Genesis 30:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

Behold my maid Bilhah She will rather have children by reputation than none at all; children that she can call her own, though they be not so. But had she not considered her sister as her rival, and envied her, she would have thought Leah's children nearer to her, and more entitled to her care than Bilhah's could be. As an early instance of her dominion over the children born in her apartment, she takes a pleasure in giving them names that carry in them nothing but marks of emulation with her sister. As if she had overcome her, 1st, At law, she calls the first son of her handmaid Dan, judgment; saying, God hath judged me That is, given sentence in my favour. 2d, In battle, she calls the next Naphtali, wrestlings, saying, I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed See what roots of bitterness envy and strife are, and what mischief they make among relations!

Genesis 30:3

3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.