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In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah (???????? "Faltering; bashful", Standard Hebrew Bilha, Tiberian Hebrew Bilhah) is Rachel
Rachel

Rachel is the second and favorite wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
's handmaid and a concubine of Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
 who bears him two sons, Dan
Dan (Biblical figure)

Dan was, according to the Book of Genesis, a son of Jacob and Bilhah , and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Dan; however some biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation; in the biblical account, Dan's mother is...
 and Naphtali
Naphtali

Naphtali was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Jacob and Bilhah, and the founder of the Israelites Tribe of Naphtali; however some Biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation....
.

After the death of Rachel, Reuben
Reuben (Bible)

Reuben or Re'uven was the first son of Jacob and of Leah, and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Reuben in the Book of Genesis....
, the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, loses his right to a double inheritance when he is accused of infidelity with Bilhah.

According to Rashi
Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
, as long as Rachel was alive, Jacob kept his bed in her tent and visited the other wives in theirs.






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In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah (???????? "Faltering; bashful", Standard Hebrew Bilha, Tiberian Hebrew Bilhah) is Rachel
Rachel

Rachel is the second and favorite wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
's handmaid and a concubine of Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
 who bears him two sons, Dan
Dan (Biblical figure)

Dan was, according to the Book of Genesis, a son of Jacob and Bilhah , and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Dan; however some biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation; in the biblical account, Dan's mother is...
 and Naphtali
Naphtali

Naphtali was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Jacob and Bilhah, and the founder of the Israelites Tribe of Naphtali; however some Biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation....
.

After the death of Rachel, Reuben
Reuben (Bible)

Reuben or Re'uven was the first son of Jacob and of Leah, and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Reuben in the Book of Genesis....
, the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, loses his right to a double inheritance when he is accused of infidelity with Bilhah.

According to Rashi
Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
, as long as Rachel was alive, Jacob kept his bed in her tent and visited the other wives in theirs. When Rachel died, Jacob moved his bed into the tent of Bilhah, who had been mentored by Rachel, to retain a closeness to his favourite wife. However, Reuben felt that this move slighted his mother, Leah, who was also a primary wife, and so he moved Jacob's bed into his mother's tent. This invasion of Jacob's privacy was viewed so gravely that the Bible equates it with adultery.

Bilhah is said to be buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs
Tomb of the Matriarchs

Not to be confused with the Cave of the Patriarchs.The Tomb of The Matriarchs in Tiberias, Israel is the traditional burial place of several Biblical women....
 in Tiberias
Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius....
.

Popular culture


The idea of handmaidens is expanded on in, The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a utopian and dystopian fiction by Canadian literature Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart 1985 in literature....
, by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, Order of Canada is a Canada author, poet, literary criticism, feminist and activism. She is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C....
. In the novel The Red Tent
The Red Tent

The Red Tent is a novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by St. Martin's Press. It is a first-person narrative which tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph , a talented midwife and proto-feminist....
 by Anita Diamant
Anita Diamant

Anita Diamant is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books. She is best known for her most successful novel The Red Tent which was a New York Times New York Times Best Seller list....
, Bilhah and Zilpah are represented as half-sisters of Leah and Rachel by different mothers. also in also in "Rachel and Leah" by Orson Scott Card.