30:9-13
Rachel thinks she is back in the game, but Leah decides she wants to have more children, so she too gives her servant girl to Jacob. They slept together, and Zilpah had a son. Leah is now more delighted than ever. It is worth noting in all this that it is Jacob who is being treated as a “sex object”. Normally we talk of women being treated as sex objects, but here it is Jacob who is treated as a means of getting children. This will become even more evident in the next few verses.
30:14-18
This must be a few years on from the birth of the first child, Reuben. He is out in the field collecting mandrakes. Mandrakes may have been believed to enhance fertility, or may even have had some hallucinogenic properties. Rachel is desperate to have the mandrakes, though no clear reason is given, and she offers to let Jacob sleep with Leah in exchange for the mandrakes. As said in the previous comments, Jacob is treated as nothing more than a sex object. Jacob seems to have very little, if any, say in these matters. So he sleeps with Leah and she conceives again. And so Issachar was born.
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