Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jacob comes to Haran and meets the shepherds at the well

Genesis 29:1. And Jacob rose up and went to the land of the sons of the east [to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, to the brother of Rebekah, mother of Jacob and Esau]. Strengthened by the heavenly vision, Jacob continues his journey and comes “to the land of the sons of the east”; “sons of the east” are usually inhabitants of Arabia (Judg 6:33; Job 1:3; Isa 11:14); here, as in Num 23:7, it has a broader meaning, applying to the inhabitants of Syria. According to the Midrash, Esau sent his son Eliphaz to pursue Jacob, but he did no harm to him.

Genesis 29:2. And behold, there was a well in the field, and there three flocks of sheep lay by it, for from that well they watered the flocks. And a great stone was upon the well’s mouth. The first thing Jacob encounters in the land that was his destination is a well, as likewise is told of Eliezer in Gen 24:11; only in the latter case it is a well near the city, whereas in the case we are considering it is a cistern that apparently lay not close to the city (as appears from Jacob’s question, v. 4). The great stone (Hebrew haeben with the article—a stone known for its purpose) covered the well’s mouth to protect the water’s opening from sand—a common sight even now in hot regions of Arabia and Asia Minor. The whole scene of Jacob’s forthcoming meeting with Rachel (see Gen 24:11 and following; Exod 2:16) bears the marks of specific features of Eastern life.

Genesis 29:3. And it came to pass, when all the flocks gathered there, that they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth and water the sheep; then they would put the stone back upon the well’s mouth. The well belonged to several owners, and therefore they would wait for all the owners’ flocks to arrive before rolling away the stone; Laban was probably one of the last to arrive (at Rachel’s coming the well is opened immediately, vv. 9-10).

Genesis 29:4–5. Jacob said to them [the shepherds]: My brothers! Where are you from? They said: We are from Haran. He said to them: Do you know Laban, son of Nahor? They said: We do. Jacob addresses his fellow craftsmen in a friendly manner, calling them “brothers.” Hearing about Haran, Jacob joyfully asks about Laban; he calls him the son of Nahor, whereas the latter was actually his grandfather and his father was Bethuel (Gen 22:20-23)—undoubtedly, according to the ancient Eastern custom of naming instead of the less well-known immediate ancestor, in this case Nahor, as the founder (Gen 11:27) of the younger line of descendants of Terah; moreover, Hebrew words for father (ab), brother (ach), son (ben), and the like are used very broadly.

Genesis 29:6. He also said to them: Is he well? They said: He is well; and behold, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep. The Greek hygiainen and the Slavonic-Russian “to be well” somewhat narrow the meaning of the Hebrew schalom lo, which means well-being in general: to live and be well. That Rachel comes with the sheep to the well immediately as the shepherds are telling Jacob about her father is not simply a literary device (the opinion of Gunkel), but a truly probable coincidence.

Genesis 29:7. And Jacob said: See, there is still much daylight; it is not yet time to gather the flocks. Water the sheep and go, feed them. Jacob, himself a shepherd, advises them not to waste time and, having watered the flock, to continue pasturing it until sunset. Perhaps, however, Jacob intentionally wishes to send the shepherds away, not wanting any witnesses to his first meeting with his cousin.

Genesis 29:8. They said: We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled from the well’s mouth; then we will water the sheep. Unfamiliar with the customs of the region, Jacob is told by the shepherds of Haran that the well (probably as common property of several owners) is opened only when all the flocks have arrived.

Jacob becomes acquainted with Rachel

Genesis 29:9. While he was still speaking with them, Rachel [daughter of Laban] came with her father’s flock, for she tended [the flock of her father]. That Rachel was a shepherdess (Hebrew roah—participle; the Greek and Slavonic texts add: “of the sheep of her father”) was not disgraceful for her, for in both ancient and modern (according to Burckhardt) the East, shepherding was and remains a common occupation for unmarried daughters even of noble sheikhs.

