Genesis 29

Genesis 29

These 3 scenes are all a little troublesome. The 1st and the 3rd don’t really show Jacob in a favorable light, and the second doesn’t show his future father-in-law (uncle) as an honest man, either. I’m having a lot of trouble sympathizing with many of the characters in these stories.

First, Jacob seems to be telling random shepherds how to do their job before he meets Rachel, then seems to disregard them when he does. Then he meets his uncle, who is all sorts of happy.

Jacob then goes to work for Laban, his uncle, for 7 years in exchange for Rachel, the younger daughter. After the seven years Laban brings him Leah, the older daughter, instead. Jacob doesn’t seem to notice until after the wedding night, but whatever. Laban’s excuse was that the local custom is oldest first. As if that makes it OK to lie. (Of course treating your daughters as property seems perfectly acceptable to all).

Laban’s solution? Agree to work for another 7 years and you can have Rachel as well. After a week, he gets a second wife and starts working for 7 years. He seems to love Rachel more.

God now decides that since Leah not as loved as Rachel, that Leah should have children and Rachel should be barren. She has 4 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. She thinks having sons will make Jacob love her. I guess it doesn’t work, since she keep having them until she praises the lord.

If Jacob didn’t love her, was he just screwing her for the hell of it? How does that relationship work? This also make Jacob a bit of an ass, since Leah clearly wanted him to love her. God here is a bit of a jerk for not letting Rachel have children when she had no control over any part of the situation. Her father is the one who tricked Jacob and Jacob is the one who doesn’t like Leah. Why should Rachel be punished?

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