Gentle Reader,
Last week I shared the introduction to one of the first big papers I wrote while in seminary. Below is the second of eight parts. I pray you find something worthwhile in these words. May your gaze be directed back to the God who created you with such love, and sustains you in love.
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When the LORD Saw Leah: Context
Leah appears within the Jacob cycle, the third section of the Genesis’ authors telling of the rise of Israel as a people (if one considers the brief account of Isaac’s exploits to be the second, though they take place largely within the confines of the Jacob cycle). This story-within-a-story contains all the hallmarks of the narrative genre, for the writing “slows down enough for us to discriminate a particular scene; to have the illusion of the scene’s presence as it unfolds; to be able to imagine the interaction of personages.”5 The reader can, indeed, almost taste the dust of ancient roads, hear the lowing of sheep, and feel the rough linen of nomadic tent-homes.
Genesis is written in a patriarchal world, and so the movers and shakers are all men. Women are included, but their role is limited to that of daughter or wife. No woman in the whole of the book is her own person; she always exists in relation to man. Therefore, it is no surprise that Leah is identified first as Laban’s daughter, then as Jacob’s wife.6 The narrator positions her as a supporting cast member in the drama played out between two tricksters; “they are both cut from the same cloth… The question for the reader is which trickster will outfox the other.”7 That question does not appear to have a clear answer when examining this passage, or indeed the entire narrative.
Laban and Jacob meet only because Jacob runs away from home. After manipulating his way into attaining his brother Esau’s birthright and blessing,8 Jacob knows that he is not safe remaining in the company of his family. His mother, Rebekah, hears of Esau’s plan to murder Jacob and protects her beloved son by claiming that she will not be able to go on if he dares to marry a local woman (as Esau himself has done).9 Interestingly, the tone of the story shifts at this point, making it seem as though the patriarch Isaac is sending Jacob away peacefully, thus producing a sense of confusion in the reader and generally resulting in the assignment of 27:42-46 and 28:1-5 to different authors,10 but it is possible to interpret this text as Rebekah keeping the news of impending homicide from her husband, framing her desire for Jacob’s departure as a longing for him to find an acceptable wife. As Isaac is “primarily remembered as the precious son of a great father and the beguiled father of a scheming son”11 whose only moment of decisive action takes place outside the family unit,12 this is not too far a reach.
Whatever the case may be, Jacob moves eastward, a movement characterized in Genesis as being within “the context of judgment (4:16), vanity (11:2, 13:11) or alienation (25:6). The same is true with Jacob. The journey to the east is filled with heartaches and is far from ideal.”13 The first indication that his running away from home will not solve his problems comes when Jacob enters the service of Laban, his uncle:
When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 14
At first, Laban is a gracious host, readily embracing Jacob.15 It appears that the guest overstays his welcome, however, and thus this bold move on Laban’s part. Jacob’s agreeing to work for him reduces Jacob from the position of honored family member to employee. Jacob agrees to the arrangement, difficult to understand at first. Why would this grandson of Abraham, a man who has taken hold of the firstborn’s birthright and blessing, agree to diminish himself in such a way? One simple reason: “Jacob loved Rachel [Laban’s daughter]; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’”16 In short, he sang the lyrics long before they were penned: “I’ll never dance with another, since I saw her standing there.”17
What does Rachel think of this arrangement? The reader does not know, and the author does not care. The main character here is Jacob. “The Torah is not a neutral document. Whether written by God, by God-inspired human beings, or by God-seekers, the hand of the author occasionally leaves its traces in the text.”18 The author is concerned with the men. Rachel is “graceful and beautiful,”19 and that is, as far as the reader knows, enough for Jacob to decide that she is wife material. Rachel may have been allowed a final say in whether she would marry Jacob, but the proposal is made without her input, possibly without her knowledge.20
As the Bard tells us, the course of true love never did run smooth,21 and certainly this match, even if love is not an emotion felt by all parties involved, is no exception. “Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah… Leah’s eyes were lovely…”22 Two daughters, the elder eclipsed by the younger. Despite this, the author identifies Leah as a “legitimate potential wife”23 for Jacob, because she is the elder of the two. The original listening community would have understood that marriages were to occur in order of birth; younger siblings were not to be married off first. Just as Jacob subverted the natural order of inheritance and blessing, so he attempts to subvert marriage customs.
Jacob, sly as he is, has met his match in Laban. “The text notes that Jacob works seven years for Rachel (29:20) and finally goes to Laban and says, ‘Give [me] my woman/wife’ (29:21). Jacob does not explicitly ask for Rachel. Laban makes a feast (29:22), and when evening comes, he takes Leah, brings her to Jacob (29:23), and Jacob sleeps with her (29:23).”24 (One wonders how Jacob did not immediately realize that this is not Rachel, even taking into account the liberal amount of wine flowing at the wedding feast). The next morning, he is horrified to discover that Leah occupies the space next to him,25 but decides to keep her as his wife anyway.26 (Again, one pauses to wonder, but this time the question centers on just how deep Jacob’s affection for Rachel ran).
Side note not in the original paper: Seriously, how drunk was Jacob? This question has bothered me for years. Okay, maybe Leah was heavily veiled. But that only gets us so far. For a man who is so “in love” with Rachel, Jacob doesn’t seem to know her very well at all. You’d think he’d at least notice that it wasn’t her voice… So many questions.
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5 Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 63.
6 David Zucker and Moshe Reiss, The Matriarchs of Genesis: Seven Women, Five Views (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2015),169.
7 Miguel A. De La Torre, Genesis, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 266.
8 See Gen. 25:29-34, Gen. 27.
9 See Gen. 27:42-46.
10 See Gen. 28:1-5.
11 Walter Bruggemann, Genesis: Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982), 221.
12 See Gen. 26.
13 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1995), 252.
14 Gen. 29:13-15.
15 Victor P. Hamilton, Handbook on the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1982), 122.
16 Gen. 29:18.
17 John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “I Saw Her Standing There.” Track 1 on Please Please Me.
18 Ellen Frankel, The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah (New York: HarperOne, 1996), 54.
19 Gen. 29:17b.
20 See Gen. 24.
21 William Shakespeare, “Act I, Scene I,” A Midsummer Night’s Dream, accessed November 2, 2019, http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/full.html.
22 Gen. 29:16a, 17a.
23 Tammi J. Schneider, Mothers of Promise: Women in the Book of Genesis (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2008), 64.
24 Ibid., 65.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Chad Madden
A full list of references for this paper can be found here.
Wow! There’s a lot to chew on here. I wrote about Abraham and his three visitors today. I’m amazed at how much information is packed in a couple of paragraphs 🌸
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Definitely! The stories we find in Scripture have so much depth. We can return to them again and again and find new things.
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