For Teaching

Genesis 29: What the Passage Says

110 claims across 35 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Genesis 29 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jacob comes to the land of the people of the east, meets Rachel at a well, and is taken into the house of her father Laban. He agrees to work seven years for Rachel; on the wedding night Laban brings Leah to him instead, and after that week is completed gives him Rachel as well, for another seven years of work. Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, and the LORD, seeing that Leah is unloved, opens her womb, and she bears Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah before she stops having children.

Claim by Claim

29:1
- Jacob continued on his journey.
- Jacob came into the land of the people of the east.
29:2
- Jacob looked and saw a well in the field.
- Three flocks of sheep were lying beside the well.
- The flocks were watered out of that well.
- A large stone lay over the mouth of the well.
29:3
- All the flocks would be gathered there.
- The stone was rolled away from the mouth of the well.
- The sheep were watered.
- The stone was put back over the mouth of the well in its place.
29:4
- Jacob said to the men, calling them his brothers, and asked where they were from.
- They said they were from Haran.
29:5
- Jacob asked them whether they knew Laban.
- Laban is identified as the son of Nahor, which may mean son or descendant.
- They said they knew him.
29:6
- Jacob asked whether Laban was well.
- They said he was well.
- They said Rachel his daughter was coming with the sheep.
29:7
- Jacob said the day was still high.
- Jacob said it was not the time for the livestock to be gathered.
- Jacob told them to water the sheep.
- Jacob told them to go and pasture the sheep.
29:8
- They said they could not do it.
- They said they must wait until all the flocks were gathered.
- They said the stone must be rolled from the mouth of the well.
- They said then they would water the sheep.
29:9
- Jacob was still speaking with them.
- Rachel came with her father's sheep.
- Rachel was a shepherdess.
29:10
- Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother's brother.
- Jacob saw the sheep of Laban his mother's brother.
- Jacob went near.
- Jacob rolled the stone from the mouth of the well.
- Jacob watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
29:11
- Jacob kissed Rachel.
- Jacob lifted up his voice and wept.
29:12
- Jacob told Rachel that he was a kinsman of her father, called her father's brother.
- Jacob told Rachel that he was Rebekah's son.
- Rachel ran and told her father.
29:13
- Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister's son.
- Laban ran to meet Jacob.
- Laban embraced Jacob.
- Laban kissed Jacob.
- Laban brought Jacob to his house.
- Jacob told Laban all these things.
29:14
- Laban said to Jacob that he was surely his bone and his flesh.
- Jacob stayed with Laban a month of days.
29:15
- Laban asked Jacob whether, because he was his kinsman, he should serve him for nothing.
- Laban told Jacob to tell him what his wages should be.
29:16
- Laban had two daughters.
- The name of the elder was Leah.
- The name of the younger was Rachel.
29:17
- Leah's eyes were tender, whether weak or delicate.
- Rachel was beautiful in form.
- Rachel was beautiful in appearance.
29:18
- Jacob loved Rachel.
- Jacob said he would serve Laban seven years for Rachel, Laban's younger daughter.
29:19
- Laban said it was better for him to give her to Jacob than to give her to another man.
- Laban told Jacob to stay with him.
29:20
- Jacob served seven years for Rachel.
- The seven years seemed to Jacob like a few days.
- The reason the years seemed short was his love for her.
29:21
- Jacob told Laban to give him his wife.
- Jacob said his days were fulfilled.
- Jacob said he wished to go in to her.
29:22
- Laban gathered all the men of the place.
- Laban made a feast.
29:23
- In the evening Laban took Leah his daughter.
- Laban brought Leah to Jacob.
- Jacob went in to her.
29:24
- Laban gave Zilpah his maidservant to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.
29:25
- In the morning it turned out that the woman was Leah.
- Jacob asked Laban what he had done to him.
- Jacob asked whether he had not served with Laban for Rachel.
- Jacob asked why Laban had deceived him.
29:26
- Laban said it is not done that way in their place.
- Laban said the younger daughter is not given before the firstborn.
29:27
- Laban told Jacob to complete this week.
- Laban said the other daughter would also be given to him.
- Laban said the second daughter would be given for the service Jacob would serve with him another seven years.
29:28
- Jacob did so.
- Jacob completed that week.
- Laban gave him Rachel his daughter as a wife.
29:29
- Laban gave Bilhah his maidservant to Rachel his daughter as her maidservant.
29:30
- Jacob went in also to Rachel.
- Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.
- Jacob served with Laban another seven years.
29:31
- The LORD saw that Leah was hated, that is, unloved.
- The LORD opened Leah's womb.
- Rachel was barren.
29:32
- Leah conceived.
- Leah bore a son.
- Leah called his name Reuben.
- Leah said the LORD had looked upon her affliction.
- Leah said that now her husband would love her.
29:33
- Leah conceived again.
- Leah bore a son.
- Leah said the LORD had heard that she was hated.
- Leah said the LORD had therefore given her this son also.
- Leah called his name Simeon.
29:34
- Leah conceived again.
- Leah bore a son.
- Leah said that now this time her husband would be joined to her.
- Leah said the reason was that she had borne him three sons.
- His name was called Levi.
29:35
- Leah conceived again.
- Leah bore a son.
- Leah said that this time she would praise the LORD.
- Leah called his name Judah.
- Leah stopped bearing children.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

