BRAGADAYJAH 98

Hell, it is said, hath no fury like a woman scorned; and when those two women are two sisters vying for the attention of one husband, that is hell all by itself. Leah the scorned wife, the first wife, had four sons. Rachel now has two by her proxy maid; but Leah was not satisfied. She was not about to allow her sister to catch up with or exceed her in offspring; so she decided that since she had apparently stop bearing, she would give her maid to her husband so that she could have more children. One cannot but wonder if either of these two contending sisters gave a thought to Jacob’s feeling in all this. He was no longer a husband pure and simple; he was the work horse, and he was required to keep pouring out sons like he was some sort of guinea pig. Yet perhaps he was enjoying it; for we hear no word of complaint. Perhaps he was just a man who wanted peace and harmony between his two wives and would do whatever they asked so that peace and harmony may abound. In any event, Leah now gives Zilpah to Jacob to wife and she bore a son, whose name she called Gad, because she said, “A troop comes forth.” And soon after Zilpah bore another son whose name was called Asher, for reason Leah, from henceforth all the women shall call me blessed; and this makes me happy. So now, let us do a reality check, or rather a head count of sons. Leah bore 4 and her maid Zilpah bore 2; so she had six sons altogether and so, she was contented. Rachel, on the other hand had two by her maid, so that Jacob so far had 8 sons. Perhaps, now the two sisters would be happy and pick up the gauntlet and throw in the towel; but as we shall see shortly, that was not to be; for there would be more trouble ahead. More