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.
And Reuben went out in the days of wheat-harvest, and found mandrakes in the fields; and he brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.
Reuben's find in the wheat field leads to one of the strangest bargains in the Bible: a wife trading a night with her own husband for a handful of plants. What were these mandrakes, why did Rachel want them so badly, and why does God leave such a scene in the record of the family that became Israel?
The Hebrew word behind "mandrakes" is dudaim. Nobody can say for sure which plant it was.
dudaim. Some strong-smelling plant found in the fields of Palestine. Writers have suggested many different herbs. It is possibly the Mandragora officinarum, called the "love apple," a relative of the "apple of Sodom." Genesis 30:14-16; Song of Solomon 7:13.
Both women were reaching for something they had not managed to get any other way. Leah saw at once why her sister wanted the plants.
So we look for human support, and we try to make ourselves happy as we are, without reaching the state we want. But Leah is not satisfied with this. As soon as Reuben brings her mandrakes, she sees the chance of having another son. Rachel tried to get some for the same purpose, but Leah answered her sharply (v. 15). She knew Rachel's purpose. So neither of them was actually content: the struggle continues.
Both sisters treated the mandrakes as if the plants held power to give children. One writer says plainly what that trust was worth.
No veil covers their deplorable unbelief and mean jealousy. Nothing excuses their superstitious trust in the power of love-apples. In this they were just like other Syrian women, who gave themselves to the empty practices of the nations. Clearly Rachel gained nothing from the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who longed to share her husband's affection. She bore him a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter.
The one who bought the mandrakes stayed barren. The one who sold them received children. The plant did nothing; God gave the children.
Measured against Abraham and Isaac, this household has slipped a long way down. And the one bright spot in it is not the plant.
How dreadfully everything has sunk morally from Abraham's time, and even Isaac's. This is not barrenness of the flesh, met by God stepping in with promise and power. Instead, oh, what a scene of selfishness, jealousy and craft! Only one green spot is in it — Rachel, the barren one, is heard. All the rest is miserable and merely flesh, and God sends nothing but rightful chastening and discipline. And how that has marked the race ever since! Yet God has blessed and will bless.
These small, ugly scenes do two things at once.
They show us, to the life, the humbling history of the man who fathered a people God chose to be His own possession on the earth, despite these petty ways. They also let us into the secret of that grace in God which rose above all that was detestable beyond measure to His nature in light and love. That grace even looked on to Him who was to come from this very family — the Christ who is over all, God blessed forever.
And God does more than rise above the mess. He turns it toward His own end.
Every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before Him. Yet God alone has the right to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to His purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn.
- Plant. Dudaim is a strong-smelling field plant, possibly the "love apple." The Bible names it and never explains it, and careful writers leave the question open.
- Want. Nothing satisfied either sister — not servants, not sons, not a husband's affection. So the struggle went on.
- Bargain. Rachel asks for the plants. Leah knows exactly why, and answers her sharply.
- Failure. Rachel gained nothing from the mandrakes. Her trust matched the empty practices of the nations around her. God gave children to the sister who handed the plants over.
- Grace. The Bible hides none of the jealousy. That is how we see the grace that chose this family, and brought Christ from it, rising above everything in them.
And she said to her, Is it [too] little that thou hast taken my husband, that thou wilt take my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes.
Two sisters, married to the same man, are bargaining, and the price is a night with their husband. Leah answers with an old grievance over a stolen husband, and Rachel offers the night as payment.
The bitterness here starts further back than the mandrakes. One writer traces it to the same source as the trouble in other homes where a man took more than one wife.
Marriage was set up at the start to give a man one companion only. Plural marriages appear never to have worked well in practice. Look at the humiliating discord in Abraham's family over the servant Hagar, and in Jacob's family, the bitter jealousies between the two sisters, Rachel and Leah.
Scripture softens nothing here. The mandrakes were prized plants — "love-apples" — that both sisters linked with having a child.
Scripture draws no veil over their shameful unbelief and mean jealousy. It makes no excuse for their superstitious trust in the power of love-apples, just like other Syrian women who gave themselves only to the empty things of the pagan nations. Rachel clearly gained nothing by what the boy Reuben found. But God pitied Leah, who longed to share her husband's affection, and she bore him a fifth son and a sixth, and a daughter as well.
Notice the outcome. Rachel paid for the plants and gained nothing by them. Leah bore more children, and the reason given is God's pity, not the mandrakes.
