JACOB & LABAN
Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.
—Rachel
“So Isaac tells Jacob to go to Haran to visit Rebekah’s brother and instructs him to take a wife from his daughters. Then he blesses him before he goes.”
“No scolding him for the deception, no slap on the wrist, nothing? Just gives him another blessing that he told Esau he didn’t have.”
“Afraid so,” said the man, running his fingers over a few lines of text before reading on:
Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Hara—122
“What was that?” said the boy, stretching himself taller to peer at the text.
“Nothing important,” said the man. “Just some minor details.” But before he could finish speaking, the boy had reached for the book and turned it toward himself to read aloud:
Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.123
The boy turned the book back toward the man and an awkward pause hung in the air as they stared at one other. “Minor details,” said the boy.
“Well, Esau tries to align himself with his father’s desire just to earn a blessing,” said the man, “but he mends one fault by committing another when he had one too many wives as it was.”
“I’m sure God will strike him down for this madness any day now,” said the boy.
“Taking a third wife was certainly not God’s will,” said the man, “nor is taking another wife to gain your father’s approval a good motivation. Esau is proving as reckless with his marital choices as was with the trading his birthright for stew.”
“Look, I’m not saying Esau’s the brightest bulb on the chandelier,” said the boy, “but God isn’t exactly coming down to drown anyone for taking multiple wives either. Unless there’s an unknowing king getting duped, He seems to keep His nose out of everyone’s marital business.”
“If you’re not convinced polygamy is troublesome yet, there are plenty more examples coming down the line. Anyway, Jacob leaves, and during his journey he arrives at a place to rest as the sun goes down. There he lays his head on a stone and dreams of a ladder that reaches to heaven from earth, with God’s angels ascending and descending it:
There above it stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”124
“This is the first time Jacob hears from God, right?”
“That’s right,” said the man, “confirming that it’s his descendants that will spread about the land.”
“I wonder what Esau dreamed about that night,” said the boy. “Probably more of that porridge.”
The old man smiled before he read on:
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.125
“Oil?”
“Oil was used as a symbol of an offering in those times,” said the man. “Jacob didn’t expect a manifestation of the Lord in a place so far from his father’s home, so he is filled with awe when he finds himself at the gate of heaven. The pillar is the monument of the event, the pouring of oil an act of consecration to God.”
The boy gave a nod and offered a palm toward the Bible, so the man continued:
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will give You a tenth.”126
“Ah. So this book was written by tax collectors,” said the boy. “It’s all making sense now.”
“We’ll see tithing mentioned again down the road, but here it’s a form of gratitude for a safe journey and prosperity. And, as we see here, Jacob makes it safely to the land of the east. There, he finds himself at a well where sheepherders were gathering to water their flocks,” said the man, looking down to read:
And Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?”
And they said, “We are from Haran.”
Then he said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?”
And they said, “We know him.”
So he said to them, “Is he well?”
And they said, “He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.”127
“Couldn’t have written it better myself,” said the boy, as the man continued reading:
He said, “Behold, it is still high day, it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.”
But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well, then we water the sheep.”
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.128
“Man,” said the boy, “I really wish they’d clarify who Laban was.”
“Yes, I’m not entirely sure the significance of the repetition,” said the man, “but I believe it was written to emphasize what’s unfolding here. First, at risk of inspiring the anger of the locals, this stranger disregards their tradition and removes the heavy stone himself. But apparently this display of personal strength was enough to keep them quiet.”
“Why would he do that?”
“My guess is that he knew the story of Rebekah at the well and hoped to take after his mother by inspiring a similar feeling in Rachel. The repetition of ‘Laban his mother’s brother’ might be to show his initial motivation was not inspired by some kind of lust over Rachel, but rather to honor his mother’s desire. He was her favorite, after all, and surely wished to see her happy. Otherwise, you know, ‘What good will my life be to me?’”
“Strange reason to find a wife,” said the boy. “But what happens next?”
