Jacob - episode 2

We continue the story of Jacob, which we began in the last post. After the wrong done to his brother Esau our protagonist must escape to avoid certain death. His mother Rebecca sends him toward Haran, in the land of her relatives; we are in the Book of Genesis, chapter 29 and onward.

After some time of his journey to the land of the Orientals, Jacob arrives at a well, where there are three flocks of sheep accompanied by shepherds: they tell him about Laban, his mother’s brother, since they are from Haran too. «While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. It happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father. It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh». The well is in the ancient times a meeting place for men and women: the women go to draw water in the cooler hours of the day, in the morning or evening, and this is often the only opportunity they have to “get noticed” by potential spouses. Jacob, rolling the huge stone on the well, gives a proof of strength to the young Rachel (the stone was large and heavy to prevent a single shepherd from drawing precious water alone: many were needed to move it to ensure that sharing of the water).

 

 

Jacob stays with Laban and negotiates with him seven years of work to get married with Rachel: «They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her». Laban, though, deceives his nephew not introducing Rachel at night in his tent, but the eldest daughter Leah, who was not handsome like her sister («Leah’s eyes were weak»). Once aware of the exchange, Jacob is forced to serve for other seven years to have even the beloved Rachel. Leah is very fruitful, while Rachel will have to pray God a lot to have children: she and her two sons will always remain Jacob’s favorites, generating many tensions in the family. Jacob will have children even from Rachel’s maidservant, Bilhah, and from Leah’s maidservant Zilpah.

Our protagonist asks Laban, after so many years of hard service, to finally go home: his wages will be speckled, spotted and black animals from his uncle’s flocks. Laban agrees (they seem the least valuable animals), but Jacob, in the following days, does match the animals so that his are the strongest and the most beautiful (see Gen 30,37-43). Jacob, on the Lord’s command (Gen 31,3), walks towards the home that he left long before, bringing his family and all the flocks and the wealth that he has gained in the meantime. He goes secretly, fearing that Laban would keep Rachel and Leah with him. «Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”». Jacob is defended by the God of his fathers and Laban is powerless; the two conclude a covenant erecting a stele in that place: none of the two would pass it in the future with bad intentions towards the other.

Jacob is free to go; what did he find in those twenty years spent with Laban? Certainly not the blessing that he stole from his brother Esau, but again lies, deceit and theft. He even he suffered from Laban: «These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of animals, I did not bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times» (Gen 31,38-41). Jacob’s interior situation has not much changed since he had to run away; however, now he has a family and many goods. The Lord remained with him, accompanied him all the time and is preparing an unusual meeting, which will radically change his life. We will narrate it in the next post.