Discovery BoxGenesis 30:1-40
Context30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she 1 became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children 2 or I’ll die!” 30:2 Jacob became furious 3 with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” 4 30:3 She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with 5 her so that she can bear 6 children 7 for me 8 and I can have a family through her.” 9
30:4 So Rachel 10 gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had marital relations with 11 her. 30:5 Bilhah became pregnant 12 and gave Jacob a son. 13 30:6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer 14 and given me a son.” That is why 15 she named him Dan. 16
30:7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, became pregnant again and gave Jacob another son. 17 30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” 18 So she named him Naphtali. 19
30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave 20 her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. 30:10 Soon Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob a son. 21 30:11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” 22 So she named him Gad. 23
30:12 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob another son. 24 30:13 Leah said, “How happy I am, 25 for women 26 will call me happy!” So she named him Asher. 27
30:14 At the time 28 of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants 29 in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 30:15 But Leah replied, 30 “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” 31 Rachel said, “he may sleep 32 with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 30:16 When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep 33 with me because I have paid for your services 34 with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations 35 with her that night. 30:17 God paid attention 36 to Leah; she became pregnant 37 and gave Jacob a son for the fifth time. 38 30:18 Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward 39 because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” 40 So she named him Issachar. 41
30:19 Leah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a son for the sixth time. 42 30:20 Then Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I have given him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 43
30:21 After that she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
30:22 Then God took note of 44 Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant. 45 30:23 She became pregnant 46 and gave birth to a son. Then she said, “God has taken away my shame.” 47 30:24 She named him Joseph, 48 saying, “May the Lord give me yet another son.”
30:25 After Rachel had given birth 49 to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send 50 me on my way so that I can go 51 home to my own country. 52 30:26 Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. 53 Then I’ll depart, 54 because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.” 55
30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, 56 for I have learned by divination 57 that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.” 30:28 He added, “Just name your wages – I’ll pay whatever you want.” 58
30:29 “You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, 59 “and how well your livestock have fared under my care. 60 30:30 Indeed, 61 you had little before I arrived, 62 but now your possessions have increased many times over. 63 The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. 64 But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” 65
30:31 So Laban asked, 66 “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” 67 Jacob replied, 68 “but if you agree to this one condition, 69 I will continue to care for 70 your flocks and protect them: 30:32 Let me walk among 71 all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, 72 and the spotted or speckled goats. 73 These animals will be my wages. 74 30:33 My integrity will testify for me 75 later on. 76 When you come to verify that I’ve taken only the wages we agreed on, 77 if I have in my possession any goat that is not speckled or spotted or any sheep that is not dark-colored, it will be considered stolen.” 78 30:34 “Agreed!” said Laban, “It will be as you say.” 79
30:35 So that day Laban 80 removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care 81 of his sons. 30:36 Then he separated them from Jacob by a three-day journey, 82 while 83 Jacob was taking care of the rest of Laban’s flocks.
30:37 But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible. 30:38 Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink. 84 30:39 When the sheep mated 85 in front of the branches, they 86 gave birth to young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 30:40 Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face 87 the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.
[30:1] 1 tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[30:2] 3 tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”
[30:2] 4 tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”
[30:3] 5 tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
[30:3] 6 tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.
[30:3] 7 tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[30:3] 8 tn Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.
[30:3] 9 tn Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2, as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125 s.v. בָנָה).
[30:4] 10 tn Heb “and she”; the referent (Rachel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:4] 11 tn Heb “went in to.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
[30:5] 12 tn Or “Bilhah conceived” (also in v. 7).
[30:5] 13 tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a son.”
[30:6] 14 tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.
[30:6] 16 sn The name Dan means “he vindicated” or “he judged.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. The verb translated “vindicated” is from דִּין (din, “to judge, to vindicate”), the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.
[30:7] 17 tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”
[30:8] 18 tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
[30:8] 19 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”
[30:9] 20 tn Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”
[30:10] 21 tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore for Jacob a son.”
[30:11] 22 tc The statement in the Kethib (consonantal text) appears to mean literally “with good fortune,” if one takes the initial בְּ (bet) as a preposition indicating accompaniment. The Qere (marginal reading) means “good fortune has arrived.”
