[‘Becoming Israel’ is a series featuring discussions of Sinaites on this portion of Scripture. It traces the life of third generation patriarch-to-be Yaakov whose character so far has not been admirable, so we’re still waiting for the Name-change reflecting a change in character. This series also allows for reading the featured chapter without interruption; subsequent post on same chapter features the three commentaries. We simply provide “food for thought” and points to ponder which we ourselves have noticed, without relying on commentaries to guide us. Translation is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1.]
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Just how long will it take for Yaakov to change enough in character to merit not only a name change but more so be worthy enough to become the progenitor of Israel-ites?
Jewish writings infer that the “Jewish people” existed as early as Abraham but if we will strictly follow the text and consider only ethnicity and bloodlines, this is our view:
- Avraham was gentile;
- Yitzak was gentile;
- Yaakov is still a gentile at this point
- married to 2 gentile daughters of idolatrous Laban,
- siring 12 sons and a daughter
- from 4 gentile women.
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“Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and king David were all Hebrews. They were never Jews, because the word Jew had not been invented yet.”
There are no “chosen people” as yet; there is only the progression of setting apart a man and a particular line from a specific son Yitzak and grandson Yaakov, a set-apart lineage.
No one is “officially” an “Israelite” yet, just 3 patriarchs, 12 sons and 1 daughter in the 4th generation. God reiterates the promise to Abraham to 2nd generation Isaac and to 3rd generation Jacob.
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Picking up from the previous article Becoming Israel, the time had come for Yaakov to return to his homeland and his father. Not only had he served Lavan for 20 years, his presence there was no longer comfortable for him and his big family as well as for Lavan and his sons. Yet, he doesn’t go on his own initiative until he hears from God.
He has developed a personal relationship with the God of his father and grandfather,
- having met Him that night he slept in a place he named “Bethel” (28:19-20);
- he is conscious of God’s hand of protection upon him through the years Laban had given him a dose of his own medicine (deception) and surprisingly,
- he put up with all of it with unbelievable patience.
Surely he has begun to change in the years he was away from home.
NSB@S6K
[A post on Chapter 31 follows this with commentaries from Dr. Hertz, Everett Fox, and Robert Alter. For now here is uninterrupted rendering of the text:]
Chapter 31
1 Now he heard the words of Lavan’s sons, (that they) said: Yaakov has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has made all this weighty-wealth! 2 And Yaakov saw by Lavan’s face: he was no longer with him as the day before. 3 And YHVH said to Yaakov: return to the land of your fathers, to your kindred! I will be with you! 4 So Yaakov sent and had Rahel and Lea called to the field, to his animals, 5 and said to them: I see by your father’s face: indeed he is no longer toward me as yesterday and the day-before. But the God of my father has been with me! 6 You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my might, 7 but you father has cheated me and has changed my wages ten times over, yet God has not allowed him to do me ill. 8 If he said thus: the speckled ones shall be your wages, all the animals would bear speckled ones, and if he said thus: all the streaked ones will be your wages, all the animals would bear streaked ones. 9 So God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me. 10 Now it was at the time of the animals’ being in heat that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream: here, the he-goats that mount the animals-streaked, speckled, and spotted! 11 And God’s messenger said to me in the dream: Yaakov! I said: Here I am. 12 He said: Pray lift up your eyes and see: All the he-goats that mount the animals-streaked, speckled, and spotted! For I have seen all that Lavan is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bet-el, where you anointed the pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. So-now, arise, get out of this land, return to the land of your kindred! 14 Rahel and Lea answered him, they said to him: Do we still have a share, an inheritance in our ather’s house? 15 Is it not as strangers that we are thought of by him? For he has sold us and eaten up, yes, eaten up our purchase-price! 16 Indeed, all the riches that God has snatched away from our father— they belong to us and to our children. So now, whatever God has said to you, do! 17 So Yaakov arose, he lifted his children and his wives onto the camels 18 and led away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the acquired-livestock of his own acquiring which he had gained in the country of Aram, to come home to Yitzhak his father in the land of Canaan. 19 Now Lavan had gone to shear his flock; Rahel, meanwhile, stole the terafim that belonged to her father. 20 Now Yaakov stole the wits of Lavan the Aramean, by not telling him that he was about to flee. 21 And flee he did, he and all that was his; he arose and crossed the River, setting his face toward the hill-country of Gil’ad. 22 Lavan was told on t
