Dragonthorn Chapter 4: Jacob

Rebbecca bore twins, and the first to emerge from her womb was Esau, but the persistence of the second son Jacob was seen in that he was gripping his brother's ankle on the way out. From the very first moment, then, Jacob announced to the world that he was a fighter.

Just as Abraham's favorite son was Ishmael (though the Blessing went to Isaac), so Isaac's favorite son was Esau (though the Blessing would go to Jacob).

As the boys grew, Esau became a cunning hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was an introverted man dwelling in tents and naturally he was the favorite of his mother. Esau derived his own blessing from the things of the world which he was able to obtain by his own efforts. Jacob, as the more interior man, would never be able to compete on those terms. Yet he was a survivor. Jacob contrived to obtain abundant life by tapping into a divine source.

The first step was to get the Birthright, which entitled the first-born son to a double share of Isaac's inheritance. Esau and Jacob were twins, but as things stood, Esau was the older man, if only by mere seconds.

By misfortune one time, Esau discovered that he could not always depend on his own efforts and skills to maintain his life. He came in from the field famished, near death, and begged Jacob for some food. Jacob provided bread and lentil soup, but the price was that Esau assign his birthright to Jacob under solemn oath. And Esau was more than willing to do it, so close to death was he.

As it turned out, Esau only needed a little help that one time, and for the rest of his life he would do well for himself. So he left Jacob with a full stomach and almost convinced himself the Birthright was nothing much anyway.

In his dotage Isaac grew blind, and he knew he would soon die. So he told his favorite son Esau to fetch him some fresh venison, prepare it well, and then he would receive Isaac's blessing before he died.

Rebbecca heard all this, and she made her move to advance the cause of Jacob. She told him to get a couple of young goats, and she would broil them fast and pass them off on Isaac and that way Jacob would receive the blessing. But Jacob objected that the plan wouldn't work, because Esau was a hairy man while his own skin was as sleek and smooth as a baby's bottom. Jacob knew that his father would feel the difference, know Jacob was a deceiver, and and give him a cursing rather than a blessing.

But Rebbecca had already thought of that, and she told Jacob to go do as his mother said. When he came back in with two kids, Rebbecca started cooking them, together with some bread, and meanwhile she fetched some of Esau's clothes and fitted them on Jacob. Finally, Rebbecca put the skins of the slain young goats on Jacob's hands and on the back of his neck.

Jacob took the food and delivered it to his father Isaac, but Isaac was suspicious because Jacob didn't talk much like Esau and the food was ready so quickly, and it didn't much taste like venison. But Jacob insisted that he was Esau, he was feeling a little sick which is why his voice was different, and he that said Yahweh brought the animal to him.

Isaac was still suspicious, so he told his son to come near so he could feel that it was really Esau standing there. There was the test of the food. Jacob passed. There was the smell test. He had to kiss his father, and Isaac smelled Esau's sweaty clothes and it was enough.

So Isaac said to him, "May Yahweh give you from the dew of heaven, the abundance of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let the people of the earth serve you and nations pay homage to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be every one that curses you, and blessed be he that blesses you."

And so it was done, and Jacob immediately departed. Needless to say there was an embarrassing scene later when the real Esau came in with fresh venison, but it was too late. Esau was to get nothing, and he wailed to his father at the injustice.

When his father grew silent, because nothing more could be done, Esau hated his brother and grew apoplectic. And in Esau's great wrath he forgot certain basic principles of operational security. He started mumbling about planning to kill Jacob, and a report of this got back to Rebbecca through servants.

Mother and son held a quick meeting, and Rebbecca told Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban with only the clothes on his back. Thus Esau did inherit everything after all, by default.

This narrative, found also in the scriptures of the Jews, seems written to elicit sympathy for Esau, but Jacob, the father of Yahweh's chosen people, demonstrated cleverness and foresight. The Immigrants would need those qualities when they lived among their enemies in Egypt and Canaan.

When Jacob came into the land of his family on his mother's side, he inquired after Laban. And soon he saw his cousin Rachel, bringing along her father's sheep. He ran up to her and kissed her, and wept, and said he was the son of Rebbecca.

Rachel ran to tell her father, and Laban welcomed Jacob into his house, where he spent a month doing some odd jobs for him. After the month had passed, Laban asked Jacob what he thought a fair wage would be for all the help he was doing.

By this time Jacob was in love with his cousin Rachel, and he said he would serve Laban for seven years in return for the hand of Rachel in marriage. Laban was agreeable to this, because Jacob was a much better choice than giving her to another man, he judged. So much did Jacob love Rachel, that it seemed to him that the seven years just flew right by.

Then when the time was up, he went to Laban to pick up his wife. There was a huge wedding feast, and Jacob was plied with much wine, and at the end of the night Jacob staggered into his tent to have Rachel, and he seemed to be very happy.

