Genesis 29

Translator Notes

1. 'Jacob lifted his feet' (vayyissa Ya'aqov raglav) — the idiom is unique in the Hebrew Bible and strikingly physical. After the Bethel theophany, Jacob does not merely 'journey' — he lifts his feet, as if the divine encounter has given him new energy and resolve. The expression suggests eagerness, even lightness: the man who slept on a stone pillow and saw heaven opened now walks with purpose. The Targum Onqelos paraphrases 'he went quickly,' capturing the sense of joyful haste.
2. 'The land of the people of the east' (artsah benei-qedem) — benei qedem ('sons of the east') designates the region of upper Mesopotamia, the ancestral homeland. Jacob leaves the promised land for the first time, heading toward the family he has never met. The journey reverses Abraham's migration: Abraham left the east for Canaan, Jacob now returns east. This pattern of exile and return will define Israel's story.

Translator Notes

1. 'A well in the field' (be'er basadeh) — wells are places of encounter in Genesis. Abraham's servant met Rebekah at a well (24:11), Hagar found a well in the wilderness (16:14), Isaac contended over wells in Gerar (26:18–22). Now Jacob's story pivots at a well. In the patriarchal narratives, wells are sites of providence, courtship, and covenant — the life-giving water drawing together those whom God intends to join.
2. 'A great stone was upon the mouth of the well' (veha'even gedolah al-pi habe'er) — the stone sealing the well creates a communal protocol: no one waters until all arrive. It also sets the stage for Jacob's feat in verse 10, where he rolls the stone alone. The stone anticipates the theme of obstacles that must be removed before blessing flows.

Translator Notes

1. The description of the watering protocol (vene'esfu-shammah kol-ha'adarim) establishes communal practice: the stone requires collective effort and collective agreement. No single shepherd acts alone — until Jacob does. The repetitive structure (gather, roll, water, return) conveys the rhythm of a daily routine. The verb galelu ('they rolled') will recur in verse 10 when Jacob rolls the stone by himself — an act of extraordinary strength or extraordinary motivation.

Translator Notes

1. 'My brothers' (achai) — Jacob addresses strangers with the language of kinship, an ancient Near Eastern courtesy but also, as it turns out, literally true. He is speaking to people from the very town where his family lives. The term establishes Jacob's social ease and sets up the revelations that follow.

Translator Notes

1. 'Laban son of Nahor' (Lavan ben-Nachor) — strictly, Laban is Nahor's grandson (through Bethuel), but the genealogical shorthand 'son of' can mean 'descendant of' in Hebrew. Nahor was Abraham's brother, so the question identifies the family line Jacob seeks. The shepherds' terse 'we know him' (yada'nu) confirms Jacob has arrived at the right place — providence has guided his steps to the exact well where Rachel will appear.

Translator Notes

1. 'Is it well with him?' (hashalom lo) — the question uses shalom in its fullest sense: health, wholeness, prosperity, peace. Jacob inquires after the total well-being of a man he has never met but on whom his future depends.
2. 'Look — Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep' (vehinneh Rachel bitto ba'ah im-hatson) — the hinneh ('behold/look') signals a narrative pivot. Rachel's entrance is dramatically timed: she appears at the precise moment of inquiry. Like Rebekah at the well (24:15), the intended bride arrives at the providential moment. That Rachel is a shepherdess places her among working women — she tends her father's flock, just as Jacob will tend it for her.

Translator Notes

1. Jacob urges the shepherds to water and go — ostensibly practical advice, but the narrative effect is to clear the scene for his private encounter with Rachel. Whether Jacob consciously wants privacy or the narrator shapes events toward an intimate meeting, the result is the same. His assertiveness with strangers is characteristic: Jacob acts, manages, negotiates — even among people he has just met.

Translator Notes

1. 'We cannot' (lo nukhal) — the shepherds explain the communal constraint: the stone is too heavy for one or two shepherds, requiring collective effort. This establishes the contrast with what Jacob is about to do in verse 10. Their 'we cannot' becomes the backdrop for his extraordinary 'he did.'

Translator Notes

1. 'While he was still speaking' (odenu medabber immam) — the temporal clause heightens the drama. Rachel arrives mid-conversation, as if cued by the narrative itself. The same construction appears when Rebekah arrives in 24:15 ('before he had finished speaking') — the typological parallel between the two betrothal scenes is unmistakable.
2. 'For she was a shepherdess' (ki ro'ah hi) — the feminine participle ro'ah identifies Rachel's occupation. In the patriarchal world, a daughter tending flocks could indicate modest family circumstances or simply that the family had no sons old enough for the task. Rachel's name itself means 'ewe' — she is literally the shepherdess named after her charges.

