Genesis 30:18

18 She named him Issachar, for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.”

Genesis 30:18 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:18

And Leah said, God hath given me my hire
Of the mandrakes with which she had hired of Rachel a night's lodging with Jacob, and for which she had a sufficient recompense, by the son that God had given her: and she added another reason, and a very preposterous one, and shows she put a wrong construction on the blessing she received: because I have given my maiden to my husband;
which, she judged, was so well pleasing to God, that he had rewarded her with another son; and she called his name Issachar,
which signifies "hire" or "reward"; or, there is a reward, or a man of reward.

Genesis 30:18 In-Context

16 So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with some mandrakes that my son found.” So that night he slept with Leah.

17 And God answered Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.

18 She named him Issachar, for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.”

19 Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.

20 She named him Zebulun, for she said, “God has given me a good reward. Now my husband will treat me with respect, for I have given him six sons.”

Footnotes

• [a]. Issachar sounds like a Hebrew term that means “reward.”