God told Jacob/Israel to move back to Bethel where he’d first heard from God. Rachel had one more son and then died. Isaac also died much later very old and happy, and was then buried by his sons. Jacob and Leah’s son Reuben slept with Jacob’s concubine Bilah, who was also Rachel’s maidservant.
Esau settled in Seir and his descendants became the Edomites. Lot’s of leaders of people groups I’ve never heard of came from Esau, so that’s nice for him. I’m glad to see that everything seems to go pretty well for Ishmael and Esau. I think it’s interesting that they are connected through Esau marrying a woman from Ishmael’s people, which, you’ll recall, he did to try to make Rebekah happy. I feel like this Ishmael, Esau line would be a good place to look for some kind of recurring villain troupe if we were telling a dramatic story.
I can see why Islam is happy to claim that lineage. They seem like nice enough guys who kind of get the short end of the stick. Often they seem like better men than the line of Abraham actually. I suppose there’s probably a lesson in that, but I don’t know what.
In Chapter 37 we meet Joseph for the first time. It says he’s favored by Jacob because he was given to Jacob in his old age, which sounds like Jacob had a soft spot for him because he’s the youngest, but his brother Benjamin is younger than him and not as favored. Also, there’s a reference to Joseph doing something with his brothers and my text refers to them as the sons of Bilah and Zilpah, but it doesn’t mention Leah. There was so much bitterness and politics in Leah and Rachel’s relationship. I wonder if that omission is intentional for some reason.
For whatever reason, Jacob loves Joseph most even though he’s kind of weird and talks about having dreams which sound like they’re about the rest of the family all worshiping him. His brothers are jealous so, once they get the chance alone out in the desert, they start thinking about killing him and telling their father he was eaten by an animal or something. Rueben, the one who had an affair with his step-mother earlier, says “No no, don’t shed his blood, let’s throw him in this cistern and leave him there in stead.” I’m not really sure what the difference is, but he sounds like he thinks he’s doing Josheph a big favor by lobbying for him to be left alone in the desert to die in stead of just stabbing him.
Judah sees a caravan of Ishmaelites coming along down the road (nice name-drop) and convinces his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery because, hey, they wouldn’t turn any profit from just offing Joseph. This way they get rid of their irritating little brother and make a tidy 20 shekels in the process. Then they dip Joseph’s robes in goat blood and take them home to tell their father that Joseph’s dead.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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