a son (as a builder of the family name) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct
Zilpah
זִלְפָּ֛הzil.Pah
H2153
Zilpah · proper noun, a woman's name
Leah’s
לֵאָ֖הle.'Ah
H3812
Leah · proper noun, a woman's name
handmaid
שִׁפְחַ֥תshif.Chat
H8198
a female slave (as a member of the household) · noun, common feminine singular construct
Gad
גָּ֣דgad
H1410
Gad · proper noun, a man's name
Asher
וְאָשֵׁ֑רve.'a.Sher
H836
happy · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
sons
בְּנֵ֣יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Jacob
יַעֲקֹ֔בya.'a.Ko
H3290
Jaakob · proper noun, a man's name
born
יֻלַּדyu.lad-
H3205
to bear young · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Padan-aram
בְּפַדַּ֥ןbe.fa.Dan
H6307
Paddan or Paddan-Aram · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 25:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian…
Genesis 30:9-13 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
Genesis 31:18 And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan-aram, for…
Genesis 35:18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.
Genesis 46:16-18 And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
Genesis 28:2 Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 35:21–end
Here is, 1. Jacob's removal, Gen 35:21. He also, as his fathers, sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, and was not long in a place. Immediately after the story of Rachel's death he is here called Israel (Gen 35:21, Gen 35:22), and not often so afterwards: the Jews say, "The historian does him this honour here because he bore that affliction with such admirable patience and submission to Providence." Note, Those are Israel's indeed, princes with God, that support the government of their own passions. He that has this rule over his own spirit is better than the mighty. Israel, a prince with God, yet dwells in tents; the city is reserved for him in the other world. 2. The si…
Sons of Jacob . . . born to him in Padan-aram--It is a common practice of the sacred historian to say of a company or body of men that which, though true of the majority, may not be applicable to every individual. (See Mat 19:28; Joh 20:24; Heb 11:13). Here is an example, for Benjamin was born in Canaan [Gen 35:16-18].
Adam Clarke on Genesis 35:26
Born to him in Padan-aram - i.e., all but Benjamin was born in Canaan, Gen 35:16, Gen 35:17.
It is well known that Padan-aram is the same as Mesopotamia, and hence the Septuagint translate Μεσοποταμια της Συριας, Mesopotamia of Syria. The word signifies between the two rivers, from μεσος the midst, and ποταμος, a river. It is situated between the Euphrates and Tigris, having Assyria on the east, Arabia Deserta, with Babylonia, on the south, Syria on the west, and Armenia on the north. It is now the province of Diarbek, in Asiatic Turkey, and is sometimes called Maverannahar, the country beyond the river; and Aram Naharaim, Aram or Syria of the two rivers.
John Gill on Genesis 35:26
And the sons of Zilpah,.... And lastly, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, which were two also, Gad and Asher; it is added:
these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram, all excepting Benjamin; and because they were by far the greater part, even all but one, that were born there, this is said in general; and there having been given in the context such a particular account of the birth of Benjamin, and of the place of it, them was no need for the historian particularly to except him, since the reader would be in no danger of being led into a mistake.
The Church Fathers
WAS BENJAMIN BORN IN MESOPOTAMIA? — When the twelve sons who were born to Israel are mentioned, it is said: These are the sons of Israel, who were born to him in Mesopotamia . Now Benjamin was born long afterwards, when Bethel had already passed and they were approaching Bethlehem. Some interpreters strive unnecessarily to decide this question, saying that one should not read: nati sunt , as most Latin copies do, but facti sunt , according to the Greek text εγενοντο, pretending to understand also Benjamin would not have been born in Mesopotamia, but there he had come, since he was already begotten in the womb of his mother, for it is thought that Rachel had come out of there pregnant. In this way, although it was read, they were born to him, it could be said that he was already born in the womb, since he had already been conceived. As an example, what was said to Joseph about the Virgin Mary is indicated, “For what has been born in her is of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 1:20).” But there is another reason that prevents this solution of the problem. For if Benjamin had been conceived there, the sons of Jacob, who had come out of that place and grown up, could scarcely be twelve years old. For Jacob spent twenty years there. Of these twenty, the first seven years without being married, hoping to marry serving Laban. Assuming that the year he was married was born a child, the oldest could be about twelve, when they left. Therefore, if Benjamin had already been conceived, all that journey had to take place within ten months, and all that was written about Jacob in the journey. It follows that their children, such small children, would have carried out such a large slaughter on the occasion of their sister Dina, would have killed a large number of men and thus have taken possession of the city. Two of them, Simeon and Levi, who with sword in hand, were the first to reach these men, and killed them, were age eleven and the other ten years. Their mother would have had without interruption, a child every year. But it is unbelievable that children of this age could have done all this, when Dina herself was barely six years old. Therefore, we must find another solution to this problem so that we correctly understand what was said about the twelve children mentioned. These are the sons of Jacob, who came to him in Mesopotamia of Syria. Because among all those children, who…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Genealogy — In Hebrew the term for genealogy or pedigree is “the book of the generations;” and because the oldest histories were usually drawn up on a genealogical basis, the expression often extended to the…
Zilpah — Drooping, Leah’s handmaid, and the mother of Gad and Asher (Gen. 30:9-13).
Asher · 1. — 1.
Gad · 1. Jacob’s seventh — 1. Jacob’s seventh
Genealogy · Of Jacob — Of Jacob
Tribes Of Israel, The · Descended from Jacob’s sons — Descended from Jacob’s sons
Zilpah · Mother of Gad and Asher by Jacob — Mother of Gad and Asher by Jacob
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Genesis 35:22-27
Reuben went and lay with Bilhah. A sad and even tragic history is now related concerning the incestuous intercourse of Reuben with his mother-in-law. Moses, indeed, calls Bilhah Jacob's concubine: but though she had not come into the hands of her husband, as the mistress of the family and a partaker of his goods; yet, as it respected the bed, she was his lawful wife, as we have before seen. If even a stranger had defiled the wife of the holy man, it would have been a great disgrace; it was, however, far more atrocious that he should suffer such an indignity from his own son. But how great and how detestable was the dishonor, that the mother of two tribes should not only contaminate herself w…
Gen 35:21-22
Reuben's Incest. - As they travelled onward, Jacob pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal Eder, where Reuben committed incest with Bilhah, his father's concubine. It is merely alluded to her in the passing remark that Israel heard it, by way of preparation for Gen 49:4. Migdal Eder (flock-tower) was a watch-tower built for the protection of flocks against robbers (cf. Kg2 18:8; Ch2 26:10; Ch2 27:4) on the other side of Bethlehem, but hardly within 1000 paces of the town, where it has been placed by tradition since the time of Jerome. The piska in the middle of Gen 35:22 does not indicate a gap in the text, but the conclusion of a parashah, a division of the text of greater…
The twelve sons became leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. Their names are the firstfruits of the nation.
Rashi on Genesis 35:23
בכור יעקב JACOB’S FIRSTBORN — even when it speaks of his corrupt action Scripture calls him firstborn (Genesis Rabbah 82:11).
בכור יעקב JACOB’S FIRSTBORN — firstborn with regard to heritage, firstborn with regard to Divine Service (for before the Levites were appointed to minister to God the duty devolved upon the oldest son in each family), firstborn in any enumeration of the twelve tribes; for the right of a firstborn son was given to Joseph only in respect of the tribes — in that he founded two tribes (just as a firstborn son received a double portion in his father’s property) (Genesis Rabbah 82:11).
