LOOKING AT LEAH
by Jeremy Chance Springfield
2/6/2016
It wasn’t love at first sight, you see? She wasn’t beautiful or pretty to look at, and he would not do anything for her. Jacob did not love Leah. Not only was she a woman he was unwilling to work seven years to have the honor of calling his wife, he set the worth of Leah himself by being the one to suggest to her father, Laban, that he work instead to wed her younger sister, Rachel! In ancient cultures, it was proper for a man to take as his bride the oldest daughter a family had to offer. It is an incredible show of Jacob’s perception of Leah’s worth for him to suggest that he instead serve seven years for Laban’s younger daughter. If that is not a display of his self-centered desire, what is? Jacob saw Rachel for the first time, and he was struck by her at that first sighting, as Genesis 29:10 records:

And it was, that when Yaaqov saw Rakheyl, daughter of Lavan, brother of his mother, and the sheep of Lavan, brother of his mother, that Yaaqov approached, and rolled the stone from above the mouth of the well, and [gave to] drink the sheep of Lavan, brother of his mother.
The text tells us that he “saw” Rachel, but this visual term belies what he really saw. He saw his future wife. He saw the woman of his dreams. This concept is furthered in the text with the term VAYASHEQ, meaning “and he [gave to] drink” – concerning what he did for the sheep of Laban. In the next verse, we read also the term VAYASHAQ, separated only by five words, spelled exactly the same due to the conjugation of the Hebrew verbs, but pronounced slightly differently. VAYASHAQ means “and he kissed” – concerning what he did to Rachel, daughter of Laban. The wordplay in the Hebrew speaks volumes. The sheep he watered, the daughter he kissed! He treated Rachel differently, and Scripture makes it clear that he did not treat Leah to the same affection.
Genesis 29:16-18 preserves Jacob's low view of Leah and his high view of Rachel:

And to Lavan were two daughters: the greater named Leyah, and the smaller named Rakheyl. And Leyah’s eyes were weak, and Rakheyl was beautifully formed, and beautiful of appearance. And Ya’aqov loved Rakheyl, and said, “I shall serve you seven years for Rakheyl, your smaller daughter!”

This was love. This was commitment. His focus was on being in her life forever. He cared not about the pain he was surely causing Leah, who is said to have “weak eyes,” most likely meaning in contrast to Rachel’s beauty that she was not so physically pleasing to look upon. He did not take the time to get to know her beyond her visual appearance to eventually make her his bride. He would instead readily toil under the hot sun, in the frigid night, for year upon year, so long as he could call her beautiful younger sister, Rachel, his own. Jacob’s focused love for Rachel made the hurt he caused to Leah seem of little trouble to him, if at all, and it was compounded by the fact that Genesis 29:20 makes clear:
And Ya’aqov served for Rakheyl seven years, and they were in his eyes as several days in his love for her.
And Ya’aqov served for Rakheyl seven years, and they were in his eyes as several days in his love for her.
At the end of this period, he took Rachel as his wife, but not before being tricked by Laban into first marrying her older sister, Leah. This event, although a sure surprise, contains in it a hint of Jacob being repaid for his careless and selfish desire to have the younger Rachel over the older Leah, for his own words in Genesis 29:21 condemn him to this deceit:
And Yaaqov said unto Lavan, “Do give my wife, for my days are fulfilled, and I shall go in unto her.”

