So Many Kids - Genesis 30:1-13

30:1-13 - At the end of chapter 29, after Leah had given birth to at least 4 sons, she “left bearing,” which has been suggested means that she stopped being able to get pregnant. During this whole sister struggle for children and legitimacy, Rachel hasn’t had any babies yet and is losing her mind, and is insanely jealous of her sister. Don’t get me wrong, I get it, not having a baby when you want one is one of the fastest ways I know to make a woman go absolutely insane, but Rachel goes to Jacob and demanded, “Give me children, or else I die.” This is the first time that we see that maybe not everything is happy in paradise. Jacob is angry with Rachel and responds, “Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” This is a fair question, I don’t really know what she expected him to do, he is not in charge of anyone’s fertility and surely they were “trying” for a baby, so he was doing everything that was in his power to give her what she wanted.

In a call back to Sarah and Abraham, Rachel tells Jacob, “Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.” The lecturer from the Torah Class series noted that the term “bear upon my knees,” meant that she would raise Bilhah’s baby as her own, and I have to wonder exactly how Bilhah felt about this arrangement. So Jacob has sex with Bilhah at his wife’s request, and she becomes pregnant and has a son, and Rachel named this son Dan, for “God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son.” This baby’s name mentions God, so we can conclude that this is Rachel acknowledging God in her life.

But when Bilhah has a second son, the mention of God is gone, and Rachel names this baby Naphtali, meaning, “with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.” I’m not exactly sure which level of math she is using to count a second baby by her servant as “winning” over her sister in the baby count. And as far as wrestling goes, what is she talking about, again, fertility is completely out of control of these people, so to take any personal aggrandizement out of the birth of a child is pretty ridiculous.

Leah says “two can play that game,” and gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob, who has sex with her, again at his wife’s request, she gets pregnant and has a baby which Leah names Gad, for “a troop cometh.” I don’t know what exactly that means, but at this point there are a ton of kids to maybe it’s to mean “wow we have a lot of kids.” There is a cross reference for the word “troop” though which says, “IE Good dortune (wordplay on the Hebrew words gedud, ‘troop,’ and gad ‘fortune’.”

Zilpah has a second son and Leah names him Asher, for “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed.” I don’t know if Leah and Rachel are raising these children as their own, or if they are just like community children where everyone kind of parents whoever, I’m not exactly sure. But Leah is definitely happy that she has another baby, even if she didn’t personally give birth to him.