Глава 35

At the command of God, Jacob moves to Bethel, where the name Israel is finally established for him Gen.35:1. God said to Jacob: Arise, go to Bethel and live there, and build there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother. The bloody affair of Simeon and Levi in ​​Shechem made it unsafe for Jacob's family to remain in the vicinity of Shechem (v. 3). Moreover, the purpose of Jacob's journey from Haran was Bethel (Gen. 28:19, 31:13), which Jacob still had not reached, despite his ten-year stay in Palestine. Therefore God gives him a command to go to Bethel, which was both an encouragement and a reminder. Gen.35:2–3. And Jacob said to his house and to all that were with him, Cast away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; let us arise and go to Bethel; there I will build an altar to God, who heard me in the day of my trouble and was with me [and kept me] in the way that I walked. Under the influence of this revelation, as well as in anticipation of moving to Bethel, sacred to Jacob (Gen. 28:19), he (as after Moses from the people - before the Sinai legislation, Ex. 19:10–14), demands from all members of his family complete cleansing - the rejection of all pagan impurities of idolatry (teraphim and, probably, other idols, the service of which could be brought into the family of Jacob his Mesopotamian slaves, and also under the influence of relations with the Shechemites) and, as an external sign of this, washing and changing clothes defiled by idolatry. It was, as it were, an act of preparation for the highest sanctification (cf. Ex. 19:10, 15; 2 Sam. 12:20). The motive for this Jacob shows his feeling of gratitude to the Lord for his help in the troubles of the journey. Gen.35:4. And they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under an oak tree that was near Shechem. [And left them unknown even to this day.] The word of the patriarch has an immediate effect: his household gives him not only idols, but also earrings (cf. Exodus 32:2): “perhaps these were some signs (symbols) of idols, and therefore they brought them along with the idols to Jacob” (John Chrysostom, Bes. 59, p. 642). St. Augustine (Quaestitiones ad h. l.) sees magical talismans in this kind of earrings and calls them “idolorum phylacteria” (repositories of idols). Likewise, R. Maimonides in tr. "akum imazzeloth" (idol worshipers) recognizes them as idols. Jacob buries these objects in the ground (according to Jewish tradition - secretly, so that no one will take them back), under an oak tree near Shechem, which apparently enjoyed fame (Gen. 12:6; Josh. 24:26; Judg. 9:6). The addition LXX (also Slav. and Russian translation), that Jacob made the idols unknown to this day, although it has the character of a gloss, not confirmed by textual tradition, but has, however, internal reliability. Gen.35:5. And they set out [from Shechem]. And the terror of God came upon the surrounding cities, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. Jacob's zeal for the purity of faith and his family's obedience to him is rewarded by its God-sent security from the neighboring tribes, while after the Shechem bloodshed Jacob expected an attack (Gen. 34:30) from the neighbors; on the contrary, they themselves experienced fear of the worshiper of the true God (“the horror of God”, cf. Ex. 23:27). Gen.35:6–7. And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, to Bethel, he and all the people who were with him, and he built an altar there, and called the place El-Bethel, for here God appeared to him when he fled from the presence of [Esau] his brother. Luz is the former Canaanite name of the area, which from the time of Jacob’s vision (Gen. 28:19–20) received the name Bethel (“house of God”); at this time, the name Luz was still in common use, so Jacob gave the name of this area a second time: Bethel or El-Bethel (cf. Gen. 31:13), having built there, according to his vow (Gen. 28:22), an altar. The motive of the title: “here God appeared to him as he fled...” In the Hebrew text, the name God (Haelohim) in this place has a plural predicate. number, which happens very rarely with the name Bohim. Together with Onkelos, one can see here an indication of the appearance of God together with the Angels. Gen.35:8. And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried below Bethel under an oak tree, which Jacob called the oak of weeping. Rebekah's nurse Deborah is, without a doubt, the same nurse of Rebekah who is mentioned as Rebekah's companion in Canaan in Gen. 24:59, without mentioning, however, her name. She could have arrived in Jacob's camp during one of his visits to Hebron (it is difficult to admit that for 10 years he, at least once, never visited his father and mother). Jewish tradition says that Rebekah, in accordance with the promise given to Jacob (Gen. 27:45), after 14 years of Jacob’s stay in Harran, sent Deborah there with the news that Jacob could now return. Some rabbis, however, believed that Deborah was mentioned here instead of Rebekah, whose death was not deliberately mentioned (cf. Gen. 35:27, 49:31). Near the burial place of Deborah, called “Allon-Bahut” (the weeping oak), the “palm tree of Deborah” is subsequently