30:7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, became pregnant again and gave Jacob another son. 1 30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” 2 So she named him Naphtali. 3
46:24 The sons of Naphtali:
Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
49:21 Naphtali is a free running doe, 4
he speaks delightful words. 5
1 tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”
2 tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
3 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”
4 tn Heb “a doe set free.”
5 tn Heb “the one who gives words of beauty.” The deer imagery probably does not continue into this line; Naphtali is the likely antecedent of the substantival participle, which is masculine, not feminine, in form. If the animal imagery is retained from the preceding line, the image of a talking deer is preposterous. For this reason some read the second line “the one who bears beautiful fawns,” interpreting אִמְרֵי (’imre) as a reference to young animals, not words (see HALOT 67 s.v. *אִמֵּר).
sn Almost every word in the verse is difficult. Some take the imagery to mean that Naphtali will be swift and agile (like a doe), and be used to take good messages (reading “words of beauty”). Others argue that the tribe was free-spirited (free running), but then settled down with young children.