Genesischapter 30
43 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses, by tradition, Narrative, The Law, The Isaac and Jacob cycle, Genesis Overview. Genesis was given to a nation that counted itself in twelve tribes, and most of those tribes are born in this chapter. The household is Jacob's, and the chapter belongs to four women and their rivalry. The first hearers knew the legal custom by which a maidservant's child was counted as her mistress's, and what mandrakes were believed to do. Listen for each name and the sentence spoken with it, for the three plain statements of what God did, and for the wage agreement at the end. Read it with the chapter before it.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, counting themselves in twelve tribes born in this chapter and the last
- What
- A narrative of the births of Jacob's sons through Bilhah, Zilpah, Leah and at last Rachel, followed by Jacob's wage agreement with Laban.
- Where
- Laban's estate in Paddan-aram, its tents, fields and watering troughs.
- When
- The patriarchal age, about 1922 to 1909 BC on the traditional dating from the ages Genesis gives.
- Why
- To show God building the tribes of Israel out of a divided household and prospering Jacob under a dishonest employer.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the four women of Jacob's household and then to Jacob's wages, and it runs over roughly the second seven years of his service and a little beyond.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The place is Laban's estate, and the second half moves between two flocks kept three days' travel apart. The occasion is a rivalry over children that becomes a contest over property.
A first hearer knew the legal device behind verses 3 to 13, where each wife gives her maidservant and the children born count as hers, and the Hebrew has the first child borne on Rachel's knees, which is the language of adoption. Genesis had already reported the same arrangement between Sarai and Hagar at Genesis 16:2.
He also knew what mandrakes were taken to be, since they were believed across the ancient world to help conception, which is why Rachel trades a night with her husband for a handful of them. The chapter lets the outcome stand, because Leah conceives and Rachel does not until God remembers her.
The wage agreement is a real shepherding contract, since hired herdsmen in the region were paid with a share of the flock, and speckled and spotted animals among mostly white sheep and dark goats were the minority, which is why Laban agreed at once and why he later kept changing the terms.
Jacob's peeled rods at the troughs follow the folk breeding belief of the day, and Jacob's own account at Genesis 31:9 says God took the livestock from Laban and gave them to him.
Significance
The twelve tribes of Israel were born into jealousy, bargaining and household war, and God built His nation out of that house.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
For a people about to be given laws on wages and honest dealing, Laban changing the terms ten times was the picture of the employer those laws exist to restrain.
They also heard three plain statements about God in the middle of all the scheming, that He vindicated Rachel, that He listened to Leah, and that He remembered Rachel, which is the phrase Genesis 8:1 uses of Noah.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The classical readers take the rivalry of the two sisters as a contest in merit rather than in affection. Rashi turns Rachel's envy into praise: "She was envious of her because of her good deeds", reasoning that Leah must be the more righteous or she would not have been given children, on Genesis Rabbah 71:6 (Rashi on Genesis 30:1:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). He reads Zilpah's silent conception as a mark of her youth, and adds the tradition that Laban gave her to Leah to make the deception harder to see (Rashi on Genesis 30:10:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 71:9). Reuben's mandrakes he takes as a proof of the character of the tribes, that a boy in harvest time brought home only what belonged to nobody (Rashi on Genesis 30:14:1). On the birth of Dinah he hands on the saying that Leah judged herself, prayed, and the child's sex was changed, on the authority of Berakhot 60a (Rashi on Genesis 30:21:1). God's remembering of Rachel he reads as a merit accounted to her, "He remembered it to her as a merit that she had transmitted the secret signs to her sister", and her prayer for one more son as prophetic knowledge, "She knew prophetically that Jacob would rear only twelve tribes" (Rashi on Genesis 30:22:1 and 30:24:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 73:4 and 72:6). He also notes that Laban says plainly that he had divined the source of his own prosperity (Rashi on Genesis 30:27:1). Radak reads the same chapter for its household sense, and his weight falls on the standing of the four sons of the handmaids. He observes that the Torah adds the words for Jacob at each of those four births and not at Leah's first four, and takes the addition as a statement that these sons stood in Jacob's eyes exactly where Leah's and Rachel's stood (Radak on Genesis 30:5:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). He reads Leah's turn to her own handmaid as the act of a woman who thought she would bear no more and whose concern was the number of the children born to Jacob (Radak on Genesis 30:9:1 and 30:18:1). Ibn Ezra comments here at 30:13:1 and stands as a citation, the corpus holding no English of him under a licence permitting quotation.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-seven of them Midrash and three Talmud. Bereshit Rabbah is cited at 71:7, 71:8, 71:9, 71:10, 72:4, 72:6, 73:3, 73:5, 73:9, 73:10, 74:6, 74:11, 86:1 and 99:12, a run that follows the births in order and then the bargain over the flocks. Bereshit Rabbati takes the chapter up at Parashat Vayetze 16, 18, 20, 29, 30, 46, 58 and 67, Aggadat Bereshit at 42:1, 52:1, 53:3 and 73:3, and Bamidbar Rabbah at 9:34, 13:14 and 20:19. Midrash Aggadah comments at Genesis 30:6:1 and at Genesis 12:1:4, Midrash Lekach Tov at Genesis 30:5:1, 30:29:1 and 30:38:1, and Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 30:4:1. The Ein Yaakov collection is cited twice, at Niddah 3:10 and at Rosh Hashanah 1:6 in the Glick edition. The three Talmud locators stand at the birth of Dinah, the remembering of Rachel and the bargain with Laban: Berakhot 60a:12, Bekhorot 45a:19 and Bava Batra 123b:2. Rashi hands on his own sayings with their locators, among them Genesis Rabbah 71:6, 71:7, 71:9, 72:5, 72:6, 73:4 and 73:7, Berakhot 60a and Shabbat 67b.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 30:1:1, 30:2:1, 30:3:1, 30:6:1, 30:8:1, 30:10:1, 30:11:1, 30:14:1, 30:15:1, 30:16:1, 30:17:1, 30:20:1, 30:21:1, 30:22:1, 30:23:1, 30:24:1, 30:25:1, 30:26:1 and 30:27:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Radak, Radak on Genesis 30:4:1, 30:5:1, 30:9:1 and 30:18:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 30:13:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Menachem ben Seruk, the Machbereth, as Rashi cites and disputes it at Rashi on Genesis 30:8:1; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 71:7, 71:8, 71:9, 71:10, 72:4, 72:6, 73:3, 73:5, 73:9, 73:10, 74:6, 74:11, 86:1 and 99:12; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 16, 18, 20, 29, 30, 46, 58 and 67; Aggadat Bereshit 42:1, 52:1, 53:3 and 73:3; Bamidbar Rabbah 9:34, 13:14 and 20:19; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 30:6:1 and Genesis 12:1:4; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 30:5:1, 30:29:1 and 30:38:1; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 30:4:1; Ein Yaakov, Niddah 3:10; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 1:6; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 60a:12, Bekhorot 45a:19, Bava Batra 123b:2; Berakhot 60a and Shabbat 67b as Rashi cites them.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Rival Sisters, Rival Sons
Genesis 30:1-2
Rachel sees that she has no children and envies her sister. Her demand goes to her husband, Give me children, or I will die. Jacob answers that God has withheld them, and asks whether he stands in God's place. Joseph asks the same question of his brothers at 50:19.
Genesis 30:1
“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).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 30:1
“Here Moses begins to relate that Jacob was distracted with domestic strifes. But although the Lord was punishing him, because he had been guilty of no light sin in marrying two wives, and especially sisters; yet the chastisement was paternal; and God himself, seeing that he is wont mercifully to pardon his own people, restrained in some degree his hand.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 30:1
“Envy is grieving at the good of another, than which no sin is more offensive to God, nor more injurious to our neighbour and ourselves. She considered not that it was God that made the difference, and that though, in this single instance her sister was preferred before her, yet in other things she had the advantage.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jacob became angry with Rachel, and Matthew Henry defended the anger as a warm rebuke aimed at her sin. Rachel asked Jacob for children. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set her beside Rebekah and Hannah, who both took the same want to the LORD.
Genesis 30:2
“He was angry, not at the person, but at the sin; he expressed himself so as to show his displeasure. Note, sometimes it is requisite that a reproof should be given warm, like a medical potion; not too hot, lest it scald the patient; yet not cold, lest it prove ineffectual. It was a very grave and pious reply which Jacob gave to Rachel's peevish demand: Am I in God's stead?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:2
“The tenderness of Jacob's affection rendered him unwilling to offend his wife; yet her unworthy conduct compelled him to do so, when he saw her petulantly exalt herself, not only against her sister, who piously, homily, and thankfully was enjoying the gifts of God; but even against God himself, of whom it is said that the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 30:3-5
Rachel hands her husband her maidservant, the same move Sarai made with Hagar at 16:2. The Hebrew has the child borne on Rachel's knees, which is the language of adoption. The son would count as hers from birth. Genesis reports the arrangement and passes no sentence on it.
Genesis 30:3
“She shall bear upon my knees - The handmaid was the sole property of the mistress, as has already been remarked in the case of Hagar; and therefore not only all her labor, but even the children borne by her, were the property of the mistress. These female slaves, therefore, bore children vicariously for their mistresses; and this appears to be the import of the term, she shall bear upon my knees. That I may also have children by her - ואבנה ממנה veibbaneh mimmennah, and I shall be built up by her.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife: Bilhah is given as a wife, as Hagar was given to Abram at 16:3, and 37:2 counts her among Jacob's wives. Ephrem the Syrian thought Jacob agreed to stop Rachel's daily pleading. He notes that Jacob had been sent to take a daughter of Laban, and Bilhah was a foreign woman.