Genesis 29:10. When Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. The sight of his kinswoman awakens Jacob’s spirits, and wishing to please Rachel and Laban (the relationship of Jacob to the latter is deliberately emphasized here—in the threefold designation of Laban as Jacob’s uncle), he performs the difficult labor of rolling the stone from the well’s mouth; as a foreigner, he could do this without regard to local custom.

Genesis 29:11. And Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. Immediately after displaying courage and strength (v. 10), Jacob shows extraordinary sensitivity: in the kiss to Rachel and then in tears. According to Jewish interpretations, Jacob wept either because at his very first meeting with Rachel he foresaw her early death and that she would not be buried with him, or in distress that he could not bring her as rich a dowry as Eliezer brought to Rebekah. More simply, it may be from joy at the meeting after the trials of the journey he had endured (see Gen 43:30).

Genesis 29:12. And Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father, and that he was Rebekah’s son. And she ran and told her father. Jacob calls himself “brother” to Laban, of course in the broad sense of “kinsman” (Russian translation), as Abraham and Lot are called “brothers” (Gen 13:8). The maiden runs home, as Rebekah did (Gen 24:28), but tells of the visitor not to her mother, as that one did, but to her father; perhaps, as the rabbis remark, Laban’s wife was no longer living at that time; in the further narrative she is not mentioned at all.

Laban meets and receives Jacob

Genesis 29:13. When Laban heard the news of Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him, embraced him, kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. Hearing from his daughter of his nephew’s arrival, Laban—this man of calculation and self-interest—surrenders to the stirrings of family feeling: he runs to meet Jacob, embraces him, kisses him, and cordially brings him into his house—displays of family affection natural and customary in the East. Jacob tells Laban all these things, that is, “his kindred, his adventures, and the unexpected discovery, by the providence of God, of Laban’s house” (Metropolitan Philaret).

Genesis 29:14. Laban said to him: Truly you are my bone and my flesh. And Jacob lived with him for a whole month. In order for Laban to be convinced of the justice of Jacob’s account and to recognize in him his blood relative, the latter had to remain with his uncle for at least several days: as a guest Jacob lived with him for a whole month, during which time, without doubt, he showed himself to be a strong and diligent worker, which explains Laban’s words.

He makes a contract with him

Genesis 29:15. Laban said to Jacob: Because you are my relative, should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be? Here, under the guise of concern for Jacob’s interests, Laban inquires whether Jacob’s labor will prove too costly for him. Not equating Jacob to hired workers, Laban is nonetheless not averse to exploiting his work capacity and talents. In response to Laban’s question, Jacob makes it understood (v. 18) that he does not pursue money but desires marriage to his daughter.

Genesis 29:16–17. Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. Rachel’s beauty (Hebrew Rachel—sheep) consisted, in addition to general beauty of form, in a special delicacy and liveliness of the eyes—the chief mark of a beautiful woman (and even of a man, see 1 Sam 16:12) in the understanding of Eastern peoples; meanwhile, Leah (Hebrew Leah—wild cow; then, laboring, suffering), while perhaps beautiful in other respects, had precisely a constitutional defect of the eyes: an illness, according to the rabbis, that came from Leah’s constant weeping over the fact that, as Laban’s elder daughter, she would have to marry the impious Esau. “Great is the power of prayer: it not only canceled this fate but also helped Leah to marry a righteous man before Rachel” (Rabbi Huna, Beresch. r., s. 344).

