Jacob, aka Israel, is the second son of the Jewish patriarch Isaac from Rebekah. The children of the patriarch Isaac - the twins Esau and Jacob - are the resolution of their mother's nineteen-year infertility. The second was born immediately after the first, as if holding on to his heel, which is why he was called “Jacob”, i.e. “the stutterer” (). The dissimilarity of the twins' character was revealed to Rebekah by God even before they were born. When they grew up, the children discovered the complete opposite in their views and habits. Esau did not like the peaceful shepherd life and modest life established in the tents of his parents. Esau’s strong and courageous nature was more attracted to the life of a trapper, with its adventures and dangers: “and Esau became a man of the fields.” Jacob, on the contrary, was distinguished by a restrained, calm character, homeliness, loyalty to the family way of life and family traditions: and “Jacob was a meek man, living in tents” (). Whether due to the law of opposites, or for some other reason, the meek Isaac became attached to Esau, and the energetic, lively Rebekah became attached to Jacob (). Further events in the life of the twin brothers: Esau’s sale to Jacob of the benefits of his birthright (double part of the inheritance, religious and social representation of the clan, succession of great promises), the first’s ill-considered marriage to two pagan Hittite women, who fully corresponded to the character and inclinations of Esau, but no longer at all who fit into the structure of the home life of Isaac and Rebekah (), clearly found out that a frivolous trapper-hunter could not become a direct successor and continuer of the great mission of the patriarchs of the Jewish people; the latter demanded from its representative respect for tradition, a clear and calm mind for the perception and assimilation of divine promises and teachings, moral stability for their preservation in themselves and others. This is exactly what Isaac’s second son, Jacob, was, although some of the most pronounced negative aspects of his character still required significant influence of providential influences on him.
The complete confirmation of the rights and benefits of the birthright to Jacob took place at the bedside of his decrepit father. The resourceful Rebekah managed to arrange it in such a way that instead of the unbridled “man of the fields,” Jacob, tied to the tents of his parents, received the dying paternal blessing of the birthright. Only after leaving his father’s tent did Esau feel the unrewarding nature of his loss. “And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart: The days of mourning for my father are approaching, (after which I will kill Jacob my brother with impunity). And the words of Esau were retold to Rebekah” ().
To protect Jacob from the revenge of his older brother, his parents decide to send him to the Mesopotamian city of Harrgin, to Jacob’s uncle (Rebekah’s brother) Laban. There he had to find himself a wife from his family, worthy of the future patriarch (). The blessing given by Isaac during the departure of Jacob () testifies that the patriarch had already reconciled in his soul with the change that had occurred in the position of his sons, seeing in it the will of God. Having accepted the blessing, Jacob left the tents of his parents. His state of mind was far from calm. Accustomed to the comforts of a family environment, and now alone, persecuted and homeless, walking through terrain completely unknown to him, he was exposed to the possibility of various adventures. The traveler’s anxious mood could not help but increase at the thought of what awaited him in the future: how his relatives would treat him, how his own relationship with his older brother would subsequently develop, etc. Of course, with the blessing and promises of the birthright, he could reinforce himself with hope for God's help, but this hope could be significantly weakened by the consciousness of the manner in which this birthright was acquired. A wonderful dream that visited Jacob in Luz put an end to his worries. Seeing the ladder and the Angels, Jacob felt that he was not alone on earth: the protective hand of Jehovah extended over him; and having heard the voice of divine blessing and promise addressed to him, he calmed down about what happened at the bedside of the elderly Isaac: it was not Jacob or Rebekah, but providence itself that wished that Esau should not become the firstborn. But, along with this calming thought, another one had to enter Jacob’s consciousness. The extraordinary acquisition of primogeniture obliged him to be worthy of his position to a much greater extent than if he had been the firstborn in the ordinary order of things. To commemorate the miraculous vision, a stone was erected with a libation of sacrificial oil on it. The town of Luz received a new name - Beth-El (Bethel), that is, the house of God. “And Jacob made a vow, saying: If the Lord will be with me and will keep me on this way that I am going, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I will return in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord will be my God, - then this stone, which I erected as a monument, will be the house of God for me; and of everything that You, God, give me, I will give You a tenth ().
From further biblical text we learn that Jacob arrived safely in Haran, settled with Laban, and took an active part in overseeing his uncle’s flocks. Jacob's love for Laban's youngest daughter Rachel served as joy and encouragement to Jacob in his labors. Having nothing at his disposal that could serve as a material marriage vein for Laban, Jacob offered to serve for seven years. Laban agreed. “And Jacob served for Rachel seven years. And they appeared to him in a few days, because he loved her.” When, at the end of the specified period, his uncle gave his nephew not Rachel, but her older sister, Leah, who was ill with eyes (justifying the Eastern custom of giving the eldest daughter in marriage first), Jacob decided to work for his uncle for another seven years in order to have the one he loved in marriage. ().
From Leah Jacob had sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun and a daughter, Dinah. From Rachel: (in the house of Laban) Joseph and (later, on the way to Canaan) Benjamin. From Leah's maid Zilpah: Gad, Asher. From Rachel's handmaid Bilhah: Dan, Naphtali (). Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jacob turned to his father-in-law with the following request: “For fourteen years I have worked enough for you. The Lord apparently blessed you with my arrival. Let me now take my wives and children and return to my homeland. After all, it’s time to work for your own home.” The blessing of God that visited Laban’s house with the arrival of Jacob was, indeed, too obvious” (). But it also seemed obvious to Laban at that moment that letting go of a worker like Jacob meant doing his household a disservice. To detain his son-in-law, Laban asked the latter if he would be willing to stay in his house for a certain fee. Having reasoned, Jacob answered: “I’m staying, but don’t give me anything. Just do what I ask you to do. In our free time we will walk through the herds and separate the spotted cattle from the smooth ones. The smooth cattle, as well as all the motley offspring from them, will be mine.” Laban agreed, not suggesting that smooth cattle could produce large offspring of spotted ones. However, thanks to the resourcefulness of Jacob (), this is exactly what happened. The condition was changed several times, and the matter always turned in favor of Jacob. In a relatively short time (at the age of 6) Jacob became the owner of significant herds (). Such a quick enrichment of Jacob to the detriment of Laban’s property could not, of course, please the latter’s family. Laban's children did not hesitate to express their displeasure out loud. Laban himself changed in his attitude towards Jacob ().
The Patriarch realized that the exit from Harran could not be delayed. Taking advantage of the absence of his father-in-law and his sons while shearing sheep, Jacob took his wives, children, male and female servants, livestock and property and moved towards Canaan. The slightly superstitious Rachel, secretly from Jacob, took with her her father’s home teraphim (amulets), hoping, perhaps, to bring happiness to her future family life. It is not difficult to imagine the surprise of Laban and his sons when they returned home. Laban rushed after his son-in-law and caught up with him in Gilead, north of Damascus. Here a major conversation took place between the relatives. “What have you done? Laban shouted at Jacob. “You deceived me - you took my daughters away as captives, without giving me the opportunity to even say goodbye to them and their children.” Jacob answered that he did not steal any gods. Laban walked around the tents, but did not find anything that he could call his own. Then Jacob became angry. He expressed everything that had accumulated in his heart against his father-in-law. To make amends for what had happened, Laban invited Jacob to conclude a peace treaty between them, according to which neither one nor the other should henceforth harbor any evil intentions towards each other. The agreement was concluded, and the relatives separated: one returned to Harran, the other continued his journey towards Canaan ().
The fear of Laban's pursuit was replaced in Jacob's soul by the fear of meeting his brother. If it was convenient and easy to avoid revenge on a lonely person, then it was almost impossible to do this now, with a large caravan and herds. The "host" of Angels, seen by Jacob on the borders of Canaan ("Mahanaim":), must have encouraged the patriarch to some extent. But even after this vision, his embarrassment still remained very significant. A propitiatory embassy was sent to Esau with the words: “So tell my master Esau: this is what your servant Jacob says: I lived with my uncle Laban and have lived with him until now. I have oxen, donkeys, small livestock, male and female slaves. I am sending information about myself to my master Esau, so that I may gain favor with your servant in your sight.” Having returned, the ambassadors said: “We went to your brother Esau, but here he himself is coming to meet you, and with him 400 (armed) people.” Jacob's heart trembled. In order to save at least part of his people and property from death, he divided the camp into two halves, hoping that while one half was being destroyed, the other could escape. But the alarming awareness of the unreliability of these measures turns the patriarch’s thought to the One who alone could protect man (). Having strengthened himself with prayer, Jacob continues the orders he had begun. Having separated from the herds 200 goats and sheep, 2 20 goats and rams, 30 milking camels, 40 cows, 20 donkeys, 10 donkeys and oxen, he formed from them several small herds located at a certain distance from one another. Their shepherds were punished: “If my brother Esau meets you and asks: whose are you, where are you going, whose flock is this? then answer: your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to my lord Esau. So he himself is following us.” “I will appease him with the gifts that go before me (Jacob thought), and then I will see his face: perhaps he will accept me.” “And the gifts went before him, and he stayed that night in the camp.” But sleep apparently fled from his eyes. Not trusting the effectiveness of the gifts, Jacob stood up and ordered that part of the camp in which he spent the night to be transported to the opposite bank of the Jabbok River. When everyone had settled down in their places and the camp had again fallen into the night's slumber, the patriarch stood up, left the tent and headed into the field. The mysterious struggle between Jacob and God that took place here significantly strengthened the patriarch. “The more you become stronger if you are with God (his mysterious fighter noted to him), then you will be strong with people. No one will call your name Jacob, but Israel (God-fighter). And Jacob called the name of that place Penuel (Face of God), for,” he said, “I saw God face to face, and my soul was preserved.” And the sun rose as he passed Penuel; and he limped on his hip. Therefore even to this day the children of Israel do not eat the sinew (ntrvus ischiadicus) which is on the joint of the thigh, because the wrestler touched the sinew on the joint of Jacob’s thigh.” Seeing the approach of Esau, and with him a large squad of armed men, Jacob placed his family in this order: in front he placed Bilhah and Zilpah with Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher; behind them Leah with Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebul, Dinah; Rachel and Joseph are behind everyone. When Esau was already close, Jacob approached him and bowed down to the ground seven times. Seeing Jacob, Esau hurried to meet him, hugged him, kissed him and cried. “And who is this?” - he asked. “The children that you gave to your servant,” Jacob answered. Then the maids with the children came up and bowed; Leah and the children came up behind them and also bowed; Finally, Rachel and Joseph did the same. Having watched the latter go by, Esau turned to his brother: “Why do you have the many herds that I met along the way?” “In order that your servant may find favor in the sight of my master,” Jacob answered. “I have a lot of my own, brother,” said Esau. “Let yours remain with you!” “No, if I have found favor in your sight,” Jacob insisted, “accept my gift from my hand, for I have seen your face, as if someone has seen the face of God. And you were kind to me! Accept my blessing that I brought to you, because God has given me all this. Esau agreed. The spontaneous nature of the “man of the fields” could not restrain himself. Having given himself up to complacency, Esau wanted to see it through to the end. When the time came to set off, he suggested to his brother: “Let's get up and go! I will go before you for your safety. But Jacob could not like such a proposal: with all the friendliness of his brother, the prolonged presence of the latter with a large armed retinue would ultimately turn out to be embarrassing for the patriarch. And so he answered: “My lord knows that children are gentle, and my flocks and herds are milkable. If you drive him for even one day the way my master is used to walking, he will die. I have all my cattle. Let sir. mine will go ahead, and I will walk slowly behind, depending on how the cattle are able to move and how the children walk. And I will come to my master in Seir (Idumea).” “In that case, shouldn’t you leave a few warriors behind?” - asked Esau. “No, what is this for? If only I could maintain favor in the eyes of my master! “- Jacob declined: Esau did not insist, and on the same day he headed to Seir. Jacob moved to Succoth, located near the confluence of the Jabbok stream into the Jordan River ().
