Tag: Zilpah

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Zilpah

Zilpah

As we covered in the previous chapter, Bilhah and Zilpah are wedding gifts to Laban’s daughters Rachel and Leah. 

When childless Rachel, frustrated over Leah’s fruitfulness, gives her servant Bilhah to Jacob to produce children, Leah responds by doing the same thing, offering her servant, Zilpah, to sleep with Jacob. Just like Bilhah, Zilpah gets pregnant twice. She gives birth to Gad and Asher.

As a result, these two servants—Bilhah and Zilpah—produce four sons for Jacob. Even though they’re not from his two wives, these four sons are included in the twelve boys who eventually become the twelve tribes of Israel.

Zilpah and Bilhah have nothing to say in what happens to them, but their offspring comprise four of Israel’s twelve tribes, or one third of the nation.

What should we do when we find ourselves in a situation we have no control over? When others treat us badly, do we maintain our trust in God anyway?

[Read Zilpah’s story in Genesis 30:9–13.]

Learn about more biblical characters in Old Testament Sinners and Saints, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover. Get your copy today.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

More on Jacob’s Twelve Sons

So, we know that Jacob’s twelve sons had four mothers: Leah was the spurned wife; Rachel was the favorite wife; Bilhah was Rachel’s maid and Zilpah was Leah’s maid.  Here is their birth order and how it all breaks down:

1. Reuben, his mom was Leah
2. Simeon, his mom was Leah
3. Levi, his mom was Leah
4. Judah, his mom was Leah

5. Dan, his mom was Bilhah, Rachel’s maid
6. Naphtali, his mom was Bilhah, Rachel’s maid

7. Gad, his mom was Zilpah, Leah’s maid
8. Asher, his mom was Zilpah, Leah’s maid

9. Issachar, his mom was Leah
10. Zebulun, his mom was Leah
(Then Leah also had a daughter, Dinah.)

11. Joseph, his mom was Rachel
12. Benjamin, his mom was Rachel

It was a tough way to have twelve sons.  Just because that’s how it happened, does not mean that God approves of such an arrangement!

[See Genesis 29:1-35, Genesis 30:1-24, and Genesis 35:16-19.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Jacob’s Twelve Sons…and Their Four Moms

In Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, a reoccurring theme is Jacob’s twelve sons.  What isn’t apparent from Dreamcoat is many of the sons were half brothers. Jacob was indeed the father of all, but there were four different moms.

Here is how this convoluted family tree happened:

Jacob fell in love with Rachel (his uncle’s daughter, that is, his first cousin). Since he had no dowry, he agreed to work for his uncle seven years for her hand in marriage.

The morning after the wedding, he discovered that his veiled bride was actually Leah, Rachel’s older sister.  He had been duped by his Uncle Laban. After protesting, Laban also gives Jacob Rachel’s hand in exchange for another seven years of labor.

Leah begins having children (six sons in all), but Rachel is childless — so she has her husband sleep with their maid, Bilhah, to produce children in her stead; Bilhah has two sons. In an escalating competition, Leah follows suit, giving her maid, Zilpah, to sleep with Jacob; Zilpah also has two sons.

Finally, Rachel gets pregnant and has Joseph. As the first-born of Jacob’s favorite wife, Joseph is doted upon by his father; hence he is given the infamous coat of many colors, thereby earning the wrath of his brothers.

Later, Rachel also gives birth to Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve; sadly Rachel dies in childbirth.

Although the nation of Israel is launched through these twelve sons, Jacob’s family life is a lesson of everything not to do.

[See Genesis, chapters 27 through 29.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.