Yahweh didn't have a problem with cousins getting married. In fact, later in scripture he commands Zelophehad's five daughters to marry their cousins so their inheritance would remain in the family. It is precisely to prevent the accumulation of wealth in families (and thus threaten the temporal power of the Papacy) that Pope Gregory I made cousin-marriage forbidden for all Catholics.

Nearly half of American states also forbid the practice. US prohibitions against cousin marriages predate modern genetics. The USA is the only western country with cousin marriage restrictions.

Researchers have found that the incest taboo actually has an internal basis, many animals including humans have evolved an aversion to mating very close within the bloodlines, like between brother and sister, or son and mother. But the further away a potential mate is from your own genetic inheritance, the less likely you will run across them in everyday life and have the opportunity to get with them. First cousins, then, represent a sort of optimum point between genetic diversity and sexual availability.

In the morning Jacob woke up with a splitting headache and rolled back the covers expecting to see Rachel lying there. Instead, he found only Leah, the older sister of Rachel, in bed with him. To be sure, Leah had beautiful eyes, but she was a little older and somewhat less pretty overall. Jacob was being very shallow, but a deal was a deal.

When Jacob complained, Laban explained that it was the custom there in Harran that the younger daughter must not be married before the elder one. But he would make it right. All Jacob had to do was serve Laban for another seven years tending his flocks, and he would get both of his cousins for wives. And this he did do, a total of fourteen years, for the hand of the cousin he truly loved.

Meanwhile Jacob was not celibate. He did go in to Leah from time to time, and she conceived sons for him: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

After the fourteen years, when Jacob at last consummated his love for Rachel, nothing came of it for a very long time, and she began to fear that she was barren. As the years wore on, Rachel told Jacob that if she didn't conceive a child for him, she was going to die. And this angered Jacob, because she was asking him to do what Yahweh alone could do.

So Rachel resorted to surrogate mothers. The first one was her maid Bilhah. She authorized Jacob to impregnate her, and Bilhah bore Jacob a son named Dan and another one named Naphtali. And Leah began to suspect that she was finished bearing children, so she authorized Jacob to impregnate her maid Zilpah, and Zilpah bore Jacob a son named Gad and another one named Asher. Then Leah tried her luck with Jacob once more, and she conceived and bore a son named Issachar, and later another son named Zebulun and a daughter named Dinah.

Finally Rachel was able to conceive a son of her own, and she produced Joseph.
For the last twenty years, Jacob had used subterfuge to incrementally increase the health and numbers of the cows with speckles and spots, which by a prior arrangement with Laban were to belong to Jacob, while decreasing the vitality and numbers of the other cows without blemishes, which were to belong to Laban.

So it came to be, after a time, that Laban and his sons grew less and less happy to see Jacob, though they had no evidence to attribute the blame to Jacob for the disparity of numbers between the two herds.

Even so, Jacob realized that it was time to depart for the land of his father before the acrimony grew much worse. He told this to Leah and Rachel, and they agreed to depart with Jacob, without telling Laban. And Rachel decided to grab her fathers idols and take them along with her as a final departing blow.

When Laban found out his daughters and his idols were gone, he pursued them for a week. When Laban caught up to Jacob there were hard questions. Why did he just take off in the middle of the night with his daughters, with not even a word of warning. Laban had a big party planned, and Jacob ruined it.

But nevertheless, even if Jacob felt he had to go right away because he missed his parents, which was understandable, why did Jacob have to steal his gods as well? That was without excuse. But Jacob knew nothing of Rachel's theft, and he bid Laban to search his caravan all he wanted, and he promised death to anyone found hiding the carven gods.

So Laban and his servants ransacked Jacob's entire caravan, and finished up by inspecting Jacob's tent, where the idols were actually concealed. Rachel was sitting on them.

She said, "Forgive me father if I don't stand up, but I'm having my period right now. You know how it is." Menstruation and other woman issues always made the patriarchs blanch, and not even Laban could bring himself to believe that Rachel would sit on his stone gods while she was having a period. The whole affair was sufficiently disgusting to Laban that he never required her to stand up so he could search beneath her.

Even the animals in the flocks were all of spotted ones, which Laban had agreed would belong to Jacob, and not a single calf or lamb or kid could be claimed by Laban.

Now Jacob had finally had enough of Laban, and he let the accumulated indignation of twenty years all pour out. "You've searched all my goods. If you found anything of yours set it here in the open so that all may judge. No? Twenty years I served you, Laban. Not once did I eat one of your rams. If any animal was torn by beasts, I absorbed that loss myself rather than pawn it off back on you, as was my right according to the Code of Hammurabi, because I looked up to you as my kinsman and the father of my wives. Through drought and cold sleepless nights I served you without grumbling, even when you downgraded my salary ten times. Surely if the God of my fathers was not with me I would have nothing now, but he is a God of justice and he preserved me."

So Laban was shamed into releasing his daughters and he created a covenant with Jacob. Jacob agreed never to take another wife than Leah and Rachel, and Laban agreed to stay on the Jordanian side of Mount Gilead. So ended Jacob's first extended trip abroad.