Translator Notes

1. The threefold repetition of 'Laban his mother's brother' (Lavan achi immo) is extraordinary — three times in a single verse. The narrator insists on the kinship connection, as if Jacob sees not just a beautiful woman but a family bond incarnate. This is his mother's world, and he enters it through an act of superhuman service.
2. 'Jacob drew near and rolled the stone' (vayyiggash Ya'aqov vayyagel et-ha'even) — what required all the gathered shepherds, Jacob does alone. The text offers no explanation — no mention of divine strength, no comment on the stone's weight. The act speaks for itself: love, adrenaline, or the need to prove himself before Rachel. The verb galal ('rolled') is the same used for the communal rolling in verse 3, but here it is singular. Jacob overturns the established order with a single gesture.

Translator Notes

1. 'Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept' (vayyishaq Ya'aqov leRachel vayyissa et-qolo vayyevk) — the sequence is startling: a kiss, then loud weeping. This is not romantic delicacy but overwhelming emotion. Jacob is a fugitive who has just found family. The weeping may combine relief, longing, gratitude, and the recognition that exile has an end. The verb vayyissa et-qolo ('lifted up his voice') indicates audible, unrestrained crying — this is not quiet tears but the outpouring of a man at the end of his strength finding the beginning of his future.
2. The kiss (neshiqah) between kinsmen is a standard greeting in the ancient Near East (cf. Laban's kiss in v. 13, Esau's in 33:4). Yet its placement before self-identification creates a moment of pure, unmediated connection — Jacob acts from emotion before protocol.

Translator Notes

1. 'Her father's kinsman' (achi aviha) — the word ach can mean 'brother' but also 'kinsman, relative.' Jacob is Laban's nephew, not his brother. The broader kinship sense is intended. Jacob identifies himself through two relationships: as Laban's relative and as Rebekah's son. The maternal identification carries weight — Rebekah is the link between these two families.
2. 'She ran and told her father' (vattarats vattagged le'aviha) — Rachel's running (ruts) echoes Rebekah's running to tell her family about Abraham's servant (24:28). The parallel between mother and daughter at the well is precise: both meet a kinsman, both run home to report. The verb tagged ('told') implies substantive reporting — she conveyed news that would change the household.

Translator Notes

1. 'He ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him' (vayyarats liqra'to vaychabbeq-lo vaynasheq-lo) — the cascade of verbs (ran, embraced, kissed) presents a warm welcome, but the reader who remembers chapter 24 may wonder about Laban's motives. When Abraham's servant arrived with ten camels laden with gifts, Laban was equally enthusiastic (24:29–31). Here Jacob arrives empty-handed — a fugitive, not a suitor's envoy. Whether Laban's warmth is genuine affection or calculating hospitality (assessing what this nephew might be worth), the narrator leaves ambiguous.
2. 'He told Laban all these things' (vaysapper leLavan et kol-haddevarim ha'elleh) — what does 'all these things' include? The Bethel vision? The stolen blessing? The flight from Esau? The narrator's vagueness allows us to imagine the conversation: Jacob the storyteller, Laban the listener and calculator.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'My bone and my flesh' (atsmi uvsari) — this phrase directly echoes Adam's recognition of Eve: 'bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh' (etsem me'atsamai uvasar mibbesari, 2:23). Laban recognizes in Jacob a kinship as deep as the primal human bond. The irony is layered: Laban, who will deceive Jacob as Jacob deceived Isaac, begins with the language of deepest intimacy. The echo of Eden in the household of a manipulator adds narrative tension.
2. 'A month's time' (chodesh yamim) — literally 'a month of days.' During this period Jacob presumably works for Laban without formal arrangement, establishing his value. The month serves as a probationary period after which Laban will propose the terms that shape the next fourteen years.

Translator Notes

1. 'Should you serve me for nothing?' (va'avadtani chinnam) — Laban's question appears generous, even magnanimous. But it also reveals that Jacob has been working without pay for a month — and Laban has been benefiting. The offer to set wages transfers the moral burden to Jacob: now Jacob must name his price, and whatever he names, Laban can use. The word chinnam ('for nothing, gratis') carries a note of exploitation — Laban acknowledges that unpaid kinship labor has limits, but the acknowledgment itself becomes leverage.

Translator Notes

1. The narrator introduces the two daughters with a structural note — elder (gedolah) and younger (qetannah) — that will drive the entire plot. The elder-younger distinction echoes throughout Genesis: Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob. Here the pattern takes a new form: Jacob, who seized his elder brother's place, will be forced to accept the elder daughter before the younger. Leah's name may derive from le'ah ('weary, languid') or from an Akkadian cognate meaning 'cow.' Rachel means 'ewe.'