mentioned (Judges 4:5). Gen. 35:9–12. And God appeared to Jacob [in Luz] after his return from Mesopotamia, and blessed him, and God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; From now on you will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel. And he called his name Israel. And God said to him: I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a people and a multitude of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body; the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and to your descendants after you I will give this land. This depicts God's vision to Jacob "for the first time after returning... from Mesopotamia" (previously, v. 1, there was a simple command of God) and His blessing of Jacob. This vision is placed in parallel with the one that happened to Jacob on the way of his flight to Mesopotamia: both visions take place in Bethel, one at the beginning of his journey to Mesopotamia and when Jacob pronounced his vow, the other when he returned to his homeland and fulfilled his vow; here and here God’s promises to Abraham are repeated, and in the latter case, God finally confirms the name of Israel for Jacob (cf. Gen. 32:27–28), which is what Jacob’s deliberate blessing consists of (vv. 9–10). And just as to Abraham, when announcing the birth of his son (Gen. 17:1), God reveals himself with the designation in the Hebrew text by the words El-Shaddai, which means “God Almighty,” so it is now revealed to Jacob (v. 11) when repeating the promise of the origin of many nations from him; the promise of giving the descendants of Abraham and Jacob the land of Canaan is also repeated (v. 12). Dying, Jacob remembered (Gen. 48:3) the Bethel event as the highest moment of his life. Indeed, thanks to the indicated relation to the history of Abraham (Gen. 17:1, etc.), to the vision of Jacob on the way to Mesopotamia (Gen. 28:12–16) and to the mysterious struggle of Jacob in Penuel (Gen. 32:24–32), it connects into one whole the entire previous patriarchal history, presenting it as a single history of salvation, systematically developing under by the constant influence of God. Gen.35:14–15. And Jacob erected a monument in the place where [God] had spoken to him, a stone monument, and poured a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it; And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke to him: Bethel. In accordance with the similarity of the internal meaning of both Bethel theophany, Jacob in both cases performs the same external monuments: erecting a monument-pillar and pouring out a libation (only according to some commentators, in the latter case wine was also poured, nesech, (cf. Num. 15:5), and not just oil, as in the first case); finally, again Jacob consolidates the memory of the double vision with the name Bethel (v. 15). On the way, Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies Gen.35:16. And they set out from Bethel. [And he pitched his tent beyond the tower of Gader.] And while there was still some distance of land left to Ephrath, Rachel gave birth, and her labor was difficult. Strengthened by vision and promise, happy with the consciousness of fulfilled duty, Jacob heads from Bethel south to Hebron, through later Bethlehem. But here he had to experience that he was not destined for complete happiness on earth: his beloved wife, Rachel, gave birth to his second son, and then died. Addition (v. 16) LXX (Slavic-Russian): “And he pitched his tent beyond the tower of Gader” is probably taken from verse 21. The meaning of the Hebrew term kibrat-haarez was already unknown to the ancient translators: the LXX only wrote the Hebrew word kibrat in Greek. letters: χαβραθά; in Gen. 48:7, the same word LXX is conveyed with the interpretation: κατὰ τὸν ιππόδρομον χαβραθὰ, meaning by the last word the distance covered by a horse, perhaps in 1 hour. Midrash sees in this expression the definition of time: identifying the term. kibrath with the word kebarah, sieve, the Midrash conveys: “in spring, when the earth is plowed with plows like a sieve” (Bereschr. r. Par. 82, s. 402) a completely inconvenient understanding, shared, however, by the Vulgate (“verno tempore”). In modern times, the said expression is mostly accepted as a designation of a distance equal to approximately a French mile (M. Filaret and others) or a verst (Mandelshtam), which is confirmed by the distance of the now indicated tomb of Rachel from Bethlehem being equal to this value. The names “Bethlehem” (from Hebrew “house of bread”) and “Euphratha” (“fruitful”) are synonymous in meaning; the latter was the oldest, and the former the latest (like Luz-Bethel); were also used together (Gen. 35:19, 48:7; Mic. 5:2). Gen.35:17. When she suffered in childbirth, the midwife said to her: Do not be afraid, for this is your son. Rachel's birth (in contrast to most Jewish women, Ex. 1:19) was difficult, perhaps due to her advanced age and the long period of time from the birth of Joseph. But the midwife tries to console her, recalling her passionate desire (Gen. 30:24) to have a second son and announcing to her that it is her son who is being born (according to the Midrash, with each son of Jacob a sister was born, and with Benjamin - 2 