The title: "These are the generations of Jacob" (Gen 37:2) meaning it will be about Jacob's descendants who have come in the fullness (ten) of time because this is Book Ten. In the book, Jacob recedes more into the background so that his twelve sons are the focus (in particular Judah and Joseph).

The structure is somewhat more difficult to discern than earlier books. It generally follows the same pattern as before: narrative, poetry, epilogue. Except this time the poetry is almost a whole chapter of Scripture. Thus the whole book generally follows the pattern prologue (Gen 1:1-2:3), narrative (Gen 2:4-48:22), poetry (Gen 49:1-28), epilogue (Gen 49:29-50:26). The difficulty comes when you see the chiasm excludes the first story Gen 37:3-36. I am calling this the prologue to the book because of its extensive similarities with the epilogue but it also contains a poetic portion that due to the constraints of the story is not put at the end of the prologue. The poetic portion in the prologue is the content of the dreams and the response of his father and brothers. The parallelism of "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?" is obvious. This is the central question of the book. Will Judah or Joseph rule over his brothers?

The prologue tells us that the brothers plotted to take Joseph's life because they hated him because Jacob loved him more than them and they hated him even more because he told them these dreams. Reuben interceded for Joseph and convinced the other brothers not to kill him. Judah convinced the other brothers (Reuben unaware) to sell Joseph to some Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And Jacob mourned the death of Joseph because the evidence the brothers returned with was the multicolor robe looking like an animal had attacked him. And the prologue ends: "Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard" (Gen 37:36).

While no one actually died in the prologue, the epilogue tells us about the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. Jacob gave them instructions for his burial, died and was embalmed, and buried. There was great mourning at his passing just has he had once mourned for Joseph. The brothers feared because of their sin in the prologue, but Joseph reassured them, saying, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones" (Gen 50:19-21). Joseph lived to see the third generation of his son Ephraim's children. And he gave all Israel instructions about burying him when they returned to the Promised Land, then he died, and was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

While the prologue shows that Joseph will reign over his brothers and he is still reigning over them until his death in the epilogue, the poetry of Gen 49 seeks to answer the eschatological question. That is, like the poems in earlier books, this one will point us to Christ. We discover in the poetry that the Messiah will not come from Reuben's tribe because Reuben had sex with Jacob's concubine. Simeon and Levi are passed over for the honor because they had responded to their sister Dinah's rape with violence. So this brings us to the fourth son: Judah. And the text tells us, "Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you" (Gen 49:8). So the answer eschatologically is that Judah will reign over his brothers, not Joseph. After comparing him to a lion's cub, Jacob says, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples" (Gen 49:10). So not only will his brothers but all peoples will bow down to the Messiah who will come from the tribe of Judah. As for Joseph, Jacob gives him the blessing. For example, he says, "The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers" (Gen 49:26). So we will have to wait and see Judah replace Joseph because Joseph and not Judah received the blessing.

The first (Gen 38) and last (Gen 48) stories in the narrative section both have to do with two sons by a Gentile where there is an issue about the firstborn status. The former is about Judah and the latter is about Joseph. The episode with Judah is quite explicit. In this story, Judah took a Canaanite wife and had three sons. Judah took Tamar as the wife of his first son. But his son was so wicked that God struck him down. So Tamar became the wife of Judah's second son who wasted his semen on the ground because he knew that if he had a child it would not be considered his own. And God struck him down. Judah, afraid the same would happen to the youngest son, sent Tamar away pretending to need to wait for him to grow up. Eventually Judah himself slept with her, not knowing it was her, and she gave birth to twins. She was accused of adultery until it was discovered that the father was Judah himself. The story has a number of similarities with the daughters of Lot narrative. The question of the firstborn is this: When Tamar was in labor with the twins, one put out a hand and the midwife tied a scarlet cord on his hand and said, "This one came out first" but then he pulled his hand back in and his brother came out first. In Gen 48, Joseph's two sons are by an Egpytian woman and Jacob adopted them as his own children and gave the blessing to the younger of the two brothers (Ephraim).