“Then Jacob kisses Rachel and he lifts up his voice and weeps.”
“Just like that? Man, I gotta start hanging around more wells.”
“Watering a flock of sheep is a work of time and labor,” said the man. “Jacob volunteered no small service in aiding the young shepherdess. He was so overcome by joy in finding his kin so soon that he greeted her with affection before even sharing that he was the son of Rebekah.”
“Yeah, but I mean some random crybaby walks up with puckered lips and you just go for it? Then after tongue wrestling he claims to be your cousin? These were definitely different times.”
“This was done in a way of courtesy and civility, my boy. Likely a kiss on the cheek.”
“Mhm,” said the boy. “With that old I’m-a-fair-maiden-at-the-well routine? She’s most definitely her aunty’s niece.”
The man rolled his eyes and read on:
Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. So when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, “You certainly are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.129
“Freeloader,” said the boy.
“On the contrary,” said the man. “We’ll see Jacob offer his labor for free. But just remember, Jacob hasn’t arrived with a plan. He’s left his family to hide from his brother, and his uncle was kind enough to open his home, so it’s only right he makes himself useful. But Laban says, ‘Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?’”
“Alright, I take it back then,” said the boy. “What were the wages?”
“Well, Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. We’re told, ‘Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance.’”
“Is that a nice way of saying she was cross-eyed or something?”
The man stifled a laugh. “No, no. I believe this just means her eyes didn’t sparkle with liveliness like Rachel’s did. We see this line followed by ‘but’ to contrast Rachel’s beauty in form and appearance, which seems to be a reference to both the shape of her body and look of her face in comparison.”
The boy crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue.
As the old man fought back a smile, he read:
Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”130
“Seven years?” said the boy. “That’s a prison sentence!”
“Keep in mind that wives had to be purchased back then, and Jacob brought no riches like Abraham’s servant when seeking a wife for Isaac. All he had was his services to offer. You could say this was a labor of lo—”
“Oh stop it,” said the boy. “Just keep reading.”
The man smiled and read on:
And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”131
“Seven years,” said the boy. “Just think. Nowadays you only have to wait three dates, and you can even split the check.” He winked, but the old man shook his head and read on:
So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. And Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah!132
“Behold, it was Leah..? How dark was it?”
“Well, the Scripture doesn’t exactly explain how Jacob could have done this without realizing. It’s possible there was too much wine involved, or elaborate veils, or Jacob’s wedding night jitters that caused him to miss this detail, but we’ll never know for sure.”
“Jitters?” said the boy. “Detail? You loved someone for seven years and you don’t even…” He trailed off rubbing his temples. “Never mind. Just keep going.”
So the man read:
And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.”133
“I mean, I guess he got what was coming to him after what he did to Esau,” said the boy. “But Laban and Rebekah were certainly cut from the same cloth, huh? Maybe Leah was a better match for Jacob anyway if she was willing to go along with this trickery.”
“Maybe so,” said the man, reading Laban’s next line:
“Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”
Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. And Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.134
“Fourteen years he’s gonna work for this girl? Man, they don’t make ’em like they used to.”
“We have to wonder if Jacob’s plan was to work for seven years and then return home to with his beloved wife Rachel. If so, that dream came to an end when he became legally bound to Leah by the kind of deception he once practiced himself. And Laban’s excuse about tradition is more of an insult than anything,” said the man, “but it was an even more powerful lesson to Jacob when he’s reminded of cheating his older brother.”
“What a karmic slap in the face that was,” said the boy.
“He could have refused to marry Rachel and left, or refused to marry Leah and ruined his chance with Rachel, or he could have demanded Rachel and told Laban he wasn’t going to be cheated and face the consequences. But instead, Laban seems to know Jacob would continue serving him in order to marry Rachel as well.”
“Tough choices,” said the boy. “And so?”
“So we learn that ‘when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.’”
“Of course...” said the boy, rolling his eyes as the man continued:
So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”
Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.
