The King James Version translates Genesis 29:17 as follows: "Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured." The New International Version has, "Leah had weak eyes," while the New American Bible reads, "Leah had lovely eyes." What did the Hebrew original mean to say?
Revised: 14-May-13The King James Version translates Genesis 29:17 as follows: “Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured.” The New International Version has, “Leah had weak[1]eyes”; while the New American Bible reads, “Leah had lovely eyes.” The Hebrew text reads, literally, “And the eyes of Leah were tender, and [i.e., but] Rachel was beautiful of stature and beautiful of appearance.”
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“Little Girl in Turquoise Sea (age five)” photographed by D Sharon Pruitt. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Notes
David N. Bivin (20 July 1939 - 14 July 2026) was founder and editor of Jerusalem Perspective from 1987-2025. A native of Cleveland, Oklahoma, in the United States, Bivin lived over 60 years in Israel, ever since he came to Jerusalem in 1963 on a Rotary… [Read more about author]
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