sisters). Gen.35:18. And when her soul left her, for she was dying, she gave him a name: Benoni. But his father named him Benjamin. The dying mother says that this son is the child of the sorrow (death) of his mother, Benoni. But Jacob, not wanting the name of his last son to constantly provoke his grief over the loss of Rachel, changed it to something else, Benjamin - “son of the right hand” (Vulg: filius dextrae), i.e., perhaps, happiness (what is the meaning of the names: “Gad”, “Asheer”) or “strength” (Heb. aven, sorrow, can have the form on, which means strength, Gen. 49:3), or "son of the south" (born in the south, while all other sons were born in the north). Gen. 35:19–20. And Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob erected a monument over her tomb. This is Rachel's tombstone to this day. Rachel was buried near Euphrates - Bethlehem (LXX: “the path of the hippodrome” - in the indicated meaning), where her tomb, Kubbet-Rahil, is still displayed, which, however, has the appearance of a purely Muslim sarcophagus. In 1 Samuel 10:2 Rachel's tomb is indicated on the border of Benjamin, i.e. much further north, as well as in Jer. 31:15 (about Rachel's lament over the captive Jews heard in Rama) suggests the proximity of this tomb to Rama in the tribe of Benjamin. It is possible that the tombstone erected by Jacob, which was preserved until the time of Moses (“to this day”), made it possible for the Jews, upon entering Canaan, to find the ashes of Rachel and transfer them (as the bones of Jacob and Joseph were transferred) to the inheritance of Rachel’s last son, Benjamin. The crime of Reuben, the genealogy of Jacob's family, the death and burial of Isaac. Gen.35:21–22. And Israel went [from there] and pitched their tent beyond the tower of Gader. While Israel was in that country, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah, the concubine of his father [Jacob]. And Israel heard [and accepted it with grief]. Jacob had twelve sons. The grave family grief of the patriarch was joined by another: the dishonor of his bed by his firstborn Reuben (perhaps standing in connection with the death of Rachel and Reuben’s claim to actual birthright), which took place near the “tower of Gader” or “tower of the flocks” (Vulg: “turris gregis”), according to legend, lying south of Bethlehem (some, however, on the basis of Mic. 4:8 brought this tower of flocks closer to the “sheep gate” (John 5:2) in Jerusalem, but the first date is more suitable for the narrative of this place). “And Israel heard” - undoubtedly with chagrin, as they complement the Jewish text of the LXX interpreters. For this grave crime, Reuben was deprived of his birthright by Jacob (Gen. 49:3–4). Jewish interpreters, however, mitigated Reuben's guilt; By the way, they indicated that the 1st prophet, Hosea, was from the tribe of Reuben. Gen.35:23–26. The sons of Leah: Jacob's firstborn Reuben, after him Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. Rachel's sons: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaiden: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Lihina's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, born to him in Mesopotamia. With the birth of Benjamin, the number of Jacob's sons was fulfilled - 12, which is why all of them, indicating their division into 4 mothers, are listed here. The observation that they were all born in Mesopotamia requires, of course, a limitation regarding Benjamin, who was born in Canaan. Gen. 35:27–29. And Jacob came to Isaac his father, [for he was still alive,] in Mamre, in Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron [in the land of Canaan,] where Abraham and Isaac wandered. And the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. And Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of life; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him. Jacob and his entire camp finally come to his father Isaac. The latter at this time was about 167 years old (about 30 years passed from Jacob’s flight, cf. interpretation on Gen. 27:1), so his death (v. 28) followed another 13 years later (the figure of 167 liters can be obtained this way: Joseph was sold to Egypt at the age of 17, Gen. 37:2, 28, and before Jacob arrived there he and his family lived in Egypt is about 23 years old; therefore, Jacob, who was 130 years old when he came to Egypt, Gen. 47:9, was about 107 years old when Joseph was sold; whence Isaac was 167 years old, Gen. 25:26). Together with Jacob, Isaac (Rebekah apparently died before him) experienced grief over Joseph and died, probably, around the time of the latter’s rise in Egypt. But the sacred writer speaks proleptically about the death of Isaac, so as not to interrupt the narrative later (in a similar way, the death of Abraham is spoken of in Genesis 25:8, before the birth of Esau and Jacob, meanwhile he lived another 15 years after this event). Isaac, like his father, died “full of days,” i.e. having received all the benefits from life and fulfilled one’s life purpose; “and he venerated himself to his people,” i.e. passed on to the afterlife. He was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 49:31) by both of his sons (28–29 vv.). You might be interested in: