complete verse (Genesis 30:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 30:3:

  • Newari: “‘Here is my maid servant Bilhah. Get a child through her. Then I will become a mother through her.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Raquel said, ‘If that (is) the-case, [you (sing.)] lay-together with Bilha my servant so-that even just through her I can- also -have a child.'” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then she said, ‘Look, here is my female slave, Bilhah. Sleep with/Have sex with her, so that she may become pregnant and give birth to children for me. In that way it will be as though I have children/her children are mine.'” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 30:3

Here is my maid Bilhah: Rachel does not reply but offers her slave girl to Jacob. By doing this she follows the same solution that Sarah took in 16.2.

Go in to her means have sex with her. See translation suggestions on 29.21, 23.

That she may bear upon my knees is the literal Hebrew figurative expression and refers to the practice of obtaining children through the service of another woman, or of recognizing the child that is born as legally one’s own. In 50.23 Joseph’s grandchildren were “born upon his knees,” a way of saying that he acknowledged them as legitimate. In this case Rachel proposes to make Bilhah’s offspring her own, and thus she is to become the adoptive mother. In some languages this is expressed simply as “she will have children for me.”

And even I may have children through her: the very awkward English of Revised Standard Version renders the Hebrew, which is literally “and I will be built up through her.” The thought expressed here is “so that I will become a mother when she gives birth.”

Unless the language of translation has an equivalent figurative expression, it is best to translate the idea. In this case we may follow Good News Translation or say, for example, “Take my servant girl Bilhah and sleep with her. When she gives birth, I will adopt [accept as my own] her child. In this way she will enable me to have children.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .