Genesis 30:3-5
The Voice
Rachel: 3 Here’s my servant, Bilhah. Sleep with her so she can be a surrogate for me. I’ll have my children through her.
What Rachel suggests is not at all improper for her time. As you may recall, Sarah and Abraham had a similar situation with Hagar (16:1–4). Custom allows for these kinds of arrangements, just as technology today allows for an infertile woman to have a child through a surrogate. Any child born to Bilhah is regarded as Rachel’s, because she has the right to name the child. As we have seen, the naming of a child carries great significance.
4 So she gave Jacob her servant Bilhah to be another one of his wives, and Jacob slept with her. 5 Bilhah conceived and gave birth to Jacob’s son.
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