Genesis 29:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Jacob goes on his journey. Kitto points to the literal Hebrew ‘Jacob lifted up his feet’, which he identifies as a Hebrew expression meaning he walked quickly, in good earnest, without hesitation, and suggests this indicates the joy he had following Bethel. It is a long, long journey and would have taken three or four weeks, but it is entirely uneventful and so the chronicle is covered in a single sentence. In verse 2, he has arrived, but then there is going to be great detail about the well. Why? Because this is a key event in the narrative leading to a life changing encounter. ‘And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place.’ This does not mean that they did this while Jacob watched, but that this is what they customarily did; it is an editorial comment. This was a place where the clock ticked slowly and life crawled by and people looked after their flocks and the routines were simple and repetitive and it seems that initiatives had fled the minds of most people. ‘And he looked, and behold’ – look at this surprising thing – ‘a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it’, doing nothing. ‘For out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well's mouth’, probably because a lot of the water was to the surface and it would preserve it from evaporation or contamination by windswept sand. The practices involved in the watering of livestock are quite different here. A number of flocks were watered together, and the shepherds hung around all day waiting for the agreed time. The local arrangement was that no one must uncover the well until a certain time, so the flocks came to the well and waited. It seemed to require quite a group of them. Maybe they were waiting for another flock to arrive and then the three or four shepherds and all the attendants would together set about watering the sheep.