Genesis 29:18–19. Jacob loved Rachel and said: I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. Laban said to him: It is better for me to give her to you than to give her to another man; live with me. The mutual agreement between Jacob and Laban bears the marks of Biblical-Hebrew and generally Eastern customs. By the custom of ancient and even modern the East, it is not the father of the bride who gives a dowry to the groom, but rather the latter pays the father of the bride—a bride-price, Hebrew mohar (see Gen 24:53), usually securing (by the document “ketuba”) the wife’s support in case of divorce. Jacob, a propertyless wanderer (Gen 32:10), offers in place of bride-price his personal labor for 7 years: the replacement of bride-price was not unusual even in biblical antiquity (David to Saul for Michal, 1 Sam 18:25-27); earlier—Othniel married Achsah, daughter of Caleb (Josh 15:16-17, both—personal feat of valor), and now in the East. But in this same agreement there appear and astonish, on the one hand, the humility and lack of demands of Jacob, which he had already earlier shown (Gen 28:20), though he had the possibility to make heavier demands on Laban and from his father to require the portion of inheritance belonging to him; and on the other hand, the self-interest of Laban, who did not hesitate to turn his nephew, “his bone and flesh,” into a worker; this deed was not approved afterward by Laban’s daughters (Gen 31:15). According to the rabbis, Jacob, as if foreseeing deception from Laban, with special precision names exactly Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban; by this he also expressed that, as the younger son of Rebekah, he should marry the younger daughter of Laban. Laban readily agrees to Jacob’s proposal, which secured him seven years of free labor; but his agreement, Laban motivates with a more respectable ground—the requirement of Eastern custom (which still has force there) to prefer marriages of close kinship to marriages with strangers.

Genesis 29:20. Jacob served for Rachel seven years, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of the love he had for her. The example of Jacob’s love shows that the ancient Semites were not unfamiliar with the most elevated love between the sexes. Some commentators supposed that Jacob’s marital living with Laban’s daughters began already at the beginning of the first seven-year period of his service, since otherwise it is difficult to understand how twelve children were born to Jacob in the following seven years, and particularly because there was a considerable interval between the birth of Judah (Gen 29:35) and Issachar (Gen 30:17-18) to Leah. But in explanation of the latter difficulty one must remember that some of Jacob’s children were born—from different wives and concubines—simultaneously. The supposition itself is directly refuted by v. 21, which says that Jacob demands marriage only after the completion of 7 years of service.

Genesis 29:21. Jacob said to Laban: Give me my wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her. The Midrash gives the following paraphrase: “The Lord promised me that from me would come 12 tribes; but I am already 84 years old; when then shall I become the father of those tribes?” (Beresch. r., s. 345).

Jacob’s marriage to Leah

Genesis 29:22. Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a feast. Despite his shrewdness, Laban gathers many guests for the celebration: perhaps to have witnesses in case of vigorous objections from Jacob concerning the forthcoming deception, or to make the latter easier through revelry, or finally, having in view to celebrate both weddings at once.

Genesis 29:23. In the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and he went in to her. The substitution of the bride itself was quite possible thanks to the custom of ancient and modern the East—to bring the bride into the bridal chamber under a veil and in darkness: “there were neither lamps nor any other lighting except as needed, and thus the deception was accomplished” (John Chrysostom, Homily 56, p. 598). Leah, who was an accomplice in the deception, according to the Midrash (Beresch. r., s. 346), justified herself before Jacob thus: “Is there a master who does not have a student resembling him (that is, you first taught me to deceive: did you not pass yourself off as Esau, when your father asked your name)?”

Genesis 29:24. Laban gave to his daughter Leah his maidservant Zilpah as her servant. As Rebekah, upon leaving her father’s house, received as a gift several maidservants (Gen 24:61), so too Laban gave Leah Zilpah as part of her dowry; and according to the rabbis, even here Laban made a substitution—for completeness of the deception, giving Leah Zilpah, who until then had been Rachel’s maidservant, and conversely.

Genesis 29:25–26. In the morning, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban: What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me? Laban said: In our country, it is not done to give the younger before the elder. The amazed Jacob asks Laban about the reason for the deception, to which he receives a plausible motive: Laban appeals (v. 26) to the custom of the region not to marry off the younger sister or daughter before the elder; such a custom indeed existed and exists in Asia Minor, in India, and in other lands. But this does not justify Laban’s deception. “If Laban had truly wished to observe the order and the accepted custom, he should have revealed his intention to Jacob before the condition about seven years of work. But the cunning he employed shows that he wished not so much to render justice to the elder daughter as to acquire in the son-in-law a cheap worker for another seven years” (Metropolitan Philaret, Notes on Genesis 2, 60).

