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Bible Insights

Women in the Bible: Leah

Leah, like her younger sister, Rachel, is an interesting character. While I’m inexplicitly drawn to Rachel, I just feel sorry for Leah.

She marries her first cousin, Jacob. The problem is Jacob loves her younger sister Rachel. While Rachel is attractive, Leah is not. Though we don’t understand the details, we do know she doesn’t have the same allure as her little sister.

It’s Rachel that Jacob wants to marry, but Rachel’s father pawns off the older sister on him instead. When Jacob complains, he’s given Rachel, too. So the two sisters become co-wives.

Jacob loves Rachel, but not Leah—though not so much that he won’t sleep with her. Because she’s unloved, God blesses her with children. First there’s Reuben, then Simeon, followed by Levi and Judah.

Later, in a most unusual story, she gives a famished Rachel some food in exchange for a night with Jacob. Leah gets pregnant again and has Issachar and later Zebulun. After that, she has Dinah.

As the sisters compete for Jacob’s attention, they bring their maids into the marriage bed; both servants produce two sons for Jacob.

After all this, Rachel has Joseph and much later dies giving birth to Benjamin.

At last, it seems, Leah will not need to compete with her sister for Jacob’s attention. But the reminder of Rachel forever looms, with Jacob showing favoritism to Rachel’s sons over the children that Leah bore.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Genesis 27-29, and today’s post is on Genesis 29:16-25.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in e-book, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Bible Insights

Jacob’s Twelve Sons

…and Their Four Moms

In Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, a reoccurring theme is Jacob’s twelve sons. What is not apparent in Dreamcoat is that many of the sons were half brothers; Jacob was indeed the father of all, but there were four different moms.

Here is how this convoluted family tree happened:

Jacob fell in love with Rachel (his uncle’s daughter, that is, his first cousin). Since he had no dowry, he agreed to work for his uncle seven years for her hand in marriage.

The morning after the wedding, he discovered that his veiled bride was actually Leah, Rachel’s older sister.

He had been duped by his Uncle Laban. After protesting, Laban also gives Jacob Rachel’s hand in exchange for another seven years of labor.

Leah begins having children (six sons in all), but Rachel is childless—so she has her husband sleep with their maid, Bilhah, to produce children in her stead; Bilhah has two sons.

In an escalating competition, Leah follows suit, giving her maid, Zilpah, to sleep with Jacob; Zilpah also has two sons.

Finally, Rachel gets pregnant and has Joseph. As the first-born of Jacob’s favorite wife, Joseph is doted upon by his father; hence he is given the infamous coat of many colors, thereby earning the wrath of his brothers.

Later, Rachel also gives birth to Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve; sadly Rachel dies in childbirth.

Although the nation of Israel is launched through these twelve sons, Jacob’s family life is a lesson of everything not to do.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Genesis 27-29, and today’s post is on Genesis 29:16-30.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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