good the loss,

at my hand you would seek it,

stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 (Thus) I was:

by day, parching-heat consumed me, and cold by night,

and my sleep eluded my eyes.

41 It is twenty years for me now in your house:

I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your animals,

yet you have changed my wages ten times over.

42 Had not the God of my father,

the God of Avraham and the Terror of Yitzhak, been-there for me,

indeed, you would have sent me off now, empty-handed!

But God has seen my being afflicted and the toil of my hands,

and yesterday night he decided.

43 Lavan gave answer, he said to Yaakov:

The daughters are my daughters,

the children are my children,

the animals are my animals—

all that you see, it is mine!

But to my daughters-what can I do to them today, or to their children whom they have borne?

44 So now, come,

let us cut a covenant, I and you,

and let (something here) serve as a witness between me and you.

45 Yaakov took a stone and erected it as a standing-pillar

46 And Yaakov said to his brothers:

Collect stones!

They fetched stones and made a mound. And they ate there by the mound.

47 Now Lavan called it: Yegar Sahaduta,

while Yaakov called it: Gal-ed.

48 Lavan said:

This mound is witness between me and you from today.

Therefore they called its name: Gal-ed/Mound-witness,

49 and also: Mitzpa/Guardpost,

because he said:

May YHVH keep guard between me and you, when we are hidden from one another!

50 If you should ever afflict my daughters,

if you should ever take wives besides my daughters . . . !

No man is here with us,

(but) see, God is witness between me and you!

51 And Lavan said to Yaakov:

Here is this mound, here is the pillar that I have sunk between me and you:

52 witness is this mound, witness is the pillar

that I will not cross over this mound to you and you will not cross over this mound and this pillar to me,

for ill!

53 May the God of Avr
aham and the God of Nahor keep-justice between us-the God of their father.

And Yaakov swore by the Terror of his father Yitzhak.