First part.
About the envy of Rachel against her sister, and about her impatience, and how she punishes Jacob about it.
When Rachel saw that she had not given birth to Jacob, she envied her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children; if not, I will die.
This chapter is one of the most difficult in this book, both as far as the words and also the mind and history are concerned. Therefore, many questions arise, both concerning grammar and history, which historical questions are even more difficult than the questions in grammar. But lest we be thought to pass over them, we will do as much as we can.
(2) And first of all, the carnal and Epicurean people raise this question, because such people regard this history as an example of outward dishonor and impurity. For Jacob takes two sisters, and above them their two maids, and so becomes a husband to four wives: wherefore they judge Jacob according to the manner of them, and invent that he should have been unchaste, who only wholly and completely
He said that he had made a point of loving women because he had not been satisfied with one wife, but had had to take four. They are very annoyed by this and therefore take cause to blaspheme and on the other hand to praise and extol their celibacy and celibate status against the lust and unchastity, which they consider to be that of the very holy patriarchs and especially of Jacob.
3 But their judgment of these things is as valid as if a sow or a donkey were to judge a good harpist or lute-player. They are such a people, completely drowned in fornication, whoredom and adultery, who day and night only dream of their fornication and think what they would do, if they were allowed such freedom or courage, that they would change all nights with the women and joke with them according to the heat of their flesh, as they play with their whores: so they make no distinction between the holy life of married couples and their shameful fornication, which they do.
(4) Lyra makes it very sour to defend Jacob here. But one should answer the coarse and lewd sows thus: That Jacob's chastity is greater, who has four, five, or a hundred wives, than is found in all their celibates and celibate state, if they already have their whores.
abstain. For let us suppose that there is one who truly lives without a wife, who abstains completely; it is certain that Jacob is a hundred times more chaste. For he that liveth without a wife out of wedlock burneth day and night with fornication: when he sleepeth, he hath his defilement; when he awaketh, he feeleth the heat again. But what kind of chastity is this, where one lives and burns in the midst of the fire of fornication? Wherever he looks at a beautiful woman, he is completely inflamed; and even though he restrains himself and abstains from the work, such lust brings its defilement and impurity with it, not only when he sleeps, but also when he wakes, as Gerson testifies.
For this reason, chastity is not voluntary, but forced. For he would rather fall by force over women than be senseless: he cannot subdue or restrain the heat. I say of those who are chaste and resist fornication, as St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure were; who, being otherwise holy and pious men, could not be without heat. Yes, Jerome also complains about the dreams in which he dreamt how he danced with the girls in Rome. Similarly, Ambrose and Augustine secretly indicate, although they both abstained from women, that they nevertheless did not lack the heat and defilement that they had at night. Since this happened to the best and holiest of men, what is the pretended celibacy and celibate life to us, and also the judgment of these impious swine, who think that the fathers behaved toward their wives as they would if they were allowed to live with so many wives?
(6) What follows, and what has been said above about Jacob's chastity, shows that he was completely chaste. For is this not chastity, where one lives without a wife until the eightieth year of his age, and that he abstains not from compulsion, but voluntarily, and that he is inclined to it in the spirit? The same do you think of your first
From youth to old age, let us praise your celibacy and chastity. Therefore, the celibacy of the papists has no glory at all if one wanted to compare it with the chastity of the patriarchs.
7. After this, however, we will hear Jacob complain about the toilsome and vexatious life, as he speaks harshly to Laban and accuses him, saying: "He describes his whole life, which he did not spend in idleness, without worry, toil and work, and did not sit idle at home by the fire or the tiled stove and joke with Leah, but how he was out day and night, tending the cattle and doing all the work with the cattle, had to suffer frost and heat under the sky, and rarely came into the hut under the roof. That should probably drive away the tickle when he is already young.
8 For this reason, I say, Jacob lived with so many wives, and much more chastely than any other man with one wife. For to suffer heat by day and frost by night, to be burdened with much labor in strange and heavy service under such a lord, who is a rogue and a miser, is truly a great and unbearable burden.
(9) Therefore Lyra justly excuses Jacob, that he lived chastely and used his wives and maids moderately. For he kept himself to them only because he desired to beget children with them; which also can be seen in the great and miserable desire of the wives, that they always desired to have children. For behold, how they so miserably longed for the man, that they might only have children by him. Therefore he was seldom in the tents where the women dwelt, and dwelt with his wives in the purest love, desiring to beget children with them. And we see that he loves Leah for the sake of the children, who before was hated and despised, and has more fellowship with her than with Rachel, after he sees and learns that she is a woman.
is fruitful. Therefore, we want to answer the first question in this text in such a way that the mouths of the impolite people who want to judge the married state of the patriarchs according to their fornication and impure celibacy are shut.
(10) The other question was mentioned earlier, namely, that Jacob took two maidservants in addition to the two wives. I cannot say anything certain about this, but it can be assumed that at that time it was customary in the same country for barren women to give their husbands maidservants and to keep them with them; just as Laban gave each daughter a maid, perhaps to the end that the daughter would not give birth, so that then the maid would take her place, so that the house would be built and fed by her. Thus, in Genesis 16:2, Sarah gave Abraham a maid, not a stranger, but from her own house and household. Isaac did not follow this way, nor would Jacob have used it if he had not been deceived by Laban and the wives had not desired it so much.
For this must also be considered, that fertility was considered a great blessing and special gift of God at that time. As can be seen in Deut. 28, 4, where Moses counts the fertility of the body among the blessings; and in Ex. 23, 26, he says: "There shall be nothing barren or unfruitful in your land" etc.
(12) We do not regard it so highly this day. We like cattle and desire them very much to be fertile, but among men there are few who consider it a blessing when women are fertile; indeed, there are many who do not like the blessing and consider it a special happiness when women are barren. Which is truly also against nature, and much less divine and holy. For such a tendency is planted in human nature by God, that it desires and covets to be fruitful and multiply.
Therefore, it is inhumane and ungodly to despise children. How new
One man called his wife a sow, because she often gave birth. The worthless and impure man! The holy fathers were not of this mind, for they recognized that it was a special blessing from God if a woman was fertile, and on the other hand they considered the barrenness of women to be a curse. And such knowledge and judgment flowed from God's word, Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply" etc. Therefore, they understood that children were a gift from God.
014 But the example, or the act of giving the maids to the men instead of the women, which were barren, is not to be taken to mean that they should follow it. Let no one say, This is what Jacob did, therefore it behooves me to do it; as was said above by Muenzer, who exhorted the peasants to slay the princes after the example of Joshua and Samson: but think that it behooves you to abide by this rule: Every man shall have his own wife.
(15) If you want to be like Joshua and Samson, make sure that all circumstances drive you to change the government and to kill the authorities, as these great heroes were moved to do by their special profession; otherwise the example will not be valid. For you have more and greater examples that prove that the authorities should not be killed and the common regiments should not be changed. Therefore you must obey the authorities as other subjects, for you are not exempt from the rule. Therefore, remember and remain obedient; do not become a great hero, as Muenzer and others have been subject to etc.
016 Therefore these things are not taught for an example, but that we abstain from examples and from following them: that we may marvel at them, but not follow them. For there are some things which we ought to follow, and some things which we ought to wonder at. Hope, believe and call upon God, as Leah did; but take not four wives, as Jacob did. For this is due to Jacob alone, and to those whom God has exempted from the common rule.
want. We should practice faith, patience and hope, which is held up to us in the fathers, and should abstain from the high examples, where they did special deeds as great heroes.
These are the questions that have to be considered in the beginning of this chapter and something has to be said about them. Now let us also look at the text, which is also somewhat obscure. The text says: "She envied her sister", or was jealous against her. For in Hebrew the word kana, to envy, is iron; kanno, zealot etc.
(18) But it is also asked whether the holy women who called upon God in right faith were also envious and spiteful, as the text clearly indicates. Lyra makes two kinds of envy: one is so that I envy another when he is well; the other is when I become displeased and angry because of my sorrow and misery. But this is not really envy. So we excuse it, as we usually do: The holy fathers and mothers were still captives under the flesh, as we also have the flesh, which contends against us and takes us captive in the law of sins.
Nineteen: But all temptations, especially great temptations, are such as to take away from a man almost all sense of godliness. So he who is burdened with crosses and misfortunes feels no patience: he who is challenged on account of faith and hope feels no faith and no hope; he does not let himself think that he believes or hopes, but it seems to him as if he were completely godless. He who is afflicted with despair and impatience against God, when God sends and governs something in a different way than we had prescribed and considered for ourselves, feels in his heart very great anger and displeasure against God, and makes it seem that he does not have a shred of faith or hope.
(20) Such are the thoughts of afflicted people when the challenge comes by force. Otherwise, when no challenge
If there is a lack of faith and hope, then nothing seems easier to me than faith and hope; but in the struggle everything soon disappears together. So it is with other temptations also, as with impatience, anger and unchastity: there one sees and feels the fervor and vengeance. And it is true that such affections and desires are not faith, hope and love, but are the flesh itself. So Rachel had the temptation with envy, so that she wished that it would happen that her sister would not bear children, although she did not remain lying under the temptation; but it happened to her that St. Paul Rom. 7:19 says: "That which I do not want, I do, and that which I want, I do not."
(21) He who is afflicted with despair feels inexpressible groaning, so that he may wish not to be so afflicted with such doubt; and yet he feels that the doubt is still somewhat stronger and takes him captive to sin and the law of unbelief. But against this a secret groaning is awakened in the heart by the Holy Spirit, which again grumbles and contradicts, and is also angry with unbelief, saying: Fie you, you wretched unbelief, do not say thus: Who knows? it is a lie etc. And the same happens with a little groaning and with unspeakable sighing, as St. Paul calls it Rom. 8, 26; which soaks the heart that is challenged, so that it does not become godless and despise God, as the Epicureans are wont to do, who in every little challenge let faith and hope go.
(22) But this controversy is grievous and vexatious to the flesh, which would rather have such faith as would not be challenged, or so expect shocks, but which might slay lions and bears, as David, Samson, and others have done. But my faith is so small and weak that it could very easily be consumed and carried away by a lion or a bear. But there is still the crushed reed and the small glowing
Is 42:3, and God is also present, who understands the groaning, who recognizes what the Holy Spirit asks for us. Therefore it is a great fire before God, yes, it is hotter and greater than heaven and earth can be.
Therefore the saints are to be excused according to the saying of Paul, Rom. 7:23: "I see another law in my members, which is contrary to the law in my mind, and it takes me captive. Item, when he says v. 25, "With the flesh I serve the law of sin." For thus the holy mothers were men who lived in the flesh but did not walk according to the flesh, as an example to us that we should not despair nor give way to the flesh. Rachel envies her sister and has a zeal against her, but the Spirit contends and fights against the zeal of the flesh. She would have liked to have had the blessing so that her sister would be blessed, and yet she forces herself not to wish that she should become barren.
24 By this it may be seen that the very holy women were not unchaste, but desired children and the blessing. For this is the cause of the envy of Rachel, who, if she had been like other wives, such as there were many in our time, would have said: What do I care? I will give birth or not give birth; if I only remain a housemother and have enough of everything else, that is enough for me. But Rachel has such a great desire for children that she would rather die than remain barren. And I don't know whether I have read more such words in any history.
25 Therefore, it is an example of a very pious and chaste woman, who has only one zeal and desire, even unto death, that she may have children; as above in Genesis 16:2 Sarai also let herself be heard that she had such a great desire for children. And in both of them, this emotion and desire is very praiseworthy. If I am not to have children, says Rachel,
I must die; I would rather not live than have no children; and since my flesh is unfit for childbirth and barren, let my husband beget children with the maidservant; but if he is also denied with the maidservant, I desire that God will claim me from this life.
026 And she had no small cause of this great desire. For Jacob undoubtedly praised and proclaimed to both of them how he had the promise that the promised seed would be born from him. Now that they heard this preaching, the desire and eagerness to have children was kindled in them. And especially the desire in Rachel was great, so that the less hope she had, the greater her desire was, also so that she plans either to give birth or to die; as she also dies afterwards over the birth. This desire and longing of the pious, godly woman is good and holy, but it is so fierce that she gets into a hard fight over it and is challenged with envy and zeal against her sister. And this should not be taken as a shameful example, as the papists accuse these holy people of having been unchaste. For they did not look to the shameful and wretched lust of the flesh in marriage, but to the blessing of having children for the sake of the promised seed.
And Jacob was very wroth with Rachel, and said, Am I not God, which will not give thee the fruit of thy womb?
027 Jacob is angry because Rachel presses him so hard for the sake of the children, and answers her thus, The fault is not mine, for thou art my most beloved wife, with whom I have dwelt more than with thy sister; for I am not God, who could give thee the fruitfulness to bear children.
28. but this is all very small and impious, and however highly it may be praised, it is still human, carnal and feminine; and it is a wonder that the Holy Spirit should be troubled to describe such a thing.
namely, how Rachel had envied her sister Leah, and how the one had given birth and the other had been barren; item, that Rachel had blasphemed and insisted too vehemently on the husband that she would have children by him, so that Jacob also became very angry with her after the flesh, and thus a real quarrel arose between the same husband and wife. Is this not a childish thing?
(29) This is the question we have just discussed, and it should always be raised and urged upon the people, namely, why the Holy Spirit, who has a very pure mouth, should speak with such great diligence of these things, which the most holy father, the pope, with his chaste monks and nuns, would not like to think of once, as things that are very impure and carnal in their eyes. For they walk in great things of their celibacy and celibate life. But they do not consider it worth reading about this filth, how the wives became pregnant, gave birth to children, and how the spouses were angry with each other. They say that the Holy Spirit, according to his holiness, could have spoken of heavenly and other higher things and not of such lowly and carnal things; he should have become a monk or nun, but now he only tells how things were with the household and how things were with Jacob's marriage. This annoys us holy and angelic men, who walk above the clouds in the wisdom and spirituality of the angels.
(30) But because they despise these little things and are disgusted with them, the Holy Spirit is now hostile to the saints who are so trustworthy and glorious, and does not recognize them as his own; he always lets them be led away in their glory, hope and vanity, and goes down to his creatures; he takes care of them and adorns them. For he created the earth, he created man and woman, and blessed them to be fruitful; he subjected the world to them, and it is he who still sustains everything; he nourishes and gives milk to the mother, to nourish and sustain the child with it. He does not despise this creature. He does not despise his work, but nevertheless to the celibacy.
and celibate state not to dishonor. For the same is also a gift of God, and we praise both kinds of status, each according to its order and measure.
