Did the Brothers Exile Yehudah for Selling Yoseph?
No matter how we will read the narratives of Ya’akov and Yoseph, we still will not know the entire story. And the story reads well until we start reading it carefully. Then, several questions start presenting themselves to the careful reader. And the Yoseph story begins in Genesis 37, wherein we learn that his father, Ya’akov, moved to the land of Kana’an, the land of his father, as we read,
These are the generations of Ya’akov. Yoseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. (Gen 37:2)
But should not have the genealogy said, “These are the generations of Ya’akov: Reuben, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, etc.”? Why Yoseph? Because everything that happened to Yoseph from now on affected Ya’akov’s life. And to Ya’akov’s life we now turn to explain. The whole subject in Genesis 37-39 is extremely confusing, when we look only at what has been revealed to us in the narration. For this reason, we need to resort to textual criticism and logic to make better sense of this whole episode. In the following, we would like to posit another way to look at this narrative, specifically in reference to the life of Yehudah in Genesis 38. This will be further explained in the interpretation of these chapters, as we proceed.
The Bible is a book of questions, not of answers. What is important is its challenge. (Jewish saying)
The Book of Genesis is rich of challenges the reader encounters. From three morally questionable unions—Yehudah and Tamar, Boaz and Ruth, and David and Bathsheva—Mashiach would be born. And among the numerous births recounted in the book, two are of twins: (1) the births of Yitschak and Rivka’s twins: Ya’akov and Esav; (2) and the births of Yehudah and Tamar’s twins: Perets and Zerach. The connections, the reader inevitably will notice, highlight the theme shared between them: Ya’akov, Yehudah, and Perets—the forefathers from whom Mashiach would come. Yet, this genealogy of Ya’akov presents its difficulties to the careful reader.
The following narrative—which continues until the end of the Torah—is the chronicle of the descendants of Ya’akov, how they came to live in Egypt, how they left the slavery and received the Torah, and how they returned to resettle in the Land of Israel. All began, when Yoseph was 17 years old and was pasturing the flocks with his brothers, and 30, when Pharaoh appointed him vizier over Egypt. Ya’akov came to Egypt nine years later, after the seven years of plenty and two of famine (Gen 45:11). At that time therefore Ya’akov was 130 years old (Gen 47:9) and Yoseph 39. Ya’akov must have considered Yoseph, the son of his favorite wife, as his first-born son, for he treated as such. This favoritism of Ya’akov to his son Yoseph changed the life of the main characters in our story: Yoseph was sold in Egypt, his father was mourning his death, and meanwhile, something else happened in the family.
And it came to pass at that time, that Yehudah went down from his brothers and turned into a certain Adullamite, whose name was Chirah. (Gen 38:1)
Yehudah left his father and brothers and married a Kana’anitess (Gen 38:2) despite what Avraham and Yitschak had commanded the family. The Kana’anitish woman conceived and bore a son, whose name was Er. And she conceived again and bore Onan. And she conceived a third time and bore Shelah. Yehudah took a wife for Er, whose name was Tamar. But Er was found to be evil in the eyes of the Eternal and He took his life (Gen 38:1-10). Yehudah gave Tamar as a wife to Onan in a levirate marriage, but because Onan did not want to consume the marriage, the Eternal took his life too. Both brothers might have been found guilty of the same sin.
Since Yehudah did not know why his sons had died within a year or so, he must have presumed that something about Tamar had caused his sons to die prematurely. Since Shelah was too young and immature to father children, Yehudah thus felt that it would be wise enough not to give him in a marriage and he sent Tamar to her father. Then, we are told that “after a long time” Yehudah’s wife died, and then he moved out to get comforted.
