Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged

Volume I · B

Bilhah

BILHAH, Rachel’s Handmaid, given by her to her Husband Jacob, that at least through her means, she might have Gen. xxx. 3, 4, 5, &c.a Son. Bilhah conceived and brought forth Dan, which word signifies Judgment. She had a second Son also called Naphtali. The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs1, an antient but Apocryphal Book, says, that Reuben Jacob’s Son committed that act of Incest with which he is so sharply reproached in Gen. xlix. 3. with Bilhah his Father’s Concubine; and that Rachel dying in labour of Benjamin, the Child was given to Bilhah to be brought up2.

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Footnotes

  1. Testament. xii. Patriarch. in Reuben, c. 3. ↩

  2. Idem in Benjamin. initio. ↩

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To cite this page

Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Bilhah,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/b/bilhah/.

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