Hebrew word · H2153

זִלְפָּה

zilpah

Zilpah

A personal name of uncertain meaning. Suggestions include links to roots meaning 'to drip/trickle', or Arabic words describing a facial feature. None is secure.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A woman living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.29.24; married to Israel (H3478);

mother of: Gad (H1410) and Asher (H0836)

§ Zilpah = "a trickling"

the Syrian given by Laban to Leah as a handmaid, a concubine of Jacob, mother of Asher and Gad

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 30:10

Range of meaning

A personal name of uncertain meaning. Suggestions include links to roots meaning 'to drip/trickle', or Arabic words describing a facial feature. None is secure.

Against the English

English simply transliterates it. No meaning is lost because none is known for certain.

Used elsewhere in the period

Appears only in Genesis 29:24; 30:9–12; 35:26; 37:2; 46:18. She is the mother of Gad and Asher.

Where it appears

Genesis · 7

  1. Genesis 29:24 זִלְפָּ֖ה Zilpah

    And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.

  2. Genesis 30:9 זִלְפָּ֣ה Zilpah

    When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

    Here: The slave woman Laban gave Leah at her wedding (29:24). The meaning of her name is uncertain. She becomes the mother of Gad and Asher.

  3. Genesis 30:10 זִלְפָּ֛ה Zilpah

    And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

    Here: The slave woman Laban gave Leah on her wedding day (29:24). Nobody is sure what the name means. Here she is the one who gives birth, but the sentence at once defines her by whose property she is.

  4. Genesis 30:12 זִלְפָּה֙ Zilpah

    When Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,

    Here: The personal name of the slave woman Laban gave Leah at her wedding (Gen 29:24). What the name means is uncertain. She never speaks in the story and does not name her own children.

  5. Genesis 35:26 זִלְפָּ֛ה Zilpah

    And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

  6. Genesis 37:2 זִלְפָּ֖ה Zilpah

    This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

  7. Genesis 46:18 זִלְפָּ֔ה Zilpah

    These are the sons of Jacob born to Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.