Genesis 29:6-10

29:6 “Is he well?” ¹  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ²  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 29:7 Then Jacob ³  said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, ⁴  it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” ⁵  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 water ⁶  the sheep.”

29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. ⁷  29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, ⁸  and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he ⁹  went over ¹⁰  and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ¹¹ 

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¹ tn Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’”

² tn Heb “peace.”

³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “the day is great.”

⁵ tn 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.

⁶ tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.

⁷ tn Heb “was a shepherdess.”

⁸ tn Heb “Laban, the brother of his mother” (twice in this verse).

⁹ tn Heb “Jacob.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁰ tn Heb “drew near, approached.”

¹¹ 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).