Reclaiming our Stories: Bilhah & Zilpah

By Sarah Locke

Read more of Bilhah's and Zilpah's stories: Genesis 29:24, 29; 30:3-13; 31:33; 32:17, 22; 35:22, 26; 37:2, 46:18, 25

It is not fair to lump these women into one story. Each woman is a unique and wonderful child of God, who has her own story and own gifts. Unfortunately, we do not hear those stories from the Bible. We do not hear about Bilhah's kind eyes or Zilpah's grace and beauty. We do not hear if one is younger or older, if one is taller than the other. We do not know who their parents are or their ethnic origins. We know their names and that they were pawns in the story of a fight between two powerful, jealous, and longing sisters. 

I recently read an article saying that it is about time that we tell stories as they are, instead of how they are romanticized to be. It was in reference to the time of slavery, but I think (and I believe theologian Phyllis Trible would agree) that we need to do this biblically as well. For that reason, you will read words and phrases in this post that might be difficult (especially regarding slavery and sexual assault). 

Bilhah and Zilpah were slaves to Rachel and Leah, hostages in their own time. They were taken from their homes and trafficked by Laban, and given to his daughters. Even in the case that Bilhah and Zilpah were Laban's daughters and Rachel and Leah's half sisters (which is a rabbinic tradition), they were obviously his daughter by one of his rape victims, not by his wife, as they were not given the same respect and dignity of Rachel and Leah. 

As if Bilhah's and Zilpah's dignity is not stripped enough simply by being slaves, they are raped by Jacob and bear him four children. Their children will be ripped from them and taken as Leah and Rachel's. Later, when Rachel dies, Bilhah is raped by Leah's oldest son, Reuben (Genesis 35:22). 

This sounds difficult and harsh. Perhaps we can write it off as being "just the way things were in Biblical times." But this "tradition" of raping slaves and then further enslaving their children was a common practice in this country well into the late 1800s. Here in Jacksonville, Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr. (of the Kingsley Plantation in the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve) was known to be a "lenient" human trafficker. Yet, his first "wife" Anna was trafficked from Havana, Cuba when she was 13 years old. He had three other "wives" that he trafficked from various places and had a total of nine children with them. We're told that he educated his children "to high standards," but never freed them or his "wives," even upon his death. Anna, his first "wife," is buried in an unmarked grave in the Arlington area. 

I tell this story to emphasize that the story of Bilhah and Zilpah is not an isolated incident from thousands of years ago. The story continues into the 19th century in the chattel slavery system and even today, as generations of Black men are enslaved in the prison industrial complex. 

I wish we had more of Bilhah and Zilpah's stories. I wish we knew about their origins and their favorite foods. But we can continue to hear their story in the lines between Leah and Rachel, and tell how this story continue today. It is a small way to give them their dignity, as precious children of God, to remember them as such. 

Questions to consider:

How much do you know about Jacksonville's history? 

How is history told in "whitewashed" or "watered down" ways? For example, describing a slave-owner as "lenient" or describing a 13 year-old slave as a "wife."

How can we tell stories more honestly, even if they are difficult? 

Midwives Save Lives

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is about two of the bravest and most extraordinary people in Hebrew scripture: Shiprah and Puah, two midwives (Exodus 15-22). If you've never read this story, I encourage you to read the whole thing. It is wonderful. It's about two head Egyptian midwives who have been told by the pharaoh to kill all the Hebrew baby boys as they are born. The midwives resist the pharaoh's orders, and more than that, the Hebrew text tells us that they allowed the baby boys to flourish. When approached by the pharaoh regarding their disobedience, they lied and said that the Hebrew women were fierce enough to birth their own babies. 

This story, among many other reasons, led me to the UF Health North Birth Center, where I came under the brave, diligent care of the midwives there. 

The story of Shiprah and Puah is about bravery in the face of seemingly unchallengeable odds. The Hebrew scholar Nahum M. Sarna states that “their defiance of tyranny constitutes history’s first recorded act of civil disobedience in defense of moral imperative.” Midwives, from the start, seem to be accustom to acts of resistance and fighting against the powers that be. 

Per the CDC, Florida's 2017 Infant Mortality Rate was 6.1%, compared to the national average of 5.8%. Also per the CDC, Florida's 2017 Cesarean rate was 37.2%, compared to the national 32.0%. With the high infant and maternal mortality rates in the United States, and even higher in Florida, health care leaders and providers should be looking to subvert the machine of the “birthing business” for safer alternatives. 

This is precisely what the midwives of the UF Health North Birth Center are doing in their care for parents and children, and their commitment to honoring each person’s birth desires. Instead of triaging patients into one of many hospital rooms, and instead of endless paperwork and tests, the midwives work with parents to discover exactly the kind of birth experience they desire. This was my experience at the birth center when I moved to their care in March 2018, at six months pregnant. 

It has been expressed by the decision-makers at UF Health that the main reason for closing the birth center is to provide more options for people giving birth. If this is truly the reason, it only proves how out of touch the decision-makers are from the reality of birth in Jacksonville. The birth center actually provided a unique and important option for people giving birth that is not available in any other facility in Jacksonville. Closing the birth center would provide fewer options, not more.

I imagine the true reason that the birth center is being closed is because the birth center does not buy into “the business of birthing.” The midwives of the practice are committed to resisting the powers that insist that birth is nothing more or less than a cog in the for-profit, dangerous anti-health machine. Instead, the midwives work toward providing the care and comfort that any person would want during an otherwise traumatic or frightening transition in one’s life. The midwives know— and prove— that birth can be an incredibly transformational and even pleasurable experience for parents. 

Like the midwives of Exodus, the midwives at the UF Health North Birth Center are committed to seeing life not only be brought safely into the world, but flourish. The birth center provides an option for people, like me, who want to feel the safety and peace of mind of a hospital without the unnecessary IV drips, rushed care, and unimaginable cost. 

It was not without risk to themselves that the midwives in Exodus carried out their plan to subvert Pharaoh’s orders. I believe that the midwives of the UF Health North Birth Center, and midwives across the United States, have carried out their vocations with similar risk. When up against a tyrannical power as great as the United States healthcare system, it is never without risk to choose care over profit. But choose we must, and it seems UF Health has made its decision clear. 

I could not be more proud of these brave midwives, and grateful for their important role in my child’s own birth story. I hope that, like the midwives of Exodus, their story will be one of triumph over seemingly unchallengeable odds.