(31) We do not praise the married state in such a way that we should reproach or reject celibacy, which the papists do not do; for they praise their celibacy in such a way that they blaspheme and revile the married state, and they praise chastity not as a gift of God, but as their own work. This is a true doctrine of the devil, as can be seen from the fruits that have come from it. For because they have wanted to boast of the works of the flesh, that is why they live so shamefully today, and are more lewd than all harlots and whoremongers. But why is this? Answer: Because they have not praised chastity as a work of God, but as their own work, and have despised and blasphemed the marriage state, which is a work and order of God.
32 For this reason God has taken the liberty of describing such small things, so that he may show and testify that he is not disdainful, that he has no abhorrence, or that he does not want to be far from the household, from a pious husband, and from wife and children. But why does he do this? Answer: Because he created it, for which reason he governs and sustains it as his creature; although the flesh is corrupt because of sins, and the flesh of those who live in celibacy is also not pure, and they also came from such an origin. Why then do they condemn him and think more of their impure chastity than of holy matrimony? Therefore the Holy Spirit wants to teach us and testify to us, since he deals with these small, human and common things, that we should know that he wants to be with us, take care of us, and prove that he is our creator and governor. The papists do not see this, but despise it; therefore they must also bear the punishment for such contempt.
(33) Nor do they see how these women ask for children with such a pure and motherly heart; which desire and words of Rachel's indicate that their heart is
has been far and away from fornication. But they do not see that. Why is that? Answer: Because it is written: Away with the wicked, lest he see or hear what God speaks, what He does, or what He works. They are not worthy to see the glory of God. So today, as we shout, they hear us teaching and singing the word of God; they see the works of God and yet they do not see them. Why? because they are not worthy. So they also do not see that Rachel is held up to us as an example of a very fine, pure and motherly heart and chastity, which desires children only from the flesh, as Leah also did. You hear that these women speak of nothing else but: The Lord gave it, the Lord blessed it; and afterwards, as they quarrel, "The Lord will be judge between me and thee." All their words and speeches are about God, about His benefits, gifts and works, and yet the shameful papists consider all this to be sin, and do not consider these holy matrons worthy of having their examples held up to the people in the church and congregation of God.
(34) What can be taught in the church of God that is better and more useful than the example of a godly housemother, who prays, sighs, cries out, thanks God, rules the house, does what the office of a godly woman entails, desires to have children, with great chastity, gratitude and godliness? What more could she do? But the pope, cardinals and bishops should not see this; for they are not worthy. The Holy Spirit always makes them walk in strange, great and supernatural things, and that they only marvel at their chastity and praise it highly, which would be worthy of being pointed out to the common house; but these things they shall not see at all. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit leads and governs the holy women in such a way that he testifies that they are his creatures, whom he wants to govern not only according to the spirit, but also according to the flesh; that they should call upon God, pray, thank him for the children and be obedient to their husbands. That is, to give these filthy things to the congregation to read, that they may
God's great and wonderful works in the church and community show how He can work heavenly and spiritual things in the carnal and earthly things. But the wicked see the carnal things, and what is spiritual and divine they do not see.
35 Thirdly, they do not see the misfortune, misery and misery with which these poor women have struggled, but imagine that they have lived in opulence, idleness and pleasure, as they live a life. They think that Jacob was a great lord and lived in great estate with his wives in vain pleasure; Rachel was adorned like a queen with delicious jewelry and gifted with great money and goods. For such a life and such wives they desire to have, and a large part of them also lives in such pleasure and a good chamber. But look at history and you will find that Jacob was a poor, miserable man who did not have a penny of his own. So the wives were also very poor; as Rachel and Leah both complain afterwards Gen 31:14, 15: "We have neither part nor inheritance left in our father's house. He has treated us as strangers, for he has sold us and eaten up our wages. If the daughters were poor and beggars, it is much more likely that the maids will have been poor and needy.
Because of this there was great poverty, and always much hard labor, which they bore day and night, and above that they suffered hunger, thirst and frost. Follow this, you who accuse these very holy people of being unchaste. Take four wives, and after that serve a whole fourteen years to such a lord, who is stingy and ungrateful. But there is no one who will see or consider this. And there is no one today who would take more than one wife, let alone four, on condition that he would serve and always be a servant, making another rich with his sweat and labor, and then not see how he would feed himself and his wife.
37. therefore this is an exceedingly great
Believe that Jacob takes so many wives in the hope that God will help him in his poverty and feed him and all his household. It is easy to take a wife, but it takes effort and work to feed her with the children and the household. Now there is no one who would pay attention to this belief of Jacob's; indeed, there are many who think their wives are fertile and bear many children, only for the reason that the children must be nourished and brought up. For thus they commonly speak: Why should I take a wife, because I am poor and a beggar; I would rather bear my poverty alone and not increase my misery and poverty. But you do not put this blame on the marriage state and the fruit of the womb. Why do you not rather complain about your unbelief, that you do not trust in the goodness of God, and thus bring greater misery upon yourself by punishing the blessing of God? For if you could trust in the grace of God and His promises, you would undoubtedly be well fed; but because you do not put your hope and trust in the Lord, you will never be able to have happiness.
(38) Thus we see that in these impure things the greatest virtues shine forth, namely, an excellent faith, certain hope, and an unconquerable patience toward God and man; which neither the papists nor others will easily see, unless they diligently consider the circumstances. But those who do not respect these things at all, who believe nothing at all, may go away and remain the most impure whore-hunters.
(39) We are to learn that not only to the church or religion and to the worldly government, but also to the household belongs a believing husband and a believing wife. For an unbelieving man never does anything right and that happiness can be there. I still remember that Staupitz told me a story about a prior in a monastery. Since he always complained that the interest and income of the monastery were too small to maintain the monks according to necessity, Staupitz at last took over the registers of his
He demanded income and expenditure from him, seeing that the monastery's property had increased considerably every year; therefore he had him summoned before him and deprived him of his office, saying to him: "You are not a believer, therefore it is impossible that you can preside over the monastery.
40 Therefore all government and all life is in faith; but to awaken and strengthen it, the example of Jacob serves exceedingly well. For he has not a penny to his name, and yet he must feed four wives in his hard labor, having nothing more than his meager food and clothing, on which he has been content for fourteen years. Not one of us will easily do this to him, not even with one wife, let alone with two or four. For there is no one who would live and live without a certain salary for even a week; how then should one serve for fourteen years just for daily bread? So we are not to be compared with these people, but we are even unbelievers.
(41) When the Holy Spirit speaks of bad, low and despised things, he nevertheless includes the most precious gems of very great and beautiful virtues, which the rude and impolite sows, the papists, do not see. For they look only at carnal things, and instead of honey they suck from the rose vain poison. For in these examples of the fathers they punish that they have committed fornication, that they have had many wives; and when Rachel and Leah desire children, they punish this as lewd coitus. They do not remember how they called upon God and praised Him, how they had great faith and patience.
(42) But how should such people judge differently, who are drowned in idleness and the pleasures of this life, like the cardinals and the tamer monkeys, who live their lives without toil and labor, and also without any challenge? Therefore, we should read the Holy Scriptures in a different and better way. And for this very reason I repeat this so often and inculcate it in you, that we should not look at these lowly and altogether carnal things with carnal eyes, but with spiritual eyes; then we will-
we see the miraculous counsel of the Holy Spirit in such descriptions, much more than otherwise in high and very spiritual things.
Second part.
As Rachel gave her maid to Jacob, who bore him two sons; item, as Leah gave her maid to Jacob, who also bore him two sons.
And she said, Behold, Bilhah my handmaid; lie with her, that she may bear upon my womb, and that I may be built up by her.
43 "To bear in thy womb" is a peculiar way of speaking in the Hebrew language, so that Rachel indicates that she wants to become a mother, and with these words she accepts the child born of the maid as her child. For these words mean the office of a mother, because the mother carries the child in her womb; as in the prophet Isaiah at the 66th chapter v. 12. is written: "On the knees you will be held kindly" etc. The mother has the child on her lap. Therefore she thought, "Since I cannot have a son of my own, I will become the mother of the seed given by my handmaid.
44 From this you can see how great and ardent their desire was for the promised seed; item, how godly they were, and how they had such excellent faith, so that they kept the promises of Christ, which had happened to Jacob. Therefore, these women must certainly have been very pious, since they could have been wives of such a poor man and served in their father's house like maids. This has been such a holiness, the like of which cannot be found elsewhere. It has been a great wonderful faith, patience, hope and love. Our bourgeois or peasant daughters are so delicate that they would never do such a thing.
V.4 So she gave him Bilhah her maid to wife, and Jacob lay with her.
(45) Neither would a woman do this, for she would rather be without children than concede and allow the honor of motherhood and the marriage bed to the maidservant. And this is a strange emotion and desire, of which an example was described above, Genesis 16:2, in Sarah, that they gave and granted the honor and glory of marriage to the maidservants. No woman will do this according to the flesh, but it is a work of the Spirit, by which she was awakened and moved to think: I also want to be a mother, even if I should give up all the honor of my marriage bed and motherhood for a while.
So Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged my cause, and hearkened unto my voice, and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dau.
46. These are not the words of a lewd harlot. For she thanks God that she has been heard, and draws God to judge and ascribes to Him the gift of fertility. I have, she says, cried and prayed, but praise be to God who has judged my cause and heard my voice.
It is a very beautiful thanksgiving, but she is still attached to the flesh, therefore she says: "God has judged my cause", as if she wanted to say: Although my sister is not the right wife, she has nevertheless proudly acted against me, as above, Gen. 16, 4, Hagar also did against Sarah, because she was more fruitful than I: but the Lord has also judged my cause. But, my dear Rachel, why do you rejoice so much? If it is not your son, he is not born of your flesh; your womb and your breasts know nothing of this son. But what is the matter? She is nevertheless happy in herself that she has a son from the maidservant, whom she wants to accept and keep for her son. So great was her love for the fruit of the womb.
48 Dan means as much as judgment. For "God," she says, "hath judged my cause," and looked upon my reproach; as she afterwards (v. 23.) says, "God hath taken away my reproach from me." For the barren
The fact that I was born of a maid has been considered a disgrace, because of the word Gen. 1, 22: "Be fruitful and multiply. But God has judged, that is, he has contended for me and carried out my cause; for I will now also count for something, even though this son was born to me from the handmaid. For she prayed thus: Dear Lord God, since you will not let me become a mother, even though I am the mother of the house and the most noble of women, give me children by the handmaid, if I am not worthy of them; for why will you reject me, cast me out, disgrace me and spurn me? This has been her prayer, which she made with many sighs and tears; and she indicates that the same prayer has been heard. Although this is considered a carnal and lewd thing, it is all done with a great spirit, in faith and with wonderful patience, then with praise to God and thanksgiving that God had delivered her from the shame of barrenness.
(v. 7, 8) Again Bilhah Rachel's handmaid conceived, and bare Jacob the second son. And Rachel said, God hath wrought it for me and for my sister, and I will do it unto her first. And she called his name Naphtali.
49 Now the joy of Rachel is great, because the other son is born. But there is a question among the Hebrews, what Naphthali means? Therefore the grammarians quarrel and have not yet become one of the matter. So Sanctes Pagninus and Münster interpret it: I have had a violent quarrel with my sister. But that it is called a battle of God, they indicate this cause, that in the Hebrew language everything that is great and glorious is called divine. Therefore, Nineveh is called a city of God, that is, a great, glorious city. Item, ceder of God, that is, a high and great cedar tree. Although I do not consider myself to have a great understanding of the Hebrew language, I am hostile to anyone who is so foolhardy as to falsify what is plainly spoken. As if Nineveh were not also a city of God in the foreskin, and
that those who are circumcised are God's people alone. This all comes from the great hope and glory of the Jews, who cannot stand that anything should be called great or glorious, because only what concerns and affects them. But who gave the grammarians the authority to interpret "the battle of God" as if it meant something like a great fierce battle? Therefore, I will follow the simple understanding that grammar gives.
50 The Hebrew word bahal means to change, to turn back; as Ps. 18, 26. 27. says: "With the holy you are holy, and with the wrong you are wrong. Where one turns away from God and does or teaches differently than God teaches and does, wants to do something better and more excellent, and yet turns it all wrong: then God also becomes wrong and changes, so that He does not follow what such a wrong person intends, but lets him go in his thoughts. This is where the word "naphthali" comes from, which in Latin means permutatus, as we say: it has turned. So Rachel also says: Praise be to God, for a change has taken place between me and my sister. And it seems that she spoke the words when Leah ceased to give birth: when the fourth son was born, Rachel had children by the handmaid, namely, Dan and Naphtali. Therefore she said, It is now come to pass, that my sister hath ceased to bear, but I begin and continue to bear children, not by my will, but by the grace and gift of God, who hath heard my prayer.
51 But now a question comes to mind: How could Jacob have begotten twelve children in seven years? For the first seven years he served in vain without wife or child; in the other seven years he took two sisters, and it can be seen that Joseph was born in the last year of Jacob's servitude, after all the other sons, that is, in the fourteenth year. For thus the order of history is written in the text. But how could this have happened? Because Leah alone gave birth to four sons in the first four years, the other eight sons had to be born in three years.
548 D- vn, 298-297. interpretation of Genesis 30:7, 8. w. II, soo-sos. 549
which is impossible. To this I answer: Moses used here the figure, which one calls anticipatio (anticipating), which is hysteron proteron with the speakers; as we want to explain it later. But it is such a figure when one puts the first last and thus reverses the order. And from this it will be understood what this change fei, from which Rachel gives the name to this son. For from this it comes that this is so difficult and dark, because it seems that these patriarchs were all born in the other seven years. Now when this will be explained, the name Naphtali will also become a little clearer.
52 But in order that this might be done, six years must be added to the other seven years, during which Jacob served the cattle. For this is the right order of history. In the first four years the four sons of Leah were born, Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; after that Leah ceased to give birth, and Rachel was born to Dan the maid, who was the fifth son of Jacob, and the fifth year in which Leah did not give birth. And Bilhah Rachel's handmaid filled that year, when she bare her son Dan. Then Rachel rejoiced because of the same fruitfulness, and another son was born to her, Naphtali, in the sixth year, in which Leah also did not give birth; therefore the son was called Naphtali. As if Rachel wanted to say: My sister has ceased to give birth in these two years, as, in the fifth and in the sixth year: But now my thing turns and becomes better with it, as before of this word, what it actually means, from the 18th Psalm was said, and is called in the Proverbs of Solomon Cap. 8, 8. just as much. In the words of wisdom there is "nothing wrong", that is, God's word does not change, nor does it turn, but is bad and right. But here, says Rachel, there is a change, which is a change of God. For since my sister has ceased to give birth, I have now had children, because I have had the advantage, and now I am always increasing, growing, and standing in the pile, since she is now
withered. So the godly woman gives thanks to God that he has heard her prayer and given her children, the least of the maidservant's flesh.
