Bilhah (בִּלְהָה "faltering; bashful",
Standard Hebrew Bilha,
Tiberian Hebrew Bilhâ) is a person mentioned in the
Book of Genesis. describes her as
Laban's
handmaid, who was given to
Rachel to be her handmaid on Rachel's marriage to
Jacob. When Rachel failed to have children, Rachel gave Bilhah to Jacob "to wife" to bear him children. Bilhah gave birth to two sons, who Rachel claimed as her own and named
Dan and
Naphtali. (, ) (the use in the Torah of the prefix "to", as in "took to wife", may indicate that the wife is a concubine or inferior wife). expressly calls Bilhah Jacob's concubine, a
pilegesh.)