translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: 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.


text: 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.”


text: The name Gad ( גָּד , gad ) means “good fortune.” The name reflects Leah’s feeling that good fortune has come her way, as expressed in her statement recorded earlier in the verse.


text: The name Asher ( אָשֶׁר , ’ asher ) apparently means “happy one.” The name plays on the words used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. Both the Hebrew noun and verb translated “happy” and “call me happy,” respectively, are derived from the same root as the name Asher.


text: Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.


text: The name Issachar ( יְשָּׁשכָר , yishakhar ) appears to mean “man of reward” or possibly “there is reward.” The name plays on the word used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew noun translated “reward” is derived from the same root as the name Issachar. The irony is that Rachel thought the mandrakes would work for her, and she was willing to trade one night for them. But in that one night Leah became pregnant.


text: The name Zebulun ( זְבֻלוּן , zevulun ) apparently means “honor.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew verb translated “will honor” and the name Zebulun derive from the same root.


text: The name Joseph ( יוֹסֵף , yoseph ) means “may he add.” The name expresses Rachel’s desire to have an additional son. In Hebrew the name sounds like the verb ( אָסַף ,’ asasf ) translated “taken away” in the earlier statement made in v. 23 . So the name, while reflecting Rachel’s hope, was also a reminder that God had removed her shame.


text: He put the branches in front of the flocks…when they came to drink . It was generally believed that placing such “visual aids” before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that “Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids – in conformance with universal folk beliefs” ( Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob’s efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5 ).