And when Leah saw that she had ceased to bear, she took Zilpah her maidservant and gave her to Jacob as wife.
Leah had stopped having children, so she did what Rachel had just done and gave her servant to Jacob. Why does a woman who once broke out in praise now copy her sister's scheme, and what does God do with a family run on rivalry?
Rachel had used this move first, giving Bilhah to Jacob. One writer weighs the names Leah now chooses against the ones she had given before.
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her feelings toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction at scoring points in a quarrel of her own making. The same snare caught Leah, and through Zilpah she would match that advantage. She named Zilpah's sons Gad and Asher. Those names do not reflect the contention that governed Rachel's spirit. Even so, they in no way rise to the level of faith she had shown in naming her own sons. Every wrong has its effect among men, and its judgment before Him. But God has the right to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn.
The drop shows when you set these names beside the one she gave her fourth son.
He never fails. Again she bore a son, and said, "This time I will praise the LORD"; so she called his name Judah. Never do we hear of her soul rising so high. The sorrow-stricken woman breaks out into praise of the LORD, and her fourth son carries that praise in the name she gave him that day. Yes, from Judah came, according to the flesh, the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. How much His grace rises above our praise!
Zilpah bore two sons, and Leah gave them names that say what she settled for.
When Leah had no more children, she used the same tactics as Rachel. She gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah bore him a son, and Leah named him Gad. Then came another son, whom she named Asher. Gad means "a troop" and Asher means "happy." So we find human support (a troop), and we try to make ourselves happy as we are, without reaching the state we long for. But Leah is not satisfied with this… So neither of them was content: the struggle continues.
Another writer finds the mood of this whole stage of Jacob's life in what the women's names mean.
Rachel means "sheep." Her name seems to stand for the meekness and patience of true discipleship. That is the exact opposite of Jacob's self-willed, unrestrained temper up to now. But he must get her by way of unwanted Leah. Leah's name means "wearied," and it suggests the tribulation that works patience out. Even then, before Rachel is fruitful, and while there is no hope of her fruitfulness, Jacob receives the servant women: Bilhah, "terror," and Zilpah, "a dropping" (as of tears).
Jacob now has four wives. One writer weighs that against God's design for marriage, and then against what God did with the children.
All this shows that God's institution of marriage was the union of one man and one woman — the two, and only two, becoming one. Anything beyond this is not of God, but comes from human lust… Jacob's two wives gave their handmaids to their husband, and so he had four wives. God reckoned the twelve sons of these four women equally as sons of Jacob, and they became the heads of the twelve tribes. It might have been thought that God would not bless the offspring of such unions, but He did.
Another writer points out how little we hear later of the tribes that came from the servant women.
Here we have the origin of the tribes in these sons. Leah and Rachel named them. The handmaids did not name their own sons. The four tribes that came from them do not seem to have made any particular mark in the nation's later history.
- Snare — Rachel set the pattern of scoring points off her sister, and the same snare caught Leah. Rivalry spreads faster than anyone means it to.
- Descent — In naming Judah she had climbed to praise, and Christ came from that line. Here she drops back to matching her sister.
- Substitute — "A troop" and "happy" name what we grab when we won't wait: human backup and self-made cheerfulness. Neither ends the struggle.
- Judgment — Marriage is one man and one woman. What goes beyond that is not from God. Every wrong leaves its mark among people, and God judges it.
- Grace — Yet God counted all twelve sons as Jacob's and made them heads of the tribes. He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
And Zilpah Leah's maidservant bore Jacob a son.
Leah has stopped having children, so she hands her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife, and Zilpah has a son. One sister arranged this birth to compete with the other — so what does God do with a family built on rivalry and human schemes?
Rachel had already given her maid Bilhah to Jacob. Leah now copies the move, and one writer traces where that copying leads for both women.
When Leah had no more children, she used the same tactics as Rachel had. She gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, and by her he had a son, whom Leah named Gad... Gad means "a troop"... So we find human support (a troop), and try to make ourselves happy as we are, without reaching the state we want. But Leah is not satisfied with this... So neither of them was content: the struggle continues.
The device was not new in this family. Jacob had taken Bilhah on Rachel's suggestion. One writer asks whether Sarah's earlier attempt was any recommendation, and sets beside it a woman who took a different road.
He gave in to her proposal and took Bilhah, so that Rachel might have children through her maid. Had not Sarah, that honoured woman, done the same? Yes — but did it not bear fruit in Ishmael, and end with both Hagar and her son driven out? Was that encouraging? How different Hannah was, grieving under Peninnah's taunts! She did not break out in improper complaints against her husband. She wept and prayed and made a vow to Jehovah, and the God of Israel heard her.
Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian servant, given to Abraham when Sarah had no child. Hannah was a wife with no children, taunted by Peninnah, her husband's other wife. She prayed instead of scheming.
Scripture records this arrangement without a word of approval.
But of old God permitted what was far from His mind, as we see here, until He makes all things new.
One writer reads the women's names in this chapter as a quiet commentary on what Jacob was going through. Zilpah's name belongs to that picture.
The names of the wives and children also point to the inward, personal character of the line of truth set before us here. Rachel means "sheep." Her name seems to stand for the meekness and patience of true discipleship, the very opposite of Jacob's self-willed and unruly temper up to this point. But he could only win her through Leah, whom he did not want. Leah's name means "wearied," and it suggests the "tribulation" that works out "patience." And even then, before Rachel has a child, and in despair of ever having one, the servant women come in: Bilhah, "terror," and Zilpah, "a dropping" (as of tears).
These were not Jacob's best years. Yet these very years produced the sons of a nation.
God's hidden providence has blessed Jacob and kept him safe all this time. Yet it was a time of failure: a spirit of cunning instead of confidence in God. It was the time when he was an outcast and rejected, and in this he is a picture of Israel. Yet this was really the time when his children were born, "for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord."
In Abraham's household, God shut a servant's son out of the inheritance. Jacob's household turns out differently.
Something else is remarkable here. Unlike Ishmael in the story of Abraham, the sons of the servant women do not take a separate or lower place. They are blessed along with the other sons of Jacob. Of Ishmael God said that the son of the servant woman would never be an heir with the son of the free woman... Jacob's twelve sons give a complete picture of God's earthly people. God's government blesses them together, because in Scripture the number twelve is always connected with God's rule over His people.
Another writer notes a difference, though — one that shows up in who named the boys.
Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, and Leah and Rachel named them. The servant women did not name their own sons, and the four tribes descended from them do not appear to have made any particular mark in the later history of the nation.
- Plotting — Leah copies her sister's move and hands over Zilpah. The copying leaves neither woman satisfied.
- Precedent — the same plan in Abraham's house produced Ishmael and ended in expulsion. Hannah's tears and prayers were the better way.
- Permission — God allowed in that age what was far from His mind, so the record is history, not approval.
- Providence — Jacob's years of cunning and exile were still the years God used to give a nation its children.
- Parity — the servant's son is not shut out like Ishmael. The twelve are blessed together under God's rule, though the servant women never named them and their tribes stayed obscure.
And Leah said, Fortunately! and she called his name Gad.
Leah had stopped having children, so she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah bore a son, and Leah greeted him with a word about luck, not a word about God. The name she chose, Gad, would travel far — into a tribe of fighters, and even into Israel's later drift from the LORD.
Scripture gives only the barest facts about Gad himself — his place in Jacob's family, and his own sons.
The seventh son of Jacob, and the first of Zilpah, Leah's maid. Very little is recorded of Gad, except that he had seven sons. Gen. 30:11; Gen. 46:16; 1 Chr. 5:11.
Older Bibles translate Leah's cry "A troop comes." Newer ones read "Good fortune has come." The word carries both senses, and the second one has a dark history. In Isaiah's day the same name stood for something Israel turned to after leaving the LORD.
God cannot forget the state of departure and sin that marked the people in Isaiah's day. They had forsaken the LORD; they had forsaken His holy mountain, where His temple stood. And what had they turned to? The rest of the verse reveals it, though the translation is rather unclear. Darby's New Translation puts "Gad" in place of "that troop," and "Meni" in place of "that number." Its footnotes explain that the first word means "Fortune, or the planet Jupiter," and the second means "Number, or Fate, or the planet Venus."
One commentator tracks which name for God appears at each birth.
Jehovah stepped in with His special regard for Leah's sorrow. The name of her first-born son, Reuben, expressed that, and the name of her second, Simeon, expressed His hearing. Jehovah has praise when she bore Judah. Leah, following Rachel's example, gains Gad and Asher through Zilpah, but makes no acknowledgment of the divine name in either form. After this comes the incident of using mandrakes for hire, when Elohim acts for Leah in sovereign power and she owns Him as such when Issachar was born.
This name falls below her earlier ones. Even so, it does not stop God's purpose.
Leah gave Zilpah's sons the names Gad and Asher. These names do not reflect the rivalry that governed Rachel's spirit. Even so, they fell far short of the faith she had shown in naming her own sons. But this is God's prerogative: to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose. Every wrong still has its effect among men, and it faces judgment before God Himself.
Rachel had already given her servant to Jacob. Leah copies her, and one writer reads both names as a picture of leaning on human help.
