Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Surely the Lord has looked upon my affliction. Now therefore my husband will love me.”
Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away empty now. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore, his blood is now required of us.”
Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but since he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright;
The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the Israelites and that He had looked on their affliction, they bowed down and worshipped.
So she made a vow and said, “O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant, and remember me and not forget Your maidservant, but will give to Your maidservant a baby boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”