Bilhah
Family: Joseph's Family · Role: Joseph's foster-mother · First appears: Joseph Hated By His Brethren
Rotheus and Aina’s second daughter was Bilhah; Rotheus called her “My daughter is impetuous,” and she was the sister of Zilpah. Bilhah was the mother of Naphtali, who said, “I was born of Bilhah,” and she raised Joseph as his foster-mother.
At Eder, Reuben entered Bilhah’s bedchamber while she slept and committed adultery with her. After an angel revealed his act, Jacob returned and mourned over Reuben; he “never again did he approach Bilhah.”
Relationship record
Life events
- In Reuben's testament, Reuben committed adultery with Bilhah while she slept.(Reuben'S Testament · 📍 Eder)
- With: Reuben
- “I entered in and saw her nakedness and committed the sin, and I went out again, leaving her asleep.”
- In Reuben's testament, after an angel revealed Reuben's sin, Jacob never again approached Bilhah.(Reuben'S Testament)
- Rotheus and Aina had a second daughter, Bilhah.(Naphtali'S Dreams Of The Division Of The Tribes)
- With: Rotheus
- “His second daughter he called Bilhah, saying, 'My daughter is impetuous,'”
Joseph Hated By His Brethren
- ward: Joseph (Bilhah is identified as Joseph's foster-mother.) “not Joseph's own mother was referred to, but his foster-mother Bilhah, who had raised him.”
Reuben'S Testament
- married with Jacob “Pay no heed to the glances of a woman, and remain not alone with a married woman, and do not occupy yourselves with the affairs of women. Had I not seen Bilhah bathe in a secluded spot, I had not fallen into the great sin I committed, for after my thoughts had once grasped the nakedness of woman, I could not sleep until I had accomplished the abominable deed. For when our father Jacob went to his father Isaac, while we sojourned in Eder, not far from Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem, Bilhah was drunken with wine, and she lay asleep, uncovered, in her bedchamber, and I entered in and saw her nakedness and committed the sin, and I went out again, leaving her asleep. But an angel of God revealed my impious act to my father Jacob at once. He came back and mourned over me, and never again did he approach Bilhah.”
Naphtali'S Dreams Of The Division Of The Tribes
- child: Naphtali “I was born of Bilhah”
- parent: Rotheus “My mother Bilhah was a daughter of Rotheus”
- siblings with Zilpah “His second daughter he called Bilhah”
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Extracted from the original text of The Legends of the Jews, Volume II. Made with Rho MD.