We would’ve thought the patriarchs learned their lesson from Sarah and Abraham, not to sleep with their wife’s handmaidens to produce heirs. But by the time we get to Jacob, the third patriarch, it seems he has not learned his lesson. He has children with Leah’s handmaiden Zilpah and Rachel’s handmaiden Bilhah.
Today we’ll focus on the former, Zilpah. Jacob slept with her several times, and she produced a few heirs for him. In spite of the fact that Leah had been quite fertile and had several children on her own.
We’ll explore who Zilpah is, why Jacob slept with her, and what her children went on to do in history.
Zilpah had started as a handmaiden for a man named Laban. If that name sounds familiar, he was the man who tricked the trickster.
The story begins when Jacob flees from home after his brother Esau vows to kill him for stealing his father’s blessing. Jacob lands in the safety of Laban’s home. He instantly falls in love with Laban’s daughter Rachel. Laban tricks Jacob into working seven years for Rachel, only to switch the brides on the wedding day and give him the less attractive sister, Leah.
Jacob works seven more years for Rachel (although he marries Rachel before that time).
Laban gives Zilpah to Leah in Genesis 29. It must have been customary for parents to pass down enslaved people to their children.
Scripture, unfortunately, doesn’t tell us much about Zilpah. We don’t get much of a sense of personality. We can see from Hagar’s example that sometimes mistresses would be cruel to their slaves.
Sarah is so cruel to Hagar that she drives her away. Hagar flees into the desert to die. But returns after God speaks with her.
Leah does not seem to be cruel in Scripture. Besides getting jealous of Jacob’s favoritism toward Rachel, she doesn’t seem to have any violent tendencies.
Still, we can imagine Zilpah probably didn’t love being a handmaiden to Leah. Although slavery looked different in ancient Israel than our modern-day equivalent, it was never seen as a position of honor throughout history.
What becomes interesting in Scripture is what happens when Leah stops being able to have children. So she sends in a pinch-hitter. She married Jacob to Zilpah.
Interestingly, Scripture says that Zilpah became a wife of Jacob (Genesis 30:9). The Bible isn’t clear as to whether Jacob saw her as a wife in the same way that he would’ve seen Rachel and Leah, but Scripture doesn’t use the word concubine.
So she was at least given a slightly higher position of honor than the concubines of Solomon, for instance.
The question, of course, becomes, why would Leah feel the need to do this? When Leah gave birth to six sons, her sister had none. (Rachel eventually goes on to have two).
We have to look a little earlier in the passage to answer this. Seeing that she couldn’t have kids, Rachel decided to, well, we might say she sent in a pinch-hitter. Bilhah. Since Bilhah was Rachel’s handmaiden, she would be considered an extension of Rachel—her children may be considered Rachel’s by proxy.
Bilhah becomes a wife to Jacob and starts having children. Bilhah has two kids. Leah starts to panic.
So Leah throws Zilpah at Jacob to even the score (although two versus six boys—not even including the girls these ladies must’ve had—isn’t an even score to start with).
It’s sad to see several things in this passage.
One that Rachel and Leah didn’t see their servants as fully human. They treated the women as extensions of themselves: if their respective handmaiden had kids, that counted as their kids. This doesn’t seem unusual thinking for the time—Sarah played similar games by recommending her husband Abraham have children with Hagar.
Secondly, it’s sad that it was a numbers game. In ancient times, society often estimated a woman’s worth on how many (male) children she could produce for her husband.
We can imagine that Zilpah and Bilhah felt used in these situations. Although Jacob did accept their children as his own, they’d likely undergone some psychological trauma from this. It may help to explain why once their children became adults, they became deeply hostile to Joseph, one of Rachel’s two children.
Zilpah had two male children mentioned in Scripture: Gad and Asher. If those names sound vaguely familiar, it’s because two tribes of Israel received these names.
The Tribe of Gad appears to be one that had been attacked but retaliated with quite brutal force (Genesis 49).
They seem to be a very religious tribe, as they dedicated an altar to God in the book of Joshua.
It should be noted that Gad was one of the ten tribes who ended up in the northern kingdom. For those unfamiliar with what happened to that kingdom: Israel split into two, and the northern kingdom was exiled into Assyria in 722 BC.
As for her second son, Asher, Jacob tells his son that he will have rich food and resources (Genesis 49).
They don’t seem notable for a lot in Scripture, but they were also part of the Northern kingdom.
It seems that both of Zilpah’s sons were given very rich lands. And their people seem loyal to God throughout their history—except for moments here and there.
We can imagine that Zilpah would’ve been proud that her sons went on to be founders of tribes—and wealthy tribes at that.
Like so many other women’s stories in the Bible, Zilpah’s is quite a loaded one. Many women in ancient history didn’t have much agency, let alone slave women in the Bible.
But this is where I think the Bible is unique from other ancient texts. Most ancient texts don’t give enslaved people the time of day, let alone enslaved women.
And yet, this woman has two sons who go on to lead very faithful and successful tribes.
So what can we learn from her?
First, competition spurs people on to misuse people.
Leah and Rachel had grown to hate each other throughout their marriage. Why? Well, because ancient society told them they only had value if they had children, and Jacob played favorites.
So they decided to give their maidservants children to get Jacob to like them more.
Unfortunately, Zilpah and Bilhah fell victim to Rachel and Leah’s jealousy and got caught up in this mix.
In the same way, we may let competition get the best of us. To force us to make our workers or friends feel used. When we try to play God, we end up with many hurt people.
Second, Jacob took her as a wife.
It is really interesting to me that Zilpah and Bilhah were seen as more than concubines. Jacob probably did not see them as equals to Leah and Rachel, but he accepted their children as his own.
This may be a bright and shiny moment for all Jacob’s flaws.
Finally, Zilpah’s sons end up having very rich tribes.
I often think of parents who didn’t live the lives they’d hoped for. Perhaps they grew up in impoverished circumstances or worked jobs they disliked.
All for the hope that their children could have a better life than they did.
We can imagine that Zilpah swelled with pride that her sons received a beautiful blessing from Jacob on his deathbed.
Although she may not have lived the life she’d hoped for, her sons and their descendants had a bright future ahead of them.
God has a way of redeeming generations and moving through our children’s lives.
© Getty Images/Ozbalci
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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