Chapter 30:
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
Genesis 30
In this chapter we have an account of the increase,
I. Of Jacob's family; eight children more we find registered in this
chapter; Daniel and Naphtali by Bilhah, Rachel's maid, ver. 1-8.
Gad and Asher by Zilpah, Leah's maid, ver. 9-13. Issachar,
Zebulon, and Dinah, by Leah, ver. 14-21. And last of all Joseph
by Rachel, ver. 22-24.
II. Of Jacob's estate. He comes upon a new bargain with Laban,
ver. 25-34. And in the six years further service he did to Laban,
God wonderfully blessed him, so that his flock of all cattle
became very considerable, ver. 35-43, And herein was fulfilled
the blessing which Isaac dismissed him with, chap. xxviii. 3. God
make thee fruitful and multiply thee.
Verse 1. Rachel envied her sister - Envy is grieving at the good of
another, than which no sin is more injurious both to God, our
neighbour, and ourselves. But this was not all, she said to Jacob,
give me children or else I die - A child would not content her; but
because Leah has more than one, she must have more too; Give
me children: her heart is set upon it. Give them me, else I die,
That is, I shall fret myself to death. The want of this satisfaction
will shorten my days. Observe a difference between Rachel's
asking for this mercy, and Hannah's, 1 Sam. i, 10, &c. Rachel
envied, Hannah wept: Rachel must have children, and she died of
the second; Hannah prayed for this child, and she had four more:
Rachel is importunate and peremptory, Hannah is submissive and
devout, If thou wilt give me a child, I will give him to the Lord.
Let Hannah be imitated, and not Rachel; and let our desires be
always under the conduct and check of reason and religion.
Verse
2. And Jacob's anger was kindled - He was angry, not at the
person, but at the sin: he expressed himself so as to shew his
displeasure. It was a grave and pious reply which Jacob gave to
Rachel, Am I in God's stead? - Can I give thee that which God
denies thee? He acknowledges the hand of God in the affliction:
He hath withheld the fruit of the womb. Whatever we want, it is
God that with-holds it, as sovereign Lord, most wise, holy, and
just, that may do what he will with his own, and is debtor to no
man: that never did, nor ever can do, any wrong to any of his
creatures. The key of the clouds, of the heart, of the grave, and of
the womb, are four keys which God has in his hand, and which
(the Rabbins say) he intrusts neither with angel nor seraphin. He
also acknowledges his own inability to alter what God appointed,
Am I in God's stead? What, dost thou make a God of me? There is
no creature that is, or can be, to us in God's stead. God may be to
us, instead of any creature, as the sun instead of the moon and
stars; but the moon and all the stars will not be to us instead of the
sun. No creature's wisdom, power, and love will be to us instead
of God's. It is therefore our sin and folly to place that confidence
in any creature, which is to be placed in God only.
Verse
3. Behold my maid, Bilhah - At the persuasion of Rachel he took
Bilhah her handmaid to wife, that, according to the usage of those
times, his children by her might be adopted and owned as her
mistresses children. She would rather have children by reputation
than none at all; children that she might call her own, though they
were not so. And as an early instance of her dominion over the
children born in her apartment, she takes a pleasure in giving
them names, that carry in them nothing but marks of emulation
with her sister. As if she had overcome her,
1. At law, she calls the flrst son of her handmaid, Daniel,
Judgment, saying, God hath Judged me - That is, given sentence
in my favour.
2. In battle, she calls the next Naphtali, Wrestlings, saying, I have
wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed - See what roots of
bitterness envy and strife are, and what mischief they make
among relations!
Verse
9. Rachel had done that absurd and preposterous thing of putting
her maid into her husband's bed, and now Leah (because she
missed one year in bearing children) doth the same, to be even
with her. See the power of rivalship, and admire the wisdom of
the divine appointment, which joins together one man and one
woman only. Two sons Zilpah bare to Jacob, whom Leah looked
upon herself as intitled to, in token of which she called one Gad,
promising herself a little troop of children. The other she called
Asher, Happy, thinking herself happy in him, and promising
herself that her neighbours would think so too.
Verse
14. Reuben, a little lad of five or six years old, playing in the
field, found mandrakes. It is uncertain what they were; the critics
are not agreed about them: we are sure they were some rarities,
either fruits or flowers that were very pleasant to the smell, So vii,
13. Some think these mandrakes were Jessamin flowers.
Whatever they were, Rachel, could not see them in Leah's hands,
but she must covet them.
Verse
17. And God hearkened unto Leah - Perhaps the reason of this
contest between Jacob's wives for his company, and their giving
him their maids to be his wives, was the earnest desire they had to
fulfil the promise made to Abraham (and now lately renewed to
Jacob) that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude,
and that, in one seed of his, the Messiah, all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed. Two sons Leah was now blessed with; the
flrst she called Issachar, a hire, reckoning herself well repaid for
her mandrakes; nay, (which is a strange construction of the
providence) rewarded for giving her maid to her husband. The
other she called Zebulun, dwelling, owning God's bounty to her,
God has endowed me with a good dowry. Jacob had not endowed
her when he married her; but she reckons a family of children, a
good dowry.
Verse
21. Mention is made, of Dinah, because of the following story
concerning her, chap. xxxiv, 1-16, &c. Perhaps Jacob had other
daughters, though not registered.
Verse
22. God remembered Rachel, whom he seemed to have forgotten,
and hearkened to her, whose prayers had been long denied, and
then she bare a son. Rachael called her son Joseph, which, in
Hebrew, is a-kin to two words of a contrary signification: Asaph,
abstulit, he has taken away my reproach, as if the greatest mercy
she had in this son were, that she had saved her credit: and Joseph,
addidit, the Lord shall add to me another son: which may be
looked upon as the language of her faith; she takes this mercy as
an earnest of further mercy: hath God given me this grace? I may
call it Joseph, and say, he shall add more grace.
Verse
34. Laban was willing to consent to this bargain, because he
thought if those few he had that were now speckled and spotted
were separated from the rest, which was to be done immediately,
the body of the flock which Jacob was to tend, being of one
colour, either all black or all white, would produce few or none of
mixt colours, and so he should have Jacob's service for nothing, or
next to nothing. According to this bargain, those few that were
party-coloured were separated, and put into the hands of Laban's
sons, and sent three days journey off: so great was Laban's
jealouly lest any of those should mix with the rest of the flock to
the advantage of Jacob.
Verse
37. Here is Jacob's policy to make his bargain more advantageous
to himself than it was likely to be: and if he had not taken some
course to help himself, it would have been an ill bargain indeed;
which he knew Laban would never have considered, who did not
consult any one's interest but his own.
1. Now Jacob's contrivances were, He set pilled sticks before the
cattle where they were watered, that looking much at those
unusual party-coloured sticks, by the power of imagination, they
might bring forth young ones in like manner party-coloured.
Probably this custom was commonly used by the shepherds of
Canaan, who coveted to have their cattle of this motly colour.
2. When he began to have a flock of ring-straked and brown, he
contrived to set them first, and to put the faces of the rest towards
them, with the same design as he did the former. Whether this was
honest policy, or no, may admit of a question. Read chap. xxxi, 7-
16, and the question is resolved.
Chapter 30:
| Calvin
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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