Zilpah in the Bible — Hidden Meaning & Symbolism

Zilpah, zil'–pah (Heb.)-- distilling; extracting an essence; dropping; dripping; trickling; leaking; exuding myrrh; tears; bitterness. Leah's handmaid. Leah gave her to Jacob as his wife, and she bore Jacob two sons, Gad and Asher (Gen. 30:9–13). Meta. The unfolding soul of man. Little by little, drop by drop, as it were, the soul becomes awakened to spiritual thought (distilling, extracting an essence, dropping, the essence here relating to Spirit as the fundamental principle of being). But in the Zilpah phase of the unfolding soul we do not find sufficient staying qualities; too much of the human is still in evidence and much of the good is dissipated (leaking, exuding myrrh, tears, bitterness).