Genesis 29:11 Commentary and Bible Study

Jacob is overcome by emotion, as he establishes his relationship with his mother’s family. He is overcome because of the Lord’s perfect guidance, and because he is tender from recent spiritual experience. There is this great meeting: ‘Jacob kissed Rachel’ – the proper thing to do in the culture – ‘and lifted up his voice and wept. ¹² And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son.’ Rebekah had left home roughly a hundred years before. There had been no contact between these branches of the family, so it must have been a day of considerable excitement. Rachel runs home to tell her father, Laban, and he comes out to meet Jacob, who stays at the well, and there is a long discussion.. This is the second time that Laban has gone out to a well to meet with someone from the household of Abraham (Genesis 24:29). It must have been apparent to Laban that something was amiss, when he compared this encounter with the servant of Abraham he had met many years before, who had come with an abundance of gifts. Jacob told Laban all these things, and no doubt brought him up to date with a lot of family history. ‘And Laban said to him, surely thou art my bone and my flesh, and he abode with him the space of a month.’ This sounds like a strong determination to welcome Jacob and help him with his needs, but Laban turns out not to be so hospitable as this opening greeting indicates. ‘Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.’ Laban opens his home to Jacob at this point in their history. This, as Kitto comments, is as much as to say, ‘Although thou comest empty-handed, and hast no immediate resources, yet thou art my near relative, dear for my sister’s sake, and art truly welcome here.’