When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
- KJV And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
- BSB When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- NKJV When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
- NASB Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children.
- NLT When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Seeing Leah unloved, Yahweh opens her womb, while Rachel remains barren.
Overview
God shows tender compassion to the unloved Leah by granting her children, while the beloved Rachel is barren. This reversal displays God's care for the despised and his sovereignty over the womb. It is through unloved Leah that Judah, and ultimately Christ, will come, showing how God exalts the lowly in his redemptive plan.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- 1 Sam 2:21Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh.
- Ps 127:3Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
- 1 Sam 1:5but to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.
- Deut 21:15If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated;
- Gen 30:1–2When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”
- Gen 20:18For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
- Matt 10:37He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
- Gen 29:30He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
- Judg 13:2–3There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
- Exod 3:7Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
- Luke 1:7But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
- Gen 27:41Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
- Gen 30:22God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.
- Gen 25:21Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
- Luke 14:26“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.
- John 12:25He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.
- Mal 1:3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”
- 1 Sam 1:27I prayed for this child; and Yahweh has given me my petition which I asked of him.
- 1 Sam 1:20When the time had come, Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of Yahweh.”
- Matt 6:24“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.
- Gen 16:1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 29:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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