Fatigue from the long journey, anxiety, meeting with his father-in-law and brother forced the patriarch to stop in Succoth for quite a long time, sufficient to calmly, without interference with movement, surrender to the inner experience of what happened. Impartial self-analysis could not help but suggest to Jacob many things that were to be of decisive importance in the further formation of his character. The Patriarch could not help but realize that his natural gifts: intelligence, resourcefulness, tact, had not always manifested themselves in impeccable form until now. At the same time, he could not help but notice the fact that the property acquired by human effort was far from distinguished by the absolute strength that he, perhaps, ascribed to it, if Laban and Esau with one blow could deprive him of everything that he had acquired with enormous diligence. The theoretical conviction that Jehovah alone is the unconditional source and protector of human goods begins to practically strengthen in the patriarch. The unfortunate events that happened in his life after Jacob entered Canaan: the dishonor of his daughter Dinah by Prince Shechem; a quarrel over this with the Shechemites; the violent self-will of Simeon and Levi, who punished the Shechemites with treacherous beatings; hasty flight from the environs of Shechem (); death, near Bethlehem, of Rachel's beloved wife (); incest of the firstborn Reuben, near the tower of Gader, with his father’s concubine Bilhah (); as well as all the later trials associated with the name of Jacob’s beloved son, Joseph (see Art. Joseph), were to have final significance in the course of the moral transformation and consolidation of the character of the patriarch. If Jacob in the first half of his life sometimes makes one doubt the complete moral approval of some of his actions, then Jacob in the second half of his life represents a complete type of the Old Testament righteous patriarch. The God of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac calls Himself the God of the patriarch Jacob (. . . . Acts 3, etc.).
Having reached Hebron, Jacob found his father Isaac still alive. After the death of the latter (13 years after his son’s arrival), Jacob remained in place, continuing the semi-sedentary, nomadic-agricultural () life that his father led. The shock he experienced upon receiving the news of the (imaginary) death of Joseph (almost similar to what Patriarch Abraham experienced in the decline of his life:) was the last difficult test in the life of the patriarch. A joyful ray that illuminated the decline of the long-suffering man’s life was his meeting with his beloved son Joseph and his relocation to the fertile lands of the Egyptian district of Goshen, in the neighborhood and under the protection of Joseph ().
Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years. Feeling the approach of death, the patriarch prophetically blessed his sons, as well as the sons of Joseph (from the daughter of the Iliopolis priest Asenath:) Manasseh and Ephraim. Judas received the blessing and the promises of the birthright. Addressing him, the patriarch said: “Judas, your brothers will praise you. Your hand is on the backbone of your enemies. The sons of your father will bow down to you. The young lion Judah, my son, rises from his prey. He bowed down and lay down like a lion and like a lioness. Who will lift it? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until the Reconciler comes, and to Him is the submission of the nations (according to the glory: and that is the hope of the tongues).” Reuben, Simeon, Levi were deprived of the blessing of the firstborn: the first - for incest, the second and third - for treachery towards the Shechemites (). Zebulun was predicted that he would settle by the sea and enjoy all the advantages of seaside life; Issachar, Asher, Naphtali - earthly contentment; To Dan, Gad, Benjamin - success among one’s own and enemies; To Joseph - strength and wealth of offspring. The sons of Joseph receive the blessing along with the sons of the patriarch himself. “And now,” says Patriarch Yosnfu, “your two sons, who were born to you in Egypt before my arrival, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, like Reuben and Simeon. The children who are born from you after them will be yours. They will be listed in their inheritance under the name of their brothers (Ephraim and Manasseh)” (). According to his expressed will (), the body of the deceased (147 years old) patriarch was taken out of Egypt and buried in the Canaanite family crypt Machpelah ().
The Hebron tomb of the patriarchs of Machpelah is currently located in the fence of the Turkish Garet el-Haram mosque. Gareth el-Haram is a tall quadrangular building, built of huge square stones, of very ancient construction. Originally the Haram had no entrance holes. And only later (I assume - during the time of King Hezekiah) were doors made with external staircases leading to them. In the Byzantine era and during the Crusaders, porticoes and a basilica-church were added to the building. The Arabs turned the latter into a mosque, revered as a great shrine, inaccessible to non-believers. Recently, several exceptions have been made, but only in relation to persons of the reigning families and their retinue. In 1862, the Prince of Wales received permission to examine the mysterious mosque; in 1869 - Crown Princess of Prussia; in the eighties of the 19th century - two sons of the Prince of Wales, etc. Upon inspection, it turned out that the inside of the building was divided into three rooms of unequal size. There are six large tombs on the floor of the mosque and adjacent buildings. Each of the tombs is located inside a separate kiosk, closed with bronze doors; all are richly decorated with silk curtains and expensive fabric canopies. What is known as the Cave of Machpelah is hidden under the floor of the mosque: there are the authentic tombs of the patriarchs and their wives; the upper tombs indicate only the place where the Old Testament righteous rest under them. No Sultan's firman can allow infidels to invade this thrice-holy Muslim place. The last Christian visitor to this cave was Benjamin of Tudela (Spanish rabbi of the 12th century: see Enz. III), who examined it in 1163 during the occupation of Palestine by the Crusaders. Benjamin of Tudela says: “The Turks erected six tombs in the mosque, which (as Christian pilgrims usually say) represent the tombs of three Jewish patriarchs and their wives. But it is not exactly. The tombs themselves are placed below, under the floor. For payment of money, Jews are allowed to examine them. Equipped with candles, they go (through the iron door) into the first cave. It's empty. They enter the second one, also empty. Finally I reach the third, with six tombs. On the tombs you can read Jewish inscriptions: “This is the tomb of Abraham our father,” “May peace rest on him,” etc. A fire is kept in this cave day and night. On the floor are boxes with bones of Jews brought by their relatives for burial in a sacred place” (Stanley, Cave of Machpelah).
Abraham (through Ishmael and the children of Keturah), Isaac (through Esau), in addition to the Jewish people, were the ancestors of many other nations (); Israel is only Jews, which is why the latter adopted the name not of Abraham and Isaac, but of their third great patriarch - Israel ().
The Bible tells of God tempting Abraham to test his faith. “God said: “...take your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and there offer him as a burnt offering...” (Genesis 22:2).
Of us humans, can anyone make such a sacrifice? Abraham waited a hundred years for the birth of his son and now “take it and burn it.” But God tested him, He would never have allowed his father to kill his only, dearly beloved son (and therefore Abraham said to his youths: “you stay here... and I and my son will go there and worship, and return.. .."
“I do not want sacrifice, but mercy,” says the Lord. He saved our loved ones from every situation. Abram was confident that God would save his son.
Of course, as a woman, Sarah did not know that her husband wanted to sacrifice his son, otherwise she would not have allowed this. For a mother, her only and beloved and long-awaited son is more valuable than faith in God.
“And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son, took the fire and the knife in his hands, and they both went together. And Isaac began to say to Abraham: “... my father ... here is the fire and the wood, where are lamb for a burnt offering?" (22:7).
God, how similar this scene is to the sacrifice of Christ. The Father also sent him to our land, as a sacrifice, for the sake of our salvation. And just like that, He carried his cross like Isaac carried firewood. And this is how God saved His Only Begotten Son.
“The angel said, “Do not lay your hand on the child...for now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your son...the only one for Me” (Genesis 22:12).
Further in the Bible we read: “...and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Abraham, instead of his son, brought a lamb as a burnt offering to God, which immediately became entangled in a thicket with its horns. And again the Lord promised Abraham to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea... God said: “And in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:18).
When Abraham returned home, he heard the news that his brother already had 7 sons, whom his wife Milka bore to him. One of the sons was Bethuel, the father of Rebekah, later the wife of Isaac.
What do we know about Rebecca from the Bible? We know that she was beautiful in appearance, was the wife of Isaac and the daughter of Bethuel - the son of Milcah and Nahor - Abraham's brother. We also know that she was the mother of Esau and Jacob - these are the distant ancestors of Jesus Christ. Yes, Rebekah was one of the mothers of Christ in whom we believe.
In the Bible, chapter 24, it is written: “Abraham was already old and well advanced in years. The Lord blessed Abraham with everything. And Abraham said to his servant, the eldest in his house, the manager of everything that he had. “... swear that you will not take it to your son for my wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live. But you will go to my land, to my homeland, and take a wife for my son Isaac" (Genesis 24:3-4).
From the Old Testament we know that Abraham's steward was Elizer, who was faithful to his master. He swore to Abraham that he would take a wife for Isaac from the family of Abraham, and under no circumstances would he marry him to a Canaanite woman.