Genesis 30:4
“So, lest she nag him, asking him every day for children, Jacob, who was sent from his parents to take a daughter of Laban, agreed to take the foreign woman.”
Ephrem the Syrian · written before 373 · COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 28.1.2patristic
Bilhah conceived and bore him a son: The son is born to Jacob, and Rachel will be the one to name him. Adam Clarke renders her hope at verse 3 literally as being built up by her maidservant. The list at 35:25 still sets Dan under Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant.
Genesis 30:5
“And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. This was so far countenanced by the Lord, that he blessed her with conception, and Jacob with a son by her.”
Genesis 30:6-8
Rachel names the first son Dan, and reads his birth as God vindicating her. She names the second Naphtali, her word for wrestling. The same verb meets Jacob at the Jabbok in 32:28, where he has struggled with God and with men and prevailed. The struggle in the tent runs ahead of the struggle at the ford.
Genesis 30:6
“Called she his name Dan - Because she found God had judged for her, and decided she should have a son by her handmaid; hence she called his name דן dan, judging.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
bore Jacob a second son: Rachel's side now counts two sons against Leah's four. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown traced the sisters' anxiety for children to the hope of bearing the promised seed. The race for sons is a race for a place in that promise.
Genesis 30:7
“And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again,.... Soon after the birth of her first child: and bare Jacob a second son; this was his sixth son, but the second by Bilhah.”
Rachel names Naphtali for her great struggles with her sister. Her phrase in Hebrew is literally wrestlings of God, which the Berean renders my great struggles. Adam Clarke traced the name to a root meaning to twist and admitted the sense is hard to fix.
Genesis 30:8
“She called his name Naphtali - נפתלי naphtali, my wrestling, according to the common mode of interpretation; but it is more likely that the root פתל pathal signifies to twist or entwine. Hence Mr. Parkhurst translates the verse, “By the twistings - agency or operation, of God, I am entwisted with my sister; that is, my family is now entwined or interwoven with my sister’s family, and has a chance of producing the promised Seed.” The Septuagint, Aquila, and the Vulgate, have nearly the same meaning. It is, however, difficult to fix the true meaning of the original.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:9-11
she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife: Leah answers a maidservant with a maidservant of her own. Four women are now bearing sons into the same house. Her first name for a son is Gad, and the word carries fortune or a troop arriving. Jerome and Clarke both take up that double sense.
Genesis 30:9
“When Leah saw that she had left bearing,.... For a little while, for she afterwards bore again, and observing also what her sister had done: she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife: in this she was less excusable than Rachel, since she had four children of her own, and therefore might have been content without desiring others by her maid; nor had she long left off bearing, and therefore had no reason to give up hope of having any more.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:9
“Commentary on Chapter 30 1. Rachel envied her sister - Envy is grieving at the good of another, than which no sin is more injurious both to God, our neighbour, and ourselves.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Zilpah bore Jacob a son: Zilpah's son is Leah's fifth by count, four of her own and one through her maidservant. John Gill reads Leah's next words as glad in that growing number, with more still hoped for. Leah's side now counts five sons to Rachel's two.
Genesis 30:10
“And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bore Jacob a son. For it seems he consented to take her to wife at the motion of Leah, as he had took Bilhah at the instance of Rachel; and having gratified the one, he could not well deny the other; and went in to her, and she conceived, though neither of these things are mentioned, but are all necessarily supposed.”
So she named him Gad: John Gill tied the name to Jacob's word over Gad at 49:19, where raiders attack the tribe and it strikes back. Adam Clarke thought Leah might be crediting a god named Gad. He pointed to Laban's household idols at 31:19 as the kind of house she came from.
Genesis 30:11
“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, Gen 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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:11
“She called his name Gad - This has been variously translated. גד gad, may signify a troop, an army, a soldier, a false god, supposed to be the same as Jupiter or Mars; for as Laban appears to have been, if not an idolater, yet a dealer in a sort of judicial astrology, (see Gen 31:19), Leah, in saying בגד bagad, which we translate a troop cometh, might mean, By or with the assistance of Gad - a particular planet or star, Jupiter possibly, I have gotten this son; therefore she called him after the name of that planet or…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:12-13
Zilpah bore Jacob a second son: Asher comes from Leah's word for happy, and she says the women will call her happy. Jerome notes that Scripture gives the meaning of the name in the same breath as the name. Every birth in this chapter is reported that way. Jacob's blessing at 49:20 and Moses' at Deuteronomy 33:24 both keep the sense of plenty and favour.