Leah's sharp answer is not the reaction of a woman at peace. She had never had a full share of her husband's affection, and now the plants were being asked for too.
As soon as Reuben brings her mandrakes, she sees the possibility of having another son. Rachel tried to get some for the same reason, but Leah answered her sharply (v. 15). She knew what Rachel was after. So neither of them was content: the struggle continues.
The thing fought over is small. One writer pictures envy at exactly that scale, then names the damage it does.
We are like a child in a nursery who pouts and frets because the other child has an apple a size larger than his own. And the child holding the big apple was the naughty one! Oh, what mischief can envy work in the heart of a believer! And what misery too it can produce, and what sin!
Rachel's offer sets a price on Jacob. The word "hire" then turns up in the name of the son who follows, and the bargain still falls short.
Mandrakes were clearly a cherished delicacy, and Jacob let himself be persuaded to share his bed with Leah that night. His natural appetite leads him, and Leah bears another son, Issachar, meaning "he will be hired." Then she has a sixth son of her own, named Zebulun, which means "dwelling." These six are all the sons Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends but always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week.
The names Leah chose show where her heart was.
But how strangely low Leah's state was in seeing Issachar as her wages from God, because she had given her servant to Jacob! And in naming Zebulun she was clinging to the hope that her husband's love would now last.
Why record a squabble like this at all? Because the family being described here is the family the nation of Israel came from — and the family the Christ came from.
They show us, true to life, the humbling history of the ancestor of a people God chose to be His own possession on the earth, despite these petty ways. They also let us into the secret of God's grace. That grace rose above everything His nature of light and love found beyond measure detestable. It even looked ahead to the One who would come from this very family — the Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever, as truly God as His Father.
- Root. The rivalry is the fruit of a marriage God never designed; plural marriages "appear never to have worked well in practice."
- Rivalry. Leah's sharp answer exposes a home where neither woman was content — "the struggle continues."
- Bargain. Rachel trades a night with her husband for a delicacy, and the son who follows carries the name "he will be hired."
- Shortfall. People "struggle hard to reach their own ends but always come short" — Leah reaches six, never seven.
- Grace. Scripture excuses nothing, yet God's grace rose above it all, and out of this very family came the Christ.
And when Jacob came from the fields in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in to me, for indeed I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
Leah meets Jacob at the end of the day and tells him she has bought his company for the night, with a plant her son found in the field. Two sisters had traded it between them, so what is God doing in a home run by jealousy and trade?
The word behind "mandrakes" names a plant that grew wild in the fields. No one has ever pinned down which plant it was.
Dudaim: a strong-smelling plant found in the fields of Palestine. Writers have suggested many different herbs. It may be the Mandragora officinarum, called the 'love apple,' a relative of the 'apple of Sodom.' The Atropa mandragora is another species. Gen. 30:14-16; Song 7:13.
Both women treated this plant as if it held power to give children. One writer traces that trust back to the customs around them, and says Rachel gained nothing by it:
Nothing covers up their sad unbelief and petty jealousy, and nothing excuses their superstitious trust in the power of love-apples. In this they were just like other Syrian women, who lived only for the empty things the nations around them valued. Rachel clearly gained nothing by the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who wanted to share her husband's affection, and she bore him a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter. Yet how strangely low Leah's state was: she counted Issachar her wages from God because she had given her servant to Jacob, and she named Zebulun out of her fond hope that her husband's love would last.
Leah's own word for the night becomes the name of the child born from it. Jacob went along with it.
Mandrakes were clearly a prized delicacy, and Jacob agreed to share Leah's bed that night. His natural appetite leads him, and Leah bears another son, Issachar, meaning "he will be hired." Then she has a sixth son of her own, named Zebulun, which means "dwelling." These six are all the sons that Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends and still come short, for seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week.
Jacob had two wives, and the friction here traces back to that. One writer names the other homes where the same arrangement bred trouble:
Marriage was set up at the start to give a man one companion only. Marriage to more than one wife never seems to have worked well in practice. Look at the shameful discord in Abraham's family over Hagar, the lesser wife, and in Jacob's family, the bitter jealousies between the two sisters, Rachel and Leah.
Each sister got what she bargained for. One writer follows what each one was really after.
Leah is not satisfied with this. For as soon as Reuben brings her mandrakes she sees the possibility of having another son. Rachel tried to get some for the same reason, but Leah answered her sharply (v.15). Leah knew what Rachel was after. So neither of them was really content: the struggle goes on.
Nothing here is hidden. One writer measures this household against the days of Abraham and Isaac.