And after a long time, the daughter of Shua, Yehudah’s wife, died. And Yehuḏah was comforted, and went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah … (Gen 38:12)
Meanwhile, Tamar saw that Shelah was grown enough to be her husband, yet she was not given to him as a wife. Shelah was Tamar’s brother-in-law, and he was the first in line to marry her. To secure her livelihood, however, she dressed as a public prostitute and covered her face to seduce Yehudah. She indeed seduced him and when some three months went by, Yehudah was informed that his daughter-in-law was pregnant. Tamar proved to him that he was the one who fornicated with her, and Yehudah chose to suffer public disgrace rather than let her be punished with death for infidelity. Once it was clear to Yehudah that Er and Onan had died because of their own sins rather than because of any fault of Tamar, he married her. Tamar thus bore twins to Yehudah: Perets and Zerach (half-brothers of Shelah), in a morally questionable conduct. Now, why was this story in Chapter 38 placed here, where it interrupts the section dealing with Yoseph’s sale?
Based on chronological considerations, this incident must have taken place shortly after the sale of Yoseph. Seeing Ya’akov’s inconsolable grief, the brothers might have turned on Yehudah accusing him of the loss of Yoseph, for it was indeed his idea to sell him,
What would we gain if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? (Gen 37:26)
At their pressure, Yehudah must have left the family and settled somewhere in the land of Kana’an, where he became married. Alternatively, it is possible that Yehudah left the family on his own accord because of the guilt and shame of what he had done to Yoseph. The sale of Yoseph by the brothers is the widely accepted interpretation of the story. But is it so? This subject requires a lengthy exposition, but it is all explained in our commentary in the article “New Reading of Who Sold Yoseph to Slavery in Egypt”, to which we would like to turn the reader’s attention. But why is Yehudah’s story placed here: immediately after the sale of Yoseph? With this question all challenges of textual criticism, which we will employ below, begin.
The Torah tries to tell us something beyond what is immediately obvious. Yoseph was 17 (Gen 37:2) when he was kidnapped and sold to slavery in Egypt. This incident might belong sometime after the rape of Dinah at Shechem. And this is how Chapter 37 ends: the Midianites sold Yoseph in Egypt. Yoseph was 30 when he was pulled out of jail and appointed vizier over Egypt (Gen 41:46). After seven years of plenty and two of hunger (9 years) had passed, Ya’akov and his family moved to Egypt. Thus, 22 years went by between the sale of Yoseph and the descent of Israel into Egypt (30 – 17 = 13; 13 + 9 = 22).
Note: At the time when Ya’akov went down to Egypt, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah, Ya’akov’s wives, had already died, because, in counting the seventy souls that went down to Egypt, Torah states in Gen 46:26, “Besides Ya’akov’s sons’ wives”, and it does not say “besides Ya’akov’s wives and his sons’ wives”.
In Chapter 38, we learn that Yehudah moved out and settled away from the family of Israel. If we assume that Yehudah married in the first year of the separation, his first son, Er, must have been born sometime in the second year, and Onan at least a year later. We are not told when Er married Tamar, but he must have been old enough to do it. For the sake of argument, we will assume that Er was 18 when he married Tamar, and Onan 17 when he married her after the death of Er. We learn that Shelah, the youngest son of Yehudah was too young to marry Tamar, when his two brothers died. This would make him 12 years old when his brothers died, for he must have been born at least a few years after the second oldest Onan. “After a long time” (verse 12), we learn, Yehudah’s wife died, and he moved out again. Sometime after that, Tamar became pregnant by Yehudah and less than a year later Perets and Zerach were born. We also learn eight chapters later, in Genesis 46:12, that Perets became married and had himself become a father of two sons: Chetsron and Chamul. Thus, by the time Chetsron and Chamul came to Egypt with the whole family of Ya’akov (Genesis 46), only 22 years had elapsed since the sale of Yoseph. And this presents difficulties. Questions are forced upon us.
