Commentaria in Genesim
Chapter Thirty
Seven other children are born to Jacob: whence he, verse 25, thinks of his own country; but he is kept back by his father-in-law with a new covenant and wage, in which, verse 37, he deceives his crafty father-in-law by a just guile through the peeling of rods; and so enriches himself.
1. And Rachel, seeing herself without children, envied her sister, and said to her husband: Give me children, otherwise I shall die.
2. And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb? 3. But she said: I have here my servant Bala: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children by her. 4. And she gave him Bala in marriage: 5. Who, her husband going in unto her, conceived and bore a son. 6. And Rachel said: The Lord hath judged for me, and heard my voice, giving me a son; and therefore she called his name Dan. 7. And again Bala conceived, and bore another, 8. For whom Rachel said: God hath compared me with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called him Nephthali.
9. Lia, perceiving that she had left off bearing, gave her handmaid Zelpha to her husband. 10. And when she had conceived and brought forth a son, 11. She said: Happily; and therefore she called his name Gad.
12. Zelpha also bore another.
13. And Lia said: This is for my happiness: for women will call me blessed; therefore she called him Aser. 14. And Ruben going out in the time of the wheat harvest into the field, found mandrakes, which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of thy son’s mandrakes. 15. She answered: Dost thou think it a small matter, that thou hast taken my husband from me, unless thou take also my son’s mandrakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with thee this night, for thy son’s mandrakes. 16. And when Jacob returned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: Thou shalt come in unto me, because I have hired thee for my son’s mandrakes. And he slept with her that night. 17. And God heard her prayers: and she conceived and bore a fifth son, 18. And said: God hath given me a reward, because I gave my handmaid to my husband: and she called his name Issachar. 19. Again Lia conceived, and bore the sixth son, 20. And said: God hath endowed me with a good dowry: this turn also my husband will be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and therefore she called his name Zabulon. 21. After whom she bore a daughter, named Dina. 22. The Lord also remembering Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb. 23. And she conceived and bore a son, saying: God hath taken away my reproach. 24. And she called his name Joseph, saying: The Lord give me another son. 25. And when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his father-in-law: Send me away, that I may return into my country, and to my land.
27. Laban said to him: Let me find grace in thy sight: I have learned by experience, that God hath blessed me for thy sake: 28. Appoint thy wages which I shall give thee. 29. But he answered: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how great thy possession hath been in my hands. 30. Thou hadst little before I came to thee, and now thou art become rich: and the Lord hath blessed thee at my coming. It is reasonable therefore that I should now provide also for my own house. 31. And Laban said: What shall I give thee? But he said: I require nothing; but if thou wilt do what I demand, I will feed and keep thy sheep again. 32. Go round through all thy flocks, and separate all the sheep of divers colours, and speckled; and whatsoever shall be brown and spotted and of divers colours, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall be my wages. 33. And my justice shall answer for me tomorrow, when the time of the bargain shall come before thee: and all that is not of divers colours, and spotted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall charge me with theft. 34. And Laban said: I like well what thou demandest. 35. And he separated that day the she goats, and the sheep, and the he goats, and the rams, of divers colours and spotted: but all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he delivered into the hands of his sons. 36. And he set the space of three days’ journey betwixt himself and his son-in-law, who fed the rest of his flock. 37. And Jacob took green rods of poplar, and almond, and of plane trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was taken off, in the parts that were pilled, there appeared whiteness: but the parts that were whole remained green: and by this means the colour was divers. 38. And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out: that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might conceive. 39. And it fell out that in the very heat of coupling, the sheep beheld the rods, and brought forth spotted, and of divers colours, and speckled. 40. And Jacob divided the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams: and all the white and the black were Laban’s: but the others Jacob’s, the flocks being separated one from the other. 41. So when the ewes were first with young, Jacob put the rods in the troughs of water before the eyes of the rams and of the sheep, that they might conceive while looking at them. 42. But when the later coupling was, and the last conception, he did not put them. And they that were late ones, became Laban’s: and they of the first time, Jacob’s. 43. And the man was enriched exceedingly, and he had many flocks, maidservants and menservants, camels and asses.
1. SHE ENVIED HER SISTER.—Among brothers and sisters, if one is preferred to the other or excels her, envy easily arises. Add that Rachel was not yet holy, indeed not yet faithful; for she still worshipped idols, as I shall say at chapter 31, verse 19.
GIVE ME CHILDREN.—The Hebrews think that Rachel alludes to Rebecca and Isaac, Genesis 25:21, as if she said: Bring it about, O Jacob, and obtain by thy prayers that I become fruitful, as thy father by praying obtained offspring for Rebecca thy mother, namely thee and Esau.
2. AM I AS GOD?—Am I God, or do I act in the place and stead of God? as if he said: Ask offspring not of me but of God. So the Chaldee. The Hebrews beautifully say that God has reserved to Himself alone four keys. First, the key of rains, that He may send and pour them out from His treasures at pleasure, Deuteronomy 28:12. Second, the key of life, that is, of generation, as is plain in this place. Third, the key of nourishment for driving away hunger, Psalm 144:16. Fourth, the key of sepulchres, that is, of the resurrection, Ezechiel 37:13.
3. THAT SHE MAY BEAR UPON MY KNEES—that I may receive as my own the child born of her, as being my handmaid, as mothers are wont to set their sons upon their knees, Isaias 66:12.
Hence it is plain that neither did Jacob sin by lust in taking handmaids as wives, nor his wives in offering and delivering them to him; but they did it from desire of numerous offspring, which was the blessing of that time, promised to Abraham and his posterity. One wife, therefore, namely Rachel, Jacob asked and received: but since Lia was substituted for her, he was forced to take her also: a third, namely her own handmaid, Rachel here adds to him, as being barren, that from her at least she might adopt sons; in like manner Lia adds a fourth, now ceasing to bear, verse 9. So St. Augustine.
Symbolically, Richard of St. Victor, in the book called Benjamin the Lesser, explains these handmaids thus: “Each,” he says, “took her handmaid, Lia Zelpha, Rachel Bala, that is, affection took sensuality, reason imagination. Sensuality is obedient to affection, imagination serves reason. And so far is each of them known to be necessary to her mistress that without them the whole world seems able to confer nothing upon them. For without imagination reason would know nothing, without sensuality affection would savour nothing. Imagination therefore (as a handmaid) runs between the mistress and the servant, between reason and sense: and whatever she has drawn in from without through the sense of the flesh, she presents within for the service of reason. But sensuality also is busy, and anxious about the frequent ministry, and is herself always and everywhere ready for the service of her mistress Lia. This is she who is wont to season and set out the foods of carnal delights, and to invite to the use of them before the hour, and to provoke beyond measure,” etc.