How terribly everything has sunk in moral terms from Abraham's time, and even Isaac's. This is no longer natural barrenness, with God stepping in by promise and power. Instead — oh, what a scene of selfishness, jealousy and scheming! Only one spot of green is in it — Rachel, the barren one, is heard. All the rest is misery and mere flesh, only fair correction and discipline from God. And how that has marked the race ever since! Yet God has blessed and will bless.
Commentators differ in emphasis. Some read the chapter as discipline on a family far from God. Others stress the pity God showed the unloved wife.
- Bargain. Leah bought a night with her husband using her son's mandrakes. The plant grew wild in the fields. People prized it as a delicacy and trusted it with a power it never had.
- Hire. The word she used priced the whole transaction, and it stuck: the son born of that night is Issachar, "he will be hired."
- Rivalry. Marriage began with one companion for one man. Where people set that aside — in Abraham's house and in Jacob's — jealousy followed.
- Restlessness. Rachel got the mandrakes and Leah got the night. Neither ended up content, and the struggle carried on into the next child.
- Grace. The record hides none of the selfishness and scheming. Yet in that same scene God pitied the unloved wife and heard the barren one, and He has blessed and will bless.
And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Two sisters are bargaining over one husband: Rachel trades a night with Jacob for the mandrake plants that Leah's son found. The verse makes a striking claim about all of it: the son came because God listened.
The mandrake bargain looks like the cause of the birth. But Rachel, who paid, got nothing, while Leah, who sold, conceived. One writer notes that the record covers up nothing:
Nothing hides their sad unbelief and mean jealousy. Nothing excuses their superstitious trust in the power of love-apples. They were just like other Syrian women, given over to the empty practices of the nations. Rachel gained nothing from the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who was seeking to share her husband's affection, and she bore him now a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter.
The verse says God listened. It does not say the LORD listened. One writer sees how far this family has fallen, and reads Rachel's heart in the name she uses for God:
How far everything has sunk morally from Abraham's day, and even Isaac's! What a scene of selfishness, jealousies, and craft. So Rachel here, even in her special circumstances, has no thought of the LORD's ways; it is "God has judged me," and so it goes all through, until her heart is softened by grace; then she says, in faith, "The LORD will add."
The son born here is named in the next verse from the word for wages. Leah counts her child as payment owed her — and the counting never adds up:
Mandrakes must have been a cherished delicacy, and Jacob let himself be persuaded to share his bed with Leah that night. His natural appetite leads him. Leah bears another son, Issachar, which means "he will be hired." Then Leah has a sixth son of her own, named Zebulon, which means "dwelling." These six are all the sons that Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends and always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week.
Leah's own reason for the name shows how low her thinking has sunk:
How strangely low Leah's state is! She counts Issachar as her hire from God because she gave her servant to Jacob.
Nothing in this household is admirable. Yet one writer will not let the wrong have the last word:
Every wrong has its effect among men, and its judgment before Himself. But it belongs to God alone to make all things 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 over.
Issachar's name outlived Leah's bargain. One writer traces what the tribe became, and hears the meaning of the name in it:
In Issachar we find Israel content to be the drudge of the nations. Israel would not bear God's yoke, yet took the yoke of men without a struggle. Here too the name is dwelt on: "there is reward." Ease and gain are all that Israel looks for.
The same writer turns this on the reader. A son named "hire" raises the question of whether we deal with God for wages at all:
The prince of Issachar is Nethanel, whose name means "the gift of God." It suits a man whose own name speaks of hire, who bends his shoulder to foreign yokes and pays his tribute out of love of ease. God may hire a Nebuchadnezzar. But the bread in our Father's house is not for hired servants, even though in the far country one might think so. The hireling spirit in God's own people would turn His grace into legal payment. A true overcomer is this Nethanel, who has learned that the "gift of God" cannot be bought. The family line says the same thing simply: Nethanel is the son of Zuar, which means "Little." The one who thinks of hire is bound to value himself too highly. The one who counts himself really "little" is ready to value the gift of God.
- Listened. The son came because God heard Leah. No bargain and no plant produced him; Rachel bought the mandrakes and gained nothing by them.
- Pitied. One writer names God's motive: He pitied Leah, who was seeking her husband's affection. He answered her sorrow, not her scheming.
- Named. Leah reads the gift as wages owed her, so "hire" is the name she hangs on the child. Her six sons stop short of the seven of completeness.
- Overruled. Every wrong still carries its consequence. Yet God alone can make all things work together for good, and He does it in this jealous household.
