More envy. After the birth of the four sons to the maidservants, we find another disturbing story. Young Reuben is out in the field and finds some mandrakes which he takes back to his mother Leah. There was a superstition concerning mandrakes that they were an aphrodisiac and enhanced fertility. Rachel, still envious of her sister and desirous of the mandrakes, asks for some of the mandrakes. Leah snaps back, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Ah, so the envy and wrestling are mutual, aren’t they? Leah envies the love that Jacob has for Rachel and Leah blames Rachel for Jacob’s behavior. What a tangled mess. This envy between the sisters leaves quite a wake. No respect for Jacob or God. Rachel tells Leah that she will trade one night with Jacob for the mandrakes and Leah agrees. Where do you begin with just the insanity of what is going on here? The ease by which these women conduct Jacob and his body is baffling. They talk about love and children as if they are so important but on the other hand they treat them so cheaply. When Jacob comes back in from the field, Leah goes out to meet him and tells him that he must spend the night with him because she hired him with her son’s mandrakes. Nothing says love like hiring your husband’s services by trading some plants for him. But God opens Leah’s womb again and gives her Issachar which sounds like “to hire” or “wages”. But she says that God gave her Issachar because she gave Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. What? God paid Leah because she gave her servant to Jacob for a fourth wife? That seems contradictory to what we know of God. Again, we need to be careful that we do not count God’s favor as an approval of our own foolishness. That is an abuse of God’s grace. God allowed Leah to conceive and have one last son which she named Zebulun which sounds like honor. She finally acknowledges God again saying that God has given her a good endowment. God is the one that paid her dowery with children sin Jacob was not able to pay. But her words betray that she still longs for he husband’s love. Finally, in verse 21 we have the mention of a daughter, Dinah. If you know the book of Genesis, you know that this is foreshadowing which we have seen our author Moses do over and over again.