Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Genesis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God, Humanity, and Creation
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death
Covenants and Faith in God’s Promises
The Role of Women
Summary
Analysis
Rachel, still barren, envies Leah for her many children. She tells Jacob to give her children or else she’ll die. Jacob becomes angry and tells Rachel that he isn’t God. So Rachel gives her maid Bilhah to Jacob, hoping that she can have children through Bilhah. Sure enough, Bilhah soon bears a son whom Rachel names Dan, because God has judged her. Bilhah later has a second son, whom Rachel names Naphtali, because she has wrestled with her sister.
As emphasized elsewhere in Genesis, God is seen as the one who opens or closes a woman’s womb. Like Sarah, Rachel takes her barrenness into her own hands and uses indirect means to have a child, having her husband sleep with her servant. In a culture in which childbearing was a sign of divine blessing, Rachel feels her barrenness to be a source of personal shame, and she goes to great lengths to rectify that shame. On another note, Dan means “he judged,” while Naphtali is from the Hebrew word for “wrestle.”
Themes
Leah stops bearing children, so she gives her maid Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah bears Jacob two sons, Gad (“Good fortune”) and Asher (“Happy am I!”).
Gad means “fortune” and Asher means “happy.” Leah’s names for these sons sound like a mockery of Rachel’s continued grief.
Themes
During the wheat harvest, Reuben brings his mother, Leah, some mandrakes. Rachel asks Leah for some of the mandrakes, but Leah refuses, saying it’s bad enough that Rachel has taken away Leah’s husband. So Rachel offers to let Jacob sleep with Leah that night in exchange for the mandrakes. Leah agrees, and that night she conceives another son, whom she names Issachar. Next she bears a son named Zebulun (“now my husband will honor me”), and finally a daughter named Dinah.
It's not clear why Rachel wanted Leah’s mandrakes so badly, but it’s possible that they were believed to increase fertility. However, Rachel’s plan backfires when Leah conceives instead—not just once but twice. Issachar is from the Hebrew word for “hire,” in the sense that Leah “hired” Jacob with the mandrakes. Zebulun is from the Hebrew word for “honor.”
Themes
Finally, God remembers Rachel, and Rachel conceives at last. She names her son Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
Once again, God’s “remembering” does not mean that God literally forgot, but is meant in the sense that God finally looked favorably upon Rachel. (This is similar to when God “remembers” Noah and his family on the ark and ceases the flood.) Despite her joy at finally bearing a child, Rachel isn’t content—she immediately wants more. Fittingly, Joseph is from the Hebrew for “He adds.”
Themes
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After Joseph’s birth, Jacob asks Laban to release him from service, so that he can return to his own country. Laban says that he has prospered because of Jacob and asks what he can give him in return. Jacob declines anything, but says he will sort through Laban’s flock, removing all the black lambs and all the speckled and spotted lambs and goats; those will be his wages. Any other lambs or goats found among Jacob’s possessions will be considered stolen. Laban agrees to this. That day, however, Laban removes all the striped and spotted goats from his flock, as well as the black lambs. He then leaves, putting three days’ distance between himself and Jacob.
Here, Laban deceives Jacob once again. Jacob’s management of Laban’s flocks has brought him much wealth, and now Laban is reluctant to let it go. After making an agreement with his son-in-law, he removes the distinctive livestock from his flocks and disappears.
Themes
Then Jacob takes rods of poplar, almond, and plane wood and peels white streaks in them. He places the peeled rods in front of the flocks’ watering holes. When the flocks gather to drink and breed, they breed in front of the streaked rods, producing striped, speckled, and spotted young. Next Jacob makes sure that the stronger animals breed, while driving the weaker ones into Laban’s flock. That way he ensures that his flock emerges stronger. Through these methods, Jacob becomes very rich.
The streaked sticks are simply meant to identify certain groups of sheep to help Jacob ensure that these ones breed together. It’s an example of Jacob’s cleverness and his refusal to let Laban’s deception get the better of him. Sure enough, Jacob’s breeding program makes him even wealthier.
Themes
