The Births and Relative Ages of Yaakov's Children

Introduction

Torahcast

12 Children in 7 Years?

Bereshit 29–30 describes the rapid process in which Yaakov moved from being a bachelor to a father of twelve (eleven sons plus Dinah). The simplest reading of the text seems to be that Yaakov married Leah after completing his first seven years of labor for Lavan,¹ and that Yosef, his twelfth child, was born at the end of his second seven year stint.² This leaves a period of only slightly more than six years for the births of all twelve children, including seven from Leah alone. How did all of the pregnancies and births, sandwiched around Leah's intervening hiatus from giving birth,³ fit into this almost implausibly short time frame? Did any of these pregnancies overlap?⁴ Were they all full term births? Could there have been any multiple births?⁵ Is it possible that any of the twelve births occurred before or after this brief period?⁶

Shimon and Levi at Shekhem

The chronology of the births of the Twelve Tribes has a significant impact on how we understand subsequent stories as well. The story of the rape of Dinah and the resultant avenging of her honor by Shimon and Levi in Bereshit 34 is recorded in the midst of Yaakov's return journey from Lavan's home to his father, Yitzchak, in Chevron.⁷ The Torah does not say exactly how long this journey took, but let us assume for the purposes of our calculations that it took a maximum of two years.⁸ If Yaakov married Leah after spending seven years working for Lavan and Shimon and Levi were born in the ninth and tenth years of Yaakov's stay, that would make them only twelve to thirteen years old when they wiped out the entire male population of Shekhem!⁹ Is this a tenable proposition?¹⁰ Are there alternatives to this chronology?¹¹

Chetzron and Chamul Counted in the 70

An additional narrative which forms a piece of this puzzle is the story of Yehuda and his descendants in Bereshit 38. In the course of this chapter, Yehuda marries, has three children who marry or arrive at marriageable age, and only then sires two additional children from Tamar: Peretz and Zerach. Somewhat astonishingly, it appears from Bereshit 46:12 that by the time Yaakov and his family descended to Egypt, Peretz himself had already produced two sons, Chetzron and Chamul.¹² However, if one assumes that Yehuda was born in the tenth year of Yaakov's sojourn in Charan, he would have been only forty-three years old¹³ at the time of the descent, and would already have produced three generations of progeny.¹⁴ Once again, one wonders: Are there any alternatives to such a chronological reconstruction?

¹ Bereshit 29:20-23 would appear to indicate that Yaakov married Leah after working for Lavan for seven years. This assumes that Yaakov's words "מָלְאוּ יָמָי" mean that Yaakov has completed his seven years of labor – see Targum Onkelos, Rashbam, and RambanBereshit 29:21-27About R. Moshe Nachmanides. However, see also Bereshit Rabbah, RashiBereshit 29:27About R. Shelomo Yitzchaki, and RalbagBeiur Divrei HaParashah Bereshit 29:21About R. Levi b. Gershom who interpret this to mean that Yaakov was getting on in years, as he was already over eighty.

On the other hand, Lavan's demand "מַלֵּא שְׁבֻעַ זֹאת" in Bereshit 29:27 may imply that Yaakov had not yet completed his first seven year term. This depends, in part, on whether "שְׁבֻעַ" refers to the seven years of work or to the seven days of post-nuptial festivities (שבע ברכות). As the context is the seven years of labor and the Torah has never previously mentioned the institution of שבע ברכות (and never does so thereafter – see also RambanBereshit 29:21-27About R. Moshe Nachmanides), it is at least a reasonable possibility that the word refers to the seven years of labor. [It is noteworthy, though, that in its other appearances in Torah, the forms of the word "שְׁבֻעַ" all refer to a period of seven days, and that only in the very late book of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27, 10:2-3) is it used to refer to a term of seven years.]

² Bereshit 30:25-34 states that it was after Yosef was born that Yaakov renegotiated the terms of his employment with Lavan. Taken together with Bereshit 31:41 which tells us that Yaakov worked a total of fourteen years for his two wives and six years in return for sheep, this would seem to imply that Yosef was born at the conclusion of the fourteen years. However, the verses do not rule out the possibility that Yaakov had already begun working for livestock compensation before Yosef was born, and that Yosef was born only during the final six years. According to this latter option, Yaakov waited for Rachel to have a child before asking leave and then renegotiating his contract, because he feared that if she were still barren, Lavan would demand her back.

³ See Bereshit 29:35 and 30:9.

⁴ The Torah presents each child's pregnancy and birth before recording that of the next child. However, this does not necessarily imply that there was no overlap between the pregnancies, as the Torah may be simply trying to preserve topical order and not bounce back and forth between children.

⁵ The Torah records distinct gestation processes for only nine of the twelve children, but not for Gad, Asher, and Dinah. It is thus possible that Gad and Asher were a pair of twins, and that Dinah was Zevulun's twin sister.

⁶ See notes above that it is possible that Yaakov married Leah and that she gave birth to her first children already during the first seven years in which Yaakov worked for Lavan, and that it is also plausible that Yosef as well as some of Leah's later children were born only during the final six years in which Yaakov received his wages in livestock.

⁷ It is possible to posit that the Torah presents the events in achronological order, but there is little hint of this in the text. The relative advantages and disadvantages of such a position will be discussed in Approaches.

⁸ This is the opinion of Seder Olam RabbahSeder Olam Rabbah 2About Seder Olam Rabbah, RashiBereshit 33:17Bereshit 37:34Nazir 29bAvot 5:21About R. Shelomo Yitzchaki, and Lekach TovBereshit 34:25About R. Toviah b. Eliezer.

⁹ If Dinah was born in the 14th year of Yaakov's sojourn in Charan, she would have been seven or eight years old at the time of the rape.

¹⁰ It is true that in recent times we have witnessed children in grade school go on murder sprees, but Shimon and Levi did not have assault rifles at their disposal.

¹¹ See Chronological and Thematic Order for a general discussion of Tanakh's ordering and other cases where commentator posit achronology.

¹² Chetzron and Chamul are apparently included in the count of the seventy souls from Yaakov's family who descended to Egypt.

¹³ This figure is obtained by a series of arithmetic calculations. From Bereshit 47:9,28 we know that Yaakov was 130 years old when he arrived in Egypt, and from a combination of Bereshit 41:46 and 45:6 we can deduce that Yosef was thirty-nine at that point. Thus, if Yehuda was born in Yaakov's tenth year with Lavan, and Yosef was born at the end of the fourteenth year, Yehuda would be forty-three when they went down to Egypt.

¹⁴ This issue exists even if one posits that Yehuda's first marriage preceded the sale of Yosef. The problem is greatly exacerbated if one assumes that Yehuda's first marriage is recorded in chronological order and happened only after Yosef's sale in Bereshit 37.