When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, her jealousy toward her sister simmered. So, she said to Jacob, “Give me sons, or I’ll die!”
Jacob became furious with Rachel and said, “Am I God? He’s the one keeping you from bearing children!” She replied, “Here’s my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her. She can be my surrogate; then I can have children through her and build a family.”
So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as another wife, and Jacob slept with her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son, and Rachel named him Dan, saying, “God has vindicated me. He heard my voice and gave me a son.” Then her servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Rachel named him Naphtali, saying, “I have wrestled mightily with my sister, and I won!”
Meanwhile, when Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as another wife. Zilpah bore Jacob a son, and Leah named him Gad, saying, “What good fortune!” Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, and Leah named him Asher, saying, “Oh happy day! All the women will say, ‘She’s happy now!’ ”
One day, during wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrake plants in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
Leah replied, “You already took away the affection of my husband, so now you’re going to take my son’s mandrakes, too?”
Rachel said, “All right then, I’ll let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for some of your son’s mandrakes.”
That evening, when Jacob was coming home from the field, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep with me tonight, for I’ve paid for your services with my son’s mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with Leah that night. God listened compassionately to Leah’s cry, she became pregnant, and bore Jacob a fifth son, whom she named Issachar, saying, “God rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.”
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