Jacob’s two wives, Rachel and Leah, decide to have a pregnancy contest. But since they are each barren, they each send their handmaids to Jacob for him to get pregnant. This story is different from Abraham and Sarah, because in this one, the wives claim the children as their own.

Is it worse to send your handmaid into the desert with her bastard son of your husband, or to keep the bastard as your own? God doesn’t seem to think either is a problem.

Later, Leah’s “son” gathers mandrakes, but she won’t give any to Rachel unless she gets to sleep with Jacob that night. And that’s the beginning of the pregnancies of the real wives. Two children each for the wives and the handmaids.

What’s surprising is the morality of all this. Not only does God not mind about the handmaids, but Leah even says that God rewarded her for giving “my maiden to my husband.”

The next section is a very good description of artificial selection. Laban tries to trick Jacob out of his payment by hiding all the speckled goats. But Jacob outwits him by making sure that all the future speckled baby goats are born of the stronger dams.

Later, he sneaks out of town with his wives, but Rachel steals her father’s idols. So Laban chases them down and searches. Rachel only gets away with this because she’s having her period, so can’t stand up. Thank God for modern absorbent materials!

Tomorrow: Genesis 32-34