29:1: "The people of the east" (Hebrew *bene qedem*) was a general term for the peoples living east and northeast of Canaan, across the desert. Here it points to the region around Haran in upper Mesopotamia, several hundred miles from where Jacob started.
29:2: Wells in this region were often covered with a heavy stone slab. This kept them from being fouled or filling with blown sand, and it controlled who could draw water: no single herdsman could use the well on his own, so the shepherds who shared it had to gather and open it together, as verses 3 and 8 describe.
29:4: Haran was a town in upper Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Turkey. Abraham's family had settled there, and Jacob's mother Rebekah came from it, so Jacob is arriving among his own relatives. "My brothers" here is simply a friendly way of addressing strangers, not a claim of kinship.
29:5: Hebrew uses "son" for a descendant generally, not only a direct child. Laban was Nahor's grandson, the son of Bethuel. Nahor was Abraham's brother, which is why Laban's household is Jacob's extended family.
29:6: "Is he well?" translates a question about his shalom, a word that covers health, safety and prosperity together: roughly "is everything all right with him?"
29:7: Sheep were brought home at the end of the day. The sun was still high, so there was more time to eat grass.
29:8: The stone was heavy enough that several shepherds moved it together. Keep that in mind when Jacob moves it by himself in verse 10.
29:9: Herding was ordinary work for a daughter in a household short of sons, though it meant long days outdoors among strangers. Rachel's name means "ewe," a female sheep.
29:10: Laban was the brother of Jacob's mother, Rebekah. That made Rachel Jacob's first cousin. Marrying a cousin was normal and expected back then.
29:11: Kissing a relative on meeting was an ordinary greeting in this culture, and weeping openly was a normal way to show strong feeling at a reunion. The gesture marks Jacob's recognition of kin, not courtship.
29:12: Hebrew uses "brother" broadly for a male relative of any degree. Jacob was Laban's nephew, his sister Rebekah's son.
29:14: "My own bone and flesh" was a standard idiom for a blood relative, the equivalent of saying "you really are family."
29:15: Kinship cut both ways. A relative taken into a household would normally work without pay in return for food and shelter, so offering wages sounds generous. It also converts the family arrangement into a negotiated contract, and it invites Jacob to be the one who names the price.
29:17: The Hebrew word describing Leah's eyes (*rakkot*) is genuinely uncertain. It can mean "weak" or "dull," but it can also mean "soft" or "tender," in which case it would be a compliment. Translators have gone both ways; the contrast drawn with Rachel in the same sentence is what leads most to read it as a defect.
29:18: A man was normally expected to pay a bride-price (Hebrew *mohar*) to the bride's father when arranging a marriage. Jacob had arrived with nothing, so he offers seven years of labor instead. This is a business proposal in the ordinary terms of the day, not an unusual romantic gesture.
29:19: Notice that Laban never says yes to the specific terms. He says giving Rachel to Jacob is better than giving her to an outsider, which agrees to the marriage in general without repeating which daughter is meant.
29:21: "My days are fulfilled" means the agreed term of service has run out. Jacob is calling in a contract that has come due.
29:22: A wedding was a public celebration held over several days, with the men of the town as guests. The feast, with wine, is part of what makes the substitution in the next verse possible.
29:23: The bride was brought to the groom veiled and after dark, and the marriage chamber would have had no light. A bride's face was often not seen by the groom until the following morning, which is how Jacob could take Leah for Rachel.
29:24: A maidservant given to a bride at her marriage stayed her personal property rather than her husband's. This detail matters later: such a servant could be handed to the husband so that her children counted as the mistress's own.
29:25: "Beguiled" in 1611 English means cheated or deceived outright; the modern word has drifted toward charmed, which is much weaker. The Hebrew word Jacob uses comes from the same root as the word for the deceit Jacob himself practiced on his blind father in chapter 27.
29:26: Laban appeals to local custom, and the custom is real enough, but he has waited seven years and one night to mention it. His word for the older daughter is "firstborn," the exact status Jacob bought from his brother and then took the blessing of. The rights of a firstborn are now being used against him.
29:27: The "week" is the seven-day wedding feast for Leah, not another seven years. Laban's terms are that Jacob finish that week, receive Rachel immediately after it, and then work the second seven years, so the two marriages are a week apart, not seven years apart.
29:30: Marrying two sisters at the same time was later forbidden in Israelite law (Leviticus 18:18), but no such rule exists in Jacob's day. The story does not comment on the arrangement; it simply records it, and then spends the rest of the chapter on what it costs the two women.
29:31: The Hebrew word behind "hated" in older translations (*sane'*) covers a wide range, from active hatred down to simply "loved less" or "not the preferred one." In marriage contexts it was close to a legal term for the wife who was not the favorite, and that is its sense here and in verse 33.
29:32: Each of these names is a pun in Hebrew that the English cannot carry. Reuben (*Re'uben*) sounds like "see, a son" and also echoes Leah's words "the LORD has seen" (*ra'ah*) my affliction.
29:33: Simeon (*Shim'on*) sounds like the Hebrew verb "to hear" (*shama'*), matching Leah's statement that the LORD heard she was unloved.
29:34: Levi sounds like the Hebrew verb *lavah*, "to join" or "attach," matching Leah's hope that her husband will now be joined to her.
29:35: Judah (*Yehudah*) is formed from the Hebrew verb *yadah*, "to praise" or "give thanks."

Read Genesis 29