The second (Gen 39) and second-to-last (Gen 47:13-31) stories are related because in the former Joseph is enslaved in Egypt and in the latter Joseph enslaves all of Egypt. The former is where Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph and because he was unwilling to "do this great wickedness and sin against God" (Gen 39:9) she accused him of doing it and he went from slavery to prison where he ended up in charge of the prisoners. Joseph is compared quite favorably to Judah in this light. In the latter story, Joseph buys everything, even all of the land (except that of Egypt's priests) for Pharaoh so that all of Egypt has become slaves as Joseph was before.

The third (Gen 40-41) and third-to-last (46:28-47:12) stories are related because Joseph saves people through disfavor or favor at Pharaoh's court. In the former, Joseph blesses the nations through disfavor at Pharaoh's court. Here we see him interpreting dreams. In the latter, Joseph saves his family through favor at Pharaoh's court and Jacob blesses Pharaoh.

The fourth (Gen 42-43) and fourth-to-last (Gen 46:1-27) stories have the brothers travel to Egypt. In the former, at first Benjamin did not go but then the brothers minus one went back and brought him too. Also the brothers went to buy grain and bring it back home. Here we see the fulfillment of the prologue's poetry as the brothers bow down before Joseph. In the latter, all of the house of Jacob (not already living there: Joseph and his sons) moved to Egypt. The total number of the household was a highly significant SEVENTY people. Jacob did not have them move to Egypt until after being told to do so by God, who promised to bring them back.

At the center of this chiasm are stories (Gen 44 and 45) where the brothers show their love for one another. In the former, as you might expect by now, Judah is highlighted in particular. And in the latter, Joseph is highlighted in particular. In the previous chapter Judah had promised his father, "I will be a pledge of [Benjamin's] safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever" (Gen 43:9). Joseph tested the brother's love for Benjamin by having him implicated as a thief and Judah stepped up to offer himself in the stead of Benjamin. Judah has come a long way. And we find out in the next story that Joseph has too as he reveals his identity to his brothers and does not seek revenge. Here at the climax we see a theme that Joseph will repeat in the epilogue: "And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ... And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God" (Gen 45:5-8).

At the fullness of time came Joseph and his brothers, a full household of seventy. And yet the book points beyond itself, despite these full and complete numbers (10 and 7) Genesis is not complete in and of itself. Joshua the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim (the younger son of Joseph who received Jacob's blessing), would lead the nation into the Promised Land. But when would the ruler of the tribe of Judah arise? Ultimately the poems, and especially the final poem, point beyond the initial circumstances to King David and the coming Messiah Jesus. Jesus would show love for His brothers in His death on the cross.

Labels: benjamin, blessing, chiasm, ephraim, eschatology, jacob, joseph, judah, reign, rule, seventy, tamar, ten

The fourth book begins with the title, "These are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Gen 10:1). So this book will be about the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But interestingly in the opposite order: Japheth, Ham, and Shem from those furthest from Israel to those closest to Israel. Israel descends from Shem through Peleg. But the Shemites (Semites, those who are Semitic peoples) genealogy here traces through Peleg's brother Joktan. The comment "for in his days the earth was divided" (Gen 10:25) refers to the split of the descendants of Shem between elect descendants of Peleg and non-elect descendants of his brother Joktan. This book is about the non-elect descendants of Noah through his sons Japheth, Ham, and Shem. The next book will tell us about the elect line of Shem through Peleg.

Book Four continues with the same pattern as earlier books. Gen 10:2-32 consists of three genealogies with commentary and Gen 11:1-5 is the story of building the tower of Babel. So this entire section we have been calling narrative. Gen 11:6-7 is the poetry and Gen 11:8-9 is the epilogue.

