how many wives did joseph son of jacob have how many wives did joseph son of jacob have

Jacob lives in Egypt for seventeen years after his arrival (Genesis 47:28). There is much confusion about the word Cush in Scripture the first being that it does not actually refer to Ethiopia at all but instead a region more in the Sudan. , romanized: Rl, lit. In the interim, Joseph's mother died giving birth to his brother, Benjamin. After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, 'Serve the food'" (Gen 43:30-32). He also equipped a considerable army, with which he marched to help the Ishmaelites against the Tarshishites (Gen. R. 90:5). 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. In the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph: Manasseh and Ephraim. . Bible References: Rachel's story is told Genesis 29:6-35:24, 46:19-25, 48:7 . He even instructed them to take his bones with them. 84, xl. lol does it come with a jetted jacuzi tub? According to the Documentary Hypothesis Joseph's toy is a combination of two or more versions which were later combined into the current narrative. Joseph! Not only did Joseph resemble his father in appearance, but the main incidents of their lives were parallel. In one Talmudic story, Joseph was buried in the Nile river, as there was some dispute as to which province should be honored by having his tomb within its boundaries. Thank you. The Pharaoh is said to have given Joseph, Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. How many kids did Mary have? (Genesis 47:2731), Later, Joseph came to visit his father having with him his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Then he revealed to the Hebrews that he was in fact their brother, Joseph. As Zipporah was a Midianite, calling her a Kusite makes absolute sense. Such a blessing as always sis. The Hebrew word translated as "tender" means "soft, delicate, or lovely.". When he. 10God saved Joseph from all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Jacob became greatly distressed, feeling deprived of successive sons: Joseph, Simeon, and (prospectively) Benjamin. The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod commemorates him as a patriarch on 31 March. (Genesis 30:24).[10][11]. How many wives did Joseph son of Jacob have? Some declare that during the 22 years he was away from home he drank no wine (Shab. A midrash asked, How many times was Joseph sold? Simeon had six sons, all of whom migrated to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is about Joseph's story. Afterward, Joseph's family personally met the Pharaoh of Egypt. God blessed Leah with a firstborn son named Reuben. They were rapacious, while Joseph never enjoyed anything that was not his (Zeb. Conversations that Christians Must Have#MeToo and #BLM, Episode 82: Mark Part 24Cosmic Encounters 3The Woman with the Issue of Blood. The first group identified, are Joseph's brothers when Judah brings up the idea of selling Joseph in verses 26 and 27. 20. The narrative describes his emotional reaction upon seeing Benjamin: "Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. Jacob also had some daughters, but the Bible gives the name of only one of them. The baker's dream was about three baskets full of bread for the Pharaoh, and birds were eating the bread out of those baskets. Your email address will not be published. So, did Jacob have four legally wedded wives? Families desperately needed heirs, and the dyadic social identity of a woman depended on her being not only a wife, but also a mother it simply didnt matter if your husband loved you best, if you had no children Rachel knew that (so did Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah and Elizabeth). To add to the distinction within the family, in chapter thirty-seven, when Joseph goes tattling on his brothers, it specifically mentions that they are the sons of the neshe Bilhah and Zilpah. 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. He was the son of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Joseph had good reasons not to have an affair with Potiphar's wife: he did not want to abuse his master's trust; he believed in the sanctity of marriage; and . He has humbled her (had sexual relations with her) and cannot sell her to another man, he must allow her to go out for nothing (she came in with no dowry). Yusuf eventually obtains permission to marry her, she having lost none of her former beauty nor any of her first love for him. The Bible states that this name was given to Jacob as by God later in his life: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." (Genesis 32:28 . Joseph is mentioned in the New Testament as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:22). | Servants of Grace Apologetics, Mishpatim in Context: Selling your daughter into slavery? After the (presumed) death of Joseph, we read, "All of his [Jacob's] sons and daughters got up to comfort him . His estranged brothers later reunited with him when they came to Egypt to buy grain during a famine, and thus Joseph became the central figure to lead the children of Israel (Jacob) during their course of exile in Egypt. Joseph urged the first, a royal cupbearer, to get him out of prison once he was reinstated, but the cupbearer took no action on his behalf for two more years. I am a fifty-something-year-old Bible teacher, wife of twenty-eight years to Mark, and mom of adult twin sons. When he regained control of himself, he returned and ordered a meal to be served. 5. He wept so loudly that even the Egyptian household heard it outside. It is described in the Quran as the 'best of stories'. Joseph likely also has this status because he is the eldest child of Jacob's favorite (deceased) wife, Rachel . The family prostrated before him hence the fulfilment of his dream aforetime.[52]. 