It was the custom of the Jews to marry or give a daughter to one of their own, preferably from their own family, and it turns out that Rebekah was Isaac’s cousin? Yes! But everything is in order.
Eliezer asked the master: “...perhaps the woman will not want to go with me to this land; should I return your son to the land from which you came?” But Abraham said: “...do not bring my son back there...” And he said again: “The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house... who swore to me, saying: “To your descendants I will give this land.” ! “He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.” (Genesis 24:6-7)
Here we see that Abraham had no doubt that God would fulfill His promise and fill this earth with countless of his descendants. And Elizar went, having first taken many gifts, gold and silver, from the riches of Abraham. Having loaded all this on camels, he went to Mesopatamia - the land of Abraham's ancestors. When he came to the land of Harran, in Mesopatamia, his caravan stopped at a well, not far from the city of Nahor. (Nachor was Abraham’s brother and, apparently, the city was named after him). There Elizer prayed, saying: “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, send HER to meet me today, and show mercy to my master Abraham.”
Maybe he prayed like that because his faith was not in the One God, or he hesitated and doubted his faith? But he knew the faith of his master, that his faith was strong, and therefore he said: “God of my master...” and also said in prayer: “... the girl to whom I will say: tilt your pitcher, I will drink! He will say: “Drink, I will give your camels something to drink!” This is the one you appointed for your servant Isaac..." (Genesis 24:14).
And Eliezer realized that God had heard him, and sent Rebekah. She gave him and the camels water. Elizer asked the girl who she was, whose daughter she was and whether her father had a place to spend the night? He gave Rebekah a gold earring and two wristbands for her hands. Rebekah went home and joyfully told about it at home.
How much does a woman need?! She was delighted with the golden gifts and quickly ran home to show off. Rebekah had a brother, Laban, who ran to the well, found Abraham’s servant there and brought him home. He gave food to the camels, washed the feet of Elizar and the people who were with him, and seated them at the table. But Elizar refused to eat at first until he told him why he came. And when he told it, Laban and Bethuel, Rebekah’s father, answered: “This work has come from the Lord.... Behold Rebekah is before you: take it and go...” (Genesis 24:50-51). And Abraham's servant gave them expensive gifts. The people ate and drank and spent the night with Laban and Bethuel. And in the morning Elizer hurried home to please his master, as the Lord quickly decided his matter.
But Rebekah's mother, brother and father held back their dear guest. They told him: “...let the maiden be with us, at least for ten days...” But he answered them: “Do not hold me back, for the Lord has made my way good...”. Then they called Rebekah and asked: Will you go with this man? she said: "I'll go!"
They blessed her and wished that thousands of thousands would be born from her... Subsequently, this is what happened.
Rebekah immediately and without a doubt said, “I’ll go.” She learned that it was from God and believed with all her heart, because she knew God is righteous and nothing is impossible for Him.
But now we will see how impatiently Isaac waited, so much so that he came out to meet her, and as soon as he looked at the beautiful Rebekah, he fell in love with her. He led her into the tent of his mother Sarah. We read further: “...and Isaac was comforted in his sorrow for his mother...”, who recently died and was buried in Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham must have been comforted, because further in the Bible we read: “And Abraham took another wife, named Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. (Genesis 25: 1-2)
So much for the old man! Here you are in old age. Who in our time can marry in “advanced years?” Abraham was over a hundred years old and fathered six more sons by his wife? But Isaac was the firstborn and, despite the fact that he had six more brothers (and maybe many more, because Abraham also had concubines), he was the only heir. But Abraham did not offend his other sons either. He gave gifts to other sons born from Keturah's wife, and to the sons of concubines (the Bible does not say how many there were) and sent them away from Isaac to the eastern land. Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years and died. The first son from the slave Hagar came to his burial (whether his other sons came is not stated in the Bible).
"And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hethite, which is opposite Mamre. In the field that Abraham acquired from the sons of Heth. Abraham and Sarah his wife were buried there" (Gen. 25:9- 10).
But we digress from Rebekah. For a long time she could not conceive and give birth, but Isaac prayed, and the Lord heard him, and Rebekah conceived. And then we read: “the sons began to beat in her womb and she said: if this happens, then why do I need this? And she went to ask the Lord. The Lord said to her: two tribes are in your womb, and two different nations will come from your womb; one The people will become stronger than the other, and the greater will serve the lesser. And the time has come for her to give birth. And behold, twins are in her womb" (Gen. 25:22-23).
God bless! He is true to His Word. Indeed, from Abraham came a people who cannot be counted, like the stars in the sky. And Abraham's daughter-in-law gave birth to twins, from whom came two different nations. I have not researched how many came from Ishmael and other sons. What if we take Abraham’s ancestor from Noah? And I think we, the northern peoples, are descendants of Japheth. The Eastern peoples from the sons of Keturah and the sons of Abraham from his concubines are African, this is just my opinion and I do not impose it on anyone. But I will also say that after the flood, after Noah, when God blessed him and said to him and his sons: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth!” great incest occurred, so perhaps the eastern peoples live in the north, and the African peoples also live throughout the whole earth. And only Jewish Jews live in Israel and, even, throughout the whole earth, but they marry their own, in any case, they try not to mix the blood. But even Rebekah’s son Esau, when he married a Hetite woman, it was a great grief and sadness for Rebekah and her husband Isaac.
The children of Rebekah and Isaac grew up: Esau was a hunter “a man skilled in hunting, a man of the fields”; and Jacob was a meek man, living in tents. Isaac, their father, loved Esau more, “because his game was to his taste,” but Rebekah loved Jacob.
And then we read in the Bible how Esau sold his birthright to Jacob and how he, Jacob, then deceived his old blind father Isaac, and received his blessing. Esau hated his brother Jacob and threatened to kill him. Rebekah heard this threat and relayed it to Jacob. Then Rebekah told Jacob to run away to her brother Laban in Mesopotamia, and there to marry a girl from Laban’s family.
For a long time he did not have children from his legal wife Sarah. But when Abraham was almost a hundred years old, God told him that he and 90-year-old Sarah would soon have a son. Neither he nor she believed it - even when three mysterious strangers (God's angels) came into their tent and predicted that in a year they would hold their son in their arms. However, a year later, Sarah gave birth to a boy, who was given the name Isaac (Yitzhak), meaning in Hebrew: “he will laugh.”
Even earlier, Abraham had a bastard son, Ishmael, from the Egyptian slave Hagar. At first, Isaac and Ishmael were raised as equals. But Sarah did not like that her son was placed next to the son of a slave. She insisted that Abraham throw Ishmael and Hagar out of the house. Hagar had to take her child and go with him into the desert. They almost died there from hunger and thirst, but were saved by the messenger of God. According to the legend of the Bible, Ismail became the ancestor of the Arab people.
Sacrifice of Isaac
Abraham was ardently devoted to the belief in one God. One day God wanted to test Abraham and ordered him to sacrifice Isaac to him. The next morning, Abraham led his son to Mount Moriah, without saying why. There he prepared a fire for the sacrifice. Isaac was amazed that the wood had already been laid out and the fire had been lit, but there was no sheep to sacrifice. However, Abraham placed him on the altar and had already taken the knife in his hand, when he suddenly heard a voice from heaven: “Abraham, do not touch the boy. Now I know how much you honor Me, since you did not spare even your only son for My sake.” Delighted Abraham immediately removed Isaac from the fire.
Sacrifice of Isaac. Painter Titian, 1542-1544
Isaac's marriage to Rebekah
After Sarah's death, Abraham began to think about choosing a wife for Isaac. Calling his faithful servant and housekeeper Eliezer, he ordered him to go look for a worthy girl in the ancient homeland of the Jewish tribe, in Mesopotamia. Eliezer took ten camels, loaded them with a lot of goods and set off. Soon he reached the city where Abraham’s relatives lived on the side of his brother Nahor.
Eliezer stopped outside the city, at a well. Meanwhile, the city girls went to the well for water. Eliezer decided: if I ask one of them for a drink and she gives water not only to me, but also to my camels, then I will know that God appointed her to be Isaac’s wife. Suddenly a young girl appeared in front of him, with a jug on her shoulder. She filled a jug from the well and wanted to leave. Eliezer ran to her and said: Let me drink from your jug. The girl gave Eliezer water and said: now I will draw for your camels too - and she began to give water to them. The faithful servant looked at the kind girl with tenderness. When she had given water to all the camels, he gave her a gold earring and two rings, asking: whose daughter are you, and is there a place for us to sleep in your father’s house? The girl answered that she was Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel and the granddaughter of Nahor, and that in their house there was room and enough food for the cattle.
Rebecca at the well. Artist N. Poussin, ca. 1648
She ran home and told her mother everything that had happened. Rebekah's brother Laban went out to Eliezer and brought him to his parents' house. Touched by the hospitality, Eliezer told Rebekah's parents and brother about the purpose of his visit and announced that God himself had destined Rebekah to be Isaac's wife. Bethuel and Laban answered: Take Rebekah, and let her be the wife of your master's son. Eliezer took out silver and gold things and clothes and gave them to the bride, her mother and brother. The next morning, Rebekah's parents blessed her and sent her and Eliezer to Canaan. Approaching Abraham's tents, Eliezer and Rebekah met Isaac in the field. He brought the girl into his parents' tent, and she became his wife.
Isaac's sons - Jacob and Esau
Abraham died at the age of 175, and after his death Isaac became the elder (patriarch) of the Jews. Like his father, he lived in the south of Canaan (Palestine), engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. With Rebekah, Isaac had two twin sons. The first was called Esau, and the second Jacob(Jacob). They differed greatly in inclinations. Esau loved to hunt animals and was a “man of the steppes,” while Jacob loved the peaceful shepherd life and was a “man of the tent.”
One day Esau returned from hunting, tired and hungry. Seeing Jacob's lentil stew, he asked for something to eat. Jacob said: give me your seniority for this (Esau was the eldest brother and was supposed to become the head of the family after the death of his father). Esau said: I am dying of hunger, what use is seniority to me? Jacob fed his brother, and Esau did not regret that he sold his right of seniority for lentil stew. But Isaac continued to treat Esau as his eldest son. Esau brought fresh game from the hunt and presented it to his father. He was the favorite of Isaac, and the humble Jacob was the favorite of his mother, Rebekah.
