Genesis 35-38

God speaks to Jacob again and it seems like he's reminding him about his name change.  We also read about the death of Rachel.  She dies giving birth to Benjamin.  Isaac also dies and he is buried by his sons, Esau and Jacob.

Chapter 36 is full of Esau's descendants.  One interesting thing that was noticed (not by me) was that the listing of Esau's wives is slightly different from a few chapters earlier.  I've quickly looked at a 6 wife theory and a 4 wife theory to put the two together.  Anyway, I don't really know what's going on here.

Moving on, Joseph, being Jacob's favorite, is given a coat by his father.  He is hated by his brothers, since they know that he is favored.  Also, he begins having dreams about them having to bow down to him, and they hate him even more.  There is also mention of him rating out his brothers with a bad report.  They don't like Joseph.

One day, Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers.  They see him from far away and plan against him.  They take his coat and throw him into a cistern.  Rueben convinces them not to kill Joseph and Judah gets them to sell Joseph as a slave.  Reuben returns, wanting to save Joseph, but he is too late.  They return the coat to Jacob after dipping it in blood and Jacob believes that Joseph was killed by a wild animal.

Suddenly, the story shifts to Judah has 3 sons and get a wife, Tamar, for his firstborn.  God kills his fistborn because he is wicked.  Then, Judah instructs his secondborn to sleep with Tamar to produce children for his dead older brother.  The second born son is also wicked, not performing his duty properly by spilling his seamen on the ground, so God kills him too.  Judah is worried about his youngest son and though he promises to give him to Tamar eventually, he does not.

So, Tamar, recognizing this, dresses up as a prostitute in order to sleep with Judah.  Judah does and she gets pregnant.  Judah didn't know it was Tamar and eventually finds out what she did and that she is pregnant with his child.  Though what she did was "wrong", Judah still says "She is more righteous than I".  This probably refers to the fact that Judah was wrong for not giving his youngest son to her even though he said he would.  Anyway, she bears twins, Perez and Zerah.

I don't know or don't remember the significance, but this story is quite significant.  I'll have to look into it more, but at the very least, we know that it is through him and his line that Jesus is born.  That is significant.  Why did God choose Judah?  What about Rueben, the oldest?  What about Levi, from whom are the priests?  What about Joseph, who God used to save many from the famine?  One thing I read was about how Rueben had a moral failing causing him to be overlooked.  He defiled his father's bed (he slept with Bilhah).  As for Simeon and Levi, the next in line, the reason why they didn't get picked was probably because of the incident with Dinah.