Introduction
Zilpah is a servant given to Leah by her father Laban at her marriage to Jacob, later given by Leah to Jacob as a surrogate wife to bear children in her name, becoming the mother of Gad and Asher, two of the twelve tribal ancestors.
Family
Surrogate motherhood
When Leah, having paused in childbearing after her first four sons, wished to continue expanding her position in the household to match her sister Rachel's use of Bilhah, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob, who bore two sons, Gad and Asher, whom Leah named and counted among her own family's line.
A minor figure
Beyond this role, Zilpah receives no further individual narrative in Genesis; she is mentioned again only in genealogical lists recording her sons among Jacob's twelve, such as the list of those who went down to Egypt in Genesis 46.