When Isaac was old and almost blind, he called Esau and said to him: “My son, I will soon die; take your weapon, go into the field, catch me some game and prepare my favorite dish from it; then I will bless you before I die.” Rebekah, hearing this, became concerned that the parental blessing would go to Esau and not her favorite, Jacob. She advised Jacob to use cunning to get his father’s blessing before his brother. Jacob brought a couple of kids from the herd, from whose meat Rebekah made the old man’s favorite dish. She dressed Jacob in Esau's hunting dress, put the skins of kids on his hands and neck, and ordered him to carry the food to his father. Jacob came to his father and said: “Here I am Esau, your eldest son; I did what you told me; now eat and bless me.” Blind Isaac felt his son and said in surprise: your voice is like the voice of Jacob, and your shaggy hands are like Esau’s. But the elder believed that Esau was in front of him, and blessed his son: “May God give you an abundance of bread and wine, may the nations serve you, and may you be lord over your brothers.”
As soon as Jacob left, Esau returned from hunting, prepared a game dish and brought it to his father. Isaac asked: who was here before and received the blessing from me? Esau realized that his brother was ahead of him, and in despair he exclaimed: “My father, bless me too!” But Isaac answered: “I have already blessed Jacob so that he will be lord over his brothers; I wish for you that you defend yourself with a sword, and if your brother’s power is heavy, you will throw off his yoke by force.”
Isaac blesses Jacob. Mosaic from the cathedral. Mosaic from the Cathedral of Montreal, Italy, 1180s.
From then on, Esau hated Jacob and planned to kill him as soon as his father died. Having learned about Esau’s plan, Rebekah said to Jacob: “Run to my brother Laban in Mesopotamia and live with him until your brother’s anger subsides.” Isaac also advised Jacob to go to Laban and find himself a wife there.
Jacob set off on a long journey. In Mesopotamia he was well received by Laban and married his daughters, Rachel and Leah. Laban gave Jacob part of his flocks, he became rich and returned to his homeland. There he reconciled with Esau and settled near his father, who lived in Hebron.
According to the Bible, Isaac died at the age of 180. He and Rebekah were buried in the Cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, in the family tomb of his father, Abraham. After the death of Isaac, Jacob became the elder and leader of the Jewish tribe (patriarch).
Isaac had two sons: Esau and Jacob. Esau was a skilled trapper (hunter) and often lived in the fields. Jacob was meek and quiet, living in tents with his father and mother. Isaac loved Esau more, who pleased him with game food, and Rebekah loved Jacob more. Esau, as the eldest son, had the birthright, that is, the advantage over Jacob in blessing from his father.
But then one day Esau returned from the field tired and hungry. At this time, Jacob was cooking himself some lentil stew. And Esau said to him: “Give me something to eat.” Jacob said: “Sell me your birthright,” because he really wanted the blessing given by God to Abraham to apply to him, and thereby zealously serve God. Esau replied: “Here I am dying of hunger, what is this birthright to me?” With this answer, Esau showed his disdain for the blessing of God. Jacob said, “Swear.” Esau swore an oath and sold his birthright to Jacob for a pot of lentils.
When Isaac grew old and blind, then, feeling that his life was coming to an end, he wanted to bless Esau as his eldest son. But, thanks to a trick arranged by Rebekah, he blessed Jacob instead of Esau. Isaac soon learned his mistake, and, despite this, he still confirmed his blessing for Jacob. For this, Esau hated his brother and even wanted to kill him, so Jacob had to leave his family. On the advice of his parents, he went to his mother’s homeland in Mesopotamia, in the land of Babylon, to her brother Laban, to live with him until Esau’s anger passed, and at the same time to marry one of Laban’s daughters.
Jacob came to Haran to Laban, his mother's brother. Jacob told Laban everything and stayed to live and work with him. Laban asked Jacob what kind of payment he wanted for his work. Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years for his daughter, Rachel, so that he could later marry her, since he fell in love with her. But when the deadline was fulfilled, Laban cunningly gave Jacob not Rachel as his wife, but his eldest daughter, Leah, justifying himself by saying that this was the local law, so as not to give the youngest daughter before the eldest. Then the deceived Jacob agreed to work for another seven years for Rachel.
Twenty years later, Jacob safely returned to his father, to the land of Canaan, with a large family and property. Esau, who had not seen his brother for a long time, joyfully met Jacob on the way.
The Lord, under special mysterious circumstances, having tested the strength of Jacob, gave him a new name Israel, which means “seer of God.” And Jacob became the ancestor of the people of Israel, or, what is the same, the Jewish people.
NOTE: See Gen. 23-28, 10-22; 29-35.
Old Abraham was very pleased with his son's happy marriage. He also had another joy: he learned that his firstborn, Ishmael, was not only alive, but that his numerous descendants were widely located between the Euphrates and the Black Sea. True, they adhered to a different faith, but still they were a branch of Abraham.
After Sarah's death, Abraham grieved for a long time, but, still feeling a lot of strength, he married again. By his second wife, Keturah, he had six sons. They grew up quickly, grandchildren appeared, and Abraham, as well as Isaac, began to worry about the issue of inheritance. According to the laws and customs of that time, only the firstborn son could be the heir. Of course, there was no talk about Ishmael; he had been living independently for a long time and did not even want to show up at his father’s house, harboring a grudge for being exiled to the desert. The feeling of resentment, which grew into enmity, then passed on to his people, who despised the descendants of Abraham.
Consequently, the birthright passed to Isaac.
No matter how sad Abraham was, he separated his six sons, and with them his grandchildren, advising them to head east of Canaan, where, as he knew, there were still a lot of free and rich pastures. And they went to the east, endowed with rich gifts and, apparently, understanding the justice of the decision, since it was fully consistent with all the customs of their ancestors.
And yet - alas! - and this people, descended from Abraham, gradually became characterized by a feeling of enmity towards the descendants of Abraham’s firstborn son Isaac. One must think that no matter how sacred the customs and immutable laws regulating the rights of inheritance were, all living feelings could not completely come to terms with them and the resentment deeply hidden in those people who went to uninhabited lands turned out to be like a hot coal, only barely covered with ash external decency.
Meanwhile, the day came when Abraham, who had by that time reached one hundred and seventy-five years of age, died.
All his countless descendants arrived at his funeral, including Ishmael, who for the sake of this sad and solemn event broke the vow given to himself not to return to his father’s threshold.
Abraham was buried next to Sarah - in the cave of Machpelah.
Isaac and Rebekah loved each other passionately. Their family life, full of kindness and mutual respect, seemed to have some kind of grace.
But an old story repeated itself, namely the same one that had long been the cause of the grief of Sarah and Abraham. They had no children. The rich dwelling, which was already empty after the departure of Abraham's six sons and numerous grandchildren, was completely orphaned when Abraham himself died.
Isaac was already sixty years old, and he thought more and more often about an heir, at times almost despairing of his hope. Rebekah, despite the fact that the years passed, was nevertheless firmly convinced that she would become a mother. The happy beginning of her marriage, blessed with clear signs from above, convinced her of the need to wait and hope. She did not even allow the thought of choosing a concubine for Isaac, as Sarah once did, who extended the family line with the birth of Ishmael. She was also hampered by a feeling of female jealousy, since she loved Isaac with that undivided passion that does not imply the possibility of being in the family of another woman.
And then the day came when, having been convinced by all the signs, she told Isaac that they would have a child. The joy of both spouses is beyond description.
Rebekah gave birth to two boys.
Esau appeared first, and after him, holding, as they said, his heel, Jacob.
The boys, however, were strikingly different from each other. Their differences became especially noticeable as they grew older. Esau was stocky, red-faced, shaggy, and his body was covered with hair. He loved hunting and would leave home for long periods of time, tracking down animals. And Jacob was distinguished not only by his beauty, but also by his femininity; he was soft, meek, kind, and loved solitude. Naturally, there was no friendship between the brothers, and Rebekah, on occasion, liked to remember that even in her womb, when she was carrying them, she constantly felt tremors, as if someone was fighting inside. She then asked God what this could mean, and God explained to her in a dream that different nations would come from the brothers in the future and that they were destined to be at enmity with each other forever. As we will see, this is exactly what happened. Still, Jacob loved his rough and wild brother in his own way, he liked the game he brought and his meager stories about the hunt.
Since Esau was born a minute earlier than Jacob, he was considered the firstborn son and, as we have already said, according to the customs of that time, he became the priority heir after the death of his father. There could be no controversy here. But Isaac was confused by the prediction given to him at the birth of his sons, that the eldest would be subordinate to the younger. The prediction was based precisely on the fact that the youngest, that is, Jacob, at birth held on to the heel of the elder, and holding on to the heel was a kind of phraseology in the speech of this people, meaning approximately: “Get out of the way.” And, therefore, if you believe such a prediction, and Isaac, like all his relatives, firmly believed in predictions, signs, prophecies and omens, then it turned out that in some incomprehensible way Esau would ultimately be subordinate to his younger brother
Sometimes, as we know, fate plays rather intricate and unexpected games, simple in appearance, but serious in consequences.
So it is here. One day Esau returned from a hunt terribly hungry, and besides, the hunt was unsuccessful, so he came home, which had never happened, empty-handed. And Jacob had just about this time cooked himself some red lentil stew. And Esau, seeing the stew, said: “Give me something to eat.” Jacob answered him, as if jokingly: “Sell me your birthright now.” It was, of course, not a joke; Probably, a vague thought wandered in Jacob’s mind that fate was unfair to him. Why would Esau be a trapper, Jacob apparently thought, why would he need the birthright, with all the property benefits that flow from it, if he, Esau, is free and wild, does not value his home or property at all, and is unlikely to ever engage in the management of a large and complex economy that requires care, attention and calculations? Would Esau, with his unbridled character, begin to raise flocks of sheep, multiply the number of camels, donkeys and mules? Will he bargain with merchants and equip trade caravans to distant cities? No, it was impossible to imagine the hunter Esau, who never parted with his bow and was accustomed to breathing the free air of hunting, in such a role. Probably Rebekah, who passionately loved Jacob and disliked Esau, said something similar to her husband Isaac, and her favorite heard these conversations. It is unlikely that Isaac supported such conversations, especially since they were completely useless, but he was also worried about the future. And so, taking the stew off the fire and getting ready to serve it to his hungry brother, Jacob suddenly and even unexpectedly said to him: “Sell me your birthright now,” to which Esau, who could not stand hunger, replied: “What’s in it for me?” primogeniture?
