John Calvin Commentary Genesis 30:17

"And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob a fifth son." — Genesis 30:17 (ASV)

And God hearkened unto Leah. Moses expressly declares this, so that we may know how indulgently God dealt with that family. For who would have thought that, while Leah was hatefully denying her sister the fruits gathered by her boy, and was purchasing a night with her husband with the price of those fruits, there would be any place for prayers?

Moses, therefore, teaches us that pardon was granted for these faults, to prove that the Lord would not fail to complete His work despite such great weakness. But Leah ignorantly boasts that her son was given to her as a reward for her sin; for she had violated the fidelity of holy marriage, when she introduced another concubine to oppose her sister.

Truly, she is so far from confessing her fault that she proclaims her own merit. I grant there was some excuse for her conduct; for she suggests that she was not so much aroused by lust as by modest love, because she desired to increase her family and to fulfill the duty of an honorable mother of a family.

But though this pretext is plausible in the eyes of men, yet the profanation of holy marriage cannot be pleasing to God. She errs, therefore, in taking what was no cause for the cause.

And this is all the more to be observed, because it is a fault that too often prevails in the world, for people to count the free gifts of God as their own reward; yes, even to boast of their merits when they are condemned by the Word of God.

In her sixth son, she more purely and rightly appreciates the divine goodness when she gives thanks to God, that by His kindness, her husband would from now on be more closely united to her (Genesis 30:20). For although he had lived with her before, yet, being too much attached to Rachel, he was almost entirely alienated from Leah.

It has been said before that children born in lawful marriage are bonds to unite the minds of their parents.