When the Vizier (Joseph) confronted them about the silver cup, he demanded that the one who possessed the cup in his bag become his slave. The brothers then dipped Joseph's coat in goat's blood and, returning home, showed it to their father, who concluded that Joseph had been torn apart by a wild beast. He then gave his blessing upon all of his sons, and the blessing he gave to Joseph was the greatest of all: Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh multiplied to become two separate tribes of Israel. He is also a type of manly beauty; so that one often finds the expression "a second Joseph," meaning one extraordinarily beautiful. The "seven lean years" has been taken to refer to a Middle Eastern famine documented at that time. In icons, he is sometimes depicted wearing the nemes headdress of an Egyptian vizier. Her father, Jacob, saw that his family was deeply ashamed of his new granddaughter. At their first meeting, the brothers did not recognize him. He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first. Laws of Hammurabi: [144] If a man take a wife and this woman give her husband a maid-servant, and she bear him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife. Who was Leah's 4th son? | Servants of Grace Apologetics, Mishpatim in Context: Selling your daughter into slavery? 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. Manasseh, Ephraim are between 19 and 26. Jacob is 147 years old. These were Jacob's sons who were born to him while he . 3) Levi was the third of Jacob and Leah's children. Genesis 35:21-27 gives a list of Jacob's sons and the various woman he had them with. After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, 'Serve the food'" (Gen 43:30-32). The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is about Joseph's story. So, did Jacob have four legally wedded wives? When Joseph and his mother bowed to Esau (Gen. 33:7), Joseph shielded his mother with his body (Targ. Esau took a third wife to please his father Isaac (Genesis 28:6-9). Soon, the family took up residence in the town of Bethel and later moved to Hebron. Jacob's other children are between 56 and 63. 13. 21-22; comp. 'ewe') was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the . Judah appealed to the Vizier begging that Benjamin be released and that he be enslaved in his stead, because of the silver cup found in Benjamin's sack. She told Jacob, "Here is my maid Bilhah. When Joseph's half-brothers reached home after selling him, Jacob ordered them to arm themselves and capture the beast that had supposedly killed Joseph. How many wives did Joseph have in the Bible? Zilpah bore Jacob his seventh and eighth sons, Gad and Asher. (Genesis 49:3350:14), After their father died, the brothers of Joseph feared retribution for being responsible for Joseph's deliverance into Egypt as a slave. To sum up, true Biblical (as well as ancient Near Eastern) polygamy (having more than one wife on purpose) was really limited to Kings, and that was historically for the purpose of creating alliances and safety for the kingdom. In the Kitb-i-Aqdas, Bah'u'llh states that "from my laws, the sweet-smelling savour of my garment can be smelled" and, in the Four Valleys, states that "the fragrance of his garment blowing from the Egypt of Baha," referring to Joseph. (Gen 50:7-9). He and his family took everything they owned. Modern critics have made various estimates of the historical worth of these narratives of Joseph. 23 Leah's sons were Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. [21] After questioning them, he accused them of being spies. To the modern proponents of polygamy (as opposed to Biblical polygamy, which was entirely different), our forefather Jacob is the shining example after all, he had four wives right? The Bible tells us twice that Jacob had daughters. These children are the offspring of four different women, Leah and Rachel, his wives, and Zilpah and Bilhah, their respective handmaids. Joseph named his eldest Manasseh ('to forget' in Hebrew) because "God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household," while his younger son was named Ephraim ('to be fruitful') "because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." (Genesis 41 . Isaac and Rebecca's son Jacob was sent there to avoid the wrath of his brother Esau. He stored up in Egypt all the gold and silver of the world, and it was carried away by the Israelites when they left Egypt. The twelve sons of Jacob (Israel) from oldest to youngest were as follows. In Hebrew Joseph means: increaser. Later we read, "His . Joseph prospered in Potiphar's household and was eventually made head of the servants. Such a blessing as always sis. The scene is a fitting resolution to Jacob's own drama, in which his father, Isaac, had been old and blind when Jacob himself deceived deceived him in order to obtain his blessing, meant for Esau. [g] Then he had their donkeys prepared with grain and sent the other brothers back to Canaan. According to the biblical account, Joseph was the son of Jacob by Rachel, the patriarch's favorite wife (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of Joseph's birth, said, "The Lord shall add [Heb. 4. The community seems to confuse quite often what is description vs prescription. Then Israel laid his left hand on the eldest Mannasseh's head and his right hand on the youngest Ephraim's head and blessed Joseph. Similar theories are propounded to