- Inherited. The hireling thought outlasts Leah in a tribe that takes the yoke of men for ease and gain. The cure is to count yourself little and take God's gift as a gift.
And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maidservant to my husband; and she called his name Issachar.
Leah trades her son's mandrakes for a night with Jacob, and a fifth son follows. She reads the birth as payment for handing her servant to Jacob. The name she gives him raises the question the whole scene presses on us: does God pay wages to those who scheme, or does He give?
The name itself carries the idea of payment. One writer gives its meaning, then links Leah's six sons to a number that falls short.
Mandrakes were clearly a cherished delicacy, and Jacob was persuaded to share his bed with Leah that night. His natural appetite leads him, and Leah bears another son, Issachar, meaning "he will be hired." A sixth son follows for Leah herself, Zebulun, which means "dwelling." These six are all the sons that Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends, but always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week.
Leah does credit God with this birth. One writer still calls her thinking low, and points instead to God's pity for a wife who wanted her husband's love.
Rachel clearly gained nothing by the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who wanted a share in her husband's affection, and she bore him a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter. Yet how strangely low Leah's state was, in treating Issachar as her hire from God because she gave her servant to Jacob.
The record of these lives is not flattering. The same writer finds two lessons in that.
These records show us, true to life, the humbling history of the ancestor of a people. God chose that people to be His own possession on the earth, despite these petty ways. They also let us into the secret of God's grace. That grace rose above everything His nature, in light and love, found detestable beyond measure. It even looked on to Him who was to come from this very family.
Leah's instinct did not die with her. Another writer finds the same hireling spirit among God's own people, and traces it to self.
The spirit of legality takes up such strange service willingly, since it is self that it really serves, and a bribe will turn it from its true Master. The hireling spirit in the people of God themselves would turn His grace into legal payment... The one who thinks of hire always values himself too highly. The one who counts himself as really "little" is ready to appreciate the gift of God.
Commentators read the name two ways: hire, and reward. Another writer takes the second sense, and marks where the chance to earn reward ends.
Issachar means "there is reward." Believers at the judgment seat of Christ will receive reward for what they have done for the Lord (2 Cor. 5:10), so this tribe appears to stress what our outward works should be, not just our inward character. Again, its borders are not clearly marked, as though showing that we should not limit our good works. We are to do them for all people, especially those of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10). The east border, however, was the Jordan River. It reminds us that death will end any chance to earn reward for good work done.
The name proved prophetic in two directions — one warning, one hopeful.
When Jacob blessed his sons he said, "Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds... he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labour" (Gen. 49:14-15). This seems to imply that this tribe, with Zebulun, would mix with the world and become slaves to it for profit... Some of Issachar came to David at Ziklag, of whom it is said they "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chr. 12:32).
- Hire. Leah names her son from the idea of payment — "he will be hired" — treating a son as wages owed for giving her servant to Jacob.
- Low. One writer calls her state strangely low: she treats a son as her hire from God rather than as His pity.
- Grace. God pitied Leah. The record hides none of the scheming, and shows grace rising above it, right down to the One who was to come from this family.
- Gift. The hireling spirit rates self too highly. The one who counts himself little is ready to receive the gift of God.
- Reward. The name has a truer sense: real reward for work done for the Lord. The Jordan marks the boundary — death ends the chance to earn it.
And Leah again conceived, and bore Jacob a sixth son;
Leah's sixth son arrives in a household where two sisters bargain over one husband. The birth looks like a private family matter. Yet it starts one of the tribes of Israel, and the name Leah gives the boy shows what she was still hoping for.
Leah's own words explain the name she chose. Her sayings on this page come from an older translation than the ESV, where her hope reads as her husband "dwelling" with her.
Now we go on to Zebulun, whose meaning is plain from his name and from the way Leah uses it. She called him Zebulun (dwelling), saying, "This time my husband will dwell with me." The spiritual thought connected with Zebulun is dwelling in the relationship God has given us to Himself. This is the only true thought of consecration.
Leah calls the sixth birth a payment from God. She borrows the word from the marriage customs of her day.
Dowry: the sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Leah, on having her sixth son, piously said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry."
She credits God, yet what she wants from Him is her husband's attention.
It is clear that Rachel gained nothing from the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who wanted a share in her husband's affection, and she bore him now a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter. But how strangely low Leah's state was! She treated Issachar as her wages from God, because she had given her servant to Jacob. And she named Zebulun out of her fond hope that her husband's love would last.