Genesis 30:12
“And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare Jacob a second son. As well as Bilhah, and no more.”
Jerome notes that some took Asher to mean riches, and he held that here it means blessed, because Leah's own words explain it. She measures her happiness by what the women say. Mary's song at Luke 1:48 speaks the same way, of every generation calling her blessed.
Genesis 30:13
“And Leah said, Happy am I - באשרי beoshri, in my happiness, therefore she called his name אשר asher, that is, blessedness or happiness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Mandrakes, and Rachel Remembered
Genesis 30:14-16
found some mandrakes in the field: Reuben finds mandrakes in the wheat harvest and brings them to his mother. Rachel asks for them, and Leah trades a night with their husband for the plant. Leah meets Jacob coming in from the field and tells him she has hired him. That root names the son conceived that night.
Genesis 30:14
“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 (e), 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.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 30:14
“Reuben - found mandrakes - דודאים dudaim. What these were is utterly unknown, and learned men have wasted much time and pains in endeavoring to guess out a probable meaning. Some translate the word lilies, others jessamine, others citrons, others mushrooms, others figs, and some think the word means flowers, or fine flowers in general.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:14
“Some say that the mandrake is a plant whose fruit resembles apples, which have a scent and are edible. So by means of these mandrakes, with cheerfulness seasoned with faith, Leah made Jacob take her that night.”
Ephrem the Syrian · written before 373 · COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 28.3.1patristic
you have taken away my husband?: Leah's charge shows who had Jacob's nights, and Adam Clarke took it that Rachel had kept him to herself. Matthew Henry compared the bargain to Jacob buying Esau's birthright with stew. Henry saw great folly in wanting a small thing that much.
Genesis 30:15
“Thou hast taken my husband - It appears probable that Rachel had found means to engross the whole of Jacob’s affection and company, and that she now agreed to let him visit the tent of Leah, on account of receiving some of the fruits or plants which Reuben had found.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:15
“Note, There may be great sin and folly in the inordinate desire of a small thing. Leah takes this advantage (as Jacob had of Esau's coveting his red pottage) to obtain that which was justly due to her, but to which Rachel would not otherwise have consented. Note, Strong passions often thwart one another, and those cannot but be continually uneasy that are hurried on by them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leah went out to meet Jacob when he came in from the field that evening, and Ephrem the Syrian read her bold words as cheerfulness seasoned with faith. Adam Clarke traced the wish for sons to the hope of a share in Abraham's blessing. Jacob went with her without a word.
Genesis 30:16
“I have hired thee - We may remark among the Jewish women an intense desire of having children; and it seems to have been produced, not from any peculiar affection for children, but through the hope of having a share in the blessing of Abraham, by bringing forth Him in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:17-18
God listened to Leah: , and she bore a fifth son. The verse sets that directly after the bargain over the mandrakes. Leah names the boy Issachar, hire, and reads him as her reward for giving her maidservant to her husband. Henry reads the birth as a mercy given, with the trade left where it stands.
Adam Clarke splits the name as there is a wage. Leah reads the son as payment for giving her maidservant to Jacob, and Matthew Henry called that a strange reading of providence. He warned against taking God's favours as approval of human folly.
Genesis 30:18
“Leah was now blessed with two sons; the first she called Issachar ( a hire ), reckoning herself well repaid for her mandrakes, nay (which is a strange construction of the providence) rewarded for giving her maid to her husband. Note, We abuse God's mercy when we reckon that his favours countenance and patronize our follies.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:18
“God hath given me my hire - שכרי sechari. And she called his name Issachar, יששכר, This word is compounded of יש yesh, Is, and שכר sachar, Wages, from שכר sachar, to content, satisfy, saturate; hence a satisfaction or compensation for work done, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:19-21
bore a sixth son to Jacob: Zebulun carries the sense of dwelling, and Leah hopes her husband will honour her now that she has borne six sons. A single line then reports a daughter, Dinah, with no speech from anyone. She is the only daughter this family names. Chapter 34 turns on what is done to her at Shechem.
Genesis 30:19
“And Leah conceived again,.... For bearing children Jacob took more to her, and more frequently attended her apartment and bed: and bare Jacob a sixth son; the sixth by her, but the tenth by her and his two maids.”
Leah has borne Jacob six sons and calls the sixth a good gift from God. Matthew Henry read the gift as a dowry never paid. Jerome records that the Septuagint had her hope that Jacob would love her, where the Hebrew says he will dwell with her.
