Sister Feud

Genesis 28-30

After Jacob tricked Esau out of their father's blessing, Esau threatened to kill him after their father died.  Rebekah became concerned for her younger son's safety, and told him he should go away to her parent's home in Haran.  She then went to Isaac.

"I don't want my son marrying one of these local Canaanite girls," she told him.  "Send Jacob away to my parents' home so he can find a good wife."

Isaac agreed to this, and sent Jacob away with his blessing.  On the way, Jacob stopped for the night and had a dream in which he saw a ladder reaching up to Heaven.  The Lord was at the top of the ladder, and he promised to bless Jacob and his descendents, and to be with him wherever he went.  Jacob said, "This must be where God lives", so he called the place "Bethel", meaning house of God.  He made a promise in turn, saying that if God took care of him he would serve him, and give him back a tithe, or a tenth, of everything God gave him.

When he came finally to Haran, he saw a young woman leading her father's flocks to be watered at the well.  It was not yet time for the flocks to be watered, because the stone had not yet been rolled away from the top of the well.  When he found out, though, that the lovely young woman was the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob rolled the stone away for her.  He kissed her, and cried, and said he was her father's nephew.  After that, Laban took him into his house, and Jacob helped him with his flocks for a month without wages.

At the end of the month, Laban came to Jacob, and said, "You are my close kin.  Why should you work for me for nothing?  Name your wages, and I will gladly pay them."

By this time Jacob was hopelessly in love with Rachel, so he said, "I will work for you for seven years for your daughter Rachel ."

"It's better I should give her to you than to some stranger," Laban answered.  "Stay here and work for me."

To Jacob, the seven years of his service seemed to fly by in no time.  When at last the time was completed, he went to Laban and said, "I've kept my part of the bargain.  Now, give me Rachel as my wife, as we agreed."

Laban held a great wedding feast, and that night, as he supposed, Jacob went to bed with his bride.  When he woke up, he found to his horror that the woman he had slept with was not Rachel at all, but her older sister Leah.  Jacob was furious!  He stormed into Laban's house.

"What kind of treachery is this!" he shouted.  "You promised me Rachel, but when I woke up this morning, the woman in my bed was Leah!"

"We have a custom among our people," Laban said smoothly, "that the younger sister may not be married before the elder.  Don't get so upset though; just sleep with Leah for a week, as required by our custom, and I'll give you Rachel as well.  All you have to do after that is work for me for another seven years."

Jacob was exasperated, but he loved Rachel so much that he agreed.  He had no great love for Leah, but he slept with her as his wife.  The Lord took pity on her, because she was unloved, and allowed her to bear children, while Rachel did not.  She bore her husband four sons in succession.  The first she called Reuben, meaning "See, a son", because, she said, "my husband must see that I have borne him a son, and he will surely love me."  The second son she named "Simeon", or "Hearing", because "The Lord has heard that I was hated, and he has given me this son also."  The other two were Levi, or "Joined", because she hoped to be joined to her husband, and Judah, or "Praise". 

When Rachel saw that she could not bear children, she gave her husband her maid, Bilhah, to bear children in her place.  The maid became pregnant, and Rachel called the son she bore, "Dan", or "Judged", for "The Lord has judged me, and heard my prayer, and given me a son."  Bilhah's second son Rachel named "Naphtali" or "My Wrestling".  "I am wrestling with my sister," she said, "and I am winning."

Not to be outdone, Leah gave her maid, Zilpah, to Jacob as well, for the same purpose.  The first son she bored Leah named "Gad", or a troop or company.  The second she called "Asher", for, she said, "The daughters of our people will call me happy and blessed>"

There was a custom at that time that if a woman gave her husband a plant called a "mamdrake", an aphrodisiiac, he must sleep with her that night.  Reuben found some of the plant one day, during the wheat harvest, and took it to his mother.

When Rachel saw, she said, "Pleas give me some of your son's mandrake."

Angrily, Leah replied, "Is it not enough that you have stolen my husband?  Must you now steal my son's mandrakes, too?"

Rachel sighed, and said sadly, "Jacob will go to bed with you tonight, I know."  Sure enough, Leah took the plants to her husband, and told him he was obligated to sleep with her.  As a result, she gave birth to her fifth son, Jacob's ninth, and called him Isaachar, or "Hire", because she saw him as the payment for her maid whom she had hired out to her husband.  She bore two more children.  One was yet another son, named Zebulun, or "Dwelling".

"I have borne my husband six sons", she said.  "Now he will surely come and dwell with me."  In that, as in all the rest of her hopes of winning Jacob's love, she was disappointed.  The last child she had for Jacob, was a daughter, "Dinah", meaning, "Judgment".

At long last, God heard Rachel's fervent prayers for a son, and allowed her to become pregnant.  She called her son Joseph, or "Adding", because, "The Lord will add to me another son".  With that, the long-running feud between the two sisters was almost, but not quite, at an end.