창 29:31-35 레아의 네 아들

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was whated, xhe opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben,3 for she said, “Because the Lord yhas looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.4 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be zattached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.5 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name aJudah.6 Then she ceased bearing.

w Deut. 21:15

x [ch. 30:22]

3 Reuben means See, a son

y ch. 31:42; Ex. 3:7; 4:31; Deut. 26:7

4 Simeon sounds like the Hebrew for heard

z [Num. 18:2, 4]

5 Levi sounds like the Hebrew for attached

a Matt. 1:2; [ch. 49:8]

6 Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 창 29:31–35.

 

 

31절) 여호와께서 레아가 야곱에게 사랑받지 못함을 보시고 레아의 태를 여셨지만 라헬은 자녀가 없었다. 

야곱은 레아보다 라헬을 더욱 사랑했다.(18절) 이러한 상황은 레아를 고통스럽게 했을 것이다. 이 상황속에서 여호와께서 레아의 사랑받지 못함, 레아가 미움을 받는 것, 고통스러워 하는 것을 보셨다. 이것을 보시고 하나님께서는 레아의 태를 여심으로 그녀로 하여금 아이를 가지게 하셨다. 

반면에 사랑받던 라헬은 자녀가 없었다. 

하나님께서는 모든 생명의 주관자로 태를 여시기도 하고 태를 닫으심으로 당신이 창조주이심을 드러내신다. 

하나님께서는 앞서 아비멜렉 집안의 태를 여셨다(20:17-18). 

앞서 하나님께서는 맏아들 에서가 아니라 둘째 야곱을 선택하셨다. 이제 남편의 사랑을 받는 라헬이 아니라 사랑받지 못한 레아를 선택하셨다. 

태의 히브리어는 ‘레헴’인데 이는 라헬을 세 자음중 처음 두 자음이 동일한데 열린 것은 라헬의 태가 아니라 레아의 태였다. 

 

-  It is he, not Laban, who observes that Leah is unloved. The Hebrew word is śenûʾá, literally, “hated.”5 The preceding verse has defined what hate means: “Jacob loved Rachel, not Leah.” “Hate” is used here as it is in Deut. 21:15 and Matt. 6:24. The use of śenûʾá also shows that in Hebrew a word, especially a verb, “may be used to describe not merely its own actions, but also the omission or prevention of an opposite action.”6

As Yahweh chose the second-born over the firstborn (i.e., the unlikely one) in Jacob’s and Esau’s case, he now chooses the unloved Leah over the loved Rachel (i.e., the unlikely one). He permits Leah, the hated one, to mother first. This is the second instance of womb opening Yahweh has brought about, the first being that of the Philistine women in Abimelech’s kingdom (20:17–18). There may be some irony in the fact that the first two of three consonants in “womb” (reḥem) and “Rachel” (rāḥēl) are the same. But it is not Rachel’s reḥem that is opened—it is Leah’s.

5 On the use of the tradition in Genesis about Jacob’s two wives, one loved, one unloved, in the formulation of the law in Deut. 21:15–17 (“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated …”), see C. Carmichael, The Laws of Deuteronomy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1974), pp. 58–62.

6 See R. Gordis, “Some Hitherto Unrecognized Meanings of the Verb SHUB,” JBL 52 (1933) 153–54.

 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 265–266.

 

32-35절) 레아의 아들들

32) 첫째 아들 르우벤 : '보라 아들이다'. 레아는 이 아이의 이름에 주님께서 나의 고통을 살피시고 나에게 아이를 주셨다라는 의미를 부여했다. 

르우벤의 경우에 먼저 이름을 이야기하고 그 이름의 의미를 설명했다면 나머지 세 아들의 경우에는 먼저 레아가 설명을 하고 나서 그 이름을 말한다. 

-  Leah’s firstborn is Reuben. She apparently makes a wordplay using two clauses which supply a popular or folk etymology for Reuben. In Yahweh has seen my distress (Heb. rāʾá YHWH beʿonyî) one detects, rather far apart, the consonants r-b-n. In the clause my husband will love me (Heb. yeʾĕhāḇanî) the cluster b-n may be identified with the b-n sequence in Reuben. By itself Reuben (Heb. reʾûḇēn) makes perfectly good sense: “See, a son!”7 In this light, the phrases from Leah’s mouth after Reuben’s birth may be read as affirmations by Leah, not as etymological explanations.

The first part of Leah’s statement is correct: Yahweh has seen my distress. The same noun was used for Hagar’s situation: “Yahweh has given heed to your distress” (16:11). In both instances one wife/concubine (Leah/Hagar) plays a subordinate role to another wife (Rachel/Sarah). The result of Yahweh’s involvement in the plight is that the subordinate woman gives birth to a child. Both times the name given to the child is followed by a phrase that highlights a verb in the child’s name: Yahweh has seen; Yahweh has given heed. Leah’s second phrase—my husband will love me—is not as accurate. Leah is not the last woman to discover that her pregnancy is not a guarantee of a spouse’s support and love.

Reuben’s birth differs from the following three births in one respect. In the other three the name is given to the child after Leah makes a comment. In Reuben’s case the name is given to the child before she makes a comment.8 Is this a way of highlighting Reuben as the firstborn? Here is the firstborn (Leah) mothering the firstborn (Reuben).

7 For the literal and interpreted meaning of Jacob’s sons, see M. Calloway, Sing, O Barren One: A Study in Comparative Midrash, SBLDS 91 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1986), p. 27.

8 Both B. O. Long (Problem of Etiological Narrative) and J. Fichtner (“Die etymologische Atiologie in der Namengebung der geschichtlichen Bucher des Alten Testaments,” VT 6 [1956] 372–96) distinguish between etiologies in which the name precedes the etiology (Form I), and those in which the name follows the etiology (Form II). All the etiologies in 29:31–35 are Form I: (1) the act of naming is narrated in the historical tense by the use of waw-conversive prefix form of the verb qārāʾ; (2) the etymological explanation with affix verb form follows the name giving itself. Thus v. 32 has (1) “and she named him” (wattiqrāʾ), and (2) “for she said” (kî ʾāmerâ). What distinguishes vv. 33–35 from v. 32 is that in the former a short statement providing the motivation for the name (e.g., v. 33, “now that Yahweh has heard that I was unloved”) precedes (1) and contains a wordplay. Vv. 33 and 34 come close to Form II because of the presence of ʿal kēn, the formula introducing Form II etiologies (on which see Long, Problem of Etiological Narrative, pp. 54–55).

 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 266–267.

 

33절) 둘째 아들 시므온 : ‘들으심', 주님께서 내가 남편의 사랑을 받지 못함을 들으심으로 이 아들을 주셨다. 

-  33  The name of the second child, Simeon (Heb. šimʿôn), is connected with the verb has heard (Heb. šāmaʿ). As with Reuben’s birth, Simeon’s birth is linked with an unsavory experience, followed by a happy rectification of that chagrin. In naming the child Leah focuses not on an unpleasant circumstance but on Yahweh who overcame that circumstance. She will not name her first child “My distress,” nor will she name the second child “Unloved one.”

First (v. 31), Yahweh “saw” that Leah was unloved. Leah now says that Yahweh heard that she was unloved. Heard from whom? Or does “hear” mean “take heed to, take action on”? There is a bold contrast between the use of “love” in v. 32 (ʾāhaḇ) and unloved (śenûʾá) in v. 33. Reuben’s birth has not caused a change in Jacob’s feelings about Leah. Interestingly, Jacob takes no part in naming the children.

 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 267–268.

 

34절) 셋째 아들 레위 : ‘매임, 연합’, 내가 남편을 위해서 아들을 셋이나 나았으니 남편이 나와 연합할 것이다.

-  34  Leah names her third child Levi (Heb. lēwî), for she hopes that her husband will attach himself (Heb. yillāweh)9 to her. She has not yet given up on Jacob. Jacob is giving his seed to Leah, but he is not giving his affection to her. One wonders why, given her fecundity, Jacob continues to cohabit with Leah, since he does not love her. He could continue to be married to her without continuing to cohabit with her. The last phrase in v. 35, she ceased bearing, may mean that Jacob ceased from sexual activity with Leah, but only after the birth of the fourth child, and then resumed again (according to 30:16ff.).