053 And let not the great desire which these women had for the children be thought a shameful lust or lechery; but there was in them both a very chaste lust and desire for the children, so that they also delivered unto the handmaids the right of motherhood and blessing, that the seed of Jacob should possess the land of Canaan; which promise Jacob shall have diligently impressed upon them. Therefore, each one has desired to be the mother of the seed and the descendants.
54 And until then Moses kept the line or order of history in the description of the six years. But the same order is now changed and becomes a hysteron proteron; which figure, if it is not diligently noted in the reading of the holy scriptures, yes, also otherwise in the reading of all histories, often brings about that the mind becomes very dark. For now, according to the order of this history, the birth of Joseph after Naphtali should follow: but with this, Moses delays until the third paragraph, and comes back to Leah, who did not give birth in two years, and also in the year when Joseph will be born. And this happens through the figure hysteron proteron, that is, since the hindmost is put before, through it often in the histories the most difficult passages are explained. Augustine in the 16th book De civitate Dei calls it anticipatio (anticipating) and recapitulatio (repeating), and is one of the rules that are necessary to understand the holy scripture.
(55) Joseph was to be first, and to be placed after Naphtali, but he is placed after: Leah with her maid Zilpah were to be after, but they are placed before. For in the histories many things happened at one time, but not at one place, some in Rome, some in Greece: there such things are not described according to a certain order, but one must bring a history to an end, after which the same time must be repeated, and the beginning and end of the history must be set before the end.
The same history, as it is told, is also to be carried out. For it is one time, but the things are various, which happened at one time at the same time.
56 For this reason it is to be put in a tablet: The first four years are Leah's, the fifth and sixth years are Rachel's handmaid's, in the seventh year Joseph was born; for below (Cap. 41. V. 46.) he says to Pharaoh that he is thirty years old, which agrees finely with the chronology. In the seventh year after the wedding of Jacob and Rachel, Joseph was born, which is quite obvious. But Moses is silent about this, and before he speaks of the birth of Joseph, he lets go the other two sons of Leah and her maidservant, who were born in the six years of Jacob's service, when he served the cattle; for afterwards the text says that Jacob wanted to go back to his country when Joseph was born, but he made a new agreement with Laban for six more years. So it is now clearly proven from the circumstances that Joseph was born before these latter six years, namely in the seventh year, and that he was nourished and raised in Mesopotamia for six years. Benjamin was born seven years after Joseph in the land of Canaan, since his mother died in childbirth. So it is clear and evident that Jacob served his father-in-law Laban twenty years, fourteen years for the daughters and six years for the cattle. These years must be put all together in this calculation.
57 While Leah was three years in childbirth, she wanted to follow Rachel's example, thinking, "Behold, my sister has given birth to a son, Joseph, and because of this is loved by her husband as the most noble wife, from whom he hopes to get the right heirs, and now considers his son Joseph to be the firstborn: he is the light and the prince, because he is the son of the queen and the right housemother. For this reason Leah was anxious to change her husband's mind and turn him away from her sister, and so she devised this plan to give him the maidservant.
wanted to give. With the same Jacob begat the eighth son, Gad. In the ninth year the ninth son, Aeser, was born, and Reuben, the firstborn son of Leah, a boy of eight or nine years old, went into the field, and found about Dudahim, and brought them home; and when Rachel had conceived them, she made a covenant with Leah, that she should sleep the night with Jacob. For such strife and wrath arose among the women for an honest cause. Therefore Leah conceived in the tenth year and gave birth to Issachar, and in the eleventh year to Zebulun. In the twelfth year Dinah was born. Thus Jacob begat eleven sons and one daughter, Dinah, within twelve years.
(58) But the reader is misled that after the birth of the eleven patriarchs the birth of Joseph is described last, when he was born six years before Moses tells this. But this is now clear from the rule of which I have spoken; which is indeed much used in the books of the Kings and the Prophets, yea, also in the heathen histories, for the sake that one history is brought to a close, while other histories, distinct from it, have taken place at the same time.
A tablet from the Chronicon of D. Luther, which explains the order of history:
Leah gave birth to: Reuben. Simeon. Levi.
Judah.
From / Gad.
Silpal / Asser. Isashar. Zebulun. Dina.
Benjamin.
59 But these people have kept house in a strange way. For we see that the women had power to give the men their maids and to take them away from the men. For when Rachel gave her firstborn
When Joseph gave birth to his son, the maid did not let him go to his husband, nor did Leah, since Gad and Aeser were born of the maid. This shows how chaste they were. For Jacob, if he had a desire, was not allowed to lie with his maidservants, unless it was by his wives' will and they allowed him to do so; which adulterers and fornicators are not in the habit of doing. The lust of the flesh was slain in Jacob, and had its own measure and purpose. He did not go out where he himself wanted to go and where his lust drew him. These two things, namely the figure called anticipatio, and the fact that the chastity of these holy men is praised here, are industrious and well to be remembered. Otherwise, no one will easily understand this story.
(60) After this, it should also be recognized that God wants to be present even in this lowly state, which, like the others, is full of temptation, sorrow and affliction. For God governs, protects and sustains the saints even in lowly things, so that they may prosper, lest those who are in lowly estate despair, and those who are in high estate become hopeful and proud.
61. For God rules the world in such a way that He brings down what is high, and raises up what is low and small. He brings to naught the wisdom of the wise, and rejects the understanding of the prudent. This change is kept by our Lord God. The church is subject to bondage in the world; indeed, it is, as Paul says, subject to death: and yet, if the world were without the church, kings and princes, with all their power and authority, would have to go down. For she, who after all must be subject to everyone, rules and carries the whole earth. For the godly preserve the world, and yet are everyone's servants; as it is written in a Greek verse, which we have thus translated:
The master himself must be the servant, if he wants to find justice in the house;
The woman must be the maid herself, if she wants to stay at home Rath etc.
62 In the city, too, the authorities alone are everyone's servant and subject:
The others, who are considered as servants, have good quarters, enjoy peace and tranquility in the city, in the country, and in all the dominions; but he who has the rule is servus servorum, a servant of all servants.
For God rules the earth in this way, that everything that is high, mediocre and low must serve Him; the highest are the lowest and the lowest are the highest. Therefore Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony, wisely and magnificently said to D. Staupitz that in his opinion, since he had overlooked and considered the whole world and all classes of people in his heart, the peasants seemed to be the very best of all, who are otherwise the very least in this common life, which is subject to the worldly regiment: and indicates this cause, that they alone enjoy peace and good rest. They are not plagued and tormented with worries and dangers because of the common regime. In the summer they wait for agriculture, in the winter they may sit by the fire or tiled stove, and live on that which they have acquired through God's blessing. Although they do not live as splendidly with food and drink as kings and princes, they still enjoy the very best goods, such as peace and tranquility, and live within their fence much safer and happier than kings and princes live in their castles or fortresses.
This is a wonderful government or change that our Lord God keeps. For what is considered the least and the most miserable is the most supreme and the most blessed. There is no more wretched thing in the world than the church. For this is where the lamentations of the saints and the church come from, that they cry out to God, saying: "Why do you turn your face away from me? Why do you forget me? I preach, confess my faith, do and suffer all that God commands me; but there is no man so afflicted and forsaken as I am. But God answered and said, I will not forget thee: as it is sweetly written in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 49, v. 14, 15: "But Zion saith, The Lord hath forsaken me, the Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman also forget her
Interpretation of Genesis 30:7-11.
Will she forget the son of her womb, so that she will not have mercy on him? Even if she forgets him, I will not forget you" etc.
However, it is not outwardly apparent that God has such great concern for us and takes care of us so diligently. Therefore, one must learn and become accustomed to such change and transformation of things and people in this world. The pagans learned this to some extent from experience, that the servant in the house is master and the master must be servant; indeed, the monks also complained of the same thing about their servants. For they had some brethren, whom they called converse, to whom the kitchen and other housework was ordered; but the same ruled also over the others, that also a proverb became with them, that they said: Conversus Dominus, from the words, which stand in the gospel Luc. 22, 61: Conversus Dominus, respexit etc.: "The Lord turned and looked at him" etc. With this they wanted to say so much: The conversus is our Lord, who rules over us. So it is with our housekeeping: the maids rule the wives; the children rule the whole house and servants who serve them.
With such examples God teaches us that He is present with us and cares for us, and that He will not forget us, we live no matter in what state we may live. The Church is the rightful queen in the whole world, but nothing less is seen in her; for the world rules and reigns everywhere: but if the Church did not uphold the world with her prayer and teaching, then in a moment everything would perish and come to ruin. But the world does not see and believe this; indeed, the Turk and the Frenchman think that it is they who rule and preserve the world, until one day they fall and become disgraced in their counsel and authority; then they will first learn and realize that they are nothing; but then it will be too long delayed.
V.9-11. When Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Thus
Zilpah Leah's maid bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, "Ruffian. And called his name Gad.
Now in this place the birth of Joseph should have been told; but here, after the figure hysteron proteron, the sons of Leah are enumerated. But one should put aside all suspicion and let go, as if these holy people should have dealt with unseemly mingling and fornication. For Jacob does not desire the maid, nor does he secretly desire her honor, that he might deprive her of it, as fornicators are wont to do; but he would gladly have been satisfied with the love of the only Rachel; but he goes to the maid by command and out of obedience to his wife, who had permitted and granted the marriage bed to the maid; for she is now almost despondent that children should be born of her womb. For she was barren for three whole years and does not like to give the maidservant to the husband as a wife, but if she had had hope that she would become pregnant again, she would never have done so. The same will be seen in what follows: when she herself gives birth again, she gets rid of the maid again and does not want her to bear more children by her husband. In the same way, when Joseph was born, Rachel did not want the maid to be with her husband again.
(68) And indeed the holy mothers had a very ardent and strong desire that they might have children only. Therefore, since Leah has not given birth in three years, she is grieved that because of this her husband should become a stranger to her or an enemy; and since there is no hope that more children will be born from her womb, she gives him the maid as a wife. Since Rachel had only given birth to one Joseph, she was more proud than Leah, since four sons had been born to her: father and mother alone, as well as all the servants, saw this son; they marveled at him and praised him highly, because he had been born to Rachel, who was the dearest and most noble of wives, and from whom the rightful lord of the house and the heir to the kingdom and priesthood were expected. Therefore Leah is grieved, and thinks, Alas, I
poor wretched woman, now I am humiliated again, my children are despised and my husband has also become more averse to me. As she then (v. 15) accuses and scolds Rachel, saying, "You have taken my husband away from me. etc. And it can truly be seen that this was a carnal anger and zeal; but God graciously tolerated it, and regardless of such anger and zeal, He blesses both Leah and Rachel.
(69) Therefore Leah thought to herself: I will indeed have to bring the man back into my tent; I can see that the father is concerned about Joseph alone; he takes pleasure in him because he was born of my sister, who has always been preferred to me; but I will give him Zilpah as a wife, so that I can take him away from Rachel and reconcile him to myself. Therefore it may be seen in these holy wives, not that they were unchaste, but that they had great desire and love for children. They had great desire and love for children.
(70) When the Manichaeans and Papists come upon such a text in the holy Scriptures, they stop up both ears and eyes; and in their judgment these carnal things so stink that they can hardly read or know them. Augustine writes in his Confessions that the Manichaeans poisonously reviled and blasphemed the holy patriarchs, because they had many wives and children. When I, says Augustine, was still a Manichaean, I scoffed at the patriarchs and ridiculed them as the most lecherous of men; but you Manichaeans also scoffed at me in turn, since I followed your adventurous lies, that when I broke an apple or pear from the tree, I believed that the tree wept because of it etc.
The same is the case with the papists: while they highly despise parents for having love, so that they may beget children with each other, in the meantime they wallow in all kinds of shameful fornication; yes, Gerson, Bonaventure, Hugh, Origen and Jerome were no less offended by these examples. Therefore, they pass by them and may not look at them with diligence, preferring only allegories or secret interpretations.
They do not see that the text clearly states how the holy women cry out to God, pray, thank Him and trust Him. Item, that the text says: The Lord has heard, the Lord has looked, the Lord has turned. God, who is called upon, who hears prayer, who is praised and blessed, is in the midst of history. By this they should accept and learn to judge that these histories are pure, chaste and chaste, and that evil lust and fornication are not found in them, as they dream of, and whore-hunters are wont to deal with. It is truly a strange thing that none of the fathers ever saw this. And that is still more, in the text is said: Lea gave Jacob her maid to the wife; therefore they were no whores, but married wives, so Jacob was given to beget children with them.
I have often said that I have a great abhorrence of allegories and that I condemn the use of them. For the examples and footsteps of the fathers frighten me and make me shy, who darken the doctrine with their allegories, by which the love, patience and hope in God should be edified, when they lead us away from the doctrine and right understanding of the words with their speculation and own thoughts of allegories.
And Jerome and Origen in particular make use of this; indeed, Augustine would also soon have been brought there, if the dispute and disputation that he had to hold with the heretics had not pulled him away from it. But because I considered these same men to be the highest theologians and teachers of the Holy Scriptures, I initially followed them. When I used to read the Bible, I did not follow the understanding that the words and letters bring with them, but according to their example I made everything into vain allegories.
For this reason, I have admonished students of theology to beware of such interpretations of sacred Scripture. For allegory or secret interpretation is harmful when it does not rhyme with history; but especially when it is used in place of history, from which one can derive the
558 L. vn. MS-M7. Interpretation of Genesis 30:9-11. w. ii. 8is-sis. 559
The church can better teach and instruct about the wonderful government of God, how He governs all states in this life, than the house and world regiment and also the church.
But because the same interpreters do not pay attention to such things in the histories, they must, of necessity, draw everything on allegories and strange understanding. As in this example: because they do not see the counsel and government of God, which is covered under the small figure of the household and the marriage state, they go to and make up an alien mind from the contemplative and real life; for these are their propositions, to which they are wont to draw the rest of everything. Rachel, they say, is supposed to mean the contemplative life, but Leah the real one. Yes, this is the excellent great wisdom, so that they have covered up and even obscured the doctrine that is necessary for the church and congregation of God, as of the marriage state, of housekeeping and what belongs to it.
