Genesis · 35 verses

Genesis 29

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

A wedding feast lasts a week, but Jacob does not discover which daughter he has married until morning. Genesis 29 gives deception a remarkably well-timed entrance.

The well, the shepherdess, and the tearsvv. 1–14

Jacob comes upon a well guarded by a large stone and a small committee of shepherds who will not move it until all the flocks have arrived. Rachel appears with her father’s sheep, and Jacob promptly does what the shepherds had said could not yet be done: he rolls away the stone himself. He waters the flock, kisses Rachel, and weeps aloud; the chapter leaves the reason for the tears quite untouched. Rachel runs to tell Laban, and Laban runs to meet Jacob, embraces him, kisses him, and brings him home.

Seven years, one feast, and there was Leahvv. 15–30

After a month, Laban asks what wages Jacob would like, and Jacob names Rachel. Seven years of service pass “but a few days,” which is a very handsome measure of love. Then comes the feast, the evening, and the substitution: Laban gives Jacob Leah. Morning supplies the audit. Laban’s explanation is local custom, and his remedy is another seven years; Jacob accepts the arrangement, receives Rachel as well, and is given Bilhah and Zilpah as maidservants to the two sisters. The household is now fully staffed, though the marriage negotiations have acquired an alarming talent for concealment.

Leah names what she hopes forvv. 31–35

The LORD sees that Leah is unloved, and Leah begins to bear sons while Rachel remains barren. Each name carries Leah’s hope that Jacob will now love her, hear her, or become attached to her: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi arrive beneath those expectations. With Judah, the naming turns: “This time I will praise the LORD.” Then Leah stops having children, and the chapter leaves that silence standing.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Gen 29:1 Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.
Gen 29:2He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.
Gen 29:3When all the flocks had been gathered there, the shepherds would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
Gen 29:4“My brothers,” Jacob asked the shepherds, “where are you from?” “We are from Haran,” they answered.
Gen 29:5“Do you know Laban the grandson of Nahor?” Jacob asked. “We know him,” they replied.
Gen 29:6“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”
Gen 29:7“Look,” said Jacob, “it is still broad daylight; it is not yet time to gather the livestock. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
Gen 29:8But they replied, “We cannot, until all the flocks have been gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
Gen 29:9While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
Gen 29:10As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
Gen 29:11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
Gen 29:12He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.
Gen 29:13When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.
Gen 29:14Then Laban declared, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him a month,
Gen 29:15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
Gen 29:16Now Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.
Gen 29:17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.
Gen 29:18Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Gen 29:19 Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to another. Stay here with me.”
Gen 29:20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.
Gen 29:21Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her.”
Gen 29:22So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.
Gen 29:23But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.
Gen 29:24And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.
Gen 29:25When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”
Gen 29:26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older.
Gen 29:27Finish this week’s celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work.”
Gen 29:28And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.
Gen 29:29 Laban also gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.
Gen 29:30Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.
Gen 29:31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
Gen 29:32And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.”
Gen 29:33Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon.
Gen 29:34Once again Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.
Gen 29:35And once more she conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Israelperson

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 246 passages were voted onto 32 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

20 1 Corinthians 13:7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
10 Exodus 2:17And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
11 Genesis 33:4Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
14 2 Samuel 19:12–13You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’
31 1 Samuel 2:21So the LORD attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.
32 Deuteronomy 26:7So we called out to the LORD, the God of our fathers; and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression.
12 Genesis 24:28The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.
18 Hosea 12:12Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife—for a wife he tended sheep.
20 Ephesians 5:2and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
31 Psalms 127:3Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
32 Exodus 4:31and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.
32 Exodus 3:7The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
1 Judges 6:3Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
11 Genesis 45:2But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.
11 Genesis 45:14–15Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept as they embraced.
11 Genesis 43:30Joseph hurried out because he was moved to tears for his brother, and he went to a private room to weep.

Onward

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