Bilhah

Bilhah (meaning: faltering or bashful) was the handmaid of Rachel whom Laban gave to his daughter as a servant when Rachel married Jacob. When Rachel saw that she was barren while Leah bore sons freely, she gave Bilhah to Jacob as a concubine to bear children on Rachel's behalf—the ancient practice of surrogate motherhood through a servant woman. Bilhah bore Jacob two sons: Dan, whose name Rachel explained as God having judged her and listened to her voice; and Naphtali, whose name she explained as having prevailed over her sister with mighty wrestlings.

The sons of Bilhah thus became two of the twelve tribes of Israel, their ancestry as the sons of a handmaid rather than a principal wife reflected in their lower status in some later tribal rankings. A later episode records that Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, lay with Bilhah his father's concubine, an act of transgression that Jacob noted on his deathbed and that contributed to Reuben forfeiting the birthright. Bilhah's name also appears as a place name—a town in the territory of Simeon—in 1 Chronicles 4:29.