Genesis 30:20
“Jacob had not endowed her when he married her, nor had he wherewithal in possession; but she reckons a family of children not a bill of charges, but a good dowry, Ps. cxiii. She promises herself more of her husband's company now that she had borne him six sons, and that, in love to his children at least, he would often visit her lodgings.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:20
“Now will my husband dwell with me - יזבלני yizbeleni; and she called his name Zebulun, זבל a dwelling or cohabitation, as she now expected that Jacob would dwell with her, as he had before dwelt with Rachel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
named her Dinah: Dinah's name carries the sense of judgment, the same sense as Dan at verse 6. John Gill thought Leah chose it as an answer to Rachel, as if judgment had gone her way. Jerome tied the name to the case at Shechem.
Genesis 30:21
“And afterwards she bare a daughter,.... Which some writers, as Aben Ezra observes, say, was at the same birth with Zebulun, a twin with him; but being said to be afterwards shows the contrary: and called her name Dinah; which signifies "judgment": perhaps she may have some reference to the first son of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, whom she called Dan, a name of the same signification; intimating as if it was a clear case that judgment went on her side; and that by the number of children she had, it was plain God had determined in her favour.”
Genesis 30:22-23
God remembered Rachel: , the same phrase Genesis uses of Noah at 8:1 when the waters went down. It marks God acting on a promise. The words open the exodus too, where God remembers His covenant and hears the groaning in Egypt. Rachel calls the birth the taking away of her shame.
Genesis 30:22
“And God hearkened to her - After the severe reproof which Rachel had received from her husband, Gen 30:2, it appears that she sought God by prayer, and that he heard her; so that her prayer and faith obtained what her impatience and unbelief had prevented.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill explains the shame as the common reproach of barrenness, sharpened in Abraham's family. A barren wife there could add nothing to the seed God had promised to multiply, and had no hope of the Messiah coming from her. Sarah and Rebekah had both waited years to bear.
Genesis 30:23
“And she conceived and bare a son,.... Through the goodness of God unto her, and for which she was greatly thankful: and said, God hath taken away my reproach; the reproach of barrenness with which she was reproached among her neighbours; and perhaps by her sister Leah, and indeed it was a general reproach in those times; and especially, it was the more grievous to good women in the family of Abraham, because they were not the means of multiplying his seed according to the promise, and could have no hope of the Messiah springing from them.”
She named him Joseph: Joseph carries the sense of he adds, and she asks for another son while naming this one. The request is granted at 35:17 and 18, and Rachel dies bearing Benjamin. Joseph is the eleventh son born. 1 Chronicles 5:1 and 2 give him the birthright Reuben lost.
Genesis 30:24
“She called his name Joseph - יוסף Yoseph, adding, or he who adds; thereby prophetically declaring that God would add unto her another son, which was accomplished in the birth of Benjamin, Gen 35:18.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Wages Set in Speckled Flocks
Genesis 30:25-26
Joseph is born, and Jacob asks to go home. He calls Canaan his own country after fourteen years away and no ground of his own in it. Henry reads the pull of the land as the promise at work in him. Jacob has to ask for his wives and children, who stood under Laban's terms of service.
Genesis 30:25
“Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away - Having now, as is generally conjectured, fulfilled the fourteen years which he had engaged to serve for Leah and Rachel. See Gen 30:26, and conclusion at Gen 31:55 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:25
“He retained his affection for the land of Canaan, not only because it was the land of his nativity, and his father and mother were there, whom he longed to see, but because it was the land of promise; and, in token of his dependence upon the promise of it, though he sojourn in Haran he can by no means think of settling there.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Give me my wives and children: Jacob says he served for his wives and children, and Adam Clarke counts the fourteen years as now complete. Laban sees it otherwise. At 31:43 he claims the daughters, the sons and the flocks as his own.
Genesis 30:26
“Nothing is really more efficacious than meekness and nothing more powerful than it. See at any rate how, by a disarming use of meekness, Jacob also brought Laban to reply to him with great deference. "Laban replied to him," the text goes on, remember, "If I have found favor in your sight, and the omens do not deceive me, God has blessed me in your coming. Name your wage to me, and I will pay." "I am not unaware," he is saying, that in the wake of your coming I enjoyed favor from God more richly.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 57.2-3patristic
Genesis 30:27-28
I have learned by divination: Laban's own word is the root behind divination, which Clarke marks and which fits a man who later hunts his house for missing gods. He admits the LORD has blessed him because of Jacob, as Abimelech told Isaac at 26:28. Pharaoh learned it by plague at 12:17. The blessing promised through Abraham's seed is landing on a household in Haran.
Genesis 30:27
“I have learned by experience - נחשתי nichashti, from נחש nachash, to view attentively, to observe, to pry into. I have diligently considered the whole of thy conduct, and marked the increase of my property, and find that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. For the meaning of the word נחש nachash, See note on Gen 3:1, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:27
“This was a remarkable testimony that good men are blessings to the places where they reside. Men of the world are often blessed with temporal benefits on account of their pious relatives, though they have not always, like Laban, the wisdom to discern, or the grace to acknowledge it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Laban opened the first bargain the same way at 29:15, and it cost Jacob fourteen years. At 31:7 Jacob says Laban changed his wages ten times. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown credit Laban with the sense to see that he was blessed for Jacob's sake and to say so.
