When Rachel saw that she was not having children for Jacob, she envied her sister Leah. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” ²Jacob became angry with her and said, “Can I do what only God can do? He is the one who has kept you from having children.”

³Then Rachel said, “Here is my slave girl Bilhah. Have sexual relations with her so she can give birth to a child for me. Then I can have my own family through her.”

⁴So Rachel gave Bilhah, her slave girl, to Jacob as a wife, and he had sexual relations with her. ⁵She became pregnant and gave Jacob a son. ⁶Rachel said, “God has judged me innocent. He has listened to my prayer and has given me a son,” so she named him Dan. ⁿ

⁷Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. ⁸Rachel said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I have won.” So she named that son Naphtali. ⁿ

⁹Leah saw that she had stopped having children, so she gave her slave girl Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰When Zilpah had a son, ¹¹Leah said, “I am lucky,” so she named him Gad. ⁿ ¹²Zilpah gave birth to another son, ¹³and Leah said, “I am very happy! Now women will call me happy,” so she named him Asher. ⁿ

Read in Logos

Footnotes

nDan This name means “he has judged.”
nNaphtali This name sounds like the Hebrew word for “my struggle.”
nGad This name may mean “lucky.”
nAsher This name may mean “happy.”