30:2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said,
[Am] I in a God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the
fruit of the womb?
(a) It is only God who makes one barren or fruitful, and
therefore I am not at fault.
30:3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and
she shall bear upon my b knees, that I may also have
children by her.
(b) I will receive her children on my lap, as though they
were my own.
30:8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with
my sister, c and I have prevailed: and she called his
name Naphtali.
(c) The arrogancy of man's nature appears in that she
condemns her sister, after she has received this
benefit from God to bear children.
30:11 And Leah said, d A troop cometh: and she called his name
Gad.
(d) That is, God increases me with a multitude of children
for so Jacob explains this name Gad (Ge 49:19).
30:14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found
e mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his
mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray
thee, of thy son's mandrakes.
(e) Which is a kind of herb whose root has a likeness to
the figure of a man.
30:18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have
given my f maiden to my husband: and she called his name
Issachar.
(f) Instead of acknowledging her fault she boasts as if
God had rewarded her for it.
30:23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath
taken away my g reproach:
(g) Because fruitfulness came as God's blessing, who said
"Increase and multiply", barrenness was counted as a
curse.
30:30 For [it was] little which thou hadst before I [came], and
it is [now] increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath
blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall h I
provide for mine own house also?
(h) The order of nature requires that every one provide
for his own family.
30:32 I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from
thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the
brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled
among the goats: i and [of such] shall be my hire.
(i) That which is spotted, from now on.
30:33 So shall my k righteousness answer for me in time to
come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face:
every one that [is] not speckled and spotted among the
goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted
stolen with me.
(k) God shall attest to my righteous dealing by rewarding
my labours.
30:37 And Jacob l took him rods of green poplar, and of the
hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them,
and made the white appear which [was] in the rods.
(l) Jacob used no deceit in this for it was God's
commandment as he declares in (Ge 31:9,11).
30:41 And it came to pass, whensoever the m stronger cattle
did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of
the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among
the rods.
(m) As they which took the ram about September and brought
forth about March: so the feebler in March and lamb in
September.
