(vv. 1-13) And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob nothing, she envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Bring me forth children also, or else I die. And Jacob was very wroth with Rachel, and said, Am I then in God's stead, which withholdest the fruit of thy womb? And she said, Behold, Bilhah my maid, and lie with her, that she may bear upon my womb, and that I may be built up by her: and she gave him Bilhah her maid to wife. And Jacob lay with her. 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. 1) Then Bilhah Rachel's handmaid conceived, and bare Jacob the second son. And Rachel said, God hath wrought it with me and with my sister, and I am overbearing: and she called his name Naphtali. 2) When Leah saw that she had ceased from childbearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. So Zilpah Leah's maid bore Jacob a son. And Leah said, Prepared, and called his name Gad. And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bare Jacob another son. Then said Leah, Blessed be I; for my daughters shall call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.
In the previous chapter we heard enough about how poor Leah had to be the Cinderella, but Rachel the right woman, and how God showed in this how He exalts what we hold in low esteem, so much so that He holds the judgment firmly, even among the saints. For Jacob was a pious man, full of the spirit; nor was Leah anything special with him, but Rachel was the right wife, of whom he thought much. In such a carnal sense, God still lets him go; but also lets him confidently lack, and judges much differently than Jacob.
2 Therefore, even if we are holy, we must take care that God does not make us all holy.
1) Marginal gloss: Dan means judge.
2) Marginal gloss: Naphtali means confused, turned around, reversed, when one does the antithesis, Ps. 18:27: "With the perverse thou dost consort."
Ways that we lift up that we lift up, and despise that we despise. He will not lift it up for us, because he did not lift it up for his mother, nor for all the apostles, who also often had good thoughts, and thought it was right, and should go out that way; but he does it differently. He still does this, so that the right may remain, that he may break our spirit. This is why he took Leam and made her fertile, but not the other, even though Jacob thought she should be the right mother, until she humbled herself.
(3) Here again we see a long and strange chapter, which, if reason considers it most profoundly, is nevertheless a fool's work, and sheer annoyance, that one should deal with your book, and think so much of it, which nevertheless speaks nothing but of goats and sheep and of the begetting of children; how could he present it more foolishly than that? especially if it is supposed to be written by holy people, as these are supposed to be.
4 But I cannot go against it, that is where it lies; whoever can do it better, let him do it, we will watch. If St. Jerome were to write about this, he would say that one should not stay with the bad history, but only seek the spiritual understanding in it; we will leave that alone. So I said that one should read and hear that in all God's works one should not look at anything more than His 'will, eyes, ears, and all the senses, and not ask any further. If it is God's work and will, worship it and carry it on your hands. He would have known how to describe other things if it had pleased him.
005 And yet what shall we say, that Jacob taketh four wives by heaps, two sisters, and two maids? Is it not a Hurian adventurer that two are not enough for him, but that he must have two more? I said in the previous chapter [ยง 8] that his chastity is well proven by the fact that he lived seventy years and had no wives.
3) Erlanger: bite.
But now, when he is an old fool, and of course not much more fit to beget fruit, he takes four wives. The first answer is this: Because the Scripture does not reprove it, but describes it so diligently, and shows how God blessed him, and gives twelve patriarchs from the four wives, it behooves us to shut up, and [to] say: It pleases me well, because it pleased him.
But I think that if many holy people (as Jerome, Augustine, Hilarius, and probably also St. Peter) had seen such works in their times 1) from such a man, it would have been too high for them not to have been appalled by it, unless God's Spirit had specially inspired them and said it was right. For it is a high work, above all reason, that it might have been annoying even to the dear saints. It is now brought into the world, so that no one may say it is wrong. But if it were placed before our eyes, I and all the others would be fools about it.
Thus God makes fools of the world (and also at times of the highly knowledgeable spiritual people) with such works that one does not know what he has in mind. That is why his rule is strange, as St. Paul says out of the spirit. When he had looked at it from side to side for a long time, he let it fall, and he started to say [Rom. 11, 33]: "O what a depth of riches, both of wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and inscrutable His ways! Summa, it is even directed that he would like to be God, and we would think that what he did was right. But we do not do this, but take laws before us and conclude: He who does not do this is wrong. But how if he says, "How then, if you do not rightly understand the law, and I would do it differently from what you want or understand?
This is the first reason that Moses describes such a thing, so that he could not describe it more ugly. He did it, therefore it is right. How then, if we also did it, would it not also be right? Or
1) So Walch and the Erlanger, "have" is missing in the Jenaer. In the original and in the Wittenberg: gesche. hen would have.
