The Bible Slam: Genesis Chapter 30

Jacob and Rachel start fighting because Rachel can't have any children, so she tells Jacob to"go in onto" her servant, which he does.     Over the course of this chapter, the servant Bilhah gives birth to two boys who Jacob had fathered.

Not to be outdone, Rachel's older sister Leah, who was also married to Jacob, hands over her slave to sleep with Jacob.   The slave gives birth to two sons.   Leah gives birth to some more boys after she barters some mandrakes (love plants in Hebrew) to sleep with Jacob, so now she has given Jacob six sons.   She also gives birth to a daughter named Dinah (this is one of the very rare instances that daughters are mentioned).

God decides to "open Rachel's womb" and she gives birth to a boy named Joseph.

Jacob decides to leave his uncle Laban's household and they figure out the wages.   Jacob said he would take all the speckled and spotted and striped livestock.   He rounds up some rods of green poplar, hazel and chestnut trees; and piled white strakes in them.   The livestock breed in front of these rods and as a result, they give birth to ringstraked, speckled, and spotted cattle, sheep and goats.   This goes on for a couple of paragraphs so that Jacob gets all sorts of speckled, spotted and striped livestock.

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Talking Points.

Polygamy and Slavery – Jacob not only marries his two cousin sisters, but also makes the sisters' servants his wives.   This indicates once again that both slavery and polygamy are approved in the Old Testament.

Biology Unplugged – Looking at colored rods to produce the speckled, spotted and striped livestock is ridiculous, but adds some humor to the Old Testament stories.   See the King James version (annotated) if you don't believe this is in the "inerrant" Bible.

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