The Hebrew text here contains a very interesting phonetic wordplay that cannot be overlooked in the focus of this study. The phrase Jacob spoke of “unto her” is pronounced in the Hebrew of the text as EYLEYHA. While it may not seem to jump out to you at first glance, when you hear the Hebrew being spoken, it sounds essentially the same as the name LEYAH. The difference in pronunciation between the two terms is almost negligible, so that it very much sounds like Jacob is asking Laban to allow him to have marital relations with Leah! The actions of Laban's deceit can thus almost be justified by the very words of Jacob himself!
It is recorded in Genesis 29:25 that Jacob finally “saw” Leah:
And it was at morning, and see – Leyah!! And he said to Lavan, “What is this you have done to me?! Did I not, for Rakheyl, serve with you? And for what have you deceived me?!”
And it was at morning, and see – Leyah!! And he said to Lavan, “What is this you have done to me?! Did I not, for Rakheyl, serve with you? And for what have you deceived me?!”
Even with the deceit of Laban fueled by the phonetic wordplay of Jacob’s tongue, he was undeterred to have the one who already had his heart, with no thought for the heart of the woman he had just wed. Think of the pain in Leah’s heart: she acted in obedience to her father, and it should be noted that the text never once says that she knew she was not to be married to him. The custom of her land was to marry the eldest first. While she was aware of the feelings Jacob held for Rachel, she very likely would have thought that she would be the first one given to him. While commentators and sermons extol the love of Jacob for Rachel, and diminish Leah all too hastily, her quiet acceptance of her situation should instead speak volumes to us now. She experienced for a night the pure adoration and love of a man who should have been her husband, had he properly approached her father with cultural norms in mind (see Genesis 29:26). For one night she experienced what it was like to be desired as a cherished bride, as a long-desired prize. Leah knew the love of Jacob on her wedding night, and loved him in return, in spite of herself.
After that one night of misplaced desire, Jacob is never said to have “seen” Leah in any other way than the sister of the woman he truly loved. The love she must have felt toward him did not just go away, and she desired to reconnect with him in an intimacy greater than the act of a physical union. She desired to give him children, to be viewed as a mother of his sons, if she could not be viewed as the apple of His eye. She called out to the Most High for this, and He viewed her in a favorable light, as Genesis 29:32 speaks of her initial conception:
And Leyah conceived, and birthed a son, and she called his name R’uveyn, saying, “For YHWH saw in my affliction, for now my husband shall love me!”