23 Leah's sons were Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Leah. Answer and Explanation: Joseph has one wife, Asenath the daughter of Potiphar the priest of On, whom he marries in Egypt. He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first. But Judah pleaded for Benjamin, offering himself as a slave instead. [50] He thus charged his sons to go and inquire about Joseph and his brother and despair not of God's mercy. Convinced of his brothers' repentance and overcome with emotion, Joseph finally revealed himself to them. The eleventh son of Jacob and elder of the two sons Rachel (Genesis 30:23, 24). So they named this spot Abel Mizraim. Judah, too, counseled against murder and convinced the brothers to sell Joseph to a company of Ishmaelite merchants, who bought him in exchange for 20 shekels of silver. Genesis 35:21-27 gives a list of Jacob's sons and the various woman he had them with. He forgave them and sent for Jacob and the entire household to come to Egypt. Despite his wealth, most rabbis represent him as very modest, and was not vain of his power (Ex. As Jacob's favorite son, he received from his father a coat of many colors, which made his brothers jealous to . (Exodus 13:19) The bones were buried at Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Joshua 24:32), which has traditionally been identified with site of Joseph's Tomb, before Jacob and all his family moved to Egypt. Joseph placed his brothers in prison for three days. Esau. [48] Similarly, the eldest son of Jacob had decided not to leave the land because of the oath taken to protect Benjamin beforehand. What about the Ethiopian woman that Moses took as a wife in Numbers 12:1? Efforts to Bear Children. (Genesis 47:147:12) The family was then settled in Goshen. "-Genesis 41:45. He kept the sacred records after Nephi (see 1 Ne. Pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. 1:26). [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. Moses, led there by an ancient holy woman named Serach, was able by a miracle to raise the sarcophagus and to take it with him at the time of the Exodus. 12Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, so he sent our fathers there for the first time. Our President, Mr . In Jewish tradition, Joseph was the progenitor of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, named for his two sons. There are many examples of descriptions that we don't assume to be a prescription for us today living as nomads in tents, giving each wife her own tent (modern day equivalent would be that each wife has her own home or at minimum her own personal suite), digging our own wells, making alliances via sons and daughters, being without citizenship, for husbands to devote their first year of marriage being at home with their wives, etc. A. degree from Wheaton College, and the B. D. and Th. 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). These were the 11 sons that were born to Jacob when he lived with Rachel's father Laban. 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. 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. Muhammad is believed to have once said, "One half of all the beauty God apportioned for mankind went to Joseph and his mother; the other one half went to the rest of mankind. ), and as recently as the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah about 1200 B.C.E. He was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's twelfth child and eleventh son). Modern critics have made various estimates of the historical worth of these narratives of Joseph. The remaining brothers returned to their father in Canaan, and told him all that had transpired in Egypt. With Reuben and Judah's persistence, they persuaded their father to let Benjamin join them for fear of Egyptian retribution (Genesis 42:2943:15). Joseph's story is recounted in some detail in the New Testament, during Saint Stephen's speech before the Sandhedrin in Acts 7. 19The new king took advantage of our people, and mistreated our fathers. 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. 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. Her father contracted with her husbands father that she would be a wife in that house, that she would provide heirs to the house who would have rights to his share of the inheritance. Half of Manasseh's tribe settled east of the Jordan, while the other half settled west of it. The Vizier broke down into tears. The story of Joseph's near seduction by his master's wife bears a marked similarity to the Egyptian story of the Tale of Two Brothers, which was popular at the time of Pharaoh Seti II. Zilpah bore Jacob his seventh and eighth sons, Gad and Asher. At the age 30, Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis. This also created rivalries between their sons. Potiphar believed that Joseph was incapable of such an act and petitioned Pharaoh to spare his life. Mary and Joseph ended up in Bethlehem where the birth took place. Particularly galling is Jacob's reaction to Rachel the wife whom he loves deeply when she cannot become pregnant. These children are the offspring of four different women, Leah and Rachel, his wives, and Zilpah and Bilhah, their respective handmaids. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, who gave him a "long coat of many colors". Joseph Born in the wilderness, he was the youngest son in the family. In the time of the Exodus, Serah, daughter of Asher, showed Moses where the coffin was sunk. He was also the first born of his mother Rachel, whom his father loved more than any of his wives and made Joseph Jacob's favorite son (Genesis 29-30:24; Genesis 37:1-4). Pharaoh made Joseph governor over Egypt and all Pharaohs house. This caused a stir amongst the brothers. It starts with the 12 tribes and ends with the 12 gates with 12 pearls representing the tribes and the 12 kinds of fruit. Recall that Jacob was born in the land of Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham, and where Jacob's father Isaac was born and lived his entire life. She has seen her sister Leah bear Jacob three sons (presumably within three years), and can no longer take the pain of being the barren wife. However, they agreed to be escorted back to Egypt. 