The Torah says the Lord saw that Leah was hated and opened her womb, and Rachel was barren (Genesis 29:31). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan softens and sharpens the verse in the same breath.
It was revealed before the Lord that Leah was not loved in the sight of Jakob. The Aramaic avoids saying Leah was hated, which would be brutal on Jacob. Instead it says he did not love her the way he loved Rachel. She was the wife he had not chosen.
And God, seeing that imbalance, said in His Word that sons should be given her, and that Rahel should be barren.
This is extraordinary theology. Heaven is not neutral toward the wife who is loved less. Heaven actively compensates her. The woman whose husband does not burn for her gets something even more precious: children, one after another, until she becomes the mother of half the tribes of Israel.
The Targum is telling us that God redistributes emotional wealth in marriage. Rachel had Jacob's heart. Leah had Jacob's sons. Neither sister had everything. But the one whose pain was hidden — the one who wept alone in the tent while her husband's face was turned elsewhere — was the one whose womb was opened.
Leah would bear six of the twelve tribes, plus the daughter Dinah. From her line would come the priesthood (through Levi) and the monarchy (through Judah and David) and ultimately the messiah. The unloved wife becomes the spine of the nation.
The takeaway: the hidden hurts of a marriage are not hidden from God. He pays attention, and He balances accounts — often in ways that are more lasting than the affection that was withheld.