Translator Notes

1. 'Leah's eyes were soft' (ve'einei Le'ah rakkot) — the adjective rakkot ('soft, tender, delicate') is ambiguous. It could be a positive trait (gentle, tender eyes) or a negative one (weak, dull eyes — lacking the brightness prized in the ancient Near East). The traditional reading takes it as unfavorable, contrasting Leah's one noted feature with Rachel's complete beauty. But rakh elsewhere describes what is gentle, young, or tender (33:13; Deuteronomy 28:54), leaving open the possibility that Leah's eyes expressed a different kind of beauty — one the narrator and Jacob overlooked.
2. 'Beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance' (yefat-to'ar vifat mar'eh) — the double description echoes the language used of Joseph (39:6) and of Sarah. Rachel's beauty is both structural (to'ar, 'form, figure') and visual (mar'eh, 'appearance, countenance'). The contrast with Leah is sharp: Rachel receives two adjectives of beauty, Leah one ambiguous descriptor. The text mirrors Jacob's perception — he sees Rachel's beauty and Leah's... eyes.

Translator Notes

1. 'Jacob loved Rachel' (vaye'ehav Ya'aqov et-Rachel) — this is the first use of love (ahavah) in a romantic context between a man and woman in Genesis since Isaac and Rebekah (24:67). Jacob's love is immediate, consuming, and it will cost him fourteen years. The verb is in the narrative past — it states a fact, not a process. He loved her.
2. 'Seven years for Rachel your younger daughter' (sheva shanim beRachel bittekha haqqetannah) — Jacob specifies 'younger daughter' to eliminate ambiguity, yet this specificity will not protect him from Laban's deception. The bride-price of seven years' labor was substantial — far exceeding normal mohar (bride-price). Jacob, who arrived with nothing, offers the only currency he has: his body, his time, his labor. A man of no property pays with himself.

Translator Notes

1. 'Better that I give her to you' (tov titti otah lakh) — Laban agrees without naming Rachel. He says 'her' (otah), not 'Rachel.' In retrospect, this ambiguity is either Laban's cunning or the narrator's foreshadowing — perhaps both. Laban's 'her' can refer to either daughter, and when the substitution comes, Laban will exploit exactly this kind of unspecified reference. 'Stay with me' (shevah immadi) — the invitation sounds hospitable but means: remain as my laborer.

Translator Notes

1. 'They seemed in his eyes as but a few days, because of his love for her' (vayyihyu ve'einav keyamim achadim be'ahavato otah) — this is one of the most celebrated lines in Genesis, and in all ancient literature. Seven years — 2,555 days — compressed to 'a few days' by the alchemy of love. The phrase be'ahavato otah ('because of his love for her') is the narrator's rare editorial comment on interior emotion. The text does not often tell us what characters feel; here it makes an exception. The observation is psychologically precise: time passes quickly not in spite of longing but because of it — each day is suffused with purpose and anticipation.
2. The literary effect is also structural: the narrator collapses seven years into a single sentence, making the reader experience the same temporal compression that Jacob felt. We arrive at the wedding night as abruptly as Jacob seems to have arrived.

Translator Notes

1. 'Give me my wife' (havah et-ishti) — the directness is striking. Jacob does not ask; he demands. The verb havah is imperative — 'give!' The possessive 'my wife' (ishti) claims Rachel as already his by right of contract. After seven years of labor, Jacob asserts ownership of the promise. The frankness of 'that I may go in to her' (ve'avo'ah eleha) — a euphemism for sexual union — reveals Jacob's impatience. He has waited, he has served, and now he claims what is his.

Translator Notes

1. 'Made a feast' (vayya'as mishteh) — mishteh derives from shatah ('to drink'); it is a drinking feast, a banquet. The public gathering serves as witnesses to the marriage, but it also ensures that Jacob is well supplied with wine. The feast may be part of Laban's plan: an inebriated groom is less likely to detect the substitution in the darkness of the wedding tent. Laban stages the celebration as both social obligation and cover for deception.

Translator Notes

1. 'In the evening' (ba'erev) — darkness is the instrument of deception, just as it was when Jacob deceived Isaac. Isaac could not see because his eyes were dim; Jacob cannot see because it is night. The symmetry is devastating: the man who exploited his father's blindness is now victimized by darkness. What goes around comes around — in Genesis, measure for measure (middah keneged middah) is a structural principle, not just a moral maxim.
2. 'He took Leah his daughter and brought her to him' (vayyiqqach et-Le'ah vitto vayyave otah elav) — the subject is Laban, the object is Leah. She is brought — the passive construction raises questions about Leah's agency. Did she consent? Did she resist? Was she veiled? The text is silent on Leah's experience, but her complicity or coercion is one of the great unasked questions of Genesis.

