¹⁹Laban responded, “It’s better that I give her to you than to any other man. Stay with me.” ²⁰Jacob worked seven years in return for Rachel, but the years seemed like only a few days to him because he loved her.

²¹⸤At the end of the seven years⸥ Jacob said to Laban, “The time is up; give me my wife! I want to sleep with her.” ²²So Laban invited all the people of that place and gave a wedding feast. ²³In the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob. Jacob slept with her. When morning came, he realized it was Leah.^b²⁴(Laban had given his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.)

²⁵“What have you done to me?” Jacob asked Laban. “Didn’t I work for you in return for Rachel? Why did you cheat me?”

²⁶Laban answered, “It’s not our custom to give the younger daughter ⸤in marriage⸥ before the older one. ²⁷Finish the week of wedding festivities with this daughter. Then we will give you the other one too. But you’ll have to work for me another seven years.”

²⁸That’s what Jacob did. He finished the week with Leah. Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to him as his wife. ²⁹(Laban had given his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.) ³⁰Jacob slept with Rachel too. He loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

Read in Logos

Genesis 29:20: So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

Footnotes

b 29:23 The first part of verse 25 (in Hebrew) has been placed in verse 23 to express the complex Hebrew paragraph structure more clearly in English.