The Cheater Gets Cheated

Isaac said to his son, Jacob, “It's time for you to get married, but you may not marry one of the local Canaanite women.  Son, go to your grandfather's house at Haran in Mesopotamia and pick out for yourself one of the daughters of Laban, your uncle, to marry, and may you have lots of children to be your descendants.  With Lord Yahweh's help, may your sons win control of the land where we are now aliens and outsiders.”  

So Jacob, following his father's instructions, went to the country of his grandfather in Mesopotamia, seeking a wife from among his cousins, the daughters of his Uncle Laban.  Esau heard that his brother had gone to Mesopotamia to hunt for a wife because none of the local Canaanite women were acceptable to his father, so just to annoy his father Esau visited Ishmael (who was the son of Abraham with his Egyptian slave girl), and arranged for one of Ishmael's daughters to be his newest wife, to add to those he already had.

Meanwhile Jacob was traveling the long road to Haran and somewhere along the trail after the sun had set he stopped for the night.  He found a rock to use for a pillow and went to sleep.  He had a dream.  In the dream he saw a ladder reaching from the earth to the sky. The messengers of Yahweh were climbing up and down the ladder, and Yahweh came over to him and said, “I am the Lord Yahweh, the god of your grandfather Abraham and the god of your father Isaac.  The land on which you are sleeping I give to you and to your descendants, and your offspring shall be as many as the sands of the earth.  You shall spread out from here in all directions, and all the people of the earth shall acknowledge your power.  Know that I am with you and will look out for you wherever you go.  I will bring you back to this land; for I will not abandon you until I have done what I promised."

Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Yahweh is here—and I did not know his power extended this far!"   Jacob was afraid, and said, "This place terrifies me! This is the home of Yahweh, and this place is the entrance to the sky." 

Jacob got up early in the morning and took the stone that he had used for a pillow and set it up on its end as a memorial pillar and poured oil on the top of it.  He called that place Bethel, which means “the home of the god.”  Then Jacob made a sacred promise to Yahweh, saying, "If Yahweh stays with me and keeps me safe on my journey, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I return home to my father's house in safety, then the Lord Yahweh shall be my god also, and this stone, which I have set up for a memorial pillar, shall be remembered as Yahweh's home, and of all the riches you give me I promise to give a 10% payment to you."

Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.  He saw a well in a field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it.  The stone cover on the well was heavy.  When all the local flocks gathered at the well, the shepherds would roll away the stone cover from the opening of the well, water the sheep, and then they would put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well. 

 Jacob asked the shepherds, "My brothers, where are you from?"

They said, "We are from Haran."

Jacob asked them, "Do you know Laban, son of Nahor?"

They replied, "We do."

Jacob said to them, "Is he well?"

"He is fine," they replied, "and over there is his daughter Rachel, coming to the well with Laban’s sheep."

Jacob said, "Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be brought back from the fields for the evening. Give the sheep some water and then put them in the fields to graze."

The shepherds replied, "We cannot draw water from the well until all the flocks are assembled here.  Then we must work together to roll away the stone that covers the well, so we can water the sheep."  

While he was talking to the shepherds, Rachel came slowly down the road shepherding her father's sheep.  When Jacob saw Rachel with his Uncle Laban's sheep he went up to the well and all by himself he rolled away the stone that covered the well and drew water from the well for Laban's sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to cry.  He told Rachel that he was her father's relative, his Aunt Rebekah's son.  Rachel ran home and told her father.

When Laban heard the news that Rebekah's son Jacob had arrived, he ran to the well to meet him, embraced him and kissed him, and brought Jacob back to his house.  Jacob told Laban the story of why he had come to Haran, and Laban said to him, "Surely you are my relative, my bone and my flesh!"  Laban offered the hospitality of the household and so Jacob stayed there for a month, helping with the household duties.

Then Laban said to Jacob, "Just because you are my relative does not mean that you should work for me for nothing, so tell me, what do you think your wages should be?"  Jacob knew that Laban had two daughters, the elder was Leah and the younger was Rachel.   Leah's eyes were lovely and Rachel was graceful and beautiful.  Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, so he said to Laban, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."

Laban said, "OK, it's a deal.  I would rather give Rachel to you than any other man, so stay here and work with me."

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and the time went quickly because Jacob was in love.  At the end of the seven years Jacob said to Laban, "I fulfilled my pledge to you, so now give me Rachel as my wife so that I can marry her and we can live as husband and wife." 

