Kejadian 29:6-14

29:6 “Is he well?” ¹  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ²  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 29:7 Then Jacob ³  said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, ⁴  it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” ⁵  29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water ⁶  the sheep.”

29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. ⁷  29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, ⁸  and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he ⁹  went over ¹⁰  and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ¹¹  29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly. ¹²  29:12 When Jacob explained ¹³  to Rachel that he was a relative of her father ¹⁴  and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father. 29:13 When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ¹⁵  told Laban how he was related to him. ¹⁶  29:14 Then Laban said to him, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” ¹⁷  So Jacob ¹⁸  stayed with him for a month. ¹⁹ 

[29:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’”

[29:6]  ² tn Heb “peace.”

[29:7]  ³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “the day is great.”

[29:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “water the sheep and go and pasture [them].” The verbal forms are imperatives, but Jacob would hardly be giving direct orders to someone else’s shepherds. The nuance here is probably one of advice.

[29:8]  ⁶ tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.

[29:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “was a shepherdess.”

[29:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother” (twice in this verse).

[29:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “Jacob.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “drew near, approached.”

[29:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother.” The text says nothing initially about the beauty of Rachel. But the reader is struck by the repetition of “Laban the brother of his mother.” G. J. Wenham is no doubt correct when he observes that Jacob’s primary motive at this stage is to ingratiate himself with Laban (Genesis [WBC], 2:231).

[29:11]  ¹² tn Heb “and he lifted up his voice and wept.” The idiom calls deliberate attention to the fact that Jacob wept out loud.

[29:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “declared.”

[29:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “that he [was] the brother of her father.”

[29:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he told to Laban all these things.” This might mean Jacob told Laban how he happened to be there, but Laban’s response (see v. 14) suggests “all these things” refers to what Jacob had previously told Rachel (see v. 12).

[29:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “indeed, my bone and my flesh are you.” The expression sounds warm enough, but the presence of “indeed” may suggest that Laban had to be convinced of Jacob’s identity before permitting him to stay. To be one’s “bone and flesh” is to be someone’s blood relative. For example, the phrase describes the relationship between Abimelech and the Shechemites (Judg 9:2; his mother was a Shechemite); David and the Israelites (2 Sam 5:1); David and the elders of Judah (2 Sam 19:12,); and David and his nephew Amasa (2 Sam 19:13, see 2 Sam 17:2; 1 Chr 2:16-17).

[29:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a month of days.”