Leah, of course, heard of the encounter and rejoiced. Now she felt that she was surely triumphing over her sister. This certainly meant that she had found favor with the God of Jacob. To her great delight, she again became pregnant and this time she called the little boy Judah, meaning “praise.” She had now attained a new status. She was the mother of four sons, and more than that, it was obvious she had found favor with Jacob’s God.
When the sisters married, Laban had given each of them a serving girl. To Leah he had given Zilpah and to Rachel, Bilhah. Now in desperation Rachel begged Jacob to sleep with her serving girl. “Bilhah will give me any child that is born,” she told Jacob. When he saw how eager she was, he reluctantly agreed.
To Rachel’s delight the girl became pregnant two times and both times produced sons.
When the first little boy was placed in her arms, Rachel wept for joy. “I’m going to name him Dan,” she said. When Jacob asked what the name meant to her, she said, “Dan means justice. God has heard my plea for a son and at last He has given me justice.”
The second son born to her, through Bilhah, she named Naphtali, or wrestling. When asked why she named him this, she quickly answered, “I am in a fierce contest with my sister and I am winning.”
Jacob felt that with these two births the conflict would be finally settled. Leah had four sons and now Rachel had two that she had adopted as her own. He was content when Leah no longer became pregnant.
It was well into the tenth year of Jacob’s work to pay for Rachel that he decided to move. There were too many children to fit comfortably into Laban’s house. There was too much noise and confusion. Laban himself facilitated the move by giving him a house nearby that had belonged to Nazzim.
It had been a long time since anyone had lived there, and though it was of sturdy stone, built around a generous courtyard, it was badly in need of repair. The beams of the roof were still strong but the reed mats, thorny wood covering, and clay mortar had all given way during the rainy seasons. The roof would have to be completely redone.
Inside, the rooms were knee-deep in debris that had fallen from the roof. There were cobwebs and field mice, and the courtyard was cluttered with odd bits of broken yokes, plows, bows, and several clay ovens that were cracked and useless. Since it was Leah who had the children who needed more space, and since she was the one who wanted everything clean and orderly, it became her lot to see that the house was made livable.
Leah and her children were to have the two rooms on the left of the courtyard and Rachel, though she had only the two sons by Bilhah, insisted on the same number of rooms on the right. In the middle was a long room that was used for any formal entertaining and sometimes eating when it was raining outside. Most of the time everyone would spend their days outside in the courtyard or on the roof, where Leah planned to keep her loom.
When the roof was finished, Jacob chose to have a room built for himself up there, where he could have peace and quiet. From time to time, he would call one of the women to join him or entertain his close friends, leaving the rest of the house to his wives and children. “Men don’t need to be bothered with the children and the household activities” was the thinking of most people in Haran.
* * *
In the new house things went along much as usual, except that Leah found that she was no longer able to get pregnant. In the midst of great frustration, she determined to do as her sister had done and give her maid, Zilpah, to Jacob. Zilpah readily agreed and it was not long before she was pregnant. When Leah heard the news, she was delirious with joy. She insisted that Zilpah be given the freshest fruit, the choice bits of meat, and be relieved of all work. “It’s important that you have a son,” she said. “Even my sister, Rachel, is taunting me.”
“Taunting you?” Zilpah asked.
“Yes, she says my lucky days are over. I’ll have no more children. I must prove her wrong.”
Zilpah didn’t take her seriously, but when the child was born, she understood. Leah named him Gad, meaning “my luck has turned.” When Jacob heard of the turn his wives’ rivalry had taken, he was in despair.
It seemed to him that one could not put a foot down anyplace inside the courtyard without stumbling over a child. He had not imagined that he, coming from a family of few children, could possibly produce so many children. After years of earnest prayer, his grandfather Abraham had only been able to have Isaac with Sarah. His own father had produced only twins. He was not prepared for this blossoming. He remembered Elohim’s promise to his grandfather that his seed would be as the sand or as the stars, and he began to fear that he alone was about to fulfill that prophecy.