Tag: Zilpah and Bilhah

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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.

Categories
Biblical People

Biblical People: Bilhah

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Bilhah and Zilpah aren’t familiar names in the Bible, yet their contribution to the nation of Israel is significant. 

When Laban’s two daughters marry Jacob, their father gives them each a wedding gift: a servant.

To his daughter Leah, he gives his servant Zilpah, while to his daughter Rachel, he gives Bilhah. These two servants shouldn’t have had a significant role in the Bible, but that’s not how their story unfolds. Their lives have a distressing parallel to Hagar who preceded them.

Here’s Bilhah’s story:

In her desperation to have children, childless Rachel offers her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob to make babies in her place. Her foolish husband agrees, impregnating his wife’s servant—twice. As a result, she gives birth to Dan and Naphtali. 

In a sad sidenote, Bilhah’s stepson Reuben later sleeps with her. Though aware of what happened, Jacob (Israel) does nothing about it.

This suggests that both Jacob and Reuben view Bilhah as property more than a person. This isn’t God’s perspective but man’s perversion, which resulted from sin.

Throughout all this, Bilhah has no say in what happens to her. As a servant, she must obey her mistress. And she’s a voiceless victim to her stepson’s lust. 

But as God often does, he watches out for the underdog, with Bilhah’s offspring becoming part of his chosen people. This means that of Jacob’s twelve sons, two come from Bilhah, with two of the tribes of Israel descending from her.

Regardless of what happens to us, do we believe God is on our side? How should we respond when people use us as objects and don’t treat us as they should?

[Read Bilhah’s story in Genesis 30:1–8 and 35:22.]

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.

Categories
Biblical People

Bible People: Zilpah and Bilhah

Zilpah and Bilhah

Zilpah and Bilhah aren’t familiar women in the Bible, yet their contribution to the nation of Israel is significant. 

When Laban’s two daughters marry Jacob, Dad gives them each a wedding gift: a servant. To his daughter Leah, he gives his servant Zilpah, while to his daughter Rachel, he gives Bilhah.

These servants should be nothing more than a footnote in history, but that’s not how the story unfolds. Their lives have a distressing parallel to Hagar who preceded them.

While Leah gives Jacob several sons, Rachel has no children. In desperation, she offers her servant, Bilhah, to her husband to make babies in her place. Her foolish husband agrees, impregnating his wife’s servant—twice.

Not to be outdone, Leah does the same thing, offering her servant, Zilpah, to sleep with Jacob. Zilpah also gets pregnant—twice. Eventually Rachel has two boys of her own, while Leah has six sons altogether.

As a result, the two servants produce four sons for Jacob. Of his twelve boys, four are not from his wives, but from his wives’ servants. The twelve boys become the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob), so one third of the nation of Israel results from Jacob’s relationship with his wives’ two servants.

Zilpah and Bilhah have nothing to say in any of this. As servants, they must obey their mistresses. They are voiceless victims. But as he often does, God rewards the underdogs, with Zilpah and Bilhah’s offspring comprising one third of his chosen people.

Even when we feel like helpless, voiceless victims, God is on our side. Do we truly believe that?

[Discover more about Zilpah and Bilhah in Genesis 29–35.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

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.