Genesis 29:32 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 29:32
And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
(by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunc… · particle
husband
אִישִֽׁי'i.Shi
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
love
יֶאֱהָבַ֥נִיye.'e.ha.Va.ni
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 26:7 And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppressi…
Exodus 3:7 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 taskmaster…
Exodus 4:31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction,…
Genesis 31:42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath…
Genesis 37:21-22 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
Genesis 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also…
Genesis 42:27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack’s mouth.
Genesis 46:8-9 And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 29:31–end
We have here the birth of four of Jacob's sons, all by Leah. Observe, 1. That Leah, who was less beloved, was blessed with children, when Rachel was denied that blessing, Gen 29:31. See how Providence, in dispensing its gifts, observes a proportion, to keep the balance even, setting crosses and comforts one over-against another, that none may be either too much elevated or too much depressed. Rachel wants children, but she is blessed with her husband's love; Leah wants that, but she is fruitful. Thus it was between Elkana's two wives (Sa1 1:5); for the Lord is wise and righteous. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, that is, loved less than Rachel, in which sense it is required that we hat…
son . . . his name Reuben--Names were also significant; and those which Leah gave to her sons were expressive of her varying feelings of thankfulness or joy, or allusive to circumstances in the history of the family. There was piety and wisdom in attaching a signification to names, as it tended to keep the bearer in remembrance of his duty and the claims of God.
Next: Genesis Chapter 30
Adam Clarke on Genesis 29:32
She called his name Reuben - ראובן reuben, literally, see ye or behold a son; for Jehovah hath looked upon, ראה raah, beheld, my affliction; behold then the consequence, I have got a son!
John Gill on Genesis 29:32
And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben,.... That is, "see the son", as if she by this name called upon her husband, her friends, and all about her, to look at him, and view him; perhaps hoping and imagining he might be the famous son, the promised seed, the Messiah that was to spring to Abraham, in the line of Jacob; but if she so thought, she was greatly mistaken; for this son of hers proved unstable, and did not excel; or rather God hath seen or provided a son, as Hillerus (w) gives the signification of the name, which seems better to agree with what follows:
for she said, surely the Lord hath looked on my affliction; being deceived by her father, not so much l…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 32.) And she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Reuben. I desire to also mention the etymologies of the names of all the patriarchs for the sake of brevity in reading. And he called, he said, his name is Ruben, saying: Because the Lord has seen my humility. Ruben () is interpreted as the son of vision.
Reuben was the firstborn of those born after him, and their resemblance to him bore witness to their relationship to him, so that their brotherhood was not unrecognized, being testified to by the similarity of appearance. Therefore, if through the same rebirth "by water and the spirit," we also have become brothers of the Lord, he having become for us "the firstborn among the many brothers," it follows that our nearness to him will show in the character of our life, because "the firstborn of every creature" has informed our life. But what have we learned from the Scripture about the character of his life? What we have said many times: that "he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth." Therefore, if we are going to act as brothers of the One who gave us birth, the sinlessness of our life will be a pledge of our relationship to him, and no filth will nullify our union with his purity. But the firstborn is also justice and holiness and love and redemption and such things. So if our life is characterized by such qualities, we furnish clear tokens of our noble birth, and anyone, seeing these qualities in our life, will bear witness to our brotherhood with Christ.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Reuben — Behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:32). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22, brought down upon him his dying father’s malediction (48:4). He showed kindness to Joseph,…
Childlessness · A reproach — A reproach
Leah · Children of — Children of
Polygamy · .In Jacob’ s family — .In Jacob’ s family
Reuben · General references — General references
Reuben, The Tribe Of · Descended from Jacob’s first son — Descended from Jacob’s first son
Wife · Hated — Hated
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
She called his name Reuben. Moses relates that Leah was not ungrateful to God. And truly, I do not doubt, that the benefits of God were then commonly more appreciated than they are now. For a profane stupor so occupies the mind of nearly all men, that, like cattle, they swallow up whatever benefits God, in his kindness, bestows upon them. Further, Leah not only acknowledges God as the author of her fruitfulness; but also assigns as a reason, that her affliction had been looked upon by the Lord, and a son had been given her who should draw the affection of her husband to herself. Whence it appears probable, that when she saw herself despised, she had recourse to prayer, in order that she migh…
Leah's First Sons. - Jacob's sinful weakness showed itself even after his marriage, in the fact that he loved Rachel more than Leah; and the chastisement of God, in the fact that the hated wife was blessed with children, whilst Rachel for a long time remained unfruitful. By this it was made apparent once more, that the origin of Israel was to be a work not of nature, but of grace. Leah had four sons in rapid succession, and gave them names which indicated her state of mind: (1) Reuben, "see, a son!" because she regarded his birth as a pledge that Jehovah had graciously looked upon her misery, for now her husband would love her; (2) Simeon, i.e., "hearing," for Jehovah had heard, i.e., observ…
Reuben (Hebrew re’uben) sounds like the Hebrew for “He has seen my misery” (ra‘ah be‘onyi). His birth gave Leah consolation from God and hope for Jacob’s love. Jacob seems not to have seen her misery, but God did (cp. 16:14; 24:62; 25:11). The name was a reminder of God’s intervention.
Rashi on Genesis 29:32
ותקרא שמו ראובן AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME REUBEN — Our Rabbis explained it thus: she said, “See (ראו) the difference between (בין) my son and my father-in-law’s son who himself sold the birthright to Jacob and yet wished to kill him afterwards. This (my son) did not sell it (his birthright) to Joseph (it must be remembered that Joseph being the founder of two tribes was regarded as the first-born of Jacob’s sons since the eldest son took a double portion in the father’s property), yet he did not raise any protest to him being regarded as the first-born and not only did he not raise a protest but he even wished to take him out of the pit and so rescue him from death (Berakhot 7b).