Like the other genealogies we have encountered, noticing the patterns will help us. There are fourteen nations from Japheth (seven times two), thirty from Ham, and twenty-six from Shem for a total of seventy nations. Seventy is a highly symbolic number (being seven times ten) suggesting that the genealogy is highly stylized to make a point through numbers. The text is also in a framework. Each one begins, "The sons of [Japheth, Ham, or Shem]" and each one ends in a similar way "each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations" (Gen 10:5), "by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations" (Gen 10:20 and 10:31). Thus the genealogy will divide these descendants by their politics, language, geography, and ethnicity. Some of these names are people groups, others are people, and some are place names. "Sons of" or "fathered" may indicate political, linguistic, geographical, or ethnic relationships. Two names are repeated Havilah and Sheba. These places may have elements descending from Cush and Joktan. Waltke, citing others, makes these observations. The whole table has a framework, beginning with "Sons were born to them after the flood" (10:1) and ending with "These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood" (Gen 10:32).

Japheth's genealogy is stylized around sevens. He has seven sons and seven grandsons mentioned. This suggests order. The commentary, "From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands" (Gen 10:5) means to stress their distance from Israel.

The sons of Ham are closer to Israel. There are five sons of Cush and two grandsons through Raamah for a total of seven. This suggests order. Egypt has seven sons (do not count the Philistines as the mention of them is parenthetical) again suggesting order. But Canaan, the son of Ham cursed by Noah in the poetry of the last book, has eleven sons suggesting disorder.

There are two portions of commentary in the Ham section. The first says, "Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before YHWH. Therefore it is said, 'Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before YHWH.' The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Ninevah, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Ninevah and Calah: that is the great city" (Gen 10:8-12). This is an interesting addition. Nimrod is not numbered among the seven sons. Cush fathered Nimrod could mean, as with all genealogies in Scripture, Cush is the ancestor of Nimrod. He is a mighty man or champion warrior king reminiscent of the giants. His kingdom included Assyria (Ninevah as the major city) and the land of Shinar (including Babel). That is, his kingdom included the two nations (the Assyrians and Babylonians) that would take Israel and Judah into captivity. And Babylon (the land of Shinar, Gen 11:2) is where the Tower of Babel was being built. Thus this addition would be a great assurance to the people during captivity.

The other commentary in the Ham section says, "Afterwards, the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha" (Gen 10:18d-19). This commentary deals with the more immediate concern of Genesis about the Canaanites who are under the curse of God and prepares us for the episodes with Sodom and Gomorrah. It is clear based on both comments that the descendants of Canaan are closer than Japheth to Israel and that they are the source of Israel's biggest strife.

The third section includes text before the standard "The sons of..." It says, "To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born" (Gen 10:21). Perhaps we should see the number twelve (like the twelve tribes of Israel). Especially when we remember the elastic use of the word "sons" (as this opening phrase alerts us "the father of all the children of Eber" since Eber is not his immediate son but a descendant), Peleg would be the twelfth son of Shem (or better yet Peleg is the fourteenth distinct name if you count Shem and Japeth in Gen 10:21). And for the sons of Eber through Joktan (including Joktan) there are fourteen (seven times two) . This suggests order. So the three sections of the genealogy considered together serve to highlight the disorder of Canaan.

We have already discussed the first comment in the third section "for in his days the earth was divided" (Gen 10:25) though I will have more to say later about it. The second comment in this section is: "The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of the Sephar to the hill country of the east." This just means to communicate that they are close to Israel geographically but separated from Israel. This genealogy serves to tie the non-elect Shemites to the story of the tower of Babel.

But while these peoples would all have their own languages this was not originally the case. The narrative tells us that the whole earth had one language and the same words (Gen 11:1). And they decided to build a ziggurat tower climbing into the heavens. So YHWH came down to them in judgment. The stated reason for building the tower was: "let us make a name [Shem] for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth" (Gen 11:4). God was going to make a name (shem) for His people of the line of Shem. But these non-elect descendants of Noah tried to make a name for themselves.