She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.
And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.135
“Wow. That’s messed up. Rachel’s infertile while her manipulative sister is knocked up by her drunkenly blind lover?”
“It gets worse,” said the man.
“Lay it on me,” said the boy.
“When Rachel bears Jacob no children, she envies her sister and says to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die!’”
“She sounds like Esau.”
“How so?”
“Well, the first thing we hear from each of them is, ‘Give me something or I’ll die.’”
The man smiled. “You know, I never made that connection, but you’re right. Often the first line of a biblical character’s speech is a defining quality of who they are.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for that,” said the boy.
The man gave a nod as he read on:
And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.136
“Don’t these people learn anything?” said the boy. “This is what happens when you stay in the family. Stories repeat themselves.”
“In contrast, though, when Sarah has a child through Hagar, she immediately regrets it. Rachel, on the other hand, receives the baby born to Bilhah as a gift from God. Here, listen,” said the man:
Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case, and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.137
“Is she delusional?”
“It’s not precisely clear what this second child means for Rachel in prevailing over her sister. Perhaps it’s a reference to where Leah has stopped bearing and Rachel is now the one producing sons.”
“But they’re not even her kids.”
“Well, in the context of the times, with the idea of surrogate mothers, they belong to her. Or at least that’s how she justifies it in her mind. But it’s not exactly an honorable victory either way. She says this in the spirit of weaning her husband’s affection off the already unloved Leah even more, boasting victory in some kind of child-bearing war.”
“Not exactly a healthy motivation for having children,” said the boy.
“No,” said the man, “not at all. And had Rachel’s heart not been influenced by bitter motivations, she may have seen her sister’s children as near to her, instead of some kind of adversarial army being birthed against her. But children whom she had the right to claim as her own were more desirable than finding reasons to love her nephews. She even took pleasure in naming them as symbols of rivalry, Dan meaning something like ‘judgment,’ as God offered her vindication, and Naphtali something akin to ‘struggle,’ used to express this idea of overcoming this wrestling match she perceives.”
“Let’s see how this birth war plays out then,” said the boy.
With a nod the man read:
When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife. And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she called his name Gad.
And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.
Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”138
“What are mandrakes?”
“Mandrakes are a plant with roots like a potato, but they fork and resemble a human body with open legs.” The boy’s eyebrows shot upward. “Precisely,” said the man. “They were believed to be an aphrodisiac and something of a fertility drug back then.”
“No wonder she wants them.”
“That’s right,” said the man, looking down at the Bible again:
But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”
And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”139
“Poor Jacob, getting passed around between all his wives and concubines.”
“Yes, we don’t hear much protest from Jacob in these matters. But there is some indication he hasn’t been spending much time with Leah as of late, based on the bitter dialogue anyway. And notice the parallels between these sisters and Jacob and his brother,” said the man, “a rivalry where one sibling barters a privilege for food.”
“Right,” said the boy, “reversed for the older and younger this time.”
“Good catch,” said the man, reading on again:
When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.140
“Jeez, she has to hire her own husband to knock her up again? But didn’t it just say she stopped bearing children?”
“Perhaps Jacob’s love for Rachel was the overwhelming force that kept him out of Leah’s bedchamber, but it’s also possible the reason Leah stopped bearing is because Rachel began controlling Jacob. How, we don’t exactly know. Perhaps the ‘else I die’ was a threat of suicide, or perhaps there was some other way of influencing his behavior. Either way, it’s apparent Leah was still fertile once Rachel allowed Jacob to spend the night with her as a bargaining chip for her own chance at fertility.”
“Taking it back to the garden with that one,” said the boy. The man scrunched his brow in confusion, so the boy clarified. “Well, when God was punishing Eve, didn’t He say her desire would be to control her husband?”
The man looked up and to the left for a moment. Then he marked the page he was on with his tassel and flipped back in the text. He scanned the chapter until he found the line:
“Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”141
The boy smiled. “Am I wrong?”