[30:11] 23 sn The name Gad (גָּד, gad) means “good fortune.” The name reflects Leah’s feeling that good fortune has come her way, as expressed in her statement recorded earlier in the verse.
[30:12] 24 tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore a second son for Jacob.”
[30:13] 25 tn The Hebrew statement apparently means “with my happiness.”
[30:13] 26 tn Heb “daughters.”
[30:13] 27 sn The name Asher (אָשֶׁר, ’asher) apparently means “happy one.” The name plays on the words used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. Both the Hebrew noun and verb translated “happy” and “call me happy,” respectively, are derived from the same root as the name Asher.
[30:14] 28 tn Heb “during the days.”
[30:14] 29 sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
[30:15] 30 tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:15] 31 tn Heb “therefore.”
[30:15] 32 tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
[30:16] 33 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
[30:16] 34 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
[30:16] 35 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
[30:17] 36 tn Heb “listened to.”
[30:17] 37 tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19).
[30:17] 38 tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.
[30:18] 39 tn Heb “God has given my reward.”
[30:18] 40 tn The words “as a wife” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity (cf. v. 9).
[30:18] 41 sn The name Issachar (יְשָּׁשכָר, yishakhar) appears to mean “man of reward” or possibly “there is reward.” The name plays on the word used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew noun translated “reward” is derived from the same root as the name Issachar. The irony is that Rachel thought the mandrakes would work for her, and she was willing to trade one night for them. But in that one night Leah became pregnant.
[30:19] 42 tn Heb “and she bore a sixth son for Jacob,” i.e., this was the sixth son that Leah had given Jacob.
[30:20] 43 sn The name Zebulun (זְבֻלוּן, zevulun) apparently means “honor.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew verb translated “will honor” and the name Zebulun derive from the same root.
[30:22] 44 tn Heb “remembered.”
[30:22] 45 tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons
[30:23] 47 tn Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.
[30:24] 48 sn The name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yoseph) means “may he add.” The name expresses Rachel’s desire to have an additional son. In Hebrew the name sounds like the verb (אָסַף,’asasf) translated “taken away” in the earlier statement made in v. 23. So the name, while reflecting Rachel’s hope, was also a reminder that God had removed her shame.
[30:25] 49 tn The perfect verbal form is translated as a past perfect because Rachel’s giving birth to Joseph preceded Jacob’s conversation with Laban.
[30:25] 50 tn The imperatival form here expresses a request.
[30:25] 51 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
[30:25] 52 tn Heb “to my place and to my land.”
[30:26] 53 tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.
[30:26] 54 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
[30:26] 55 tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”
[30:27] 56 tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
[30:27] 57 tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the
[30:28] 58 tn Heb “set your wage for me so I may give [it].”
[30:29] 59 tn Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:29] 60 tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”
[30:30] 62 tn Heb “before me.”
[30:30] 63 tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”
[30:30] 64 tn Heb “at my foot.”
[30:30] 65 tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”
[30:31] 66 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:31] 67 tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.
[30:31] 68 tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[30:31] 69 tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”
[30:31] 70 tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”
[30:32] 71 tn Heb “pass through.”
[30:32] 72 tn Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”
[30:32] 73 tn Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”
[30:32] 74 tn Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.
[30:33] 75 tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”
[30:33] 76 tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”
[30:33] 77 tn Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.”
[30:33] 78 tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”
[30:34] 79 tn Heb “and Laban said, ‘Good, let it be according to your word.’” On the asseverative use of the particle לוּ (lu) here, see HALOT 521 s.v. לוּ.
[30:35] 80 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:35] 81 tn Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”
[30:36] 82 tn Heb “and he put a journey of three days between himself and Jacob.”
[30:36] 83 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the vav with subject) is circumstantial/temporal; Laban removed the animals while Jacob was taking care of the rest.
[30:38] 84 sn He put the branches in front of the flocks…when they came to drink. It was generally believed that placing such “visual aids” before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that “Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids – in conformance with universal folk beliefs” (Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob’s efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5).
[30:39] 85 tn The Hebrew verb used here can mean “to be in heat” (see v. 38) or “to mate; to conceive; to become pregnant.” The latter nuance makes better sense in this verse, for the next clause describes them giving birth.
[30:39] 86 tn Heb “the sheep.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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