Genesis 30:4

Old Testament Law (Torah) ASV (1901)

What does Genesis 30:4 say?

The American Standard Version records this verse as: “And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.” Read the surrounding verses and the named sources below before drawing broader conclusions.

The verse

And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
Genesis 30:4 — American Standard Version

Context — Genesis 30

American Standard Version (1901) — public domain. Click any verse for its study page.
4And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.

What do historical commentaries say?

John Gill's Exposition
John Gill (1697–1771) · Exposition of the Old and New Testament · 18th-century historical commentary
“And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid, etc.] To be enjoyed as a wife, though she was no other than a concubine; yet such were sometimes called wives, and were secondary ones, and were under the proper lawful wife, nor did their children inherit; but those which Jacob had by his wives’ maids did inherit with the rest: and Jacob went in unto her; consenting to what Rachel his wife proposed to him: having concubines, as well as more wives than one, were not thought criminal in those times, and were suffered of God, and in this case for the multiplication of Jacob’s seed; and perhaps he might the more readily comply with the motion of his wife, from the example of his grandfather Abraham, who…”
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Sources and verification