The Birth of Jacob’s Children: This account reports the births of twelve children to Jacob. Each one is named according to the aspiration of the mother. The wordplays made with the children’s names, virtually impossible to capture in English, are free and innovative. It is noteworthy that each mother also praises God for his grace through these names. None of the names of the children correlates with the destiny of the later tribes; this fact attests to the antiquity of this narrative.

The narrative is organized according to the order of the births. Four sons are born to Leah (29:31–35), the two handmaids each bear two sons (30:1–13), Leah bears two sons and a daughter (30:14–21), and Rachel finally gives birth to a son (30:22–24).

29:31–35 When Yahweh saw that Leah was not loved as much as …