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Bilhah
Bilhah (בִּלְהָה "unworried", Standard Hebrew: Bilha, Tiberian Hebrew: Bīlhā) is a woman mentioned in the Book of Genesis.[1] Genesis 29:29 describes her as Laban's handmaiden (שִׁפְחָה), who was given to Rachel to be her handmaid on Rachel's marriage to Jacob. When Rachel failed to have children, Rachel gave Bilhah to Jacob like a wife to bear him children.[2] Bilhah gave birth to two sons, whom Rachel claimed as her own and named Dan and Naphtali.[3] Genesis 35:22 expressly calls Bilhah Jacob's concubine, a pilegesh. When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob like a wife to bear him children as well.
The apocryphal Testament of Naftali says that Bilhah and Zilpah's father was named Rotheus.[4] He was taken into captivity but redeemed by Laban, Rachel and Leah's father. Laban gave Rotheus a wife named Euna, who was the girls' mother.[5] On the other hand, the early rabbinical commentary Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer and other rabbinic sources (Midrash Rabba and elsewhere) state that Bilhah and Zilpah were also Laban's daughters, through his concubines, which would make them half-sisters to Rachel and Leah.[6][7][8] Scholars believe that these attempts to make Bilhah and Zilpah appear biologically related to Abraham's family were a result of anti-foreign views in the postexilic period. It appears more likely that they were foreign like Tamar and Asenath, who were considered to be 'secondary Matriarchs'.[9]
Bilhah is said to be buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs in Tiberias.
In the Books of Chronicles, Shimei's brothers were said to have lived in a town called Bilhah and surrounding territories prior to the reign of David.[10]
- ^ For the etymology, see Holman Reference (1 May 2007). Holman Illustrated Pocket Bible Dictionary. B&H Publishing Group. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-58640-314-0.
- ^ Genesis 30:3–5
- ^ Genesis 30:6–8, 35:25
- ^ "The Testament of Naphtali" (1:9) as translated in The Forgotten Books of Eden by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. [1]
- ^ "The Testament of Naphtali" (1:11) as translated in The Forgotten Books of Eden by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. [2]
- ^ Rabbi Eliezer (1916). "Chapter 36". Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer. Translated by Friedlander, Gerald (1916 translation ed.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner & Co. Ltd. p. 271-272.
- ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909) The Legends of the Jews, Volume I, Chapter VI: Jacob, at sacred-texts.com
- ^ See also, Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, xxxvi.
- ^ Reiss, Moshe; Zucker, David J. (2014). "Co-opting the Secondary Matriarchs". Biblical Interpretation. 22 (3): 307–324. doi:10.1163/15685152-00223p04.
- ^ 1 Chronicles 4:27–29
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