explain confusion in the narrative's parallel accounts of his slavery and imprisonment, as well as his and reunion(s) with his brothers, with Benjamin present in one, and absent in another. After being beaten by his brethren, Joseph was thrown by Simeon into a pit, among serpents and scorpions; but Joseph prayed to God and the reptiles retired to their holes (Targ. The time of the promises to Abraham spans the generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How many children did Jacob have? He received the same name as two great prophets, one past and one future: Joseph of Egypt and the Prophet Joseph Smith. Edit: I have been getting some great questions so I will share my answers. In the interim, Joseph's mother died giving birth to his brother, Benjamin. Because she was now barren (for whatever reason), she was in the legal position to give her own maidservant to Jacob as another woman, concubine. Rav Huna adds one more sale by concluding that after the Medanites sold him to the Egyptians, a fifth sale occurred when the Egyptians sold him to Potiphar. They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. [a] When Joseph was seventeen years old, he shared with his brothers two dreams he had had: in the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, of which those his brothers gathered, bowed to his own. After they had consumed all of the grain that they brought back from Egypt, Jacob told his sons to go back to Egypt for more grain. Joseph And His Brothers, The cultural impact of the Joseph story in early-modern times is discussed in, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 10:50. To Joseph he declared: Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall. Their relationship is first mentioned in Genesis 41:45. The warden put Joseph in charge of the other prisoners,[14] and soon afterward Pharaoh's chief cup-bearer and chief baker, who had offended the Pharaoh, were thrown into the prison. Even though I never watched either Big Love or Sister Wives, I knew about people who lived like this and I will bet that anyone who lives in certain parts of certain western states can tell you the same thing. Through his father, he also has six half-brothers: Dan and Naphtali (whose . We can have a conquering faith in Jesus though we are tested by many tribulations. Though Manasseh was the older brother, Jacob placed his right hand on Ephraim, the younger, and gave him the greater blessing. The house of Israel acquired many possessions and multiplied exceedingly during the course of seventeen years, even through the worst of the seven-year famine. 5. More rabbinical literature has been generated concerning him than any of the other sons of Jacob, and he is also a significant figure in Islamic tradition. It has also been suggested that there are similarities between the rise to power of Joseph, and Manethos' tale of Osarseph, who was Syrian born, and rose to be Vizier of Egypt, beginning his career under Pharaoh Merenptah and his son Seti II. Both were hated by their brothers. According to the Old Testament, Jacob was the younger twin brother of Esau, who was the ancestor of Edom . Certain rabbis declared that Joseph was ready to yield to his mistress, but that his father's image suddenly appeared to him and called him to his duty (Sotah 36b; Gen. R. 87:9). After this, his brothers plotted against him and would have killed him had not his brother Reuben intervened. The robotic sermon went on to relate the story of when Joseph, the son of Jacob, was reunited with his brothers after many years. (obviously would not happen to a wife). At the end of that period, the Pharaoh had a strange dream which none of his advisers could interpret. 12Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, so he sent our fathers there for the first time. Abraham then died at 175 years of age (25 . Elkannah had two women but again, one of them was barren so I suspect that Peninah was a concubine. Jacob was 130 at this time (Gen 47:9). How many years overall did he work for Laban? Thats an interesting word, because although the lemma is the same isha as I discussed above neshe is tied in to the idea of a debt. Joseph was made a ruler over Egypt second to Pharoah. Now why? Since Joseph and Benjamin were born from Rachel, this test was necessary to reveal if they would betray Benjamin as they did with Joseph when he was seventeen. The word used by for echad in the LXX (Septuagint, the authorized Greek translation of the Tanach OT) and the NT (ie. Isaac had one wife. Half of Manasseh's tribe settled east of the Jordan, while the other half settled west of it. When they came to Egypt, they stood before the Vizier but did not recognize him as their brother Joseph, who was now in his late 30s; but Joseph did recognize them and did not speak at all to them in his native tongue of Hebrew. Now we get to your verse if he sends her away and she has provided him with children despite the fact that he hates her he cannot treat her sons with contempt when it comes time to give the inheritance. [29] Maimonides comments that even the villager in Shechem, about whom Joseph inquired his brother's whereabouts, was a "divine messenger" working behind the scene.