Meaning of the Name Leah

The etymology of Leah is uncertain. Some explanations connect it with a Hebrew idea like "weary," while others point to different Semitic parallels or even to an animal term such as wild cow or antelope. For that reason its meaning remains debated.

Origin

The name Leah is of Hebrew; the derivation is debated origin.

Who is Leah in the Bible?

Leah is the wife of Jacob and the mother of a large part of the tribes of Israel. As the mother of sons including Reuben, Levi, and Judah, she holds a foundational place in the lineage of the covenant people. This is the Leah by whom the name is best known.

The story of Leah in the Bible

Leah was Laban's elder daughter and Jacob's first wife. Genesis introduces the sisters side by side: Leah is described by her eyes, the younger Rachel by her beauty, and it is Rachel whom Jacob loves. On the wedding night Laban gives Jacob Leah instead, so she enters a marriage shadowed by being second in affection. Yet the LORD saw that Leah was unloved and opened her womb. When her first son Reuben was born she declared that God had looked upon her misery; Simeon, Levi, and Judah followed, then Issachar, Zebulun, and her daughter Dinah. Leah thus became the mother of most of Israel's twelve tribes: Levi, ancestor of the priests, and Judah, source of King David's line, were both her sons. In the book of Ruth, the people of Bethlehem bless a bride by naming Rachel and Leah as the women who built up the house of Israel. A story that began with an unloved wife becomes a foundational legacy of motherhood for the covenant people.

Is Leah mentioned in the Quran?

The name Leah does not appear in the Quran; in the Bible she appears in Genesis as Jacob's wife and the mother of most of the tribes of Israel.

Verses where Leah appears