They say that Jacob loves Rachel because she has beautiful eyes. They attribute the contemplative life to her, but the real life to Leah, who is not loved by Jacob, but despised. They did this so that they would rise above all classes. For the real life belongs to the people who deal with domestic and worldly works, who work in the field and in the house: this is a very glum life, and it has no beautiful form, as Leah had blind eyes. The contemplative life, however, is found in the monasteries and in the monastery churches of the priests, who have no trouble with the regiment of the house and the world, who sit there idly and have their speculation and high thoughts of God: they pray, fast, have their visions, revelations and illuminations. And finally, the nonsense and devil's deception with the allegory of the contemplative life has come so far that no one has been considered a true monk, unless he had special revelation. And this was especially common among the Minorites, who did not let themselves dream of anything else, but only of the talks so Christ, the angels, the deceased saints, and the
Virgin Mary with the souls. And one still has a book of the revelations of Brigitta, in which is written a conversation of Christ, so he should have held with the souls. But it is pure devil's fraud, so that I myself almost would have been caught, since I was still a monk, if D. Staupitz had not pulled me away, who brought me to the public teaching of theology, since I had become Doctor of Theology according to his advice and order.
For this reason, the life of the monks has been called the beautiful and dear Rachel, but the house and world regiment has been compared to the ugly Leah. Yes, in the monasteries a distinction was also made between the priests and the conventuals, and the latter were assigned the real life, while the latter were assigned the contemplative life. But in this way we will not become like Leah or Rachel, but like the Turks and the Tartars. For among the Turks there are also many religious people, who make the sole effort to interpret Mahomet's Alkoran according to the allegory, so that one may think so much the more of them. For allegory is like some beautiful whore who caresses man in such a way that one must have pleasure and love for her. And especially what are idle people, who have no challenge, these think that they are in the middle of paradise and sit in the lap of God, if they deal with such speculation and high thoughts.
First of all, the allegories came from the foolish and idle monks, and at last they became so widespread that even some made vain allegories out of the book of Ovid called Metamorphoses. From a laurel tree they have made the Virgin Mary and Apollo should be Christ. Although this is an inconsistent thing, it nevertheless happens, if one holds it against young people who are still inexperienced, but nevertheless have a desire and love for study and good arts, that they initially put up with such things very well and go completely for such secret interpretations.
That is why I am hostile to allegories.
But if someone wants to use it, let him see to it that he does so with the right understanding. For first of all one should seek the understanding that history brings, which teaches and instructs us rightly and surely, which argues, defends, wins and builds. If this is right and pure, then one may seek allegories and secret interpretations. But not as the monks have done, nor of the contemplative life; but that the allegory may rhyme with history, and that therein may be comprehended the sanctity of the holy cross, that is, the right doctrine of the cross, of faith, hope, love, and patience. It should not comprehend in itself a monk who sits and dreams that he is talking with Christ, and boasts of his revelation, and how he has heard the voice of the angels or of the Virgin Mary; for he sits idle and is without cross and temptation. Such a contemplative life is cursed and damned.
For this reason, allegory should be consistent with history, and it should be built upon as upon the right foundation of precious stones, gold, and silver; otherwise allegory is harmful and only leads to error, or even if it is the best, it is still nothing but stubble and vain folly. And one should diligently distinguish between the foundation or the doctrine itself and the building that is built upon it. The allegory should not be the foundation, but should be the edge by heart; it may be gold, precious stones, or even stubble, if it only stands on the right foundation; otherwise it is pure devil's fraud, where the allegories do not rhyme with the foundation.
82. for God will not give special revelation to anyone, He will not give new toe commandments; but He has bound us to this commandment which is heard from heaven, since God the Father says of His Son Christ, "Him you shall hear." Item Luc. 16, 29: "They have Moses and the prophets." He wants us to hear his word and believe it; there you have enough left to speculate, being withdrawn not only from external affairs, but also from the thoughts of your own mind and reason, so that you may keep the Sabbath right.
and that your delusion and reason cease and count for nothing.
The real life, however, is love, or faith, which is active through love; likewise, to have patience where the cross is present. This is the practice of both life, the contemplative and the real life, not only in the monasteries with the monks and conventuals, but also in the home and in the world with all people who live in faith and deal with outward works, no matter how sham they may be and how impious they may be. But human nature does not want to be satisfied with the common teaching and word of the gospel, nor does it want to be satisfied with the sacraments that were given by the Son of God and the apostles and spread by their successors; it always wants something special. Then the devil comes and talks to you. Where you will not be able to answer him: Thus says God's word, you speak contrary to the word, get thee away Satan: so shalt thou soon be deceived.
This I speak and teach with special zeal, and that I am displeased and angry at the unrhymed allegories, because I have seen how the Manichaeans have so shamefully defiled this text with their imagination and foolish works. But the monks and papists have become like the Manichaeans everywhere, and have filled the church with vain Brigittines and other such books, so that they have despised and punished the domestic and worldly rule, although they could never have done without such rule.
But if you look at this history a little more diligently, you will see in it beautiful examples of very great chastity in marriage, such chastity has never been found among those who have so highly praised the state of virginity and chastity, some peculiar and strange examples excepted, as, St. John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary and the like others. The others still retain the rut and desire for fornication. Therefore, no chastity can be compared to the examples of these women. For they are described and adorned with very beautiful words,
namely, how they pray, sigh, cry out, believe, and hope in God in the marriage state that he will give them children. But unchastity does not think of God, does not call upon Him, does not thank Him, but is blind, mad and foolish. But these women pray, weep and say: O God! give us children etc. These are not the words of a lewd woman, but of a very chaste and honest matron.
For this reason, their examples are very useful and necessary in the Church, because by them it is testified that God wants to be with the state of domestic government, and to govern and protect it; before which your celibate state, your monastic and contemplative life stinks before God, yes, even in your own conscience. And it is just and right that the monks are punished in such a way because of such contempt for the married state. For since they ridicule these and such examples, and the works of God stink before them, they in turn are also rejected and despised by God, until they have fallen into abominable fornication and unchastity.
But what the word gad actually means according to its proper derivation, the rabbis of the Jews quarrel about and are not unanimous in their interpretation. However, I believe that it is interpreted correctly, that it means as much as girded, armed, prepared for war: from there comes gedud, soldier, war servant. Jerome interprets the same word in Latin: Excursores in exercitu, that is, war-servants armed for battle. However, we have interpreted it with good care and knowledge as "armed" or "prepared"; although I know that it sometimes means as much as cutting up, and sometimes also luck. As Münster and the others have interpreted it. And we gladly admit the same to them; for Augustine also interpreted it in the same way: and we do not punish their opinion, but nevertheless do not follow it, as we have done it also Isa. 20. and 65. differently than they: since in the common and the other Latin interpretation thus stands: Qui ponitis fortunae mensam (You set a table for happiness), that we have given in Latin: Qui ponitis Marti mensam: You set a table for Mars etc. For the Jews
have also honored the idol Mars according to the example of the Greeks. We stayed with the root of the word, which means to be prepared. And this interpretation of ours is confirmed by Moses in the 49th Cap. V. 19. where in the blessing of the children of Gad it is said: "Gad armed, will lead the army." Since we now have such a respectable testimony from Moses, let us be satisfied with it against the quarreling of the Jewish rabbis. Gad is to go before, is to be in process; that is why we have interpreted it as "swiftly", it wants to go. But he who wants to follow the others may do it very well. Rachel had said, when Naphtali was born: "I will do it before my sister", I have started for her. And Leah says here also: "I will now do it again before my sister; I now have the overcomer. She wants to say: It is a good thing that I also have a servant who will win and spread my lineage.
(88) So the holy women fought and struggled with one another, both of them forsaking their maternal glory with great zeal, and each of them gave it to her handmaid; for this was a great honor and glory, that a woman of Jacob should conceive and bear children, who had the promise of the seed that was given. Which promise Jacob will no doubt have diligently and always impressed upon them: Thus Abraham, Isaac and God Himself told me that from my heirs would come the Savior of the whole world. For such a holy, godly husband did not conceal from his wives the things that belonged to the house government and also what concerned the heirs and descendants.
From such preaching the holy women became fervent in faith, that they were not concerned with carnal pleasure, but with children, for the sake of the glory of their future heirs and descendants. For if they had sought only to have sex, they would not have cared so much for the children, nor would they have given their handmaids to the man as wives. Rachel would have said: What do I care if I do not give birth?
I nevertheless say to my husband, "I have had enough of this. But it is clearly shown how they despised pleasure and sexual intercourse, and were even inflamed with this desire that they might become mothers of the promised seed; over this they quarreled among themselves, even to the point of envy. But the papists pay no attention to this, for the wicked shall not see the glory of God.
Then Zilpah Leah's handmaid gave birth to Jacob's other son. Then said Leah, Blessed be I; for my daughters shall call me blessed. And called his name Asher.
90 Silpah, Leah's handmaid, gave birth to her other son, for which she was once again very happy, because they had only desired to have children. Therefore, one should not look for examples of carnal immorality in this story, but of chastity. Leah desires that her husband may be pleased with her because of fertility, which is a praiseworthy virtue in a woman who desires to live with her husband and not to follow anyone else, and who is concerned that she may please him alone, that she may have favor with him alone, and especially with such a great man, to whom the Savior of the wager has been promised. Therefore, such was a true married love, full of godliness, chastity, obedience, and not of carnal fornication, as the Roman sow and many of the fathers and monks interpreted it.
91 Asser means blessed. Now I will have it good, she says, and all the wives and daughters will call me blessed; I will be a dear housemother to Jacob, so that it will also be said that Jacob loved Leah and no longer respects the other as the barren one.
Third part.
How Leah becomes pregnant again and bears children to Jacob; and how finally also
Rachel becomes pregnant and gives birth.
V.14-16 Reuben went out at the time of the wheat harvest, and found Dudahim in the field, and brought her home to his mother Leah. Then said
Rachel said unto Leah, Give me a portion of thy son's dudah. And she said, Hast thou not enough taken my husband from me, and wilt thou take my son's dudahim also? And Rachel said, Well, let him sleep with thee this night for thy son's dudahim. And it came to pass, when Jacob was come out of the field at even, that Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou shalt lie with me: for I have bought thee for my son's dudahim. And he slept with her that night.
Reuben was a boy of eight or nine years old when this happened; he was not a husband and could not have been older than nine years. He went out to his father to feed Laban's sheep or to work in the field, as children go to their fathers; perhaps his mother sent him there. Because it was the time of the wheat harvest, he found about Dudahim, and the boy himself did not understand what he had found and brought to his mother. It seems, however, that it was some beautiful fruit, since he liked the color. What kind of fruit or flower it was, one cannot know. In the common Latin translation it is written that he found mandragorae, and this is how the other interpreters have given it. This is supposed to be such a fruit that grows from the water that thieves leave when they are hanged on the gallows; as the scribes, when describing these mandragorae, bring up many other unrhymed things. But they are all fables and lies, and may have come from the Jews. But the boy did not go to the gallows, but to the field.
By the way, it must have been such a fruit, which tends to ripen around the wheat harvest, which comes a little slower; as in our countries the fruits are called nightshade, Jewish cherries, blackberries, raspberries. From the nightshade (solanus) it also understands the other many, whose fruit has a very beautiful color and in addition also a good taste, and one uses it much in the
Medicinal. Or it must have been blackberries, which also have a sweet lovely taste. But I will leave this to the grammarians and physicians, for every country has its own special fruits and herbs. The boy liked the color, and when he came home, the women had a quarrel about the dudaim, and Rachel had such a great desire for the dudaim that she gave the man to Leah and forgave her right, only that she might receive the dudaim from the boy.
But this is a ridiculous and childish thing beyond measure, so that nothing worse or lesser could be said or written. Why is it then nevertheless described? Answer: Let us always bear in mind what I have often said, namely, that the Holy Spirit is the Master of this book, who Himself delights to play and joke in describing such petty childish things, which are of no value, and He holds them up to us to be taught in the church, as if for great correction. But did not greater and more glorious things happen under the kings of Egypt, Babylon, Persia and Palestine, which would be more worth reading than this little thing? What is the use of telling such things as how a boy brought Dudahim there, and two sisters quarreled with each other about how they wanted to exchange with the man and the bed?
There are no doubt that more and greater things happened at that time than those described here. But these minor things are full of comfort and good teaching, more than those. And one should not pass them over superficially, but much less should one despise them, as if they were unkind things and worth nothing, which the papists do. Let them be small things, and let their things be great, and have a glorious appearance; let them be kings, bishops, and cardinals. etc. But the Holy Spirit, and God the Creator, condescends thus, and delights that he may jest with his saints, and play children's games in such small things; not with superstitions.
The Lord did not say anything about raising the dead or other great miracles, but about Rachel and Leah arguing with each other about the dudahim, and he wanted such things to be held up to the church and congregation of God.
Now what are the histories of the pagans described by Virgil, Homer, Livius and others, however gloriously they are adorned with words? They are histories of the Greeks, of Alexander and Hannibal; but they lack the glory, the crown, which is God's word and promise. Yes, they lack the crown; therefore it is more of a pity that they should be righteous histories. For what is a history without the word of God? When the Lord says: This is my will, my honor, this pleases me well, I have a desire for it, I want to live here; however childish and insolent this thing is, it all has an immeasurable and infinite emphasis, namely, God's word. The histories of the great Alexander, Julius Caesar etc. are indeed excellent and very splendid: but they lack the right adornment, therefore they are scattered like chaff by the wind and do not have the right weight or emphasis, it is only a glory of the belly and flesh.
97. Therefore, we should esteem these stories great and comfort ourselves with them, even though we are poor, miserable, rejected and despised people, as we are in truth. For there is nothing on earth more wretched and despised than a true Christian man who believes the word of God. The others are all princes, great lords, well to do, arranging all their things according to their own pleasure; only the people who have the word and believe in God are children of the cross and the plague. And where the world is not there to crucify and plague the same people, the devil with his angels is there. But this is our consolation, that Christians dwell together with wives, children, and servants, and keep house without any pretense; which outwardly appears to be mere child's play; nevertheless, these are the true and divine histories, which are also adorned with the honor and glory of the divine Word.
We are to accept the word and hold fast to it, and we are to think that we have been laughed at, absolved, and taught the word of God. We should give thanks to God and be joyful; even if heaven and the whole world fall down and hit us on the head, we are certain that our child's play and poor misery is adorned and crowned with divine honor and glory, namely, with God's word. And for this reason these histories are called holy, and are common to all people who have God's word, in whom God works, and does so with pleasure, with His grace and mercy. What kind of people he does not deal with Alexander the Great, Scipio, Cicero and Hannibal etc. Therefore we should rejoice, and be satisfied with such divine good pleasure, be thankful and joyful. Moreover, we should also suffer with patience whatever hardships and troubles may come our way. And however bad, lowly, womanish and full of misery our works may be, we are to write this title with them: God's word, by which all that we do will be glorious and everlasting; whereas worldly histories are eternally wretched and miserable.
