29:1 So Jacob moved on 1 and came to the land of the eastern people. 2 29:2 He saw 3 in the field a well with 4 three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now 5 a large stone covered the mouth of the well. 29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds 6 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.”
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.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “and look, there.”
5 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.
6 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the shepherds) has been specified in the translation for clarity.