Genesis 30

Ge 30:1-24.

DOMESTIC

JEALOUSIES.

1. Rachel envied her sister--The maternal relation confers a

high degree of honor in the East, and the want of that status is felt

as a stigma and deplored as a grievous calamity.

Give me children, or else I die--either be reckoned as good as

dead, or pine away from vexation. The intense anxiety of Hebrew women

for children arose from the hope of giving birth to the promised seed.

Rachel's conduct was sinful and contrasts unfavorably with that of

Rebekah (compare

Ge 25:22)

and of Hannah

(1Sa 1:11).

3-9. Bilhah . . . Zilpah--Following the example of

Sarah with regard to Hagar, an example which is not seldom imitated

still, she adopted the children of her maid. Leah took the same course.

A bitter and intense rivalry existed between them, all the more from

their close relationship as sisters; and although they occupied

separate apartments, with their families, as is the uniform custom

where a plurality of wives obtains, and the husband and father spends a

day with each in regular succession, that did not allay their mutual

jealousies. The evil lies in the system, which being a violation of

God's original ordinance, cannot yield happiness.

20. And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry--The

birth of a son is hailed with demonstrations of joy, and the possession

of several sons confers upon the mother an honor and respectability

proportioned to their number. The husband attaches a similar importance

to the possession, and it forms a bond of union which renders it

impossible for him ever to forsake or to be cold to a wife who has

borne him sons. This explains the happy anticipations Leah founded on

the possession of her six sons.

21. afterwards, she bare a daughter--The inferior value set on a

daughter is displayed in the bare announcement of the birth.

Ge 30:25-43.

JACOB'S

COVENANT WITH

LABAN.

25. when Rachel had born Joseph--Shortly after the birth of this

son, Jacob's term of servitude expired, and feeling anxious to

establish an independence for his family, he probably, from knowing

that Esau was out of the way, announced his intention of returning to

Canaan

(Heb 13:14).

In this resolution the faith of Jacob was remarkable, for as yet he had

nothing to rely on but the promise of God (compare

Ge 28:15).

27. Laban said . . . I have learned--His selfish uncle

was averse to a separation, not from warmth of affection either for

Jacob or his daughters, but from the damage his own interests would

sustain. He had found, from long observation, that the blessing of

heaven rested on Jacob, and that his stock had wonderfully increased

under Jacob's management. This was a remarkable testimony that good men

are blessings to the places where they reside. Men of the world are

often blessed with temporal benefits on account of their pious

relatives, though they have not always, like Laban, the wisdom to

discern, or the grace to acknowledge it.

28. appoint me thy wages, and I will give it--The Eastern

shepherds receive for their hire not money, but a certain amount of the

increase or produce of the flock; but Laban would at the time have done

anything to secure the continued services of his nephew, and make a

show of liberality, which Jacob well knew was constrained.

31. Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing--A new

agreement was made, the substance of which was, that he was to receive

remuneration in the usual way, but on certain conditions which Jacob

specified.

32. I will pass through all thy flock to-day--Eastern sheep

being generally white, the goats black, and spotted or speckled ones

comparatively few and rare, Jacob proposed to remove all existing ones

of that description from the flock, and to be content with what might

appear at the next lambing time. The proposal seemed so much in

favor of Laban, that he at once agreed to it. But Jacob has been

accused of taking advantage of his uncle, and though it is difficult to

exculpate him from practising some degree of dissimulation, he was only

availing himself of the results of his great skill and experience in

the breeding of cattle. But it is evident from the next chapter

(Ge 31:5-13)

that there was something miraculous and that the means he had employed

had been suggested by a divine intimation.

37. Jacob took rods, &c.--There are many varieties of the hazel,

some of which are more erect than the common hazel, and it was probably

one of these varieties Jacob employed. The styles are of a bright red

color, when peeled; and along with them he took wands of other shrubs,

which, when stripped of the bark, had white streaks. These, kept

constantly before the eyes of the female at the time of gestation, his

observation had taught him would have an influence, through the

imagination, on the future offspring.

38. watering troughs--usually a long stone block hollowed out,

from which several sheep could drink at once, but sometimes so small as

to admit of only one drinking at a time.