So we will understand that this has not been held up to us in vain by the Holy Spirit, that we should read it, teach it and believe it. The pope with his followers despises this with great hope, and meanwhile lets himself dream that he has already elevated his seat in heaven with St. Peter, and like Tetzel, who proclaimed the indulgence now and then, he boasted that he did not want to change with St. Peter because of the many innumerable souls that he had made blessed through the indulgence. But this is a vain and devilish boast. For God looks at the lowly things on earth, and thus says: I have created this woman, and have given her to the man, and now they beget children with one another, and endure the mourning and the misery which the married state brings with it: therefore they please me in this, that they keep themselves together in matrimony according to my order. And the married couples are also much more agreeable among the heathen than all the philosophers, who speculate about celibacy and
celibate life. How much more shall they be pleasant with us, who are baptized, taught, crowned and adorned with the glory of the Word of God, and who have the angels for guardians?
(100) Therefore we should boast and rejoice in these childish and domestic works, since the Holy Spirit is humble to describe them, so that He may show that He is with us who believe and have the Word, and that even the childish play of dudaim and foolish quarreling that women have about it is pleasing to God; only that we do not despair, but remain steadfast in the faith.
Let the devil come and do what he cannot do, we are in a spiritual profession, we have the Word, baptism, absolution, and we are sure that God is with us and for us. But I would rather be with God in hell than without God in heaven. "For though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," says David in the 23rd Psalm, v. 4, "I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." "If I go begging into hell, behold, thou art there also," as it says in the 139th Psalm v. 8. If I have thy word, I will not ask for the hellish fire. Again, I would not desire to be in heaven if you were not with me. For where God is, there is also the kingdom of God: where the Word is, there is paradise and everything. Therefore we should give thanks to God for the Word, for we are already in paradise and under God's gracious pleasure, who is pleased with all things; we eat dudaim, or herbs, or milk, for we are in His Word.
This teaching is to be taken from this text, which is truly excellent and necessary for the church. Now we must also say something about the quarrel. For one must not regard these histories in the way that the papists regard them as a joke, as the lewd women are wont to do. These holy women desire nothing but the natural fruits of their wombs. For woman was created by nature to bear children; therefore she has breasts, she has arms to nourish children, to rear them, and she has a wife.
to bear. This was the Creator's intention when He created man, that women should bear children and men should beget children, except for those whom God Himself exempted, of whom it is said in Matthew 19. Otherwise, the creature was created by God to be fruitful. For this reason it can be seen in these women how they fight with each other, not out of fornication, but out of love and desire, so that they may only have children; for they know well that they were created for this purpose. Therefore, they desire that their bodies, breasts, hands and all members may serve God.
103. And even though they had children before, they thought that they were mortal and that they would be deprived of them again. Therefore, even if a woman had a hundred children, she would still have desired more of them. For they looked to the heirs and offspring promised to the fathers, to whom the sermon had gone, which they had heard from their husband. So we must praise these holy women and shut up the shameful papists, who want to judge the chastity and married state of the patriarchs according to their own fornication; just as Augustine was led by the error of the Manichaeans to believe that the patriarchs' life was an unchaste life. Here, however, we hear how Leah prayed, cried out and sighed for children, that she was also heard by God; which is not due to a fornicating woman, but rather due to a pious, chaste and holy matron, who is hostile to fornication, and only desires that she may bear children.
V. 17, 18: And God heard Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son, and said, God hath rewarded me, because I have given my handmaid unto my husband. And he called his name Issachar.
The fifth son of Leah was born in the tenth year. But Leah gives thanks to God. And as she prayed and wept before, so now she praises the Lord.
with a merry heart. The grammarians among the Hebrews dispute about the name Isaschar, how it should be read. But there is nothing in it, you read Isaschar or Issachar immediately.
(v. 19, 20) Again Leah conceived, and bare Jacob the sixth son, and said, God hath well counseled me; now shall my husband dwell with me again, for whom I have borne him six sons. And he called his name Zebulun.
These are all the words and works of the very holy matrons, namely, praying, weeping, thanking God. They are not words or works of shameful, lewd women, but of honest matrons. And what can we do before God more or greater than these two works, praying and giving thanks? The first is to listen to the word that is given to us by God, to which we do nothing, but only accept it as it is presented to us. The other is, after hearing and accepting the word, to pray and call upon God for help, and when we have obtained it, to thank and praise God for it. We pray not only with our mouths or outward words, but also with heartfelt groaning, with all our strength and limbs, which is prayer without ceasing.
The Hebrew word zebadani is not found anywhere else in the Scriptures; we have interpreted it according to the example of the others in Latin: dotavit: God has counseled me. But whether it is interpreted correctly, I cannot really know, because it cannot be explained by any other example. So she wanted to say: God has given me something good. By this you immediately understand the dowry that her father might have given her, or any other gift. But we see nothing else here, except great godliness and the proper use of the female sex and the marriage state, as these people have used it. The virgins do not have such honor and glory, neither in the Old nor in the New Testament.
V. 21. After this she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
(107) Moses told the children of Leah, six sons and one daughter, and two sons by the maidservant; now how Joseph was born of Rachel.
V.22-24: And the Lord remembered Rachel, and hearkened unto her, and made her fruitful. And she conceived, and bare a son, and said, God hath taken away my reproach from me: and she called his name Joseph, and said, The Lord give me another son.
108) It has been said above that one must pay attention to the order of history, and that Moses used the figure called recapitulatio or anticipatio; because Joseph was born in the seventh year, therefore his birth should have been described long before. But because Moses has delayed with it until here last, so he now comes again to that, which first happened, which has become the last in the description. For it is clear by day that Joseph was born in the seventh year of his father's service, since Jacob served six years after Joseph was born. Therefore the four sons and the daughter Dinah were born after him in the same six years, although they were listed first in the history. This figure, called anticipation, often makes the narrative somewhat dark; therefore, one must pay careful attention to it when reading the history, so that the reader, who does not pay attention to it, will not be deceived or hindered.
(109) Again, the Holy Spirit gives us not only an apology, but also great praise and glory for these so holy women, who are not lustful because of unchastity, but have great desire and lust for children. And thus the marriage state of Jacob is also praised to us, how it was so chaste that one felt almost nothing carnal in it; although it is impossible that there should be nothing carnal in the marriage state. But Jacob is adorned by God in such a way that his marriage state is to be regarded as if it had not been poisoned by original sin, but rather as if it had been a
be a true angelic marriage state. For, beloved, behold, what beautiful exercises there are of godliness and of the most high divine service. Rachel prays, sighs, weeps until the sixth year; during this time she has been afflicted and tempted with great patience. For it was a great burden and a very heavy cross that she had to bear the shame of barrenness for so long. How she has seen so many women who have given birth to children! Yes, she has seen that her sister Leah was also graced with the honor of being a mother and having children, namely four sons. But I believe that she was so weary from such sadness that she easily forgot and gave up not only unchastity, but also all other joy in her heart: she had no time to laugh or joke, but spent day and night in constant groaning, weeping, wailing and praying.
For this reason, I say, the marriage of Jacob and Rachel is described as completely chaste and chaste: and if Rachel wanted to live with the man and be attached to him, she did so only to become a mother and increase the house of Jacob, which had the promise. And is an example of a very holy matron, who in faith and patience appealed to God for mercy, waited for consolation, and suffered very severe trials and pains.
For this reason Moses used a very emphatic word when he said: "The Lord remembered Rachel," etc. as if to say: She had almost despaired of herself, and had thus thought and decided in her heart that God would never remember her, and that He would have forgotten her forever. I will not become a mother, she thought, but I am the most miserable of all women: I should be the right housemother in the house, but God has forgotten me. So now she has been led into hell. Since it can be seen that there is no longer any hope of help, she seizes the maid almost out of desperation and gives her to the man as a wife, which she otherwise would not have done if she did not have all hope.
let go. But she despairs in such a way that she nevertheless still retains a shred of faith: In despair, it still retains the groaning that St. Paul calls Rom. 8:26 "the inexpressible groaning. But this is so deeply buried and overwhelmed with the impossibility and other disgusting movements she has felt in her heart that she has hardly felt such deep sighing.
112) Just as Hannah, the mother of Samuel, also despaired of having children and could not feel her groaning and the great desire she had in her heart to have children, 1 Sam. 1:10. But God, who searches the heart, understands the inexpressible groaning, which otherwise cannot be comprehended by any sense and cannot be expressed in words.
Thus Augustine tells of his mother Monica, who cried and wept for nine years over the loss of her son, because he had fallen into the sect and error of the Manichaeans. She only asked from God that her son be converted and become a Christian, and for the sake of the cause wanted to marry a Christian woman to him, so that he would be brought back on the right path through attendance and fellowship with such a godly woman and through her admonition. And she would have been content with this, if only he had been converted from the same heresy of the Manichaeans to the pure healthy doctrine. But, as Augustine says, it seemed as if the Lord had refused and refused to give her such things: but he had heard what was needed and her deep desire, namely, the inexpressible groaning.
But as prayer and groaning are inexpressible, so is the answer and joy immeasurable and inexpressible; as St. Paul says Eph. 3:20: "But to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or understand" etc. He does not give what his saints ask and desire above in their hearts and with the foam of words, but he is an almighty giver.
and he who is very rich, who gives according to your deep groaning. And therefore he makes the prayer increase and be multiplied, and he hears it not so soon. For if he were to answer the first cry or petition, the prayer would not be increased, but would grow cold. Therefore, he draws out with help, and from this the prayer grows daily and becomes strong and great; in the same way, the groaning of the heart becomes deeper and more fervent, until it comes, as it were, to despair: then the prayer becomes very fervent and strong, when it can be seen that now the groaning almost wants to stop.
If he would hear us so soon, the prayer would not be so strong, so lively and fervent, but it would only be an outward sighing, which still learns to pray, sigh and desire, but is not yet a master of prayer: but when it has come to despair, and the heart, so challenged, thinks: Oh, nothing will come of it, all is lost! and yet there is still a spark and a smoldering wick, then remember and be strong and hold fast. For this is the battle that the saints must fight, who think that the rope will soon break, and yet still retain their heartfelt groaning. Therefore, prayer is perfect and strong.
Thus it is also said of Rachel: "The Lord remembered Rachel" etc. As if Moses wanted to say: Rachel felt nothing else, but that all her prayer and weeping had been in vain and in vain, and that God had laid her out in His heart and would think of her no more. But, my dear Rachel, you should not think it so, for you are far from it: this feeling of yours is carnal, it is not yet the spirit that sighs and the inexpressible groaning, but it is the flesh that feels such and is weak. God had never forgotten you, but immediately in the beginning, when you began to ask for children, He heard and honored all the words of your groaning; but the prayer was not yet fervent and strong enough at that time, so it had to grow and become great, and therefore God also delayed the answer until the
The second, third, fourth and fifth year, he first gave you comfort through the maidservant. But the groaning did not stop: it still seemed as if God had turned away from you. Therefore God has remembered you, says Moses, even though he has not forgotten you for a moment. But this was finally the right time for God to hear your groaning, when you let yourself think that your groaning was buried, covered up and forgotten.
(117) In the same way we should learn to pray and wait for help from God when there is adversity and faith begins to decline. For we have the promise of the gospel; we have baptism and absolution, by which we are instructed and strengthened; we have the commandment, in which we are commanded to pray; we have the spirit of grace and prayer: but when we have first begun to pray, our heart is in anguish, and complains that prayer is of no avail.
Therefore, if prayer does not help you, you must learn to inquire, that is, to seek; and if you think that such seeking is still in vain, and that God is hiding Himself more and more, begin and knock, and do not stop until you open the door in which He is shut. For there is no doubt that our prayer should not be heard immediately when the first syllable is uttered; as the angel says to Daniel, Dan. 9, 23: "When you began to pray, this command went out, and I come to tell you" etc.
(119) But that God does not immediately give us what we ask is because he wants to be sought, and wants one to always stop and knock him out; as the similitude teaches Luc. 18:2 ff. of the unjust judge. Then he comes and saves his elect, and gives more abundantly and more than we have asked, sought, and knocked. For this reason he delays the answer, so that the prayer may be increased and the groaning strengthened, which seems to us to be still very small, because we groan: but in truth it is very hot, as St. Peter says.
Paul calls a crying or shouting. For we not only utter the words, making a sound by the tongue and lips; neither do we make our prayers resound with a loud voice: but we virtually cry out. It is not a sound or voice of the mouth, but a shouting in the heathen and an inexpressible groaning: under the left teats it is when the heart throbs and groans, and almost grows dull with great anguish; and then the prayer is quite perfect and strong.
120 Let this be said often, and let it be repeated always, lest we lose all hope and confidence in our prayer. Even though prayer is cold at first and does not immediately receive help, we should know that help will be delayed, so that prayer will become all the more perfect and powerful. For prayer has a wonderful power and omnipotence. When Rachel was considered to be despised and abandoned by God, and yet she remained a smoldering wick, God, when called upon, sought and called forth, had to put out. But in the same way He helps all who call upon Him, and helps them so abundantly and mildly that they must confess that they should never have hoped for such things. As Monica, St. Augustine's mother, might have said: "I did not ask for this, nor should I have hoped that my son would ever become such a great teacher in the Church. etc. Therefore, we should not grow weary or despondent, but continue and persevere in prayer and petition and seeking until the hope and salvation for which we have been waiting is seen.
(121) Rachel herself shows sufficiently what her cross and challenge had been, for she says: "God has taken my shame from me. In the Latin text it says: Collegit opprobrium meum: He has taken it together. She has borne the shame and disgrace for five or six years in a row, because she was barren, and she herself and other people also have let themselves think that she was the most miserable woman among all women. For she saw that her sister was fertile; she saw,
that her maidservant and her sister's maidservant, and all the other wives, had also given birth, and that for this reason they were praised, loved and held in honor: but I alone, she thought, am considered a rejected, despised and cursed woman; but the Lord has seen all this shame and disgrace, which I have borne manifold and grievously, and has gathered them together and taken them from me; now I have become a proper wife and housemother.
