And left bearing— Heb. stood from bearing. So the LXX u949?στη του τικτειν. She ceased from bearing for a time; not wholly left off bearing, as our version seems to express; for she had children afterwards. See ch. Genesis 30:17, &c.

REFLECTIONS.—A forced match must needs be unhappy. It is shocking to be obliged to call her "wife" who is the object of our dislike. God, however, relieved Leah's affliction in giving her four sons. Note; 1. God usually so disposes his gifts, that what is denied in one thing is made up in another—Rachel's barrenness in Jacob's love, and Jacob's dislike by Leah's fruitfulness. 2. The greatest affliction of a wife is to have her husband's love estranged from her. 3. Judah is Leah's son, and therein she hath peculiar honour.

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