When Leah had no more children, she used the same tactics as Rachel. She gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, and Zilpah bore him a son. Leah named him Gad, and named a second son Asher. Gad means "a troop" and Asher means "happy." So we find human support (a troop), and we try to make ourselves happy as we are, without reaching the state we want. But Leah is not satisfied with this.
Leah spoke better than she knew. The word she blurted out turned out to describe the tribe's whole character — growth, and a fight to go with it.
Gad lies next to Reuben. Gad is the type of spiritual increase, and of a fighting condition too. Leah's exclamation, "A troop comes," holds both things. In a world like this, spiritual increase rarely comes without conflict. In David's time the men of Gad were famous as warriors.
Leah's word outlived her. The same name shows up in a prophecy about the tribe's last days.
Gad was the first son of Zilpah, Leah's maid. His name means "a troop." This name appears in the prophecy that a troop — the armies of enemy nations — would trample Gad underfoot, with Gad standing for Israel. The tribulation period will bring this to pass. But the same prophecy says Gad will in the end overcome the troop. God will give Israel the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Cause — Leah copies Rachel's plan. She reaches for "human support (a troop)," and it leaves her unsatisfied.
- Gap — Her earlier sons' names owned God. This one makes "no acknowledgment of the divine name in either form."
- Warning — In Isaiah's day the same word stood for "Fortune," and people who had forsaken the LORD turned to it.
- Grace — Her weaker faith does not stop God. It is His prerogative "to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him."
- Result — Her careless cry came true. Gad stood for increase, and increase "rarely comes without conflict" — trampled first, and overcoming in the end.
And Zilpah Leah's maidservant bore Jacob a second son.
Genesis 30 records a painful contest between two sisters over sons. This verse records the fourth son born to a servant, which raises a question: what does God do with children born into a home at war with itself?
These births come out of competition, not faith. The women who bore the children had no say in what followed.
Genesis 30:1-21 tells the sordid story of Jacob's children. It tells how both Rachel and Leah plotted to gain sons and so secure themselves in his favour. Here we have the origin of the tribes in these sons, and Leah and Rachel named them. The servant women did not name their own sons. The four tribes that came from them do not appear to have made any particular mark in the nation's later history.
Rachel had already given her servant to Jacob. Leah answered with a move of her own. The names she chose for Zilpah's two sons tell us where her heart now stood.
Leah fell into the same trap, and through Zilpah she would match that advantage. She named Zilpah's sons Gad and Asher. Those names do not reflect the contention that governed Rachel's spirit, but they by no means rose to the level of faith she had shown in naming her own sons. Every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before Himself. Yet it is God's right to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn.
Leah now had a fourth son through her servant. The meanings of the boys' names show what she was reaching for.
When Leah had no more children, she used the same tactics as Rachel. She gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, and he had a son by her. Leah named him Gad, and she named the next son Asher (vv. 9-13). Gad means "a troop" and Asher means "happy." So we find human support (a troop), and we try to make ourselves happy as we are. We never reach the state we want, and Leah is not satisfied with this… So neither of them was really content: the struggle goes on.
This arrangement fell far short of what God set up at the beginning. Yet the son born here was not treated as second class.
All this shows that God set up marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The two, and only two, become one. Anything more than this is not of God, but is of human lust… Jacob's two wives gave their servants to their husband, and so he had four wives. God reckoned the twelve sons of these four women equally as sons of Jacob, and they became the heads of the twelve tribes. It might have been thought that God would not have blessed the fruit of these unions, but He did.
All this took place during Jacob's twenty years away from home. Family growth and hard service ran side by side.
During his twenty years of exile, Jacob enjoys no further such revelations of His presence. In the meantime, God deals with him as one for whom He has purposes of blessing. He can only reach that blessing through painful discipline. God multiplies him mainly through unwelcome Leah and the servant women, while he serves long and with hard labour for wives and flocks. Like his descendants, he is multiplied as the dust, while trampled into it.
Centuries later Israel's story had collapsed. Yet a small faithful group still waited for Christ, and one of them came from the tribe descended from this child.
The blessing of Asher in Deut. 33:24-25 ends with these lovely words: "as your days, so shall your strength be." Yet all went to ruin, as the history of Israel unfolds. Yet at the first coming of Christ, the godly remnant of the people were "waiting for the consolation of Israel." Among them we find one of that same tribe: "a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher"… And the Lord Christ Himself became identified with that obscure remnant. She was one of them.
- Rivalry. Rachel's scheme became Leah's scheme. Each sister used her servant to outdo the other, and neither was content.
- Silence. The servants bore the sons but did not name them. The rival wives chose the names, and those names fell short of faith.
- Mercy. What was far below God's own pattern for marriage did not stop Him blessing the children born from it.
