Genesis 30:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 30:6 tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.
2. Genesis 30:6 tn Or “therefore.”
3. Genesis 30:6 sn The name Dan means “he vindicated” or “he judged.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. The verb translated “vindicated” is from דִּין (din, “to judge, to vindicate”), the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.
4. Genesis 30:7 tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”
5. Genesis 30:8 tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
6. Genesis 30:8 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”