So she gave him her slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had relations 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.
- BSB So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,
- NKJV Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to 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 lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
- Gen 25:1Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah.
- 2 Sam 12:11“This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
- Gen 21:10Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”
- Gen 33:2He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
- Gen 16:3–4Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.
- Gen 25:6but to the sons of Abraham’s concubines, Abraham gave gifts. He sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country.
- Gen 22:24His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also 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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