Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 30:20

"And Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun." — Genesis 30:20 (ASV)

Zebulun. —Leah is more than usually obscure in the reasons she gives for this name, for she plays upon two words, which probably both belonged to the Mesopotamian patois: and as this was a Syriac dialect, we must look to that language for their explanation. The first is zebed; and here there is no difficulty. It means presents that a father gives his daughter on her marriage, in addition to those enumerated in the marriage contract. Of the second, zabal, there is no trace. Nor do the Syro-Arabic lexicons acknowledge in the word “Zebulun” a sense such as dwelling, given in our margin.

Bar-Ali explains it as meaning “salvation of the night, or a good dowry,” and Bar-Bahlul, “a dowry of the night,” both deriving it from zebed, a dowry, and lun, to pass the night. The derivation is wrong as far as concerns lun; for the word Zebulun is formed simply from zebed, the final d of which is changed into l for mere reasons of euphony. The Versions take the word zabal as meaning, “to be with,” Vulgate; “to choose,” Septuagint; “to cleave to,” Syriac. It occurs nowhere else, but the substantive zebul is not uncommon, and means dwelling, station.

As a woman’s value in the East rises with each son, Leah now hoped for more love from her husband. Nor does she seem to have been disappointed.