05.035. Chapter 30

Genesis 30:1-43 In desperation to have a child playing on her knees, Rachel gave her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife or concubine. Even though such arrangements were common in those days, they were contrary to God’s will. Bilhah bore two sons, Dan and Naphtali (Genesis 30:1-8). Not to be outdone by Rachel, Leah gave her maid, Zilpah, to Jacob, and two more sons were born, Gad and Asher (Genesis 30:9-13). The mandrakes which Reuben found were a sort of love-apple, believed by the superstitious to impart fertility. Since Rachel was barren, she was anxious to have some of the mandrakes. In exchange for some of them, she agreed to let Leah live as wife with Jacob. (For some unexplained reason, Leah had apparently lost her privileges as wife.) After this, two more sons were born to Leah—Issachar and Zebulun—and also a daughter, Dinah (Genesis 30:14-21). At last Rachel bore her first son and named him Joseph (Genesis 30:22-24), expressing faith that God would give her still another son (Genesis 30:24). When Jacob told Laban that he wanted to return home to Canaan, his uncle urged him to stay. Laban said he had learned by divination that, the Lord had blessed him because of Jacob (Genesis 30:25-28), and he would meet his wage demands if he would stay (Genesis 30:29-30 a). Jacob agreed to continue serving if Laban would give him all the speckled and spotted sheep and goats and all the black lambs. All other animals in the flock would be acknowledged as Laban’s. The latter agreed to the pact, saying, “Good, let it be as you have said” (Genesis 30:34 RSV). Laban took most of the animals designated for Jacob and gave them to his sons to shepherd, realizing that they would probably reproduce with markings that identified them as belonging to Jacob. Then he entrusted his own animals to Jacob, separated from his own sons by a three-day journey (Genesis 30:35-36). This made it impossible for the marked animals in the herds tended, by Laban’s sons to breed with Laban’s unmarked animals that were tended by Jacob. When breeding Laban’s herd, Jacob put peeled rods in front of them, whether they were of solid color or marked. The lambs or kids were born striped, speckled, and spotted (Genesis 30:37-39). This, of course, meant that, they belonged to Jacob. Did the peeled rods actually determine the markings on the animals? There may or may not have been a scientific basis to the method. (New genetic evidence suggests that there might, have been.) How else might the animals have been born with the markings Jacob desired? First of all, it may have been a miracle (see Genesis 31:12). Or it. may have been a clever trick on Jacob’s part. There are indications in the narrative that, he knew the science of selective breeding. By careful breeding, he not only produced animals with the markings he desired, but he was also able to produce stronger animals for himself and weaker ones for Laban (Genesis 30:41-42). Perhaps the peeled rods were just: a trick to hide his breeding secrets from others. Whatever the explanation, Jacob’s wealth increased during his final six years of serving Laban.