Bible Journaling - Genesis 33 & 34

We continue our journey through Genesis today. We approach Esau with the same trepidation that Jacob must have experienced and find him a loving and welcoming brother. We then witness Jacob/Israel settling down in Shechem, only to see his only daughter dreadfully abused by one of the young princes of the region. The rape of their sister angers Jacob's sons and they plot their revenge. If Jacob means deceiver, we see that this is a character trait that he had taught his sons as well. What follows is a cruel and bloodthirsty scene of deception and retribution. We are challenged to find a way to illustrate these events in today's Bible Journaling venture.

We once again are dealing with two chapters that continue on the overleaf pages.

Genesis 33 and 34 look like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I treat the pages with Zellen Clear Gesso before I start.

This is what the pages look like once the gesso has dried.

I use a combination of Mont Marte Adult Colouring Duo Markers and Derwent Coloursoft pencils to colour the illustration in the left margin.

I move on to the second square and use a diffrent colour scheme here.

The third square sees me introducing a third colour scheme.

The colour scheme in the fourth square reminds somewhat of that of the second square, but the intensity of the two schemes differ from each other.

I then move on to the last square and a colour scheme that once again reminds us of that used in the first square.

The pages now look like this.

When I return to these pages, I have already journaled the previous chapter and my pages now look like this.

At the start of chapter 33 we see how Esau and Jacob meet up with each other. It is a heartfelt and warm reunion with no apparent hard feelings. I opt to depict this as two brothers embracing each other. I start my illustration in pencil.

I colour the drawing with a combination of Sharpie Markers, Faber-Castell Artist's Pitt Pens and Micron pens.

As these are two twins reconnecting with each other, I opt to draw a broken heart that has been united. In one half, I write Jacob's name and in the other that of Esau. I use Sharpie markers and a black fountain pen.

Chapter 34 opens with the very sad tale of Leah's rape. I continue the theme of hearts to illustrate this. This time I draw a weeping heart to represent this horrible act and the attempted cover-up. I exaggerate the amount of tears spent in an attempt to acknowledge all women who have suffered the same fate since. I was once accosted by someone who adamantly declared that he could not believe in the Bible because it was filled with fairy tales and refused to acknowledge the hard realities of life. When I pressed him for an example, he settled on rape, stating that the Bible did not deal with this topic. Leah's story proves him wrong. Sadly this is not the only account of rape in the Bible, but we will restrict our discussion to this single instance today.

We have now reached the end of these two pages and need to turn a leaf to continue with the chapter.

I have already treated these pages with Clear Gesso and can simply continue journaling.

When we turn the page, we learn that Jacob's sons deceived the men of Shechem. Believing that they would be open to trade and intermarriage, if they agreed to being circumcised, the men of Shechem complied to the demand. When the men were all in pain and vulnerable, Leah's brothers struck and killed them all, looting the city and carting off it's women and children. I choose to depict this deception as two hands. One hand indicates that all is well, while the other has it's fingers crossed in deception. I draw the hands in pencil.

I use Pitt Pens to colour the hands.

This brings us to the end of chapter 34 and today's journaling section.

I page back to get an overview of what I have done and read today.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/9wgtxAf3P4M

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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