And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
Parallel translations
- WEB He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
- BSB Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.
- NKJV Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.
- NASB So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.
- NLT So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her much more than Leah. He then stayed and worked for Laban the additional seven years.
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
Jacob marries Rachel, loves her more than Leah, and serves Laban another seven years.
Overview
Jacob's greater love for Rachel sets up the painful rivalry between the sisters that follows. The favoritism echoes the divided affections that have troubled this family across generations. Into this flawed and strained home, God will nonetheless bring the children of promise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 31:41Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
- Gen 31:15Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.
- Gen 29:20And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
- Gen 44:27And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my wife bare me two sons:
- Matt 10:37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
- Gen 29:18And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
- Gen 29:31And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
- 1 Sam 18:17–27And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD’s battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
- Gen 44:20And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.
- Gen 30:25–26And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
- Hos 12:12And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
- John 12:25He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
- Deut 21:15If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
- Luke 14:26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
- Matt 6:24No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
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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 29:30 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.