Thus her desire and longing was fulfilled and her sighing was heard, since it had previously been proven and increased through the long delay of so many years. It is also clear from this text, because Rachel says that the Lord has taken her disgrace from her, that at that time it was commonly considered by everyone that infertility in a woman was a disgrace, especially in the line or family from which one expected the heirs that were promised. In the New Testament it was not considered a disgrace; for there virginity is highly praised, especially in the church office. But with the fathers in the Old Testament it was a very heavy cross and a great disgrace. And such judgment came from God's word, Genesis 1:27, 28: "God created man male and female, and blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" etc. Adam spread these words among his descendants and diligently inculcated them with the same: therefore it has always come upon their children and their children's children from one to another, that they have taken it for granted that any barren woman would be rejected and cursed by God. This was the most serious thing, that the same text at the same time also understands the curse of God in itself. Although barrenness in itself is a heavy burden and a great sorrow, it becomes even heavier when it is added that a barren woman is cursed and cannot please God, or even if she does please Him, that she must nevertheless be despised and scorned among the other women of God's people.
123 Therefore Elisabeth, the mother
John the Baptist, thanked God almost with the same words, when she said Luc. 1, 25: "Thus hath the Lord done unto me in the days that he looked upon me, to take away my reproach from among men"; and the angel said to Mary Luc. 1, 36: "Elizabeth, which is in a cry, that she is barren". As if he wanted to say: "Because of this, she has an evil cry and is greatly reviled, because she is not fruitful. Therefore, at that time barrenness was not only a special plague and cross among the people, but also had God's curse upon it.
124) Today there are many of them who have enough good things and are of great lineage, who become impatient with being deprived of these blessings, and who have a great desire for children, because they have enough good things to be able to feed them: but this cross is more bearable for them, because in the New Testament it does not happen that they should be rejected and cursed by God because of it.
The other common people are also more godless than the pagans were. For the greater part of married couples do not desire to have children; indeed, what is more, they are hostile to children, and think it better to live without children, because they are poor, and have not, that they may maintain their servants; but especially those who are inclined to idleness and are lazy rogues, who flee from the toil and labor of matrimony. Now, nevertheless, the married state is not meant to be a time of pleasure and idleness, but to beget and bring up children and to feed the household, which is indeed an immense burden, full of great care, toil and labor. Therefore you were created by God to be a husband or wife, and to learn to endure and bear such toil. Those who have no desire for children are swine, sticks and rough blocks, not worthy to be called men or women, because they despise the blessing of God, who created and instituted the married state.
Fourth Part.
How Jacob asks Laban for his wages and for permission to leave; how Laban tries to keep him with him; and how Jacob behaves.
(v. 25, 26) When Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said unto Laban, Let me go, I pray thee, unto my place, and to my land. Give me my wives and my children, because I have served thee, that I may go: for thou hast known my service, as I have served thee.
(126) Behold, how humbly the patriarch asks for his release, and asks for nothing more than his wives and his children, and yet shows that he has served Laban faithfully and well, and that he is worthy to give him something as a reward. For this is why he says, "You know my service, as I have served you." As if he wanted to say: It is fair that you should think that I have not only served you for wife and child, but you should also think of the dowry, or of the wages, or of some gift, so that you may adorn me, or rather your daughters and children, for my faithful and willing service. With these words Jacob wanted to give him to understand the same in a fine chaste and secret way.
But why does he do this? Answer: Because Laban was a scoundrel and a miser; he was a dog etc., he was, as it were, a monster of the same blessed time. For he should have lived more cheaply because of his great wickedness in this last evil time, when all things are corrupted by avarice and all other sin and shame. Therefore, this is to be diligently noted for the sake of Jacob's deed that follows, which we will excuse for the cause. For the good, pious man served a whole fourteen years in extreme poverty; such service, which is connected with such poverty, no one today would tolerate or could endure. For he served the first seven years for Rachel; he is
But he was robbed of his hope quite unreasonably, and took no reward at all from Laban. For Laban thought, "He is a stranger and wretched, so I will let him serve me as long as I can, because he serves me faithfully and increases and improves my possessions. Therefore, we may think how much sorrow and misery the good, pious Jacob must have suffered.
For Laban (who should be called Nabal, so that the word is reversed) did not recognize the faithfulness and diligence of the pious man, and now intends to let him go without reward. For before he had acquired no goods of his own, or even little of his own; he had nothing but food and clothing, and with these he was still meager and meager enough. The pious man has served a real dog. And afterwards the daughters themselves will also complain about their father's avarice and robbery, by which Rachel was induced and caused to steal her father's idols; for he did not keep them as his daughters, but as maids, whose work, and what she earned with woolen work and other work, he used for his enjoyment and benefit. But since he now wants to make a contract with him for the wages, he tries to deceive him again, so that he may not give anything to his son-in-law and daughters for their faithful service, by which he had become rich.
This injustice and violence greatly distressed Jacob himself and his wives, and they must often have secretly complained about the poverty and hardship to which they had been brought by their father's deceit and robbery. For this is clear enough from the circumstances when they are properly considered. And there is an accursed wickedness in Laban, which is contrary to all the senses and nature of man. For otherwise fathers tend to prefer their daughters, because the female sex is also weaker. But this unkind and cruel Nabal deprives his daughters even above this, and afflicts them with hard and heavy service; but when the reward is spoken of and acted upon, he again thinks how he may again deceive and cheat Jacob. Jacob does
all his things faithfully and sincerely: but the deceiver deals only in robbery and intrigue; as Jacob afterwards complains of it, saying, "He hath now changed my wages ten times" etc.
(130) Therefore the unkindness, cruelty and stinginess of Laban cannot be made great enough; and therefore it should be brought to light and made great in every way, because thereby the cause of Jacob's deed is shown, which will be told afterwards, when he also deceives Laban again; so that this is not considered unjust and mischievous, as it can be seen, if one only looks at it above. But it was a necessary deception because of the unjust robbery of his father-in-law.
Now he asks for permission to return to his place. I have served you, he says, fourteen years: the first seven years for nothing; and since you have tricked me into serving you, I have served you another seven years, and those are now over; so now it is time that I must also provide for myself, my servants and my house. But you should consider how faithfully I and my wives have served you, which you do not respect at all now; for you have given me no reward at all for serving you these fourteen years. Therefore it is right and just that I take my leave and look after my own things and take care of them. "Give me my wives and my children." As if he wanted to say: Since you will not give me anything but money or my due wages, it will come one day that God will judge and punish you for such ingratitude.
V. 27 Laban said to him, "Let me find grace in your sight. I feel that the Lord is blessing me for your sake.
You holy pope, you pious bishop of Mainz, can you also speak of God? Laban cites the name and blessing of God. But if you speak the truth and feel that through God's blessing for Jacob's sake you have increased in your possessions and become rich, why do you not thank Him?
But do you still intend to rob him, to overcharge him, so that he may serve you longer and longer? Yes, this is what hypocrites and all miserly and ungodly people do: they use the name of the Lord, but uselessly. Therefore Moses uses a strange word, in Hebrew nihaschti, which has the name of a snake, on which meaning he also wanted to see, as it can be seen. For it also means divination and sorcery; as Deut. 24:1 says, "He went not after the sorcerers."
133 But it has been used that they have prophesied with serpents and practiced sorcery; therefore Moses has wanted to indicate that Laban was a soothsayer, for he says: Auguratus sum, that is: I have made it seem good to me; I have been foreknown; my heart has told me; I have taken it for granted, as by a special sign, that God has blessed me for your sake. But he does not want to give Jacob the honor, does not want to thank him for it, and does not give God the honor either. So it has pleased me, he says, that the Lord has blessed me through you. He wants to be regarded as a man who is worthy to be blessed and made rich by God, even though he was almost poor before Jacob came to him.
This is what Moses meant by the strange and emphatic words. But this is the mind of men who are false, two-faced and deceitful, who speak otherwise than they have in their hearts; as the form is the tongue of an unfaithful, crafty serpent. He does not say in a subtle way, "I know and understand, and I certainly believe, that I have been blessed and made rich for your sake. For if he had known this, he would have opened his purse and given a sum of money to his son-in-law, his daughters and his children's children. But he does not think it is certain, but still doubts it and disputes about it, where Jacob wanted to demand payment from him, that he might have cause to refuse with some pretense. Therefore he says: I am well pleased; it may well be that the Lord has blessed me for your sake. This is the art
one, so the lawyers know, namely, that they use such words which have no certain sense, which can be bent and interpreted on both sides according to their liking, and as they desire it.
(135) After this we will hear that Laban was also an idolater. For this reason, he may have practiced divination or asked the idols for advice, and considered himself to be so fortunate because he had served the idols. But I will not argue about that. But it is certain that he uses the name of the Lord uselessly. He seeks to outwardly conform to the spirit and manner of Jacob: he sees that he is godly and pious, so he uses the same words that Jacob used.
V. 28. (And Laban said,) Voice the reward which I shall give thee.
The Hebrew word nakab means to pierce; as it is written in the prophet Haggai in chapter 1, v. 6: "Whoever earns money puts it into a bag with holes, nakub" etc. It also means to appoint, to determine: in which meaning it is put 3 Mos. 24, 16: "Whoever names the Lord's name shall die", that is, whoever curses in God's name etc. So we have also interpreted it in this place: "Curses or name me a reward. Moses could have used a different word, but he wants to make it clear that Laban wanted to use a special and spiritual word to prevent him from demanding too much reward, as if he would anger God by demanding an unreasonable reward. For all the words Laban speaks come from such a heart, which is completely corrupted by avarice, and go only so that he may overcharge Jacob and rob him. But he adds, "I will give it to you. This is not true; he does not intend to give him even a penny, just as he will then make a new deception so that he will not have to keep the covenant and the contract that he was to give him as a reward. Then we will see that he was not only stingy and ungodly, but stingy himself.
And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and what manner of cattle thou hast had under me. Thou hadst little before I came; but now is it spread abroad, and the Lord hath blessed thee by my foot.
137 Jacob repeats his previous words with a severe punishment of avarice, ungodliness and fortune-telling, so that Laban went around. As if to say, "You must not think or doubt whether you should attribute this blessing to me or to yourself; for it proves sufficiently in itself that the Lord has blessed you for my sake, for you also dealt in divination before; but if you had obtained anything by it, it would have been well, since I was not with you. But it proves by itself that your goods and chattels were not increased until I took charge of your house and administered my service in it.
Therefore, Jacob refutes Laban's impious and clumsy answer about his divination or discretion and praises the work he has done in his office. You know, he says, how diligently and faithfully I have served you, which also proves the work itself sufficiently, if you would deny it and I would keep quiet about it. For what kind of livestock was it that I was first ordered to bring? Perhaps it was about a thousand sheep that Rachel, your daughter, was feeding alone, so that you needed neither a servant nor a shepherd; there were so few of them. What are you allowed to augur, you stingy wretch? For Jacob could have punished this miser more cheaply and more severely. The flock of sheep that a young girl feeds cannot be large, but the same few are now fed or broken out, for this is what the Hebrew word means. As if Jacob wanted to say, "Since I have had your livestock under me, and have pastured them and kept them, they have increased as it were by force and have become many, so that they have also broken out of the sheds before a great crowd; therefore God has blessed you for my sake, since I have come to you.
come, and not when you have waited for your soothsaying and served idols.
(139) This rebuttal and punishment is severe enough to punish this very stingy man who complains about giving his deserved wages to his faithful and well-deserved servant, who served him not for one year but for fourteen whole years, during which he spent nothing, but took everything for himself, robbed his son-in-law and his daughters, and did not let them keep anything for their very hard work. Soon after, however, an example of divine judgment will follow against such horrible robbery. For "he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly," 2 Cor. 9:6.
140 And such an example rhymes very well with our life as we now lead it. For we see how the princes, the nobility, peasants and citizens all act together against poor Jacob, as Laban did. But it will happen to them all just as it has happened here. For no matter how fiercely they seize, scrape and gather, God blesses Jacob who is robbed, and to him who has robbed and taken everything, He takes everything again, as it says in Psalm 39:7: "They gather, and know not who shall have it."
And it is truly a great pity that the world does not want to be persuaded of this, but wants to feel and experience God's judgments. When people only strive for great things, gather them up and take them for themselves, rightly and wrongly, as they can and may, then they consider themselves blessed people and think that they have now gotten rid of what they have coveted with such great desire. But the psalm answers them, saying, "They know not who shall have it."
So the cities and princes, who collect a great deal of money, are foolish in their usury and avarice. But to whom do they collect it? Answer: Brother Vitus, the godless warriors, who soon after will sweep everything away and trample it under their feet; as we recently encountered in the year 42 around Easter, in
The noise that had arisen between the dukes of Saxony in the city of Wurzen. If God had not fed and averted it, how soon would Brother Vitus have come and torn everything apart in a single day!
Pope Clement plundered the temple at Toledo and took from it an exceedingly large sum of money, which was worth almost three kingdoms. He did this under the pretense that he wanted to give the same money to St. Peter's Church, for he was a great master at robbing and grabbing, and he made it appear that he could not be satisfied with the whole world. But he also collected it from brother St. Vitus, the godless warlords, who then tore it all apart and plundered it.
The same will happen to all the others, who are now getting rich with usury and unrighteous goods and do not let their greed and avarice have any measure or end. And if they are admonished that they should also leave something for the poor, or that they should collect something with God's blessing, they do not hear it, but think as the poet says: Quaerenda pecunia primum, virtus post nummos etc.: I must first strive for money and goods, to become pious comes afterwards; when I have collected a good sum of money, then I want to use it, and still want to keep it, I gather it together immediately and collect it rightly or wrongly. But this will be done by no means; for thus says the Psalm, "They gather, and know not who shall have it."
How much better and more blessed would it be to fear God and be rich in divine blessings, as the 37th Psalm says, v. 16: "The little that a righteous man has is better than the great possessions of many wicked men. But people are deaf to this. For they must therefore gather and gather together, that they may have a pariz, as it is in Hebrew, who will tear it down again. Therefore we may follow the common saying: Mitte vadere, sicut vadit etc.: Let it go as it goes, the world does not want to be told, it wants to know. While Laban gathers everything and takes it to himself
and deprives his son-in-law and daughters of their deserved wages, he loses everything; as the saying goes, "He who wants too much will get nothing.
I myself, who am already sixty years old, have seen many examples of such Laban brothers, whose large estate was soon scattered in a hui and perished. I could also name examples that have happened in the small town of Mansfeld, which is my hometown. In other cities, too, as in Leipzig, Freiberg, and in many other places where mines are located, there are strange examples of such people who, from our memory on, have plundered and collected for themselves; but now not a penny would be left of all their great money and goods. Yes, that means to gather into a bag full of holes, as the prophet Haggai says in chapter 1, v. 6. But why does this happen? Because I have blown into it, says the Lord. Yes, when he blows into it, the goods must be dispersed, even if the whole world were full of gold and silver.
