Genesis 29:10-13

29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, ¹  and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he ²  went over ³  and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ⁴  29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly. ⁵  29:12 When Jacob explained ⁶  to Rachel that he was a relative of her father ⁷  and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father. 29:13 When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ⁸  told Laban how he was related to him. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother” (twice in this verse).

² tn Heb “Jacob.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “drew near, approached.”

⁴ tn 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 [WBC], 2:231).

⁵ tn Heb “and he lifted up his voice and wept.” The idiom calls deliberate attention to the fact that Jacob wept out loud.

⁶ tn Heb “declared.”

⁷ tn Heb “that he [was] the brother of her father.”

⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “and he told to Laban all these things.” This might mean Jacob told Laban how he happened to be there, but Laban’s response (see v. 14) suggests “all these things” refers to what Jacob had previously told Rachel (see v. 12).