The Bible - Genesis - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Jacob Meets Rachel

Jacob resumes his journey and after a while comes to a well, capped with a huge stone, with three flocks of sheep around it. Jacob asks the herders where they’re from and they respond that they’re from Haran and that they know of Jacob’s uncle. As they say this, Laban’s daughter Rachel comes up to them with her flock. Jacob asks why the flocks are just sitting there; why don’t they water the sheep and then put them back to pasture since it is still early in the day. The herders respond that they can’t water until all the flocks are together; the JSB points out that the rock is too large to move without the help of all the shepherds together.

Jacob sees Rachel for the first time (and the size of his uncle’s flock) and is immediately smitten with both. In a Herculean effort brought about by his passion for Rachel (and the wealth represented by the flock perhaps), he moves the huge rock by himself and waters her flock. With little ceremony, Jacob kisses Rachel right there on the spot and tells her that he’s Rebekah’s son. Excited by the news, Rachel runs to her father who comes out to greet Jacob warmly.

Jacob stayed on with Laban for a month; when asked what he thinks his wages should be, Jacob replies that he would serve Laban for seven years in exchange for the hand of Rachel, his younger daughter. Laban agrees and Jacob serves him for seven years. At the end of the seven years, Jacob says to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her.” Laban executes a huge feast in the couple’s honor and at the end manages to somehow slip Jacob his older and less attractive daughter Leah instead of Rachel. Not noticing the switch, Jacob marries Leah. Both sources explain that this may have been made possible by the cover or darkness or traditional veils worn for such occasions.

After discovering the switch, Jacob confronts Laban who explains coolly that elder daughters are always to be married first. The JSB suggests that perhaps Rachel herself had a hand in this arrangement in an attempt to save her sister the shame of remaining unmarried. Laban calms Jacob by telling him to wait until the bridal week is over and then he shall have Rachel too in exchange for another seven years of labor. As promised, Jacob and Rachel are also married soon after.

God looks down and sees that Leah is unloved so he ‘opens her womb’ but Rachel remains sterile. Leah conceives Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. Apparently she wasn’t all that unloved.

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