2) "the" is missing in the Jena.
Is it written for us as an example that we should do the same? No, for I have said often enough that we should not look at the works but at the person of Jacob. If you are also a Jew, 3) do it also. God does not want us to take works into our hands; that is why He is so foolish with the holy works to resist us, so that we do not fall into them. Look ahead to the faith, spirit and word given to Him. If then you are such a person, do in God's name what comes before you.
009 For see how he doeth. Yet he does not seek it, and there is no malice; but Rachel saith unto him, Give me children also, or I must die. The good Metze would have liked to have children, especially because she saw that her sister was so fertile, and it would have been a great shame and heartache to her that she should remain without children. She understood from the sermon she had often heard from Jacob how through his seed all people should be blessed; she knew and believed this; therefore she would rather have desired to die than to remain without fruit. [She] must therefore have thought: I am the right woman; what mischievousness does God do to me that I am not worthy to be the mother? How a Christian heart would be troubled this very day, if it were so, that it would be frightened and think, "Alas! I see that God has not spoken the word about me, and that it is none of my business; he holds himself to my sister, and despises me. So the word will have humiliated her in the ashes, and it will have hurt her so much that she will have to say, "If I do not have children, I will die of sorrow. Then her joy is purely taken away.
10 The text speaks about it, which is even harder, how she envied her sister and was angry with her. There is still strong flesh and blood underneath, as in all Christians. She was afraid that God would not ask for her; she also worried (as women do) that she would not remain her beloved for long. Such foolish, carnal theidings God still leaves in them, that one sees how they have all been frail,
3) Jekel - Jacob.
like all of us. Again, Jacob also becomes moody, even, as the text says, very angry with them, and says: "Do you think that I am in God's place, and should give you children, when he does not give you any? Here you can see that he often preached to them, and how they recognized God and his word. But I will say this much:
(11) You know well what God is, that there is no man's strength to bear children, but God's hand and power. What can I do if he will not give you one? This is a small comfort that he gives her, but it upsets him, as a holy man, that she comes here so unreasonably out of impatience, and speaks as if she has forgotten God, that it is Jacob's fault that she has no children.
012 And what did she do, when she saw that she was not fruitful? There is my maidservant," she says, "lie with her, that she may bear upon my womb, and that I may be edified by her. This was the custom among the Gentiles at that time, that servants and maids were their own people, so that they bought the masters for money for their own property, like horses and cows. So also Moses wrote in the law, when servants and maidservants, which were given together, begat children, that they were all the lord's own. As is still the custom in the lands of the Turk. Therefore Rachel says here: The maidservant is mine, let her bear to me in my womb. Because she gives the maidservant to her husband and gives her children, everything she gives birth to is her own according to the law; but she does not want to give her a strange husband or a husband of her own, but to have children by her Jacob; let her remain a maidservant, and she remains a wife. It is a strange right, not of the pope, but of God. But is she also right to give away her husband? Without her will Jacob would not have done it; because he now supplies and keeps the maid, it must be right; otherwise he would not have granted it. These are serious matters, not done out of any malice.
013 Now the same maidservant begetteth unto the woman two sons; the first she calleth Dan, that is, a judge. [She does not let the maid give him a name or take care of the child, but wants to be a mother herself, so that she may be built up by the maid and have a house,
so that one could say, "This is Rachel's child. Therefore she calls him Dan and says, "God has judged my cause. As if she were to say, "I have been in disgrace, but now I am blessed that I may also be called a mother; though by another wife, yet by her who is mine. So exactly she seeks it, that she may also be fruitful. For in the Old Testament it was the greatest shame where a woman was not fertile; it was as if God was not gracious to her, that he did not make her a partaker of the blessing. She also calls the other son of the maid herself, and calls him Naphtali, which means reversed or changed. [So she wants to say: Praise be to God! My sister has stopped, she stands still, and I continue and stand with great honor, now I want to remain the supreme woman; but this is once again a human and feminine thought.
014 Again, Leah also hath a woman's temptation, and will give nothing before to her sister; and because she hath ceased to bear, she taketh her maid also, and giveth her to Jacob. And she begat a son, and called his name Gad, and said, Full of vigor: as if she should say, It is yet full of vigor and freshness. For Gad is called valiant, or valiant for battle; from it comes Gedud, a warrior-servant. Then another, whose name is Asser, blessed; for "now the women will call me blessed," she says, "that I have so many children by Jacob.
