We don’t know if Leah and Rachel were rivals prior to their marriage to Jacob, but they certainly became rivals afterward, because of the favoritism Jacob had shown Rachel. Similarly, Jacob’s sons hated their brother, Joseph, because he was clearly their father’s favorite son. Whether or not this was always true, when Joseph was a mere boy, isn’t known, but it doesn’t appear that the brothers had expressed any bigotry toward one another, vis-à-vis the sons of Leah don’t seem to hate the sons of Bilhah or Zilpah or vice versa. Rather, the sense of rivalry seems to have appeared among them only because Jacob had clearly shown them that Joseph was his favorite son.
Moreover, after Joseph had been sold into Egypt by his brothers, and presumed dead by both Rachel and Jacob, the naming of Rachel’s newborn, Benjamin, seems to be behind Reuben’s laying with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine and Rachel’s handmaid. The context seems to show he had had enough of family favoritism and struck out against his father. They had gotten rid of one favorite son, but the rise of another seemed too much. Favoritism, no matter what the reason, usually breeds resentment or worse from those not held in the esteem they expect, as we find arising from Jacob’s sons against their brother, Joseph.
Jacob had been living in Hebron, or Mamre, where he had settled to be with his aged father, Isaac. However, he sent his sons with his flocks to Shechem (Genesis 37:12), which was probably about a three-day journey from Hebron,[1] or about 60 miles north of Mamre,. This suggests that the events that occurred following Dinah’s defilement had not yet occurred.[2] In other words, Jacob had come to Shechem from Mamre sometime after his original journey there from Gilead, when he bought some land from the children of Hamor (cp. Genesis 33:17-19). The house he built was probably for storage of food and other supplies, while his sons cared for his flocks north of his own campsite in Mamre. Jacob’s second journey to Shechem with Rachel, his pregnant wife and Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, was due to news that Joseph had been slain by a wild beast (cp. Genesis 37:32-33).
Sometime earlier, Jacob had sent his son, Joseph, to Shechem to find out how his sons and the sheep were doing and, afterward, he was to bring word back to him (Genesis 37:13-14).[3] When he was found wandering about the fields of Shechem, a certain resident asked, if he could be of assistance. So, Joseph asked if the man knew where his brethren might be, and the man told Joseph where they had gone. He found them in Dothan (Hebrew: two wells), which was about twelve miles further north (Genesis 37:15-17).
Joseph’s brethren noticed his approach, while he was yet some distance away, and one of them said that the baal of dreams (master or lord of dreams) comes to them. They, then, conspired together to slay him. Afterward, they’d tell their father that a wild beast must have killed and devoured his son. Their plan was to prove his dreams were nothing but idle fantasies (Genesis 37:18-20), perhaps, assuming the “favorite son” had eyes on the family wealth and would keep them from their fair share.
However, Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, learned of the plot, but thought they were carrying their hatred too far, so he hoped to deliver Joseph out of their hands. He told his brethren that they shouldn’t slay their brother, but instead cast him into a pit.[4] Presumably, this was to appease their hatred of him and permit a beast to slay him. Nevertheless, Reuben’s true intention was to deliver Joseph to Jacob and save him from his brothers (Genesis 37:21-22).
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[1] Laban also put a three-day journey between his flocks and his camp, which he shared with Jacob (Genesis 30:36; cp. 31:19).
[2] See my explanation in my previous study of this kind of thing occurring when two or more different records are combined into one complete whole: The Final Record of the Book of Genesis.
[3] Note: if there was any danger of reprisals from the Canaanites, due to what Simeon and Levi had done to the city of Shechem, why would Jacob have sent his favorite son, alone, to learn of the welfare of his other sons and his flocks? This is, yet, another clue pointing to the events of Genesis 37 occurring prior to the events of Genesis 34.
[4] That is, a cistern that held water for flocks and herds during dry spells, but it was presently dry (Genesis 37:24).
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