Why does Jacob accept his marriage
and work circumstances so passively? Is he so smitten with Rachel that he will
tolerate even such indignity? The answer resides in Jacob’s identity and status
in Paddan-aram. Despite a few brief moments of assertiveness at the well, Jacob
is unable to project a clear sense of self in his negotiations here. Is he
primarily a hired hand, a son-in-law, or a nephew? Is he a valued relative from
afar or a refugee in flight from his family? In some sense he is all of these,
but his inability to define himself forcefully as one or the other leads to an
extended period of confusion, during which Laban takes advantage of him while
his wives struggle for different aspects of his love. Jacob’s passivity is
reflected most clearly where he is absent—in his minimal narrative role in the
subsequent section detailing the births of his sons. Jacob is certainly
sexually active with his wives, but his narrative presence is limited a brief interchange
with Rachel (30.1-2) and an even briefer walk-on role (without dialogue) in the
episode of the mandrakes (30.14-16). Jacob’s passivity likely reflects a
deliberate withdrawal, whether because of his complicated position within Laban’s
household or his uncertainty as to the efficacy of the blessing he has
received. If Jacob was previously the inferior twin fighting for his place in
the nuclear family, he is now the refugee nephew lacking the present he remains
submissive to the machinations of his uncle, debilitated amidst the rigors of a
foreign environment and encumbered with an additional wife he does not love.
In addition, psychological factors
and social limitations may contribute to Jacob’s inability to protest Laban’s deception
more vigorously. Jacob’s uncertain position in Laban’s household weakens his
ability to negotiate for better conditions. His status as a penniless dependent
leaves him at Laban’s mercy, and asserting his rights in a direct challenge to
his father-in-law would, at this early stage, he socially unacceptable. On a psychological
level, Jacob’s sense of himself is deeply compromised by both the past and the
present—his early desire to achieve parity with his brother, his anxiety about
being a stranger in a new land without the unqualified backing of his family,
the shame of his deception by Laban, and the ramifications of his indifference
towards Leah despite her yearning for his love. All these facets come to bear
on Jacob as a young man who has not yet settled into a clear identity of his
own. (George Savran, Jacob: Conflicted Twin, Aggrieved Patriarch [Hebrew
Bible Monographs 113; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2025], 126-27)