| rdfs:comment | - Bilhah was a maidservant to Rachel, who was one of Jacob's wives. Rachel when realizing her sister Leah bore Jacob many children, while she bore none, gave Bilhah to Jacob, so she could have children through Bilhah, as that was a custom of that time and place. Bilhah bore two sons to Jacob, Dan and Naphtali. Later on, Jacob's oldest son, who was born of a different woman, Reuben, committed adultery with Bilhah.
- In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah (בִּלְהָה "Faltering; bashful", Standard Hebrew Bilha, Tiberian Hebrew Bilhāh) is Rachel's handmaid who becomes a wife of Jacob and bears him two sons, Dan and Naphtali. The Testament of Naftali, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, says that Bilhah and Zilpah's father was named Ahiyot ( lit. "sisters" ). He was taken into captivity and freed by Laban, Rachel and Leah's father, and he gave Ahiyot a wife named Hannah, who was their mother. Talmudic sources (Midrash Raba, Genesis 74:13 and elsewhere), on the other hand, state that Bilhah and Zilpah were also Laban's daughters, through his concubines, making them half-sisters to Rachel and Leah.
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| abstract | - In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah (בִּלְהָה "Faltering; bashful", Standard Hebrew Bilha, Tiberian Hebrew Bilhāh) is Rachel's handmaid who becomes a wife of Jacob and bears him two sons, Dan and Naphtali. The Testament of Naftali, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, says that Bilhah and Zilpah's father was named Ahiyot ( lit. "sisters" ). He was taken into captivity and freed by Laban, Rachel and Leah's father, and he gave Ahiyot a wife named Hannah, who was their mother. Talmudic sources (Midrash Raba, Genesis 74:13 and elsewhere), on the other hand, state that Bilhah and Zilpah were also Laban's daughters, through his concubines, making them half-sisters to Rachel and Leah. According to Rashi, as long as Rachel was alive, Jacob kept his bed in her tent and visited the other wives in theirs. When Rachel died, Jacob moved his bed into the tent of Bilhah, who had been mentored by Rachel, to retain a closeness to his favourite wife. However, Reuben, eldest son of Leah, felt that this move slighted his mother, who was also a primary wife, and so he moved Jacob's bed into his mother's tent. This invasion of Jacob's privacy was viewed so gravely that the Bible equates it with adultery, and lost Reuben his first-born right to a double inheritance. Bilhah is said to be buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs in Tiberias.
- Bilhah was a maidservant to Rachel, who was one of Jacob's wives. Rachel when realizing her sister Leah bore Jacob many children, while she bore none, gave Bilhah to Jacob, so she could have children through Bilhah, as that was a custom of that time and place. Bilhah bore two sons to Jacob, Dan and Naphtali. Later on, Jacob's oldest son, who was born of a different woman, Reuben, committed adultery with Bilhah.
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