What Does Genesis 30:10 Mean in the King James?
And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “bare” also forms “child” and “generations,” so this single birth already carries the language of a lineage.
THE MEANING
Zilpah is named as the woman who bears the child, while the verse identifies him as Jacob’s son. Her act of bringing life into the family stands alongside the place she holds there as Leah’s maid.
THE ROOT
וַתֵּלֶד
vattēled from yalad
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear, bring forth, or beget.
“bare” in this verse is vattēled from yalad. The root joins the act of bearing to both the child who is born and the generations that follow. English separates those ideas; Hebrew holds birth and lineage in one family of words.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child or offspring.
יֶלֶד
The child shares the root of the act that brings the child forth: the action and its result carry the same seed.
toledot: Generations or descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The word for generations traces a line of what has been brought forth, so Zilpah’s birth opens into the language of continuity.
THE PATTERN
Birth brings hidden life into view and begins a line that extends beyond the one who gives birth.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.THE THREAD
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.Genesis 4:1 uses the same ילד (yalad, to bear or bring forth) for Eve’s bearing Cain. The shared root connects Zilpah’s act to the arrival of a child and to the generations that birth sets in motion.
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