Bible Strands
Genesis 30:14
Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — During the wheat harvest, Reuben brings found mandrakes to his mother Leah, prompting Rachel to beg Leah for a portion.
The words — The text highlights דֽוּדָאִים (du.da.'Im), literally mandrakes, and קְצִיר (ke.tzir), literally harvest of, anchoring the scene in a specific agricultural season.
The thread — Mandrakes appear in Song of Solomon 7:13 as a fragrant symbol of plenty, while Genesis 25:30 records a man trading a birthright for food, establishing a pattern of valuing and exchanging vital resources.
Why it lands — The narrative demands recognition of how familial desperation drives transactional relationships, reducing human bonds to barter.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.
Cross-references
- Song of Solomon 7:13 The mandrakes send forth a fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, new as well as old, that I have treasured up for you, my beloved.
- Genesis 25:30 He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)