Seeing that it took only 22 years until the sons of Israel went down to Egypt to buy grain, how was it possible that during these years not only did Yehudah father three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah, but two of them (Er and Onan) had already become married, and a few years later, his third son, Shelah, was born. And “after a long time”, Yehudah fathered twins, Perets and Zerach, with Tamar, all before the descent of the family to Egypt. All of this, from the birth of Er until the descent to Egypt, had only taken no more than 21 years. Is it possible for all events described in Chapter 38 to have occurred in such a short time? And how old was Perets when he fathered his sons, if some 18 years had passed, when Er married and died at the age of 18, until Perets’s descent to Egypt four years later? Perets must have been born, married, and fathered two sons in the remaining four years! Is that even conceivable!? What sense could be made out of this? Furthermore, if we read the whole story in context, we should notice the repetition of similar description of bringing Yoseph to Egypt and selling him to Potiphar. We read thus,
And the Midianites sold him (Yoseph) in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. (Gen 37:36) And Yoseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down there. (Gen 39:1)
We should notice that the way the last verse of Chapter ends is the way the first verse of Chapter 39 begins. Although the sale of Yoseph had been mentioned already, it is mentioned again in Genesis 39, as the narrative continues now to concentrate on what happened to Yoseph. Yoseph clearly had been brought to Egypt about 22 years earlier. The choice of these words poses a difficulty. The Torah, which is known for the brevity of its words, could have instead continued directly to verse 2: “And it came to be that the Eternal was with Yoseph …” But this repetition is necessary to teach that Chapter 38 is inserted between them. This is hinted at in the apparently extraneous words in verse 36 and verse 1. Why? This requires further examination and explanation.
A studious reader knows that there is no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah and of the Tanach of that matter. We suggest therefore that there is a time-gap between Chapter 33 and Chapter 34 of Genesis, in which Ya’akov spent many years at Shechem.
And he bought the parcel of filed, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Chamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel. (Gen 33:19-20) … And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Ya’akov, went out to see the daughters of the land. (Gen 34:1)
Even though Ya’akov had no intention of remaining in Shechem permanently, he purchased a parcel of land upon which he had pitched his tent. He named the altar thus in commemoration of the fact that his Elohim had saved him while he was the way. Then, we learn about Dinah’s rape and the destruction of Shechem. Why? Why after the land purchase, the narrator found it necessary to tell us that Dinah went out to see the women in the land? Most unfortunately, we are not given to know what had occurred in all those years. Yet, something is left for our comments. And this is the grounds for what we suggested above. Let us rewind the time back to Ya’akov being in the land of Paddam Aram.
Ya’akov had worked for his uncle Lavan fourteen years only in order to marry his beloved Rachel, and six more he worked for himself, total of twenty years, until he left him and headed back to his father. In Padam Aram, Ya’akov married Leah and Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah, his wives, and with the exception of Binyamin, all of his children were born in the next seven years (see Table Jubilee). Reuven, his oldest son, must have been a little over 12, and Shimon and Levi, his second and third sons, were even younger. Dinah, who was born in the 14th year of Ya’akov’s life with Lavan, had to be seven, when they entered Kana’an. Ya’akov entered the land of Kana’an and settled at Shechem for two more years (Gen 33:18). Then he reunited with Yitschak after 22 years (Gen 35:27-28).
The inevitable question thus arises: Could what is described in Chapter 34 (the abduction and rape of Dinah) apply to such a little girl? Furthermore, could young boys like Shimon and Levi overcome and slaughter (together with their even younger brothers) an entire city of Shechem? Could such young boys act and talk to their father the way Ya’akov’s sons are described in Gen 34:30-31?
And Ya’akov said to Shimon and Levi, “You have troubled me by making me a stench among the inhabitants of the land, among the Kana‛anites and the Perizzites. And I am few in number, they shall gather themselves against me and shall strike me, and I shall be destroyed, my household and I.” But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a whore?” (Gen 34:30-31)
Because the narrative ends with the sons getting the last word, it could be assumed that Ya’akov accepted their argument and remained quiet. But could the patriarch Ya’akov remain quiet and let his young sons have the last word? For this reason, we suggest that Ya’akov’s sons must have been much older, and years had passed between Chapter 33, when the family settled at Shechem, and Chapter 34, the incident with Dinah, in which her brothers avenged her cause. Furthermore, when Scripture says in Gen 34:1, “Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land”, this suggests that she was old enough to go out on her own accord without asking her parents’ permission. This suggests that Dinah is described as a young lady of age, not a seven-year-old girl who depended on them. This also suggest that her brothers were young and strong men to be able to slaughter an entire city. If all this line of reasoning is correct, then we suggest that Yehudah’s life in Kana’an, from his leaving the family until the descent to Egypt, must have spread over thirty years.
