Gen 35:16-36:15

Timeline:

2006	Birth of Jacob and Esau	Gen 25:26	Jacob: 0 yrs
1930	Jacob journeys to Haran	Gen 28:2
1916	End of Jacob's 14 year labor for his wives	Gen 29:30
1916	Birth of Joseph	Gen 30:23
1910	End of Jacob's stay with Laban	Gen 31:41
1905-1899	Death of Rachel, birth of Benjamin	Gen 35:16-22
1899	Selling of Joseph	Gen 37:2	107
1879	Beginning of famine	Gen 41:54
1878	Brothers’ first visit to Egypt	Gen 42:1-2
1877	Judah's incest with Tamar	Gen 38:18
1877	Brothers’ second visit to Egypt	Gen 43:1; 45:6, 11
1876	Jacob's descent to Egypt	Gen 46:6; cf. 47:9	130 yrs
1845	Israel is enslaved
1446	Israel leaves Egypt after 400 years of bondage	Gen 15:13,16;Acts 7:6
1395	Conquest of Caanan complete (essentially)	Acts 13:19,20



Genesis 35:16–29 (ESV) —
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17 And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” 18 And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20 and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. 21 Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
22 While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23 The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28 Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.



• This is the final son of the 12. Scholars place this between 1905-1899 AD
• Joseph would be between 11 and 16 years older than Benjamin
• His other brothers could be as much as 16 to 30 years older
• Why move away from Bethel?
• It does not say
• Proper hermeneutics, without any passages to say, it would be spiritualizing or guessing
• There is a lot of interesting points to make without going too far in regards to Rachel. Do you remember what she said to Jacob when Leah had 4 children and she had none?
• "Give me children or else I die" (30:1)
• Leah wasn't much better, what did she want?
• Her husband to love her
• By her fourth son, Judah she would finally say, "I will just praise the Lord" (29:35)
• Rachel and Leah are just like us, Why?
• APPLICATION: There are never content with their blessings or what they have, life is always about what you don't have
• Another observation concerning Rachel. What did Jacob say to Laban that involved Rachel?
• The person had his household gods would die
• Fortunately, curses don't work that way
• It is true that our words can kill and give life, but not in the sense that a cult might believe
• The Bible says that God is sovereign and also gives man free will
• Rachel's death at Ramah is used in another prophecy (Jer 31:15  and Matt 2:18)
• Jeremiah 31:15 (ESV) — 15 Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
• Matthew 2:16–18 (ESV) —
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
• We know this is metaphorical because of what Hermeneutical principle?
• First, The Bible was written in common Greek and Hebrew and was to be read like any other book
• Secondly, the verse does not make sense when read literally
• This occurs at Bethlehem, not Ramah, but they are close. So what is the connection?
• It is not the location
• It is the feeling of a mother
• Rachel lost her children (in a sense) because she died -- that is why Ben-oni is the name -- it was the son of her pain
• Israel renames the son, Benjamin -- the son of my good fortune
• Not because Rachel died, but because it was a positive view of the birth
• No child desires to be known as the one whose birth killed their mother
• I only have a few points on Reuben. What number child was he?
• He was the oldest
• His action here invalidates him from being in the line of the Messiah
• Reuben may have wanted to prevent Rachel’s maid from succeeding Rachel as his father’s favorite wife. He probably resented the fact that Jacob did not honor his mother. (Wehnham)
• Reuben’s act constituted a claim against (a challenge to) his father as well as being an immoral act (cf. Deut. 22:30; 2 Sam. 16:21–22; 1 Kings 2:13–25). In the ancient Near East a man who wanted to assert his superiority over another man might do so by having sexual relations with that man’s wife or concubine (cf. 2 Sam. 16:21–22). Ancient Near Easterners regarded this act of physical domination as an evidence of personal domination. (Constable)
• The act is gross, and has to be understood hermeneutically
• The Bible accurately records the events
• The Bible does not endorse the actions relayed, unless in a didactic portion there is teaching supporting the action or commentary from God
• Reminder Bilhah is Rachel's maid


Genesis 36:1–8 (ESV) —
1 These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). 2 Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, 3 and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. 4 And Adah bore to Esau, Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel; 5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. 7 For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. 8 So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)


• The first thing to note is the names of the wives appear to be different from what Moses had originally recorded
• This was fairly common practice in that region to change the name after marriage
• The Israelites do not appear to use the practice
• The second thing is we have this separation of the families due to their wealth
• So these were nomadic tribes -- they moved around quite a bit. By the way, they still do this today in parts of Saudi Arabia (although usually staying within range of cell phone towers)
• Originally, when Jacob arrived in the land, where was Esau living?
• In Seir
• Now we find Esau living in the land of Canaan
• Apparently, he liked that area and he decides to move


Genesis 36:9–15 (ESV) —
9 These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. 10 These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Basemath the wife of Esau. 11 The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. 12 (Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. 13 These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. 14 These are the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15 These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: the chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,


• I made you suffer through this to point out a few names to highlight a few nations that come from Esau. Do you notice a couple of them?
• So verse 12 is the origin of the Amalekites. Saul defeated them in his reign as well as David in his reign
• So verses 11, and 15 introduce us to the Kenizzites who later affiliate with the tribe of Judah
• We are not reading the remaining names, but here are some observations
• The king list (vs 31-39) reflects elective kingship rather than a dynastic rule


APPLICATION:
• Are we content with life or are we do spend our life living for the next big thing
• Example of weekends, holidays, and summer in college
• Secondly, our actions have consequences
• Reuben's actions remove him from the line of the Messiah
• Later, we will see a slightly similar situation with Judah that does not remove him from the line of the messiah. We need to understand the differences