- Discipline. God multiplied Jacob's family in his hardest years, while hard service trampled him like dust.
- Harvest. This birth began a tribe that made little mark in Israel. Yet Anna came from it, still waiting for Christ when He came.
And Leah said, Happy am I; for the daughters will call me blessed! and she called his name Asher.
Two sisters are competing for Jacob, and Leah's servant Zilpah has just borne a second son. Leah names him Asher, which means "happy" — but commentators ask whether that happiness was real, and where God is in her words.
Leah is copying Rachel, who had already given her servant to Jacob to gain sons. One writer reads the two names Leah gives Zilpah's boys as a picture of what people grab for when they cannot get what they really want.
When Leah had no more children, she used the same tactics as Rachel. She gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, and he had a son by her. Leah named him Gad, and named a second son Asher (vv. 9-13). Gad means "a troop" and Asher means "happy." So we find human support (a troop), and we try to make ourselves happy as we are, without reaching the state we desire. But Leah is not satisfied with this... Neither of them was actually content: the struggle continues.
Earlier, Leah had put God into the names of her own sons. Reuben and Simeon confessed that the Lord saw and heard her; Judah was pure praise. With Zilpah's sons, that thread drops. One writer traces the divine names through these chapters and notices the gap exactly here.
Leah was hated compared with Rachel (Gen. 29). Jehovah, under that name, stepped in with His special regard for her sorrow. She put this into the name of her first-born son, Reuben, and His hearing into her second, Simeon... but Jehovah has praise when she bore Judah... Leah, following Rachel's example, gains through Zilpah Gad and Asher, but makes no acknowledgment of the divine name in either form.
So Leah announces her happiness without naming God at all. Her measure of blessing is what the women around her will say.
Names in this chapter work like a window. Rachel's choices, Dan and Naphtali, breathe rivalry; Leah's are gentler but thinner. The same writer weighs Gad and Asher against the faith she had reached before, and then lifts the whole scene into God's hands.
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her attitude towards her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction in gaining points of strife on her own part. Leah was drawn into the snare and through Zilpah would equal that advantage. The names she gave Zilpah's sons, Gad and Asher, do not reflect the contention that governed Rachel's spirit. Even so, they came nowhere near the faith she had shown in naming her own sons. Every wrong has its effect among men, and its judgment before God Himself. But it is His prerogative to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose.
The Bible does not tidy this household up. It records the manoeuvring plainly, and from it the twelve tribes of Israel come.
Genesis 30:1-21 tells the sordid story of Jacob's children, and of the schemes of both Rachel and Leah. They tried to gain sons and so establish themselves in his favour. Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, whom Leah and Rachel named. The handmaids did not name their own sons. The four tribes descended from them do not appear to have made any particular mark in the later history of the nation.
Why does God let such material stand in His book? Because Scripture is meant to show us ourselves as much as it shows us God.
We have man as he is, as nowhere else: the truth is told us so that we may know ourselves as well as God. Hence the interest and importance of inspired light on what the proud selfishness of man's mind is inclined to despise as mere domestic quarrels.
Leah spoke of happiness she had grabbed for herself. God later filled that same word with something she never planned. When Moses blessed the tribes before his death, Asher stands last and stands for joy that lasts.
Asher, meaning "happy," fittingly ends this interesting list. "Asher is most blessed of sons: let him be favoured by his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil" (v. 24). Again, all Israel is represented in the lasting joy that Asher speaks of. "They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isa. 35:10).
The word even left a mark on Israel's songbook. The Psalms that open with "Blessed" carry Asher's name. One writer, quoting verse 13 in an older translation, sorts them by who is called happy.
It is worth noting that these Psalms beginning "blessed" the Jews call Asherite Psalms. Asher was the name of one of Jacob's sons. The mother, delighted with her child, called him Asher — "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed."... First, Psalm 1 is the blessing of someone who has perfectly done God's will. It makes no allowance for any evil — all Christ. Second, Psalm 32 is the blessing of the poor sinner. He has not a shred of righteousness of his own, but is grafted into Christ.
- Happy, claimed. Asher means "happy." Leah's cry names a happiness she arranged for herself through her servant — the same tactic Rachel used.
- Happy, unnamed. She had once put God into her sons' names, right up to praise in Judah. With Gad and Asher she leaves God's name out.
- Happy, unsatisfied. The verse sounds like victory. Yet neither sister was content, and the struggle for Jacob's favour goes straight on.
- Happy, overruled. Every wrong has its effect, and its judgment before God. Yet He still causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
- Happy, fulfilled. The name outlived the boast. Asher stands for lasting joy in a later blessing on the tribes, and the "blessed" Psalms that carry his name find that happiness in Christ.