[30]. Joseph was the first son of Rachel and Jacob, and the 11th of Jacobs 12sons, Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt, Joseph became the slave of Potiphar a very high official in Egypt. Then he revealed to the Hebrews that he was in fact their brother, Joseph. So they immediately informed the steward of what had transpired. His brothers' jealousy grew when Joseph told them of his two dreams (Gen. 37:11) in which all the brothers, as well as his parents, bowed down to him. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations came to Egypt to buy bread. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother, and at least one half-sister. Joseph is 56 and Benjamin is about 40. The Pharaoh honored their stay and even proposed that if there were any qualified men in their house, then they may elect a chief herdsman to oversee Egyptian livestock. well, that did go well. The story begins in Canaan - modern day Palestine, Syria and Israel - around 1600 to 1700 BC. Upon their return to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph received them kindly and prepared a feast for them. 1653. The Wives of Jacob's Sons (xxxiv. When the steward caught up with the brothers, he seized them and searched their sacks. Joseph had his father embalmed, a process that took forty days. This article incorporates text from the 19011906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. In an essay posted without fanfare to its website in late October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said for the first time that Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, had as many as 40 wives. The reason that Joseph selected Simeon may have been that the latter was the eldest after Reuben, who was spared by Joseph in return for his interference on Joseph's behalf many years before (Gen. xxxvii. Sarah was ninety when Isaac was born and Abraham was 100 years old (21:5). She gives birth to two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. [26][27] The plot begins by showing Joseph as a dreamer; this leads him into trouble as, out of jealousy, his brothers sell him into slavery. This is great, Tyler. Is Polygamy Really Biblical? So the final birth order of Jacob's thirteen children by these four women was: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah, Joseph, and Benjamin. Particularly galling is Jacob's reaction to Rachel the wife whom he loves deeply when she cannot become pregnant. 34), and a whole chapter Yusuf (sura xii.) And as it was budding, its blossoms came out and they produced grapes. The steward put them at ease, telling them not to worry about the money, and brought out their brother Simeon. [5], In rabbinic tradition, he is considered the ancestor of a second Messiah called "Mashiach ben Yosef", who will wage war against the forces of evil alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. The first born of this union is still his firstborn even after he marries another woman, loves her, and has children with her. | Alpha Index During this period of famine, Joseph's brothers, except for Benjamin, also came down to Egypt to buy grain. [54], This article is about the Joseph of the Book of Genesis. Jacob with Ephraim and Manasseh. I want to point out something obvious about Joseph's wife Asenath I think many of us have a tendency to skip over without giving it much thought. The final group, where a transaction is made, is among the Egyptians in the same verse. When the brothers claimed to the father that a wolf had eaten Joseph, he observed patience. The story of Joseph or Yusuf as it is told in Arabic literature has the same general outlines as the Biblical narrative; but in the Arabic account there is a wealth of accessory detail and incident. The steward found the cup in Benjamin's sack - just as he had planted it the night before. Your email address will not be published. And Jo. Answer (1 of 13): There are thirteen persons in the Bible who bear the name Joseph. Joseph became the slave of Potiphar a very high official in Egypt. As Jacob's name became synonymous with all Israel, so that of Joseph was eventually equated with all the tribes that made up the northern kingdom. Jacob was tricked into polygamy (Genesis 29:20-30) and later received two additional wives bringing the grand total of four wives (Genesis 30:4, 9). Pharaoh made Joseph governor over Egypt and all Pharaohs house. It served a specific societal function within a context that no longer exists (much like the need for Levirate marriage). Because Joseph the Dreamer predicts the future by analyzing dreams, alternative Jewish tradition claims that he practiced divination using this silver cup as the steward charged[33] and as Joseph himself claimed in Genesis 44:15.[34]. Who was the angel of They also discovered that all of their money sacks still had money in them, and they were dismayed. He forgave them and sent for Jacob and the entire household to come to Egypt. . He became the second most powerful man in all Egypt. The younger daughter of Laban and wife of Jacob, Rachel is the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, who become two of the twelve tribes of Israel ( Gen 35:24; Gen 46:15-18). : > 1. What about the Ethiopian woman that Moses took as a wife in Numbers 12:1? Rachel had the perfectly acceptable legal recourse in those days to provide her husband with a surrogate, and according to the laws of the surrounding nations, any child borne by the concubine would be counted as coming from her which is exactly why Rachel, and not Bilhah, named the boys. But like everything else, modern context is not Biblical context we dont think the same way or have