Go, go, go, Joseph! Genesis 37

Ah, the great novella begins at last.  I do love this story.

Some odds and ends - obviously 2 sources here - one calls Joe's dad Jacob, one calls him Israel.

A couple of times (v. 5 and v. 8) we are told that his brothers "hated Joseph even more".  You might recall I posted about the meaning of Joseph's name a few weeks ago.  Joseph (יוֹסֵף) yosef, is connected with the verb meaning to add or increase or do again (יספ) y-s-f.

Well, when we are told that the brothers hate Joseph even more, we hear vayosifu (וַיּוֹסִפוּ), "they do again/increase yet to hate" -- in other words, they hate him even more!!  And it sounds just like Joseph's name.

The traditional coat of many colours is probably an ornamented tunic of some kind.

And Potiphar!  What is Potiphar's job?  He is a eunuch or courtier (סְרִיס) seris, and his title is "sar hattabbachim".  Sar (שַר) is usually chief or prince (think of sarah, princess), but t-b-ch (טבח) is slaughter!  Which means the word gets used for both cooks and butchers, and guards and executioners!!!

According to Speiser, sar hattabachim (prince of cooks) is chief steward, whereas rav (captain or official) hattabbachim would be the captain of the guard.  I was unconvinced until he mentioned that a title (including "eunuch" of course) can be 'as far removed from its original connotation as, say, "Lord Chamberlain".' (p.291-2, Genesis)

Interesting.

The story of Joseph appears to pause in Chapter 38 for the story of Tamar - but if you've read The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter, you might see it a bit differently.  Will I have the energy to re-read his chapter on Tamar before reading Genesis 38 in Hebrew?  Stay tuned....

Bad Reuben. Lots of dead people. Gen 35

What kind of guy sleeps with his father's concubine?   Reuben, that's who.  I have a feeling this will come back and bite him.  It's just related as a fact in Gen 35.22 and then is not mentioned again in the chapter.  The rest of the chapter tells of the death of Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, and then the death of Rachel, while bearing Benjamin (v. 18).

Benjamin is (בנימין) ”binyamin”, son of a right hand.  But Rachel on her deathbed named him Ben-oni (בן־אוני) ”son of mourning”.  Jacob/Israel wasn't having any of that and called the boy Benjamin.  I note the difference between naming ("called his name" in Hebrew) and calling ("called him').

And speaking of deathbeds.  When Jacob's father Isaac dies (v. 29), he doesn't just die.  In the NRSV he "breathed his last" and then died.  The word for this in Hebrew is גוע ('ava), according to HALOT, "essentially to gasp for breath," and later, "to pass away... to perish."  BDB has nothing about breath, but I like the way the NRSV translation tried to capture the fuller meaning.

Jacob and Esau meet. Genesis 33

Jacob anticipates trouble, meeting the brother he tricked after 20 years apart.  He splits his families and flocks (so that he won't lose *all* his "property").  But Esau is a forgiving sort and meets Jacob with open arms -- falls on his neck (love this expression!) and kisses him.

Jacob offers gifts, Esau refuses, Jacob insists, Esau accepts.  Rabbi Friedman points out that "Jacob and Esau are going through the classic Near Eastern conventions, which continue to this day." (p. 115, n. 33:9)  That's interesting.  To me it really looks like grovelling.  I just don't trust Jacob, and do you blame me??!!!  Esau is VERY big-hearted.

Jacob says he will go slowly (because of the children and the animals), follow Esau and meet him in Seir, but he in fact goes first to Succoth and then to the city of Shechem, where he buys a plot of land.

Shechem, is the son of Hamor.  I assume that we will soon have an explanation of why the city, Shechem is named for the man, Shechem.  Jacob buys land from the sons of Hamor.  And Shechem (the man) will play a big role in the next chapter.

If it matters (and I don't know if it does), Hamor's name means donkey, and Shechem's means shoulder.

What's in a name: Joseph

There are two Hebrew verbs that I often get mixed up:  אכפ (aleph-samekh-peh) which has a basic meaning of "gather, take away, assemble, withdraw;"  and יספ (yod-samekh-peh) which means "add, continue, do again, increase."   Because aleph and yod are both weak letters, they can drop out or change depending on the particular conjugation or meaning of the verb, so there are forms of each that look very much alike.  As well, yod is the verbal prefix for a certain type of verb.

 I confess, I almost always have to look them up.  Or go from context.

So which one is the source of Joseph's name?  Gen 30.23-24 from the NRSV:

23 She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”;  24 and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!”

Both!  I don't know if this is a combination of 2 separate traditions? or if they were just covering all their bases.  Or maybe the 2 verbs were originally the same word?  Hard to know.