Genesis 30:3

3 She said, "Here's my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her. She can have children for me, and I can build a family for myself through her."

Genesis 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:3

And she said
in order to pacify Jacob, and explain her meaning to him; which was, not that she thought it was in his power to make her the mother of children, but that he would think of some way or another of obtaining children for her, that might go for hers; so the Arabic version, "obtain a son for me": but, since no method occurred to him, she proposes one: behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her,
take her and use her as thy wife: and she shall bear upon my knees;
either sit on her knees in the time of labour, and so bring forth as if it was she herself; or rather bear a child, which Rachel would take and nurse, and dandle upon her knees as her own, see ( Isaiah 66:12 ) ; that I may also have children by her;
children as well as her sister, though by her maid, and as Sarah proposed to have by Hagar, whose example, in all probability, she had before her, and uses her very words; (See Gill on Genesis 16:2).

Genesis 30:3 In-Context

1 Rachel saw that she could not have children for Jacob, and she became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"

2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and asked, "Can I take the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

3 She said, "Here's my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her. She can have children for me, and I can build a family for myself through her."

4 So she gave him her slave Bilhah as his wife, and Jacob slept with her.

5 Bilhah became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Jacob.