¹tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
²tn Heb “sons.”
³tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”
⁴tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”
⁵tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
⁶tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.
⁷tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
⁸tn Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.
⁹tn Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2, as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125).
¹⁰tn Heb “and she”; the referent (Rachel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹¹tn Heb “went in to.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
¹²tn Or “Bilhah conceived” (also in v. 7).
¹³tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a son.”
¹⁴tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.
¹⁵tn Or “therefore.”
¹⁶sn The name Dan means “he vindicated” or “he judged.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. The verb translated “vindicated” is from D!/ (/yD]), “to judge; to vindicate,” the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.
¹⁷tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”
¹⁸tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
¹⁹sn The name Naphtali must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”
²⁰tn Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”
²¹tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore for Jacob a son.”
²²tc The statement in the Kethib (consonantal text) appears to mean literally “with good fortune,” if one takes the initial bet as a preposition indicating accompaniment. The Qere (marginal reading) means “good fortune has arrived.”
²³sn The name Gad means “good fortune.” The name reflects Leah’s feeling that good fortune has come her way, as expressed in her statement recorded earlier in the verse.
²⁴tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore a second son for Jacob.”
²⁵tn The Hebrew statement apparently means “with my happiness.”
²⁶tn Heb “daughters.”
²⁷sn The name Asher apparently means “happy one.” The name plays on the words used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. Both the Hebrew noun and verb translated “happy” and “call me happy,” respectively, are derived from the same root as the name Asher.
²⁸tn Heb “during the days.”
²⁹sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
³⁰tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
³¹tn Heb “therefore.”
³²tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
³³tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
³⁴tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
³⁵tn This is the same Hebrew verb (bk^v* [v*k^b]) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
³⁶tn Heb “listened to.”
³⁷tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19).
³⁸tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.
³⁹tn Heb “God has given my reward.”
⁴⁰tn The words “as a wife” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity (cf. v. 9).
sn Leah seems to regard the act of giving her servant Zilpah to her husband as a sacrifice, for which (she believes) God is now rewarding her with the birth of a son.
⁴¹sn The name Issachar appears to mean “man of reward” or possibly “there is reward.” The name plays on the word used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew noun translated “reward” is derived from the same root as the name Issachar. The irony is that Rachel thought the mandrakes would work for her, and she was willing to trade one night for them. But in that one night Leah became pregnant.
⁴²tn Heb “and she bore a sixth son for Jacob,” i.e., this was the sixth son that Leah had given Jacob.
⁴³sn The name Zebulun apparently means “honor.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew verb translated “will honor” and the name Zebulun derive from the same root.
⁴⁴tn Heb “remembered.”
⁴⁵tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons
⁴⁶tn Or “conceived.”
⁴⁷tn Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.
⁴⁸sn The name Joseph means “may he add.” The name expresses Rachel’s desire to have an additional son. In Hebrew the name sounds like the verb a*s*[ ([sa), translated “taken away” in the earlier statement made in v. 23. So the name, while reflecting Rachel’s hope, was also a reminder that God had removed her shame.
⁴⁹tn The perfect verbal form is translated as a past perfect because Rachel’s giving birth to Joseph preceded Jacob’s conversation with Laban.
⁵⁰tn The imperatival form here expresses a request.
sn For Jacob to ask to leave would mean that seven more years had passed. Thus all Jacob’s children were born within the range of seven years of each other, with Joseph coming right at the end of the seven years.
⁵¹tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
⁵²tn Heb “to my place and to my land.”
⁵³tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.
⁵⁴tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
⁵⁵tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”
⁵⁶tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
⁵⁷tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.
⁵⁸tn Heb “set your wage for me so I may give [it].”
⁵⁹tn Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
⁶⁰tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”
⁶¹tn Or “for.”
⁶²tn Heb “before me.”
⁶³tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”
⁶⁴tn Heb “at my foot.”
⁶⁵tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”
⁶⁶tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
⁶⁷tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.
⁶⁸tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
⁶⁹tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”
⁷⁰tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”
⁷¹tn Heb “pass through.”
⁷²tn Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”
⁷³tn Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”
⁷⁴tn Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.
⁷⁵tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”
⁷⁶tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”
⁷⁷tn Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.”
sn Only the wage we agreed on. Jacob would have to be considered completely honest here, for he would have no control over the kind of animals born; and there could be no disagreement over which animals were his wages.
⁷⁸tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”
⁷⁹tn Heb “and Laban said, ‘Good, let it be according to your word.’” On the asseverative use of the particle Wl (lW) here, see HALOT 2:521.
⁸⁰tn Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
⁸¹tn Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”
⁸²tn Heb “and he put a journey of three days between himself and Jacob.”
sn Three days’ traveling distance from Jacob. E. A. Speiser observes, “Laban is delighted with the terms, and promptly proceeds to violate the spirit of the bargain by removing to a safe distance all the grown animals that would be likely to produce the specified spots” (Genesis [AB], 238). Laban apparently thought that by separating out the spotted, striped, and dark colored animals he could minimize the production of spotted, striped, or dark offspring that would then belong to Jacob.
⁸³tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the vav with subject) is circumstantial/temporal; Laban removed the animals while Jacob was taking care of the rest.
⁸⁴sn He put the branches in front of the flocks…when they came to drink. It was generally believed that placing such “visual aids” before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that “Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids—in conformance with universal folk beliefs” (Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob’s efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5).
⁸⁵tn The Hebrew verb used here can mean “to be in heat” (see v. 38) or “to mate; to conceive; to become pregnant.” The latter nuance makes better sense in this verse, for the next clause describes them giving birth.
⁸⁶tn Heb “the sheep.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
⁸⁷tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”
⁸⁸tn Heb “and at every breeding-heat of the flock.”
⁸⁹tn Heb “he did not put [them] in.” The referent of the [understood] direct object, “them,” has been specified as “the branches” in the translation for clarity.
⁹⁰tn Heb “were for Laban.”
⁹¹tn Heb “the man”; Jacob’s name has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
⁹²tn Heb “and there were to him.”