And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest
Leah's eldest son, who is supposed to be at this time about four or five years of age F5, who went out from the tent to the field, to play there perhaps; and this was at the time of wheat harvest, in the month Sivan, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of our May; a time of the year when the earth is covered with flowers: and found mandrakes in the field;
the flowers or fruit of mandrakes, mandrake apples, as the Septuagint. This plant is said to excite love, provoke lust, dispose for, and help conception; for which reasons it is thought Rachel was so desirous of these "mandrakes", which seem to have their name "dudaim" from love: the word is only used here and in ( Song of Solomon 7:13 ) ; where they are commended for their good smell, and therefore cannot be the plant which goes now by that name; since they neither give a good smell, nor bear good fruit, and are of a cold quality, and so not likely to produce the above effects ascribed unto them. It is very probable they were lovely and delightful flowers the boy picked up in the field, such as children delight in; some think the "jessamin", others lilies, and others violets F6; it is not easy to determine what they were; (See Gill on Song of Solomon 7:13); and brought them unto his mother Leah;
as children are apt to do, to show what line flowers or fruit they have gathered: then Rachel said to Leah, give me, I pray thee, of thy son's
mandrakes;
being taken with the colour or smell of them; for as for the notion of helping conception, or removing barrenness and the like, there is no foundation for it; for Rachel, who had them, did not conceive upon having them; and the conception both of her and Leah afterwards is ascribed to the Lord's remembering and hearkening to them.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.