Leah's own childbearing ends at six. Commentators read that number as a quiet verdict on the whole effort.
Then a sixth son is added for Leah herself, named Zebulun, which means "dwelling." These six are all the sons that Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends, but always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week. So Leah, speaking of what I am, can only produce what falls short of any real satisfaction.
The chapter flatters no one in it. Still, this is where Israel's tribes begin.
Genesis 30:1-21 tells the rather sordid story of Jacob's children. Both Rachel and Leah schemed to gain sons and so secure themselves in his favour. Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, whom Leah and Rachel named. The servant women did not name their own sons.
Jacob's own words over this son take the name in a different direction.
The name means a "dwelling with," a close dwelling, as Leah's use of it shows. But Jacob here uses another word, and in this place it clearly has a bad sense. Its first meaning is "to lay oneself down." Zebulun does this at the haven of the sea — the harbour for ships — and his border reaches toward Zidon. The idea of prosperity, or at least of hard work to get it, is plain. Yet for Israel this trade with the idol-worshipping nations was not a good sign, and its results were not good. Her border reaching out toward Zidon foretells a dangerous wiping out of what divided Israel from the nations. Coming where it does, this also clearly hints at how the people, having turned from the Deliverer God sent them, would turn to the world.
Much later, the region called by this son's name showed what that name had come to mean.
Galilee, called "the land of Zebulun and Naphtali" on one side and "Galilee of the Gentiles" on the other, showed plainly how far the people of God had sunk. Zebulun, the dweller in relationship as he should have been, had long since fulfilled Jacob's prophecy. By "dwelling at the haven of the sea" he had become the picture of Israel as a whole, giving up its dwelling alone to mix in unfaithful trade with the nations… But the Saviour of sinners is not stopped by this. There in the darkness was the very place for light to spring up. And now there had come to Zebulun a Dweller, in whom God Himself could dwell with man.
- Dwelling — Zebulun means "dwelling." Leah named him for the hope that her husband would now stay with her. True consecration is dwelling in the relationship God gives us to Himself.
- Dowry — a dowry was the price a man paid for a wife. Leah counted her six sons as God's good payment to her.
- Pity — God pitied Leah, who only wanted a share in her husband's love. Yet her state stayed low: she prized that love more than the God who heard her.
- Six — six, not seven, ends her childbearing. Human striving for our own ends always stops short of completeness.
- The Dweller — Zebulun's tribe gave up its dwelling alone for trade with the nations. Into that darkness came One in whom God Himself dwells with man.
and Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; this time will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. And she called his name Zebulun.
Leah bears a sixth son, and she takes the birth as God's gift after years of rivalry with her sister. She names him Zebulun out of hope that her husband will now stay with her, and that name follows a whole tribe through Israel's story.
Leah borrows a word from the marriage customs of her world. Older translations render her thanks as "a good dowry," where the ESV has "a good endowment." A dowry was the price paid to secure a wife, and Jacob had paid his in labour.
The sum paid by a man to the relatives of the woman who becomes his wife. Leah, when she had her sixth son, said devoutly, "God has endowed me with a good dowry." The dowry Jacob gave for his wives was seven years' service for each.
The name comes straight out of what she says as she gives it. Here the ESV reads "now my husband will honor me," while older translations read "this time my husband will dwell with me" — and Zebulun means dwelling. One writer takes that word further.
Now we go on to Zebulon, whose meaning is plain from his name and from the way Leah uses it. She called him Zebulon (dwelling), saying, "This time my husband will dwell with me." The spiritual thought tied to Zebulon is dwelling in the relationship God has given us to Himself. That is the only true idea of consecration.
Commentators differ on how well Leah is doing here. One writer reads her words as a low point. Her hope rests on Jacob's love, not on God.
Nothing covers over their sad unbelief and petty jealousy. Nothing excuses their superstitious trust in the power of love-apples, just like other Syrian women who lived for the empty things of the nations around them. Rachel clearly gained nothing from the child Reuben's find. But God pitied Leah, who longed for a share in her husband's affection, and she bore him a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter. Yet how strangely low Leah's condition is! She treats Issachar as her wages from God because she gave her servant to Jacob. And she names Zebulun out of her fond hope that her husband's love would now last.
Zebulun is the last son Leah bears herself. One writer finds meaning in the number.
These six are all the sons Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends and always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week. So Leah, speaking of what I am, can only produce what falls short of any real satisfaction.
This verse is not only about one household. Each name here becomes a tribe, and the two rival wives chose those names.
Genesis 30:1-21 tells the rather sordid story of Jacob's children. It tells of the schemes of both Rachel and Leah, as they tried to gain sons and so secure a place in his favour. Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, and Leah and Rachel named them.
Leah wanted her husband to settle with her. Centuries later the land named after her son had lost that settled life.
Zebulon should have been the dweller in relationship with God. Instead he had long since fulfilled Jacob's prophecy, and "dwelling at the haven of the sea" had become the picture of Israel as a whole. Israel gave up its solitary dwelling to mix in unfaithful trade with the nations. Now it was only "the way of the sea," as if swallowed up in its waters. Naphtali, the wrestler, sat wrestling no longer, in a darkness that was truly the "shadow of death." But the Saviour of sinners is not stopped by this. There in the darkness was the very place for light to rise. And now there had come to Zebulon a Dweller, in whom God Himself could dwell with man.
- Dowry — Leah uses the language of a bride-price: God has paid her, and six sons are the payment.
- Dwelling — Zebulun means dwelling. It points to dwelling in the relationship God has given us to Himself.
- Hope — she pins that dwelling on a husband's love, and one writer calls this a low moment for her.
- Shortfall — six sons, not seven: hard effort still falls short of real satisfaction.
- Fulfilment — the tribe named "dwelling" ended up mixed with the nations and sitting in darkness. There a Dweller came, in whom God dwells with man.
And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
Genesis 30 is a running contest between two sisters. Each new child gets a name that marks a move in it, and this short verse closes the list of Leah's own children. One daughter appears among six sons. Commentators look at her name, and at her later story, to see what kind of home she came from.
The verse gives a name and nothing more. We learn the rest of her life from later chapters, and a short summary shows why she is remembered at all:
Daughter of Jacob and Leah. Shechem, son of the chieftain Hamor, defiled her. That led to the massacre of the people of Shechem through the craftiness and cruelty of Simeon and Levi. Gen. 30:21; Gen. 34:1-26; Gen. 46:15.
Each name in this chapter tells you something about the mother who chose it. Dan is the clearest case:
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her attitude toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction at gaining points in the strife on her own part.
God was kind to Leah, but her heart stayed on the same low ground:
It is clear that Rachel gained nothing from the child Reuben's discovery. But God pitied Leah, who longed to share her husband's affection. She bore him now a fifth son and a sixth, besides a daughter. Yet how strangely low Leah's state was! She treated Issachar as her wages from God because she had given her servant to Jacob. She named Zebulun out of her fond hope that her husband's love would now last. Nor did the daughter's name show any higher view; it was close to Dan's.
One writer reads the count itself as a picture. Leah's own children stop at six:
These six are all the sons that Leah herself bore. This pictures how people can struggle hard to reach their own ends and always come short. Seven is the number of completeness, while six is the number of man's working week. So Leah, who speaks of what I am, can only produce what falls short of any real satisfaction. She did then bear a daughter whom she named Dinah (v. 21).
Nothing in this chapter is admirable. Yet something large came out of it:
Genesis 30:1-21 tells the sordid story of Jacob's children. Both Rachel and Leah schemed to gain sons and so secure themselves in his favour. Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, whom Leah and Rachel named.
Against all that, God's own character stands out:
Every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before God Himself. But it is God's own 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.
Dinah appears again later, after her father has stopped travelling and settled down. One writer traces her choice back to his:
Jacob seems to have grown tired of the pilgrim path and gave in to the temptation to settle down and build a home. And what came of it? His daughter Dinah goes out to see the daughters of the land. Her father had settled down in the world instead of passing through it as a heavenly pilgrim. What could be more natural than that his daughter should want to be friends with the world? We all know the sad, shameful result. Who would have guessed that trading a tent for a house could bear such bitter fruit? Yet so it is. In our day too, the friendship of the world is still enmity with God. If we settle down in this world and lose the spirit of a pilgrim, we can hardly blame our children if they seek the friendship of those among whom we have made our home.
- Named — Dinah is the one daughter named among Leah's children. Her name stands close to Dan's, a name of rivalry rather than grace.
- Short — Leah's children stop at six, one short of completeness. Hard effort, and still no real satisfaction.
- Pitied — God still pitied Leah. He gave her sons and this daughter, and made this poor household the origin of the tribes.
- Overruled — Every wrong here keeps its own consequences before God. Yet He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
- Costly — Jacob traded the tent for a house, and his daughter went out to the daughters of the land. A parent's settling down bears fruit in the children.