On the other hand, however, did Yehudah leave Ya’akov’s family at all? Genesis 38:1 is very explicit in saying that “Yehudah went down from his brothers”, and it does not say, “Yehudah went down from his father and brothers”. Furthermore, the verse begins with, “and it came to pass at that time”, which implies that a long time had passed before Yehudah left the family. This does not, however, refer to the time that Yoseph was sold, as the sequence of chapters would tend to indicate but to the events that happened prior to that time. This matter will become clear once we understand why the narrative saw necessary to say what it says. We will now remove all the difficulties.
The key to understand what caused Yehudah’s conduct in Chapter 38 is the phrase: “Yehudah went down from his brothers”. Again, the verse does not say, “Yehudah went down from his father and brothers”, which is important to note here.
The Hebrew word יָרַד yarad, does mean to “go down”, to descend as found in Gen 11:5, when the Eternal went down to see the tower of Bavel, or in Gen 24:16, when Rivkah went down to the well. We may cite many examples where the Hebrew word for “go down” is used in its literal meaning unaltered in the translations. But as in Gen 11:5, so in Gen 46:3-4, yarad has an additional component, which we will explain.
I am the El, Elohim of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I shall make you there into a great nation. I Myself am going down with you to Egypt, and I Myself shall certainly bring you up again. And let Yoseph put his hand on your eyes. (Gen 46:3-4)
Genesis 38:1 did not use the verb עָזַב azav, which literally means “to leave”, as seen in Gen 2:24: “a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife”. Here, the meaning is that man leaves the family of his father and mother to become one with his wife. However, in the case of Yehudah, he did not leave his family but “went down from his brothers” What does it mean? The Hebrew language allows an alternative interpretation, which may make more sense to the critical reader, as we will explain below.
The word יָרַד yarad, not only means a literal descend from one place to another but also degrading in status. We find support for this meaning of the word in the following. When the Eternal went down to see the Tower, He metaphorically left His lofty place in heaven to come down to the earth. In a similar way, this verb is also used to indicate the case when one leaves the Land of Israel to go down to a foreign land, as Israel did at the time of famine in the land of Kana’an; the Eternal considers the Promised Land of the highest grade, and every move out of it is like degrading in status, as opposed to עָלָה alah, to go up [back to the Land]. Thus, when Yehudah went down, he descended from his brothers. This comes to teach that he was degraded or degraded himself in a lower position in the family, lower than his brothers’, perhaps, on account of having married a Kana’anitish woman, as a moral descent, not on account of the sale of Yoseph and the anguish this had caused Ya’akov. But when Yehudah married Tamar (according to the tradition, Tamar was of Semite descent), he returned, that is, he went up to the roots of his family. And indeed, later we see him as a new leader in the family when his father gave him the leadership to go before him to Egypt (see Gen 46:28).
And he (Ya’akov) sent Yehudah before him to Yoseph to show the way before him to Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. (Gen 46:28)
Thus, the Yehudah story may have nothing to do with the selling Yoseph but with the time when he married a foreign woman. Chronologically, this places Genesis 38 when the family settled at Shechem, which had occurred years before the Yoseph story. Why, then, did Scripture insert this chapter at this point when logic dictates that “And Yoseph was brought down to Egypt” (Gen 39:1) should follow, “And the Midianites sold him (Yoseph) into Egypt” (Gen 37:36)? Therefore, what is related in Genesis 38 occurred before the sale of Yoseph, and the narrator placed Chapter 38 here to contrast the new leader of the family: it would be Yehudah, not Yoseph, who would be destined for the kingship of Israel, and of his descendant Mashiach.
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