Translator Notes

1. 'Zilpah his servant' (Zilpah shifchato) — Zilpah will later become a secondary wife to Jacob and mother of Gad and Asher (30:9–13). The giving of a personal servant to a bride was customary in the ancient Near East (cf. Rebekah received attendants, 24:59, 61). The detail, seemingly incidental, plants a character who will play a significant role in the expansion of Jacob's family.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'And look, it was Leah!' (vehinneh-hi Le'ah) — the hinneh expresses Jacob's shock. Morning light reveals what darkness concealed. The moment is the dramatic center of the chapter and one of the great reversals in all of Scripture. Jacob the deceiver is deceived. The man who put on goatskins to feel like Esau now discovers that Leah has been substituted for Rachel. The irony is exquisite: Jacob, whose name means 'supplanter,' has been supplanted.
2. 'What is this you have done to me?' (mah-zot asita li) — this exact phrase will be echoed by Pharaoh to Abraham (12:18) and by Abimelech to Isaac (26:10) — in those cases, the patriarch was the deceiver. Now Jacob is on the receiving end. The words become a refrain of accusation that tracks through Genesis, binding together all who practice deception.
3. 'Why have you deceived me?' (lammah rimmitani) — the verb ramah ('deceive') is the same word Esau used about Jacob: 'he has deceived me these two times' (27:36). The linguistic echo is precise and punishing. Jacob, who tricked his blind father with disguise, is now tricked by darkness and disguise. The Torah's moral architecture is visible in its vocabulary.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'To give the younger before the firstborn' (latet hatse'irah lifnei habbekhirah) — the irony cuts to the bone. Jacob, who took the firstborn's blessing by deception, is now told that the younger cannot come before the elder. Laban invokes custom, but the narrative invokes justice: you who reversed the birth order in your father's house will now experience what it means when the proper order is enforced. Whether Laban intends this irony is unclear; the narrator certainly does.
2. The words tse'irah ('younger') and bekhirah ('firstborn') echo the language of Jacob and Esau's story. Jacob was the tsa'ir who seized the bekhorah (birthright) and the berakhah (blessing) of the bekhor (firstborn). Now the bekhor's rights are asserted against him.

Translator Notes

1. 'Complete the week of this one' (malle shevua zot) — the 'week' (shavua) refers to the seven-day bridal celebration. Laban tells Jacob to honor Leah's wedding week before receiving Rachel. The phrase 'this one' (zot) rather than 'Leah' depersonalizes the daughter — she is a contractual unit, not a person in Laban's speech.
2. 'Yet another seven years' (od sheva-shanim acherot) — Jacob will serve fourteen years total for the wife he wanted. The doubling of the bride-price doubles the years of servitude. But Laban's offer is also generous in a sense: Jacob receives Rachel after just one week, not after seven more years. He serves the additional years afterward. Still, the total cost of Laban's deception is enormous: fourteen years of Jacob's prime.

Translator Notes

1. 'Jacob did so' (vayya'as Ya'aqov ken) — Jacob accepts Laban's terms without recorded protest. The man who schemed to obtain his father's blessing submits to Laban's scheme without resistance. Whether this reflects powerlessness (a stranger in a foreign land, bound by contract), love for Rachel (he will endure anything to have her), or a dawning recognition that deception has consequences, the text does not say. Jacob's silence is eloquent.

Translator Notes

1. 'Bilhah his servant' (Bilhah shifchato) — like Zilpah given to Leah, Bilhah will become a secondary wife and mother of Dan and Naphtali (30:3–8). The parallel gifts to the two daughters establish structural symmetry: each wife receives a servant who will bear children in the surrogate-motherhood arrangement common in the ancient Near East (cf. Sarah and Hagar, chapter 16).

