Text -- Genesis 29:1-4 (NET)

The Marriages of Jacob

29:1 So Jacob moved on and came to the land of the eastern people. 29:2 He saw in the field a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now a large stone covered the mouth of the well. 29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well’s mouth. 29:4 Jacob asked them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They replied, “We’re from Haran.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 29:1

¹ tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his feet.” This unusual expression suggests that Jacob had a new lease on life now that God had promised him the blessing he had so desperately tried to gain by his own efforts. The text portrays him as having a new step in his walk.

² tn Heb “the land of the sons of the east.”

NET Notes: Gen 29:2

¹ tn Heb “and he saw, and look.” As in Gen 28:12-15, the narrator uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here and in the next clause to draw the reader into the story.

² tn Heb “and look, there.”

³ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

NET Notes: Gen 29:3

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the shepherds) has been specified in the translation for clarity.