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When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” ²Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” ³Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.” ⁴So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her. ⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son”; therefore she named him Dan. ⁷Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed”; so she named him Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹And Leah said, “Good fortune!” so she named him Gad. ¹²Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah said, “Happy am I! For the women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.

¹⁴ In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. ¹⁷And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband”; so she named him Issachar. ¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun. ²¹Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. ²³She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”; ²⁴and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the L ord add to me another son!”

Jacob Prospers at Laban’s Expense

²⁵ When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you.” ²⁷But Laban said to him, “If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the L ord has blessed me because of you; ²⁸name your wages, and I will give it.” ²⁹Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. ³⁰For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the L ord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?” ³¹He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it: ³²let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. ³³So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” ³⁴Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons; ³⁶and he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷ Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. ³⁸He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, ³⁹the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods, ⁴²but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

9. When Leah saw that she had left bearing. Moses returns to Leah, who, not content with four sons, devised a method whereby she might always retain her superior rank: and therefore she also, in turn, substitutes her maid in her place. And truly Rachel deserved such a reward of her perverse design; since she, desiring to snatch the palm from her sister, does not consider that the same contrivance to which she had resorted, might speedily be employed against herself. Yet Leah sins still more grievously, by using wicked and unjust arts in the contest. Within a short period, she had experienced the wonderful blessing of God; and now, because she ceased from bearing, for a little while, she despairs concerning the future, as if she had never participated in the Divine favor. What, if her desire was strong; why did she not resort to the fountain of blessing? In obtruding, therefore, her maid, she gave proof not only of impatience, but also of distrust; because with the remembrance of Divine mercy, faith also is extinguished in her heart. And we know that all who rely upon the Lord are so tranquil and sedate in their mind, that they patiently wait for what he is about to give. And it is the just punishment of unbelief when any one stumbles through excessive haste. So much the more ought we to beware of the assaults of the flesh, if we desire to maintain a right course.

As to the name Gad, this passage is variously expounded by commentators. In this point they agree, that בגד (bagad) means the same as if Leah had said “the time of bearing is come.”⁷⁶⁷⁶ Venit felicitas In the French translation, “Mon heur est venu.” My hour is come. The word בגד is explained in the margin of the Hebrew Bible by בא גד Venit turma, ceu exercitus — a troop or army cometh. See Schindler. — Ed But some suppose גד (Gad,) to be the prosperous star of Jupiter; others, Mercury; others, good fortune. They adduce Isaiah 65:11, where it is written, “they offer a libation to Gad.”⁷⁷⁷⁷ “Ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop (margin, Meni). — English Translation. Calvin has quoted from memory, and not accurately, having put libation instead of table. — Ed. But the context of the Prophet shows that this ought rather to be understood of the host of heaven, or of the number of false gods; because it immediately follows that they offer sacrifices to the stars, and furnish tables for a multitude of gods: the punishment is then added, that as they had fabricated an immense number of deities, so God will “number” them “to the sword.” As it respects the present passage, nothing is less probable than that Leah should extol the planet Jupiter instead of God, seeing that she, at least, maintained the principle that the propagation of the human race flows from God alone. I wonder also that interpreters understand this of prosperous fortune, when Moses afterwards, Genesis 49:19, leads us to an opposite meaning. For the allusion he there makes would be inappropriate, “Gad, a troop shall overcome him,” etc., unless it had been the design of Leah to congratulate herself on the troop of her children. For since she had so far surpassed her sister,⁷⁸⁷⁸ Nam quum sesquialtera parte superior esset, praedicat se habere in magna copia liberos. she declares that she has children in great abundance. When she proclaims herself happy⁷⁹⁷⁹ “And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters shall call me blessed; and she called his name Asher.” — English Translation. It may be observed that the names given to these children of the hand-maidens were far less indicative of a pious state of mind, than those which Leah had previously given to her own sons. A fact which confirms the remarks of Calvin on the impiety of the course pursued by the rival wives. Rachel seems to make no reference to God in the names of the children of her handmaid; Leah, in imitating the example of her sister, seems to lose her own previous devotional feeling; and both sink in our esteem, as they proceed in their unseemly contentions. — Ed. in her sixth son, it again appears in what great esteem fecundity was then held. And certainly it is a great honor, when God confers on mortals the sacred title of parents, and through them propagates the human race formed after his own image.

⁷⁶ Venit felicitas In the French translation, “Mon heur est venu.” My hour is come. The word בגד is explained in the margin of the Hebrew Bible by בא גד Venit turma, ceu exercitus — a troop or army cometh. See Schindler. — Ed

⁷⁷ “Ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop (margin, Meni). — English Translation. Calvin has quoted from memory, and not accurately, having put libation instead of table. — Ed.

⁷⁸ Nam quum sesquialtera parte superior esset, praedicat se habere in magna copia liberos.

⁷⁹ “And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters shall call me blessed; and she called his name Asher.” — English Translation. It may be observed that the names given to these children of the hand-maidens were far less indicative of a pious state of mind, than those which Leah had previously given to her own sons. A fact which confirms the remarks of Calvin on the impiety of the course pursued by the rival wives. Rachel seems to make no reference to God in the names of the children of her handmaid; Leah, in imitating the example of her sister, seems to lose her own previous devotional feeling; and both sink in our esteem, as they proceed in their unseemly contentions. — Ed.