Genesis 30:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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זִלְפָּה֙

Zilpâh

H2153

“Zilpah”

Noun, Proper

Appears 7× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 29:24

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root apparently mean to trickle, as myrrh

TWOT: None

Zilpah = "a trickling" - the Syrian given by Laban to Leah as a handmaid, a concubine of Jacob, mother of Asher and Gad

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is זִלְפָּה֙ Zilpah H2153 — appearing just 7 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

זִלְפָּה֙ Zilpah H2153 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns
1 adjective

Verb forms

וַתֵּ֗לֶד Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 8 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 15 words vs World English Bible 8. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 30:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתֵּ֗לֶד זִלְפָּה֙ שִׁפְחַ֣ת לֵאָ֔ה בֵּ֥ן שֵׁנִ֖י לְיַעֲקֹֽב

Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 30:12 Septuagint · lemma form

καί συνλαμβάνω ζελφα ὁ παιδίσκη λεια καί τίκτω ἔτι ὁ ἰακώβ υἱός δεύτερος

And Zelpha the maid of Lea conceived yet again, and bore Jacob a second son.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וִילִידַת זִלְפָּה אַמְתָא דְלֵאָה בָּר תִּנְיָן לְיַעֲקֹב

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וִילֵידַת זִלְפָּה אַמְתָא דְלֵאָה בַּר תִּנְיַן לְיַעֲקב

And Zilpha the handmaid of Leah bare a second son to Jakob.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 30:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

John Gill's Exposition

And she said unto her,.... Leah to Rachel, taking this opportunity to bring out a thing which had some time lain with uneasiness upon her mind:

is it a small thing that thou hast taken away my husband? got the greatest share of his affections, and had most of his company; which last was very probably the case, and more so, since Leah had left off bearing; and this she could not well stomach, and therefore upon this trifling occasion outs with it:

and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? which were poor things to be mentioned along with an husband; and besides, Rachel did not offer to take them away from the child without her leave, which she in very humble manner asked of her:

and Rachel said, therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes; which showed no great affection to her husband, and a slight of his company, to be willing to part with it for such a trifle; and it seems by this as if they took their turns to lie with Jacob, and this night being Rachel's turn, she agrees to give it to Leah for the sake of the mandrakes: or however, if she had engrossed him to herself very much of late, as seems by the words of Leah above, she was willing to give him up to her this night, on that consideration; which Leah agreed she should have, as appears by what follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 12, 13. And Zilpah, Leah"s maid, bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, literally, in my happiness, so am I ("Speaker"s Commentary"); or, for or to my happiness (Keil, Kalisch)for the daughters will call me blessed (or, happy): and she called his name Asheri.e. Happy.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

Zilpah

This is the name of Leah's female servant. See how you translated this name in Genesis 29:24. (See: How to Translate Names)

bore Jacob a second son

"gave birth to a second son for Jacob"

I am happy!

"How blessed I am!" or "How happy I am!"

the daughters

"the women" or "the young women"

called his name Asher

Translators may also add a footnote that says "The name Asher means 'happy.'" (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Asher

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Zilpâh (“Zilpah”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Zilpâh carries the sense “Zilpah.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 29:24 shares the word «Zilpah» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַתֵּ֗לֶד» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and The Pulpit Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.