With the aim of suggesting feminine names for babies, we continue to review the Old Testament and introduce its heroines.
We left Jacob running away from his brother and heading to his uncle Laban’s house to rid himself of Esau’s wrath and, incidentally, to find a worthy wife and kin who would respect family traditions.
Arrived, after a long trip to the village where his mother came from, he asked some people who introduced him to a daughter of Laban, named Rachel , who left him dazzled at first sight. The girl kissed him on the cheek and happily took him home, where she introduced him to her father Laban and her older sister, Lía .
Raquel, Lía, Zilpa and Bilha
Raquel , a very beautiful name, comes from the Hebrew RAHEL and means “sheep”, but is translated in many cases as “the mother”, “the night”.
After a time living with his uncle and working for him, he asked him what payment he would consider appropriate for these tasks. Jacob took advantage and asked for the hand of Rachel , with whom he was in love. The uncle agreed to the marriage but asked, as payment, that Jacob first work for him for seven years.
After these the wedding took place, but Laban, who, like his sister, did not hesitate to use deception if it was necessary for his plans, made sure that the promised bride was not in the dark bedroom. Instead of with Rachel , Jacob slept with Lia , the older sister, and the marriage, consummated, was considered valid.
Jacob accepted the facts, but he still wanted to marry Rachel as well, so they agreed to another seven years of jobs and, after these, he was able to marry his beloved.
The two sisters also contributed, each of them a servant who had given them their father, called these Bilha and Zilpa , who would also end up being Jacob’s concubines.
Jacob evidently preferred Rachel and God wanted to balance things out, preventing her from conceiving children for many years. Lía (LE’AH in Hebrew), whose name means “tired” in Hebrew, but also translates as “lioness” had several children: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
Rachel, jealous of her sister’s motherhood, offered her husband to have children with her servant Bilha , and she would give birth to Dan and Naphtali. Bilha gave birth sitting on Raquel’s knees, so that she could claim the children as her own, perhaps in the first example of a “surrogate mother” that we know of. The origin of the name of Bilha is unknown, it could mean “carefree” “she who has no problems” but more than anything because it is thought that its translation into Arabic would be BALIHA and this name in Arabic has this meaning. But there are also theories that say that it could have been the name of the place she came from and that today it no longer exists with this name.
Leah wanted to give Jacob more children but the pregnancy was late so she, too, offered her servant Zilpa , who was the mother of Gad and Asher. Zilpa’s name means “tenderness”. Lia would later have more children: Issachar, Zebulun and a girl, Dina.
There came a time when Jacob decided to return to the land of his parents and with the four he would return. Things in all those years had calmed down and even his brother had taken a third wife, the daughter of that Ishmael whom Grandfather Abraham had estranged from the family. Esau welcomed Jacob.
Rachel was finally blessed with her greatest desire, that of motherhood, and she had two children: Joseph and the youngest of the great family: Benjamin, although she died giving birth. According to the Torah, Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrata, near Bethlehem, where Jacob erected a stele over her grave.
However, the exact location of Rachel’s tomb is a controversial issue, although there is a place that is considered the true one that receives, even today, pilgrimages and is considered a sacred place by the Hebrews, although very controversial because of its location. The image that I leave you of the tomb is old, today it has been surrounded by a wall that makes it not, in my opinion, so beautiful.
In Babies and more | Female baby names: Old Testament characters (I), Baby names: mythological heroines (I), (II), ( III ) Baby names: names of heroes from Greek mythology (I), (II), Names Female Baby Names – Egyptian Goddesses and Queens, Male Baby Names – Egyptian Gods and Pharaohs, Female Baby Names – Egyptian Origin, Male Baby Names – Egyptian Origin, Baby Names – Bible Characters
