Genesis 29:17

Laban speaks truly about the bond between them, and he uses it to open a bargain that will serve himself. The month gave him time to see what Jacob was worth as a worker, and by letting Jacob name his wages he learns what Jacob wants most. The rest of the story shows the man. He later admits that he has prospered because of Jacob (Genesis 30:27), and Jacob says that Laban changed his wages ten times (Genesis 31:7).

Leah’s eyes were soft or weak. The Hebrew is rak, tender, soft or weak, joined to ʻayin, eye. The word can describe gentleness, and some read it as a kindly look, but the verse sets Leah beside Rachel’s beauty, so the plainer sense is that her eyes were dull and lacked brightness. Rachel is “beautiful and well favoured”, in Hebrew beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance. Yâpheh, beautiful, describes a look that pleases the eye, to’ar is the form or figure, and mar’eh is the appearance or face. She was lovely in every way a person could see.

Jacob is drawn to what he can see, and the next verses follow that choice. God looks at Leah with other eyes. When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, and she bore four sons, the fourth of them Judah (Genesis 29:31–35). Scripture shows God’s way with the overlooked again and again. He chose Jacob the younger over Esau before either was born (Genesis 25:23, Romans 9:6–13), and when Samuel came to Jesse’s sons, the LORD told him that man looks on the outward appearance and the LORD looks on the heart, and sent him to anoint David, the youngest (1 Samuel 16:7–13). Jacob’s preference is recorded honestly, and God’s care for the sister who was loved less is recorded beside it.

“It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man.” “Better” is ṭôwb, the broad word for good, here meaning more to Laban’s advantage. “Another” is ʼachêr, other, and “man” is ʼîysh. Jacob is a kinsman and a proven worker, and seven years of his labour suit Laban better than a marriage to a stranger. Laban adds “abide with me”, using yâshab, to sit, dwell or remain. His words are pleasant and carefully weighed, and they keep a good worker in his house. This is the same Laban who, with his father Bethuel, agreed to send his sister Rebekah away to be Isaac’s wife (Genesis 24:50–51).

Laban’s dealings with Jacob over the next two decades fill Genesis 29–31, and this agreement is where they begin.

Love made the years light. “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” Yôwm, day, is the ordinary word for a day or a span of time, and ʼahăbâh is love or affection. The seven years of work were real, and the verse tells us how they felt to a man working for the woman he loved. Scripture speaks of love with the same strength, saying “love is strong as death” (Song of Solomon 8:6–7) and that charity “endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

The deception happened in the evening, and the wedding customs of the time made it possible. A bride was veiled, as Rebekah covered herself with a veil when she first came to Isaac, the night was dark, and the feast probably included wine. Jacob also expected Rachel and trusted the man who brought her. The morning showed what the night had hidden.

“And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah.” Bôqer is morning, from a root for the breaking of daylight, and “behold” (hinneh) catches Jacob’s shock as he sees her. His words to Laban come as three questions: “What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?” He uses ʻâbad again for the service he gave. “Beguiled” is râmâh, a verb meaning to hurl or shoot, and figuratively to deceive or betray, as if to trip someone so that he falls. Jacob’s complaint is just. He kept the agreement, and Laban broke it.

The man who asks “wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?” once deceived his blind father to take the blessing meant for Esau (Genesis 27:1–40), after first getting Esau’s birthright for a meal (Genesis 25:29–34). He used his father’s blindness, and now the dark of evening has been used against him. The younger brother who took the firstborn’s place now hears Laban say that the younger may not go before the firstborn. Paul writes that whatever a man sows he will also reap (Galatians 6:7), and Proverbs says that whoever digs a pit will fall into it (Proverbs 26:27). Jacob tastes what he once gave his father and brother.

Laban carries his own guilt in full. Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 12:22), and a lying tongue hates those it afflicts (Proverbs 26:28). God’s people are to put away lying and speak the truth to one another (Ephesians 4:25), and to pay what they vow (Deuteronomy 23:21).

The custom of marrying the elder daughter first was very likely real in Laban’s country, and Laban had seven years to mention it. He kept quiet when Jacob asked for “Rachel thy younger daughter”, agreed to the bargain, and brought the custom out only after the wedding. He used a true custom to cover a broken promise. Proverbs says that the integrity of the upright shall guide them (Proverbs 11:3), and Laban had none to guide him.

“Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.” The verb mâlêʼ comes again, since Jacob is to fill out Leah’s week. Shâbûwaʻ, week, comes from the word for seven and means a period of seven, here the seven days of the wedding feast, a custom that appears again at Samson’s wedding. “This also” is Rachel, and the price is ʻăbôdâh, work or service, seven more years of it. Laban speaks of Rachel as one more gift he will give, when she is the very wife Jacob had already earned.

“And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.” Laban gives (nâthan) his daughter (bath) a week after the first wedding, and the second seven years are served afterward, with Rachel already Jacob’s wife. Years later Rachel and Leah say of their father that he sold them (Genesis 31:15), and Jacob reckons up what his years with Laban cost him (Genesis 31:41).

Jacob could have refused, at the cost of Rachel. He was far from home, living under his uncle’s roof, and had already given seven years for her. Laban held the power and used it. Jacob agrees at once, and his love for Rachel carries him through a second seven years as it carried him through the first.

“And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.” Bôwʼ, ʼâhab and ʻâbad all return. The word “also” comes back in this verse, because Rachel is a second wife beside Leah and Jacob’s love is now openly divided. Fourteen years of service in all bought the two sisters.

Scripture sets out God’s design at the beginning, when a man leaves his father and mother, cleaves to his wife, and the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Jacob’s marriages are recorded as they happened, and the chapters that follow show what came of them: jealousy between the sisters, a contest for children, and a home full of strife (Genesis 30:1–24). The account describes, and the sorrow in it teaches.

Favouritism runs through this family. Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob (Genesis 25:28). Here Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, and later he loves Rachel’s son Joseph more than his brothers, who hate Joseph for it (Genesis 37:3–4). God’s law later guards the rights of the firstborn son of a wife who is loved less against the son of the favourite (Deuteronomy 21:15–17), and James warns the church against partiality (James 2:1–4).

Leah, the wife Laban forced on Jacob, became the mother of Judah. Jacob’s blessing gives the sceptre to Judah (Genesis 49:10), God promised David a son whose throne he would establish for ever (2 Samuel 7:12–16), and the genealogies of Jesus run through Judah and David (Matthew 1:1–17, Luke 3:23–38). In the fulness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem (Galatians 4:4–5). He is the seed promised to Abraham (Galatians 3:16) and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

God chose the foolish and weak things of the world to confound the wise and the mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27–29), and of his Servant Isaiah says, “there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). Leah, the sister passed over for her looks and then made mother of the royal line, is an early picture of that way of God.

Jacob’s long service for the bride he loved gives a small picture of Christ, who loved the church and gave himself for her, to make her holy (Ephesians 5:25–27). Jacob paid in years of labour, and Christ purchased the church with his own blood (Acts 20:28). He took the form of a servant and was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:5–8), and for the joy set before him he endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2), much as Jacob’s love made his years light. The story of that Bridegroom ends at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7–9).

The differences teach as much as the likeness. Christ’s covenant rests on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). Laban dealt in wages and bargains, while God gives salvation by grace through faith, as his gift (Ephesians 2:8–9). Christ is our peace, who has made one people out of those who were divided (Ephesians 2:14–16), and all who belong to him are one in him and heirs of the promise (Galatians 3:28–29).