Leah incorrectly thought that her deep marital affliction was over with the birth of her firstborn son, Reuben, and the Hebrew preserves a wordplay in the text here aligning with the theme of “seeing” that recurs in this historical account of a troubled marital situation. The term that Leah used for “my affliction” is AN’YEE, which, is spelled almost identically to the term AYNAY – “eyes” (appearing in verse 17 about Leah and verse 20 about Jacob) even though the pronunciation is not exactly the same. This insightful wordplay showcases her belief that the Most High had looked in favor upon her “eyes” – that is, her apparent physical attributes that were not as pleasing as her sister’s, and felt that the conception and birth of the first son to Jacob was making up for her undesirable physical appearance.
Although he was devoted as a husband to both sisters, Jacob’s love for Rachel never diminished, but it is also never said that his feelings ever grew for Leah. Even though Leah provided him easily with sons, and Rachel was barren for a considerable time after their union was sealed, when she at last conceived and birthed a son for him, whom she named Joseph, he treated the son of his second wife with more favor than Leah's sons. Leah watched as he treasured Joseph above all the sons obtained from her, her handmaid, as well as the sons obtained from Rachel’s handmaid. Rachel was his beloved bride, and he cherished the single fruit of their union unlike any of Leah’s sons. After the passing of several more years, Rachel conceived a second time.
Leah is often viewed as jealous, as vying for the attention of her husband. As his first wife, she had the right of wanting his attention, of making the best of a very awkward situation. While Rachel was content to take the idolatry of their father with them when they left Haran (see Genesis 31:30-35), we never see in Leah any disposition towards false worship. Rather, we find that the very first person ever recorded in all of Scripture to have verbally praised the Most High is none other than Leah, when, at the birth of Judah in Genesis 29:35, she declared:
. . . “Now I shall praise YHWH!” For thus she called his name Y’hudah . . .
Leah is often viewed as jealous, as vying for the attention of her husband. As his first wife, she had the right of wanting his attention, of making the best of a very awkward situation. While Rachel was content to take the idolatry of their father with them when they left Haran (see Genesis 31:30-35), we never see in Leah any disposition towards false worship. Rather, we find that the very first person ever recorded in all of Scripture to have verbally praised the Most High is none other than Leah, when, at the birth of Judah in Genesis 29:35, she declared:
. . . “Now I shall praise YHWH!” For thus she called his name Y’hudah . . .
The first exclamation of praise ever recorded in the Word given to the Holy One comes from the mouth of a woman who was locked into a difficult marriage that she was trying to make the best of. Leah’s lips uttered the original praise to the Father for His compassion on her plight. In fact, of the children borne of Leah and of those borne for her by her handmaid, she explicitly refers to the Holy One in every instance but two – that is for seven out of nine children that the Creator is blatantly referred to at their births.
It is intriguing to consider that although Rachel was the beloved of the two brides, it was the sons of Leah to whom would be given the kingship (Judah) and the priesthood (Levi) in the nation of Israel. Leah was honored by the Most High in the future elevation of her sons in the midst of all the tribes. In contrast to these details, not only did Rachel commit an idolatrous act and lie about it to her father and her husband, Rachel referred to the Holy One only during the birth of her firstborn, Joseph, but not at the birth of her second son, Benjamin.
At the birth of Benjamin, tragedy struck. Rachel had much difficulty during the birth of their second son, and right after he came into this world, she passed from it. Genesis 35:16-19 gives the account in detail:
And Ya’aqov pulled up from Beyth Eyl, and there was yet a length of land to come [to] Ef’rathah. And Rakheyl birthed, and her birthing was fierce. And it was in the fierceness in her birth, that her birther said to her, “No fear! for even this is a son for you!” And it was in the going forth of her soul – for she died – that she called his name Ben Oni, but his father called him Binyamin. And Rakheyl died, and she was buried on the way to Ef’rathah, which is Beyth Lakhem.
It is intriguing to consider that although Rachel was the beloved of the two brides, it was the sons of Leah to whom would be given the kingship (Judah) and the priesthood (Levi) in the nation of Israel. Leah was honored by the Most High in the future elevation of her sons in the midst of all the tribes. In contrast to these details, not only did Rachel commit an idolatrous act and lie about it to her father and her husband, Rachel referred to the Holy One only during the birth of her firstborn, Joseph, but not at the birth of her second son, Benjamin.
At the birth of Benjamin, tragedy struck. Rachel had much difficulty during the birth of their second son, and right after he came into this world, she passed from it. Genesis 35:16-19 gives the account in detail:
And Ya’aqov pulled up from Beyth Eyl, and there was yet a length of land to come [to] Ef’rathah. And Rakheyl birthed, and her birthing was fierce. And it was in the fierceness in her birth, that her birther said to her, “No fear! for even this is a son for you!” And it was in the going forth of her soul – for she died – that she called his name Ben Oni, but his father called him Binyamin. And Rakheyl died, and she was buried on the way to Ef’rathah, which is Beyth Lakhem.
The grief of Jacob was real. He mourned for Rachel as a man deeply in love would be expected to do: in his own private way. He even constructed a column to serve as a monument marking her burial place. As beloved and as important as Rachel was in the life of Jacob, she passes from the narrative at this point, and the reader is quickly moved to the next phase of events in the life of our patriarch.
He was left as he was at the first, with only Leah at his side. The unloved wife left to comfort the husband who passed her by in favor of her younger sister. The wife who brought him nine children, but none of whom he loved as much as one from the departed wife. Leah continued to stand by Jacob’s side as his wife, and in this is no record of exultation at her sole position at last, at having his attention and none other’s. There is no account of her deeds further in the Word. She lived out the rest of her days as Jacob’s bride, never discussed, never playing a further part deemed worthy of mention in the Word. Even her passing is omitted from the text of Scripture. The Torah devotes five verses to the matter of Rachel’s death. To Leah, the event is passed over entirely. Her absence from Jacob’s life is only mentioned as a footnote detail in Genesis 49:31, where Jacob speaks to his sons of the arrangements for his own burial. He is recorded as saying:
There they buried Avraham, and Sarah, his wife; there they buried Yitzkhaq, and Rivqah, his wife; and there I buried Leyah.

At this, the twilight of his days, Jacob gives us the detail that his resting place will be with the wife whom he did not desire, whom he passed over even though she was the eldest, even though it was against the custom of the land. His burial place would be with the wife who was responsible for nine children – eight of whom were to become tribes themselves. He would be put into the earth in the cave next to a woman who stood by him despite an awkward and difficult marriage not of her choosing. With the patriarchs of great faith – with our father Abraham, and his son Isaac, and the matriarchs responsible for so many great women of faith – Sarah and Rebekah, Jacob would be laid to rest next to his bride, Leah. Although Leah lived a life of humility in the shadow of her younger sister, she is seen by us who take time to look closer to have been placed in the spotlight of faith by the Most High.
This study is meant as a parallel companion piece to my study: Two Hands for Benjamin.
All study contents Copyright Jeremy Chance Springfield, except for graphics and images, which are Copyright their respective creators.