9 lāwâ (Niphal), “to attach,” followed by the preposition ʾim refers to attachment between equals (Ps. 83:9 [Eng. 8]); followed by the preposition ʾel or ʿal, it refers to attachment between nonequals, with one subordinated to the other (Num. 18:2, 4; Isa. 14:1; 56:3; Jer. 50:5; Zech. 2:15 [Eng. 11]). Interestingly, Leah uses lāwâ ʾel.

 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 268.

 

35절) 넷째 아들 유다 : ‘찬양’, 내가 이제는 여호와를 찬송하리로다.

-  35  Only with the birth of her fourth son does Leah say nothing about her lamentable situation. She names this child Judah (Heb. yehûḏá), and says I will praise [ʾôḏeh] Yahweh. W. F. Albright understood Judah as a Hophal jussive of yāḏá, with the divine-name element -ʾel (El) represented by the -á ending. Thus Judah (perhaps originally Jehudael or Jehudeel) means “may God be praised.”10 Similarly, A. R. Millard suggests that the name is an abbreviation for Jehudjah (“may Yah be praised”), which is the explanation offered in v. 35.11

The birth of these last two sons is not without import. Levi, we remember, is the ancestor of the Levitical priests. Moses and Aaron are sons of Levites. From Judah issues the principal line of the monarchy. Two of the major OT institutions—priesthood and kingship—have their origin in an unwanted and unplanned marriage.

10 W. F. Albright, “The Names ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah’ with an Excursus on the Etymology of Todah and Torah,” JBL 46 (1927) 168–78. According to him yehûḏâ was probably abbreviated from an original yehûḏeʾēl. He accounts for the -â ending on yehûḏâ by arguing that the qāmeṣ “is simply the pretonic lengthening of the traditional short a vowel, which originated in the influence of the weak largyngeal ʾalef upon the preceding šewă, giving it an a coloring.… When hypocoristica were formed from composite names of this type, the clipped imperfects retained the a coloring, which was lengthened to qāmeṣ under the tone” (pp. 173–74).

11 See A. R. Millard, “The Meaning of the Name Judah,” ZAW 86 (1974) 216–18. For support Millard appeals to the alternative ways of writing other personal names that end in -â and that clearly refer to the same person: mîḵâ (2 Chr. 34:20) with mîḵāyâ (2 K. 22:12).

 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 268.

 

레아의 첫째 아들은 르우벤, 둘째는 시므온으로 하나님께서 약자들에 대한 섭리를 가장 잘 드러내는 보다와 듣다라는 단어에 근거한 이름을 지어주고 있다. 레아는 야곱의 사랑을 받지는 못했지만 하나님이 향한 믿음과 신앙은 아주 강했다. 자신의 태를 여신 분이 바로 하나님이심을 그녀는 분명히 알았고 그 이름을 지을때마다 여호와 하나님에 대한 그의 신앙을 고백하고 있다. 

야곱은 레아로 인해서 자신이 7년이나 더 라반에게 매여 노동을 해야했던 것에 대해서 미움을 표했을 것이다. 레아는 자신이 첫째 부인이었지만 공공연하게 사랑받지 못했고 부당한 처사를 당했을 것이다. 그런 레아의 상황을 하나님게서 보고, 들으심으로 그의 인생에 개입하신다. 그의 태를 여신 것이다. 레아는 자신에게 아이가 생김으로 인해서 남편이 자신을 사랑해줄 것을 기대했지만 그렇지 못했던 것 같다. 애정없는 부부관계만이 있었고 넷째 유다를 낳고 나서 레아는 이제 자신의 시선을 하나님께 돌리고 여호와만은 찬송하겠다라는 마음으로 이름을 유다라고 부른다. 

35절 마지막은 레아의 출산이 멈추었다라고 표현한다. 아이 넷을 낳고 불임상태가 되었다라고도 볼 수 있지만 이후의 합환채 사건을 볼때 더이상 야곱이 레아와 잠자리를 하지 않았다라고 볼 수도 있다. 

 

하나님께서는 남편의 사랑을 받지 못했던 레아를 보기고, 그녀의 고통을 들으시고 그에게 사랑을 베푸신다. 그녀의 태에서 훗날 메시야를 탄생시킬 유다 지파가, 하나님을 섬기는 레위지파가 시작되었다.