Genesis 35-36: no outstanding acts of depravity this time

Chapters 35

Monotheism versus polytheism- God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and Him an altar. Jacob tells his family to leave their phony gods behind.

God lays down some suppressing fire

Verse 5 “And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.”

Rebekkah dies in new labour and Jacob can't even be bothered to honour her dying act of naming the kid... You can say I'm applying today's values, but misogyny is misogyny, whenever.

But Jacob is now finally rebranded Israel, by the Big Bearded PR Man in the Sky.

Anyway, son Reuben "lay with" (shagged) one of his dad Jacob's concubines (Billah). So it goes.

And we get a list of Jacob/Israel's sons, but not daughters, who are worth nuffink, it seems.

Jacob/Israel meets up with pa Isaac, a mere 180 years old. The meeting is brief.

Verse 29 “And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

Chapter 36

A little of the family tree of Esau
[I looked up my family tree once, and found I was the sap]

And he and Jacob split

Verse 7 “For their riches were more than that they might dwell together : and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.”

[Normally I'd toss off some glib eco-comment about carrying capacity, but I read an article by Adrian Wilding called “Ideas for a Critical Theory of Nature” in Capitalism Nature Socialism Dec 2008 the other day. And there was a footnote to an intriguing sounding article by on Nathan Sayre, “The Genesis [ho ho], History and Limits of Carrying-Capacity” in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 98, No 1, 2008 pp. 120-134. I will let you know what it says and if it's, IMHO, any good..]

And there's some begatting and “duke”-ing and a little bit of smiting and the eyes run down the page like two egg yolks in a tipping saucepan.

But hark, a name! In Verse 39 we have “and Hadar reigned in his stead, and the name of his city was Paul and his wife's name was Mehetabel.”

Geddit? Archy and Mehitabel? Don Marquis? One was the cockroach (Archy I think) and the other the cat. They're really funny books!

And more duking, which suits me fine, since it's late and a school night...