Laban gathered together all the people of the town and held a marriage feast.  In the evening, when it was time for Jacob to go to his wife in the marriage bed he had made for her in his tent, Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob’s tent after it was dark, and Jacob (who did not yet know he had been tricked), slept with her.  When morning came, he discovered that it was Leah who was in his bed and who he had slept with. 

Jacob was angry and upset, and he ran to Laban and said to him, "What have you done?  We had a deal, and I kept my part of the deal.  I served you as a worker on your farm for seven years to win Rachel as my wife.  Why did you trick me?”

Laban said, "You are not from around here, so you are not familiar with our local customs.  I cannot give the younger daughter in marriage before the first one is married—it's just not done.  I know you are upset, but there is a solution.  Finish out the week sleeping with Leah, then in return for serving me for another seven years I will give you Rachel also. 

Jacob did so.  He completed the week sleeping with Leah.  Then Jacob gave him his daughter Rachel, and Jacob slept with her and he kept his promise to Laban and he worked for Laban for another seven years. 

Jacob loved Rachel but he did not love Leah and did not sleep with Leah any longer.   When Lord Yahweh saw that Jacob was ignoring Leah, and she was lonely and had no one to make love to her, and she had not become pregnant during the week Jacob spent with her, he caused Leah to become pregnant and she gave birth to a son whom she named Reuben. 

Leah said to herself, "Because the Lord Yahweh felt sorry for me and gave me a son, maybe now Jacob will love me."   But Jacob still did not love her.  She conceived again and bore another son and named him Simeon.  Again she thought that because she produced a second son that Jacob would love her and sleep with her, but still Jacob was not interested.  She got pregnant again and gave birth to a third son, and once more thought that Jacob would come to her as her husband, but he still was not interested, so she stopped having children.

Rachel was unable to have any children to give to her husband Jacob.  She was embarrassed and envied her sister Leah, who had borne children.  She said to Jacob, "Make me pregnant or I shall die of shame!"

Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said to her, "Am I Yahweh that I can just make you pregnant?  It’s not my fault, I am sleeping with you.  It is Yahweh who has kept you from becoming pregnant."

Rachel said, "Take my maid Bilhah and sleep with her until she becomes pregnant and bears children for us, and I will take them as mine so I may have children through her."

Bilhah soon conceived and bore Jacob a son and Rachel said, "Yahweh has judged me and made me sterile but he has also heard my voice and given me a son."  Rachel named him Dan.  Jacob kept sleeping with Bilhah, and she conceived again and bore Jacob a second son, whom she named Naphtali.

When Leah realized that she was not getting pregnant any more, she decided to follow her sister’s example, so she brought her maid Zilpah to Jacob to be another wife to him.  Zilpah bore Jacob a son and Leah named him Gad.  Zilpah bore Jacob a second son and named him Asher. 

In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to her sister Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

Leah said to Rachel, "Is it such a small matter to you that you took away my husband from my bed, that you now have the gall to ask for my son's mandrakes also?"

Rachel said, "I’ll make you a deal.  If you give me the mandrakes I will have Jacob sleep with you tonight.”

The deal having been made, when Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come with me and sleep with me tonight, for I hired you for the evening and paid for you by giving my son's mandrakes to Rachel."

So Jacob slept with her that night.  Yahweh listened to Leah’s pleading and so Leah conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son and then she bore a sixth son. Leah then concluded to herself, "Yahweh has provided me with a good dowry and now Jacob will respect me because I have borne him six sons.”

Then Yahweh thought about Rachel and decided to respond to her appeals by letting her get pregnant.  Rachel then conceived and bore a son and named him Joseph. 

  

Jacob was tricked, but the story accurately reflects the traditions of the time that (a) the elder must be married before the younger, and (b) once Jacob slept with her, Leah was his wife.  Having multiple wives was acceptable practice, as was the practice of having children with slaves or servants, where the women had status as a second-class wife or a concubine.  Rachel says she'll let Leah have sex with her husband if Leah gives her his son's mandrakes. Mandrake is a narcotic plant related to belladonna that is used both as a pain-killer and as an aphrodisiac and was believed in ancient times to overcome fertility.  Here we have our first recorded drug deal for sex! No mention is made as to whether Leah's son Reuben, who found the mandrake plants, was upset that his mother gave away his stash.