Priscilla Papers Vol. 21, No. 1 (Winter 2007)

Hearing God’s Voice in the House of Israel Chelsea DeArmond What does it mean to be founders of a nation chosen by God? promised land and was quickly integrated into the transjordan Power? Privilege? Pride? Jacob’s blessing of his first four sons, tribe of Gad.4 Before Israel left the wilderness, Moses’ blessing recorded in Genesis 49:1–1, paints a different picture of God’s indicates that Reuben was already dwindling: “May Reuben live ideal. This article will trace themes of alienation and identifica- and not die out, even though his numbers are few” (Deut. 33:6). tion to show that the integrity of the sons of Israel is challenged The alienation of Dinah, Simeon, and Levi from the and ultimately identified by the voice—or the lack of voice—of a house of Israel grieving concubine (Gen. 35:16–), a disgraced sister (Gen. 34), and a widowed daughter-in-law (Gen. 38). 5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; Who will receive the special blessing? weapons of violence are their swords. 6 May I never come into their council; 1 Then Jacob called his sons, and said: “Gather around, that may I not be joined to their company— I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come. for in their anger they killed men, Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob; and at their whim they hamstrung oxen. listen to Israel your father.” (NRSV) 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! The Hebrew word for blessing (berakah) is virtually an anagram I will divide them in Jacob, of the word that means both birthright and firstborn (bekorah). and scatter them in Israel. Although the firstborn son was entitled to a double portion of his father’s inheritance and a special blessing, in the blessing Ja- The blessing of the firstborn should pass to the second born son cob pronounced for his sons, the right of the primogenitor is dis- if the first is unable (or unworthy) to receive it. However, Jacob’s persed according to the degree to which each son demonstrated second and third sons received curses rather than blessings. The covenant love to others. At the point Jacob assembles his sons Hebrew word for “Cursed be” in verse 7 is the same word God together, Joseph had already received the double portion.1 The used to curse the serpent in the account of the Fall (Gen. 3:14). recipient of the special blessing had yet to be determined. Jacob’s “Cursed be . .” also closely parallels Noah’s “Cursed be . .” in reference to his son Ham in terms of language and con- The alienation of Bilhah and Reuben from the house sequence: the cursed sons are assigned the lowest position rela- of Israel tive to their brothers (Gen. 9:5).5 Indeed, the language suggests 3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, that they have been excluded from the house of Israel altogether: my might and the first fruits of my vigor, “May I never come into their council . may I not be joined to excelling in rank and excelling in power. their company . .” This curse recalls their key role in a destruc- 4 Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel tive period in Israel’s development: the rape of their sister Dinah because you went up onto your father’s bed; and the slaughter of the Shechemites. then you defiled it—you went up onto my couch! The rape of Dinah is recorded in Genesis 34: :“When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized Reuben’s blessing begins with an acknowledgment of his status her and lay with her by force.” Many commentators draw a paral- as firstborn. He is described as “excelling in rank and excelling in lel between Shechem’s rape of Dinah and Amnon’s rape of Tamar power.” Unfortunately, Reuben’s excellence was attained at others’ ( Sam. 13). However, compare the responses of these men to the expense. Genesis 35:22 reveals the “other” whom Reuben violated women they violated: After Amnon raped Tamar, he was “seized for his own gain: “While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing was even lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of it.” greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get In sleeping with his father’s concubine, Reuben symbolically out!’” ( Sam. 13:15, emphasis added). After Shechem raped Di- usurped Jacob’s authority.2 Reuben chose to make his move at a nah, “his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the time when Jacob was most vulnerable: the death of his favored girl, and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father wife, Rachel. It is likely that Rachel’s maid, Bilhah, grieved her Hamor, saying, ‘Get me this girl to be my wife’” (Gen. 34:3–4, em- mistress’s death as well. Bilhah is first introduced as Rachel’s maid phasis added). Amnon’s lust became loath- (Gen. 30:3–10) and, even after she was given to Jacob as a sur- ing, while Shechem’s lust became love. rogate mother when Rachel could not conceive, her primary as- sociation was with Rachel.3 After Rachel died, Reuben’s violation CHELSEA DEARMOND is an M.A. student at intensified her alienation. Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. She is editor of Reuben’s violation disqualified him as a candidate for Israel’s Mutuality, the award-winning quarterly magazine blessing and ultimately ensured his own obscurity in the house of Christians for Biblical Equality. of Israel. The tribe of Reuben settled before crossing over into the Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 1, No. 1 ◆ Winter 007 • 11 After pursuing Dinah and seizing her illegitimately, Shechem 9 Judah is like a lion’s whelp; pursued her through legitimate means. Shechem’s father, Ham- from the prey, my son, you have gone up. or, made an offer that would unite the two nations in exchange He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, for Dinah as his son’s wife: “Make marriages with us; give your like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?9 daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,10 live with us; and the land shall be open to you; live and trade nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, in it, and get property in it.” He offered to pay whatever price until tribute comes to him; was required. When they required only one condition of him— and the obedience of the people is his. circumcision—Shechem was eager to comply. 11 Binding his foal to the vine Apart from the initial violation of Dinah, what if Israel had ac- and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, cepted Shechem’s offer? Unfortunately, Simeon and Levi did not he washes his garments in wine consider God’s desire to uphold covenant relationships (whether and his robe in the blood of grapes;11 established legitimately or illegitimately as in the covenant be- 1 his eyes are darker than wine, tween the Israelites during Joshua’s time and the Gibeonites; cf. and his teeth whiter than milk. Josh. 9). Neither did they consider Dinah’s desire. Instead, Simeon The special blessing reserved for the firstborn son was finally re- and Levi took matters into their own hands and acted out of out- ceived by the fourth—Judah. Judah’s blessing depicts him as a rage, indignation, and pride, just as Shechem had initially acted ruler in relation to his brothers and a conqueror in relation to out of his own destructive compulsions. his enemies. Unlike the curses pronounced on Judah’s three older Rebecca Chopp describes rape as “the refusal of any sense brothers, Judah’s blessing does not allude to a specific historical of covenantal relationship.”6 In other words, the imposition of event. However, Judah did indeed undergo a formative challenge a covenant sign (sex) outside of the context of the covenant re- to his integrity when he was confronted by the problem of his lationship (marriage) represents a serious violation (rape). In childless daughter-in-law in Genesis 38. this sense, Shechem is also a victim of rape. Thomas Mann sum- Shortly after the time when Jacob’s sons sold their brother Jo- marizes Simeon and Levi’s deceitful response to Shechem as an seph into slavery (according to Judah’s suggestion), Judah moved exploitation of “. the sign of the covenant between God and away from his family and settled in the land of the Adullamites. Israel (circumcision) as a device of trickery and bloodshed.”7 The In choosing to move away from his family, settle in a foreign account begins with Shechem’s “seizing” of Dinah and ends with land, and take a Canaanite wife, his relationship to the house of Israel’s seizing of “All [Shechem’s] wealth, all their little ones and Israel was threatened. His actions identify him more with his fa- their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made ther’s brother, Esau. The birth of Judah’s three sons also suggests a their prey” (Gen. 34:9). growing distance between Judah and his wife. Judah named their If God were to speak, what would God’s response be? If Di- firstborn son, Er. His wife named their second-born son, Onan.

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