(147) Although we do not do anything with hypocrites and godless people, it must nevertheless be made clear to the people, if perhaps there are some who would be moved by it. Laban did not ask anything about it, but Jacob nevertheless taught his wives and servants, and even reminded Laban himself of the wrath of God against ungodliness and avarice. Behold, he will have said to his servants, how my father-in-law is so exceedingly stingy, who neither fears God nor even thinks of our so faithful service; for he not only gives us no wages, but robs and plunders his own daughters and children's children. What shall I do? If I will name and determine the wages, he will find another trick so that he can overcharge us and deceive us. For such people have only their pleasure in robbing and cheating others; they think of nothing but vain cunning and always go about with deceit, and if they can cheat someone out of a penny, they think they have a florin.
won. It is a cursed kind of people to whom both God and man are enemies.
The last part in the text they all interpret in Latin: ad ingressum sive introitum meum, that is: Since I first came to your house. But the work itself indicates that Laban did not become rich immediately, since Jacob came to him in his house. Therefore it is better interpreted thus: ad pedem vel ad cursum meum; so that at the same time the great diligence and the hard work is indicated, so Jacob had. As if to say, "I have walked day and night, I have not ridden a horse nor ridden in a chariot, but I have grown weary and tired, walking in the fields and pastures with the cattle and home to the house, that I might serve you well and faithfully. During the day I was faint from the heat and at night from the cold. And because of my running and my work, the Lord has blessed you.
And now, when should I also take care of my house?
149. This is a very severe punishment, for Jacob wants to say: You are my father-in-law, therefore by natural right you should have admonished me as soon as my four sons were born, that I also provide for my house; and if you had a godly or honest mind, you should speak to me in this way: My dear Jacob, I see that our family is now multiplying, because four children have been born to me; I will give you some one thousand sheep, from which you may get your own property for yourself and your household. For who would not help his daughter and his son-in-law, who is honest and pious, and who primarily does not benefit himself, but serves his father-in-law faithfully? But Laban does not, therefore Jacob's complaint about his poverty is most just, since he says, "When shall I also provide for my house?" I have two wives and as many maids, and seven children: what all these can earn and acquire, this you enjoy, and the benefit we should have from it, you take away.
Do you not think that I will have to take care of my house according to divine and natural rights? He will say to Laban: "If God had not been on my side, you would have left me empty-handed" etc. Is it not unreasonable and tyrannical to snatch bread from the mouths and throats of your daughters, your children's children and your son-in-law by force?
150 For this is the emphasis of these words, and although Jacob held them out to him in a gentle and humble way, they nevertheless contain a severe punishment. I am, he says, a husband to four wives, a father to so many children; but I do not work for them, I am of no use to them, but I feed you and your house: you devour and tear away what we have earned with our work. If there were even a little sense or common wit in you, or even if there were any shame or kindness in you, you would not let us go about naked and bare, so that we have to live in want and be so poor. That is, to steal the holy cross and the gold from the saints' feet; it is to let poor hungry Lazarus pine away completely, so that he must die of hunger.
151 Therefore it is an unbelievable example of an outrageous avarice to Laban, which we should make great, that we learn to condemn and curse the world with its monster, avarice, and that we proclaim the future punishment, which will follow it, and how the goods, which were acquired with injustice, will disappear and vanish. As the proverbs, so common among all peoples, sufficiently testify. One says in a Latin proverb: De male quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres, that is: Badly won property does not come to the third heir to good etc. And you young fellows will one day see that the children of the miser will live in want and beggary, and that on the other hand also the promise of the Holy Spirit must be fulfilled in the 37th Psalm v. 25: "I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed going after bread." Again it is also said thus:
I have never seen an ungodly man preserved; as it is written in the same Psalm, v. 35, 36: "I have seen an ungodly man defiant, spreading himself out, and green as a laurel tree. When one passed by, behold, he was gone; I asked for him, and he was nowhere to be found." And the experience finely agrees with the holy scripture. So Laban will also be cursed as a robber and murderer of his daughters and children's children, and his goods will be scattered.
This is a very beautiful speech, and a just cause for Jacob to ask for his relief: For I am commanded, he saith, that I also shall provide for my household, and be well to my householders, according to divine and natural right. For "if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for his household," says St. Paul 1 Tim. 5:8, "he has denied the faith and is worse than a pagan." Laban, however, hears nothing at all and is not moved by his son-in-law's respectability and hardship; as the Latin saying goes: Venter caret auribus: The belly has no ears.
Fifth part.
How Laban persuades Jacob to stay; how Jacob determines a "certain" reward and by art makes his reward very great.
V.31. And he (Laban) said, What shall I give thee then?
He asks him fearfully enough, as if to say, "If you need a hundred guilders, I beg you to ask only four from me. But should he not have met him immediately with such words: I know your faithfulness and diligence well and do not need many words? I will willingly offer you all friendship of my own accord, and in everything that I think is to your benefit and piety, I will gladly serve you as my son-in-law and son. But see what the
He asks for a long time, "What shall I give you?" See that you do not demand too much from me. O thou wicked dog! Jacob is your son-in-law, they are your daughters and your children's children, and you still ask long how you are to create their benefit? Moses describes such a magnificent Euclio, much better and more real than any Apelles could have painted him with his colors.
But what should Jacob do now? He sees that his father-in-law is an unkind and godless man, so he thinks that he must command God to judge him. As indeed no miser will escape the judgment and punishment of God. Yes, precisely because they thus increase in their goods, they must perish; for they increase only to curse and ruin, and not to blessing or prosperity. Now as often as you see a miser, you see such a man, who must soon perish and perish.
But Jacob knows Laban's deceitful and mischievous heart, so he thinks, "If I ask you for money and you promise to give it to me, you will not give me anything; you will find some trick or deceit so that you can overturn the contract I made with you with cunning; now you will do some damage to your good, but soon you will have other burdens so that you can always delay me; for those who do not like to pay can find countless excuses. Therefore he offers him another condition, as follows in the text.
And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing in any place: but if thou wilt do unto me as I say, I will feed and keep thy flock again.
I do not want you to lose anything of your possessions or goods; you may well keep all that I have earned for you with my work and diligence, and I will stay with you and will feed your herd with the same faithfulness as before, and will not demand a certain reward for it, but will wait for the blessing of the Lord, and will take for good what I have earned for you.
who will give to me. This was a very pleasant speech for the miser Laban, because he heard that he did not have to spend any money now and that he could use the servant who was so faithful to him a little longer. Therefore the covenant between Laban and Jacob follows.
I will go through all your flock today and separate all the spotted and colored sheep, and all the black sheep among the lambs, and the colored and spotted goats. That which will fall colorful and spotless shall be my reward. So my righteousness will testify to me today or tomorrow, when it comes, that I am to take my reward from you, so that whatever is not spotted or variegated, or is not black among the lambs and goats, that is a theft from me.
157 Laban's possessions were sheep, goats, lambs, rams and other livestock. But because the text is somewhat dark, one must first of all take out a certain understanding. For Jerome complains that this text has been interpreted by the seventy interpreters quite untidily, and says that he has seen none, either among the Hebrew or Latin interpreters, who would have explained it clearly enough. About the same Burgensis also complains. I am well satisfied with Lyra, as he has interpreted it, although he still doubts in some parts, namely, since the grammar is obscure and since the words are not spoken out at all, and almost six verses or lines are somewhat difficult to understand.
But this is the sum of it: We will, says Jacob, make a covenant; I ask nothing of you, but what will fall to me by God's blessing, with that I will be content. Now then, let us go through your flocks and take out everything that is spotted and variegated, so that the sheep that are only one color and not variegated remain on one side, and the variegated ones are put on the other side. There are four kinds of flocks: rams, sheep, goats and rams, but sometimes only one is named synecdochically, sometimes more, and they are not always all listed with each other.
That is why the text is difficult to understand. Since the flocks are divided, Jacob takes those that are not colored, but those that are spotted and colored are given to Laban; and Jacob offers his father-in-law this condition, that everything that is born colored and spotted from the sheep that are only black or white should go to Jacob instead of his wages: but the other lambs of the same color, whether white or black, should go to Laban, his father-in-law.
Laban gladly accepts this condition and has no suspicion that any deceit or trickery might be hidden under it, since he had found Jacob faithful and honest in so many years. Therefore his neck is open for a new gain, and he silently laughs and marvels at the simplicity of Jacob, who had chosen the small number of sheep, and left him lambs of a color, of which there would undoubtedly be many more. For it is natural that white sheep beget white lambs, and black sheep black lambs. But it rarely happens that sheep of the same color produce lambs of different colors, unless people help nature artificially and with special diligence, as will be said later. Therefore Laban rejoiced that not only would he not lose any of his goods and possessions, but that they would also be increased for him, because nature was on his side.
160 But in this way he again shows his cursed stinginess, for he should rather have admonished his son-in-law that he did not want to overprovide himself, because he should have accepted such an unreasonable condition. For he selected and chose for himself the sheep that were only white or black, from which naturally not colored lambs, but the same as the old sheep, must have been begotten. Therefore he should have said: What do you want to do, my dear son-in-law? You want to deprive yourself of your deserved reward, if you want to take the colored lambs for yourself instead of your reward; it is an unfair contract and against nature.
But he has thought of none. And what is more, he rejoices that he has cause to deceive the poor fool again and to mock him, and hopes that if he has ever increased in his wealth before, he will now increase greatly and become rich, and that in the way that Jacob himself suggested. It is such an abominable thing about avarice that it turns people away from all godliness and kindness, and makes them even abominable and afflicted with devilish wickedness. For this is how Laban is described and portrayed here, whom avarice has made so savage, cruel and unkind that he would not give his son-in-law and daughters even a claw of all his flock with good will. This is the opinion of this covenant between Laban and Jacob, in which at the same time the cruel avarice of Laban is to be emphasized and made great.
162 Now let us also look at the text, which, as I have said, is somewhat obscure because the words are broken off so briefly. First, he says that he wants to separate all livestock that is spotted from the others, if it has even one spot. As if a black sheep had a white spot on its forehead or on its body, or a white sheep had only a black spot, wherever it might be on its body. And it can be seen as if he wants to have understood by the same name in general or synecdochically all cattle, which would have not only one spot, but also many smaller spots; because this is called with the Hebrews, cattle, which is nakod. After that he calls the sheep thalu in Hebrew, which we have actually translated, colored sheep. For thus these two names are distinguished: these have larger, broader spots of two colors, white or black; but those have smaller spots. Thirdly, he says that he wants to separate all the black sheep among the lambs; by this he means the black lambs. But there is a difference between the two Hebrew words, seh and keseb; the latter is commonly said of all sheep, but this is called a yearling lamb, or that which is still younger: when it is past the year, it is no longer called keseb: we call it a paschal lamb. To
Fourth, among the flock of goats, he also separates out the spotted and colored ones, as with the sheep; but from the lambs he takes only the black ones.
But this is followed in the text: "This shall be my reward. Here is an ellipsis, and one must add here: All that is begotten of it, which is like unto them, and which shall be multitude of the white sheep. For methinks that only the flock of the white sheep remained unto Jacob; though others would have it that the black sheep also were added unto them. And this is the opinion that Jacob wants to say: Everything that the white sheep will carry of lambs, which is colored and spotted, that shall be mine; but what they will carry of white lambs, that shall be yours.
164 Therefore, it is a very unfair condition, since it is against nature that white goats or sheep should carry black or colored lambs or goats. However, Jacob offered this condition to the miser thus. "So my righteousness," he says, "will testify to me," that is, I will be righteous. For with this contract it lies even on the luck and how it will fall. Wherefore it may come to pass, that the white sheep shall bear me multicolored lambs, that thou shalt not entertain suspicion, as if I had dealt deceitfully or fraudulently therewith, though I never did thee any wrong. But whatever is not spotted, but is found with me plain and white, you shall say it was stolen from you, and you shall freely accuse me of theft.
This is especially a hard obligation that the pious holy man has committed himself against the bad boy in such a way. And it seems from this that Laban will often have reproached Jacob if something was not done to satisfy his lust or avarice, as if something had been stolen from him, or as if Jacob's servants had slaughtered and eaten some sheep or goats from the flock. Or, at least, he threatened Jacob with such punishment and words of abuse, and prevented him from using anything for his own benefit, even though he could not doubt his faithfulness and diligence.
V. 34. Then said Laban, Behold, it is as thou hast said.
It looks as if Laban still doubted and did not trust Jacob. Oh," he says, "let it happen now, as you have said. Well, we will try it until I see whether this sheep breeding will also turn out as I hope it will be beneficial for me. Although he sees that everything corresponds to his avarice, he does not yet accept it as certain, but with a condition, that he may change and cancel the contract, if or how often he himself wants; as we will hear afterwards (Cap. 31. V. 41.) that Jacob says to him: "You have changed my wages ten times". Therefore the abomination of Laban's avarice increases more and more; for he still refuses, since his son-in-law also offers him a very cheap contract, which is almost unreasonable for himself. He does not approve of it clearly; not because he should consider that such a contract would not be useful to him and would be well accepted, but because he wants to retain the power to revoke it and to refuse to keep it, no matter how it turns out. Do you see what avarice does?
For this reason, the poet has gloriously and well said: Auri sacra fames, quid non mortalia pectora cogis? Thou cursed avarice, to what canst thou not bring the hearts of men? For men are so changed by avarice that they retain nothing human about them, but become even blocks and idols that they retain no human feeling at all. And one can finely draw from it, that in the 115th Psalm v. 4-8. is written: "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold. Those who make them are like them, and all who hope in them." The usurers, robbers, and covetous are not men; "they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not." And Sirach says, "There is nothing more evil, more shameful, than a miserly man. For the miser is an unkind, cruel and tyrannical man; if they could keep all men alive with a penny, they would not give the penny. That is why they are murderers and killers, for they steal and devour what is theirs.
other people enjoy and from which they should receive.
Now, even if there had been a small spark of human kindness in Laban, he should have been moved to kindness and good deeds by the virtue and magnanimity of his son-in-law, and should have reasonably thought so: I see that my son-in-law is pious and honest, and that he would like to see it so well on my side and with my things, that he offers me such a contract, that it would not only be convenient for me, but also very useful and beneficial; but God be for it, that I should accept it. He has my daughters as wives, with whom he lives honestly and kindly, and has served me faithfully for fourteen years: truly, I must be more cruel than any unreasonable animal can be, if I wanted to do my benefit and good with his harm. But he thinks of none; indeed, he does not even dream of it. For avarice wipes out all kindness, shame, and even the very nature of man, and makes of men vain idols of silver and gold etc.
