Genesis 30:10
in Genesis 30And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Zilpah Leah’s handmaid bare Jacob a son.
KJV
And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
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This verse in Genesis 30
Commentary
3 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife
on Genesis 30:9-11
Leah answers a maidservant with a maidservant of her own, Zilpah. Four women are now bearing sons into the same house. Her name for this son is Gad, a word carrying fortune or a troop arriving, and Jerome and Clarke both take up that double sense.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
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.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Bagad (fortune is come) is really two words. It is a combination of two words ba (spelled bet, alef ) and gad (Weiser).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתֵּ֗לֶד | vateled | and she bore | H3205 → | 496 times |
| זִלְפָּ֛ה | zilpah | Zilpah | H2153 → | 7 times |
| שִׁפְחַ֥ת | shifchat | [the] maidservant of | H8198 → | 63 times |
| לֵאָ֖ה | leah | Leah | H3812 → | 34 times |
| לְיַעֲקֹ֥ב | leyaako | to Jacob | H3290 → | 350 times |
| בֵּֽן׃ | ben | a son | H1121 → | 4930 times |
וַתֵּ֗לֶדand she bore
vateledH3205 →496 times
זִלְפָּ֛הZilpah
zilpahH2153 →7 times
שִׁפְחַ֥ת[the] maidservant of
shifchatH8198 →63 times
לֵאָ֖הLeah
leahH3812 →34 times
לְיַעֲקֹ֥בto Jacob
leyaakoH3290 →350 times
בֵּֽן׃a son
benH1121 →4930 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Genesis
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.