The Children of Jacob

Genesis 29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. 

There was quite a contrast when the one dearly beloved (vv. 18, 20, 30) had no children, whereas the one rejected did. Jacob might have demoted Leah, but God took action on her behalf. Leah had also prayed about her husband’s rejection (v. 33) and had been troubled by it, as seen in the names given to her first 4 sons (vv. 32–35).

Genesis 29:32 So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.”

Genesis 29:33 Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.

Genesis 29:34 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.

Genesis 29:35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

Problems Between Rachel and Leah

Genesis 30:1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

A childless woman in ancient Near Eastern culture was no better than a dead wife and became a severe embarrassment to her husband.

Genesis 30:2 And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

Although spoken in a moment of frustration with Rachel’s pleading for children and the envy with which it was expressed, Jacob’s words do indicate an understanding that ultimately God opened and closed the womb.

Genesis 30:3 So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.”

 When the surrogate gave birth while actually sitting on the knees of the wife, it symbolized the wife providing a child for her husband.

Genesis 30:4 Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. :5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

Genesis 30:6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.

Genesis 30:7 And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. :8 Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.

Genesis 30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.

Genesis 30:10 And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. :11 Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad.

Genesis 30:12 And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. :13 Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.

Love Flowers

Genesis 30:14 Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest 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.”

 Jacob had 8 sons by then from 3 women and about 6 years had elapsed since his marriages.

The oldest son, Reuben, was about 5. Playing in the field during wheat harvest, he found this small, orange-colored fruit and “brought them to his mother Leah.” These were superstitiously viewed in the ancient world as “love-apples,” an aphrodisiac or fertility-inducing narcotic.

Genesis 30:15 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?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:16 When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.

This odd and desperate bargain by Rachel was an attempt to become pregnant with the aid of the mandrakes, a folk remedy which failed to understand that God gives children (vv. 6, 17, 20, 22).

Genesis 30:17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. :18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

Genesis 30:19 Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. :20 And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. :21 Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

Genesis 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

Genesis 30:23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

Jacob and Laban

Genesis 30:24 So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.” 

Aprox. 1914 b.c. His name means “he will add” or “may he add,” indicating both her thanks and her faith that God would give her another son.

Genesis 30:25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.

Fourteen years of absence had not dulled Jacob’s acute awareness of belonging to the land God had given to him.

 Since Mesopotamia was not his home and his contract with Laban was up, he desired to return to “my own place” and “my own country.” Jacob’s wish to return to Canaan was not hidden from Laban (v. 30).

Genesis 30:26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

Genesis 30:27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

Genesis 30:28 Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

 On the two occasions that Laban asked this of Jacob it was to urge him to stay. The first time (29:15) Laban had sought to reward a relative, but this time it was because he had been rewarded since “the Lord has blessed me on your account” (v. 27).