the same needs and therefore we dont live the same way; we certainly dont have the same expectations. which references passages that point to Jacob having "daughters" (plural, more than one) such as Genesis 37:34-35. The composition of the story can be dated to the period between the 7th century BCE and the third quarter of the 5th century BCE, which is roughly the period to which scholars date the Book of Genesis. The story tells of two servants of Pharaoh's household who were in jail with Joseph and asked him to interpret their dreams. Then he commanded them to go and bring their father and his entire household into Egypt to live in the province of Goshen, because there were five more years of famine left. Answer (1 of 10): If you are talking about Jacob (Israel)'s son Joseph, then he had one wife. But you'd be wrong. Jacob did not wholly believe that Joseph was dead, because he could not forget him, while the dead are soon forgotten. Potiphar believed that Joseph was incapable of such an act and petitioned Pharaoh to spare his life. 2) Simeon was next, and he was also a son of Leah. Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous" (Qur'an 12:101). Joseph interpreted this dream as the baker being hanged within three days and having his flesh eaten by birds. . The problem lies in the fact that the Hebrew word for wife, isha, is also the generic word for woman (we see this same phenomenon in Greek), and so Bilhah and Zilpah were given to Jacob as women who were there for the express purpose of bearing children otherwise known as concubines. She named him Joseph. As with Bilhahs offspring, Zilpahs children are claimed and named by Leah as her own. 17As the time of the promise drew near, the promise that God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. Jacob's concubine Bilhah gave birth to Dan . Yes, the Bible does indicate that Jacob had more than one daughter. Because the 12 sons of Jacob became the 12 tribesGod's covenantal peoplethe 12 stones on the high priest's breastplate of course represent God's promise to them ( Genesis 28:12-15 ). He brought them closer and relayed to them the events that had happened and told them not to fear, that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good. In fact, this is all we learn about her: Genesis 41:45: "Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave . The majority opinion of the rabbis is that Joseph always kept in mind his father and brothers. That night, Joseph ordered his steward to load the brothers' donkeys with food and all their money. In the second dream, the sun (father), the moon (mother), and eleven stars (brothers) bowed to Joseph himself. 14. Who was Jacob's first wife? [32], Jewish tradition holds that Joseph had his steward plant his personal silver cup in Benjamin's sack to test his brothers. I smiled, and told them to listen again. The "unloved" Leah bore seven of Jacob's childrensix sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, as well as a daughter, Dinah. The account of the birth of Jacob's children is found in Genesis 2930, 35. Ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard (Genesis 37:36, Genesis 39:1). Judah (left) talking to Tamar (right) (1606-1669), by Rembrandt. Joseph (/dozf, -sf/; Hebrew: , lit. Joseph is mentioned in the New Testament as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:22). 10God saved Joseph from all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Sign me up for that! Tsaphenath Paneach", "Allusions to the Joseph Narrative in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts: Foundations of a Biblical Type", The Story of Joseph in the Babi and Baha'i Faiths, "The New Media Bible: Book of Genesis (Video 1979)", "Jewish religious life in the Persian period", The Composition of Genesis 37: Incoherence and Meaning in the Exposition of the Joseph Story, "The Odyssey and the myth of Joseph; Autolykos and Jacob", "Strange Bedfellows: Politics and Narrative in Philo", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_(Genesis)&oldid=1142074895, 1979, New Media Bible Genesis Project (TV)-cap. When the famine came which Pharoah had dreampt of, and Joseph had predicted, Joseph's father, brothers, and their families, settled in Egypt where there was food. But Israel refused saying, "but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he," a declaration he made just as Israel himself was to his firstborn brother Esau. Then Joseph is summoned to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh himself. Jacob's wife, were Joseph and Benjamin. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, and advised the Pharaoh to store surplus grain. After bearing Judah, Leah stopped bearing children for a . I pray you will be preserved by our maker. Jacob, Hebrew Yaaqov, Arabic Yaqb, also called Israel, Hebrew Yisrael, Arabic Isrl, Hebrew patriarch who was the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the traditional ancestor of the people of Israel. Moses threw a pebble into the water there and cried out: "Joseph! In the Bible, the name Joseph was first mentioned as the eleventh son of Jacob, and the Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. Upon stopping to speak to her, he discovers Zulaikha, who has been left in misery at the death of her husband. Rather, he requested to be carried to the land of Canaan to be buried with his forefathers.
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