Translator Notes

1. 'He loved Rachel more than Leah' (vaye'ehav gam-et-Rachel miLe'ah) — the comparative 'more than' (min) establishes a hierarchy of affection that will wound Leah and shape the destiny of nations. The son Leah bears fourth — Judah — will father the royal line leading to David and beyond. The unloved wife produces the line of kings. God's choices consistently overturn human preferences in Genesis.
2. 'Yet another seven years' (od sheva-shanim acherot) — the repetition of 'seven years' from verse 20 creates a structural frame: seven years before the wedding and seven after. But the narrator does not repeat the beautiful observation that time flew because of love. The second seven years are served in the shadow of deception, with a household already riven by rivalry.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Leah was unloved' (senu'ah Le'ah) — the word senu'ah is harsh: its root sane' means 'to hate.' The rendering 'unloved' softens what the Hebrew states bluntly. Leah is hated — not necessarily with active malice, but with the cold dismissal of a woman who was never wanted. The legal term senu'ah appears in Deuteronomy 21:15–17 in legislation protecting the rights of the 'hated wife's' firstborn son. Leah's situation is not unique; it was common enough to require legislation.
2. 'He opened her womb' (vayyiftach et-rachmah) — the verb patach ('open') with rechem ('womb') is a divine prerogative in the Hebrew Bible. Fertility and barrenness are in God's hands. The LORD's response to Leah's suffering is not to change Jacob's heart but to give Leah children — her own source of dignity and identity. The theological logic is consistent: God sees the afflicted and acts through the means available within the story's world.
3. 'Rachel was barren' (veRachel aqarah) — the beloved wife is barren, continuing the pattern of Sarah (11:30), Rebekah (25:21), and later Hannah (1 Samuel 1:2). Barrenness in Genesis is never permanent but always purposeful — it creates space for divine intervention and highlights that the covenant line depends on God, not on human preference or natural capacity.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Reuben' (Re'uven) — the name is explained with a double etymology: 'the LORD has looked' (ra'ah YHWH) upon my affliction, and 'see, a son' (re'u-ven). Both explanations work phonetically. The name becomes Leah's testimony: God sees what Jacob does not. Each of Leah's naming speeches is a window into her pain — she names her children not with joy alone but with desperate hope that each son will turn her husband's heart.
2. 'My affliction' (onyi) — the word oni ('affliction, misery') is the same used for Israel's suffering in Egypt (Exodus 3:7). Leah's personal anguish is framed in the language of national suffering. She is the afflicted one whom God sees — a prototype of the people God will later see and deliver.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Simeon' (Shim'on) — from shama' ('to hear'). First God saw (Reuben), now God has heard (Simeon). Leah maps the divine senses onto her children's names: sight, then hearing. Her theology is experiential — she knows God through what God does in response to her suffering. The progression from 'seen' to 'heard' parallels the Exodus language: 'I have surely seen the affliction...and have heard their cry' (Exodus 3:7).
2. 'Because I am unloved' (ki-senu'ah anokhi) — Leah states her condition with painful clarity. She does not blame Jacob or soften the word. She is senu'ah — hated. But she frames even this harsh reality within divine care: the LORD hears the unloved. This theological conviction — that God attends to the rejected — becomes foundational to Israelite faith.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Levi' (Levi) — from lavah ('to join, to be attached'). Leah's hope has shifted: with Reuben she hoped for love, with Simeon for acknowledgment, now with Levi she hopes for attachment — yillaveh, 'he will be joined to me.' The diminishing expectations are heartbreaking. She no longer asks for love, only for connection. Yet Levi's descendants will become the priestly tribe — those 'attached' to God's service. The rejected wife's longing for attachment produces the line of attachment to the divine.
2. The shift from 'called his name' (vatiqra shemo) to 'his name was called' (qara shemo) in the Hebrew is subtle — some manuscripts vary. The passive form may suggest that the name was given by others or became established usage, though the distinction is uncertain.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'This time I will praise the LORD' (happa'am odeh et-YHWH) — something has changed in Leah. The first three names encoded her suffering, her longing, her desperate hope for Jacob's love. With the fourth son, she turns from husband to God. She does not mention Jacob at all. The shift from 'my husband will love me' to 'I will praise the LORD' marks a spiritual transformation: Leah has stopped seeking validation in Jacob's affection and found it in gratitude to God. This is perhaps the most profound theological moment in the chapter.
2. 'Judah' (Yehudah) — from yadah ('to praise, to give thanks'). The name that will define Israel's royal tribe, the kingdom of Judah, and eventually the term 'Jew' (Yehudi) originates in an unloved woman's praise. The line from Judah to David to the messianic hope begins here, in Leah's declaration of praise born from suffering. That the most consequential of Jacob's sons comes from the wife he did not choose is Genesis at its most theologically subversive.
3. 'She ceased bearing' (vatta'amod milledet) — literally 'she stood from bearing,' meaning she stopped. This pause sets up the rivalry and surrogacy arrangements of chapter 30. The cessation is temporary — Leah will bear again (30:17–20) — but it creates the dramatic space for Rachel's anguish and the competition that follows.