Zilpah, Leah's maid and Jacob's concubine, bore Jacob a second son, Asher, who is counted among Jacob's sons. This birth took place while Jacob was in the East with Laban, after serving fourteen years for his two daughters, between his dream at Bethel in Genesis 28 and his departure from Haran to return to Canaan in Genesis 31-32, when God prospered him in flocks and herds despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his due. The verse belongs to the account of Jacob's trials and victories and to his checkered, unsatisfactory experience, marked by selfish plotting and consequent suffering, which culminated in a change of heart. The surrounding chapter is to be read with attention to the promised Seed and the channels through which that Seed would come.
The birth reflects Jacob's polygamous family life, which was a plain violation of the marriage institution, evil and wrong and contrary to the original order in Eden that should never have been departed from. That polygamy brought very great unhappiness into every family where it entered, including Jacob's, though it was permitted throughout the Old Testament period because of hardness of heart. Such patriarchal violation did not diminish or destroy the sacred character of marriage, just as violation of the Sabbath would not destroy the Sabbath. Marriage was made for man before the fall, its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue, and it is guarded by the seventh commandment.
Zilpah's sons were recognized as free and equal with Jacob's other sons, counted among his sons and sharing in their father's property. They became heads of tribes in Israel, showing that the handmaids and their children were not chattel slaves.
Zilpah, Leah's maid and Jacob's concubine, bore Jacob a second son, Asher, who is counted among Jacob's sons. This birth took place while Jacob was in the East with Laban, after serving fourteen years for his two daughters, between his dream at Bethel in Genesis 28 and his departure from Haran to return to Canaan in Genesis 31-32, when God prospered him in flocks and herds despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his due. The verse belongs to the account of Jacob's trials and victories and to his checkered, unsatisfactory experience, marked by selfish plotting and consequent suffering, which culminated in a change of heart. The surrounding chapter is to be read with attention to the promised Seed and the channels through which that Seed would come.
The birth reflects Jacob's polygamous family life, which was a plain violation of the marriage institution, evil and wrong and contrary to the original order in Eden that should never have been departed from. That polygamy brought very great unhappiness into every family where it entered, including Jacob's, though it was permitted throughout the Old Testament period because of hardness of heart. Such patriarchal violation did not diminish or destroy the sacred character of marriage, just as violation of the Sabbath would not destroy the Sabbath. Marriage was made for man before the fall, its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue, and it is guarded by the seventh commandment.
Zilpah's sons were recognized as free and equal with Jacob's other sons, counted among his sons and sharing in their father's property. They became heads of tribes in Israel, showing that the handmaids and their children were not chattel slaves.