So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,
Parallel translations
- WEB She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.
- KJV And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
- NKJV Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.
- NASB So she gave him her slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had relations with her.
- NLT So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Rachel gives Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he goes in to her.
Overview
Jacob takes Bilhah as a secondary wife at Rachel's urging, deepening the polygamous tangle of the household. The narrative records this plainly as part of how Jacob's twelve sons came to be. God's sovereign purpose advances even through these flawed human arrangements, though not without consequence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Gen 35:22While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:
- Gen 25:1Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah,
- 2 Sam 12:11This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
- Gen 21:10and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
- Gen 33:2He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
- Gen 16:3–4So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.
- Gen 25:6But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
- Gen 22:24Moreover, Nahor’s concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 30:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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