מתה אנכי, in this verse when the word מתה is in the present tense, the stress is on the last syllable, whereas in Genesis 48,7 where the same word occurs in the past tense, the stress is on the first syllable.

נפתולי אלוקים נפתלתי, this formulation is partly due to literary considerations, so that the letter נ at the beginning of the word נפתולי is due primarily in order to match the latter נ in the word נפתלתי. We encounter something similar is the construction of Samuel I 20,28 נשאל נשאל דוד,

בא גד, “we have been granted good fortune.” We find the word גד used in a similar sense in Isaiah 65,11 העורכים לגד שלחן, “Who set a table for Luck.” Also the Talmud Shabbat 67 גד גדי וסינוק לא, “be lucky and do not suffer from fatigue,” uses the word גד in this sense. Anyone who translates the word as derived from גדוד, related to a troop, is in error. Even though names usually reflect a popular manner of speaking, such as ראובן being related to ראה, saw, (compare 29,32) or שמעון as related to שמע, (29,33) unless Leah had mentioned the word גדוד when naming this son we would not be able to trace the word גד as an abbreviation of גדוד, (using the letter ד twice) justifying such a comparison. The expression יגודו על נפש צדיק in Psalms 94,21 “they band together to do away with the righteous,” where it does stem from the word גדוד, does so because of the dagesh in the second ד.replaces the missing second ד. We find a parallel construction in Psalms 106,43 וימכו בעונם, where the dagesh in the letter כ of the word וימוכו substitutes for the missing second letter כ of the root מכך. Job 30,12 and 16,13 also have similar constructions where a dagesh substitutes for a missing root letter.

באשרי, I am glowing in the praises and good wishes bestowed on me by the other women.

דודאים, flowers of the fig tree; (compare Jeremiah 24,1) In Song of Songs 7,14 these flowers are described as rich in fragrance.

יששכר, a double reward, one for handing over the dudaim; the other, that I gave my handmaid to my husband to have children with.

זבד, an expression denoting a generous portion of something, depending on the context in which the word is used.

(2) WILL EXALT ME. As in (I Kings 8:13), "I have now built for You a stately House," an expression of residence.

ותקרא את שמה דינה. No mention is made of Leah giving thanks to the Lord for giving birth to a daughter, seeing that one does not express gratitude for bearing a daughter in the same degree as one does for bearing a son. The reason that the birth of this daughter is mentioned is to inform us that with the exception of this one girl Yaakov’s children were all males. The same thing is true of the daughter of Asher, Serach being mentioned; (46,17) among all the 70 Israelites descending to Egypt only two were females.

אסף אלוקים, the word is to be understood as similar to Deuteronomy 22,20 ואספת אל תוך ביתך, or Jerermiah 16,5 כי אספתי שלומי, the hiding and covering up (inside) of something. In this case, Rachel’s shame at being perceived as being barren could now be hidden.

ותקרא את שמו יוסף. An allusion to G’d having removed her shame, אסף את חרפתי. If this is correct, she should have called him אסף; why did she add the letter י? This is because she had prayed for another son, saying יוסף ה' לי בו אחר. We find therefore that the name she gave this child symbolises two thoughts of its mother both of which she had already articulated.

שלחני, for now that Joseph had been born Yaakov’s second stint of 7 years labour for Lavan had come to an end.

לרגלי, “on my behalf.” The word רגל in this connection also occurs in 33,14 לרגל המלאכה אשר לפני, “on account of the livestock before me.”

לא תתן לי מאומה, of all the sheep and goats you have now, seeing that I have served you for your two daughters during the period you acquired them. However, from the flocks which I will tend for you from this day on, you will give me the ones which will be born spotted or speckled, after you have first removed all those that are spotted and speckled now, and given them to your sons to look after. I want you to completely separate them from the flocks I look after. Those animals which will be born with the skin pattern I have selected, genetically not related to former generations of your animals with the same skin pattern, will be my wages.

נקוד, I believe that this describes these spots in the region of the neck and head, as the word ויקוד means bending down with one’s head and neck. (Exodus 34,8) The word ויקוד has a dagesh in the letter ק, as on that occasion Moses’ bowing down was equivalent to his prostrating himself, i.e. more than just bowing down. The word is of the category of נפל, which in a similar construction would also be ויפול with the dagesh inn the letter פ. The קדקד is the head, but is also connected to the foot, as the line ויעקוד את יצחק means that he bound Yitzchok’s feet. (Genesis 22,9).

הסר משם, in your own interest.

והיה שכרי, it will become my wages, from now on.

וענתה בי צדקתי, both today and in the future.

לפניך, when you will come to check my wages, that it will not contain animals with a different skin pattern from what we agreed.

חום בכבשים, but not among the goats, seeing most goats are brown.

ויתן ביד בניו, of Lavan.

ובין יעקב, Lavan’s flocks which Yaakov tended were 3 days distant from the spotted and speckled ones which Lavan had first removed from the original flocks.

מקל לבנה, the reason why the letter ק in the word מקל has the vowel patach instead of the vowel tzeyreh, as we might have expected, is because it is in a construct form to the word לבנה, the tree that this staff was cut from. We encounter a similar construction for the same reason in Leviticus 27,32 where the Torah speaks of Ma-assar bakar instead of ma-asser bakar, “tithe of the cattle.” The word מעשר is in a construct form to the word בקר. We find a similar construction in Jeremiah 6,26 with the expressionמספד תמרורים, as well as in Amos 5,16 and Numbers 18,26 and Numbers 22,27.

לח, not literally, wet, but not dried out.

מחשוף, exposed, visible. Compare the same expression in Ezekiel 4,7, or in Isaiah 52,10 חשף ה' את זרוע קדשו, “the Lord bared His holy arm.”

ויחמנה, the word has a similar construction as Samuel I 6,12 וישרנה הפרות, “the cows went straight ahead,” where a feminine mode and a masculine mode is combined. [the letter י at the beginning of the word signaling a masculine mode, and the letters נה at the end signaling a feminine mode. Ed.] Similar unusual constructions are found in Daniel 8,22 ארבע מלכיות מגוי יעמדנה, or Ezekiel 37,7 ותקרבו העצמות עצם אל עצמו. In all of these examples the verb is in a partially masculine and partially feminine mode.

ויחמו הצאן, this is a masculine construction.

והכבשים הפריד יעקב, the spotted and striped ones Yaakov had already previously removed from Lavan’s flocks during the first and second year. He now let Lavan’s spotted and striped sheep see the females of the young ones to encourage them to become pregnant with newly born lambs of the skin pattern which they had recently seen while in a state of stimulation. In order to reinforce the imagination of the sheep to be impregnated, he planted the sticks with the peeled parts near the troughs to enhance the chances of the next crop of lambs to display the skin patterns he hoped for.

המקושרות, during the month of Tishrey.

ובהעטיף, during the interval between giving birth for the first time and the ability to conceive again had begun, Yaakov did not bother using the stratagem of the peeled sticks when the sheep would be watered.