(15) This is the story of the two maidservants who had to bear children to the two wives, and yet remained maidservants, even though they were Jacob's wives. I have said before 12) how it is right that the great holy man nevertheless keeps the wives so hard, and according to strict law, does not let them enjoy that they are his wives, that he would release them and make them free, which would ever be fair and kind to look upon. Oh how God has kept the people under restraint, so that they would not become too insolent and wanton. It would be good if such constraint were now, too, for we all want to be noblemen; therefore the servants also drive the arrogance and courageous will, so that no one can perish with them; there will never be a proper regiment. It is certainly unkind to see people being made one's own, like cattle. But it is also
It is an abomination to hang thieves on gallows; but one must force and tame people, yet one has enough to do that one may have peace. For it is impossible that those who are not God's children, and who are unbelievers, should do anything good, especially if they are given room and will. For this reason, there is now no more rule, discipline, or honor, and everything runs from one country to another, causing all kinds of trouble.
(16) Therefore the holy people have held that it is not good to give such people room and rein; otherwise they would become too proud and unruly. Even if Jacob had wanted to set them free, it would not have been right, because it was the custom of the land; therefore he did not want to establish a new right. It is necessary to keep order among the people, so that not everyone does as he pleases; as is the case now, that lords and wives must yield to the servants more than to their children, and often leave more right than they themselves have. Therefore, it has been a well-ordered, delicious regiment. It is not good that one should be the prisoner of another, but it is necessary to maintain an outward, worldly regiment. So the fathers would have let it go; but because the servants could not be governed in any other way and kept under constraint, they kept them according to the customs of the country and let them stay that way. There is also no doubt in my mind that these two maids were pious and holy women. [It is a great honor that they have helped to carry the twelve patriarchs. [It] now follows further in the history.
Reuben went out at the time of the wheat harvest and found Allrun in the field and brought her home to his mother Leah. And Rachel said unto Leah, Give me a portion of thy son's allunto. And she said, Hast thou not enough that thou hast taken my husband from me, and wilt thou also take my son's runt? And Rachel said, Well, let him sleep with thee this night for thy son's land. 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 land. And he slept with her that night. And God heard
And Leah conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son, and said, God hath rewarded me for giving my handmaid unto my husband, and called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son, and said, God hath well counseled me; now shall my husband dwell with me again, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. Then she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. And God 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 called his name Joseph, and said, God will add another son unto me.
(47) Here again there is an outrage that the two holy sisters, Rachel and Leah, envy and hate each other for the sake of Jacob's husband, so that it may be seen how they were also frail and human, for the comfort of us who are sinners. But besides this it is shown how the conjugal love is the greatest and highest love on earth, that it leaves, despises, yes, also hates and envies sister, brother, father and mother for the sake of the conjugal husband. Now Leah complains that Rachel takes her husband; she does not want to forgive her right, but also wants to be a wife; yes, she would like to be alone and the most noble, because she says: "You take my husband from me", just as if she were the right wife. But it did not help, she had to be a concubine, and let Jacob live with Rachel daily and most of all. But Rachel made her a friend, and let Jacob lie with Leah at night. Such bickering, envying, complaining and reconciling will have happened often, that Jacob has had enough to deal with them. But it is indicated here once to interpret how the housekeeping was 1) done, as with all other godly children; as also Peter [1 Ep. 3, 7] confesses that a woman is weak, and St. Paul [1 Cor. 7, 10] teaches the married to reconcile themselves. For they know that without infirmity, anger, impatience, and the like, there is no marital life, much more at the time when many women have had a husband.
1) In the editions: have.
(18) Some people think that the allrun, which in Hebrew are called dudaim, were violas. But they may not be the blue or yellow violas, for here the text says that Reuben had them healthy in the wheat harvest, as also Solomon says in his Song of Songs [Cap. 7, 13.]: "Dudaim, they give their smell." From this it seems that there are wafted fine flowers, which smell well around the time of harvest, as with us the carnations, 4) lilies and roses. But what kind of flowers they are, we do not know for sure. But that all interpreters have made Allrun out of it, which I have followed, because otherwise no certain flower was to be named, I consider nothing. What should smell Allrun, and so well please the women? I take carnations, 2) or white lilies for it. It seems, because no one has known for sure what Dudaim means, that a Jew has mocked ours, and said, it is called Allrun; as St. Hilarius in the word Hosanna, and many others are also deceived and mocked.
What is the need to write such a story about how women fight over flowers? No other need, but that God, as often said, does not ask much about our works, but the works of his dear saints please him, however small and trivial they always are before reason. For here you see, besides the small works, how full of faith Leah is, that God hears her prayer, and makes her pregnant; and she praises and thanks and recognizes God's grace, as if God were playing with these flowers with His children; and yet thereby accomplishes such great things that two arch-fathers and the daughter Dinah come away with great praise and honor to God. What this story and these flowers mean, however, I will now leave until another time; it is also easy to think out of the previous interpretations, whoever feels like it.
