John Gill Commentary Genesis 30

And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children
In the space of three or four years after marriage, and when her sister Leah had had four sons: Rachel envied her sister ;
the honour she had of bearing children, and the pleasure in nursing and bringing them up, when she lay under the reproach of barrenness: or, "she emulated her sisters" ^F26 ; was desirous of having children even as she, which she might do, and yet not be guilty of sin, and much less of envy, which is a very heinous sin.

and said unto Jacob, give me children, or else I die ;
Rachel could never be so weak as to imagine that it was in the power of Jacob to give her children at his pleasure, or of a barren woman to make her a fruitful mother of children; though Jacob at sight seems so to have understood her: but either, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it, that he would pray the Lord to give her children, as Isaac prayed for Rebekah; so Aben Ezra and Jarchi: or that he would, think of some means or other whereby she might have children, at least that might be called hers; and one way she had in view, as appears from what follows.

or otherwise she suggests she could not live comfortably; not that she should destroy herself, as some have imagined; but that she should be so uneasy in her mind, that her life would be a burden to her; that death would be preferred to it, and her fretting herself for want of children, in all probability, would issue in it.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: anqt ) "aemulata est", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Schmidt.

And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. Whom yet he dearly loved, hearing her talk in such an extravagant manner, as her words seemed to be, and were not: only expressive of great uneasiness and impatience, but implied what was not in the power of man to do.

And he said, [am] I in God's stead: Do you take me to be God, or one that has a dispensing power from him to do what otherwise no creature can do; and which also he never gives to any?

For, as the Targum of Jerusalem on (Genesis 30:22) says, this is one of the four keys which God delivers not to an angel or a seraph; even the key of barrenness. Children are the gift of God, and his only, and therefore he is to be sought unto for them: hence Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase it; ``wherefore do you seek them of me? should you not seek them of the Lord?''

who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? children, (Psalms 127:3); not Jacob, but the Lord.

And she said in order to pacify Jacob, and explain her meaning to him; which was, not that she thought it was in his power to make her the mother of children, but that he would think of some way or another of obtaining children for her, that might go for hers; so the Arabic version, "obtain a son for me": but, since no method occurred to him, she proposes one:

behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her , take her and use her as your wife:

and she shall bear upon my knees ; either sit on her knees in the time of labour, and so bring forth as if it was she herself; or rather bear a child, which Rachel would take and nurse, and dandle upon her knees as her own, see (Isaiah 66:12) ;

that I may also have children by her ; children as well as her sister, though by her maid, and as Sarah proposed to have by Hagar, whose example, in all probability, she had before her, and uses her very words; (See Gill on Genesis 16:2).

And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid
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 took Hagar to wife at the instance of Sarah.

And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son .
] This was so far countenanced by the Lord, that he blessed her with conception, and Jacob with a son by her.