And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
And Zilpah Leah's maidservant bore Jacob a son.
And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
and Zilpah, Leah's maid-servant, beareth to Jacob a son,
Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices3
(Verse 10 and 11.) And Zilpah, the maid of Leah, bore Jacob a son, and Leah said, 'In fortunate circumstances,' and she called his name Gad. Where we have placed ourselves, in fortunate circumstances, and in Greek it is said ἐν τύχῃ, which can be translated as 'event.' In Hebrew, it is Bagad (), which Aquila interprets as 'girdle' or 'belt.' But we can say 'in readiness.' For Ba can sound like the preposition 'in,' and gad means 'coming.' Therefore, from the event or readiness, the son of Zilpah, Gad, was called. Sequitur:
Jerome· Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420patristic
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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
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. But this was not all, she said to Jacob, give me children or else I die - A child would not content her; but because Leah has more than one, she must have more too;
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical
The verses this one reaches3
Now the Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, surveyed the lands of Jazer and Gilead, and they saw that the region was suitable for livestock.
And Gad will have one portion bordering the territory of Zebulun from east to west.
From the sons of Gad, according to the records of their clans and families, counting the names of all those twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,
