Genesis 35:22-27

THE LIST OF THE TWELVE SONS

"Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first born, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid: Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid: Gad and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Paddan-aram. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiratharba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned."

Genesis 35:26 should not be read as stating that Benjamin was actually born in Paddan-aram, for as Speiser noted, this is merely an "apparent" meaning.[29] As a group, the twelve were indeed born in Paddan-aram; and even Benjamin was evidently conceived there and was born as they were leaving, or had just left, Paddan-aram. Such loose use of prepositional phrases is common in all languages, no less than in the sacred text. As Francisco pointed out, the arrangement of the sons in this list is according to rank and chronological sequence. Leah's sons are first, then Rachel's, this being the chronological order of the children of his two wives. Then the sons of Bilhah are given, for they were next born, followed by the sons of Zilpah, this being the chronological sequence of the sons of the handmaids. Due to their rank as children of a wife, not a handmaid, the sons of Rachel, though later than the children of the handmaids, are named before them. Other lists of the twelve do not follow this pattern. See other lists in: Genesis 49:1-28; Numbers 26:5-51; Deuteronomy 27:12-13; Deuteronomy 33:6-25. Francisco's comment on the application of Paddan-aram here as the birthplace of the whole twelve is as follows:

"It simply means that when Jacob returned to Hebron, he was still regarded as being in the Paddan-aram journey. The reunion with his father marked the end of that undertaking. In a way, the statement is made from the viewpoint of Isaac when the sons were first brought to him. Jacob was bringing all of them back from Paddan-aram."[30]