World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 30
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When saw that she bore , envied her sister. She said to , "Give me children, or else I will ." burned against , and he said, "Am I in place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the ?" She said, "Behold, my maid . Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her." She gave him her servant as wife, and went in to her. 5 conceived, and bore a son. said, " has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore she called his name Dan. 7, servant, conceived again, and bore a second son. said, "I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed." She named him . When saw that she had finished bearing, she took , her servant, and gave her to as a wife. 10, servant, bore a son. said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad. 12, servant, bore a second son. said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher. went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, . Then said to , "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes." 16 came from the field in the evening, and went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night. listened to , and she conceived, and bore a fifth son. said, " has given me my hire, because I gave my servant to my husband." She named him . 19 conceived again, and bore a sixth son to . said, " has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him . Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her . remembered , and listened to her, and opened her . She conceived, bore a son, and said, " has taken away my ." She named him , saying, "May add another son to me." When had borne , said to , "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have you, and let me go; for you know my with which I have you." said to him, "If now I have in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that has me for your sake." He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it." said to him, "You know how I have you, and how your livestock have fared with me. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. has you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?" said, "What shall I give you?" said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire. So my will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen." said, "Behold, let it be according to your word." That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36He set three days' journey between himself and , and fed the rest of flocks. took to himself of fresh poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the . 38He set the which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. The flocks conceived before the , and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in flock. He put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into flock. 41Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, laid the in front of the eyes of the flock in the watering troughs, that they might conceive among the ; 42but when the flock were feeble, he didn't put them in. So the feebler were , and the stronger . The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis