Jochabed belonged to the tribe of Levi, one of the sons of Jacob and Leah.  She was married to Amram, who was a grandson of Levi, via his son Kohath.  We are told in Exodus 6v20 that she was the sister of Amram’s father, which would make him her nephew. It doesn’t seem right to our modern sensibilities for marriage between such close relatives, but this is also the time of the Pharaohs who intermarried rather a lot.  For example, Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun perhaps in about 1332 BC.  According to Rabbinical Judaism, Moses might have been born about 1391 BC.

Jochabed, then, belonged to one of the tribes of Israel. She was a Jewish woman belonging to the people who worshipped the One God, whilst living in Egypt, under the rule of the Pharoahs.  As we read last time, (see Shiprah and Puah), Pharoah was not impressed by the increasing Jewish population and kept trying to think of ways to reduce them.  His attempt at ordering the killing of baby boys at birth was thwarted by the brave midwives, so he ordered that new born Israelite baby boys should be thrown in the River Nile.

That is the background then to the story of Jochabed.  The account in Exodus focuses on that family when she gave birth to her third child, having already a boy Aaron and a girl Miriam. For three months their beautiful baby boy was kept hidden.  This must have been a nerve-racking time for the family, but eventually she decided to do something.  Perhaps his older sister, aged eight or so was keen to be involved in the plan that the mother thought up.  Jochabed “made a basket out of papyrus leaves and coated it with bitumen and pitch.”

The basket was then concealed in the reeds at the edge of the river Nile and his sister kept watch to see what would happen.   What happened was that the daughter of Pharaoh and her attendants came to bathe.  Pharoah’s daughter (another nameless woman in the Bible), saw the basket and sent her attendants to bring her the basket.  When she opened it, she found a crying, but clearly Hebrew boy and she felt sorry for him.  At that point Miriam popped out of her hiding place and offered to go and find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby.

Let us consider then what all this might tell us – Jochebed and family lived near the River Nile.  She must have known, I think, that she was leaving her precious baby somewhere where there was a good chance that he would be found.  She must have observed that the spot where she chose to leave the baby was near a place where Pharaoh’s daughter and perhaps other highborn Egyptian ladies regularly bathed.  She then relied on the inquisitiveness and compassion of the woman who would find the baby to rescue her baby. Finally she set her daughter, a willing accomplice, presumably, to keep watch. 

She and her daughter must have thought about what would happen if the baby was found because the first thing Miriam suggests is perhaps she can find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby and then runs home and fetches her mother, thus ensuring that the baby’s formative years would be under the care of his mother. 

What a clever and sensible plan under the circumstances!

Miriam went home and fetched her mother and brought her to Pharaoh’s daughter – an inference that this was a random Hebrew woman who Miriam found to wet-nurse the infant.  Knowledge would have been dangerous perhaps.  Pharaoh’s daughter paid Jochabed to nurse the baby until he was weaned (or thereabouts).  Then he was brought back to Pharoah’s daughter, who adopted him as her son and named him Moses “for I have drawn him out of the water.”

In a time of difficulty for the Jewish people, slaves in Egypt, this was a very successful outcome – not least because the baby grew to manhood and became the great leader of his people.  The co-operation (knowing or unknowing) of the women around him in his infancy ensured this.  We don’t hear Jochabed or Miriam speak but even so we sense the unrecorded words that were spoken between them which ultimately ensured the safety of their beautiful boy seemingly sent off unprotected in his “Moses” basket into the Nile.

Exodus takes up the story of the descendants of Jacob, who are now living in Egypt.  The descendants of the family invited by the Pharoah grateful to Joseph, are now numerous and the Pharoah now ruling has no memory of Joseph.  As their numbers have increased, toleration has decreased and so they are now living under a hostile regime being made to work as slaves.

“In all their work the Egyptians treated them harshly”. 

In order to re-balance this perceived problem, Pharoah ordered that the Hebrew midwives should kill all their new born boys, but could allow girls to live.

Shiprah and Puah, two God-fearing Hebrew midwives, did not obey the earthly commands of Pharoah and let the boys live.  Pharoah, noticing that there were plenty of Hebrew boys, called them before him to explain themselves.

Well said these two rather clever women – Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. 

“They are vigorous and give birth even before a midwife arrives.”

No-one of course records if this assertion was true and indeed if Pharoah believed them.  However, he realised that these two good women would stand firm and so he made another order that all baby boys born to the Hebrews should be thrown in the Nile, although girls’ could be allowed to live.

Shiprah and Puah – just a glimpse of two women working under difficult circumstances and reconciling following the precepts of God and the commands of their earthly rulers.  We are told that:

“God blessed the midwives, and the people increased…because the midwives feared God, he made them mothers of families.”

Next time, we will look at one mother who ensured that her baby survived the cruel command of Pharoah.

Most of the women, featured so far have had quite a bit (comparatively) written about them.  About Joseph’s wife Asenath however, we know hardly anything, although we are at least told her name.  It is safe to say that in the ongoing story of God’s people, her own role is not noted as particularly significant.

Joseph, the son of Rachel and Jacob, had arrived in Egypt as a slave, sold by his jealous brothers.  He eventually rose to become the Steward of Potiphar’s Household, an indication of how hard he worked and how trusted he was, although still a slave.  Unfortunately things went a bit wrong and he ended up in jail after refusing the advances of Potiphar’s wife.  After he began interpreting dreams and then enabling Egypt to withstand a famine, he rose high in the employ of and esteem of Pharoah.

One reward was that Pharoah found him a wife – Genesis 41v45 records:

“Pharoah gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.”

This was very clearly an Egyptian wife who didn’t at the time of her marriage to Joseph worship the One God.  In fact she was the daughter of a Priest of On, otherwise known as Heliopolis and centre of the cult of the worship of the Egyptian sun-god Ra.

Asenath’s feelings in being married to a foreigner who didn’t follow the customs of her people are not recorded. We can note that Joseph was thirty, that he was efficient in the service of Pharaoh and that he was presumably not unattractive as Potiphar’s wife had already expressed an interest in him. 

The similarity of the name of Joseph’s father-in-law Potiphera and Potiphar – his erstwhile owner/employer seems to have suggested to some that they are the same person, but there is no evidence that they are and it would seem unlikely – not to say messy.  There are a couple of traditions found outside the Bible. One suggests that perhaps Asenath, was in fact the daughter of Dinah, abandoned and brought up by Potiphera (thus meaning that she had a common heritage with Joseph). It is perhaps a desire for tidiness in stories that has helped with this suggestion.  Similarly there are suggestions in legends that she “converted” to Judaism.  Again, there is no evidence to corroborate this.

We are back then to what we do know from Genesis.  They married and they had two children.  Joseph named them:

Manasseh – “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household”

Ephraim – “God has made me fruitful with children in the land of my sorrow.”

In the context of the narrative in Genesis 41, this seemed to be within the period of seven years of plenty, before the rest of Joseph’s family came to Egypt.

With the lack of information, it is not possible to know much more.  However, it is worthy of note that Joseph’s children by Asenath were blessed by Jacob as he was dying and they are thus named amongst the founders of the tribes of Israel.  Clearly, their mixed heritage did not preclude them from their place in the lists of descendants of Jacob.

As Jacob is dying he reminds Joseph that his burial place should be the cave in Canaan, which Abraham bought:

Genesis 49v31: “It was there that Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried.  There they buried Isaac and Rebekah and there too I buried Leah.” 

Sadly, Jacob’s beloved Rachel was not buried in the ancestral cave, as she died when they family were travelling and so was buried at a place on the way to Bethlehem.

Thus concludes Genesis and we have neatly recorded the burial places of  many of the women whose adventures we have narrated so far.

Next time we will begin following the stories of women, glimpsed in Exodus. We will thus be taken onto the next phase of the story of the Jewish people, who having settled in Egypt, are by the time of Exodus living under a hostile regime.

The story of Joseph is important in Genesis and is well-known in popular culture today, largely due to the musical “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”.  His appearance in this blog “Women of the Bible” is to provide the context for how the descendants of Sarah and Abraham, who first see the working out of God’s covenant, and are a nomadic people become a settled people living under oppression in Egypt prior to their liberation by God and journey to the Promised Land (Exodus).

A tenuous link would be to say that to see the character of the mother, look at her children.  Leah’s children are not recorded in a way that shows their obedience to God’s law. Joseph, one of the two sons of Rachel, is portrayed very favourably.  He is obedient to the God of his ancestors, even when sold into slavery and living in a strange land.  He does not succumb to temptation when Potiphar’s wife tries to lead him astray.  He uses his gift of dreams in a positive way and famine is averted for  Egypt.

His brothers visit Egypt, in desperation, during the time of famine in their land, not knowing that the reason that Egypt has plentiful supplies in storage is through the foresight and dreams of their brother Joseph, who they had thought long-dead.  He recognises them, although they don’t him and after some to-ing and fro-ing, the whole family including his elderly father Jacob arrive in Egypt.

Genesis 46 records:                          

“And Jacob arose from Well-of-the-Oath and Israel’s [Jacob] sons took up their father, and their baggage, and their wives, on the wagons which Joseph had sent.  And they took up their possessions and all their property which they had acquired in the land of Canaan.  And they entered Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him.”

We are given a detailed list of Jacob’s family, now known as Israel, including his sons, daughter Dinah (no children of Dinah listed) and grandchildren, including the children of Judah by Tamar travelled to Egypt.  These numbered 66 as the descendants of Jacob (not including the wives of his descendants).  The Twelve Tribes of Israel had arrived to settle in Egypt.

I don’t wish to refer to any woman as a “footnote” but there are some about whom we know considerably less.

Judah, the son of Leah and Jacob is noted to have had a wife – the daughter of Shua – a Canaanite woman (ie not from amongst his own family as his father and grandfather had found wives).  Judah had left his family and gone to a town called Adulla where he met his wife through a friend called Hirah.  The lists of descendants in 1 Chronicles refer to her as Bath-Shua the Canaanite woman.

They had three children – Er, Onan and Shelah.  Sadly she did not see her children grow up to be fine examples of manhood, both Er and Onan (sequentially married to Tamar) did not live a life in the favour of God and died prematurely. Her youngest son Shelah was still quite young and was promised to Tamar, but his father didn’t want that to happen.  Whatever opinion his mother had is not recorded, but she dies probably just as Shelah becomes of an age to marry, as we learn from the story of Judah, now a widower and Tamar. Interestingly Judah’s is accompanied on his visit to Tinnah by that same Hirah who was instrumental in finding for Judah his wife.

Poor BathShua – not even her own name is recorded – we have only the merest fleeting glimpse.

Named in Matthew’s Gospel in the Geneaology of Jesus

With Tamar, we reach the story of the first of the five ancestors of Jesus named in the Genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew.

Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob and Leah.  Her story is recorded in Genesis 38v6-30.  There is a suggestion that perhaps this story is written from a woman’s point of view.

Tamar was married first to the eldest son of Judah – Er.  Unfortunately, he died leaving her childless. As was the custom, Judah’s second son Onan was married to her with the plan that any children they had would be as if the offspring of Tamar and Er.  Onan was not keen on this plan, so ensured that he would not have children with Tamar.  God took a dim view of this and soon poor Tamar was left a widow again

So far so standard, but widowed Tamar was left with no husband, no children and no settled life of her own.  Judah had a third son – Shelah, but he was not grown up yet so Judah sent Tamar home to her father’s house, with the promise of Shelah as a husband when he was grown.  Tamar returned to her father’s house to await a husband who was some years away and would therefore be younger than her.  It doesn’t seem as if Tamar remained in the same place as Judah and his family.  However she would have known how many years she was expected to wait for her husband-to-be to reach maturity.  That time came and went and her husband did not arrive.

She took matters into her own hands and her methods might seem extraordinary to our modern sensibilities.  She was told that Judah, her father-in-law was now widowed and an interval had passed and that he would be coming to Tinnah, near to where she lived, for the annual sheep-shearing.  It is interesting that she was “told”.   That would seem to imply that she was regarded a someone who had not been treated in the right way and aroused sympathy where she lived.

“She took off her widow’s clothes and put on a veil and made herself beautiful and she sat by the gates of Enaim.”

She observed that Shelah was full-grown but he had not been given to her as husband.

“And when he saw her, Judah thought that she was a prostitute, for she had hidden her face, and he did not recognise her.”

It is very obvious that he did not recognise her for he then said:

“Let me come in to you?”

Tamar, who obviously had her wits about her and perhaps this was how she had wanted her plan to work asked:

“What will you give me if you come into me?”

He replied that he would send her a kid from his flock.  She was happy to accept a future gift, but as well wanted something tangible from the present and suggested that he give her his ring, necklace and the staff he carried.  These were very personal items that would be recognisable as belonging to Judah.  Tamar very sensibly didn’t trust a mere future promise of a baby goat, without keeping hold of some very real evidence.

He went on his way; Tamar became pregnant as a result of their encounter and Tamar resumed her widow’s apparel.  Judah made good on his promise and sent his friend back to Enaim (quite soon afterwards) with the promised baby goat, but there was no sign of the prostitute by the road and no-one knew anything of her. Does this signify that her local community tacitly “approved” of what she had done or that the actions of one woman were so insignificant that no-one had noticed?

Three months later, though her situation became a matter for comment and news reached Jacob that his daughter-in-law was pregnant.  He was duly outraged by her perceived immorality and ordered “Bring her out, and let her be burnt.”

Tamar of course had very cleverly ensured an insurance against this happening and she sends word to her father-in-law:

“It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am pregnant.”

Judah recognised his personal items and furthermore that Tamar had been forced to take control of her situation because he had not provided her with a husband as by the custom of the time he should have done.  He says:

“‘Tamar is more righteous than I am because I failed to give her my son Shelah.’  And he did not have intercourse with her again.”

She gave birth to twins – Perez and Zerah and these two are listed as the sons of Judah, when the family of Jacob is enumerated and go to Egypt to visit long-lost Joseph.  Although Tamar is not named in this list, I think it is significant that her children were acknowledged as Judah’s offspring.   Tamar has played a very important part in the story of God’s people and her importance is clearer still when we realise that King David descends from Perez.  Tamar, is one of only five women, named in the Genealogy of Jesus by Matthew. A recognition of the consequence of Tamar looking after her own interests when those who should have provided for her did not do so.  Interestingly, Shelah grows up to become the father of a whole tribe who descendants are mentioned in Numbers 26v20:

“The other sons of Judah became clans: for Shelah, the Shelanite clan; for Perez, the Perezzite clan; for Zerah, the Zerahite clan.”

Tamar is not named as his wife, which probably indicates that, she was content that with the birth of her twins, she had resolved the problem of the lack of offspring caused by the deaths of her first two husbands.  Although her actions seem somewhat unorthodox to us, there seems to be an acceptance that she had to take this action to make up for the failure of her father-in-law to act as he should have done – later codified in Deutronomy Ch 25v5:

“So two brothers live together and one of them dies without any child, the wife of the dead man shall not marry anyone other than the brother of her husband.  He shall take her as his wife and shall raise offspring for his brother.”

Tamar has played a very important part in the story of God’s people and her importance is clearer still when we realise that King David descends from Perez and thus she is one of only five women, named in the Genealogy of Jesus by Matthew.

Picture acknowledgement: Vernet, Emile-Jean-Horace, 1789-1863. Judah and Tamar, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48067