bilhah Summary and Overview

faltering; bashful, Rachel's handmaid, whom she gave to Jacob (Gen. 29:29). She was the mother of Dan and Naphtali (Gen. 30:3-8). Reuben was cursed by his father for committing adultry with her (35:22; 49:4). He was deprived of the birth-right, which was given to the sons of Joseph.

(timid, bashful), handmaid of Rachel, #Ge 29:29| and concubine of Jacob, to whom she bore Dan and Naphtali. #Ge 30:3-8; 35:25; 46:25; 1Ch 7:13| (B.C 53.)

BIL'HAH (timid, modest), the handmaid of Rachel, and, by Jacob, the mother of Dan and Naphtali. Gen 29:29; Gen 35:25.

1. Rachel's handmaid (Genesis 29:29). Rachel having no children gave Bilhah to her husband Jacob, who by the latter had two sons, Dan and Naphtali (Genesis 30:1-8; Genesis 35:25; Genesis 46:25; 1 Chronicles 7:13). Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, defiled her, and was therefore deprived of the birthright, which was given to the sons of Joseph (Genesis 35:22; Genesis 49:4; 1 Chronicles 5:1). Blunt says, so vivid was the desire for the promised Redeemer, that "the wife provoked, instead of resenting, the faithlessness of her husband, the mother taught her own child deceit, daughters deliberately worked their own and their fathers' shame, and the daughter-in-law courted the incestuous bed, and to be childless was a by-word" (Genesis 16:2; Genesis 30:3; Genesis 30:9; Genesis 25:23; Genesis 27:13; Genesis 19:31; Genesis 38:14). 2. A Simeonite town (1 Chronicles 4:29), named also Baalah or Balah (Joshua 19:3).