Chapter 29.

1. Jacob comes to Haran.

1. And Jacob arose and went into the land of the children of the east (to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, to the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau).

Strengthened by a heavenly vision, Jacob continues his journey and comes "to the land of the children of the east;" "sons of the east" are usually the inhabitants of Arabia (Judg. 6:33;[ 867] Job. 1:3; [868] Isa. 11:14[869]); here (as in Num. 23:7[870]) – in a broader sense, applied to the inhabitants of Syria. According to the Midrash, Esau sent his son Eliphaz to pursue Jacob, but he did him no harm.

2. And he saw, "Behold, there was a well in the field, and there were three flocks of flocks lying near it, for the flocks were watering from that well." Above the mouth of the well was a large stone.

The first thing that Jacob met with in the country which was the end of his journey was a well, as Eliezer is said to be similar in chapter 24, verse 11[871]; only in the latter case a suburban well is understood, and in the case under consideration, a cistern which apparently did not lie near the city (as is evident from the question of James, v. 4). A large stone (Hebrew haeben with the article) – a stone known for its purpose) covered the mouth of a well to protect the mouth of the water from sand – a common phenomenon even now in the hot areas of Arabia and Asia Minor. The whole picture of the impending meeting of Jacob with Rachel (cf. 24:11ff.; Exodus 2:16[872]) bears the stamp of specific features of Eastern life

3. When all the flocks gathered there, they rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep; then they put the stone back in its place, at the mouth of the well.

The well was the property of several owners, and therefore the arrival of the herds of all owners was expected to open the stone; Laban was probably one of the last (when Rachel arrives, the well opens immediately, 9-10).

4. Jacob said to them (the shepherds), "My brothers! Where are you from? They said, "We are from Harral."

5. He said to them, "Do you know Laban the son of Nahor? They said, "We know."

Jacob addresses his fellow craftsmen in a friendly way, calling them "brothers." Hearing about Haran, Jacob gladly asks about Laban; he calls him the son of Nahor, while the latter was his grandfather, and the father of Bethuel (22:20-23; 24:24-29) – no doubt according to the ancient Oriental custom of naming instead of the little-known nearest ancestor, in this case Nahor, as the progenitor (11:27[873]) of the younger line of Terah's descendants; Moreover, the Hebrew names of father (ab), brother (ach), son (ben), and the like are very widely used.

6. And he said to them, "Is he well?" They said, "Hello; and behold, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep.

Γrec. Υγιαίνειν, Slav.-Rus. "To be healthy" somewhat narrows the meaning of the Hebrew schalom lο, which means well-being in general: to live and be healthy. That Rachel comes with the sheep to the well as the shepherds told Laban about her father is not just a writer's device (Gunkel's opinion), but a real, quite plausible coincidence.