Genesis 30:11

30:1-13 Rachel envied her sister: envy is grieving at the good of another, than which no sin is more hateful to God, or more hurtful to our neighbours and ourselves. She considered not that God made the difference, and that in other things she had the advantage. Let us carefully watch against all the risings and workings of this passion in our minds. Let not our eye be evil towards any of our fellow-servants, because our Master's is good. Jacob loved Rachel, and therefore reproved her for what she said amiss. Faithful reproofs show true affection. God may be to us instead of any creature; but it is sin and folly to place any creature in God's stead, and to place that confidence in any creature, which should be placed in God only. At the persuasion of Rachel, Jacob took Bilhah her handmaid to wife, that, according to the usage of those times, her children might be owned as her mistress's children. Had not Rachel's heart been influenced by evil passions, she would have thought her sister's children nearer to her, and more entitled to her care than Bilhah's. But children whom she had a right to rule, were more desirable to her than children she had more reason to love. As an early instance of her power over these children, she takes pleasure in giving them names that carry in them marks of rivalry with her sister. See what roots of bitterness envy and strife are, and what mischief they make among relations. At the persuasion of Leah, Jacob took Zilpah her handmaid to wife also.

And Leah said, a troop cometh,.... A troop of children, having bore four herself, and now her maid another, and more she expected; or the commander of a troop cometh, one that shall head an army and overcome his enemies; which agrees with the prophecy of Jacob, Genesis 49:19 , and she called his name Gad: which signifies a "troop", glorying in the multitude of her children, that she had or hoped to have.

11 . Fortunate ] Heb. with fortune ! Another reading is, Fortune is come . The versions (LXX ἐν τύχῃ = “with fortune,” Lat. feliciter ) follow the reading of the Hebrew text ( Ke’thîb ). The other reading, followed by the Massoretic tradition ( Ḳerî ), is found in the Targum of Onkelos. Gad seems to have been the name of an ancient Aramaean god of fortune, whose worship existed among the Canaanites. Cf. the names Baal-gad ( Joshua 11:17 ), and Migdal-gad ( Joshua 15:37 ). The Jews in Babylon made offerings to this god of good fortune; cf. Isaiah 65:11 . In Jdg 5:17 , Gilead takes the place of Gad. Genesis 30:11

A troop cometh, or, good luck cometh; my design hath well succeeded; a happy star hath shone upon me; and such a star in the opinion of astrologers is that of Jupiter, which by the Arabians is called Gad. This may well agree to Leah and her heathenish education, and the manners of the Chaldeans, who were much given to the study of the stars.

3-9. Bilhah … Zilpah—Following the example of Sarah with regard to Hagar, an example which is not seldom imitated still, she adopted the children of her maid. Leah took the same course. A bitter and intense rivalry existed between them, all the more from their close relationship as sisters; and although they occupied separate apartments, with their families, as is the uniform custom where a plurality of wives obtains, and the husband and father spends a day with each in regular succession, that did not allay their mutual jealousies. The evil lies in the system, which being a violation of God's original ordinance, cannot yield happiness.

CHAPTER 30 Ge 30:1-24. Domestic Jealousies. 1. Rachel envied her sister—The maternal relation confers a high degree of honor in the East, and the want of that status is felt as a stigma and deplored as a grievous calamity. Give me children, or else I die—either be reckoned as good as dead, or pine away from vexation. The intense anxiety of Hebrew women for children arose from the hope of giving birth to the promised seed. Rachel's conduct was sinful and contrasts unfavorably with that of Rebekah (compare Ge 25:22) and of Hannah (1Sa 1:11).Rachel being barren, envies her sister, impatiently desires children of Jacob, Genesis 30:1. He is angry, and reproves her, Genesis 30:2. She gives him her handmaid Bilhah, who bears him Dan and Naphtali, Genesis 30:3-8. Leah ceasing to bear, gives Zilpah her maid to Jacob, Genesis 30:9. She bears him Gad and Asher, Genesis 30:10-13. Reuben, Leah’s son, finds mandrakes, and brings them to his mother; Rachel desires them; they bargain, Genesis 30:14,15. Jacob goes in to Leah, who conceives again and bears Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah, Genesis 30:16-21. God remembers Rachel; she conceives and bears Joseph, Genesis 30:22-24. Jacob desires to return unto his own country with his wives and children, Genesis 30:25,26. Laban denies his consent; having learnt by experience that God had blessed him for Jacob’s sake, Genesis 30:27. They make a new contract, Genesis 30:28-36.

Leah having stayed from bearing, resorts to the same expedient. Her fourth son was seemingly born in the fourth year of Jacob's marriage. Bearing her first four sons so rapidly, she would the sooner observe the temporary cessation. After the interval of a year she may have given Zilpah to Jacob. "Gad." "Victory cometh." She too claims a victory. "Asher." Daughters will pronounce her happy who is so rich in sons. Leah is seemingly conscious that she is here pursuing a device of her own heart; and hence there is no explicit reference to the divine name or influence in the naming of the two sons of her maid.

Zilpah's Sons. - But Leah also was not content with the divine blessing bestowed upon her by Jehovah. The means employed by Rachel to retain the favour of her husband made her jealous; and jealousy drove her to the employment of the same means. Jacob begat two sons by Zilpah her maid. The one Leah named Gad, i.e., "good fortune," saying, בּגד, "with good fortune," according to the Chethib, for which the Masoretic reading is גּד בּא, "good fortune has come," - not, however, from any ancient tradition, for the Sept. reads ἐν τύχῃ, but simply from a subjective and really unnecessary conjecture, since בּגד equals "to my good fortune," sc., a son is born, gives a very suitable meaning. The second she named Asher, i.e., the happy one, or bringer of happiness; for she said, בּאשׁרי, "to my happiness, for daughters call me happy," i.e., as a mother with children. The perfect אשּׁרני relates to "what she had now certainly reached" (Del.). Leah did not think of God in connection with these two births. They were nothing more than the successful and welcome result of the means she had employed.

[Reformed Biblical] to me for my reward or hire; ## before thy face, i.e. thou being present and diligently observing whether I have any cattle of another colour. But the Hebrew word tabo is also of the second person, and so the sense seems to be this, When thou shalt come upon my hire or reward, to wit, to observe and see whether I have any other cattle than what belongs to me. And so these words come in by way of parenthesis; and the following words, before my face, are to be joined to the former words, thus, so shall righteousness answer for me in time to come (when thou shalt come upon my hire) before thy face. This I prefer before the other, because the phrase of coming upon his hire seems more properly to agree to a person than to his righteousness. Genesis 30:34 ## Laban trusted to the course of nature, whereby cattle usually bring forth their young of their own colour; and Jacob relied upon the providence of an Almighty God, and his gracious Father. Genesis 30:35 ## The he-goats that were ring-straked, which had lines or strakes like bands about them of diverse colours from the rest of their body. ## Every one that had some white: this word some is oft understood in other texts of Scripture, and here it is so necessarily; as appears both from the thing itself, as it is related, and from the phrase; for he saith not that was white, but that had white in it, to wit, mixed with other colours. Genesis 30:36 ## Three days ’ journey; under

Genesis 30:35-36. He gave them into the hands of his sons — To be fed apart by themselves, lest Jacob should get any of them to mix with those of one colour. He set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob — Such journeys as flocks are able to make, that they might not so much as see one another. Between this and the 37th verse, the Samaritan copy inserts a paragraph about the angel’s appearing to Jacob in a dream, which is not found in any other version; but is related by Jacob himself in the following chapter, Genesis 30:11 , as a thing which had happened to him, and which justifies the policy which the subsequent verses represent him as using.