The Birth of Esau and Jacob, 1360 – 1370, Master of Jean de Mandeville, Getty Museum
Why Does the Torah Describe Babies Born Hands First?
Jacob is famously born with his hand grasping the ankle of his twin brother, Esau. Similarly, Zerah puts his hand out first, before being overshot by his twin brother Peretz. Does this reflect men’s ignorance of childbirth or their familiarity with other realia?
Published: November 28, 2018
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
This article is a revised version of my, “The Influence of Realia on Biblical Depictions of Childbirth,” VT 61.4 (2011): 685-689. See now: John Makujina, “Male Obstetric Competence in Ancient Israel: A Response to Two Recent Proposals”, VT 66.1 (2016): 78-94.
The Bible contains only a few accounts of childbirth. In addition to Gen 25:25–26; 38:28–30; Job 3:10–13, which are discussed in this essay, births are also described in Gen 30:3; 35:16–20; Exod 1:15–21; 1Sam 4:19–22; Ezek 16:4–6. These latter examples do not contain information relevant to the current topic. For general analyses of childbirth in antiquity, see Marten Stol, Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting (Cuneiform Monographs 14; Groningen: Styx, 2000); Tarja S. Philip, Menstruation and Childbirth in the Bible: Fertility and Impurity (New York: Peter Lang, 2006). On Hittite birth rituals, see Gary M. Beckman, Hittite Birth Rituals (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983).
Breech is actually an umbrella for a number of presentations, in which either the baby’s buttocks (complete/incomplete breech or frank presentations) or its feet (footling presentation) emerge first.
In point of fact, one position can lead to a hand-first birth, but only in stillborns. In the transverse presentation (0.3% incidence), the baby lays perpendicular to the cervical opening and as labor progresses, the head of the baby will curve away from the exit of the birth canal until its neck breaks. In modern times, such cases are handled with a Caesarian section. For data on these births, see F. Gary Cunningham, et al. (eds.),Williams Obstetrics, 21st Edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 2009), 456–457.
The legitimacy of the dynasty of Peretz is also learned indirectly and by the way of negation from Achan’s actions (“Achan son of Karmi the son of Zimri the son of Zerah”, Josh 7:1).
Thus, Philip, Menstruation and Childbirth in the Bible, 90.
See especially Yair Zakovitch, “Jacob’s Deceit,” in Baruch Ben-Yehuda Jubilee Volume (Ben-Zion Lurie, ed.; Tel Aviv: The Israel Society of Biblical Literature, 1981), 125–127 [Hebrew]; ibid., An Introduction to Inner-Biblical Interpretation (Even Yehudah: Rekhes, 1992), 13–15 [Hebrew].
This is true for both actual physical doors (e.g. Deut 3:5); and in metaphorical usage (e.g. Zech 11:1); further evidence that the standard location of locks was on the interior of doors may be garnered from Song of Songs (5:4–5).
Philip, Menstruation and Childbirth in the Bible, 88, 92, 97–98, 104, 131.
Isa 26:17; Jer 4:31, and see also, the Hodayot scroll from Qumran: 1QH 3:8–9; 5:32–33; Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 2010), 72, 77 [Hebrew].
For the meaning of חֲלָצָיו, see V. Hamp, ‘chalātsayim’, TDOT IV, pp. 441–444.
Cf. Bernadette J. Brooten, “Early Christian Women and Their Cultural Context: Issues of Method in Historical Reconstructions,” in Feminist Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship (ed., Adela Y. Collins; Biblical Scholarship in North America 10; Chico: SBL, 1985), 67–73, who has rightly pointed out that information on women in ancient literature often reveals little of the actual life of women.
See Patrick T. Colahan et al., Equine Medicine and Surgery (Goleta, 1991), Vol 2, pp. 994–997; D. G. Pugh, Sheep and Goat Medicine (Philadelphia, 2002), pp. 163–165.
