Genesis 35:22

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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Reuben.—Again another grief for Jacob to mar his return home, and this time it arises from the sin of his first-born, who thereby forfeits the birthright. It was the thought of these miseries, following upon his long years of exile, which made Jacob speak so sorrowfully of his experience of life before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:9).

And Israel heard it.—The Masora notes that some words have here fallen out of the text, which the LXX. fill up by adding, “And it was evil in his sight.”

Benson Commentary

Genesis 35:22. When Israel dwelt in that land — And probably was absent from his family, which might be the unhappy occasion of these disorders. Though, perhaps, Bilhah was the greater criminal, yet Reuben’s crime was so provoking, that for it he lost his birthright and blessing, chap. Genesis 49:4. Israel heard it — No more is said: that is enough: he heard it with the utmost grief and shame, horror and displeasure. No doubt he forsook Bilhah’s bed upon it, as David afterward acted in a like case. The sons of Jacob were twelve — Moses makes this observation here, because Benjamin being now born, Jacob had no more sons. When he says, (Genesis 35:26,) which were born to him in Padan-aram, he speaks by a synecdoche, a figure of speech often used in Scripture, whereby that which belonged to the greater part is ascribed to all. They were all born there except Benjamin, the place of whose birth had been just mentioned.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

35:21-29 What a sore affliction Reuben's sin was, is shown, and Israel heard it. No more is said, but that is enough. Reuben thought that his father would never hear of it; but those that promise themselves secrecy in sin, are generally disappointed. The age and death of Isaac are recorded, though he died not till after Joseph was sold into Egypt. Isaac lived about forty years after he had made his will, chap. 27:2. We shall not die an hour the sooner, but much the better, for timely setting our hearts and houses in order. Particular notice is taken of the agreement of Esau and Jacob at their father's funeral, to show how God had wonderfully changed Esau's mind. It is awful to behold relations, sometimes for a little of this world's goods, disputing over the graves of their friends, while they are near going to the grave themselves.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jacob's return and his father's death. The family of Jacob is now enumerated, because it has been completed by the birth of Benjamin. "In Padan-aram." This applies to all of them but Benjamin; an exception which the reader of the context can make for himself. Jacob at length arrives with his whole establishment at Hebron, the third notable station occupied by Abraham in the land Genesis 13:1. Here also his father sojourns. The life of Isaac is now closed. Joseph must have been, at the time of Jacob's return, in his thirteenth year, and therefore, his father in his hundred and fourth. Isaac was consequently in his hundred and sixty-third year. He survived the return of Jacob to Hebron about seventeen years, and the sale of Joseph his grandson about thirteen. "Esau and Jacob his sons buried him." Hence, we learn that Esau and Jacob continued to be on brotherly terms from the day of their meeting at the ford of Jabbok.

This chapter closes the ninth of the pieces or documents marked off by the phrase "these are the generations." Its opening event was the birth of Isaac Genesis 25:19, which took place in the hundreth year of Abraham, and therefore, seventy-five years before his death recorded in the seventh document. As the seventh purports to be the generations of Terah Genesis 11:27 and relates to Abraham who was his offspring, so the present document, containing the generations of Isaac, refers chiefly to the sons of Isaac, and especially to Jacob, as the heir of promise. Isaac as a son learned obedience to his father in that great typical event of his life, in which he was laid on the altar, and figuratively sacrificed in the ram which was his substitute. This was the great significant passage in his life, after which he retires into comparative tranquillity.

- Section XII - Jacob

- The History of Esau

2. <אהלבמה 'ohŏlı̂ybâmâh, Oholibamah, "tent of the high place." ענה ‛ǎnâh, 'Anah, "answering." צבעון tsı̂b‛ôn, Tsib'on, "dyer, colored."

4. אליפז 'ělı̂yphaz, Eliphaz, "God of strength." רעוּאל re‛û'êl Re'uel, "friend of God."

5. יעוּשׁ ye‛ûsh, Je'ush, "haste." יעלם ya‛lâm, Ja'lam, "hiding." קרח qôrach Qorach, "ice."

11. תימן têymân, Teman, "right-hand man." אומר 'ômār, Omar, "eloquent." צפו tsephô, Tsepho, "watch." געתם ga‛tâm Ga'tam, "touch." קנז qenaz Qenaz, "hunting."

12. תמנע tı̂mnâ( Timna', "restraint." עמלק ‛ǎmâlêq, 'Amaleq, "licking up, laboring."

13. נחת nachath, Nachath, "going down, rest." זרח zerach, Zerach, "rising" (of light). שׁמח shammâh, Shammah, "wasting." מזה mı̂zzâh, Mizzah, "fear, sprinkling."

