29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, 1 he enabled her to become pregnant 2 while Rachel remained childless.
30:22 Then God took note of 6 Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant. 7 30:23 She became pregnant 8 and gave birth to a son. Then she said, “God has taken away my shame.” 9
1 tn Heb “hated.” The rhetorical device of overstatement is used (note v. 30, which says simply that Jacob loved Rachel more than he did Leah) to emphasize that Rachel, as Jacob’s true love and the primary object of his affections, had an advantage over Leah.
2 tn Heb “he opened up her womb.”
3 tn Heb “listened to.”
4 tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19).
5 tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.
6 tn Heb “remembered.”
7 tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons
8 tn Or “conceived.”
9 tn Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.