Interesting Facts

• A wolf came toward the sons of Jacob when they went into the wilderness to seize beasts, as instructed by their father Jacob who believed a wild animal had devoured Joseph.
• The sons of Jacob seized this wolf and brought it to Jacob, stating it was the first creature they found.
• The Lord opened the mouth of the beast so that it could speak to comfort Jacob.
• The wolf explicitly stated to Jacob, “I did not see thy son, neither did I tear him to pieces“.
• The wolf also mentioned that it had come from a distant land to seek its own son who had gone missing.
• The wolf asserted, “neither has the flesh of man entered my mouth all the days of my life“.

Genealogy

• The wolf mentioned having a son who was lost and whom it was searching for.

Historical Context

The wolf appears in the narrative during a period of intense mourning for Jacob, who believes his son Joseph has been killed by a wild animal. This belief stems from the deceptive actions of Jacob’s other sons, who dipped Joseph’s coat in the blood of a kid and presented it to their father as evidence of a beast having devoured him. In his grief, Jacob commanded his sons to go out and find the animal that had supposedly killed Joseph, so he could avenge his death. The cultural context suggests a world where communication with animals, though unusual, could be perceived as a manifestation of divine power, as seen in the Lord opening the wolf’s mouth.

Narrative

The wolf’s encounter with the sons of Jacob occurs while they are ostensibly following their father’s command to hunt down the creature responsible for Joseph’s supposed demise. The sons seize the wolf and present it to Jacob. Jacob, in his anguish, directly addresses the wolf, accusing it of devouring his son and questioning its lack of fear of God and his suffering. Unexpectedly, the Lord intervenes and grants the wolf the ability to speak. The wolf’s dialogue serves to directly contradict Jacob’s assumptions and the deceptive narrative of his other sons. The wolf’s insistence on its innocence regarding Joseph and its own parental distress humanizes the animal and introduces an element of truth into a scene dominated by deceit and sorrow. Jacob’s astonishment upon hearing the wolf’s words and his subsequent release of the animal indicate a moment of realization or at least confusion in his grief. The wolf’s brief but significant role in the narrative highlights the theme of deception among Jacob’s sons and the unexpected ways in which truth can be revealed, even through seemingly impossible means, suggesting a divine hand at play in these events.