Genesis 30:6-16

6 And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan.

7 And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again and gave birth to a second son unto Jacob.

8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took Zilpah, her maid and gave her Jacob to wife.

10 And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a son unto Jacob.

11 And Leah said, Good venture has come; and she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a second son unto Jacob.

13 And Leah said, Blessed am I, for the daughters will call me blessed; and she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.

15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband and would thou take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son’s mandrakes.

16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

Genesis 30:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 30

This chapter gives an account of Rachel's envy of her sister for her fruitfulness, and of her earnest desire of having children, which she expressed to Jacob in an unbecoming manner, for which he reproved her, Ge 30:1,2, of her giving her maid Bilhah to Jacob, by whom he had two sons, Dan and Naphtali, Ge 30:3-8; and of Leah's giving her maid Zilpah to him, by whom he had two other sons, Gad and Asher, Ge 30:9-13; and of Reuben's mandrakes he found in the field, and the agreement made between Rachel and Leah about them, Ge 30:14-16; and of Leah's bearing Jacob two more sons and one daughter, Ge 30:17-21, and of Rachel's also bearing him a son, whose name was Joseph, Ge 30:22-24; upon which he desires leave of Laban to depart into his own country, his time of servitude being up, Ge 30:25,26; which brought on a new agreement between him and Laban, that for the future he should have all the speckled, spotted, and brown cattle for his service, Ge 30:27-36; and the chapter is concluded with an account of a cunning scheme of Jacob's to increase that sort of cattle, which succeeded, and by which he became rich, Ge 30:37-43.