Genesis 35:21-29

EIGHTH SECTION

The station at the tower of Edar. Reuben’s crime. Jacob’s sons. His return to Isaac and Hebron (Rebekah no longer living). Isaac’s death. His burial by Esau and Jacob.

Genesis 35:21-29

21And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar [flock]. 22And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: 23The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s first-born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: 24The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: 25And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: 26And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram [Mesopotamia].

27And Jacob came unto Isaac his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah (which is Hebron) where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Genesis 35:21-26. Beyond the tower of Edar. Had Rachel’s original burial taken place at Rama, we could not well have supposed that Jacob, who here, as Israel, rises above his grief for his loved wife, should have made his next station at Jerusalem. Moreover, the region immediately around Jerusalem was probably not suitable for a nomadic station. We adhere, however, to the tradition which fixes Rachel’s death north of Bethlehem, and the next station of Jacob, below Bethlehem, at the tower of Edar. The tower of the flock is a tower built for the protection of the flocks, and as their gathering place, in a region peculiarly fitted for pasturage (2 Kings 18:8; 2Ch 26:10; 2 Chronicles 27:4 f.). Jerome and the common tradition locate it south of Bethel, and not far from that place. From this tower Jacob could have easily and frequently visited his father Isaac, without prematurely mingling his household and possessions with the household economy at Hebron, which it is possible may yet have stood in strict relations with Esau. Such an absence might have favored Reuben’s criminal purpose and act. Reuben went. Bilhah was Rachel’s handmaid, not Leah’s; nevertheless, Reuben was guilty of incest; of a lustful deed of impiety, which occasioned his loss of the birthright (Genesis 49:4). The characteristic weakness of Reuben, which appears in its praiseworthy aspect in other cases (see history of Joseph), here exposes him to the force of temptation. And Israel heard it. As if he was absent. Was he at Hebron, and does Reuben, as the temporary head of the household, assume special privileges to himself? Israel heard it, that he might reprove it in a suitable way, in his spiritual maturity, quiet, and dignity. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. Jacob’s sons must also become sons of Israel through a divine discipline and training. They are, however, the rich blessing of the promise, with which he returns to his father, and are here enumerated by name after their several mothers, as if in presenting them to their grandfather. As a whole, they are said to have been born in Padan-aram; although this was not strictly true of Benjamin. We are thus prepared already, and introduced to Isaac’s point of view, for whom, it is true, Jacob brings all his sons from a strange land. Thus the exile Jacob returns home to his father Isaac, laden with the richest blessing of the promise. The dark days of this patriarch are followed by this joyful reappearance of the exile.

Genesis 35:27-29. Unto Mamre (see history of Abraham, above). Isaac has thus changed his residence to Hebron during the absence of Jacob. An hundred and fourscore years. With the conclusion of the life of Isaac, the narrative hastens to the immediately following events (Genesis 1:37). Jacob was born in the sixtieth year of Isaac’s life (Genesis 25:26), and was thus one hundred and twenty years old when Isaac died. But when he was presented to Pharaoh in Egypt, he was one hundred and thirty years old (Genesis 47:9). Of this time there were seven fruitful and two unfruitful years since Joseph’s exaltation in Egypt (Genesis 45:6), and thirteen years between the selling of Joseph and his exaltation, for he was sold when seventeen (Genesis 37:2), and was thirty when he was raised to honor and power. Hence we must take twenty-three years from the one hundred and thirty years of Jacob, to determine his age at the time Joseph was sold; which is thus one hundred and seven. “Isaac, therefore, shared the grief of Jacob over the loss of his son for thirteen years.” In a similar way, Abraham had witnessed and sympathized with the long unfruitful marriage of Isaac. But Isaac could see in these sorrows of Jacob the hand of God, who will not allow that any one should anticipate him in a self-willed preference of a favorite son. Old and full of days. He recognized the close of his life-experiences and trials, and, like Abraham, departed in peace. And Esau and Jacob buried him. It is a beautiful, genuine historic feature, that Esau here precedes Jacob, while Isaac is mentioned before Ishmael at the burial of Abraham. Could we draw any inference from this, as to the external inheritance, the assertion of Keil, that Jacob heired the earthly goods of Isaac, is far too strong and confident. It is certain, indeed, that Esau received a considerable portion, and in external affairs merely he took a prominent part, to which the homage Jacob rendered him had given him an indirect claim. A certain degree of separation had already been made between the spiritual and earthly birthright. Isaac was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 49:31).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Jacob’s last station at the tower of Edar is also marked by a new heart-sorrow.
2. Reuben’s crime probably occasioned by his authority over the household during his father’s absence with Isaac at Hebron. The cause of his forfeiture of the right of the first-born (Genesis 1:49).

3. The number, twelve, of the sons of Jacob, in its typical significance. Twelve, the number of a life completed, or expanded to its full limits and development. Thus in the house of Ishmael and of Esau, but in a higher sense in the house of Israel. Hence the twelve sons are the types of the twelve tribes (Genesis 1:49; Deuteronomy 5:33), and the twelve tribes of the theocracy types of the twelve apostles of Christ, and these, again, types of the twelve fundamental forms of the New Testament Church (Revelation 21:12 f.). That the number four is a factor of the number twelve, is here intimated by the four mothers; four is the number of the world, three the number of the sanctuary and of the spirit; and thus twelve is the number of a fulness or completeness, consecrated to God.

4. Jacob’s return to Isaac with his sons, the last ray of sunlight for the aged and blinded patriarch. This belonged to the complete satisfaction of the old man’s life, after which he could go to his people “full of days,” or satisfied. Thus Jacob’s soul was once more revived, when he saw the wagons sent by Joseph.
5. The brotherly union of Jacob and Esau at the burial of Isaac, a beautiful token of peace and reconciliation at his end. [“Esau and Jacob having shaken hands over the corpse of their father, their paths diverge to meet no more.” Delitzsch. A. G.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Doctrinal paragraphs. Isaac’s long and patient waiting for Jacob’s return home, during the night of his blindness. Light at the evening-time. Isaac and Simeon (Luke 42:2). Esau and Jacob, or the reconciling, peace-making efficacy of death and the grave. Starke: Genesis 35:22. (The Jewish Rabbis make this a small crime, and say Reuben overthrew the bed, when he saw that, after Rachel’s death, it was not borne into his mother Leah’s tent, but into that of Bilhah; because he inferred that Jacob loved Bilhah more than Leah). Osiander: In the true Church also there arise at times great scandals. Gerlach: Comp. 2 Samuel 16:22. Calwer Handbuch: Isaac reached the greatest age among the three patriarchs. Schröder: Bilhah proved unfaithful; Reuben committed incest. Jacob’s painful silence. When he departed, nothing; when he returned, all (Drechsler). Details as to the number twelve, also in regard to Jacob. [Wordsworth: The record of these sins in the history is an evidence of the veracity of the historian. If it had been a human composition, designed to do honor to the Hebrew nation, assuredly it would have said little of these flagrant iniquities of Simeon, Levi, Dinah, and Reuben. A. G.]

Footnotes:

[6][Genesis 35:22. The break in the MS. here, and the Masoretic note, “that there is a hiatus in the middle of the verse,” suits the sense better than the division into verses. It may have been, as Wordsworth suggests, designed to express the unutterable feelings of Jacob when he heard of this horrible act of his eldest son. A. G.]