In the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

, Zilpah ( he, ''Zīlpā'', meaning uncertain) was

Leah Leah ''La'ya;'' from (; ) appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son ...

handmaid A handmaiden, handmaid or maidservant is a personal maid or female servant. Depending on culture or historical period, a handmaiden may be of slave status or may be simply an employee. However, the term ''handmaiden'' generally implies lowly st ...

, presumed

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

,In Context whom Leah gave to

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

like a wife to bear him children (). Zilpah gave birth to two sons, whom Leah claimed as her own and named Gad and

Asher Asher ( he, אָשֵׁר ''’Āšēr''), in the Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. I ...

(). Zilpah is given to Leah as a handmaid by Leah's father,

Laban Laban is a French language, French surname. It may refer to: Places * Laban-e Olya, a village in Iran * Laban-e Sofla, a village in Iran * Laban, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * 8539 Laban, main-belt asteroid People ...

, upon Leah's marriage to Jacob (see , ). According to the early rabbinical commentary

Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (also Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer; Aramaic: פרקי דרבי אליעזר, or פרקים דרבי אליעזר, Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer; abbreviated PdRE) is an aggadic-midrashic work on the Torah containing exegesis and re ...

, Zilpah and

Bilhah Bilhah ( "unworried", Standard Hebrew: ''Bīlha'', Tiberian Hebrew: ''Bīlhā'') is a woman mentioned in the Book of Genesis.For the etymology, see describes her as Laban's handmaid, who was given to Rachel to be her handmaid on Rachel's marria ...

, the handmaids of Leah and

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

, respectively, were actually younger daughters of Laban. Zilpah also figures in the competition between Jacob's wives to bear him sons. Leah stops conceiving after the birth of her fourth son, at which point Rachel, who had not yet borne children, offers her handmaid, Bilhah, to Jacob like a wife in order to have children through her. When Bilhah conceives two sons, Leah takes up the same idea and presents Zilpah to Jacob so she can have children through her. Leah names the two sons of Zilpah and is directly involved in their upbringing. According to

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

, an 11th-century commentator, Zilpah was younger than

, and Laban's decision to give her to Leah was part of the deception he used to trick Jacob into marrying Leah, who was older than Rachel. The morning after the wedding, Laban explained to Jacob, "This is not done in our place, to give the younger before the older" (). But at night, to mask the deception, Laban gave the veiled bride the younger of the handmaids, so Jacob would think that he was really marrying Rachel, the younger of the sisters.For Rashi's commentary on this, with English translation, see Rashi's notes on 30:10

/ref> In Jewish tradition, Zilpah is believed to be buried in the

Tomb of the Matriarchs The Tomb of the Matriarchs, (Hebrew: קבר האמהות, ''Kever ha'Imahot''), in Tiberias, Israel, is the traditional burial place of several biblical women: *Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel. *Zilpah, handmaid of Leah. *Jochebed, mother of Moses. ...

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...

In popular culture

In the novel '' The Red Tent'' by

Anita Diamant Anita Diamant (born June 27, 1951) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books."Anita Diamant." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2015. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-09-22. She has ...

, Zilpah and Bilhah are represented as half-sisters of Leah and Rachel by different mothers.

References

{{Authority control Book of Genesis people Jacob Jewish concubines Women in the Hebrew Bible Slave concubines