Genesis 30:18

18. hire] Heb. sâchâr = “wages,” “reward.”

Issachar] The name receives a twofold explanation, in its derivation from sâchâr: (1) as the passive of the verb, in the sense of “he shall be hired or rewarded”; (2) as the combination of îsh, “man,” and sâchâr, “hire,” i.e. “a man of hire.” In Gen_30:16 Leah “hires” Jacob with the mandrakes given to Rachel; in Gen_30:18 she calls Issachar the “hire” or wage, which she receives for giving Zilpah to Jacob.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 30:18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

Ver. 18. God hath given me my hire.] Wherein she was much mistaken, as having not her "senses exercised to discern good and evil." Here she rejoiceth in that for which she should have repented; and was in the common error of measuring and judging of things by the success; {a} as if God were not many times angry with men, though they outwardly prosper. Thus Dionysius, after the spoils of an idol temple, finding the winds favourable, Lo, said he, how the gods approve of sacrilege!

{a} Foelix scelus virtus vocatur . - Cicero, De Divin., lib. ii.

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.

30:18 The name Issachar captures the sense of Jacob’s being hired (30:16) and of the Lord’s rewarding Leah (Hebrew sekari, “my hire”).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Instead of acknowledging her fault, she boasteth as if God had rewarded her therefore.

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

Verse 18. God hath given me my hire] שכרי sechari. And she called his name Issachar, יששכר, This word is compounded of יש yesh, IS, and שכר sachar, WAGES, from שכר sachar, to content, satisfy, saturate; hence a satisfaction or compensation for work done, &c.

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

(18) Issachar.—Heb., there is hire. As is so often the case in Hebrew names, there is a double play in the word: for, first, it alluded to the strange fact that Jacob had been hired of Rachel by the mandrakes; but, secondly, Leah gives it a higher meaning, “for God,” she says, “hath given me my hire.” In her eyes the birth of her fifth son was a Divine reward for the self-sacrifice involved in giving her maid to Jacob, and which had been followed by years of neglect of herself. As, too, it is said that “God hearkened unto Leah,” we may feel sure that she had prayed for God’s blessing upon her re-union with her husband; for Calvin’s objection that prayer would scarcely accompany such odious courses has little weight. Leah and Rachel were uneducated and untrained country women, whose sole anxiety was to have offspring. Leah was the most religious and best disciplined of the two; and the shame ideally was that she should have been forced thus to buy her husband’s attentions.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And afterwards she bare a daughter,.... Which some writers, as Aben Ezra observes, say, was at the same birth with Zebulun, a twin with him; but being said to be afterwards shows the contrary:

and called her name Dinah; which signifies "judgment": perhaps she may have some reference to the first son of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, whom she called Dan, a name of the same signification; intimating as if it was a clear case that judgment went on her side; and that by the number of children she had, it was plain God had determined in her favour.

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

Issachar, "the reward of the man, or husband." (Calmet) --- She might allude also to the reward she had obtained for her mandrakes. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thus she mistakes the answer of her prayers for a recompence of her error.

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

18. God hath given me my hire — Leah, of higher spiritual nature than Rachel, relies on God more than on any love potions, and she has her reward, and she gives her new-born son a name, Issachar, which means, there is a reward.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Leah said, God Elohim; a proof of the lower religious consciousness into which Leah had fallen (Hengstenberg), though perhaps on the above hypothesis an evidence of her piety and faith (Keil, Lange)hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband:i.e. as a reward for my self-denial (Keil, Murphy); an exclamation in which appears Leah"s love for Jacob (Lange), if not also a tacit acknowledgment that she had her fears lest she may have sinned in asking him to wed Zilpah (Rosenmand she called his name Issachar is Reward," or "There is Hire;" containing a double allusion to her hire of Jacob and her reward for Zilpah

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

ותאמר, seeing that she had stopped bearing children and had given her maidservant to Yaakov in her stead, she thought that she had been rewarded for this by G’d (for two reasons; 1) for helping her husband to father more children so that his indulging in sexual intercourse with a woman who could not provide him with children would not be accounted as mere physical gratification. 2) for having done her maidservant a great favour to become able to mother the children of such a righteous man as Yaakov. For both of these reasons she expressed the hope that G’d would reward her. When she subsequently indeed bore children for Yaakov again herself, she considered this as her reward from G’d and thanked Him for it. She made certain that her son’s name reflected her feeling of gratitude by naming him יששכר.

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.