Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #11 of Genesis 30, and we are going to read Genesis 30:12-16:

And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

We are continuing to look at this historical situation in the house of Jacob as he lived in Syria with Laban his father-in-law.  He now had four wives: two sisters, Rachel and Leah; and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.  And Leah bore him four sons.  Rachel gave him Bilhah who bore two sons.  And then Leah gave her handmaid Zilpah, and she had now born a second son, which was the eighth son born to Jacob.  Leah named this son Asher and she said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed.”  The name Asher identifies with “blessed.”  In Deuteronomy 33, Moses is pronouncing blessings and declarations concerning the tribes, just as Jacob would do in Genesis 49, and it says in Deuteronomy 33:24-25:

And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

“Let Asher be blessed with children,” and that is the reason for Leah’s happiness because she felt blessed with children.  In the Bible, children are said to be a blessing.  We know that from Psalm 127:3-5:

Lo, children are an heritage of JEHOVAH: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Happy or blessed is the man that has many children, having his quiver full of them.  Children are said to be the fruit of the womb and his reward, and they can be a picture of those that become saved, as is the spiritual picture with the twelve tribes of Israel.  The 144,000 represent those that become saved, so they are “sons of Jacob” or children of Jacob, and they can picture God’s elect.  They can also picture those that only identify with the true children of God but who are not truly born again.  (We have talked about that a lot.)

Now let us go into the next setting in verses 13 through 16 where we read a strange account concerning Rueben, who went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field.  As I mentioned a couple of times, at the end of the previous chapter, Leah had left bearing.  She bore four sons, and then left bearing, and there is no explanation (given) for that, and we know it was not a permanent condition wherein she could no longer have children because after this circumstance of Rueben finding mandrakes in the field,  Rachel came to her sister Leah and asked for some of the mandrakes.  Then Leah responded, in Genesis 30:15-16:

Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes.

I think this statement is very revealing of the situation in the household of Jacob and his many wives, especially between Leah and Rachel, sisters who were in an intense competition for the love of their husband.  So what we can see here is that Leah accused Rachel of taking away her husband: “Thou hast taken my husband.”  And Rachel responded: “Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son’s mandrakes.”  So the taking away of the husband is joined immediately to the idea of the marriage bed and having sexual relations between a husband and wife.  That is how Rachel had taken away Leah’s husband, because after Leah had born him four sons, we know that Rachel was extremely upset as she demanded of Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”   And he pointed out that he was not God and could not do that.  Then she came up with the plan to give him her handmaid.

But also given that Leah left bearing and that Leah said that Rachel took her husband away, and that it was immediately responded to by Rachel that Leah could lay with her husband that night in exchange for the mandrakes, it seems very clear to me that it was Rachel who put pressure on Jacob and forced the situation: “I do not want you to lay with Leah anymore.”  Why would Rachel not want that?  It was because Leah kept having sons, bearing children, and Rachel, up to that point, had been unable to have children, so it was making her feel worse and worse.  So Jacob relented and he said, “You know I love you.  I always just wanted to marry you.  I did not want to marry Leah, you know that.  It was your father’s doing.  I love you.  I want to make you happy, so I will let Leah know I cannot lay with her anymore.”  And that is how it went for a while, until this point.

Some commentators have developed the historical setting by supposing that Leah left bearing in a natural way, and that for a time, she just did not get pregnant.  And that can be true.  It does happen sometimes that a woman can have child after child, and then have no children for five or 10 years, but then she has other children.  Also, some of these theologians have written in their commentaries that Rachel later had children because it was related to the mandrakes, because the mandrakes are a fruit thought to be an aphrodisiac, and that it would help in the marriage bed to conceive children.  So that is why they thought that Rachel had been eating this particular kind of fruit, and it helped her to conceive.  Well, there is a possibility of that, but I do not think that is the case, and it does not fit what is going on here at all.  It does not even address the problem in the household between the sisters and the statement that Leah made about Rachel having taken away her husband, nor does it account for Rachel’s response that Leah could lay with him that night.  It does not answer all the things that were happening.

By the way, let us look at some of the words here because I think it will help.  First of all, let me say that it is not certain that the word “mandrakes” is actually referring to a fruit called “mandrake” and the supposed sexual properties that people associate it with today.  Let us begin with the word “mandrake,” and then we will look at the setting being in the day of wheat harvest, which has a spiritual meaning. 

But notice the word “mandrakes” is plural, and it is mentioned five times in verses 14, 15, and 16 of Genesis 30.  So let me read it again, in Genesis 30:14-16:

And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

Then I will read Genesis 30:17:

And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.