Genesis 30:28
“And he said, appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. Say what thou wilt have, fix what salary thou thinkest sufficient, and I will agree to it, and punctually pay it: this he craftily said, not choosing to propose anything himself, but leaving it to Jacob, knowing very well the honesty and modesty of Jacob, that he would mention less wages than he could have the face to offer him.”
Genesis 30:29-30
Jacob answers with an account of his service. Laban had very little before his arrival, and his wealth has increased many times over. Jacob dates the increase from the day he came. His closing question is when he may provide for his own household, with four women, eleven sons and a daughter to keep.
Genesis 30:29
“And he said unto him,.... Jacob to Laban: thou knowest that I have served thee; not only diligently and faithfully, without any salary, excepting for his wives; otherwise he had no wages for his service all this time, which therefore should be considered for the future: and how thy cattle was with me: always under his care, and he ever watchful of them; spent all his time and labour with them, and had no opportunity of getting anything for himself.”
wherever I set foot: The Berean's wherever I set foot renders a Hebrew phrase that Adam Clarke gives literally as according to his footsteps. He took it as every step in Laban's service. Laban had named the LORD's blessing first, at verse 27, and Jacob takes up the admission.
Genesis 30:30
“For it was little which thou had before I came - Jacob takes advantage of the concession made by his father-in-law, and asserts that it was for his sake that the Lord had blessed him: Since my coming, לרגלי leragli, according to my footsteps - every step I took in thy service, God prospered to the multiplication of thy flocks and property.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 30:31-33
Jacob asks for no wage but the speckled or spotted animals and the dark-colored lambs. The wage is set by what the flocks bear from this day on. He offers his own honesty as the audit. Any unmarked beast found among his own counts as stolen.
Genesis 30:31
“Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing--A new agreement was made, the substance of which was, that he was to receive remuneration in the usual way, but on certain conditions which Jacob specified.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:31
“And he said, what shall I give thee?....”
every speckled or spotted sheep: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the next chapter, at 31:5 to 13, as showing a miracle, with Jacob's method given to him by God. Adam Clarke notes that the word for flocks takes in sheep and goats together. John Wesley says the marked animals among them were few.
Genesis 30:32
“I will pass through all thy flock - צאן tson, implying, as we have before seen, all smaller cattle, such as sheep, goats, etc. All the speckled and spotted cattle - שה seh, which we translate cattle, signifies the young either of sheep or goats, what we call a lamb or a kid. Speckled, נקד nakod, signifies interspersed with variously colored spots.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:32
“But it is evident from the next chapter (Ge 31:5-13) that there was something miraculous and that the means he had employed had been suggested by a divine intimation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
my honesty will testify for me: Jacob's test is simple: anyone can see an animal's colour. Adam Clarke still found it hard to tell from verses 32 and 35 exactly what the bargain was. The word stolen comes back at 31:30, and at 31:37 Laban has searched all Jacob's goods.
Genesis 30:34-36
Laban agrees at once, and Wesley reads the speed as a man who thinks the deal favours him. That same day Laban removes every streaked, speckled and spotted animal and every dark-colored lamb. He puts them under the care of his sons. Three days of travel are set between the two flocks.
Genesis 30:34
“Laban was willing to consent to this bargain, because he thought if those few he had that were now speckled and spotted were separated from the rest, which was to be done immediately, the body of the flock which Jacob was to tend, being of one colour, either all black or all white, would produce few or none of mixt colours, and so he should have Jacob's service for nothing, or next to nothing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Adam Clarke explains streaked as goats with rings of dark hair around the feet or legs. Laban sorts out every marked animal that same day. His sons take the marked stock away, so none of it counts toward Jacob.
Genesis 30:35
“The he-goats that were ring-streaked - התישים העקדים hatteyashim haakuddim, the he-goats that had rings of black or other colored hair around their feet or legs. It is extremely difficult to find out, from Gen 30:32 and Gen 30:35, in what the bargain of Jacob with his father-in-law properly consisted. It appears from Gen 30:32, that Jacob was to have for his wages all the speckled, spotted, and brown among the sheep and the goats; and of course that all those which were not party-colored should be considered as the property of Laban.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a three-day journey between himself and Jacob: The distance keeps marked animals from breeding with the flock Jacob tends. John Wesley explains Laban's hope: a flock of one colour would bear few or no mixed young, and Jacob would work for next to nothing. Jacob is left with the rest.
