Genesis 29:7-12

"And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep. While he was speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. And he told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father."

It is absolutely untenable to suppose that the shepherds thus admonished by Jacob could have been grown men. The language here would never have been addressed to grown men, being clearly beyond what any stranger would have uttered. Their being juveniles prompted Jacob to rebuke them, in essence, for not getting on with feeding the flock, especially since it was about high noon, or at least a long while still until nightfall. Also, the admitted inability of these boys to remove the stone indicates the same thing.

"Jacob rolled away the stone ..." It is preposterous the way some interpreters refer to this as a "superhuman" task, inspired by "love at first sight," etc. Nothing here even suggests that this feat was anything that was very difficult for Jacob. Of course, some critics would like to make this event some kind of a "miraculous event" imagined in the folklore of the Hebrews.

Certainly, there is no problem here that is not solved completely by the fact that Jacob was indeed a very strong man. But there have been strong men in all ages and all countries. In New England, there is the story of Ethan Allen Crawford, seven-foot giant son of old Abel Crawford, for whom Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, is named, his family having received the Notch as a grant from the state because he fulfilled the conditions for its acquisitions by being the first one to ride a horse to the area. This he did by hoisting a horse over a 12-foot ledge, saddle and all! He also carried a 400-pound kettle over a mile, crossing the Ammonoosuc River on a log. He also carried a 300-pound bear two miles to place it in his private zoo! He carried an injured woman down Mount Washington, and rode a horse up that peak when he was 75 years old! (He was a veteran of The War of 1812).

Besides, the text makes nothing special about this act. Peake's allegation that, "Jacob, single-handed, removes the immense stone,"[9] is nothing but an "addition to the word of God." Nothing in the Bible forbids the conclusion, that, if Jacob needed help, he would have procured it from the lads he had just addressed. We agree with Adam Clarke that, "It is not likely that he did it by himself."[10] No matter which way one understands the text here, there is absolutely no problem with it. It is a characteristic of language in all ages and countries that men are said to DO whatever they initiate and take the lead in accomplishing.

"Kissed Rachel ... lifted up his voice and wept ..." These were tears of joy, for the realization that at last Jacob had reached his destination and that God had blessed him all the way. Rachel, of course, made haste to tell her father of the arrival of this kinsman. Jacob seems to have been left in charge of the sheep.

"Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother ..." Here again we have an example of the Hebrew usage of the word "brother" in the extended sense of relative. The New English Bible renders "friend" here, and "kinsman" in Genesis 29:12 and Genesis 29:15.[11] The words "son," "brother," and "seed" in Genesis are all used with multiple denotations.