Leah is unloved. But the Lord opens her womb. Reuben: "the Lord has looked upon my affliction." Simeon: "the Lord has heard." Levi: "now my husband will be attached to me." Judah: "this time I will praise the Lord." Rachel is loved but barren. The sisters compete through childbearing—using their servants, bargaining with mandrakes. Eleven sons and a daughter, each name telling a story of pain, hope, and rivalry. "God has taken away my reproach," Rachel says when Joseph is born. These names are prayers, complaints, and testimonies. Every child is a chapter in the ongoing drama of this dysfunctional family.

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