30:7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, became pregnant again and gave Jacob another son. 4 30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” 5 So she named him Naphtali. 6
30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave 7 her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. 30:10 Soon Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob a son. 8 30:11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” 9 So she named him Gad. 10
30:12 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob another son. 11 30:13 Leah said, “How happy I am, 12 for women 13 will call me happy!” So she named him Asher. 14
1 tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.
2 tn Or “therefore.”
3 sn 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 דִּין (din, “to judge, to vindicate”), the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.
4 tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”
5 tn 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.
6 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) 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.”
7 tn Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”
8 tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore for Jacob a son.”
9 tc The statement in the Kethib (consonantal text) appears to mean literally “with good fortune,” if one takes the initial בְּ (bet) as a preposition indicating accompaniment. The Qere (marginal reading) means “good fortune has arrived.”
10 sn The name Gad (גָּד, 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.
11 tn Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore a second son for Jacob.”
12 tn The Hebrew statement apparently means “with my happiness.”
13 tn Heb “daughters.”
14 sn The name Asher (אָשֶׁר, ’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.