And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gen 30:4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
Ver. 4. And Jacob went in unto her. ] Merely to please his wife, he yielded to that which he could not but disallow as evil. Heed must be taken that the hen crow not, that the wife rule not. This was a part of Jacob’s punishment.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
to wife: Gen 16:3, Gen 21:10, Gen 22:24, Gen 25:1, Gen 25:6, Gen 33:2, Gen 35:22, 2Sa 12:11
Reciprocal: Gen 30:9 – gave her Gen 35:25 – General Gen 37:2 – wives