Week 3 Genesis 49
I finished Genesis and started Exodus today.
The second last chapter of Genesis is the passage where Jacob blesses his twelve sons. Some of the blessings make better & clearer sense to me than others and I sit thinking about them for a little bit. So I’ve got them in mind when I start Exodus and see the boys’ names listed again (except for Joseph who was already in Egypt).
The list in Exodus 1 says:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
I turn back a page. The list in Genesis 49 says:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin.
The order is different. I look back to the long birth-of-the-boys narrative in Genesis 29 & 30:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin.
There’s another short list in chapter 35 that I cross-check:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
I don’t think any of the lists are exactly the same. As far as I can tell the Genesis 29-30 list is the strict chronological sequence. The other lists look like they group the sons by their mothers – so Dan & Naphtali are back-to-back in three lists because they had the same mother. Ditto for Gad & Asher.
Even though I can make some sense of a couple of differences the order is still a bit curious & perplexing to me and I wonder if I’m missing something. But for now I’ll keep these in mind.