The Skeptics Annotated Bible (46 page)

10 And God said unto him,
Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name
: and he called his name Israel.

(35.10)
“Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.”
God names Jacob Israel for the second time. (See 32.28 for the first naming.) He says that Jacob will no longer be called Jacob. Yet Jacob is still called Jacob in the Bible, and even God calls him Jacob in 46.2.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

15 And
Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el.

(35.15)
“Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.”
Jacob names Bethel again. (The first time in 28.19 the name didn’t stick.)

16 And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

19
And Rachel died
, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.

(35.19)
“And Rachel died.”
Rachel dies in childbirth; but at least she had another son. And in the Bible, a woman is expected to die happily as long as she has a son.

20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that
Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine
: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

(35.22)
“Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine.”

23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.

27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

28 And
the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

(35.28)
“The days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.”
Isaac lived to be 180.

29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

36
Now
these are the generations of Esau
, who is Edom.

(36.1, 14)
“These are the generations of Esau.”
Another long, boring genealogy that we are told to avoid in 1 Tim 1.4 and Titus 3.9 (“Avoid foolish questions and genealogies.”)

2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of
Anah the daughter of Zibeon
the Hivite;

(36.2, 14)
“Anah the daughter of Zibeon”
74 Who was Anah?

3 And
Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter
, sister of Nebajoth.

(36.3)
“Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter”
70 Who was Bashemath’s father?