Leah's Eyes And Rachel's Looks

 "And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored." Gen.29:16-17

These verses contains one of the mysteries of the Bible. The question of what was wrong with Leah. The King James says that she was tender eyed. Bible commentators struggle to decipher what that means. The NKJV says that Leah's eyes were "delicate". The Living Bible says there was no sparkle in Leah's eyes. The NIV says that Leah had weak eyes.

The Hebrew word tender is the word "ralz", for which there is not inclination as to what the writer meant by using it. This word is translated as gentle, tender, weak, or soft. The word for eyes is the common word for eyes.

I wonder if this verse had nothing to do with Leah's vision. We use the phrase, easy on the eyes, not talking about literal eyes, but a person not hard to look at.

First, who is telling this story? Is Laban speaking here? In verse 15 Laban is speaking, but in verse 16 someone seems to be talking about Laban. If Laban is speaking, maybe he did not have high regard for the elder sister. Maybe he was frustrated by her still being single. Maybe she had turned down her father's choice and he thought that she had poor vision concerning men. So as far as Laban was concerned, Leah had weak eyes. Maybe that was a common way of talking back then.

The other thing is the context of the story. Obviously, there is a comparison between Leah and Rachel. Leah was plain, Rachel was pretty. Leah couldn't attract a man, Rachel had no trouble getting attention. Leah was getting older, Rachel was still a teenager. Whoever wrote this could see the difference between these two sisters. Leah was not ugly, but no one could compare to Rachel.

The story of Leah and Jacob is an interesting one. Rachel had the looks, but not the character or the personality. Leah was a good wife, and Jacob seemed to finally understand what a treasure she was. In the end, Leah had the children, and Jacob is buried next to her. Rachel is buried alone by herself.

There is a lesson here for that church you attend. You may not be the biggest or have the fanciest building. But if you are winning souls and planting churches you are a great treasure.