Genesis 19:32

19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine ¹  so we can have sexual relations ²  with him and preserve ³  our family line through our father.” ⁴ 

Genesis 29:30

29:30 Jacob ⁵  had marital relations ⁶  with Rachel as well. He loved Rachel more than Leah, so he worked for Laban ⁷  for seven more years. ⁸ 

Genesis 30:3

30:3 She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ⁹  her so that she can bear ¹⁰  children ¹¹  for me ¹²  and I can have a family through her.” ¹³ 

Genesis 35:22

35:22 While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with ¹⁴  Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had twelve sons:

Genesis 38:2

38:2 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man ¹⁵  named Shua. ¹⁶  Judah acquired her as a wife ¹⁷  and had marital relations with her. ¹⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “drink wine.”

² tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.

³ tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.

⁴ tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”

sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.

⁵ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “went in also to Rachel.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse, i.e., the consummation of the marriage.

⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “and he loved also Rachel, more than Leah, and he served with him still seven other years.”

⁹ tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.

¹⁰ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.

¹¹ tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn 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.

¹³ tn 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 s.v. בָנָה).

¹⁴ tn Heb “and Reuben went and lay with.” The expression “lay with” is a euphemism for having sexual intercourse.

sn Reuben’s act of having sexual relations with Bilhah probably had other purposes than merely satisfying his sexual desire. By having sex with Bilhah, Reuben (Leah’s oldest son) would have prevented Bilhah from succeeding Rachel as the favorite wife, and by sleeping with his father’s concubine he would also be attempting to take over leadership of the clan – something Absalom foolishly attempted later on in Israel’s history (2 Sam 16:21-22).

¹⁵ tn Heb “a man, a Canaanite.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “and his name was Shua.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “and he took her.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “and he went to her.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.