20. ליטן lôṭân, Lotan, "covering, veiled." שׁובל shôbâl, Shobal, "flowing, a shoot."

21. דשׁון dı̂yshôn, Dishon, "a kind of gazelle, fat." אצר 'etser, Etser, "store." דישׁן dı̂yshân, Dishan, "threshing."

22. חרי chôrı̂y, Chori, "troglodyte." הימם hēmām, Hemam, "noise, commotion."

23. עלון ‛alvân, 'Alvan, "lofty." מנחת mânachath, Manachath, "rest." עיבל ‛êybâl, 'Ebal, "stripped of leaves." שׁפו shephô, Shepho, "bare." אונם 'ônâm, Onam, "strong."

continued...

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. and Jacob set a pillar on her grave … unto this day—The spot still marked out as the grave of Rachel exactly agrees with the Scriptural record, being about a mile from Beth-lehem. Anciently it was surmounted by a pyramid of stones, but the present tomb is a Mohammedan erection.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This was a horrid incest; for concubines were a sort of wives. See Genesis 22:24 25:1.

Israel heard it, and doubtless sadly resented it, both in Reuben, as appears from Genesis 49:4 1 Chronicles 5:1,2; and in Bilhah, whose bed without question he forsook upon it, as afterwards David did in the like case. See 2 Samuel 16:22 20:3. Yet here is no mention of Jacob’s reproof of it, nor any censure of Moses added to it; possibly to teach us, that we are not to approve of every fact which is mentioned in Scripture without censure, and that the miscarriages of professors of religion are rather to be silently bewailed than publicly reproached, lest religion should suffer by it.

The sons of Jacob were twelve, which were heads of the twelve tribes; therefore his daughter Dinah is not here mentioned, because she was not the head of a tribe.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land,.... In that part of it near Bethlehem:

that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; his concubine wife; she was the maid that Rachel gave him, and this added to his affliction, and made it double, to lose Rachel by death, and to have her favourite maid, his concubine, defiled by his own son, and whom it is highly probable he abstained from hereafter. This, though a very heinous sin of his son's, yet might be suffered as a chastisement to Jacob, for making use of concubines:

and Israel heard it; though the crime was committed secretly, and was thought it would have been concealed, but by some means or other Jacob heard of it, and no doubt severely reproved his son for it; and though nothing is here related, as said by him on this occasion, it is certain it gave him great offence, grief and trouble, and he remembered it to his dying day, and took away the birthright from Reuben on account of it, Genesis 49:3; an empty space here follows in the original text, and a pause in it, denoting perhaps the amazement Jacob was filled with when he heard it; and the great grief of his heart, which was such, that he was not able to speak a word; the Septuagint version fills up the space by adding, "and it appeared evil in his sight":

now the sons of Jacob were twelve; who were the heads of twelve tribes, Benjamin the last being born, and Jacob having afterwards no more children, they were all reckoned up under their respective mothers, excepting Dinah, a daughter, from whom there was no tribe, in the following verses.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(h) This teaches that the fathers were not chosen for their merits, but only by God's mercies, whose election was not changed by their faults.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22b–29 (P). Jacob’s Sons, and the Death of Isaac

22b. the sons of Jacob] The names of Jacob’s sons are enumerated after the mention of Benjamin’s birth. But the enumeration is that of P, which assumes that all the sons of Jacob, including Benjamin, were born to him in Paddan-aram (Genesis 35:26), in direct contradiction to Genesis 35:16-18 (J).

twelve] A sacred number, found also in the sons of Nahor and Ishmael (Genesis 17:20, Genesis 22:20-24, Genesis 25:16).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: - an act of incest (Leviticus 18:8) for which he was afterwards disinherited (Genesis 49:4; 1 Chronicles 5:1) - and Israel heard it. The hiatus in the text and the break in the MS. at this point may both have been designed to express Jacob's grief at the tidings. The LXX. add feebly καὶ πονηρὸν ἐφάνη ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ, which surely fails to represent the mingled shame and sorrow, indignation and horror, with which his eldest son's wickedness must have filled him. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve - a separate verse in the LXX., which is certainly more in accordance with the sense than the division in the text. Genesis 35:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jacob's Return to His Father's House, and Death of Isaac. - Jacob had left his father's house with no other possession than a staff, and now he returned with 12 sons. Thus had he been blessed by the faithful covenant God. To show this, the account of his arrival in his father's tent at Hebron is preceded by a list of his 12 sons, arranged according to their respective mothers; and this list is closed with the remark, "These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-Aram" (ילּד for ילּדוּ; Ges. 143, 1), although Benjamin, the twelfth, was not born in Padan-Aram, but on the journey back.