Peeled Rods at the Watering Troughs
Genesis 30:37-39
fresh branches of poplar: Jacob peels white stripes into fresh branches and sets them in the watering troughs where the flocks breed. Genesis describes the method and names no cause. At 31:10 to 12 Jacob credits an angel and a dream for the marked young. Ambrose and Cyril of Alexandria read the peeled branches at the troughs as a figure of the Scriptures the flock drinks from.
Genesis 30:37
“Rods of green poplar - לבנה לח libneh lach. The libneh is generally understood to mean the white poplar; and the word lach, which is here joined to it, does not so much imply greenness of color as being fresh, in opposition to witheredness. Had they not been fresh - just cut off, he could not have pilled the bark from them. And of the hazel - לוז luz, the nut or filbert tree, translated by others the almond tree; which of the two is here intended is not known.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 30:37
“The just man Jacob comes in like a hired hand and yet is the master who, in his ministry of preaching the gospel, gathered together a flock that is resplendent in the brilliance of its many signal virtues. Thus, when the flock came to drink, he would set before them in the troughs the bough of storax and walnut and that from the plane tree; those who felt desire for the mysteries of the most blessed Trinity that were prefigured there could engender offspring that were not at all discolored, by conceiving them in a devout mind.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Jacob and the Blessed Lifepatristic
Genesis 30:37
“Here is Jacob's policy to make his bargain more advantageous to himself than it was likely to be: and if he had not taken some course to help himself, it would have been an ill bargain indeed; which he knew Laban would never have considered, who did not consult any one's interest but his own.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
set the peeled branches in the watering troughs: Jacob sets the peeled branches where the animals drink and breed. Adam Clarke reports the old belief that what a female sees when she conceives marks her young, a belief he said reason had never explained. Clarke still counted the result among the strange things in this chapter.
Genesis 30:38
“But where did Jacob place his rods? In the troughs of water. And these troughs, in which the reasonable herd, that is we, go to water, must be interpreted as the writings of Moses and the prophetical predictions that nearly burst forth for us like a heavenly sermon from God. In fact, it was written, "You draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation." And there we will find the Immanuel, the rod of power.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 5.4patristic
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Genesis 30:38
“And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks - It has long been an opinion that whatever makes a strong impression on the mind of a female in the time of conception and gestation, will have a corresponding influence on the mind or body of the fetus. This opinion is not yet rationally accounted for.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they mated in front of the branches: Streaked, speckled and spotted are the marks named in the bargain at verses 32 and 35, so each such lamb or kid becomes Jacob's. Adam Clarke notes that the flock Jacob kept had no marked animals when the bargain was made. Every marked one was born after it.
Genesis 30:40-42
Then he set his own stock apart: Jacob sets his own stock apart from Laban's animals. He puts the branches out for the stronger females and keeps them back when the animals are weak. So the weaker went to Laban and the stronger to Jacob. At 31:9 Jacob says God took the livestock from Laban and gave them to him.
Genesis 30:40
“Jacob did separate the lambs, etc. - When Jacob undertook the care of Laban’s flock, according to the agreement already mentioned, there were no party-colored sheep or goats among them, therefore the ring-streaked, etc., mentioned in this verse, must have been born since the agreement was made; and Jacob makes use of them precisely as he used the pilled rods, that, having these before their eyes during conception, the impression might be made upon their imagination which would lead to the results already mentioned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:40
There is no association between the holy and the profane, between the pure and the impure. Those who belong to Christ are separated and refuse to mix with those who are in the world; they are free from carnal desires. They are marked by their way of life or rather are distinguished by their virtue. "The unmarked ones were Laban's, and the marked ones were Jacob's."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 5.4patristic
Whenever the stronger females of the flock: Several ancient translators, Adam Clarke notes, took the stronger females of the flock to be the early born, with the weak animals the later births. Jerome judged that Jacob kept to justice even by placing the branches this way. John Wesley called it policy to better his bargain.
Genesis 30:41
“Whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive - The word מקשרות mekushsharoth, which we translate stronger, is understood by several of the ancient interpreters as signifying the early, first-born, or early spring cattle; and hence it is opposed to עטפים atuphim, which we translate feeble, and which Symmachus properly renders δευτερογονοι, cattle of the second birth, as he renders the word mekushsharoth by πρωτογονοι, cattle of the first or earliest birth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
if the animals were weak: John Gill gives Jacob two reasons for holding the branches back from the weak: to keep his own flock free of weak stock, and to avoid stripping Laban of everything. Two flocks result, unequal in strength and in number. At 31:1 Laban's sons say Jacob has taken all that belonged to their father.
Genesis 30:42
“And when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in,.... Or "when covered", as Menachem, that is, with wool, and so not so desirous of copulation with the males, nor so fit and strong for generation; and therefore he put not in the rods into the gutters, partly that he might have none feeble in his flock, and partly that he might not spoil Laban of his whole flock, strong and weak: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's; not only his flocks became more numerous than Laban's, but were a better quality.”
