Genesis 29

¹ Moving on, Jacob went to the land of the sons of the East.

² He looked and there in the fields was a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for this well was used for watering the flocks. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was a large one;

³ so they used to gather all the flocks there, and then roll the stone off the mouth of the well, to water the sheep; then they put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob said to the shepherds, ‘Brothers, where are you from?’ They replied, ‘We are from Haran’.

⁵ Then he asked them, ‘Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?’ ‘We know him’ they replied.

⁶ Then he asked them, ‘Does all go well with him?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied ‘and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.’

⁷ Then he said, ‘See, it is still broad daylight; it is not yet time to bring the animals in. Water the sheep and go and take them back to pasture.’

⁸ But they answered, ‘We cannot do that until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone off the mouth of the well; then we shall water the sheep’.

⁹ He was still talking to them, when Rachel came with the sheep belonging to her father, for she was a shepherdess.

¹⁰ As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he came up and, rolling the stone off the mouth of the well, he watered the sheep of his uncle Laban.

¹¹ Jacob kissed Rachel and burst into tears.

¹² He told Rachel he was her father’s kinsman and Rebekah’s son, and she ran to tell her father.

¹³ As soon as he heard her speak of his sister’s son Jacob, Laban ran to meet him; and embracing him he kissed him warmly, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban everything that had happened,

¹⁴ and Laban said to him, ‘Truly you are my bone and flesh!’ And Jacob stayed with him for a month.

¹⁵ Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, are you to work for me without payment? Tell me what wages you want.’

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters, the elder named Leah, and the younger Rachel.

¹⁷ There was no sparkle in Leah’s eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful,

¹⁸ and Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel. So his answer was, ‘I will work for you seven years to win your younger daughter Rachel’.

¹⁹ Laban replied, ‘It is better for me to give her to you than to a stranger; stay with me’.

²⁰ To win Rachel, therefore, Jacob worked seven years, and they seemed to him like a few days because he loved her so much.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife, for my time is finished, and I should like to go to her’.

²² Laban gathered all the people of the place together, and gave a banquet.

²³ But when night came he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

²⁴ (Laban gave his slave-girl Zilpah to be his daughter Leah’s slave.)

²⁵ When morning came, there was Leah[*a] So Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not work for you to win Rachel? Why then have you tricked me?’

²⁶ Laban answered, ‘It is not the custom in our country to give the younger before the elder.

²⁷ Finish this marriage week and I will give you the other one too in return for your working with me another seven years.’

²⁸ Jacob did this, and when the week was over, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

²⁹ (Laban gave his daughter Rachel his slave-girl Bilhah to be her slave.)

³⁰ So Jacob slept with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He worked with Laban another seven years.

³¹ Yahweh saw that Leah was neglected, so he opened her womb, while Rachel remained barren.

³² Leah conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Reuben,[*b] ‘Because’ she said ‘Yahweh has seen my misery; now my husband will love me’.

³³ Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, saying, ‘Yahweh has heard that I was neglected, so he has given me this one too’; and she named him Simeon.

³⁴ Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, saying, ‘This time my husband will be united to me, for I have now borne three sons to him’; accordingly, she named him Levi.

³⁵ Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, saying, ‘This time I will give glory to Yahweh’; accordingly she named him Judah. Then she had no more children.