(vv. 26-43) Now when Rachel had borne 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 knowest the service that I have done thee.
1) "than with us the carnations" is missing in the Wittenberger.
. 2) Jenaer: "Nelichen"; Wittenberger: "neglichen"; Erlanger: "Neilichen".
have. Laban said to him, "Can I not find mercy in your sight? I feel that God has blessed me for your sake. Voice the reward which I shall give thee. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and what cattle thou hast among me. Thou hadst little before I came hither, but now it is spread abroad, and the LORD hath blessed thee for my sake: and now, when shall I also provide for my house? And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing at all: but if thou wilt do unto me as I say, I will feed again, and feed thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock this day, and thou shalt separate from thence all the spotted and spotted sheep, and all the black sheep among the lambs. That which is colored and spotted among the goats shall be my reward. So my righteousness will testify to me today or tomorrow, when it comes to my reward before you; so that what is not spotted and colored among the goats, and what is black among the lambs, that is a theft from me. Then said Laban, Behold, it is as thou hast said, and he separated out by day the goats that were speckled and of many colors, and all the goats that were speckled and of many colors, and that were white, and all that were black among the lambs, and put them in the hand of his children, and made room three days' journey between him and Jacob. So Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock. Jacob took sticks of green willow, hazel and chestnut, and peeled white strips from them, and put the sticks he had peeled in the watering troughs in front of the flocks,
3) Marginal gloss: goats. You must not be mistaken here that Moses calls the small cattle now goats, now lambs, now rams, as this language kind is. For he means that Jacob kept all the white, single-headed cattle, and Laban gave all the colored and black ones. Now whatever was colored from the single-colored cattle was to be his reward. Laban was glad of this and had nature to himself that not much colored cattle would naturally come from the single-colored ones. But Jacob helped nature with art, so that the single-colored ones bore a lot of colored ones. By this story it is meant that through the gospel the souls are led away from the law and works saints, where they are colorful, bright and spotted, that is, adorned with various gifts of the spirit; Rom. 12, 6. 1 Cor. 12, 4. that under the law and works only the unrighteous remain. For Laban means white or glittering, and means the glittering heap in the beautiful works, also divine law,
who had to come to drink, that they should receive when they came to drink. So the flocks received over the staves, and brought mottled, spotted, and colored. Then Jacob separated the lambs that were not spotted and all that were black, and put them in clusters among Laban's flock, and made him his own flock, which he did not put with Laban's flock. And it came to pass, when the course of the spring yeast was, that he put the staves in the trenches before the eyes of the yeast, that they received above the staves. But in the lateling course he did not put them in. So the latelings of Laban, but the earlylings of Jacob. Therefore the man became exceedingly rich, that he had much flock, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.
(20) Moses describes how Jacob dealt with his brother-in-law and deceived him about the sheep. Here, however, we must once again answer those who consider it according to the flesh, as if Jacob had acted treacherously with his master. But the text is somewhat obscure in its language, so let us give our opinion in our own German as to how it happened. First, Jacob served Rachel seven years, as we have heard. And when they were ended, Laban betrayed him, and gave him Leah. After that he served seven more years for Rachel, and he gave her to him for his wages. And when the fourteen years were expired, and he had earned no reward, save abundance, and food, and covering, and yet his lord's goods were greatly improved, as he himself confessed, they became one for the reward: and Jacob said, Let us tame 1) God and nature, what shall be mine and thine. Thou hast a flock of sheep, and thou shalt bring out the multicolored ones, and give me the plain ones. This is what Moses writes in a roundabout way; he calls the multicolored sheep half white and black spotted or speckled, which have white or black marks and spots, but otherwise one color. We call all of this colorful. According to this, our business shall proceed: The white, single-colored sheep, and what they bring for single-colored, shall also be yours; but what is born colored, shall be my reward.
021 So he made two armies, and took
1) to let tame - to let switch and rule.
to himself the plain ones, and what was colored, he did to the children. And gives it thus: Now I have the single-colored sheep alone; what now comes of these multicolored 2) shall be mine. Laban was happy to hear this and thought Jacob had done well, wanting to deceive himself; for it was not according to the common, natural course that much color should come from single-colored livestock. But Jacob used a trick and had Laban take all the colored ones and put them under his children's hands, three days' journey from there; but he stayed with the single-colored ones, but took sticks or rods and peeled them half with stripes. When the sheep were breeding and running, he put the sticks in front of them, and when they started to use the colored sticks, they also received colored and speckled sheep. With this art he brought about that from the monochrome ones so many colored and few monochrome ones came.