“Jacob said to him: Swear to me now. He swore to him, and Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.
And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil food: and he ate and drank, and arose and walked; and Esau despised the birthright” (Gen. 25:33, 34).
Esau really did not attach any importance to his birthright; this very word was an empty phrase for him. He was created by God and nature for a free life; by his nature he was a nomad, a hunter, and not a cattle breeder, not a farmer, and not a master. So that time, having satisfied his hunger and thirst, he went to bed, and, having slept, he went hunting again, not even remembering the lentils, or Jacob, or his oath.
Isaac's blessing of the son of Jacob.
Meanwhile, the years passed. Isaac began to age, which initially manifested itself primarily in weakness of the eyes. Sometimes he could not even distinguish who passed by him - the stocky Esau or the slender Jacob; the outlines of people and objects seemed to blur in the thick pre-dawn fog. Worried, he one day called his eldest son Esau and said to him:
“...behold, I am old; I don’t know the day of my death; Now take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, go into the field and catch me some game,
And prepare for me the food that I love, and bring me something to eat, so that my soul may bless you, before I die” (Genesis 27: 2, 3, 4).
Rebekah, who heard these words, immediately guessed that old Isaac, sensing the approach of death, decided to introduce his eldest son into the inheritance. Her heart, which passionately loved her youngest son, opposed Isaac’s decision, and she decided to resort to cunning and deception.
Knowing that Esau was leaving to catch game in his distant favorite places and, therefore, would not return soon, she planned, taking advantage of her husband’s blindness, to substitute her favorite Jacob for his blessing instead of Esau and to do this as quickly as possible, forestalling the elder’s return from his long hunt .
This trick, by the way, can serve as indirect confirmation that the episode with the lentil stew was, of course, not accidental, and it is quite possible that Jacob went through with his trick with his mother’s consent. It is possible that it was Rebekah who came up with everything from start to finish. Now it was necessary to forestall Esau, and then there was no need to worry, since Esau could not deviate from the oath he had given not to claim the birthright.
Rebekah advised Jacob to quickly run to the herd and bring back two kids.
“...and I will prepare from them,” she said, “for your father the dish he likes,
And you will bring it to your father, and he will eat, to bless you before his death” (Gen. 27: 9, 10).
Obedient Jacob agreed to everything, especially since the first, most important part of the matter, that is, the acquisition of the birthright for lentil stew, had already been done. But he worriedly noticed to his mother that his father, accustomed because of his blindness to carefully touching faces and objects, would immediately notice that in front of him was not the shaggy, fur-covered Esau, but the smooth and gentle Jacob, his youngest son. But Rebekah foresaw such a danger. It was not for nothing that she ordered to bring from the herd not one kid, which would have been enough to prepare the food, but two. She planned to cover Jacob's arms and neck with the skins of the kids. In addition, she took out Esau’s clothes, which her father knew well and which smelled of the sweat of Esau, who rarely washed and did not take care of himself. Having done everything as the cunning and prudent Rebekah had planned, they soon, long before the return of their eldest son and brother, began to accomplish their plan. Of course, there was a risk, but there was no other way out for Rebekah and Jacob. A well-established economy, they firmly believed, could not be given into the hands of a person who was not at all interested in it. Of course, a person who does not know the customs and morals of that time and people might think that the younger brother should have taken charge of the economy under the older brother-owner, in order to thereby preserve and increase it. However, custom forced the younger brother, in the event of the death of his father and the transfer of ownership to the elder, to separate, leave home and begin an independent life. There could not be two owners, since with this option the younger brother would end up in service, which was considered shameful, and dividing the farm was forbidden, so as not to split it up under any circumstances. We remember that this is exactly what happened under Abraham. And so in those days it happened everywhere and with all the heads of families. There was always a lot of painful stuff here; grievances took a long time, or even did not heal at all, as we have already seen in the example of Ishmael and unfortunate Hagar, but custom is custom and law is law.
We read in the Bible how Jacob successfully carried out Rebekah’s cunning plan:
“He went in to his father and said: My father! He said: here I am; who are you, my son?
Jacob said to his father: I am Esau, your firstborn; I did as you told me; get up, sit down and eat my game, so that your soul may bless me.
And Isaac said to his son: What have you found so quickly, my son? He said: Because the Lord your God has sent to meet me.
And Isaac said to Jacob: Come to me, I will feel you, my son, are you my son Esau or not?
Jacob came to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “A voice, the voice of Jacob; and the hands, the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were like the hands of his brother Esau, shaggy. And he blessed him” (Gen. 27: 18-23).
As we see, the only thing that Rebekah did not and could not foresee was the difference in the voices of her sons. Here she could do nothing, since the voice of the hunter Esau was rough and harsh, and the voice of Jacob was gentle, like a shepherd's pipe. And yet other signs - shaggyness (from a goat skin) and, most importantly, the smell emanating from Esau's clothes, deceived Isaac, he decided that this was really his eldest son.
However, the tension of this wonderful scene, truly classic in world literature, does not subside even when the calmed Jacob finally left the tent to Rebekah, who was waiting for him and, of course, heard everything.
Both of them anxiously awaited Esau's return from the hunt.
He came loaded with game, smelling of the steppe wind and sweat, quickly prepared the food and, without looking at anyone, hurriedly entered to his father, who, as we know, had already tasted the kid from the hands of Jacob.
Like Jacob, the eldest son Esau said to his father: “... arise, my father, and eat your son’s game, so that your soul may bless me.
And Isaac his father said to him: Who are you? He said: I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.
And Isaac trembled with very great trembling and said: Who is this who got me the game and brought it to me, and I ate of it all, before you came, and I blessed him? he will be blessed.
Esau, having heard the words of his father [Isaac], raised a loud and very bitter cry and said to his father: My father bless me too.
But he said to [him], “Your brother came with cunning and took your blessing.”
And again Esau asks his father:
“...is it really, my father, that you have only one blessing? bless me too, my father! And [as Isaac remained silent], Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, from the fatness of the earth shall thy dwelling be, and from the dew of heaven from above.
And you will live by your sword and serve your brother; The time will come when you will resist and cast off his yoke from your neck.
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are coming, and I will kill Jacob my brother” (Gen. 27: 31-35, 38-41).
So the shadow of Cain - the brother who killed the brother - again appeared among people.
The Bible is consistent: although Cain himself was killed long ago by his grandson Lemekh, who once mistook him, shaggy and angry, for a wild beast entangled in a thicket, he still, as predicted, remained to live among people and now again, as it were, resurrected in a shaggy and the enraged Esau.
But, being consistent and unswervingly adhering to the idea of tragic retribution, the Bible at the same time diversifies its plot, never repeating itself completely, and if it does repeat itself, then in accordance with the techniques of oral folk art, that is, it firmly strengthens the event in the memory of the listener or reader, if such an event is considered very important. It is impossible not to notice that such repetitions give the text of the Bible a kind of poetry, bringing it closer to the verse itself, which, as we know, legitimized such a technique - sound and semantic repetition - with the help of rhyme. And the entire Bible, all its stories, plots and parables, consists of stanzas - short sections of text that very succinctly tell one or another episode of the plot. It is no coincidence that these verses are called verses in the Bible, and each verse is given a number for ease of reading and for emphasis. For example, Genesis chapter 27 contains 46 verses. In verse 43, Rebekah, seriously concerned about Esau's threats to kill Jacob, advises her son to leave home for a while and, after thinking, decides to send him to her older brother Laban.
“...Live with him for a while,” she says, “until your brother’s rage is quenched,
...And he will forget what you did to him: then I will send and take you from there; Why should I lose both of you in one day?” (Gen. 27: 44, 45).
The whole story of Esau's deception, Rebekah's experiences, her fears, the dramatic situation into which old Isaac found himself as a result of such deception - all this is extremely plausible from an everyday and psychological point of view. And again, one is struck by the impeccable laconicism and high simplicity with which biblical stories are narrated. The Bible is truly the Book of Books - all later literary art originated from it, endlessly drawing not only plots, but also the richest experience of the art of storytelling itself.
However, let's return to Rebekah and Jacob. Judging by what we are told, their lives have indeed become terribly and hopelessly complicated.
Here we must take into account that the father’s blessing in those days was of a sacramental, that is, sacred and almost mystical nature. It could not be undone, even if, as in the case of Rebekah and Jacob, a forgery was discovered. The anxiety and darkness in the house were aggravated, one must think, also because Esau, embittered and irritated, began to behave independently and even arrogantly. Previously, he had little regard for the house, where he came only to free himself from his hunting prey, but now threats to kill Jacob kept coming from his lips. In addition, to the complete displeasure of both Rebekah and his father, he decided to marry a Canaanite woman, and with the Canaanites, the family of Isaac, as we know, had long been, to put it mildly, on hostile terms. Esau, however, did not even bother to talk about this with his father and mother, but it was clear that in his soul he had already decided everything.
That is why, preparing Jacob for the journey, Rebekah so insistently tells him: “...I am not happy with life from the daughters of the Hittites, if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of the Hittites... then what do I need life for?” (Gen. 27:46). (The Hittites are the same Canaanites, only they lived north of Palestine.)
Isaac thought the same.
“And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and commanded him, and said: Do not take yourself a wife from the daughters of Canaan;
Arise, go to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother” (Gen. 28: 1, 2).
Jacob's preparations for the journey were secret. In general, these days he rarely left the tent, trying to be in front of his mother, father or servants, since he was very afraid that the unbridled in his anger, hot-tempered and merciless Esau, all blackened with anger and looking like a black shaggy cloud, fraught with murderous fire and thunder, at any hour it could knock him down while passing. And Rebekah did not take her eyes off Esau, carefully monitoring his mood and calming down only when he, having equipped his bow and put arrows in his quiver, left the house. Rebekah often thought that she had not calculated everything correctly when she deceived Isaac for the sake of her favorite. She, for example, had no idea that Esau, who had hitherto been completely indifferent to home and household management, would take the loss of his inheritance so seriously. Most likely, Esau, who thoughtlessly agreed to exchange his birthright for lentil stew, perceived the then deal as a joke, as an amusing game of his younger brother, who had not become a man for too long, accustomed to frivolous home games. The courageous Esau always treated Jacob condescendingly, and in his condescension there was a noticeable amount of contempt for an adult hunter and trapper for a pampered youth. He never expected that everything would turn out so seriously. One must think that the Canaanite woman whom he was going to marry fueled his resentment - after all, she saw herself as the wife of the owner of great wealth.
