Sastra Bait Kedua Kejadian 29:31: On Mating with the Preliminary Studies, Who is the Heir, Allegorical Interpretation & On the Cherubim

[7] It is well then to pray that virtue may not only bear (she does that in abundance without our prayers), but also may bear for ourselves, that we, by sharing in what she sows and genders, may enjoy happiness. For in ordinary course she bears for God only, thankfully rendering the first-fruits of the blessings bestowed upon her to Him who, as Moses says, opens the womb which yet loses not its virginity (Gen. 29:31).

[51] For “the Lord” it runs “seeing that Leah is hated opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen. 29:31). Is it not just then, when the soul is pregnant and begins to bear what befits a soul, that all objects of sense become barren and incapable of childbearing, those objects which find acceptance with us “from the kiss” and not through genuine friendship.

[47] But that it is God who brings about birth, Scripture will give evidence in the case of Leah, when it says, “And the Lord seeing that Leah was hated opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen. 29:31). The opening of the womb is man’s proper function. But mortal kind is prone of itself to hate virtue, and accordingly God has bestowed honour upon it and vouchsafes to her that is hated to bear the first-born.