022 And it came to pass, when six months were expired, that Laban saw that Jacob's flock was great, and his less: "Well," said he, "it is not so, let us change; I will take the colored ones this time, and thou shalt keep the plain ones. Jacob was satisfied, and let [it] remain according to nature, put no colored sticks before them. After the year Laban saw that Jacob had the most sheep, so he changed it again with the reward, so that Jacob would keep the colored ones again. The change happened ten times in succession. For Laban was stingy and always wanted to have the most sheep, but Jacob needed the art so that he always had more than Laban. This is the opinion of the whole text, clearly stated.
023 Now the question is, Whether Jacob hath done right, that he hath dealt so craftily? so bring most of the sheep of it, that he knoweth not; for otherwise he would not have permitted him. [It is also to be thought that Jacob had pious servants, so that they did not betray him. For there is no doubt that Jacob ruled his house in such a way that he preached God's commandment and word, and suffered nothing wrong in the house. Now what shall we say to this, since the text is so clear in how it seeks its advantage, and to Laban
2) Wittenberg and Jena: colorful.
breaks off? If ours did, it would count for nothing; or, if it should count now, we would confidently steal. So the histories in the Old Testament are almost all so that reason would have to conclude that it was not done right. Why then does he write it down as if it were right and well done, blessing and praising him for it?
24) Answer: That he did the play out of the Holy Spirit's inspiration and activity is clear and irrefutable from the following text, where God confirms it, and tells him to take the wives, servants and cattle and go away. Wherever God's word goes, one should not ask whether it is right, but go confidently; what he says is right. Therefore, because it is confirmed here by God and driven, one should hear no other cause than that it is rightly done, [he] also had right to the good [in] many ways. He had served seven years for the daughter; but he deceived him, and kept him yet seven years, that he should get no more than both daughters; giving him nothing, that he might feed himself. Was it not a sin and a shame that he gave him the matzos so dearly, and gives him nothing in addition, as is due to the daughters, for what they deserve, as the strangers and maids, as they complain in the following chapter [v. 15]?
025 Now this was two great wrongs: That Jacob should serve him so long in vain, and that he should have laid both his daughters upon him, and should have given him nothing. If it had been right, he should have been forced to provide for his daughters and give them what was due. Jacob was pious, did not want to quarrel, but suffered with patience for fourteen years. Do as he did, and we will let you take and steal. This is also a reason that he owed him for the time he served with his wives and children. This is how he accounts for it. If it had been right, he would have had to give him a certain number of sheep every year, which would have carried a large pile all the time and would have increased every year. But what does he do? Although he has such a right before God, he still does not do it; but waits until God gives him cause to do it, and gives it to him himself.
26. they also had, the daughters, together with their
Children well right to bring such to themselves, because any had now served beside him seven years; as they say afterwards [Cap. 31, 15.], "He hath kept us as strangers, for he hath sold us, and eaten up our wages." They were legitimate, had children and servants; therefore it was time to think of their house also, because yet he would give them nothing. Thus Moses shows how the pious Jacob had to suffer so much injustice, and always lived in the cross, and yet kept silent, consoled himself that God had promised him that he would not leave him. Doesn't that mean that he had to serve so long with sour work, and in addition suffer overload and injustice? How could we suffer so badly! But he learned from it what a wonderful God it would be.
27 Laban continued to deal treacherously with him, mistaking his wages ten times over and refusing to give him what God had given him, since he had become rich through him; he did it so long and so much that God would no longer suffer it. So one must look at the work of the saints, so that one does not take offense at it. It would not yet be a great sin if a man were to serve so long and with such difficulty, and were to receive no reward, if he were to bring something of the Lord's good to himself in such a way and with such an opinion. It is due to him and is his in the sight of God. If he is able to bring it to himself in a proper way, then he has taken what is his. This is what the children of Israel did when they came out of Egypt, as it is written in the other book of Moses [Cap. 11, 2, 12, 35]. When they had been weakened by long and hard labor, and had built two cities and made them strong, and the Egyptians had dealt with them most ruthlessly, God commanded them to go away with all that they had, and to take and carry off from the Egyptians all manner of silver and gold utensils. Summa: Earned reward is not the lord's but the servant's; if he can take it away that the lord does not know, he will always take it. To those who are Christians, 4) we must not prescribe many rules, nor must we master their works; but the others are none of our business. This is the end of this chapter; now we will continue with the history.
1) Wittenberg and Jena: For.