he third day that Yaakov had fled; 23 he took his tribal-brothers with him and pursued him, a seven-days’ journey, and caught up with him in the hill-country of Gil’ad. 24 But God came to Lavan the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him: Be on your watch lest you speak to Yaakov, be it good or ill! 25 When Lavan caught up with Yaakov, –Yaakov had pegged his tent in the mountains, and Lavan along with his brothers had pegged (his tent) in the hill-country of Gil’ad- 26 Lavan said to Yaakov: What did you mean to do by stealing my wits and leading my daughters away like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you secretly flee and steal away on me, without even telling me, –for I would have sent you off with joy and with song, with drum and with lyre- 28 and you did not even allow me to kiss my grandchildren and my daughters? You have done foolishly now! 29 It lies in my hand’s power to do (all of) you ill! But yesterday night the God of your father said to me, saying: Be on your watch from speaking to Yaakov, be it good or ill! 30 Well now, you had to go, yes, go, since you longed, longed for your father’s house— Why did you steal my gods? 31 Yaakov answered and said to Lavan: Indeed, I was afraid, for I said to myself: Perhaps you will even rob me of your daughters! 32 With whomever you find your gods-he shall not live; here in front of our brothers, (see if) you recognize anything of yours with me, and take it! Yaakov did not know that Rahel had stolen them. 33 Lavan came into Yaakov’s tent and into Lea’s tent and into the tents of the two maids, but he did not find anything. Then he went out of Lea’s tent and came into Rahel’s tent. 34 Now Rahel had taken the terafim and had put them in the basket-saddle of the camels, and had sat down upon them. Lavan felt all around the tent, but he did not find anything. 35 She said to her father: Do not let upset be in my lord’s eyes that I am not able to rise in your presence, for the manner of women is upon me. So he searched, but he did not find the terafim. 36 And Yaakov became upset and took up quarrel with Lavan, Yaakov spoke up, saying to Lavan: What is my offense, what is my sin that you have dashed hotly after me? 37 that you have felt all through my wares? What have you found from all your household wares? Set it here in front of you brothers and my brothers, that they may decide between us two! 38 It has been twenty years now that I have been under you: your ewes and your she-goats have never miscarried, the rams from your flock I have never eaten. 39 none torn-by-beasts have I ever brought you– I would make good the loss, at my hand you would seek it, stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 (Thus) I was: by day, parching-heat consumed me, and cold by night, and my sleep eluded my eyes. 41 It is twenty years for me now in your house: I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your animals, yet you have changed my wages ten times over. 42 Had not the God of my father, the God of Avraham and the Terror of Yitzhak, been-there for me, indeed, you would have sent me off now, empty-handed! But God has seen my being afflicted and the toil of my hands, and yesterday night he decided. 43 Lavan gave answer, he said to Yaakov: The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the animals are my animals— all that you see, it is mine! But to my daughters-what can I do to them today, or to their children whom they have borne? 44 So now, come, let us cut a covenant, I and you, and let (something here) serve as a witness between me and you. 45 Yaakov took a stone and erected it as a standing-pillar 46 And Yaakov said to his brothers: Collect stones! They fetched stones and made a mound. And they ate there by the mound. 47 Now Lavan called it: Yegar Sahaduta, while Yaakov called it: Gal-ed. 48 Lavan said: This mound is witness between me and you from today. Therefore they called its name: Gal-ed/Mound-witness, 49 and also: Mitzpa/Guardpost, because he said: May YHVH keep guard between me and you, when we are hidden from one another! 50 If you should ever afflict my daughters, if you should ever take wives besides my daughters . . . ! No man is here with us, (but) see, God is witness between me and you! 51 And Lavan said to Yaakov: Here is this mound, here is the pillar that I have sunk between me and you: 52 witness is this mound, witness is the pillar that I will not cross over this mound to you and you will not cross over this mound and this pillar to me, for ill! 53 May the God of Avraham and the God of Nahor keep-justice between us-the God of their father. And Yaakov swore by the Terror of his father Yitzhak.
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