What Does Genesis 29:31 Mean in the King James?
And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for Leah’s “womb” shares its root with “compassion,” giving her physical opening an echo of tenderness.
THE MEANING
When you are marked as the unwanted one, you are still seen: the LORD sees Leah in her rejection, and her womb opens. Rachel remains barren, so the verse holds one woman’s opening beside another’s unresolved condition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that being hated means being unseen.
THE ROOT
רַחְמָהּ
raḥmāh
GROWS FROM
רחם
To show compassion or tender affection.
The word for Leah’s womb belongs to the same Hebrew root family as the words for compassion. That echo joins bodily opening with tenderness while leaving Leah’s rejection and Rachel’s barrenness plainly in view.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamim: Compassion, tender mercies.
רַחֲמִים
This branch names compassion directly, revealing the tenderness echoed in the word for Leah’s womb.
riḥēm: He showed compassion.
רִחֵם
This verbal branch presents compassion as an act, echoing the LORD’s response after seeing Leah’s rejection.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names affliction and reproach openly, placing divine regard alongside them while leaving each person’s outcome distinct.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.THE THREAD
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.The Hebrew word for Leah’s womb, rechem, shares the root רחם with the verb translated “pitieth” here. That root links bodily life with compassion, letting the two verses illuminate one another.
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