Person Old Testament
Leah
Leah, the first wife of Jacob and mother of six of his sons and his daughter Dinah. Mentioned in 32 verses across 2 books, first at Genesis 29:16.
Why it matters. Wife of Jacob; mother of six sons and Dinah
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Leah
Leah was the elder daughter of Laban, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother (Gen.29.16). Israel (or 'Jacob') agreed to work for Laban for seven years to marry Rachel, Leah's younger sister (Gen.29.18). However, Laban deceived Jacob and gave him Leah instead, requiring him to work another seven years for Rachel (Gen.29.23-28). Leah bore Jacob six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, as well as a daughter, Dinah (Gen.29.32-35; 30.17-21). Despite being the less favored wife, Leah hoped to gain Jacob's affection through childbearing (Gen.29.32). Leah accompanied Jacob when he left Laban's household and reconciled with his brother Esau (Gen.31.4,14; 33.1-2,7). She is last mentioned as being buried with Jacob in the cave of Machpelah (Gen.49.31). Leah's sons became the ancestors of six of the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen.35.23; 46.15; 49.1-28).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
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Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
Appears in Scripture
Named in 32 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.