That's why the explosion could happen at any time. Even a failure in hunting could bring Esau out of a state of extremely unstable mental balance. In truth, only the presence of his father, who was already counting down the last days of his life, restrained him from carrying out his threat immediately.
But, unfortunately, he almost did not take his father into account, since, contrary to his father’s will, he brought not one, but several Canaanite wives to his tent, pitched nearby, and they lived almost next door, irritating Rebekah with their appearance, who, Unlike Isaac, who almost never left the house, she was forced to both see and hear them.
But something, apparently, still remained good in Esau’s soul, since, as the Bible says, in addition to those wives, he brought, as if to console his father, a wife from the tribe of Ishmael. But although this wife, who was the daughter of Ishmael and, therefore, the granddaughter of Isaac, turned out to be close in blood, which was not forbidden then, she still, like all the Ishmaelites, professed a different faith. The emotional movement of Esau, who took a non-Canaanite wife as his wife, was a kind of expression of respect towards his father, but the rude and indelicate Esau still, as we see, could not be respectful to the end, and it is unlikely that Isaac appreciated this gesture as he expected His older son.
JACOB'S LADDER
Jacob, accompanied by Rebekah, left the house secretly. Esau was not hunting, but it was no longer possible to wait for his next absence. Only a day earlier there had been a quarrel that almost ended in bloodshed.
The night was dark, there was no moon, and only large, countless stars dotted the sky, showing the traveler the way to distant Mesopotamia.
Jacob went to Laban's house differently than his faithful servant Eliezer had once gone there to find a bride for Isaac. He walked on foot, without camels, leading only a donkey loaded with water and provisions. Jacob had never been to Mesopotamia, but he knew a significant part of the route well, since, on behalf of his father, he more than once visited herds grazing in distant pastures.
He left the house long before sunrise and walked all day, giving himself almost no rest. Being pampered, he quickly got tired, but, remembering the advice of his father and mother and the old experienced herd drivers, he tried not to let himself relax and almost did not touch the water.
He walked and listened to the desert, quietly singing its song, as myriads of grains of sand constantly rubbed against each other from the movement of the night air and a gentle, light ringing constantly flowed around. Jacob sometimes thought that it was not the ringing of sand, but the invisible music of the spheres coming to him from the high sky, where there were no fewer stars than grains of sand in the desert. Or maybe the music of the heavenly spheres mixed with the music of the earth?...
Jacob was an impressionable person; it was not for nothing that all practical interests were so alien to him, but so close were the traditions and legends of his native tribe, which Rebekah and the old, knowledgeable servants told him.
Soon the stars began to fade, the edge of the sun appeared from the east, the desert seemed to come to life - from dark gray and ashen it turned pink and light yellow. High in the sky a hawk spread its wings. A feeling of happiness, incomprehensible anxiety and expectation of change filled Jacob’s soul.
He walked like this all day. Only occasionally, throwing a woolen scarf over the branches of saxaul, did he rest his legs, strengthen himself and rush forward, further and further, meeting no one and seeing the same monotonous desert in front of him.
When the sun set and it got dark again, he chose a place for himself in a depression between the dunes, near saxaul, and decided to spend the night. Jacob put a stone under his head, covering it with a handkerchief folded in four, and covered himself with a blanket: the desert took a long time to release the heat accumulated during the hot day, but by morning it became cool. The high spirit of the soul that accompanied Jacob all day did not leave him even before going to bed. He remembered his father and mother and fervently prayed to God to forgive him for his sin of deceiving his father and brother. True, he thought, Rebekah completely took that sin upon herself, but this did not make him feel any better, and he prayed long and fervently for Rebekah, for his father, because of Esau. Then everything got mixed up in Jacob’s consciousness, the music of the desert and sky covered him completely with its light and dense sound sphere.
“And I saw in a dream: behold, a ladder stands on the earth, and its top touches the sky; and behold, the angels of God ascend and descend on it.
And behold, the Lord stands on it and says: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants. And your descendants will be like the sand of the earth; and you will spread to the sea, and to the east, and to the north, and to the noonday; and in you and in your seed all families of the earth will be blessed.
And behold, I am with you; and I will keep you wherever you go; and I will return you to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said: Truly the Lord is present in this place; but I didn’t know..."
(Gen. 28:12-16).
Waking up, Jacob again prayed fervently and thanked God for the prophetic dream.
In memory of the dream he had, of the phenomenon that visited him, he left a stone in the place where he had just slept, which served as his headboard, giving both the stone and the whole place the name Bethel, which means “house of God.”
A city with that name actually grew up in that place, and the stone left by Jacob was considered sacred.
Encouraged by the dream he had, Jacob moved on. Now he was sure that everything that had happened to him before, including the story with Esau, was destined in heaven. Like all the people of his tribe, he, like Isaac, and before him Abraham, and before that Noah, deeply believed in the immutability of destinies and in the regularity of human actions, usually hidden from view in everyday life and only rarely revealed in their true meaning in those days. sacred moments when the soul, shocked by something or in a dream, comes into contact and talks with the deity himself.
Jacob remembered the entire previous day, as if the music of sand and sky had predicted to him a blessed night meeting with God in his extraordinary dream.
He thought about what exactly the staircase he had dreamed of, along which angels were going up and down, could mean, but could not come up with anything to explain it, except that the staircase, apparently, could mean the opportunity to ascend the soul to the highest bliss , or maybe the ladder meant a symbol of the connection between earth and heaven, and thereby marked - for Jacob - the hope that everything will come true as it should come true, and in the best, most favorable way. But before this comes true, Jacob will have to fall and rise more than once, for, he further thought, our whole life is steps along which we walk, every now and then stumbling. But even if you stumble, you cannot lose hope; you must start moving upward again and again.
The image of Jacob's ladder will forever enter the consciousness of mankind. This is a symbol of enormous generalizing power.
Jacob, going to Laban's house to find a wife there and temporary protection from Esau, was to experience all this to the fullest, but to an even greater extent all the steps of the ladder of fate would be known to his future son, Joseph.
However, Joseph, his birth and his destiny are still far away. Let's return to Jacob.
JACOB AND RACHEL.
Again Jacob walked through the desert for almost the whole day, but his journey was no longer long. The sun was barely setting to the west when he saw a crowd of people. They were shepherds tending cattle. At the end of the day, they usually gathered at the spring to water the animals and drink themselves. They were all from Haran, the city where Laban lived. Jacob asked them what they were waiting for at the well and why they were not watering the cattle. It turned out that the well was filled with a large stone for a day, protecting moisture from sand and hot air. They waited for the other shepherds to arrive. All of them, it turns out, knew Laban, to whom Jacob was going; They said that Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah, and that both of them were not married to their husbands. Soon women flocked to the well, each carrying a jug on her shoulder. Rachel was among them; the shepherds immediately pointed her out to Jacob when she approached the well. Rachel, the daughter of Laban, the brother of Jacob's mother, was his cousin, and therefore Jacob, without embarrassment, kissed her like a relative and told her why he had come to Haran. At that moment he did not yet know that Rachel would become his wife, and without concealment he said that he intended to live in Harran in order to find a suitable bride for himself. However, Rachel’s beauty and her affectionate manner could not help but attract Jacob’s attention, and while they were walking towards the house, he began to look at the girl with completely different eyes. Something told his heart that Rachel should be his wife - only she, and no other woman.
Busy with his thoughts, he did not notice that he had already stepped on the next step of the ladder of his destiny with one foot and that this ladder, shown to him in a dream, would be steep, difficult and dangerous. More than once he will be thrown down to go to his happiness again and again, and his happiness will be Rachel - only she.
Later, more than once he would remember the ladder he dreamed of in the desert, but now, walking towards Laban’s house and glancing briefly at Rachel, he did not remember anything: Rachel’s sweet voice, talking about her father and older sister Leah, who could not get out marriage, sounded to him like the music of the spheres, which he heard last night in the desert on the way to Harran.
Laban greeted him joyfully, he hugged him, kissed him, brought him into the house, washed his feet and placed food in front of him.
During the meeting, Laban observed all the traditional customs of Eastern hospitality. Probably, Jacob would have been greeted in almost the same way in another place, if he had appeared on the threshold in the role of a guest relative, but genuine sincerity was evident in Laban’s address; he was indeed very glad to see the messenger of Isaac and Rebekah.
Jacob, however, did not tell him everything; he believed that Laban did not need to know that, in addition to his bride, he was seeking refuge in Haran from his enraged brother Esau. But we have some reason to think that something of the family secret still slipped into Jacob’s stories, if not that evening, then in the subsequent ones, and perhaps he, who did not know how and did not want to hide anything from Rachel, he opened up to her, and she may have let it slip, if not to her father, then to her sister Leah. That this could happen is confirmed by all the further behavior of Laban, who somehow soon felt the defenselessness of Jacob, for whom his own house, where old Isaac and Rebekah lived, turned out to be inaccessible because of Esau. Laban subtly grasped Jacob's situation and in the depths of his soul considered him as if caught in a trap, as if he were already a hostage or a slave. Jacob's love for Rachel also did not escape his eyes and was another way to firmly secure Jacob's servitude. However, everything we talk about was hidden deep in Laban's soul; outwardly everything was quite decent.
Moreover, Jacob did not have to be forced to work. Love seemed to give him strength, and he, who had previously shunned physical labor, pampered and fragile, took care of Laban’s household from morning to night.
Finally, Jacob asked Laban for his youngest daughter Rachel as his wife. This happened exactly one month after he moved into Laban's house. The impetus was the words of Laban himself, who told Jacob that he did not know how to repay him for his conscientious work:
“...will you really serve me for nothing because you are a relative? tell me what to pay you?
Jacob fell in love with Rachel and said: I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your youngest daughter.
