RACHEL & LEAH: SISTER WIVES

When we first meet Rachel, she's working for the family business: Her father, Laban, owns a lot of sheep, and she is a shepherd. 🐑

Rachel cares for her dad’s flock ensuring the sheep have are safe and have everything they need for a long, healthy life—especially access to clean, uncontaminated water. Since there is no creek or river nearby, she and other local shepherds rely on fresh water from a well—one they protect by covering it with a massive stone.

One ordinary day, Rachel guides her flock to the well. It’s a familiar scene: all the regulars are chit-chatting near the well (a.k.a. the original water cooler) while their flocks lay in a nearby field. As she approaches the well, she recognizes everyone with one exception: There’s a stranger in their midst.

Upon her arrival, the new guy springs into action and single-handedly removes the stone. Not only that, he also waters Rachel’s sheep providing her a much-appreciated break. After this, he greets her with a kiss and introduces himself as her cousin Jacob. He explains that his mother, Rebeckah, and her father, Laban, are siblings.

Sidenote: I’m not covering Rebeckah’s story in this series, so please allow me to remind you of something that is quite relevant here: Rebeckah is famous for encouraging Jacob, her favorite son, to deceive his father, Isaac, in order to receive the family blessing—basically stealing it from his brother Esau. This is important because we’re about to learn that Rebeckah wasn’t the only deceiver in her family.

Meanwhile, back at the well...

Rachel runs to share the news of her cousin’s arrival with her father. Though we don’t know exactly what she tells him, but we can assume she mentions Jacob’s removing the stone cover from the well and watering her sheep.

Laban drops everything and rushes back to greet his nephew and welcomes him with open arms. (🎵 Cue the dark, ominous, sinister music… because Laban has a secret agenda.)

Uncle Laban welcomes Jacob into his home and puts him right to work. After a month, he offers to compensate Jacob for his service and inquires, “What shall your wages be?” (Genesis 29:15)

Sidenote: I have to wonder if, while he was speaking, Laban gestured towards his daughters as he posed this question to Jacob, because it’s at this moment, we learn Laban has not one, but two daughters: Rachel and Leah. Leah is the eldest and is described as having “soft eyes.” Rachel is described as “graceful and beautiful.” There is no mention of any other children.

When Laban asks, “What shall your wages be?” Jacob follows his heart, and offers to work for his uncle for seven years for Rachel. DEAL!

(Cue the music again, because Laban’s plan is working).

⏩ Fast forward seven years. and Jacob and Rachel are ready to be married. Laban throws a party for the couple, and in an unexpected plot twist, he sends Leah, not Rachel, into the honeymoon suite.

SURPRISE!😲 (Genesis 29:25)

In ancient Hebrew culture, it was customary for a bride to wear a veil during the wedding. After the ceremony, she would be conducted “to the bedchamber of her husband in silence and darkness” (Deen, p. 30), and the groom would not see her face until after the marriage was consummated.

Things that make you go hmmm…

Do you think Jacob ever realized this law of the harvest? You reap what you sow.

Rebeckah (Laban’s sister) encouraged Jacob to pretend to be his older brother, Esau, thereby tricking their father into giving his blessing to the wrong son.

Laban (Rebeckah’s brother) encouraged Leah to pretend to be her younger sister, Rachel, thereby tricking Jacob into consummating a marriage with the wrong daughter.

This whole marriage debacle was actually an inversion of his earlier deception.

THE CONFRONTATION

When Jacob confronts his uncle about this treachery, Laban explains their custom of marrying off the oldest daughter first (better late than never?), and offers Rachel to Jacob (again), but on two conditions:

1. He must complete the wedding week of festivities with Leah, AND
2. He must agree to continue working for Laban for seven more years.

Jacob agrees, and a week later, marries his true love. Now, he has two wives, and each of them comes with her own maidservant.

One man with four women. What could possibly go wrong?! 😂

Rachel and Leah are the first "sister wives" recorded in the Bible. Leah is fertile, but unloved. Rachel is loved, but barren.

Being the apple of Jacob's eye is not enough for Rachel. She is jealous of her sister's ability to produce heirs, and decides to take matters into her own hands—just like Jacob's grandmother Sarah did back in the day: Rachel encourages Jacob to have sex with her servant, Bilhah. If Bilhah conceives, the baby will be considered hers.

Rachel's plan works: Bilhah conceives.

At this, Leah decides to up the ante: She spurs Jacob to have sex with her handmaid, Zilpah, hoping for the same result. And she gets it. Zilpah conceives.

Baby. Baby. Baby. Baby...

Then, after many, many years of infertility—much to the surprise and delight of some—Rachel conceives and gives Jacob a son: Joseph (who is later gifted an amazing technicolor dreamcoat by his proud papa).

Rachel becomes pregnant again and, sadly, dies in childbirth. Her second son is named Benjamin. Joseph and Benjamin are Jacob's favorite sons because their mother was his one true love.

Between Rachel and Leah and their sexually abused slaves, Zilpah and Bilhah, a total of twelve sons are born to Jacob. And these 12 sons form the foundation of the 12 tribes of Israel.

A NOW, A WORD FROM THE WOMEN

Fast-forward a few years: There comes a moment in time when Jacob is ready to return to his homeland taking his very large family with him. ]

When Jacob, Rachel, and Leah discuss the move, we finally hear from the sisters how they really feel about their father. They speak as one saying:

“Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?  Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.” (Genesis 31:14-16)

The Women’s Bible Commentary points out how remarkable it is to hear women from that time speak so critically about their treatment and status:

“Nowhere else in Hebrew scriptures is a proper marriage described as a father’s selling (makar) his daughters… Thus, bitterly and poignantly, the daughters of Laban describe themselves in their relationship to their father as exploited and dispossessed slaves, treated as foreign women unrelated to him…They state that their rights have not been upheld. Indirectly, they call attention to a world in which people are bought and sold.”

Women’s Bible Commentary, p. 39

You can read more about Rachel and Leah in Genesis 29-35. Look for the time Leah "purchased" a night with Jacob with some mandrakes and the time Rachel stole her father’s family gods.

Additional Resources:

• Genesis: A Commentary, Revised Edition by Gerhard von Rad

• All the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen

• “Genesis.” Women’s Bible Commentary, 3^rd ed. Edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, Jacqueline E. Lapsley

Photo Credits:

Photo of two women in white dresses by Chalo Garcia on Unsplash

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