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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 29:5 - 29:5
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Jacob asked the shepherds where they lived; from which it is probable that the well was not situated, like that in Gen 24:11, in the immediate neighbourhood of the town of Haran; and when they said they were from Haran, he inquired after Laban, the son, i.e., the descendant, of Nahor, and how he was (לֹו הֲשָׁלֹום: is he well?; and received the reply, “Well; and behold Rachel, his daughter, is just coming (בָּאָה particip.) with the flock.” When Jacob thereupon told the shepherds to water the flocks and feed them again, for the day was still “great,” - i.e., it wanted a long while to the evening, and was not yet time to drive them in (to the folds to rest for the night) - he certainly only wanted to get the shepherds away from the well, that he might meet with his cousin alone. But as Rachel came up in the meantime, he was so carried away by the feelings of relationship, possibly by a certain love at first sight, that he rolled the stone away from the well, watered her flock, and after kissing her, introduced himself with tears of joyous emotion as her cousin (אָבִיהָ אֲחִי, brother, i.e., relation of her father) and Rebekah's son. What the other shepherds thought of all this, is passed over as indifferent to the purpose of the narrative, and the friendly reception of Jacob by Laban is related immediately afterwards. When Jacob had told Laban “all these things,” - i.e., hardly “the cause of his journey, and the things which had happened to him in relation to the birthright” (Rosenmüller), but simply the things mentioned in Gen 29:2-12 - Laban acknowledged him as his relative: “Yes, thou art my bone and my flesh” (cf. Gen 2:23 and Jdg 9:2); and thereby eo ipso ensured him an abode in his house.