Genesis 30:16

Gen 30:16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

Ver. 16. Thou must come in unto me.] These contentions, saith an interpreter, {a} were not merely carnal, but partly also for desire of God’s ordinary blessing in propagation; and chiefly, for the increase of the Church, and obtaining the promised Seed for salvation.

{a} Ainsw.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, buying I have bought.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 16. I have hired thee] We may remark among the Jewish women an intense desire of having children; and it seems to have been produced, not from any peculiar affection for children, but through the hope of having a share in the blessing of Abraham, by bringing forth Him in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And Leah conceived again,.... For bearing children Jacob took more to her, and more frequently attended her apartment and bed:

and bare Jacob a sixth son; the sixth by her, but the tenth by her and his two maids.

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

He ratified their agreement, that he might preserve peace and love amongst them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, i.e. the harvest-field (ver. 14)and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me (the Samaritan codex adds "this night," and the LXX "today"); for surely I have hired thee (literally, hiring; I have hired thee) with my son"s mandrakes. And (assenting to the arrangement of his wives) he lay with her that night.

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

with my son's mandrakes

"for the price of my son's mandrakes." See how you translated "mandrake" in Genesis 30:14.

she conceived

"She became pregnant"

bore Jacob a fifth son

"gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob"

God has given me my wages

God rewarding Leah is spoken of as if he were a boss paying wages to someone who works for him. AT: "God has given my due" or "God has rewarded me" (See: Metaphor)

She called his name Issachar

Translators may also add a footnote that says: "The name Issachar means 'there is a reward.'"

translationWords

Jacob

Leah

had relations with

conceive

servant

Issachar

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

שכר שכרתיך FOR SURELY I HAVE HIRED THEE — I have given Rachel the hire she demanded.

בלילה הוא THAT NIGHT — With God’s help Isaachar was born (Niddah 31a, and cf. Genesis Rabbah 99).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

You will come to me. This will entail no injustice since Rochel agreed. Like Adam before the sin, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs related to reproduction as nothing other than a way to produce more servants for Hashem.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ויבא יעקב, the reason why this whole paragraph has been preserved in the Torah for all times is to demonstrate that what motivated our matriarchs in their relations with their husbands was exclusively their task to produce as many children for them as possible. They were not concerned with indulging their libido. When Rachel, during those years, made a point of sleeping with Yaakov at every opportunity, it was because she hoped that on one of those occasions her prayers would be answered and that she would conceive. We find that in verse 22 this did indeed happen. It stands to reason then that when Leah requested that Yaakov sleep with her on a certain occasion, she too prayed that she would conceive as an answer to her prayers. She had resumed praying for additional children as soon as she had noticed that she no longer seemed to become pregnant easily. G’d did indeed listen to her prayer as we know from verse 17. As to Leah going out towards Yaakov while the latter was on his way home from work, she did this fully in accordance with accepted moral ethical rules, seeing that Yaakov had been unaware of the bargain Leah had made with Rachel. Had she not headed him off, Yaakov would have proceeded to Rachel’s tent, as was his custom. It would have been most inappropriate for Leah to ask Yaakov to leave Rachel’s tent after he had already arrived there.

אלי תבא, to my tent, seeing that each of the matriarchs had her own tent.

בלילה הוא the noun has the definitive article, i.e. the patach under the letter ב in the word בלילה, whereas the adjective, the word הוא, does not have the prefix ה which would signal such a definitive article, i.e. referring to a specific night we already know about. There are many such constructions in the Torah, one of the best known ones being in Numbers 28,4 את הכבש אחד, where we would have expected the word האחד instead of merely אחד. Samuel II 6,3 is another such example where we would have expected the word החדשה instead of חדשה.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.