In brief:
We meet Jacob’s second-youngest-son Joseph, who is beloved by his father, and a bit of a twerp. Speaking of Joseph’s father, despite being renamed by the Lord, which you would think would count for something, so-called “Israel” is actually still called “Jacob.” This naming thing is complicated.
Joseph is sold into slavery. In a side story, Jacob’s son Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar is twice widowed. Through some exceptionally tricky trickery , she ends up having twins with her father-in-law Judah. And along the way, at least in my translation, she gets called a “cult prostitute” for her troubles. Oh, and we meet her second husband, the infamous Onan — more on him in a moment.
Joseph goes down to Egyptland as a slave, resists temptation in a scene that feels straight out of To Kill a Mockingbird, gets thrown in jail, and delivers some exceptionally good news to the cupbearer, and some less positive news to the baker. (Spoiler: don’t get attached to the baker.)
A couple of thoughts:
- Joseph has some exciting dreams involving all sorts of people bowing to him. Which is great. And then he shares these dreams with everyone. Which is less great. There’s something wonderfully human though about meeting this young obnoxious Joseph and realizing, just like his dad, and just like all of us, he’s on a journey. He’s flawed and, let’s hope, capable of improving over time. As a young ‘un though, I’m not sure he deserved being thrown in a pit. But I’m not not sure either.
- I was fairly stoked to run into the infamous Onan, namesake for the sin of self-pleasure (aka “Onanism”). Turns out, and stay with me on this: Onan’s brother Er died, Onan is told to marry Er’s widow Tamar, and Onan’s sin is that because he wouldn’t get legal credit for any kid they might co-procreate, he chose instead to “let [his seed] go to waste, whenever [they] joined.” OK, so first off, I’m pretty sure that’s not masturbation. And isn’t Onan’s sin really just being a total jerk? So there it is, if someone’s a total jerk, feel free to call them an Onanist and tell them the Lord doesn’t approve. And if they question you, just say: “Genesis 38:10, mic drop.” The mic drop part is really important. If you don’t do that part, you are an Onanist.
If you’d like to join in… this is the place for comments and commentary on Va-Yashev (Gen 37.1 – 40.23)
Next up: Mikkets (Gen 41.1 – 44.17)
-Cecil
Lots been said about Joseph, so I’ll talk about Tamar and her story. Question- the accounts say the Lord killed both Er and Onan, but were they dead in such a way that it was clear the Lord did it, or was it just assumed the died by the Lords hand cause they were jerks? In any case, even tho Tamar wasn’t born into Jacobs tribe by marriage, she still was entitled to benefit from their laws. Judah blamed her for his sons death, which is why he disgraced her and sent her back to her dads house, where she probably was at the bottom of the food chain and humiliated and lived a hard life. Not cool of Judah. But I think she was holding onto the promise of another husband, per their laws, (which I don’t really understand), and when she found out Judah was going to forget her she basically had to be clever and take a risk to show Judah and his family that they had wronged her. This was do or die for her, and I am a bit in awe of her bravery. It also is the first time that a man publicly owned up and apologized to a woman in the Bible story.
Also of note: Tamar is one of 4 women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus-he’s a direct descendant of hers