Genesis 30:8-28

8 Then 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.
10 Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
11 And Leah said, "Good fortune!" so she named him Gad.
12 Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
13 And 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."
15 But 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."
16 When 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.
17 And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18 Leah said, "God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband"; so she named him Issachar.
19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.
20 Then 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.
21 Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.
23 She conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach";
24 and she named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord add to me another son!"
25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.
26 Give 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."
27 But Laban said to him, "If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you;
28 name your wages, and I will give it."

Genesis 30:8-28 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.

Footnotes 6

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.