Genesis 29:27. Finish the week of this one, and we will give you the other as well, in exchange for the service you will render me for another seven years. Wishing to smooth over his guilt before Jacob and at the same time to ensure for himself the obligation of Jacob to work another seven years, Laban offers him to finish the marriage week with Leah (schebua—exactly a week, seven days, not seven years, as in Dan 9:2) and then to enter into marriage with Rachel.

Jacob’s marriage to Rachel

Genesis 29:28. Jacob did so, and finished the week of Leah. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. Jacob, immediately after the marriage week of Leah, marries Rachel (not after new 7 years of work, as early commentators supposed, following the example of Josephus and St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Бытие 61, 599).

Genesis 29:29. Laban gave to his daughter Rachel his maidservant Bilhah as her servant. And to his second daughter Laban gives in her own right the maidservant Bilhah. Both maidservants are named and mentioned specifically in the history of Jacob’s marriage because both of them became for him wives of the second rank (Gen 30:3).

Leah bears four sons

Genesis 29:31. The Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. Instead of “unloved,” the Greek-Slavonic version more accurately conveys the Hebrew senuah—“hated”; but the sense is one: Jacob, in comparison with the passionately loved Rachel, almost did not notice, did not value Leah (“amorem sequentis priorui praetulit,” Vulgate). The Lord Jehovah, who graciously looks upon all the unfortunate and wronged (Gen 14:7), extends His mercy even to her who did not have complete marital happiness: she becomes a mother first, while Rachel remains barren (that one of two wives was loved, aguvah, and the other unloved, senuah, was a common occurrence, Deut 21:15).

Genesis 29:32. Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, saying: “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction [and has given me a son], for surely now my husband will love me. Following the custom of antiquity (see Gen 4:1), the mother, Leah, names Jacob’s firstborn. Reuben, Hebrew Ruben—behold, a son—a natural exclamation of joy from a mother. But in the verse is given a somewhat different etymology of the name, based on the not uncommon play on words in Hebrew: raah beani—“the Lord looked upon my affliction.” Jewish commentators, paying attention to the word (v. 31) vajiphtach, “and opened,” supposed that Leah also was completely barren, and that the 12 patriarchs were born in no less a supernaturally unusual manner as Isaac, Esau, and Jacob.

Genesis 29:33. She conceived again and bore a son, and said: “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has given me this son too.” And she called his name Simeon. If Reuben (perhaps—Ruben? Or—raah beani—see above) expresses that God saw Leah, then Shin-on—Simeon—expresses that He heard her. By its idea and significance the name Simeon is identical with the name Ishmael (Gen 16:11), only the birth of the first four sons of Leah is ascribed properly to Jehovah, whereas the birth of Ishmael, and likewise the subsequent sons of Leah, is ascribed to God under the common name Elohim.

Genesis 29:34. She conceived again and bore a son, and said: “Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. “Levi” in Hebrew means “attachment” (Vulgate: “copulabitur”). If at the birth of her first son Leah hoped to earn her husband’s greater love through him, through the second to achieve equality with her sister, then the birth of the third awakens in her the expectation, at least, of constancy of affection from her husband. The Midrash interprets “attachment” to mean that the sons of Levi will be devoted to their heavenly Father. The masculine form of the verb “to name” in relation to Levi, the rabbis attributed either to the Angel, who supposedly gave the name Levi, or to Jacob. The Midrash says that Leah, knowing that from all 4 wives of Jacob were to come 12 sons, after the birth of her third son, decided she would bear no more: hence the expression of hope in Levi, and then—the rapture of unexpectedness at the birth of Judah.

Genesis 29:35. She conceived again and bore a son, and said: “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing. Judah—“Yehudah”: may he be blessed or praised (Jehovah). Leah first of all praises Jehovah, and then also Judah with his posterity (see Gen 49:8-10; 1 Chr 28:4; 1 Chr 5:2).