So a child was conceived as a result, and this interesting scenario is related to conception and birth of the sons of Jacob.  And the mandrakes were tied to wheat harvest.  It was in the days of wheat harvest that Rueben went into the field and found these mandrakes.

The Hebrew word that is translated as “mandrakes” is Strong’s #1736, and it is a plural word.  It is found seven times in the Old Testament, and five times it is found in these verses.

It is found a sixth time in Song of Solomon 7:10-13:

I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

We know the Song of Solomon is a parable of the love story between Christ and His eternal bride, everyone who He has saved.  Here, they go forth into the field into the vineyards where there all manner of fruits, and we see the grape, the pomegranates, and all manner of pleasant fruits.  And that is because the fruits are a picture of God’s fruitfulness as far as bringing forth a people for Himself.  He is fruitful in His salvation program.  Remember, God typifies His entire plan of salvation as one of “harvest.”  That is where the days of wheat harvest come into view.  In the book of Exodus, harvest is said to be two seasons.  There are the firstfruits and then the final fruits that come at the time of ingathering at the end of the year.  And God sends rain in order to produce the fruits.

And we know, absolutely, that those fruits identify with God’s elect.  Let us go to Revelation.  This would also identify with the children of Jacob because God refers to those who are sealed of the tribes of Israel, and “Israel” is Jacob.  It says in Revelation 7:4:

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Then it mentions each of the twelve tribes.  I will just read a couple of the verses.  It says in Revelation 7:5-6:

Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand…

The twelve tribes of Israel are said to be firstfruits in Revelation 14.  It says in Revelation 14:1:

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

Then it says in Revelation 14:3-4:

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

They are the harvest of firstfruits which would identify with everyone saved over the course of the church age.  And yet they are sons of Israel.  They are of the tribes of Israel, the children of Jacob, and God is looking at them as fruits of the harvest.

So the reference in Song of Solomon to “mandrakes” as one of the pleasant fruits is, therefore, a picture of the fruit of God or those who He has saved.

The word “mandrakes” is used in another very interesting way in the book of Jeremiah, and this is the seventh and last time it is used.  It is found five times in Genesis 30.  It is found once as “mandrakes” in Song of Solomon 7.  And now it is used one time in Jeremiah 24 where it is translated as “baskets.”  And let us listen to what God has to say in Jeremiah 24:1-2:

JEHOVAH shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of JEHOVAH, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

There were two baskets of figs, and that is the Hebrew word that is the plural form and the same word in Genesis 30.  It is the Hebrew word “dûday,” Strong’s #1736, just as in Genesis 30.  The singular word translated as “basket” found twice in verse 2 is a related word to “dûd,” and I would pronounce it as “dood.”  There is no plural ending, and it is Strong’s #1731, and it is found seven times in the Old Testament, but it is never translated as a fruit.  It is translated as “basket,” or “pot” or “kettle,” and “cauldron.”  Let us look at a couple of the places it is used.  It says in 1Samuel 2:14:

And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, , or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself…

So there was meat in a kettle, and that is the word translated as “basket.”

Also, it says in 2Kings 10:7:

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.

It says in Psalm 81:6:

I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

In Job 41:20, we find this same word.  It says in Job 41:20:

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

It says in 2Chronicles 35:13:

And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.

So these are all the references to the word translated as “basket” in Jeremiah 24:2, which is the word related to Jeremiah 24:1 where it refers to two “baskets” of figs that were set before the temple.  So the figs were in the baskets.  And, again, remember that the word “baskets” is the word translated as “mandrakes” in Genesis 30.

Now this brings up the possibility that when Rueben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, he found fruit in the field, and he filled baskets with the fruit.  Then Rachel said to Leah, “Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's baskets.”  Then Leah said unto her, “Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's baskets also? And Rachel said, “Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's baskets.”  So whatever the fruit may have been, it was not necessarily mandrakes.  As we see in Jeremiah 24, figs that were in the baskets, and “figs” are a very significant fruit in the Bible because figs represent Israel, and they can represent other things as well.  And of the two baskets, one had good figs and one had naughty figs, which is actually the word “evil.”  Then God explains in Jeremiah 24:5-9:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am JEHOVAH: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith JEHOVAH, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt…

The good figs are like those that go to Babylon.  The evil figs are like those that remain in the land of Judah.  Spiritually, this points to God’s elect, the good figs, that came out of the corporate church and went out into the world, which Babylon typified.  And the evil figs were the professed Christians in the congregations that remained there.  Really, it is another way of referring to the “wheat” and the “tares.”  There are good fruit and bad fruit, the good crop of harvest and the bad crop of harvest.