Laban said: It is better to give her to me for you than to give her to someone else; live with me” (Genesis 29: 15, 17-19).
Outwardly, Laban did not show his grief in any way, but in the depths of his heart he grumbled greatly against Jacob. Does Jacob really not see, thought Laban, that there are two daughters in the house and that the eldest must marry first? Without giving himself away, he conceived a far calculated insidious plan. He saved this plan for the future, especially since Jacob had to work for his bride for seven long years.
Jacob could not help but work for these seven years for a simple reason: he came from his father’s house as a downright beggar, he owned a donkey, blankets and travel bags, as well as the clothes that he was wearing, and they quickly wore out in his daily work. Lavana. Therefore, we can say that Jacob was naked and barefoot. The heir to rich lands, a lot of livestock and various property, while his parents were alive, he turned out to be a ragamuffin orphan, and his uncle, Laban, of course, exercised unlimited and cruel power over him.
Having begun his seven-year service for Rachel, Jacob, who recalled from time to time his prophetic dream, believed that every day and with every passing year he was rising higher and higher and that happiness with Rachel was already close.
And then the day really came when seven years were fully worked out.
But let's listen to the Bible:
“And Jacob served for Rachel seven years; and they appeared to him in a few days, because he loved her.
And Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for the time has already passed for me to go in to her.
Laban called all the people of the place and held a feast.
In the evening Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her...
In the morning it turned out that it was Leah. And Jacob said to Laban: What hast thou done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? why did you deceive me?
Laban said: in our place they don’t do that, to give the younger one away before the older one;
Finish this week; Then we will give you that one for the service that you will serve with me for another seven years.
Jacob did so and ended the week. And Laban gave Rachel his daughter to him as a wife...
Jacob also went in to Rachel, and loved Rachel more than Leah, and served with him for another seven years” (Genesis 29: 20-23, 25-27, 30).
As we see, essentially everything almost repeated itself, as it had already happened once in the life of Jacob. Didn’t Rebekah replace her unloved son Esau with Jacob, bringing him, covered with goatskins, to his blind father Isaac? Truly, as it is said in the Bible (and on other occasions): vengeance is mine and I will repay it.
The Bible especially emphasizes the idea of retribution for sin or crime once committed. According to the compilers of the Holy Books who formed the Bible (and Moses is considered the compiler of the first five books), nothing passes without a trace.
Is it not for this reason that other episodes that had already occurred in the destinies of his predecessors were repeated in Jacob’s life?
So, Rachel, like Abraham’s Sarah, turned out to be barren at first. Leah, the unloved wife forced upon Jacob by deception, gave birth first to Reuben, then to Simeon, then to Levi, but after giving birth to Judah, she stopped bearing fruit.
The fact that Leah safely, year after year, gave birth to sons for Jacob was a special mercy from heaven, as if rewarding the woman for the lack of love on the part of her husband.
Rachel, who had not given birth for a long time, resorted, according to the ancient custom and with the permission of Jacob, to the help of the maid Balla, who gave birth to a son named Dan on Rachel’s lap. Then she gave birth to Naphtali.
Leah, seeing that she had stopped giving birth, did the same as Rachel: her servant Zilpah gave birth to two sons, and then she herself gave birth to three, and then her daughter Dinah.
But God finally remembered Rachel. She also gave birth to a son, giving him the name Joseph. This was the same Joseph who was to become the most famous among the sons of Jacob. He will rise so high along the ladder of fate that he will almost become an Egyptian pharaoh.
After working for Laban for many years for both wives, Jacob was still poor. His family from Leah and Rachel grew, and he turned to Laban with a request to let him go in order to use his strength for the well-being of his own family, which required more and more expenses. We must give Laban his due: he himself suggested that Jacob set a price for the many years of work he had done in his house.
Jacob, to Laban’s surprise, asked him only for part of the cattle, but not just any one, but the one that would be born with specks.
Apparently, Laban considered this a quirk and agreed, but it turned out that more and more speckled cattle began to appear in Laban’s herds, so that after some time all of Laban’s herds became speckled.
This was Jacob’s trick, revealed to him in a prophetic dream: he gave the cattle twigs with white cuttings to eat during the mating period; from such a simple technique, motley cattle appeared, which completely ruined Laban due to their large numbers. That was retribution: the first expropriation in the history of mankind, although carried out by cunning, was completely in accordance with the moral law. Was he not enriched by the labors of Jacob, who multiplied his flocks with his efforts? Jacob, in fact, only returned to himself what he had earned through many years of tireless work. Subsequently, thousands of years after the time of Jacob, Jesus Christ would once again establish this law in his Sermon on the Mount.
As more and more motley cattle appeared, Laban's attitude towards Jacob changed.
“And Jacob heard the words of the sons of Laban, who said: Jacob took possession of all that our father had, and from our father’s property he made all this wealth.
And Jacob saw Laban’s face, and behold, it was not as it was yesterday and the day before” (Gen. 31: 1, 2).
Yes, Laban’s face was “not like that,” he could not restrain himself, and the greed boiling within him burst out. In fact, as can be seen from everything, he was always a calculating person to the point of cruelty. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Laban forced Jacob to work for him for twenty years.
“...I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your cattle, and you changed my reward ten times” (Gen. 31:41).
Jacob lists all the insults, hardships and injustices that he endured in Laban’s house:
“Behold, I have been with you for twenty years; your sheep and your goats did not throw out; I have not eaten the rams of your flock;
I did not bring to you the one torn to pieces by the beast, it was
my loss; You exacted from me whether something was lost during the day or at night;
I languished from the heat during the day, and from the cold at night, my sleep fled from my eyes.
These are my twenty years in your house...” (Gen. 31:38-41).
What a vivid and expressive picture of the situation of a forced person emerges from this temperamental accusatory speech! With what dignity Jacob speaks of his honest, conscientious and patient work!…
But the image of Laban in the Bible (and we can rightfully talk about the artistry of this image) is far from being as flat as it might have seemed when we just met him. In this calculating soul, it turns out, there live the moral laws of honesty and decency, which, in essence, Jacob reminds him of in his accusatory speech. When Laban caught up with Jacob, who had left with his livestock, two wives, children and all his property, he, after an outburst of irritation, invited him to resolve the dispute with goodness. Moreover, he even says this:
“Why did you run away secretly and hide from me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and songs, with a tambourine and a harp;
You did not even allow me to kiss my grandchildren and my daughters; You have done foolishly” (Gen. 31: 27, 28).
At first glance, Laban is right in his own way. Indeed, couldn’t Jacob have acted humanly, that is, let his father kiss his daughters goodbye, and kiss his grandchildren, and thank the worker with a worthy send-off?
But was Jacob really that reckless? Listening to Laban reproaching him for his “recklessness,” he probably thought that he had acted far from recklessly. Wasn't Laban deceiving him? Wasn’t he the one who started the noisy party before deceiving Leah into him instead of Rachel? Jacob probably remembered many other cases that testified to Laban’s cunning, his cruel prudence - many of them had accumulated over twenty years.
But both Jacob and Laban restrain themselves; they strive with all their might not to say “neither good nor bad” to each other. True, they fail to fully achieve such a “diplomatic status,” as can be seen at least from Jacob’s speech. And yet, in the end, both decide to part peacefully.
“And Jacob slaughtered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat bread; and they ate bread and drank and slept on the mountain.
And Laban rose early and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban went and returned to his place” (Gen. 31: 54, 55).
And one could conclude this episode, striking in its psychological truth, with words in the biblical spirit: and the shadow of Cain retreated from them.
JACOB WRESTLING WITH GOD
So the owner and the worker went in different directions. Jacob, without looking back, moved towards his father’s house: he had not been there, as we know, for twenty years.
The hope grew stronger in his soul that Esau had long ago forgiven him for his previous guilt. During this long period, while Jacob was hiding from his wrath in Laban’s house, did he not use all of Isaac’s property? It is quite possible that he became rich, his herds multiplied and his family grew, which means that his heart turned towards good. After all, they are siblings after all. Has Esau really not changed since those ancient times and his soul has not softened?
In order not to appear unexpectedly before his brother, Jacob sent messengers to him. He ordered that words filled with guilt and repentance be conveyed to Esau: “...I have sent to make my master Esau aware of myself, so that I may gain favor for your servant in your sight” (Gen. 32: 5).
It was a humiliated request from the guilty before the victim. Jacob, by himself addressing Esau as a master, renounced his once snatched birthright, and by calling himself a slave, he entered into the position of a subordinate younger brother. From such a request, Esau should have understood that his brother not only repented, but also did not lay claim to either the house or property.
The messengers returning from Esau reported that his brother immediately came out to meet him, and with him four hundred people.
One could assume different things: a magnificent meeting or, conversely, bloodshed. Jacob spent the night in confusion, never sleeping a wink.
In the morning, he sent as a gift to his brother, who, according to his calculations, was already nearby, two hundred goats, twenty male goats, twenty rams, as well as thirty milking camels with foals, forty cows, ten oxen, twenty donkeys and ten donkeys.
The Bible lists all the gifts in detail.
According to Jacob's plan, the gifts were to show Esau that his brother was rich and did not need anything, that he was not going to the house of his father and brother for property. On the other hand, such a generous gift was supposed to testify to submission and love, a desire for peace and kindness.
And yet doubts and anxiety did not leave Jacob.
Then he divided all his property into two parts,
leaving one on the shore, where his entire camp slept at night, and with the other part he moved towards Esau.
Jacob spent the next anxious night half asleep, constantly tormented by uncertainty and anxiety.
And he dreamed that Someone (as it says in the biblical text) was fighting with him.
It was again a prophetic dream, but its unusualness and difference from all previous ones was that Someone, as Jacob soon guessed without waking up, was God.
This amazing struggle always tilted in favor of Jacob, until finally the One who fought with him “touched the joint of his thigh” and damaged it. Only then did Jacob let God go.
Jacob wrestles with an angel.
As a result, important changes took place in Jacob's life. Firstly, God gave him his blessing, secondly, he named him Israel, which meant “he who fought with God,” and thirdly, Jacob-Israel became lame and remained so all his life.
“And the sun rose as he passed through Penuel; and he limped on his hip” (Gen. 32:31).