Jacob became exceedingly prosperous: The line matches what Genesis says of Isaac at 26:13, that the man became richer and richer. What Jacob owns is listed the way Abram's goods were listed at 12:16, flocks and servants and camels and donkeys. The list closes the twenty years in Haran. Israel's own departure from Egypt takes the same shape, a poor man leaving a foreign house rich.
Genesis 30:43
“And the man increased exceedingly - No wonder, when he used such means as the above. And had maid-servants, and men-servants - he was obliged to increase these as his cattle multiplied. And camels and asses, to transport his tents, baggage, and family from place to place, being obliged often to remove for the benefit of pasturage. We have already seen many difficulties in this chapter, and strange incidents, for which we are not able to account.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 30:43
“Herein was fulfilled the blessing with which Isaac dismissed him ( ch. xxviii. 3 ), "God make thee fruitful, and multiply thee." Even these small matters concerning Jacob's house and field, though they seem inconsiderable, are improvable for our learning.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative of births and of wages, joined by the turn at verse 25 where Joseph is born and Jacob asks to go home, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Eight births, each name given with its reason | Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah and Joseph arrive in one chapter, and every name is explained by the mother in the same verse that gives it. Jerome notes that Scripture gives the meaning of a name in the same breath as the name, which every birth here follows.Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 30:11. | Genesis 30:6, Genesis 30:8, Genesis 30:11, Genesis 30:13, Genesis 30:18, Genesis 30:20, Genesis 30:24 |
| A maidservant answered by a maidservant | Rachel hands her husband Bilhah, and Leah answers with Zilpah. The Hebrew has the first child borne on Rachel's knees, which is the language of adoption, so the son counts as hers from birth. Genesis reports the arrangement and passes no sentence on it, as it reported Sarai and Hagar at Genesis 16:2.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 30:3 to 5. | Genesis 30:3, Genesis 30:4, Genesis 30:9 |
| Wrestling in the tent before wrestling at the ford | Rachel names her second son Naphtali out of her word for wrestling, and the same verb meets Jacob at the Jabbok at Genesis 32:28, where he struggles with God and with men and prevails. The struggle in the tent is recorded first.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 30:6 to 8. | Genesis 30:8 |
| God remembered Rachel | The phrase is the one Genesis uses of Noah at Genesis 8:1 when the waters went down, and it marks God acting on a promise rather than recalling something forgotten. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it that way here. Rachel calls the birth the taking away of her shame.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 30:22 and 23. | Genesis 30:22, Genesis 30:23 |
The historical value
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter records the practice of a wife giving her maidservant to her husband and counting the child as her own, with the birth on the knees as the sign of it. Genesis had already reported the same arrangement between Sarai and Hagar at Genesis 16:2 and reports this one the same way, without approval or condemnation.
It also records a shepherd's wage agreement in detail: which animals count, from which day, who holds them, how far apart the flocks are kept and how a dispute would be settled. The three days of travel Laban sets at verse 36 is the same distance that delays the news reaching him at Genesis 31:22.
The debated concept
The peeled branches at verses 37 to 39 are the chapter's contested point. Genesis describes the method and names no cause for the result. One reading takes the branches as the cause, whether by an effect on the animals at breeding or by a piece of folk husbandry Jacob believed in. A second reading takes them as irrelevant to the outcome and points to Genesis 31:9 to 12, where Jacob credits an angel and a dream, and says God took the livestock from Laban and gave them to him, which is how John Calvin reads the increase. A third, held by Ambrose of Milan and Cyril of Alexandria, reads the peeled branches at the troughs as a figure of the Scriptures the flock drinks from. Genesis 30 supports the first as description, Genesis 31 states the second in Jacob's own mouth, and the third is a reading laid over the text rather than drawn from it.
Where the chapter reaches
The reach of Genesis 30 runs through the sons it names. Six of the twelve tribes are born in this chapter and Joseph is the eleventh son, and 1 Chronicles 5:1 and 2 records that the birthright Reuben lost went to Joseph while the ruler came from Judah.
Dinah is named in one line with no speech from anyone, and Genesis 34 turns on what is done to her at Shechem.
The divine connection
The chapter states three times that God is the one acting: God vindicated Rachel at verse 6 in her own words, God listened to Leah at verse 17, and God remembered Rachel at verse 22. Set against that are mandrakes traded for a night and branches peeled into a trough. At the Evidence Standard the claim is that Genesis reports the household's own methods in full and attributes the results to God in its own voice, and that Jacob himself gives the second account at Genesis 31:9. The text does not reconcile the two for the reader.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 30:22 and 23; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 30:11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 30:31 to 33 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 30.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Jacob and the Blessed Life; Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on Genesis; Ephrem the Syrian; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.