Concubine or Wife??
Genesis 30:4 (KJV), “And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.”Genesis 30:4 (CJB), “So she gave him Bilhah her slave-girl as his wife, and Ya‘akov went in and slept with her.” Genesis 30:9 (KJV), “When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.”
Genesis 30:9 (CJB), “When Le’ah saw that she had stopped having children, she took Zilpah her slave-girl and gave her to Ya‘akov as his wife.” Genesis 35:22 (KJV), “And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine...”
Genesis 35:22 (CJB), “It was while Isra’el was living in that land that Re’uven went and slept with Bilhah his father’s concubine...” Genesis 37:2 (KJV), “... Joseph... was feeding the flock with his brethren...the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives:...”
Genesis 37:2 (CJB), “...Yosef ...used to pasture the flock with his brothers... sons of Bilhah and...Zilpah, his father’s wives, ...” The Verdict: Bilhah & Zilpah were wives of Jacob Israel same as Leah & Rachel. If Bilhah was a concubine then Zilpah would also be a concubine since Zilpah was also a handmaiden.
Woman & Womb Of The Family
Genesis 30:3 (CJB), “She said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go, sleep with her, and let her give birth to a child that will be laid on my knees, so that through her I too can build a family.”Nurturing genetic seeds to life is a sacred privilege and responsibility.
No matter the nature of the personal relations, pure essence is born through child seed germination. Call a woman a handmaid, maid, slave-girl, servant, bondwoman, concubine, prostitute or wife if you must. Womb is not defiled by human characterizations of the woman. Neither is woman. The sacredness of the womb is protected from universal deletion in a hidden file. Sexual relations that result in procreation needs no validation by human determination. Procreation is not about the esteem of either parent in the eyes of each other or society. Procreation is about the child of creation in the process of becoming by rites of birth into birthrights. This begins with, ends with, is transformed by and is transferred through - woman, womb, mogya and sunsum – the marriage made in the heavens no human misconceptions can put asunder.
A child who blasphemes the womb it is in will not be accepted into another.