One must confess that this book is one of the hardest in Genesis to understand. The poetry is the most difficult. The increased use of parallelism tips us off that this is poetic. One people//one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do//Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Let us confuse their language//so they may not understand one another's speech. The middle pair seems to be the focus. What exactly does it mean that God says, "nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them" (Gen 11:6)? It reminds us of the language of the epilogue in Genesis 3 (complete with God's discussion with His "us"). We, God says in His heavenly council, need to stop man before he does something to keep salvation from being possible.

The epilogue begins and ends saying, "YHWH dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth" (Gen 11:8) and "from there YHWH dispersed them over the face of all the earth" (Gen 11:9). The comment in the middle "they left off building the city therefore its name (shem) was called Babel, because YHWH confused the language of all the earth" is interesting. Babel sounds like babbling -- confusion. They had set out to make a name (shem) for themselves but the city gets the name (shem) of confusion. Their plans were frustrated. They never finished the city...as St. Augustine said, "the city never reached the kind of completion that the pride of impious men had dreamed." Or as Waltke puts it, "The Tower of Babel story lampoons this boast [that Babylon is the religious center of the world]. To its founders "Babel" meant "gate/residence of the gods." but the narrator parodies that significance by a Hebrew by-form bll, meaning "confused" (cf. English, "a babel of voices"). Its builders think their temple tower reaches into heaven; it is so low that the Lord has to descend from heaven just to see it!" (178). It is not finished because it can never get them to God.

Chronologically the narrative of Gen 11:1ff, poetry and epilogue belong before the royal genealogy. Thus Ephrem the Syrian, as quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (same source as the Augustine quote above) , said, "Because of their new languages, which made them foreigners to each other and incapable of understanding one another, war broke out among them on account of the divisions that the languages brought among them. Thus war broke out among those who had been building that fortified city out of fear of others. And all those who had been keeping themselves away from the city were scattered throughout the entire earth. It was Nimrod who scattered them. It was he who seized Babel and became its first ruler. If Nimrod had not scattered them each to his own place, he would not have been able to take that place where they all had lived before." This is an interesting attempt at harmonizing the genealogy and the rest of the book. While we should avoid assuming that Ephrem is correct in the details, his impulse is right. We need to remember that the reason the descendants of Japheth, Ham, and Shem in the genealogy live in different places is the result of being dispersed throughout the land after the attempt to build the city and tower of Babel. This division of the land between the seventy nations took place when Peleg was living ("for in his days the earth was divided") and divided Peleg from his brother Joktan (because Joktan was associated with the tower). And it is in this context that Nimrod conquered the lands of Babylon and Assyria and built his empire and built cities in the image of the original Babel. The text is dischronologized because of the structure of the genealogy and the overall structure of title, genealogy/narrative, poetry, epilogue.

The concern of this book is the salvation of the nations. They have been given their inheritance and are governed by God, whether they admit it or not. And the poetic curse is designed to pave the way for their future salvation through the seed of Abraham. This is the salvation accomplished by none other than Jesus Christ. As the author of Revelation tells us, "By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Rev 5:9) and we see that all authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation had been given to the beast (Rev 13:8) and that an angel had "an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people" (Rev 14:6). The similarity to our book in Genesis is not accidental. For one thing, tribe is the same word as clan. The salvation Jesus accomplished is for the elect of every tribal/clan/political faction, every tongue, every people/nation, and every ethnicity. And this is what the epistles of Paul mean when they say things like "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people" (Titus 2:11). Paul does not mean that Jesus has saved everyone but that the salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ was for all kinds of people -- people of every clan, language, people, and ethnicity (Jews and Gentiles/nations). (translation used was ESV with minor changes)

Labels: assyria, babylon, election, Genesis, gomorrah, royal genealogy, seventy, shem, sodom, tower of babel, ziggurat