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Genesis 29 · a question people ask

Jacob married two sisters. Does the Bible approve?

In the text

Genesis records it without a word of approval, and it shows the trouble that follows: one wife loved more, the other "hated" (29:30-31), and later envy between the sisters (30:1). The law given later through Moses forbids it: "You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival… while her sister is still alive" (Leviticus 18:18). Asked about divorce, Jesus points back to the beginning: "the two shall become one flesh" (Matthew 19:4-6), quoting Genesis 2:24.

The verses

“He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him seven more years. The LORD saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”
Genesis 29:30-31 · World English Bible
“When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.””
Genesis 30:1 · World English Bible
““‘You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is still alive.”
Leviticus 18:18 · World English Bible
“He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh’? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.””
Matthew 19:4-6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 29

Genesis 29: This time I will praise

Jacob served seven years for Rachel and was given Leah instead: the man who had come to his father as the firstborn was told "It is not done so… to give the younger before the firstborn." The LORD saw that Leah was hated and gave her four sons, and with the fourth she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." That son, Judah, is the one from whom Jesus comes.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions