In chapter 28, Genesis goes through a big plot reversal and we get a totally different line of reasoning for the departure of Jacob. The JSB attributes this to a change in authorship. The NASB ignores the conflict altogether.
Rebekah bemoans to Isaac that Jacob must not take a Canaanite wife. Isaac calls for Jacob and after giving him yet another blessing and instructing him vehemently that he must not have a Canaanite wife, he sends him to his uncle’s house to find a wife there. His wrath from chapter 27 is missing entirely. Meanwhile, Esau overhears Isaac’s instructions to Jacob and correctly deduces that marriage to the locals (including Hittites) is displeasing to his father. In a misguided attempt to make amends for his previous two marriages, Esau goes to the house of Ishmael and there takes yet another wife. Esau has gone from a vow to kill Jacob to an attempt to emulate him.
Jacob, now on his way to his Uncle’s house, camps for the night and sleeps with a rock for a pillow. That night, he dreams of a stairway (a ziggurat more likely, a stepped pyramid) leading to heaven with angels walking up and down. The Lord comes to him and promises him the land on which he rests for the use of his descendants and reminds him that he will always be with him. Jacob awakens and immediately erects a pillar to God in the place and renames the place
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2 comments:
I read a commentary that said Rebekah was trying to cover her her role in the deception and also save Jacob's life by bringing up the Canaanite wife/live-with-uncle-Laban issue. Maybe the NASB is going under that assumption--still surprising they didn't comment on it, though.
That's actually what I thought at first and my first draft for the end of chapter 27 alludes to exactly that; she's covering her tracks. But reading Chapter 28, everybody completely forgets about what happened in Chapter 27. It's a bit bizarre. All the other places in which things have seemed inconsistent I've managed to logically patch things over in my head but this just doesn't work out somehow. Clearly, somebody hosed something in these two chapters. I can see strong evidence for the JSB's conclusion that many different authors had a hand in Genesis.
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