Discovery BoxGenesis 29:31-32 
Context29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, 1 he enabled her to become pregnant 2 while Rachel remained childless. 29:32 So Leah became pregnant 3 and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, 4 for she said, “The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. 5 Surely my husband will love me now.”
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 Or “Leah conceived” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35).
4 sn The name Reuben (רְאוּבֵן, rÿ’uven) means “look, a son.”
5 tn Heb “looked on my affliction.”
sn Leah’s explanation of the name Reuben reflects a popular etymology, not an exact one. The name means literally “look, a son.” Playing on the Hebrew verb “look,” she observes that the
