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Gen_29:22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
Ver. 22. And made a feast.] Never more seasonable, surely, than at the recovery of the lost rib. The wedding day is called, "The day of the rejoicing of a man’s heart". {Son_3:11} Our Saviour graced such a feast with his presence and first miracle: he supplied them with wine to glad their hearts; not with a little, for health’s sake only, but with a great quantity, for sober delight and honest affluence. It is noted as an absurd thing in Samson’s wife, that "she wept all the days of the feast". {Jdg_14:17} A feast, then, there was at Samson’s wedding, and of seven days’ continuance. And so there was at Jacob’s, as may be gathered out of Gen_29:27. "Fulfil her week," saith Laban; to wit, of banquet or bride-ale, as we call it: only that of Chrysostom comes here in fitly, De nuptiis Iacobi legimus; de choreis et tripudiis non legimus :of Jacob’s wedding feast we read; but of dancing and dalliance, of tracing and tripping on the toe, we read not. In maxima libertate, minima licentia , saith Salvian. Merry we may be, at such a time, but in the Lord: eat and drink we may, but "before the Lord". {Deu_12:7} The old world may be a warning to us: they "fed without fear"; {Jdg_1:12} and therefore perished without favour. Let such look to it, as "live in pleasure, and are wanton"; {Jam_5:5} that eat to excess, and drink to drunkenness, accounting nothing mirth, but madness; no bread sweet, but stolen; no such pleasure, as to have the devil their playfellow; so "nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter," or belly-cheer, {Jam_5:5} and swallowing down those murdering morsels now, that they must digest in hell. {a}
{a} Multi apud homines manducant, quod apud inferos digerunt. - Aug.