Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him
but a few days, for the love he had to her.
21 If And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are
fulfilled.
Jacob's journey to the land of Canaan in search of a wife, and the
details of his courtship, have a passing interest with the ordinary
reader, interested in his happiness and success. The classic ground for
the cultivation of the tender emotions in these early days, seems to
have been near a well, where the daughters of those who were rich in
flocks and herds found opportunities to exhibit their fine points in
drawing water for men and cattle. From the records of these interesting
events, the girls seemed ready to accept the slightest advances from
passing strangers, and to give their hands and hearts as readily as
they gave a drink of water to the thirsty. Marriage was as simple a
contract as the purchase of a lamb, the lamb and the woman having about
an equal voice in the purchase, though the lamb was not quite as ready
to leave his accustomed grazing ground. Jacob loved Rachel at first
sight, and agreed to serve Laban seven years, but when the time expired
Laban did not keep his agreement, but insisted on Jacob taking the
other sister, and serving seven years more for Rachel. Jacob submitted,
but by the knowledge of a physiological law of which Laban was
ignorant, he revenged himself, and obtained all the strongest and best
of the flocks and herds. Thus in their business relations as well as in
family matters, the Patriarchs seem to have played as sharp games in
overreaching each other as the sons of our Pilgrim Fathers do to-day.
In getting all they could out of Laban, Jacob and Rachel seem to have
been of one mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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