Jacob, Rachel, and Leah

In short

Genesis 29. Jacob, “the deceiver,” is deceived by his uncle* Laban into marrying the wrong girl.

Why it is important

A common interpretation of this story is a love story, that Jacob toiled for 14 years to win his love. But the details (and there are tons) in the story show the total opposite: Jacob is a selfish, boorish man who is quite cruel to his wives, especially Leah. But God had special care for Leah, who blessed Jacob with four sons by the end of this story, and six total of his 12 sons – plus a daughter (Gen 30:17-21).

Main characters

• Jacob – the famous one
• Laban, a successful landowner
• Rachel, Laban’s younger daughter that Jacob loves at first sight
• Leah, Rachel’s older sister, who Laban wants to marry off first (before Rachel)

What is in this story (Genesis 29)

A few chapters back**, after some serious family drama, Jacob is advised by his mom to hide at Laban’s place. Now he has arrived in the area.

1. Jacob sees some shepherds and makes some small talk (vs. 2-4)
2. Turns out they know Laban! (v. 5) And look, there’s Rachel, his daughter! (v. 6)
3. In a humorous scene (I think), Jacob has this giddy attitude as he
   • Orders the shepherds to water the sheep (v. 7 – meaning Rachel’s sheep, I think)
   • Is told they can’t because a huge stone is in the way (v. 8)
   • Moves the stone himself when Rachel comes near (v. 10)
   • Cries when he touches Rachel (v. 11)
4. Jacob stays with Laban for a month at first (v. 14)
5. Rachel is pretty, in apparent contrast to Leah (v. 17 – this is in the story as simple fact)
6. Jacob tells Laban that he wants to marry Rachel (v. 18)
7. Laban agrees; seven years goes by (vs. 19-20)
8. On the wedding night, Laban slyly gives Leah to Jacob, instead of Rachel (vs. 21-23)
9. Jacob discovers that he has been tricked (v. 25)
10. Laban says, OK fine, seven more years and you can have Rachel (v. 27) and he does (v. 28)

Things that are not so well-known

How long did Jacob serve Laban? He says in Gen 31:41, “I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock.” Now, what confused me, is I assumed that he had to serve all 14 before marrying Rachel. But everything I read clearly indicates I was wrong about that. He worked seven years BEFORE marrying Leah but then married Rachel a week later (I think) and then served the other seven years AFTER that. So, the two weddings were almost back-to-back, smack in the middle of the 14 years.

Jacob was about 84 years old when he married Rachel and Leah. I read this a few times in commentaries. Apparently, the way they get this number is to take Joseph’s age (130) when he meets Pharaoh (Gen 47:9), subtract 2 years of famine (Gen 45:6), 7 years of plenty (Gen 41:53) and Joseph’s age (30) when he started working for Pharaoh (Gen 41:46), and then since Joseph seems to be born at the end of Jacob’s 14 years of servitude, he was, therefore, 77 when meeting Laban. I mean, maybe, but there’s also got to be some large travel time for Jacob to get SIXTY-SIX PEOPLE to Egypt (Gen 46:26), and other factors, so I say he might have been a bit younger. But he had to be at least 47, considering his fraternal twin was 40 in Gen 26:34.

Leah’s legacy

I love Leah in this story. She is everything Jacob really needed. Six of Jacob’s twelve sons are from Leah (I would not be surprised if she could have given him all 12 if he was more faithful to her), plus the only daughter we read of. Those sons include Judah (tribe of David and Jesus), Levi (tribe of Moses and the priests and John the Baptist), and Simeon (the only other tribe that did not secede after Solomon’s death). Rachel and the two servant-women each gave Jacob only two sons each.

On the other hand, Rachel seemed to be an unbeliever (Gen 31:19, 32) like her father.

Theology and doctrine

Laban lives in Haran (Gen 27:43), a place that Abraham had lived (Gen 12:4-5).

What is odd is the description of this place at the beginning of our story. “Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east” (Gen 29:1). Why didn’t the author just say “Jacob… came to Haran”?

The phrase “the east” seems to be code for “these are not righteous people.” Consider:

• “Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Gen 4:16)
• The tower of Babel (Babylon) was settled “as people migrated from the east” (Gen 11:2)
• Lot seemed to choose wrong since he picked the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is noted that “Lot journeyed east” (Gen 13:11)

What about “west”? The word only appears twice in all of Genesis (Gen 12:8, 28:14), and both are coupled with other directions. “North” appears twice, and “south” only once. But the word “east” occurs in Genesis TWENTY times. That is a sizable difference—enough to make it hard to say it’s merely a coincidence.

When Jacob came to “the east,” it’s not just about a map—I mean, exactly when do you stop if you are looking for “the east”? (Oh, here it is! This is the east!) Jacob was in a pagan land. And that is confirmed, at least for Laban, when Rachel steals his idol statues (or “household gods”) in chapter 31.

Footnotes

* I have not had the chance to verify this; I am trusting the commentary that I read. You have to diagram the family tree to nail it down. Yes, 29:13 says Jacob is Laban’s “sister’s son.” But that could still leave room for them to be distant cousins (like Mary and Elizabeth).

** Gen 27:43