Genesis 29:1-6

"Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. And he looked, and, behold, a well in the field, and, lo, three flocks of sheep lying there by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and the stone upon the wells mouth was great. And thither were all the flocks gathered; and they rolled the stone from the wells mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the wells mouth in its place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence are ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is it well with him? And they said, It is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep."

"Land of the children of the east ..." "This is northern Mesopotamia where Haran is located."[4]

"The well ..." Willis and other scholars suppose that this could have been the same well where the servant of Abrahm met Rebekah years earlier.[5] If it was, then some changes had evidently taken place in it, which, of course, was by no means impossible. At least, it was in the same vicinity.

"Laban the son of Nahor ..." Nahor was the father of Bethuel, the father of Laban, as repeatedly mentioned earlier. Therefore, "son" as used here actually means grandson.[6] A similar use of "son" was observed in our comments on Genesis 9:24.

It should be noted that the conversation reported here is quite different from the way a similar conversation would run today. This was due to the fact that the Hebrews did not have a word that simply meant "yes."

Note that, "The words from the middle of Genesis 29:2 and including Genesis 29:3 are parenthetical, the watering of the flocks not taking place until the arrival of Rachel, and after Jacob had removed the stone."[7]

That this conversation took place so easily indicates that these diverse branches of Terah's family spoke Aramaic, the language of Ur of the Chaldees, from which place Terah and Abraham had migrated.

The situation that appeared here was that of a common watering hole used by a number of shepherds, the entrance to it being kept by the placement of a heavy stone. In the evenings, the stone was removed; the flocks were watered in order as they had arrived; and this had led to some coming early in order to "get in line" first. It is not necessary to suppose that the "brethren" addressed by Jacob were grown men, boys having been frequently used for the task of shepherding, as well as, in rare cases women, as evidenced by Rachel's being called a shepherdess. Morris agreed to this, saying, "The shepherds tending the flocks were apparently either women or young lads."[8]

Jacob's personal reaction to what he found at the well must have been one of deep gratitude to God for having speeded him to the very place where he would soon be in touch with his mother's brother's family. It is well to keep in mind, throughout this narrative, that God promised to be "with Jacob," and to bless him, for only this can account for some of the things that he successfully did.