Genesis 30

Jacob and the handmaids (vs. 1-13)—Rachel was a little petulant, or maybe a lot: “Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die!’" (v. 1). Jacob’s response was reasonable: "’Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’" (v. 2). So Rachel gives her handmaid Bilhah to her husband so that she will bear children. Keep in mind that the handmaid is the sole property of her mistress, and thus any children she bears will belong to Rachel. Over the next two years, Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. When Leah didn’t have a child the fifth year, she gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, who also bore two sons, Gad and Asher. Remember that all of this is going on the second seven years that Jacob is serving Laban. Eight sons have been born so far; there will be four more, and a daughter. One has to feel for Jacob, being bounced around like this. And there will be more enmity in the family (besides Rachel’s jealousy), which is not surprising given the polygamous relationship.

Two more sons for Leah, and a daughter (vs. 14-21)—Little Reuben—he must have been about five or six years old at the time of this incident—sees some pretty flowers—mandrakes--picks some of them, and gives them to his mother. A mandrake has purple flowers and will produce a small yellow fruit that has a very pleasant odor and is believed to perhaps have aphrodisiacal qualities. Rachel trades Jacob for the night for Leah’s mandrakes. As a result, another son is born to Leah, Issachar, and the next year she bears Zebulun. That is six sons in seven years for Leah, and “Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah” (v. 21). We don’t know how long “afterward,” but given subsequent events, probably within the next year or two.

Rachel bears Joseph (vs. 22-24)—Whether the mandrakes had anything to do with it or not, “God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb” (v. 22). Joseph was born, and he will prove to be the best of the lot.

Jacob’s wages for the next six years (vs. 25-36)—The second seven years of Jacob’s service ends, and he’s ready to go back to Canaan. Laban, knowing a good worker when he sees one, doesn’t want Jacob to leave: “'Name me your wages, and I will give it'" (v. 28). Jacob wants to build his own herd of sheep: “’Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages’” (v. 32), and, from that point on, “’every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs’” (v. 33) would belong to Laban. Thinking it good deal, Laban agreed. I personally have never seen any brown sheep or speckled goats, but they do exist and Jacob is going to build his flock with them.

Jacob becomes prosperous (vs. 37-43)—These two verses—“Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink” (vs. 37-38)—have long baffled commentators who have no idea how rods from various trees produce fertility. I don’t know, either, but Jacob obviously had some insight that we don’t have. Regardless of the scientific—or perhaps miraculous—rationale, within a few years “the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys” (v. 43). Jehovah blessed him, as He had promised.