For this reason I like very much the fable of the poets about the king Midas, of whom they write that everything he had touched had become gold, as he had wished it to happen. Yes, such fellows are also the miserly, namely, like silver and golden idols, which have no human feeling at all. And in another place a pagan writer has spoken gloriously and delicately that a miser never does anything good, except when he dies. For the stingy are a useless, even a harmful burden of the earth, and where one would have done good in cities and countries, one should always chase them away. For where they are, there is a common ruin of the fellowship which men have among themselves; and they are a pestilence of human society.
V. 35, 36: And that day he separated the goats that were white, and all the goats that were spotted, and all the goats that were white, and all that were black among the lambs;
And he put it under the hand of his children, and put three days' journey between him and Jacob. So Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock.
But see that he has not in vain changed the previous names now with other names.
The Hebrew word akudim means the large goats that go before the herd; as tejaschim means the small goats that are fed and taken out to be eaten and not for breeding. What actually is the origin of the word akudim, I do not know. The word akad means to bind; therefore they interpret it to mean goats that have a white ring around their black feet or, on the other hand, a black ring on white feet, so that it looks as if the feet are bound with it; or, which I like best, he wants to understand by it those that have a long welt over the back, as almost all goats are wont to have; that this also rhymes to make Laban's avarice great with it, who also singled out from the very most accurate the goats whose spots could hardly be noticed.
For this is why he says, "Where there was only white, and all that was black among the lambs." As if to say: After he had already sorted out the colored sheep, he also took great care to look carefully at the individual hairs on the feet or beard of each sheep or goat that was solid colored, to see whether some were spotted or colored. He used such an exact and diligent examination against his daughters and his son-in-law, so that he could prove how such a great man was.
He said that there was a great miser and a scanty felt in his heart, to whom God and all men were enemies. And so far we have spoken of the covenant or agreement between Laban and Jacob.
And Jacob took staves of green poplar trees, and of hazel trees, and of chestnut trees, and peeled white stripes thereon, that the whiteness of the staves should be bare: and he put the staves which he had peeled in the watering troughs before the herds that were to come to drink, that they should receive when they came to drink. So the herds received above the staves, and brought spattered, spotted, and multicolored.
(173) We have heard how Laban had such a great desire and was anxious for a new robbery and gain. But what happens? God shows Jacob a special art so that he can help nature and change it. For he takes sticks from three different trees and peels them, not that he has completely peeled off the skin, but that he has colored them so that they were white and black, so that on one side one saw the white, because the bark had been peeled off, but on the other side the black, because the bark had remained. He puts these same sticks in the watering troughs, so that the sheep have such sticks in front of their eyes, and when they look at them, they may receive them. It was an artificial philosophy or a magic, so that he brought about that the sheep in the heat, when they looked at the colored sticks, brought colored lambs. And so, from the white or black flock, colorful and spotless lambs have come.
174 The word "they received" in Hebrew is jechemu, which comes from
jacham; the sheep have warmed themselves by the sticks; that is so much to say: they have run with each other, as the shepherds are wont to call it. And this word is also in the 51st Psalm v. 7: "My mother, jechematni, conceived me in sins", that is, I was conceived in the heat and shameful lust of the flesh. By this is understood the heat of childbearing, which before the: Fall of Adam pure and
But now it is poisoned and corrupted by original sin: it is not a harmless oestrus as it was in the beginning, but is corrupted by lust and evil desire.
So Jacob, by art and skill or by natural magic, deceived the art or rather the wickedness of Laban, which he had practiced on Jacob; which art the fathers had learned either by long use or by instruction of the ancestors. For Jacob will undoubtedly have been instructed in it by some patriarch, or God will have given it to him through the Holy Spirit. And it is a certain art, which rhymes with the teachings of physicians, who say that in the conception of all animals, not only of irrational animals, but also of humans, the fruit is to be given a special shape or stain, both from the thoughts and also from various objects that occur to the heart or the eyes, not only in the heat of conception, but also after impregnation.
Jerome and the physicists also tell an example of a queen who gave birth to a child that had a shape and face like a Moor; and this is said to have happened, they say, because she was strongly imprinted with a Moor that was painted on a tablet by the bed. They also say of another woman who was accused of adultery, namely, because she was ugly in appearance and yet gave birth to a beautiful child, which was unequal to father and mother and the whole sex; and she would have been condemned if Hippocrates had not saved her, since he gave an admonition that she should be asked whether she had had any painted tablet in the bedchamber, which she had looked at with pleasure. And since the tablet was found, she was found innocent by the judges.
177 Thus we sometimes see that the children have colored spots of blood or other colors on their faces, eyes, cheeks, or necks,
when the pregnant women suddenly saw something unusual or were frightened by it and grabbed such limbs with their hands. Here in Wittenberg we have seen a citizen who had a face like a dead human being; he said that while she was pregnant, a human corpse suddenly appeared before his mother's eyes, and she was so frightened by it that the face of the fruit in her womb took on the appearance of a dead human being.
The same is to be done with diligence when the cattle and the unreasonable animals run with each other. As Jerome says, in Spain the beautiful horses are placed in front of the mother horses when they run, so that young ponies may be born from them, which may be like such beautiful horses.
Therefore, pregnant women are not to be joked with, but one should diligently take care of them for the sake of the fruit. For there is much untold danger of premature birth and many other dreadful miscarriages. For this reason, a husband should most sensibly live with his wife, as St. Peter says in 1 Epist. 3, v. 7. I remember well, when I was a little boy, that in Eisenach a beautiful and chaste matron gave birth to a rat; which had come because one of the neighbors had attached a bell to a rat, so that the others should flee from it. The same rat with the bell met the pregnant woman, and because she did not know anything about the matter, she was so frightened by the fact that the rat appeared to her so suddenly and she saw it, that the fruit in her womb took on the shape of the same animal. Such examples are very mean, when pregnant women are often suddenly moved and frightened, even with danger to their life and limb.
180 Therefore, be careful not to move them violently, either externally in the body or internally in the mind. For those who have no regard for pregnant women and do not spare the tender fruit are death-rowers and children.
murderer. How you can find some men who are so cruel and tyrannical that they are not even afraid to beat the poor pregnant women. These are brave heroes, who truly have great courage against the weak female sex, but otherwise they are despondent men. For we heard the other day that a prince, who had otherwise committed many other sins and disgraces, was said to have drawn a sword on his wife because she had been ill and was lying in bed. Oh, what a brave hero and mighty man of war this is to me! Indeed, this is not at all befitting a brave hero, but is a great sin and disgrace. For where thou art a righteous man, thou shalt well find thy equal to fight with. The great valiant heroes are strong against other strong ones and weak against the weak. What is this, that you start a fight against a child and a pregnant woman? This poor female sex has enough left on it without danger, even with pious husbands who know how to keep themselves safe, namely, from evil neighbors, from the devil, from various ghosts and images of unreasonable animals. Now it is a great sin that such danger should be increased by your cruelty.
Yes, the pagans also praised this virtue in their great heroes, that they kept themselves peaceful, quiet and friendly towards their wives. For Homer testifies to this when he describes the great brave heroes as Achilles, Hector and others. When Hector had put on his armor and armor, he kissed his son. So they were also wives with the wives, so also that one has seen nothing more feminine than these great heroes have been with their wives; but in the war, when it is a matter of quarreling, Achilles has held himself differently against Hector, because he jokes with his Briseis.
That is why one is a cheap enemy of those who are strong and warlike against the poor, defenseless, weak, female sex and always want to fight. We men were not born to hurt the weak female sex, but to protect and defend it.
For the woman has a womb that is made to be with child, and to beget and nourish children, and is subject to many dangers; therefore one should deal with her wisely and kindly. And so far a part of this text has been interpreted, and an art, so Jacob practiced, has been described.
Then Jacob separated the lambs, and put the separate flock with the spotted and black ones in Laban's flock, and made him his own flock, which he did not put with Laban's flock. And when the course was of the springling's field, he put these staves in the gutters before the eyes of the field, that they might receive above the staves; but in the lateling's course he put them not in. Thus became the latelings of Laban, but the earlylings of Jacob. Therefore the man was rich beyond measure, that he had much flock, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.
183] The other art that Jacob used is of the course of the flock, which is in the spring and in the fall. For Jacob used his art in the first course, that is, in the spring, when the sheep are strongest; then he put the staves in the troughs, that the strongest lambs might be colored, which belonged to him: but in the autumn and in the late spring course the sheep are weaker, therefore they have not the heat of the sun, as in the spring. That is why he did not lay any rods at that time, so that lambs of one color would be naturally born, which belonged to Laban. But it is better to run in the spring, because it happens while the sun is still rising, when the heat comes again, and the strength of all herbs and animals is increased. Therefore Jacob procured that he would have the best and strongest sheep, namely the springs; just as the lambs that fall in the fall are called late lambs and winter sheep. By the way, it was an almost artificial skill, yes, it was a cunning and almost a mischievousness; and Jacob also kept himself there according to fairness and such a measure that he did not arouse his miserly father-in-law's suspicion, so that he would be deceived by art. In the autumn run of the late
He did not change anything so that Laban would also keep a part and that he would not be robbed.
For this reason, he was finely prejudiced and could not understand how it could come about that the spring lambs were born in color and the late lambs followed nature. He thought it had happened by chance or by divine blessing; that is why he changed the contract ten times, as will follow, and where he had ever before shown that he was stingy, he had given an excellent and obvious example of his cursed stinginess. Because he saw that the spring lambs were better and stronger, he cancelled the covenant and chose the colored ones for himself. Since Jacob did not help nature with his art, the sheep bore lambs of one color, and again the best fell to Jacob. Therefore Laban was deceived again, and he changed the contract and Jacob's wages for the third, fourth and tenth time. O of the shameful avarice, which everyone should spit upon!
But our rabbis reproach and torment me that I have not interpreted this text correctly in German. For they add the third art or skill, that the text says that Jacob separated the lambs and put them in heaps among Laban's flock etc. They interpret this to mean that he herded the spotted lambs into a bunch and let them go before Laban's flock, so that the sheep that followed would bring other colored lambs by looking at the colored ones that had gone before.
But this came from the very shameful and stingy rabbis, who judge the holy patriarchs as they themselves are, as if he had not been satisfied with the art he had practiced, but had also brought the lambs before the multicolored flock to look at them, so that the lambs might become multicolored not only from the multicolored rods, but also from looking at the multicolored flock.
and even wants to understand the opposite, namely, that Jacob has separated the multicolored flock and put it in another place. For he speaks of the lambs that he has set apart; just as they are accustomed today to set the lambs apart when they drive the old sheep to pasture. And the two flocks, Laban's and Jacob's, were three days' journey apart; therefore the two flocks, Jacob's and Laban's, could not have been in one place at one time.
But by such art and skill, Moses writes, Jacob became very rich, or, as it is written in Hebrew: The man has broken forth, that is, he has become exceedingly great and rich. And this seems to me to be the right actual understanding of this text, which is very obscure; which understanding coincides with what all Catholic teachers think of it, and is taken from the comparison of what will follow, which will also explain and confirm this understanding even more; moreover, this understanding is also found, if one will diligently consider and ponder all circumstances.
(188) But it is asked, Whether this deed of Jacob's may be excused, that he deceives his father-in-law with manifest deceit? Because it has to some extent the appearance of avarice, or still more of theft or a robbery. For why does he not keep the order and course of nature at both times, in spring and in autumn? Answer: From what has been said above and what will follow, one can take many and honest excuses. First, he is excused according to human law, which allows and permits those who serve stingy and unjust masters, where the masters give them no wages, but only rob and plunder them and take what is theirs, that they, the servants, may in turn also take and rob what is due to them as wages; but in a proper way, so that this does not happen to the master's detriment.
(189) So the children of Israel robbed the Egyptians and took such robbery as their reward, that they served the Egyptians unreasonably, with great difficulty.
The Egyptians had not yet paid them for this, Exodus 12:35, 36. Jacob had also served in this way for fourteen years, and had been afflicted with many miseries, troubles and hardships, and yet he was still deprived of his due reward. Therefore, what he stole and took even without his master's will and knowledge was due to him by right. This is one answer.
190) Secondly, even though it is a trick and a deception, Jacob did it by divine command, for an angel appeared to him and showed him this magic, which is natural and quite proper. Therefore, Jacob learned it either from the angel or from the holy fathers, who had great experience and understanding of things. But when God calls holy and faithful men to do something, it is undoubtedly holy and well done.
Third, he will also say afterwards Genesis 31:42 (for this chapter cannot be understood without the next one): "God has looked upon my misery and toil"; there we will hear what fear and need drove him to commit this deception. "What was stolen," he will say, "I had to pay for. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, you would have let me go empty-handed." The good, pious and faithful Jacob had no hope at all that he could have saved or collected a little of his own property from the insatiable rapacity of his father-in-law. This was certainly not a small misfortune, by which he was caused to commit this robbery, especially since the divine command came to him, in which he was commanded that he should do this. For Laban has had more benefit for your sake, the angel will have said, than you can take from him; therefore you can justly use art and cunning, so that you may still bring something from him; not that is stolen, but that is permitted and given to you by God Himself. Therefore, according to human and divine law, Jacob is a man.
Right, and in addition also excused because of the extreme necessity.
But not everyone should follow this example, unless in the same case. Otherwise, the eyes of the wicked will look only at the deed and disregard the circumstances, and they will want to use it as an example for other robberies. But you shall not follow this example, unless you are like Jacob in all respects, and all circumstances in the same case will drive you to it. For he has given his father-in-law his goods and chattels, and has served the miserly and rapacious Laban so exceedingly grievously, who has not given him his fill of bread: he has watched, he has suffered hunger, thirst, heat, frost, day and night; he has had no recompense or reward of it; yea, Laban has thought above it still, to give him
He is also deprived of the wages that they had become one with each other, since he retains the power to change the contract as often as he wants. These circumstances should be diligently observed and considered, then Jacob will not be accused of avarice and no one will easily want to follow this example. For it is such an example and such a deed that befits a great hero, as many more are found in the patriarchs. But we have just spoken of such special deeds of the great heroes. Sometimes the chivalrous great heroes follow the common rules, sometimes not. Jacob, however, does not sin against the rule, because natural and worldly law comes to his aid; and Christ Matth. 10, 10. says: "A laborer is worthy of his food" and his wages.