Having finally seen Esau approaching in the morning light with his many people, Jacob immediately went to meet him. The children of Leah and Rachel went with him; he had eleven of them. Joseph was the smallest, and Rachel walked with him behind everyone else, since the baby was constantly lagging behind.
The meeting of the brothers was cordial and peaceful.
And yet, judging by some details, quite skillfully and truthfully woven into the narrative, Jacob all the time involuntarily expected some kind of catch. He did not have complete confidence in brotherly love. It was probably the feeling of anxiety for his family that caused Jacob’s humiliating address to his brother: he constantly called him master and himself a slave.
But, however, such treatment could be nothing more than Eastern etiquette.
Esau also behaved in an emphatically polite manner, which somehow did not fit with his bestial appearance, which at first greatly frightened Jacob’s people and especially the small children, who mistook him for a wild boar from the terrible stories of the old maids.
Meeting of Esau with his brother Jacob.
As for Jacob, the sight of his brother, of course, did not surprise him at all, but what really alarmed him was Esau’s refusal to accept the gifts; he saw a harbinger of threat and reprisal here. Humiliating requests to accept the gift nevertheless melted the heart of Esau, who in his refusal, most likely, also followed etiquette than any other motives. However, Jacob's anxiety and suspicion intensified again when Esau invited him to go with his wives, children and servants ahead of his large detachment, which, as already mentioned, consisted of four hundred people, of course well armed.
Isn’t there a military trick here, Jacob thought, since it’s so convenient to attack from behind?! Therefore, he refuses Esau’s offer in every possible way, politely and verbosely.
Moreover, he managed to get rid of him altogether and separate himself. Since Esau and his men were light, Jacob persuaded them to move toward home, giving himself the opportunity to move slowly. And indeed, herds, milking camels with calves, heavy carts with property, children, wives - could they move quickly, on a par with Esau? Jacob's explanations were favorably received. However, in this case, Esau was most likely again motivated by etiquette. After all, Jacob, although he was the younger brother, obliged to obey the elder, was still now in the high and honorable role of a guest. It was for this reason, and not because of the deceit that Jacob imagined, that Esau let him go ahead of him.
DINA'S KIDNAPPING
It is quite possible that the sad events that occurred shortly after the successful meeting with Esau were a kind of punishment for Jacob’s forgetting of God’s favor.
As we remember from previous stories, in Jacob’s large family, in addition to sons, there was also a daughter, Dinah, born to Leah. She was very pretty and, due to the play of nature, very much like Rebekah, the mother of Jacob. As the girl grew older, Jacob gazed at her features with increasing amazement and joy. To him, cut off from his parents' hearth and in the depths of his soul constantly yearning for his parents, especially his mother, such a resemblance seemed to be news from home, and he loved Dina very much. However, everyone loved her - for her beauty and sweet character. Her brothers especially took care of her. Jacob often thought about the moment when, finally returning to his parents, he would show Dean to Rebekah. Perhaps, Jacob dreamed, his mother would find her a wonderful embodiment of her own distant youth. Dina will be the best gift for his mother, which he brought to her after a long separation. It must be said that the parents were already very old, Isaac was one hundred and eightieth year old, and Rebekah was one hundred and forty. We had to hurry.
But first they had to settle on their own land and organize their economy. After parting with Esau, Jacob crossed the Jordan and settled near Shechem. As soon as Jacob settled down in his new place, he heard about Dinah’s kidnapping. She was kidnapped by the son of the king of Shechem and, as the Bible says, “he did violence to her.”
Having committed this terrible act, the young man, however, immediately repented, as he felt in his heart true love for the girl he had dishonored.
The prince's father, the king of Shechem, came to Jacob to amicably settle this matter, which began with violence, but turned into love.
He said to Jacob:
“...Shechem, my son, has joined his soul to your daughter;
give her to him as a wife;
Get related to us; give your daughters for us, and take our daughters for yourselves (for your sons) and live with us: this land (is vast) is before you; live and trade in it, and acquire it as your possession” (Genesis 34: 8-10) .
And the culprit of it all, the prince, for his part said, addressing Jacob and Dina’s brothers:
“...if only I find favor in your eyes, I will give whatever you tell me;
Appoint the largest ven (ransom) and gifts; I will give whatever you tell me, just give me the girl to wife” (Gen. 34: 11, 12).
It would seem that such a sincere and almost humiliated request from the king and prince should have touched the heart of Jacob and Dina’s brothers. There is some reason to think that Jacob was not averse to agreeing. In any case, when the beginning of this conversation took place in the absence of his sons, who found themselves far away in the field during the incident, Jacob not only did not give a negative answer, but also did not set any conditions. It is possible, however, that he was simply, as they say, stalling for time, waiting for his sons to return. According to the long-standing customs of the people of Abraham, it was the brothers of the dishonored girl who felt insulted more than the father, and they were obliged to wash away the shameful stain only with the blood of the criminal. Simeon and Levi were especially irreconcilable; by the way, they were surprisingly similar to Esau. Inside, everything was seething with a thirst for revenge and bloody reprisals. But they restrained themselves, wanting to test their victims with what they considered exorbitant demands.
“If the prince,” they said, “is ready to do and give whatever we ask, then make yourself and the entire male family of your tribe circumcision, which was customary among Abraham’s people.”
“Only on this condition,” said Simeon and Levi, “we will agree with you and settle with you, if you are like us, so that all your male sex will be circumcised” (Gen. 34: 15).
Imagine the surprise and disappointment of the brothers when they heard quick consent in response to their “exorbitant” demands.
“And these words pleased Hamor and Shechem the son of Hamor.
The young man did not hesitate to do this, because he loved the daughter of Jacob” (Gen. 34: 18, 19)..
Moreover, the king, immediately returning to Shechem, addressed the inhabitants of the city with a heartfelt speech, and the inhabitants of the city, all men and boys from the age of eight, were subject to circumcision.
For Dina's brothers, this behavior of the king, the prince and all the men of Shechem was a great disappointment. They hoped that their demands would be rejected, which would provide the opportunity for quick and seemingly legal reprisals. But the prince, one must think, really loved Dina very much, and the Shechemites, who agreed to circumcision, either did not dare to contradict their king, or did not worship their gods too punctually. In any case, they did not consider circumcision to be some kind of crime against their own gods.
King Hamor, going into pre-doomed negotiations with Jacob’s family, did not understand at all that he was dealing with a tribe that was exclusively jealous of its tribal purity. They were downright afraid of intermarrying with other people and went to distant Harran to get their wives. Let us remember how afraid they were of kinship with the Canaanites! True, such marriages often occurred, but each time such an incident was perceived as extremely painful.
If Hamor had known about such a strictly observed custom, he not only would not have negotiated, but would have quickly taken all precautions and protection measures.
And so, when after circumcision the entire male population of Shechem was unwell, the Dinah brothers, taking swords, “boldly, as the Bible says, attacked the city and killed the entire male sex” (Gen. 34:25).
They killed both Hamor and Shechem, plundered the city, took small and large livestock, various property and jewelry. And, in addition, they took children and women captive.
The Bible, judging by the intonation with which the whole story is told, does not justify this terrible, bloody crime. The humiliated requests of the tsar and prince, their willingness to do anything to ensure that the matter ends peacefully, evoke deep sympathy in readers for the victims of Dina’s unbridled and fanatical brothers.
The crime in Shechem is perhaps the first case of manifestation of national fanaticism, which is described in the Bible. It is very important to note this intonation of humanity, which sounded the melody of humanism and love throughout the entire episode in the chapter about Shechem.
And of course, it is extremely important and curious that Jacob reacted to everything that happened with a feeling of deep indignation.
“And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, making me hated by all the inhabitants of the land, by the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have few people; They will gather against me and defeat me, and I and my house will be destroyed.
They said: “Is it really possible to treat our sister like a harlot!” (Gen. 34: 30, 31).
Of course, Jacob could not remain in Shechem after the bloody massacre committed by his sons. He was disgusted by this very place, which he had recently carefully chosen for settlement. One must think that he remembered all his plans and realized with bitterness that they had collapsed forever. The cries of captive children and the howls of slaves who had lost their husbands and hearths deeply wounded his heart. He felt that he could not look at Simeon and Levi, the main perpetrators of the massacre, without shuddering. The wise Jacob understood how important it is to live in peace and harmony and how easy it is to break the fragile ties between tribes and peoples without holding back resentment or temporary hardships. Apparently, he remembered the staircase he had once seen in a dream, and it probably seemed to him that after Shechem he was again standing on its first step, and the white angels of God had gone far, far up from him. At night he fervently prayed to God, but God did not send him any more prophetic dreams or his blessing.
And yet, one day, having heeded his prayers of repentance, God appeared to him in a dream, already in the morning, and therefore Jacob remembered his words well: “... get up, go to Bethel and live there, and build there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the presence of Esau your brother” (Gen. 35:1).
Jacob heard a reproach in God's words, but he also perceived the reproach as a blessing.
However, an evil act, as the Bible says more than once, does not pass without a trace; it is followed by new evil - in the form of punishment.
Jacob was punished cruelly: in childbirth, on the way, his Rachel, whom he had once worked for so many years for the merciless Laban, and whom he loved more than anything in the world, died. Dying, Rachel gave birth to a boy. She gave him the name Benoni, which means “son of torment,” but Jacob, on reflection, gave him another name - Benjamin, which means “son of the right hand.” With this name Jacob expressed his special love for the last son of Rachel. Rachel died on the way to Ephrath, later called Bethlehem. After many years, a boy will be born in this city - the “son of torment” - Jesus Christ.
And another bitter misfortune awaited Jacob. But this misfortune was natural, it was to be expected: old Isaac died, he was one hundred and eighty years old that year.
Fate, however, Jacob believed, was favorable to him: after all, he still managed to see his father alive and enjoy his last conversations with him.
The Bible ends the story of the death of Isaac with words filled with solemn beauty and deep meaning: “And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of life” (Gen. 35: 29).
All the countless descendants of Isaac gathered for the funeral.
Esau also arrived, strictly observing, we must give him his due, the traditions of the people. He, not considering himself the owner of the birthright, took only some part of the property and retired to Mount Seir, where he lived with his huge family. Despite the large household that required care, Esau's character did not change. He still loved hunting, the free air, the high sky above his head and the howl of a wild animal in the desert more than anything in the world.