Narrowing his eyes, the man said, “It appears so.”
“Maybe out of context,” said the boy, “or with that particular translation, but it was said in the same manner in which God warns Cain about sin crouching at the door.”
The man ran his finger down the next page until he found the line:
“Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”142
“Right,” said the boy. “Eve’s desire to influence her husband and eat the fruit of the tree led to the punishment of pain in childbearing. Rachel’s desires to control her husband and take things into her own hands with mandrakes led to the punishment of infertility.”
“But I think we established Adam’s silence in convincing Eve to stick with the divine command was equally to blame,” said the man.
“And here Jacob’s following in Adam’s silent footsteps,” said the boy. “All I’m pointing out is that God established wives should be governed by their husbands and no one is listening or speaking up about it, creating headaches all around.” A smirk grew across the boy’s face as he finished speaking.
The man tried to maintain a skeptical furrow of his brow, but his reaction melted into a smile. “I’m not sure about the accuracy of what you’re saying, but it’s certainly a clever parallel, I’ll give you that much. Though this raises the question of why Rachel would have been infertile before all this happened.”
“Maybe it’s like with Cain,” said the boy, “where God recognized jealousy inside of him so He put him through a test to bring it to the surface.”
The man turned his head sideways to stare at the boy through the corner of his eye. “You know, you’re smarter than you look.”
The boy laughed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The man smiled as he flipped back to his tasseled page. “Oh nothing.”
“What question this really raises,” said the boy, “is if God frowns upon polygamy, why didn’t he nip this whole thing in the bud before it started?”
The man raised an eyebrow. “And how should He have done that, oh wise one?”
“How about, oh, I don’t know, any way He pleases? He came to Abimelech in a dream, He set plagues upon Pharaoh, He could have drown someone in another spell of rain. Why the sudden silence in the matter of two wives? Not to mention sisters.”
“Are you not seeing the trouble that comes from having siblings as wives?” said the man. “There are lessons to be learned from these stories. Perhaps that was God’s plan all along, to show us the troubles these situations come with.”
“See, I don’t know if that argument holds water. A little bickering is natural in any relationship. If anything, these are lessons on how to manage more than one. At this point I think God recognizes polygamy as a natural evolution in His creation. He’s holding his mighty tongue just to see how it all plays out. If He was dead set against it, He would have come down and spoken to Laban, saying, ‘Don’t you trick the chosen one with your deception!’ Or, if the goal was really to teach a lesson, after karma came back around and bit Jacob, when he tried to take a second wife God could have wagged his finger and said, ‘Ah, ah, ah. Only one wife allowed. Maybe now you’ll think twice about deceiving family!’ Now that’s a story with a lesson.”
“I don’t think God would be so cruel as to deny His chosen one true love. I think laboring for another seven years is punishment enough,” said the man. “Besides, if God had to interject every time He didn’t like something, His children would never learn for themselves.”
“Exactly,” said the boy. “He only chooses to interfere on the most offensive accounts. Like when the sons of God were mingling with the daughters of men, or when man stayed in one place building a tower instead of subduing the earth, or when a prophet started lying to pimp out his wife for economic gain. He never interferes in man’s personal relationships by imposing some divine law. He lets us figure it out and learn what’s best for ourselves.”
“I don’t know if I care for the way you’re twisting these stories to fit your narrative,” said the man. “This goes against traditional understanding.”
“Fine,” said the boy. “Agree to disagree. Let’s move on.”
Without saying anything more, the man read on:
God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.143
“How weird,” said the boy. “God rewards her for sharing her husband.”
The old man ignored him with an eye roll and kept reading:
Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun
Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.144
“Just an insignificant afterthought,” said the boy. “Hardly worth mentioning.”
“The Scripture is often short on details,” said the man, “even pertaining to genealogies. There may have been many more children in this family, boys or girls, but the ones mentioned go on to become characters in later stories, making their mention necessary, Dinah included.”