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. Some believe that he built the city of Memphis, and that he was instrumental in building the obelisks and pyramids. Her father, Jacob, saw that his family was deeply ashamed of his new granddaughter. Moses threw a pebble into the water there and cried out: "Joseph! The steward put them at ease, telling them not to worry about the money, and brought out their brother Simeon. Thus, "Joseph gathered up all the money that was in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought.". The Priestly source adds some statistics and gives a list of the people who went down to Egypt, while a later editor has supplied details to make the accounts appear as one, such as Joseph's subterfuge of sending the brothers back to Canaan first to get Benjamin, and later to get Jacob. How many years overall did he work for Laban? Who was Leah's 4th son? The Haran controversy wrestles with the question of how long Abraham's grandson Jacob lived in Haran. Scripture doesn't tell us much about Asenath, the wife of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Home At this time, Joseph's father was 147 years old and bedridden. [46], In the Bible, Joseph discloses himself to his brethren before they return to their father the second time after buying grain. Knowing that his brothers would come to buy grain, Joseph gave orders that nobody should be permitted to enter until he had given in writing his own and his father's names. (7-14) Genesis 29:17. Joseph was fully trusted by his master, Potiphars wife took a fancy to Joseph, but he refused to sin with her. Is Polygamy Really Biblical? www.simplybible.com Copyright Ron Graham 2001 2018, "the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh", "By faith Joseph, when he was dying, said confidently that the children of Israel would leave Egypt. At the end of that period, the Pharaoh had a strange dream which none of his advisers could interpret. Loaded with knowledge and wisdom. The final group, where a transaction is made, is among the Egyptians in the same verse. 18:7, 19; 2 Ne. Joseph settled Jacob's growing clan with Pharaoh's blessing in the Land of Goshen (Gen. 47:29). [24] Its redaction history may have included a first "Reuben version" originating in the northern kingdom of Israel and intended to justify the domination by the "house of Joseph" over the other tribes, this was followed by a later "Judah-expansion" (chapters 38 and 49) elevating Judah as the rightful successor to Jacob, and finally various embellishments so that the novella would function as the bridge between the Genesis and the story of Moses and the Exodus.[25]. As for kings - marriages were largely about political alliances (especially with . The "seven lean years" has been taken to refer to a Middle Eastern famine documented at that time. R. 14:16). 42-45), Jacob, his sons, and all of his descendants moved to Egypt to be with Joseph. After identifying the Hebrew names, Rabbi Judah claims that Joseph was sold four times: First his brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites (Yishma'elm), then the Ishmaelites sold him to the Midianite traders (shm midyanm srm), the Midianite traders to the Medanites (mdanm), and the Medanites into Egypt. [42] Joseph is said to have been extremely handsome, which attracted his Egyptian master's wife to attempt to seduce him. Joseph had good reasons not to have an affair with Potiphar's wife: he did not want to abuse his master's trust; he believed in the sanctity of marriage; and it went against his ethical, moral and religious principles taught to him by his father Jacob. What Leah knew was that her husband, although she had given him many sons, had no regard for her Jewish tradition even states that Jacob moved to Bilhahs tent after the death of Rachel (I dont think he ever got over that anger from the morning after the wedding). When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel commanded him to do. 5 Bibliography. Joseph is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on 26 July. She named him Joseph. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, and advised the Pharaoh to store surplus grain. This article incorporates text from the 19011906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. 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. Short answer: Jacob worked 7 years for Laban before he married his two wives, Leah and Rachel.Long answer: Jacob worked 7 years to pay . 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. He was Rachel's firstborn and Jacob's eleventh son. Yes, the Bible does indicate that Jacob had more than one daughter. So they immediately informed the steward of what had transpired. 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. Christian Apologetics & Intelligence Ministry, Tyler Dawn How Many Wives did Jacob Have? Tyler Dawn How Many Wives did Jacob Have? Seeing only the powerful minister who controlled their lives and fortunes, they "bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground" (Gen. 42:6), thus fulfilling in part his earlier prophetic dream. Cushan and Midian are equated with each other, as are tents and curtains and affliction and trembling. His death does not change the familys obligation towards her. Here, their lamentation was so great that it caught the attention of surrounding Canaanites who remarked "This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians." He received the same name as two great prophets, one past and one future: Joseph of Egypt and the Prophet Joseph Smith. 13When they went the second time Joseph was recognized by his brothers, and Josephs origins were revealed to Pharaoh. (Acts 7:9-13). For an excellent read on many matters pertaining to women in the Bible (not all of which I agree with, of course), see Matthews, Victor H., Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (1998) p 229 is directly relevant to this discussion. (Genesis 50:1521), Joseph lived to the age of 110, living to see his great-grandchildren. Who is Dans mom? I asked. God punished him, therefore, by setting against him Potiphar's wife (Gen. R. 87:3). 2. 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. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. The other polygamists in Scripture were Lamech (a descendant of Cain who killed a guy) and Esau (who well he was Esau, nuff said) we dont see any of the twelve sons of Jacob having mutliple wives, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, the Judges (not even Sampson) or the prophets.