Rachel, and God's reproving dealings in that He blessed the "hated" wife with children, while he withheld

from Rachel a boon so much desired in a family where all that was precious stood connected with an heir to

the promises. At the same time, this might also serve to teach again the lesson, given first to Abraham and

then to Isaac, how especially in the patriarchal family this blessing was to be a direct gift from the Lord. (See

also Psalm 127:3) Leah bore in rapid succession four sons, whom she significantly named Reuben (" behold!

a son"), saying, "Surely Jehovah hath looked upon my affliction;" Simeon ("hearing"), "Because Jehovah

hath heard that I was hated;" Levi ("cleaving," or "joined"), in the hope "Now this time will my husband

cleave to me;" and Judah ("praised," viz., be Jehovah), since she said: "Now will I praise Jehovah." It

deserves special notice, that in the birth of at least three of these sons, Leah not only recognized God, but

specially acknowledged Him as Jehovah, the covenant-God.

We do not suppose that Rachel, who had no children of her own, waited all this time without seeking to

remove what she enviously and jealously regarded as her sister's advantage. Indeed, the sacred text

nowhere indicates that the children of Jacob were born in the exact succession of time in which their names

are recorded. On the contrary, we have every reason to suppose that such was not the case. It quite agrees

with the petulant, querulous language of Rachel, that she waited not so long, but that so soon as she really

found herself at this disadvantage compared with her sister, she persuaded her husband to make her a

mother through Bilhah, her own maid, as Sarah had done in the case of Hagar. Thus the sins of the parents

too often reappear in the conduct of their successors. Instead of waiting upon God, or giving himself to

prayer, Jacob complied with the desire of his Rachel, and her maid successively bore two sons, whom

Rachel named "Dan," or "judging," as if God had judged her wrong, and "Naphtali," or "my wrestling,"

saying: "With great wrestling have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed." In both instances we

mark her gratified jealousy of her sister; and that, although she owned God, it was not as Jehovah, but as

Elohim, the God of nature, not the covenant-God of the promise.

Once again the evil example of a sister, and its supposed success, proved infectious. When Leah perceived

that she no longer became as before, a mother, and probably without waiting till both Rachel's adopted sons

had been born, she imitated the example of her sister, and gave to Jacob her own maid Zilpah as wife. Her

declension in faith further appears also in the names which she chose for the sons of Zilpah. At the birth of

the eldest, she exclaimed, "Good fortune cometh,"  45 and hence called him "Gad," or "good fortune;" the

same idea being expressed in the name of the second, Asher, or "happy." Neither did Leah in all this

remember God, but only thought of the success of her own device. But the number of children now granted

to the two sisters neither removed their mutual jealousies, nor restored peace to the house of Jacob. Most

painful scenes occurred; and when at length Leah again gave birth to two sons, she recognized, indeed, God

in their names, but now, like her sister, only Elohim, not Jehovah; while she seemed to see in the first of them

a reward for giving Zilpah to her husband, whence the child's name was called Issachar ("he gives," or "he

brings reward"); while she regarded her last-born son, Zebulun, or "dwelling," as a pledge that since she

had borne him six sons, her husband would now dwell with her!

It has already been stated that we must not regard the order in which the birth of Jacob's children is

mentioned as indicating their actual succession. 46 They are rather so enumerated, partly to show the

varying motives of the two sisters, and partly to group together the sons of different mothers. That the

scriptural narrative is not intended to represent the actual succession of the children appears also from the

circumstance, that the birth of an only daughter, Dinah ("judgment") is mentioned immediately after that of

Zebulun. The wording of the Hebrew text here implies that Dinah was born at a later period ("afterwards"),

and, indeed, she alone is mentioned on account of her connection with Jacob's later history, though we

have reason to believe that Jacob had other daughters (See Genesis 37:35, and 46:7), whose names and

history are not mentioned.

And now at last better thoughts seem to have come to Rachel. When we read that in giving her a son of her

own, "God hearkened to her," we are warranted in inferring that believing prayer had taken in her heart the

former place of envy and jealousy of her sister. The son whom she now bore, in the fourteenth year of