How Long Did Jacob Wrestle with Laban?–Part Two
What were the societies and cultures like in Mesopotamia during the time of the biblical patriarchs? Why was Jacob sent into Mesopotamia to choose a wife from among the daughters of Laban? And how many years did Jacob live with and work for Laban in Harran? If we accept the story about Jacob’s wives and the births of his children as it is presented in Scripture, we can certainly understand why some people would attempt to solve some of the inherent chronological problems and issues regarding the number of years Jacob lived with and worked for Laban in Harran. Typically many people believe Jacob lived in Harran for 20 years based on the contractual agreements he made with Laban. But could it be that Jacob was in Harran for more than 20 years? We pick up the story with Jacob’s meeting Rachel by the shepherd’s well near Harran and his decision to live a month among his Mesopotamian relatives. Then at the end of the month Jacob entered into a seven-year agreement to work for his uncle Laban, perhaps in exchange for a dowry that would allow him to marry Rachel. Then after this seven-year contractual agreement was fulfilled, Laban deceived Jacob into marrying the eldest daughter Leah first, which angered Jacob. To settle the problem, Laban agreed to give him Rachel after a week if Jacob would again enter into another seven-year contractual agreement to work for Laban. Now according to the biblical account Leah began to have children starting with her firstborn Reuben, who was born perhaps as early as the latter part of Jacob’s eighth year in Harran. Then Leah had three more sons, with the second son Simeon being born in about Jacob’s 10th year of contractual service. Then Levi would likely have been born about the 12th year in Harran, and finally Judah would have been born near the end of the 14 contractual years that Jacob worked for Laban. (The birth years are reasonably estimated, but the sequence of the births are according to Scripture. It is not likely that a child was born every consecutive year for Leah.) Then we read that Leah stopped having children, or as it reads in the Authorized Version, Leah “left bearing” (Gen. 29:35). An assumption that is commonly made regarding this statement is that Leah was only taking a short break from child bearing. But this is not the sense of Scripture because the statement means that she actually ceased having children, with the intent or circumstance to remain that way. Simply the statement that Leah “left bearing” implies she had reason to perceive that she wouldn’t or couldn’t have more children. Now if we follow the story closely we see that Leah’s circumstance—to cease having children—was followed by the account of Rachel allowing her handmaid Bilhah to have children in her stead by her husband Jacob. It may have been that Leah’s situation prompted Rachel to make this kind of decision, or perhaps Rachel had determined to do this earlier while Leah was still able to bear her first four children, but we cannot know for certain. Nevertheless Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah began to have children—first Dan and then Naphtali. Perhaps there may have been some overlap with the births of Bilhah’s children and the births of Leah’s children, but it is not likely there was any overlap with the births of those children born to Leah’s handmaid Zilpah and the birth of Leah’s first four children. The reason is because according to Scripture Leah had four children, then Bilhah had two children, and after that Zilpah had two children in Leah’s stead. Therefore, given the biblical context, Zilpah’s children would have been born after Leah ceased having children. And Scripture states that: “when Leah saw that she had left [ceased] bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife” (Gen. 30:9). Consequently the time when Leah was unable to have children was not marked by the births of the children born to Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah, but rather to the births of those born to Leah’s handmaid Zilpah according to the record of Scripture. And so Leah may have had children during the time that Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali, but not during the time Zilpah was giving birth to both Gad and Asher. This would account for a period of a few years when Leah was not bearing children. But let’s continue. Scripture tells us it was after Zilpah had given birth to two sons that Leah was again able to have children. And after the birth of her fifth son, Leah said, “God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar” (Gen. 30:18). Here Leah claims that the birth of Issachar was considered to be like a wage or reward because she had given Zilpah to Jacob and there were children born by Zilpah. So the result of children being born by Zilpah was perceived as having gained favor from God, so Leah said that “God hath given me my hire.” The sense then is that Leah felt rewarded by God because her handmaid Zilpah had children with Jacob, confirming that some years had passed after the birth of Judah before Leah began to bear children again. This conclusion has support in that Leah was apparently asking God for more children after she “left bearing,” and Scripture states that: “God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son” (Gen. 30:17). After this Leah had her sixth son Zebulun, and she likened all of her children to a dowry, which was a bride’s family’s gift to the bridegroom. And it was sometime after this that Leah had a daughter named Dinah. (Scripture notes that Issachar and Zebulun were numbered fifth and sixth in respect to their births, which did not account for the interval births of Zilpah’s children. This ordinal numbering of her sons