^29:2He saw³ in the field a well with⁴ three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now⁵ a large stone covered the mouth of the well. ^29:3When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds⁶ would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well’s mouth.

^29:4Jacob asked them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They replied, “We’re from Haran.” ^29:5So he said to them, “Do you know Laban, the grandson⁷ of Nahor?” “We know him,”⁸ they said. ^29:6“Is he well?”⁹ Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well.¹⁰ Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” ^29:7Then Jacob¹¹ said, “Since it is still the middle of the day,¹² it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.”¹³^29:8“We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water¹⁴ the sheep.”

^29:9While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them.¹⁵^29:10When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban,¹⁶ and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he¹⁷ went over¹⁸ and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban.¹⁹^29:11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly.²⁰^29:12When Jacob explained²¹ to Rachel that he was a relative of her father²² and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

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Footnotes

3 Heb “and he saw, and look.” As in Gen 28:12–15, the narrator uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here and in the next clause to draw the reader into the story.
4 Heb “and look, there.”
5 The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.
6 Heb “they”; the referent (the shepherds) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 Heb “son.”
8 Heb “and they said, ‘We know.’ ” The word “him” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the translation several introductory clauses throughout this section have been placed after the direct discourse they introduce for stylistic reasons as well.
9 Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’ ”
10 Heb “peace.”
11 Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 Heb “the day is great.”
13 Heb “water the sheep and go and pasture [them].” The verbal forms are imperatives, but Jacob would hardly be giving direct orders to someone else’s shepherds. The nuance here is probably one of advice.
14 The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.
15 Heb “was a shepherdess.”
16 Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother” (twice in this verse).
17 Heb “Jacob.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
18 Heb “drew near, approached.”
19 Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother.” The text says nothing initially about the beauty of Rachel. But the reader is struck by the repetition of “Laban the brother of his mother.” G. J. Wenham is no doubt correct when he observes that Jacob’s primary motive at this stage is to ingratiate himself with Laban (Genesis [], 2:).
20 Heb “and he lifted up his voice and wept.” The idiom calls deliberate attention to the fact that Jacob wept out loud.
21 Heb “declared.”
22 Heb “that he [was] the brother of her father.”