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Some more of those Remarkable Coincidences coming up!
The writing surface for columns 36-39 was hard and scratchy; I had to sharpen my quill every two or three lines, and that was after I'd been over it with sandpaper and other smoothing tools. There are about 1250 letters to each of these columns, and every single one of them was a fight. Every single one. Plus I got sick in the middle and couldn't work for five days straight, so this sheet really took forever.
So, what's on cols 36-39? First, the bit where Jacob is fed up with Lavan's messing him about, and while Lavan is away sheep-shearing, gathers up his multitudinous possessions and sneaks away, insofar as it's possible to sneak with four wives, eleven kids, servants, miscellaneous people, baggage, and about a million sheep. Actually, it's not really possible to sneak, and Lavan catches up with them pretty fast, searches the camp for his idols, chews Jacob out for being an ungrateful so-and-so, to which Jacob replies with some choice words of his own - not the smoothest of departures, is what I'm getting at.
And then, Jacob is highly antsy, because he's left Lavan highly miffed at the loss of his idols, and is heading home to Esav, who as far as he knows is still lusting for his blood. He's pretty worried about that, too, and he divides his hordes, rather like the Royal Family when they travel. Not only that, but he can't get any sleep because some random Personage wrestles with him all night, and wrenches his hip (so now he has to face this potential battle disabled - just what he needed, right?).
As it happens, the meeting with Esav goes okay, although when Esav says "come back to camp with me" Jacob isn't so keen on letting Esav get behind him, and sends him on ahead just to make sure he won't get a surprise attack on the way. He's still really not in a good place, Jacob isn't.
Finally, Esav having shifted off to a different part of the country, he settles down happily, for all of three verses.
Then Dinah goes out for a little walkie and Shechem (local princeling) a) rapes her b) falls in love with her c) gets his daddy to sort out a marriage d) convinces the entire city to get circumcised in order that he can marry Dinah on Jacob's terms e) gets messily slaughtered along with everyone else in the city by Shimon and Levi, who were ticked that he raped their sister. Whereupon Jacob is worried that the remaining locals are going to make war on them, because urbicide is a pretty provocative sort of thing to do.
What a marvellous four columns, huh? Jacob was in a Really Bad Way all through that lot, feeling rottenly persecuted by his father-in-law, his brother, and his neighbours (or possibly his) sons, and continually having to take evasive action and run away from things and worry that someone's going to kill him. And for me? Every letter a struggle.
The writing surface for columns 36-39 was hard and scratchy; I had to sharpen my quill every two or three lines, and that was after I'd been over it with sandpaper and other smoothing tools. There are about 1250 letters to each of these columns, and every single one of them was a fight. Every single one. Plus I got sick in the middle and couldn't work for five days straight, so this sheet really took forever.
So, what's on cols 36-39? First, the bit where Jacob is fed up with Lavan's messing him about, and while Lavan is away sheep-shearing, gathers up his multitudinous possessions and sneaks away, insofar as it's possible to sneak with four wives, eleven kids, servants, miscellaneous people, baggage, and about a million sheep. Actually, it's not really possible to sneak, and Lavan catches up with them pretty fast, searches the camp for his idols, chews Jacob out for being an ungrateful so-and-so, to which Jacob replies with some choice words of his own - not the smoothest of departures, is what I'm getting at.
And then, Jacob is highly antsy, because he's left Lavan highly miffed at the loss of his idols, and is heading home to Esav, who as far as he knows is still lusting for his blood. He's pretty worried about that, too, and he divides his hordes, rather like the Royal Family when they travel. Not only that, but he can't get any sleep because some random Personage wrestles with him all night, and wrenches his hip (so now he has to face this potential battle disabled - just what he needed, right?).
As it happens, the meeting with Esav goes okay, although when Esav says "come back to camp with me" Jacob isn't so keen on letting Esav get behind him, and sends him on ahead just to make sure he won't get a surprise attack on the way. He's still really not in a good place, Jacob isn't.
Finally, Esav having shifted off to a different part of the country, he settles down happily, for all of three verses.
Then Dinah goes out for a little walkie and Shechem (local princeling) a) rapes her b) falls in love with her c) gets his daddy to sort out a marriage d) convinces the entire city to get circumcised in order that he can marry Dinah on Jacob's terms e) gets messily slaughtered along with everyone else in the city by Shimon and Levi, who were ticked that he raped their sister. Whereupon Jacob is worried that the remaining locals are going to make war on them, because urbicide is a pretty provocative sort of thing to do.
What a marvellous four columns, huh? Jacob was in a Really Bad Way all through that lot, feeling rottenly persecuted by his father-in-law, his brother, and his neighbours (or possibly his) sons, and continually having to take evasive action and run away from things and worry that someone's going to kill him. And for me? Every letter a struggle.