And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.
Parallel translations
- WEB Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
- KJV And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
- BSB So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.
- NASB So Laban gathered all the people of the place and held a feast.
- NLT So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood and prepared a wedding feast.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Laban gathers all the men of the place and holds a wedding feast.
Overview
The feast appears to honor the marriage, but it also serves Laban's scheme by providing cover for the substitution. Such celebrations typically lasted a week, framing the "week" mentioned later. The festive setting masks the deception about to unfold under the cover of evening.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Rev 19:9He said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” He said to me, “These are true words of God.”
- Matt 25:1–10“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.
- Ruth 4:10–13Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.”
- Matt 22:2–10“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son,
- Judg 14:10–18His father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men used to do so.
- John 2:1–10The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 29:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.