JACOB'S CHILDREN. HIS STRATAGEM TO INCREASE HIS PROPERTY 1. Rachel envied her sister] To be childless was regarded as a great reproach: cp. Luke 1:25. Fruitfulness meant an addition of strength and prosperity to a family.... [ Continue Reading ]
By this symbolic act Bilhah's children would be legally regarded as Rachel's: cp. Luke 16:1 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
DAN] 'judging.' God had judged her case and decided in her favour by giving her, after a fashion, a child.... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT WRESTLINGS] lit. 'wrestlings of God,' an emphatic expression: cp. Luke 10:9 and Luke 13:13. NAPHTALI] 'my wrestling.' Rachel regarded this child as a victory over her more fruitful sister.... [ Continue Reading ]
A TROOP COMETH] RV 'Fortunate!' GAD] RM 'Fortune.'... [ Continue Reading ]
ASHER] 'happy, Or 'blessed.'... [ Continue Reading ]
MANDRAKE] or 'love apple.' A dwarf plant with large grey leaves and whitish-green blossoms. It yields in the spring a yellow fruit like a small tomato, and was believed to produce fruitfulness. 18-24. Note double derivations of names, due to the two traditions.... [ Continue Reading ]
ISSACHAR] 'there is a reward' or 'hire.'... [ Continue Reading ]
ZEBULUN] assonant with ZABAL, 'to dwell.' It may also mean 'endowed.'... [ Continue Reading ]
DINAH] 'judgment,' the feminine corresponding to Dan. Perhaps Leah chose this name for the same reason that Rachel called her son Dan: see on Luke 13:6. Jacob had other daughters (Genesis 37:35), but probably Dinah is mentioned because of the episode in Genesis 34.... [ Continue Reading ]
At last Rachel receives a son, though not by her human devices, but by God's grace and favour.... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSEPH] i.e. may God add a son. 'Taking away' the reproach of, childlessness is another meaning.... [ Continue Reading ]
LEARNED BY EXPERIENCE] RV 'divined': by omens, etc. Laban does not want to lose Jacob. 31-43. Jacob by a stratagem possesses himself of a large portion of his uncle's flocks. The natural craftiness of the patriarch comes out very strongly in the transaction, but Laban undoubtedly had already obtain... [ Continue Reading ]
As sheep are usually white, and goats either black or brown, Jacob proposes that Laban should keep these, whilst the few speckled or spotted ones should fall to him as his wage.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jacob stakes his reputation that Laban shall never find any white sheep or black goats in his (Jacob's) flocks.... [ Continue Reading ]
RINGSTRAKED] 'striped.' 35-42. It would appear that Laban, after sorting out Jacob's speckled sheep and goats from his own pure ones, gave the former in charge of his sons to be kept at a distance from his own, thereby hoping to prevent there being any more spotted ones born in his own flock, which... [ Continue Reading ]
BETWIXT HIMSELF AND JACOB] Note that LXX and Samaritan versions read 'between them (i.e. Jacob's flock) and Jacob.'... [ Continue Reading ]
POPLAR.. HAZEL.. CHESNUT] rather, 'storax,' 'almond,' 'plane.'... [ Continue Reading ]