Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

1.  Will Parsons, responding to Isaac Fried, wrote:  “I find that thought 
quite extraordinary - I realize that that in ancient times people matured at 
an earler age than they do now, but I find the thought that Jacob would be 
enraptured by a 5-year old, ... disconcerting to say the least.  And even 
then, would a 5-year old be entrusted with the task of taking care of a flock 
of sheep on her own?”

We are never given a stated age for Rachel, but we know Jacob’s ages at all 
times, and we have Sarah’s ages for an analogy, so here’s what’s most likely.

Rachel was age 13 in 12-month years when Jacob first laid eyes on her.  
That’s just old enough for Rachel to be “statuesque”, and old enough for 
Rachel to tend the flock.  Many females in the ancient world married at age 
13, which likely was when a female back then was considered to be her very 
most attractive.  Leah, whom Jacob was supposed to marry, was the ideal age 
for marriage, age 15, being the age that Sarah and Rebekah likely were when 
they married.  [Ages 13-15 were the normal ages for a female to be married in 
the ancient world.  By contrast, males were usually older, and sometimes much 
older, when they married.]  Jacob himself is age 27 [with this being Year 
107, meaning 107 years in 12-month years after Abraham’s birth].  Jacob was 
born in Year 80;  Leah was born in Year 92, and is 12 years younger than 
Jacob;  Rachel was born in Year 94, and is 14 years younger than Jacob.   But 
Jacob has to wait 7 years before marrying them both, in Year 113.  [Counting 
both Year 107 and Year 113, that’s 7 years (not 6 years).]  So at the end of 
Year 113, Jacob awkwardly marries first Leah [due to trickery on the part of 
Laban, Leah and Rachel, but it’s the right result], who is age 21, and then 
Rachel, who is age 19, with Jacob being age 33.  Leah is ages 22-28, in Years 
114-120 [a total of 7 full years, not 6 years], when she bears 7 children 
[counting Dinah as her 7th child].  A few days or weeks after Dinah is born, 
Rachel finally bears Joseph in Year 120 [Year 12 tenfold], when Rachel is age 
26.  Jacob is age 40 at Joseph’s birth.  That is an old age in the ancient 
world for a man to sire a child, and Joseph is said to be a child of Jacob’s 
old age.  Joseph is Jacob’s youngest child for almost 10 years, before 
disappearing.

Everything is quiet on the childbearing front for almost 10 years.  Then both 
Leah and Rachel get pregnant again.  Leah dies in childbirth in Year 129.5, 
with the child [whom Leah had hoped would be her 7th birth son], being 
stillborn.  Leah is buried at the Patriarchs’ Hebron, which is why the 
family, which was splitting its time between Succoth and Shechem, spent a few 
days at the Patriarchs’ Hebron at Genesis 37: 14.  Leah is age 37½ at her 
death, being very old in the ancient world for trying to bear another child.  
 Rachel dies in childbirth in Year 130, at age 36, but her son Benjamin lives 
to be an adult.  Jacob is age 50 in 12-month years at Benjamin’s birth, being 
the same age as Abraham was at Isaac’s birth.  Abraham had witnessed 100 fall 
and spring New Years, and hence is stated to be age 100 at Isaac’s birth.

The flashback in chapter 37 of Genesis starts when Joseph is age 8½ in 
12-month years [stated age 17, since he had witnessed 17 fall and spring New 
Years].  Young Jacob, a “boy”/nar, has his first dream of the sheaves of his 
older half-brothers bowing down to him.  About 12 months later, in Year 
129.5, when Jacob is age 9½ and the family is spending a few days at the 
Patriarchs’ Hebron to bury Leah, Jacob awkwardly has his fateful second 
dream:  11 stars [including Benjamin en ventre sa mere], the sun and the moon 
bow down to Jacob.  Jacob disappears at age 9½, in Year 129.5.  In Year 130, 
being Year 13 tenfold, first comes the bloody Shechem incident, and then 
Benjamin is born.

Jacob, age 50, has just seen his favorite son Joseph disappear and presumably 
is dead, and beloved Rachel has just now died in childbirth, giving birth to 
a second son.  Jacob’s former love and favoritism for Joseph and Rachel now 
transfer to Rachel’s second-born son, who is Joseph’s only full-brother.  
Jacob, acting emotionally, decides to call beloved Rachel’s second son BN 
YMYN, “Son of my Right Hand”, thereby announcing to the world his plan to 
eventually place his “right hand”/YMYN on this “son”/BN, which would anoint 
Benjamin as the leader of the next generation of Hebrews.  Jacob favors 
Benjamin for 15 long years [after having favored Joseph for the previous 10 
years].  Only when the family is forced to move to Egypt [when Benjamin is 
age 15, in Year 145] does Jacob, age 65 [stated age 130, per Genesis 47: 9] 
gradually come to his senses and realize that Benjamin should not be named 
the leader of the next generation of the Hebrews. 

So now everyone can see  a-l-l  the relevant ages.  The primary relevance for 
this thread is that Benjamin is born in Year 130 per chapter 35 of Genesis, 
and then chapter 37 of Genesis is a flashback, first to Year 128.5, and then 
to Year 129.5, when Joseph is almost murdered by his older half-brothers and 
is taken to Egypt, a few months  b-e-f-o-r-e  Benjamin is born in Year 130.

See how  a-l-l  the ages in the Patriarchal narratives make perfect sense on 
all levels?  And that lets us figure out  w-h-y  Jacob called Rachel’s 
second-born son BN YMYN, “Son of my Right Hand”.  [The Patriarchal narratives 
make a lot more sense once one has figured out everyone’s ages.]

2.  Prof. Yigal Levin wrote:  “Well, according to rabbinic calculations, 
Rebecca was 3 at the time of her marriage to Isaac.  Now if you insist on 
taking that literally, it is indeed strange, to say the least.”

Once again, the text gives us no stated age for Rebekah, but we have a close 
analogy to Sarah, and we certainly know Isaac’s ages.  Isaac was born in Year 
50.  Isaac marries at stated age 40, being age 20 in 12-month years, in Year 
70.  Just as Sarah was 5 years [in 12-month years] younger than Abraham, so 
also is Rebekah likely 5 years younger than Isaac.  That makes Rebekah the 
ideal age for marriage, age 15, and Rebekah is portrayed as being ideal in 
every way as Isaac’s bride.  So Sarah and Rebekah marry at age 15, and Leah 
should have married Jacob at age 15, but instead Leah in effect becomes 
engaged to Jacob [though Jacob thinks he’s going to marry statuesque Rachel]. 
 We can only be absolutely sure that (i) Isaac marries at age 20 in 12-month 
years, and that (ii) Sarah is 5 years younger than Abraham, but all of the 
other ages set forth in this item #2 seem reasonably certain by analogy.

Neither the rabbis, nor modern scholars, have figured out people’s ages in 
the Patriarchal narratives.  Isaac is stated age 40 when he marries in Year 
70, meaning that Isaac had witnessed 40 fall and spring New Years at the time 
of his marriage to Rebekah, with Isaac being age 20 in 12-month years.  Jacob 
is born 10 years [in 12-month years] later, in Year 80, when Isaac is stated 
age 60, meaning that Isaac had witnessed 60 fall and spring New Years, and 
was age 30 in 12-month years.  Sarah had witnessed 90 fall and spring New 
Years, and was age 45 in 12-month years [in Year 50] when Isaac was born.  
All of the ages of all persons in the Patriarchal narratives make perfect 
sense on all levels. 

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois