a list of Jacob's sons and grandsons, originally compiled without reference to the migration to Egypt, on the basis of some such census-list as Nu. 265ff.
That the section belongs in general to the Priestly strata of the Pent.
is seen from its incompatibility with the narrative (and particularly the
chronology) of JE; from its correspondence with Nu. 265ff., Ex. 614ff.; and
from literary indications ((
Hebrew characters), 8 [cf. 2513 3610]; (Hebrew characters), 15; (Hebrew characters) 15. 18. 22.
25-27; (Hebrew characters), 26). As regards its relation to the main document of P,
three views are possible: (1) That the list was originally drawn up by
P, and afterwards accommodated to the tradition of JE by a later editor
(Nö. Di. al.). This implies the perfectly tenable assumption that P did
not accept the tradition as to the death of Er and Onan, or that of
Benjamin's extreme youth at the time of the migration; but also the
less probable view that he numbered the sons of Joseph amongst those
who 'went down' to Egypt. (2) That the interpolations are due to P,
who thus turned an older list of Jacob's children into an enumeration of
those who accompanied him to Egypt (Dri.). The only serious objection
to this theory is that it makes P (in opposition to Ex. 15) reckon
Jacob as one of the 70. It is nevertheless the most acceptable solution.
(3) That the whole section was inserted by a late editor of the school of
P (We. Kue. Gu. al.). Even on this hypothesis, the original list will
have had nothing to do with the migration to Egypt.—The discrepancy
in the computation lies in the first section (8-15). The 33 of v.15 was in
the original list the true number of the sons of Leah. The interpolator,
whoever he was, had to exclude Er and Onan; to make up for this he
inserts Dinah (15a), and reckons Jacob amongst the sons of Leah! Another
sign of artificial manipulation of the figures appears in the proportions
between the number of children assigned to each wife: Leah
32, Zilpah 16, Rachel 14, Bilhah 7 (in all 69); each concubine-wife
receiving just half as many children as her mistress. The text of G
presents some important variations (v.i.).
8a. The heading is identical with Ex. 11a, except the
words (Hebrew characters), which are obviously interpolated (see introductory
note).—8b-15. The sons of Leah: viz. four sons of
Reuben (v.9), six of Simeon (10), three of Levi (11), five sons
and two grandsons of Judah (12), four sons of Issachar (13),
and three of Zebulun (14).—15. thirty-three is thus the correct
number of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Jacob by
Leah. To preserve this number intact with the omission of
Er and Onan, the interpolator was obliged to add Dinah,
and to include Jacob himself (see below).
9. Exactly as Ex. 614, Nu. 265f..—(Hebrew characters) is also a Midianite tribe (254);
the Reubenites occupied Midianite territory (Jos. 1321).—(Hebrew characters)] and (Hebrew characters)]
also Judahite clans (see v.12 and Jos. 71).—10. (= Ex. 615). Nu. 2612ff.
