The Red Tent

From a young age, Dinah knows she is cherished by her mothers and Joseph, her brother and close companion. Of Dinah’s older brothers, Simon and Levi prove cruel, and shame their younger brothers into not playing with her and Joseph. Bilhah teaches her how to spin, telling her the legend of Uttu and Enhenduanna.

Laban is cruel, lazy, and a poor overseer, and his sons are no better. When he gambles away enslaved woman Ruti in a card game, Leah rallies her sisters to pool their resources and asks Jacob to find Ruti. During Leah and Jacob’s conversation, Dinah is shocked that her parents care for each other; she thought herself the most important person in her mother’s world. She realizes “I would be a woman soon and I would have to learn how to live with a divided heart” (86). Ruti is grateful to Leah for sparing her, though Laban continues to mistreat her.

Jacob feels called back to Canaan, especially since there is not enough land around Haran for his sons to have property of their own. Zilpah is reluctant, but her sisters are eager to leave.