“Fair enough,” said the boy, so the man read the next line:
Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.145
“God sure seems to forget his chosen people a lot,” said the boy. “We still don’t know what she did that deserves punishment anyway.”
“I won’t pretend to know God’s motivations,” said the man, “but a major theme of this chapter is around who gives the gift of children, and that is God and God alone. No personal scheme or mandrake will work to skirt around His almighty plans. Perhaps this was all a lesson to humble Rachel and correct her bad-tempered nature and trust in ‘fertility potatoes,’ as you put it, over His will.”
The boy nodded, so the man read on:
So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
And she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord give me another son.”
Now it came about, when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, so that I may go to my own place and to my own country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you.”146
“I see Jacob’s finally growing a spine,” said the boy. “He’s been mostly a pushover so far.”
“Yes,” said the man, “his demand implies that Laban is still the head of the family, possessing control over his daughters and their children. Jacob’s guess is that Laban will not willingly lose his labor, or proximity to his daughters and grandchildren, but he also knows Laban can be deceiving when it comes to the terms of their agreement. But we see there is perhaps a shift in the dynamic when Laban says, ‘Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.’ Then he tells Jacob to name his wages and he will give them.”
“That’s crafty,” said the boy. “First Laban butters him up knowing Jacob will lead with a modest proposal. Then he can counter with an even lower offer if he wants to.”
“Greedy men will mold their words to serve themselves,” said the man. “And although Laban admits he’s prospered from Jacob’s company, he presents his refusal to let Jacob go as an opportunity. He wants him to agree to a new deal since he’s fulfilled the terms of the old one.”
“Which is slippery territory for Jacob,” said the boy, “considering Laban is prone to trickery.”
The old man agreed with a nod before reading on:
Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”147
He said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”148
“Alright, what’s that all about?”
“Laban asks, ‘What do you want from me?’ and Jacob surprises him by saying, ‘Nothing right now, but if I continue to tend your flock I want some of your livestock as payment,’ which was a common exchange for shepherds back then. Normally it was something like twenty percent of the flock, but Jacob asks only for the black and speckled sheep and white and spotted goats, which seems like a nominal fee considering these were rare among the primarily white sheep and black goats of the East in those times.”
“Hmm,” said the boy. “Seems like he’s up to something.”
“Perhaps, but of course the deal seems agreeable to Laban,” said the man, “so he accepts. But to further ensure this one-sided deal, Laban separates all the mixed-colored animals from the pure-coated ones so there is no chance they’ll crossbreed and multiply.”
“I have a feeling karma is coming around,” said the boy.
The man smiled and read on:
Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep in the water channels where the sheep came to drink.
And the sheep bred when they came to drink. The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young. Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked sheep and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.
Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. And the man became very rich. He had many flocks, female and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.149
“He put sticks in the water and it magically changed their fur? Help me out here.”
“It’s something like, he’s learned over the years that what the dams perceive while in heat can influence the patterns on their young after the rut. In any case, they bore many more streaked and spotted animals than plainly colored ones.”
“I’ll give you a pass on that one,” said the boy. “What’s next?”
“Next, Jacob overhears Laban’s sons talking about him,” said the man, reading on:
“Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.” And Jacob saw from Laban's face that his attitude toward him was not the same as before.
The Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.”150
“Oh, there you are, God. Fourteen years later.”
“Twenty,” said the man.
“Twenty?” said the boy. “Wouldn’t that make him, what, like ninety when he had to move back to his parents’ basement with the gals?”
“Something like that,” said the man. “So Jacob fills in Rachel and Leah on what’s happened, informing them about the deal he made with their father. He tells them how in a dream he saw it was God’s doing that only the spotted and speckled rams were breeding among the sheep, that God has taken the livestock from their father and given them to him because of the way Laban had been treating him.” The man looked down to read:
Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children. Now then, do whatever God has told you.”151
“Oh how a common enemy unites us,” said the boy.
“Precisely,” said the man.